What is the show?
Thats what a nervous NBC kept asking about its newly conceivedSaturday NightLive50 years ago.
Its young producer,Lorne Michaels, never answered.
Lorne Michaels, ‘Saturday Night’Getty/Everett
Will filmgoers follow his example?
Certainly not the acclaim prompted by the launch of the 50th anniversarySNLseason.
So what is it?
As a movie, that is?
Executives at NBC at the time could have safely programmed weekend reruns of Johnny Carson.
The late-nite web connection business is more about danger than laughs, Joan Rivers once told me.
Given Rivers credentials, it seemed unlikely that she would fail where Michaels chaos succeeded.
Lorne didnt grasp the impact of what he was starting so he didnt get in its way.
Forecasts on the fate of the Sony-distributed movie are mixed.
Or at least some improv.
