Pesho Karivanov writes to ask…
My question is have studios that have vowed to never work with any specific writer, actor, camera operator, etc, ever changed their minds? If so, then what is the rate of that happening and what are the circumstances? What has been your experience with this form of "Blacklist?"
Well, as I've written before here, I think "blacklist" is entirely the wrong word to use when someone can't get the job they want where they want. In show business, well over 99% of people who want a certain job can't get it. I think the term "blacklist" should be saved for the situation — and I don't know of any actual examples of this in a long time — where competitors (multiple studios or multiple networks or multiple employers) agree among themselves not to hire certain people.
As far as I can tell, studios don't decide not to hire people. People decide not to hire people. If some producer decides I'm a crummy writer — or even just that he can think of better ones to call on — he's not going to hire me. That's how it works everywhere. If that guy runs the whole studio and he tells everyone there he thinks I'm lousy, I probably won't be working for them…
…until he's replaced. If he's fired or dies or retires or gets hired away to another studio, then I might get a call. Or at least, I'd be as likely to get a call as anyone. The number one reason you don't get hired in show business or publishing is that the people doing the hiring haven't heard of you or seen your work.
In my own experiences…well, during my years working for Hanna-Barbera, I was told on several occasions that I'd "never work for the studio again." These were business disputes (I had this bad habit of asking for money) and each time, the person who told me that was (a) soon overruled by someone higher in the company, usually Joe Barbera and (b) not working for Hanna-Barbera six months later. In fact, one of the guys who told me I'd never work for H-B again soon after went to another studio where he immediately tried to hire me.
Usually though, if you are the kind of freelancer most of us are, you go from place to place and some people think the association was beneficial and want to hire you again…or they don't and they try someone else. I've never felt "blacklisted" when someone didn't want to work with me again. In some cases, I've been pleased.
I get annoyed by these articles you see like "Every celebrity that has been banned from Saturday Night Live." They haven't been banned. The folks in charge of the show at the moment simply don't want them back on now or maybe ever.
The article includes Andy Kaufman, whose name they misspell…
Kauffman had been a long standing feature artist for the show and had been a part of as many as nine different episodes in his career since the show began in 1975. But in 1983, the show held a poll to determine whether or not Kauffman was allowed to make more appearances on the show. The votes came in and Kauffman lost out. The vote, split between "Dump Andy" and "Keep Andy," saw a mammoth amount of entries and the ballots split 195,544 to 169.186 respectively. The show, never a series to avoid public demand, bowed to the votes and Kauffman never returned to the show.
The vote was on November 20, 1982 (not '83) when Dick Ebersol was Executive Producer of SNL. Kaufman appeared in a pre-taped segment a few weeks later but was otherwise never on SNL again. Soon after, Kaufman got sick and he was probably in no condition to return to the show in the months before he died on May 16, 1984. Who's to say he might not have returned later on, especially after Ebersol left at the end of the 1985 season and Lorne Michaels returned?
And yeah, they never had Louise Lasser or Milton Berle back on to host. Michaels was quoted as saying he didn't want them back but hundreds of people have hosted SNL once and never again. Were they all "banned?"
Let's not over-dramatize the natural ebb and flow of associations in the entertainment world with words like "banned" and "blacklist." I suppose you could argue that certain bouts of sexism or racism or ageism have prevented some people from getting hired across the industry. That's a much more serious situation than some producer deciding not to work with a certain writer, actor, director (etc.) again.
