Smallscreen Features
A Chat with 'Amne$ia's' Dennis Miller and Mark Burnett
By April MacIntyre
Feb 12, 2008, 18:55 GMT

NBC is set to debut Amne$ia, a new Mark Burnett-created game show that will challenge contestants' memories for the chance to win cash and prizes.  The show will premiere Friday, February 22 at 9PM ET/PT.

Following its premiere broadcast, Amne$ia will move into its regular Fridays at 8PM ET/PT time slot beginning February 29.

Hosted by comedian Dennis Miller, each one-hour Amne$ia episode will ask contestants a variety of questions that come from their own life, forcing them to recall memories from their past that might have been forgotten long ago for the opportunity to win cash and prizes.

Monsters and Critics got a chance to speak with Amne$ia host Dennis Miller and producer Mark Burnett. 

Dennis, what brought you to Amne$ia?

Dennis Miller: Well, I remember when they said (Marky) Burnett was involved. I have never missed an episode of Survivor since the end of the first season. I didn’t watch the first season. I was acting above it all and then I watched the last one.
And by the way, has there ever been a more unfortunate name for somebody going into prison for tax evasion than Dick Hatch? But anyway - I remember thinking Mark Burnett, wow. That’s interesting. I’ll take that call.

Then he pitched me Survivor and it was - or pitched me Survivor - pitched me Amne$ia and it was more like - it felt like a cross between Ralph Edwards and Alex Trebek - more like - well I think when you watch it you’ll see.
It’s not just a game show where we’re out there smacking buttons all the time and trying to do speed and alacrity. There’s some sort of a whimsical walk through a person’s life, sort of like Ralph Edwards on This is Your Life.

Mark, the show sounds a bit like The Moment of Truth, aside from the lie detector test. How is Amne$ia different?

Mark Burnett: It’s a very, very different show. This show is really a light-hearted, comedic look at someone’s mind. It’s the easiest game show in the world where all you got to know is your own - you answer about your own life.

The show really is more than 50% Dennis making you laugh your ass off all the time. He’s so quick and it’s so funny. And it’s - as Dennis said earlier, it’s very whimsical and very easy to win.

And in fact, honestly, Dennis is just trying to give away NBC’s money - desperately trying to give away NBC’s money. What makes it really funny is, you know, we’re all incredulous -- especially Dennis.

But people literally can’t even choose their own doormat from 12 doormats on the stage. They walk over this thing every single day and for $20,000 they can’t choose the correct doormat or they got a moment where they - on their wedding night, can’t remember the hotel they stayed in with their wife on their wedding night.

You can just imagine Dennis Miller laughing along with this. It’s just hilarious. So Moment of Truth - great show, loved the show.

But it certainly takes people to a darker place. And, you know, well this is a very light-hearted, family friendly, very, very funny show because of the great Dennis Miller.

Dennis Miller: Well I would say I’m trying to a more amiable interlocutor than that other show and if the other show has got you, I would think this one is more got you covered. You know, we’re just trying to have a fun hour.

We’re not trying to ruin anybody.  I guess that’s wrong-headed on my part. They’re not trying to ruin - there’s the potential there, it seems for me, for great heartache. There’s a potential on us for a few smiles, a few blasts from the past and somebody walks away with some bread, you know. It’s fun.

If you were a contestant, what type of questions would you ask yourself?

Dennis Miller: I’m bad at the hypotheticals. I don’t know. I guess I would recognize my doormat - put it that way because it’s made out of the same material William Shatner’s toupee is. But other than that, I am the host but I have not put myself in the other position.

But like I said they’re not - it’s not like we’re doing Oriana Fallaci. It’s sort of - I would expect to see a bartender somewhere from my college days. It would have my favorite drink and he would mix it, and I would recognize it with a blindfold on. It’s an easier vibe, you know. It’s more fun. More fun, less provocateur (stuff).

Mark Burnett: And sort of on that, it’s just absolutely hilarious stuff. There’s one episode - there’s a cop on an episode and do you think this cop could tell you the speed limit on his own street where he lives - which we’ve actually gone out and photographed?

You know, there’s a guy who plays golf with his father-in-law every week. Do you think he can remember his father-in-law’s handicap? You know what you learn from this show?

Most of us, you know, everyone on this call included probably - we tend to listen to others a lot less than we focus on ourselves. And it’s amazing the things you don’t hear that other people tell you.

Dennis Miller: And that coming from the great Robert Burnett - will tell you. Oh, I mean Mark, sorry. I’d forgot. Amnesia!

Dennis, you seem to remember the arcane things real easily - do you find you forget lots of common things that would make people laugh if you were on the show?

Dennis Miller: Well listen, I have a - I think somewhat, my monkey trick in show business has been a reasonably deep draw and a nice retrieval system. Now when you’re doing stuff on stage - I remember watching Lithgow one night in M. Butterfly in New York, and asking how he remembered all that.

And literally, the reveal is from word to word. It’s sort of like putting your thumb down at the end of a notebook and flipping the pages. One word leads to the next word, the next word, the next word.

I don’t view that as memory, sort of extol - like where I see pictures in full. But I do have a reasonably good memory in a lot of ways except I do have dead spots. Fiction - literature, fiction I have a dead spot and that’s more of a Ken Jennings thing.

I’ve got a complete dearth of knowledge in that area. But names - I’m bad with names and I often view that - I think, why are you bad with names? And as I get older, I find it’s an unbecoming trait because it seems almost narcissistic or something that I won’t log somebody’s name in.

So I’m starting to do the old Jerry Lucas memory trick where he associates somebody’s name with another thing and it sticks in your head because as I get older, it seems a little egocentric - not the - I used to think it was cute.
I used to think it was dappy. I used to think it was mad professor. I used to think here’s my - the chink in my armor. Now I think I’m just being an asshole. So I’m trying to memorize names more.

Yeah, it’s pretty interesting to watch. I think it’s the old aphorism as life is what happens while you’re making other plans. I think the day-to-day minutia of our lives is sort of like the ticking grandfather clock in the corner and I think it would probably comfort people if they periodically notice the swaddle of their life.

I - that’s one thing I’ve learned from the show, is everybody is working so vigorously on the grass being greener on the other side of things that they sometimes miss the point that their day-to-day ramble is intoxicating in its own right and they should probably stop that and smell the roses at least twice.

Dennis, are the writers and producers going to give you a lot of room for you to be you, which will make this show for me all the more enjoyable?

Dennis Miller: Well listen, I’ll be honest. The show appeared to be stream of consciousness. I remember going in the first day and talking to this cat named (Roy Bank) - nice guy. I don’t think he’s doing the show anymore. I don’t quite know what happened, but he was a good guy.

But I remember him - look, I said (Roy), at some point we should turn a camera on and shoot this thing because I have to recant and to recant I have to be in the moment. And to be in the moment, we can’t put the Arthur Murray dance steps down and, you know, hit these notes before we actually get started.

So we held off around eight hours on the first day. I’m a nervous wreck. By the time I get out there to shoot the first one, I’m like stuck. You know what I mean? There’s too much paralysis of analysis.

But then we restarted and I said let’s do this again. Let’s just be looser with this. Let’s have fun. Let me talk to these people. Let me - I used to think Larry King was a little - being a little lazy when he would advance that conceit of I don’t read the books because I want to be tabula rasa when I do the interview.

But there is some truth to that - that the more you rehearse it the more rehearsed it looks. So the second time through - and I think, you know, we - I said could we shoot this first segment again?

I just made up my mind I was going to be loose. I was going to go with it. I was going to be like a tour guide with these people, sort of like that Jan Hooks was stuck in my head.

And we’re walking, and we’re walking, and we’re walking down a path, looking at their life. And I was just sort of taking pot shots, zinging from the fringes like Spade did in Just Shoot Me, not trying to be, you know, not trying to be so staid and stolid, that I was screwing the show up - just like I said, more of an amiable interlocutor.

And from there on in, you know, I think (Roy) came backstage. He said hey, this is the vibe we want. Just go with this. And since then, they’ve been nice. I mean, nobody’s said a word to me except go out and try to have fun with these people.

I decided to rid myself of some of the sardonics and that just being nicer - you know, I’ve got a nice side to me, too. But I’ve been paid to be a smart ass for so many years in these brief lasts that I thought, that’s not going to play over now or that’s not going to play over the length of a season.

You’ve got to look, you know, like, I’m genuinely a friendly guy. I wanted to be friendly with these people. So that’s the vibe I’m going for. It doesn’t have to be rat-a-tat-tat. It doesn’t have to be killer funny. But I like to put the little zingers in and to be nice. And have a good evening with the people, and hope they win some bread.

Mark, the difference between British audiences and American audiences for reality TV -  could tell us if there was a sensitivity or a difference when you plot out your shows for different audiences in different countries?

Mark Burnett: You know, because I grew up in England but I’ve lived 25 years in America with, you know, three kids here and my brain is so scrambled - I can’t remember where I’m from these days.

So it’s very hard for me to differentiate. You know, I have many shows in each country. I don’t know. I think the global market - and I think the best way to know that -- whether it’s comedy or drama, or game shows, whatever (travelers) were -- in the global economy it’s the way that American movies, for example, sell around the world in every market.

It’s that American sensibility. And I think that American stuff travels better overseas than bringing foreign stuff here. That’s the only rule I really know for sure.

And a great example of that is The Office. The British show, The Office, when it first came on American television had the same long pauses and irony that the British show had when it aired here, and did okay. And then it changed more - to more laughs and more American constant humor, and did better. So I hope that answered your question.

Dennis Miller: You know, the further buttress Mark’s sentiment there, I would remind you that David Hasselhoff’s cover version of More More More by the Andrew True Connection just went Triple Platinum today in Micronesia. So Yankee stuff does play well overseas.

How much research is gathered to get all the sort of information that you’re going to be questioning contestants about to get the right answers?

Dennis Miller: Oh, they have sheets I read. And you know what, though? I started memorizing them and I - like I said, that’s what I was speaking to in that earlier answer. I need a cursory view of these people.

And quite frankly, it’s more important to know the three people they bring in and I try to study on them more because you sort of define these - the cerulean glow of these people through the people around them.

Those are the three people that I Q&A and that’s the, you know, that’s the basic thing. You bring somebody out. You bring three people out. You learn about them and see if they remember stuff that meant more to these people.

So you can define the people, for purposes of the game, I’ve found more through the three people who are coming in and annotating their script than you can the actual person. It’s best I remain a little vague with them. I want to know what they look like. I want to know their age. I want to know the basic cut of their jib.

But I don’t want to know their details. I think if there are any jokes to be had during the show, it’s me sort of stumbling onto the same, you know, the same vein of comedic gold, as it were, that the other people will.

I don’t want to know them so well that I’m studied about it. So I try to know the three people I’m querying more than I do the protagonist.

What about the differences with men and women?

Dennis Miller: Yeah. I would say ironically, the men have been surprisingly more - remember that sort of stuff than I thought they would. You know, there’s - I think we’ve sort of been bred through the advertising community to think that men are sort of, you know, all like Lenny from Of Mice and Men, just big, loping guys that don’t remember specific details.

But the guys turned out to be really, you know, emotional about this stuff. And sometimes the women blow through the dates and the places where they first met and that.

But I found the guys seemed to have a much more, you know, in the brief amount of shows I’ve done, the guys remember a lot more than I thought they would about the sort of so-called romantic things.

What are some game shows from your childhood that you really liked and would like to see come back?

Dennis Miller: Mark, you go first.

Mark Burnett: Sure. You know, one thing about - I’ll answer that, but I also want to say about this show because I was thinking yeah, technically I suppose it’s a game show because you can win money on this show. This show, though, reminds me more of a comedy variety show.

Growing up in England, there were some of these great Friday and Saturday night shows -- which fortunately we’ve got a Friday time slot -- which is really where people don’t want to work too hard.

They’re not looking to see anybody demeaned. It’s quite fun and you’ve got a great comedian like Dennis Miller who, as he said, by not knowing too much it’s off the cuff, brilliant humor that just laughs at the situation but doesn’t make anybody feel bad.

And that’s the one thing that really I took away from watching hours and hours of Amne$ia - Dennis went out of his way, could not make anybody feel bad.
So coming back to the game shows I’ve liked - just going back in England, growing up, variety, funny game shows.  And on the American side, obviously I like my own show Fifth Grader because I love the fact that adults cannot do their children’s homework.

And it’s a show which totally empowers kids to finally feel smarter than the adults who are always telling them what to do because these adults can’t even answer ten-year-old questions. So I love that feeling that is so empowering to the kids.
Dennis Miller: I liked GE College Bowl because I thought it was like Lollapalooza for nerds. And I liked the retro feel of it. I like anything where the scoreboard has to be flipped over by hand.

I used to like Kitty Carlisle on Fridays when she would wear the mink stole that had the animal’s head still intact. So I have more of a retro - I like black and white shows.

I think they should bring back GE College Bowl with Ju Co College Bowl - have average students from Junior Colleges or Community Colleges across the country, sort of an everyman feel.

Don’t make it the geniuses from Princeton but rather the, you know, the C students from Pensacola Junior College I think that would be an interesting weekly show.

Mark, why do you think that there has kind of been a resurgence of these variety-type shows and game shows lately on television?

Mark Burnett: Well I think there’s been a resurging of variety shows. I think this will be the first hybrid variety meets the game show. There’s been a lot of game shows on TV and I think things go in cycles. I don’t exactly know why, but I just paid attention to that fact.

But I think there will be a great resurgence of variety. You know, I would love to say that there will (unintelligible) Laugh In sort of show come back. I think there’s a great place for variety and I’m very proud of this show.

This show is totally family friendly. To watch this show with your kids Dennis - even when things go a little bit adult, Dennis brings it back and will make it family friendly and funny.

This is really the first time I’ve ever seen a show where the lighting is different. There are no podiums. There are no buzzers. It’s Dennis standing in the round - in the center of a stage with the contestant standing right next to him, having tons of fun.

Obviously somewhat perplexed, but there’s, you know, they can get $20,000 for simply remember their parking space number at work. It’s amazing that people don’t remember this stuff.

People just don’t remember it and it’s funny. But, you know, people win a lot of money right from the very beginning. Dennis is giving away cash, you know, thousands in cash for simple questions about your life which is called You in 60 Seconds. It gets off to a great start, and we learn about the person as they’re earning $1000 a question, cash in their hand.

Dennis, what does your own family kind of think of you hosting the show that is really family friendly and just, you know, a good thing to watch?

Dennis Miller: Well my kids have never seen anything I’ve ever done in show business, so it’s nice.  They think I’m in the Federal Witness Relocation Program. They wonder where I’ve been for 20 years.

No, no of course they’ve watched other stuff. But listen, I got to - like I said, you’re Pavlov’s dog in this business.

And I, you know, it’s behavior modification. To get the corn kernel, I’ve been a smartass for years. I was glad - I was enamored of Mark, you know, earlier as a young guy from Pittsburgh and asked why this one?

I remember the first thing he said to me was, you know, I think I see a friendlier side of you, a warmer, cuddly side and I’d like to play to that. I haven’t heard that in 20 years in show business.

I said, yeah, I’ll try that. I think I have it in there, too. I don’t want to be fractious all the time and seems between the polarizing fact that I wasn’t flipped over the political shows I do and the sardonic comedy, I’m always some Marlboro Man off in the distance for him to say come on inside, come in from the cold and be a, you know, like I said, more of an Arthur Godfrey type or something - sounded good to me.

Mark, how do you deal with other producers copying Survivor?

Mark Burnett: I’ve been the unfortunate recipient of lots of copying. But hey, I can only look myself in the mirror and look at my kids, and feel proud. And try and be different. You know, I’ve tried to always be different.

And trust me, Amne$ia - wholly, totally different. And it really is, as I said earlier, it’s the mixture of variety with a game. And where I really want to go in the near future is also do a pure variety show.

I’d love to work with Dennis on it. I mean, honestly, this is a Dennis - Amne$ia could be called Dennis Miller Show. It’s so funny and he makes me laugh so much - even on this phone call.

He’s just quick and it like requires, you know, laughing at stuff that’s pretty obvious where he needs someone to call upon it, at a right moment with the right frame of mind. I mean, it’s hilarious stuff.

And I’m just glad this is not different. And the real point of your question - I don’t think it really helps in the ratings when too many things look too much the same. I think it’s like chocolate, you know. It’s great in small doses, but you eat too much of it you feel sick.

Mark, what is the most bizarre place you’ve ever been pitched a reality show?

Mark Burnett: Most bizarre place?

April MacIntyre: Yeah.

Dennis Miller: I think the old Bob Eubanks answer is in the butt. No, I’m sorry. That was the Newlywed Game.

April MacIntyre: Yeah, it was.

Dennis Miller: I always wonder if that story is a true one or not. Does anybody remember that story? Where is the weirdest place you made love, on the Newlywed Game, and somebody said in the butt. Anyway, I don’t - they were saying - don’t know if that can be put on Monsters and Critics but…

April MacIntyre: Sure it can.

Mark Burnett: Hello?

Dennis Miller: Go ahead, Marky. Sorry to jump in there, but I just…

April MacIntyre: I mean, when people find out that you’re Mark Burnett, they must hit you up with their cockamamie pitches for reality shows, right?

Dennis Miller: Are you there, Mark? What? Is he pissed off now?  Tell him it’s a famous old Bob Eubanks thing from the Newlywed Game. You remember this?  Jesus. God look, he’s committed hara-kiri. It’s like Fail Safe when they blew New York up. I could hear the phone melting. All right, go ahead.

Dennis - heading towards college and beyond, so obviously this is a great gig and if it’s a hit, it’s beyond lucrative. Are you coming up with your own ideas for reality shows?

Dennis Miller: No. You know what? I don’t premeditate my career that much. I never have seen the far shore career-wise. I have this lily pond approach where right before it appears that I’m about to get wet, somebody seems to push another lily pad in front of me, and I am more than happy to hop to it.

I consider my - one of the joys of my career, to me, has been the eclectic nature of my CV, and I would only have that if I had been periodically fired from jobs. So when they say you want to try football? I say yeah, I’ll try football. They say you want to try a news channel show? I say yeah I’ll do it.

Now I’m doing radio. I enjoy that. Game show? Yeah, I’ll give that a try. I don’t have any pretensions that I am the master of any one field, but I’m willing to step up and take a swing at almost any sort of pitch.

While we are waiting for Mark to rejoin the conversation, I have a question that’s unrelated to Amne$ia for you, Dennis.

Dennis Miller: All right. Where is Marky Mark? Now, has he quit the business?

April MacIntyre: I think I drove him off the line with my question.

Dennis Miller: I thought he was former SWAT or something. Wasn’t he a Navy Seal? And he can’t take the Bob Eubanks joke.

April MacIntyre: Kind of - a British one. Yeah, he was in the Falklands or something.

Dennis Miller: I know. You’d think he’d be game tough.

April MacIntyre: Is there a pundit on TV that you particularly find amusing or you enjoy watching, or you never miss -- either Olbermann or O’Reilly?  Any of our American bloviators that you find fascinating for whatever reason?

Dennis Miller: I like Mark Steyn, he’s written a great book called America Alone. I can’t quite make his accent out. I sometimes hear him referring to Canada. I sometimes hear him referring to England. I know he lives up in New England, but I think he is an absolutely brilliant man.

I think that’s the best book I’ve read in the last decade. Mark Steyn, great pundit. And I always like Chris Hitchens. I don’t always agree with Chris, but I like the shamble babies approach to it when he comes in like, you know, you got a guy right on the fringe of the rat pack or something, cocktail in hand, with the lip hanging Gitaines. So I’m fascinated by that vibe, too.

Do you really think that men remember better than women? I have never found a man that could best a woman in memory?

Dennis Miller: I know. That’s why I was surprised on the show that the more romantic, touching things - the guys seemed to know. So I - listen, I guess every theory is out there to be disproved.

April MacIntyre: That would be a really interesting one to disprove.

Mark Burnett: I’m here. I’m here, Dennis.

April MacIntyre: Oh, great.

Dennis Miller: What happened?

Mark Burnett: I’m on a cell phone and it dropped out, and I called back in.

Dennis Miller: I thought you’d given up on the whole venture after the in the butt thing.

Mark Burnett: No, that was hilarious. I was laughing so hard. That’s one of the first things I remember about American television when I first moved here - in the butt.

Dennis Miller: I hope it’s true. I don’t know if it’s true, but I hope it’s true.

April MacIntyre: Mark, I'll ask again, What was the most bizarre situation or place you were ever pitched a reality show?

Mark Burnett: You know, I’m not - well, very - it went from many years I wasn’t pitched anything because I just didn’t let ideas escape from my head for a long time.

But now, honestly, it’s like nonstop. It’s now become some of the most famous people you could ever imagine who want to be on reality shows.

And it’s just - the world has gone mad. And so it’s not anymore the most bizarre place. You know, I’m sure people have come up to me in restrooms while I’m taking a leak and they’re like hey, are you up for some - honestly.

But the worst thing is people actually refer to me, not by name. It’s hey, Survivor guy, Apprentice guy. They’re literally - I’m walking with my wife and children and people are yelling in airports - Survivor guy, as if I've survived some deadly disease or something.

Your show is much more family friendly. But what’s your take on what Fox is doing with that lie detector show?

Dennis Miller: Well the only - the way our show differs is if they lie on our show, a sort of a (Vaughan Villain) door opens up beneath their seat and they drop into a vat of acid with sharks in it. But other than that, no comparison.

No I - you know, I will not watch the other show. So I understand it has a darker vibe and maybe that there are uncomfortable moments. Ours, as I said earlier, is more of an amiable lope. I’ve seen the commercials, so I feel that I’ve seen it. I know I’ve seen the worst toupee I’ve ever seen on the commercial on one guy. And I was thinking about a Moment of Truth Show where a guy is wearing a rug with the world Welcome printed on it.

Dennis,  what did you learn from working for Game Show Network there?

Dennis Miller: I learned that Brits have a funny, quirky twist to their mind. I worked with a cat named Michael Davies on there and I might be a Brit-aphile or something because I find them very literate and airy. And they’ve got a funny sense of humor that is right up my alley.

So it’s not all the young ones with them. You get these - there’s this guy who is on The Apprentice now. I don’t even know his name, but he makes me laugh out loud. Mark, what is his name?

Mark Burnett: Piers Morgan.

Dennis Miller: Piers Morgan - he’s my new hero because he absolutely refuses to abide by Omarosa who is the quintessential ugly American. And they get into these dust-ups, and it’s so funny to me. So between working with Michael Davies and - who was the guy on the - that other show…

Grand Slam and Mark on this one. And I didn’t know if Mark was Australian or English, but he said earlier in the thing that he was born in England. And Piers, my new hero - I find that I have an affinity for the British sense of humor. I like it.

Dennis, how has your comedy background prepared you to take on your new role?

Dennis Miller: Comics have been steeled in the fire of nightclubs. Nightclubs really make you, not bulletproof, but you do think on your feet because it’s a fluid situation. These game shows are fluid situations.

These people are sort of like the negative exposure of hecklers. You have to deal with them with a more deaf touch because they’re not heckling you. They’re looking to you for leadership.

So you take the same skills, sort of flip them inside out, shepherd them through this, get your laughs, you know, be a hail fellow, well meant and everybody is happy.

I remember Alex Trebek on High Rollers because I was fascinated by the fact that Ruta Lee would not put the dice back, but he would hit the mechanical button that would bring the dice back to him.

Dennis, Who is your pick in the Presidential race?

Dennis Miller: Well listen, I’m going to vote for John McCain, if for no other reason than two years into a five and a half year prison sentence they said he could go home because his father was the head of CINCPAC, and he said sort of like that General in the Patton movie, nuts.

So, when people say is that enough of a reason to be President? Certainly it supersedes being married to a President or it supersedes being a lawyer, or it supersedes six years or eight years in the Illinois State Senate.

I think it’s enough of a reason to give the guy the Presidency, you know, because he had those sort of cojones.   Well listen, you know, people talk about why somebody should be the President. I don’t know why that reason is. Right now I’m a one issue guy. I want somebody who, when guys are in caves watching the satellite uplink and they see our guy, they’re scared shitless of him. And that’s McCain.

They’re scared shitless of him. I think they’re scared shitless of Cheney. They’re sitting there and they go hey, (Kalil), get over here. Cheney just shot his best friend in the head.

Why did he do that? I don’t know, some birdie wanted to get to the guy got between him and the bird. It’s his best friend. He’s 86 and he drops him with a shotgun blast. That’s his best friend. He doesn’t even like us. What’s he going to do to us?

I think they have that same feeling about McCain. They look at him and they go, that cat’s surly. He recognizes us as the enemy. He’s seen the enemy through the slat in his door that they pushed his food in through over a five and a half year period. And he’s not going to take crap. And that’s what I’m looking for in a President right now.