Show notes
jD, Matt, and Thomas are back again and this week they're joined by Deremy Dove to discuss the bonna fides of Adam McKay. Transcript:Track 2:[0:45] All right, thank you so much, Doug DeNance. It is great to be back here at home. [0:50] In the SNL Hall of Fame for the SNL Hall of Fame podcast. Here we are, rounding out episode five already. We're a quarter of the way through season four, if you can believe it. We've got a great one this week, but before you, you with the dirty feet over there, there. Wipe them. You know what I'm saying? Just wipe them. Don't make me yell. The SNL Hall of Fame podcast is a weekly affair where each episode we take a deep dive into the career of a former cast member, host, musical guest, or writer and add them to the ballotfor your consideration. [1:27] Once the nominees have been announced, we turn to you the listener to vote for the most deserving and help determine who will be enshrined for perpetuity in the hall. That's how we play the game here, folks. It's really quite easy. We nominate them, you come on and talk about them, and then you get to vote for them, and we will pick the fourth class of the SNL Hall of Fame. This week, we are joined by a returning Deremy Dove, who joined us last year for the first time, and we really enjoyed the conversation we had with Deremy, So we invited him back andhe will be talking about writer Adam McKay. So that's real exciting. And I'm looking forward to hearing Deremy's take on Adam McKay in a conversation with Thomas. But before we get to that, like we do every week, we've got to walk down the hall here and, uh, you see where those two walls meet perpendicular, that's a corner. and. [2:31] My friend standing over there that's matt and for about 60 seconds he's going to give us some minutiae in that corner because ladies and gentlemen that is matt's minutiae minutecorner so let's get to him matt hello how's it going great i'm doing great you're doing great yourself you know it i'm here you know when i'm here in the hall i'm at my best always a greattime Yeah. Track 3:[3:00] Talk to us about Adam McKay. Adam is another tall guy like Will. He is six foot five born April 17th 1968. He was born in Philadelphia. He has a lot of credits 95 producer credits 42 writer credits 27 director credits and 15 acting credits. [3:24] Yeah, so a lot. He is a Second City alumnus. He performed with Scott Adas, who you probably know from 30 Rock, but he also wrote on a lot of crazy stuff like Mary Shelley's Franken hole and moral oral, both wild cartoons. So he's had so of so Adam has had some amazing collaborators. They were in the sketch Gump, which is included in the all time best sketches of Sac and City that comes with the Second City book, which I have. [4:02] Adam also studied under Del Close at the ImprovOlympics and was a founding member of the UCB. He is- I did not know that. Yeah, yeah, so he is one of that early group that helped rotten the improv options for us. Now he is married to Shira Piven, an equally talented theater and film director, producer, actress, who is the sister to Jeremy Piven. Oh yeah, yeah. So there they have a daughter named Pearl. Who is the landlord in the landlord sketch that that helped a funnier die blow up. And she's also the baby and good cop baby cop, which, if you haven't seen them, are two of the funniest sketches ever on Funny or Die like, yeah, yeah, they came out of the gate straw.They sure did. [5:05] He co founded Gary Sanchez productions with Will Ferrell. When developing The Other Guys, he originally thought to call the movie The B-Team, a riff on The A-Team, which is being filmed at the time. The producers of The A-Team didn't threaten to sue, but did gently say, you know, if you call it The B-Team, we can't promise we're not going to sue you. So that was a nice way of doing it. Right. Now, when doing for the press for the film, he explained the TLC references from Michael Keaton were all improvised. Those were moments that Burton just brought to the film or that story that Keaton. Let me redo that. Yeah. When doing press for the film, he explained the TLC references were improvised by Michael Keaton, which were in the moment, which are some of the bestmoments of the film, which is why he is my true Batman and will always be. Bye. [6:09] During the flash. Yes, and I enjoyed it. I love Keaton in that. I it wasn't it wasn't great. But Keaton made it. I mean, like I if it wasn't Keaton. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much to be honest. [6:25] Yeah. Now, during the filming of Talladega Nights, they basically took over the entire town of Charlotte and Adam converted a closed down, closed down on businesses andchurches into sets. Now, he and Will worked very closely together for a very long time. Unfortunately, their working relationship broke up after some hurt feelings during the casting of an LA Lakers documentary directed by Adam, who to this day regrets that choice and hasapologized for changing the casting and dropping Will from the movie. He holds a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the Hollywood Wax Museum and most recently doing some very serious stuff, including Vice, the big short, And I, not being asuccession watcher, did not realize this, Succession is an Adam McKay production. And that is as far a diversion from stepbrothers as you could possibly get. But it is about family dynamics, so there is a threat. Track 2:[7:55] I think we should head downstairs and take a listen to what Matt and Deremy have to say. Don't you think? Track 4:[8:22] Yes, Jamie and Matt, thank you so much. I'm so excited for this episode of the SNL Hall of Fame and today's nominee is someone who is probably a lot more famous for his non-SNL stuff. You know, he did great work on SNL, but a lot of people currently know him for being a high-profile director in Hollywood. He made the transition from from SNL writer to director. So I'm so excited today to be talking about one Adam McKay. Adam McKay is gonna be our topic today here on the SNL Hall of Fame and we have a great person joining me to talk about Adam McKay. [9:06] And Jeremy, you always you pick the interesting nominees man. Like Dick Ebersole last season and now Adam McKay? Yeah, you know, Thomas, always a pleasure. I love visiting the hall with you, getting down to some SNL history, but I like to get into those people because I feel like true SNL fandomrecognizes the great cast members. Of course, they're the ones we see every week, every Saturday night, but there's so many important people behind the scenes that help make Saturday Night Live this great institution, andI love showing them some love. You know, You know, I'm an offensive lineman kind of guy. So I love like those guys who are important but don't get that big credit. I wanna give them love. So I love finding those different kind of nominees for us to discuss. Yes, so we got into the trenches, so to speak, last season with Dick Ebersole and today with Adam McKay. And of course, the official introduction, Deremy Dove, co-host of the Bigger Than The Game podcast with his cohort, Jose Ruiz. I was lucky enough to appear on two episodes of Bigger Than The Game back in June. We talked some NBA draft. We went nuts with NBA draft talk, Jeremy. So that was a lot of fun. Most recently, Jeremy and Jose have covered, they did a two-parter on Bo Jackson, which I found really interesting. Of course, first part being baseball, second part being football. [10:28] Jose and Jeremy have a lot to say on sports and just everything in general, man. You guys do such a great job. No, thank you, Thomas. And it was so much fun. Pleasure was all ours, having you on our show and breaking down the NBA draft in different years. And man, we can't wait to have you back on. So it was just, I feel like I owe you a great appearance on here now because you did such a great job on our podcast. Yeah, we'll just keep doing these home and homes because it seems to be working out really well. So thank you so much, Jeremy. So today we are discussing, again, Adam McKay. And as I mentioned, a lot of people know Adam McKay now as a director, but his roots, Deremy, a lot of people don't know, are actually in sketch comedy. Right, right, so Adam McKay was going to Temple University, my alma mater, and then he had one semester left, which I give people credit when you're that close and you say, I'm goingfor my dream, like, hey, that's gutsy. And he winds up moving to Chicago, and he was one of the founders of UCB. [11:37] And that's such a huge name and huge group when it comes to improv and sketch comedy. And Amy Poehler was a part of that, Matt Walsh, Horatio Sanz. So many people who we know now in the comedy world came out of UCB, which Adam was a co-creator of, and also going on to Second City and being a a part of that cast. So he definitely had that sketch and improv training before he wound up going to 30 Rock. Yeah, it seemed like he was hyper-focused, as you mentioned, one semester away at Temple,and he's like, I'm pursuing my dream. That was around 93 that he, along with Amy Poehler and those others, co-founded UCB, the Upright Citizens Brigade. Flash forward, after UCB also did some performing at the Improv Olympic in Chicago, So he really had strong roots there in the sketch and improv community. But SNL, so we go back to 1995. [12:36] SNL's transitioning from season 20, a notorious season 20, as a lot of us SNL fans know. So they needed a few breaths of fresh air. They needed some new blood. So Jeremy, does McKay's impact on SNL possibly resonate even more? Because he became a writer in such an important year? Oh, absolutely. For me, it kind of reminds me a little bit of your Paula Pell episode that you did last season, where if people who either if you remember, if you were around, or if you'reyounger and don't know, or whatever the case may be. [13:16] You know, this was a crucial time in SNL's history. And a lot of people, and including Lorne Michaels himself, says this was the most difficult time he had as executive producer,where he's getting outside pressure from the Saturday Night Is Dead, you know, all those critiques that they've heard throughout the history. But even in-house, a lot of NBC executives were really coming down Lorne's throat and making him having this battle of wills and talking about forcing out certain writers, certain castmembers like a Farley, Sandler, different people had to go. So Lauren has even said recently that that was the most difficult time. So bringing in like a Paula Pell, but an Adam McKay and that, a lot of those cast members was really crucial in saving Saturday Night Live. Yeah, we had talked about in our Dick Ebersole episode, how there are a few people and a few moments in SNL history where like the show needed saving. [14:14] And I think this transition from season 20 to season 21, the show was genuinely in trouble. I mean, it was genuinely close. I think it's getting canceled. And as much as I love Farley and Sandler and those guys, there was just a lot of uncontrolled bro kind of energy in that last season. It was very sloppy. [14:37] Uh, man, it was very like just a weird vibe in that season 20. [14:41] It's one of those weird things because as like someone, and I'm sure you're the same way who's fans of like artists and the creatives, you don't want like the quote unquote suitsgetting involved and stepping in. But if I'm honest, looking back, I understand why some lost, I think they took it too far, but I understand why they were saying, Hey, we have some issues here. Going on with Saturday Night Live because, like you said, love Farley, love Salem, had great moments, but at that point I felt like it was bro comedy, but kind of on autopilot as well, andI felt like a shift was needed and a change was needed to kind of... For me, when I look at Saturday Night Live and we're at those moments where it's like, what's going on Saturday Night Live or Saturday Night Dead and all those jokes, I feel like SNL, itcan evolve, but ultimately it has to get back to its roots of what makes this show great. And I feel like it gets lost, and when it comes back, it's really Lorne and the writers and the cast kind of being like, this is what comedy, like sketch comedy is, and we're going to stick tothat. Yeah, exactly. And they pretty much totally cleaned house. I mean, they retained Molly Shannon, who was a late addition in season 20. They retained Tim Meadows, Norm MacDonald, but they really brought in just a lot of new faces. Will Ferrell on a gas tire, Sherry Oteri, Tracy Morgan at a certain point. [16:10] So just a lot of fresh blood was needed, and that included our topic today, Adam McKay. So we could get, unless you have anything else to add about him getting to SNL, whatever, we can get to some of his notable sketches, Deremy, if you'd like. Well, sure. I guess the only thing I would add is Adam comes in, he's like 27 that first year. And so Thomas and I are talking about the pressure that that Lorne and the show was under, but after that first year as a 28-year-old, Adam talks about Steve Higgins calling him into hisoffice and saying, Lorne wants to make you head writer. And I think that's just amazing twofold that at the age of 28, you're the head writer for SNL, but also it's only your second year at the show, which I think shows what Lorne saw in him,but also big credit to what we talked about, that UCB Second City background that he kind of was going on having bring into the show, I think Lorne really kind of took a lot of faith andbelieved in him. Yeah, so he started, of course, in season 21. [17:21] Yeah, by season 22, he was head writer, co-head writer that first season, and then he was head writer by himself in seasons 23 and 24. So that is a lot of trust put on Adam McKay. Just from a viewer's perspective, as an SNL fan, What kind of importance do you place on the head writer? Like, how do you view the head writer's role the grand scheme of how the show functions. [17:46] I feel the head writer has a very important role for me as a viewer, as that bridge of Lorne, but also kind of making sure the writers and cast members are on the same page. So to me, for people who know TV, you hear the term showrunner. [18:04] Lorne's the executive producer, but I wouldn't call him the showrunner. He helps make decisions, but I feel like that head writer is the showrunner, where a lot of the show's sensibility is coming from that head writer's voice. And Lauren obviously has final say in what goes on air, and he consults with his producers and the head writer. But I feel like the head writer is kind of the one really helping to bring what the show, where we're going with the show, and also who we're highlighting on screen with the show and thetype of humor that we're seeing every week. Right, right. And where would you say, as a viewer, the sensibility and voice was, like, in those seasons 20, 21, basically in the late 90s after the disastrous season 20? Where do you think the voice was that Adam McKay helped? Like, where were we in about 98 or so, that period? I feel like with what, and we'll kind of get into it with the sketches too, but I feel, A, he saw what we kind of all have been seeing on the big screen for all these years, you know, thepartnership kind of ended, but he saw the connection and the greatness in Will Ferrell. And to me, very quickly, Will Ferrell becomes that lead alpha dog for the show. [19:21] And he has a great cast around him too…
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