I attended a sold-out Penn State Forum series today 3/20/12 by Don Roy King who has directed Saturday Night Live (SNL) since 2006.
Dr. Pangborn did a nice introduction. I didn’t realize that this is the 37th yr of SNL.
Don Roy King is PSU Grad 1969 from the College of Liberal Arts.
He started the talk off by saying that things were going well how are things going here in reference to the Sandusky scandal. King was thinking that he would be uninvited based upon a skit that they had done on about the Sandusky scandal.
Reflection: From this beginning I started to understand how one of King’s philosophies is to not take himself too serious. He down played alot of his accomplishments and his ability to discern the larger picture. He would leave that to the “doctors.”
King related a few stories from SNL
First he talked about Ludacris who made him a bit nervous because of controversy surrounding lyrics from the songs he wrote. King helped Ludacris to relax and could see that he really cared about doing a good job.
Reflection: From this story, I got the idea that he believes that you need to go deeper to understand a person. Much of what we think we know or perceive is often not correct.
King, then, started to relate his own story of starting at wpsx at Penn State as a way to transition to the bigger impact of TV on society.
He mentioned how All in the Family made such an impact on society. Norman Leer did such a great job of creating a show that highlighted bigotry and helped move society to the place where a black man could be voted President.
Reflection: Although I would agree with this to a point, I would say that our society is far from making strides in the area of race relations. I would say that the election of Obama has served to highlight how little progress has been made. I see the venom from the past continuing to well up.
In the way of career advice, King told a story about young people who did a great job for a show that he helped with. The leader of the group would ask possible interns if they worked their way thru school? If so, he would hire them.
Reflection: Work ethic is important, and King is an example what hard work can lead to. But hard work is not the only factor. The main thing that I can see is that it’s best to be ready when you have your chance. Nothing is guaranteed in life, but those who succeed often give themselves the best chance by being prepared.
To end the presentation of the forum. King talked about being at Paterno’s 1st win and 400th win.
Reflection: I think this was a way to highlight where King stands on the Sandusky scandal. Like most of us, we view Paterno as a victim.
Much of the question/answer part of the forum was not insightful. King seemed like a regular person who worked his way to the top. But I wouldn’t say that he even understands how he got there or is unwilling to share too much.
There were a few items that made me think.
Question: What was the most important course that you took in school?
Answer: Story about not thinking that Spanish was so important. Then King went on to talk about how he could have done much better in all of his positions if he would have taken Spanish more serious. He, then, went on to say that he wished that he had learned more about more areas as an undergraduate as a way to be better at his job.
Reflection: This story, although entertaining, is such an ineffective way to inspire students to do their best and try different things. To me, actions are more important than words. When someone as successful as Don Roy King says something it means less than what he actually did. Truth be told, King chose wisely to have a dream and not let anything get in his way to accomplishing the goal.
King talked about a wise way to go about being successful in TV. He believes that it is not best to start small in a big operation but to start bigger in a small operation.
Reflection: I can see how this would seem best to King since this is how he found success. But I think that his earlier advice of preparing for success rings more true since there are many more factors to success than this single aspect.
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