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Thursday, June 12, 2008
6/12: Laura Ingraham fights back, Tim Meadows interview
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Talk show host Laura Ingraham, off the air for more than a week (including 920/WGKA-AM), had stayed mum at first on why she was not on the radio. But she has now let this out on her Web site about the state of her negotiations with her syndication arm Talk Radio Network.
“Reports are circulating in the press that I ‘took a leave of absence’ or walked out on my radio show. As I wrote in this space earlier this week, that is false. The decision to remove the Laura Ingraham Show from the airwaves was made unilaterally by Talk Radio Network as a tactic in contract negotiations, against my will and over my protest.”
She does have a 5 p.m. Fox News Channel show being tested starting next Monday but she said she isn’t leaving radio.
-“Saturday Night Live” vet Tim Meadows came to Atlanta last week to promote “The Bill Engvall Show” on TBS, which debuts its second season tonight at 9 p.m. Here’s a longer version of the story I wrote for the print edition, plus photos I took at Dave & Busters last week:
When Tim Meadows left “Saturday Night Live” in 2000 after a decade of service, he had the honor of being the longest-running cast member.
His post-“SNL” roles have been comparable to his time at “SNL.” He’s always a funny, steady performer but never quite a standout.
ABOVE: Meadows poses with Britney Beck, an insurance processor
Meadows’ latest gig, as Bill Engvall’s best friend on TBS’ “The Bill Engvall Show,” fits that mold. He’s amusing as a newly single, mildly neurotic sidekick to family man Engvall. But he isn’t the star. His role has been expanded this second season, and he’ll appear in eight of the first 10 episodes. (He won’t be in tonight’s episode.)
“My character is a little envious of Bill,” Meadows said last week before a screening of the Engvall show at the Dave & Buster’s in Marietta. “He’s a little frustrated and lonely.”
Besides the sitcom, Meadows keeps busy doing improv with the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles, doing occasional gigs for “The Colbert Report” and “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” and taking small roles in shows such as “The Office.” He just finished a film shot in New Zealand co-starring Kevin Nealon, Doris Roberts and Ashley Tisdale.
But for a younger generation, his most memorable role was principal in the Lindsay Lohan breakthrough hit “Mean Girls” in 2004, written by fellow SNLer Tina Fey. “I wanted him to be really frustrated with his job so he never smiled,” he said. “They convinced me to make him smile for one scene. It worked. It was really funny.”
And while many fellow alums such as Will Ferrell and Fey have become bigger stars, he’s not angry he hasn’t reached those heights.
“I have no power over the success or failure of whatever projects I do,” Meadows said, picking over the remains of his barbecue chicken. “I’m not jealous of people more successful than me. I’m happy for people who are successful. This is my rule for myself: If I had a career that made me $20 million a movie, I’d make five movies and you’d never hear from me again!”
On Lindsay Lohan (he played the school principal in her “Mean Girls” movie): “She’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She’s completely different now than she was then. She was 17 and I don’t think she was drinking. She was really talented and nice. When I see stories about her now, it’s not the same person.”
On the stress of “SNL”: “I had an ulcer for 10 years. It was high pressure competing with your friends trying to do comedy on a national live TV show. I ended up doing meditation instead of taking medication. And it worked. In three months, the ulcer went away.”
Worst guest host: “Steven Seagal. He wasn’t nice. He wasn’t funny. He didn’t take constructive criticism. He beat everyone down. He’d get upset and you’d be afraid he’d punch you out.”
Best guest hosts: “It’s the guys who come back a lot like Alec Baldwin and John Goodman. I loved working with Christopher Walken. He’s so strange. We did a scene together… he never looked at me one time. He always looks at the cue cards. It’s like talking to a blind person with no glasses on. Can he see me, cause I’m right here! If I punch him, will he duck?”
