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This is Later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast. More what you

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hear Weekday Afternoon is on the Drive. Don Mischner is a renowned producer who

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is a visionary work that has left
an indelible mark on the world of entertainment,

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with a career spanning six decades as
a producer and director, including credits

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of the Oscars, the Obama Inaugural
Celebration, Lincoln Memorial, the Kennedy Center

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Honors, and he's written all about
it too, by the way, in

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a great new book, Ten Seconds
to Air, My Life in the Director's

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Chair. Don Mischer Great to have
you along today. Thank you a very

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happy to be with you. And
as I have learned and many in our

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industry have learned, it doesn't matter
how much you prepare. When the on

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air light goes on and the shooting
starts, everything changes. That's it.

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That's what makes it fun. It's
like being in a damn rodeo at times.

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I do think that the more you
prepare, the more you do your

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homework, the better you are to
handle it if it all falls apart,

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and if the script gets changed because
you studied it and did your homer you're

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going to do a better job of
what we call winging it. You know,

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So anyway, I'll let you continue. Well, I was just going

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to say that, Yeah, that's
in life, and that's in everything.

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I had a peer of mine at
one point say, preparation breeds luck.

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There is no such thing as luck. As long as you're prepared, you'll

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be lucky. That's a great quote. I love that. I'm going to

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remember that. I love it well. In ten seconds to air, you

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talk about also your first hand collaborations
with some of the bigs in our industry,

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some of the bigs in entertainment like
Willie Nelson and Michael Jackson. Yep,

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Michael and Willie, they're not They're
just unique talents. I mean,

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Michael was so quiet. If you
brought Michael into a room, he would

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go over in the corner and just
quietly sit there. But when Michael stepped

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on a stage, he took over, he took control. He had a

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tremendous artistic ability to impress you and
to do something that you couldn't take your

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eyes off of. Willi was the
exact opposite. WILLI was easy going.

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I grew up in Texas, so
WILLI was someone that I admired. I

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used to play in a countryman.
I remember when we gave Willy the Kennedys

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Entter Honors. He would just as
soon talk to an elevator operator at the

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White House then he would to the
President. He's just Willie was interested and

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is interested people, and he's unpretentious, ready to sign anything you ever put

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in front of him, Talk to
you. You, he looks you in

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the eyes when you're talking to him, and it's just you know, they're

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two different people, but both extremely
successful. We're talking to Don Mischer,

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who is a renowned producer of such
programs as the one hundredth anniversary of Carnegie

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Hall, Motown's twenty five Super Bowl
halftime shows, as well along the lines

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of dealing with this talent when you
are getting ready for these broadcasts, are

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they by and large willing to go
through some rehearsals or are some of them

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more apt to pull a fast one
on you when the cameras start rolling.

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No, I got to tell you
the reason these artists are successful is because

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they do want the rehearsal. Generally, they want more rehearsal, and you

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can afford to give him. I
mean, Prince For example, we had

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one one rehearsal on the field for
that Super Bowl show, and it was

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the Thursday night. I got the
stadium for two hours. The super Bowl

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wasn't until Sunday, you know,
But you value those rehearsals, and when

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you have so few of them,
you really make use of them. You

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don't waste you know, waste your
time. But you know, he was

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I was really worried about Prince the
night before the Super Bowl because we knew

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it was going to rain. And
the stage came out and like twenty eight

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pieces, it weighed like thirteen tons
and had a little dressing room for Prince,

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and it was slippery in general,
and when it started to rain,

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it was treacherous. And the whole
night before I kept saying, what's going

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to happen with this guy and breaks
away or one of his dancers falls of

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what do we do? Do we
just just he had they were twin dancers.

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I said, we just go on
dancing with one twin? How odd

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would that be? You know?
And uh. But then, but like

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many artists, here goes to the
occasion. So the first half it rained.

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Then we're all set up for the
halftime show and We're counting down from

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thirty seconds to go on the air, and it was like a squall hit

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us in a dead huge and I
said to Prince Man, I just got

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to give your heads up. It's
really really coming down harder now. And

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he said to me, can you
make it rain harder? And that always

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stuns me, And he was motivated. The rain motivated Prince to deliver a

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show that is one of the best
performances that he ever did, you know,

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because he was challenged by the rain
and made a decision I'm going to

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deal with it and I'm going to
overcome it. And that's what you love

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to see in an artist. I
mean, that makes a big difference in

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the performances. Don Mischer renowned producer. His works include many of the big

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television productions we see. And that's
another thing too, Don. The more

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you add to a live performance,
the more complicated it becomes, and the

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more chances there are that something bad
will happen. What's about the worst thing

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that has happened to you right before
a broadcast? God, I'm trying to

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think. I've had people drop out
of the show. We were doing a

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live in artical broadcast once and a
female singer, very popular name, refused

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to go on stage because she didn't
like the as she was in. I

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remember Frank Sinatra one on the end
Inaugirls. He was aging and kind of

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got lost and just stood there for
a period of like fifteen to seventeen seconds.

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He'd kind of lost his place.
I know now because that happens to

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me. Okay, but you have
to just go with these things. You

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can't cover them up. You have
to be honest with people and show them

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what's happening. And that's the best
way to handle it. Ten seconds to

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air My life in the Director's Chair. Don Micheer, thanks for joining us

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today. Thanks for listening to Later
with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,

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and remember to listen to The Drive
Live weekday afternoons from five to seven

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and Iheartsmedia Presentation