Saturday Night Live
(
SNL) is a late-night
sketch comedy and
variety show created by
Lorne Michaels for the
National Broadcasting Company
(
NBC). It made its debut on October 11, 1975,
under the title
NBC's Saturday Night.
Broadcast live out of
Studio 8H at the GE
Building
in New
York's Rockefeller
Center
, it is subsequently relayed with a time delay to
both domestic
and foreign markets.
The show regularly lampoons many aspects of contemporary American
society, such as politics and
popular
culture, including both
television
and
film. The show features a two-tiered
cast, with repertory
members known as the "Not Ready for Prime-Time Players", and new,
unproven cast members are known as "Featured Players." These cast
members are joined by a rotating list of
guest hosts and musical
acts.
Overseen by show creator,
Lorne
Michaels, who, excluding seasons
6–
10, has been with the show
throughout, first as
producer
and subsequently as a
writer and
executive producer. Show production is
handled jointly by
Broadway Video,
SNL Studios, and
NBC.
As of 2009,
Saturday Night Live is one of the
longest-running
network programs in American television history. In addition,
several of the show's sketches have been developed into
feature films.
Throughout its history, except for
season 7 and other rare
exceptions, the show has traditionally begun with a
cold open, ending with someone breaking character
and proclaiming "
Live from New York,
it's Saturday Night!"
Much of the talent pool involved in the inaugural season was
recruited from the
National Lampoon Radio
Hour, an inventive, nationally syndicated comedy series
that often satirized current events. Actors and writers from
Radio Hour received much more exposure and recognition on
Saturday Night.
History
- See also: history of SNL by season: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35
The show began as a replacement for
The Best of
Carson reruns of
The Tonight Show that aired on
either Saturday or Sunday night, at an affiliate's discretion, from
January 1965 until September 1975 (originally known as
The
Saturday/Sunday Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson).
Originally, the show was called
NBC Saturday Night and
NBC's Saturday Night, as the current title was
in use by rival
network
ABC. NBC
purchased the rights to the name in 1976 and officially adopted the
new title on March 26, 1977. After five years, creator Lorne
Michaels chose not to renew his contract, and was joined in
departure by the cast members and writers.
Jean Doumanian took over the show for the
1980 season, hiring a new cast and writers that included
Eddie Murphy. Doumanian was replaced after one
year by
Dick Ebersol, who had hired
Michaels to create the show. Murphy and
Joe
Piscopo continued as cast members under Ebersol, remaining with
the show until 1984. For fall 1984, Ebersol added several cast
members with television experience, including
Billy Crystal,
Martin
Short,
Harry Shearer, and
Pamela Stephenson. After one season,
Ebersol wanted a more significant revamp, which was rejected, and
Lorne Michaels returned to the show.
Creator Lorne Michaels in April 2008.
Michaels' return for the 1985-86 season restored an association
with NBC that has lasted nearly 30 years. The show has helped
launch the careers of dozens of comedy stars during its run. As
head of
Broadway Video and
SNL Films, Michaels has leveraged the talent he's
helped introduce, producing shows and films such as
All You Need Is Cash,
Wayne's World,
Late Night with Conan
O'Brien,
Coneheads,
Late Night with Jimmy
Fallon, and
30 Rock.
Production
Executive producers
Writers
Cast
Repertory players
Featured players
Announcer
Don Pardo served as the announcer for the
series since it began (except for season 7, when
Mel Brandt and
Bill
Hanrahan filled that role).
Pardo, who was 57 when the show debuted and
who retired from NBC in 2004 at age 86, still flies in from his
home in Tucson,
Arizona
, to introduce the show.
The SNL Band
The
Saturday Night
Live Band (also known as "The Live Band") is the
house band for
SNL. Academy
Award-winning composer
Howard Shore
served as the first musical director, from 1975 to 1980, appearing
in many musical sketches, including Howard Shore and His All-Nurse
Band and (backing a
U. S. Coast
Guard chorus) Howard Shore and the Shore Patrol. Over the
years, the band has featured several New York studio musicians
including
Paul Shaffer (1975-1977,
1977-1980),
Lou Marini (1975-1983),
David Sanborn (1975),
Michael Brecker,
Ray
Chew (1980-1983),
Alan Rubin
(1975-1983),
Georg Wadenius
(1979-1985),
Steve Ferrone (1985),
David Johansen (performing as Buster
Poindexter),
Tom Malone (who
took over as musical director from 1981 to 1985), and
G.E. Smith (musical
director from 1985 to 1995). The band is currently under the
leadership of
Tower of Power alum
Lenny Pickett and keyboardists
Leon Pendarvis and
Katreese Barnes. The number of musicians has
varied over the years, but the basic instrumentation has been three
saxophones, one trombone, one trumpet, and a rhythm section
featuring two keyboards, a guitar, bass, drums, and an extra
percussionist, not a permanent part of the band until
Valerie Naranjo's arrival in 1995. The
1983-1984 and 1984-1985 seasons featured the smallest band, a
six-piece combo. The band plays instrumentals leading in and out of
station breaks; affiilates who run no advertising during these
interludes hear the band play complete songs behind a "Saturday
Night Live" graphic until the program resumes.
Hosts/musical guests
A typical episode of
SNL will feature a single host, who
delivers the opening monologue and performs in sketches with the
cast, and a single musical guest, who will perform two or
occasionally three musical numbers. In some cases, the musical
guest will also be the host and fill both duties.
George Carlin was first to host the show;
Candice Bergen was the first female
to host the show a few weeks later and again hosted only six weeks
after that. Guests that have hosted five or more times are
sometimes referred to as belonging to the
Five-Timers Club, a term that originated on
a sketch performed on Tom Hanks' fifth episode.
Production facilities
Studio
Since the
show's inception, SNL has aired from Studio 8H, located on
floors 8 and 9 of GE
Building (30
Rockefeller Plaza, or "30 Rock"). Due to the studio
originally being a radio
soundstage for
Arturo Toscanini and his
NBC Symphony Orchestra, the layout of
the studio floor and the audience positioning causes some audience
members to have an obstructed view of many of the sketches.
According to NBC, the 8H studio has almost perfect acoustics. The
offices of
SNL writers, producers, and other staff can be
found on the 17th floor of "30 Rock."
During the summer 2005 shooting hiatus, crews began renovations on
Studio 8H. With its thirty-first season premiere in October 2005,
the show began broadcasting in
high definition, appearing
letterboxed on conventional television
screens. Though the show is still produced in widescreen, beginning
in 2008, many viewers again began seeing the show in a 4:3 aspect
ratio due to the
DTV
conversion.
Three of
the first four shows of the 1976-77 season were shot at the former
NBC
Studios
in Brooklyn, due to NBC
News using Studio 8H for Presidential election
coverage.
Filming and photography
Studio 8H production facilities are maintained by
NBC Production Services. Video
camera equipment includes four Sony BVP-700 CCD cameras, and two
Sony BVP-750 CCD handheld cameras, both using
Vinten pedestals. A GVG 4000-3 digital
component production switcher, and GVG 7000 digital component
routing switcher are used to route visual feeds to the control
room, with multiple digital and analogue video recorders used to
store footage. Audio facilities consist of a Calrec T Series
digitally controlled analogue mixing console, and a Yamaha digital
mixing console used for tape playback support and utility audio
work.
As of the 35th season, the opening title sequence and opening
montage of
Saturday Night Live is shot using Canon EOS 5D
Mark II and Canon EOS 7D digital SLR cameras. Typical elements are
recorded at 30
fps, with slow-motion sequences
shot at 60 fps, both in full 1080p high definition.
Post-production
With onsite facilities housed on floors 8 and 17 of Rockefeller
Plaza, post-production duties on live broadcasts of
Saturday
Night Live include the mixing of audio and video elements by
the Senior Audio Mixer, coupled with additional audio feeds
consisting of music, sound effects, music scoring and pre-recorded
voiceovers. All sources are stored digitally, with shows captured
and segregated into individual elements for the purpose of
reorganising for future repeats and syndication. The production
tracking system was migrated from primarily
analogue to
digital in 1998,
with live shows typically requiring 1.5 Terabytes of storage,
consisting of audio elements and 5 cameras worth of visual
elements.Elements of
Saturday Night Live that are
pre-recorded, such as certain commercial parodies,
SNL Digital Shorts, and show graphics are
processed off-site in the post-production facilities of
Broadway Video.
Production process
The following is a summary of the process used to produce the show.
It is based in part on interviews with former
SNL head
writer and performer
Tina Fey in 2000 and
2004.
Monday:
- The day begins with a topical meeting, identifying the biggest
story for the show's opening.
- This is followed by a free-form pitch meeting with Lorne Michaels and the show's host(s) for the
week. The official name is "The Host Meeting" but all the writers
and cast members call it "The Pitch Meeting"
- Throughout the week the host(s) has much influence on which
sketches get aired.
Tuesday:
- Between 9:00 p.m. Tuesday night and 7:00 a.m. Wednesday
morning, anywhere from 40 to 50 scripts are written, most of which
will not be broadcast.
- Once a writer's scripts are complete, he or she will often help
other writers on their scripts.
- Meanwhile, Lorne Michaels has another "Pitch Meeting" with the
musical guest(s) and discusses which of their current songs, two to
three, they should play in the show for their music act.
Wednesday:
- All scripts get a read-through from the cast, writers,
producers, Lorne Michaels and the week's host(s). Read-through
usually starts at 11:00 a.m. and lasts about two and a half to
three hours.
- After the read-through, the head writer(s) and the producers
meet with the host(s) to decide which sketches to work on for the
rest of the week, with Lorne Michaels and the host(s) having the
final say.
Thursday:
- The surviving sketches are reviewed, word-by-word, by the
writing staff as a whole or in two groups in the case of co-head
writers.
- Some sketches which survived the cut because of their premise,
but are in need of work, are rewritten completely. Others are
changed in smaller ways.
- The Weekend Update crew
starts coming together, starting with the news items written by
writers dedicated all week to the segment.
- The crew comes in for rehearsal, and the music act is rehearsed
as well as some of the larger, more important sketches.
- The host(s) and musical guest(s) and usually some cast members
shoot two to four promos to play for NBC.
Friday:
- The show is blocked.
- The writer of each sketch acts as producer, working with the show's set
designers and costumers.
- Special music is recorded for the show.
Saturday:
- The Saturday Night Live Band does a mid-morning rehearsal.
- At 1 p.m., with the show still far from completed, the day
begins with a run-through, with props, in front of Lorne
Michaels.
- This is followed by a dress rehearsal performed in front of the
studio audience, which lasts from 8 p.m. - 10 p.m. (or sometimes
later) and contains approximately twenty minutes of material which
will be deleted from the final broadcast.
- Lorne Michaels uses firsthand observation of the audience
reaction during the dress rehearsal and input from the host(s) and
head writer to determine the final round of changes, re-ordering
sketches as necessary.
- Following dress rehearsal, Lorne has meeting with the writers
to discuss the final changes and gives notes about changes that
could be made for the live show. The cast is updated about sketches
cut after dress rehearsal and final rundown of sketches for live
show on bullentin board outside of Lorne Michael's office.
- The show then begins at 11:29:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
A
60 Minutes report taped in
October 2004 depicted the intense writing frenzy that goes on
during the week leading up to a show, with crowded meetings and
long hours. The report particularly noted the involvement of the
guest host(s) in developing and selecting the sketches in which
they will appear. Similarly, there has been an
A&E episode of
Biography which covered the production process, as
well as an episode of "TV Tales" in 2002 on
E! Entertainment Television.
Broadcast
Live
Reruns
SNL reruns are aired out of its original broadcast
sequence, usually determined by which episodes have not yet been
repeated, but had high ratings or acclaim for its live broadcast.
Shows usually air twice during a particular season, but often the
highest-rated shows of the season have a second encore show toward
the end of the off-season, or episodes will be repeated a second or
third time to coincide with a new event connected with the person
who hosted. For example, the
Natalie
Portman episode aired in March 2006 to promote
V for Vendetta was repeated August 5,
2006, prior to the film's
DVD release August 8.
Similarly,
Jeff Gordon's episode reran
following NBC's coverage of the
Pepsi
400.
The show is never live in the western half of the USA. There was a
short experiment in which it did air live on the west coast in 2001
after live
XFL football games. NBC airs a
recording of the live show for the Mountain and Pacific time zones,
usually exactly as it aired in the Eastern and Central time
zones—mistakes notwithstanding.
NBC and
Broadway Video share the
copyright to every episode of the show made thus far. From 1990
until 2004,
Comedy Central and its
predecessor
Ha! re-aired reruns of the series,
after which
E! Entertainment
Television signed a deal to reruns. Abbreviated thirty and
sixty minute versions of the first five seasons aired as
The
Best of Saturday Night Live in syndication beginning in the
1980s and later on
Nick at Nite in
1988,
VH1,
Comedy
Central and
E! Entertainment
Television.
Compilations
From time-to-time,
SNL airs compilation shows. Such shows
will feature selected sketches from the previous season; of a
particular cast member or multiple-time host; or centered on a
particular theme (e.g.,
Halloween,
Christmas). Political sketches are
typically culled for a special in
presidential election years; the 2000
special was notable for having self-deprecating (though separate)
appearances by candidates
George W.
Bush and
Al
Gore. During the 2008 presidential race,
Hillary Clinton,
Mike Huckabee,
John
McCain,
Barack Obama,
Rudy Giuliani, and
Sarah Palin all made appearances on the
show.
Delays
- The show was forced by the network to run on a five-second
delay on three separate occasions when Richard Pryor, Sam
Kinison, and Andrew Dice Clay
each hosted.
- The episode scheduled for October 25, 1986, hosted by Rosanna Arquette, was not aired until
November 8 due to NBC
broadcasting Game 6 of the 1986 World
Series; the game entered extra innings, causing that night's
broadcast of SNL to be cancelled. The show was recorded
for the studio audience starting at 1:30 a.m. Eastern Time, and
broadcast two weeks later with an "apology" by New York Mets pitcher Ron Darling.
- The episode scheduled for February 10, 2001, hosted by Jennifer Lopez, aired 45 minutes late due to
an XFL game. Lopez and the cast were not told
they were airing on a delay.
- During Eddie Murphy's last season,
he negotiated to record a number of extra sketches in September
1983 that featured him and were broadcast in episodes for which he
was not available. His last live show was with host Edwin Newman on February 25, 1984.
- When Sam Kinison delivered a comic
monologue in 1986, NBC removed his plea for the legalization of
marijuana from the West Coast
broadcast and all subsequent airings.
- A portion of Martin Lawrence's
1994 monologue concerning feminine hygiene has been removed from
all repeats, replaced with a voice-over
and intertitles stating that the excised
portion "...was a frank and lively presentation, and nearly cost us
all our jobs."
Replaced/altered sketches
Encore showings are not always identical to the original broadcast.
Successful sketches aired later in the show during the original
broadcast may be reedited to appear earlier. In the earlier years
of the show's history, reruns occasionally replaced weaker sketches
with segments from other episodes, usually from episodes that did
not have an encore showing at all.
Occasionally, sketches originally performed in the dress rehearsal
(which is recorded as a backup) have replaced the live version in
reruns. This is usually due to errors (either technical or by the
actors) in the live broadcast. Examples include
- In 2009 during the season premiere, Jenny Slate was in a 'Biker
Babe' sketch where she and co-star Kristen Wigg used to word
'frickin' repeatedly. Slate accidentally slipped and said 'fuckin'
instead, which was later overdubbed with 'frickin' for subsequent
repeats.
- A Peter Sarsgaard sketch from
his January 21, 2006 appearance, involving Rachel Dratch's fake newscast, met with
technical difficulties during the live broadcast when the in-sketch
TV stopped working and a stagehand was
seen fixing it.
- A sketch involving "butt pregnancy" during the first broadcast
of the November 12, 2005, Jason
Lee episode was replaced with a musical sketch about cafeteria
food during the repeat.
- A Debbie Downer sketch featuring
Ben Affleck was pulled from later
rebroadcasts and replaced with the dress rehearsal version. In this
case, the replacement is actually referenced by a title card,
explaining that the dress version "worked better." The main
difference between the two is that in the dress version, the actors
broke character and started laughing during the sketch (causing the
audience to laugh more), while the live version was performed
without laughter from the actors, and less laughter from the
audience.
- One of the most notable substitutions was the replacement of
Sinéad O'Connor's October 3,
1992 live
performance during which she destroyed a photograph of Pope John Paul II, with the dress
rehearsal performance from earlier that evening where she holds up
a picture of a starving African child.
Films
Films based on
SNL sketches are listed below with their
release, budget, gross, and ratings from
Rotten Tomatoes and
Metacritic. The gross is from
Box Office Mojo. A Rotten Tomatoes score of
60% or higher indicates the film is "fresh" (well-received);
Metacritic scores from 81-100, 61-80, 40-60, 20-39, and 0-19
indicate universal/near-universal acclaim, generally favorable
reviews, mixed reviews, poor reviews, and overwhelming dislike,
respectively.
The early days of
SNL spawned several movies, including
the successful
The Blues
Brothers. However, it was the success of
Wayne's World that encouraged
Lorne Michaels to produce more film
spin-offs, based on several popular sketch
characters. Michaels revived 1970s characters for
Coneheads (1993), followed by
It's Pat (1994);
Stuart Saves His Family (1995,
with the
Stuart Smalley character);
A Night at the
Roxbury (1998, with the Butabi Brothers characters);
Superstar (1999, with the
Mary Katherine Gallagher
character); and
Ladies
Man (2000). Some did moderately well, though others did
not — notably
It's Pat!, which did so badly at the box
office the studio which made the film,
Touchstone Pictures (owned by
the Walt Disney Company, which also
owns NBC's rival
ABC),
pulled it only one week after releasing it, and
Stuart Saves
His Family, with the latter losing US$15 million. Many of
these films were produced by
Paramount Pictures. The films based on
The Blues Brothers were produced by
Universal Studios, which merged with NBC
in 2004 to form
NBC Universal
(Universal also has a
joint venture with Paramount
for international distribution of the two studios' films).
In addition,
Office Space
(1999) originated from a series of
Mike
Judge animated short films that aired on
SNL after
appearing on several other programs.
The character
Bob Roberts from the Tim
Robbins film of the same name, first appeared on
SNL in a
short film about the conservative folk singer.
The group
The Folksmen first appeared
on
SNL, performing the song "Old Joe's Place" before later
appearing in the film
A Mighty
Wind. The three members of the Folksmen were the same
three comedians:
Harry Shearer,
Michael McKean, and
Christopher Guest, who also appeared on
the same episode as the rock group
Spinal Tap. At the time of the appearance,
(the 1984-85 season) Shearer and Guest were cast members.
Awards
Saturday Night Live has won numerous awards since its
debut, including 21
Primetime Emmy
Awards, 1
Peabody Award, and 3
Writers Guild of America
Awards. In 2002 it was ranked tenth on
TV Guide's 50
Greatest TV Shows of All Time, while in 2007 it was honored
with inclusion on
Time Magazine's
100 Best TV Shows of All-Time.
Merchandise
DVD
Books
The first authorized book for the series was published by
Avon Books in 1977.
Saturday Night
Live (ISBN 0380018012) was edited by
Anne Beatts and
John
Head, with photography by Edie Baskin.; all three worked for
Saturday Night Live at the time the book was published.
The oversized illustrated paperback included the scripts for
several sketches by the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, as the
repertory cast was known at first.
Broadcasters
Criticism and controversy
Censorship
In some cases, a sketch was censored in repeat broadcasts.
- In a November 21, 1992 Wayne's
World sketch, the characters Wayne and Garth (respectively
portrayed by Mike Myers and
Dana Carvey) made fun of Chelsea Clinton (the then 12-year-old
daughter of the then President-elect Bill
Clinton), implying that Chelsea was incapable of causing males
to "Schwing!". This joke was subsequently
edited out of all repeats and syndication rebroadcasts of this
sketch.
Rage Against the Machine incident
On April 10, 1996 the band
Rage
Against the Machine was scheduled to perform two songs on
Saturday Night Live. The show was hosted that night by ex-
Republican presidential candidate
and billionaire
Steve Forbes. According
to RATM guitarist
Tom Morello, "RATM
wanted to stand in sharp juxtaposition to a billionaire telling
jokes and promoting his
flat tax by making
our own statement."To this end, the band hung two upside-down
American flags from their
amplifiers. Seconds before they took the stage to perform "
Bulls on Parade",
SNL and NBC sent
stagehands in to pull the flags down. The inverted flags, says
Morello, represented:
The band's first attempt to hang the flags during a pre-telecast
rehearsal on Thursday was stopped by
SNL's producers, who
"demanded that we take the flags down," according to Morello. "They
said the sponsors would be upset, and that because Steve Forbes was
on, they had to run a 'tighter' show."
SNL also told the
band it would mute objectionable lyrics in "
Bullet in the Head" (which was
supposed to be RATM's second song), and insisted that the song be
bleeped in the studio because Forbes had friends and family
there.
On the night of the show, following the removal of the flags during
the first performance, the band was approached by
SNL and
NBC officials and ordered to immediately leave the building. Upon
hearing this, RATM bassist Commerford reportedly stormed Forbes'
dressing room, throwing shreds from one of the torn down
flags.
Morello noted that members of the
Saturday Night Live cast
and crew, whom he declined to name, "[e]xpressed solidarity with
our actions, and a sense of shame that their show had censored the
performance."
See also
Further reading
- Cader, Michael. (1994). Saturday Night Live: The First
Twenty Years. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN
0-395-70895-8.
- Hill, Doug, and Jeff Weingrad. (1986). Saturday Night: A
Backstage History of Saturday Night Live. New York, NY: Beech
Tree Books. ISBN 0-688-05099-9.
- Mohr, Jay. (2004). Gasping for Airtime: Two Years in the
Trenches of Saturday Night Live. New York, NY: Hyperion. ISBN
1-4013-0006-5.
- Shales, Tom, and James Andrew Miller. (2002). Live from New
York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. Boston,
MA: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-78146-0.
- Streeter, Michael. (2005). Nothing Lost Forever: The Films
of Tom Schiller. New York, NY: BearManor Media. ISBN
1593930321.
References
- SNL Time Line from NBC
- http://www.nbcproductionservices.com/studio8H.stm
- http://www.broadwayvideo.com
- http://snltranscripts.jt.org/05/05k.phtml
- http://snltranscripts.jt.org/05/05e.phtml
- The Onion AV Club article: " Inventory: Ten Memorable Saturday Night Live Musical
Moments."
- Saturday Night Live franchise films from
Box Office
Mojo
- FAQ: What is the Tomatometer? from
Rotten
Tomatoes
- How We Calculate Our Scores: The Long FAQ from
Metacritic
- [1]
- http://www.emmys.org/awards/awardsearch.php
- Saturday Night Live (1977) from the
Library of Congress Online Catalog
- Eric Idle Books from dailyllama.com
- Anon., Saturday Nigt Live Incident, Public release and
distribution. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
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