I’ve always been a big fan of Saturday Night Live. And yes, I know that there is a lot of “uncool”-ness reflected in that statement. The show has gone through many peaks and valleys through the years, but I’m still a fan… primarily because the idea there is still a regularly scheduled live entertainment series, every week, harkens back to the classic days of TV where that’s how everything was. I can’t help it, I’m anachronistic. And that “without a net” aspect of comedy is always there, with the ability to surprise and make us laugh in unexpected ways.
My favorite SNL era was the 1990s, with the cast that featured Dennis Miller, Jan Hooks, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, and above all… the late great Phil Hartman. Hartman was the heart of the show week after week, but it wasn’t obvious to the casual viewer. He would be in almost every sketch, ever-present in different ways. Sometimes he wold only have one line, or no line at all, and many times the character he played was the absolute focus and the premise succeeded or fell based on what he did.
He was, as his coworkers called him, “The Glue.”
“He kind of held the show together. He gave to everybody and demanded very little. He was very low-maintenance.” That quote, from his fellow SNL performer Jon Lovitz, described how he got the nickname. He provided help whenever he could and approached his job in a way that was selfless. He made good work great, and knew when tomstep out of the wayband let others have their moment in the sun.
Which brings me to the point of this missive. I used to be rather full of myself. I had successes, and some of them went to my head. I got rather self-important.
And then I started screwing up, making bad decisions. I thought I could do it all, and I couldn’t. Thankfully, I also have a great degree of self-awareness, and so I started figuring out that there was a lot of stuff I wasn’t good at, and that others were. The wisdom that Phil Hartman learned 20 years ago happened to me.
Be the Glue.
Work with your team, identify how you an support them, and then do that. If that means that you have to step up and grab the mike and sell a premise (which in my job means a design direction or approach) then you do that. But otherwise be there for your coworkers.
Help them. Listen to them. Be there.
Care.
The lesson learned, then, is one that many of us should take heed: it’s not about you, it’s about us. Working together, being a team. Knowing your role and your place. So when you watch an old rerun of Saturday Night Live that Phil worked on, enjoy… But appreciate the way he did his best to help everyone go from good to great.
And try and do that in your own job as much as you can.