The typical week for Saturday Night Live writers goes as follows: On Monday, they all cram into Lorne Michaels’s office to pitch ideas. Most of these ideas are fake ideas they scrambled to come up with and have no intention of actually writing. On Tuesday, they stay up all night working on the sketches they do intend to write, getting them ready for the Wednesday read-through. On Wednesday, they read anywhere from 35–40 sketches. They spend Thursdays rewriting as a group; Friday is for blocking (i.e., figuring out the logistics of each sketch); and Saturdays are dedicated to rehearsing before it all goes out live. Less than 48 hours later, they start the cycle all over again.
The show’s past writers are a who’s who of comedy greats, with people like Chevy Chase, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, John Mulaney, Sarah Silverman, JB Smoove, Seth Meyers, Conan O’Brien, Al Franken, Larry David, Paula Pell, and Mike Myers all having walked the halls on their way to stardom. The show’s rigorous writing process—and the challenges that each week brings—is highlighted in an episode of the new Peacock documentary series SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, which is streaming on the platform now.
In honor of the show’s 50th anniversary, we had some of the program’s writers take us through their first weeks on the show, as well as the first sketch they got on the air.
GETTING HIRED AND (KIND OF) COMFORTABLE
Michael Schur (writer, 1998–2004): I interviewed in the summer of ’97. We got interviewed in pairs to meet Steve Higgins, Lorne Michaels, and Adam McKay, who was the head writer at the time. And I was paired with this woman, and I remember thinking, Oh, I’m never going to get this job, because this woman is so much funnier than me. And it was Tina Fey. She got hired and I didn’t. But in December, I got a call that said, “You start January 3.”
Sarah Silverman (writer, 1993–1994): I didn’t know how anything worked. And it just felt like you were thrown in the river and you were figuring out if you could swim.
Schur: No one explains anything to you when you’re new there. No one explains to you, “Here’s where the bathrooms are, here’s how to get down from the 17th floor to the 8th floor, here’s how the system works.”
Kevin Nealon and Sarah Silverman during Weekend Update, October 23, 1993.Al Levine/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images.
Kevin Nealon (writer-performer, 1986-1995): Basically, we were all just living out of our suitcase. I don’t think anybody unpacked their suitcase for the first couple of weeks. I had no idea what it was like to live in New York. Al Franken said you have to find a good neighborhood, and I thought, What do you mean neighborhood? I thought New York City was the neighborhood.
Ian Maxtone-Graham (writer, 1992–1995): In fall of ’91, I had been laid off at the National Lampoon. I called up Jack Handey—who I asked to send us some Deep Thoughts—and I said, “I’m leaving, so don’t bother sending them.” Then Jack says, “Hey, if you’re not working there anymore, why don’t you apply at SNL?” That spring, I get a phone call, and I have a three-week tryout for the last shows of the season.
Robert Smigel (writer, 1985–1993, 1996–2008): Mine was a landmark first show: the return of Lorne Michaels [after he had taken five years off]. I’d never have gotten the job if it wasn’t that particular season and all of the turnover that came with it. I was hired as an apprentice writer, which meant that I didn’t get a whole salary.
Natasha Rothwell (writer, 2014–2015): I didn’t really have any expectations going into it. I auditioned to be on cast, and then a few months later, they reached out to me to write on the show. I was in the middle of teaching an improv class when I found out that I had gotten the gig. And I immediately took them all out for drinks. [Laughs] It was a cool kind of teachable moment, to be able to show them what hard work was going to result in.
James Downey (writer-performer, 1977–1980, 1984–1998, 2000–2013): People get a sense of what you do, what your style is. And then you start to collaborate with other people based on ideas you had or vice versa.
Chevy Chase (writer-performer, 1975–1976): Lorne hired me [as a writer initially]. But he said, “You can’t act [on the show].” I said, “Okay, never mind.” Because I was starting to think about acting. I was doing this Smothers Brothers show as a writer, and it seemed like more fun to be in it. Eventually, though, I joined as a writer.
Chevy Chase during Weekend Update, October 11, 1975.Herb Ball/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
Eddie Murphy and Robin Duke in the Dion’s skit, November, 12, 1983.Alan Singer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images.
Robin Duke (writer-performer, 1981–1984): I was the first woman performer-writer on SNL. In the first year [as a performer], I had written more sketches that had made it to air than some of the writers. So at the end of that year, I handed in all of the sketches that I had written as my portfolio to Dick Ebersol, and he had to hire me [as a writer].