How Amy Poehler got the Weekend Update gig.

[MDH257 0]

A First for Fake News

By RANDY KENNEDY

 

Published: October 12, 2004

 

In a tiny NBC dressing room at Rockefeller Center, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were searching for a good way to describe how it felt to be fake-news pioneers. A week earlier, they had become the first two-woman anchor team in the history of "Weekend Update" on "Saturday Night Live," a show that its female comedians characterized for years as a kind of comedy frat house.

 

Trying to be serious about joining Ms. Fey at the anchor desk, Ms. Poehler finally gave up and said, "I feel like - like - a blushing bride."

 

"And I," said Ms. Fey, without missing a beat, "feel like an older, Greek oil magnate who's taken a young bride. She's the Jackie O. to my Ari Onassis. Secretly, she's disgusted by me but she has no choice."

 

That is obviously not the case. Ms. Poehler, on a recliner that barely fitted in the room, and Ms. Fey, curled up next to her on a sofa, doubled over in laughter at their joke. The two have been friends and have been performing together since the early 1990's, when they were the only two women in a Chicago improvisational comedy troupe called Inside Vladimir. ("The name came from a gay porn movie that we saw on the shelf at a mini-mart," Ms. Fey said.)

 

Ms. Fey, 34, the show's first female head writer, also wrote a part for Ms. Poehler, 33, in the recent hit movie "Mean Girls" and, said Lorne Michaels, the show's executive producer, had an active role in deciding to add Ms. Poehler as her partner on "Weekend Update." She filled the seat of Jimmy Fallon, who left the show this year to pursue a movie career.

 

Over the years, "Update" has consistently been one of the most popular segments on the show, and it helped pave the way for news spoofs like Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and the satiric newspaper "The Onion." The segment has also helped launch the careers of several comedians who have anchored it - many more of them men than women - including Chevy Chase and Dennis Miller.

 

Mr. Michaels said that while he knew the decision to create a two-woman team would probably be seen as admirable, he emphasized that he and Ms. Fey had only comic chemistry, not equal opportunity, in mind as they chose a new anchor.

 

"It has to work because it's funny," he said Friday as the week's host, Queen Latifah, and cast members rehearsed a parody of the vice-presidential debate just outside his office. "No one's going to say, 'I admire the choice, therefore I'm going to watch it.' "

 

Mr. Michaels chose Ms. Fey to be an "Update" anchor four years ago, when she was head writer, a decision that he described as "kind of risky at the time" but that has been well received by critics. He said this time that he first considered having her be the sole host of the segment, as Jane Curtin was briefly in the late 1970's. "There's no question that she has the stature and the talent," he said, referring to Ms. Fey. The cast members Horatio Sanz and Seth Meyers also tried out for the news slot, as did Jason Sudeikis, a writer who joined the show last season.

 

"It was a big decision," Mr. Michaels said, "because 'Update' has always been the thing that speaks for the show."

 

"Most people emerge - their characters and they themselves get known - by doing features on 'Update,' " he added, mentioning how Gilda Radner and John Belushi first came into their own doing comic news pieces.

 

In the end, Mr. Michaels said, Ms. Poehler was chosen partly because of her energy and her fearlessness, which is particularly helpful in the "Update" segment because the performers are essentially playing themselves. Mr. Michaels called it "eating a lens."

 

"It's just you and a lens - and a cue card somewhere," he said. "There's no set, there's no character."

 

But Ms. Poehler was also chosen because of her easy rapport with Ms. Fey, a kind of wicked, one-upping camaraderie that was on ample display in Ms. Poehler's dressing room, where the two were taking a break between rehearsals. Though Ms. Fey's dressing room was larger, they had chosen Ms. Poehler's because Ms. Fey's was fouled with what a publicist described as a "funky flower smell" from an old bouquet.

 

"That really means she's been smoking weed in there," Ms. Poehler stage-whispered, then quickly interjected: "I'm kidding. I'm just kidding."

 

In the interview, it was not easy to take the two seriously even as fake newscasters because both were wearing bad wigs for an upcoming skit. Ms. Poehler wore a huge cascade of blond curls and Ms. Fey had on a prim pageboy, accented by tiny grandmotherly wire-rimmed glasses that she kept on for some reason as she talked, making her look like a demented librarian.

 

The two women clearly love playing off each other and seem to be each other's best audience. As Ms. Fey talked about helping make the anchor choice, seeming slightly uncomfortable describing her part in picking a friend for a prominent role on the show, Ms. Poehler interjected with her own description of how the decision was made.

 

"Tina made us have a bake-off and we all made a pie and she tasted everybody's pie," she said, adding that hers was sour-cream apple crumble and that in addition to winning the anchor role, her baking skills had also landed her a "cash prize of $50."

 

The two women said it would probably take several shows for them to hit their stride as a comic news duo. Ms. Poehler said her first time behind the news desk, on the Oct. 2 show, was nerve rattling. "I'm still pretty intimidated by it," she said. "I'm just hanging onto my pencil, basically, trying to get through it."

 

But they said they would not be content with simply being the first "Weekend Update" female team. "We also want to be the first two ladies to do fake news on a rocket," Ms. Fey said.

 

"Yeah," Ms. Poehler said, sounding like a high school cheerleader. "We want a lot of firsts."

 

Ms. Fey: "And the first fake news while eating the most hot dogs of any people ever to eat hot dogs."

 

Ms. Poehler: "Yeah, we're not going to stop here."

 

As they ducked into a restroom together before rehearsals began again, Ms. Poehler added: "This is where we rehearse together. You know, rehearse? Wink. Wink."

[starvenger 0]

"Tina made us have a bake-off and we all made a pie and she tasted everybody's pie," she said,

You gotta love a woman who samples everyone's pie.

[bob_barron 0]

Thank you for posting that.

 

I think it's pretty shitty that Tina ignored the obvious choice and instead decided to pick one of her friends because she has 'energy.'

 

Amy does have a lot of energy but it can't overcome the fact that her jokes are weak as hell and her delivery is very off.

 

A female-female team is offputting.

 

Seth Meyers would've easily been the best choice for WU. While the comparisons to Jimmy would've been inevitable, they would've been dismissed as soon as Meyers came into his own and showed he had talent.

 

Jason Sudakis also would've been a good choice. The guy is hilarious and his laid back persona would've been remiscent of Norm's Weekend Update run.

 

Amy is ruining Weekend Update now and Tina is getting worse because of it. I don't want WU to be this fun cute little ride. That's not what WU is to me.

 

WU is telling hilarious jokes counteracted with commentaries. Tina and Amy seem to trying to outcute each other and are trying to have fun.

 

I'm glad they're having fun but I want them to be funny. So far they haven't achieved both.

[razazteca 0]

WU is telling hilarious jokes counteracted with commentaries. Tina and Amy seem to trying to outcute each other and are trying to have fun.

So you are saying they are the female Fallon & Sanz? Should I be afraid?

[Guest Banders Kennany]

Hey Bob I think you really have the wrong impression of Poheler. She's hot and sexy, and she adds a certain charm and wit to WU. She has proven her chops on Upright Citizen's Brigade. Seth Myers would be terrible. I don't know who Jason Serdakis is. Kenan Thompson would have also been another good choice. Let's just say he has a certain charm.

[bob_barron 0]

Hey Bob I think you really have the wrong impression of Poheler. She's hot and sexy

 

As I said in my first review- I like Amy a LOT. She does great impressions, can play white trash to perfection and is very good at improv even thoug her monologues are weak.

 

And yes- she is hot and sexy.

 

and she adds a certain charm and wit to WU. She has proven her chops on Upright Citizen's Brigade.

 

Yea- she's good at assscat. I just don't like her cuteness on WU. It works in skits and it worked when Tina counteracted with Jimmy but two cute girls smiling their way through a news update doesn't work for me. She was better this week and I hope she keeps getting better.

 

Seth Myers would be terrible. I don't know who Jason Serdakis is. Kenan Thompson would have also been another good choice. Let's just say he has a certain charm.

 

Disagree on Seth. I think he'd be perfect for WU. The guy always owns when he's at the desk and I think he's got the delivery for a newscaster and could have great bits with Tina. (Even though I'd be against it)

 

Sudeikis is a writer- he does stuff at assscat all the time. He's hilarious and I could see him working. He doesn't have the look which probably hurt him. I bet he has tremendous jokes and could probably have great interplay with Tina.

 

Kenan would be interesting. Don't know if he'd have the jokes but I could see him having good bits with Tina. I'm worried that they'd do too many black jokes with him.

[Guest Banders Kennany]

How do you know who Sudukes is if he's never on the show? Is he on the show sometimes? Also Bob what's an assscat? You mentioned it numberous times in your post but I have no idea what one is.

[bob_barron 0]

Sorry about that- I thought you knew what assscat was since you mentioned UCB.

 

My bad.

 

Assscat is an improvised show done Sunday night at the UCB Theatre. Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, Rob Riggle and Horatio Sanz from SNL are there a lot. Tina and Rachel are there once in a while.

 

I've seen Sudeikis perform there before so I've gotten a read on him from that. His jokes and bits would be funny but I don't think he'd work.

 

Sorry for the confusion.

[Dangerous A 0]

I figured Amy got the job suckin dick.

 

Who would've known it was because she had an "in" with the head writer. Even worse than suckin dick.

[Chazz 0]

Amy Is 33? She doesn't look that old.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Eh, WU is WU. It hasn't been the same since Dennis & Norm left, and it never will be, I suspect. That was it's peak.

 

The judge of quality for me, since I often sleep normal hours most of the year instead of these perverse hours (this post is being written at 4:03 in the morning) is the fake commercial. If the fake commercial is great, then I'm a happy camper. If the fake commercial sucks, I can go to bed early.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I thought the only requirement/qualification to get a job at SNL was to be unfunny.

 

Oh shut the fuck up bob, I can hear you typing your response already.

 

Eh, WU is WU. It hasn't been the same since Dennis & Norm left, and it never will be, I suspect. That was it's peak.

 

Mega Dittos, Jobber...

[smh810 0]

You gotta love the line about Tina tasting everyone's pie... Tina Fey +lesbo innuendo= good times IMO. Back to the topic at hand, Tina and Amy deserve half a season before they can be truly judged as a team. If they (specfically Amy) are still not clicking then its offically a bad move. Personally, I thought Amy was horrible in the Affleck show but was marginally better last week. She still has a long way to go though.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Another thing that pisses me off is the whole "OMG AN ALL FEMALE WEEKEND UPDATE TEAM." Shut the fuck up and just let them do their thing (not directed at you smh). This reminds me of the "Black Quarterback" craze a few years ago...

[bob_barron 0]

A little kid asked me today if it was okay to be on Weekend Update.

[bob_barron 0]

Eh, WU is WU. It hasn't been the same since Dennis & Norm left, and it never will be, I suspect. That was it's peak.

 

Colin got better after the Norm firing debacle. He just never could get the crowd on his side because of all the controversy surrounding his hiring. Tina and Jimmy rocked even though they started to slow their last year.

 

The judge of quality for me, since I often sleep normal hours most of the year instead of these perverse hours (this post is being written at 4:03 in the morning) is the fake commercial. If the fake commercial is great, then I'm a happy camper. If the fake commercial sucks, I can go to bed early.

 

What do you do if the commercial is a repeat?

 

I've given Amy two Updates and she still sucks. Badly. I hope she can turn it around, and if she does- I'll freely admit. But right now she's total ass.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

A little kid asked me today if it was okay to be on Weekend Update.

I never saw SNL as funny ever ... ever...

 

And I didn't mind Colin, but he was no Norm...

[Black Lushus 0]

Colin got better after the Norm firing debacle.

Can you ellaborate on this? What exactly happened with Norm?

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Oh christ, you have unleashed the beast.

 

How many words will bob use to answer this question? The over/under is set at 9,591...

[bob_barron 0]

kkk do you just want me to go off on you? :-)

 

Norm was fired from WU b/c the NBC West Coast President simply didn't think he was funny. A lot of people thought it was because Norm made too many OJ jokes and the West Coast President was best friends with OJ.

 

That's the short version

[bob_barron 0]

Oh christ, you have unleashed the beast.

 

How many words will bob use to answer this question? The over/under is set at 9,591...

You're lucky I have class in 30 minutes since I had to resort to the cliff notes version

[Black Lushus 0]

Yeah I had heard the "Norm cracks on OJ too much" thing, wasn't sure how true that was...if that's the case why wasn't Tim Meadows fired or any of the writers? I was never a huge Meadows fan but man I loved his OJ impressions..."I'm the juice!"

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

kkk do you just want me to go off on you?

Bring it, hippie.

 

Although I didn't know about the part about OJ being friends with the West Coast guy...

 

if that's the case why wasn't Tim Meadows fired or any of the writers?

 

Because he was simply doing what The Man was telling him to do...

[bob_barron 0]

Tim Meadows wasn't fired since they kind of had to do OJ (You know what I mean?)

 

But even after the trial was over Norm was still doing tons and tons of OJ jokes even though he wasn't making news anymore. The jokes were still funny as hell but I think it really ticked off Don Ohlemeyer. He also didn't like Norm's style

[Black Lushus 0]

So Norm's cracks were his own, they weren't written into the script?

[bob_barron 0]

Norm and Jim Downey wrote Weekend Update on their own with a help from a couple writers. They were left alone to do their own thing.

 

Norm wrote all the OJ jokes though.

 

Don Ohlemeyer hated this

[starvenger 0]

I thought the only requirement/qualification to get a job at SNL was to be unfunny.

Actually, you have to be MARGINALLY funny to get on SNL. If you're unfunny you're on Mad TV...

[bob_barron 0]

I don't.

 

I post my reviews and talk SNL at the Voy SNL Forums. (www.voy.com/16069/)

 

I also submit my reviews to Sean Bradley at saturday-night-live.com He never seems to update which kinda ticks me off. He really should just hand it over to someone else so at least the reviews will be posted

[starvenger 0]

Doesn't Ryerson give you some webspace to play with?

[Guest MikeSC]

A little kid asked me today if it was okay to be on Weekend Update.

I never saw SNL as funny ever ... ever...

 

And I didn't mind Colin, but he was no Norm...

I feel as if I have been supplanted.

-=Mike