This Is Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, more what You
Hear Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive. He's one of the most successful television live,
event and variety special directors of all time. Jeff Margolis has had a
hand in the Sunday and Share Show, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Michael Jackson,
One Night Only, Sinatra, seventy five, and many many more.
He's written all about it in his new book, We're Live in five Jeff
Margolis with Lauren Stevens, You've had quite a ride. What made you want
to sit down and finally talk about it? I just felt like sharing.
The book is called We're Live in five Night Extraordinary Life in Television, and
it's been extraordinary, and I wanted to share. You know, I started
when television was still in its infancy, and it was growing and growing and
growing, and through the years it's changed so much. I just wanted to
talk about that, the shows that I did in the early days and the
shows that I do now, and the difference in them, and how wonderful
the ride has been for me, how blessed I've been. I imagine when
you did first begin there barely was videotape. I'm not that old, okay.
I started on the Smother's Brothers Comedy Hour. It was two inch tape,
but Stun's Breathers Comedy Hour in nineteen sixty eight. I say that because
I've been doing this well. When I first got into the business, we
were still playing the records, So I've been doing this a while too.
Yeah. Yeah, Well, when I got in television, it was still
in its infancy, and we were able to develop television the way you know
it today, in a variety television, entertainment television. We were growing and
we got to try things and invent things, and it was really, it
was wonderful. It was a wonderful time to be in TV. We're live
in five My Extraordinary Life and Television. Jeff Margolis is with us, and
he's had a hand in some of the more successful TV shows, especially the
live events. Was there a lot of preparation you would have to do to
say, put together one of the live television shows, well, like the
Academy Awards, for example, the Oscars takes about four to five months to
put together, and the last couple of weeks of that show is twenty four
or seven it's just you have no time to breathe just about Yeah, they
take it. There are a lot of puzzle pieces to put together. These
shows are enormous, and you sit at home and you watch it and you
have no concept of what goes on to pull it all together and make it
look comfortable for you to watch. And I imagine along the way, Jeff
Margoli's author of We're Live and Five My Extraordinary Life in television, you've come
across some pretty big names and some pretty big egos. Yes, yes,
but you know what, Usually my job as the producer and director, mostly
the director, is to make them look and sound good whatever they're doing.
And so in order to do that, they need to be comfortable. So
my job is to try and work with their egos. If they have big
ones, and there are a lot that do that, say no, I
don't want to do that, or I'm doing it this way. Make it
work, and you figure out a way to the best of your ability,
and if you can't accommodate their needs, you better have an alternative suggestion that
is just as good or better than theirs. I was going to say,
in the case of Sonny and Share, when your main talent break up while
still producing the show. Not that was not five. No, that wasn't
done. It was and it wasn't easy. And the last couple of shows
were very tense, you might say, but the show must be on,
and they were pros and that there were two shows left to do and we
did them. We're live in five My Extraordinary Life in Television. Jeff Margolis
is with us. Was it easier to produce a show that had more pre
produced elements than an actual live show? Because I gather like the Sonny and
Share and Tony Orlando, some of those segments were pre produced. Yes,
almost weekly variety shows. Everything was to rehearse and rehearse in Some of the
spots were pre taped without an audience, and on the first day and the
second day you bring an audience in and do so. You have a lot
of time to prepare. On a live show, it's live and you don't
know what's going to happen. You have a plan, you have what's called
a show run down. You know where you're going to start, you know
where you have to be at the end of the first hour, the second
hour, and the third hours when you have to be off the air,
and so you have to stay on track with how you put the puzzle pieces
together to make it work. And that's difficult to do because there are so
many unknowns on an award show, and some of the hosts are better at
keeping things moving and ending on time than others. Absolutely, you know,
there was nobody like Bob Holker, Johnny Carson until Billy Crystal came along,
and then Billy Crystal was fantastic. Then we'll be Goldbirds and then and then
the hosts, a lot of them did a good job, but it wasn't
the same sort of flow as those people had. There was Alelex Baldwin,
there was Steve Martin. They were and they were good hosts, they just
didn't have the kind of they didn't have sort of the They weren't as comfortable
being live on the air as guys who were live on the air are Bob
Over, Johnny Carton and Billy Crystal. You know, those guys were good
broadcasters. They could time something out pretty easily and it was second nature to
them. I imagine, we're live, and we're live in five Jeff Margolis
with Lauren Stevens My Extraordinary Life in Television. If you love the behind the
scenes stuff like guy Do. This is going to be a great read for
you and Jeff Margolis. We thank you for joining us, Thank you so
much for having me. 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 and iHeartMedia Presentation