We will just leave it this way. I do not consider myself a journalist. Nobody else would consider myself a journalist. I began to take on the life of being an interviewer even though i have a day drive of running job of running a private equity firm. What is it that makes somebody tick . David did you think youre going to change the history of comedy when youre starting that show in 1975 . I dont think i thought of it in those terms, but my thought , thef we got on the air people who were doing the show would stay home to watch. We pretty much come from the audience. I was the one who had the most experience in television, but most people it was the first time they had been on television. David most experienced, but you are only 30 years old . Lorne yeah. David the others were in their 20s . Lorne i think dan aykroyd was 22. [laughter] chevy was a little older. David why would a 30yearold be pig . Thinkas it that made you you could do this . Lorne latenight does not average in primetime ratings. It was no ones responsibility and carson was on five nights a week. That was doing really well. Had done television in los angeles both in the late 1960s and when i moved in 1972. The more ambitious things i they said would not work in primetime. In those days you needed a 40 share of the audience just down the air. David 40 of the people watching you . Lorne yeah. They said it would not work or would just work on the coast. I was from canada and i kind of knew what was in between the coasts. I thought there were plenty of people like me out there and it was a different generation. We were in beginning of the baby boom. I worked on shows as a writer with lily tomlin, Richard Pryor which were only specials. Enough that i knew how you do it. It was a question of putting together a show that was, on models. El, new and old it took a variety of shows and we knew we would be different because we would be doing it. David you grew up in toronto . Lorne toronto. David did you say i want to be a lawyer or doctor like all jewish boys . Lorne no. My grandparents owned a movie age,er and from an early if asked in the third grade what i wanted to do, i would have said lawyer. I think that is what you said or something, but i would have wanted to be in movies. David did you say i want to make my career in canada or the victim is the United States . Time, i thought, at the 1976 was the bicentennial and there was a new spirit in the country. I thought i would be perfectly happy to be here the rest of my then i got an opportunity to do a show in california. Partner andg with a , we write, we perform, we wrote stand up for woody allens and people like that. David you picked a number of famous people who went on to fame and fortune. When the show is over are you convinced you have a hit forever or are you not sure . Lorne i have said this often, but i had all the ingredients i just did not have the recipe. Between the first show and second show we changed. Was simon and thatwe found the show resembles the show today. The original ideadavid was to have a cast of characters and a host. Lorne a different host every week. David who is your host the first time . Lorne george carlin. David was he funny and you knew it would be a hit . Lorne i knew he had monologues and i thought he was funny. The biggest controversy in that first show was the network wanted him to wear a suit, tie. T, and he wanted to wear a tshirt. I was, let him wear what he wants, but the compromise which took a lot of time he wore a suit with a tshirt. David did you have to have a sensor for words that might not be appropriate . Lorne there were a lot of discussions about what we could and could not do. 11 30 andould do at what you could do at midnight. Were, you know, all of those phrases like cutting edge in pushing the envelope. I think we were trying to reflect life as we were living it and also, 1975 is the end of the vietnam war. Resigned, new york city was bankrupt, it was a window that opened where it was not business as usual. Early from 1975 into the 80s, how is hoover change . Do people left of the same kind of things . Are there things you can make fun of now that you could not or vice versa . Lorne theres almost nothing we did in the 1970s that i could do now. John belushi would not be able to play a japanese. Hearing would have been making fun hard of hearing would have been making fun of the handicapped. Movie, arthur and second nobody wanted to left drunks. David is there anything that makes you laugh so uproariously . Lorne there is always something i am proud of and also, comedy is a disruptive thing. People do not plan to laugh. They are taught went to applaud, but they are not taught went to laugh. To laugh. Let us take people through how the shows produced. On a monday do you recover from the previous week and actually go to work . Lorne everybody has trouble monday. I have had a meeting at 5 00 on mondays which is all of the writing staff, all the cast, the host, the music department, the Film Department and we all gather in my office. They gather, i am behind the desk, and i go around and ask everybody what their idea is. David in your 45 years of doing this have you ever had a private equity person as a guest host . Lorne not yet. [laughter] david maybe there is an opportunity at some point. Tuesday and wednesday you are writing, you had dinner, thursday and friday dress rehearsal . Lorne we choose the show on wednesday. Foread 4045 pieces looking 13 or 14. Once that is chosen the designers begin designing the sets. Then those plans go to the shop late that night and they start. The film unit goes off to figure out how they are going to shoot the pieces we are shooting. Assessing who has not as much to do as we like. We have left the opening of the show and one or two spots open for anything that happens between. David have you ever gotten worried you picked the host that is not up to the task . Lorne yes. David how do you coach them . Lorne you can get almost anybody through it. It is a hybrid because you are on stage. There are people who are good at that, but then there are cameras in the script is constantly changing. Focus and level of there is a point in which the host really just gives up and goes, you just have to trust it. It will all come together. David in anticipation of my getting a chance to do this you invited me to come to a show recently. I was surprised how small the studio actually is. Lorne yeah. David this is where they conducted the embassy orchestra. Nbc orchestra. Lorne it was built on springs. Rockefeller center had been filled so they put this in between floors so the subway noise would not affect it. A lot of that was changed television came in because they thought sound will not matter. It did. David i noticed you were Walking Around the set and i noticed that you are staring at what is going on. You dont smile that much when youre doing this. [laughter] do you ever think, this is not going as well as i thought . Do tell them to fix it in the middle of a show . Lorne no. There is some of that, but mostly it is about time. The casts are good enough that if you are running a minute or two long, they understand they can just pick it up and go faster. Or we take a page out of something. David are there cases where you think you have a funny sketch or script and all of a sudden people are not laughing . Or reverse and it becomes very funny . Lorne yes. You choose the pieces on wednesday, rehearse them thursday or friday, and saturday afternoon you do a dress rehearsal. That is the first time 300 or 400 people come in and see it. If theyu thought disagree, they are right. We adjust from that. Things that you thought were surefire dont play and a lot of it is placement, where they were in the show. If it is a harder piece, if you play early, it wont work. It is where you play things running order and also topicality. David you do not get people call you from the network that owns you saying you are being too tough on the political figure . They leave you alone. Lorne they leave us alone. The comcast people have been brilliant because one, i dont think they want to be doing the show themselves. We have had unwavering support. David when youre not doing saturday night live you are doing other shoes. You are producing late night . Lorne i did the tonight show and seth mars, but in all of those the third rock is a perfect example. Tina fey was the brilliant head writer on snl and then cast member and update. We did mean girls together as a movie. She wanted to do a Television Series that ended up being 30 rock. Be all over itis at the beginning to make sure it is both on track and the best version of what it can be and going, or going well enough, i will tiptoe out of the room and go back to my other job which is snl. Most of my focus is snl because it is compelling and you do not know what is happening minute to minute. The tonight show with jimmy fallon and seth mars are people i have worked with. We have a shorthand and i have faith in them. You can kind of see that process. David sometimes humor is so funny on your show he just cannot stop laughing. Lorne they do eventually. David is there anything that makes you laugh so uproariously you cannot control your own . Lorne there is always something im really proud of and also, comedy is a disruptive thing. People do not plan to laugh. They are taught one to applaud, but they are not talking to laugh. There is something that is always surprising and when you see the pairing of really good writing and brilliant performance, when they are locked in, it is thrilling. David when people are made famous by your show and go on to great fame and fortune, they ever call you up and say thank you for everything you did . I could not have done it without you or do they forget to do that . Lorne i think there are very strong peelings on both sides. Anniversarythe 40th , all of of years ago the people were invited and those who had hosted, and when people looked around the room and saw all the different generations of people who had done it, they realized what we had done was important. Recently, a couple of weeks ago, adam sandler was hosting the show and with a new song by chris farley. I did a lot of work with chris farley and adam and he were close. What happened was he was doing this tribute and he looked around the studio and crew were the same crew. The people who designed with the same and you saw people tearing up and you realize, it is just an important thing. Stage, in that room, where everybody has been working forever it just had real power. David are there things you would like to do with the show you have not done yet . Lorne i think the show continues to morph. Since the last election it has been much more political because the audience can follow it. There were times in the mid 1990s if you asked one of the cast members who the Senate Majority leader is, they would not know. Not know. Lapel you are wearing a pin which is the order of canada. Lorne yes. David that is the highest honor you can get is a canadian citizen . Lorne you could be elected prime minister. [laughter] david i think people would rather have that. Lorne exactly. David you are a canadian and american citizen. Lorne yes. David but you have received the highest civilian honor our country can give which is the president ial medal of freedom. What was that like . Lorne thrilling. My family was there. Andas thrilling to be there when i got the call telling me that i was to receive it, i was in the middle of working out, then i took it in and went, oh. Said weled me and appreciate you not talking about it. There is a month i knew i was getting it before it was announced and i took it very seriously about not talking to people about it. David when you are as prominent as you are and doing it as long as you have can young people say this is funny and you say, no, and they argue with you . Lorne it is 3 00 in the morning and you see two writers in the 1970s itn the wouldve been seamless, now they stop as i get closer. [laughter] and imsuggest an idea thinking, well, we have done that eight or 10 times and ive written it three times, it never worked. But if you ever said it will not work, they think he does not get it which is infuriating. But they have to be able to write it. Hope springs eternal that maybe this time it will work. There is no idea that somebody brilliant is not able to figure out and pull off. We are always hopeful on that front. David today as you look at the next season are there things you would like to do with the show you have not done yet . Lorne i think the show just continues to morph. Since the last election it is been more political because the audience can follow it. In theere times mid1990s where if you asked one of the cast members who the Senate Majority leader was, they would not know. Politics becomes post watergate politics is very important in the baby boom generation remained important. In good times it sort of receipts. We are always doing what is topical. It might be politics, right now it is. David if somebody said i want to be like lorne michaels, what are the qualities this person should have . Funny, good quality to get along with people. What you think they should have . Lorne i would not advise anybody 100 , but i think leadership in this particular field is the ability to change your mind and quite often change your mind. Its a better idea comes in from a first year if a better idea comes in from a firstyear writer, we go with that. T is not status or hierarchy. People the audience is dying to see in the cast can end up in one piece because pieces got chosen and everybody has heard them play. Week wheret a somebody is not seriously unhappy. It is not fun walking past people just after you have cut their piece because we are running long and that is the piece that got cut. There is always next week. I think you just keep moving forward and you just trying create a culture where everybody feels they are heard. David final question i would like to ask you is this. Very often i ask people what does it take to be a leader . You are a leader in your area and the skill set to be a leader, in your observation of other people or your own life, what you think the qualities that really makes people an effective leader . Power, i you are in think Everybody Knows you are in power. You dont ever have to explain you are in power. I think that, when you are in a room with talented people, you do not make many suggestions. Almost everything you are going to suggest has been covered by someone. You morere about lead by example. It is what you stand for, what your taste is, and mostly it is about being right more often than you are not. Forwardshing people because, in my case, i think people know that all that matters to me is whether the show is good or not and i am going to be ruthless in the search for that. That is what i am seeing. If you have not caught up with it on some level why i am doing something, i will not have time to explain, but after a while you will see a pattern. Minutes to just figure it out and i go around the room and go, what you think, what you think . What about if we put this here . Everybody speaks. Ultimately the decision is technically mine, but you can feel consensus and there are people who just wanted to be good. David thank you for letting us talk to you and not making fun of private equity. That is a good thing right . Lorne yes. It is a good thing. David thank you very much. Lorne thank you for having me. There are times when our need to connect really matters. To keep customers and employees in the know. To keep business moving. Comcast business is prepared for times like these. Powered by the nations largest gigspeed network. To help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. Tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. And a team of experts here for you 24 7. Weve always believed in the power of working together. Thats why, when every connection counts. You can count on us. This program is a paid advertisement. Gold, one of the world poses