Read Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live Online

Authors: Tom Shales,James Andrew Miller

Tags: #Performing Arts, #History & Criticism, #Saturday Night Live (Television Program), #Television, #General, #Comedy

Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (89 page)

CHRIS ROCK:

I’ve never been broke a day since I met Lorne Michaels. When I met Lorne Michaels I lived in a little studio apartment, my family lived in the ghetto for the most part. I met Lorne Michaels, and me and my family have been more than comfortable ever since.

BERNIE BRILLSTEIN:

My dad died in New York and the funeral service was ten-thirty in the morning. The last person I think that’s going to be there at ten-thirty in the morning is Lorne. But he was the
first
one. That’s Lorne. His depth of feeling, his depth of being hurt, is really tremendous. And so is his depth for enjoyment. He’s really the most unique guy I’ve met with his loyalty. We’ve been together thirty-some years, and he was romanced by the best of them. But he’s never left me.

DAN AYKROYD:

Clearly he enjoys what he’s doing. He presides over an institution now, and I see him there ’til he’s eighty years old if he wants to be.

TIM MEADOWS,
Cast Member:

I walked around the corner once just as Lorne’s children were freeing themselves from their nanny’s clutches. I saw him get down on his knees and they ran to him and piled all over him, and I thought, “Man, you’ve got it goin’ on, brother. You got this thing working.”

JULIA SWEENEY:

He’s had so many years of practice being Lorne Michaels, he puts across just the impression he wants to put across.

BILLY CRYSTAL,
Cast Member:

We had one really nice moment together after all this time at the twenty-fifth-anniversary show, where I came out as Fernando. I had a great four or five minutes, great to be back in the character again, it really was a very strong thing. But Lorne walked me to the mark backstage and met me back there. And he was very warm with me. And that was very nice.

TOM HANKS:

Lorne invented this thing. It’s hard to imagine now the place that Ed Sullivan held in the esteem of the country and the medium of television because he was on every Sunday night. But it was a substantial thing to go on the
Ed Sullivan Show
— just to get the shot in the first place. And then to be called over and shake hands with Ed and maybe even chat with Ed before you went off. When you did Sullivan, it was literally a watermark for anybody’s career. And if you did well on Sullivan, it guaranteed you some spot in the firmament. You could say the same thing about the Johnny Carson show. And I think you could say, even though he’s not the actual host but he is the godfather of the show, I think you could say the same about Lorne. He is this very particular sort of show business maven that only exists in regularly scheduled television. It doesn’t exist in movies. Lorne’s produced movies, but other than getting them made, I don’t think you could say he’s had a resounding influence as a movie producer. But in the medium of TV, where you do a show week after week, Lorne has maintained this level of pacemaking influence that has not altered over the years.
Saturday Night Live
has remained socially relevant literally because of him.

RICK LUDWIN,
NBC Vice President for Late Night:

I want to leave before Lorne does. I would rather not have the job of trying to find someone to replace him. I’m definitely timing my exit to precede his. I’m just making sure that I go before he does.

MARILYN SUZANNE MILLER:

I was in Los Angeles writing a novel and found something in my breast the size of a lemon. So I got on a plane an hour later and came back to New York. Within twenty-four hours I knew I had breast cancer. Mine was advanced breast cancer, which is to say I didn’t have metastatic breast cancer, but I did have a huge tumor with many nodes, so I had experimental chemo. I told my manager, “I don’t want to go back to L.A. I’m too scared.” So I was going to stay in New York and have this chemo and radiation. And I was just in shock. At that point I didn’t know if I was going to live or die. It was very aggressive cancer.

Lorne had of course been on the phone with me. Everybody from the original show called — the family thing again. Our ties are very emotional. Then one day Lorne called me up. He knew I wanted to be in New York for the treatments and that I had left a job in L.A. And he said, “How’d you like to come back to the show?” And I thought, “Yeah! Love to!” So in the spring I went back. Back home — to
Saturday Night Live
.

ALAN ZWEIBEL:

I’d like for God to give me back the time that I invested in trying to figure Lorne out. I would like to have those hours and weeks and months back. I guess it’s like someone trying to figure out their parents. There was a real need for validation from him, and now that I’ve been away from it for so long, when I do see Lorne, there’s still that thing where you want him to know that you’re doing okay, you want him to be proud. You’re like, “Hey, I had a part in this.” So there were ill feelings at one time, but they were born out of a different situation.

When most of us got there in ’75 and started the show, Lorne’s predictions started coming true, and we said, “This guy’s a prophet, you know, look at this, everything he’s predicting is happening. I’ll hitch my wagon to his horse.” And then years later, I went to the twenty-fifth-anniversary show. It’s funny, because it didn’t feel like twenty-five years, but as you looked around and you added up stuff here and there — well, yeah, I guess that does equal twenty-five years. I was sitting there looking around at the people who were there and coming onstage. I was thinking, look who came through here, look at what it gave birth to, and look at how much money there is in this room right now.

And I thought, “Look what Lorne did. Look at what he’s done!”

ANNE BEATTS:

Lorne did have a note from Gilda on his bulletin board that said, “Lorne, I’m happy. Love, Gilda.” But enough about Lorne. What about me?

SNL
Cast Lists
SEASON BY SEASON

1975–76
Dan Aykroyd
John Belushi
Chevy Chase
Jane Curtin
Garrett Morris
Laraine Newman
Gilda Radner
1976–77
Dan Aykroyd
John Belushi
Chevy Chase
Jane Curtin
Garrett Morris
Bill Murray
Laraine Newman
Gilda Radner
1977–78
Dan Aykroyd
John Belushi
Jane Curtin
Garrett Morris
Bill Murray
Laraine Newman
Gilda Radner
1978–79
Dan Aykroyd
John Belushi
Jane Curtin
Garrett Morris
Bill Murray
Laraine Newman
Gilda Radner
1979–80
Jane Curtin
Garrett Morris
Bill Murray
Laraine Newman
Gilda Radner
Harry Shearer
1980–81
Denny Dillon
Gilbert Gottfried
Gail Matthius
Eddie Murphy
Joe Piscopo
Ann Risley
Charles Rocket
1981–82
Denny Dillon
Brian Doyle-Murray
Robin Duke
Christine Ebersole
Mary Gross
Tim Kazurinsky
Eddie Murphy
Joe Piscopo
Tony Rosato
1982–83
Robin Duke
Mary Gross
Brad Hall
Tim Kazurinsky
Gary Kroeger
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Eddie Murphy
Joe Piscopo
1983–84
Jim Belushi
Robin Duke
Mary Gross
Brad Hall
Tim Kazurinsky
Gary Kroeger
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Eddie Murphy
Joe Piscopo
1984–85
Jim Belushi
Billy Crystal
Mary Gross
Christopher Guest
Rich Hall
Gary Kroeger
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Harry Shearer
Martin Short
Pamela Stephenson
1985–86
Joan Cusack
Robert Downey Jr.
Nora Dunn
Anthony Michael Hall
Jon Lovitz
Terry Sweeney
Randy Quaid
Danitra Vance
1986–87
Dana Carvey
Nora Dunn
Phil Hartman
Jan Hooks
Victoria Jackson
Jon Lovitz
Dennis Miller
Kevin Nealon
1987–88
Dana Carvey
Nora Dunn
Phil Hartman
Jan Hooks
Victoria Jackson
Jon Lovitz
Dennis Miller
Kevin Nealon
1988–89
Dana Carvey
Nora Dunn
Phil Hartman
Jan Hooks
Victoria Jackson
Jon Lovitz
Dennis Miller
Kevin Nealon
Featuring
A. Whitney Brown
Al Franken
Mike Myers
Ben Stiller
1989–90
Dana Carvey
Nora Dunn
Phil Hartman
Jan Hooks
Victoria Jackson
Jon Lovitz
Dennis Miller
Mike Myers
Kevin Nealon
Featuring
A. Whitney Brown
Al Franken
Adam Sandler
Rob Schneider
David Spade
1990–91
Dana Carvey
Phil Hartman
Jan Hooks
Victoria Jackson
Dennis Miller
Mike Myers
Kevin Nealon
With
Chris Farley
Tim Meadows
Chris Rock
Julia Sweeney
Featuring
A. Whitney Brown
Al Franken
Adam Sandler
Rob Schneider
David Spade
1991–92
Dana Carvey
Chris Farley
Phil Hartman
Victoria Jackson
Mike Myers
Kevin Nealon
Chris Rock
Julia Sweeney
With
Ellen Cleghorne
Siobhan Fallon
Tim Meadows
Adam Sandler
Rob Schneider
David Spade
Featuring
Beth Cahill
Al Franken
Melanie Hutsell
Robert Smigel
1992–93
Dana Carvey
Chris Farley
Phil Hartman
Mike Myers
Kevin Nealon
Chris Rock
Rob Schneider
Julia Sweeney
With
Al Franken
Robert Smigel
Featuring
Ellen Cleghorne
Melanie Hutsell
Tim Meadows
Adam Sandler
David Spade
1993–94
Ellen Cleghorne
Chris Farley
Phil Hartman
Melanie Hutsell
Michael McKean
Tim Meadows
Mike Myers
Kevin Nealon
Adam Sandler
Rob Schneider
David Spade
Julia Sweeney
Featuring
Al Franken
Norm Macdonald
Jay Mohr
Sarah Silverman
1994–95
Morwenna Banks
Ellen Cleghorne
Chris Elliott
Chris Farley
Janeane Garofalo
Norm Macdonald
Michael McKean
Mark McKinney
Tim Meadows
Mike Myers
Kevin Nealon
Adam Sandler
David Spade
Featuring
Al Franken
Laura Kightlinger
Jay Mohr
Molly Shannon
1995–96
Jim Breuer
Will Ferrell
Darrell Hammond
David Koechner
Norm Macdonald
Mark McKinney
Tim Meadows
Cheri Oteri
Molly Shannon
David Spade
Nancy Walls
Featuring
Chris Kattan
Colin Quinn
Fred Wolf
1996–97
Jim Breuer
Will Ferrell
Ana Gasteyer
Darrell Hammond
Chris Kattan
Norm Macdonald
Mark McKinney
Tim Meadows
Tracy Morgan
Cheri Oteri
Molly Shannon
Featuring
Colin Quinn
Fred Wolf
1997–98
Jim Breuer
Will Ferrell
Ana Gasteyer
Darrell Hammond
Chris Kattan
Norm Macdonald
Tim Meadows
Tracy Morgan
Cheri Oteri
Colin Quinn
Molly Shannon
1998–99
Will Ferrell
Ana Gasteyer
Darrell Hammond
Chris Kattan
Tim Meadows
Tracy Morgan
Cheri Oteri
Colin Quinn
Molly Shannon
Featuring
Jimmy Fallon
Chris Parnell
Horatio Sanz
1999–2000
Jimmy Fallon
Will Ferrell
Ana Gasteyer
Darrell Hammond
Chris Kattan
Tim Meadows
Tracy Morgan
Cheri Oteri
Chris Parnell
Colin Quinn
Horatio Sanz
Molly Shannon
Featuring
Rachel Dratch
Maya Rudolph
2000–01
Jimmy Fallon
Will Ferrell
Ana Gasteyer
Darrell Hammond
Chris Kattan
Tracy Morgan
Chris Parnell
Horatio Sanz
Molly Shannon
Featuring
Rachel Dratch
Tina Fey
Jerry Minor
Maya Rudolph
2001–02
Rachel Dratch
Jimmy Fallon
Will Ferrell
Tina Fey
Ana Gasteyer
Darrell Hammond
Chris Kattan
Tracy Morgan
Chris Parnell
Amy Poehler
Maya Rudolph
Horatio Sanz
Featuring
Dean Edwards
Seth Meyers
Jeff Richards

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