Sean Bradley was just 12 or 13 years-old when he created what’s widely considered the web’s first Saturday Night Live fan site. As the site grew in popularity, he learned that even Lorne Michaels was a regular reader—in fact, the SNL creator once gifted Bradley with a new computer.
This week on Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff, Bradley shares tales of his adventures as teen SNL superfan, including interactions with many of the show’s stars in the late 1990 and early 2000s, and his memories of being on the studio floor the night Norm Macdonald returned to host the show in 1999.
Click the embed below to listen now, or find Inside Late Night on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
View photos of Sean Bradley in his SNL days below. Click the arrows at the bottom of each photo to advance (or if you’re on your phone, swipe right):
Photos courtesy Sean Bradley
Show Transcript
Sean Bradley. Thanks for joining us.
Mark. What a thrill. Thanks for having me.
So you’re nine years old. You’re in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It’s the first time you see Saturday Night Live. Who was hosting? Do you remember?
Uh, who was hosting the first time? I remember the first time I saw Saturday Night Live, it was, I just remember Dana Carvey as George Bush. I was very, very taken with that impression. And, uh, I remember the first episode Dana Carvey wasn’t in, like, I don’t, I have no idea what I was doing watching Saturday Night Live at age nine, but the first time the theme song came on and his name wasn’t in the credits, I was crushed. I think maybe I discovered SNL on Comedy Central. I think they were playing recent reruns. Uh, so I was watching some of the late eighties, early nineties cast. I was obsessed with Farley and Sandler and everyone in the, in the eighties. And then my parents were letting me stay up to watch it. And then it was the intro and it’s Saturday Night Live with Chris Farley. And I’m like, Oh no, Dana is gone. I just became obsessed with this show. Uh, so that’s my earliest memory of the show.
Yeah, Dana left mid season after the Luke Perry episode. I think the first one without him was the Bill Murray/Sting, maybe?
Yeah, that sounds right. That sounds right.
But it was definitely one of those things where, you know, now they do the big tributes to a lot of people.They didn’t do that as much back then.
No, he just disappeared.
So yeah, he was gone. That was definitely, um, tough and Mike Myers did that the same thing in January of ‘94. He just midseason. No, no, nothing.
Just bounced.
Yeah, he just wants to. Okay, so you’re 9 years old watching the show. And then is it at 12 years old that you start the unofficial Saturday Night Live site, which had never really been done–a fan site that had never really been done.
Yeah, I don’t, I mean, there was not really a, a fan site in the way that I thought there should be. So I started one. I got a program called Adobe PageMill, basically did some of the HTML for you. And I, uh, built this site in. Yeah, I guess I was around 12 or 13 years old, uh, and that became saturday-night-live.com, which just rolls off the tongue. Yeah, it was very exciting. I would, I would post episode reviews. People would email me their episode reviews. This was obviously, you know, the mid 90s, before everyone had a blog and there was no Twitter and all that. And, uh, that was like a big thing that got traction. People would send in their episode reviews. I’ve subsequently heard that people that have gone on to even work at the show were early episode reviewers, I believe. So that was cool. And that got the attention of people at the show. I don’t want to blow my load here with a big story, but, uh, at one point I stopped updating the site for a few weeks, and then I got a call from the show, it was Mike Shoemaker, and he wanted to know why I had stopped updating, and I said, my computer’s broken, I’m just a child with a, you know, crappy computer, and then he said, oh, well that’s not a problem, Lorne, Lorne loves the episode reviews, he’ll buy you a new computer, and so they my first computer that I learned to edit video on, I’m now a video editor professionally, uh, was a, was a computer that Lorne Michaels purchased for me, uh, in, you know, around 2000, I think.
So you get a computer from Lorne Michaels. Did they put any t shirts or anything else SNL in it, or was it just, you just get your computer from Lorne?
I got my computer, which was a very nice top of the line Mac tower, um, And I got this letter, here with NBC letterhead on it, which I can read you and you can use it or not use it, but dear Mr.Bradley, as you know, Lorne Michaels greatly enjoys your Saturday Night Live fan site. At his request, NBC Studios plans to provide you with a new computer. However, while SNL appreciates it when fans like you create sites about the show, SNL is owned by NBC Studios, as are all the materials that appear in SNL, including the SNL and Saturday Night Live trademarks and logos, the skits, parody commercials, and short and animated films, the SNL intellectual property. And your use of these materials to create a website does not give you any rights to these materials. Furthermore, should you, for example, Expand your website to include clips or actual materials, NBC Studios reserves its right to object to your use of materials from SNL. Finally, NBC Studios makes no representations or warranties whatsoever regarding the computer. You accept it as is, etc, etc. Please sign and close copy. Enjoy the computer and keep watching SNL. And that is from a lawyer at NBC. So it was both extremely generous and also vaguely threatening.
At what point did you find out that the cast was going on your website? I know Jimmy Fallon has acknowledged you publicly. That it was such a big deal But when and how did you because you’re in Bethlehem? How did you find out that the cast was going on the site?
I started doing the standby line and I think maybe Chris Parnell was one of the first cast members to, to say, hey, he recognized me and said, Hey, you’re, are you Sean the webmaster? So that was exciting for me. And then Jimmy Fallon also said, uh, Oh my God, I’m going to tell my parents that I met you, which obviously is, uh, you know, just him being nice and making a child feel good about himself. But it was so sweet. So there were a few of those kinds of moments. Mike Shoemaker at one point, uh, introduced me to Tina Fey and she said that she was, you know, she enjoyed the website.
I read something in the Daily News from 2009 that, did you actually have a meeting with Lorne in his office?
It was in Lorne’s office, but it was not with Lorne. I, Had been in touch with some people about maybe working on some kind of revamped SNL website for a minute. And so I met with some top honcho at Broadway Video and they probably do this just to like, you know, see if I’m going to like be a weirdo or something, but they had the meeting in Lorne’s office. I think to make sure I could like be a, you know, a normal human and not freak out. And, uh, it was cool. Yeah. I was in there with the popcorn machine and everything. Uh, it did, you know, I then met with. Shoemaker and Jimmy Fallon to be a writer’s assistant when he was starting Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and it came down to me and I think one other person and it didn’t go my way. But that was all very exciting. Uh, Mr Shoemaker invite, you know, introduced me to all the writers that they were putting together for the staff and. It was pretty cool.
Did the show get you tickets, because traditionally back then, for the most part, they, for the people that were fans, it’s, you had to camp out and there were not, at some point, at least when I was doing it, there weren’t a lot of people that were getting in, uh, for some, some periods. Was the show hooking you up at all?
Occasionally. I really tried not to be annoying. So, very often, if I was already planning on going and doing standby, I would maybe email Mike Shoemaker or there were a couple people on the staff that would reach out to me occasionally. There was a props guy. I was friends with the sister of a cue card man. Uh, so I had my little, you know, path to sort of subtly annoy people if I was already going to be there, but I tried not to, not to, you know, bother anyone. Uh, but yeah, occasionally, I mean, I have, I was going through stuff today, you know, because I want to be a good guest for you, Mark.
Thank you.
And, uh, I see here, this is, uh, 1/13/01, I had looked it up, it looks like it was the, it was Charlie Sheen, I think, was hosting. But it says, “Air 8th floor” from Mike Shoemaker. So obviously he got me these tickets. So there were a couple instances like that.
Just for a timeline, was that was that January 2000?
January 2001
2001. I was off by a year, people!
Yeah, you’re good. You’re very good I mean, I listened to you and Arthur Meyer and you guys have… My memory is not nearly what yours is But it’s very very impressive.
You went to the show quite a bit. I know in the interview with the Daily News It was at that point. It was like 13 times. Did you ever do standby and not get in?
Uh, the very first time I did not get in, it was Bill Murray and Lucinda Williams in, what was that? Ninety, ninety eight, ninety nine?
Did you go for dress or live? Because when you camp out, you pick either the air show or you pick dress and you have no idea if anybody’s going to get in for either. Dress techn usually is easier to get in.
Yeah, yeah, I think I probably went for dress for that very reason. And I’ve heard you talk about this. At the time, it was much harder to get in. It seems like now they’ve made the very correct decision. To let as many fans in as possible. And as a result, the sketches do much better because there’s that enthusiasm in the, you know, in the studio.
I think it just comes down to what you were saying that they need the laughs and they too many VIPs and it just got to the point. When you went, did anybody get in for the Murray episode?
My memory is that no one got in. Yeah. I don’t think anyone got into that one. So that was, that was crushing. I was obviously, uh, you know, everyone loves Bill Murray and I, that would have been..
And it’s usually a big music person where that might happen, but yeah, it definitely affected the show enough where they, they did the change over. So when was the first time you got into the show?
The first time I got in was when Norm Macdonald came back to host in 1999, which was extremely exciting for me because Norm Macdonald, for my money, is one of the greatest talents to ever appear on that show. And I will take this opportunity to say that that Rolling Stone magazine, uh, you know, ranking of the greatest cast members of all time. Do you remember this? This was maybe.
I try not to look at them, but I know what you’re saying, and I get, I get upset sometimes, so I try to stay away from them.
It’s absurd. Yeah, I think for the 40th, they did one of these, and Norm was, if not at the bottom, damn near the bottom, and that is a travesty. Uh, but yeah, I was thrilled that Norm was hosting, and we got tickets to see that show just through the normal August lottery.
That is extremely hard to do in August. It’s different now because it’s over email. But people would actually get physical postcards. You would take a physical postcard and write your name and Saturday Night Live tickets, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York, 10112. I think, I guess that’s still in my DNA. So you get tickets. They do not give people much notice. Because, I mean, I’ve talked to people that, you’re in Seattle. Yeah, less than a week’s notice. It’s like six days notice or something like that. How much notice do you remember getting for this?
Yeah, it was it was not much. It was definitely less than two weeks.Yeah, we were in, again, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, so it was, you know, not a huge trek, but yeah, we did not have a lot of notice.
Yeah, there were like, I think a hundred tickets go out to fifty, fifty people get pairs. I don’t know if that’s still what it’s like, but so many of the people around the country without having the proper time to plan, couldn’t use them, and so you go to the show, but you make a decision, which is we are going to be going to the dress, but since we’re here, let’s camp out and try to get into the air show. Correct?
Yes, that is correct. We were there for the dress, but we said, let’s come early. Let’s do the standby line and let’s try to do them both. Subsequently, it turned out that that wasn’t even necessary because the, uh, my friend in the props department, uh, got us seats on the floor for the live show. So we got to, so I don’t know how you want to get into that whole story, but, uh,
We’ll get into it. I read it on, I read it. Um, you would do these, um, and I remember reading it when I think it, shortly after it happened, I’d go on your site. So I remember when this happened with Norm and you did this, this whole recap and we’ll, we’ll, we’ll get to that. So. That Friday night, is that the first time you really get to start meeting the cast when Norm hosted? Because to look back, it’s so strange because I, you know, when I would camp out as well, you’re, sometimes they would establish the lobby outside. Mr. Louis Klein, who was, would do it every week, a legend would, uh, you know, if established and if he said it was okay, if there weren’t a lot of people, you would go, um, you could be in the lobby. I would bring him my sleeping bag in the lobby and then. For the next few hours, it was just the cast coming out of rehearsal and every single cast member would stop, would do photos, autographs. You could have a conversation with them, and just to have like someone like Phil Hartman or Chris Farley in front of you, just have it be, I mean, it was never normal for me, but just so accessible and so very nice. And then traditionally around midnight, they would kick us out. Then Lorne would come out with Marci Klein normally, and then the host would come out. Or maybe it was the host, and then I think Lorne and Marci were the last people. But, um, was this your first time doing that and seeing all these people coming out?
Yes. I can’t remember. At some point in the evening, they kicked us out onto the street. But I do remember standing around that lobby watching cast members come out.
They have the town cars that are parked fridays. Normally, um, for the cast on, on, what would that be? I guess 49th street. People don’t camp out anymore on that street. I don’t think, or maybe, maybe, maybe they do, but for a long time they would, uh, put them, I think on like 48th straight away from the cast, but everybody. Would come out for the most part. I mean, I know Mike Myers, I remember would walk. I think he was, I don’t know if he was living in New York or not, but most of the people would just take cars. So just take me through this. Cause you know, it’s 10 o’clock at night. You’re from Bethlehem. I’m from Hershey, Pennsylvania, by the way.
Oh, amazing.
People start coming down from the cast. Kattan, Tracy Morgan, Cheri Oteri. What, what does going through your head and what take me through this?
It was mind blowing to me. These are people that I, you know, uh, just was so obsessed with. They’re so, so talented and, and they were so nice. And, uh, I remember Tracy Morgan, like, sitting down for an interview with me. I had brought, like, a handheld camera, and I stuck a camera in his face, and he sat down and said that he was waiting in line for tickets too. And, uh, he had his child with him, and, and he talked to us. I asked him what his, you know, favorite character was and I’ve since gone back and watched this tape and I I’m being a awful Host in this little impromptu interview show that I’m doing, because I cut him off and I tell him what my favorite character is. And we both actually had the same answer which at the time was this piece He was doing called you remember Woodrow, which was
Oh, 100 percent. They did it twice Harper Steele wrote.
Yeah. Yeah, so so good. But yeah, it was, and then, you know, he talked to me for maybe 10 minutes and then said he was going to take off and he had to get up in the morning and buy his son a guitar. Um, but they were so generous.
This is what I’m saying. 10 minutes of somebody’s time. It just was to be a teenager. In Pennsylvania, especially I was the same thing. It just, I just didn’t make sense why there weren’t more people. It’s like this kind of like secret that nobody knew that you can meet the cast. And, and now it’s, it’s so different because, um, everybody knows about the standby line through, you know, the websites and the internet, and it’s like, it’s completely different now. But back then, um, when you showed up for, uh, Norm, I think you, when you said that you showed up at like 8:30, you were like, I think like three and four in line or something like that, which now, I mean, oh, I mean, uh, now it’s very different, but back then it’s a lot, it’s, I think it’s over the internet reservations now. Back then people would camp out like sometimes at like noon.
Yeah. It seemed to get earlier and earlier as the. As these stories were going up on the internet, and I was posting, you know, pictures every time I went, uh, it, it seemed that you had to get there earlier and earlier to get a good spot in the line. I have, again, a ticket stub in front of me for Ben Affleck and Fiona Apple, you know, which says that I was #1 for dress rehearsal. There’s no way I got there any earlier than 8 o’clock. But, you know, I know for a period, people would start to line up… There were people that lined up on Thursday.
That’s true.
Yeah, I mean, it’s wild
And sometimes not get in. No, it’s..
And not get in.
Yeah, it’s one of those things where the standby line is taken. And then NBC started sending down soup and pizza and we did not get any of that. No, I didn’t get any of that. I sound like the guy… in my day we got nothing.
Horatio Sanz did come down once with McDonald’s dollars that he handed out to the standby line
And that time with Norm. So this is This was the standby line. You see the cast and then you and your friend, Ivan, who you’re with. And I would do this too. If you needed a bathroom break for it, you could only leave for a little bit. Louis would, would monitor the line and you went to McDonald’s, which I would do, um, which is, you know, pretty close by and you have to go to the bathroom. And then you just do a quick meal break. And then it’s Penn Jillette is right in front of you.
Penn Jillette is sitting there. Yeah. I mean. Yeah, this was 1 a. m. Penn Jillette was sitting there, he appeared to be, you know, I don’t know, uh, Penn Jillette ‘s dating history, if he was married, if that was his wife, or, uh, he was there with a young lady having a, you know, little 1 a.m.snack, but again, craziness to be, uh, a 16 year old boy and, uh, and be hanging out with Penn Jillette at McDonald’s at 1 a. m..
And also before that, and I would, I’ve mentioned this before when I would camp out, Conan came out a couple times, you, I know you got a photo with him and you got to talk to him and he signed something for your friend.
Yeah, yeah, I wish I had a better story because I’m obsessed with Conan, but um, it was crazy cool. I just remember being like, wow, Conan is a hard working man because this is Friday night, I think at the time he didn’t even do Monday shows. So he had already taped his show, obviously, didn’t have to be back in the building until the following Tuesday, and he is in and out late into the night, uh, you know, working on that show.
So Conan was nice, yeah, nice to the fans, and then somehow, usually, at least when I was going there, the host would come out and you’d see the host, but I know sometimes Norm, for example, I know that you wrote didn’t come out and some of the cast members, um, didn’t come out that night, and then you see Lorne leave. And, um, then it’s, uh, what, 9 15? You have to wait till 9 15 AM outside.
Yeah.
Do you have a sleeping bag or what did you do?
I think there were some, you make friends with people, there’s blankets around, uh. It was, everyone was just young and happy. Well, not everyone was young, but everyone was very happy to be there. And, um, you just make it work. I, I, I remember I have video of me on the street, like sort of snuggled up with people that I had like just met. And, uh, it was just a big, you know, pit of humans, you know, stinky humans trying to get through the night and then the next morning. You wanted, uh, you wanted to get to 7 a.m. because then you could go take a little break and go try to get on camera at The Today Show.
Was that your national television debut?
Oh, yes, yes, yes. It was very exciting, standing outside and, uh, waving like a j*ckass, uh, behind Al Roker. Yeah.
So, you, you do this, and then, do you have a hotel? Where do you go after this? After 9:15, the pages come out, you can pick dress or live.
Yeah, we had no, we had no plans. I remember going to a hotel lobby with my friend Ivan and just sitting there and pulling out our 1999 cell phones because we thought, Oh, if we have cell phones. You know, we’re, we’re big shots. They’re not going to kick us out because we are gentlemen with cell phones. So we put our little cell phones in front of us and just took a nap in the lobby of a hotel.
So you do that and then you go and I had done this too before when I was coming up from Pennsylvania, um, if I had nothing else to do and you mentioned you didn’t have a lot of money. You just went back to the lobby, um, during the afternoon and the cast would come in for rehearsals and you could talk to them. Was at the cast that you saw that time. I know you saw Chevy and he did give you an autograph. Yeah, he did give you an autograph. Correct.
Chevy did not give me an autograph, but I also, I think I was tough on Chevy. I, I did, uh, I remember at the time writing something nasty about the fact that I asked him for a picture and he said, no, you know, Chevy was there with, I think with his, with perhaps with his daughter and, you know, fine. Chevy doesn’t want to take a picture with me. I can live with that.
So you go to dress rehearsal and you show up at what point do you realize that you have floor tickets?
That’s a good question. I think just before the show we got confirmation and then there was some back and forth over whether or not we would be on the eighth floor. Uh, my buddy in the props department said. I got you, I got you tickets on the floor. There’s only 36 seats on the floor, at least at the time, most of the seats were in the balcony. So this was extra exciting. So we got to the elevator and they said, uh, you got to go to the ninth floor. And so we were like, oh damn, we thought we were going to be on, you know, right there in the action on the eighth floor where they have 36 seats. Uh, but they sent us up to the, the balcony and then, um, someone came and grabbed us and brought us back down to the eighth floor at the last minute, just with seconds to go, you know, during the warmup.
So then yeah, Don Pardo says hi to the audience and the band plays before that and they play a little bit after and then Colin Quinn, I never got to see his warm up. How was his warm up? Traditionally at that point, it was always the Update people that would do the warm up. Dennis Miller did warm up when he was there and then it went to Nealon and then It went to Norm, and then after Norm, uh, was left, fired, whatever you want to call it. Uh, Colin, uh, Quinn, how, how was his warmup?
Colin was great. I love Colin. I’ve seen him a bunch at the cellar, and it was, you know, standard Colin Quinn. You know, he had his, I think, his warmup down pat, and, uh, he, he did great. It was, it was awesome.
I want to go through the show, because you have this, this really wonderful breakdown of, of, of dress rehearsal with Norm. And I actually had a lot of Uh, questions about, especially his monologue, which we’ll get to. And I was just really fascinated with, with some of the, between dress and live, that they would add people to sketches and impersonations that weren’t there at dress. So we’ll, we’ll get there. So we do a, a cold open, which is the mayor Giuliani World Series bet. Then it goes to the monologue with norm. And what was that? Like when Norm did his monologue? Were the people booing off to the side? Like it happened on the air show. They had the Norm said it was the writers. There were people booing. It was not the audience.
Yeah. No, I remember only love for Norm. I mean, uh, and you could hear it when you play back that monologue. They, yes, there were a few boos, but. People are obsessed. You know, people are people were screaming his name. It was there was a lot of excitement for norm to return, and I was delighted. I find that monologue. It’s one of the tightest monologues. I mean, it is just applause line after applause line. It is really great. Strong stuff. And I heard you talking to T Sean Shannon about it, right? Is that correct?
That’s true. There were a few people that were not happy as writers.
Yeah. And I, you know, I, I understand that obviously I think he had just recently started, but I mean, you have to just appreciate how funny that was to those lines about, you know, bad news is I’m still not funny. Good news is the show blows. I haven’t gotten any funnier. The show’s gotten really bad. So yeah, I’m funny compared to well, you’ll see later.
I mean, and you’re the reason I know at goodnights because when you at the air show, nobody goes up to him at good nights and at Norm, uh, and at dress rehearsal, you said the same thing. No, the cast during the draft during goodnights. Cause I mean, norm getting up there being like, I’m funny. Well, you’ll see a little funnier than, well, you’ll see a little later. I’m sure maybe
And even ending it with, Oh, we’ve got a bad show for you tonight, folks. Um, yeah, I, I dunno, yeah, I was always fascinated by the dynamic between Norm and that cast because I remember the Rolling Stone magazine, you know, that the cheerleaders and Mary Katherine Gallagher and, uh, maybe the Roxbury guys, whatever they were on the cover and Norm, we found out later had been invited to be on the cover, but he didn’t want to like play dress up and interact with the others and always seemed like there was some backstage sort of, Nonsense between him and Chris Kattan. I think there was a story that they told on Stern of maybe he took Chris Kattan’s shoes when he was sleeping on a flight once and..
Yes, and he took his shoes and threw them out or something. Yeah. Yeah But Norm in that Rolling Stone article said that most of the new people. I don’t I find them more talented than funny.
I mean, that’s ridiculous. I think Norm was just, you know, an instigator. I mean, he must have gotten along with Will Ferrell. Will and Molly were on his, uh, album, his comedy album that he released after leaving.
Yeah, I’m not really, really sure. I mean, definitely regardless, everybody over there was just in awe of Norm’s talent. So they did, they do a commercial, pre-taped commercial parody, which was cut after the dress. I don’t. I don’t think this ever was put online or anything. I didn’t know this, that Eminem, who was not Eminem back then, I mean, he wasn’t as huge, certainly, and until maybe the next year, he was a spokesperson for a Viagra-like product called, what was it called?
One Swell Dong.
What do you recall? This is a minute pre tape that never made it.
Yeah, I, I recall nothing other than what I have written in my report, which is this pre taped commercial parody was cut after dress rehearsal, in it Eminem is the spokesperson for a Viagra-like product called One Swell Dong, and it lasted a minute ten. It’s crazy to me that this has never seen the light of day.
Yeah, it is one of those things. I think at that point he was not as big and I think that might have been the reason that not they didn’t, the audience didn’t really know who he was as much to laugh at something like that. I think it would have probably played the following year a little bit better. So they do the Halloween sketch and then they do Celebrity Jeopardy. And you mentioned in your write up that they actually had to start late.
Yeah, the sketch, uh, Celebrity Jeopardy started late because Norm needed gum as Burt Reynolds. So he was up there and all of a sudden I hear Norm doing his, uh, basically doing his Letterman impression and saying, Uh, you got any gum? And someone from the audience was like, I’ve got gum. And, and gave Norm a stick of gum so that they could get started with the, uh, sketch.
And then it goes to, this sketch got cut but it was a homeless magician with Norm trying to perform magic while stealing food. You wrote from Chris Parnell and Anna Gasteyer’s plate in a restaurant.
Yeah, I wrote a very forgettable sketch, cut after dress rehearsal, and that is an apt description because I have no memory of it.
And then the next one is Divorced Michael Jackson, and this one was, you wrote that Norm, I don’t know who it would have been at the time, but it would have been probably the stage manager who would be with the host and they would run around the studio a lot. Um, just to get to the marks and do with, with changes and stuff. And what, what do you write?
I wrote, the assistant was trying to get Norm on stage and whispered something rhetorical to Norm. Like, come on, what are you doing? And then Norm trying to embarrass her, said loud enough for the entire eighth floor audience to hear him. What? I hadn’t seen Joe in a while. I was asking him what he thought of that last sketch. She was like, you don’t have to yell. And he was like, what? I, I wasn’t yelling. And then he took the stage, so it was just Norm being Norm and, uh, you know, having fun and gumming up the works.
And then you wrote, with just a few seconds before the sketch, Norm, uh, to no one in particular, just to audience or whoever, was like, well, what’s the point of this sketch, you guys? Very Norm.
Very Norm, yeah. What are we doing here?
Yeah, I, this is so interesting to me, is that, uh, Jimmy Fallon Was not in dress playing Stern and they added that for the air show.
That’s crazy, right?
When you think about it, you know, when I went to the show, I don’t recall stuff like that happening.
Yeah, no, it happened. Uh, I think with the cold open too. They dropped in Tim Meadows introducing Giuliani, but yeah, there were last minute changes that were fully, you know, adding cast members that hadn’t been in the piece at all.
They do fun with real audio, Smigel who you did meet that Friday, um, and he’s nicest guy is so nice.
So nice. And he, I remember being, he was shocked that I knew who he was, which is crazy to me. Now, obviously, he had already been on the show as a featured player. But, uh, yeah, at the time, he said that it was the last one that he had ready, and that maybe he would. You know, be moving on to doing other things, but obviously he stayed with the show a little longer.
Might be Rachel Dratch’s first sketch, but it was the CNN Crosstalk, which I think Rachel told me it was Tina Fey wrote it. How thin is too thin? And then Norm does great moments in Yankee history as Lou Gehrig. And Norm told me that I don’t think I should probably mention the person, but it was somebody very high at NBC was offended by this sketch and had enough power that when they re-ran it, it was not in the broadcast.
Oh, is that? Wow. You know, I just, I went on Peacock to see what they had taken out of it, and I saw that that sketch is in the Peacock broadcast, but it’s moved back towards the end of the show, but I remember it being a very tight sketch, you know, it was, uh, you know, that he’s playing Lou Gehrig and saying, I was being sarcastic. I, you know, this is a disease. So rare that they named it after me. I am not the luckiest human, you know, it was, it was a very Norm sketch.
Yeah. And with Peacock, I don’t know on the rerun on the broadcast, if it got in, but, um, yeah, Peacock sometimes, um, put stuff back and, and then it was Update and then the music. And then it was the first time Hugh Fink told me that Norm actually did the Larry King news and views in the studio, it was always pre taped and they did two of those, which, oh man, so funny.
Oh, they were so great. And during the live show, I was, you know, well, we can get to that, but I remember during the live show, he was really kind of drawing it out even more than he had it dressed, like really, really aggressively holding some of those beats and staring down the camera. And some producer backstage was, You know, kind of, what the f*ck is he doing? You know, sorry, I, I, there was some, there was some commotion backstage because he was, he was gumming up the works again and slowing things down.
So they do a sketch called The Crafty Vermonter, which is cut as well, which is Rachel Dratch and Ana Gasteyer as host of a Martha Stewart like show, and Norm has a wig on and he’s played an older gentleman, and this also, you said, just wasn’t playing?
Yeah, that did not play. Yeah, that one, um I don’t have a strong memory of that one other than there was commotion behind me. Someone that was there with Snoop Dogg was like, I don’t get it. I don’t get it. And, uh, I I, I shushed her and then I was like, what, what the, what the hell, who do I think I am? I’m shushing, you know, the guest of, the musical guest.
I don’t recall ever going to the show when they were showing old commercials from, it could be the, the season before, but this was commercials from decades ago. I mean, they, they showed, you said, um, the Royal Deluxe, which was
Dan Aykroyd.
Yeah, and they showed Colon Blow, which Was, um, was Phil Hartman from years, um, before then. I wonder if they were just, they needed time for dress, just to, for changes, or I don’t know why they would do that. That stuff wasn’t getting on the air at all, was it? The old commercials?
No, no, I don’t know what that was. If it was just a way of killing time, if, if they wanted, um, to record some laughs for some kind of new commercial parody special. I, I don’t know, I don’t know why they were doing it. It was fun to see. But none of it aired on the live show.
And then they did flying monkeys, which was an eight minute sketch. And it was the only time that Kattan who, you know, it was definitely, there were rumors that Kattan just wouldn’t do anything that week. I don’t know if that’s true, but he was definitely not in the air show anywhere. But, um, I think you wrote in this that Catan might’ve been in one, one of the, uh, the flying monkeys.
Kattan was a flying monkey. Yeah, and, and, that sketch was scheduled for the live show to be the last one, but perhaps because of Norm’s, uh, Larry King shenanigans, uh, they didn’t get to it.
And then they do Bob Dole and Anna Gasteyer’s playing Elizabeth Dole. I’ll let you take it from here.
Yeah, wouldn’t that have been fun?
Oh my goodness, yes.
I mean, the return of Bob Dole. Yeah, yeah, I wrote, Liddy, uh, was talking about why she had, um, dropped out of, what was she running for? Was she running for the Senate? I don’t know.
I don’t remember.
Yeah, okay, but Liddy was talking about, um, dropping out, and Bob just wants to have sex with her. One of the funnier moments came when Norm, as Bob, ad libbed, Come on, Bob Dole’s about to f*ck this couch. Yeah, I I don’t know. I I that was funny. That was thrilling to see bob to see norm as Bob again
And just to be so rebellious at dress where you obviously can get away with with swearing.
Yeah. Yeah Well, he’s he dropped, you know I think four goddams during the live show that were not in the dress rehearsal all of which Yeah have been bleeped since but yeah, two were the monologue two were Clint Eastwood In the Actor’s Studio sketch.
I think that was the first time they might’ve done the Inside the Actors.
I think you’re right.
Yeah. You wrote that they did a Dennis McNicholas commercial Chess for Girls, which I don’t know if they showed that just for placement. And then it was, Norm is a drug dealer, um, you wrote who let people. Give him their babies in exchange for crack. It certainly sounds like Norm had his fingers on that one.
I don’t have much memory of it, but, uh,
There was a Don Ohlmeyer reference, which I thought was very interesting. They actually named him by name.
Yes. Wait, let me find that. That was, uh, Soft Touch. Oh, that was Soft Touch. Right, right, right. So I, I, I wrote, um, At one point, Norm’s wife, Anna Gasteyer, tells him there’s something he shouldn’t be doing. Norm then has a moment where he thinks to himself about his wrong ways. We hear Norm’s pre recorded voice talking about how, uh, what he’s doing is wrong, and then the voice says, maybe Don Ohlmeyer was right. Maybe I’m not funny. Wait a minute. Back to the sketch. Uh, so that’s obviously a reference to the, uh, Mr. Ohlmeyer who, uh, had him removed from Weekend Update. Very funny.
That did not get in. Sometimes the biggest laughs at dress rehearsal, the things that, that, um, just moments and stuff do not make air. And then at Goodnights, you write, what happens at the air show is that nobody will go up to Norm.
Nobody went up to Norm, no.No, he, he did, he put his arm around Tracy Morgan at one point and, uh, referred to him as Dr. Dre. Uh, I think he was just confused. But no, other than that, there was no contact between him and the cast.
So talk about from 10 o’clock when dress ends or 10:10 until 11:30. You got to stay. Um, where, where were you in the studio? What happens?
So, My buddy in the props department grabs me and Ivan and he said, uh, you want a tour? You want your picture on the stage? So I have the picture, which is obviously very exciting to me. I’m wearing ridiculously oversized clothes and I would love to, uh, take a new version of that photo, but it is what it is. But I got the picture on the stage and then he brought us backstage and he said, uh, listen, if you just hang back here, I think you’ll be fine. He gave us show rundowns, you know, so that we looked somewhat official and we were just milling around backstage near the, uh, changing area. And it was, it was wild. We saw Adam Sandler walking around. He wasn’t even on the show, had already left the show. Was coming back to visit norm. I guess I saw. Colin Quinn just sitting there watching norms monologue. Yeah.
So you’re there. I know exactly where this was. There was kind of a bench. It’s not there anymore. A bench couch area. And then across they would show it sometimes on the show across there. They would have coffee at a table. And then they would have the vanity mirror with all the lights with the where the cast would sit down and get made up and all the light bulbs around the mirror and then the changing areas. Where people would just kind of run in for last minute and then you see the cast coming out of the studio during the show Oh, yeah, throughout the show. What was that? Like?
I mean, I had no business being back there I just kept waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder. It was it was crazy. Yeah, we saw we saw everyone Uh, yeah, I don’t know if you want how you want to get into the uh Me being asked to leave.
What happened?
So, again, the advice we were given was, just stand back here, don’t talk to anyone, and you’ll be fine. I’m standing backstage, I look over, and my buddy Ivan is in the middle of a conversation uh, with Adam Sandler, Tim Meadows, and Norm Macdonald, and there is my, uh, 17 year old friend, Ivan, in the middle of it all, and I just thought, oh no, oh, oh god. This is it, and, uh, within 60 seconds, that tap on the shoulder came, and we were asked to, uh, leave. So that was the end of that, yeah.
Did the person actually take you down to the lobby?
Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Do you remember what he looks like or his name? No, he was a security security guard. Um, and he had every reason to what the, what the hell was my buddy Ivan thinking?
It’s, it’s tough. I’m glad that you were able to be there at least for like an hour of the live show.
Yeah, we made it past midnight.
Yeah. So you have this website that so many people are going to. I saw the news tribune in Tacoma, Washington was writing about it. Long years ago, and they were talking about your frequently asked questions. How many times is the word cheeseburger spoken in the first Olympia restaurant sketch. 80! And people would just, there was no other real destination for the fans to really. Um, there would be these chat rooms and people would talk about the, how the show went. Yeah, you, you were really that guy. It’s amazing.
It was fun. Yeah. And the fans were very, you know, as far as the, that frequently asked questions, which were really, there were hundreds of them and certainly how many times was cheeseburger uttered in the cheeseburger sketch is not a frequently asked question. But uh, the fans were very helpful with a lot of that stuff. There were some very, you know, there were some fans that would send me ideas and uh, research and Then I would I would include it. Yeah.
I know you went to the show a lot You said in the interview with the Daily News it was 13 times. That was 2009 What are some of the other times that you went to the show of memories that stand out or things that were really cool or not cool.
Well, I was there for the Christopher Walken dress rehearsal where they first did Cowbell. So that was, that was exciting. And I remember, I remember loving that sketch. I know in the, in the documentary, they say that it didn’t go as well at dress and everyone was holding back. But I remember being like, Oh my God, this, this is, this is absurd. Uh, this, this is gold and a very funny sketch also from that episode that didn’t make it. They did a sketch with Christopher Walken as the Fonz and it was some kind of a takeoff on, uh, you know, the Jim Carrey biopic for Man on the Moon was coming out around that time, and this was Christopher Walken doing his biopic as The Fonz, and I remember laughing harder at that than anything, including Cowbell, and I was shocked that it didn’t make it. I’m still shocked that they’re sitting on all of these years of dress rehearsal sketches that have never been released. You would think that there would be a you know, a special of just unreleased material from over the years.
Some of the dress stuff that they have and some of the moments that I witnessed were, I, yeah, I think that if that happened, uh, people would just be so happy. I mean, the, the, the history of that show and that some of the things that didn’t get, and did you go to the after parties at all?
I did go to some after, well, I went to some after, after parties. Yeah, that was, That was bananas.
That’s 4 a. m. You have to have the password. What was that like?
Yeah, it was cool. It was very cool. The, the strongest memory I have of being at one was, and I was 21 years of age, but, uh, it was like partying in a intimate underground space with everyone on the show, like playing pool with Jimmy Fallon, and doing a shot with Tracy Morgan and, uh, yeah, talking to Jimmy about his, I think he was nominated for a Grammy that year, uh, for The Bathroom Wall, you know, I was there, I was, I, I closed it down with Rachel Dratch’s brother, I think, uh, so it was, It was wild. I’ve never felt more, uh, happening in my entire life.
A lot of adrenaline for the people that work there. I mean, seven o’clock, sun coming up or whatever.
Yeah. The sun was out and we left.
Yeah. I have to ask about your message board. I’m not going to mention the writer’s name. There was one writer on that, uh, the fans, I would go on Saturdays or, um, the next day to see what people would write, talk about the show, and they were very honest, but there was one writer that they did not like, who was there for quite a while. Do you remember that?
I have no memory of this. No.
I’ll tell you later who it was. Okay. But, um, I thought that was interesting that they would just Also on your site, at one point, there was this individual that identified themselves as Doug, and Doug said that they were a cast member’s brother or sister, and they would not say who they were, but they would give inside information, and they would say, I’m here to give inside information, and the stuff would be right before it would come out, and then there was one particular cast member who I’m not going to say who somebody knocked on, um, this one cast member, like somebody in the chat room. And then Doug, whoever that is just jumped over like, um, attacking this person just verbally, was so upset.
Oh, I wish I could find this stuff. You have a better memory of all this.
And everybody was like, I think we know who Doug is.
Whoa. Oh, we have to have a post show chat. We’ll talk all the details. I was always fascinated. Um, yeah, the forum was the forum kind of got out of control at a certain point. And it was, um, there was a lot of spam and stuff like that. And that’s one of the reasons I ended up really staying up on this site. I got very busy with college and then, you know, trying to make money and stay afloat living in New York City. But, um, Yeah. Yeah, the, the community was very active in that form.
What was it like being a page at Letterman’s CBS show?
Oh, it was so cool. I mean, I, I just found like my seventh grade yearbook, and I wrote at the time that my favorite shows were David Letterman and Saturday Night Live. Uh, so, you know, to, to be there and see Dave in person every day, it was, it was the coolest. It was the coolest gig. I got paid very little, you know, it’s, uh, they don’t really take care of the pages, uh, financially. But, um, it was so exciting and I wormed my way into writing for his monologue a bit too. I went up to the, uh, Steve Young was, uh, running the monologue at the time and I had a couple of meetings with him and you know, the arrangement was, you know, if you keep bothering him, he’ll give you a shot at writing for Dave’s monologue and then you get paid per joke that they use. I think it was 75 per joke. So I was in the mix and doing that for a few years until they shut the whole thing down.
Did you get stuff on air?
I did. Yes. There’s a cue card behind me, although maybe you can’t see it, but my first joke ever was, um, discouraging news everywhere, folks, unemployment is high. Foreclosure rate is high. Michael Phelps is high. So that was a very
Opening remarks. You’re history.
Very timely that day. No, but I, I, I got a bunch on for those couple years and it was the coolest thing in the world to this day to have David Letterman say words that I wrote.
So you’re a page during the David Kay, Jennifer Rae years.
Yes.
I worked at the show, so I know
You worked at Letterman?
I was there for a year. I was actually in the audience department on the eighth floor, but I was not a page.
Oh, so we probably know a lot of the same people.
Oh yes, for sure. We know a lot of the same. What are some of the things during that, when you were a page, some of the things that you saw, because either in the warmup or like stuff that were audience members got in trouble or they had to stop tape, does anything stand out?
Well, I was there, just in terms of like, amazing memories, I was there when he had on Paris Hilton. He wanted to talk to her about her recent arrest, and I believe she wanted to talk about her new makeup line or something. Uh, she wanted to talk about anything other than her arrest. And Dave was saying, oh, well this is where you and I differ, because the arrest is the only thing I want to talk about. And, you know, you can hear my laugh and I, you know, I sort of have a distinct laugh, I’ve been told, and you can very much hear it in that episode. So that was a cool thing to witness in terms of people getting kicked out of the audience…
Or just anything strange. I remember Bill DeLace. There was somebody that approached Dave during the monologue and DeLace saw the person, and and and stopped them and nobody the broadcast like they got them before they got to dave and it was
Oh, that’s yeah Bill DeLace is no nonsense. You don’t want to you know, you know, I before I even worked there I was in the audience once and I Bill DeLace told me to cut it out because I was wooing too loud.They did not like woos.
Dave does not like too much clapping. He does not like the woos. That is absolutely true. They like, the host just went laughter. So you’re married to somebody that was in the office. She did, I think it was 12 episodes. And it’s not like Krasinski or Jenna Fischer fame, but that is in rotation all the time. What is that like with your wife when you’re traveling around? Especially I would guess out of New York. Um, like what just, that’s, it’s basically every demographic is watching that show. I mean, it’s been off for quite a while. What, what is that like?
Uh, so I’m married to Lindsey Broad, who is a fabulous actress, and she played Cathy Simms on The Office, uh, who was Pam’s replacement, I think it’s season eight, and, um, it’s lovely. People are so, I don’t want to speak on her behalf, but people are so lovely when they come up to her. You know, there’s obviously internet trolls and nonsense like that, and, But by and large, the fans are so nice. There have been some like, office conventions and stuff like that, and Everyone’s lovely. Everyone’s lovely. My wife has joked that like, she gets recognized most of the time when she’s not wearing makeup. So she has made the joke, you know, I, I always, I, I always like, look my worst when people come up and they’re like, Hey! It’s Cathy from The Office! But um, the community, the fans, they’re so, they’re so great.
Yeah, just the eyeballs. When was the last time you went to Saturday Night Live?
Geez, the last time I went to Saturday Night Live, um, maybe like a primetime special or something.
Oh, one of the election specials?
One of the election specials.
One of the Thursdays? I did that before.
Yeah, yeah. It’s been a while. I did reach out to an old contact when Michael Keaton came back to host and I was told that I was too late and there were no tickets, but, uh.
So it’s the hardest thing in town. I remember Jim Breuer was talking, he did an interview how he always had two tickets every show and then. Um, it didn’t happen like that with new cast members. I mean, Pete Davidson was saying he would get two tickets every other week. I mean, it was, it was, it’s still, um, by far the toughest ticket in town.
It is. Yeah. It seems like it’s, it’s only gotten tougher. Yeah. I, I, I miss it. I would love to go back.
Yeah, that’d be fun after you get to go back. And I haven’t been to that show in ages and stuff. So who knows? Sean Bradley, thanks for doing this.
Thank you for having me. What a thrill, Mark. And, uh, really I’m a, like a long time student of late night. Again, I grew up on David Letterman and, uh, I’ve listened to some of your Johnny Carson podcast and, uh, you really, really know your stuff and you do great interviews and, um, it’s, it’s cool. Thanks for having me on. This is really exciting.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Mark.
Awesome interview! Sean’s site was the best! And he’s right about how funny that Walken as Fonzie sketch is. They put it as an extra on his Best Of DVD and I’m very glad they did!