Saturday Night Live Transcripts
Special: Live From New York: The First 5 Years of Saturday Night Live
Live From New York: The First 5 Years of Saturday Night Live
…..Lorne Michaels
…..Dan Aykroyd
…..Marilyn Suzanne Miller
…..Herb Sargent
…..Eric Idle
…..Eugene Lee
…..Rosie Shuster
…..Candace Bergen
…..Bernie Brillstein
[ return from commercial on The Band’s medley performance, 10/31/76 ]
The Band: [ singing ]
“Life is a carnival, believe it or not
Life is a carnival, two bits a shot.”
Eugene Lee: The idea of a show having a home in that sort of setting was very disorienting. But Lorne wanted to be right in the heart of it.
Craig Kellem: At 30 Rockefeller Plaza, you feel overwhelmed by show business. You have the quintessential New York attitude, which is, “We don’t care who you are, and who are you?”
Dan Aykroyd: I always had trouble getting in. The guards just never respected me.
Marilyn Miller: They didn’t know what they were going to encounter when they got off the elevator, and they didn’t want to know.
Tom Davis: It was rough out there on 17.
Howard Shore: 17th floor is a mad house. There’s no question about it. I mean, it was crazy.
Marilyn Miller: You know, it looks — it looks like a dorm. [ cackles ] It looked like utter Hell.
Steve Martin: It looks like a dorm.
Marilyn Miller: That’s what it was, it was a dorm. With all the desks, like, in the hallways, one after another.
Herb Sargent: Like an Army base. It was like a camp. If you opened the door, you would hear screaming, or laughter, or fighting, or something. Close the door, and it was quiet again.
Eric Idle: It was like a huge play pen for comedians and writers. And they said, “Here’s NBC, and from here on, it isn’t NBC. It’s Anti-NBC.”
[ Eric Idle monologue, 1978 ]
Eric Idle: Hey, I thought this sketch had been cut. Yeah, this is out. This is out. Have you seen the writers, anybody? Oh, God. [ Sitar music ] Hello?
Dan Aykroyd: We were living in the building, a lot of us. I managed to get a shower and bunk beds installed in my office.
Marilyn Miller: Nobody would go, “just a moment, would you hold on? I’ll get him.” They’d go, “There’s a phone call for you in your room!” “Your room.” Rockefeller center was “your room.”
Howard Shore: I think the 17th floor was nicer than any of our apartments. We didn’t make much money.
Eugene Lee: I mean, we were rowdy back then, you know? We were very rowdy, that’s all. I mean, the elevator door on 17 was all busted up, you know, because, what do you do when you wait for the elevator? You kick the door.
[ cut to entrance of “Interior Demolitionists” ]
Good morning, Ma’am.
Good morning, Ma’am. Interior demolitionists. Are you Mrs. Henderson?
Mrs. Henderson: Yeah. Interior demolitionists?
Yeah. Where do you want us to begin?
Mrs. Henderson: [ calling upstairs ] Honey, did you send for Interior demolitionists?
Rosie Shuster: There was a food metaphor Lorne had, like, “We know the ingredients, we just don’t know the quantity and the recipe. So we’re going to find it on its feet.”
Lorne Michaels: We had a momentum. We were doing shows one after another. And there was an incredible level of fatigue. And excitement.
Dick Ebersol: Show four, with Candy Bergen, is the first show that begins to have, sort of, that infectious, mass cast kind of feeling of, “We’re all having, really, a good time here.”
[ clips from Bergen’s first episode: Ford, Bee Monologue, World Leader, Albert Brooks, Kiwi ]
[ cut to opening of “Jaws II” ]
[ doorbell sounds ]
Woman #1: [ moves to chain-locked door ] Who is it?
Land Shark: [ muffled voice ] Mrs. Ramilarghh??
Woman #1: Who is it?
Land Shark: [ muffled voice ] Plumber..
Woman #1: Plumber? I didn’t ask for a plumber. Who is it?
Land Shark: [ muffled voice ] Telegram.
Woman #1: Oh. Telegram. Just a moment.
[ unlocks door, and opens it. The head of the shark appears, grabbing her arm and pulling her into the hallway as she screams. ]
[ SUPER: “Jaws II” ]
Lorne Michaels: I think the confidence that we had came from being a group. There was so much talent around that you just fed off it.
Candace Bergen: From the first show, to the one I did, which I think was the fourth show, “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” became part of the pop culture. [ cut to opening of “Weekend Update” ]
Announcer: and now, “Weekend Update” with Chevy Chase.
Chevy Chase: [ into phone ] What do you mean you’re late? How late? Two weeks late. That could be emotions. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it, okay? Okay. Good-bye, Barbara. Margaret. I’m sorry.
Good evening, I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not.
Bernie Brillstein: And Chevy was a star before he was a star. You know, he just looked like a star, acted like a star and was really talented.
Dan Aykroyd: He wrote for the other cast members, you know? He was very generous that way. And he exploded very fast to superstardom status.
Belushi: Well, Mr. Chase…
Lorne Michaels: When they’d done “Lemmings,” John was the star of the show. And I think that it just began to alter the balance.
[ Belushi punches Chevy ]
Marilyn Miller: Chevy was supposed to be, sort of, the Cary Grant of the cast. He was the W.A.S.P., Handsome Guy. The rest of us were considered schlubs.[ cut to “Chevy’s Girls” ]
Chevy’s Girls: [ singing ]
“Chevy! Chevy!
I love when you fall down
Each “Saturday Night” on my TV.
Oh, but, Chevy, every time you take that fall
I wish that you were falling, falling for me!”
[ cut to the 1976 Emmy Awards ]
Redd Foxx: For Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Variety or Music Series, Chevy Chase.
[ Chevy Chase jokingly stumbles his way toward the podium ]
Chevy Chase: Needless to say, this is totally expected on my part. [ Light laughter ]
For Outstanding Comedy, Variety or Music Series, “NBC’s Saturday Night.” Lorne Michaels, producer.
[ Lorne Michaels run up to the stage to accept his Emmy award ]
Lorne Michaels V/O: And I thought, “It’s not going to get better than this. Is there a way I can get out of here?”
Lorne Michaels: [ at the podium ] I would like to thank the people at NBC, most notably, Dick Ebersol, who was there at the beginning, and has supported us all along. I’d also like to thank the city of New York for the correct combination of rejection and alienation, which keeps the comedy spirit alive. [ laughter ] I’d like to thank the best production staff, a lot of old timers who worked in live television, and neglected to mention what it was like before we started.
Lorne Michaels: That’s when the Industry began to notice us. And after that, the state of grace that we’d been in up to that point changed.
[ commercial break ]
