Well, it's that time of year again, when my annual rejection from the NBC Late Night Writers Workshop program arrives. Each year, NBC opens its doors to young aspiring comedy writers and me. It's weird, doing this so long makes you completely aware that the odds are against you, always. Yet, when the email came announcing they didn't select my application, it hurt. Again. I know I'm good. I'm just not good enough.
The fact that it's NBC doing this is what makes it so attractive to me. I made it the topic of one of my essays in my 2014 packet:
The fact that it's NBC doing this is what makes it so attractive to me. I made it the topic of one of my essays in my 2014 packet:
Why do you want to write for Late Night Television?
I want to write for Late Night Television because I'm a child of TV. My greatest excitement came from the start of the new TV season each fall (which blunted the whole "back to school" thing). I can still recall when my biggest treat was being able to stay up late to watch Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. NBC was my comedy school. Between Laugh-In, Tonight, Bob Hope specials and, finally, SNL, I felt like was getting glimpses behind the curtain to the world of comedy show business. It was in college I finally thought about writing as a real thing.
However, for some time, I was seduced by the glamour of writing spec scripts and putting them in bottles and sending them to Hollywood over the years. Thusly I devoted my time and energy to screenplays (not to mention procreating). But the joy of sketch comedy never left me. Whether it was for the college revue, some third-world black-box theater, public access TV or the cutting edge world of radio, I continued writing sketch material and managed to impress people with my skill (Although not anyone with actual pull).
Now with the TV landscape changing yet again and new opportunities arising, it's time to throw my hat into the ring, and not just because I like playing hat ring. Sketch comedy is the best way to entertain people and goof on pop culture. There's no bigger rush than getting that perfect idea to comment on the latest news cycle bugaboo and hanging the powers-that-be on their own petard (Is it still okay to say petard?). So maybe all of this is just my mid-life crisis talking, but as mid-life crisis go, it’s pretty benign. Would you fault me for that?
Growing up, NBC was a neighborhood to visit. So many of their various comedy and variety shows, as mentioned above, devoted time to talking about the NBC commissary, the parking lot, other NBC shows and stars and beautiful downtown Burbank. NBC was meta before meta was a thing. Bits happened backstage, in the audience, behind the scenes.
Saturday Night Live carried on this tradition for a long while; cold openings in the cast locker room, opening bits in the hallways (hi, Lama!, hi, Mr. Lincoln!), invitations to the Beatles to appear, (setting up one of the longest running gags on TV).
Then, for a while, it seemed to slide away. Granted, not much was happening around NBC that made you think things were going on behind the scenes. It was taken over by bigger and more nameless corporations. "30 Rock" tried to keep the concept going, but it always felt like you were peeking behind the scenes of an alternate universe.
Then Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett brought it back. It started with videos about back stage relationships and kept going from there. His latest got cut for time, but it's about as meta a glimpse of backstage as you could get. It's just odd, though, how the backstage of SNL comes back to life in their video shorts.
Saturday Night Live carried on this tradition for a long while; cold openings in the cast locker room, opening bits in the hallways (hi, Lama!, hi, Mr. Lincoln!), invitations to the Beatles to appear, (setting up one of the longest running gags on TV).
Then, for a while, it seemed to slide away. Granted, not much was happening around NBC that made you think things were going on behind the scenes. It was taken over by bigger and more nameless corporations. "30 Rock" tried to keep the concept going, but it always felt like you were peeking behind the scenes of an alternate universe.
Then Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett brought it back. It started with videos about back stage relationships and kept going from there. His latest got cut for time, but it's about as meta a glimpse of backstage as you could get. It's just odd, though, how the backstage of SNL comes back to life in their video shorts.
