Lorne Michaels

Early life

Lorne David Lipowitz was born to a Jewish family in Toronto, Ontario, on November 17, 1944, to Florence () (1915–2001) and Abraham Lipowitz (1908–1959), who worked as a furrier.

Several sources incorrectly state that he was born on a kibbutz in the then-British mandate of Palestine, and that his Jewish family immigrated to Toronto, Ontario, when he was an infant.

Michaels and his two younger siblings were raised in Toronto; he graduated from Forest Hill Collegiate Institute before attending University College at the University of Toronto, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1966.

Career

Early career

Michaels began his career as a writer and broadcaster for CBC Radio, working with partner Hart Pomerantz. He and Pomerantz moved to Los Angeles from Toronto in 1968 to work as writers for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show. They returned to Canada to star in The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour, a series of comedy specials that ran on CBC in the early 1970s.

Michaels returned to the United States in 1973 to write for The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour. This brought him to the attention of Lily Tomlin who hired him to produce a series of specials, the first of which won an Emmy. Michaels credits his work with Tomlin for giving him the credibility needed for NBC to hire him to create Saturday Night Live.

''Saturday Night Live''

In 1975, Michaels created (with fellow NBC employee Dick Ebersol and president of the network Herb Schlosser) the television show NBC's Saturday Night, which in 1977 changed its name to Saturday Night Live (initially there was a name conflict with an ABC show titled Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, which debuted September 20, 1975, and was cancelled on January 17, 1976). The show, which is performed live in front of a studio audience, immediately established a reputation for being cutting-edge and unpredictable. It became a vehicle for launching the careers of some of the most successful comedians in the United States.

Originally the producer of the show, Michaels was also a writer and later became executive producer. He occasionally appears on-screen as well, where he is known for his deadpan humor. Throughout the show's history, SNL has been nominated for more than 156 Emmy Awards and has won 36. It has consistently been one of the highest-rated late-night television programs. Michaels has been with SNL for all seasons except for his hiatus in the early 1980s (seasons 6–10).

Michaels appeared in the show during the first season, where he offered The Beatles $3000 to reunite on the show. He later increased his offer to $3200, but the money was never claimed. According to an interview with John Lennon in Playboy magazine, Lennon and Paul McCartney were in New York City that night and happened to see the program. They contemplated going onto the show as a joke but decided against it though, as it was too late to get there in time, and they were both tired. This near-reunion was the basis for the television movie Two of Us. On the episode airing November 20, 1976, musical guest George Harrison appeared and attempted to collect the money, but Michaels told him the offer was conditional on all four members of the group showing up rather than just any Beatle.

Other work

During the 1978–1979 season of SNL, Michaels was offered a deal to produce nine features from Paramount, but he turned it down to take a three-picture deal from Warner Bros. The Warner Bros. deal didn't net any produced movies. In the early 80s, he subsequently had a deal to produce movies for MGM and was developing a Father Guido Sarducci movie written by Don Novello, a spoof of 1984 called 1985 that was set in the future and written by Al Franken, Tom Davis, and Jim Downey, and an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice Michaels himself was co-writing with friend John Head. The only movie to be produced from Michaels's MGM deal was Nothing Lasts Forever, a black-and-white surreal sci-fi comedy written and directed by longtime resident SNL filmmaker Tom Schiller. The movie featured appearances from Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, but the studio opted to never release it.

In 1979, Michaels founded the production company Broadway Video, which has produced SNL since 1981 as well as other shows such as Canadian sketch-comedy* The Kids in the Hall* which began airing in 1988 on CBC in Canada, debuting in the U.S. market in 1989 on cable television network HBO until moving to CBS in 1993.

Whilst on his SNL hiatus, Michaels created another sketch show titled The New Show, which debuted on Friday nights in prime time on NBC in January 1984. The show failed to garner the same enthusiasm as SNL and was cancelled after 9 episodes.

In the 1980s, Michaels appeared in an HBO mockumentary titled The Canadian Conspiracy about the supposed subversion of the United States by Canadian-born media personalities, with Lorne Greene as the leader of the conspiracy. Michaels was identified as the anointed successor to Greene.

Michaels is also the executive producer of the NBC show Late Night, and was the executive producer of 30 Rock and Up All Night during their runs.

On April 3, 2013, it was announced that Michaels would be taking over as the executive producer for The Tonight Show. Consequently, The Tonight Show moved to New York in early 2014 as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Personal life

Michaels has three children, Henry, Eddie, and Sophie and has been married three times. Michaels and Shuster were married in 1967 and divorced in 1980. He married model Susan Forristal in 1981, a marriage that ended in divorce in 1987. Michaels is married to Alice Barry, his former assistant. The pair wed in 1991.

Michaels became an American citizen in 1987

In January 2025, Michaels donated archival materials from throughout his career to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The Lorne Michaels Collection is scheduled to become available for research in January 2026.

Credits

Film

Television

Stage

In popular culture

In The Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy, the character of Don Roritor was based heavily on actor Mark McKinney’s impersonation of Lorne Michaels.

The character Dr. Evil, the antagonist of Austin Powers in three films, has mannerisms and a speaking style based on Lorne Michaels. Dr. Evil was created and portrayed by SNL alumnus Mike Myers, who was at least partially influenced by fellow SNL performer Dana Carvey's impression of Michaels.

In a 2008 interview with Playboy, as well as in various other interviews, Tina Fey admitted that Alec Baldwin's character Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock is inspired by Michaels. In a different interview, on NPR's radio show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, Baldwin stated that some of his inspiration for Donaghy was drawn from Michaels.

Gabriel LaBelle plays Michaels in the 2024 film Saturday Night, a dramatization of behind-the-scenes events leading up to the first episode of Saturday Night Live.

Honors

In 1999, Michaels was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Also in 1999, Michaels received an honorary degree from Ryerson University.

In 2003, he received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.

In 2004, he was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor by the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Speaking at the awards ceremony, original Saturday Night Live cast member Dan Aykroyd described the show as "the primary satirical voice of the country".

Michaels received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2006, Canada's highest honor in the performing arts.

In 2008, Michaels was awarded the Webby for Film & Video Lifetime Achievement. With the allotted five words allowed to each recipient, his acceptance speech was "Five words is not enough".

In 2012, Michaels was awarded a rare Personal Peabody Award. He accepted at a ceremony in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria New York hotel.

In December 2021, Michaels was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors, along with Justino Diaz, Berry Gordy, Bette Midler, and Joni Mitchell.

In 2022, Michaels received a Peabody Award for his work as an executive producer of the Spanish-language comedy series Los Espookys. He was nominated for a second Peabody Award for his work producing Documentary Now!.

References

Bibliography

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References

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