How “Saturday Night Live” Reinvented Television, Fifty Years Ago
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What is the history of Saturday Night Live?
From the online spectacle around Leo XIV's election to our favorite on-screen cardinals. This week on Critics at Large, we're talking all things Pope.
The Catholic Church was made for this moment. I think 2,000 years ago, the Catholic Church basically anticipated TikTok, Instagram, X. You don't have those little Swiss guard outfits and think they're not being photographed. Oil painting is not enough.
I'm Vincent Cunningham. Join me and my co-hosts for an episode on what can only be described as Pope Week. New episodes of Critics at Large drop every Thursday. Find us wherever you get your podcasts.
This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
This is probably as good a time as any to say a few words about an appealing new comedy program called Saturday Night, which is broadcast at 1130 each Saturday night by NBC and is definitely not to be confused with Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, which comes on earlier in the evening on ABC.
In 1975, the New Yorker reviewed a new television show that aimed pretty deliberately to redefine comedy, and it came to be called Saturday Night Live.
Starring the not-ready-for-prime-time player, Dan Aykroyd.
The cast was a bunch of unknowns. Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, John Belushi. But it became such an institution, you can barely think of a comedian in the last half century who didn't go through SNL as a writer or as a performer. Here's Tina Fey, reading from the review by Michael Arlen, the New Yorker's television critic at the time, published just after the show's debut.
The Cosell Show and NBC's Saturday Night are both mainly live, but there is a crucial difference between the two programs. Cosell's show depends on that strange fantasy language of celebrity public relations which has been concocted by mass entertainment producers and stars. It is the language of kisses blown, of God bless yous, of this wonderful human being, of a sensational performer and my very dear personal friend, and of you're just a beautiful audience. In short, the language of celebrity hype. Perhaps a contemporary equivalent of dandyism and powdered wigs. Much of the appeal of Saturday Night lies in its contrast with this ubiquitous show business language. Its format, like that of most comedy programs, consists of a familiar assembly of skits, songs, and monologues. But the spirit of the material is in opposition to conventional show business.
Football is kind of nice. They changed it a little bit. They moved the hash marks in. Guys found them and smoked them anyway. That's right.
The hosts don't do very much in the way of hosting, in the conventional TV manner of promoting themselves or the guests, but are content mainly to sit around, providing a periodic focus for the loosely tied-together skits, and sometimes telling a story or two. Skit humor usually defies cold description, so I won't try much of it here.
Good evening. This is Candace Bergen, reporting from one of those little third-world countries, and I'm talking to the ruler of that country...
How did Lorne Michaels change television?
On the recent Saturday with Candace Bergen as host, the show began with a not very brilliant takeoff of a presidential news conference, which showed the actor impersonating President Ford bumping his head on the lectern, fumbling with his drinking water and repeatedly falling down.
I do have two major announcements to make. No problem. No problem.
But then there was a crisply done parody of a TV news program concluding with a lunatic, news for the hard of hearing, which consisted of a newsman yelling items of news very loud.
Our top story tonight.
Our top story tonight. The release of our Francisco Franco is still dead. Francisco Franco is still dead. Good night and have a great day.
Also, a takeoff of a Black Perspective program with the Black host attempting to interview a harebrained white girl on the subject of a book she had just written about Black ghetto life. Also, an amiable but fairly juvenile parody of Jaws. Also a skit by a fine young comedian Andy Kaufman about a TV guest who couldn't manage to perform properly or at all. And so forth.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the history of Saturday Night Live?
0:02–3:35
2
How did Lorne Michaels change television?
3:35–7:43
3
What were the early influences on Saturday Night Live?
7:43–11:57
4
Why is Lorne Michaels considered a unique figure in comedy?
11:57–16:37
5
What role did the New Yorker play in SNL's history?
16:37–20:32
6
How did SNL reflect cultural changes in the 1970s?
20:32–23:46
7
What are the key elements of SNL's format?
23:46–28:08
8
How has SNL maintained its relevance over 50 years?
28:08–40:22