Getting Saturday Night Live on the air 50 years ago was no small feat, but creator Lorne Michaels reveals that one of his biggest challenges during season 1 may not be one most fans would expect.
The NBC sketch show has long drawn just as much interest for its musical guests as for its satire and celebrity hosts, and the longtime show boss says bringing those musicians onto the small screen in 1975 was something he had to fight for due to the way music was recorded for television.
“Rock-and-roll people did not do television because they sounded terrible. So we had to figure that out, and that was a big, big fight over the first season,” Michaels declares in an interview at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s “SNL: Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of Music” exhibit, shared exclusively with Entertainment Weekly.
“If you look at, say, Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show [in 1956], or the Beatles [in 1964] for that matter, it’s all on a boom [microphone], you know, and the sound was more than good enough for that period for them to catch fire and all that,” he explains. “But by the time we came on, the music was recorded in a completely different way, and television was still using a boom. So that was the biggest sort of fight at the beginning.”
The very first episode of SNL, hosted by George Carlin on Oct. 11, 1975, featured a total of four musical performances: two each from co-musical guests Billy Preston and Janis Ian. But Michaels was already working to improve the sound by episode 2, which was music-heavy with Paul Simon as the first to do double duty as host and musical guest, and also featured songs from Randy Newman and Phoebe Snow.
“When Paul Simon did the second show, I brought [music producer] Phil Ramone in, who was working with him that summer on Still Crazy [After All These Years]. And the television audio guy was not thrilled about that,” Michaels recalls. “Just the idea that we were gonna mic it differently. Remember, Elvis is him and the Jordanaires, and a boom is covering all their music. And now it was different.”
He muses that during prior decades, viewers were just thrilled to be able to watch music on TV at all so “it was all good enough,” but by the mid-’70s technology had advanced and the home audience had higher expectations.
“Everything, all of that stuff, is good enough when a miracle comes into your life; you’re not fussing about how it sounds,” Michaels shares. “But as people got more used to the fact that those sound systems could bring the music alive in a completely different way, television had to keep up.”
The ongoing SNL exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland features an immersive display celebrating the show’s five decades of musical history, including legendary musical performances and sketches. It’s also the only place to view the entire archives of SNL‘s more than 1,900 musical guest performances, including some never-before-seen footage from dress rehearsals.
“There’s little details, the costumes, the wigs, everything,” SNL alum Fred Armisen previously told EW of visiting the exhibition. “It’s just so, so well done. It was emotional for me.”
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After much fanfare earlier this year, Saturday Night Live celebrates its actual 50th anniversary tonight, Oct. 11, with a new episode hosted by show alum Amy Poehler, airing live on NBC at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT.
Watch the video above for more from Michaels. “SNL: Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of Music” is on display now at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Ticket info is available here.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly