Episode 11: Backstage at The Today Show

From Taylor Swift to Dustin Hoffman, Bill Clinton to Donald Trump... what was it like to hang out on set with famous- and infamous- people? How "real" were they, in-person? What was in that bag Richard Nixon brought to the Today Show? Who was "Hollywood"? Who was "Rope"? And who was that "Too Tall" guy? Get all the answers on this edition of Today to 1A, Conversations with 20-year Today Show Director Joe Michaels.

Joe Michaels is an acclaimed television director with a distinguished career spanning over five decades. An eight-time Emmy Award winner and two-time Directors Guild of America honoree, Michaels is best known for his 22-year tenure directing NBC’s Today Show, where he helmed more than 5,000 episodes and helped shape the landscape of live morning television. His directing credits also include major global broadcasts such as the Olympics (including eight Opening Ceremonies), Network coverage of the 2016 & 2024 Democratic National Convention, and National Geographic’s groundbreaking Brain Surgery Live.

Starting his career at NBC Sports, Michaels contributed to Emmy-winning coverage of the Super Bowl, World Series, Wimbledon, and the Olympics. He has directed high-profile network specials, live concerts, stage productions, and segments for celebrated shows like Seinfeld, 30 Rock, and The Michael J. Fox Show. His work has been seen by hundreds of millions around the world and thousands live at venues like Rockefeller Plaza.

In addition to his directing work, Michaels serves as the Broadcaster-in-Residence at High Point University, where he mentors the next generation of television professionals through courses in multi-camera production, on-camera performance, and senior production experience. A graduate of Seton Hall University and its 2013 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year, Michaels continues to consult on creative media projects, cor...

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

What if you can have a conversation with one of America's top TV directors to see the events and the people that have shaped our world through his eyes and his recollections? That's what this show is all about. From today to Monday, conversations with Joe Michaels. So, Jim, when we left off, you were intriguing me about all the behind-the-scenes things that went into the construction of the Today Show set. You went down to Louis Vuitton to get an eight-foot uh monitor. Uh you're getting B-roll of things uh very astutely, so you could actually interject those into programming in case you needed to have some kind of a cutaway to the thing they're talking about, which is important. But all this inside stuff that is fascinating to a viewer like me, I wasn't there. So a lot of the stuff that you experience, you take for granted because you were there, but it has great intrigue and importance to uh to folks like me. So I want to continue with that line. I will tell you before you say anything at all, because I love to gab um that some of your buddies from the Today Show are uh commenting on the show and uh offering some insight. I'm sorry to hear that. No, I want to encourage uh everybody who's got some uh insight into what Joe's talking about to uh contribute. And I think some of these comments are really great. Um Craig Rubel, he says wonderful things about the way the the show was put together from the staging.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Okay, so uh he mentioned Craig was uh is a wonderful um graphic uh he was on the show, he was a graphic playback person, um, but just a wonderful guy. I mean, they were there every morning just helping constantly. We had a separate room that was um in the back of the studio that you couldn't see anybody. And they would sardine them in there with every kind of graphic tech that that we had available at the time. And they um there were sometimes three or four of them in the room, and they uh, you know, lower thirds, people's names and full screen animation graphics and things like that. And uh Greg was one of those guys and they they just they just blew it away every day. I mean, so no matter what you needed, they had it and did it for you. Unless you really squinted at the credits, you probably would not know what Craig did. No, you know, credits are kind of funny. Um God, we're gonna go off already. It's okay. Um credits are kind of funny because the Today Show traditionally used to do credits on Fridays, and even when it went when it was a two-hour show, when it went to a three-hour show, we hardly did credits ever. And I I mean, I I don't care about credits, but you know, it's like lots of the people that do all the work, basically, hardly ever got recognized for it. Right. You know, which um, you know, some of the upper management people would say they get recognized by their paycheck, you know, kind of kind of comments. And it would just always break my heart that that so many people who put put shows together in general um very rarely get credit for it.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

It's a great point, Joe, because you know, somebody has an idea upstairs and they say, make it so. And Craig Rubel and and your your brothers in arms and sisters in arms there made it happen. Right. So Craig said about the outside wall we were talking about. Um he said after the outside plaza wall was switched to a video wall, I would route cameras to monitors on the wall so the camera operators could play with the crowd. Right. Usually it was Mason. I imagine you're one of the camera guys, yeah. On the jib camera, or one of the handhelds. The audience really liked seeing themselves on the wall. So this is an innovation that someone put into place that we may not have uh really recognized because as a viewer, you watch this manufactured product and you see the anchors and stuff like that, and that's it. Right. I didn't know who Joe Michaels was until I met you here. Right. Uh thank God. No, no, it's great to see um the folks who actually created this stuff and to get their insight.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

You know, what uh there's something about what you just said that's kind of interesting, besides the fact that people, you know, uh go back to Steve Friedman and moving the studio uh to an audience outside studio. Um the people on cruise that in my in my my career were the ones that came up with really clever things to have fun with, or when it got serious, they said, Well, why don't we do this? And again, they were as talented as everybody else, but they didn't get a lot of credit for some of the ideas they had. Right. Um, I mean, putting a camera up on a on a video wall outside so people in the crowd would enjoy themselves being there is what it's all about.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Well, right, you optimize the experience. You have this crowd in the windows, and you think, okay, we've done that. Oh, that's great, that's great. But the creativity to make it even more enhanced like that, and to know how to do it and to make it work. And sometimes you try things that don't work, right? But this obviously did. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

That's I mean, that's really, really fun. I I don't think they did that when I was there, but I think they did that after I left, and that's uh that sounds just so cool.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Well, so we parked these uh broadcasts on social media on your Facebook page and on uh the Today to 1A Facebook page. I would love it if people who actually work on the show would uh comment on these things and let us know your own recollections and feel free to brag on yourself because I want to really dissemble what the show what made this show so good.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Yeah, it was um I w it it's a show that, as I said, from the early 1950s was unique to TV, and it was more just as much morning radio and news as it was visual for most or all the years. I mean even now. And um there were so many you know, when you you got me thinking now, there were so many people there that were just incredible people that that uh devoted themselves to the show. You know, I I used to joke the getting people to work on a show where the technical director and the lighting director and the video uh operators would come in at midnight for a 7 a.m. show and many times, as you you know, uh there may be breaking news, and that show goes across the country. So that show uh airs at seven o'clock in Los Angeles, and if they're breaking news, we're doing news to the West Coast at noon and noontime. Right. So this crew would come in for sometimes 12 hour days, more than that, and they were devoted. It's very hard, it's very hard to explain. Um, it was more than a job, I think, for many people. It was something they really cared about, and that's what made the show so good. People cared about the show.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

As I tell my students, if they aspire to be in communication at any significant level, it never stops. I mean, you're always representative of that. And often uh I I mean I did voiceovers and sometimes I'd be called in to do things at weird hours. Sure. Um, because that's part of the gang. You gotta be available. And if you're not, someone else will. But it also takes an individual who really loves what they do and have a passion for propelling that forward.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

You know, I have a little gripe usually when I go to anywhere, and especially if it's a company that that you know they're providing a service and the people just don't seem like they want to be there. I I swear, um I the you know, the old line, fake it. I make you know, if you're into customer service, you should be c you should be a happy person and the people, you know, you we want to I want to come back to see you again and buy your product. Um it's very hard. I mean, I can I can look through the shows at NBC now and and back then, and people for the most part, you have a crew of people, uh Saturday Night Live and the Tonight Show and um the local news shows, the network news shows. For most of the time, the people that worked on those shows really cared about what they were doing. And and they were profession. I mean, that's the true definition of professional. Yeah, exactly. But they really cared about the sh the product and the show. And they cared that what they did was as best as they can do.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

I I can use an analogy uh from Taylor Swift. I met Taylor Swift, as did many of the people at my station, when she was 17. Yeah. And she came in, and here she is with her acoustic guitar in front of 50 people in a conference room, because that's how the emerging stars need to get themselves known. But she acted like it was the stage at Madison Square Garden, very personable, very interactive, obviously very talented, but her people skills were just on it from a very tailored perspective. And I heard an interview with her recently, and they talked about how she got her career started, and she says, Well, you gotta fake it till you make it. So what she meant was she wasn't fake. That was really her. Yeah. But she realized the importance of taking advantage of every moment and making it all that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

She was she was on the Today Show very early. I I don't know that she was 17, but she was probably not much older than that. And the crew, you know, when you work with a crew of people that do this professionally, right, they could identify when somebody's a good person or not, or they know what they're doing or not. And I'm gonna tell a story that's a little out of school. Um we had an incredible audio guy when I was there, Davy Levins, who his wife was my associate director. And um, yeah, I had a I had a marriage team right to my left. And um Davey was very, very precise about audio, probably one of the best audio guys ever. I love him already. I mean, he was probably one of the best audio guys ever. He did the Olympics, he did I mean, terrific. But he was on the Today Show the entire time I was there. She he was there actually before he and his wife and uh Eric is still there the as an associate director. But Davy would um talk to either the managers or road manager or the talent themselves about their audio for the for their performances. And Davy had one way of doing things that you know he knew it was going to be best for the show. And obviously some people would come on the show and they wanted to do it a certain way. And Davy would never argue, but he would kind of negotiate with them. And it was most of the time Davy was negotiating. And she came on the show, and I believe she talked directly to Davy, I'm not sure. And I whenever somebody would leave the audio booth, Davy would pop up and come into the control room and say to me, I'm gonna do it this way or whatever. And he walked in after, I believe if she talked to him directly, and he went, Oh my god, the girl knows everything. And I went, I was on the stage with her when she was rehearsing, and I was so impressed that she knew audio and lighting and cameras. She knew where the she wanted to know where the cameras were gonna be. And you that's rare, especially in a young performer.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah, she really made an impact on me because I'm all about customer service with it. Because I had to go out and be in the public to do a lot of nounsing stuff. And she was not your typical teenager, but she was also, and she was rail thin, very tall, lots of kids.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Well, I was gonna say the only the only thing that bothered me is she was like three feet taller than me.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yeah, I mean, she was a kid, but she didn't she acted as a true professional. She engaged with listeners on a on a one-to-one basis, not oh yeah, come over here, lady, or something like that. Um was really, really engaging, and she really got it.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

And to go back to the point is what how I really feel about this. I I'm sincere about this, is if I were in the in the doorway of Walmart saying hi and welcome to Walmart, I wanted to do I would want to do that as best as I can. I'd like that gig, actually. Hey, I'm old enough that they may call me. Um I but you know what I'm saying? The and so back at the Today Show and at NBC in general at the time and and ABC, some of the networks, the people that work there really cared. When I started in radio um in uh 1974, the people that were there had got made transitions from radio to television, some of them. And it was right, you know, it was kind of a hot spot between uh the generations, basically. And you learned from the people who had done radio and early TV that you had to be professional and you had to take it serious, but you also had to enjoy it. Right. And if you didn't, you didn't belong there.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

I worked in television for a bit and I realized how long it took to put a package together because I was used to if I wanted to create an image, I would just create it on the radio. I wouldn't have to worry about actually showing it, right? But actually showing it as work. The video part the video part makes it harder. Yeah, I mean, theater of the mind is to me was so much easier than actually going out and shooting the thing. Right. So wow. Oh, I do I don't want to neglect the others who have uh who have sent their their their messages, and we invite you please to continue to to let us know your insights. But uh Ann Finkroy.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Anne is just Anne's been a stage manager for years. Her husband is a uh uh the Plue Perfect uh producer of golf. Okay and uh she's a wonderful, wonderful lady. Um also uh Joe McCourt. Joe McCourt, old old timer at NBC, uh pretty much did a little bit of everything. Uh he was a tech manager on the Teddy show for quite a while with us, and uh he was uh another one of those I'm devoted to everything I do, guys. Yeah, just a great guy. And here's an interesting name. I I it Red Noseworthy. Yeah, that's a that well, Red is his nickname, and his nick he's got two nicknames, Red and Nosey. And uh his real name is Mike, he's uh uh another incredible audio guy. Um traveled with Matt Lauer and the crew to do everywhere in the world, um, around the world. Uh just an incredible guy. These are the people who made American television. They are, there's no doubt about it. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. So we're they each have incredible stories too. We should maybe call some of them sometime. Let's do it. Yeah. Yeah. They they each have great stories about their careers. I mean, it's just it's great. It would be great to listen to them.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Yeah, if you want to uh join us, then we invite uh everyone's got some insight into it. I'd be delighted. I agree completely. Cool. So you have this uh this set. What else happened behind the scenes that uh I don't know, the signature element or just things that uh that you think that really uh made it happen?

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Aaron Powell Setwise, there's there's a couple of fun things early on um because we were kind of feeling our oats on on how to work in a in a studio where people were looking in the windows and things. Um there was something that happened very funny early on. I was the associate director, I guess, and um they had put marble along the header of the entire studio. Big slabs of marble to kind of now what is a header? Let's go ahead and it's it's it's you know, it's uh on the wall, like uh in like a um like in your house you have that p strips of wood up between the ceiling and the wall. So these were about 12 to 14 inches. They were slabs of marble that went around the entire studio. That would make me nervous. They cost a fortune. And we the director Bucky Gunz at the time and I realized that they will never be seen on television because they were higher than the lighting grid. Wow. But they looked great. I mean, they look great. You walked in the studio, you saw that marble up there, you went, wow, that's really cool. But they would almost never be seen on television in any way. So um I believed Mark I believe that Bucky negotiated to have them taken down and use the money for something else, something like that. It was pretty funny. So we were really feeling our oats when when we were trying to build a studio and getting everything we we wanted in there. Um the behind the scenes thing now, besides the studio set, the behind the scenes thing that was really fun for me was in the morning, even if it were for five minutes, I'd sit in the green room and early guests would be in there sometimes, sometimes they wouldn't be. And I have a couple of stories. I sat in there with a man that I talked to for about 15 minutes, and um I I didn't know who he was. It was Ross Perot, and he was gonna be on the show, but he came in an hour before the show, and he's just sitting in the green room having coffee. So I loved that. I love that part. I will tell you a funny story. I was in the former presidential candidate in multi. Right. He was just sitting in the green room having coffee. Okay. Um a lot of people would come in early or stay longer. I think I'd mentioned Dustin Hoffman at one time whenever he was interviewed. He'd either bring lunch for the crew or he'd send it the next day. That's great. Or he or he would stay for an hour and kind of be a part of some of the spots. I mean, you just love that's what made the show much so much fun, right? But there was one day that I have to tell you this was this was just incredible. Um, I'm sitting in the green room and Katie Kirk comes in and she goes, Walk with me. And I go, Where are we going? She goes, just walk with me. And we walked into we were walking into the makeup room and she said, You've got to meet this guy. And there was a guy in the corner with his back to the door, but I could kind of see his face in the mirror. And he turned and he went, Hi, how are you? And it was Bill Clinton, and I had no idea who he was, and he I didn't know that he was a governor of a state. I I knew I had not no no idea who this man was. And by turning around and saying hi, completely charmed me. I mean, completely charmed. And I think did to Katie too, because that's why she said, I you gotta meet this guy. Hey, Joe, hi, you know. So that morning that morning stuff before the show, um, I remember we were hanging in the hall one day, uh, right outside the green room, you know, 20 minutes before the show, and up comes this guy walking down the hall with a little canvas bag. And he turns around, I look at him, and it's Richard Nixon. And uh he oh I we later what what year was that? Oh, heaven knows. We we we we didn't know what was in the bag, but it turned out Oh, there was something in the bag. No, no, it wasn't true. It wasn't cash. Um I I will tell you what it was. It was really funny. He asked all of us in the hall if we wanted an autograph. And uh now for me, I was in college when um when during the Vietnam War uh as it was ending, and um I I wasn't really fond of the president because of the war. But he was the nicest guy to us when he was there. But in the canvas bag, he asked us if we all wanted autographs, and he took out baseballs and autographed baseballs for us because he loved baseball.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

At the bottom, was there 18 minutes of audio tape? I'm just just kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

I didn't see any cassettes or anything down in the bottom. Well, that's uh so so that behind the scenes kind of thing was always really fun, you know. And I can go back way back to when I was a page and just being in the hall and having people, uh famous people like on the game shows and stuff walk by you and say hi to you. Just nice people. I loved soupy sales back then. I mean, most people have no idea who he was. I talked about it before. But that's you had an opportunity in the building, particularly you know, back then and now, when there are people, well-known people in the building, they still stop and talk to you, or some will rush by you, but most will say hi. And and there was just something really exciting about that all the time.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

I love that because the person you see on the air is often uh a manifestation of themselves. It's a performance phase. But to know that there's actually a human being behind that, I always envision people like uh Richard Nixon or or Bill Clinton or Soupy Sales showing up with some kind of an entourage. Uh do they ever just show up popping out of a cab?

SPEAKER_02 19:25

It's it's really funny. Um Ross Perot had been on the show a lot because he was running for president back then. He would, I think he'd walk from the hotel down Fifth Avenue on his own. He'd never he never had anybody with him. And I will tell you a funny story. Um Dick Emberg, the famous sports announcer, um, filled in for one week on the Today Show. And this never dawned on me, and you will you will totally get this at being on radio. Um Dick had been an announcer for years, probably the most incredible gentleman I've ever met. And he I he he would he would walk down every day from his hotel, I guess the plaza somewhere up on Fifth Avenue. He'd walk down every day to the show really early in the morning before the show, and at the end of the show, he'd walk back to the hotel, I'm assuming, right? So he comes in like the third day. He was he he co-hosted today's show for one week. And on the third day, he I go, Dick, how are you doing? He goes, I can't believe all the people that are stopping me on the street. I said, What do you mean? He goes, Well, everybody watches a show. Everybody's saying hi to me. I go, how cool is that? Yeah, that's great. He goes, but Joe, you don't understand my my 50-year career, I could walk anywhere where nobody stops me. I go, Dick, you're you're you're very well known. He goes, Yes, but think about this. I do a call for a baseball game and I'm on camera for 30 seconds. The rest of it, they just hear my voice. So I'm not really recognizable on the streets of New York. But now I've been on this darn show for two days and everybody's stopping me on the street. That was the power of the show as well. See, some people would not like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Yeah. I used to have a wireless microphone at the stadium and people would wouldn't know who I was. And even on that very limited scale, you know, in a very small area comparatively, I would get stopped and uh, you know, and ask about stuff. And I I really enjoyed it. Um but I can see that some people would be kind of defensive about that.

SPEAKER_02 21:19

I don't think I don't think I would I I know I wouldn't enjoy it. I I I know some people um that even though they realize they uh have to be on when in the public, I don't think they enjoy it very much.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

If I were to have my druthers between Dick Enberg and Red Noseworthy, I think I would rather talk to Red, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

I just want to get the story. No, I'm gonna tell you something. We we sh I'm gonna I'm gonna send him a note today. You know why? Nosey's got great stories about traveling for where in the world and all he not he didn't just work on the Today Show. He worked um NBC has some facilities out in Long Island City. Where they have all the technical equipment that you can use for hundreds of TV shows and news gatherings. Wow. Um, I know that if we we um we had a series on our show um where we did um every year we did a wedding, a live wedding on the show. On the Today Show. On the Today Show. And it was kind of a contest for like months. They would pick the bride and groom, they'd not the bride, they would k pick the couple. We didn't we didn't we didn't set people up. But then they would the the audience would pick the gown and the and where they're gonna go on their honeymoon and all that. So we did those on locations. And when we went to do them, we had to build a control room because many of the places we couldn't roll a truck to, because we we did them on an island down in the Caribbean and things like that. We did them on 30 Rock Plaza too, but we did them on remotes for a while. And where where Nosy, where Mike worked, it was basically out in Long Island City, and then he did lots of the remotes for audio. However, Long Island City, if we were going to go do a uh a wedding say on on uh in Capshaluca, which we did uh uh on an island in the Caribbean, I'd go out to Long Island City and they would have built a control room there for me to look at to make sure that's what I would want. And then they'd tear it down and they'd fly it there and reassemble it. And so Mike was part of those that group of guys who actually put things together. Long Island City, by the way, um NBC and Long Island City not only worked with NBC, um, I believe Mike was we should get Mike on to talk about this. Um I believe um uh Mike and Long Island City was part of the National Geographic when they went down to the Titanic. And the the uh Bob Ballard who did that, I believe they rented the equipment from Long Island City and the crew members to go with them to help the televise part of it. So Long Island City was and still is an incredible technical place that NBC utilizes for all their remotes and news gathering.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

People take for granted that audio will work or video will work. I but I swear a 50 cent fuse could drive or or a bad cable. It's incredible. Yeah. I mean you can run down to the well, you can't run down to Radio Shack anymore. No, you can't. But you could, but if you're missing just one component all of a sudden, I'm sure you can compensate, but the the I guess my point is the job that they did was so thorough.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

Yeah, and the other side of Long Island City, and I never thought we were gonna talk about this today, but the other side that was amazing to me is if there was a um if there was a a war or some kind of turmoil in the world uh within 24 hours, they would have shipped equipment, satellite dish to that place for news gathering. That's what that was their real expertise. They were amazing in that.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

I have a a cousin, John Scott, who ran the uh Center for Public Service Communication, and he would have one of those kind of systems that would be able to pop up in humanitarian uh disasters to be able to communicate with each other. And just the logistics of getting to some of those places would be just daunting.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Right. It really is amazing to watch uh to watch how that kind of a that kind of a system they had to provide those services for NBC News and and other people. Really cool. So Mike knows where the yes, his nickname is Red or Nosey. It's just fascinating. So um I have to tell you something. Sure. We we had nicknames for lots of guys. Uh cameraman, I I it I had a nickname, uh well, I didn't make this nickname, but I had uh uh uh incredible camera guys all overall, but one of the guys who was uh really kind of the um main uh not a main guy, but he was one of the better guys there that that took care of things, um, his uh name is Bob Yeager, but his nickname was Rope. And a previous director had given him that nickname, and I always called him Rope, and I had no idea what his real name when I first started. I was there's rope. And I later found out that because Bob moved his cameras so much that he was named after something you would know, the Rope Dope. Yeah, right, Muhammad Ali, right? Muhammad Ali. So the director at George Paul nicknamed him Rope. So so we all called him Rope. And a lot of guys had, I mean, I had a guy in sports whose name was Too Tall and and Hollywood and um like Dallas Cowboys. You got two of them. Seriously. So um one of the producers uh one day we had one of the talent on the show had kind of said, uh I think we were talking about behind the scenes, we were talking about it was Rope's birthday. So one of the talent on the air said, Hey, we want to wish a happy birthday to Bob Yeager. And one of the producers standing next to me, she goes, Who's that? I go, I go, Bob Yeager. He's on camera too. She goes, Rope? So it was really funny. We had nicknames. Um, I'm sure a lot of people, I sure a lot of people just thought that um uh his name was nosy or red, because that's what we call people, you know. We had a we had a wonderful guy um who is just I can't even begin to tell you what a great guy this guy is, but his nickname was Hollywood. He had long, long blonde hair, worked out, you know, and we call him Hollywood. And um for the most part, um nobody knew his name was Jimmy Bott. They called him Hollywood.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

I read about that on shows that people get to know the characters' names more than the actual person that kind of conflate them uh on occasion.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

I I have to say, we have a professor here who, when I first got here, said to me, Um, I said, I I I'm really having a tough time remembering all these students' names. I I I'm just not good with names, as you as you know. And um he said, Well, what do you mean, Steve? I don't I don't he said, Well, why don't you just give them nicknames? So I tried it. Then when I had to go do their grades and the grading book had their real names, I had no idea who was who. So I stopped doing that, you know. It's pretty funny.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

It's funny. Was there ever a guest that you really anticipated uh coming in? I you did you get jaded first of all about all the different uh celebrities that showed up? But was there a guest that you really just like you couldn't even sleep that night, you were so just I'm so sorry, but probably not.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

Um I loved seeing people, I mean uh music people, especially because I loved music. Um I remember the first time Bacelli came on the show, I was like, oh my god, this guy's incredible, and things like that. Ray Charles and and I can remember people that I was excited that they were there. Ray Charles, wow. Uh you know, uh Stevie Wonder. We had we had a lot of why am I why am I I just named three You're killing me right now. Wait, I just named three blind people. Well, that's true. Um, anyhow, I I I would be excited. I did, I did tell, I have to tell you that I wish I could remember the lady's name. Oh God, Jim. She's a wonderful actress. I can't think of her name. So I had this thing for a long time. I wondered why the Queen of England carried a pocketbook. Okay. Because I I love always loved to watch the royal family. And I always wondered why the uh Queen of England had a pocketbook. She didn't need money. She I doubt she had a credit card. Um maybe it's a puff. She's got a pocket. I I couldn't figure it out. So this woman, and I I'm so sorry, I can't remember her name, and she's a famous actress, but she was on the show, and I I think Erica's sitting next to me, the associate director, said, Um, why don't you ask her? So I got on, I'm on my headset. I said to the stage manager, Mark Troub, hey Mark, if she can come down after the show to the control room, after her spot to the showroom, I just have a question for her. And I wish, god damn, I can't remember. Why does Vanessa Redgrave? No, it's not Vanessa. If you you name a bunch, don't don't waste your time. I'll I'll come up with it at some point, maybe in another show. But so she comes down and she's a very proper woman, and I said, I I have a question for you that I guess that you maybe only you could answer, somebody like you that's British and you know pop famous. So I said, Why does the Queen of England have a pocketbook? And she said, Well, that's easy. I said, What do you mean? She said, She has her dog biscuits in there because she was always with her dogs. But so I loved when I loved, we all did, when when a celebrity or somebody that we wanted to say hi to would come down to the control room. It was always a lot of fun. Jackie Chan would come down all the time and sit next to me and I would talk to him. Killing, man. And uh Kellen would I would talk to him, and I the first time he came down, I shook his hand, and his hand was like a baby's hand. And I looked at him, I said, So you don't do any of this stuff yourself, right? And he kept going, yeah, yeah. And I didn't I didn't know that he really didn't speak English very well. Okay. But he was so eventually he'd come down occasionally to the control room. We always had people. We had guests. Um uh Tarantino sat with us uh uh for a couple for a couple days. I mean, we had people come in in and out of the control room, or the producers would peep bring people in and out. So to me, that was some that was kind of exciting to have somebody come into the control room and say hi. Did you ever have a guest that became a favorite? Uh repeat. Um yeah. Well, we had repeats of a lot of things. I uh we had a repeat band we used to call Chicago the House Band. Okay. Okay. Um we had uh yeah, we had a lot of guests that would come on a lot. Um, you know, people um people that were kind of not signed with the show, but there there were pe there were celebrities or people that would come on pretty darn often, you know.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

When you mention Stevie Wonder, I have to say, and I'm sure I'll get flack for this, because everybody has their own opinion. I think he is the greatest living American musician.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

I can understand right now. I I um from his genre, yes, I think. Um I think Lady Lady Gaga is one of the most incredible musicians ever. Well, when we say musician, it's uh yeah, I'm sure they're there's more tactical. I mean instrumental music. I I it's so hard when somebody says, Who is your favorite person ever on the show? You you just yeah, they're all great. I mean, not all of them, but you know what I'm saying. You the you just like people that are so good. I enjoyed the political spots, I enjoyed those interviews. Um you know what? Again, I we've talked about this before, even on this in this podcast. Um directing the show, I was the audience. Right. I was not just caught cutting cameras or giving cues to people. I'm the audience. I was sitting there, I sat there and I watched the show and tried to show people at home what I thought it was what the best way to see this was. And obviously uh that happened every day, and it was the most enjoyable thing to do to be able to go to work and see all these different things. And that's why you were there for over 20. Yeah, yeah. It was it was just um it was well, I w that was uh it was more than an honor to be able to do a show that long. I mean, nobody the nowadays these poor poor kids in in any business, the they just the turnover is amazing. Nobody stays at companies for all those years anymore. Um so even uh the I still have friends that are at NBC. The uh lady who does prompter there is uh a dear friend of mine, and she's been doing prompter for the Today Show for probably 40, 40 or 45 years.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Do you want to give her a shout out?

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Okay, she's sending it. Jenny is it's Jenny's an amazing lady, and um I think it would be fun to have her on one day to talk about because we were pay we were pages together. Well uh we kind of overhung as pages together a little, and just to watch you know, it's really funny. Uh when when you're here at the university, you watch a student for four years usually. If you have a student that takes a lot of your classes and stuff, and you actually though those four years, you actually watch them grow up because they really change from when they're a freshman to a senior. But when you watch somebody in an industry who the Jimmy Mott, the cameraman I was talking about, he called Hollywood, I believe he started at NBC as a truck driver. He drove and he became probably one of the best cameramen ever and was the most uh he he's still around, but there's gotta be a story behind. One of the most humble the uh this was a guy, and I and know this is a little esoteric. When you're directing a show and you need to go to a camera because you're not sure where to go, and you don't you can cover your eyes and say, Ready seven, take seven, Jimmy's on seven, and he will do something with his camera that will make you proud. And and and if he did, he would save your butt sometimes, and you'd go, Jimmy, thanks, man. That was really cool. And he'd go, What do you mean? What do you mean, man? He didn't, he was so humble and so talented that you you just wanted to hug the guy. I mean, he was incredible. So that's well, I mean, as a director, that's who you want working for you. But these are these were people, these are people that are just incredible people.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

I've known a lot of those guys in sports, they're local uh people. One in particular, Jeff Scortis, who works for High Point uh Athletics, um, captured a moment with one of our outfielders, flipped over a wall to catch the ball. And it wasn't just a wide shot of the field that we digitally zoomed in on. He was on it, the whole ball's trajectory, the guy going at it, and then he zoomed in on the guy while he had disappeared, anticipating he would stand back up again, which he did, and the expression he got the expression on the guy's face. I mean, it just takes a a talent that is developed, I guess, but also instinctively to know what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

It's a natural thing. And the you know, I talk about it in classes too. Being able to anticipate something is really important. But you had to do that also as a director, and you had other people that could yeah, but you had people around you like a like a Jimmy or or like a Hollywood or a rope who would go and get who it would anticipate for you. They'd get those shots that and you'd look hopefully you'd look at them and go, yeah, that's what I need. But they you know, these people are so darn talented and just really good people. And I think that's what made the Today Show click so well over the years. And I will tell this story but without very much detail. There are some networks and there were some morning shows, and we can boil it down because at the time there were only three, that the crew didn't talk to the talent or didn't participate that way. And we had a very special group of people that all took part of the show and would throw out ideas and would joke around when it was time to joke around. Somebody came to the show years and years ago, and um, I don't remember what the news story was, but we were joking around. In between cues, I'd tell tell a joke, somebody would tell a joke, and everybody knew when they can talk and when they couldn't talk, right? And we were having a great time, and somebody was either sitting next to me or standing behind me, going, God, you guys really have a good time doing this show. And the bottom line is we did, and that was what made the show so special. But something happened and we had to do a news special, and everybody just got serious and focused. And when it was done and we went to commercial, I turned around and the guy went, Wow, you got one hell of a crew here. I go, Yeah, when we have to do something, we focus and do it. And when we're not, when it we're having fun, we had fun. And that kind of thing really, really made the show what it was.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Joe, I cannot think of a better way to end this segment than that. Cool. We'll pick it up when we get back.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

So we've got to get um nosy. Uh we've got we've got to get nosy. I'm gonna go read, I'm gonna reach out to a few of these people and have them tell some stories because I think it'd be kind of fun. Amen. Let's get it done. All right, Joe.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Hey, thank you so much, Joe, for sharing these memories on today to 1A conversations with today's show director, Joe Michaels. We'll catch you next time on Today to 1A.