NEW YORK — It seems like the inevitable comedic summit of this fall’s presidential campaign: the real Sarah Palin coming on “Saturday Night Live” to meet her look-alike impersonator, Tina Fey.
“All in good time,” said a cagey Lorne Michaels, longtime executive producer of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” which has been rejuvenated this fall by Fey’s three skits as the Republican vice presidential candidate.
Michaels said on Wednesday he wasn’t actively seeking Palin, but that the McCain campaign called after the first skit, when Fey’s Palin appeared with Amy Poehler’s Hillary Clinton on the show’s Sept. 13 season premiere, to say they enjoyed it.
“Saturday Night Live” has a long history of political walk-ons. Michaels prefers keeping this sort of news a surprise until it happens, an opinion reinforced when word leaked that Barack Obama would be on that same show and the Democratic presidential candidate had to cancel at the last minute. “I think we looked stupid,” he said.
There are three more first-run “Saturday Night Live” episodes before the election. Starting Thursday, NBC is also airing three prime-time editions of the show at 9:30 p.m. EDT.
Palin told reporters on Tuesday she’d love to appear on the show with Fey.
“I love her, she’s a hoot and she’s so talented,” Palin said. “It would be fun to meet her, imitate her and keep on giving her new material.”
From the moment Palin was selected as John McCain’s running mate, Michaels said he barely had time to consider the idea of Fey impersonating her. Others did it for him.
“The next day the doorman in my building said, ‘What a gift, you’re going to have so much fun with Tina Fey,”’ he said.
Fey needed some convincing, primarily because she was busy with her Emmy Award-winning role as harried late-night show producer on “30 Rock.” The day of “SNL’s” season premiere, she was shooting an episode of “30 Rock” with Oprah Winfrey as guest.
“There are certainly people here who could have played her and played her well,” Michaels said. “But the audience would have been disappointed if it had not been Tina. They cast her.”
During that first impersonation, Fey got laughs simply by nailing Palin’s accent. She described global warming as “just God hugging us closer.”
Michaels knew he wanted Fey back for the Oct. 4 show, two days after the vice presidential debate. But Palin’s interview with CBS’ Katie Couric was so priceless, they had to write a sketch around that, he said.
In one answer to a question by Couric, played by Poehler, Fey gives a circular response of campaign cliches that reaches a dead end. Asked for specifics on how a McCain administration would spread democracy, Fey’s Palin said, “Katie, I’d like to use one of my lifelines.”
Michaels is enjoying the ride, letting Fey know that she only has to impersonate Palin through Nov. 4.
But what if she is elected the next vice president?
“I think we’ll find somebody else to play Sarah Palin,” he said. “I don’t think she’s going to be playing Sarah Palin for the rest of her life.”
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