Episode 12: Demands famous guests make- and who really does all the work behind the scenes?

On this episode, former Today Show Director Joe Michaels and co-host Jim Scott discuss some of the demands that big stars make. Plus, who really does all the prep work to make sure everything from cooking shows to band performances go off without a hitch. And what happens if there is a hitch? From Whitney Houston to Shakira's "best side" to the president to Robin Williams, we visit the set of the Today Show for more behind-the-scenes magic. 

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 the world through his eyes and his recollections? That's what this show is all about. From today to Monday, conversations with Jim Michaels. So Jimmy when we were still doing the last episode. And what happened here? We have some technical issues because the whole podcast studio went bye-bye for a sweet three weeks.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yeah, they're they're rebuilding it and um hopefully it'll be in a better place. It's actually gonna be, I don't know if you want to get in this, uh Jim, but it's actually gonna be in a video mode, too. Oh there'll be cameras and lights. Now I I certainly have a face for radio, so I don't know about you. I'm the guy who spent 40 years in radio.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

So there you go. Do the math, right? But uh we're so glad to be back together again. And it's it's great to see you uh once again. You have not aged a bit in the last three weeks.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

I I age every every moment. I don't know. I've I've lost several more parts of my hair. We had we had an honors um uh event yesterday for our students, and um there were pictures. I sent you a picture of you, right, that I took? I think so. Yeah. So uh there were pictures of all around, and um one of the assistants uh the assistant dean sent me a picture of myself in the hall, and I said, I have enough baggage under my eyes. Oh stop to go. I should be on one of those commercials where they do the before and after, except I don't know that it can be helped ever. Joe, you look great. Come on, go. My God. So I don't um I don't do well in pictures, um, so video would even be worse.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

See, the problem with that is every kid wants a picture with Joe because you're beloved here. And so you you know it's funny.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Um don't even go there because I have stories about that.

unknown 2:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

I will not. Speaking of stories, I can't wait to to hear the stories here because you had so many different guests on the Today Show. Right. Every single one of them needed a separate kind of setup, I guess you would call it, and anticipating what their needs would be or what their desires. Right. It's kind of like uh having a concert and the and the Rolling Stones have a writer that goes on for like eight different.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

You know, I used to love to read the writers of our groups. Right. And uh at the today show, obviously, um they were very hard to fulfill because they were only usually doing two or three songs on the show, and they would want like full ca catering and and uh certain I remember Whitney Houston, we had to um we had to tape up the vents in the green room for her or in her dressing room because she didn't want air blowing on her. So uh we're not we weren't gonna get well that's part of what we're talking about. I mean the the writers were uh but I've read um I've gone back, they're online somewhere. I've gone back and read old writers for like Frank Sinatra and people like that. Um and it's kind of fun to do that if you're a nerd, you know?

SPEAKER_01 3:09

I was in Columbus, Ohio, and I was hosting an event of the Hilton there, and they brought out a tray, and somebody just randomly said, Oh, that's for that's for Tina. Tina Turner was in concert, and there was a a toaster on there, and there were a couple of pieces of cinnamon toast. So, oh gosh, so Tina Turner likes cinnamon toast. Yes, she doesn't eat it, she just likes the smell of it.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

You know, that's pretty funny because I some of these writers I always questioned who are they for? Because there were like 15 different versions of gum and and you get a kick out of seeing that. I mean, they can get away with it, but it is kind of funny. Um I rem uh we don't have to go way into this, but I remember some of them w wanted certain flowers in the room. Right. You reminded me of that because of smell. And um I I used to go up occasionally. Um, you know, when a performer on the Today Show, for those who remember and they still do the concerts outside, um, you can't you can't promise a lot. You're really being shot in 360. There's no one angle I could avoid really. So they couldn't insist just get to my my good side. No, it's really hard to do. I will tell you a funny story. We weren't we weren't I know we weren't gonna really go into music today, but that's fine. But um uh a few artists would have the stage managers asked me to go up to the control uh to the to their dressing rooms and talk to them. And I said, I I really don't need to talk to them. I'll watch them when they rehearse and say hi, whatever. Um but uh uh I one this particular day one of the stage managers came down and for for three or four times said, Um, Shakira would like you to go upstairs. Uh-huh. And I said, Sure. So I go up and she's all of five one, five two, and she stood in front of me and she said, she she push puts her hands together like she's praying when she talks to you. And she said, Um, do you know what I do for a living? And I said, You're a singer. And she said, I am a singer, but um I would I don't want you to frame me like this, which was literally just a close headshot. Just a meeting. She said, I want you to f frame me all the way down to below m the almost to my knees. Okay. And she said, Because I shake this, and she pointed to her butt and I said to her, Where have you been all my life? I mean, just wonderful. So you get some people like that who are just sweet and you know, they they're trying to help. Um I know that interviews were even difficult. Um I know this does it sounds kind of crazy, but th you would get some either a handwritten note from the person or their agent, or you'd go up to say hi and they'd say, you know, I um I try to guess who this is. Please don't shoot me from the back. Um please don't shoot my hands. And I want to sit on the left side. So if you're picturing an interview with a host on the left and the guest on the right, that's how I always shot things. Because we look left to right. So I always felt the host is in a more predominant place, being on the left of a shot, and the guest should be on the right. So I've always kept that as a kind of a rule. Right. And the viewer kind of gets used to that, right? So this particular person, I couldn't shoot from the back of their head, I couldn't shoot clo uh tight shots of their hands at all. And um and they had to be on the left side.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Okay, let's do let's do a you know uh a question game. Male or female? Male. Uh animal or or mineral. Animal. Because the first person I thought of was Barbara Streisand for some reason. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

No, you're in the wrong gender. No, you're in the wrong uh uh place. Wrong era? I'll give you another hint. Okay. A politician. Politician. Is it the present present current president of the United States? Sure is. Really? Okay, wow. He wanted to be s he wanted to sit on the left side. Okay. Um, and he I couldn't shoot him from the back of his head. And he has smaller hands. Okay. And he didn't want uh shots of his hand. Um I remember Warren Beatty uh came years and years ago. A lot of people nowadays don't know who he is, but famous actor. Um he would he and he and um Sylvester Stallone would have a makeup person where they'd put their hands up next to their face and they would spray it the same color. So if their hand went up near their face, it wasn't white compared to the tan on their face. Oh, that's how that's done. Gotcha. So it really is kind of fun to watch people, you know. That's uh we're just just talking about interviews. I mean, it's really kind of fun to watch the little things people do when they go on on that's the magic behind that.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Yeah. In my time when I was doing video, um, and especially some things for like commercials, I would have my face made up. And I sometimes forgot that I had my face made up. And I'd pull off in a convenience store or something like that, and I would get the most peculiar books.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

This is growing this six, what what how tall are you?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Six four? Six four.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

With makeup on in the store.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Yeah, and I actually went to uh one of my favorite establishments downtown, and I got this is way before I even met my wife, but I hit on my uh the she said, I want to have your babies. And I said, What in the world is going on? And I realized that I had my my makeup face on. That's so funny. And I think she was kidding, obviously, but she realized that something was going on with that that was not usual. I was like, Oh my gosh, I forgot I had this cake uh stuff on my on my face. I know a lot of people in uh in television didn't like to wear the cake makeup and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

I I mean I I don't think it's good for your face when you're wearing that much makeup and have to take it off a lot. Nowadays with the uh the lighting we use, it's not those hot, hot lights that you used to have really heavy-duty makeup. And I um I I'm not a makeup expert, but I know they do a lot of spray stuff now, which is less harmful to your skin. And um it's kind of but it's always fun to watch. Well, the high definition, you know, right technology has really put an onus ones. Yeah, for sure. Um actually, I think I told a story once on on this show. Um when uh Meredith Vieira started on the Today Show. We had just started her first day was the first day we went into 4K, and it was the first day we had spray makeup. And um, you know, there's a little dirty little secret also. Um CCU operators on the shows, they operate a now forgive me. CCU I'm gonna tell you a little bit. It's uh basically a color correction or camera control unit. Gotcha. And it controls the level of the video, the color of the video, and it has a diffuser in it. Okay. So you can actually take a little, just like a computer, you take a little eyedropper and get their skin tone, and then anything in that picture can be diffused by the skin tone. Just that skin tone can be diffused. And I I the people I know that I still see on TV, I go, oh boy, they're really diffusing the heck out of that. Wow. So it's kind of fun to watch. I won't say anybody who loved it more than anybody I ever saw, but Katie Couric really loved it. And and uh honestly, to be honest, when she um when she first realized that existed, she didn't need it, but she always loved it. It always made her feel good that her face was a little bit less you know, less uh any kind it literally any kind of pores or any kind of um lines in your face or wrinkles, they could pretty much go away.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

I I really feel for television people, and I think it's more apt um for the female talents because they're incredibly intelligent, bright, they have so many wonderful thoughts and things to say, but we do judge them on appearance. Sometimes, you know, the sound is off while we're watching closed captioning or something. It's it's just a shame.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

So I have a theory that I've always l thought about, um, and it's not just men or women. You watch, and I'll give you my example that I use. Um right now there's four nightly news shows, basically Fox, NBC, CBS, and ABC. Four major nightly news shows. You watch the one that the person is most appealing and and delivers the news the way you want it. You want to hear it. So not only is it because they're all doing almost the same stories, you you watch the one where you like their presentation, but you also like the way they look.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Yeah. And it doesn't matter whether they're male or female. Um it just it's just when you look at the the numbers of who watches what, um, it's hard to define it, but you see it, you can see it. Um so I have always uh I've always joked about it. Um I will not name this person, but we had a producer at the Today Show for a while who only wanted nice looking people on the show.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

And I used to joke with her. What if this woman or guy comes on the show and they're 500 pounds and they have pimples all over their face, but they just were want a Nobel Peace Prize? You mean a real human job? And they won a Nobel Peace Peace Prize. Right. Well, I would think about it. Uh-and I'd go, Oh, you were not a good producer. Oh, goodness gracious.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Um it's not just news, it's also music. I can't think of how I can't even Now back 50 years ago when people were less visible, I guess, we had some remarkable talent. But how many great talents out right now who don't pass the Simon Cowell appearance test? Right. And I don't mean to slam Simon for goodness sakes, but that's that's all part of it.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

He'd probably slam both of us. Um but uh but I agree with you. I agree with you. So not only when you're setting up p things on a show, uh uh any kind of show, you want it you want them to look really good and you want you want whatever they're gonna do to be more comfortable for them so they're more comfortable on the air. And in even a cooking spot, a fashion spot, you know, you don't you so as a director particularly, you don't want to um you don't want to make where they're sitting say on a fashion show look uncomfortable that they'd have to look over their head to see the people that are modeling clothes uh cooking. You want it in really good order so they they it it's a natural progression through what they're doing. And honestly, that's gotta be thought out beforehand. Um in uh a show like the Today Show, Good Morning America, the segment producers who are producing those specific segments um will find all that out and and send you notes and say, um, here's what makes here's what they'd like to do. Does that need to be adjusted for TV? And if not, uh does this work and how do you want to do it? There's a lot of dirty little secrets about how you do certain things. Uh I was just thinking about a cooking spot or a demonstration spot where uh you might have a long table of things that they're gonna talk about. And in my case, um I always worried that it might have gone so fast that I might not have gotten the shots. So I'll give you I'll I'll tell you exactly what I'm talking about. You know, you ever watch a show where you they start talking about uh an item that's really pretty much in front of them and there are no close-ups of it. Yes. And you're sitting at home going, I I want to see it. You know, we're talking about a video game. I I I don't see it. Uh there's no close-ups. We're on a wide shot or headshots of the two people that are talking. So I don't ever want as a director, I never want to miss that. Or on a cooking show when you don't have the overhead, so you don't see how they're actually preparing. Sure, they're just throwing stuff into a pan. Sure. And you you want close-ups of this. So in the commercials before one of those spots, I would record all the close-ups I think I would need so I could roll them in as live and cut them. Let me ask you this, Joe.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Um I was gonna give you one little side note on uh performing artists who uh create their own domain. Yes. And we've heard about the trashed hotel rooms, that kind of stuff. Uh Prince came to a Sheridan hotel here locally, and they could not rid the entire floor of the scent of lavender. That's pretty interesting. It persisted for weeks up there. That's pretty interesting, actually. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

So I'm okay with that because I like lavender. But um I I know I talked about Prince on Brian Gumbel's last uh day uh podcast one day. Um just a wonderful guy. I mean, just an incredible guy. That's great to hear. Um so when I hear that, I go, yeah, that's kind of cool. Did he smell of lavender, by the way? I I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

I I mean I shook his hand and stuff, but I don't know that I actually smelled you know in the in in a parallel universe, probably there is a prince trying to rid himself of the sh of the smell of sheridan. You know.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

I can't get rid of it. That's terrible. So but let me let me know. But it's true. There's there's little things about um there's little things about sett setting up spots and the people that are there. Martha Stewart um in particular would have a long cooking spot um with and she'd have two or three um young girls that would set it up for her. I was gonna ask. Along with our set our our food stylists on our show and and set designers. Food stylists. Sure. Sure. One of my favorite things in the whole world, and I'm gonna say it did happen to me once, but I'm gonna say it happened to maybe one of my camera guys, um, was there was some really attractive food on the uh counter there. And um he or maybe me walked over and said, Wow, that looks really good. Let me grab a taste of that. You thought it was part of the catering. And I I ate it and I put it in my mouth and I spit it out and I went, Oh my god, what is this? And the food stylist uh came over and she said, Um, you know, we shellac those so they look really good. Do they really? Oh my not everything. I mean, when they're actually cooking something. But usually, you know, in the foreground, there's like finished products and stuff, and they look incredible. Well, you sure they they fix them up so they look great.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Uh back in the day, apparently, uh the shampoo commercials were notorious for putting some kind of uh motor oil or something like that in the model's hair. So just it just flows. So really well. Yeah, you're worth it. A 10 W40. Um That's really funny. That may be apocryphal, I don't know, but this is something you you think about. So I was gonna ask you, and I'm glad you went this. I wanted you can can you go in that day that way with Martha Stewart, but let me ask you who's responsible for getting the food? Do you go down to like the little local Tesco there and uh then shop or what?

SPEAKER_00 17:34

The person's uh assistant or themselves will give a list to the show and the show's uh s uh food, you know, food style list, and um there's set deser set designers and directors who um will get all that stuff. Really? Yeah. So you guys have to provide. Sure. You would think I mean some of them will bring things. I was gonna say some will bring things if it's something special.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

If it's Anthony Bourdain, you know, he's coming in and he's chopped the hand off the provider and shown, hey, this is what I how I get the best stuff. Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

I mean our uh uh on the today show the late to Anthony Bourdain. Right. Our guys were incredible. Um I used to love to watch them bring the get the stuff together for them and stuff. I also used to love, I know this is gonna sound crazy, when I'd walk in the back and they were really cleaning the pots and pans so they'd be perfect for the next show. And I go, boy, I need you guys at home. Um they were they were terri you know, the the stage hands and and set designers and stuff, they they make they make or break the way things look. All this stuff you never think of. I'm gonna go way back because I have to tell you. Well I want to hear the Martha Stewart story also. I will, but I'm gonna go I'm gonna tell a nasty story about Martha. But I'm gonna go way back. There was a l woman when I first got to the Today Show whose um name was Carol Lee Carroll. And she was an older woman who lived two blocks from the studio, and just the most incredible woman who did everything by hand herself. She didn't have an assistant, she she did have somebody, I guess it was a stage hand who would set certain things up for her. But if you go way, way back, uh Willard Scott was the weatherman on the show back then, and Willard actually stood in front of a practical weather map. It was not a graphic, it was not um it was not a screen, it was a practical piece set piece that was. Magnets or felt or what was going on there? That was the United States. Okay, and she would hand draw them every night. Oh my gosh. And I know when I would come in to work at three o'clock, three thirty in the morning, she'd be just finishing one of them. She was in cr she did she didn't want anybody to do anything uh for her except for an assistant to like put a set up, but she did everything by hand. And back then, the show was it looked like that. It looked like somebody had spent so much time to build these little sets and put these countertops together.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

And they actually did. I grew up with Willard Scott and the DC areas of Channel Four before he went up to the map.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Sure, sure. And she um she she was incredible. She was really I I'm saying she was. I hope she's still alive. I haven't talked to her. Carol Lee Carroll. Carol Lee Carroll, I haven't talked to her in a long time. But she was I was in awe of watching somebody hand-do everything on a set. And not to put anybody down, because I'm not putting them down because they're very creative. But when Carol left, the set designers used there were more than one, there was assistance. They they, you know, we needed um we needed a barbecue set outside, they'd order all the equipment and just put it together. They just do it. You know, so there was a gigantic difference back then between um somebody who really was so proud of what they did and did it all by hand. Um so when you think about it, um, and I will get to I will get to Martha for a second. Martha had these young young girls who would set their spots up, and our crew lived on food. Oh yeah. Not not and I'm one of them, obviously. So we couldn't wait for food spots. So they, you know, we'd have a barbecue spot and we'd all have barbecue after the show and things like that. Um but Martha did a spot once. Um I am telling this a lot out of school, and I know Martha's not listening to this, so that's that's probably a really good thing. Okay. But the the girls set up this long table of uh herbs. And then you you think I'm gonna say it wrong. But Martha says herbs instead of herbs. All right. And I don't know which is right or wrong. I've never said I think herbs is the British, isn't that the British? Maybe I say I'd never come to you and go, hey Jim, do you have any herbs? I didn't have any herbs. So but she would call them herbs. And this spot was about all the different herbs. Herbs. And the girls had set it up, and you know, this is this, this is this. So th when Martha came, the one of the girls would uh I'm sorry, I get off mic, one of the girls would um say, Martha, this is Uh cilantro, and we're and you're gonna show how it's used in these three dishes. And this is basil, and you're gonna show how it's used in the Italian foods. And Martha stopped her and said, That's not basil. And the um girl said, No, Mart Martha, that's basil. And the crew is like going, Guys, that's basil. And she said, Um, we will talk later when you are unemployed. And I went, Oh my goodness. She was tough. And I'm sure she's still tough. And I don't know if she actually unemp uh unemployed or fired the young lady. Well, I'm wondering if uh but she was corrected on the air, I believe, by Meredith Fiera. Oh. And I don't know why she did that, because she knows all this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

I'm thinking about uh a practical outlet. I mean, if she's anticipating two fellows showing up named Herb and Basil. Hello, Basil, then maybe she's right about that. I I don't know why.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

You know, occasionally you'd see something like that and you'd go, hmm. I mean, if it's coriander, I understand this. But I'm gonna tell you another great story about something like that. Bob Vila was on the show occasionally. Ah, yeah. This old house, great guy. Oh, yeah. And he was dev it was it was right at the beginning of winter, and he was demonstrating how you put this kind of plastic thing on your windows, okay, and then you heat heat, you take a hairdryer and shrink it so it sticks to the window. Okay. And we were rehearsing it and my associate director, uh Erica Levins, who is still on the show, she's been there forever, incredible woman. She's kept me honest for years. She looked at me and she goes, uh, that's not right. And I said, What do you mean it's not right? She goes, It doesn't go that way, it goes around the other way. It's backwards. So I said, Well, let's I guess we have to tell Bob. So Bob had a producer there, and we said, Bob, uh, you're you're doing it backwards. The plastic goes around the other way. And he went, Oh, yeah. I was just reading about it yesterday. I go, I go, wait a minute, wait a minute, Bob. I grew up watching you. Uh, you know, I loved your shows. You're an expert. He goes, I am not an expert. I was the host, and I'd always go to the person that I'm working with. Sure. But show me how you do that. Well, that's what a professional is. And I cracked up because I never really thought about it. I always felt, oh my God, he knows all this stuff. Um, and I I looked at Erica, I go, Boy, that's so funny that you knew how to do that with Windows.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Here's the thing: I mean, we are professionals, we're professors, but we learn so much from our students. Especially when it comes to technical digital stuff. My God, yes. There are times when I try to put a graphic up on the screen and say, I don't know how to do this. Do any of you geniuses know? And somebody walk up there and bing, bang, bong, there it is. So, you know, if you make the assumption that you know everything, that it actually is basal, but it isn't, then you're you're gonna be at a loss.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

You know? I agree. But I love I love those kind of things when when that happens. Um it's just so funny. Um I I'm trying to think of the guy, I never remember his name. I'm so sorry. We had a musician, uh Irish guy, red hair, obviously red hair, very famous now. I re not Ed Sheeran. Ed Sheeran, he's not Irish, but he's he's from Ipswich, England. Is that right? I didn't know that. He came to the Today Show and I believe it was his first appearance in the United States. And he played a three-quarter guitar. So it's it's usually for beginners. It's not very expensive, 75 cents. That's terrible. It's it's for beginners or kids. Okay. Right? Little tiny guitar. He's a big guy. Oh, I'm standing in front of him while he's rehearsing and I just got blown away by his music. And after he rehearsed, I said, You know, you're gonna be an enormous star. I said, and when you get older, when you when you become an enormous star, you're gonna be able to get a real guitar. And he said, I've always had this guitar, my parents gave it to me, and I'll always use it. And now every once in a while, when I see him performing, he still uses it. He's got a lot of guitars now.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Here's an interesting story about Ed Shearan. Ed Sheeran grew up in uh Suffolk, England, a big fan of the Ipswich Town Blues, who I pull for also. That's funny. Became a big rock star. Right. Contrary to the kind of the narrative we've been talking about, that you have to present this kind of glam image, and he's absolutely the opposite. He's a reinvention, I guess, of a grunge image, but not the same sort of uh personality and mentality. Um but he's now the sponsor of the Ipswich Town Blues. He's got his concert details on their jerseys. That's and he's got an honorary number on the roster for Ipswich Town.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Wow. Yeah. So God, that's great. He's a big guy. He was he was such I want to say he was a gentle guy. He was just a wonderful guy. And um we were really happy that we that he had him on the show. It's incredibly prolific. Taylor Swift's incredibly pro prolific.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

They can just come up with tunes and they craft them, and it's like bang.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

Well, you know, I'm a really big Beatles fan, and when they finished their first enormous tour, they went back and recorded an entire album in the studio in a week. Wow. And uh John was writing some of the songs while they were recording them. Yeah. So, you know, that I mean, that's they put out so much music. And I love to see artists like that who who are so talented that they can do that.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Yeah. I mean, uh from what I know about the Beatles, they would come up with a melody and just throw words in that have the right number of syllables. Yeah. Orange mom, a lot, you know, this kind of stuff. Um so just I I I don't have that gift at all, so I can't really uh identify gifts at all. So let me ask you this. When you have a cooking show in particular, and they go through all the prep and stuff like that, but they already have it already made. How does that happen with a morning show where they can actually show the finished product before they actually create it?

SPEAKER_00 27:45

They just take somebody out of the those those food stylists in the back are making everything. Oh my goodness gracious. I mean, we you have people in the back making stuff before they get there and having finished products and and sometimes halfway products so that they could start from the middle or whatever, you know. I've never done a whole cooking show, even though I think it would kind of be a good thing. You're a great cook. But I love to watch I love you are too, but I love to watch I love to watch cooking shows and stuff. Um you mentioned something before, which is kind of funny and technical for anybody who's who's listening that's into this stuff. Um before we were able to mount cameras on a grid and look straight down, um they used to put a mirror up there. Oh, so you can see behind it. And a camera would shoot up at the mirror and it would be pointing down at the food. Would you re-inverinvert it so it's not a left-handed cook if they're right-handed or just No, they didn't move them because every the the where they were working had to be in one spot no matter what it was. On the Today Show, we had a um a Merlin, we had a mini jib that can point down, that can go up high and point down, that can move and do things. That's why it was so much fun to do those. Okay, what was the most challenging setup? Not just for cooking, but the most challenging setups you have. For me, um music was a little challenging because bands are used to being in positions on a stage. Yeah, we talked about that alone. So we had to bring them in, we had to make sure that there this one's not blocking this one for shots. Because you had to compress that to for television. Yeah. Uh the only thing that was really, really challenging for me always was Broadway plays, dance dance, you know, dances, um, things because I really I really had to think h really hard about how it was going to look. And then I think I mentioned I think I mentioned once before about um some uh about uh a few choreographers, very few, who would re-choreograph uh a song or whatever they're gonna do for TV as opposed to when they were on stage. So for me, they were a little hard. I was always a little rusty with ballet, um, you know, things that I didn't know a lot about. We did a lot of Broadway stuff. We did a lot of Broadway stuff, and that was kind of most of the time it was redone. We we re we re-blocked it for TV a little bit at least.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Was there ever an a an occasion uh besides the the basil being thrown off the seventh floor balcony and it's just not being part of the dish? Did you ever have occasion where everything went right except for one little thing? Sure.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Was there an example of that you can share? Sure. I'm I'm I'm trying to think what what a good example of that might have been. I could think of a few. We I well here's and I don't mean to pick on audio because uh uh our main audio guys, uh Alex and Davey, were just some of the best in the business. But um I could remember like a whole spot going great and then one little mic wasn't open when you needed it. Right, exactly. Just and you'd go, oh, it was so perfect. And but you know what? That's what happens with live TV, and you have to adjust. I'm gonna tell a story about school for a second. Okay. That's kind of funny. Um, there's a young lady who here who she's about to graduate, she was in my multicamera class, and I told a story one day uh randomly in class, as I do often, about my when I was in college and I had to do my little final live directing uh uh pitch, and I told a story about how I had three cameras, they were black and white back then, and and I was all set and I had this whole little thing I was gonna do for for uh to be graded. And as I started it, my professor pulled one of my cameras so it went black, and I only had two cameras left, and I had to quickly think about how I was gonna do it. So that was intentional. It was intentional. He did it on purpose to see what we would do if something went wrong. So I had I so I told that story in class, and a couple weeks later, one of the girls was about to direct her a spot that she had put together with four cameras, now in color and 4K, and she had put this together, and I walked in and she had a little sticket note on the console in front of her. And I said to her, What's that? She goes, That's all the things I would do if you pulled any of the cameras. And I said, You don't I still have it on my desk. I love it. I said, You don't even have to do your spot. She goes, What? I go, You get an A for that. Oh, but she must have she said, I sat, I was satin sitting at my dorm room last night thinking, Oh my God, what if he pulls one of the cameras? And I went, Oh, how good is that? That is the kind of instinct we're trying to instill. Of course. But that's what it takes. You have to think of all the possibilities. What could go wrong? What and what would you do? Now, audio is a tough one. Um lighting, uh Howie Strawbridge was our lighting director who's an incredible guy, still a good buddy of mine. And um the whole studio went black once. What do you do? Right. You yell, Howie, what happened? You know, you can't plan for a major thing like that. But you could plan when a camera doesn't get to a mark they have to get to, or or somebody on camera is not in the right place, you know. And that's the thing you have to plan all the time for any spot you do, so that um what happens? Um we've had um what's his name? Um oh my god, I can't think of his name. I can never remember names real quick. Um uh comedian um oh my god, Jumanji. Okay. Uh who Robin Williams. God, I couldn't remember his name. Okay. Robin Williams got up from the interview area once and ran over and started standing at the home base desk. What do you do? You gotta do whatever he wants to do. And then he went to the window to wave at the crowd. I mean, you know, you you have to plan for things like that. What could possibly happen? Well, now with Robin Williams, you're gonna expect something crazy, you know. But um you gotta plan for that. What if somebody, you know, at the today's show, to the interview area was uh in a way that the people can look in the window right at the interview area. What if somebody says, starts waving at somebody or hey, that lady out there is doing you have to be able to get that shot. And a lot of people, I don't mean to be mean, so a lot of people don't plan for that and they don't get the shot. No.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

You know, and they blame it on just they didn't do what they're expecting to go. Of course.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

So you've got a plan in your head, you've got to have a plan for what happens if this happens. Part of that was born of your sports experience, though, Joe. It's unpredictable what shots you're gonna get and when. I think so. And um, my technical director of almost I mean, probably 25 years easily, uh Russ Ross, uh great name. Yeah, you got Carol Carroll and Russ Ross. Carol Lee Carroll and Russ Ross, we had a lot of great names. Um Russ came from he was a cameraman originally, he was my technical director on the Today Show, cameraman originally, so he knew how to frame cameras, he knew how to move cameras. He would never let a camera not do the right thing. But he worked on soap operas where they were, he was a cameraman on soap operas where they had to quickly do whole scenes. Right. So he knew what to do in certain situations when something happened. Um I also had I've talked about him. I had Jimmy Mott, who was a most of my guys were incredible, but I had uh guys like Jimmy Mott and and Rope, who you know his real name is Mart Yeager, um, who they would they would say, I'm moving, it's not gonna work here. And they would they would they would make you look good. Trevor Burrus And you would thank them. They say for the bigger. Of course you would. They would you'd you'd make them look good because they saw something you didn't see that you could probably couldn't have gotten in trouble with, you know.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

By the way, we're getting some comments from some of your colleagues, and I don't have uh uh immediate access to the Instagram page, uh, but we want to cover something and and thank everybody for the especially the reminiscing that they're they're putting up. I know it's kind of fun to hear from people. Oh, it's great. It's great. And thank you so much for being a part of that. Uh that's really why we're doing it. The the Today to one a podcast came from conversations Joe and I were having over the years in hallways, where Joe would say just some remarkable things about remarkable people. I said, Oh my gosh, we've got to record this, or you gotta write your memoir. So all that has a big role to play in this. We're running a little low on time. Okay. I think we do a whole show on Robin Williams, to be honest with you, if you just uh What a character.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Oh my gosh. We had a lot of um people that used to come to the show a lot. Um like Blood, Sweat and Tears, we used to call them the our our house band because they come all the time to the show and play. Um and some of them, you know, I uh they hang around with you too while they're there, you know, so it's kind of fun. It was fun to have people that you um you that you saw reg on a regular basis. Tony Bennett uh just was on the show so many times. I don't think I've told the story about Tony um at a um location wedding we did in the in the Bahamas. So I'll I'll tell that.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

We should have a music show.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

We should have a cooking show. Sure. We should have politics show. I'll be a little nicer to Martha becausea day.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

She's a business, she's a business person, so great respect uh for that. Okay, well, we will join you again on today to one a conversations with former Today show director Joe Michaels. Thanks for listening to Today to 1A, a podcast produced by yours truly, Jim Scott, with my amazing friend and colleague, Joe Michaels, former director of NBC's Today Show, plus Olympics coverage, political conventions, and more. We'll catch you next time on Today to One A.