We had both of them and that’s what we went out with. We shopped it. We had an agent set up two days of pitching and we went to all the networks. We didn’t go to places like CBS or ABC where we knew it wouldn’t quite work.
We went to FOX. We went to FX, Comedy Central, HBO, Showtime. VH-1 was doing original content then, MTV. Everybody liked it except for FOX. FOX just sat there stone-faced and I think they were just run by morons at the time. They were looking for this exact kind of show, like, they told me, “This is the kind of show we’re looking for,” and then they just didn’t get it at all. They did not get it.
Most of the places said, “Well, we have conditions. We want to buy it, but we have some conditions.” We were like, “Well, what are the conditions?” They’re like, “Well, we want to bring in a director and we want to bring in a show runner.” Our feeling was, “Well, do you like it?”
“Yeah.”
“Well then, why do you want to change it?”
“Well, it’s not that we want to change it. We want to make sure that you can continue it.”
I’m like, “But we just did two of them. If you liked it and we did two of them, why would you not believe that we could do a third and a fourth?”
FX was the only one that said, “Do whatever you want.”
We had our own conditions, which was we’re not going to do it unless I’m the show runner and Charlie and Glenn are executive producers, and we write the show and we act in the show. Then FX commissioned a pilot. I didn’t quit my job at the restaurant, so I was waiting tables while I was shooting. I had just seen so many things fall apart.
I only quit after we got picked up for the first season. Once we got picked up for the first season, I felt more comfortable then.
JIMMY FALLON—COMEDIAN, WRITER, ACTOR, PRODUCER, TALK SHOW HOST
I met Lorne Michaels on the Paramount lot and I waited in the waiting room for three hours. He has an office on the Paramount lot, which is a really cool studio lot.
Three hours later I walk in, everything’s white. I walk into a totally white room, so clearly I died or something happened. He’s got his feet up on the desk, he was chilling. He says, “Jimmy, do you ever wear wigs?”
At the time my hair was kind of spiked up and I say, “Oh, I just do this myself to my hair.”
He says, “No, I’m saying for different characters because we want you for the show.”
The rest was like slow motion. I just said, “Sure, do you want me to wear wigs? I’m going to work so hard for you, I’m telling you I won’t let you down. I will be a good cast choice. I’m going to really work hard.”
I left there and I had just planned my trip back to New York, back to my family, back to my friends, I mean, it was crazy.
Marc
It was just one question, do you ever wear wigs?
Jimmy
Yeah.
LORNE MICHAELS—PRODUCER, WRITER, COMEDIAN, ACTOR
It isn’t that you’re looking for something. It’s that you recognize it when you see it. When I saw Bottle Rocket, I wanted to meet the guys who did it. You meet people you think have something. You don’t know, but they’re moving around in your head. Sometimes there’s a spot. Sometimes there’s not.
KRISTEN WIIG—ACTOR, WRITER, PRODUCER
I was at The Groundlings and I was in the main company. I think I was only in there for a couple months. As far as the SNL people coming to see the show, yes. You knew that would happen. My manager made my demo reel and sent it to the show and I had my audition. They flew me out to New York.
I auditioned twice. Target Lady was a character I did. That’s a Groundlings one. Aunt Linda, she was a movie critic on Update, she was one of the characters. A few impressions. I just tried to show my range of voice I think, a lot, so I tried to do different accents.
They flew me to New York. Never been more nervous in my life, because I don’t do stand-up. That talking to the audience thing is something I didn’t do a lot. If I was in character, I could monologue for twenty minutes.
I heard that you get five minutes. No more than five. I thought at five minutes they’re going to turn all the lights off and everyone is going to go home, so I bought a stopwatch when I got to New York. I practiced in my room and I tried to get it exactly five minutes.
Lorne was at the audition. Paula Pell, Marci Klein … I don’t know if I can remember who else was there. And you can’t really see because it’s dark and … It’s SNL. You’re walking into a huge church and giving a sermon to people that you’ve never seen before and have their arms crossed.
I did my audition and then I never heard anything. They did tell me I was going to meet with Lorne. And I knew Will Forte and I knew Jason Sudeikis, and they were like, “Oh my God, you’re going to meet with Lorne. That’s it. He meets you and then that’s the meeting when he tells you you’re hired. This is amazing!”
In my mind I was like, “Okay, well, great. I guess I have a job.”
I go to meet with him and I’m sitting in his office and I’m nervous and he’s talking about Chevy Chase, something, and then he’s like, “You know, we don’t have room for you right now.”
I said, “Okay.”
And he proceeded to talk and I didn’t really hear anything and I didn’t want to cry and I was like, “Okay.”
That was it.
I did cry afterward. I cried, but it also felt like, “Okay, if that wasn’t meant to be my path, great.” And then, a month and a half later, I got a call from them again saying, “We want you to audition again.”
In my mind I’m thinking, “Oh my God, I did everything I had in that five minutes. I don’t have anything else.”
They said, “You can repeat some stuff, but new stuff would be great.”
“Sure. Okay.”
So I went out and then I auditioned again and I felt great about it, and some of the people came to my room after and said it was great and funny, and I was like, “Okay,” and then the season started. I went back to LA and the season started and I was like, “Well. I’m not on the show, because I’m watching it, so I guess I didn’t get it.”
Then, after the third show, they called me, and they said, “You’re hired. We want you to come out for the fourth show, watch it, and then you start that next week.”
I had to pack up my life, and I was like, “Okay, I’m on SNL.” I’ve never been more nervous, intimidated, scared. I’ve never lived in New York City before. I’ve been there for the audition, and I was just like, “Where do I live? How do I get around?” It just kind of started.
JASON SUDEIKIS—ACTOR, WRITER
I got asked if I wanted to be hired as a writer on SNL.