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By Root 1484 0

say the same thing about the Johnny Carson show. And I think you could say, even though he’s not the actual host but he is the godfather of the show, I think you could say the same about Lorne. He is this very particular sort of show business maven that only exists in regularly scheduled television. It doesn’t exist in movies. Lorne’s produced movies, but other than getting them made, I don’t think you could say he’s had a resounding influence as a movie producer. But in the medium of TV, where you do a show week after week, Lorne has maintained this level of pacemaking influence that has not altered over the years. Saturday Night Live has remained socially relevant literally because of him.

RICK LUDWIN, NBC Vice President for Late Night:

I want to leave before Lorne does. I would rather not have the job of trying to find someone to replace him. I’m definitely timing my exit to precede his. I’m just making sure that I go before he does.

MARILYN SUZANNE MILLER:

I was in Los Angeles writing a novel and found something in my breast the size of a lemon. So I got on a plane an hour later and came back to New York. Within twenty-four hours I knew I had breast cancer. Mine was advanced breast cancer, which is to say I didn’t have metastatic breast cancer, but I did have a huge tumor with many nodes, so I had experimental chemo. I told my manager, “I don’t want to go back to L.A. I’m too scared.” So I was going to stay in New York and have this chemo and radiation. And I was just in shock. At that point I didn’t know if I was going to live or die. It was very aggressive cancer.

Lorne had of course been on the phone with me. Everybody from the original show called — the family thing again. Our ties are very emotional. Then one day Lorne called me up. He knew I wanted to be in New York for the treatments and that I had left a job in L.A. And he said, “How’d you like to come back to the show?” And I thought, “Yeah! Love to!” So in the spring I went back. Back home — to Saturday Night Live.

ALAN ZWEIBEL:

I’d like for God to give me back the time that I invested in trying to figure Lorne out. I would like to have those hours and weeks and months back. I guess it’s like someone trying to figure out their parents. There was a real need for validation from him, and now that I’ve been away from it for so long, when I do see Lorne, there’s still that thing where you want him to know that you’re doing okay, you want him to be proud. You’re like, “Hey, I had a part in this.” So there were ill feelings at one time, but they were born out of a different situation.

When most of us got there in ’75 and started the show, Lorne’s predictions started coming true, and we said, “This guy’s a prophet, you know, look at this, everything he’s predicting is happening. I’ll hitch my wagon to his horse.” And then years later, I went to the twenty-fifth-anniversary show. It’s funny, because it didn’t feel like twenty-five years, but as you looked around and you added up stuff here and there — well, yeah, I guess that does equal twenty-five years. I was sitting there looking around at the people who were there and coming onstage. I was thinking, look who came through here, look at what it gave birth to, and look at how much money there is in this room right now.

And I thought, “Look what Lorne did. Look at what he’s done!”

ANNE BEATTS:

Lorne did have a note from Gilda on his bulletin board that said, “Lorne, I’m happy. Love, Gilda.” But enough about Lorne. What about me?

SNL Cast Lists

SEASON BY SEASON

1975–76

Dan Aykroyd

John Belushi

Chevy Chase

Jane Curtin

Garrett Morris

Laraine Newman

Gilda Radner

1976–77

Dan Aykroyd

John Belushi

Chevy Chase

Jane Curtin

Garrett Morris

Bill Murray

Laraine Newman

Gilda Radner

1977–78

Dan Aykroyd

John Belushi

Jane Curtin

Garrett Morris

Bill Murray

Laraine Newman

Gilda Radner

1978–79

Dan Aykroyd

John Belushi

Jane Curtin

Garrett Morris

Bill Murray

Laraine Newman

Gilda Radner

1979–80

Jane Curtin

Garrett Morris

Bill Murray

Laraine Newman

Gilda Radner

Harry Shearer

1980