Issue date: September 10, 2000

Also this week: Web coverage of the Emmys Back to Who's News Other interviews: The people behind the Emmys Garry Shandling, this year's host Phillip Bloch, fashion image maker Melissa Rivers, fashion commentator

Producer Don Mischer has brought dozens of high-profile events to TV, from Olympics ceremonies to presidential galas to Cher's tribute to Sonny. We asked him to cue us in on this year's Emmy show tonight at 8 on ABC.

You've worked with Garry Shandling before on his show. It must be fun to work with him on the Emmys this year.
It's terrific -- what's amazing to me is how much effort and commitment he's made to this. Normally with a host, we will have a couple of meetings, and we see them three days before the show. To have a host that's this committed, he's in with writers every day, coming up with comedic bits. It's unusual.

Can we expect a lot of "Survivor" jabs on the show?
You will probably will see that. It's hard to imagine, since "Survivor" is such a major thing for us not to have some fun with it. What's good about Garry as a host is that, of course, he's very funny. And on a live show, he's quick on his feet. He loves television. He has a great take on the television business, yes it is irreverent. But underneath it all, he really loves television. The nice thing about the Emmy awards is there's a lot of mediocre television, there's a lot of bad television. On Emmy night you get to look at the really good television.

Can you produce special moments on a live show?
A: It's really hard to produce or plan magical moments. When I did the opening and closing (Olympic) ceremonies in Atlanta, we knew when Muhammad Ali walked out that would be a magic moment. On awards shows in particular, it's hard to produce these moments. On the 50th Emmy awards, we paid tribute to the vaudevillians, at the end of that we brought out Milton Berle and Sid Caesar. Most of the powerful moments come from the things you can't produce and you can't control -- from what the winners say.

Q: What about limiting the speeches?
A: The Emmys have to get off the air on time. We don't have the choice of running long. We do 26 awards over 3 hours -- more awards per hour than any award show. We have 2 hours and 13 minutes that's our time, the rest commercials. Once you produce awards, we have about 24 minutes for the entertainment. We're on the air, dealing with presenters who are coming out saying we're running short, that's my big job. With nominees, I send out letters two weeks ahead in which I simply ask respectfully that if you win, hold remarks to 40-45 seconds. We're often running long, and if they start to run long, we may have to play music. It's unfortunate, it's disrespectful to them. We had to play music one time last year, the year before, we didn't. It's something that as a producer, you hate to do. The acceptance speeches are really the heart of the show, it's where the emotion comes from.

Q: Is there a theme to this year's show?
A: There's no hard and fast theme that we are promoting. With Garry hosting, there's going to be more comedy than ever before. Comedy really helps keep people with us. We're going to do a lot of comedy that's related to the television season, and Garry's take on that.

Q: What was your worst moment with live TV?
A: Generally, it has to deal with timing. The first year I produced the show, Angela Lansbury was the host and we were so concerned about going over time, halfway through the show we were running 14 minutes short. I remember feeling very panicky. (But) I've never had a situation where I thought the bottom was falling out.

Q: Any reality-TV elements -- cameras in the backstage bathrooms or anything?
A: We're still working on what we're doing that. Viewers will see a little more of what's going on behind the scenes. On the preshow, during process of watching people in their glamour, it will show what's going on back at the producers table, reviewing copy, makeup room, musicians on bandstand. There'll be more of a sense of buildup. During show itself, Garry will do some things backstage, he may be talking with a Calista Flockhart or a Ray Romano. There'll be some of that. People find that interesting.

Q: You have 13 Emmys -- where do you keep them all?
A: I have like, five spread around in my office. The rest are at home on a very high shelf, gathering dust in the hallway. I'm very proud of them, but it's not like I put them under a spotlight.