Beech Tree News Network

The past few weeks, I’ve chronicled the Dark Side of the ‘90’s series on Vice Network.  This week: Saturday Night Live.  In the ‘90’s, depending on who you ask, Saturday Night Live was an unsinkable comedy institution or the Titanic.  SNL’s 40th anniversary special in 2015 brought together a who’s who of America’s comedy stars-former cast members such as Steve Martin, Dan Akroyd and Jimmy Fallon, just to name a few.  Then there’s SNL’s “fearless leader”, Lorne Michaels.

In the late ‘60’s, 25-year-old Lorne Michaels, a University of Toronto English major, begins writing and acting on Canadian radio and television before moving to Hollywood to write for Laugh-in.  In the early ‘70’s, he pitches NBC a Saturday late-night comedy variety show he claims will draw a new audience reflecting the decades youth culture.  Saturday Night Live soon became an industry manufacturing stars.  Alumni John Belushi and Dan Akroyd starred in the movie Blues Brothers.  Chevy Chase starred in the Fletch franchise.  Bill Murray starred in the Meatballs movies.  The show also manufactured a culture of stress, anxiety, angst and fear.  This is mostly a byproduct of how Michaels likes to work.

At the end of SNL’s 5th season, when NBC refuses to grant he and his cast time off for rest and relaxation, he and the remaining original Not Ready for Primetime Players (that’s what they were billed in the opening show credits) quit in protest.  Michaels and Belushi stay in touch, even as Belushi’s health deteriorates.  On March 5, 1982, less than a year after attending Lorne Michaels’ wedding, Belushi is found dead in the Chateau Marmot hotel in West Hollywood.

In 1985, with a post-Lorne Michaels SNL nearing cancellation due to poor ratings, NBC convinces the shows creator to return for season 11.  He brings in new cast members including Randy Quad, Anthony Michael Hall, Joan Cusak and Robert Downey, Jr.  The show gets dismal reviews and Lorne starts over in season 12.  It’s then that he hires the man who will become the shows glue-the late Phil Hartman.  Lorne also brings on board Dana Carvey-who teams up with Mike Myers two seasons later for their signature sketch, Wayne’s World.

The ’90’s open with another mostly new cast who grew up idolizing SNL and the man who created it: Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade and the late Chris Farley.  Of all Lorne’s new hires, it’s Wisconsin native Chris Farley who stands out with his heart on his sleeve personality and over-the-top antics.  In the same way Lorne played up and into John Belushi’s drug addiction, Michaels leaned into sketches making fun of Chris’ weight.  Sidebar: it sounds to me like Michaels was and is a bit of a bully.  I digress.

In the early ‘90’s, comedy on tv is dramatically different than when Lorne first launched the SNL.  New sketch shows like FOX’ In Living Color are cutting into SNL’s ratings.  In October 1992, SNL is thrust back into the cultural conversation when Irish singer Sinead O’Conner performs Bob Marley’s song “War”, changing the words to highlight what she sees as a systematic problem in the Catholic church.  After she sang, she tore up a picture of the Pope on live television Michaels orders the crew to turn off the applause sign.  NBC bans O’Conner for life.  In a few years, she calls out the Catholic church in an interview.  It’ll take another 18 years until the Vatican apologizes to Ireland’s Catholic sex abuse victims.

February 1993, NBC is stuck in 3rd place among the major networks, makes sports producer Don Ohlmeyer president of their entertainment division.  He makes boosting SNL’s flagging ratings a top priority.  High tensions intensify when Lorne gives the Weekend Update spot to fellow Canadian, the late Norm Macdonald.  Norm did lots of O.J. Simpson jokes.  Olmeyer, a friend of Simpson’s, resented the jokes.  Instead of stopping, Norm made more O.J. jokes.  NBC executives were getting madder and madder.  There was a push to get Norm off the show.  It finally worked in 1998 when Norm is fired after four years of Olmeyer’s complaints.  Four years prior, Lorne was also dealing with Dan’s notes regarding other young comics on the show, including Chris Farley and David Spade, who began working on the movie Tommy Boy in the middle of SNL’s 20th season.  Farley joked on Letterman that he “had a little bit of a weight problem”.  Michaels, of course, played it for laughs.  By 1995, he was just one of the many problems keeping Lorne up at night.  As ratings dropped another 19%, the media piles on, condemning SNL for uninspired writing.

In March 1995, the SNL fame and fortune factory comes under attack in a New Yorker cover story that details the behind-the-scenes dysfunction that exists under the watch of its mercurial leader.  Stories were told of former cast members and hosts that Lorne wouldn’t even look at you when you went into his office.  Michaels is also criticized for a sexist workplace and that it lacks diversity.  In 1995, the writing staff has 4x more men than women and no black writers.  Lorne’s assistants were known as The Lornettes.  When cast member Jeanine Gorrafolo complains about a sketch, it brings the wrath of the man who wrote it: Fred Wolf.

At the end of season 20, Michaels caves to network pressure to revamp the show.  He fired 9 cast members, including Chris Farley and Adam Sandler.  For the show’s 21st season in 1995, Lorne asks the new head co-writer to find talented female performers.  Those turned out to be Cheri Oteri, Molly Shannon and Nancy Walls.  Female writers and producers are also hired.  

To mark the supposedly more female-friendly season of SNL, the premiere is hosted by Mariel Hemmingway, granddaughter of author Ernest Hemmingway.  The next host should be returning a conquering hero.  Instead, Chris Farley will be thrown to the lions.  With the release of his 1996 movie Black Sheep and Beverly Hills Ninja in 1997, the former cast member is a box office movie star.  Watching him promote his movies, one couldn’t help but wonder if his 17 trips to treatment centers and ongoing struggle with obesity is too high a price to pay for fame.  

Farley relapses and passes at 33, the same age as his hero John Belushi.  Five months after absorbing the loss of Chris, the SNL family is again rocked by tragedy.  On May 28, 1998, police are called to the home of former cast member Phil Hartman and discover him murdered by his wife.  

September 28, Jean Smart will host the 50th season premiere of SNL with musical guest Jelly Roll.  After surviving threats of cancellation, controversy and tragedy, the weekly live show performed in the iconic Studio 8H remains a late-night institution.  This episode of Dark Side of the ‘90’s ended with an interesting comment from Lorne.  He was asked if he saw a day he wasn’t sitting in the boss’s office.  His reply was “my plan is to be here for the 50th.  By that point, I really deserve to wander off”.  As I said earlier, this season is #50.  Ar we nearing Lorne Michaels’ last hurrah as SNL boss?

No new vlog as of this writing. I’ll be back next week with a new column and new vlog.