A Collection of SNL Interviews and a Bill Hader Interview You (Mostly) Haven't Read Before

Like many other pop culture journalists, the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live caused me to sit back and consider how much I’ve written about the sketch comedy series over the years.

The answer? A lot.

On the night of the actual 50th anniversary extravaganza, I posted on Facebook a list of all of the cast members I’d interviewed, citing where those interviews appeared, but I decided that it might be nice to actually pull together all of those links, add a few more that I’d forgotten, and include an additional list of other SNL-related folks I’ve talked to over the years.

So I found the links to every interview that’s actually online properly or via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, but one of the interviews in question - or, more specifically, an excerpt of that interview - is only available in a book. This seems like a good opportunity to share the interview in its entirety…and I’ll even make it available to everyone to read at no charge!

Cast Members:

• Dan Aykroyd (A.V. Club)

• Chevy Chase (Bullz-Eye)

• Garrett Morris (A.V. Club)

• Laraine Newman (Bullz-Eye)

• Al Franken (Decider)

• Paul Shaffer (Popdose / Vanity Fair)

• Gilbert Gottfried (A.V. Club)

• Matthew Laurance (That Thing They Did)

• Gary Kroeger (That Thing They Did)

• Jim Belushi (Decider)

• Martin Short (The Virginian-Pilot)

• Joan Cusack (Bullz-Eye)

• Anthony Michael Hall (Bullz-Eye)

• Jon Lovitz (Bullz-Eye)

• Kevin Nealon (Bullz-Eye / The Virginian-Pilot)

• Rob Schneider (Bullz-Eye)

• Tim Meadows (Bullz-Eye / IndieWire)

• Norm Macdonald (Bullz-Eye)

• Michael McKean (A.V. Club)

• Chris Elliott (Bullz-Eye / The Dissolve)

• Jim Breuer (Bullz-Eye)

• David Koechner (Bullz-Eye)

• Chris Kattan (Bullz-Eye)

• Ana Gasteyer (A.V. Club)

• Maya Rudolph (A.V. Club interview that was never finished because she had to get off the abruptly and NBC - or, more likely, her personal publicist - never got me back on the phone with her despite repeated requests, but I’m including it on this list because I’m still a little annoyed about the whole thing)

• Fred Armisen (The Dissolve)

• Will Forte (Decider)

• Rob Riggle (Bullz-Eye)

• Bill Hader (Airplane! book – he’s a huge ZAZ fanboy)

• Tim Robinson (Decider)

Writers:

• Dave Atell (Virginian-Pilot)

• Hannibal Buress (Virginian-Pilot)

• Carol Leifer (A.V. Club)

• Bruce McCulloch (Rhino)

• Adam McKay (Vanity Fair / Airplane! book)

• John Mulaney (Vanity Fair)

• Conan O’Brien (Antenna Free TV)

• Bob Odenkirk (Bullz-Eye)

• Adam Resnick (Vulture)

• Simon Rich (LateNighter)

• Michael Schur (Bullz-Eye)

• Robert Smigel (That Thing They Did, although there’s much more than this that I’ve yet to transcribe)

• John Swarzwelder (Antenna Free TV, and it was only a one-sentence quote, but when you’re talking about John Swarzwelder, IT GODDAMNED WELL COUNTS)

• Bryan Tucker (Vulture)

And just because we talked about it in his Random Roles interview, I’d be remiss if I didn’t offer up an honorable-mention inclusion of Elliott Gould:

AVC: You came back to the show to appear in the first Five-Timers Club sketch, but then you were absent for the one they did recently.

EG: I was. I made an error with that. They wanted me to do the Five-Timers Club with Justin Timberlake, but I’m working out here doing Ray Donovan, and I worked until 1 in the morning that Friday night and was preparing for a big scene, my first with Jon Voight, that I had to have memorized. So I opted not to go in. But I wish I had. It was so great. I’m sorry I didn’t. I could’ve gone, and I should’ve gone, but I said to Lorne, “I hope you have me again, because I’ll come next time.”

Okay, so on to that interview I referenced in the intro, which - as I totally gave away in the title of this piece - is with Bill Hader. When I did the interviews for the Airplane! book, I submitted them to the guys (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker) in Q&A form, and then they utilized the segments they needed within the format of the book. Now, however, you can see the conversation as it actually happened…starting with the cheesy header I included in the word doc where I tried to make it resemble the logo of Barry.

Do you remember the first time you saw Airplane!?

Bill Hader: I just remember it being on television. Edited. [Laughs.] Yeah, so I probably saw it edited for the first time, which is kind of a different experience. And then I remember watching it unedited when I was probably about 10 at my grandparents' house. My grandparents lived next door to us, and I was by myself, and I just remember that, even at that age, I knew it was an anomaly. I was, like, "Why is this so funny? Why does this work so well?" It was the first time I'd seen something like that, something that was that wacky, where it just seemed like the people acting in it weren't comedians or weren't in on the joke. And around the time I saw that movie was also when I saw This Is Spinal Tap for the first time, so I feel like those two experiences made it so that I went, "Oh, that's the way you should perform comedy: without a wink to the audience. So that the people in the movie don't know they're in a funny movie." I just thought it was phenomenal.

And yet they had to fight incredibly hard to get it made the way they wanted it.

Well, they created an entirely new thing that no one had seen! Because Mel Brooks did Young Frankenstein and other parodies, but they were with comedians. And I love those movies, but this... I knew just from watching old movies on television with my parents who Lloyd Bridges and Leslie Nielsen were. And my dad was really helpful, because he'd be watching and say, "Oh, Peter Graves from Mission: Impossible! And Lloyd Bridges was in Sea Hunt, and Leslie Nielsen was in Forbidden Planet..." But to do a movie like that, where I think at the time Jimmie Walker was the biggest name, and he's in it for five seconds and doesn't even have a line... [Laughs.] I mean, that's pretty insane! But I can still watch that movie - I mean, I could watch it right now! - and it's one of those few movies where I know every millimeter of it. I know every joke, every moment.

And now, to have gone from a fan to someone who works in comedy, it's more that I kind of watch it in awe, that it can sustain that many jokes, where everything is a bit, and it works. I realize now that most of those kinds of movies fall apart very quickly, because you kind of don't care about anybody. But having Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty playing their love story, you like them, and I watch it now, and I go, "Oh, their performances are kind of what hold it together, in a weird way." Without them, I don't know how else it would've worked. Alec Berg, a guy who I work with [on Barry], always talks about that scene, that one moment that's kind of serious, where they're in the airport and Robert Hays says, "You can't leave, I love you," and it ends with him saying, "What a pisser!" Alec says, "You need that scene. Once you have that scene, you know that they actually care about each other, and you know what's at stake."

Of course, the guys have said that they can never repay the debt they owe to Arthur Hailey, who wrote the script for Zero Hour!

Yeah, and it's hilarious when you watch Zero Hour! now, because it really is just three dudes watching a movie and riffing on it and then going, "You know what? Let's just do this!" [Laughs.] Now that I've been a comedy writer, I mean, that's the kind of thing you'd normally talk about but never go and do, because you'd be, like, "Well, that's insane!" And there's this rule where, you know, it needs to be grounded. But they're great jokes! They're just perfectly constructed bits. And you can tell it's just three guys trying to make themselves laugh, which is always where the best comedy comes from.

The original construct of the film actually involved treating it like they first found it - as a late-night movie - and interspersing it with fake commercials.

Yeah, and it was going to be like in Kentucky Fried Movie thing, where it has A Fistful of Yen in the middle of it? It's kind of like what they did with Amazon Women on the Moon. But I'm glad they didn't do that. I think it's fun just staying in that movie. Besides, I saw it with commercials. [Laughs.] I didn't need commercials on commercials!

I think it's a benchmark in comedy movies, and I don't think you can do it again, because now... I mean, you can just see how it's in the culture. You watch, like, ESPN commercials, and you have the actual athletes being a version of themselves, but it's funny, and it's all played very straight. That's Airplane! And the kind of surrealism of it, the overall silliness of it, it's hard to replicate. I just thought - and still think - it's perfect. It's a real litmus test, that movie. If I watch it with someone and they're not laughing, then I'm, like, "Oh, you have no sense of humor. I don't know if I can hang with you." [Laughs.]

It's also a testament to how many jokes are packed into the film that I'm still seeing new ones even as I'm helping them put this book together!

Oh, like what?

Well, for instance, when the nose of the plane comes crashing through the window of the airport, until Jim pointed it out to me, I'd never noticed that a woman throws her baby into the air and runs!

Oh, yeah! I mean, it just feels like every moment they were, like, "How can we maximize the amount of silliness?" And what makes it work is how straight everybody takes it. Even in the Saturday Night Fever flashback stuff, the thing with the two Girl Scouts battling with each other, it's, like, "What the fuck is that?!" [Laughs.] "Why is that even in there?" Also, the amazing actor who died but who'd worked with them back at the Kentucky Fried Theater days...

Right, Stephen Stucker.

Stephen Stucker! All of his stuff, like when he goes, "And Leon's getting larrrrrrrger!" or "Me John, big tree!" All that, where they're, like, "Okay, Stephen, just go!"

And the fact that he jumps in when he says, "And Leon's getting larrrrrrrger!" and then jumps out, and they just hold on the guy for a couple of beats. [Laughs.] And that guy is not a comedian. It's not like he goes, "Why, you...!" and then shakes his fist or something. He's just a regular guy who's, like, "What? What did you...? What?!" He's almost looking at him, like, "How did you know my name?" Stephen Stucker was such a scene-stealer in Airplane! and it's so unfortunate that he passed away so young, because for a movie that has so many amazing lines, so many people quote his stuff. He's like Fred Willard in Best in Show, where almost every line is a killer.

Another guy who I really love is the guy in the Point/Counterpoint: "I say, let 'em crash!" That always makes me laugh. And then Robert Stack, the way he delivers his lines... I mean, the hardest I laugh now when I watch the movie is his kind of spin-out at the end of the movie, where he's talking about, "Municipal bonds, Ted!" He's still talking."Do you know what it's like to fall in the mud and get kicked in the head with an iron boot? Of course you don't, no one does. It never happens."

"It's a ridiculous question!"

[Laughs.] "It's a ridiculous question! Skip it!" I've never seen that joke before. It's purely character-driven, and that... It just comes from another place, from them making each other laugh. And as a comedy fan, I love that, because those are usually the things that people cut, because they go. "Oh, it's not that clear, and it's kind of weird, and I don't think anybody's gonna laugh." But in that movie, because there's so many jokes, it's, like, "Who cares? It's a free-for-all!" Now, there are certain things that I don't think you could get away with now, like all the guys in Africa being good at basketball! I think people would be, like, "Ah, come on..."

I will say that that’s pretty much the one scene where I think all three of them have said, “Yeah, in retrospect...”

[Laughs.] Yeah, it’s kind of like Sixteen Candles and Long Duc Dong. Or the end of the movie, where you’re, like, “So, wait, she was asleep and you had sex with her?” You know, it’s funny when you’re 13, but then you watch it now and you’re, like, “Oh, man, that’s not good...”

But I do think some of Airplane! is still really relevant. Also, like, I don't remember the original commercial that goes, "He never has a second cup of coffee at home," and there are other things like that, but even if you don't know the original things, they're still funny!

Yeah, when I talked to them about it, they said, 'I don't even know if that joke translates nowadays," but I said, 'Yeah, it does, because there's still that general feel that, 'Oh, this is riffing off of something else," and when you sense that, it's funny.

It's like when I watch SCTV sketches. It's clear that at the time there was a commercial where this happened, but I don't really know or care. It's just making me laugh! And "Jim never vomits at home," that makes me laugh so hard, and...it's just bizarre! [Laughs.] I mean, what it comes down to is that it's wall to wall entertaining.

You said that you first saw Airplane! on TV. Was it a formative enough moment that it made you want to search out other things by the guys?

Oh, yeah. I remember very vividly being in a video store and seeing the Kentucky Fried Movie box and it saying, "From the people who brought you Airplane! and Animal House." And even at 10 years old... I knew their names by that time, so I was, like, "Oh, so John Landis, then, and..." [Laughs.] And I went, "Oh, man, I've got to watch this!" And that one was perfect for when you're a young boy and your friends are over. You've got to hide it, because it's contraband, but then you're, like, "Oh, man, you've got to see this!" I mean, few things were more exciting than "Catholic High School Girls in Trouble"!

So, yeah, I was a massive fan of theirs, so anything that they had anything to do with... And I was also interested in how Jerry and Jim, especially, went and did more "straight" movies. That was always fascinating, how they could do that, too. That they weren't locked into something. So, yeah, I was a huge, huge, huge fan. And I read a book about Woody Allen, and his favorite movies, it was all, like, The White Sheep by Fellini and things like that, and then... there's Airplane! [Laughs.] It's definitely up there as one of the more formative movies for me, one of those that you can go back to and watch and see that what you find funny comes from that.

I wouldn't change anything in Airplane! It just had a very specific voice. Like, I think of Leslie Nielsen and the way he said, "Yes, I remember: I had lasagna." It's so stupid, but it's so perfect the way he delivers it! When Alec Berg and I were doing Barry, there was a running bit where I'd walk up to him and say, "I just want to tell you: Good luck, we're all counting on you." Any major dramatic moment. We're just about to blow up a car, and there's tension on set, and I'd walk up and say, "I just want to tell you: Good luck, we're all counting on you." And then when he was leaving for the day... "I just want to tell you: Good luck, we're all counting on you."

It never gets old.

Nope. [Laughs.] And he would actually start laughing because he knew what I was about to do. When I'd walk over to him, he'd just start laughing. Every time I go to the airport with a friend and I see a plane, I go, "Oh, it looks like a big Tylenol!" And everybody laughs, because they know what you're referring to. It's part of the fabric of my generation of comedy people, for sure. I mean, I was hanging with Jon Hamm, and he just said out of nowhere, "I say, let 'em crash!" [Laughs.] I mean, those guys are such a huge part of what I do for a living.

So why do you think Airplane! holds up so well this many years later?

I think it's just incredibly entertaining. Like, to a degree where it actually kind of ruins certain comedy things. Well, not ruins, but they invented a thing where if you're doing those kinds of jokes – a play on words or a play on phrasing like "don't call me Shirley" and all that – you can't do it, because you're, like, "Oh, you're just doing Airplane!" So you’ll see these pale imitations...like, you know, the sequel. [Laughs.]

Which, as I'm sure you know, they had nothing to do with.

Oh, yeah. That was such a big learning moment for me as a kid. "Wait, why was that just God-awful? I don't understand!"