It was a late Thursday morning in 30 rock and “Saturday Night Live” Chief author Kent Sublette, Streeter Seidell and Alison Gates ran on caffeine and willpower. According to “SNL” Tradition, they stayed up all night Tuesday and wrote potential sketches for this week’s show. Then, on Wednesday evening, they chose the sketches that would move on for the last episode of the season with host Walton Goggins.
This was on top of a star-studded 50-season special in February with icons such as Eddie Murphy, Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell Gracing 8H scene again. Oh, yes, it was also an election year.
“It was just a type of vortex,” Seidell said of the season, who also saw Komos from Adam Sandler and Dana Carvey every week when the show celebrated their cultural heritage. He added, “Your brain just has to submit it as usual work, which“ It is normal for Mike Myers to be here. “” Then Sublette jumped in: “It is normal for you to go through security with Kamala Harris and security guards with AR-15.”
Executive producer and “SNL” Creator Lorne Michaels threw the show’s great political roles during the summer, before the 50th season began: Maya Rudolph as Harris, Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff, Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz and Dana Carvey as Joe Biden. (It was in addition to James Austin Johnson who reprinted his impression of Donald Trump and role member Bowen Yang who was dropped to play JD Vance.) Gates said to work with the group of returning veterinarians was a excitement, not only on the cold opener but also in other sketches, according to the Came-filled season. “They are so good and have such fun ideas,” she said.
“There is obviously a large family element for” SNL, “said Sublette, who has been in the show since 2007.” When these people come back you feel it and you feel they feel it and that is a special thing. “He added that everyone felt the pressure to get the choice right, but everyone who had” the same pressure on them raised it to a point where this seems impossible, but we will figure it out. “
Assignments completed. The episodes before the election had their share of moments that broke through to the bigger Zeitgeist, not least was Kamala Harris’ Cameo just days before the election, when she appeared in a sketch that played her own reflection in a mirror opposite Rudolph. The mirror piece was Michael’s idea, said the authors, and there was some fear that viewers would cry foul because a mirror gag had just been used a few weeks earlier with Jennifer Coolidge. As it turns out, Frettingen was unfounded.
“When the lights came up at Kamala, you felt the audience was just going crazy. You knew they would be appreciative and excited, but it felt very huge and especially when they saw her sitting out there,” Sublette said. To make it even more nerve-racking, Harris was unable to participate in the clothing rehearsal, so the Vice President performed the sketch on stage for the first time on live TV.
In the wake of the choice “SNL” The view consistently remained robust and the viewer reaction to the show remained largely positive week after week. No small performance for a program that is usually declared “dead” at least once every two to third years.
“Week to week is the job we have all done for several years,” Seidell said. “But it feels like the reception of the show has been pretty good this season. We see new role members pop, and it is always exciting to see the public discover someone and really like them, and then it can in a way direct writing a bit.”
That was really the case for Marcello Hernandez, who joined the show in 2022 but met Rarefied Air during Season 50 with the recurring character of Domingo, the paramouren for an pillaring bride to be. After the character debuted in October, there were two more Domingo sketches during the season, including one on the 50th anniversary special, with Pedro Pascal and Bad Bunny in supporting roles.
Seidell, Sublette and Gates were all happy to see Hernandez’s character break out, but admitted that they were surprised that the sketch took off as it did. “You just can’t say what people will love,” Seidell said. “I always forget, no one wrote a recurring sketch and thought it would be recurring,” added Gates, but Sublette was quick to note, “Domingo deserves.”
The main authors were also keen to point out that they feel that the writing staff has only become stronger in recent years, with a diverse group of young comedy-votes-Stand-ups, artists, author-to-the-mixture, everyone works to keep “SNL” current. “If I like every single thing in the show it’s a problem, because that means it’s just focused on me,” Seidell said about how he sees his role as the main author, a job previously held by Seth Meyers and Tina Fey. “It’s not that I hate things, but I am,” it’s not really my humor, but everyone laughed at it so I have to admit that this deserves a place in the show. “
Sublette added that Michaels advocates for some sketches based on how often a role member may have appeared during the season. “I think Lorne is good at taking a chance at things,” he said, noting that even though there is only one thing with a sketch that feels special, he will often give it a shot. “Often it was right and became good, and we try to look at the big picture of our role and which is also represented.”
Domingo was one of many this season exploding on social media, where Gen Z seems to get the majority of his “SNL” intake. In many ways “Saturday Night Live” Is tailor-made for the Tiktok era, with three to six-minute sketches that are easily stuck for online viewing. “I think Lorne knew that in 1975 and he said:” In 50 years this format will cut wonderfully, “Seidell said.
“It’s always been a show to discover like a young person; it’s only done in a new way,” Sublette said. “I would tape it on VHS and watch it with my friends the next day.”
But “SNL’s” reputation has been reinforced by the spread of online -Viral sketches separated from the show, Seidell said. “It’s really nice with Youtube and things, you can normally find a light place every show, while maybe before you just had to take it as a whole.”
Something else is different in social media era: Many of the show stars have their own follows on Instagram and Tiktok, with role members such as Bowen Yang, Sarah Sherman, Chloe Fineman, Ego Nwodim and Hernandez who often publish clips or behind the scenes look on their personal pages. And the new role member Jane Wickline joined the show with more than 1 million Tiktok followers.
So is “SNL” Competing with the creator economy? “Sometimes the idea feels almost like the opposite, where it’s like,” What can we do here – because of the production – that you couldn’t do on your own? “, Said Gates.” So something scaled down can work on Tiktok, but with the fantastic sets and things we can pull off here, what can you just do here? “
The strength of this era was clear in the 50th anniversary special, which used the current role in addition to inheritance. “When you walked into that room and saw who sat in the crowd, I felt such gratitude,” Seidell said. “I have to be like a small part of this thing that was powerful enough to reconcile all these people.” As one of the warm -up artists for the audience, Heidi Gardner reminded the absurdity of being commissioned to hype up a crowd that included Jack Nicholson before the show went live. “I just couldn’t believe what happened,” she said.
The main authors worked with other “SNL” Veterinarians like Fey, Meyers and John Mulanaey, who came back to the table to build live anniversary show. Both Sublette and Seidell were at “SNL” For the 40th anniversary special and foreseen that the 50th would be “overwhelming.” But when it was time to put the pen on paper, they said that all preparation set them for success.
“When we had written it, the actual amount of work that each of us had to do no bigger than a regular show,” Seidell explained. “Everyone had one or two things they were responsible for and then you had longer to work with it. So for me it was like,” Oh, this is almost, I dare say, easier than the usual show this week. “
The constant is of course Michaels, who still drives “SNL” weekly. Despite the pension rumor that bubbles, the 80-year-old does not indicate that he intends to leave the show he has ruled for almost half a century. And a couple of hours after the interview with Sublette, Seidell and Gates, the 17th floor was filled in 30 rock with the smell of popcorn, Michael’s favorite snack. “Does that mean Lorne is here?” This reporter asked a young NBC page.
“It actually does!” The page responded and smiles broadly. Back to work.
This story First ran in the comedy edition of Thewrap’s Awards Magazine. Read more from the question here.
