Saturday Night Live is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, a continuous run almost unheard of in the television business. The show has minted countless comedy stars, provided us with infinite jest and introduced us to amazing musical acts. The 40-year milestone has resulted in a fine documentary called Live from New York. The film is not a laugh fest. Its clips are abbreviated and used for context only. It’s actually a rather sober movie that explores the deeper themes of the show’s success.
The title itself offers an important clue: New York is as much a character on the show as the cast itself. The city is arguably the centre of the cultural universe, and the show has fed off that energy since its inception. It’s no accident that for decades the opening credits have oscillated between shots of cast members and glamour shots of Manhattan.
There’s a story that the show’s founder and Toronto native, Lorne Michaels, originally pitched his idea to the CBC, but they turned him down. If so, it was a good thing: SNL has provided constant commentary on media power and celebrity. It would have to be set in the epicentre of the Zeitgeist, and that just isn’t Toronto.
The “live” in the title is equally important. Live means the show reacts to late-breaking news and incorporates it into timely sketches. But “live” also means the show always has urgency and a sense of danger due to the possibility of a mistake seen by millions of viewers. That was a claim that no other show could make 40 years ago.
The film is most interested in the show’s relationship with the political and social issues of the day. It makes a very good point that SNL made possible comedy news shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The “Weekend Update” segment was said to be a “show within a show” and was often the only place to get a cynical spin on traditional network news.
This interaction with current events is what interests the filmmakers. Some pundits in the film think that Darrell Hammond’s impression of Al Gore as a stiff policy wonk may have cost Gore the election. When Tina Fey did Sarah Palin, it was the beginning of the end of the vice-presidential candidate.
The documentary addresses two criticisms of the show: the lack of ethnic diversity and the shortage of good roles for women. It’s heartbreaking to see Garrett Morris from the first seasons of the show languishing on the bench. And women did not play an equal role on the show until the triumvirate of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Kristin Wiig.
The weakness of Live from New York might be that it ignores that the show’s success also came from its embrace of goofy comedy. Little mention is made of Chris Farley, Adam Sandler and David Spade who became megastars with no political or satirical agendas.
There’s no doubt that SNL has been a force in cultural politics for the past 40 years. But sometimes it just wanted to make us laugh, and sometimes even that is enough.
