-Live from New York, it's "Saturday Night"!
-In the '90s, depending on who you ask,
"Saturday Night Live" is an unsinkable comedy institution...
-Set a heading for romance!
-...or the Titanic... -The ship of dreams!
-...crashing into an iceberg of audience disappointment.
Either way, the captain of the "SNL" ship is Lorne Michaels.
-Everybody has a healthy amount of respect for him
and probably a healthy amount of fear.
[ Laughs ]
-He really does like that sense
of being the master of this domain.
-But in Lorne's domain, there's onstage controversy...
-Fight the real enemy!
♪♪
-...and a sometimes toxic workplace.
-Lorne made the show competitive...
-No más.
-...where the show's biggest star
is asked to pay the highest price.
-There was a lot of inside talking about
why the hell is Farley even hosting the show?
-Comedy can get along without anyone.
-I don't mean to be analyzing the id of Lorne Michaels,
but I do get the sense
that that show runs
thanks to the machinations of this guy.
-This is where we leave. -Okay.
-Good luck.
♪♪
-Live from New York...
♪♪
[ Modem whining ]
♪♪
-Live from New York, it's "Saturday Night"!
-"Saturday Night Live's" 40th-anniversary special in 2015
brings together a who's who of America's comedy stars.
-Steven, what about actors?!
-The impressive gathering of former hosts
and cast members is evidence of "SNL's"
enduring power to launch careers
by creating some of the most enduring
comedic characters in TV history.
-Well, isn't that special?
-I'm just a caveman.
-There's you, there's...
-But the real star maker at the anniversary is not the TV show,
but the man who first created "SNL," Lorne Michaels.
-What can be said about Lorne Michaels
that he himself has not already said?
-Like the Wizard of Oz, comedy's man behind the curtain
works hard at remaining a mystery,
even to the people who work with him.
-Any adjective in the English language
we can find applied to Lorne Michaels.
Sadist, genius...
caring, paternal...
you know, mean-spirited... uh, cold.
-Powerful? -Even the media struggles
to find the right adjective to describe him.
-Controlling?
-Controlling, you know,
sort of has a negative context.
I'd say "in charge."
-So I don't know
what is the deal with Lorne Michaels.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
♪♪
-How do you know what's funny?
-That's what a live audience tells you.
-In the late '60s, 25-year-old Lorne Michaels,
a former University of Toronto English major,
begins writing and acting on Canadian radio and TV...
-I'm speaking with a Canadian beaver.
-...before moving to Hollywood to write for "Laugh-In."
-Very interesting...
♪♪
-In the early '70s, he pitches NBC
a Saturday late-night comedy variety show
he claims will draw a new audience
by reflecting the decade's youth culture.
-Beginning on October 11th, Saturday night
will open up a whole new live venture
from New York City from Studio 8H
here at Rockefeller Center.
And we just happen to have the producer of the program,
Mr. Lorne Michaels, with us.
What should we look for on your program?
-Anxiety. Uh...
-That anxiety will mostly be inflicted on NBC censors.
[ Laughter ]
-Live from New York, it's "Saturday Night!"
-In the fall of 1975, I was 16 years old
when I first saw "Saturday Night Live."
-Thanks for joining us live.
-My name is Robert Thompson.
I'm a professor of television and popular culture.
Up until that point, late-night television
was "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson."
-He-r-r-r-re's Johnny!
[ Cheers and applause ]
-In retrospect, that just seemed so much
the stuff your parents watch.
[ Laughs ]
[ Coneheads imitating laugh ]
-Here, this da-da,
this weird, this trippy type of programming.
-[ Screaming ]
-It was so different.
John Belushi did Samurai delicatessen,
and there was nothing like it on television.
-"Saturday Night Live" really shifted the way
people saw comedy.
-Our top story tonight... -Our top story tonight!
-Everybody was kind of shocked
by certain things that were shown on the shows.
-But you wouldn't know about that, Dan.
-Jane, you ignorant slut.
[ Laughter ]
I'm Mariel Hemingway, and I am an actress.
And in 1995, I hosted "Saturday Night Live."
Since it launched in the '70s,
it was such a huge part of my young adulthood.
-First, we must stop the bleeding!
-I'll never forget Julia Child.
-Pressure on the apron like so.
-They were really a part of something
that -- I don't know --
that just means something to your entire generation.
-The Blues Brothers! Yeah!
♪♪
-"Saturday Night Live" was this industry by this time,
manufacturing these stars.
But it was also really, really effective
at manufacturing distress,
anxiety, angst, fear.
-Most of that is a byproduct
of how Lorne Michaels prefers to work.
-Lorne Michaels has the biggest heart in show business.
You see, he hired that director
when nobody else would hire him.
-For Lorne, creating a successful
live 90-minute show from scratch every week
requires an insanely competitive all-night free-for-all.
-Lorne Michaels once told me
that he set the show up to be late hours
because of his schedule,
and he had us working off of his sleep schedule.
-You've got 90-hour work weeks.
They are, on a weekly basis, making, in six days,
what should take about three weeks.
That is a hazardous work environment.
-It's foxhole writing.
It's like -- It's Ernie Pyle stuff that we do.
-Yeah, we write all night, sometimes,
you know, and just go until we drop...or die.
-As Lorne tells Oprah Winfrey on her podcast,
he sees the exhaustion as a feature, not a bug.
-Fatigue is your friend.
Through exhaustion and through people just being so depleted,
the stuff around the nerve endings gets worn away
and you take way bigger risks.
-Including, for some, using cocaine
to fuel those all-night creative-writing binges.
♪♪
-How about the use of intoxicants
to aid the creative process?
You don't perform your best on drugs,
and you don't necessarily write your best on drugs, you know?
-You know what?
-You got to perform totally straight,
I mean, or else you just -- your instincts aren't always there.
-Belushi may believe that,
but he doesn't practice what he preaches.
News of his cocaine abuse becomes public knowledge.
Lorne Michaels and his writers
see it as something to laugh about.
-Look. I can't put this man on television.
I mean, he's barely awake.
-Lorne, if John Belushi could speak,
he'd tell you he's got to go on!
-In a 1990 interview, Lorne reveals
that two years after this sketch,
a real doctor tells him backstage
that Belushi is unable to perform after partying all week
with Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones.
-His lungs were filling up.
-Life is played on a sad stage. We begin!
-But Lorne says he replied to the warning with a punch line.
-The doctor said, "If he goes on...
50/50 he'll die."
And I said, probably just because I was angry --
I said, "Well, I can live with those odds."
-Belushi beats the odds.
-Thank you all for coming. Good night and goodbye.
-But at the end of "SNL's" fifth season,
when NBC refuses to grant Lorne and his cast
a year off for some R&R,
he and all of the remaining original,
"not ready for prime time" players quit in protest.
-When I left it, I was spent,
and at the end of five years, it was time for an upheaval.
-Michaels and Belushi stay in touch,
even as Belushi's health deteriorates.
-I went to Lorne Michaels' wedding last night.
-On March 5, 1982,
less than a year after attending Lorne's nuptials,
Belushi is found dead in the Chateau Marmont Hotel
in West Hollywood.
-John Belushi, actor and comedian,
is dead at the age of 33,
after taking heroin and cocaine by injection.
♪♪
-There was no laughter here today.
The clown was dead.
-His life was very full,
and it was, uh --
and that it's -- it's been, uh, stopped.
That's the tragedy.
Comedy can get along without anyone.
-"Saturday Night Live' was a Petri dish,
and it was a perfect cultured environment
for growing trouble.
-In 1985, with the post-Lorne Michaels "SNL"
nearing cancelation for poor ratings,
NBC convinces the show's creator to return for season 11.
He brings in new cast members,
including actors Randy Quaid,
Anthony Michael Hall, Joan Cusack,
and Robert Downey Jr.
-My demands are few...
but unintelligible!
-But the belief that Lorne can immediately right the ship
proves overly optimistic.
The season gets dismal reviews,
and Lorne starts over in season 12...
-Yes!
-...hiring the man who would become known as the show's glue,
Phil Hartman.
-Jimmy. Don't make me have to kill you.
-Lorne also brings on board Dana Carvey...
-♪ Chopping broccoli ♪
-...who teams up with Mike Myers
two seasons later in a signature "SNL" sketch.
-Extreme close-up!
Wh-o-o-o-o-oa!
-The following year, Michaels welcomes the new decade...
-Hello. I'm Lorne Michaels.
And as you know, this is our first show of the 1990s.
-...with another mostly new cast including many young comedians
who grew up idolizing "SNL" and the man who invented it.
-Chris Rock!
Adam Sandler!
David Spade!
Chris Farley!
-They all went on to be stars. It's incredible.
Just the biggest assembly of talent
that I've ever seen in one room.
I'm Fred Wolf, and I worked on
"Saturday Night Live" in the '90s.
I was a writer, eventually head writer, feature player,
producer, all-around great guy.
I shared an office with Adam Sandler and David Spade.
And Farley always came in. And I was just a writer.
And those three guys were all stars, becoming stars.
-Maybe I don't "look the part."
-Of all of Lorne's new hires,
it's Wisconsin native Chris Farley who stands out
with his "heart on his sleeve" personality
and over-the-top physical antics.
-♪ Sloppy Joe, sloppy, sloppy Joe ♪
-Farley was amazing at, like --
this driving force of electricity.
-[ Shouts ] Ow!
-Writing for Chris Farley was a dream
because he would never question anything you did.
I'm Hugh Fink, and I was a writer on "SNL"
in the '90s into the early 2000s.
Chris Farley's breakout sketch was with Patrick Swayze,
where they were dancers.
-In the Chippendales audition sketch,
Farley gets big laughs...
♪♪
...but they come from making fun of his huge physique.
-Chris Farley so embraces
his own physical body.
-Barney, we all agreed that your dancing was great.
Adrian's body was just much, much better than yours.
-Uh-huh.
-But then there's the other level.
We're simply just making fun of a corpulent guy
like we've been doing from Laurel and Hardy and Belushi.
-[ Indistinct shouting ]
-The same way the show played up Belushi's
hard partying for laughs back in the '70s...
-They all thought I'd be the first to go.
I was one of those "live fast, die young,
leave a good-looking corpse" types, you know?
-In the '90s, Lorne,
the man who decides which sketches make it to air,
always seems to pick the ones that find the funny
in Farley's obesity and out-of-control behavior.
-[ Screaming ] Ohh! -Pig!
-Comedy ain't pretty. It never was.
-It becomes the only way
Farley seems to get laughs on or off stage.
-Farley would do things. Like, one time,
he stuck his ass out the window
and was taking a shit from the 17th floor.
[ Laughter ]
And we were laughing so hard,
and his face was getting all red.
[ Farting ]
[ Laughter ]
♪♪
That was like five minutes out of a 24-hour day.
♪♪
Farley and I became pretty good friends. We hung out.
And sometimes he would sort of open up to me a little bit.
His father was a little bit off kilter, and mine was, too,
and so I think, because of that, we bonded and we talked.
And there was something about him.
Like, he idolized John Belushi.
[ Laughter ]
-And soon Lorne Michaels would bear witness
as another one of his biggest stars
jokes his way over the edge.
-Watch me. I'll do a cannonball.
[ Gunshot ]
-♪ You can do what you wanna do ♪
♪ In Living Color ♪
-In the early '90s, comedy on TV
is dramatically different from when Lorne Michaels
first launched "Saturday Night Live."
Now cable TV and new comedy shows
like "In Living Color"
are cutting into "SNL's" ratings.
-They demonstrate that others are hungrier,
younger, more diverse...
-Two snaps, a twist, and a kiss!
[ Laughter ]
-But if you thought "Saturday Night Live" was boring...
you just had to wait for a minute.
-In October 1992...
-Sinéad O'Connor.
-..."SNL" is thrust back into the cultural conversation
when Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor
finally shows up to be the musical guest.
-Two years before, she's already canceled
one of her performances
because Andrew Dice Clay was going to be the host.
-That's too bad. She was a cute bald chick.
[ Laughter ]
-He, of course, had a reputation of being a misogynist.
-Hooker. -[ Laughter ]
-♪ War... ♪
-Now a different cause inspires the singer.
She performs Bob Marley's "War,"
changing the lyrics to highlight what she sees
as a systemic problem in the Catholic Church.
-♪ Child abuse, yeah ♪
-Afterwards, she takes out a picture
of Pope John Paul II and tears it apart.
-Fight the real enemy!
-If Lorne Michaels created SNL in the '70s
to speak truth to power,
in the '90s, it's not this truth and not that power.
He orders the crew to turn off the "applause" sign.
And the audience falls into a hushed silence.
NBC bans O'Connor for life.
In an interview weeks later, O'Connor defends her appearance
and calls out the Catholic Church...
long before the truth of her child-abuse claim
is exposed.
-The church must be brought down, destroyed.
Their days are numbered.
Ireland has the highest instance in Europe of child abuse.
I experienced it myself.
-It will take another 18 years before the Vatican apologizes
to Ireland's Catholic sex-abuse victims.
But in 1992, Lorne Michaels,
who may be on the wrong side of history,
is on the side of his employer...
and most Americans,
who are outraged by her allegation.
-A pile of Sinéad O'Connor tapes and CDs
were crushed by a steamroller in Midtown Manhattan
in front of a lunchtime crowd.
-I will never again watch "Saturday Night Live."
-The following week, Lorne tries to appease
anyone offended by O'Connor
by allowing host Joe Pesci to condemn her actions
in his monologue.
-I thought that was wrong.
So I asked somebody to paste it back together.
There. -Three weeks later
on "Charlie Rose," Lorne seems confused
why O'Connor thinks "SNL" is the place
to challenge authority...
-It just seemed, "Why us?"
-...and deflects his reaction to O'Connor
by making a joke about the true disaster that night.
-The tragic part was having to do two comedy acts after that.
♪♪
-Four months later, NBC,
stuck in third place among the major networks,
makes sports producer Don Ohlmeyer
president of their Entertainment division.
Ohlmeyer makes boosting "SNL's" flagging ratings
a top priority.
-Don Ohlmeyer becomes the Joker
to Lorne Michaels' Batman.
He becomes his nemesis.
For the longest time,
Lorne Michaels had tremendous power
where he didn't have to listen to any network notes.
But because of the show being questioned,
suddenly NBC was exerting its power.
And I can say, as a comedy writer, network notes suck!
-Tension with the network intensifies
when Lorne gives the "Weekend Update" anchor job
to fellow Canadian comedian Norm Macdonald.
-Murder is legal in the state of California.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Norm Macdonald was doing a lot of O.J. jokes
with the assumption of complete guilt.
-It was at that moment that he realized
he would never be able to kill her again.
[ Audience groans ]
-Norm would share with me
blow-by-blow details of what was going on.
Don Ohlmeyer resented all the O.J. Simpson jokes
because Don Ohlmeyer
was a personal friend of O.J. Simpson's.
-Therefore, Norm Macdonald did more O.J. jokes on "Update."
-O.J. Simpson demonstrated
how to stab two people at the same time.
[ Laughter ]
-NBC executives were getting madder and madder at him.
I know that there was a big giant sort of push
to get him off the show.
-And it will work, but not until 1998,
when Norm's fired after four years of Ohlmeyer's complaints.
In 1994, Lorne is also dealing with Ohlmeyer's notes
regarding the other young comics on the show,
including Chris Barley and David Spade,
who begin working on the movie "Tommy Boy"
right in the middle of "SNL's" 20th season.
-Marker.
♪♪
-They were flying back and forth.
They were shooting "Tommy Boy" up in Toronto.
It was all about them just making that work,
and, boy, they were tired.
It was really, really tiring on them.
-Oh! I'm hurt!
-In the meantime, the show was going on.
Comedy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
-Camera marker.
-The grueling schedule is wearing down
the surprisingly fragile young star.
-You are gonna die!
-While out promoting the movie, Farley jokes
with David Letterman about managing the work stress.
-We were doing the show at the same time,
so we'd, like, break up the monotony and stuff like that.
And Spade said that he kept trying to bug me about my weight
and said I kept eating when I got nervous.
I have a little bit of weight problem. I'm not sure if anyone...
But then... -For Lorne Michaels,
Farley's "little bit of a weight problem"
is a big and easy opportunity for "SNL's" comedy writers.
-[ Grunts ]
[ Laughter ]
-But Farley's substance-abuse problem can't be laughed off
and leads to multiple "SNL" suspensions
and several visits to rehab.
♪♪
-He wanted to get sober a lot of times.
You'd want to say, "Chris, man,
I think maybe you need to cut back a little bit."
We would talk, getting deep into conversation about it,
because my brother had a lot of problems.
♪♪
My brother went to jail for nine years,
and he killed himself the day he was getting out.
Farley knew that, and we connected over that.
♪♪
He would say that he wants to stop.
♪♪
That was on his mind a lot, you know?
And, uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
♪♪
-By 1995, Chris Farley is just one of many problems at "SNL"
keeping Lorne Michaels up at night.
-NBC's "Saturday Night Live" has been canceled.
-[ Screams ]
-Oh!
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
Lorne.
-I just had -- -Are you okay?
-As ratings drop another 19%,
the media piles on,
condemning "SNL" for uninspired writing.
-People were saying the show's not funny.
It's got all these stars who think they're,
you know, bigger than they should be.
-Comments about the writing criticism and so forth?
[ Laughter ]
-Yes. Okay. I'm leaving now.
-And I heard that, and I got so mad.
And I went to Lorne's office and I go,
"Did you hear what they're saying?!"
And Lorne said, "Well, you know, do you know how many times
I've heard, 'Saturday Night Live'
no, 'Saturday Night Dead'"?
-But even as the man making all the decisions at "SNL"
believes reports of its death are greatly exaggerated,
New York Magazine is preparing to publish
"Saturday Night Live's" obituary.
-Lorne Michaels has masterminded one of
the longest-running comedy shows on television.
He started "Saturday Night Live" in 1975.
He helms the feature-film franchise
being developed from the show --
"Wayne's World," its sequel, "Wayne's World 2,"
and the Coneheads.
--If you're around people who make you laugh,
doing the work you like,
it's a great life, and I have a great life.
-But in March of 1995,
the "SNL" fame and fortune factory
comes under attack...
in a cover story that details
the behind-the-scenes dysfunction
that exists under the watch
of its mercurial leader, Lorne Michaels.
♪♪
-The New York Magazine piece presented a picture
that was by no means a comforting one.
We hear stories from Janeane Garofalo
to Sarah Jessica Parker
about how, you know, "I'd go into his office,
and he wouldn't even look at me."
Or you'd have to wait six hours to get in.
-The article quotes an ex-cast member
who says, "Loren wants people to feel insecure.
It's the same techniques cults use.
They keep you up for hours,
they never let you know that you're okay,
and they always make you think that your spot
could be taken at any moment by someone else."
Michaels is also criticized for creating a workplace
that is both sexist and lacking diversity
in allegations supported by the numbers.
In 1995, the writing staff
has four times more men than women
and no Black writers.
-It truly was a white-male dominated show.
-♪ Well, I love it when you talk nasty to me ♪
♪ With your legs wrapped around my back ♪
-The sketches really did ooze of testosterone.
The Clarence Thomas hearings.
-Couldn't have been easy for you
to sit here and talk about... penis size.
[ Laughter ]
-Lorena Bobbitt jokes.
-[ Screaming ]
-All of that subject matter
that was both headline news
and perfect for a roomful of snarky, snotty boys
misbehaving and farting and belching.
[ Man belches ]
[ Laughter ]
-The cast also talk about
being overwhelmed by the class-clown attitudes.
-The show continued to do stuff
that one could accuse of being racist or misogynistic.
A great example would be the Gap Girls.
-God, I love these fries. -[ Giggles ]
If you love 'em so much, why don't you marry 'em?
[ Giggles ]
-Why are they having men play these women
when there's three other female cast members?
-The New York Magazine article also highlights
Lorne Michaels' several attractive female assistants,
known as the Lornettes.
In their early 20s, one of their duties
is apparently to keep him supplied with popcorn.
♪♪
The author also reports that when
Janeane Garofalo complains that a sketch is sexist,
it brings down the wrath of the man who wrote it, Fred Wolf.
-It was a hit piece. There was not a hiring practice.
Women were frozen out or whatever.
And it just wasn't true. It was really not true at all.
And I was sort of upset that that was his conclusion.
-True or not, the cover story puts more pressure
on "SNL's" king to clean up his castle
and improve the toxic environment and sexism
inside his realm.
-Lorne was in charge of managing people's behavior,
and unless it was something deeply criminal or violent,
no one was going to interfere
with people's behaviors at the show.
-At the end of the 20th season,
Michaels caves to network pressure to revamp the show...
...and fires nine cast members,
including Chris Farley and Adam Sandler.
♪♪
-It felt like a purge.
They want to change the dynamic overall, the tone of the show.
-For "SNL's" 21st season in 1995,
Lorne asks the show's new co-head writer
to find some talented female performers.
-Cheri Oteri!
Molly Shannon!
Nancy Walls!
-I was told to do some outreach,
you know, see what females are out there.
It was a concerted effort to get more of a female voice
on the show, and it worked.
-East Lake Spartans! -What?
-One of the big sketches was, of course, the cheerleading.
Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri.
-Just because we didn't make the squad
doesn't mean we don't have Spartan spirit!
-Stop the presses -- the woman in that sketch
was actually played by a woman!
-The historically testosterone-fueled
writers room gets an estrogen injection
when female writers and producers are hired.
-Everyone was new when I started,
so it was kind of a good vibe.
Like, everyone was ready to start over.
I'm Tanya Ryno, and in the '90s,
I was a producer for "Saturday Night Live."
I produced commercial parodies, animation...
like "The Ambiguously Gay Duo" segments.
-Good work, Gary.
That Ice Monster can't hurt us now.
-You were basically working around the clock.
-This is where we leave. -Okay.
-Good luck. -Thank you, Lorne.
-Tanya soon learns that Lorne Michaels'
grueling work-all-night schedule,
the approach to live-TV production
that led many staffers to abuse drugs in the past,
is still happening,
even for those making digital segments.
-Getting there to 11:30 Eastern Time,
"Saturday Night Live" can kill you.
-I just worked myself to death.
-Tanya also learns that Lorne Michaels
remains uncomfortable speaking truth to power
when she produces a "TV Funhouse" cartoon
called "Conspiracy Theory Rock!"
-♪ It's a media-opoly ♪
-"The Schoolhouse Rock!" parody, written by Robert Smigel,
attacks media corporations, including GE...
-And good old GE?!
-...the parent company of NBC.
-What are PCB's?
-♪ They come from electric power plants ♪
♪ Built by Westinghouse and GE ♪
-The digital short airs just once
before Lorne locks it away.
[ Long beep ]
-Lorne's excuse was that it wasn't funny.
Like, I mean, it was funny, but it was ironically funny.
I mean, we were told not to do it again, basically.
-Mariel Hemingway!
-To mark the supposedly more female-friendly season of "SNL,"
the first episode is hosted by Mariel Hemingway,
ironically, the granddaughter
of "man's man" author Ernest Hemingway,
but best known for playing Woody Allen's
underage girlfriend in the film "Manhattan."
-Welcome to a brand-new season of "Saturday Night Live."
There's been a lot of changes over the summer.
I'd never done anything live.
So I said, "Look. I'm not a stand-up comic.
So I would love to be able to introduce this new cast."
There's Dave Koechner. And Will Ferrell.
-Hi! -Hi!
-I had played so many lesbians
that I thought it would be really funny
if I just ignored all the men
and made out with all the women.
I just love her. [ Chuckles ]
[ Laughter ]
-Mariel's idea is female empowerment
with just a hint of "SNL's" men
enjoying an adolescent lesbian fantasy.
-Hey, Lorne. Oh! Lorne! Don't forget to introduce me
to your wife at the party tonight!
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
-In her one-week crash course at "SNL,"
Hemingway experiences the atmosphere
created by Lorne Michaels.
-Working on "SNL"
really is survival of the fittest.
You really feel like, "Okay. I'm gonna make it..."
[ Growls ] You know? Like I'm a warrior!
♪♪
But it accelerates at a pace that you're like --
It's just not normal.
And that's why I think there's burnout
on the people that are there.
They're doing it week after week after week after week.
That's intense. That's a lot of pressure.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I want to thank everyone -- the band, the cast.
They're incredible. I love you all!
-While Mariel Hemingway proves she's a survivor,
Lorne will soon invite someone to host
who should be returning as a conquering hero.
Instead, he'll be thrown to the lions.
-Okay. -Alright. Okay.
-I'm the new Chris. Okay, fellas?
♪♪
-Every vote counts.
-With the release of
the Lorne Michaels-produced "Black Sheep" in 1996
and "Beverly Hills Ninja" in '97,
former "SNL" cast member, Chris Farley
is a box-office movie star,
but watching him promote his movies...
-Yeah, it's funny. It's hard to be funny, you know?
When you try to be funny, you're not,
so you just try to be real.
-...one can't help but wonder if Farley's
17 trips to drug-treatment centers
and ongoing struggle with obesity
is too high a price to pay for fame.
-I don't know what's happening.
-[Laughing] You're drawing a blank.
-He was not in great shape.
You know? Not in great shape at all.
He had pushed the partying really hard,
and it just felt like he was giving up for something.
There was -- Something just had changed about him.
I told Norm Macdonald,
"I think he'll be dead in three months."
-[ Laughs ] -Farley is relapsing at 33,
the same age his hero, John Belushi,
overdosed and died.
-He wasn't gonna kill himself on purpose,
I don't think, but I think subconsciously,
it was on his mind
that he wanted to leave at the same age
that John Belushi was when he died.
♪♪
-It's against this backdrop that Lorne Michaels decides
to bring Farley back to "SNL" to guest host.
[ Laughter ]
[ Indistinct shouting ]
-People were more than concerned
about Farley that week.
There was a lot of inside talking about
why the hell is Farley even hosting the show?
-In what's become the show style
when confronting an out-of-control performer,
be it John Belushi or Sinéad O'Connor,
Lorne and the writers mine those concerns for a joke.
With Farley, it's leaning into the anxieties
everyone has about Chris' ability to host
in the show's cold open.
-But how do I know he's not gonna screw up?
-Well -- -Because I won't.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-When I saw him, you know, hosting.
he was very, very heavy, very, very -- very, very loud.
-But this time, I am not gonna let you down, boss!
-You've said that before, Chris.
-Chris' behavior in the scene,
like a troublesome kid seeking his dad's approval,
offers insights into the relationship
Lorne Michaels has with many of his performers.
-He birthed their careers.
He midwived their fame.
He is, metaphorically, very much a father figure
who everybody really wanted to please.
And I think that doesn't go away.
There still is this,
"I want to please Dad.
I want Dad to love me."
-Can you still fall through a table?
-Can I?! Ga-gaa, goo, gee!
[ Grunting ]
See?!
-Laughing off its stars' addiction issues
is one of the rituals of the show Lorne created.
-You know what I've learned?
I've learned lessons about responsib--
-Responsibility? -Responsibility.
-The monologue and sketches in the rest of the show
that Mine Farley's weight for laughs
are also right out of "SNL's" how-to manual.
-The uniquely pathetic quality of Todd's condition
convinced us to enlist some help.
-No! Our producer, Ted Gurrigan! -What? What'd you just say, Ted?
-I said I love Italian food! Can you tell?!
[ Laughter ]
-On a podcast in 2021,
Farley's fellow cast member Jim Breuer reflects on that week
and remembers Chris calling him to his hotel room
to confess all the fears and anxiety
returning to "SNL" has provoked.
-He goes, "Jimmy, am I funny?"
He goes, "Or am I just a fat stupid guy?
Girls don't like me. Have to get hookers.
And I'm just fat and stupid."
I went, "No, you're not. No, you're not."
The next day, we went and did a read-through.
Every sketch was a fat, stupid guy.
-I don't have much in the brain department,
but when fatty falls down, everyone goes home happy.
♪♪
-Even though that became his big thing,
falling into the furniture,
there was always that sense of vulnerability.
-I am in dire need of a dance partner, s-so...
-This was the guy that needed a hug.
-Oh!
-Whatever motivates Lorne Michaels
to bring Chris back to host...
-Get your fat ass in gear! It's 1997!
-I wear special pants.
-...the sketches that night fuel all the personal doubts
Chris shared with Jim Breuer.
[ Gas hissing ]
Farley is pushed so far physically during the show
that he needs a nurse offstage to give him oxygen.
Jim Breuer believes that something more
should have been done.
-He clearly needed help.
He had a serious, high-alert drug issue going on.
Is anyone gonna step forward
and say, "What are we doing this for?
Our ratings?
The man is gonna be dead soon.
Does anyone care about his soul or his health?
No? We're products and money? Oh."
♪♪
-Despite the backstage nurse
and other signs that Farley is struggling...
-El Niño is Spanish for...
The Niño!
-...Chris perseveres through the show's final sketch,
which has him playing a wrestler named after a weather front.
-...a submission fight to the finish!
-Pushed to the breaking point,
it appears the exhausted comedian really has had enough.
-No más. No más.
-You heard it, folks! It's unbelievable.
Ric Flair has subdued the powerful weather phenomenon
known as El Niño!
♪♪
[ Siren wails ]
-Six weeks later in Chicago,
Chris' brother John discovers the comedy legend
in the hallway of his 60th-floor condo
not breathing.
-My manager called early in the morning
and said, "Fred, I have some bad news."
And I'm thinking, "Okay. I got fired off 'SNL.'"
And he said, "Chris Farley died."
♪♪
I was not super-surprised to get that phone call,
but I was shocked, and, uh, it wasn't fun.
It wasn't fun at all.
So...
-Friends and fans of Chris Farley
have gathered outside the Hancock building,
waiting for just any information
police and investigators may give.
-I couldn't believe it. -It's really sad.
-Chris was a puppy. He was funny.
He made everyone laugh.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
♪♪
-He was 33. The target age, you know?
Hm.
-Farley idolized John Belushi.
They died with virtually the same poisons in their veins.
♪♪
-After a four-day drug-fueled binge,
Chris Farley overdoses from a speed ball
of cocaine and morphine.
♪♪
-Lorne Michaels has now witnessed
two of the talented men he helped make famous
die at the same young age
and under eerily similar circumstances.
-Anytime that anyone has a drug-abuse problem,
you can go back and probably see that someone knew
and probably someone could have stepped in.
It's a tragedy that could have been prevented.
♪♪
[ Bells tolling ]
-Chris' death is mourned by the "SNL" community.
-I feel relief for Chris that he's not in pain.
I'm thinking he can hear everything I'm saying,
and I try to -- I'm still trying to make him laugh,
and I miss him.
-Five months after absorbing the loss of Chris Farley...
[ Siren wails ]
-...the "SNL" family is once again rocked by tragedy.
[ Line ringing ]
-911 line...
-In the early morning of May 28, 1998,
police are called to the home
of former "SNL" cast member Phil Hartman
and discover him murdered by his wife.
♪♪
-Mr. Hartman had been dead for a while.
He did not die at the same time
that Mrs. Hartman apparently killed herself.
-Police believe the couple's 9-year-old son
and 6-year-old daughter slept through
the murder of their father and the suicide of their mother.
-Like, what happened here? What the...happened?
'Cause that's insane, obviously.
And no one knows really what happened still.
The "SNL" family was ruined by that
because it came out of the clear blue sky.
-As I said during the campaign, I'm just a caveman.
-Phil Hartman's ability to do a seemingly endless number
of impersonations... -You damn dirty ape!
What have you done?!
-...puts him on the Mount Rushmore
of "SNL" cast members.
-Did somebody say sassy?
-His nickname was "Glue."
-We go for the gold. Yay, team!
-Because he was the guy that held the sketch together.
Everyone thought that. He could play anything.
And he was solid as a rock.
Brutal. Just brutal, really. So...
-Hartman left "SNL" in 1994
in a touching final scene with Chris Farley.
-♪ Goodbye ♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
-The man of a thousand voices says goodbye
in voice number one -- his own.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-The "SNL" family, when they lose a member,
even as admired as Phil Hartman,
there's sort of a sense of "the show must go on,"
that even Phil Hartman wouldn't want people
to simply grieve and fall apart and not be able to be funny.
-Despite the show's tragedies in the outside world,
at 30 Rock, Lorne Michaels has always made sure
that "Saturday Night Live" does go on.
-It's a very clear thing, and we have a job to do,
and we have to get it done.
-With "SNL's" 40th celebration now in its rear-view,
it's approaching its incredible 50th season.
And, after surviving threats of cancelation,
controversy, and tragedy,
the weekly live show performed in the iconic Studio 8H
remains a late-night institution.
-I think the show's legacy
is the fact that number one, it's survived,
but also "SNL" has roots in many different generations.
It has some of the greatest comedians of all time.
They've come. They've gone.
And the legacy is that they planted a statement
of who we were in each generation.
-Live from New York... -Live from New York...
-Live from New York, it's "Saturday Night"!
[ Cheers and applause ]
-"Saturday Night Live," however it does it,
has been incredibly efficient.
The fact it's been run by the same cultural warlord
is something of a legend...
and still going.
-Can you see a day, Lorne,
where you're not sitting in that office?
-My plan is to be here for the 50th.
And by that point, I really deserve to wander off.
[ Cheers and applause ]