And then there was LATELINE.
LATELINE was an NBC sitcom in the late ‘90s that starred now-former-Senator Al Franken. It was set in a late night news show, a la NIGHTLINE. The show was filmed in New York. I directed a bunch of episodes. One in particular had the craziest first rehearsal day ever.
Some background: Multi-camera shows are usually produced on a five-day schedule. Three days to rehearse, one to assign camera positions, and one to shoot. They’re either on a Monday through Friday schedule, or Wednesday to Tuesday. There are advantages and disadvantages to each, which I have discussed elsewhere in this blog but don’t want to bother looking up right now. For LATELINE, we began rehearsing on Wednesday and shot the show the following Tuesday night. This meant that we’d finish a show one night and be right back at it with a new script the next day.
In LA, when a show wraps on Tuesday night, crews come in in the middle of the night, strike the swing sets and set up the new swing sets for the next episode. We arrive on stage Wednesday morning and voila! It’s all done. Elves do it while we sleep for all I know.
In NY the crew comes in to strike the old sets and slide in the new on Wednesday afternoon. I said to the line producer, “Is this a union thing? You can’t have crews in the middle of the night? And the producer said pointedly, “Oh you can get crews. You just don’t want ‘em.” I took his word for it.
So I would have a table reading on Wednesday (where the cast would all just read the script aloud around a table), then I sent them home for the day. We began rehearsing on Thursday.
So I planned on just rehearsing on Wednesday and ignoring the construction crew. Yeah... right.
One other thing I should note: we filmed at the Kaufman-Astoria studios in Queens – a large building that took up a city block. But it was just surrounded by local businesses. Greek restaurants, Laundromats, furniture stores, etc.
And it was late November.
So we begin rehearsing at about 1:00. A half-hour later the crew arrives. They begin dismantling the sets. Saws and drills and hammers and banging. You couldn’t hear yourself think.
Then it was time to replace the sets. Now they open the huge stage door. All stages have them. But in Hollywood the stages open out to the lot. Here it opened to the street. So pedestrians would stroll by, be curious, and just wander onto the stage. We suddenly had an audience of twenty strangers.
And once the big door was open, there was nothing to shield us from the Nor’easter that blew through. The temperature plunged to 30 degrees to go along with the stiff wind. We all had to rehearse in parkas. (Crew guys still wore T-shirts. I don’t understand that.)
And in addition to the hammers and buzzsaws, we now had honking horns, sirens, boom boxes, guys yelling, "Ay, I'm walkin' heah!", and the other enchanting sounds of the city.
Needless to say, we did not get a lot done. That night I went out and got a few stiff drinks. I think Al looked up the qualifications for how you become a U.S. Senator.
Final thought: Of all the LATELINE episodes I directed, that one came out the best. I think the DVD is available. Run right out and get it.
I did not come to really appreciate Allison Janney until Mom. I've now gone back and watched just about everything she's done.
ReplyDeleteKen, this is the only sitcom I've ever attended in person! I still remember a line from the one my wife and I saw - it had to do with the East Indian character, who was known for being able to pleasure the fairer sex for hours on end (goes without saying that this plotline would never pass muster today!). But something happens that I can't remember now and at one point, he only "lasts" like an hour. He tells one of the other characters, "For me that's like a quickie!" (Paraphrased, as it's been like a quarter of a century since the taping!)
ReplyDeleteI also remember in between scenes, done techs came onstage and actually measured distances between characters with a measuring tape. And Al graciously reprised his SNL Stuart Smalley for us when there was a break. :-)
Allison’s performance in Primary Colors has me laughing hard every time. She is such a treasure.
ReplyDeletePam, St Louis.
At this point Allison may have been best known for her performance as Howard Stern's boss at DC101 in Private Parts.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone thinks that shooting in NYC is like shooting in Los Angeles THEY ARE WRONG. LA is there to serve the movie/TV biz. NY is not. In fact certain neighborhoods in NY hate having trucks, crews, and AD's telling them they can't walk on their own side of the street. And they are often loud and don't listen and walk right thru - they are so sick of movies/TV being shot on their block. And the busses and car horns and trucks rumbling by are like nowhere else.
ReplyDeleteI was especially thrilled when an LA Assistant told me how long it would take to get an errand done and return. She had never shot in NYC and had no idea how long it could take. She was not my favorite.
Ken,
ReplyDeleteLast night I watched the very funny ALMOST PERFECT episode "It's a Wrap." The one with the pie fight. I have a couple of questions about that.
Was there any resistance to the idea of doing a pie fight? Anybody who rolled their eyes and said (or thought), "A pie fight. How 'Three Stooges'."
How do you rehearse a pie fight? I mean, I know you have to rehearse to get the timing right so that it all looks natural (i.e., if person A throws a pie at person B and person B ducks, so that the pastry hits person C, if the timing's not right it doesn't work.) You don't rehearse wth actual pastries, do you?
Did the crew who had to come in after filming and clean up that mess on the set want to shoot you guys for dreaming up the idea?
No slight intended to the Three Stooges, incidentally. Those guys could stage a pie fight with the best of them. They might not be as epic as the one Laurel and Hardy did in one of their shorts, but they're very well done.
Oh, one more question. Who do you have to f*** to get ALMOST PERFECT on DVD? Hell, I'd settle for seeing it on TV somewhere. I mean, You'd think with all the channels and sub-channels and streaming outlets that are out there, that somebody would be able to find room for it. You can find crap like MY LIVING DOLL, but ALMOST PERFECT? Noooooo!
Great story, Ken. I would like to hear more details about directing. Maybe you could tell some war stories in your podcast.
ReplyDeleteOnce worked a trade show in NYC. Because of the unions, you couldn't so much as anything while setting up the booth. So our leader said "Don't worry, I slipped them a 50 to get to us sooner. I'm sure everybody was doing that and we got our wires ran whenever.
I am giddy with joy at what has got to be the most unexpected casting announcement ever. David Lynch has joined the cast of Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans.
ReplyDeleteI've sometimes wondered if Spielberg has ever watched a Lynch film, since they're such radically different filmmakers. I guess this means Spielberg is an admirer of Lynch. Yay.
And that's the episode of Lateline that I remember.
ReplyDeleteI think I've walked past Kaufman-Astoria studios once or twice. Never got a peek at anything. It's right next door to the Museum of the Moving Image, which has had some great exhibits over the years, and a permanent Jim Henson exhibit. I also saw Back to the Future on the big screen there (I was a bit too young to see it during its initial run in theaters, and this was the 30th anniversary, or something like that). And they have an exhibit on how to produce/direct a live baseball game (maybe that's your next challenge in sportscasting).
ReplyDelete