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