This is Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast. More what you
hear Weekday Afternoon is on the Drive. Don Mischner is a renowned producer who
is a visionary work that has left an indelible mark on the world of entertainment,
with a career spanning six decades as a producer and director, including credits
of the Oscars, the Obama Inaugural Celebration, Lincoln Memorial, the Kennedy Center
Honors, and he's written all about it too, by the way, in
a great new book, Ten Seconds to Air, My Life in the Director's
Chair. Don Mischer Great to have you along today. Thank you a very
happy to be with you. And as I have learned and many in our
industry have learned, it doesn't matter how much you prepare. When the on
air light goes on and the shooting starts, everything changes. That's it.
That's what makes it fun. It's like being in a damn rodeo at times.
I do think that the more you prepare, the more you do your
homework, the better you are to handle it if it all falls apart,
and if the script gets changed because you studied it and did your homer you're
going to do a better job of what we call winging it. You know,
So anyway, I'll let you continue. Well, I was just going
to say that, Yeah, that's in life, and that's in everything.
I had a peer of mine at one point say, preparation breeds luck.
There is no such thing as luck. As long as you're prepared, you'll
be lucky. That's a great quote. I love that. I'm going to
remember that. I love it well. In ten seconds to air, you
talk about also your first hand collaborations with some of the bigs in our industry,
some of the bigs in entertainment like Willie Nelson and Michael Jackson. Yep,
Michael and Willie, they're not They're just unique talents. I mean,
Michael was so quiet. If you brought Michael into a room, he would
go over in the corner and just quietly sit there. But when Michael stepped
on a stage, he took over, he took control. He had a
tremendous artistic ability to impress you and to do something that you couldn't take your
eyes off of. Willi was the exact opposite. WILLI was easy going.
I grew up in Texas, so WILLI was someone that I admired. I
used to play in a countryman. I remember when we gave Willy the Kennedys
Entter Honors. He would just as soon talk to an elevator operator at the
White House then he would to the President. He's just Willie was interested and
is interested people, and he's unpretentious, ready to sign anything you ever put
in front of him, Talk to you. You, he looks you in
the eyes when you're talking to him, and it's just you know, they're
two different people, but both extremely successful. We're talking to Don Mischer,
who is a renowned producer of such programs as the one hundredth anniversary of Carnegie
Hall, Motown's twenty five Super Bowl halftime shows, as well along the lines
of dealing with this talent when you are getting ready for these broadcasts, are
they by and large willing to go through some rehearsals or are some of them
more apt to pull a fast one on you when the cameras start rolling.
No, I got to tell you the reason these artists are successful is because
they do want the rehearsal. Generally, they want more rehearsal, and you
can afford to give him. I mean, Prince For example, we had
one one rehearsal on the field for that Super Bowl show, and it was
the Thursday night. I got the stadium for two hours. The super Bowl
wasn't until Sunday, you know, But you value those rehearsals, and when
you have so few of them, you really make use of them. You
don't waste you know, waste your time. But you know, he was
I was really worried about Prince the night before the Super Bowl because we knew
it was going to rain. And the stage came out and like twenty eight
pieces, it weighed like thirteen tons and had a little dressing room for Prince,
and it was slippery in general, and when it started to rain,
it was treacherous. And the whole night before I kept saying, what's going
to happen with this guy and breaks away or one of his dancers falls of
what do we do? Do we just just he had they were twin dancers.
I said, we just go on dancing with one twin? How odd
would that be? You know? And uh. But then, but like
many artists, here goes to the occasion. So the first half it rained.
Then we're all set up for the halftime show and We're counting down from
thirty seconds to go on the air, and it was like a squall hit
us in a dead huge and I said to Prince Man, I just got
to give your heads up. It's really really coming down harder now. And
he said to me, can you make it rain harder? And that always
stuns me, And he was motivated. The rain motivated Prince to deliver a
show that is one of the best performances that he ever did, you know,
because he was challenged by the rain and made a decision I'm going to
deal with it and I'm going to overcome it. And that's what you love
to see in an artist. I mean, that makes a big difference in
the performances. Don Mischer renowned producer. His works include many of the big
television productions we see. And that's another thing too, Don. The more
you add to a live performance, the more complicated it becomes, and the
more chances there are that something bad will happen. What's about the worst thing
that has happened to you right before a broadcast? God, I'm trying to
think. I've had people drop out of the show. We were doing a
live in artical broadcast once and a female singer, very popular name, refused
to go on stage because she didn't like the as she was in. I
remember Frank Sinatra one on the end Inaugirls. He was aging and kind of
got lost and just stood there for a period of like fifteen to seventeen seconds.
He'd kind of lost his place. I know now because that happens to
me. Okay, but you have to just go with these things. You
can't cover them up. You have to be honest with people and show them
what's happening. And that's the best way to handle it. Ten seconds to
air My life in the Director's Chair. Don Micheer, thanks for joining us
today. Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,
and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven
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