Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels fears for the future of the iconic comedy show he founded five decades ago.
In a new documentary about the comedy legend, simply titled Lorne, the SNL creator is recorded confiding in longtime friend Steve Martin about the show’s ability to survive after his retirement.
During an intimate dinner scene, the 16-time host asks Michaels, 81, whether he’ll retire.
“I’m not there,” he answers, shaking his head.
He tells Martin, 80, that as long as he’s helming the show, NBC won’t “attack” it, but as soon as he’s gone, the network will break it down in such a “wasteful manner.”
Michaels’ prediction is not made lightly. Earlier in the documentary, the 25-time Emmy winner recalled that NBC had threatened him with exactly the same actions in 1985.
After five acclaimed seasons at SNL, Michaels departed the show in 1980 when his first contract with NBC ended, citing burnout. He said the network didn’t try to stop him.
SNL “had to be blown up,” he says in the documentary. “I didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to do that.”
During his five-year absence, SNL‘s ratings had taken a downturn, and the network wanted him back on. A skeptical Michaels met with NBC’s head of entertainment.
In that meeting, according to the documentary, Michaels was told that the show he conceived would be run into the ground, ratings would tank, and NBC would be forced to take it off the air if he did not return. So he did.
It appears as though Michaels fears the same will happen upon his retirement.
The documentary’s director, Morgan Neville, agreed that Michaels is in a perpetual state of worry about the show.
“If I’m guessing at Lorne’s psychology, he still feels like he’s in the trenches, fighting,” Neville, 58, told Vanity Fair.
When the filmmaker asked him when the show became an institution that wouldn’t go away, Michaels replied, “Maybe this year?”
As the show finishes its 51st season, there has been much speculation about who would, or even could, succeed Michaels as the head of SNL. Neither the documentary nor Michaels gave any indication of who it might be.
“I don’t think there’s one person that can take over,” Neville said, citing longtime SNL mainstays like Seth Meyers, Tina Fey, and Steve Higgins.
“There’s the making of the show, and then there’s the person who can get anybody on the phone, who has enough weight, cultural weight that they can stand up for the show,” the Oscar-winning filmmaker continued.
“When people talk about Tina or Seth—they have enough of a profile that they can publicly defend the show and keep it in the cultural conversation. But my guess is that maybe two or even three people would take over the responsibility of the show,” Neville predicted.
Michaels himself has quipped that Fey could “easily” take over, but has otherwise stayed silent on the topic. For now, Michaels will continue to rudder the ship himself.
Lorne premieres in theaters on April 17.
