Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales, James Andrew Miller

think all six films probably cost, you know, fifty grand. Most of the films were four minutes, but one — the open-heart surgery movie — ran thirteen minutes, and Lorne refused to air it. But then Rob Reiner, who is my close friend, hosted the show and insisted on showing it. Otherwise, it would have never been seen.
    LORNE MICHAELS:
    My agreement with Albert had been for films of three to five minutes. I’d wanted three, he wanted five. Because the heart surgery one was thirteen minutes, it necessitated commercials in the middle and on either end — which meant we were away from the live show for close to twenty minutes.
    CRAIG KELLEM:
    One of Albert’s films got lost at the Grand Central Station post office and he went completely apeshit. No one could find it. So Albert, long-distance, through his willpower and his endless energy, managed to actually find the specific postal clerk who had handled it. It was like a whole investigation conducted by Albert Brooks to find the lost film, which he eventually did.
    BARBARA GALLAGHER:
    I was in an office with Eugene Lee and Franne Lee, they were married at the time and had this little baby. Also in the office was Craig Kellem, the talent coordinator, and Gary Weis, the film guy, and then Howard Shore’s office was next door. So you’d try to have a conversation on the phone with anybody, doing business, and Eugene and Franne were always fighting and she was always crying, always crying. They were in a bad way. Craig was always screaming at somebody, and Gary was in his own world. And I was dealing with Albert Brooks and Penelope Spheeris, because Penelope was producing Albert’s films. She shot them too.
    Albert was always wanting more money. Lorne only needed like tiny pieces and we were getting ten- and twelve-minute pieces. And he’d be on the phone complaining and I’d say, “Albert, we have a whole show here, you can’t do those things, we don’t have the time.” He was good about it, but it was constant, constant, “You can’t do this, Albert.” Finally Penelope would sit on him and get him to cut the film.
    HERBERT SCHLOSSER:
    The Albert Brooks films never appealed to me, to be honest with you. They slowed the show down. I think he’s a brilliant guy, but I just didn’t find him that funny.
    JUDITH BELUSHI:
    In the first three shows, John was the opening scene of the first show and I don’t think he had a good scene again for three shows. Something that made a break of sorts was the third or fourth bee scene, when he went off on “I hate being a bee” and this whole “bee” thing, and he had his antennae swinging around his head in some special way. It was really the first time he got to show his personality and show that there was more to him, and he got a great response. But it took a while. It was slow to grow.
    CANDICE BERGEN, Host:
    After the first couple shows, the dynamics of everything became so complicated and so loaded. People were learning things. They realized that you couldn’t do the show stoned, because they were missing their costume changes. A live show was not compatible with grass. And then the burnout rate was so high, especially for the writers, because they were really just putting in all-nighters routinely.
    CHEVY CHASE:
    On “Weekend Update,” I was being a newscaster; I was being Roger Grimsby, actually. You know, it came out of that: “Good evening, I’m Roger Grimsby, and here now the news.” One of the strangest pieces of syntax I’ve ever heard in my life: “And here now the news.” But I knew I should say something . And on the fourth show, it just came out: “Good evening. I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not.” And that was it.
    CRAIG KELLEM:
    There was a momentum from the beginning, but what was interesting was that, even though I don’t remember the ratings being unbelievable after the first couple of shows, Lorne — ever the decider of what was what — decided the show was a hit right from the beginning