Tina Articles |
LINK TF.NET |
  
|
SITE STATS |
WEBMISS: Ashley I am not associated with Tina Fey, NBC, Broadway Productions or anything else mentioned throughout the site. . |
In 1999 Tina Fey became Saturday Night Live's first female head writer. If that's not
exactly you've-come-along-way-baby material, she can take heart in her latest leap.
Those who caught her coanchoring "Weekend Update" with Jimmy Fallon on SNL's
unprecedented post Friends sweeps episodes in February likely found themselves reminded of the show's energetic glory days. Last fall, when she started on the regular version, critics had already cheered that Fey, thirty-one, was more then ready for prime time.
Not that she agreed. "I thought (going on air) was a scary notion at first," she says
in her wry, clipped manner. "Luckily I already had a job to fall back on."
It's a job she's crazy about. Fey, who was picked last summer by SNL executive
producer Lorne Michaels to do "Update" on top of her writing duties, is still awed by the
venerable show's creative environment. "You can write whatever you want," she says. "It may not go on, but you have the freedom to throw things out there. There aren't many gigs like that."
The autonomy has inspired her to whip up sketch successes like spoofs of The
View and the Monica Lewinsky affair, but she admits the rigorous schedule of pitching,
rewriting, blocking and rehearsing-even with a supply of Krispy Creme donuts and coffee- can be draining. She's like to bang out a screenplay, but with her double duties on SNL, she sighs, "I have no time for ideas." Even so, she has managed to squeeze in a movie rewrite and regular performances with the edgy New York comedy troupe The Upright Citizens Brigade. She's also preparing to tour a sketch show with fellow SNL castmate Rachel Dratch this summer when SNL goes into reruns.
All things considered, it's little surprise that Fey was an overachiever at Upper
Darby High School outside Philadelphia, where she joined the choir, played on the tennis team and acted in plays. "I was a happy nerd who did everything, " recalls Fey, whose dad and mom -a retired university fundraiser and homemaker- raised her and her brother in a humor-heavy home. "My parents have a very dry wit, so we grew up watching Bob Newhart and Monty Python," she says. "And I worshipped Bill Murray and Gilda Radner."
Hoping to follow the lead of those SNL legends, she tackled drama at the
University of Virginia, where she was emboldened enough to play Sally Bowles in Cabaret
-despite one minor drawback: "I can't sing so well. That was kind of a problem." After
graduating UVA in 1992, Fey headed to Chicago, where she worked as a YMCA
receptionist to support her studies with the famed Second City comedy school.
While there, she fell for one of City's directors, Jeff Richmond. They now share a
two-room apartment in Manhattan. "He's easygoing and a really good person," she says, noting with a titter that he beau helps balance her bent for sarcasm. "He keeps me from being mean, I guess."
The two plan to marry this June in her hometown, where she's bound to get some
high-fives on the street. Her prime time live appearance exposed her to "a definitely
broader audience," she says. "Relatives kept calling me."
Another perk of stardom: "It's been nice to have people fix my hair." But despite
that -and a recent Writers Guild Award for SNL:The 25th Anniversary Special- Fey's new world isn't all bright lights. "There's a guy in my office right now," she saysexplaining a sudden air of distraction. "He's changing the bulb."
