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Page 2 February 9 - 15, 2015 40 years old and counting: SNL marks a milestone By Jay Bobbin © Zap2it Seth Meyers is ready for a big party that the whole country also can attend. Actually, "Saturday Night Live" has been cel- ebrating its 40th anniver- sary since the late-night staple's season began last September on NBC. The network will televise the official bash as a live, three-hour special Sunday, Feb. 15 — with many cast members from the past four decades expected to return, and classic sketches spanning performers from John Be - lushi, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman to Chris Rock, David Spade, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Will Fer - rell and current "Tonight Show" star Jimmy Fallon. The host of the week- night "Late Night With Seth Meyers" spent 13 seasons in the "SNL" ensemble of players, nine of them also as the show's head writer, and eight as an anchor of the "Weekend Update" segment. He reflects, "I keep saying to Lorne (Mi- chaels, executive producer of both shows), 'I worry that when it's the one-year anniversary of "Late Night" (which comes up Feb. 24), it's not going to get half the press."' "SNL" long has been one of television's most scrutinized shows each week — for the relevance and effectiveness of its humor — and Meyers reflects, "I think one of the reasons the show has maintained its vitality all these years is that Lorne puts great faith in his writers. He doesn't want head writers who rewrite things to make themselves the voice of the show, he wants head writers who celebrate how every writer is different. I think that's why you can put on a 90-minute sketch show and you know there are things that came from different minds. No one mind could come up with all of that." Meyers looks back fondly on his "SNL" tenure in large part for its "incred- ible influx of talent, Andy (Samberg) and Jason (Sudeikis) and Bill (Hader) and Kristin (Wiig). At that time, people like Kenan (Thompson) and Fred (Ar- misen, now Meyers' band- leader on his weeknight show) and Will (Forte) hadn't been around that long, either. "It was such an exciting time to be on the show, because we had a real- ly small cast and really small writing staff," adds Meyers. "Because of that, we got to make all our mistakes on the show and on the air, and I think you learn so much more from those mistakes than from not getting to produce your work." While he's looking for- ward to the big reunion that the "SNL" 40th an- niversary event will be, Meyers notes, "I would think at this point, there are very few (former cast members) left that I ha- ven't crossed paths with to some degree. Lorne kind of figured out how he wanted the show to work from about the sixth week, and he's kept it pretty consistent — so even though you weren't on it at the same time, in a weird way, you share memories with people." Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki says there was a point when he knew New York real estate heir and twice-acquitted murder suspect Robert Durst would be completely candid with him in the making of his HBO documentary series "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst." Jarecki was filming the director's commentary for the DVD of his 2010 theatrical release "All Good Things" – which was inspired by the 1982 disappearance of Durst's wife Kathie – and the two sat and watched the film together. In a pivotal scene, the Durst character played by Ryan Gosling bursts into a party being thrown for his wife (played by Kirsten Dunst), grabs her by the hair and drags her out in front of shocked family and friends. Jarecki was braced for the worst. "Bob immediately says, totally calmly, 'Yes, I've heard this scene described two ways,' " Jarecki says. "And I said, 'What were those?' And he said, 'Well, some people said I just came back in the house and I grabbed her by the hair and I dragged her out of the house by her hair. And then the other way is I yanked her by the hair and a big chunk came out.' ... There's a long pause and he says, 'Either one of those is pretty close.' " The six-part series, which premieres Sunday, Feb. 8, delves into the strange history of Durst, the son of privilege who was suspected in the still-unsolved disappearance of his wife as well as the murders of family friend Susan Berman and neighbor Morris Black, whose dismembered corpse was found floating in Galveston Bay, Texas. Durst actually reached out to Jarecki and granted him unprecedented access for the project, which uncovers long-buried information and includes interviews with Durst kin and many who were part of the original investigations. Still one has to wonder why Durst, now 71 and with his legal troubles seemingly behind him, would want to rehash the past and possibly invite trouble. "One of the things he says," Jarecki says, "is, 'For 30 years, people have been telling my story, assuming that I would never respond and they can say anything they want because I'm never going to give an interview, so it's never going to be disputed. And I see that a lot and that has bothered me, and I felt like I was not able to tell my story my way. And at the very least, there's going to be something out there from me.' ... So I think it sort of comes down to him wanting to be able to tell his side of the story." BY GEORGE DICKIE Robert Durst tells his side of the story in HBO's 'The Jinx' Former cast regular Seth Meyers returns for the "Saturday Night Live: SNL 40th Anniversary Special" Sunday on NBC.

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