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brundlefly wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 5:20 am Going for character over comedy

Larry David wrote:I remember writing a couple of sketches, some news pieces. I was fortified for the first show. And at seven o’clock at night, maybe six o’clock I don’t know, it’s a Tuesday night and the next day is the first read-through.

And I press the button for the elevator, and the elevator doors open, and the executive producer — it was Dick Ebersol — and he said, ‘Where are you going?’ I said, ‘I’m going home, you know.’ He said, ‘You’re going home, really?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I wrote, I got two or three sketches in. Got two news pieces.’ And he said, ‘Well we don’t uh, we stay up all night on the night before the read-through.’ And I go, ‘Why? Why would you stay up all night?’

And he said, ‘Well, that’s how we do it.’ How you do what? I don’t understand. They’ve been there a month you know, six weeks. What is gonna be accomplished for the next what, eight, nine, ten hours to stay up all night? For what? And I said, ‘Well, you know, I did the work. So I’ll see you tomorrow.’ I left. Never got a sketch on.

Adam Samberg wrote:Physically, it was taking a heavy toll on me and I got to a place where I was like I hadn’t slept in seven years basically. We were writing stuff for the live show Tuesday night all night, the table read Wednesday, then being told now come up with a digital short so write all Thursday, all Thursday night, don’t sleep, get up, shoot Friday, edit all night Friday night and into Saturday, so it’s basically like four days a week you’re not sleeping, for seven years. So I just kinda fell apart physically...

[Samberg consulted with his former co-stars like Amy Poehler when the time came to decide whether or not he would continue with the show. Part of the reason he was so nervous to leave was because not being on the show meant he’d no longer have such an instantaneous creative outlet.]

I was like, once I go, when I have an idea, I can’t just do it. The craziest thing about working there is once you get going, if you’re just in the shower and you have an idea that shit can be on television in three days, which is the most like intoxicating feeling.

Jean Doumanian hired Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Gail Matthius, Joe Piscopo, Ann Risley, and Charles Rocket as repertory players, and Yvonne Hudson, Matthew Laurance, and Patrick Weathers as featured players. In doing so, she passed on then-unknown performers like Jim Carrey, Mercedes Ruehl, Sandra Bernhard, John Goodman and Paul Reubens. Andy Kaufman offered to contribute a weekly segment but was turned down.

Gregory wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2026 3:11 pm I've been watching episodes from Season 5 that I'd never seen before, and it's as inconsistent as anyone would expect. The Burt Reynolds episode was particularly bad. He didn't even try at all with his Marlon Brando impression in the last skit.
Everyone in the cast left the show at the end of this season.
I was reading about Season 6 on Wikipedia, and good god, what could have been:

Jean Doumanian hired Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Gail Matthius, Joe Piscopo, Ann Risley, and Charles Rocket as repertory players, and Yvonne Hudson, Matthew Laurance, and Patrick Weathers as featured players. In doing so, she passed on then-unknown performers like Jim Carrey, Mercedes Ruehl, Sandra Bernhard, John Goodman and Paul Reubens. Andy Kaufman offered to contribute a weekly segment but was turned down.