Earlier on Thursday, Rolling Stone published allegations from two current and 14 former employees, including production crew and writers, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Rolling Stone claimed they had approached an additional 80 current and former employees, but “not a single one agreed to speak on the record or had positive things to say about working on the Tonight Show”.
According to Rolling Stone’s report, multiple sources alleged Fallon had a history of “outbursts” and lashing out at staff when under pressure; that previous senior staff on the show had bullied and belittled them; and that guests’ dressing rooms were commonly known as “cry rooms”, where employees could go let out their stress.
Nine showrunners have worked on the Tonight Show since Fallon took over from Jay Leno in 2014; a much faster turnover than comparable late night shows like Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Oh, Hartman and Farley very much had one of the all time great writers rooms. I very much feel that is what Adam Sandler owes his entire career to (he is a shockingly good dramatic actor, but he never would have been given a chance without the comedy background)
Hartman I feel was incredibly good at taking complete nothingburgers of a script and adding mannerisms that could elevate them. And there are some stories of him doing particularly good improv on a few sets. Hader very much “came into his own” after SNL and a lot of his best work was when he IS a writer, but similar deal and he does have some amazing moments on the show.
Farley is the one who I would actually give the nod. Basically every story is about how he would figure out something in wardrobe or do a weird mannerism to elevate everyone around him. And he made some god awful scripts hilarious. He still benefited a LOT from a solid writer’s room but, of basically all of SNL, he is probably the only one that I feel was better when he actively ignored the script.