MSNBC’s 10th: Laporte comments on “The Site”…
Leo Laporte, who played Dev Nul on “The Site”, noticed TVNewser’s interview with Soledad O’Brien and comments…(photo via Laporte’s site)
I’ll never forget pitching it to NBC at 30 Rock just before Christmas 1995. Then NBC News Director Andrew Lack came in in a three-piece suit and cowboy boots. He propped his booted feet up on the table and said, “ok, let’s hear it.” It was like something out of Seinfeld.
I wish I were a better packrat. I have the 90-page treatment on a disc somewhere. If I can find it I’ll post a couple of pages.
I had hoped to be the lead reporter on the show, but the NBC executives told me I had no chance of getting on camera so they stuck me in a VR suit and the character Dev Null was born. I won an Emmy for it but the only other competition was a sock puppet character on the local Spanish language station, so it wasn’t exactly a competitve category.
I enjoyed the article on “The Site.” “The Site” was the very first program I ever regularly watched on MSNBC. Otherwise, I might not have really known or cared that the network existed. But I found the whole Web revolution fascinating and “The Site” was right there just as things were starting to heat up, with interesting stories on all kinds of issues created by the explosion of the Web. It was as if it were 1948 and I had one of the few TVs around, and there was a TV show about television and what was happening in the TV business.
The Dev Null character was kind of dopey, but he was only a small part of the show. For the most part, Soledad O’Brien interacted with real people.
Comment by tanne — July 15, 2006 @ 11:42 am
The Site is the first show I can recall watching on MSNBC. I barely remember this Dev Null character. I do however possess a Soledad O’brien signed photo from The Site. And she had a fan website…probably one of the first tv personalities with an internet/web following.
Comment by Terance — July 15, 2006 @ 12:36 pm