{"id":2416907,"date":"2025-03-28T00:11:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T04:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/for-lorne-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-03-28T00:14:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T04:14:48","slug":"for-lorne-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/for-lorne-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"For Lorne &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffor-lorne-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2416907&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article focuses on Lorne Michaels, the creator of &#8220;Saturday Night Live&#8221; (SNL), through the lens of Susan Morrison\u2019s biography, &#8220;Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live.&#8221; Born in Toronto in 1944, Michaels developed an early interest in comedy influenced by American television and mentorship from Canadian comedian Frank shuster. The biography outlines his journey from performing as part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/netflix-dominates-2021-golden-globe-nominations-full-list-announced\/\" title=\"Netflix Dominates 2021 Golden Globe Nominations: Full List Announced\">comedy duo<\/a> to leading one of television&#8217;s most iconic sketch shows.<\/p>\n<p>Michaels&#8217;s vision for SNL was to create humor that resonated on a personal level, emphasizing genuine laughter over customary scripted skits. His tenure at SNL has been marked by a strong individualistic approach, with the show&#8217;s success often attributed to his unique perspective and ability to adapt to changing cultural landscapes. Despite SNL experiencing several changes in its cast and writers over the decades, Michaels&#8217;s influence has provided a sense of continuity.<\/p>\n<p>The biography highlights both Michaels&#8217;s successes and his creative struggles, especially during periods when he temporarily stepped away from the show. It also addresses the challenges he faced in adapting to the political climate surrounding SNL,notably following the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>Although Morrison&#8217;s biography delves deeply into Michaels&#8217;s life, it also explores themes of cultural significance and personal ambition, raising questions about the lasting impact of Michaels&#8217;s work in a rapidly evolving entertainment industry. it presents a complete look at a central figure in American comedy, affirming his lasting influence while also noting the personal and professional challenges he has encountered.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">For Lorne: Another Saturday night<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>Born in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/toronto\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Toronto<\/a> in 1944, Lorne David Lipowitz, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2640252\/sean-spicer-lorne-michaels-should-be-fired\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Lorne Michaels<\/a> was known at birth, was, like all baby boomers, seemingly predisposed to undermine, question, and, above all, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/parody\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">parody<\/a> the prevailing conventions of his civilization. &ldquo;People start to be funny early in their lives, when they notice the difference between the official version and what their eyes and ears tell them,&rdquo; said Michaels, who is described in Susan Morrison&rsquo;s authoritative new biography as being an eager devotee of American television, especially <em>The Phil Silvers Show<\/em>. Fatherless at 14, Michaels welcomed the mentorship of Frank Shuster, part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/canada\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Canadian<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/comedy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">comedy<\/a> team that had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tony-roberts-1939-2025-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Tony Roberts, 1939\u20132025 - Washington Examiner\">logged appearances<\/a> on <em>The Ed Sullivan Show<\/em> and the father of Michaels&rsquo;s future wife, Rosie. &ldquo;Shuster explained how jokes worked,&rdquo; Morrison writes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/magazine-obituary\/3360663\/obituary-george-foreman-1949-2025\/\">George Foreman, 1949-2025<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/3357067\/black-bag-movie-review-steven-soderbergh-spies\/\">Soderbergh&rsquo;s stylish spies<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/3356863\/1999-line-between-high-and-low-culture-collapsed\/\">1999: The year the line between high and low culture collapsed<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live; by Susan Morrison; Random House; 644 pp., $36.00<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The die was cast. Joined by pal Hart Pomerantz, and initially bearing his original name, Michaels performed as the comedy duo Lipowitz and Pomerantz. Later, the pair became the eponymous co-hosts of one of innumerable purported<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/saturday-night-live\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"> <em>Saturday Night Live <\/em>prototypes<\/a>, <em>The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour<\/em> on the CBC. The <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">team found paying work<\/a> as writers on <em>The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show<\/em> and <em>Laugh-In<\/em>, and, in a solo capacity, Michaels worked on specials for Lily Tomlin and Perry Como. These were not awful credits, but for Michaels, they felt like simply a matter of marking time. Enter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/nbc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">NBC executive<\/a> Dick Ebersol, who, seeking original programming to supplant reruns of <em>The Tonight Show<\/em> on Saturday evenings, met with Michaels. &ldquo;For the first time in my life, I knew who I was,&rdquo; Michaels said. &ldquo;I could&rsquo;ve been persuasive, or possibly charming, at other times in my life, but this time, I was very clear on what I wanted to do.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>After much haranguing and convincing, the blank space on the schedule became <em>Saturday Night Live<\/em>, whose deceptively simple credo was enunciated by Michaels to his first squad of writers and performers: &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s make each other laugh, and if we do, we&rsquo;ll put it on television and maybe other people will find it funny.&rdquo; Neatly undercutting this assertion, Morrison assiduously documents the countless policies and procedures that governed Michaels&rsquo;s reign at <em>SNL<\/em>, including his insistence on distinguishing between one-note &ldquo;skits&rdquo; and fully fleshed-out &ldquo;sketches;&rdquo; his directive to writers whose pitches were too complex, known as &ldquo;premise overload;&rdquo; and his instruction to make the set intimate and shambling rather than, in the manner of past TV variety shows, huge and sleek.<\/p>\n<p>While so many movies and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tv\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">TV shows <\/a>seem ruled by nameless executives, informed by self-defeating focus groups or test-marketing strategies, and produced amid an atmosphere of inoffensive caution, <em>SNL<\/em> has operated, for the great majority of its five decades on the air, as a vessel for the individual sensibility of its creator and producer. To be sure,<em> SNL<\/em> has experienced frequent, sometimes annual, changeover in many creative departments, from the writers&rsquo; room to the on-screen talent. Yet Michaels, who has overseen every season of the show but five in the 1980s, has imposed on <em>SNL<\/em> a unique constancy, a commitment to a certain brand of humor at once deeply goofy and believably true. This ethos unites such otherwise unrelated skits as Garrett Morris&rsquo;s &ldquo;News for the Hard of Hearing,&rdquo; Mike Myers&rsquo;s Wayne Campbell and Linda Richman, guest Sam Waterston&rsquo;s commercial for robot insurance, and host Christopher Walken&rsquo;s record producer who inexplicably insists on &ldquo;more cowbell&rdquo; &mdash; each created, written, and performed by someone other than Michaels, but nonetheless bearing his unmistakable, auteur-like imprint.<\/p>\n<p>The 80-year-old sketch comedy mogul&rsquo;s longevity is an invitation for biographers, and Morrison has obliged by producing a doorstop of a book that details its subject&rsquo;s life and work with depth and insight. Although her book can suffer from a degree of inapposite self-seriousness, Morrison, by and large, succeeds in confirming Michaels&rsquo;s significance and celebrating his endurance in the transient land of TV. &ldquo;In <em>Peter Pan<\/em>, the boys never grow up,&rdquo; Morrison writes. &ldquo;At SNL, they are rotated out and replaced, with Michaels presiding in a role that&rsquo;s part Wendy, part Captain Hook. He didn&rsquo;t escape aging, but the company he&rsquo;s kept has prevented him from becoming a dinosaur, or worse, an unhip dinosaur.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Although the vintage years of<em> SNL<\/em> have been well and tiresomely documented, Morrison has the advantage of recounting them anew through a single pair of eyes. Thus we learn about Michaels&rsquo;s salary terms, his interactions with network higher-ups of various eras, and his careful fitting together of the right mix of writers, performers, musicians, and guests innumerable times over the course of dozens of seasons. Many of the Michaels-adjacent stories will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/intel-officials-caught-attempting-to-undermine-dni-tulsi-gabbard-from-within-report\/\" title=\"Intel Officials Caught &#039;Attempting to Undermine&#039; DNI Tulsi Gabbard &#039;from Within&#039;: Report\">sound familiar &#038;mdash<\/a>; say, the accounts of Chevy Chase&rsquo;s boastfulness and John Belushi&rsquo;s wantonness &mdash; but Morrison tells them well.<\/p>\n<p>Equally well managed are Michaels&rsquo;s period of exile and homecoming: From 1980 to 1985, <em>SNL<\/em> was turned over to others, including, most notoriously, Woody Allen&rsquo;s one-time best friend Jean Doumanian during the ill-fated 1980-81 season. Wooed back to salvage his creation, Michaels presided over some patchy seasons of his own &mdash; remember Anthony Michael Hall as one of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players? &mdash; before being delivered by ace talent on the order of Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, and Jan Hooks. There were still ups and downs to come, but, for Michaels, the ups outweighed the downs. Morrison writes of how easily Michaels acclimated himself to a lifestyle of the rich and famous, upgrading his wardrobe and &ldquo;trading his sneakers and desert boots for loafers&rdquo; by the fourth season, acquiring grand tastes, collecting grand friends, and making a small fortune through savvy business deals at his company, Broadway Video.<\/p>\n<p>Yet a curious air of disappointment hovers over the last chapters of this exhaustive book. Michaels is said to have harbored dreams of classy, sophisticated moviemaking &mdash; a modern version of <em>Pride and Prejudice<\/em> is mentioned &mdash; but his efforts on the big screen have netted little more than reheated leftovers of <em>SNL<\/em> material, such as <em>Superstar <\/em>or <em>A Night at the Roxbury<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Is Michaels serious when he claims the mindless Chris Farley romp <em>Tommy Boy<\/em> is &ldquo;a rough version&rdquo; of his life? For that matter, is Morrison serious when she asserts that the same movie has acquired &ldquo;a kind of a cult status&rdquo;? To quote Peggy Lee, is that all there is? Michaels sounds wary as he tries to retain his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jack-black-addresses-controversial-trump-joke-sparks-deportation-warning-is-tenacious-d-over\/\" title=\"Jack Black addresses controversial Trump joke, sparks deportation warning. Is Tenacious D over?\">show&#038;rsquo<\/a>;s alleged &ldquo;plague on both your houses&rdquo; spirit of nonpartisan humor amid a cast beset by Trump hatred. Only a defeated man would consent, as Michaels did, to Kate McKinnon in her Hillary Clinton regalia dolefully singing Leonard Cohen&rsquo;s &ldquo;Hallelujah&rdquo; on the episode following the 2016 presidential election. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the hardest thing for me to explain to this generation that the show is nonpartisan,&rdquo; Michaels said.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/magazine-life-arts\/3350948\/alec-baldwin-family-reality-show\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">ALEC BALDWIN&rsquo;S BROODING ERA <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Once it winds its way past the genuinely exciting and innovative origins of <em>SNL<\/em>, the book itself seems increasingly like a case of special pleading on behalf of its subject. To cite one example, the antic lunacy of <em>Saturday Night Live<\/em> and the genteel reserve of the<em> New Yorker<\/em> magazine seem miles apart. But Morrison, the articles editor of the<em> New Yorker<\/em>, is weirdly determined to thread her magazine through the story: Michaels is described as wanting his show &ldquo;to feel like an issue of <em>The New Yorker<\/em>.&rdquo; Magazine stalwart Lillian Ross makes multiple cameo appearances while researching a profile of Michaels. And, most astonishingly, Michaels is said to have persuaded himself that much-loved editor William Shawn might tap him to take over the magazine. &ldquo;The problem with the idea of being the editor of <em>The New Yorker<\/em> was that I have a need for action,&rdquo; Michaels said, as though the idea was not unspeakably peculiar apart from his expressed disinterest in the job. You get the picture. Here and elsewhere, Morrison errs in taking and treating her subject too seriously. Is it not enough that Michaels concocted a show with such wonderful instances of outrageousness as Belushi and Morris&rsquo;s Killer Bees and Rachel Dratch&rsquo;s Debbie Downer, and that he offered the Beatles a couple thousand bucks to reunite? Must he also be William Shawn&rsquo;s successor in spirit?<\/p>\n<p>All the same, Morrison&rsquo;s book is likely to stand as one of the most substantial works to emerge about our infatuation with <em>SNL<\/em>. Our culture is saturated with books, specials, and even the occasional feature film, last autumn&rsquo;s <em>Saturday Night<\/em>, that commemorate the real and imagined greatness of <em>SNL<\/em>. But Morrison&rsquo;s book, flaws and all, sets itself apart from the horde for being a real biography of the show&rsquo;s inimitable prime mover.<\/p>\n<p><em>Peter Tonguette is a contributing writer to the <\/em>Washington Examiner <em>magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lorne Michaels, born in 1944 in Toronto, challenged societal norms through humor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2691,"featured_media":2416908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/LA.Books_AnotherSaturday.040225.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[52374,5894,32076],"class_list":["post-2416907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-lorne","tag-politics","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/LA.Books_AnotherSaturday.040225.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2691"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2416907"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2416911,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416907\/revisions\/2416911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2416908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2416907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2416907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2416907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}