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

Danny’s talent was, because he would disappear into characters. And Chevy just shot ahead. It wasn’t that surprising. It was going to take John a little while longer. He was used to being beloved on the stage of the Lampoon show and had a following of people, but to translate to television, especially if you have an attitude about television, takes a little while.
    CHEVY CHASE:
    I felt it was relatively easy. I’d come in and pick stuff up and learn stuff and simply walk through it, basically. I don’t remember it being particularly difficult. You know, I have to say that, going in, one of the things that made the show successful to begin with that first year and made me successful was this feeling of “I don’t give a crap.” And that came partially out of the belief that we were the top of the minors in late-night television and that we wouldn’t go anywhere anyway. So we had no set of aspirations in the sense that this would be a showcase to drive us to bigger and better things.
    ALAN ZWEIBEL:
    We worked on “Update” to the very last minute. Between dress and air on Saturday nights, I would go up to my office and I would watch the eleven o’clock news and if something hit me, I’d write it and it would be on television a half-hour later. You know, there were two shows where I was literally under the “Update” desk writing stuff and handing it up to Chevy while he was actually on the air.
    ROBERT KLEIN:
    Everyone was quite terrified about the live television aspect of the show. Most of the people in that building at NBC in New York hadn’t done a live show since Howdy Doody. As a matter of fact, one of the first SNL shows had a blank gray screen for forty-five seconds. A network show and nothing but gray for forty-five seconds because of the improvising and screwups of doing it live.
    NEIL LEVY:
    Lorne quit on the Robert Klein show. They took away his lighting man and his sound man. Lorne had promised his guests the best sound and the best lighting. That was one of his promises to the people he’d gotten to do the first ten shows. He was furious that NBC had taken away his people. I think he realized at the time that if he didn’t make a stand, they’d be stepping all over him. So he told NBC that he would walk unless they returned his lighting guy and his sound guy.
    And he walked. He was not there. He left. He went back to his apartment and stayed there most of the week playing poker. Robert Klein showed up and said, “Where’s the producer?” And we said, “Oh, he’s around. He’ll be here soon.” And the whole week went by and he wasn’t there. But Lorne won. It was a victory. I think he came back Friday or Saturday. A lot of people would have said, “We’ll make do with this sound guy and this lighting guy,” and he said, “No, I’ve got to have the best.” And that philosophy has served him well.
    HOWARD SHORE:
    We were really kind of subversive in a number of ways. O’Donoghue and I were always trying to book acts on the show and then do things to them. They were so happy to be on the show, they didn’t really notice. I remember when Robert Klein hosted, O’Donoghue put Abba on a Titanic set and tried to drown them. He thought Abba was kitsch.
    LORNE MICHAELS:
    Abba was the first and only act that lip-synched. And that was Dick. Dick was Abba. That was all he cared about; he left the rest of the music to me and Howard. But with Abba, he just wouldn’t take no for an answer.
    DAVE WILSON:
    Lorne did not like lip-synching, and Lorne did not like — and I always thought it was a tribute to him — Lorne did not like close-ups of fingers on instruments. He always said, “We’re not giving music lessons.” Because you want to see the man’s or woman’s face; it was their inner feelings in creating this music that was worth seeing, not where their fingers were placed on the strings.
    LILY TOMLIN:
    I don’t remember entirely the first time I saw the show. I think I just thought