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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, Jon Lovitz, Phil Hartman, Dennis Miller, Dana Carvey and Mike Myers (Wayne's World), Chris Farley, David Spade, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and Will Ferrell. 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 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 most 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
  • Begins with the debut of the show in the 1975/1976 television season and ends with the departure of Lorne Michaels and the remaining members of the original cast at the end of the 1979/1980 season.
The Early Eighties
  • Begins with the 1980/1981 season and ends with the departure of Dick Ebersol at the end of the 1984/1985 season.
The Later Eighties
  • Begins with the return of Lorne Michaels at the beginning of the 1985/1986 season and ends with the 1989/1990 season.
The Nineties
  • Begins with the 1990/1991 season and ends with the 1999/2000 season.
The Noughties
  • Begins with the 2000/2001 season and continues to the present.

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.

Infamous moments

Since it is broadcast live, SNL has had several infamous events that were either unplanned or provoked sufficient controversy to receive media coverage:

  • In 1981, Charles Rocket says the word "fuck".
  • In 1990, misogynist comedian Andrew Dice Clay is chosen to host; cast member Nora Dunn would and scheduled musical guest Sinead O'Connor boycott the show in protest.
  • In 1992, at the end of a musical performance, Sinead O'Connor rips up a photo of the Pope and shouts "Fight the real enemy".
  • In 2004, musical guest Ashlee Simpson walks offstage in an incident in which she used a backing tape to enhance or replace her live vocals due to illness—her difficulty singing during rehearsals earlier in the day, an effect of acid reflux, was subsequently shown on the news program 60 Minutes.

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 Louise Lasser and Milton Berle episodes, and the shows where Andrew Dice Clay and 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.

The Banned List

Over the years, SNL has banned both hosts and musical guests for on their unorthodox behavior. The most notable is that of Sinead O'Connor. In 1992, she appeared on the program with host Tim Robbins. In her second set of the show, she performed an a capella version of Bob Marley's "War". At the end, she picked up a picture of Pope John Paul II, ripped it up, and said, "Fight the real enemy." NBC received many complaints about this within a matter of minutes, and Robbins did not even thank O'Connor at the end of the show for being the musical guest. O'Connor was given a verbal beating by many other celebrities and public figures. To this day, NBC refuses to lend out the footage to any media outlet. They have also edited out the incident from the syndicated version of the episode. She has been banned from ever performing on the show.

Comedian Martin Lawrence has also been banned from the show. His opening monologue included talking about female genitalia. The monologue has been completely edited out in the syndicated version, with just a graphic describing in general what Lawrence had said. The graphic also told viewers that it was a lively monologue and it almost cost many SNL employees their jobs. An unofficial transcript of the monologue can be found here.

Another banning of sorts happened in 1982 when the show decided to leave the fate of a featured player in the hands of viewers. Andy Kaufman, who appeared on the show since its beginning in 1975, was on the chopping block. Viewers had to call a 900 number to decide if Kaufman should be allowed to stay, or be banned for life from the show. Viewers decided to kick him off and Kaufman never returned to the show. In truth, the idea was pitched to Dick Ebersol weeks before by Andy, and Ebersol used the idea after he had a fight with Kaufman. When Andy heard the news that he was banned, he felt betrayed.

Elvis Costello was banned from SNL for 13 years. In December 1977, he was slated to perform with his group The Attractions. NBC and the show's producer Lorne Michaels didn't want Costello to perform "Radio, Radio" since it was an anti-media song. Costello defied them by beginning to play "Less Than Zero," stopping at the beginning, telling the audience that there was no reason to do that song, and started playing "Radio, Radio." This infuriated Michaels because he was told not to play the song, but also because the stunt threw the show off schedule. Costello was invited to come back and play in 1989, and even reenacted his act of defiance on the 25th Anniversary Show in 1999.

Trivia

The cast

See Saturday Night Live cast.

By the numbers

  • The most aged host was Ruth Gordon, in the episode aired on January 22, 1977.
  • The youngest host was Drew Barrymore, in the episode aired on November 20, 1982.
  • The most aged cast member was Michael McKean (1994-1995).
  • The youngest cast member was Anthony Michael Hall (1985-1986).
  • The highest rating audience (according to Nielsen) occurred in the episode aired on October 13, 1979.

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

File:Tv snl dolly parton.jpg
Dolly Parton with SNL's Victoria Jackson.

Artists 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

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