Saint Lorne

Prominent on the front page of the February 14th New York Times is a feature story—“14 MIN READ” it said (most articles are two to six minutes), nine pictures, billed as “The Great Read”– by Times’ opinion columnist Maureen Dowd called “Live From New York, It’s Lorne Michaels: The man who made ‘Saturday Night Live’ reflects on its legacy.”

As many people know, Lorne Michaels has been the producer of NBC’s popular once-a-week late-night sketch comedy and contemporary music show from its beginning in 1975 through all but five years of its remarkable 50-year run.  By the way, I watched the first show in ‘75, hosted by comedian George Carlin, my interest piqued because my nephew’s roommate at Harvard, Alan Franken—we didn’t know him as Al—had gotten a job writing on the show.

Lorne Michaels in 1979.

Lorne Michaels now.

These quotes give the flavor of the Dowd piece.  Needless to say, she holds her subject in very high regard:

At 80, Michaels is a unique, towering figure who has shaped comedy for half a century, turning the Art Deco tower at 30 Rockefeller Plaza into a portal for comedy stars on prime-time TV, in the movies, and on late-night shows.  It’s hard to think of someone in comedy who hasn’t been touched by Michaels’s magic wand.

“Without any hyperbole here, I honestly think that Lorne is the most important and influential person in the history of television, including Johnny Carson and Ed Sullivan,” said Ted Sarandos, the Netflix chief executive, who is a comedy buff and loves to catch “S.N.L shows in person.

Since the 50th season premiered last fall, the anniversary of “S.N.L.,” one of a fragmented America’s few remaining communal cultural events, has inspired a steady stream of tributes to the show and its creator.  There was a Jason Reitman origin-story movie called “Saturday Night,” as well as hundreds of feature stories and listicles in the press.  Last month there was a four-part docuseries on the show and another documentary on just the music.  Friday night brings an “S.N.L” concert at Radio City Music Hall, livestreaming on Peacock.  A 600-plus page biography of Michaels titled “Lorne” by Susan Morrison, an editor at The New Yorker, comes out next week.  It all culminates on Sunday with a live three-hour prime-time special looking back on “S.N.L.” and its singular legacy.

And so on.

By the end of the “14 min. read,” I agreed with Maureen Dowd that Lorne Michael Lipowitz (birth name), Canadian, came to the U.S. at 23, sure has done well by himself since he got here.

At the end of the article was a comments section.

The Times needs your voice. We welcome your on-topic commentary, criticism and expertise.  Comments are moderated for civility.

I’m not as big a fan of Lorne Michaels as Ms. Dowd is, so I thought to balance things off I’d offer a comment that is a little critical of his contribution to the world and sent this in:

As I thought about SNL prompted by the article and read through the list of Lorne Michaels’ outside productions—Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show,” Seth Meyers’ “Late Night,” “30 Rock,” “Mean Girls,” “Wayne’s World,” “Tommy Boy,” “Portlandia,” and “Kenan”—the terms “successful mass entertainment” and “liberal sell” came to mind but “quality” and “cultural uplift” didn’t.

The Times, these days a journal of establishment-left opinion, printed the comment; I was wondering if it would.  A total of 132 comments including mine, though mine didn’t make a splash at all, at least judging by reader replies.  My comment got just two favorable replies.  A scant few of the 132 commenters were down there in number with me.  This one got 122 favorable replies:

Lorne was born and raised and educated in our great city of Toronto in the great independent country of Canada.  Home also of the global icon Drake. His quiet confidence and sublime sense of humour makes the world laugh.  For fifty years he has made us laugh and gotten us through some tough times. Think 9/11. Hopefully he will help us laugh our way through the Trump reign and beyond. Thank you, Mr. Michaels.

and this one got 127:

I enjoy the show from time to time, but I will never forgive them for allowing Trump and Musk to host, thereby giving them a platform to make them seem normal and not like the sociopaths they actually are. A stained legacy to be sure.

I guess my type doesn’t go over big with Times readers, which is their right. At least I got my comment out there. Now I’m wondering who my two favorable repliers were.