Sometimes when I find a huge (over 500 pages) book, it looks daunting unless it's a dictionary. A few years ago, I read all 1400+ pages of The Count of Monte Cristo, and that was quite the task.
In this case, the book at my favorite thrift store was of a topic quite dear to me: Saturday Night Live. It was put together via a wide array of interviews of almost everyone creatively and corporately involved up to 2002.
Just to lay down a little history, Saturday Night Live was not some all of a sudden brainstorm by creator Lorne Michaels. On the contrary...for those of you who never knew life in the 1900s, there was a late night talk show host named Johnny Carson, and he hosted the Tonight Show from 1962-92. The NBC network was running reruns of his show on the weekends and when Johnny found out in late 1974, he told them to knock it off by the summer of 1975. So NBC had the option of either returning that block of time (11:30pm to 1am) to local channels and lose that commercial profit OR come up with something to replace it.
Incidentally, Johnny wanted reruns to play on weeknights so he could take more time off...he was getting famous for that already.
After some creative talks and some really (in my mind) dumb ideas, Canadian Lorne Michaels along with future sports exec Dick Ebersol were put in charge of creating a 90 minute show. Lorne put together some talent from comedy and improvisation clubs, created a basic structure for his idea, and on October 11, 1975, NBC's Saturday Night debuted...and it lived happily ever after!
YEAH SURE!
Its first host was George Carlin, who was apparently quite high that night. He would appear 9 years later with shorter hair and minus the drug use. The show's original cast was Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner. While they were featured all through the first several episodes, they were not really highlighted and shown individually in the opening until early 1976.
The breakout star of the show was Chevy Chase with his Weekend Update features where he was playing himself, along with portraying President Gerald Ford and other sketch characters. With his rising publicity, he decided to leave the show in the fall of 1976. Pretty quickly, the new focus was on Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi along with Gilda Radner. Jane Curtin took over Weekend Update, with Dan as co-anchor for a while. In the winter of 1977, Bill Murray joined the cast and after an unremarkable start, began to shine on his own.
This cast stayed pretty stable up to 1979, when Dan and John left to further their movie careers. Bill, Garrett, Jane, Gilda, and Laraine took it on their own the next season, with some help from Harry Shearer.
And then Lorne was ready for a break! So was the rest of the cast. Former producer Don Ebersol after the next disastrous season would rescue the show for 4 fairly good seasons...though some episodes lacked finesse.
I own the first season and have seen other episodes from those first 5 seasons via old-style video rentals, plus Nick at Nite used to air Best of Saturday Night in the late 80s, minus the music acts.
Comedy Cental aired the 1980-91 years of the show in the early to mid 90s, so I caught most if not all of those years a couple of times. I'll break it down pretty simply...according to my well renowned (?) opinion.
1980-81- These shows are practically unwatchable. They hold almost no humor (a few chuckles at best). Eddie Murphy appears in a few pieces, and he is the definite highlight.
1981-82- More consistent laughs, but still a bit uneven, though I liked the Wild Wild West parody the best. Eddie Murphy is the big star here. I know Joe Piscopo got a lot of publicity, but he was also pretty dependent on Eddie's fame.
1982-84- Eddie and Joe are still the highlight while the other players (including Julia Louis Dreyfus). Pretty watchable 2 seasons.
1984-85- This was a star-studded season with Martin Short, Billy Crystal, and Christopher Guest. A few holdouts from the previous 2 years were there but not highly featured. Eddie was gone and therefore Piscopo was as well. In my view, Short and Crystal ran away with this one.
And then lo and behold, Lorne Michaels rose out of the burial ground of lesser known works to make SNL magic again...it would not happen right away. Some of his assembled new cast would help make the show glorious again in time: Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller, and Nora Dunn. Then there was his selected celeb group of Anthony Michael Hall, Randy Quaid, Robert Downey Jr. and Joan Cusack, along with unknowns Danitra Vance, Damon Wayans, and Terry Sweeney. It was a pretty large group and much did not gel. I do remember this season having a few gems, though it was almost canceled.
1986-89: Dunn, Lovitz, and Miller return and are joined by Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, and Kevin Nealon. This was the season we were introduced to the wild impersonations that Cavey and Hartman could do. The show was magic once again, and consistently!
1989-90- The cast is joined by Mike Myers...excellent! Sadly...or not so sadly, Nora Dunn left in protest over Andrew Dice Clay hosting. From what I read, she was not missed. Jon Lovitz also left at the end of the season.
1990-91-The final season for Jan Hooks and Dennis Miller. Six glorious of years of Weekend Update were done.
1991-92- The final season for Victoria Jackson...and in my view, the last truly great year for some time. Adam Sandler, Tim Meadows, David Spade, Rob Schneider, and Chris Farley also came aboard. This season was when I was at college at West Virginia University.
I caught a few episodes of the 1992-93 season, and there were a couple that were good, my favorite being when Harvey Keitel hosted. Other than that, it was mostly stupid...and I was about 20 during this season, still in my dumb comedy phase of life.
In fact, I do not remember watching the show at all until the early 2000s when Will Ferrell was imitating George W Bush so well! During most of the 90s, I was watching a lot of Beavis & Butthead.
According to the book, the 1994-95 season was pretty abominable, but rose from the ashes pretty fast the following year.
Sadly I did not see much of the Jimmy Fallon-Tina Fey era, or the Amy Poehler era. Sad because I heard a lot of good things. I've caught some of Kenan Thompson, just a naturally funny guy.
Sadly we have lost some of our cast members: John Belushi in 1982, Gilda Radner in 1989, Chris Farley in 1997, Phil Hartman in 1998, Jan Hooks in 2014, Norm MacDonald in 2021, and announcer Don Pardo in 2014.
I truly believe that as long as Lorne Michaels is alive and able, Saturday Night Live will breathe. The book says much about him, both in praise and criticism, but both are what genius brings, sometimes one more than the other, part of doing something and doing it well. I salute him.
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