Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (36 page)

That (Second) Championship Season: Stars and writers from the show’s second year. Standing (from left): Al Franken, Dan Aykroyd, Alan Zweibel, Herb Sargent, Michael O’Donoghue, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Tom Davis, Lorne Michaels. Seated: Rosie Shuster, Marilyn Suzanne Miller, Tom Schiller, John Belushi, James Downey. Foreground: Anne Beatts. Chevy and Bill got into a fistfight backstage; Chevy thinks John made it happen.© EDIE BASKIN

Some of the real musicians in the
SNL
band may have scoffed, and musical director Howard Shore had his misgivings, but Aykroyd and Belushi as Elwood and Jake Blues, the Blues Brothers, went from
SNL
warm-up act to a blockbuster movie directed by John Landis.©
EDIE BASKIN

Bill Murray and Gilda Radner, as nerds Todd and Lisa, are convulsed in laughter at Dan Aykroyd’s overexposed refrigerator repairman. Network censors told Aykroyd to keep his pants pulled up. He didn’t care; he let them slide down anyway, and the audience roared.©
EDIE BASKIN

Gilda Radner and NBC president Fred Silverman at an
SNL
party. Silverman’s dream of turning Gilda into NBC’s “Lucy” or Carol Burnett, and giving her a prime-time variety show, went up in smoke when Gilda simply said no. Silverman blamed Michaels and excluded him from conversations about his successor.
NBC PHOTO

Bill Murray, self-described “adopted” child of the
SNL
players. Given the daunting task of replacing Chevy Chase when he went off to Hollywood, Murray won over the audience with such inspired characters as Nick the (lousy) Lounge Singer and a speech in which he confessed, “I don’t think I’m making it on the show.”©
EDIE BASKIN

Eddie Murphy, the biggest star, at least in terms of box office receipts, ever to emerge from
Saturday Night Live
. Producer Jean Doumanian claims to have discovered Murphy, but he languished in the background until Dick Ebersol took over the show. If not for Murphy’s talent and popularity,
SNL
would probably have died in the early eighties.©
EDIE BASKIN

Joe Piscopo plays straight man to Eddie Murphy’s hilarious impression of Gumby, the children’s cartoon character, as a hardened old show business veteran. Fellow cast members were heard to observe, “Eddie Murphy’s success went to Joe Piscopo’s head.”©
EDIE BASKIN

Guests Barbara Bach and Ringo Starr flank Billy Crystal as Fernando, one of the durable characters Crystal created in the last year of Dick Ebersol’s reign as
SNL
executive producer. Crystal was supposed to appear on the premiere of
Saturday Night Live
in 1975, but an argument over the timing of his sketch led to his walking out the night of the show. He returned in triumph nine years later.
NBC PHOTO

One of the greatest of all
SNL
political sketches: A 1988 debate among contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, brilliantly written by James Downey, Al Franken, and Tom Davis and starring, from left, Kevin Nealon as Pierre “Pete” DuPont, Al Franken as Pat Robertson, Dan Aykroyd (making a special cameo appearance) as Bob Dole, Nora Dunn as Pat Schroeder, Dana Carvey as George Bush, and Phil Hartman as Jack Kemp. The sketch helped reestablish
SNL
’s credentials as America’s leading political satirist.
NBC PHOTO

L
EFT
: Martin Short and Billy Crystal as “Kate and Ali” — Katharine Hepburn, whom Short imitated flawlessly, and Muhammad Ali, another of Crystal’s virtuoso impressions. With Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, they formed an “all-star” team that once again saved
SNL
from going under.
NBC PHOTO