Saturday Night Live: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a weekly late-night ninety-minute live comedy-variety show which has been on NBC since 1975. Each week, the show's cast is joined by a guest host and a musical act, forming a repertory company for the week.

The show usually follows a standard format. It opens with a sketch which almost always ends with someone saying "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", the segue into the opening credits. Next is the opening monologue, often followed by a TV commercial parody. The rest of the show consists of more comedy skits, the Weekend Update news segment, and one or two performances by the guest musical artist. Sketches often feature recurring characters, running gags, and celebrity impersonations.

History

In 1974, Tonight Show host Johnny Carson wanted the weekend broadcasts of "Best of Carson" to end. To fill the gap, NBC drew up some ideas for shows, and decided to bring in young Canadian producer, Lorne Michaels. He was given studio 8H, which was built in the 1930s for performances by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

The original concept was for a comedy-variety show featuring young comedians, live musical performances, short films by Albert Brooks, and more esoteric material like segments by Jim Henson featuring his Muppets. Rather than have one permanent host Michaels elected to have a different guest host each week.

When the first show aired on October 11, 1975, with George Carlin as its host, it was called NBC's Saturday Night, because ABC featured a program at the same time titled "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell." When the ABC program went off the air, the NBC program changed its name to Saturday Night Live.

The original (1975-1980) repertory company was called the Not Ready for Prime-Time Players; this was a reference to Cosell's show, which featured "The Primetime Players," a group which included future SNL cast member Bill Murray.

The first cast included Second City alum Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Garrett Morris. Bill Murray replaced Chase in 1977, after Chase left to pursue a movie career. Paul Shaffer, who also appeared in many sketches, was the musical director for the show from 1975 to 1980. Other regulars on the show included writer Al Franken, who later became famous as a political author and satirist, and (for the 1979-80 season) Harry Shearer, who later acted in several films and television series, including The Simpsons. The show also featured frequent guest appearances by comedians Steve Martin and Andy Kaufman.

Michaels fought and cajoled network executives to accept his vision for the show, which was far removed from standard variety-show conventions (one executive, visiting a dress rehearsal, noticed that the band was in blue jeans and asked when their tuxedos would arrive). Before the show began Michaels had remarked that he knew what the "ingredients [of SNL] would be, but not the proportions," and that the show would have to "find itself" on-air. Indeed, the Not Ready for Primetime Players were hardly featured in the premiere, but quickly became the focus of the show, with the guest host and musical act playing a seccondary role. Albert Brooks and the Muppets were also dropped after the first season, but short films by writer Tom Schiller continued to be shown under the title "Schiller's Reel," as well as the popular claymation segment Mr. Bill.

By its second season SNL developed into something of a television phenomenon. It was, in many ways, the first show of its kind to appeal to a younger audience, making it very attractive to advertisers. Reoccuring characters and catch-phrases (see below) soon entered the popular vernacular, and the cast was often described as "The Beatles of comedy."

Aykroyd and Belushi departed after the 1978-1979 season. Lorne Michaels quit the show at the end of the fifth season and the rest of the original cast, along with the entire writing staff, followed.

Jean Doumanian took over the show for the 1980 season, hiring a completely new cast and writers . The new show was plagued by problems from the start, and was deemed disastrously unfunny by both critics and the viewing audience. Symbolic of the problems faced by the show, cast member Charles Rocket realized the network's greatest fear when he used a proscribed four-letter-word at the close of an episode in early 1981. NBC, which had had enough, fired Doumanian.

It looked as if NBC might cancel the show (indeed, many nights the NBC aired sketch comedy show SCTV in its place), but SNL was given one more chance when Dick Ebersol was hired to replace Doumanian. Ebersol had been involved with the creation of the show, and fired all of the Doumanian cast save Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. Murphy had rarely been featured during Doumanian's tenure, but became a break-out star under Ebersol, and his popularity helped restore the show's ratings. Ebersol left the show after the 1984-1985 season, at which point Lorne Michaels returned.

The following is a summary of the process used to produce the show. It is based in part on an August 2000 Writer's Digest article and an April 2004 Fresh Air interview with Tina Fey:

• 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 the host for the week. Writers begin to draft the two scripts each must produce weekly.
• Tuesday: Starting in the afternoon, the entire show is written, about 30 to 40 scripts. Most writers spending the entire night at work. Once a writer's scripts are complete, he or she will often help other writers on their scripts.
• Wednesday: All scripts get a read-through. After the read-through, the head writer(s) and the producers meet with the host to decide which sketches to work on for the rest of the week.
• 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 otherwise needed a lot of work are rewritten completely. Others are changed in smaller ways. Thursday is also the day that Weekend Update starts coming together, starting with the news items written by writers dedicated all week to the segment.
• Friday: the show is blocked (staged). The writer of each skit acts as producer, working with the set designers and costumes.
• Saturday: The day begins with a run-through, with props, in front of Lorne Michaels. After the run-through, the cast and crew find out which of the sketches are in the dress rehearsal, and which are cut. The writer/producer deals with any changes. This is followed by an 8pm dress rehearsal in front of a live audience, which lasts until 10pm or sometimes later, and which contains around twenty minutes of material which will not make it to the broadcast. The audience reaction to the rehearsal determines the final round of changes. The show then begins at 11:35pm.

The status of the show during the week is maintained on a bulletin board. Sketches and other segments are given labels which are put on index cards and put on the board in the order of their performance. The order is based on content as well as production limitations such as camera placement and performer availability. Segments which have been cut are kept to the side of the board. As the broadcast approaches, often the writer/producer discovers the fate of his or her segment only by consulting the bulletin board.

Over the years SNL has almost always been broadcast live on the east coast, in spite of the expletive spoken by Charles Rocket in 1981. The exceptions were shows hosted by Richard Pryor, Sam Kinison, and Andrew Dice Clay, which were broadcast on a five-second delay.

See Saturday Night Live cast.

The following performers have hosted SNL at least five times:

• Steve Martin (13 times)
• John Goodman (12)
• Alec Baldwin (11)
• Buck Henry (10)
• Chevy Chase (8)
• Tom Hanks (7)
• Danny DeVito (6)
• Elliott Gould (6)
• Christopher Walken (6)
• Candice Bergen (5)
• Bill Murray (5)

Michael McKean is the only performer to appear as cast member, host, and (as David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap) musical guest. Those appearing as both host and musical guest include:

• Garth Brooks
• Ray Charles
• MC Hammer
• Janet Jackson
• Jennifer Lopez
• Madonna
• Willie Nelson
• Dolly Parton
• Paul Simon
• Britney Spears
• Justin Timberlake
• Sting
• Stevie Wonder
• Frank Zappa

The most enduring segment is Weekend Update, which has been part of every show (though under varying names during the Doumanian/Ebersol years). Other recurring characters and sketches include:

• The Ambiguously Gay Duo (a cartoon by Robert Smigel)
• The "Bass-o-matic"
• Mr. Bill
• The Blues Brothers (Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi)
• Brian Fellow's Safari Planet, (Tracy Morgan)
• Celebrity Jeopardy! (Will Ferrell and various others)
• Church Lady (Dana Carvey)
• The Continental, (Christopher Walken)
• The Coneheads (Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin)
• The Dark Side With Nat X, (Chris Rock)
• Deep Thoughts, (Jack Handey)
• Ed Grimley (Martin Short)
• Emily Litella (Gilda Radner)
• Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello)
• Fernando's Hideaway (Billy Crystal)
• Fuzzy Memories, (Jack Handey)
• Gay Hitler (Chris Kattan)
• Hans and Franz (Kevin Nealon, Dana Carvey)
• Mango (Chris Kattan)
• Mary Katherine Gallagher (Molly Shannon)
• Pat (Julia Sweeney)
• Scottish Store (Mike Myers)
• Sprockets, (Mike Myers)
• Subliminal Messsage Man, Kevin Nealon
• The Ladies Man (Tim Meadows)
• Tommy Flanagan
• Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker (Chris Farley)
• Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy (Jimmy Fallon)
• Samurai (John Belushi)
• Stuart Smalley (Al Franken)
• The Hollywood Minute Reporter-(David Spade)
• Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber (Steve Martin)
• Wake Up and Smile! (Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri)
• Wake Up, Wakefield! (Maya Rudolph and Rachel Dratch)
• Wayne's World (Dana Carvey, Mike Myers)
• Wild and Crazy Guys (Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd)

• "I'm Chevy Chase, and you're not." (Chevy Chase)
• "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead" (Chevy Chase)
• "Jane, you ignorant slut." (Dan Aykroyd)
• "We are, two wild and crazy guys!" (Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd)
• "Well, isn't that special?" (Dana Carvey)
• "Well, isn't that convenient? / Isn't that special?" (Dana Carvey)
• "Yeah, that's the ticket!" (Jon Lovitz)
• "You look mah'velous!" (Billy Crystal speaking with a Fernando Lamas accent)
• "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!" (Al Franken)
• "We're going to pump (clap) you up!" (Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon)
• "Excellent!" (Dana Carvey, Mike Myers)
• "...Not!" (Dana Carvey, Mike Myers)
• "My father always used to say, it's always something. If it's not one thing, it's another." (Gilda Radner)
• "Never mind." (Gilda Radner)
• "We're not worthy!" (Dana Carvey, Mike Myers)
• "I'm fifty! Fifty years old!" (Molly Shannon)
• "I gotta have more cowbell!" (Christopher Walken)
• "Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball"
• "...in a van down by the river!" (Chris Farley)
• "Buh-bye." (David Spade)
• "Da Bears." (Chris Farley, Mike Myers, George Wendt)
• "...or so the Germans would have us believe." (Norm MacDonald)
• "Lockbox" (Darrell Hammond)
• "I Love it-I Love it-I Love it" (Molly Shannon)
• "Super Star" (Molly Shannon)

This is a list of movies based on Saturday Night Live sketches.

• The Blues Brothers (1980)
• Gilda Live (1981)
• Bob Roberts
• Mr. Saturday Night
• Mr. Bill's Real Life Adventures (1986)
• Wayne's World (1992)
• Wayne's World 2 (1993)
• Coneheads (1993)
• It's Pat! (1994)
• Stuart Saves His Family (1995)
• A Night at the Roxbury (1998)
• Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)
• Superstar (1999)
• The Ladies Man (2000)