Bob Odenkirk Used ‘SNL’ As Guide for What Not to Do on ‘Mr. Show’

When Bob Odenkirk launched Mr. Show, he wasn’t trying to make another Saturday Night Live. 

Odenkirk, who wrote for SNL in the late ‘80s, learned the hard way that younger members of the show’s staff weren’t taken as seriously as their more veteran colleagues. “At SNL, it was very easy, especially for young writers, to get their ideas shot down very quickly by older writers,” he remembered. 

These rejections stuck with the star as he worked his way up the comedy ladder. When he launched Mr. Show in the mid-‘90s, he learned from SNL’s mistakes, making a point to enact a policy against nixing sketch ideas based on a writer’s seniority alone. 

“When I went to Mr. Show and I was in charge over there with David Cross, I made it a rule that you don’t shoot anything down,” he explained. 

Instead, Odenkirk encouraged his staffers to “talk about everything” before deciding whether an idea was worthwhile. “You have to fully understand the writer’s idea before you let it go,” he continued. “It was a good thing to learn what not to do from Saturday Night Live.”

It definitely paid to listen: Mr. Show became a comedy classic and earned four Emmy nominations during its four-year run.