Saturday Night Live

   

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Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a weekly late-night ninety-minute live comedy-variety show which has been broadcasted every Saturday night on the American NBC network since 1975. It is one of the longest-running network entertainment programs in American television history, second only to the 50-season (and counting) run of The Tonight Show.

Each week, the show's cast is joined by a guest host and a musical act, forming a repertory company for the week. SNL's ever-changing cast list is a veritable 'Who's Who' of comedy and the show has been the launching place for some of the biggest American comedy stars of the last thirty years.

The list of major stars who had career-making stints on SNL includes John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd (The Blues Brothers), Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer (This Is Spinal Tap), Eddie Murphy, Martin Short, Dana Carvey and Mike Myers (Wayne's World), Chris Farley, David Spade, Chris Rock and Adam Sandler. Although all these actors went on to successful film or TV careers, some died tragically young, notably Belushi and Farley (from drug abuse), Radner (cancer) and Phil Hartman, who was the victim of a murder/suicide orchestrated by his wife. One-season cast member Danitra Vance died of breast cancer in 1995, and one of the original writers and featured players, Michael O'Donoghue (he wrote the classic "Star Trek" spoof in the first season) died of a brain tumor in 1994.

The show's structure

The show usually follows a standard format. It opens with a sketch --known as the 'cold intro' -- which begins without any announcement or titles, often features a political parody and always ends with someone saying "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" (however some season premiere episodes have the spiel "Live from New York, for the (ordinal number of season) year, it's Saturday Night!"), followed by the segue into the opening credits, which usually opens with a shot of the Statue of Liberty. Next is the opening monologue performed by the guest host(s), often followed by a TV commercial parody. The show continues with more comedy skits (sketches might feature recurring characters, running gags, celebrity impersonations, movie and TV spoofs, and skits parodying the news issues of the day), followed by a performance by the guest musical act. More recent shows have the second act divided by an animated short by Robert Smigel. The news parody segment Weekend Update marks the show's midway point. The second half of the program continues with more sketches, and in some cases a second performance by the musical guest. Some shows also feature filmed segments, often featuring cast members, or it may feature independent film shorts.

History

The Seventies

In 1974, NBC Tonight Show host Johnny Carson wanted the weekend broadcasts of “Best of Carson” to end. To fill the gap, the network drew up some ideas for new shows, and decided to bring in young Canadian producer, Lorne Michaels. He was given studio 8H, which was built in the 1930s for performances by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

The original concept was for a comedy-variety show featuring young comedians, live musical performances, short films by Albert Brooks, and more esoteric material like segments by Jim Henson featuring his Muppets. Rather than have one permanent host Michaels elected to have a different guest host each week. Henson only lasted for one season before he happily left to start his own very successful variety series.

When the first show aired on October 11, 1975, with George Carlin as its host, it was called NBC's Saturday Night, because ABC featured a program at the same time titled Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. When the ABC program went off the air, the NBC program changed its name to Saturday Night Live.

The original (1975-1980) repertory company was called the “Not Ready for Prime-Time Players”; this was a reference to Cosell's show, which featured “The Primetime Players,” a group which ironically included future SNL cast member Bill Murray.

From Lorne Michaels down, SNL has always had strong links to Canada, and often draws new cast members from the Canadian comedy scene — particularly the famous Second City troupe, and more recently, the cult TV comedy groups Kids in the Hall and Upright Citizens Brigade — as well as the Los Angeles comedy group The Groundlings.

The first cast included Second City alumni Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase (whose trademark became his usual falls and opening spiel that ushered in the show's opening), John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Garrett Morris. Bill Murray replaced Chase in 1977, after Chase left to pursue a movie career. Paul Shaffer was the musical director for the show from 1975 to 1980 and also appeared in many sketches. The original theme music was written by Howard Shore, who years later became an Academy Award-winning composer.

Two notable “featured players” on the show included writer Al Franken, who later became famous as a political author and satirist, and (for the 1979-80 season) Harry Shearer, who later acted in several films and television series, including The Simpsons. The show also featured frequent guest appearances by comedians Steve Martin and Andy Kaufman.

Michaels fought and cajoled network executives to accept his vision for the show, which was far removed from standard variety-show conventions (one executive, visiting a dress rehearsal, noticed that the band was in blue jeans and asked when their tuxedos would arrive). Before the show began Michaels had remarked that he knew what the “ingredients [of SNL] would be, but not the proportions,” and that the show would have to “find itself” on-air. Indeed, the Not Ready for Primetime Players were hardly featured in the premiere, but quickly became the focus of the show, with the guest host and musical act playing a secondary role. Albert Brooks and the Muppets were also dropped after the first season, but short films by writer Tom Schiller continued to be shown under the title “Schiller's Reel,” as well as the popular claymation segment Mr. Bill.

By its second season SNL developed into something of a television phenomenon. It was, in many ways, the first show of its kind to appeal to a younger audience, making it very attractive to advertisers. Recurring characters and catch-phrases (see below) soon entered the popular vernacular, and the cast was often described as “The Beatles of comedy.” It was also one of America's only mainstream national TV shows that consistently featured topical political satire. In 1976, a Ron Nessen, a major member of President Gerald Ford's administration, hosted the show. Ford himself appeared in a pretaped opening sequence. The show had been very critical of Ford and promised to give him a break that night. Instead, they hammered him as relentlessly as ever, humiliating Nessen as well as Ford's children, who had been up to that point big fans of the show. In November 1976 Weekend Update played the 1974 broadcast of Ford pardoning President Richard Nixon -- many backstage felt that decision was instrumental in helping Jimmy Carter win the '76 election.

Aykroyd and Belushi departed after the 1978-1979 season and subsequently found worldwide fame in the movie version of the Blues Brothers sketch. Belushi famously died of drug-related causes in 1982.

The final season with the remnants of the "Not Ready" crew was underwhelming by most standards. By the 1979-1980 season, drugs had overtaken most of the cast, writers, and Michaels himself (of the original cast, only Jane Curtin and Gilda Radner never used cocaine). A burly bodyguard was stationed directly outside the studio gates to warn Michaels if the cops were on the way. Laraine Newman had developed serious eating disorders as well as a cocaine addiction -- she spent so much time in her dressing room playing Solitaire that for Christmas that year Gilda gave her a deck of playing cards with herself on the face of the card. Garrett Morris, degraded from years of small roles and racist sketches (at one point the writers were going to have him do a fake ad for "Tar Baby" toothpaste, which would make blacks' teeth stop glowing in the dark -- only when black crew members walked off the set in protest did Michaels drop the idea), began freebasing cocaine and literally lost his mind on many occasions. During rehearsals for the Kirk Douglas show, he ran screaming onto the set, saying that someone had put an "invisible robot" on his shoulder who watched him everywhere he went. He pleaded with them to get the robot off of him. Radner, meanwhile, was resented by many personnel because she and Michaels had spent much of the year working on a Broadway play, and album, Gilda Live. She had recently broken off a relationship with Bill Murray, and they could barely speak to one another. Murray resented that the other male cast members had left him stranded and essentially forced him to play every male lead on the show. Exhausted, Gilda rarely had starring roles in 79-80 season. Indeed, the most energetic and diverse performer in that last year was Jane Curtin, who was thrilled to see the "Bully Boys" as she called them (Aykroyd and Belushi) depart and who debuted a number of hilarious new characters and impressions while she had the chance. Lorne Michaels quit the show at the end of the fifth season and the rest of the original cast and the entire writing staff followed.

The Eighties

For much of the decade SNL was in turmoil and many critics wrote the show off as a pale imitation of its former glory. Jean Doumanian took over the show for the 1980 season, hiring a completely new cast and new writers, but it was plagued by problems from the start, and was deemed disastrously unfunny by both critics and much of the viewing audience.

The first episode, renamed "Saturday Night Live 80" in the opening credits, appeared on November 15th, 1980. It featured an all-new cast. Charles Rocket, described as a cross between Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, was groomed to be the new break-out star. Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Gail Matthius, Joe Piscopo, Ann Risley rounded out the new "Not Ready For Prime Time Players." Elliott Gould had agreed to host the first episode, assuming he would be working with the old cast. He was astonished when he reported to the studio and discovered that it was a different group of performers. Though he ended the show by standing on stage with the new cast and declaring "We're gonna be around forever," Elliott Gould would never host the show again.

The next episode, hosted by Malcolm McDowell, was notable only because Eddie Murphy made his network televison debut as an extra in a skit called "In Search Of The Negro Republican" Murphy had his first speaking role two weeks later as Raheem Abdul Muhummad on "Weekend Update," and made such a positive impression that he would be called on for more in later episodes. Meanwhile, Jean Doumanian nearly lost her job before this episode went on. NBC executives were battling Doumanian's insistence to include a sketch portraying a nun who was not a virgin. Before Doumanian backed down, Network head Fred Silverman told the Standards department to repeat one of Lorne Michaels' shows, if necessary. The high point of the 1980-1981 season probably came with the Karen Black episode of January 17: it displayed the most consistant writing and performing. Murphy was soon raised to the status of full cast member, and Piscopo had established himself as a reliable commodity with such bits as his Frank Sinatra impression.

On February 21, hosted by Charlene Tilton (who filled in after her Dallas castmate Larry Hagman backed out), cast member Charles Rocket realized the network's greatest fear when he used the word “fuck” at the close of an episode. Rocket was fired, but despite this, appeared in the March 7 episode anyway. His performance was obviously affected by his termination. This was the last episode for Gilbert Gottfried, Mitchell Kriegman, Ann Risley, and Charles Rocket, and the first appearance of comedian Michael Davis. NBC, which had had enough, fired Doumanian. This period is now widely regarded as being the worst in the show's history.

It looked as if NBC might cancel the show (indeed, many nights the NBC aired sketch comedy show SCTV in its place), but SNL was given one more chance when Dick Ebersol was hired to replace Doumanian. Ebersol had been involved with the creation of the show, and fired all of the Doumanian cast except Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. His first show aired April 11, and he planned to fill out Doumanian's season, but the rest of the season's episodes were called off due to a writer's strike. On the April 11 show Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky and Tony Rosato joined the cast. Ebersol originally wanted to bring in John Candy and Catherine O'Hara from "SCTV"; Candy turned down the offer and Tony Rosato joined SNL instead. O'Hara initially accepted, but she changed her mind after Michael O'Donoghue, brought in to rejuvenate the show, screamed at the cast about the season's poor writing. She suggested that fellow SCTV alumnus Robin Duke replace her. Emily Prager and Laurie Metcalf joined as featured players, but would not be retained after this single episode. Gail Matthius and Denny Dillon were also fired before the next seaon began - Ebersol had wanted to fire Dillon all along, but could not afford a replacement for her. O'Donoghue was fired several months later, due to his personality issues.

Murphy had rarely been featured during Doumanian's tenure, but became a break-out star under Ebersol, and his soaring popularity helped restore the show's ratings. He created some of of the period's best characters, including the empty-headed former child movie star “Buckwheat”, and his irascible, life-size version of the Gumby toy character, complete with life-size star ego; he could also pull off an uncanny impression of Stevie Wonder (who, sportingly, appeared in a fake ad for Polaroid cameras). Piscopo also became popular and was a good Frank Sinatra impersonator. But unlike Murphy, who became a film superstar after leaving the series, Piscopo is one of the few lead players (along with Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, Charles Rocket, Tim Kazurinsky, Jon Lovitz, Nora Dunn, Jan Hooks, Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon, Tim Meadows, Jim Breuer, Cheri Oteri, Molly Shannon) who has not enjoyed major post-SNL film or TV success. SNL was a 2-man show from 1981-1984 -- all other cast members played supporting roles and were treated with very little patience by the producers. Unlike Lorne Michaels, Dick Ebersol had no problem firing people. Among the first casualties were Tony Rosato (who later said that the firing was the best thing to ever happen to him, because the SNL set helped encourage his drug addiction) and the superlative Christine Ebersole (no relation), who got the axe because of her frequent complaints that the women on the show had little airtime and the airtime they did receive was sexist and humiliating. Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky and Brad Hall were fired in 1984. Hall went on to marry fellow cast member Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

The show was in constant flux during the early Eighties, and the cast changed significantly each year between 1981-82 and 1985-86. Some very notable names passed through, often staying for only one season, and while they may not have been able to especially distinguish themselves on SNL, many moved on to bigger and better things. The list of famous “transients” from this period includes future Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jim Belushi, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Rich Hall, Harry Shearer, Martin Short, Pamela Stephenson, Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr, Randy Quaid and Damon Wayans.

With Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo gone, Ebersol brought in famous talents for the 84-85 season, rather than fresh faces, to add appeal to the show. These included two-time host Billy Crystal ("Soap"), Christopher Guest ("This Is Spinal Tap"), Rich Hall ("Not Necessarily The News"), Harry Shearer (from SNL's 1979 season), Martin Short ("SCTV") and Pamela Stephenson ("Superman III"). The 10th season is also best remembered for relying heavily on pre-taped content, including pre-recorded clips of Murphy performing without the rest of the cast.

Although his stay on SNL was short and reportedly unhappy, Shearer has since become something of a comedy legend — after linking with Christopher Guest and former Laverne & Shirley alumnus Michael McKean, they scored a huge comedy hit with the classic Rob Reiner rock “mock-umentary” This Is Spinal Tap; since its inception Shearer has been one of the mainstays of the globe-conquering animated classic The Simpsons, providing many key character voices including Mr Burns, Smithers and Kent Brockman.

Ebersol left the show after the 1984-1985 season, when the network refused his request to shut the program down entirely for 6 months and shift much of the material onto tape, not live broadcast. At this point the series was saved again when the erstwhile Lorne Michaels returned, after many pleas from NBC to bring the show back to its original charm. The 1985-1986 season was full of promise but rotten in execution. Among the milestones were the first black female regular, Danitra Vance (a young woman named Yvonne Hudson had been a featured player in 1980 and appeared in some bit parts in '79 and '80, but never had any strong role or speaking part) and the first (and so far, last) openly gay cast member, Terry Sweeney. Michaels chose to hire fresh young names, but most of them fizzled out. Only the older cast members like Nora Dunn, Dennis Miller and Jon Lovitz connected with the audience. Michaels wisely kept only these 3 cast members when the 86-87 season rolled around. It took another year for the show to begin to return to more consistent form, but in the late Eighties SNL began to revive and gain renewed popularity, mainly thanks to Michaels' inspired casting decisions, vastly improved writing and increasingly on-target political satire and TV parodies. Sadly, one of the best seasons, 1987-1988, was cut short by a writers' strike. Gilda Radner had been penciled in to host a show in the spring of 1988. They wanted to reschedule, but by 1989 her cancer had returned and she died within the year.

With Michaels back at the helm, a strong new cast was assembled, led by Dana Carvey, Nora Dunn, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller and Kevin Nealon. Although the new lineup contained some of the best female actors since the show's early seasons, there were reportedly some dramatic behind-the-scenes ego battles, and tensions eventually forced some members out — notably Victoria Jackson, who has since been highly critical of Hooks and especially Dunn, who was romantically involved with Michaels at the time.

The urbane, smooth-voiced Hartman became one of the show's longest-serving cast members, born in Canada, he originally trained and worked as a graphic designer; among his credits is the band logo for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Turning to theatre, he became a member of The Groundlings, where he met Paul Reubens, which led to a featured role in Reubens' cult 80s kids TV show Pee-Wee's Playhouse. When he left SNL in 1994, he was (with Kevin Nealon) the equal longest-serving cast member in the show's history (8 seasons). He went on to TV success in the popular media sitcom NewsRadio, as well as appearing in many movies and providing character voices for numerous film and TV animations; his best remembered voice roles are in The Simpsons, in which he played inept lawyer Lionel Hutz and vain B-grade film “star” Troy McClure. Hartman's life was tragically cut short on May 28, 1998 when he was gunned down in his home by his cocaine-addicted wife Brynn, who then committed suicide. The incident is in the books as an “unsolved” case.

A major turning point came with the 1988-89 season and the recruitment of a young Canadian comic Mike Myers. A versatile and inventive comedian with a gift for accents and a lifelong love of Monty Python and British comedy, he introduced several classic characters including Streisand-loving cable chat show hostess “Linda Richman”, and ultra-pretentious German arts show host “Dieter”. He also formed a strong partnership with Carvey, which revisited the magic of the classic Aykroyd-Belushi pairing. Carvey and Myers created and performed one of SNL's most popular and successful recurring sketches, Wayne's World, which inspired two spin-off movies; it is also widely believed that Wayne and Garth were in effect “ripped off” for the characters of Bill and Ted in the strikingly similar Bill & Ted movies.

The shows in this period featured some of SNL's best loved recurring sketches and characters, including “Wayne's World”, the Schwarzenegger-like Austrian body-builders Hans and Franz (Carvey and Nealon). Carvey also gained renown for his his scowling, ultra-conservative “Church Lady” character and his impersonations of then US President George H. W. Bush and presidential candidate Ross Perot.

Bolstered by strong scripts penned by the writing team, Carvey's Bush and Perot impressions were a notable advance on earlier ventures in this vein, and they set a new benchmark for this aspect of the show's political satire. The best-remembered political impersonation from the '70s period was Chevy Chase's slapstick parody of President Gerald Ford, but Chase made no attempt to create an accurate impression of Ford's character or essay any in-depth political satire — his sketches simply lampooned Ford's renowned clumsiness and consisted of Chase falling down a lot.

Carvey's Bush and Perot parodies were far more sophisticated and his Bush send-up was so well received that the former President himself made a cameo appearance in one show, lightheartedly taking Carvey to task.

The Nineties

The early Nineties are sometimes referred to as SNL's “Bad Boys” period, with a number of strong new young male actors coming to the fore. The later Nineties witnessed a major revival and in many respects this period surpassed even the classic Seventies shows, thanks to a strong ensemble cast and superb writing, with an increasingly sharp focus on political satire.

Although many die-hard fans still hold the original cast to be the best, many others consider that the 1990s era was not only a vast improvement on the doldrums of the '80s but provided some of the strongest and most consistently funny programs to date. It was a fruitful period that led to many spin-offs, although late in the decade fans and cast alike were dismayed by the sudden firing of popular Weekend Update host Norm MacDonald and especially by the tragic deaths of former cast members Chris Farley and Phil Hartman. There are also many fans who feel that the '86-'90/'91 seasons were some of the most consistent, most balanced, most well-written and sublimely performed years in the history of the show, and that the '90s began the overreliance on catchphrases and generic recurring characters that would eventually bankrupt the program, both in quality and ratings.

Spring 1990 proved a rocky finale for one of the show's most underrated cast members. Nora Dunn boycotted a show hosted by the sexist, homophobic, and then extremely popular comedian Andrew Dice Clay. NBC fired her and a series of ugly charges and countercharges were lobbied between Lorne Michaels and Dunn. Many felt that Dunn cared more about garnering publicity than standing up for women's rights, but others took her side and viewed Clay's appearance as an all-time low.

The 1990-91 series was yet another turnover year (Nora Dunn had left in a cloud of controversy, Jon Lovitz was gone, Jan Hooks and Dennis Miller were on their way out) and introduced a number of new regular and featured players who quickly became stars of the show — Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, David Spade and Julia Sweeney. Noted standup comedian Chris Rock also featured for two years. Memorable characters and sketches from this period included Sweeney's “Pat”, Sandler's “Opera Man” and “Canteen Boy”, Schneider's annoying office geek “The Richmeister”, Hartman's brilliant take-offs of Bill Clinton and Charlton Heston and Spade's caustic commentary pieces “Spade In America” and “Hollywood Minute”.

Sandler and Farley soon became the most popular stars of the period. Farley possessed a surprising grace and his high-energy performances belied his heavy footballer build, but he was also not afraid to trade on his size for laughs — in one hilarious sketch he played, shirtless, opposite the trim and muscular Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze, as they portrayed unlikely rival auditionees for a position with the Chippendales male dance troupe. Another favourite Farley character was manic, thrice-divorced motivational speaker “Matt Foley”, whose technique consisted mainly of yelling at his clients, whining about having to live “in a van… down by the river” and hurling himself around the room, demolishing everything in sight.

Farley idolised John Belushi, and they shared similar comedic strengths, but sadly it soon became tragically obvious that Farley was also plagued by similar personal demons. He left the show in 1995 and starred in successful movies like Tommy Boy (with David Spade) and Beverly Hills Ninja. But after leaving SNL he began abusing drugs heavily. By the time of his last SNL appearance, as a guest host in 1997, he was evidently in trouble — looking bloated, sweating profusely, he was grossly overweight and clearly unwell. He died from a cocaine-opium overdose a few months later, on December 17 1997, aged only 33.

Sandler was a talented self-taught musician and a former stage comic whose stand-up career had started after he accepted a dare from his brother to do an open mike spot at a local comedy club. He won many fans with the humourous self-penned ditties he performed on Weekend Update (e.g. “Red-Hooded Sweatshirt” and “Sex-Phone Lady”), as well as his famous and popular “Opera Man” and “Canteen Boy” characters.

Happily, and in stark contrast to the sad fate of his friend Chris Farley, Sandler became one of the world's most successful and popular comedy movie stars after leaving SNL, with a string of international hits to his credit, including The Wedding Singer.

The 1991-92 season added another strong new element to the mix, re-introducing former staff writer and satirical animator Robert Smigel, whose earlier credits include the famous sketch starring William Shatner in which the actor attends a Star Trek convention and ends up berating the Trekkies and telling them to “get a life”. Smigel's semi-regular “TV Funhouse” segments (which interrupt the show's second act) have become both extremely popular and well-hated. They include a number of recurring cartoon sketches like “Fun With Real Audio” (which puts real sound recordings together with improbable animated action) and his hilarious super-hero parodies “The Ambiguously Gay Duo” and “The X-Presidents”.

The period between 1992 and 1996 provided the series its greatest controversies. For instance, in a 1992 show hosted by Tim Robbins, musical guest Sinead O'Connor, in anger, sang an a capella version of Bob Marley's song "War". At the end of that number, O'Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II and shouted, "fight the real enemy". The telecast prompted over 3,000 telephone calls both to NBC and its affiliates.

The 1992-96 period was also in some respects transitional, but it was also strong growth phase, and saw some important cast changes that took it to new heights in the late 90s. The series of 1992-93 was the final season for Dana Carvey, while 1993-94 saw the arrival of (This Is Spinal Tap star) Michael McKean, Norm MacDonald and Jay Mohr, who will be remembered for his side-splitting impersonations of talk host Rikki Lake and actor Christopher Walken.

The “generational change” continued in 1994-95 with the arrival of Chris Elliott, Janeane Garofalo, Kids In The Hall alumnus Mark McKinney, and Molly Shannon; this series was also the last for Chris Farley, Adam Sandler and Kevin Nealon. Norm MacDonald replaced Nealon as anchor of Weekend Update, and he took that segment into what many fans consider a classic period. MacDonald was considered the lone highlight of the 94-95 season. The sketches at that time were considered sophomoric, shrill, and bitterly unfunny. Many sketches seemed to have no point at all, nor a single laugh. The vicious attacks of the critics stunned Lorne Michaels, who had gone from challenging the network establishment to being as establishment as possible. To recover from all the major losses the show was facing (Carvey and Hartman had left in '93 and '94; Mike Myers left in early 1995) Michaels hired a number of stars who were never known for their impressions or sketch comedy skill -- Chris Elliott and Michael McKean stuck out like sore thumbs and left at the end of the season. The day that Garofalo arrived on SNL's set, Adam Sandler started yelling at her because of remarks she'd made against him in her standup routine. The other female cast members (Ellen Cleghorne and Laura Kightlinger) banded against her almost immediately. Shut out by all sides and totally unsuited for sketch comedy, Garofalo left in midseason, replaced by Molly Shannon. Farley and Sandler were hell to deal with backstage, and their onscreen performances had grown so hammy and inconsistent that NBC finally had enough and fired them at the end of the season. Falling ratings and outraged critics sent a wakeup call to Lorne Michaels, and the show had some of its highest turnover yet. The 94-95 season had a total of 14 cast members -- only 5 of whom stayed for the 95-96 shows. Molly Shannon, Mark McKinney, Norm Macdonald, David Spade (who agreed to stay only for a year so that he could be a bridge between the old and new casts) and Tim Meadows (who would have been fired, but the network was afraid that firing both black cast members would be seen as racist).

1995-96 was a milestone year, marking the last season for David Spade, but also the debuts of a strong batch of new recruits — Jim Breuer, Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, David Koechner, Cheri Oteri, Nancy Walls, Chris Kattan and Colin Quinn. Ferrell, Hammond, Oteri, Shannon and Kattan became mainstays of the show for the rest of the decade and beyond. The last half of the Nineties arguably also produced some of SNL's best material in years, performed by one of the strongest and most versatile ensemble casts yet assembled. Many in this group were prone to mugging and overusing recurring characters, which gained them some success while on the show, but has not translated to fame outside of SNL (Will Ferrell excluded). This group managed to stop SNL's freefalling ratings and reputation, and at their best were highly entertaining. The most unfortunate circumstance was that the lack of subtlety and the refusal to give airtime to more than a handful of "stars" caused true geniuses like Mark McKinney to be forced out.

Ex-Groundling Ana Gasteyer joined in 1996-97, bringing an excellent singing voice and considerable musical skills, as well as creating some memorable characters — Margeret Jo McCullen, co-host of tedious public radio cooking show “The Delicious Dish”, ultra-square high school music teacher “Bobbi Mohan-Culp” her hatchet-faced impersonation of home improvement guru Martha Stewart; and, in one of the most popular segments of the late 1990s, her often-scathing impression of Céline Dion hosting a talk show (the real Dion has never appeared on SNL due to her exclusive TV special contract with CBS). Also new this year was another regular black cast member, Tracy Morgan, a move that some cynics have suggested was motivated by persistent criticisms that the show did not feature enough black performers.

Darrell Hammond proved a great find, perhaps the most gifted impressionist in the show's history. He has built up a repertoire of uncanny and hilarious impersonations, including Bill Clinton and Ted Koppel, taking the show's political satire to new heights. This aspect of the writing task was assisted by some of the juiciest and most satire-worthy stories in years, including the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, the OJ Simpson trial and the various Michael Jackson scandals.

The wonderful Will Ferrell was undoubtedly the keystone of this new cast and during his stint he performed superbly in all his partnerships, with Oteri, Shannon, Gasteyer and Kattan, as well as creating some devastatingly funny solo characters. The best of these is undoubtedly his bellowing belligerent parody of former US Attorney General Janet Reno. And like Carvey's Bush and MacDonald's robot-like Bob Dole, Ferrell's fake Reno continued the tradition of having the real-life target of the satire appear on the show to confront their tormentor.

This period featured many classic recurring sketches and characters, with radio and TV parodies featuring prominently. They included the NPR parody “The Delicious Dish” (Shannon and Gasteyer), “The Ladies Man” (Tim Meadows), the geeky Spartan Cheerleaders (Ferrell and Oteri), Ferrell and Gasteyer's starchy, husband-and-wife music teacher duo Marty Culp and Bobbi Mohan-Culp, Kattan's campy “Mango”, the brain-dead, disco-loving “Roxbury Guys” (Ferrell and Kattan), Shannon and Kattan's delightful “Goth Talk” and Molly Shannon's star-struck, accident-prone Catholic schoolgirl, Mary-Catherine Gallagher.

The huge success of Wayne's World evidently encouraged more feature film spinoffs, with several popular 1990s sketch characters (and a few unlikely ones) adapted into movies. Producers tried their luck with a revival of '70s character The Coneheads, followed by movies based around Pat, Stuart Smalley, The Ladies Man, The Roxbury Guys and Mary-Catherine Gallagher, which was probably the best of a fairly mediocre bunch. Some did moderate business but others bombed disastrously — notably It's Pat and Stuart Smalley Saves His Family, with the latter losing US$15 million despite good reviews.

This fine ensemble remained substantially unchanged for the 1997-98 and 1998-99 series, although the latter series introduced important new cast members — Jimmy Fallon, Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz. The only surprise departure was Norm MacDonald who left the series under a cloud in 1997 and was replaced by Colin Quinn as Update anchor. It was reported that MacDonald was fired on the order of a senior NBC executive, who claimed the actor “unpopular and unfunny” but it was widely thought that MacDonald had been fired because the executive — a close friend of O.J. Simpson, a regular Weekend Update target — had taken offense at MacDonald's persistent attacks on Simpson and his blatant suggestions that Simpson was guilty of slaying his wife.

The 1999-2000 was the last for Colin Quinn, Cheri Oteri and Tim Meadows, but it also marked the arrival of two strong new female cast members, Rachel Dratch and Maya Rudolph (daughter of the late singer Minnie Riperton and a lifelong friend of actress Gwyneth Paltrow).

Although SNL has an often rapid turnover of supporting players (many of whom have appeared for only one season or less), some performers have had remarkably long tenures with the show. Among the longest serving are the late Phil Hartman (8 seasons), Will Ferrell (7 seasons), Darrell Hammond (now entering his record-breaking 10th season), Tim Meadows (9 1/2 Seasons) and Kevin Nealon (9 Seasons). Don Pardo has been the main voice-over announcer for the entire 30-years of the show, with the exception of the 1981-82 season, where he was briefly replaced by Mel Brandt. He was re-hired the following season.

2000–Present

The 2000-2001 season began yet another transitional phase. Old faces like Quinn, Meadows and Oteri were gone. Molly Shannon would leave midseason (she stayed as long as she did - 6 and a half years - to ensure that she would leave as the longest-running female cast member on SNL, although her record still comes very close to Victoria Jackson's). Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell still dominated the show but more and more time was given to newer cast members such as Horatio Sanz (who was groomed to be a new Farley or Belushi) and Jimmy Fallon. Fallon was the latest example in the marked difference in modern SNL compared to the early years, in that he was marketed as a personality, and his gift at impressions was slowly but surely sidelined so that he could play variations of Jimmy Fallon in most of his sketches. Although Fallon was quite popular, many believed that he and Sanz were far too derivative of Farley and Sandler, right down to Fallon playing the guitar and singing during Weekend Update. Both men were also criticized for their "going up" during many sketches -- laughing through their lines and needling other cast members into doing the same. This became more and more common, in spite of the fact that Lorne Michaels swore his show would never become so insular or amateurish (one of the things he despised about The Carol Burnett Show).

In 2000, Tina Fey became the show's first female head writer (SNL had always had female writers but they often had little to no voice over the pacing of the show, sometimes not even their own sketches). With Colin Quinn's highly uneven Weekend Update tenure over, Lorne Michaels scrambled to find a different sort of format for the ageing concept. He gambled on having Fey co-anchor with Jimmy Fallon, the first co-anchorship since Mary Gross and Brian Doyle-Murray in the early 80's. Fallon's frat boy antics and Tina's droll, knowing smirks were warmly welcomed by fans, so much so that Tina quickly moved from writer to featured player and within a year was a contract player.

The 2000 season was also noted for its well-received spoofing of the Presidential campaign, with adroit critiques of all the primary nominees, but especially Al Gore and George W. Bush. The two candidates even appeared (separately) on a primetime special with the cast in fall 2000. Ferrell's Bush impression - full of smirks, tics, and aw-shucks contempt - rocketed him to superstardom. But the first season premiere after 9/11 opened with former NYC mayor Rudy Guiliani and police officers, signifying that the New York-based series was both deeply affected by the terrorist attack and also reluctant to harshly criticize a wartime President. As a result, the political commentary was scaled back from 2001-2003 or so. The 2004 season began with parodies of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates, but they were far from hard-hitting and did little more than remind viewers that the show had over the decades gone from counterculture to safe and mainstream. The exception remained Robert Smigel's cartoons (one had the X-Presidents rescuing black Florida voters from prison camps), so hard-hitting and unrepentant that they seemed to be dropped in from another universe.

In 2001 the unsung supporting player Chris Parnell was fired. Less than 6 months later, he was rehired, marking the first time that SNL had ever fired and then rehired any cast member. The 2001-2002 season also marked the arrival of improvisational mastermind Amy Poehler, who was well-liked by fans due to her wide range and impressions and high spirits, in spite of a lack of strong material. One of the bright spots of these shows was Tracy Morgan, whose Brian Fellow's "Safari Planet" talk show host ("I'm Brian Fellow!!!") garnered plenty of laughs. Morgan left in 2003 to become one of many SNL alumni to have a flop sitcom (The Tracy Morgan Show).

More changes occured when Kattan and Ferrell left in 2003, followed by Jimmy Fallon in 2004. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler co-anchored Weekend Update, the first time that 2 women were given the job. The show soldiered on, for the first time in many years having no "stars" to fall back on or popular recurring characters to hide behind. In a strange but perhaps unsurprising sign of the times, an October 2004 episode received international media attention—not because of any comedic elements, but because pop star Ashlee Simpson walked off the stage when the wrong backing track (which she needed for vocal support because of illness) was played during one of her performances.

The 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 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. According to an October 2004 60 Minutes segment on the show, 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.
  • Tuesday: Starting in the afternoon, anywhere from 30 to 45 scripts are written, significantly more than will make it to air. Most writers work through the night. 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. Thursday is also the day that Weekend Update starts coming together, starting with the news items written by writers dedicated all week to the segment. This is also the first day the crew comes in for rehearsal. The music act is rehearsed as well as some of the larger more important skits.
  • Friday: the show is blocked (staged). The writer of each skit acts as producer, working with the show's set designers and costumers.
  • Saturday: 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 an 8pm dress rehearsal in front of a live audience, which lasts until 10pm or sometimes later, and which contains around twenty minutes of material which will not make it to the broadcast. Lorne Michaels uses first-hand 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 show then begins at 11:35pm.

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.

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 episode(s)' 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.

Encore showings are not always identical to the original broadcast. Frequently, segments that did not work well during the original showing are replaced by alternate performances, or sometimes completely different skits, that had been taped at the dress rehearsal that preceded the live broadcast.

From time-to-time, SNL airs compilation shows. Such shows will feature the best of a previous season (consisting of skits 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).

When it's less than live

Over the years SNL has almost always been broadcast live on the east coast, in spite of the expletive spoken by Charles Rocket in 1981. The exceptions were shows hosted by Richard Pryor, Sam Kinison, and Andrew Dice Clay, which were broadcast on a five-second delay.

Some live shows may also be altered and edited for the west coast; in some cases recordings of sketches or performances from the program's dress rehearsal have been substituted for the later feed. When Sam Kinison delivered a comic monologue in 1986, NBC removed his plea for the legalization of marijuana from the West Coast broadcast.

One such incident gained notoriety in October 2004 when an error involving pre-recorded backing tracks for pop singer Ashlee Simpson caused the singer to walk off the stage, and appeared to expose her use of prerecorded vocals to enhance or substitute for live singing. (She had been suffering from acid reflux, and her vocal difficulties in rehearsing because of this were recorded in a 60 Minutes show about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into an episode of SNL.) The network attempted to hide the flub by remixing the show's sound for the West coast audience making the pre-recorded track inaudible, which only confused West Coast viewers by making it appear as if Simpson walked off stage for no reason.

The 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. Today, Lions Gate Home Entertainment handles the VHS and DVD releases of SNL under a new license with NBC.

For many years, both Comedy Central and E! Entertainment Television aired SNL reruns under license with Broadway Video and Orion/MGM (respectively). In 2003, full rights reverted completely to NBC, and the E! network acquired the exclusive syndication rights to the series.

The only episodes that have not been included in any syndication package (including the current deal with E!) are the prime-time special at the Mardi Gras in New Orleans (the only time the show has originated outside of New York), the Milton Berle episode, and the shows where Andrew Dice Clay & Drew Barrymore first appeared as hosts.

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 the departure of Adam Sandler to movie stardom.

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 their careers via the show. NBC publicly defended the new contracts, saying that SNL was doing a service to young comics by launching so many careers.

It was reported in 1999 that the starting salary for SNL cast members was US$5,000 per episode.

Trivia

The cast

See Saturday Night Live cast.

Frequent hosts

The following performers have hosted SNL at least five times:

Several special episodes of Saturday Night Live have been compiled and aired that were "best of" episodes of several of these hosts, including Christopher Walken and Tom Hanks.

Hosts appearing as musical guests

Dolly Parton with SNL's Victoria Jackson

Michael McKean is the only performer to appear as cast member, host, and (as David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap) musical guest. Those appearing as both host and musical guest include:

Recurring characters and sketches

The most enduring segment is Weekend Update, which has been part of every show (though under varying names during the Doumanian/Ebersol years). Other recurring characters and sketches include:

Catch phrases

Movies based on SNL skits

Saturday Night Live sketches have inspired many theatrical and TV movies. Here's a list of them:

See also

External links

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