Oh, YES! It's Walter "Mr. Bill" Williams

From SNL to JFK

When I call Walter Williams, the creator of 1976-1981 Saturday Night Live favorite Mr. Bill (among other things), I notice it’s a Los Angeles number. Happily, the New Orleans native informs me he left L.A. years ago and currently calls Santa Fe, New Mexico, home. I could have figured that out upon closer scrutiny of his LinkedIn page, but the photos of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and a Monty Python member sporting Mr. Bill t-shirts must have distracted me.

“I used to live up in one of the areas that was evacuated, up around Mulholland. Other than the cool evenings, I hated it there,” he says. “I lived up in the Hollywood Hills and in the Sequoia National Forest area. We went back there in 2017, and all the evergreens were dead and the leaves had turned brown.”

Since Mr. Bill’s last appearance on SNL, in 1981, the character has popped up in commercials, a live action television series, environmental public service announcements, and an anthology show. Williams is working on a number of projects now, and credits his son West—a “self-motivated” game creator and 3D animator—with giving him an early jump on the digital editing process.

Tell us about the project you’re working on now, Crescent City.

It’s a dramatic series set in New Orleans between 1958 and 1963, involving the characters from the JFK assassination—real and fictional, from the worlds of civil rights, politics, and rock ‘n roll. My dad died when I was six, and JFK was like a surrogate father to me. I watched Lee Harvey Oswald get shot on television – he lived down the street from me on Magazine (in New Orleans).

I’m planning for five seasons. I’ve written the first season and gotten funding to get the first season together. And I’m making it entertaining. I want it to be authentic to people who are really into the Kennedy conspiracies. I’ve shot part of episode one, and I have some demo footage. The main thing is that I loaded the 10 scripts I’ve written (600 pages) into Chat GPT, and it said it made sense. And it makes sense to me and the couple of people who’ve read it.

“Sizzle” Reel for Crescent City

The first episode starts with Lee Harvey Oswald meeting with his handler, Guy Bannister. This is my passion project, but my agent won’t even look at it. But even if I don’t get this produced right away, it will still be relevant. It’s one of the biggest unsolved crimes of all time. Jim Garrison (the New Orleans District Attorney played by Kevin Costner in Oliver Stone’s 1991 film JFK) is a main character—here, he’s the assistant DA. My friend saw him and Clay Shaw walking down the street way before the trial happened.

I spent time with Dr. John, and he was really passionate about that era because he was just starting out then, playing at Clay Shaw’s parties. He verified a lot of things. His Locked Down album (2012) is the ideal soundtrack. When I heard that, every cut felt like it fit certain scenes. He wrote all those songs about himself during that time as a troubled youth. He knew all about the CIA and KKK connections, too.

How did you and Mr. Bill end up in the first Saturday Night Live book, the one with Generalissimo Francisco Franco on the cover? That book only covered the first two seasons, before the outbreak of Mr. Bill fever following Season Three (1977-78).

Mr. Bill was in the first season. I’d sent it in for the Home Movie segment, and it went over really well. Tom Schiller and Neil Levy and some of the others showed it to Lorne and he didn’t want to use it. So they brought in a projector and showed it to the cast and writers in Lorne’s office. There was a lot of internal buzz.

Mr. Bill Cold Opening with John Belushi from 1979

I did another one the second season. I was doing them on my own. It turned out great for me, though, because I own it all. I asked for a budget for expenses at one point—like, a hundred bucks—and they didn’t talk to me for a year!

During the third season, I finally got a meeting with Lorne (Michaels). For the fourth season, he wanted 10 Mr. Bill films. He said, “If it works, you’ll be a hero and I’ll be a hero.” And I got the opportunity to write scripts for commercial parodies during the 1978-79 season. “Elvis Presley’s Coat” – I told Tom Davis about that, and he thought it was a great idea. Lorne shot it down immediately. When he left, Tom said, “Write it anyway.”

Are you planning to attend the 50th anniversary bash?

I went to the 25th anniversary, but there’s always been this friction because they didn’t own Mr. Bill. For the 30th, they did a documentary on the first five seasons. I tuned in and there wasn’t one mention of Mr. Bill!

They wanted to use a Mr. Bill clip for the 35th, and they had to get my permission. I said sure, but then I watched the show. Laraine Newman was on there saying they all hated Mr. Bill. What the fuck, I didn’t know there was any controversy about Mr. Bill being on too much!

I wasn’t invited to the 40th, so no Mr. Bill clip. They did do the musical homage with Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon, and they included “Oh, no, Mr. Bill…”

But it’s okay, I know the rules. I own all the rights to everything, and if something comes up, I can do whatever I want. Bally’s did an SNL slot machine with Church Lady and all that, but they really wanted Mr. Bill with three Sluggo heads laughing while you lose Johnny’s college fund. I wasn’t interested. They pursued me for years, and I kept saying no.

Walter Williams