Pilot Error Revisited: Michael O'Donoghue's TV (1991)

Several years ago, when I was a contributor to the sadly now-defunct website Antenna Free TV, I created a column called Pilot Error, where I looked back at TV pilots that never actually made it to series. When the site came to a conclusion, so did the column, but thanks to the kindness of the other folks involved with AFT (it was very much a collaborative effort), I’m able to bring them back to life here on Substack.

TV (1991)

Starring: Kelly Lynch, Brian Keith, Rutger Hauer

When I talked to Kelly Lynch for the AV Club’s Random Roles feature in connection with the DVD release of Magic City: The Complete First Season last year, one of the many subjects that came up in conversation was her connection to Michael O’Donoghue. Best known for his work as one of the original writers and occasional performers on Saturday Night Live—among his myriad accomplishments: appearing in the show’s very first sketch to teach John Belushi how to properly enunciate the phrase, “I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines”—O’Donoghue also had a presence (if a decidedly smaller one) on the big screen as well, earning his most substantial mainstream success as the co-writer of Scrooged. His collaborator: the illustrious Mr. Kelly Lynch, a.k.a. Mitch Glazer, creator of Starz’s Magic City.

O’Donoghue, who died of a brain aneurysm in 1994, came up in the conversation when Lynch mentioned how John Travolta stopped production on their film White Man’s Burden so that she could say farewell to Mr. Mike; with his name having been brought up, I was able to organically slip into a brief sidebar discussion about how Glazer had been one of the co-writers of the infamous Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video, which O’Donoghue had produced as a TV special but ended up as a theatrical release after NBC deemed its content unsuitable for air. What I didn’t realize until after the fact, however, was that Lynch herself also worked with O’Donoghue on a TV project…and that one didn’t make it to air, either!

Having never actually seen the pilot for TV (yes, that’s what it was for and that’s what it was called) at the time I talked to Lynch, I had no idea that she’d appeared in it, since she’s not cited as one of the cast members on IMDb, but I was at least aware of the pilot’s existence, thanks to the brief two-paragraph discussion about it in Dennis Perrin’s biography of O’Donoghue, Mr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O’Donoghue.

O’Donoghue was given one more shot at television exposure in 1991. The FOX network ordered a pilot for a weekly series that would bear O’Donoghue’s stamp. The result, TV, was arguably like Mondo Video in that it moved quickly from bit to bit. But the pilot owed more to SCTV than anything else, the premise being a fictional network’s broadcasting day—24 hours of television in 30 minutes. It was a narrow target, one festooned with familiar forms: commercials, cop shows, news updates, soap operas, public service announcements. And while there are a few humorous items—alien brain gobblers discuss their favorite dish, a gunslinger wears a dress so he is assured of a duel—TV is by and large flat and uninspired.

O’Donoghue wrote the majority of the pilot, a hodgepodge of unproduced jokes and sketches taken from his files (including a small piece of “Silverman’s Bunker“). FOX refused to pick up the show, and this, of course, set O’Donoghue off: “FOX is the scaredest, most frightened group of men I have ever seen in my life and probably the dumbest, too.” Given that at the time FOX aired shows such as Herman’s Head and Charlie Hoover (starring a miniature Sam Kinison, a classic bit of casting), their rejection of TV must have seemed ridiculous to O’Donoghue. But his cheap, fictional network could never compete with the real thing. In this case, reality was decidedly stranger than fiction.

Thanks to some kind soul having uploaded it to YouTube, I’ve now finally had the opportunity to watch TV (which, as it turns out, was really more of a presentation reel than a proper pilot), and I must say that my initial reaction was just general amazement that FOX had the balls to consider, however briefly, giving Michael O’Donoghue and his sensibilities 30 minutes on their prime-time schedule every week.

You may or may not agree with Perrin’s take on the success of the pilot—although once you’ve watched it, as you’ll be able to do at the end of this piece, you’ll probably at least be able to understand why FOX might’ve questioned if viewers would embrace the series in substantial numbers—but if you’ve ever been a fan of Mr. Mike, you’ll still probably feel a twinge of regret that things never got beyond this initial glimpse.

Inspired by my curiosity, I decided to reach out to the director of TV, Walter Williams (yes, the same Walter Williams who created Mr. Bill), and ask him about the experience of working on the pilot. After doing so, I then re-approached Ms. Lynch, and I was finally able to get some of her recollections on the pilot as well, along with some general remembrances of having Mr. Mike in her life.

Walter Williams

How did you come to direct the pilot for TV in the first place?

Well, obviously, I worked with Michael on Saturday Night Live, but I met him before I got officially on staff. We tried to collaborate on something, but it didn’t really quite click. But we became really good friends. Well, not really good friends. But he came down to New Orleans when I did a show at the World’s Fair. I don’t know how much you know about my history, but I’m from New Orleans, I created Mr. Bill there, and I sent it up to Saturday Night Live during the first season, and, uh, that’s kind of why we’re talking now. [Laughs.]

So Michael called me one morning at, like, 7:30. I was in Los Angeles, and I get a call, and…I hadn’t talked to him in 10 or 15 years, but I get this call, “Oh, Walter, it’s Michael.” And I go, “Oh, Michael, hey, I thought it would be you.” [Laughs.] And he’d gotten the deal for this show, TV, and some people had recommended me because I was doing short films for various TV shows like Rick Dees’ show (Into the Night). It was on ABC, and I did the films and was a writer on that, so I was kind of doing a lot of that at the time. So I came in, he loved the stuff, and hired me. So I got to work with him for a couple of months, and it was fantastic. Him and Kelly and Rutger Hauer, who was unbelievable. That was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. It went really well.

So how was it collaborating with Michael on something like that? Certainly he was pretty notorious or infamous or whatever for wanting things his way whenever possible, I guess.

Yeah! And I did it that way. [Laughs.] But, I mean, I did it in his way, but the writing is so subtle, not your traditional sketch thing, and my directing is totally subtle. It doesn’t matter if it’s comedy or drama, the actor’s got to act the same way. The material’s going to be the thing. So I took that to heart, and he saw my work and…I’m a single-camera filmmaker. I’m not a TV guy. I really make films from scratch, and that’s really what that show needed, because he really wanted the scripts to look as a true parody. Because there were a lot of parodies of TV. So we had to shoot film and really do it to make it look like all those different genres. It was crazy.

But it was good that he hired me, because I go fumbling into things over my head and work my way out of it, and that’s the art of it, I guess. But all those films, we were in all different locations, different actors. We had, like, 56 different actors. O’Donoghue and I were in perfect synch the entire time. I storyboarded all the things, and we just had fun. You know, we went around on a couple of little things. He let me do the Rutger Hauer things, cut a lot of the dialogue out and go with more action and just seeing things. He was up for that. I have nothing but great things to say about that experience. I wish I could’ve had more.

His sensibilities wouldn’t on the surface seem to mesh with a prime-time audience. Did you get the feeling that he was toning it down at all, or was he just being straight-ahead Michael O’Donoghue?

Total Michael O’Donoghue. [Laughs.] And that’s probably why it never got shown. I mean, I don’t know what they thought they were going to get, but the network executives, they were expecting that everything was going to be telegraphed, the actors’ eyes are going to be winking to make sure that people know it’s funny. But he wasn’t about that, and I’m not about it, either. So we did it the way we wanted it. And I think the Kelly Lynch piece…I remember them saying that they showed that, the “Decapitated” scene, and they were at HBO with Chris Albrecht, and they just watched it over and over again and just loved it.

A lot of things, like the Rutger Hauer piece, were just so subtle. That’s a little scene, and…that’s great. People don’t write stuff like that. They think they’ve got to make a big, clear joke out of it all or something, and they can’t just be confident and let the material and the performances be entertaining to the audience. Which is really is, if you’ve got a solid and believable person, like a Kelly Lynch or a Rutger Hauer. It’s going to be interesting no matter what, so you don’t have to have them hamming it up. And that’s what the executive were expecting, I guess. But we didn’t deliver.

So Chris Albrecht was there at the time? I didn’t realize that.

Yeah, actually, Chris Albrecht was…he was the guy between me and the stage. [Laughs.] I went up to New York in ’76…well, ’75 the first time…and he was the manager at the Improv in New York, and I used to go on there. He’d decide who went on and when, and back then it was crazy. It was, y’know, Andy Kaufman, Larry David, Gilbert Gottfried, Joe Piscopo…it was just packed with people. So there was no reason I should’ve gotten on, anyway. But he was the manager then, and then he went on to HBO, but TV was a co-production, I think, between HBO Productions and Fox Television for FOX. I’m not sure how all the business worked out, but I know he was involved in it. He’s a nice guy. I like him, too.

(Writer’s note: I actually ran into Albrecht at the last Television Critics Association press tour and asked if he had any specific recollections of why the TV pilot didn’t get picked up, but aside from being completely shocked that I even knew about it, let alone was actually asking him a question about it, he didn’t really have much else to contribute beyond the apologetic acknowledgement that “that was a long time ago.”)

Looking at TV, it’s absolutely not a surprise that it didn’t get on, but at the same time, that was during the same era when Get A Life was on FOX, so you never knew exactly what they might decide to put on.

Yeah, I’m not sure, but…I think there was some changing of the guard right around that time, and some other executives came in in the middle of things. I can’t remember for sure, though. But it was an incredible feat, actually, just to do that pilot. All the different set-ups…I mean, it wasn’t like a sketch show where you had a home base, you build some steps, and everyone comes there and you do the show. This was, like, all over the place, and so many different actors, with kids and animals and…it was just non-stop. I’m pleased with what we did.

Do you recall if Michael was surprised that it didn’t get picked up, or was he kind of resigned to it?

No, he was bummed out! I was bummed out, too. We had a few screenings of it, and people really liked it. It was totally different than anything else, which was good. But, really, the executives at FOX…I wouldn’t put Chris Albrecht in there, but I guess they didn’t really have much of a connection with the creatives, like O’Donoghue and Mitch Glazer. They did Scrooged together, of course. I think the FOX executives were looking for more of a MADtv kind of thing…which hadn’t happened yet, but, y’know, something that was more just obvious skits and parodies and wordplay. Some of those sketches in TV were done by other writers, like the Rice Krispies bit. And Michael was up for that, or at least he seemed to be okay with those guys. But his stuff was just more stream of thought and more realistic. When you’re doing a show like TV, you’re kind of cutting in in the middle of things oftentimes, so you don’t need the whole complete beginning ,middle, and end of everything. You just have to kind of assume that there was a beginning and there’s going to be an end, but this bit is in the middle of it.

Did you get the feeling that pretty much everyone in the cast was in on the joke?

[Hesitates.] I guess. I mean, yeah, the material didn’t really read real funny. It wasn’t like you were reading a lot of punchlines, so it really was kind of counting on it all being viewed as a final piece, with the music and everything. His wife Cheryl did a lot of the music, by the way. Like the piano stuff. She was from Saturday Night Live, too, you know.

How was Brian Keith?

He was fantastic!

He just seems like the kind of old-school actor who’d read the script, shrug, and say, “I got no idea what the hell you guys are doing, but I’ll do it, anyway.”

Oh, man, look, Brian Keith was great. I mean, he came in, and Michael was blown away by him, too. He just kind of had a character already. He knew the script, he had the lines. We shot everything out of sequence…it was all a single-camera shoot, with everything shot like a film. That’s the other thing that kind of drove the FOX people crazy. [Laughs.] They like to see it happen before their eyes, but when you start shooting everything out of sequence and you’re shooting things at the end first, it’s kind of hard for them to believe that this thing is even happening. But we were basing it on the storyboards, so you know the film’s there, so you break it up and shoot it in the best order. But that throws a lot of people off. Sorry, I just rambled on there. I have no idea what your question was anymore.

Just whether or not Brian Keith was in on the joke, but it sounds like he was.

Yeah! He just walked right in and delivered his character. I didn’t have to really give him any directions. He was a complete professional. Rutger Hauer was really amazing. We talked for awhile, and…he’s into acting. Not writing, not directing…he just wants to act and be in things. I haven’t seen Hobo with a Shotgun yet, but I hear it’s great. [Laughs.] I’d like to work with him again. We had a great relationship. At the end of it, in fact, the line producer said that when he left the set, which was at, like, three in the morning, because we were shooting things and it just went on and on and on, he peels out five one-hundred dollar bills and gave it to the line producer and said, “Look, this is for the wrap party, because I really liked working with everybody.” He was great. He’s just real. That performance in Blade Runner is, I think, one of the best performances by anybody in that film. Anyway, yeah, I’d like to work with Rutger Hauer again, because that was a really great situation. It was amazing. We just kept churning away at all the things. We shot ‘em in a short period of time, so we were shooting multiple locations for different pieces on different days, and on and on.

Do you know if the intent was to have a repertory cast of actors, or was it going to be different guest stars?

No, it was going to be constant change. That was the nature of it. It was the opposite of Saturday Night Live or MADtv. It was going to be always different. Whatever the idea was, cast it and shoot it and do it the way that would be the most realistic, and try to be as dead-on with the style of it. That meant different people. And that was another problem, I guess, for the executives, too. It really was a crazy way to do a show. To do a movie that way, fine, but to do an ongoing show where there’s no home base to fall back on, no core actors. A lot of people like that comfort, like Saturday Night Live, where you’ve got, like, a family of people, and offices, and you can walk down to the studio. That’s the way to do a show. And this show was the opposite of that. So I can see it being a little daunting. [Laughs.]

So be honest: was Michael O’Donoghue really, as Kelly Lynch has described him, Tom Wolfe and Sid Vicious wrapped into one?

That’s him. [Laughs.] He was sweet. We got along great. And I think the whole process of doing TV was pretty smooth, considering how complicated it was.

Did you stay in touch after doing the pilot?

Well, we did, but it wasn’t for very long, because he died within a year or two. We talked a couple of times, though, and he was still bummed out about it not being shown. And he had a few choice words about a few certain people, which I won’t repeat. [Laughs.] But Michael would’ve repeated it, I’m sure. He didn’t hold back about anything.

KELLY LYNCH

KL: I met Michael O’Donoghue… Well, I’ve known Mitch for 23 years, so it was 23 years ago! I guess it was maybe about three weeks after I met Mitch. Basically the second after I met Mitch, I thought, “I’m gonna marry this guy,” which, coming from a person who wasn’t particularly interested in getting married, was kind of shocking. But it was because he was super smart and made me laugh 25 times in about five minutes. I thought, “Okay, this could really work out. This could really be good.”

But, anyway, Mitch gathered a group of guys who were his nearest and dearest friends and their spouses or girlfriends for a dinner. Danny Kortchmar, Don Henley, Mr. Mike, the late Timothy White…just an amazing, incredible group of men. I fell in love with all of them. When we got married, about 35 guys got up and said they were Mitch’s best friend, but if I had to pick one of them…I mean, they each were in a way, but Michael O’Donoghue might’ve been Mitch’s best best friend. I just fell in love with him immediately and…well, you know, I was a young, pretty girl, and he was not opposed to being around young, pretty girls. [Laughs.] I mean, he could be seen at restaurants with eight of them surrounding him at his table. So he liked that about me. But he also liked that I made him laugh. We both liked to laugh. So when he was doing this thing called TV TV, which ended up just being called TV…

It was like a pilot to make a pilot. It was only, like, 13 minutes long. But it was basically a full day at a TV station. But I was in it, and so was Rutger Hauer, who I went on to work with again around the same time (in The Beans of Egypt, Maine), who wore a dress as Kid Satin, which is a great name. Michael and I, we had a mutual love of all things cowboy, and one of his best cowboy names was Red Buttocks. [Laughs.] I know TV is on YouTube, but I haven’t watched it. I do, however, have my decapitation footage around here somewhere. Michael made sure I got it.

We had such a good time on that. But everything with him was great. Any night with him was amazing. One of the coolest places on the planet was his apartment on 16th Street, because it was just the weird collection of…whatever. Giant cockroaches, a collection of Barbies, photos of amputees… And it was packed. The whole apartment was a cabinet of curiosities. And yet it was still really elegant. He was a man of taste and style, Michael. He was a very stylish guy. He used to wear those little Capezio dance shoes and smoke those long, skinny brown cigarettes.

In fact, one time when Mitch and Michael were in Miami together, Michael would only smoke a couple of drags and then light a new one, and he kept putting them out in the side ashtray in the passenger’s seat. All of a sudden, there was a full-on fire in the rental car! It was like a bunch of twigs going up. He was probably stoned and wasn’t really thinking about it, but he was cracking up as Mitch was trying to pull over. He was a gonzo, crazy guy. But in the best way. It was always fun. 100% fun or more. 300% fun. Any time you were with him, anything you did. So doing the TV show was hilarious, and we were laughing the whole time, but even just having dinner with him was like that.

Walter Williams said that your segment of TV in particular was one that the folks at FOX watched over and over again and loved. Not enough to actually pick up the series, apparently, but…

[Laughs.] I know, right? But, y’know, it was kind of ahead of its time. Dave Chappelle and all sorts of other people and shows did weird stuff after that. Everything that Michael did and thought and was… It was just a little ahead of its time. Without Michael in that group at SNL…I mean, he was one of the people who started the whole thing. Lorne Michaels was a really, really smart guy who saw Michael and said, “I’ll take what he’s got.” And he did.

Were you surprised when TV wasn’t picked up? Even looking at it now, you can see that Michael O’Donoghue’s sensibilities were, much as they had been during his time on SNL, still not entirely ready for prime-time.

Well, this is the problem: the cable world that we live in now wasn’t there yet. He really was ahead of his time, and his show was…well, really, it was an idea that, to be done right, needed to be done on premium cable, where you could say what you want, use the language that you need to use, get deep into the comedy, feel free to insult as many people as possible, and make something hilarious and fresh and completely gonzo and crazy and…Michael. But I’m sure they were, like, “He’s kind of a weird guy,” and were probably put off by the whole idea. And if they looked at Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video… [Starts to laugh.] He was like Ed Wood, in some ways. The Ed Wood of comedy. He was so bizarre, and yet so hilarious. And people from Quentin Tarantino to Bill Murray will tell you that, in their career, there’s something that he inspired or wrote or was involved in. Michael was like the Bauhaus of comedy.