I am saddened by the recent passing of Bob Saget. He was only 65 years young. Saget gave me one of my most enjoyable phone interviews back in 1998. We talked about Dirty Work, his first full-length feature as a director. Below is my write-up about that fun experience.   

 Chevy Chase.  Don Rickles.  Norm Macdonald. Artie Lange.  Directing these wildly talented comics all in one movie might be a daunting challenge to most filmmakers.  But someone had to do it for Dirty Work, MGM’s hilarious comedy. Who better than Bob Saget, the energetic former host of television’s long-running “America’s Funniest Home Videos?”

No wonder Saget declares proudly, “I come well-prepared to direct a group of comics.  After all, I am one of them.”  Because of his twenty year experience writing and performing stand-up comedy, he understands the breed.  And, although making his motion picture directorial debut with Dirty Work, Saget has been interested in filmmaking since he was only nine years old.  “My father gave me an 8 millimeter camera that he bought from a butcher,” he recalls.  “Since I didn’t have many friends, I used my meat-cam (that’s what it smelled like) to put people on film.”  He completed film school, won a Student Academy Award for a documentary short, and achieved success as a television actor, writer, and producer.

Saget explains, “Everyone worked very hard to make Dirty Work the funniest movie ever, so when someone ad-libbed and it was funny, we left it in.”  Not surprisingly, Saget admits giving the legendary Rickles free rein during filming and using his best bits for the final cut.  The most important thing for everyone during filming was “Is it funny?”

 As a result, Saget believes Dirty Work to be the perfect adolescent “getting even” dream.  “It will appeal to the teen-ager in all of us,” he predicts.

Saget’s interest in filmmaking started when he was nine years old.  “My father gave me an 8 millimeter camera that he bought from a fellow butcher.  I didn’t have many friends then, so I used my meat-cam (that’s what it smelled like) to put people on film,” he recalls.  He attended Temple Film School, won a Student Academy Award for his documentary short Through Adam’s Eyes and has achieved success as an actor, writer, and director of numerous television productions, including the critically acclaimed drama For Hope.

Saget believes people will like Dirty Work.  He insists the world deserves to see more of Norm Macdonald.  “There’s no one like him.  In fact, Norm and I are lovers and are raising a child together,” he confides facetiously.

Leave it to Bob Saget to give me my first gossip scoop! 

R.I.P. Bob Saget  1956 – 2022