Delve into the world of Saturday Night Live with Morgan Neville as he shares insights from his documentary series, SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night.
Behind the Scenes of SNL: An Interview with Morgan Neville
Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville is the driving force behind SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, Peacock’s three-time Emmy-nominated series that delves into the legendary sketch show’s history with fresh, intimate stories rather than mere nostalgia.
A Fresh Perspective on Comedy
“I’m a serious comedy nerd,” Neville states. “I grew up with SNL, like many. I’ve watched all those documentaries and I’ve never really loved anything. … They all have become these kind of survey shows… clips and then people talking about why a sketch was funny or whatever. I just always felt like everything was kind of done the same way and felt like it came out of a tube.”
Uncovering Rich Stories
His pitch for a fresh take was clear: “What I as a comedy fan want to see is rather than trying to do everything, let’s just make a series of films … trying to find stories that are rich. … It can be anything from the history of auditioning for the show to a single sketch like ‘Cowbell.’”
Unique Directorial Angles
The series enlisted four directors to explore unique angles: Robert Alexander for the episode on the audition process, “Five Minutes”; Neil Berkeley for an in-depth look at the iconic 2000 sketch, “Cowbell”; Marshall Curry for a behind-the-scenes journey into the writers’ room, “Written By: A Week Inside the SNL Writers Room”; and Jason Zeldes for “Season 11: The Weird Year,” which examines the tumultuous 1985-86 season.
Organic Growth of Episodes
Each episode was allowed to grow organically, with “different composers, different graphics people, different editors. Everybody was kind of working off on their own.”
The Pressure of SNL
“When I first met with Lorne [Michaels], I talked about the show and what I loved and then I stopped after like 30 minutes,” Neville recounts. “Nobody said a word. It was awkward silence. I had the experience that most cast members have when they get hired on the show: like, they don’t know that they got hired.”
Initially titled “Worst Season Ever,” “The Weird Year” tackled the infamously troubled Season 11. Neville says, “Failures are where you learn every lesson. The only reason SNL continued to what it is now is because of Season 11. They figured out what worked and what didn’t work about that show.”
Learning from Failures
He explains, “Season 11 was Lorne’s first year back after his five-year absence, the writers’ room was killer. Robert Downey Jr. was in the cast. It wasn’t that people weren’t talented; it was the chemistry test.”
“The idea was, let’s put actors in as opposed to what the show really is about, which is performer, writer, improvisers, sketch people … Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon, Phil Hartman — they figured it out the next season.”
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The Intensity of the Writers’ Room
Filming the legendary writers’ room revealed just how intense the creative process is. “It’s so last-minute. If somebody comes up with a sketch that doesn’t make it they generally will never submit the sketch again. A lot of the writers want to begin with a blank slate. That’s part of the working without a net thing that makes SNL different. It’s riskiness and the energy that creates.”
Camaraderie and Competition
Asked about the pressure on the cast and crew, Neville shares, “One of the writers in that episode says, ‘This is the greatest job I’ve ever had. I love it so much and my mental health has never been worse.’ It is a pressure cooker full of camaraderie and competition. What minutes am I going to get on the show? This could make my entire career.”
He also notes the complex politics behind the scenes: “Everybody in that room has an agent and a manager. It’s complicated.”
The Triumph of Humor
Yet above all, there’s a “general sense the greater good has always triumphed. What is funny wins. It doesn’t matter how smart it is or how long you worked on it. It either works or it doesn’t work. It’s very binary in that way, completely meritocratic in a way that I actually find really inspiring.”
SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night has earned three Emmy nominations this year, including Best Documentary or Nonfiction Series, and is streaming now on Peacock.
This article and video are sponsored content by Peacock. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
