Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live
The current Saturday Night Live title card.
Also known as	NBC's Saturday Night (1975—1977)
Format	Sketch comedy, Comedy, Variety
Created by	Lorne Michaels
Starring	See Saturday Night Live cast
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	34
No. of episodes	640 as of October 4, 2008 (List of episodes)
Production
Location(s)	Studio 8H, GE Building, Rockefeller Center New York City, New York
Running time	90 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV)
Original run	October 11, 1975 – present
Chronology
Related shows	TV Funhouse
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a weekly late-night 90-minute American sketch comedy/variety show based in New York City that debuted on October 11, 1975. It features a regular cast of typically up-and-coming comic actors, joined by a guest host and musical act. The show — broadcast live (or on tape delay to the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones) from Studio 8H at the GE Building in New York's Rockefeller Center — has launched careers for many major American comedy stars of the last thirty years. It was created by Canadian Lorne Michaels who, excluding seasons 6 through season 10, has produced and written for the show and remains its executive producer. SNL is one of the longest-running network programs in American television history.

Originally, the show was called NBC's Saturday Night, as the current (and originally intended) 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. Throughout its history (except for season 7 and other rare exceptions), the show has traditionally begun with a cold open that ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

History

• By era: 1975-1980; 1980-1985; 1985-1990; 1990-1995; 1995-2000; 2000-2005; 2005-present
• 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
• Weekend Update

Saturday Night Live cast

See also: Saturday Night Live cast

Current repertory players

• Fred Armisen (2002–present)
• Will Forte (2002–present)
• Bill Hader (2005–present)
• Darrell Hammond (1995–present)
• Seth Meyers (2001–present)
• Amy Poehler (2001-2008)
• Andy Samberg (2005–present)
• Jason Sudeikis (2005–present)
• Kenan Thompson (2003–present)
• Kristen Wiig (2005–present)

Current featured players

• Bobby Moynihan (2008-present)
• Casey Wilson (2008–present)

Notable tenures

Although Saturday Night Live has a rapid turnover of supporting players, some performers have had long tenures with the show. (•) denotes actor has a "Best Of" DVD:

Announcer

Don Pardo has 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 as of 2008.

Hosts/musical guests

See also: List of Saturday Night Live episodes

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.

The following performers have hosted SNL at least five times. Some of these hosts, notated with a (•), are the subjects of their own "Best of ..." videotape, DVD, or compilation special. (±) indicates a former cast member. The "Five Timers' Club" originates from a sketch which appeared on Tom Hanks' fifth episode.

This list comes from raw data compiled and listed from the following independent sources: http://snlmusic.parshaparts.com/snlmusic.php and http://snlarc.jt.org/)

The following performers have been musical guests on SNL at least five times:

Musical guests who simultaneously hosted

The following performers have pulled a double duty as both musical guests and host during the same SNL episode:

In addition, Christina Aguilera, who had previously appeared as a musical guest twice on April 8, 2000 and March 15, 2003, hosted on February 21, 2004, singing early in that broadcast. Maroon 5 was the musical guest for the episode, with two song performances.

Castmembers who have hosted

(•) indicates a castmember with a "Best Of" collection. Castmembers are put into order of when they first hosted.

The SNL Band

The Saturday Night Live Band (most often referred to as The Live Band) is the house band of Saturday Night Live (SNL). It has consistently featured some of the finest studio musicians available in New York, including Paul Shaffer, G.E. Smith, 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) and Tom Malone, who served as leader of the band from 1981 to 1985. The band is currently under the leadership of Tower of Power alum Lenny Pickett and keyboardists Leon Pendarvis and Katreese Barnes.

Films based on SNL sketches

The rating system below is based on a majority of the reviews the films got. The films are rated as Good, Mixed, or Bad.

Creator Lorne Michaels has produced many of the film spin-offs

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 The 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, pulled it only one week after releasing it, and Stuart Saves His Family, with the latter losing US$15 million despite good reviews.

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.^[4]

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.

The 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 an almost perfect sound acoustic. 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.

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.

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.^[5][6]

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 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 has a lot of influence on which sketches get aired.
• Following the meeting, writers begin to draft the two scripts each must produce.

Tuesday:

• Starting in the afternoon, anywhere from 30 to 45 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.

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, with Lorne Michaels and the host 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 and musical guest 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.

Saturday:

• With the show still far from finalized, 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 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 and head writer to determine the final round of changes, re-ordering sketches as necessary.
• The live show then begins at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time, but some markets will delay airing.

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.

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 hosts 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.

When it's not 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 towards 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.^{[citation needed]} NBC airs a recording of the live show for the Mountain and Pacific time zones, usually exactly as it aired in the East -- 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.^[7] 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 hand-selected best sketches from the previous season; of a particular cast member or multiple-time host; or centered on a particular theme (eg. 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.

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 canceled. 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.^[8]
• 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.^[9]
• 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."^[10]
• 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 President-Elect Bill Clinton), implying that Chelsea was incapable of causing males to "Schwing!" (essentially meaning she was unattractive). This joke was subsequently edited out of all repeats and syndication rebroadcasts of this sketch.^[11]

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

• 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.
• Kathleen Turner's monologue in 1989.
• 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 sketch with Roseanne Barr where she played a customer service representative for a fictional credit card company. At the end of the sketch, she accidentally used the name "Master Card" and not the fictional (though very similar) name. The dress rehearsal version has replaced that version in all successive broadcasts.
• 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.
• The It's a Match skit with host Shia LaBeouf was edited so he would not fumble with the rings he pulled out from under his chair, and Casey Wilson's answer to where she was during the murder was "Making mouth whoopie" instead of "Eating pound cake and crying on my waterbed".
• The "I Drink Your Milkshake" sketch involving Bill Hader (as Daniel Plainview) was edited to remove Hader's verbal mistake when saying the city in Wisconsin. The mistake was edited out by showing the restaurant picture earlier, and the verbal mistake completely removed from the sketch in all subsequent re-broadcasts.
• The "VH1 Storytellers: Neil Diamond" sketch in episode 438 February 7, 1998 is edited out in repeats and is conspicuously absent from the Will Ferrell "Best of" videos despite being recognized by many as one of SNL's funniest sketches.

Censorship

In some cases, a sketch was censored in repeat broadcasts.

• A sketch featuring a performance of "War of the Worlds" by the Brooklyn Actor's Academy had as its primary joke the thick "Noo Yawk" accent of the actors. The sketch featured many lines using heavily accented forms of the word fuck; "fuggin'," "funkin'," etc. While the curse word proper was never actually used, the "close call" words are bleeped out on broadcasts of the sketch on E!, where the show is run in the daytime.
• On the Rainn Wilson/Arcade Fire episode in 2007, during the sketch where four men talk about where they were when they first heard "Danny's Song," Bill Hader's character tells the story of how he first heard the song when he was spending time with his father in the park, and concludes that it was the first day that he thought, "I have a dad," instead of, "I have a dad with Down's Syndrome". Due to complaints, the "Down's Syndrome" part of the line was bleeped out in all NBC reruns.

On DVD

Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season was released on DVD, in the UK, by Universal Studios on December 5, 2006.^[12] Upon the set’s release, some criticism of its authenticity as complete and uncut arose from reviewers and fans.^[13] This was due to the existence of original live copies, which in comparison to the "complete" episodes reveal edits and omissions which are common among the rerun versions of the shows in the set. ^[14]

The complete second season was released in the US on DVD on December 4, 2007.^[12], and the third season on May 13, 2008.

In addition to the full season releases, there have been multiple releases both on VHS and DVD featuring the "Best Of" former cast members and guest hosts in addition to documentaries, musical performances and themed compilations of sketches as well as a release of the show's 25 year anniversary.

See also

• List of late-night American network TV programs
• Fridays (ABC TV series)
• The Kids in the Hall
• Saturday Night's Main Event

References

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.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Saturday Night Live

• Official NBC website
• Saturday Night Live at the Internet Movie Database
• Saturday-Night-Live.com - Live from the 'Net Since 1997
• Broadway Video Official Page
• SNL: The Complete First Season DVD Press Release
• Saturday Night Live Transcripts
• Saturday Night Live Cast and Musical guest database
• [2]
• Jester reviews 2008 season
• Jester reviews 2007 season
• Jester reviews 2006 season