Name: Jeff Davis Tells the Behind the Scene on The Norm Show
Uploaded: 2022-07-16T18:03:37.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jeff Davis Tells the Behind the Scene on The Norm Show' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-07-16. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jeff Davis Tells the Behind the Scene on The Norm Show' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-07-16. Transcript available.

I got to work on The Norm Show, his kind of short-lived sitcom.
I think it was only on for two seasons, maybe.
And it was him, Max Wright, the dad from ALF,
Laurie Metcalf, awesomely, and Artie Lang.
It was maybe the most dysfunctional cast I've ever been happy enough to work
with,
lucky enough to work with.
Laurie hated being there, even though she's a genius actor
and a genius sitcom actor, but she hated it.
She hated the cameras, she hated the audience, she hated everything.
She just wanted to move back to Chicago and do theater with her daughter at the
Steppenwolf.
Max Wright is a crazy town.
He's the guy that would miss table reads,
and he would just be like in New Hampshire in a ditch,
like his car driven off the side of the road with a lap full of empty champagne
bottles.
And then he was famously, on the cover of National Enquirer,
one of those rags.
Hidden cameras, doing crack with gay homeless guys.
Awesome stuff.
Ditches, you know, they're not,
ditches used to be a happening spot, you know,
like basically up until maybe the 1970s, I want to say.
Like, you know, things were going on in ditches,
but now, like, it's, you know, it's trash or nothing.
Yeah, it's all, it's all, it's all,
these days, it's all ravines.
It's mostly a ravine kind of situation now.
Back in my day, we had a ditch and we were happy about it.
Yeah.
Luxury.
We used to dream about being in a ditch.
So on the night of the show, because Norm didn't really rehearse that hard.
Laurie Metcalf, on the other hand, because she is a consummate professional
actor,
she really rehearsed.
She took notes and she, every rehearsal throughout the sitcom week,
she was trying things out and really, like, digging in and, like, experimenting
and exploring.
And everybody else is, like, comics and lazy and you can all be funny on the
night.
And Norm didn't really rehearse that much.
And before the show, this is the first time I've ever seen a sitcom do this.
And we were shooting at Warner Brothers.
And also, if the police are on their way, Spencer, make sure that you Warner
Brother.
What?
That's a, how often does that come up?
I mean, that's great.
But how often do you fit that into any way?
I saw a dude with that shirt with the WB logo, you know, like the WB.
And it said, if the police come in, Warner Brothers.
It's a great shirt.
But we met in the green room where normally it's reserved for the network exec,
Mucky Mucks, to watch the show and pass judgment from on high.
The whole cast met up there.
And guest stars like myself.
I was just a guest star on it.
And to do a speed read before the show, which I'd never seen before.
Like, to really just speed read the entire episode.
And I got the impression that it was basically for Norm.
That, and is this story ringing a bell to either of you?
Did I just tell this story on the show?
Not just, but yeah.
Then you said, like, weren't you talking to Artie Lang about how he, like, how
he just gets blasted and gets, like, I always, to me, it sounded like, like, I
imagined, like, a moving dolly.
And he was just, like, on the dolly and he just, like, rolled him in.
No, he was gone for, like, an hour, hour and a half.
The audience was loaded in.
So, I know I'm repeating myself now.
But we were all worried about it, Norm.
I'm like, does this happen a lot?
And Artie offered me a cigar.
I'm like, I don't smoke.
I kind of take one for a friend.
He's like, yeah.
He gave me this nice, like, Nat Sherman cigar and, or, like, little cigarillo
kind of thing.
And if you can imagine, I knew Artie a little bit, but Artie was, like, he
seemed like the level one, like, the level-headed guy in the cast, comparatively
to everybody else and this weird-ass group of people.
And Norm came in.
He had done a bunch of Xanax.
And then when the taping started, he was perfect.
He was absolutely perfect.
There's a good story Sam Simon told me, because Sam Simon was executive
producer on that show.
And Norm, as funny as he is, one of the greatest comics of all time, and it's
certainly a comics comic.
And he will certainly be missed by everybody.
He's goddamn easy, so funny.
Norm's not a great dramatic actor, apparently.
And, uh, and there was a scene when he fucks up, like, like, his love interest
in the show.
And I can't, I'm blanking on the, on the actress's name.
But, uh, he, he, he steps in it.
He does something stupid.
And she's like, you know what?
I don't ever want to talk to you again.
Like, like, like, like, this is over.
I was like, you know, fuck you.
This is, this is the end.
And she slams the door, walks out and slams the door behind her.
And that's the end of the scene.
And I think that was a commercial break.
And Norm, in the script, is supposed to look very sad.
So, she would do the line in rehearsal.
And she would go, I don't ever, I never want to talk to you again.
Slam.
And then Norm would just stand there.
And just wait, waiting for someone to yell cut.
And, uh, Sam would go, okay.
So, Sam, Sam, Sam geniusly found a way to make Norm act sad.
Sam took his watch off and took his wristwatch off and placed it on the floor
about five feet to the right of Norm.
So, when the actress, he goes, Norm, when she leaves, watch her walk out, slam
the door, take a beat, and then look up, look at my watch.
So, that's how they did it.
Uh, like, like, teach you the dog to act.
Uh, it was a slam.
And then he just went.
And it worked.
Fucking genius.
But that's, like, that's part of what's so crazy is because it simultaneously
felt like it was so well put together, so rehearsed, but also so natural, like,
he didn't even know what he was saying was funny.
You know, like, he doesn't even get the joke.
Uh, but it was, like, it was always simultaneously.
You could almost, like, you could never pin him down.
And, you know, I don't know.
You know, I think he seems, especially now that he's gone, you know, he
definitely seems like a hard guy to pin down.
Um, I don't know.