SUNDAY BRUNCH: Live From New York!
My little town blues
Tits up, everyone! It’s February. We had the entire month of January to relax, reflect, and recharge. Now let’s roar! This is the month of festivities for SNL and the artist Ai Wei Wei will be taking over Seattle soon. It’s officially the Year of the Snake and it looks like snow this weekend. So much to look forward to. Stay warm and enjoy.
October 1975
What was I doing up at one o’clock in the morning on a Saturday in October, 1975? A sophomore in high school, I wasn’t old enough to drive, I had a part time job or two, but I don’t think I worked that late. Maybe I couldn’t sleep after the local football game?
Whatever. I was awake and watching the “Tomorrow” show on NBC. At the very end of the episode, host Tom Snyder (looking like a smoldering little Dutch Boy with his cigarette and pageboy haircut) introduced the world to the cast of a new live variety show, “Saturday Night.”
Thank God for the internet because in my hazy memory, I thought this happened on The Merv Griffin Show. I also remember seeing them perform a comedy sketch using those high back yellow chairs, but it’s not in this clip.
Just imagine what those seven “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” were thinking 50 years ago, one week before they all became famous.
I’m reminiscing about this because I just watched “Saturday Night,” Jason Reitman’s fabulous tribute to SNL (Netflix). The film depicts the 90 minutes prior to the show’s premiere on October 11, 1975. By the end of this fast-paced, outrageous, and suspenseful ride, you will be soaked with endorphins from all of the nostalgia.
I am not giving this film a thumbs up, I am giving it a “OMGYGWTM,” which translates into Oh My God You Gotta Watch This Movie. The actors do a terrific job of taking on just enough persona of each performer to evoke memories without doing flat-out impersonations.
The story also traces the transition from Milton Berle era comedy shows — full of cheesecake and schlock — to the edgy new voices stepping up. In fact, Berle is depicted physically showing off his outdated “talent” (this incident is based on fact, but didn’t happen this way) while the novice cast and grizzled crew tries to get their shit together. A perfect metaphor. Producer Lorne Michaels, all of 30 years old, was the leader of a new generation of “cool kids” and it was taking place in the coolest of cool places, New York City.
There is a terrific article fact-checking the film in Entertainment Weekly. You can find out if Johnny Carson really made that nasty phone call, if Dan Ackroyd actually slept with multiple women involved with SNL at the same time, or if John Belushi truly waited until show time to sign his contract.
Dreaming Like George Bailey
When the fictional Lorne Michaels is pressed to explain what his new show is, he replies.
“It’s an all-nighter in the city. It’s catching Richard Pryor at a drop-in or finding Paul Simon strumming his guitar in the back of a dive bar. It’s meeting a girl outside of a bodega and getting lucky in a phone booth. It’s everything you think is going to happen when you move to the city.
That’s our show.
That’s “Saturday Night”.”
And that’s exactly why I fell in love with SNL (along with millions of others). It couldn’t be more different than my hometown which was filled with orchards and farmers and open land. No bodegas, no late night jazz clubs. It didn’t matter that a 15 year-old wouldn’t be found in any of those places anyway, unless I wanted my story told in “Taxi Driver.”
Despite its grime, New York in 1975 was starting to be portrayed as the ultimate tough town where grown up things happen. Broadway featured nudity in “Hair” and “Oh, Calcutta!,” movies like “Dog Day Afternoon,” “The French Connection,” and “Three Days of the Condor” used the city as its back lot to tell adult stories, and New York City performers like Mikhail Baryshnikov and Liza Minnelli gripped our imagination.
“Saturday Night” opened a new world of TV. One where George Carlin created controversy when he wore only a t-shirt underneath a jacket to host the show.
There was actually a song (later cut in re-broadcast) entitled “Let’s Kill Gary Gilmore For Christmas,” an ode to a lifetime criminal who refused to fight his death sentence. The cast members were satirically cheerful as they sang, donning Santa hats, poking fun at America’s enthusiasm for the death penalty. Who does THAT anymore?
I wanted to be thin and funny like Gilda, sexy and funny like host Candace Bergen, smart and funny like writer and host Buck Henry, and talented and funny like singer Paul Simon. And all the while I was thinking what Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey said in the film, “It’s a Wonderful Life:”
“I’m shaking the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I’m gonna see the world!”
And the first place I wanted to see was New York City because of “Saturday Night.” Eventually I got there. But in the meantime, I lived vicariously through those hip kids every Friday night at 11:30.
I wouldn’t be surprised if SNL set off a great migration of young people to the big city, similar to the “Great War” of 1917 that had Americans singing, “How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree?” The same way “Sex and the City” flooded New York with young women who wanted to party like Carrie Bradshaw and walked to work in ballet flats.
In 1975, I could wear the same jeans, similar t-shirts, and grow my hair long and curly, but I would never be IN New York. So the artsy montage at the beginning of every episode of SNL with its bluesy bleating saxophone, and the gospel-like piano chords at the end of each show, injected a weekly dose of urbanity that I craved. Their catchphrases became our catchphrases. We all tried to imitate Roseanne Rosannadanna or the Coneheads or the Church Lady.
SNL became more than just a TV show for me. It was aspirational. A cultural force. I still watch most weeks but I don’t get the same rush. I am not one of the “cool kids” anymore, but I do enjoy keeping up with the youngsters.
What an amazing thing it was for Lorne Michaels to create something we couldn’t do without for half a century.
More stuff to help you celebrate 50 years
A full collection of SNL episodes on the Peacock streaming service.
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the show’s premiere, NBC has produced oodles of additional material, including a 4-part documentary series entitled “Beyond Saturday Night.” You can find it on Peacock.
And if you haven’t seen the sneak peek of Quest Love’s tribute to the musical guests, it is a must watch on Instagram. There is a three-hour version on Peacock. Here’s the trailer for that.
Great interview with Susan Morrison, who has written a new biography of Lorne Michaels, on The New Yorker Radio Hour. It’s titled, “How Saturday Night Live Reinvented Television…”
The definitive book on the history of SNL is a collection of interviews with stars, guests, and writers (700+ pages) called “Live From New York.” It was updated in 2015 for the 40th anniversary celebration.
Find out about all the festivities here. Big show on February 16 and even an Anniversary Concert.
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I would love to hear what he had to say about Trump. In his biography, George Carlin admits he was “stoned out of his mind” with cocaine during the entire production week of that premiere show.
Great article. I think we are about the same age. I had no idea George Carlin was the first host. Man, I miss that guy. Wouldn't he be having a ball with all this insanity?