SNL101

In this special episode, we are joined by Bob Thompson, Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, to talk about Saturday Night, the 2024 film directed by Jason Reitman about the night of 1975 premiere of SNL. We discuss the viability of historical fiction in a post-modern media ecosystem that has been oral-history’d and behind-the-scene’d to death and how the film continues some of the longstanding critiques of SNL regarding issues of race and gender. Readings include multiple articles on the toxic workplace culture of SNL and the supposed auteurism of Lorne Michaels. 

Listen on Libsyn: https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/33612287

Readings

Plasketes, G. M. (1988). The Invisible Artist: Lorne Micheals, the Television Comedy Writer in Contrasting Production Environments. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 16(1), 22-31. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01956051.1988.9943306

Smith, C. (1995 Mar 13). The inside story of the decline and fall of Saturday Night Live: How Saturday Night became a grim joke. New York Magazine. https://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/47548/

Solomon, M. (2023 Nov 17). 79 Brutal Takedowns of Lorne Michaels for His 79th Birthday. Cracked. https://www.cracked.com/article_40207_79-brutal-takedowns-of-lorne-michaels-for-his-79th-birthday.html