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This Is Later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast, more what You

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Hear Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive.
He's one of the most successful television live,

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event and variety special directors of all
time. Jeff Margolis has had a

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hand in the Sunday and Share Show, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Michael Jackson,

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One Night Only, Sinatra, seventy
five, and many many more.

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He's written all about it in his
new book, We're Live in five Jeff

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Margolis with Lauren Stevens, You've had
quite a ride. What made you want

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to sit down and finally talk about
it? I just felt like sharing.

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The book is called We're Live in
five Night Extraordinary Life in Television, and

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it's been extraordinary, and I wanted
to share. You know, I started

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when television was still in its infancy, and it was growing and growing and

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growing, and through the years it's
changed so much. I just wanted to

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talk about that, the shows that
I did in the early days and the

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shows that I do now, and
the difference in them, and how wonderful

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the ride has been for me,
how blessed I've been. I imagine when

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you did first begin there barely was
videotape. I'm not that old, okay.

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I started on the Smother's Brothers Comedy
Hour. It was two inch tape,

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but Stun's Breathers Comedy Hour in nineteen
sixty eight. I say that because

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I've been doing this well. When
I first got into the business, we

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were still playing the records, So
I've been doing this a while too.

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Yeah. Yeah, Well, when
I got in television, it was still

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in its infancy, and we were
able to develop television the way you know

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it today, in a variety television, entertainment television. We were growing and

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we got to try things and invent
things, and it was really, it

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was wonderful. It was a wonderful
time to be in TV. We're live

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in five My Extraordinary Life and Television. Jeff Margolis is with us, and

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he's had a hand in some of
the more successful TV shows, especially the

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live events. Was there a lot
of preparation you would have to do to

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say, put together one of the
live television shows, well, like the

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Academy Awards, for example, the
Oscars takes about four to five months to

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put together, and the last couple
of weeks of that show is twenty four

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or seven it's just you have no
time to breathe just about Yeah, they

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take it. There are a lot
of puzzle pieces to put together. These

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shows are enormous, and you sit
at home and you watch it and you

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have no concept of what goes on
to pull it all together and make it

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look comfortable for you to watch.
And I imagine along the way, Jeff

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Margoli's author of We're Live and Five
My Extraordinary Life in television, you've come

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across some pretty big names and some
pretty big egos. Yes, yes,

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but you know what, Usually my
job as the producer and director, mostly

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the director, is to make them
look and sound good whatever they're doing.

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And so in order to do that, they need to be comfortable. So

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my job is to try and work
with their egos. If they have big

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ones, and there are a lot
that do that, say no, I

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don't want to do that, or
I'm doing it this way. Make it

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work, and you figure out a
way to the best of your ability,

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and if you can't accommodate their needs, you better have an alternative suggestion that

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is just as good or better than
theirs. I was going to say,

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in the case of Sonny and Share, when your main talent break up while

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still producing the show. Not that
was not five. No, that wasn't

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done. It was and it wasn't
easy. And the last couple of shows

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were very tense, you might say, but the show must be on,

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and they were pros and that there
were two shows left to do and we

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did them. We're live in five
My Extraordinary Life in Television. Jeff Margolis

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is with us. Was it easier
to produce a show that had more pre

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produced elements than an actual live show? Because I gather like the Sonny and

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Share and Tony Orlando, some of
those segments were pre produced. Yes,

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almost weekly variety shows. Everything was
to rehearse and rehearse in Some of the

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spots were pre taped without an audience, and on the first day and the

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second day you bring an audience in
and do so. You have a lot

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of time to prepare. On a
live show, it's live and you don't

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know what's going to happen. You
have a plan, you have what's called

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a show run down. You know
where you're going to start, you know

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where you have to be at the
end of the first hour, the second

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hour, and the third hours when
you have to be off the air,

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and so you have to stay on
track with how you put the puzzle pieces

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together to make it work. And
that's difficult to do because there are so

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many unknowns on an award show,
and some of the hosts are better at

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keeping things moving and ending on time
than others. Absolutely, you know,

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there was nobody like Bob Holker,
Johnny Carson until Billy Crystal came along,

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and then Billy Crystal was fantastic.
Then we'll be Goldbirds and then and then

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the hosts, a lot of them
did a good job, but it wasn't

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the same sort of flow as those
people had. There was Alelex Baldwin,

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there was Steve Martin. They were
and they were good hosts, they just

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didn't have the kind of they didn't
have sort of the They weren't as comfortable

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being live on the air as guys
who were live on the air are Bob

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Over, Johnny Carton and Billy Crystal. You know, those guys were good

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broadcasters. They could time something out
pretty easily and it was second nature to

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them. I imagine, we're live, and we're live in five Jeff Margolis

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with Lauren Stevens My Extraordinary Life in
Television. If you love the behind the

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scenes stuff like guy Do. This
is going to be a great read for

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you and Jeff Margolis. We thank
you for joining us, Thank you so

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much for having me. Thanks for
listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the

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Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to
listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from

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five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation