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00:00Hello and welcome to Deadline's Contenders TV documentary unscripted and variety.
00:06I am Peter White, Executive Editor of Television at Deadline.
00:09Live from LA, it's Saturday afternoon and we've got one hell of a cold open for you.
00:15That's right, I'm talking about Saturday Night Live, that little upstart show that celebrated a small birthday earlier this year.
00:21There's not much to say about that NBC show that you already don't know or haven't watched on the 74 documentaries that are currently airing on Peacock about it.
00:31But we've got cast members Mikey Day, Ego Woden and Tom Broker, who is producer and costume designer, to tell us all about it.
00:40Before we head to Studio A-H, let's watch a clip.
00:43Can you imagine, Colin, a man whose wife makes more money than he?
00:49Can you imagine, oh, the shame he would feel?
00:59Imagine, Colin, if I was sitting here on television behind this desk, staring at that camera,
01:10the world staring back at me, knowing that my wife's income dwarfs my own?
01:19I would die!
01:22Oh!
01:23Oh!
01:24Oh, I would die!
01:27What a living nightmare!
01:30What a nightmare!
01:32Oh!
01:33Oh!
01:34Oh, I'm sorry!
01:39Oh, now tell me, what does your wife do?
01:41Lord Gaga, ladies and gentlemen.
01:43Oh, can you imagine?
01:45Now listen here.
01:48Sex is a little different after 50.
01:52You're not 50!
01:54I'll tell you what, though.
01:55No matter what age, Miss Eggie go over easy, okay?
01:59And Cory Booker out here with his filibuster.
02:06Shoo!
02:07I had my filibusters.
02:10Because these men ain't what?
02:12F***ing.
02:16We finna get fined for that.
02:19It ain't worth the damn, my sucker.
02:23Y'all gonna have to pay for that.
02:25Lord will be mad at y'all.
02:27In conclusion, thank you, White House, for having a b***h.
02:32That's your ending?
02:34Oh, my God!
02:36Yes, Colin!
02:38Because Miss Eggie don't what?
02:40Play!
02:41Yeah, there it is!
02:43Eggie, load him, everyone!
02:44What the hell?
02:47Two perfect clips for who we're talking to today.
02:50Eggie, let's start with you on the back of that.
02:53How surprised were you at the audience answer there?
02:56I'm incredibly surprised because I was going to say we in no way, shape, or form expected the audience to say anything.
03:04But then I understand the setup suggests that we were expecting them to say something.
03:09However, the audience doesn't actually engage in the show beyond just clapping, laughing, wooing.
03:19And so that bit was just supposed to be that I'm acting like a comedian who's well-known and established and has catchphrases that everyone knows, but no one does know.
03:29So then when they yelled shit, I was like, I was clutching my pearls.
03:35I was like, oh, my gosh.
03:37But it was so good.
03:38In unison, they all went for it.
03:40Yeah.
03:41I was like, whoa.
03:43I haven't seen that happen before, and I certainly was not expecting that.
03:48And I definitely was not setting them up to cuss.
03:50And I've seen people say, what did you think they were going to say?
03:53And it was like, nothing.
03:54They don't – we don't expect them to actually do call and response with me.
03:58And I thought they would just be watching this woman do a bad performance.
04:04It turns out they had other ideas.
04:07They go – you had a good line there.
04:09Lauren going to be mad at y'all.
04:10What was Lauren's reaction?
04:12What was that?
04:13What did he say afterwards?
04:14I think – first of all, I think I had Lauren on the top of my mind because right before I went to do the update piece,
04:20which I'd never seen this before, he was standing on the floor watching update with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Adam Scott.
04:27And I remember right before I went on, I was like, what's he doing out here watching on the floor for update?
04:32I haven't seen that.
04:33And so he was top of mind in a sense.
04:36But he didn't – afterward, he didn't say anything.
04:40I asked him a few days later if we got fined, and he said, I don't think so.
04:46So can't confirm, can't deny.
04:48Also, if they haven't fined us, I don't want to encourage them to do so.
04:52So we'll just leave that there.
04:54Bowen Yang called it his favorite televised moment ever.
04:57Emmy for Eggy now.
04:59I guess that's why we're here.
05:01I second that.
05:02Emmy for Eggy.
05:05Emmy for Eggy.
05:07Thank you, Mikey.
05:09Thank you, Bowen.
05:09No, that was – it was an incredible moment.
05:13It was amazing even before the entire audience yelled shit.
05:21It was so fun.
05:23I was having fun.
05:24I'll say that.
05:26Eggo, you gave Tom a shout out the next day.
05:29Am I right in thinking, Tom, that you had to reconstruct an item of clothing that no longer was on sale?
05:36Yeah, so what happened was I found the jacket at a store a couple blocks from here, and I wanted to make sure – it was only the jacket was not the under part.
05:52But they had fabric there that I could make an under part for if I needed to.
05:57So when we landed on the jacket – and we had a couple other choices, but when we landed on the jacket, she put it on, and we knew that it kind of had to be that jacket.
06:06And then what happened was when I went Saturday morning to the store, the stores open Sunday through Friday, and their only day off is Saturday.
06:21I, unfortunately, didn't take stock of that when I bought the jacket.
06:30So to my surprise, because that was my first place to start Saturday morning to go and get the fabric, and it didn't exist.
06:43Like, the store was closed.
06:44So I was like, oh, to echo the audience, shit.
06:49I was like, okay, now what?
06:51So, ultimately, I had one of my assistants go out and swatch possible different fabric, had a long conversation with Eggo about it.
07:00And so we ended up coming up with this different – similar plan, but different plan, but kind of like –
07:05Well, you made it work.
07:06You made it work.
07:07Eggo made it work.
07:10Like, we facilitated, but Eggo actually had to go out and actually really make it work.
07:16But I have to – I would – I have to say about the costume department and Tom, they really do just make magic happen.
07:24And he – I like to say under promises, over delivers.
07:28So he's often like, that's not doable.
07:30And then he somehow exceeds all expectations.
07:33But you set the bar lower, and then you knock it out of the park.
07:37But they hand-painted – because the fabric was white, the one that they ultimately got to make the under parts, so the top and the pants.
07:47And that – and the costume department hand-painted the little stitching on that so that it would look more off-white as the jacket was.
07:56And so I – there's a lot of crust there, and I almost panicked when he told me that the fabric for the jacket wasn't available.
08:03But I was like, not good use of my energy, and we always make something work.
08:07And they do.
08:08So, yeah.
08:09And the jacket –
08:10They're the MVPs, absolutely.
08:13And they do everything in, what, two days, sometimes a day?
08:18Well, I mean, to your thing, I mean, the thing about the White Lotus sketch you guys just did, like that, you literally had, what, 12 hours to – we had 12 hours to recreate all that sort of stuff.
08:29And, you know, I mean, they were even – I was talking to the production designer at the film shoot,
08:35and she was saying that they had the lampshade – the lampshades made for the hotel room in Philadelphia in 12 hours
08:44and had them shipped up to match the exact lampshades.
08:48I mean, that's the kind of detail that this show does, and they do it in 12 to 18 hours.
08:56Well, Mikey, we saw you in a costume in that Lord Gaga sketch, which was more fun,
09:01telling Lady Gaga that you were going to play her land baron husband or watching Colin's face when you did that.
09:09Wow.
09:10It's a close call there.
09:13No, luckily, Gaga was very cool with it.
09:16I was like, just so you know, just want to make sure you're cool with this.
09:20I'm going to write something where I play your husband, Lord Gaga, and she was very cool,
09:25and it was an honor to play her husband.
09:27But Colin played it wonderfully.
09:32He is always so down to be made fun of, and he gets made fun of a lot on Updates.
09:40Sarah eviscerates him.
09:42That was pretty tame compared to some of the stuff, but he's always game for it, which is fantastic.
09:49He's always a good sport because he gets a lot of stuff thrown at him on Updates.
09:56There he goes.
09:56That bit is incredible, and hearing it at table read, and then that big just – that landing where you guys landed with the use of the word dwarfs.
10:10My wife's –
10:11No, dwarfs my own.
10:14What a perfect – I feel like I thought about that for weeks after, and just thinking your wife's income dwarfs.
10:22Wharf's my own.
10:25Yeah, very that guy, that kind of language.
10:29I mentioned a little bit of a birthday for SNL.
10:33Obviously, SNL 50 happened in February.
10:37Going into this season, you guys have both been on this show for some time.
10:41Did it feel any different going into this season than previous seasons?
10:45Was there anything about the 50th that sort of impacted the way that you approached it?
10:51I mean, definitely, right?
10:53I mean, even the logo is different.
10:56So, there's a constant reminder, and there were new opening titles.
11:02So, from the beginning, it was kind of this thing kind of hanging over the show.
11:09Like, oh, we have this big show in February.
11:13I don't know.
11:13Ego, did you feel like it was an omnipresent kind of thing?
11:17Yeah, I feel like, to Mikey's point, the new title credits that we all shot, which made it feel like such a moment.
11:23And then, honestly, that very first table read we had at the beginning of the season, where Maya showed up, and Sandra was there, and Jim Gaffigan was there.
11:34I was like, this is crazy.
11:35I don't know that we've had a table read that looks and feels this way.
11:39And it was just these incredible heavy hitters.
11:41I believe Maya was there, but it was like all these people showed up for that table read on that first time.
11:45Yeah, Dana Carvey.
11:47Yeah, and I was like, oh, my gosh.
11:50This is a moment, and this is going to be quite a season.
11:53And so, all throughout the season, I feel like we anticipated what the 50th was going to be.
11:57We didn't know.
11:58And so, that was sort of like, I've called it like SNL's wedding, but I do think birthday is obviously more fitting.
12:05But I'm like, it felt like we were having a wedding, and it was like we're building up to this wedding.
12:08And so, that was in the – we had these episodes leading up to the actual 50th celebration, but all the while just knowing, okay, we're working toward this thing, and that is going to be such a huge moment.
12:18And you could just feel it in the air, I would say, throughout this.
12:21It was an incredible moment.
12:22Have you guys been able to process it?
12:24You know, obviously, at the time, I imagine it's a bit strange, but, you know, a few months.
12:30It is wild.
12:31I'm sure Tom – Tom's a producer as well, so I'm sure – what did you – attend 8,000 meetings, Tom?
12:38From the summer on?
12:40Yeah, basically, from the summer on, it was very – and because, I mean, to Mikey's thought, too, is like, you know, there was all new merchandise.
12:50There was how the collaborations with all the different places.
12:55There was what was going to happen with all the archival costumes.
12:58What was happening with – you know, there was a lot of these smaller activations throughout that started at the beginning of the season, which all culminated in that week.
13:08And it is that thing of, like, there were times when I had to remind myself and even tell other people, I was like, look, take the moment in.
13:17It's never going to happen again.
13:18This is something that's never going to happen in the history of – I don't know, to be dramatic about it.
13:23But I do think that this is something that will never happen again in the history of television and that will ever happen – certainly will never happen again on SNL.
13:32To the extent with which, you know, the 60th or whatever that would be, you know, what even that would look like.
13:44But, you know, this was a huge basically six-hour live two-day concert and actually even longer than that.
13:54It was probably seven hours total.
13:57That's a terrifying thought.
14:00But before we get to – you've still got a couple more episodes for season 50, and then you're looking forward.
14:06There you go, Mikey.
14:07Will we see you in season 51?
14:10We like to keep –
14:11Who knows what the future will bring.
14:12We're focused around here.
14:13That's part of the allure of SNL is that we don't know what's going to happen week to week, let alone in the fall.
14:19So who knows?
14:22We're focused on Quinta Brunson week.
14:25That is very diplomatic.
14:27I mean, I think that – I like to think of it as more that, yes, it's always forward motion.
14:34It's always forward going.
14:35We never look back.
14:37We're always pressing to see what the next thing is.
14:40And that's how the show is done, and that's how the show is created.
14:44And, you know, week to week, it's the same, but it's different.
14:47And the energy of the host really affects the, you know, the show.
14:53And, you know, I think everyone's here because they love doing what they do.
14:59They deliver, and then they move on to the next week.
15:02And that's the beauty of it.
15:03Well, look, we are looking back a bit.
15:05You've been great this season, and we are looking forward to the next few episodes of season 50.
15:09So Mikey, Ego, Tom, thank you for joining us today.
15:14Thank you, Peter.
15:17Thanks a lot, guys.
15:19Thanks, Ego.
15:20Thanks, Tom.
15:21Thanks, Ms. Egy.
15:22Thank you, Mr. Gaga.
15:23Thank you, Mr. Gaga.
15:25Welcome.
15:26Welcome.
15:26No.