Ten years ago I wrote an article about my experience with the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live (https://www.garyhasissues.com/2015/02/backstage-at-snls-40th/) . It got quite a lot of attention and was reproduced in several magazines as it seemed to strike a chord with a lot of people as an honest account of the show. I believe that came from the fact that I brought my (then) 15 year old son and the perspective of a father seeing the experience through his son’s eyes.
I just went to the 50th and the experience was quite different.
For starters I was alone. Apparently (I was told) there was a bit of a kerfuffle 10 years ago because I’d secured a ticket early for my son and limited space meant some stars could not get a plus one. New rule: no plus ones in the studio for the lesser known cast.
The 40th was the biggest event I had ever witnessed, but the 50th eclipsed even that show in terms of spectacle and attendance. The list would be shorter if I named the celebrities who weren’t there, opposed to the who’s who of Hollywood who was. Entertaining to say the least, but the reality actually made it harder to meet and talk to anyone. Even megastars were looking past the megastar they were talking to, to see what other megastars were walking in. This was very much the place to be seen being seen.
It was also spread over 3 days bookended by a huge televised musical extravaganza and then the show itself. Both were 3 hours long. I see no point in summarizing who performed; you either saw the shows streaming already or you’ll look them up. I just want to share the experience from my point of view.
It starts with New York itself.
New York is a collision of buildings; a hodgepodge of architecture both modern and of the Gilded Age. Where the only city planning was in 1811 when they laid out the streets in a grid. There is endless scaffolding to reface old frontage but it appears as if it’s there to hold up the buildings themselves.
It’s trendier today than it was 40 years ago when I lived there. Formerly gritty streets with privately owned shops and restaurants are now gritty streets with expensive clothing stores and high end cuisine du “this year.” I preferred the streets of the past that made up a thousand neighborhoods. But it is still New York.
To understand Saturday Night Live you have to understand New York. The show continues, as it has from its inception in 1975, to reflect the sensibilities of our truest melting pot city, as well as a slight sense of danger. Not real danger as in the reputation of crime New York still struggles to get past, but the danger of the New York attitude: “You talkin’ to me?”
Saturday Night Live thrives on the possibility that you just might be confronted in a way that you’re not quite comfortable with.
As I mentioned, I was flying solo which I’m not good at. Without my wife, or a son, or a good friend, I get very animated and kind of stupid at large gatherings. I’m not good at fleeting conversations and I start engaging more than people who are good at the “shake and break” are looking for. I’ll start talking about having abdominal surgery and see in their eyes that they need to move on.
I need a home base to return to at least every ten minutes.
Half of each evening is a pre-party and an after-party. This is where I am always reminded that celebrities are all just people looking to have some laughs, who have insecurities and care about their hair in pictures the same as anyone. I’ve been hanging with and meeting celebrities for over 40 years and so I’m not awestruck but I also can’t help but share “who I saw!”
I saw Cher, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Chris Pine, Whoopie Goldberg and Alec Baldwin within a single minute. I shared the men’s room with Woody Harrelson, Kevin Costner and Keith Richards. That’s not a place where you can ask for a selfie or even strike up conversation: “So what are you working on?” It’s a place to be reminded how human we all are.
At the risk of annoying some of my friends who always tell me to stop being so modest, I can’t help it. I only touched that world and then stepped away; it doesn’t occur to me that people might still know who I am. On Friday night Keegan-Michael Key, whose talent I adore, came up to me at the Friday pre-party (post Red Carpet) and said: “I have to tell you something. I was 11 when you did Ira Needleman and the Superman sketch with Christopher Reeve. Both of those made me want to become a comedian. You were so physical and when you slammed into those chairs I realized that’s how far you can go.”
I’m grinning ear to ear. And then he added.” This was before Jim Carrey and when Jim Carrey came on the scene I compared him to YOU. You set the bar.”
Okay. Check please. I can go now. If that was my whole experience it would have been worth it. But there was more to come.
I go to these to see friends. I spent a lot of time with Tim Kazurinsky, saw Brad Hall and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, both of whom I started my SNL experience with. I saw Robin Duke, Joe Piscopo, writers Jim Downey and Andy Breckman, talent booker (now producer) Laurie Zaks, Charlie Ebersol, the son of Dick Ebersol and Susan Saint-James, who was a baby 40 years ago, and I saw Eddie Murphy, who gave me an unexpected and very warm hug. He was such a star on the show that I used to feel I shouldn’t be in his presence. He hugged me to acknowledge that I was part of his story. It was very touching. I’d like to think that maybe he had been shown another article I wrote about his hosting appearance a couple of years ago (https://www.garyhasissues.com/2019/12/a-belated-thank-you-to-eddie-murphy/).
During the Sunday show I sat next to Siobhan Fallon and Melanie Hutsell, who are two of the most down to earth actors you could ever meet. Off hand, I’d say we shared similar SNL profiles. We were part of the show, we did some excellent work, but our careers didn’t explode from it like some others. At the end of the show we each looked at each other. Telepathically we shared that the only reason we stayed through the whole show, since none of us were involved in the presentation, was to maybe get on stage for the traditional good nights. We looked at each other, saw cast moving toward the stage, then went for it.
I had no particular notion to stand close to center but I was looking for Brad Hall who was still in the audience. As I coaxed him to the stage, Marty Short was to my left, I took a step towards him when Paul McCartney was suddenly there. I shook his hand at the 40th but this time he was so close I could smell his shower soap.
The goodnights began with Marty as the end of show host and I realized I had to be on camera. Knowing my friends back home had not seen me in the show I knew what they were thinking: “How the Hell did Kroeger get next to McCartney, even separating him from Lorne Michaels??”
So I stayed put. And smiled. The next day I saw the final bow in the New York Times with me front and center.
“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
Parting thoughts….
Saturday Night Live is an institution. There is also a culture that has grown around it that is just as important to the survival of the show as the talent themselves. The Saturday Night Network and Saturday Night Super Fans (and other groups and clubs) who podcast, review and critique every show. They are the men and women who have created mechanisms for SNL actors to succeed. Their enthusiasm for the show, the characters and the actors, create a fan base with its own orbit.
They also do not ignore the Ebersol era when I was there. In fact, they are the ones who make me, and many others feel most welcome. I get a ticket from the show, but I get rewarded by this fan base and the media they create.
Lastly, I want to say that I wish these anniversary shows would return to the format they used for the first two or three. Each era was recognized in separate segments. The past two have been the more recent cast recreating their characters in new sketches. The sketches are great but it’s really just another show and not an anniversary of the show so many of us have loved over its entire history .
I won’t go to another unless it’s to wheel me out as the oldest living cast member. Not because of the format or not being included, but because there’s nothing new to see. I saw it all in two larger than life events.
Heck, I stood next to Paul McCartney onstage and at a urinal next to Keith Richards. What’s left?
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