Is There Anything Left to Say About the Early Days of ‘SNL’?
You’ve seen the documentaries. You’ve read the oral histories. You’ve streamed the movie dramatization. Now you can relive the turbulent beginnings of Saturday Night Live by attending Not Ready for Prime Time, a new Off-Broadway play that promises to cover the same ground as all the tributes and chronicles that came before it.
The show’s hyperbolic producers describe Not Ready for Prime Time as “a bold, behind-the-scenes look at the launch of one of America’s most iconic shows,” according to Deadline. “From the writers’ room battles to the live-on-air adrenaline, this fast-paced and irreverent play dives into the personalities, clashes and lightning-in-a-bottle moments that built an American institution.”
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The origin story of Saturday Night is indeed chaotic and full of drama. It might be an excellent idea for a stage play if the tale hadn’t been spun a bajillion times before, including several retellings in the past year alone.
Books
There are two excellent histories of the show in book form: Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live focuses on the early years, while multiple editions of Live From New York provide an oral history over decades. If you’ve plowed through those, early cast members Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, Al Franken and Tom Davis have written memoirs, plus there are exhaustive biographies of Lorne Michaels and John Belushi. Goodreads has a running list of books by or about SNL stars, currently at 118 titles. If there’s an even slightly amusing anecdote from those early days, it’s been covered in those pages.
Documentaries
SNL’s 50th anniversary saw the arrival of four different documentaries about the show’s history, not including another full-length chronicle of the show’s musical acts. Want to see those original Not Ready for Primetime Players auditioning for Saturday Night? The “Five Minutes” doc has everything you need — heck, so does YouTube.
Podcasts
Dozens of current and former SNL cast members have podcasts. Those who don't have probably been a guest on Fly on the Wall, where Dana Carvey and David Spade walk the show’s comics and hosts through every minute of their SNL experience. Carvey and Spade aren’t exactly investigative journalists, but they do provide a cozy environment for nostalgic reminiscing, as do the dozens of other podcasts devoted to Saturday Night Live.
Movies
The main reason Not Ready for Prime Time seems completely inessential is Saturday Night, last year’s feature film dramatizing the creation of the late-night sketch show.
With almost exactly the same premise, it's hard to imagine what else the play can offer other than the chance for aspiring young comedians to cosplay as a bumbling Gerald Ford or sword-swinging Samurai.
The real question for the show’s producers: After an exhausting year of nonstop, 50th anniversary hype, has America finally had its fill of SNL navel-gazing?