Untold Stories And Behind The Scenes Facts Of Saturday Night Live
Since 1975, Saturday Night Live has broadcast every week and treated audiences to the fruits of some stressful, week-long labor. Add that to the usual pitfalls of live television, and Saturday Night Live has established itself as a wacky, energetic show where anything can happen.
Considering how long the show has run and how many larger-than-life personalities have been among its cast, it's likely not a surprise to learn that SNL could get chaotic behind the scenes. At times, the facts lurking behind the laughs were even more entertaining than the show itself.
SNL has borrowed seats from the Yankees for 50 years
According to the UT Daily Beacon, the scrappy early incarnation of Saturday Night Live was far from a sure thing as a long-term cultural institution. Indeed, that perception was how they were able to get enough seats to fill the show's famous Studio 8H. That studio's balcony-level seats have actually been on loan from the New York Yankees for about 50 years.
That's because the baseball team's infamous late owner, George Steinbrenner, figured the show wouldn't have to borrow them for long before they went off the air. In fact, Saturday Night Live has since outlived him by about a decade and a half.
Chevy Chase will likely never host SNL again
Although much of Chevy Chase's comedic legend began with Saturday Night Live, that doesn't mean he was as beloved by his cast-mates as he was by audiences. In fact, the comedian and actor's infamously abrasive personality had made him notoriously difficult to work with.
According to Screen Rant, this attitude persisted during his hosting gigs after leaving SNL's full-time cast and escalated to the point that he is the only former cast member who has ever been banned from hosting the show. However, Lorne Michaels denied this was true in a 2018 Washington Post article, saying that Chase hasn't hosted since 1997 for "generational" reasons.
Jim Carrey was rejected from SNL multiple times
Although Jim Carrey was undoubtedly a megastar during the 1990s, that came after a long period of struggling as an actor and comedian during the 1980s. That period saw him audition for Saturday Night Live multiple times, but he was never accepted into the show's cast.
According to Far Out Magazine, Lorne Michaels expressed his belief that Carrey's career would have turned out very differently if he had taken a hands-on production role at the time. He said Carrey never personally auditioned for him but that Michaels would have accepted him if he did.
Ashlee Simpson wasn't the first person to lip-sync on SNL
Although Ashlee Simpson all but ruined her career after a lip-syncing scandal on Saturday Night Live, the truth is that she was not the show's first musical guest to use this performance cheat. According to The AV Club, ABBA not only lip-synced their performances but was outed by the show itself for doing so in 1975.
Text appeared on the screen saying the band was lip-syncing but was doing so because their "tracks didn't arrive from Sweden." Why did Lorne Michaels embarrass ABBA like that? Apparently, he didn't want them on the show at all, but the network forced them on him.
Steve Carell didn't join the cast in the usual way
Even prior to his big break on The Office, Steve Carell established himself as a comedic heavyweight who not only committed to the bit, but left audiences with lots of stray laughs along the way. With that in mind, it's easy to assume he was a shoo-in when he and his wife Nancy auditioned together.
However, NBC News reported that only Nancy was accepted into the cast in 1995. Although he would secure a famous role in the following season as half of The Ambiguously Gay Duo, it was likely his wife who made that opportunity possible.
Steve Martin set two hosting records on SNL
According to CNN, it seems Lorne Michaels couldn't get enough of Steve Martin since his first time hosting Saturday Night Live in 1976. Not only is he the second-most regular host with 16 appearances (only Alec Baldwin has more), but he is also the first (and thus far, only) person to host three times in a single season.
Martin is also one of the only people to host a season premiere, a season finale, and a Christmas episode for the show. Tina Fey has since shared this hosting accomplishment.
Don Pardo was considered too important to retire from SNL
Each SNL episode truly begins when someone says that iconic catchphrase, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" For decades, that man was Don Pardo, and his iconic voice during announcements like that was so treasured that he was practically not allowed to retire.
As The Hollywood Reporter explained, Pardo attempted just that in 2004. However, he was offered a lifetime contract with NBC if he chose to stay on, which he noted had only been historically offered to Bob Hope. He continued contributing to Saturday Night Live until his passing in 2014.
Bill Hader's laughing as Stefon was set up by John Mulaney
Perhaps Bill Hader's most famous character on SNL was a bizarre, flighty cultural critic named Stefon, who was known for covering his mouth with his hands when he laughed. Not only was Hader really laughing at the bizarre things Stefon was saying, but that was one writer's plan all along.
According to NBC News, comedian John Mulaney told Behind The Sketch that he intentionally rewrote Hader's lines at the last minute so he would break character when he got to them. Although Hader was a consummate professional when he was on the show, Mulaney thought it would be funnier if he found it hard to maintain a straight face.
Eddie Murphy almost single-handedly saved SNL
During the early '80s, Lorne Michaels stepped away from Saturday Night Live, which meant that his role as lead producer went to Jean Doumanian. However, Michaels would soon regret leaving as the season Doumanian presided over was so disastrous that it almost got the show canceled.
However, CNN reported that she had one ace-in-the-hole who kept SNL alive until Michaels finally returned. She was the one who hired Eddie Murphy, and his popularity grew so quickly that he and Joe Piscopo were the only ones not to be fired when the show was retooled by Dick Ebersol, who fired Doumanian. Murphy's quick wit and charisma all but singlehandedly stabilized the show by the time Michaels returned in 1985.
Michael Anthony Hall set a record they aren't likely to break
Although Anthony Michael Hall was brought into Saturday Night Live's cast during a tumultuous experiment that ultimately didn't work out, his inclusion nonetheless set a record that has stood since 1985. According to The Independent, Hall joined the show's cast at 17, making him the youngest SNL cast member in history.
While he told the newspaper that it quickly became clear their new direction wasn't going to work out, he was still amazed by the experience. In his words, "It just meant so much to me to watch that show as a kid and then suddenly be asked to join the cast. Because I was that same kid. Like, I was still living at home!"
There was almost a Dieter movie, but Mike Myers killed it
Although Mike Myers is best known for Wayne's World and Austin Powers, he was also well on his way to making a movie out of his popular SNL character Dieter in 2000. According to Vulture, Myers and his co-writers completed 14 versions of the script for it, but he was not satisfied with any of them.
Eventually, he backed out of the project and relinquished his $20 million salary, which prompted lawsuits from Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Myers counter-sued, claiming the studios were trying to cheat moviegoers out of their money by rushing a "fundamentally flawed" script forward. Needless to say, the movie never materialized.
John Goodman tried to join SNL's cast before he hosted
According to People, John Goodman has hosted Saturday Night Live 13 times since 1989. While sitting down for an interview with former cast member Jimmy Fallon, Goodman was also credited for being one of the best hosts the show ever had.
That aptitude would have undoubtedly come as a surprise to those who saw him audition in 1980, as Goodman has since admitted that his audition was the worst thing he's done in his career. As he put it, "I wrote something about 15 minutes before I went over there and, oh, God, it was awful."
Eddie Murphy wasn't SNL's first choice when he was cast
According to Vulture, comedian Charlie Barnett was a local legend in New York City due to his provocative but confident comedy and its unusual venue of Greenwich Village's Washington Square Park. Although Saturday Night Live producer Jean Doumanian invited him to multiple auditions in 1980, he skipped the second one.
This was out of embarrassment at the fact that Barnett was borderline illiterate, but it nonetheless resulted in Eddie Murphy claiming the slot on SNL's main cast that would have been his. Although Barnett felt bitter about Murphy for a time, this dissipated when he saw his own opportunities.
O.J. Simpson indirectly got Norm MacDonald fired
Although Norm MacDonald was always an impishly fearless comedian, he showed this in spades during his mocking coverage of O.J. Simpson's infamous trial during the '90s. He declared Simpson guilty before the trial was over and famously said, "It is finally official: Murder is legal in the state of California," once the disgraced football star was acquitted.
According to Rolling Stone, this presented a problem for MacDonald, as NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer was a friend of Simpson's. So after MacDonald kept mocking Simpson, Ohlmeyer fired him in 1998. Although MacDonald claimed he was told it was because he wasn't funny, he knew the real reason for his firing.
Abby Elliott was the first legacy cast member
Although she was known more for her impressions than for any original characters, The Bear actress Abby Elliott spent four years as a member of Saturday Night Live's cast between 2008 and 2012. However, her connection to the show stretches back longer than that.
This is because Elliott made history as the first SNL cast member who was the child of another cast member. Indeed, she is the daughter of Chris Elliott, who was part of the cast for a short period between 1994 and 1995.
The SNL cast's special performance during the 2007 strike
According to CBS News, the 2007 Writer's Guild of America strike left NBC airing old reruns of Saturday Night Live but that didn't stop 150 lucky audience members from witnessing an informal episode with all-new material at New York City's Upright Citizens Brigade theater.
With the exception of Maya Rudolph, all of the then-current cast joined Rachel Dratch and Horatio Sans (pictured) for a more risqué show than usual. The event was hosted by Michael Cera and featured Yo La Tengo as a musical guest, with a brief additional appearance by Norah Jones.
A cast member got fired for cursing on air
The Weekend Update desk has historically been a coveted segment on Saturday Night Live, and in the early '80s, the man best known for sitting there was Charles Rocket. However, that suddenly came to an end during a sketch that saw Rocket play Dallas's J.R. Ewing.
In it, he stated that he'd like to know "who the [expletive]" shot him. Although this wasn't the first time someone had used the word he uttered on the show, Paul Schafer's use of the word during a sketch about "flogging" during the previous year was ruled enough of a genuine accident to let him keep his job. According to Entertainment Weekly, Rocket's case was regarded differently enough to see him fired mid-season.
Chevy Chase and Bill Murray had a fistfight at SNL
As Newsweek reported, Chevy Chase had returned to SNL for a hosting gig in 1978 after leaving the show a year-and-a-half earlier. According to Lorne Michaels, however, John Belushi had instigated a conflict between him and newer cast member Bill Murray.
That led to an argument between the two men that escalated into a fistfight right before Chase was supposed to deliver his opening monologue. Despite the skirmish, Chase delivered his monologue like nothing had happened, and he and Murray worked out their differences in time to star in 1980's Caddyshack together.
Larry David quit SNL and successfully pretended he didn't
Long before anyone knew him for Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David was a writer for Saturday Night Live. As he explained to Vanity Fair, producer Dick Ebersol always passed his sketches over, which consistently frustrated David so much that he suddenly quit in an expletive-laden rant.
However, that night saw him regret the rash decision, which led Kenny Kramer (who inspired the Seinfeld character) to convince him to walk back into the writer's room on Monday as though nothing had happened. It worked, and David was allowed to keep working on SNL without anyone mentioning the quitting incident.
Jim Henson made special adult Muppets for SNL
Although Jim Henson's famous muppets have largely been associated with children's entertainment thanks to The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, the puppetmaster also set some creations aside for a more adult audience. Specifically, he had them made for the very first season of Saturday Night Live.
His puppets were confined to a recurring segment called "The Land of Gorch." Although it likely felt like a major coup for a fledgling show to secure Jim Henson's involvement, the "Land of Gorch" sketches were scrapped by the second season because they did not blend in with the rest of the programming.
Chris Rock rebounded from SNL at the worst possible time
Although Chris Rock was part of Saturday Night Live's cast for three seasons, he later admitted that much of that time was spent wishing he was on In Living Color instead. Since the Wayans family's famous sketch show had more of a focus on Black issues and featured a predominantly Black cast, Rock figured the show would fit his material better.
As The Hollywood Reporter noted, however, these sentiments found their way far enough up the ladder that Rock was fired from NBC. Although he did join the cast of In Living Color as planned, his timing was deeply unfortunate because the show was canceled three weeks later.
Kenan Thompson broke a record that Will Ferrell set
In the lead-up to the new millennium, there wasn't a bigger star on Saturday Night Live than Will Ferrell. Indeed, that was reflected in his salary, as he reportedly made $350,000 in his final season on the show. However, it only took two years before the man who would eventually break this salary record joined the cast.
Indeed, Kenan Thompson's status as the longest-running SNL cast member since his 2003 debut has paid off for him, as Cosmopolitan estimated that — at the absolute lowest — he makes $525,000 a year. However, considering that he has 20 years of contract negotiations behind him, the magazine also suggested Thompson could make as much as $2-$3 million a year.
One joke kept Eddie Murphy away from SNL for decades
Although any hard feelings Eddie Murphy had for SNL likely began after a 1985 changing of the guard that saw Lorne Michaels fire him to build a new cast from the ground up, they were inflamed ten years later. As David Spade recounted in an article for Salon, a 1995 "Hollywood Minute" segment saw him poke fun at Eddie Murphy's then-recent flops, Harlem Nights and A Vampire In Brooklyn.
In it, he said, "Look, kids, a falling star! Quick, make a wish." This infuriated Murphy so much that it started a multi-year beef where Spade ducked his angry phone calls, and Murphy remained absent from any SNL guest appearances until 2015. The two comedians eventually reconciled at Chris Rock's behest.
Michael McKean has worn every hat on Saturday Night Live
Throughout the half-century that Saturday Night Live has been on the air, there have only been two cast members who can say they've appeared in all three major performative roles. In other words, only these two men have been cast members, hosts, and musical guests on the program.
One of them was Dan Aykroyd, who performed as one of the Blues Brothers, served on the show's original cast, and hosted it. The only other person who can say the same is Michael McKean, who briefly joined the cast years after he had both guest-hosted and performed during the show's musical guest segment as a member of Spinal Tap.
Saturday Night Live began to give Johnny Carson time off
According to Salon, NBC had a habit of airing Johnny Carson's Tonight Show reruns (dubbed "Best Of Carson") on weekends. By the mid-'70s, the legendary talk show host was tired of this practice and wanted the network to air these reruns during weekdays so he could go on vacation.
Since the Saturday night time slot had to be filled with something, NBC paid Lorne Michaels $115,000 to come up with a new show that combined comedy and music television. The result was Saturday Night Live, which has since both outlasted Carson's 30-year term helming The Tonight Show and Carson himself.
Almost all of the sets are disposable, but the cars are real
As production designer Eugene Lee told Vanity Fair, most SNL sets are destroyed, and their parts are repurposed soon after they're used. Lee said they would otherwise sit in a warehouse and cost the production money, but the Oval Office set would be expensive enough to reproduce for it to be the only exception.
That said, any car that has appeared on SNL has been real. That's because Lee said the production's staff would go through Brooklyn or elsewhere in New York City and buy people's cars from them to use in the show. Since they'd have to remove the engine and cut it in half to fit the car in Studio 8H, they couldn't just borrow one.
Norm MacDonald admitted to copying SCTV
Although Celebrity Jeopardy was a wildly successful recurring sketch for Saturday Night Life, Vulture reported that Norm MacDonald wasn't exactly claiming to be original when he came up with it. As he said, he got the idea "by stealing it, note for note, from an SCTV classic, 'Half-Wits.'"
The SCTV segment he referred to saw Eugene Levy play a frustrated Alex Trebek (renamed "Trebel") as he dealt with hopeless contestants who couldn't answer a single question right. MacDonald said that Celebrity Jeopardy was allowed to proceed thanks to Martin Short and Levy's permission.
Two hosts were so bad that SNL didn't rerun their episodes
As comic book and TV writer Mark Evanier wrote on his blog, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman star Louise Lasser, and pioneering TV comedian Milton Berle have one thing in common: Lorne Michaels hated their turns on Saturday Night Live so much that he refused to rerun them.
Berle's 1979 turn was not only outdated, awkward, and unfunny but also saw him rule the writer's room with an iron fist. For her part, it was unclear until almost literally the last minute whether Lasser would go on stage, as she had locked herself in her dressing room soon before broadcasting started. Although Lasser's 1976 episode was finally rerun in 2002, it took until the following year before Berle's episode saw the light of day again.
Carly Simon wasn't actually live on Saturday Night Live
According to The New York Times, Carly Simon's singing career was plagued by a persistent case of performance anxiety that made singing before live audiences intimidating. As she put it, "I love the enthusiasm of an audience, but if there's too much of it, it scares me. One time, there was a lot of applause, and there was so much excitement I started to cry. I just didn't know what to do with all that excitement."
That stage fright led Saturday Night Live's producers to make an exception for her, which they have yet to make for any of their other musical guests in the decades since 1976. That year, she appeared on the show through a pre-recorded performance rather than live like everybody else.
Johnny Knoxville almost put Jackass on SNL
In an interview with Howard Stern, Jackass co-creator Johnny Knoxville mentioned that his flagship stunt show — known for its punishing physical challenges and juvenile humor — could have been a segment on Saturday Night Live rather than a classic fixture of MTV.
However, Lorne Michaels only wanted Knoxville for this, while Knoxville felt the concept worked better if he included his now-famous friends. He also wanted complete control over the stunts in question, which Michaels wasn't prepared to offer him. Needless to say, MTV's offer ended up seeming more attractive.
Andy Kaufman was literally voted off Saturday Night Live
Andy Kaufman's unpredictable antics and daring, abrasive approach to comedy made him as polarizing during his lifetime as he continues to be today. He was no different on Saturday Night Live, where his stunts grew so divisive that Dick Ebersol held a viewer survey that allowed them to call one of two phone numbers to either "keep Andy" or "dump Andy."
Although Far Out Magzine credited Mary Gross and Eddie Murphy for clearly supporting Kaufman, the decision to fire him nonetheless won by 30,000 votes, and both the production and Kaufman honored their decision. Nonetheless, he was heartbroken and purchased airtime to beg viewers to give him another chance on SNL. Sadly, he passed away from cancer a year later.
Darrell Hammond didn't want to impersonate John McCain
Although Darrell Hammond was known for his political impressions, one politician that he was reticent about impersonating was late Arizona senator and presidential candidate John McCain. As he told CNN, the reason was that he related to his struggles.
Hammond had experienced severe mistreatment from his mother as a child, and didn't want to make fun of a man who had also experienced unspeakable cruelty during the Vietnam War. Little did he know that his father was eager to see him do an impression of McCain.
Bill Maher and Al Franken wanted the Weekend Update
According to Men's Journal, long-time SNL writer Al Franken wanted an on-camera role in the wake of Kevin Nealon's departure from the Weekend Update desk. Since he was enough of a political animal to eventually become a U.S. Senator, Franken figured he was a good fit for the role.
However, other executives wanted to poach Bill Maher from Politically Incorrect for this purpose, which gave both men the impression they were in heated competition for the role. However, neither of them got it and the Weekend Update eventually went to Norm MacDonald. Franken quit the show soon afterward.
The first SNL cast member wasn't who people may think
Although the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players can count some legendary celebrities among them, the first person to get cast on Saturday Night Live wasn't John Belushi, Chevy Chase, or even Dan Aykroyd. Instead, NBC News reported that Lorne Michaels plucked his first choice from the Toronto wing of The Second City improv school.
That comedian was Gilda Radner and she had already developed some of the characters she would make famous on SNL, like Roseanne Rosannadanna and Baby Wawa. As Michaels said of the late actress, "I felt there was a remarkable quality to her, a goodness which came through whatever she was doing."
Kate McKinnon gave SNL a staggering milestone
Even considering that SNL has run for about 50 years, it can still be a little surprising to learn that the show has earned about 90 Emmys throughout its historic run. However, it also seems that this ramp up in accolades has accelerated in recent years because it wasn't so long ago that Kate McKinnon's beloved performances crossed a historic threshold.
In 2017, she took home an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in A Comedy Series for playing a wide range of characters. In so doing, McKinnon earned SNL its 50th Emmy. Less than a decade later, the show already has about 40 more.
Laura Kightlinger was supposed to do the Weekend Update
According to Vulture, this photo captured a brief period in 1994 when short-lived cast member Laura Kightlinger was supposed to co-anchor the Weekend Update with Norm MacDonald. Her overall experience confirmed what an old boys' club SNL was in the mid-90s, but the result of this idea likely came as a particular disappointment to her.
That's because MacDonald refused to work with her, insisting that he didn't need a co-anchor at all for the Weekend Update. Although Lorne Michaels bristled at this obstacle, Steve Martin eventually convinced him that MacDonald would be more effective solo.
Kenan and Kel auditioned for SNL at the same time
As Kel Mitchell explained on Shannon Sharpe's Club Shay Shay podcast, he and former Kenan & Kel co-star Kenan Thompson hadn't spoken for years by the time that both happened to audition for Saturday Night Live during the same year.
Yet, while Thompson has since become the longest-running cast member on SNL, Mitchell walked away empty-handed. As he put it, "I didn't get the audition which was fine though because there's so many other comedians that didn't. I don't look at it as like 'I was upset at my boy,' and that wasn't what it was." The two have since reconnected.
Conan O'Brien made a bunch of uncredited appearances
Throughout the late '80s and early '90s, Conan O'Brien wrote for Saturday Night Live. It's not unusual for the show's writers to make uncredited appearances in sketches (usually as extras) but it's much more noticeable when one of those writers ends up becoming famous in their own right.
While it's true that O'Brien openly appears as an SNL guest on occasion nowadays, he also made a series of blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearances, like as this alien creature. The most visible of these appearances, however, saw O'Brien play a doorman during Tom Hanks's "Five Timer's Club" episode.
John Belushi allegedly sabotaged female writers
According to HuffPost, original Saturday Night Live cast member Jane Curtin mentioned to Oprah Winfrey that female SNL writers were subject to a constant battle in the show's early days. This was because they were undermined by several men involved with the production, but the worst offender appeared to be John Belushi.
As Curtin recounted, Belushi said that he believed women were fundamentally not funny. This meant that when a woman wrote something for him, he refused to read it in his full voice. In Curtin's words, "He felt as though it was his duty to sabotage pieces written by women."
Multiple stars auditioned to play Barack Obama on SNL
Until Jay Pharaoh took over the role on impersonating the 44th President of The United States on Saturday Night Live in 2012, Obama had been played by Fred Armisen. If the decision to have an actor who isn't Black play him seemed odd, that feeling was likely shared by the Black celebrities who auditioned for the part.
According to HuffPost, these included future Get Out director Jordan Peele, Community star and future Atlanta creator Donald Glover, and comedian Jordan Carlos. The Daily Show contributor Wyatt Cenac may have also auditioned for this part.
