Just a few days before Sunday night’s NBC special, “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels spoke to The Post about the show’s highlights and his hopes for a 50th anniversary.
Q: When you started the show 40 years ago, what were your expectations?
A: I had sublet an apartment in New York but I kept my place in LA. I’d never done a live show. [Then-NBC president] Herbert Schlosser wanted to return television production to New York like it was in the 1950s and early 1960s. But it wasn’t the same — it was late-night. So there were lower stakes in terms of pressure on ratings.
Q: Did you ever imagine the show would last this long?
A: At the end of the first season I’d written everything I’d wanted to write several times over. I thought of it as “That Championship Season.” I didn’t know what I would do for a second season. But by the end of Season 2, John Belushi and Gilda Radner were stars.
Q: What are the sketches or characters that stand out most vividly to you?
A: When you see someone who really connects with the audience and the audience taking the performers up a notch, that’s more what you remember than a particular episode or a political debate. We’re just as famous for what didn’t work as for what worked. When something doesn’t work, you can feel the silence in the studio.
The performers know all that matters is the moment that’s going out, no matter how well it played in dress rehearsal. The surprising thing is how often it all comes together. I’ve said this before: We don’t go on because we’re ready. We go on because it’s 11:30.
Q: Has there been anybody you cast the minute you saw them audition?
A: The original group. Kristen Wiig. Dana Carvey. You say, ‘They can go on tomorrow.’ Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell, Pete Davidson, Leslie Jones. You’re looking for people who are undeniably good. And then there are people you have a hunch on.
Q: When things aren’t working out with a new cast member and they leave the show, are you the one who breaks the bad news to them?
A: Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I can’t remember in each case. When you’re starting on the show, you need a level of focus and maturity to clear away everything else in your life. You have to be ready. When Robert Downey Jr. and Anthony Michael Hall came on [in the 1985-1986 season], they were too young.
Q: Do you ever get talked in to booking hosts or musical guests who you personally have no interest in, or just don’t get?
A: There’s always someone [who works on] the show for whom this or that [guest] will be the high point of their year, but it might not be my taste.
We generally have people before you’ve heard of them or in the moment when they’re exploding. We’d rather be early than too late. When Sarah Palin and Tina Fey were on the same episode, people forget the musical act was Adele. She was 19. We were introducing her to America.
Q: How did you come up with the final list of guests for the three-hour special?
A: Everyone who [has been] a host was invited. Most musical acts from the [past] 40 years. And the casts [who lasted] more than one season…When people’s RSVPs started coming in, we began to write and put the show together.
The turnout has been overwhelming. Paul Simon is playing New Zealand with Sting, but he’s flying back [to do the special] on Friday. A 19-hour flight. Then he goes back to New Zealand.
Q: Do you pay attention to social media at all?
A: Yeah.
Q: Does public reaction ever influence the tenor of the show or what goes on behind the scenes?
A: Not as much as [what happens with] the dress rehearsal audience. Comedy is so clear. It either works or it doesn’t. You can’t say people didn’t laugh because they were shy.
Q: Do you think the show will be around in 10 years?
A: Yes, is probably the answer. I’ll do it as long as I possibly can. I love it and I think it’s important.