“By the beginning of its second season, Saturday Night Live was the talk of television, a national sensation both hot and cool, and the first hit any network ever had at eleven-thirty on Saturday night” (Shales, Miller, 95). From young adults to the senile, Saturday Night Live has had people laughing for nearly forty-one years! This weekly show will go down in television history as one of the most iconic productions of the twentieth and twenty-first century.
With every great show comes a great producer. Lorne Michaels was born on November 17, 1944 in Israel. Shortly after, his family immigrated to Toronto, Canada. At a young age, he was very focused on his creative writing. Graduating from the University of Toronto, he set off for the show business. In 1968, he moved to Los Angeles, California to write and broadcast for CBC Radio. Michaels was employed by NBC at the age of 27, in 1975, to create a show that would replace reruns of The Tonight Show on Saturday nights …show more content…
People needed something to draw them away from their troubles during this time; Lorne Michaels accomplished this for them. By utilizing new forms of comedy such as political satire, he was able to bring people to a new world. As the jokes and skits were painfully true, it granted people laughter and imagination. No one in the history of television had ever mocked the nation’s political system so crastly. No matter what their political opinions were, people on all platforms got a kick out of each episode.
While most appreciated the political comedy involved, it was, and is, biased to liberal views. In 1976, SNL threw their first debate parody while making fun of (former) President Gerald Ford, and his oblivion to his surroundings. Even so, Ford used this to advertise himself; he even let his press secretary, Ron Nessen, to host. This gave Ford political gain, and most likely affected the Presidential Election
With every great show comes a great producer. Lorne Michaels was born on November 17, 1944 in Israel. Shortly after, his family immigrated to Toronto, Canada. At a young age, he was very focused on his creative writing. Graduating from the University of Toronto, he set off for the show business. In 1968, he moved to Los Angeles, California to write and broadcast for CBC Radio. Michaels was employed by NBC at the age of 27, in 1975, to create a show that would replace reruns of The Tonight Show on Saturday nights …show more content…
People needed something to draw them away from their troubles during this time; Lorne Michaels accomplished this for them. By utilizing new forms of comedy such as political satire, he was able to bring people to a new world. As the jokes and skits were painfully true, it granted people laughter and imagination. No one in the history of television had ever mocked the nation’s political system so crastly. No matter what their political opinions were, people on all platforms got a kick out of each episode.
While most appreciated the political comedy involved, it was, and is, biased to liberal views. In 1976, SNL threw their first debate parody while making fun of (former) President Gerald Ford, and his oblivion to his surroundings. Even so, Ford used this to advertise himself; he even let his press secretary, Ron Nessen, to host. This gave Ford political gain, and most likely affected the Presidential Election