Why ‘Saturday Night Live’ Endures: An Appreciation
We’re celebrating 50 years of “Saturday Night Live“! All this week, we’re digging into the late-night comedy institution with new stories, including lists, essays, interviews, and more.
It’s certainly a familiar scene by now, one we’ve all become quite accustom to over the last half century: There’s Lorne Michaels, the famed producer of a televised sketch comedy show airing on NBC. There’s a cast of ever-changing talented performers. At this particular point in time, Jim Downey is the head writer. Al Franken, Tom Davis, Jack Handey, and Alan Zweibel are all on the writing staff. There’s a live audience. There’s a musical guest. There’s the familiar parody newscast. On this particular night, Steve Martin is a guest, as he often is to this very day. Watching a clip on YouTube from this particular night from the mid-’80s, Steve Martin opens the show with a parody of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”
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To the casual viewer, yes, this would appear to be a typical “SNL” sketch from this era. Martin does a good job of putting his particular brand of comedy into his performance, with the punchline being that Martin injures himself trying to recreate a dance move. The show can be hit and miss, like it always has been and continues to be today, but this is pretty funny.
When I was approached to write this piece, “Why has ‘SNL’ lasted?,” my immediate answer was, “Well, that’s complicated.” An easy answer would be, “Lorne Michaels.” Oh, he’s a big reason, yes. And just saying “Lorne Michaels” would have made this particular assignment much easier on me — to the point I’m already regretting not just going that route. But, alas, he’s not the answer to that particular question.
As you might have already guessed, I was trying to trick you in the first paragraph. But you probably already picked up on all the unnecessarily vague descriptions and needlessly coy prose. But, no, I was not describing “Saturday Night Live.”
I was describing “The New Show,” which ran on NBC for nine episodes in 1984 and was the 99th highest-rated show of the season. Is that bad? Well, there were only 101 shows, so … yes. A year later, Michaels would return to “Saturday Night Live,” after a five-year absence, which resulted in a brief cancelation before getting another* reprieve. Even Michaels, a full 10 years after creating a true phenomenon with “Saturday Night Live,” still had his failures and still needed some breaks.
*We’ll get to that.
OK, so why has “SNL” lasted? It is remarkable that a television program that was, initially, a true stick it to the man, counter culture revolution has lasted 50 seasons is unnatural. By design, something that is counter culture isn’t designed to last that long inside the mainstream culture. By the fifth season of “SNL,” it was already running out of steam. The first five seasons are kind of glossed over as this all-encompassing “golden era,” but that’s not really true. By the fifth season, Chevy Chase was long gone. Belushi and Aykroyd were gone. Well, to clarify, Dan Aykroyd was gone, but his brother Peter was now in the cast. Lorne Michaels was smart enough to call it quits after this season. If Michaels had stayed on, there’s a pretty good chance the show does not exist today.
So, there’s reason number one:
1. Lorne Michaels leaves “SNL” in 1980
The sixth season of “SNL” would bring an entirely new cast and tapped the infamous Jean Doumanian as producer — and it’s been well documented that she was, unfortunately, let’s just say “not the right pick.” There’s really no sugarcoating it, this was an abysmal season of “Saturday Night Live.” If Doumanian stays as producer throughout the sixth season, there’s little chance a seventh season ever happens. Luckily…
2. Charles Rocket says the word “fuck” live on air
During the good nights, in some sort of bit playing off of “Who shot JR?” from the show “Dallas,” Rocket let the word slip. This caused such an uproar that Doumanian and most the cast were fired. Dick Ebersol became the producer and there was enough of a turnaround over the final two episodes before a writers’ strike to renew the show. Going forward, Ebersol’s version of “SNL” would lean on a particular cast member who, before, wasn’t getting much airtime.
3. Eddie Murphy
When former cast members from this era, like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, discuss their time on the show, it’s usually not one of their most cherished memories. In 2015, I hung out with the “SNL” set designers for a week and, one of them, who had been with the show since the beginning, made it pretty clear, for whatever reason, it wasn’t a happy time.
For three seasons, yeah, it did sort of become the Eddie Murphy show. But without Eddie Murphy there’s just no way the show makes it through. “Saturday Night Live” is still on the air today because of Eddie Murphy. Which is why Murphy took it so personally in the ‘90s when a wisecrack was made at his expense by David Spade. (Luckily the ice between Murphy and “SNL” has thawed in recent years.)
And when Murphy left the show before the 10th season, something drastic had to be done…
4. Season 10
It’s funny, the 10th season of “SNL” is nicknamed “The Steinbrenner Season” because, to replace Murphy, Ebersol went out and hired a bunch of established free agents in the comedy world in an effort to replace him. (Murphy would return for one episode that season to host.) In retrospect, this feels like a scene from “Moneyball.” Eddie Murphy cannot be replaced. But what if “SNL” went out and hired a bunch of people who, combined, can make up for what was missing without Murphy? So Murphy was out, but in was Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer. And you know what? It kind of worked!
Since it’s not a Lorne Michaels-produced season, its importance has been buried a bit, but it was a phenomenon. Very much a mainstream cultural phenomenon, but people were going around quoting Billy Crystal saying, “You look marvelous,” and doing their best Martin Short as Ed Grimley impressions. Also, this season did cement the show as a mainstream success. It was a bunch of already famous people just hanging out and doing some comedy. But for “SNL” to still be on the air today, this particular season (right after Michaels had failed with “The New Show”) had to happen.
5. Lorne Michaels Returns, Forever
Michael’s initial return to “SNL” did not go well. This story of the 11th season was wonderfully recounted in the “SNL50” documentary series, “The Weird Year.” Michaels started from scratch, excising all the star power from the previous season, eschewing sketch comedy performers and, instead, hiring younger actors like Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey Jr., Joan Cusack, and Damon Wayans. Anyway, this all went so poorly the show ended on a cliffhanger where the audience was told a good portion of the cast wouldn’t “survive.”
This turned out to be true, as only Jon Lovitz, Nora Dunn, Dennis Miller, and A. Whitney Brown would come back for the 12th season. In the span of two and a half years, Lorne Michaels delivered almost the worst rated show of the season, then almost got “SNL” canceled for good.
The 12th season of “SNL” would wind up being its most important in its history from a survival standpoint.
6. Season 12
If the 12th season of “SNL” had gone as poorly as the 11th, there would be no “SNL” today. What we got was Dana Carvey, Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, Nora Dunn, and Victoria Jackson added to Lovitz, Dunn, and Miller. This repertory cast (along with Kevin Nealon and A. Whitney Brown as featured players) just might be, pound for pound, the best cast in the show’s history, at least in terms of there’s really no weak spot. “SNL” has had stars that have burned brighter, but as a unit, there’s certainly no fat here. And Michaels was smart to keep the same format behind the scenes that the show had back in the ‘70s. Yes, a lot less drugs, but how a sketch get son the air is an integral part of the show’s success…
7. Darwinism
A pet peeve of mine is when an obviously talented cast member never gets on the air, leaves the show, then finds success elsewhere and someone will write, “The show didn’t know what to do with him or her.” That’s just not how it works. This isn’t like any other cast for any other show. Performers are responsible for getting themselves on the air.
During “The Office,” Steve Carell wasn’t responsible for getting himself on the air. He showed up and a script was waiting for him. “SNL” doesn’t work like this. The cast has to write their own material — or form alliances with writers who will put them in sketches — or, yes, they will go week after week only being seen during the good nights.
This isn’t a perfect system. It creates a stressful and unharmonious work environment. People do get left behind. And, often, it’s been women and underrepresented groups. (Though, over the past 30 years, there have been ebbs and flows to this.) These are valid criticisms. But, the fact remains “SNL” is still on the air and, despite its flaws, the system does work.
Also, the psychological factor of the way Michaels runs the show creates a dynamic where everyone is seeking his approval, but he rarely gives it. Sure, a lot of cast members will need psychoanalysis for the rest of their lives for the approval they never got but so desperately wanted — but it creates a great natural motivation and fuel to keep the show fresh.
8. A 30-year moratorium on huge cast changes
“SNL” used to clean house a lot. Even if a famous castmember didn’t want to leave, eventually one of these seasons would come along and it would be time to start over. Those days are over. When Kenan Thompson joined the cast, Darrell Hammond was still a cast member. When Hammond joined the cast, David Spade was a cast member. When Spade joined the cast, Hartman and Carvey and Hooks were still castmembers. And now we’re all the way back to that important Season 12 again. But, in the first 21 seasons of “SNL,” the house was cleaned five times. It’s never happened since.
The last one was in 1995 when most of the cast was let go, other than Spade, Tim Meadows, Norm Macdonald, Mark McKinney, and a featured player named Molly Shannon. These were always jolting seasons. Lorne Michaels would have to introduce the “new cast” to the press and they were all just strangers. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they did not.
But even when it worked, audiences had to get used to it. I remember watching in 1995 as Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri did their Spartan Cheerleaders sketch. It was jarring! For the bast few years the humor with the Sandler and Farley cast was juvenile and irreverent, with lots of funny voices and funny songs. Now here was this … and it was all so earnest and looked like everyone was really trying. It went from fraternity humor to theater kid humor. (Obviously, Ferrell would eventually bring some of the fraternity humor back, though even that was always smarter than it had to be.)
Even though the gamble to start over paid off in a big way, eventually ushering in the Tina Fey era and a renaissance for women on the show, that was never guaranteed. And Lorne Michaels just does not do this anymore. Obviously there have been seasons after beloved cast members have left but there are always enough familiar faces left over to make the transition never seem as jarring as it used to feel. This goes a long way in ensuring the show remains on the air because, form any given year to year, it feels like the same cast with just some minor changes.
9. The Way Things Are Today
It’s pretty clear the success of “Saturday Night Live” has had some lucky breaks along the way. Seriously, Charles Rocket bringing so much ire down upon the show in 1981 that drastic changes were made before the season even ended? Giving it a chance at a seventh season?
But the biggest break of all might just be how the world has changed around the show — somehow making what “SNL” has to offer even more appealing. Sure, The Lonely Island’s influence helped usher in a new era of digital shorts. (“SNL” has always had pre-recorded material going back to the Albert Brooks short films from the earliest episodes.) But this wasn’t “SNL” reacting to changing times. “Lazy Sunday” was 2005! YouTube barely even existed. But what happened was as attention spans got shorter and shorter over the last 20 years, “SNL” sketches became easily digestible shorts for people who didn’t even watch the show live.
Then there’s the live aspect and how that’s more important now than It was in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. Keep in mind, for most its history, “Saturday Night Live” was only live to half the country. For the Mountain and Pacific time zones, it was just another taped show filmed in front of a live audience. In fact, every so often those time zones didn’t even get the show that was shown live to the Eastern and Central time zones. If a sketch had gone terribly wrong live, sometimes the dress rehearsal version was substituted in with no one being the wiser.
It wasn’t until 2017 when “SNL” started airing live to the entire country, so basically 16 percent of its entire existence. But the value of a live broadcast has increased significantly. The communal aspects of television are mostly gone. With streaming, everyone is on their own schedule and the thought of, say, millions of people all sitting around watching “M*A*S*H*,” or “Seinfeld,” or “ER,” or “Friends,” or “Lost,” or “The Sopranos,” or “Mad Men” is a relic of the past. We are at a point where people only watch something at the same time if it’s live — which means awards shows, sports, elderly boxers fighting influencers … and, yes, “Saturday Night Live.”
In the end — well, not “the end,” but after a half century — “Saturday Night Live” went from being a shining beacon for the comedy counter culture to a full on representation of what popular culture even is now in 2025, fully suited for how media is consumed today and now one of NBC’s most prized assets.
To paraphrase Eddie Vedder: “SNL” changed by not changing at all.
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