Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
Tim Meadows RETURNS: Sandler Text Chains & Farley Memories
05 Mar 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What movie revived Tim Meadows' career?
After I read the script, I thought this guy is either go. This is going to be his last year working as a principal or he's going to commit suicide. Hey, guys, I'm doing my book and I need somebody to I need you guys to be willing to write a blurb for my book. And then Sandler goes, yeah, I'll do it. And then he goes, thanks. I don't need anybody else's.
My next thing, I want to be on a show like Wings. Remember that show? Yeah. Yeah. It was on NBC. It was on for like maybe seven, eight years. Nobody ever watched it. Guess what, David? Tim Meadows came for a second helping of the magic of fly on the wall. Double dipping? A return guest, back by popular demand. I love Tim Meadows, I'll just say it.
Yeah, you know, we don't have that many people returning, which we need more because we've got video now and we have some things we forgot to ask these people and go over. But we talked a lot. We had a lot of laughs with Tim. What a good dude. He's actually doing a half-hour single-camera show, which he's incredible in. I watched an episode, DMV, about a Department of Motor Vehicles.
It's on CBS and Paramount+. So we just want to make sure you're aware of that with our friend Tim Meadows. And by the way, during this particular episode, we had a little technical issue. So we stripped from one thing called StreamYard. I know for your nerds, take notes. We go to Zoom, so it might not be quite as crisp, but we'll still both look incredible, and our hair will look great.
Don't adjust your cameras at home. It's doing fine. Yeah, Tim, here he is. Great guy. A lot of laughs from the old school. Yeah, we were laughing a lot. Tim Meadows. Tim Meadows. Did the show start without me? Yeah, we were killing it. You're doing great. Oh, thanks. You're killing it, man. I tried a haircut, so I'm wearing this. What are you doing? Hiding your hair? You hate your haircut?
Well, I'm just not used to it right now, so I'm just going with the hat. Are you all right with that? That's fine with me. We can all do hats if you want. Now, Timmy, in full disclosure, I brought a hat to wear, and then I thought, this isn't that bad. I'm going to just rough it. No, you look good. Thank you, buddy. Let's all do hats. No, I'm scared. Let's see what you got.
You got a cool one loaded. Oh, yeah, he knew. No, my hair is all fucked up, man. I haven't combed or cut my hair in about, I don't know, maybe a month or four weeks or something like that. Okay. Have you been out of that room in the last month? Timmy, do you ever do a movie and they go, we can figure out that gray. We can figure that out. And you go, what does that mean?
They go, we can take care of it.
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Chapter 2: What is Tim Meadows' new CBS series about?
And you go. what are we taking care of? You go, no, it's just, do you want it? They've said that to me. Yeah. Have you ever bought cookie? I kind of salt and pepper. Yeah. You know, it looks, it looks, it looks cool. You're doing whatever you do. It's where it's always worked for Timmy. I'm in a jealous, quiet rage as I speak. Well, thank you, David.
I do remember when they used to ask me to put gray in my hair. Oh, I like that better. Yeah, now they asked me to take it out. Can you just shave that out? Timmy, I've told this before, but I'm going to tell you that I read a movie about a married guy and his wife, and they said it's pretty funny.
Anyway, all these hijinks, but she's got a crazy father-in-law, and I read it, and I read the whole thing. I go, it's pretty funny. It's not that funny of a part, but who would be the father-in-law? They go, you. I go, oh, wait. I'm not the kid getting married. They're like, that guy's like 35. Wait a second. I swear to God. I go... Wait, am I reading these movies about these? So horrifying.
I go, I'll read it again. I didn't pay attention. I'll read it again. Yeah. I don't know if you've seen Landman, but Sam Elliott's on that show. And I, I, I read for that part, but Sam got it. That's where I'm at. That's how old you are. Yeah. He's exactly 100, I think. Well, first of all, I can't believe that you had to read for a show. Yeah, Danny. You didn't do a lot of cold reads.
I don't know. I mean, I missed out. I didn't do Benchwarmers. How did you avoid Benchwarmers? I read for your part in Mean Girls. I read for the principal. Oh, I'm glad you didn't get it. His arm wasn't broken, though. Yeah, but that movie saved my career. I was worried for a little bit until Mean Girls. Goddamn, Mean Girls has a spinoff. Oh, from Ladies' Man to you went into No Man's Land.
Yeah, I went. Yes, I went from Ladies' Man, which was like number four at the box office. Nobody was happy with that. And I did the Michael Richards show. which was on NBC and got canceled after eight episodes. And then after that, I was on a fucking life raft in Atlantic Ocean. I saw that show. I'm on life raft. Waiting for somebody to save me.
Well, the thing is, if you're in a shitty show or a shitty movie, all of a sudden they think that you produced it, wrote it, directed it. You did the score. You get a little stink on you. I've done it. I got out of lost and found jail. That took four years of being on. Just shoot me to get another swing. I was in movie jail for a while.
yeah you didn't have to when you when he when he told you about just shoot me was that the easiest pitch for you to say yes to it's like uh a model magazine yes no it was it was leaving snl and you would get probably one shot at maybe doing the jeff richards show he was on snl or the david spade show and they said you could do that or you could do join an ensemble that was already picked up
And I said, oh, I'd rather go be the fifth wheel on a show that might work. And it still wasn't guaranteed, but it was, it just wound up being better. Yeah. It's so fun watching it. Cause I see it now occasionally and I'll sit and watch the whole episode. Because I worked with George also on the Goldbergs. Oh, right. It was so cool.
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Chapter 3: What insights does Tim share about Adam Sandler's text chains?
I mean, it's just weird watching it now because he was like my age, I think. Playing like this super old guy. Yeah. yeah yeah yeah you know your life is kind of fast isn't it that's so that's so true because wendy alec who we all have a crush on and she's so smart and funny on just shoot me and i always thought she was about 40 and i think she was 55 on the show i was like
I don't even know anyone. And I was like, she's so together and so great looking. And I've seen her recently. She's exactly the same. She's just sharp, fast, funny. That's someone you hire and you get 100% of what you want. Yeah. It's always fun. I don't know. I've been in the position now where I work with people, including both of you.
But when you work with somebody that really impresses you and you just go like, holy cow, that person is amazing. I did this show during the 50th anniversary, actually, on Broadway. And in this show was Lin-Manuel Miranda. Yep. and David Cross and Annabelle. I forgot the other woman's name. I'll look it up. But they were great.
And it was just like watching those guys like do the play show every night was just like, oh my God, these are real Broadway actors. You know, I got to like really try to like Oh, you were in it with them and you get to see every night, the process, everything, how they nail it and you go.
Chapter 4: How did Chris Farley influence Tim Meadows' career?
Yes, exactly. And I hadn't done something like that since Second City. But we wrote that stuff, you know, but this was like we were doing. I'm trying to find the like playbill from it now. I'm just looking at my room. I usually have my Broadway stuff right in front of it. You know, behind you looks like Lorne's office with the lineup for the show. The show is five hours long.
We're going to present 6,000 sketches. It's all a matter of numbers. That's our new tactic. I don't think I've seen many plays, Timmy, but I think Chris Rock was saying that...
he goes it's it's hard i go could you picture so you memorize the whole script i don't know because i don't do that on sitcoms and stuff even movies it's a scene a day and even that's hard for me and so you memorize something he goes but you get it down by blocking and by running it and then it just starts coming to you and yeah and you go some nights then it just gets boring yeah yeah you gotta keep it alive
Yeah, and that's where, like, going, you know, from doing stand-up, whatever, is, like, you learn how, you know, you figure, you know, oh, I got, this has got to be fresh. I got to make this seem like it's just happening, and we're all in this moment right now. But, yeah, just being around so long now is so, I really do, and I love watching other people work now.
Like before I used to be more competitive of like, I want to be as good as that person, or I want to like hold my share of the thing or, you know, but now when I approach it, when I'm working with people, I just like, I really enjoy watching other actors now, which is kind of weird. Cause I, I, I know there's, there's been a change. It's something growing up. Yeah, for sure.
I, I, I would be jealous and fucking angry. Like, why is that fucker so good?
well we came out of a tough situation where everyone around us is good at snl we got dane over there and we got yeah exactly mike and chris and everybody and so you're there conan's funny and he's a writer everywhere you turn odenkirk is a writer and he's funnier than me i'm like god damn yeah lauren's kind of funny when he talks he just he doesn't talk much when he does you go he's funny
yeah yeah so then you get out and you get places where you go oh i'm suddenly realizing both someone's good or someone is bringing nothing yeah yeah yeah i've seen people like cold reads where they go you're like oh man because you can tell at a table read even though it's just kind of thrown together you can spot some game yeah but yeah it is weird super weird to see somebody that you
you know, thought was good, but actually they, they have to work at it. They have their own method and then they get good. They get good by the time you shoot. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Like that's respectable. You're on, uh, is DMV, which is your show on CBS is DMV. That's shot. It's not a sitcom. It's a, uh, It is a sitcom. Is it a sitcom? No, it's a single cam. Single cam sitcom.
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Chapter 5: What challenges did Tim face after leaving SNL?
Not where you work from. If they're treating you like the senior citizen and stuff, I mean, are they, are they allowing, Tim Meadows to fully inform what you're doing on the show. Like, Hey guys, maybe I should say this, or I'm going to do this. And like, you can't question him. He's Tim Meadows. He knew Chris Farley. Shut up. Well, actually it's a combination. Yeah.
they've i mean it's also a job i have to say they've been very uh they listen to what i think about the you know the writing and my character stuff i know and um but it's not always the case yeah uh exactly it's not is and i go into jobs sort of knowing that like oh i'm not they know they just want me to learn my lines and do the you know For sure.
Not because it's you, just because in general, if people at home don't know, it's kind of you're hired and you're a hired hand. And then if by chance they let you ad lib or say, let's do another one and, you know, do whatever you want. That's a gift. So they don't have to do that. Yeah. And whenever you tell me, do whatever you want, I do that take just in gibberish.
I just... I just do it exactly the same and they go, oh, that was fun. Okay. Do you have a brand in a way, Tim? I mean, do you feel that, oh, let's get Tim Meadows for this, you know? either playing off kilter characters or a little bit angry or just sort of asymmetrical, like the peacemaker with blindness, which is, has a cult following that character. It doesn't, it's kind of blew up. Yeah.
Weird. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I kind of feel like it sort of goes back and forth between like, people casting me, like James Gunn casting me because he said he couldn't find the actor to do that part. And then he said, like, he wanted me, but he didn't know if he could get me or whatever. But, and that character was like, is written,
Like, it's an unlikable guy that they wanted a likable actor to play, you know? And so I've had that before where it's like, this is unlikable, but we think you can do it. Like, I played the cannibal, child-killing cannibal on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. What's unlikable about that? Yeah, go ahead. You know, it's so horrible. Profession.
But they, you know, Sandberg, when they called me to do that, he was like, yeah, we need somebody that's really likable. And we just thought, like, you know, everybody likes you. And so it'll be a really, you know, people won't hate the character, you know. They'll give you a gimme on that. Give you a mulligan on the cannibalizing children. He's fun at parties. Right.
That's a role you only want to do once, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Then you get typecast. That's funny because, you know, the sitcom, like I think you called a sitcom, but going back to grandma here, I was thinking about doing a sitcom or thinking about ideas for them. And I think, God, are they doing regular for camera? Have you even heard of that? Are they not doing those?
Have you not heard that? I haven't done one of those, I swear, in probably 15 years. Jesus. Okay, we'll say five. No, let's say 20 years, David. That's how long it's been. Okay, we'll say three years. Okay. No, but I haven't. Like, every one I've done is... And I think even when I've done... Like I did the Bill Ingvall show, which was TBS. And we did that for like two or three years.
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