Saturday Night Live

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"SNL" redirects here. For other uses, see SNL (disambiguation).
Saturday Night Live
32nd Season SNL Logo.
32nd Season logo for Saturday Night Live (Replaced first episode logo)
Genre Live action, Comedy, variety television series
Picture format NTSC (480i); 720p/1080i HDTV (since 2005)
Running time 92 minutes per episode
Creator(s) Lorne Michaels
Starring Saturday Night Live cast
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
Original channel NBC
Original run October 11, 1975–Present
No. of episodes 612, as of December 9, 2006

Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a weekly late night 90-minute American comedy-variety show based in New York City which has been broadcast by NBC on Saturday nights since October 11, 1975. It is one of the longest-running network entertainment programs in American television history. Each week, the show's cast is joined by a guest host and a musical act.

Originally, the show was called NBC's Saturday Night until NBC retitled its show in 1976 (the Saturday Night Live title having been previously attached to a short-lived variety show hosted by Howard Cosell and airing on rival network ABC). The first show with the new title was broadcast on March 26, 1977.

The show — broadcast from Studio 8H at the GE Building in New York's Rockefeller Center — has been the launching place for some major American comedy stars of the last thirty years. It was created by Canadian Lorne Michaels who, excluding a hiatus from Season 6 through Season 10, has produced and written for the show and remains its executive producer (Jean Doumanian produced most of Season 6, and Dick Ebersol Seasons 7–10).

In 2005, NBC renewed SNL's contract until 2012.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Cast

[edit] Current repertory players

[edit] Current featured players

None, although featured players could enter the show anytime.

For a full list of past and present cast, see Saturday Night Live cast.

[edit] Notable tenures

Although SNL has a rapid turnover of supporting players, some performers have had long tenures with the show. Few have broken the seven-year barrier. Among the longest serving cast members are:

Cast Member Cast Status Tenure Total Seasons Other Notes
Darrell Hammond Repertory Player September 1995–present 12 and counting Holds the record for the highest number of consecutive seasons as a SNL cast member. Only cast member to receive a "Best Of" while still on the show.
Al Franken Featured Player 1977–1980, 1986, and October 1987–May 1995 11½ Holds the record for the longest serving male SNL cast member, but only perfomed in few sketches each season. Left SNL in 1980, returned near the end of Season 11 in 1986 for a few episodes, left again, came back in 1987 and stayed until 1995.
Tim Meadows Repertory Player February 1991–May 2000 9½ Holds the record for the longest serving African-American SNL cast member. Was often billed as a "Featured" Player during his first 2 1/2 seasons. Has a "Best Of".
Kevin Nealon Repertory Player October 1986–May 1995 9 Featured Player for his first season.
Phil Hartman Repertory Player October 1986–May 1994 8 Has a "Best Of".
Horatio Sanz Repertory Player September 1998–May 2006 8 Holds the record for the longest serving hispanic SNL cast member. Is also the first Hispanic cast member in the show's history. Featured Player for his first season.
Maya Rudolph Repertory Player May 2000–Present 7 and counting Holds the record for most seasons on the show by a female SNL cast member. Joined the cast as featured player in late season 25, was promoted to a repretory cast member at the start of season 27 and missed most of season 31 due to pregnancy.
Chris Parnell Repertory Player September 1998–2001 and March 2002–May 2006 7½ He was fired from SNL at the end of the 2000–2001 season. However, he was rehired for the remaining half of the 2001–2002 season. Featured Player for his first season. Fired again five years later.
Chris Kattan Repertory Player March 1996–May 2003 7½ Featured Player for his first two months on the show. Has a "Best Of".
Rachel Dratch Repertory Player October 1999–May 2006 7 Holds the record for most live broadcasts by a female SNL cast member. Featured Player for her first two seasons.
Tracy Morgan Repertory Player September 1996–May 2003 7 Has a "Best Of".
Will Ferrell Repertory Player September 1995–May 2002 7 Has two "Best Of" shows.

[edit] Longest serving Weekend Update Anchors (3 or more seasons)

Cast Member Tenure Total Seasons Total Episodes Other Notes
Tina Fey October 7, 2000 – May 21, 2005 and October 22, 2005 – May 20, 2006 6 seasons 117 episodes Longest serving Weekend Update anchor, missed the beginning of the 31st season due to pregnancy
Dennis Miller November 9, 1985 – May 18, 1991 6 seasons 111 episodes Longest consecutive tenure as anchor
Jimmy Fallon October 7, 2000 – May 15, 2004 4 seasons 80 episodes
Jane Curtin October 23, 1976 – May 24, 1980 4 seasons 78 episodes
Norm MacDonald September 24, 1994 – December 13, 1997 4 seasons 69 episodes
Kevin Nealon September 28, 1991 – May 14, 1994 3 seasons 60 episodes
Colin Quinn January 10, 1998 – May 20, 2000 3 seasons 50 episodes
Amy Poehler October 2, 2004 – present 3 seasons and counting

[edit] Family connections

Some cast members are related to former staff on the show. The most prominent example is Jim Belushi, younger brother of Not Ready for Prime Time player John Belushi. Before that, Bill Murray's older brother Brian Doyle-Murray was a writer and cast member. When Dan Aykroyd left the show in 1979, he was replaced by a series of short-lived featured players, one of whom was his brother Peter.

Other family connections are not as obvious. For instance, long-time writer and sometime performer Jim Downey is former cast member Robert Downey, Jr.'s uncle. Cast member Gilda Radner was briefly married to G.E. Smith, who later became the show's bandleader. Michael O'Donoghue was married to SNL band pianist Cheryl Hardwick. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall were an item during their tenure, and were married in 1987.

[edit] Saturday Night Live Curse

Although SNL is well-known as the launchpad for many successful careers, a few cast members (and active crew members) have died young. This has given rise to a superstition known as the Saturday Night Live Curse.[1][2][3]

[edit] Cast member deaths

Cast Member Date of Death Cause(s) of Death Notes
John Belushi March 5, 1982 overdose of cocaine and heroin Was the first SNL cast member to die. A Belushi friend, Cathy Smith, was arrested and charged with first degree murder for having administered the fatal injection. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served over a year in prison. Ironically, years before Belushi's death, there was a short film on SNL called, Don't Look Back In Anger that showed an elderly John Belushi as the last living member of the Not Ready For Primetime Players.
Gilda Radner May 20, 1989 ovarian cancer She was scheduled to host the last episode of season 13 (1987-1988), a first for a former female cast member, but the season was cut short due to a writer's strike and her condition worsened. When Steve Martin hosted the last episode of the 1988-1989 season (Season 14), his original monologue about photographing his good and bad sides was scheduled for later in the show when news hit that Radner had died. The new monologue was Steve showing a clip from a sketch on an episode he hosted in 1978 (Steve Martin/The Blues Brothers) where two strangers (played by Martin and Radner) meet each other in a disco and start dancing elegantly around the studio until they return to the sketch and go about their business as if nothing happened between them. This famous sketch is called Dancing In The Dark (transcript). Martin was barely able to maintain his composure during one of the most poignant and sensitive sketches on SNL.
Danitra Vance August 21, 1994 breast cancer She was the first black female repertory cast member (not to be confused with Season 6 featured player/recurring extra, Yvonne Hudson). She claimed to have quit the show because she was sick of being put in stereotypical roles, but according to Al Franken in the book, Live From New York: The Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, Danitra Vance quit because her dyslexia made it difficult to memorize lines and read from cue cards.
Michael O'Donoghue November 8, 1994 cerebral hemorrhage He was a one-time SNL cast member and SNL writer who long suffered from severe chronic migraine headaches. Bill Murray cameoed in a Season 20 (1994-1995) episode (hosted by Sarah Jessica Parker with musical guest R.E.M.) to honor him by replaying O'Donoghue's famous sketch, Mr. Mike's Least Loved Bedtime Stories: The Soiled Kimono from December 1977. (transcript of Bill Murray's appearance; transcript of Mr. Mike's Least Loved Bedtime Stories: The Soiled Kimono sketch)
Chris Farley December 18, 1997 overdose of cocaine and heroin Like his idol, John Belushi, Farley also died from an accidental drug overdose of cocaine and heroin, commonly known as a speedball, at the age of 33 (which was also the age at which Belushi died). Farley's death occurred nearly two months after he came back to host SNL. That appearance turned out to be his last television appearance.
Phil Hartman May 28, 1998 Murder (Gunshot) Hartman's wife, Brynn, had been in treatment for her depression, after months of speculated marriage problems. On May 28, 1998, she consumed a dangerous combination of alcohol, cocaine and the prescription drug Zoloft then shot Hartman that morning while he slept. She later turned the gun on herself. Hartman is the only SNL cast member to have been murdered.
Charles Rocket October 7, 2005 Suicide Local police in Canterbury, Connecticut found Rocket dead near his backyard with a slashed throat. The death was ruled a suicide. Rocket is the first SNL castmember to commit suicide, the first castmember from Jean Doumanian's cast to die, the oldest SNL castmember to die (at age 56), and the first Weekend Update anchor to die.

[edit] Contracts

SNL received some negative publicity in 1999 when it was leaked that, henceforth, actors joining the show would have to agree in their five-to-six year contract that, upon request, they would act in up to three movies by SNL Films, for fees of US$75,000, US$150,000, and then US$300,000; and also that, upon request, they would leave SNL and act in an NBC sitcom for up to an additional six years. This appeared to be a reaction to former cast members such as Adam Sandler and Mike Myers going on to movie stardom. [citation needed]

Some agents and managers characterized these long-term contracts as involuntary servitude, saying that almost any young, undiscovered comic would immediately agree to any given set of exploitative contractual restrictions for the opportunity to launch a career via the show. NBC publicly defended the new contracts, saying that SNL was doing a service to young comics by launching so many careers. [citation needed]Jay Mohr reported in Gasping for Airtime: Two Years in the Trenches of Saturday Night Live (ISBN 1-4013-0006-5), that his starting salary of his 5 year deal was US$5,500 per episode (in 1994) plus $1,500 for his writing credit. The following year's salary was $6,500 per episode, up to $12,500 for a 5th year tenured player.

[edit] The studio

Since the show's inception, SNL has aired from Studio 8H, located on floors 8 and 9 of 30 Rockefeller Plaza (usually nicknamed "30 Rock"). Due to the studio originally being a radio soundstage for Arturo Toscanini and his NBC Symphony Orchestra, the layout of the studio floor and the audience positioning causes some audience members to have an obstructed view of many of the sketches.

Three of the first four shows of the 1976-77 season were shot at the former NBC Studios in Brooklyn, due to NBC News using Studio 8H for Presidential election coverage.

During the summer 2005 shooting hiatus, crews began renovations on Studio 8H. With its thirty-first season premiere in October 2005, the show began broadcasting in High Definition, appearing letterboxed on conventional screens.

The offices of SNL writers, producers, and other staff can be found on the 17th floor of "30 Rock". Last Call with Carson Daly used the studio until 2005, when the show moved to Studio 9 at the NBC Studios in Burbank, California.

[edit] Production process

The following is a summary of the process used to produce the show. It is based in part on an August 2000 Writer's Digest article and an April 2004 Fresh Air interview with writer and performer Tina Fey:

Monday:

  • The day begins with a topical meeting, identifying the biggest story for the show's opening.
  • This is followed by a free-form pitch meeting with Lorne Michaels and the show's host for the week.
  • Throughout the week the host has a lot of influence on which sketches get aired.
  • Following the meeting, writers begin to draft the two scripts each must produce.
  • The host does the photo shoot for the SNL bumpers.

Tuesday:

  • Starting in the afternoon, anywhere from 30 to 45 scripts are written, most of which will not be broadcast.
  • Once a writer's scripts are complete, he or she will often help other writers on their scripts.

Wednesday:

  • All scripts get a read-through.
  • After the read-through, the head writer(s) and the producers meet with the host to decide which sketches to work on for the rest of the week, with Lorne Michaels and the host having the final say.

Thursday:

  • The surviving sketches are reviewed, word-by-word, by the writing staff as a whole or in two groups in the case of co-head writers.
  • Some sketches which survived the cut because of their premise, but otherwise needed a lot of work, are rewritten completely. Others are changed in smaller ways.
  • The Weekend Update crew starts coming together, starting with the news items written by writers dedicated all week to the segment.
  • The crew comes in for rehearsal, and the music act is rehearsed as well as some of the larger, more important sketches.
  • The musical guest does a photo shoot for the SNL bumpers.
  • The host and musical guest and usually some cast members shoot two promos to play for NBC.

Friday:

  • The show is blocked.
  • The writer of each sketch acts as producer, working with the show's set designers and costumers.

Saturday:

  • With the show still far from finalized, the day begins with a run-through, with props, in front of Lorne Michaels.
  • After the run-through, the cast and crew find out which of the sketches are in the dress rehearsal, and which are cut. The writer/producer deals with any changes.
  • This is followed by a live dress rehearsal, which lasts from 8 p.m. - 10 p.m. (or sometimes later) and contains approximately twenty minutes of material which will be deleted from the final broadcast.
  • Lorne Michaels uses firsthand observation of the audience reaction to the rehearsal and input from the host to determine the final round of changes, re-ordering sketches as necessary.
  • The live show then begins at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time, but some markets will delay airing.

The status of the show during the week is maintained on a bulletin board. Sketches and other segments are given labels which are put on index cards and put on the board in the order of their performance. The order is based on content as well as production limitations such as camera placement and performer availability. Segments which have been cut are kept to the side of the board. As the broadcast approaches, often the writer/producer discovers the fate of his or her segment only by consulting the bulletin board.

A 60 Minutes report taped in October 2004 depicted the intense writing frenzy that goes on during the week leading up to a show, with crowded meetings and long hours. The report particularly noted the involvement of the guest hosts in developing and selecting the sketches in which they will appear.

[edit] When it's not live

SNL is one of the few shows on television to have its in- and off-season reruns aired out of its original broadcast sequence. The sequence of the in-season reruns (that is, encore shows that air during the season it originally aired) are usually determined by the episodes' popularity. So, for example, if by the midway point of the season in December, a show hosted by Robert DeNiro turned out to be the highest rated show of the season thus far, it would be the first show to be repeated when SNL begins airing its reruns during one of their live breaks. Shows usually air twice during a particular season, but often the highest rated shows of the season have a second encore show towards the end of the off-season, or episodes will be repeated a second or third time to coincide with who hosted. For example, on August 5, 2006, that prior season's show hosted by Natalie Portman was aired, as the video release for her movie V for Vendetta was the following Tuesday.

Encore showings are not always identical to the original broadcast. Frequently, successful sketches that aired later in the show during the original broadcast will be reedited to appear earlier, and segments that did not work well during the original showing are replaced by a) alternate performances or b) completely different sketches that had been taped at the dress rehearsal that preceded the live broadcast. In the earlier years of the show's history, reruns occasionally replaced weaker sketches with segments from other episodes, usually from episodes that did not have an encore showing at all.

[edit] Compilation shows

From time-to-time, SNL airs compilation shows. Such shows will feature the best of a previous season (consisting of sketches and musical segments specially selected by the producers), or of a particular cast member (such as Eddie Murphy or Adam Sandler) or guest (such as Tom Hanks), or centered on a particular theme (for example, Halloween, Christmas, or a major news event). Almost every election year since 1992, SNL airs, during primetime, a "Presidential Bash" featuring both classic and new sketches involving Presidents and presidential candidates. The 2000 Bash was notable for having self-deprecating sketches taped by the actual candidates (George W. Bush and Al Gore, though not together) in addition to the sketches with the players normally assigned to impersonate them. The 2000 Bash also featured a cameo appearance from Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura with the famous opening line "Live from New York, It's Saturday Night."

[edit] When it's less than live

Every episode of "Saturday Night Live" has been on a delay since Tony Rosato shouted the word "cunt" in a 1981 episode.

The episode scheduled for October 25, 1986, hosted by Rosanna Arquette, was not aired until November 8. NBC was broadcasting Game 6 of the 1986 World Series on the evening of October 25; the game entered extra innings, causing that night's broadcast of SNL to be first delayed and then cancelled. The show was performed for the studio audience starting at 1:30 a.m. Eastern Time, recorded, and broadcast two weeks later with an "apology" by New York Mets pitcher Ron Darling.

The episode scheduled for February 10, 2001, hosted by Jennifer Lopez, aired 45 minutes late due to an XFL game. Lopez and the cast were not told by Michaels that they were not being seen live.[4]

In 2005, an episode hosted by Jack Black was not seen in some markets until 12:50 due to a long-running NFL game.

During Eddie Murphy's last season, he was only available for part of the season, so they recorded a number of extra sketches in September 1983 that featured him and were broadcast in episodes he was not available for, according to the book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad.

Some live shows may also be altered and edited for the West Coast (where it is broadcast at 11:30 p.m. or 11:35 p.m. Pacific Time, depending on market); in some cases recordings of sketches or performances from the program's dress rehearsal have been substituted for the later feed.

During Richard Pryor's monologue, he twice used the word "ass", which was muted on the West Coast (but has been restored for syndication). When Sam Kinison delivered a comic monologue in 1986, NBC removed his plea for the legalization of marijuana from the West Coast broadcast and all subsequent repeats.

A portion of Martin Lawrence's 1994 monologue concerning feminine hygiene has been removed from all repeats, replaced with a voiceover and super stating that the excised portion "...was a frank and lively presentation, and nearly cost us all our jobs."[5]

There were even rumors that Ashlee Simpson's live performance recording fumble in 2004 was to have been edited out of the West Coast broadcast, but publicity surrounding the fiasco forced West Coast affiliates to keep the original footage aired that night. The original uncut version aired on the mid-season rerun, and also aired uncut on E!, which syndicates the show.

[edit] Rights to SNL

NBC holds the copyright to every episode of the show made thus far.

The syndication rights to the original incarnation (1975–1980) were originally acquired by Filmways Television (later Orion Television and MGM), while the syndication rights to the shows made from 1980 forward (that is, rerun rights beginning two years after its original NBC airings) have been held by Broadway Video, Lorne Michaels' production company.

The home video rights have also been scattered. Warner Home Video originally released several episodes from the original incarnation (1975–1980). Paramount released a "Best Of Eddie Murphy" video compilation in the 1980s (Murphy had a multi-picture deal with Paramount at the time). In the 1990s, Starmaker Entertainment held the video rights. Lions Gate Home Entertainment handled the VHS and DVD releases of SNL under a new license with NBC until 2006, when Universal Studios Home Entertainment took over releasing SNL DVDs, as Universal Studios and NBC are owned by the same company, NBC Universal.

For many years, Comedy Central aired SNL reruns from 1980-93 under license from Broadway Video. In 1998 or so, Comedy Central began getting reruns from 1993 to the (then) present. In 2001, E! Entertainment Television contracted with Orion/MGM to show reruns from the 1975-80 seasons. At the same time, a deal was signed to move the 1980-present reruns to E! starting March 2003. By fall 2003, the 1975-80 reruns were rarely programmed by E! and had disappeared entirely by 2005. The reruns currently shown on E! are edited down to 60 minutes. Many fans were displeased with this move, as E! does not show SNL reruns as frequently as Comedy Central did in the past.

The only episodes that have not been included in any syndication package (including the current deal with E!) are the prime time special at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the only time the show has originated outside of New York, and the infamous 1990 episode which Andrew Dice Clay hosted.

Note: An edited version (one hour) of the Andrew Dice Clay episode did air on one occasion, during a "Bleep Day" marathon on Comedy Central in the late 1990s.

[edit] In other countries

In Canada, episodes from 1975–1980 are aired in late night programming hours, weeknights on some Global Television Network owned stations such as CHAN, CHCA, and CIII. However, these episodes are edited considerably to fit into to a one hour timeslot, rather than the usual hour and a half.

In Australia, SNL was formerly seen on cable TV network Arena. However, as of November 2006, The Comedy Channel picked up the rights to the one-hour syndicated version, and is airing episodes from 2002-2005 Weekdays at 2pm. On Saturday November 18 at 9.30pm, they began airing new episodes, beginning with the premiere of the 2005-06 season.

Recently, CNBC Asia's Singapore service dropped SNL. Up until then, SNL was seen on CNBC Asia every Saturday at 11 p.m., with an encore telecast on Sunday in a similar time slot.

[edit] Guest hosts

A separate list of Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests is available. A list of sorted tables containing statistics of Saturday Night Live hosts is also available.
Will Ferrell in the famous sketch with Christopher Walken constantly requesting "more cowbell"
Enlarge
Will Ferrell in the famous sketch with Christopher Walken constantly requesting "more cowbell"

There have been many people who have been invited to host SNL. The hosts have ranged from stand-up comedians, like Steve Martin, Robin Williams and George Carlin; to serious character actors, like Robert DeNiro, Tom Hanks, Charlize Theron and Charlton Heston; from pop music icons, like Janet Jackson, Madonna and Britney Spears; to sports figures like Deion Sanders, Tom Brady, The Rock, O.J. Simpson and Derek Jeter. SNL has also asked many of its distinguished alumni, like Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Dana Carvey, Norm Macdonald and Will Ferrell to return to host the show.

Even elected political figures, like former Vice-President Al Gore, U.S. Senate members John McCain and George McGovern and New York Mayors, Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani have hosted the show. Other notable public figures to have hosted SNL have included Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Ralph Nader. The following are lists of notable categories of SNL hosts.

[edit] Musical guests

[edit] Frequent musical guests

The following performers have been musical guests on SNL at least five times:

Musical Guest Number of Episodes First Musical Appearance Last Musical Appearance Other Notes
Paul Simon 7 October 29, 1977 May 13, 2006 Simon also hosted or co-hosted three shows. He co-hosted the second episode with Art Garfunkel on October 18, 1975, and co-hosted with Catherine Oxenberg on May 10, 1986, during the 11th season. He solely hosted on November 20, 1976, where he was one of two musical guests.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 7 November 10, 1979 April 10, 1999
Dave Grohl 7 January 11, 1992 November 12, 2005 He was the drummer for Nirvana in their two performances, was a drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on one performance, and performed with his most recent band, Foo Fighters four times.
Randy Newman 6 October 18, 1975 October 22, 1988
James Taylor 6 September 18, 1976 November 13, 1993
Beck 6 January 11, 1997 October 28, 2006 He appeared as musicial guest two times in 1999 (with hosts Bill Paxton and Christina Ricci, respectively).
Sting 5 October 17, 1987 November 20, 1999 Only British performer to appear as a musical guest at least five times.

[edit] Musical guests who simultaneously hosted

The following performers have pulled a double duty as both musical guests and host during the same SNL episode:

Musical Guest Date of Hosting/Musical Appearance Other Notes
Paul Simon November 20, 1976 He is the first performer to appear simultaneously as host and musical guest.
Ray Charles November 12, 1977
The Rolling Stones October 7, 1978 Are the only band to host and be musical guests on SNL (even though Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, and Ron Wood were the only band members to appear in sketches)
Frank Zappa October 21, 1978
Olivia Newton-John May 22, 1982
Stevie Wonder May 7, 1983
Willie Nelson February 21, 1987
Dolly Parton April 15, 1989
Quincy Jones February 10, 1990 Jones' hosting stint had ten musical guests on one night, an SNL record.
Sting January 19, 1991
Hammer December 7, 1991
Garth Brooks February 28, 1998 and November 13, 1999 He is one of only three performers to simultaneously as host and musical guest more than once. Garth appeared in the second episode as himself as host, and his alter ego Chris Gaines as musical guest.
Jennifer Lopez February 10, 2001
Britney Spears May 13, 2000 and February 2, 2002 At 18, she was the youngest person in SNL History to host and musical guest the same time on May 13, 2000. She is also the only female in SNL History to host and perform in the same episode more than once.
Justin Timberlake October 11, 2003 and December 16, 2006 He will become the third simultaneous host and musical guest to appear more than once on the show when he appears on December 16, 2006.
Janet Jackson April 10, 2004
Queen Latifah October 9, 2004
Ludacris November 18, 2006

[edit] Last-minute replacements/changes

Main article: List of last minute changes on Saturday Night Live

[edit] Infamous moments

Main article: Infamous moments in Saturday Night Live history

[edit] Recurring characters and sketches

It has been suggested that Operaman be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

See also:

Below is a short list of some of SNL's most popular recurring sketches.

[edit] Films based on SNL sketches

The early days of SNL spawned a few movies and low-budget films. However, it wasn't until the huge success of Wayne's World that Broadway Video (Lorne Michaels' production company) became encouraged to feature more film spinoffs, with several popular 1990s sketch characters (and a few unlikely ones) becoming adapted into movies. Producers tried their luck with a revival of 1970s characters The Coneheads, followed by movies based around Pat, Stuart Smalley, The Ladies Man, The Butabi Brothers and Mary Katherine Gallagher. Some did moderate business but others bombed disastrously — notably It's Pat and Stuart Saves His Family, with the latter losing US$15 million despite good reviews.

Wayne's World, the highest grossing movie ever based on an SNL sketch.
Enlarge
Wayne's World, the highest grossing movie ever based on an SNL sketch.

[edit] DVD release

On 13 October 2006 it was announced that Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season would be released by Universal Studios on 5 December 2006, in its full, 90-minute uncut format with all musical performances and sketches intact. Also, there will be a raft of bonus material to accompany the set. [1]

[edit] Criticism

The show's quality has been called into question during various points in its history and has been the source of criticism by fans and critics due to its changing of castmembers and writers, starting with Chevy Chase's departure in 1976 and Bill Murray being hired in his place, though this would be short-lived when Bill Murray finally found his niche on the show. This would later resurface when Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi left SNL in 1979.

However, the most well-known change occurred when Lorne Michaels and the remaining original castmembers left SNL in May of 1980. Though now a normal occurrence, the cast changed that occurred in Fall 1980 is the most infamous because it followed the departure of the original cast and series creator/producer Lorne Michaels. The entire season was dogged with criticism for its poor casting, weak writing, and Jean Doumanian's position as producer. The entire cast, with the exception of Joe Piscopo, writer Brian Doyle-Murray, and Eddie Murphy, was fired at the end of the season. Dick Ebersol was brought in after Doumanian was fired and remained until spring of 1985. When Lorne Michaels decided to come back for the show's 11th season, most were hoping for a return to the show's quality during his first period as producer (1975–80). Unfortunately, Michaels first season back was dogged yet again with criticism, only the criticisms were directed at the fact that Lorne chose a cast of up-and-coming (or already somewhat known) celebrities who weren't experienced in comedy as a cover-up for the show's declining popularity. Fortunately, Michaels fired everyone in the season 11 cast (except for then-new castmembers Jon Lovitz, Nora Dunn, Dennis Miller, feature player A. Whitney Brown, and longtime writer/feature player Al Franken) and hired new castmembers (Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, Victoria Jackson, and Kevin Nealon) to replace them.

Of course, the criticisms of SNL's quality haven't stopped. Michaels would hear them again later in the early and mid-90s (when Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, David Spade, Rob Schneider, and Chris Rock--a.k.a "The Bad Boys of SNL" were hired), and once again in early and mid 2000s (after Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer left the show and when Jimmy Fallon became notorious for cracking up during sketches).

Usually the season after an overhaul in the cast, the show is questioned as to whether the upcoming season will be better than the previous [2]

Phil Hartman, one year after his departure from the show, questioned its declined quality at the time. [3]

[edit] Trivia

In order to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article's trivia section requires cleanup.
Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.
  • George Carlin was the show's first host. According to some entertainment news sources [citation needed] Carlin was too high on cocaine to perform in sketches. Instead, he performed snippets of his stand up comedy routines. Carlin returned to host on Season 10 and actually appeared in sketches.
  • Mike Myers based his character Dieter, host of the avant-garde German TV talk show 'Sprockets', after a real person, a student whom Myers met in art college. The real Dieter would often say things like "I once had a course where we had to touch tapioca, styrofoam and monkeys. Michael, perhaps we can go to the zoo and touch monkeys." (thus giving rise to the TV Dieter's catchphrase "Would you like to touch my monkey?")
  • A film version of 'Sprockets' was planned, but abandoned after Mike Myers became dissatisfied with his own script. It would have involved Dieter travelling to the USA to rescue Klaus, his pet monkey. This aborted production would later be the crux of a 2000 lawsuit between Myers and Ron Howard, which was settled by Myers' agreeing to appear in The Cat in the Hat.
  • Although Darrell Hammond holds the record for longest tenure by a repertory player with 11 consecutive seasons (about 200 episodes), Al Franken has appeared in about 140 episodes over 12 seasons (1977–80) and (1985–95) as a featured player.
  • The recurring character that has appeared the most is Don Novello's Father Guido Sarducci with a whopping 31 appearances over the course of 17 years. Novello was not a cast member for most of these appearances and the Sarducci character was not even created specifically for the show.
  • Morwenna Banks holds the record for the shortest tenure of a repertory player, with only four episodes (April–May 1995). Laurie Metcalf holds the record for shortest tenure of a feature player (she only appeared in what's now considered the final episode of the 1980-1981 season, which was cut short due to a writers' strike).
  • An actress named Emily Prager was credited as a featured player during the last episode of the 1980-1981 season, yet she never appeared in this episode and wasn't brought back for the following season. She was to have appeared in a commentary during Weekend Update, which was cut from the live broadcast. This makes her the only credited cast member to never appear on SNL.
  • During the rebuilding of SNL in the early 1980s, Dick Ebersol wanted John Candy and Catherine O'Hara (both of whom were on SCTV at the time) to be cast members on the show. John Candy declined, and Catherine O'Hara quit after Michael O'Donoghue yelled at everyone involved with the 1980-1981 season for the lackluster writing and acting.
  • The non-live opening occasionally varies from the traditional "Live From New York...", usually to follow the consistency of a certain sketch. In 1981, the traditional non-live opening was done away with entirely (returning the next season) and there are some episodes in the 1984-1985 season that have a non-live opening (with the Pamela Sue Martin/Power Station episode being an exception since that had no non-live opening to begin with), but it doesn't end with someone shouting, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" The 1985-1986 season episode hosted by George Wendt and Francis Ford Coppola is one of the only Lorne Michaels-era episode to have a non-live opening that doesn't end with someone saying, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" Another was a 2001 episode hosted by Jennifer Lopez, where Tracy Morgan (playing George W. Bush) ended the opening with "Live from New York, it's Jennifer Lopez's booty!"
  • Another older example of a different non-live opening was an episode that began with a McLaughlin Group parody sketch. Dana Carvey (in character) asked the panelists in the skit how the show was opened. They all answered with the show's normal opening, but John (Dana) instead said they were wrong and opened the show with the words "Show, show, show, here we go!"
  • John Belushi was credited in the opening montage of the Christopher Lee/Meat Loaf episode as Kevin Scott, a continuing gag from the non-live opening, where he was supposedly "moving up" from SNL to star as Grizzly Adams on the NBC program of the same name. Belushi had to change his name to Kevin Scott because NBC felt that his name was too synonymous with comedy and satire for Grizzly Adams.
  • The opening montage of the Charlton Heston/Paul Westerberg episode from Season 19 featured the entire cast replaced with apes, a continuing gag from the non-live opening, where Heston, in preparing for that week's show, lies down for a nap and slips into a deep slumber, and wakes up in the distant future, where apes have taken over SNL. While the cast members' names were all PotA-esque, G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band were still credited as such (though their photo was modified to fit the theme of apes.) When Heston was escorted, shackled in irons, out to Home Base by the apes for his monologue, the SNL Band and audience in front of Home Base were all dressed as apes. This gag ended with the monologue.
  • Harry Shearer and Brian Doyle-Murray are the only two cast members to work under both Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. Shearer in 1979 and 1984, and Doyle-Murray in 1979 and 1981. In addition, Doyle-Murray also worked under one-season producer Jean Doumanian as a writer (as did Terry Sweeney, who worked under Doumanian from 1980 to 1981, then become a writer and castmember for Lorne Michaels in 1985). Jim Downey, a featured player and writer under Lorne in 1979-80, was also a writer during 1984-1985 (under Ebersol).
  • Cast members who have cameoed on SNL before becoming cast members include: A. Whitney Brown (performed stand-up in a 1984 episode), Yvonne Hudson (worked as an extra on some episodes from Seasons 3, 4, and 5), Denny Dillon (appeared in the first season of SNL as a guest performer), Rob Riggle (appeared in Season 29 in a fake promo for a kids' version of Fear Factor), Phil Hartman (was credited as a writer for the season 11 episode hosted by Pee Wee Herman and appeared as a Pilgrim in the Pee Wee Herman Thanksgiving Special sketch), Will Ferrell (appeared in a pre-taped fake commercial on season 19 about a cruise line with basketball player Manute Bol as the captain) and Ben Stiller (appeared in an SNL short film in Season 12).
  • The youngest host was Drew Barrymore, at age 7, in the episode aired on November 20, 1982 (the youngest host before Drew Barrymore was Jodie Foster, who was 14 when she first hosted in the 1976-1977 season).
  • The longest span of time between two hosting spots goes to Madeline Kahn who returned 18 years after her 1977 spot to host in 1995.
  • The longest span between musical guest spots goes to Prince when he was a musical guest for Steve Martin in 2006. Prince first appeared on the now infamous 1981 episode (where Charles Rocket says "I'd like to know who the fuck did it") hosted by Charlene Tilton, which would make it roughly 25 years between appearances.
  • The youngest cast member hired was Anthony Michael Hall who was 17 years old when he joined the cast in 1985.
  • The oldest cast member hired was Michael McKean, who was 46 years old when he joined the show in 1994.
  • The oldest cast member to perform is Darrell Hammond, who is 50 years old and still (as of October 2006) a member of the cast.
  • The oldest person (presently) to have ever been a cast member is Garrett Morris, born in 1937.
  • In 2003, Kenan Thompson became the first cast member born after SNL's premiere in 1975 (Thompson was born in 1978). Bill Hader and Andy Samberg (also born in 1978) followed two seasons later.
  • Though never a credited player on the show, Bruce McCulloch, cast member of another Lorne Michaels/Broadway Video production, Kids in the Hall, has appeared on SNL in various cameo roles over the years, most notably in a fake commercial on the Pee-Wee Herman/Queen Ida episode from season 11 about a teenager being pressured by his peers to join the Army, and in a number of short films he directed which aired during the 1994-1995 season.
  • During the early years, the format of the show was not completely set in stone. For example, on the second episode, hosted by Paul Simon, included a reunion with his former musical partner, Art Garfunkel. Only a few comedy sketches were featured during the episode, with others dropped in order to allow Simon and Garfunkel to perform an extended musical set. On another occasion, Beat generation author William S. Burroughs appeared on the program and read passages from his books, to mixed response.
  • The Rob Reiner episode, third show of Season 1, is the only episode thus far to end without any credit/goodnight segment. The original live broadcast ran long, and by the time the last sketch ended and the two minute final internal station break began, there was exactly 2 minutes left until the scheduled programme end. The show didn't come back from break, and stations cut the feed.

Note: In repeats of the show, a slideshow of Bumper graphics with the credits superimposed over them, with the ending theme music underneath, was attached to the end of the last sketch.

  • This has come close to happening from time to time in more recent years, such as the Lindsay Lohan/Pearl Jam episode from Season 31, whose situation was actually identical to the Reiner episode. It was scheduled to end at 12:59:25 EST, but as it returned from the last internal break at 12:59:25, it went until 12:59:37. A 20 second promo scheduled to run and end at 12:59:45 the promo was replaced with a 10 second version, ending the feed at 12:59:47, only two seconds past schedule.

Note: Occasionally, the show's ending will take up the net ID time, and some stations will simply cut off at that point, whether the feed has finished or not. The more recent (from the mid-80s onward) use of terminal "network IDs" (typically, promos for NBC shows) at the end of SNL broadcasts, allows for a "safety zone" of sorts for the director, should the show run long.

  • While SNL has used Commercial bumpers like many other late-night programmes, theirs have, since mid-way through Season 1, been different in both their unique weekly nature and their evolving and engaging art. A typical episode will feature as many as 11 unique bumper graphics, featuring the host and musical guest in a series of inventive poses. These graphics have deviated on a few occasions. The first several episodes featured more standard late-night-style bumpers, with pictures of NYC, rather than the week's host.

Note: Until 1987, musical guests weren't usually featured in bumpers. During the Ebersol era, due to Ebersol's comparatively large number of shows without a host, the cast would be featured in bumpers of host-less episodes.

  • During the first season, besides the usual comedy sketches, Albert Brooks contributed short films and a rather adult cast of Muppets acted in a weird setting known as the Land of Gortch. The Muppet sketches were not liked by audiences and writers Al Franken and Alan Zweibel and only lasted one season.
  • Two years after leaving the show, Robin Duke made a brief (and unintentional) cameo in the 1985 episode hosted by Pee-Wee Herman, being seen in the audience during Terry Sweeney's performance as Diana Ross on the Pee-Wee Herman Thanksgiving Special sketch.
  • In issue #74 of Marvel Team-Up (cover dated October, 1978), the Not Ready For Prime Time Players (Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Bill Murray, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner) and Lorne Micheals teamed up with comic book superhero Spider-Man, making them among the few real people to have had a superhero team up.
  • According to his website, Dane Cook (who hosted December 3, 2005) performed the longest opening monologue in the history of the show. It consisted of jokes from his stand-up act.
  • Chris Parnell isn't the only cast member to get fired and rehired. Jim Belushi was fired on the 1983-1984 season, then brought back a week later. Tim Meadows was also fired when Lorne was rebuilding his cast for Season 21, but Meadows didn't miss any episodes since the cast overhaul between Seasons 20 and 21 took place during the summer and no new episodes of SNL aired during that time.
  • Linda Richman, the host of the recurring sketch Coffee Talk, is based on Mike Myers' mother-in-law. Before Myers began appearing in the sketch as Richman, he appeared in it as host Paul Baldwin.
  • Dana Carvey holds the record for the number of times opening SNL with, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night."
  • Don Pardo's announcing booth is located in the exact same spot on which legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini's podium once stood, when he conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in his famous and long-running series of radio concerts.
  • In the premiere episode, Dick Ebersol was credited as "Executive Producer for NBC." The credit drew immediate ire from NBC Vice-president of Talent David Tebet, because of a network policy that prohibited any NBC executives from taking any on-air credit for programming. According to the "Backstage History" book, Ebersol told Tebet that the credit was Lorne's idea.
  • Gerald Ford is the only U.S. President to open the show with, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night" when Ron Nessen hosted.
  • Conan O'Brien is the only SNL staff writer who was not an official member of the SNL cast to host SNL. However, he did make several appearances in sketches during his tenure at SNL. O'Brien hosted on March 10, 2001.
  • On April 29, 2006, Stephen Colbert, who briefly served as a SNL staff writer during the 1990s, reprised the voice of Ace from The Ambiguously Gay Duo, a frequent role during and after his writing tenure for the show, while hosting a Best of Saturday Night Live TV Funhouse special.
  • The word "cheeseburger" was spoken 80 times during the Olympia Restaurant Sketch. The catchphrase "Cheeseburger! Cheeseburger! No Coke! Only Pepsi!" is coined from what the former owner of the Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago would say when someone ordered a cheeseburger.
  • Roseanne Barr hosted the show three times under three different names--Roseanne, Roseanne Barr, and Roseanne Arnold (she hosted the latter with her then-husband Tom Arnold).
  • In his 1980 interview in Playboy Magazine, John Lennon said that he and Paul McCartney had been watching the show when producer Lorne Michaels made his famous offer of $3200 for a Beatles' reunion ("...if you want to pay Ringo less, that's your business.") He said the pair considered heading to the studio to "accept" the offer, but had decided they were too tired to do so.
  • Seven former SNL cast members have been nominated for Academy Awards: George Coe (co-producer of the short subject 'The Dove,' 1969), Dan Aykroyd (Best Supporting Actor, Driving Miss Daisy, 1989), Bill Murray (Best Actor, Lost in Translation, 2003), Joan Cusack (Best Supporting Actress, Working Girl, 1988, and In & Out, 1997), Robert Downey Jr. (Best Actor, Chaplin, 1992), Randy Quaid (Best Supporting Actor, The Last Detail, 1973), and Michael McKean (co-writer of Best Original Song, A Mighty Wind, 2003). Despite these eight nominations, none were winners.
  • Three former SNL cast members (Chevy Chase, Billy Crystal and Chris Rock) have hosted the Academy Awards.

[edit] See also

[edit] References and footnotes

  1. ^ Saturday Night Live Curse?. Who2?. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
  2. ^ The SNL Curse. Saturday-Night-Live.com. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
  3. ^ Worek, Steven. Live From Up There. SNLRA.com. Archived from the original on 2006-07-06. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
  4. ^ It's Saturday Night Delayed!. Studio Briefing (2001-02-13). Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
  5. ^ Martin Lawrence's Monologue (Transcript). JTORG (2003-04-12). Retrieved on October 10, 2006.

[edit] External links

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[edit] Further reading

  • Cader, Michael. (1994). Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-70895-8.
  • Hill, Doug, and Jeff Weingrad. (1986). Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live. New York, NY: Beech Tree Books. ISBN 0-688-05099-9.
  • Mohr, Jay. (2004). Gasping for Airtime: Two Years in the Trenches of Saturday Night Live. New York, NY: Hyperion. ISBN 1-4013-0006-5.
  • Shales, Tom, and James Andrew Miller. (2002). Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. Boston, MA: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-78146-0.
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