Lorne Michaels | The New York Observer

Vegging Out: Sir Paul and Stella McCartney Espouse Meatless, Hybrid Lifestyle at Eco-A-List Bash

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:57:55 -0400

“My daughter is getting an award so I’m a proud duh-dee!” Paul McCartney told the Daily Transom at the Natural Resources Defense Council’s annual Forces for Nature benefit at 583 Park Avenue on Monday, March 30, where his daughter, fashion designer Stella McCartney, and Discovery Communications’ CEO David Zaslav were honored for their respective environmental work.

Mr. McCartney, wearing a lightweight European aristo scarf indoors, was accompanied by his lady friend, M.T.A. board member Nancy Shevell,...

Dear Lorne Michaels: Hire JT!

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:45:35 -0400

Given that Saturday Night Live will celebrate its 35th anniversary later this year, we doubt Lorne Michaels needs any advice from us about how to run a successful show. However, after watching this weekend's mostly harmless episode hosted by the charming Dwayne Johnson—note to studios: put him in a musical comedy co-starring Anne Hathaway post haste—we have a small suggestion: make Justin Timberlake a recurring cast member. As he does every few episodes, the...

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Goes Online; Will It Get Viral?

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:39:02 -0500

While everyone has given credit to Tina Fey, Sarah Palin and a little something called the Presidental Election for bringing Saturday Night Live back into the realm of cultural relevancy, we happen to think NBC's forward-thinking web strategy helped just as much. By making increasingly more skits available online, the network has been able to disseminate Saturday Night Live to an audience that might never have seen the show in the first place. So...

Boss Jim Downey

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:55:18 -0400

Q: For years now, shows like Meet the Press have been broadcasting clips of an SNL sketch, a spoof of political reality, to have a conversation with their audience about the actual political reality. How are you getting to the core ingredients of what’s going on in a way that people like Tom Brokaw can’t seem to articulate?

A: I think they’d like...

Seriously, SNL, Can't You Manage Some Better Impressions?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:16:31 -0400

It turns out Seth Meyers was right. Despite some last minute innuendos by Lorne Michaels, Governor Sarah Palin did not appear on Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday (could they squeeze a few more days into that title?). Instead, the first of three planned prime-time SNL specials featured appearances by former cast members Chris Parnell and Bill Murray.

While it's always nice to see Mr. Murray, who played an audience member during the...

'S.N.L.' Hasn't Decided Whom to Cast as Palin

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:45:32 -0400

Whether the Sarah Palin VP-pick ultimately pays off for John McCain remains to be seen. But for one group of Americans, Gov. Palin's sudden arrival on the national scene promises to be an instant boon: comics!

Judging from what's already made its way to YouTube (haven't you seen this, this or this?), the moose-hunting hockey mom is in for a ribbing. So who will Saturday Night Live pick to play the small screen version...

Lorne Michaels Has a Stalker

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:01:35 -0400

According to The New York Post, Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels has a stalker.

Evan Pidhajecky, a 31-year-old Long Island resident, didn't send Mr. Michaels love letters or threaten to commit suicide as Uma Thurman's personal stalker did earlier this year. Rather, he just wanted the SNL producer to admit that he had stolen his material for the show.

In a letter sent to Mr. Michaels in December, Mr. Pidhajecky claimed that...

Fallon's Late Night to Debut Online

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:45:40 -0400

Lorne Michaels told reporters Sunday that he plans to premiere Jimmy Fallon as the new host of Late Night on the internet. He plans five or six months of webcasts prior to the 2009 debut of Mr. Fallon's version of the show, according to TV Week.

The Observer interviewed Mr. Michaels about preparing Mr. Fallon for the dubious taks of replacing Conan O'Brien last May:

“When Conan came on in ’93, it was...

For Digital Video, Three Years Passes in a Lifetime

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:53:23 -0400

According to The Hollywood Reporter's Alex Woodson, Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels received a "lifetime achievement award for the role that 'Saturday Night Live' has played in the development of online video" at last night's Webby Awards.

A lifetime moves pretty fast these days. Wasn't it just December 17, 2005 when SNL's first digital short, Lazy Sunday, debuted? And didn't NBC's legal team work furiously to pull it from video-sharing sites before deciding...

What, Me Host?

Tue, 20 May 2008 20:01:11 -0400

Last week, at a press conference at NBC headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Center announcing that he would take over for Conan O’Brien on NBC’s Late Night next year, when Mr. O’Brien moves into Jay Leno’s big chair, Jimmy Fallon looked just a little sheepish.

“I’m very excited about this,” he told the crowd of reporters. “It’s just unbelievable to be in the building I used to work at! It’s gonna be...

NBC Officially Crowns Fallon Prince of Late-Late Night

Mon, 12 May 2008 15:01:16 -0400

There were no surprises at 30 Rock today as NBC announced the new host of Late Night when current host Conan O'Brien decamps to 11:30 PM sometime in 2009. As far back as February 2007, Bill Carter, The New York Times' veteran TV reporter and de facto historian of late night, had been reporting that Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon would be tapped to host the show. As reporters and film crews assembled...

SNL’s Obama Challenge: He’s Not Goofy Enough

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:13:55 -0500

Over the past year, viewers tuning into Saturday Night Live have seen Hillary Clinton depicted as a ruthless, power-hungry, arrogant witch.

On the rare occasions that Barack Obama’s name is so much as mentioned, he receives gentle, if not admiring, treatment.

And so it only seemed to confirm the existing suspicions of political observers that the writers and actors of SNL harbor a soft spot for the underdog...

Obama-Less SNL Finds a Stand-In

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:52:59 -0500

In case you missed it, here's how the producers of Saturday Night Live found a solution—albeit a temporary one—to their Barack Obama casting dilemma....

Lorne Michaels: SNL Misses Its Dicks in a Box

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 20:00:00 -0400

Lorne Michaels, the creator and executive producer of Saturday Night Live, is a big fan of YouTube. “I think that YouTube is great, because if you do something like ‘Dick in a Box,’ someone in Pakistan can see it,” said Mr. Michaels in a phone interview. He was referring to the now-ubiquitous skit by SNL cast member Andy Samberg and guest host Justin Timberlake in which the duo sang about giving your girlfriend...

An Unforgettable Edge Blunted: SNL Smothered in Reminiscence

Sun, 20 Oct 2002 20:00:00 -0400

Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live , by Tom

Shales and James Andrew Miller. Little, Brown, 594 pages, $25.95. Saturday Night , the original name of the show later and better known as Saturday Night Live , had to make do with its shorter name during its first season, despite the wishes of founding producer Lorne Michaels, because premiering that fall on ABC was another show called Saturday Night Live...

Network Newsrooms Prepare for Plan B ... Sebastian Junger's Perfect Desert Storm? ... SNL's Hardest Show Yet

Sun, 21 Oct 2001 20:00:00 -0400

Wednesday, oct. 17

The anthrax cases at NBC and ABC News have raised a number of troubling questions for news networks around the city. Amid the obvious human concerns, there's now a practical issue: Where do you do the news if you can't use the newsroom? On Friday, Oct. 12, NBC moved its NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw broadcast at Rockefeller Center downstairs to Studio 1A, the home of Today, when word broke that Mr. Brokaw's assistant, Erin O'Connor, had...

Meet Four-Eyed New Sex Symbol, 'Weekend Update' Anchor Tina Fey

Sun, 04 Mar 2001 19:00:00 -0500

Shortly after it was announced that Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey would take over as co-host of the "Weekend Update" news segment this season with Jimmy Fallon, fellow writer Paula Pell cornered Ms. Fey in the labyrinthine NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Center.

"Paula pushed me up against the wall and threatened to beat the crap out of me as soon as she saw any change in my behavior," Ms. Fey recalled. "She...

SNL Producer Lorne Michaels Monkeys Around, in a Tribute to Steve Martin

Sun, 12 Mar 2000 19:00:00 -0500

A Mild and Crazy Guy

"Comedy is not pretty," Steve Martin said a long, long time ago. On March 3, the comedian Martin Mull revised that maxim as he surveyed the black-tie crowd that had gathered in the Waldorf-Astoria's Basildon Room for the cocktail portion of the American Museum of the Moving Image's tribute to Mr. Martin, the comedian, actor, director and New Yorker writer. "Tonight, comedy is not only pretty, it's well dressed, but...

SNL 's Killer Contract

Sun, 15 Aug 1999 20:00:00 -0400

Wednesday, August 11

From John Belushi in the 70's to Eddie Murphy in the 80's and Mike Myers in the 90's, many young stars have traded the fame they gained on Saturday Night Live for big money at the box office. Now NBC is taking tough measures–in the form of a new Saturday Night Live contract for first-year cast members–to make sure it keeps its hands on those potential millions. Anyone joining the cast of...

What Will Become of the Pundits?

Sun, 21 Feb 1999 19:00:00 -0500

Wednesday, Feb. 17

43 Circling the city like a school bus, the MSNBC shuttle delivers on-air reporters and crew members from various spots in Manhattan to the network's massive, Buck-Rogers-meets-the- Daily Plane t studio in Secaucus, N.J. Not surprisingly, the shuttle has become a convenient satellite for office gossip. This week, a source on the MSNBC shuttle told NYTV that as the Clinton scandal unwinds, pundits–the lifeblood of repetitive 24-hour networks with way too much...