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Robert Smigel on the Saturday Night Live writer Jim Downey as an inspiration for him when they were both staff writers at SNL; on the importance of the first read-through at SNL for a writer; on Jim Downey coming out of the comedy school at The Harvard Lampoon and how that impacted his humor
09:59
Robert Smigel on Chevy Chase's return to Saturday Night Live as the show's host in 1986 and his unique take on the "Weekend Update" segment; on Jon Lovitz being the breakout star of that season; on Dennis Miller on "Weekend Update"; on some of the other SNL performers who were on the show during his tenure like Randy Quaid, Joan Cusack, Robert Downey, Jr. and Victoria Jackson; on the change in the cast when Dana Carvey and Jan Hooks came on the show;
06:22
Robert Smigel on Damon Wayans being fired from Saturday Night Live after going rogue on the live show; on the special and volatile nature of the show being live as opposed to pre-taped; on SNL hitting its peak stride with Tina Fey's impression of Sarah Palin in 2008
05:00
On writing about the ending of Saturday Night Live while being aware the show was in threat of being cancelled; on Tom Hanks guest-hosting on the show; on the bit with Tom Hanks with three guys who sounded like Jerry Seinfeld (a swipe at that style of conversational comedy) saving his role on the show (1985-86 season); on a cliffhanger sketch about the end of SNL he wrote for the season finale in May 1986 with George Martin setting the studio on fire and Lorne Michaels (as himself) only saving Jon Lovitz but sending the writers straight into the flames; on Jim Downey’s contribution to the sketch putting a "?" next to each player's name in the end-crawl; on SNL coming back for another season but with some major cast and crew changes
08:46
Robert Smigel on Dana Carvey's "Chopping Broccoli" sketch on Saturday Night Live; on Dana Carvey as a performer and his collaborations with Smigel; on contributions from writers Bonnie and Terry Turner; on some of Carvey’s sketches and impressions; on working with Carvey on his Johnny Carson impression, and on The McLaughlin Group impression being one of Smigel’s favorite sketches that he wrote; on Carvey's Regis Philbin impression; on “finding the music” in an impression with Carvey; on writing for Phil Hartman as Ronald Reagan (as an evil mastermind), and on changing up the way the show and others had done Reagan impressions in the past
09:31
Robert Smigel on his second year writing on Saturday Night Live; on changes to the writers' room and cast; on castmember Jan Hooks' versatility; on the first show back his second season and the sketch "Game Show Psychic" with Dana Carvey and Jan Hook, and on how it was a completely different show with the new cast
06:01
Robert Smigel on the political satire sketches he wrote for Saturday Night Live during the Clinton presidency; on the Stockdale vice presidential debate sketch; on observational humor on the show; on Dana Carvey's impression of President George Bush
04:46
Robert Smigel on the writing duo of Jim Downey and Al Franken on Saturday Night Live; on Adam McKay joining the writing staff of SNL and how the show's writing was changing in the 1990s; on the political sketches on SNL during the Bill Clinton presidency; on Will Ferrell’s impression of George W. Bush; on Jim Downey’s return to SNL for the Al Gore presidential debate sketch in 2000 featuring the classic line “lock box”; On Downey not wanting to focus on skewering the laughs towards one side of the political spectrum, but wanting to focus just on the comedy
09:25
Robert Smigel on the "Matt Foley Motivational Speaker" sketch with Chris Farley written by Bob Odenkirk, and on the "Chippendales" sketch with Farley written by Jim Downey
01:17
Robert Smigel on his 1986 Saturday Night Live sketch "Trekkers" co-written with SNL writer George Meyers; on his attitude towards nerds in general; on the "Get a Life" line on the "Trekkers" sketches with William Shatner of Star Trek; on the holiday monologue sketch he wrote for Steve Martin
05:20
Robert Smigel on writing the Steve Martin opening monologue "I'm not gonna phone it in tonight" on Saturday Night Live (December 14, 1991); on always being on-set for the sketches he wrote for SNL
03:39
Robert Smigel on the Saturday Night Live sketch "Nude Beach" (he had written the sketch the summer before and came back to SNL in the fall to find that NBC had dissolved the Standards & Practices department so they were able to get away with saying “penis” on air - the episode would become one of the most controversial episodes to air on the show
06:32
Robert Smigel on writing the "Bill Swerski's Superfans" sketch about the Chicago Bears fans for Saturday Night Live in 1991; on coming up with "da Bears" catchphrase; on writing the sketch for Phil Hartman but Jim Downey talking Smigel into appearing in the sketch instead of Joe Mantegna because his Chicago accent was more authentic and would set a "metronome" for the sketch; on writing another sketch for George Wendt as Bob Swerski; on doing a sketch “The Quiz Show” about "da Bears" versus "da Bulls"; on the real Mike Ditka's (of the Chicago Bears) take on the sketches
18:09
Robert Smigel on the tribute song Adam Sandler performed in honor of Chris Farley on Saturday Night Live, and on the bonding experience of Saturday Night Live for people who work on the show
05:40
Robert Smigel on leaving Saturday Night Live; on Lorne Michaels wanting Conan O'Brien to produce the Late Night weekday slot first held by Steve Allen and later Jay Leno; on Lorne initially wanting Dana Carvey to host the show; on Conan O'Brien turning down producing the late-night show slot because he wanted to be an on-camera performer again; on Conan auditioning for Lorne Michaels to take over Late Night on Lorne's involvement with Conan's show Late Night with Conan O'Brien; on hiring Dino Stamatopoulos and Louis C.K. as writers on Late Night with Conan O'Brien; on Tom Brokaw's cameo on the show; on the first episode and the tone being very dark
21:10