Tag: Lorne Michaels

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Saturday Night

Saturday Night, like SNL, lives or dies on the strength of its ensemble. (Photo: Courtesy Sony)

Nearly every comedian who has ever worked with him has a Lorne Michaels imitation in their repertoire. Mike Myers, for example, famously based Austin Powers’ nemesis Dr. Evil series on the legendary TV producer. Michaels, a Canadian who got his start in the late 1960s writing for Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, holds the record for the most Emmy nominations (106), with 21 wins. His most famous and enduring creation, Saturday Night Live, holds the record for the most Emmy wins, taking in 92 trophies over the 50 years since its debut in 1975. 

Michaels is, by all accounts, a demanding and no-nonsense boss, beloved and hated in equal measures. But I guess you have to be like that if you’re going to pull off something as audacious as a 90-minute live television broadcast of original comedy every week for decades. It’s telling that SNL’s creative nadir coincided with Michaels’ four-year hiatus from the show in the early 1980s. SNL may not drive the cultural conversation the way it used to, but it’s still here, and, thanks to its format of short comedy skits, it’s still relevant in the social media era. 

Saturday Night is billed as an origin story for Saturday Night Live, but like SNL itself, it’s really the Lorne Michaels show. Michaels is played by Gabriel LaBelle, who recently portrayed young Steven Spielberg in The Fabelmans, as a brash youngster in way over his head. Interestingly, LaBelle is 22, while Michaels was 31 when SNL first went live from New York on October 11, 1975. That’s two years before director Jason Reitman was born. He and co-writer Gil Kenan chose to model their film after González Iñárritu’s Best Picture winner Birdman, a near-real-time account of the backstage drama on the night a play premieres. This approach necessitates quite a bit of historical revision. While the opening night was apparently a pretty fraught affair, it did not include moments like Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons) whipping it out, or Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris, no relation) singing, “I’m gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whities I see!” 

Both of those things did happen later in the first season, though, and this isn’t a documentary. SNL lives or dies every season on the strength of its ensemble, and so does Saturday Night. The main cast, all of whom became legends in their own right, is well represented. Cory Michael Smith is just a little too good looking to be Chevy Chase, but he’s got that frat boy arrogance down. Dan Aykroyd always kind of seemed like he was doing a character, even when he wasn’t, so Dylan O’Brien’s job is a little easier. Matt Wood most closely resembles his character, John Belushi, but the legend’s manic energy is hard to fake without mountains of cocaine. (One of the film’s funniest bits is when Morris shows Belushi some pharmaceutical grade yayo he’s been gifted by Billy Preston (Jon Batiste, who also did the score), and Belushi promptly snorts the whole vial.) Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt) and Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn) seem rather thin and underutilized, but then again, that’s how the show treated them in the first season. Jane Curtin (Kim Matula) has her best moment with Morris, wondering what the hell they’re doing here. 

They weren’t the only ones. The NBC brass, represented by Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) and David Tebet (Willem Dafoe), seem confused as to what is actually going on the air at 11:30 p.m. Eastern. The biggest historical revelation from the film is that SNL was green-lit to put pressure on Tonight Show host Johnny Carson, who was negotiating a new contract with NBC at the time. Only Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott), Michaels’ ex-wife and writing partner, believes in his vision — whatever it is. 

The “Let’s put on a show!” structure ultimately serves Saturday Night well because it forces the filmmakers to keep the individual bits, culled from interviews with the surviving first season cast and crew, short and punchy. It also keeps the moments of maudlin hagiography to a minimum. Saturday Night plays like a good episode of SNL: lots of amusing bits, a couple of belly laughs, and it never outstays its welcome. 

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Opinion The Last Word

The Rant (November 27, 2014)

Our borders are so porous that they have become nearly impossible to police. Thousands of aliens sneak into this country every day and head for border towns where they can blend in with people of similar color who speak a similar language, making it impossible to detect who is and who is not a documented citizen.

The border is so long that no fence short of the Wall of China could even begin to stop the migrating hordes that seek sanctuary in the USA. They have infiltrated every major city, and many illegals have had children here so that they can automatically become American citizens. These are the “anchor babies” you’ve heard so much about. There are so many aliens already here that you could never round up and deport them all. And the number of good jobs that they take away from able-bodied Americans is scandalous. They have begun to dominate entire business sectors and have affected popular culture so much that our children are exposed. The lure of cheap drugs has caused Americans in border towns to flock to pharmacies across the border in order to smuggle drugs back into this country.

They talk differently. Their food is different. Their national sports are different. Let’s face it, these people are different than we are. I strongly believe, and many other like-minded patriots agree, that it’s about damn time that we crack down on this endless stampede of Canadians invading our land.

They come across in border towns like Detroit, Buffalo, and Rochester, but those who really want to enter undetected use the wide swaths of land that are too remote to patrol. They enter in places like Duluth, Minnesota, and Grand Forks, North Dakota, and I understand that the farther west you go, the more hardcore the trafficking is in illegal drugs, particularly marijuana. Demand has fallen totally off in Washington state, but I’ve heard about Canucks with calves the size of saskatoons from smuggling backpacks full of dangerously potent cannabis from Vancouver across the border. The Canadians call it “B.C. Bud,” or at least that’s what I was told. And not only are their legal drugs cheaper, I get at least 15 emails per week enticing me to buy them. You can even order them through the mail, flouting the law. And what is this Vicodin they keep wanting me to take?

Canadians don’t care about our laws. They were all bootleggers during prohibition, and some of the most prominent families made their fortunes supplying illegal hooch to Al Capone. Every time our country enters into one of our periodic righteous wars with somebody we don’t like, it’s always Canada that openly welcomes our cowardly draft-dodgers into their midst, especially during that pesky Vietnam business.

Over the past 40 years, there has been a stealth campaign among Canadians to infiltrate and take over the entertainment industry, beginning with the Toronto immigrant Lorne Michaels. In the mid-1970s, he invented a subversive television program called Saturday Night Live, and ever since, he’s relied on Canadians to spread his irreverent message – people like Dan Aykroyd, Martin Short, Norm McDonald, and Mike Meyers. This opened the floodgates for Canadian comedy with imported shows like SCTV, featuring perverted comics like John Candy, Rick Moranis, Catherine O’Hara, and Eugene Levy. Following their migrant trail came Jim Carrey, Howie Mandel, and Tommy Chong who began to take over our movie industry.

If our government had been vigilant enough to keep these freeloaders out, we would never have had to suffer through Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Wayne’s World, or Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Canadians spend half their lives listening to Gordon Lightfoot and the other half watching hockey. They drink beers called Moosehead and Labatt and live on a diet of bacon and maple syrup, which they pour over everything. They refuse to speak American. Instead of “out and about,” they say, “Oot and aboot.” They swear allegiance to the British crown, and even have a state that wants to secede, where they force everyone to speak French. And now they want this XL Keystone Pipeline to transport Canadian oil across our great country into the Gulf of Mexico so they can sell it to the Russians and Chinese. Of course, there’s absolutely no danger of an oil spill in the Gulf, right?

It’s past time to round up all your Avril Lavignes, your Ryan Goslings, and your Anna Paquins and begin arranging their transport home. It’s shocking how deeply they have burrowed into our society. William Shatner is Canadian. I mean, Captain Kirk is an alien, for God’s sake. Even the hip-hop artist Drake comes from the mean streets of Toronto.

We refer to Mexicans as “illegal aliens,” but Canadians are always, “our friends up north.” I think it’s time to send these toque-wearing, cheese-eating, Celine Dion-listening ice skaters back into their own wretched country. Especially this Seth Rogan fellow, whose “nerd gets the girl” movies have caused young men to resort to gun violence. It’s time this invasion came to an end and relocations are in order.

I only have one request. When the government starts deporting Canadians, please deport Justin Bieber first, aye?

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant

The original cast of SNL circa 1975

Has anyone noticed how the cast and producers of Saturday Night Live have taken over comedy programming at NBC? Now, every night is a Saturday Night Live, except for SNL itself, which ain’t so great these days.

With the recent occurrence of Jimmy Fallon taking over for Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show and Seth Meyers moving into Fallon’s old late-night spot, with SNL alumnus Fred Armisen as his bandleader, former cast members of the durable sketch-comedy program can be seen on TV virtually every night of the week.

Now in its 39th season, Saturday Night Live has been shepherded (except for four years) by Lorne Michaels, who has been called the “Kingmaker of Comedy.” Michaels has the golden touch when it comes to discovering and promoting new comedy talent. The list of legends who have served under Michaels’ tutelage is jaw dropping: Belushi and Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, and ad infinitum.

And if a cast member managed to create a successful recurring character, Michaels might back you in a movie deal. Without Lorne Michaels, we would never have had such classic films like Wayne’s World, Coneheads, A Night at the Roxbury, and MacGruber. There’s no questioning Michaels’ comic empire, so my question is, how did SNL go from being an edgy, satiric, and sardonic show into what’s now considered prime-time network programming?

It seemingly began when head writer and “Weekend Update” anchor Tina Fey quit the show to write and star in a prime-time program called 30 Rock, produced by Michaels, which was basically a parody of SNL, including a character based on Michaels, played by Alec Baldwin. Then came Parks and Recreation, produced by Michaels and starring Amy Poehler. NBC even made room for Chevy Chase in the cult comedy Community. Michaels has recently produced the movies Mean Girls and Baby Mama and the bizarre TV show Portlandia, starring Fred Armisen. Fey and Poehler co-hosted this year’s Golden Globe Awards on, guess which network? And please put your answer in the form of a question. 

During last week’s edition of SNL, there was even an ad for American Express featuring Tina Fey. They’re everywhere, like The Walking Dead. In addition to the sitcoms, movies, and SNL, Michaels will also produce the Tonight and Late Night shows. On Sundays, he’ll conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. For a 69-year-old man, that’s a lot of stress. I trust Michaels’ blood pressure is steady enough to prevent him from pulling an Elvis and doing a header into the shag carpet of the executive men’s restroom at 30 Rockefeller Center.

Of the 139 cast members who appeared on SNL, many have gone on to film and television careers. Of note, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the current star of the HBO program Veep, also was a featured player in, oh … what was his name? You remember, that obsessive-compulsive comedian who had a show about nothing? Conan O’Brien was plucked from obscurity by Michaels, who put him in late-night and produced his show for four years. If you’re counting, that’s three current nighttime talk-show hosts coming from Michaels’ stable.

The Tonight Show moved from Los Angeles back to New York because of Michaels. And, of course, there’s always Senator Al Franken. If you ever find yourself missing former cast members, just check your local TV listings. There’s Conan on TBS, Andy Samberg in Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Fox, Tim Meadows in Bob’s Burgers, Kevin Nealon in Weeds, Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell in The Spoils of Babylon on IFC, and Memphis’ own Chris Parnell with Ana Gasteyer on Suburgatory on ABC. The familiar thing about these actors is that they all played recurring characters on SNL. The problem with the current cast of SNL is that there are so many of them, no one’s character has much of a chance to reoccur.

All those late-night talk shows need writers and staff, editorial directors, floor managers, and the like. Judging from last week’s SNL starring Seth Rogan, it would seem that the best of them packed their joke-bags to join Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. Rogan is mildly humorous, but I outgrew fart jokes in junior high. The current cast has 17 members, including six newcomers, in contrast with the original seven in 1975. It’s like getting transferred to a different prison. It takes time to learn everyone’s name.

Also, I am not as enamored of Jimmy Fallon as others seem to be. Like Leno before him, I think Fallon tries a little too hard, and his bromance with Justin Timberlake has become disturbing. I was always a David Letterman kind of guy, and his announced retirement might have been more sorrowful had it not been for the news of who will be replacing him. Stephen Colbert has, for the past nine years, had the most subversive show on television in The Colbert Report. Assuming the role of a self-described “well intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot,” Colbert has taken his outrageous character all the way to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where he had the balls to skewer an oblivious George Bush to his face. Colbert has said that he will drop the character for the late-night gig, so I’ll be tuning in to find out who he actually is. It will be something new, and that beats dumbed-down, repackaged, and recycled sketches from Saturday Night Live every time.

Randy Haspel writes the “Born-Again Hippies” blog, where a version of this column first appeared.