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Today to 1A
From the control room to the green room, Joe Michaels has seen it all. In Today to 1A, the Emmy-winning director pulls back the curtain on five decades of live television—from the chaos of breaking news to the magic of morning shows. With behind-the-scenes stories, unforgettable moments, prominent personalities, and a few well-timed cues, Joe reflects on a career that shaped how America watched TV—one live shot at a time. Live from Studio 1A... all the way to today.
Today to 1A
Episode 13: Joe's Top Five Today Show Guests
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In this episode, former Today Show Director Joe Michaels picks his Top Five Guests, from a director's perspective. Who made the the biggest and best impression on Joe, himself? Give a listen and find out.
By the way, our regular podcast studio is under construction, so please forgive the relatively lower quality of the audio.
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...
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.
SPEAKER_01I can't believe that we have uh been through exam weeks and conferences and everything, so it took a little bit to get back to do this.
SPEAKER_00It took me probably half an hour to fight through the crowds, the angry crowds outside, demanding our presence. And I apologize to everybody.
SPEAKER_01There's only one person that I know that listens to this that demands new episodes, and that's Glen Adamo. Happy birthday to Glenodama. He and his wife were in um in Italy and he sent me a note. Um, I need a new podcast. I need to listen to something. And it was pretty funny, and I I I get such a kick out of that. Glenn, we love you dearly, but if if you find yourself in Italy, just go see Italy.
SPEAKER_00Excuse me, Pope. Uh I can't go listen to this podcast. No, I have to it's it's wonderful to have uh Glenn alongside here. He might be, you know, one of our three musketeers here. Um so I want to start a new feature on the show today. Yeah. Uh Joe's top five. And it can be top five anything. Okay. Um, most of which would happen on the show, but I don't just want the top five guests from a viewer perspective. I want the top five whatever from your perspective, be the top five uh episodes, the top five guests, the top five events, top five things that go nuts, you know, stuff like that. Uh so what are you thinking about for today? I would like to get some kind of an idea about the people you really love to see show up at the show. So the top five guests uh from the director's perspective.
SPEAKER_01I will tell you that we had a show that the top five people in that show, the five people in that particular show, were incredible people. All at once. I'm not gonna talk about that today. Um you can't do this. I will give you a hint. Okay. It was Brian Gumbel's last day on the show. Oh, you told us a little bit about that. And I mentioned a little bit of it, but one day we should talk more about that one because that was just when you because you just mentioned what would be your top five shows. Right. That probably would be up there with uh one of my top five shows.
SPEAKER_00How many different, if you have just to guess, and I'll put you on the spot here, how many different anchors or personalities did you work with in your twenties and a lot of years?
SPEAKER_01So the main anchors, the main two anchors, uh when I got there were um Brian Gumble and X, because Deborah Norble had just left the show.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01And uh prior to Deborah it was um Jane Paulie. So when I got there, there was no second host that was permanent. Okay. And we went through a period of time where um I I guess you can call it an audition, but different people filled in until um until they decided who the full-time host was, which at that point became Katie Cirk. Okay. So my first run through at the show with a permanent host was uh Katie and Brian. And then Katie and Matt Flower. And then let's see if I can remember everybody, but um I told you, I was putting it on the spot. Yeah, then Katie left and um uh I can't think of what it was right away. I think we had some more fill-in people. Okay. Um and it and it progressed uh through. Um Meredith Vieira, I think, became the next full-time host. Uh Aunt Curry became a host, Savannah. Uh there were some in-between people that filled in, obviously. Um Natalie Morales, there were a lot of people, uh Margaret Larson, who is an incredible woman. Right. Um, and she was uh just an incredible lady. So I think I think over the years we had um we had a lot of kind of gray areas where people were kind of filling in before they got the job. Right. Um same thing goes true, and I know it's not today's subject, but same same thing goes true with executive producers. Um, if you count one of them who came who became executive producer twice, um, I believe while I was there, we we had nine different executive producers. Wow. So which is uh you know incredible. The longest one was Jeff Zucker, who um is a buddy and just an incredible, incredible man, who um at a very, very young l age in his twenties, became the executive producer of the Today show. Um basically brought the show to number one for a lot of years, and then he became uh vice president of entertainment for NBC, president of MBC, and then president of CNN. Wow. So he he was the he was a real d driving force in the uh ratings that the today's show got for many years.
SPEAKER_00It's not our place to continue to add to the buzz about Savannah. But you mentioned her name, and I just wanted to put out there I've never met her, but I admire her courage. Yeah, I do too.
SPEAKER_01But I know from your perspective you have a uh you know a friendship and just uh just a wonderful woman, and it's a very sad I mean it's it you know, it it's obviously unsolved still at this moment, right? Um and it it to me it's just incredibly sad.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I I didn't want to add to the the overall, but that it has its own place and it's all over the place, but uh our hearts go out to the Guthrie family. Um so gosh, that's a lot of different people to have to to adapt to or to optimize.
SPEAKER_01And you know, everybody's got their different styles. Um I remember Merit, uh we're gonna go off on this, but I remember Meritier's first day was the first day we were in HD. Um, and she was very worried about the way she looked. And she said, um actually she wasn't worried about the way she looked, she was worried about how we thought she looked, because she said, you know, whatever it is, whatever the way I look is the way I look. And um it was oddly enough, I believe it was the first day that the makeup women used spray makeup, and um it it was it was quite a thing to go on the air in HD, which looked different than the regular SD.
SPEAKER_00There was a real transition and in my experiences in television, I would I think I told you this, I would often leave the studio with forgetting that I had this stuff on, and and it looked uh that that obvious. But when HD came on, there was a clear difference between the stuff.
SPEAKER_01And for me, it was a big difference too, because the the way you frame cameras was different, and we were very lucky that our set kind of worked with HD because now you've got uh uh you know an eighth more video on either side of an SD picture that I did not realize. So now you're gonna see more in a set piece than you would um in in in regular standard definition. So the ratio was was different, sure. It's 16 by 9 and uh 16 by 9, 16 by 10. See, that's what I'm used to. And SD was four by three. And for quite a while, I want to say, I may be wrong with this, but I want to say probably a year, we um uh the camera guys would put little tape lines on their cameras because we had to broadcast in both SD and HD, uh 16 by 9. And um, I believe Saturday Night Live for the for NBC, that might they made a bit might have been the first show that actually letterboxed.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, forgive me for not realizing that and remembering it. It obviously, yeah, we grew up with basically square television, so we went to rectangular, right? Uh, for lack of a better definition. Right. Uh you're right. And in a lot of my favorite shows and movies, either somebody was cropped out of the scene or it just looked strong.
SPEAKER_01A lot of the um a lot of the channels now that have the old shows on them will try to zoom in a little, but you'll notice the headroom on people is really shallow, or you things get cut off. Um, so we went through that period of time, and uh, thanks to people like Bucky Gunts, who who helped design the studio when it first was put together, um, nobody thought we were gonna end up in 16 by 9, but the studio actually shot pretty well in 16 by 9, and we didn't have to really move much around. Some shows had to completely redesign their sets. Um, I think the Tonight Show had some problems with it. Um, a lot of shows had to redesign their sets so that they can shoot it the same way.
SPEAKER_00Doesn't it bother you when you see all these videos online? And I think it's the older people that hold their phone vertically rather than horizontally when they shoot these videos, not realizing that you know, to turn it sideways is how you get to 16. Yeah, exactly. I have a human letterbox in my nephew James, who just started the local TV station. He's 6'6, and his co-anchors are about uh foot shorter. So I look at this scene, I'm like, I these Yeah, and you know what?
SPEAKER_01It's uh you know, when even here at school, when we uh or any place I've I've worked, when you have more than one person on a set, um you need to keep them kind of level. Right. So even here at school, um, in our set, when they do the news, for instance, we have chairs that are different heights, so everybody kind of looks equal. Right. Because it's really hard to frame with somebody like you who is very tall and somebody like me who's sitting next to you. How do you frame that and how does it look good? I would do uh stand-ups with particular people. They stand on the box. They would boxes steps to it. On a letter box? Exactly. I mean, one of the people I'm gonna mention today um probably makes his movies with a lot of letter letter uh boxes. They're called Apple boxes. Um and uh I know you want to talk about five people, but no, we can and one of them I we could start with him because it's kind of funny. All right, well, let me do the intro. Okay. Joe's top five.
SPEAKER_00Okay, now we're now. Uh we got it. Okay, so today's the top five's uh all right, there you go. Echo. Um, top five guests from the director's perspective on the today's show over your 20 plus years.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I've just thought about five people that I really enjoyed personally on the show. Um, and I'm not including correspondents. Okay. In other words, these are people these are they are basically celebrities, right? As opposed to correspondents.
SPEAKER_00I mean, not even celebrities, because you you often have you know people like Val, the security officer if you're from Hypocrine. Okay, so that's a problem.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna tell you a quick story.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01When um when my wife and I moved to Connecticut, and my wife became very good friends with a woman who was in our neighborhood, and she was over the house one day, and she said, uh, when I met her, she said, Do you remember me? And I said, Um, I'm so sorry. I I I don't know that we've ever met. She said, Well, we really haven't met, but my husband and I were on the show, on the Today Show about six or seven years ago. I said, Oh, really? What were you doing? She said, Well, we were actually at home in Michigan, and it was a remote to your show to talk about young married couples and their finances. And I used a line that Joe Garaggioli years ago used to a man who walked up to him and said, Um, hey, do you remember me? Oh, yeah. And Joe said, How can I forget? And it's kind of like even in those days, this today's show is only two hours, but we had a ton of segments and a ton of people. So how do I remember six years ago a remote that came into the show with two people from Michigan talking about their finances? And I mean, she's a wonderful woman. And um, I went to her. I'm so sorry, I can't remember yesterday. Well, um, that means you were successful at making them feel like a person. Well, you you know, oh, this woman, she I believe my wife and her are still good friends, and she's a really great lady. But it's funny when people come up to you and say, you know, I was on the Today show in 1998, yeah, and I was doing such and such, um, a regular segment, a regular person, and um they they wonder why you can't remember them, and I go, Oh my good God, I don't re when I was knee deep in the show, especially when it went to three hours. I the next day I'd forget a few of the segments we did the day before, you know.
SPEAKER_00Well, here's the thing, from their perspective, that was a moment in history in their lives that they will never ever forget. So from their perspective, right? I I encountered the same thing when I encountered people I met at at the the stadiums in the in the ball games, and that's what we did. And they would introduce themselves, and I would try to eat I couldn't recall their names. Hopefully, my wife is there, so what I'll do is, oh, have you met my wife Amanda? And then hopefully they'll introduce themselves. Right.
SPEAKER_01So the best way to do it, yeah. Steve, yeah, hey, so you know, that kind of stuff. So the one that I was just thinking about, who um I later on uh uh talked to quite a quite a few times was Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise came the first couple times he came on the show, he was an actor. I really love the guy, and um he uh I just liked the way he talked about his movies, and you know, he really is intense on how he produces movies. But the one time I thought about is when he called Matt Lauer out. Um he actually told him he didn't know what he was talking about. It was a really shouting match, and um, I'm not gonna tell anything too far out of school, but a couple months later, he uh there was a Friars Club uh dinner for Matt. And it had a lot, there were about 2,000 people in the room. It was in the uh Hyatt um, I'm sorry, the Hilton on Sixth Avenue, and it was an enormous ballroom, and it was closed to the public completely, but there were a lot of people there. And the night before Cruz calls me and says, Um, I want to surprise Matt. And I said, uh, are you guys okay? He goes, He's putting you on the spot. I go ahead, I go, Are you guys okay? And he said, We're okay. We've talked since then. I apologize for yelling and at him on the air. Let's back it up here. So let's get a little particulars here. So what he called him out on drugs on um drug use, basically. Um the fact that you didn't need to have to take drugs to be in a good mental place. Okay, gotcha. And he really went off on him. Okay. I mean, off on him. It's on YouTube for anybody who wants to see it. Yeah, and thanks for telling me. He had gone off on Oprah, too, I believe, within the same time period. So what ended up happening is he hid under my table. There was a table of about eight of us, and we were really right in the podium. Tom Cruise is hiding under your right in front of the podium, and he hid under the table, and actually Howard Stern was sitting right behind me, and he banged on my shoulder and went, Who's under there? And I went, Shh. And at some point, Tom jumped out from underneath and said, Laura, you don't know what you're talking about, and went off on him. And it was very funny, and they became very good friends. Um, but he was like, just, you know, it's like I always loved his movies, and I thought he was a great guy. So for me, I I have to I have to confess, I'm not I'm not a guy that like is into celebrities. I don't I don't follow careers, I don't go, oh my god, I'd love to meet so and so. Because you saw the human sign of everybody. And I just thought about one person I didn't want to meet that I uh didn't include in my five. But um it's kind of funny. It's just kind of funny the um the way guests came on the show, and sometimes things like that happened, you know.
SPEAKER_00Um I've heard so much about Tom, I've never met him up, but um, I I hear that he is just a load of energy. Yeah, you could see it.
SPEAKER_01And now um to see his movies where he does all his stunts himself. Right. I mean, the last movie where my God he jumped off a mountain practically, and you know, I think it's uh you know, it's just incredible. So so that was one of those people that I can remember that I go, yeah, that's really cool. And then following up with the Friars Club. Well, let me back you. How did you sneak him in there? Um, they he came in early before as the crowd was coming in and just milled in and got up under the table. It just jumped under the table. It's pretty funny. I wish there were a video of it. I believe there is, but I don't believe it's public because there were a lot of things that happened that day that were um that were really, really funny.
SPEAKER_00Did you let everybody at the table know that there's another person on the table?
SPEAKER_01I I believe, if my memory's right, I believe everybody who's at the table knew he was under there. I think we just said don't, don't, don't. Was it was he provided with a plate dinner while he's under there?
SPEAKER_02I don't know. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Um so another guy that was on the show a lot, and um I really only got to meet him once, but I loved when he was on the show, was Jeff Colblum. He would come early. The next two people I'm talking about are very similar. He would come early to the show, probably sit in the green room a little. Um, where I probably that's probably where I said hi to him. And then during the show before his segment, he would stand in the studio and just watch the show a little. But he would go during commercials, he would go up to each camera person and stage manager and introduce himself. Say, What's your name? Hi, I'm Jeff. And uh, you know, you're on camera here, you know. And he would he was just just wanted to talk to people and just was a really nice guy.
SPEAKER_00You talk about a dynamic guy, yeah. His roles are all everything he can do, even to a commercial, his commercials are unique.
SPEAKER_01It's still Jeff Goldblow, right? But it is the character that he has created out of that. Isn't that crazy? So he was one of those people that even the crew loved when he was there because he would come up and talk to them. And be he's a just a great person, you know. So the other person who's like that um was Dustin Hoffman. He would he would not only come to the show, uh, he loved coming on the show, um, and he would normally come on the show when he was uh, you know, promoting a movie or something, but he would come on the show and he would um first of all, he would bring the crew breakfast. He would have a little catered breakfast for the crew. Um, not us in the control room, but for the crew, which is really cool when you think about it. But you you you find the crew then and if he did his interview after his interview, he would stay and insert himself into like a cooking spot and he'd stand there and and like have fun with Martha Stewart and stuff. You know, it's it's just one of those guys where you go, wow, he's a really good guy, you know. And if Martha dropped her toothpick, she could tell exactly how many of them. Um so I I I think when I think about people that have been on the show, Jeff uh Goldberg uh Goldblum and he were the two that kind of like to hang out and talk to the crew and just really, really, really good guys.
SPEAKER_00Um You talk about framing. If you had if you had Goldblum and Hoffman the same shot, you'd have to have like two cameras. Yeah, one down there.
SPEAKER_01Seriously, yeah. Well, we mentioned Howard Stern. I Howard Stern is much taller than you, and you're very tall. So uh it is kind of crazy. So another guy that came to the show, I'm gonna I'm saving the last one because it's somebody I wanted to really. Right now, I guess we had three of them. So you got Tom Cruise and Jeff Goldblum and Dustin Hoffman. Right. So I uh the next one that I can think of um was kind of fun, and I'm gonna um I'm saving the last one just because it's somebody I wanted to meet. Um, but the next one um uh was is actually a host was host of his own show, and there was a week where he and Katie Curric changed jobs. So Katie became the host of the tonight show and Jay Leno became the colanker. Ah and it was really, really cool, but a few things about it that that just struck me so strange. And just like the other two I just mentioned, um I I mean I don't I didn't get to know Jay, but working with him, he was a real actual just a buddy. He was like your buddy. And when I met him, he was gonna do this race around the plaza outside the studio in a little race car, and he came in the night before to test it out. And he was actually the first thing that happened is when they introduced me to him, he looked at me and he said, Um, so I'm supposed to take direction from a man in a pink sweater. And I looked at you were known for your sweater. I was I looked at him and I said, Um, tell me you don't have one at home. And he went, Well, you got me. So it was kind of fun. But he was gonna ride this race car around the plaza, and he got in the car and tested it, and he was actually racing it around where the crowd would be. And I I in the back of my head, I can't remember if we actually did it. I think we did, but it wasn't the way he wanted to do it because he would have killed people in the crowd. Right, right. I mean, it was pretty funny. So he was the next morning, was his like the Monday show. He's gonna be the co-host. And what I noted, which would be like you or I, he was really nervous. It was out of his element to read a prompter and to read the scripts for a morning show was not in his wheelhouse.
SPEAKER_00See, that I want to do a show or or a study or something about that about stage fright, because it is one thing, it's one thing that students really want to help with. And the other thing is I really want to cut through to see um if if these great stars still have that sense of adrenaline and hormone release that I still do. I think that's a good idea.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna go back before the today show for a second. When I was in college, I promoted I was like the student. Programming person for concerts and lectures and movies and stuff on campus. And we had Warren Beatty come on onto campus and he was frightened to get in front of a live one. Yeah, it doesn't surprise me. He was frightened. Especially with film actors that have a controlled environment for these things. Um so Jay was very much out of his element. Um and it was the first time I'd ever seen that. I I never realized, I never thought about it. I mean, I teach a class in on camera performance, and I I mean I used some of what I learned back then in that class. I never realized that somebody like Jay, who can ad live a tonight show for the most part, could in a on a morning show reading his script was not his thing. Some people are not good readers. I mean, we had Ryan Seacrest um with us for a week at the Olympics in London for the today show at the Olympics. And Ryan, uh who's an incredible person, had trouble with the prompters. Right. And and basically he just said, I I'm gonna read it and put it in my own words, which he did, and he did it brilliantly. That is that he did it brilliantly.
SPEAKER_00If you have the opportunity to review this, Chris, my gosh, absolutely. Because there are things that you don't sound like, yeah, or they're incomplete or whatever.
SPEAKER_01So so um, so Jay was a real treat on the show, um, and trying to keep up with the the the pacing of a morning show and stuff.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's interesting because Jay's a uh uh a West Coast guy, yeah. And to do, I guess, an East Coast morning show, my gosh, he would have started from the equivalent of midnight.
SPEAKER_01You know, when you think about the show too, um, that's a different audience. So people who didn't watch the tonight show got to watch Jay in the morning. By the way, this happened with Dick Emberg years ago. Do you remember Dick Emberg's sports announcer, right? Incredibly wonderful gentleman. He was he hosted the show for a week, and he I believe he stayed up at the Plaza Hotel and he'd walk down in the morning. And after like the second or third day, because I had worked with Dick in sports, I said, You're getting used to this? He goes, You know what I'm not getting used to? He said, All those years I've been the voice of the you know, so many teams and now NBC Sports. He said, I I'm on camera for less than a minute during a game. Right. He said, I've done the Today show for three days, and when I'm walking back to the hotel, everybody's stopping me. He goes, he goes, I've never had that happen to me before. And I went, it's really the power of a TV show, of especially a morning TV show.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01See, I thought that the people you encourage people to watch the late television so they'd wake up with a well that was the original that was the original concept of the today show, the tonight show, and the tomorrow show. Um that gotcha before we had clickers, we used to call them, to change the channels. Right. Uh, if you put the tonight show on at night before you went to bed, when you got up in the morning, you turned the TV on and the today show would be on. So you would keep that viewership on your network uh for 24 hours.
SPEAKER_00Here's something that happened dramatically in radio broadcasting. In the years we had Arbitron Diaries that people would fill out physical diaries. Right. Remember. When we went to people meters, we found out that morning drive was not the dominant ratings period. It was, but it wasn't. Afternoon drive was. Yeah. And speculation was when these morning shows on TV really became into vogue that a lot of the audience uh migrated towards those on television, and they didn't really take that into account in the mornings.
SPEAKER_01Jim, we've got we went crazy for years with the today's show to make sure the video looked great, the set looked beautiful, the graphics were gorgeous. And when you really think about a morning show, it's it's radio with pictures. Right. You're you're you're um you're getting dressed, you're getting the kids off to school. And and I used to say the only way people actually turn and look at the show is when some they hear something that interests them. Not saying that you shouldn't make a beautiful show on TV, but a morning show is very different than most shows. It's uh it really is a radio show with pictures.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, there's not a story arc, it's it's segments and things like that. So yeah, absolutely. It's on in the in the background, a lot of ways.
SPEAKER_01So the last person that I uh uh I'm a at a six, by the way. Let me ask you, did you ever get a chance to get a Leno's garage? No, I've been there. I've been to the some of the things in Vegas and stuff. I've never been to his his garage in LA.
SPEAKER_00I enjoy I'm not a car guy. I'm a car guy. He's not just a collector. No, he understands every screw, nut, and bolt.
SPEAKER_01I believe he works on them, right? I mean I I think so. I think I I've I've read about that. Um, I know that I actually have seen him in LA drive by in a car because he he drives his cars around LA. Yeah. I've actually seen him on the street. Um, not that I yelled at him or anything, but uh he wouldn't remember me. But it it is kind of funny. So the last person is somebody I always wanted to meet, just because I just loved his acting, um, was Harrison Ford. And um he he was not on, I don't believe he did the show live the the time I'm thinking about it, probably one of the first times he's on the show. But we were gonna do a post tape, and for those anybody who's listening who doesn't understand that, we used to do a lot of pre-tapes and post-tapes to to record things to roll into the show. And a lot of celebrities who were on uh uh a circuit to promote a movie would come to maybe Good Morning America, they'd be live, and then they come over to the today's show and record a segment for the next day. Okay, and it was as live, it looked live. A lot of people at home probably didn't realize that certain segments were were not live. But um, I had said to Katie Curry, um we have you're gonna interview Harrison for today. I always wanted to meet him. I think he's you know, I love watching the movies. So he comes in the studio and I run upstairs from the control room to just to meet him. And what I noticed right away uh when I shook his hand is he, and I don't know if those of you who who watch his movies, obviously, he has this little thing he does with his mouth, and I can't do it, but he has this little like I don't know what you would call it, this little thing with his mouth that makes a little funny gesture. And when I shook his hand, it said he said hi to me, he did that. And I realized he's not he wasn't acting when he does that. That's just a habit. That's the way he does things. Um, but I just always wanted to meet him, and he seemed like just a really, really nice, gentle man. He's his later shows have really shown uh a sense of empathy. So the only other person I'm gonna add is six because I forgot about extra credit. Whenever this guy came on the show, I would always say to the stage managers, because our control room was downstairs on the floor behind the studio. So the studio was on the corner, it still is, uh, which used to be a bank. So you were in the basement. So we were in the basement, and um all the all the technical stuff was in the basement, um, and um because some of the green rooms are downstairs and stuff. But um I would always say to the stage manager when this guy came on, if he's got a second, can he come down and say hi? I do it occasionally with different people. And um he he can't he would come down full of energy, uh, all of like five five, five, six, and he would come over and he would just smile and shake my hand really vigorously, right? And it was Jackie Chan. And I always just wanted to meet him because they he just looked like a photo. I was thinking Robin Williams. So I would say stuff to him, and he'd go, yeah, yeah, and he would shake my hand, and then we we'd give it a little hug and then he'd leave. And I realized in it, I saw an interview later on, many years later, because he'd come down three or four times over a couple of years. I realized he really didn't speak English. So when I was talking to him and he was going, yeah, yeah, he didn't really, probably didn't understand what he did a movie, I think it was, where he actually learned English for interviews and stuff. But but this was way before that. So I never realized how much he understood or not. After I saw that, he actually started taking lessons. Uh and it was pretty funny. There's another there's another guest that I can't think of her name, and it's gonna kill me. Um I had this thing for years, and I used to joke to stage managers whenever we did spots on the royal family, uh, because I love the royal family. I always I was always a big uh royal follower, and um, I always wondered why the Queen of England uh had a pocketbook wherever she went. And I I the the it's too bad I can't remember this celebrity's name, but nobody seemed to tell me. I go, she doesn't need money, she doesn't need credit cards. Angela Lansbury. No, it wasn't Angela Lansbury, but um what why in God's name does the queen always have a pocketbook? So this a British actress was on the show, and I'm sorry, I can't remember her name right offhand, and I said to the stage managers, if she's got a second, can she come down to the control room? I really have a question I'd like to ask her. So she comes down to the control room and she said, Who wanted to ask me a question? I raised my hand, she comes over, and I said, I you may be the only person I could think of that can really answer this question. Why would the Queen of England always have a pocketbook? And she said, That's really easy. I go, I've been crazy over like the last couple of years, um uh trying to figure this out because we had done shows near in Buckingham Palace, and she said, Well, that's really easy. She has dog biscuits in it for her dogs. I went, Oh my god, that's so funny. So the idea of for me personally of having get a chance to meet some people um who uh you know, when we whenever we were to hear spots, um, I'd get to meet the people that we were working with. But when they're coming for an interview, I didn't really get to meet them. Um I'm not on the same floor, even. Sure. So those few people that I've mentioned and probably a few more were kind of fun to meet. And I as I said, I'm not like one of those people that go, I have to meet somebody. But I will tell you a last story. Um, I always wanted to meet this person, and this was not the today show. It was a um it was a I believe it was an NFL football pre-game halftime show that I was directing. And Ahmad Rashad was the host. And I had must have said because I traveled a lot with Ahmad, and I must have said something about this person to him, and he went, Oh I know. I go, Really? Oh god, I'd love to meet him someday. So we're uh I we hadn't talked about it in a while. And I'm in the control room, and this is over in 30 Rock. I'm trying to guess before. Literally, it's feet away from the con the studio. So Maud during a commercial break comes in and he goes, Oh, when you get a second come in the studio, I got I got a guest that I want you to meet. Was his nickname Broadway? No.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01Broadway Joe, you're talking about I worked with him. That's a whole that's a whole program, probably. He used to call me Slow Joe. So I I just hung out. He was just an incredibly wonderful man to work with. That's good to me. Um, and um, oh my god, I Joe Namath was just incredible. Well, I'll do a top five sports series, but go ahead and see what's going on. Oh, yeah, we can do that easily. So we get a break, and I walk in the studio, and there's a man sitting in a folding chair next to the anchor desk. And I walk to the side, and Ahmad goes, Hey, I'd love you to meet our director. And this man turned and looked up at me with his glasses way down on his nose, and he went, Howdah, F area. And it was Jack Nicholson. Jack's a lot of and I said, Don't say anything else. That's all I needed. That's perfect. So I kind of remember that too. So Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, the same show. I think we've uh Yeah, I think we had a few. But you know what? I I I always felt that our stage managers, Mark Mark Traub was our main stage manager for all those years. Even when uh before I got there and when I left. Right. He was the he was the main stage manager for many, many, many years. He passed away a couple years ago. Um, just an incredible guy and an incredible friend of mine. But I always said to him, God, you get to meet everybody. I said, You're up there with everybody, no matter who's on the show, you're there talking to them. Right. You know, you're bringing them in, you're talking to them, calming them down, that kind of thing. Um, I got another quick story. You ready? Feel free. So we had Sarah Palin on the show, and I'm gonna have to explain this a little. She was not the host, but she would was gonna be a guest interviewer. Right. So Bryant and I believe it was Katie, um might have been Meredith, they were they opened the show at the news desk, the main uh the main desk, the home base desk. And Sarah Palin was sitting in the interview area to interview the first guest. And so uh a lot of people who watch TV, especially shows like that, know that the talent have a little earpiece in their ear called an IFP. It's an interrupt, so they can hear program in there, right? But the producer and I could both talk in their ear if we need to tell them something. Right. So I notice that that uh their the talent at home base are about to wrap up and throw to Sarah to do this first interview, and I noticed she was very fidgety, she's in her chair moving around and just bouncing around. Because anybody would be. And she was nervous, and I used to use IFBs for fun or for no good. So I held the button down in her ear, and I held the button down in Matt's ear, and I said, Hey Matt, she is Sarah Palin is such a nice and beautiful woman. And she said, I can hear that. I go, I know, I just wanted to help you calm down a little. And she said, Give me more, give me more. So it was kind of fun to to use the I of B to talk to people and and just have a good time. And to see people, you know, as human beings.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's so important.
SPEAKER_01She did a great job that day. The only person that will tell you how much he hates I of Bs was Al Roker, because he'd be in the middle of a weather broadcast and I would talk in his ear. Yeah, and I would say things like, Oh, you are horrible. That's terrible, and and kind of yell in his ear.
SPEAKER_00I gotta be honest with you, Joe, when I do uh sports stuff, especially on the bigger venue, is I have a clear comment in my left uh ear, and I can't cut it off because constant shatters. Yes. Now they'll be engaged with what they're doing, what I'm doing, particularly segments like opening lineups and stuff like that. But it is just Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, and you never know when it's gonna pop in.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it's great for a producer to give you information, yeah, and it's great or to stop you, you know. Um you have a four-minute interview, and two minutes in it's over. Right. And the producer will go wrap it up, go to commercial. Or for me, hey, I'm going to camera three next. You know, stand by to turn to camera three, or I'm gonna roll this tape. It's you know, IFBs are really wonderful. I come from a time where there were no IFBs, there was a phone in the control room. Just gestures and a phone. Just gestures. No, that we actually had telephones in the control room and a telephone on the set. I remember those. And you had to wait until commercial to talk to the person on a closed line telephone. So when IFBs came, they were incredible, you know, they were incredible help.
SPEAKER_00I had something similar in radio. Every now and then someone would forget to close a microphone pod or a phone pod. And yeah, I I wanted to alert them, but I knew if I called in, then I would be part of this shit.
SPEAKER_01I won't go into the what I said, but Natalie Morales was interviewing some with somebody one day, and I hit the IFB to tell her something, and the key got stuck. So she did the entire interview with my voice in her ear, not going ready to take two, ready three, take three. Just me going ready to take two. That lady doesn't know what she's talking about. And and Natalie, when the when we hit commercial, Natalie said, You know, I heard you the whole time. And I go, Oh my god, my key was stuck. I'm so sorry. She goes, I I almost broke out laughing many times because of what you were saying. And I went, Oh my god, I gotta be so careful with the IFs. So that's uh the IFB stories can be very fun. We'll have to do a segment on there's unwanted audio.
SPEAKER_00There's lots of audio, there's lots of uh stories about that. I know. Joe, this is great. We need to wrap it up, but uh I love the top five concept. Um, if anybody wants to know top five events, whatever from the today's show, go ahead and put it in the comments uh sure as we put this on social media. Sure. Um did you tell Harrison Ford that you loved him? No. And did he say I know? No. Okay, just want you.
SPEAKER_01Um, the only man that I've ever talked to about that was Al Roker, who would say to me, I love you more than a man should love another man. And I go, that is the creepiest thing you've ever said to me. But he said that to me a lot for fun. That's great. We will leave it at that.
SPEAKER_00This is today to one a conversations with former Today Show director, legendary, even though he won't admit it, 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 1A.
