- Michaels co-created Saturday Night Live
- He still works on the show to this day
- He has hinted at retirement
Saturday night Live has been a staple of American television for half a century. It got to celebrate this milestone with a bumper three-and-a-half hour special on February 16, full of sketches and music.
Created back in 1975, the show was the brainchild of Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol, who both worked at NBC and had to develop a new show for Saturday nights.
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Saturday Night Live became a comedy institution, kick-starting the careers of many a writer, actor and comedian. Michaels hasn’t always been on the show’s team, but he has been involved for most of its lifespan.
What has Michaels done in his career?
Michaels has been SNL’s showrunner for much of his life. After creating the late night show in 1975, he got the show off the ground and then left in 1980. He was persuaded to return in 1985 after the show’s reviews and viewership began flagging.
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He has also produced numerous other late-night shows, including Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and the series 30 Rock and Portlandia.
Michaels’ reputation is famously mixed.. Some former cast members speak very fondly of him, especially as a mentorship figure. Others report him being rather cold.
Will Michaels retire now that the show is 50 years old?
Michaels has enjoyed a five-decade long career in television production and remains a part of the furniture at Saturday Night Live. Given that he celebrated his 80th birthday in November, there has been talk of him retiring.
Michaels previously suggested that he would retire once SNL hit its 50th anniversary.
“I think I’m committed to doing the show until its 50th anniversary, which is in three years,” Michaels told CBS Mornings‘ Gayle King in 2021. “I’d like to see that through, and I have a feeling that would be a really good time to leave.”
More recently, however, he appeared to sit on his hands. “I may be wrong. But I don’t feel I’m done,” he told the New York Times .
The SNL 50th anniversary special nodded to this too. In Adam Sandler’s song honouring the show he sang: “50 years of wondering who’s gonna take over the show when Lorne retires. But everyone knows that the answer is of course Speedy.” He was referring to Speedy Rosenthal, a veteran of the show’s music department.
