Longtime Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, who created the venerable sketch-comedy series back in 1975, sat down with The Hollywood Reporter for an extensive interview in honour of the upcoming 40th anniversary special.
Toronto-born Michaels discusses his criteria for who was invited to the three-hour extravaganza, and reminisces about some of the show’s most controversial moments and guests over the years — including the time Sinead O’Connor ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on live television.
“You could hear a pin drop,”; Michaels tells THR. “I didn’t know it was coming, obviously, because at dress [rehearsal], she had held up a picture of Balkan orphans, which I thought was really meaningful and what she wanted to do. I’m sort of all right with people taking chances and risks and all that, but I think everybody from the beginning has known that we were on the honour system, we went live and there was an understanding of trust that we had built up at the network that we would play by the rules, which we have.”;
As for who’ll appear on the 40th anniversary special, Michaels explains how he came up with the guest list: “Every host was invited,”; he says. “Every musical guest was invited. Any cast member and writer who had been here longer than a year was invited. Not everybody is going to come.”;
In addition, Michaels also discussed what might have been, recalling how the likes of Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert and Jim Carrey auditioned for the cast, but were rejected.
“There were lots of people who you’d see how brilliant they were, but you knew on some level that it wasn’t going to work,”; he admits. “Lisa Kudrow gave a brilliant audition, but it was at the time when it was Jan Hooks and Nora [Dunn]. I wasn’t at the Jim Carrey audition, but somebody who was there said, “I don’t think Lorne would like it,’ and they were probably wrong, but it doesn’t matter. Or maybe they were right — who knows? No one gets it all right.”;
You can read more of Lorne Michaels’ interview, and a wealth of content about SNL, in the latest edition of The Hollywood Reporter.
The three-hour SNL 40th anniversary special airs Sunday, February 15 on Global. To get yourself in the mood, you can watch full episodes of SNL online.