SNL Up Close: 1986-87

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SNL Up Close: 1986-87

Lorne Michaels’s first year back at Saturday Night Live after a five-year hiatus wasn’t what you would call a success. While the writing staff included a mix of SNL veterans and unknowns that would soon establish themselves on the show, the new cast (which included movie stars Anthony Michael Hall and Randy Quaid) never quite clicked, and the ratings and reviews were less than favorable. The show was on the brink of cancellation that spring, but NBC president Brandon Tartikoff decided to give Michaels and SNL another chance.

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Lorne's Missing Links: Steve Martin's Best Show Ever and The New Show

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Lorne's Missing Links: Steve Martin's Best Show Ever and The New Show

Lorne Michaels stepped away from Saturday Night Live after the show’s fifth season, and his creation was kept alive by other producers, writers and actors for the next five years; when he returned to the show in 1985, he had a whole new cast, but many of the behind-the-scenes personnel were those who had been associated with his original five year tenure, and there were a handful of additions that would shape the show’s tone and look for years to come. Because the Jean Doumanian and Dick Ebersol eras each had their own specific directions and mostly unique personnel. one wonders what the show would have been like if Michaels had stuck around during that time. There are a few hints of what a Michaels-helmed SNL would have looked like in two of his TV productions during that period: Steve Martin’s Best Show Ever, a special Martin did for NBC in November 1981, and The New Show, Michaels’ ill-fated return to weekly network television

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