How did Saturday Night Live get started?

Saturday Night Live began because Johnny Carson wanted more days off. In 1974 he asked NBC to stop airing Tonight Show reruns on weekends and save them for weeknights. That left the network with an empty late-night Saturday slot, and executives Herbert Schlosser and Dick Ebersol set out to fill it with a new live show. They turned to Lorne Michaels, a young Canadian comedy writer and producer. [1] [2] [3]

Starting in 1965, NBC affiliates had shown Tonight Show reruns on Saturday or Sunday nights. When Carson asked for them to be moved, Schlosser, then NBC's president, asked Ebersol, the vice president of late-night programming, to create something for Saturday. According to the History of Saturday Night Live entry on Wikipedia, the network's Saturday lineup was weak and drew poor ratings, and networks had little interest in late-night Saturday shows until the mid-1970s. Paramount executive Barry Diller suggested that Schlosser and Ebersol approach Michaels. [1]

Michaels, born and raised in Toronto, had produced the Canadian variety show The Hart & Lorne Terrific Hour and had worked on Laugh-In and a Phyllis Diller show. Doug Hill, co-author of a 1985 history of the show, says Michaels wanted to make a program for the generation that grew up on television, and that he understood the comedy underground while also being able to speak to the network. Over about three weeks, Ebersol and Michaels developed a variety show of comedy sketches, political satire and music aimed at viewers aged 18 to 34. Hill also points to Monty Python's Flying Circus in Britain as evidence of what American television was missing. [2] [3] [1]

Michaels and Ebersol wanted about $180,000 per episode, but NBC held them to $134,600, and episodes ended up costing more. Some executives doubted a Saturday-night show could keep young adults at home. Smithsonian reports that Michaels won over Schlosser by making him laugh and saying he would have the formula right by episode ten. Schlosser answered, "I'll watch show ten." [2]

The show was based in Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Center, revamped for $250,000. The first cast included Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner and George Coe. Writer Herb Sargent coined the nickname "Not Ready For Prime-Time Players." Much of the talent came from the National Lampoon Radio Hour, including original head writer Michael O'Donoghue, and the Peabody Awards also notes performers from Second City. [1] [4]

The show was first called simply "Saturday Night", because a Howard Cosell-hosted ABC prime-time program had already taken the name "Saturday Night Live." That ABC show was canceled within months. The first NBC episode opened with a sketch featuring Michael O'Donoghue and John Belushi. Its host, George Carlin, appeared only in short stand-up segments rather than in sketches. Sources differ slightly on dates: the Peabody Awards say Ebersol hired Michaels in 1975, while other sources place the development work in late 1974. [3] [5] [4] [2]