NEWSWEEK: How did “Saturday Night Live” handle the months leading up to the war?
“SNL” head writer Dennis McNicholas: It was very easy. The administration was so eager, so licking their chops over the prospect for war and this campaign. Very few people could disagree with that. Portraying the administration as bloodthirsty was a pretty clear hit.
Chris Parnell plays a great President Bush.
It’s a delicate issue being critical of the president. But in my opinion, it’s extremely important, as long as we’re even-handed.
What’s it been like writing sketch comedy during wartime?
Since we’re live, we’re expected to respond to events as they happen. The thing that has impressed me has been just how quickly everything can move.
You had to cancel your opening sketch on for the Saturday, April 5 show with less than a day’s notice. Why?
We were ready to go with a piece about Rumsfeld’s overconfidence. Remember how every day Washington kept saying, ‘Really, were just 50 miles outside Baghdad.’ We wanted to get at that.
What was the skit?
Darrell Hammond was due to play Rummy. He invited Condi Rice [played by Maya Rudolph] and Colin Powell [Dean Edwards] to take a break and get some R&R at his house. He had a new home-entertainment system and they were going to watch the “Maid in Manhattan” DVD. Only the theater system hadn’t been set it up yet. So they showed up and Rummy said, “This should only be a minute, it will be a cake walk… It’s a plan here, it’s a good plan.’ One of them said, “It seems like you’re getting bogged down with that.’ He said, ‘No, I’m on schedule, I’m on schedule.’ It was the sort of thing we’ve done well in the past.
So what happened?
Then, at the last minute, around midnight on Friday night [April 4], we realized it wasn’t an option. We had gotten much closer to Baghdad and the piece was completely irrelevant. We keep the hours around here to deal with situations like that. So we threw together another couple options: a Bush address–a catch-all about the war–and a Saddam piece. At the dress rehearsal, we went with Bush first.
Did anything else not make it that week?
There were a couple things in the air that didn’t get finished. There was another Rummy piece that I never even saw, and a Geraldo [Rivera] piece just didn’t work well in front of our dress rehearsal. Things had moved on. Geraldo had been a much hotter topic earlier in the week. People were just done talking about it.
Do you ever outrage your audience?
I’ve been at the show for quite a while and it’s rare that we really outrage someone. There’s always someone who’s offended and if so, we’re doing our jobs. Our show is even-handed. Other shows take one side or the other a little more. It’s nice to be equal opportunity. We’ve done a pretty good job of that.
