This is a pre-Emmy spotlight on two very talented guys who work on LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON. As Fallon is hosting the Emmys this Sunday, I thought you’d enjoy this interview about “LATE” the wonderful homage to LOST they did for LNWJF Michael Blieden directed the minisodes, Mike DiCenzo (aka Deetch) wrote them and along with the extra hard-working crew of LNWJF, they produced a series of minisodes that were a real homage to the series many of us love so much. Here’s the link to view all the episodes online at the LNWJF site:
http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/categories/late/1202627/
TSR – I think you’re great storytellers and with LATE – it’s not a parody – I think of it as a loving homage
Deetch – oh that’s exactly what we’re going for – that’s pretty much the intention – we’re not spoofing
Blieden – we talk about it a lot – we talk about the series and what we try to do is what they do and try to do it well – to cover their show.
Deetch – there’s certain elements we’ve parodied I guess. We wanted to take the things we love about lost, the drama, the weird twists and turns and do our own take on it.
Blieden – you have to show that you love the thing by trying to succeed at what the thing does – succeed at what LOST succeeds at
TSR – it’s a huge undertaking with something like LOST – with THE HILLS, the bar is much lower
Blieden – THE HILLS – it became it’s own thing. It had its own aesthetic. THE HILLS is gorgeous. And so in a way it started there that we tried to rise to their level and production value. But then we’re writing all the scenes and there’s a lot of improv on the set and Amy was writing all the scenes and it became its own thing where the characters grew a life of their own and we were trying to make something that wasn’t making fun of anything. I think our sense of humor is generally positive.
TSR – I would agree
Blieden – so we’re not shitting on things we don’t like. If you’re gonna spend this much time doing a series,
Deetch – you have to love it. Amy did the Housewives (Real Housewives of Late Night) and THE HILLS and she loves those shows. I don’t think she thinks they’re great shows, I think she enjoys watching them. But I feel like we, all of the parodies come from a place of love rather than trying to “get” them and point out how stupid they are. We love all these shows and we just want to do it our way too.
TSR – Are you guys both big LOST fans?
Blieden – I was a casual LOST watcher.
Deetch – I’M A HUGE LOST FAN
Blieden – he’s a LOST proselytizer
Deetch – I got so many people to watch LOST – I got my grandma to watch LOST. Starting with the 4th season so I got her all the DVDs and she watched them and got caught up and she loved it. She’s into it, ready for the finale.
TSR – when I booked my flight for this trip, I’m sure the LOST finale wasn’t scheduled for Sunday night. As a TV junkie, I never would’ve booked a flight for when the LOST finale was on.
Blieden – it’s interesting to me that there’s still value in seeing something when it airs. That tv can still be somewhat of an event. And it’s not as event-ish.
TSR – not as much as it used to be but there are still definitely shows – and that’s one for me – cause I’m not an IDOL fan – cause I’m not 12. So was the inspiration just that you were fans and you decided to do it?
Deetch – yeah.
Blieden – I think it comes from a couple places – we’ve realized that the show that we’re doing something, these serialized roll-ins which is something none of us preconceived and I don’t think there’s a model for that on a latenight show. But we started doing 2 or 3 episodes of THE HILLS and then these characters have a life, let’s do a couple more, and then we did 11 or 12 HILLS. Suddenly we’re all talking and it’s “we’re doing a series” – what’s our next series? And then it was Housewives. Then after Housewives, once we got it, that was made on an executive level between Jimmy and [Mike] Shoemaker and Miles [AD Miles, head writer] and Gavin [Purcell]. What show – who do we have on the staff who loves a certain show and how do we do that? And they decided.
Deetch – they came to me and said “we want to do LOST – a LOST type thing as our next thing” and my first thought was “don’t turn LOST into work – please”
TSR – But these have been so great! With the marked comedy in them – I guess I should reserve saying this cause I’ll see the last one tonight – when Higgins saw that Questlove was his father – omigod – and they started doin’ the jive – I was dying laughing.
Blieden – Deetch and I talk a lot about tone – there’s a lot of balancing – when is there going to be a joke that takes the floor out of the tone you’ve spent a lot of time building? We’re a latenight comedy show, people expect it to be funny, how serious can you take it and how NOT serious can you take it? I feel like that’s a perfect example of a joke that breaks the reality but that’s hilarious but that supports the reality because it’s a LOST parody.
TSR – I think what keeps surprising me the most is that tonally it all works. I watch them and I go “I don’t know how they do this because it works – it stays in the convention of the show” and I love the show, I can’t figure everything out but I’m in for the ride.
Deetch – me too
TSR – I watch these and its amazing when you can combine the comedy and the serious and my hat is off to you.
Deetch – Thank you. I think it’s a combination of a lot of things. A lot of it is Blieden shooting it so brilliantly and the shots.
TSR – And echoing the style beautifully!
Blieden – I enjoy it – it’s a challenge and I wanna make it look awesome. It’s so much more fun to do that than to be like “oh we’ll make it look shitty and it’ll be funny cause it’s bad cause it’s comedy”
TSR – No – I think you achieve your effect better because it looks good and by the way, the ultimate compliment being I watch some of them online cause even though I have insomnia sometimes I don’t stay up that late but the second I know – and I bug Gavin Purcell so much on twitter asking when the next one will be up – and i’ll always link to it in The Surf Report and I distracted many of my co-workers and told them “you have to watch this” – and they look great when you watch them online. When you click Fullscreen, it looks great
Blieden – the NBC player just got better! It used to look like it was broken.
TSR – now when I go fullscreen, it looks good. I don’t think to go to Hulu automatically. Have you heard from any of the people who work on any of the shows you’ve parodied?
Blieden – yes. I feel like the first one was – who was in THE HILLS? Whitney Port. That was our first series. She appeared in it.
TSR – she was in it and then they spun her off to THE CITY – which is actually a really good show in terms of aspirational and I sort of almost believe some of it.
Blieden – and that show also looks incredible.
TSR – Gorgeous. It’ll make people flock to new york and then you can discourage them and they’ll go home. Did Whitney like it or hate it?
Blieden – she did a cameo in 7 FLOOR WEST
TSR – Sorry to say I haven’t seen every single one – but I’ve seen 6B and Robert is Bothered – who doesn’t love Robert is Bothered?
Blieden – you’re forgiven.
Deitch – Evangeline Lilly has seen LATE – I think she was a fan but she was like “I’m just as confused about this as I am about the real LOST” which I guess is a compliment.
TSR – I’m not nearly as confused about LATE as I am about LOST! I find LATE much easier to track.
Deetch – I’d guess she hasn’t seen every episode of LATE.
Blieden – (winking) I think she might’ve seen every episode…
Deitch – We had one person from LOST who made a cameo in this final episode. Matthew Fox. A very small non-speaking cameo but he’s hilarious.
TSR – That’s how Fox is best, when he doesn’t speak. Oops, did I say that out loud? That’s tremendous. I can tell from just watching the show in general that you guys are pop culture junkies – would you say there are certain influences that are stronger than others?
Deetch – Paul Reiser – huge influence – I try to put a little Reiser in everything I do. You might’ve noticed a Couplehood reference. It’s like on Lost, you’ll see a character reading a book, like The Third Policeman. Paul Reiser’s Couplehood is our Third Policeman.
Blieden – I feel weirdly blank on that question. I feel like so much – I’ll walk away and think “I’m clearly doing that” – so much of what we do here is we’re reinventing so much stuff – finding a new tone – not only is it a new device for a latenight show – and on top of that – we’re inventing a production mechanism – we have a small crew and a small amount of gear – and a small amount of time to use the crew.
TSR – how long does it take you to shoot an installment of LATE?
Blieden – generally speaking, about 6 hours to shoot for each episode so we have to move really fast.
TSR – Wow!!
Blieden – And the lighting crew is usually me and 2 other dudes. So it’s like…
TSR – kind of a guerilla thing?
Blieden – Yeah
Deetch – I just wanna take this opportunity to say how amazing everyone on our staff is and making this come to life. Blieden kicks ass shooting these things but there’s so many other elements – the wardrobe people knocked it completely out of the park – the art dept people and the props they build, and all the crew and the second shooter – they’re all so talented and amazing. And our editor, Chris Tartaro, he’s amazing.
Blieden – he works – he’s got a baby on the way – he’s up til 2am.
Deetch – the other guy who works a lot is the guy who does our music
TSR – Your Michael giacchino?
Blieden – Yeah – John MacDonald – he’s our clips and graphics researcher – he pulls stills
TSR – and he has a secret life as a composer?
Deetch – Right! He went to music [school]. We started the series and he called me and said, “I don’t know what you’re doing for music but I’m a huge LOST fan and doing original themes is my thing.” He stays up all night to do this – we get him a cut and he scores to the cut. We get it to him 2 days before and I think he just stays up all night. I saw him today and his eyes were… he also has a baby coming. Everyone deserves so much credit. If even one thing wasn’t there – the music, Blieden, Tartaro, the art dept – it would be off. The actors too: Jimmy is so phenomenal.
Blieden – Jimmy’s performances – he’s such a funny actor and he writes so many jokes while he’s acting, he’ll start doing a scene and in his performance, he’ll start referencing tropes that we’ve seen in tons of other shows. He’ll suddenly bring you into something you’ve seen and he’ll make a serio-comic comment on it. In this scene in tonight’s episode, he’s saying goodbye – and he gets off the floor, looks around, you expect him to turn off the light like the last scene in CHEERS – it’s so small and evocative. He has such a huge frame of reference for all of TV and he’s so good at acting it out, he has such an active imagination and such a silly sense of humor. He’s the reason all these things work.
TSR – I agree.
Blieden – He’s a great leading man, he’s good looking, he always looks great when you film him and he makes every scene hilarious.
TSR – I think you really see how much he likes this stuff which I think is a big part of what sells this.
Deetch – we’re doing these shoots after the show – after however long of a workday he’s had and he comes upstairs and knocks it out of the park every time. And he brings so much – he brings everyone else up. He’s never tired. It’s inspiring.
TSR – I like what jimmy does – I think don’t even make him do a monologue – let him indulge in more of the stuff he really likes to make the show his own. He has so much fun with his guests – like when he plays beer pong with them. Or doing goofy sketches. Let him make the show his own like conan did. So when I saw 6Bee, I thought “yeah” – there has to be some evolution.
Blieden – we’re still discovering what we’re good at.
TSR – Did you decide on your next show?
Blieden – The answer is no, they haven’t decided. I think they’re gonna do another short fun of 7 Floor West. That’s what I hope happens and then onto something else. That’s the craziest thing – I feel so lucky that we’re doing a sketch variety show and we get to do these mini-seasons of shows – for me it’s really satisfying cause I like things that are serious. I’m working on a comedy show doing serious stuff.
TSR – it’s a great mix
Blieden – this is right in the sweet spot for me.
TSR – I see by the publicist in the corner that it’s time to wrap up. Thanks so much guys!
Blieden- Thank you. You’re the first person who wanted to talk to us about this.
Deetch – Yeah, you really get it.
TSR – Well, it really works in a big way. Thanks so much for taking the time for THE SURF REPORT.
