As a die-hard fan of comedy and someone who has spent countless hours devouring the works of National Lampoon, I can’t help but feel a profound sense of melancholy when reflecting on its ignoble finale. Having grown up with the likes of Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Gilda Radner gracing my television screen, their brilliance etched into my memory, it’s heart-wrenching to see how the once-great comedy brand has been reduced to a mere shadow of its former glory.
Over the past five decades, Saturday Night Live has managed to stay relevant amid shifting preferences, politics, and viewing habits, which is truly impressive. Even Lorne Michaels, its creator and producer, could hardly imagine that viewers in 1975 would be watching episodes (or quick recaps) on their phones as he and Dick Ebersol sought out unknown comedians from radio broadcasts. To clarify, Steve Martin was indeed popular at the time, but he never joined the cast.
Michael carefully assembled his team with comedians from the underground circuit, several of whom had collaborated and honed their skills for years at a small entertainment company known as National Lampoon. This organization flourished through radio broadcasts, print publications, comedy albums, and off-Broadway performances. When they joined SNL, these performers weren’t seasoned veterans, but as relatively unknown talents, they brought a unique, uncultivated enthusiasm to the small screen that hadn’t been showcased on television before.
National Lampoon Made SNL What It Was
In their docudrama titled “Saturday Night“, film directors Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan faced a difficult task: recreating the drama and assembling the cast. Keeping in line with the original show they drew inspiration from, the main characters are relatively unknown celebrities. However, renowned actors like Willem Dafoe, JK Simmons, Finn Wolfhard, and Matthew Rhys are scattered throughout the cast in secondary roles.
In the recounting of SNL’s October 1975 premiere on NBC, a significant part of its unique character often gets overlooked, and no, we aren’t merely referring to drugs. If you’ve ever pondered why numerous SNL stars graced National Lampoon movies in the ’70s and ’80s, or if you’re unsure about what National Lampoon represented, your questions have been answered. Instead of being a training ground or a source for SNL talent, it served as its blueprint.
Overlooked among the illustrious cast members from the initial chaotic season, tucked away towards the end of the credits, are individuals such as Michael O’Donoghue. He was one of those who journeyed to NBC’s new program, as portrayed by Tommy Dewey in the film. During the early stages, he served as a significant writer and played a crucial role in defining the show’s tone and content, essentially reimagining the magazine/radio format for television.
The connection between SNL and National Lampoon was more like a parasitic relationship rather than twins joined at the hip. While television held an undeniable allure, it was always one-sided as talent flowed primarily from National Lampoon to SNL. It’s not entirely fair to blame Lorne Michaels for poaching top comedians, but National Lampoon suffered a tragic fate, reduced to a mere promotional tool for straight-to-DVD comedies.
Lorne Michaels Gambles on a Long Shot
During the process of debuting his live-TV show, Michael (portrayed by Gabriel LaBelle) found himself in a challenging situation, needing to juggle tasks such as arranging the program and managing the demanding personalities of his cast members. To make matters even more complex, he was confronted with the competitive struggle against a popular rival show called Saturday Night Live, which aired during prime time on ABC.
Every participant harbored a sense of resentment or pride, the program was a hodgepodge of comic sketches, stand-up comedy, puppets, and music, as television was flooded with aimless variety shows at that time. The name of the cast, “The Not Prime-Time Ready Players,” was a quick wit remark that quickly became outdated, symbolizing the capricious nature of audiences, mimicking the cheesy Howard Cossell variety show on ABC which was terminated halfway through its first season.
In the initial lineup, we had Cory Michael Smith portraying Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt standing in for Gilda Radner, and Matt Wood taking on John Belushi’s role. A few years before their rise to fame on TV, comedy enthusiasts might have caught them, along with future cast members Bill Murray and Christopher Guest (who joined SNL in 1984 following their collaboration in the play National Lampoon Lemmings or National Lampoon Radio Hour), prior to these shows.
Instead of being more akin to Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, they were far closer to Monty Python in style, opting for absurd humor and sharp satire over the lighthearted zaniness prevalent in US shows during that era. The 11:30 PM Saturday time slot was seen as a graveyard — typically filled with Johnny Carson reruns — and no one at the network held much hope for it. As reflected in their paltry salaries, which were approximately $750 in 1975 dollars, faith was scarce. However, against all odds, it found an audience. Today, this show is still going strong, celebrating its fifth consecutive decade on television.
National Lampoon’s Brain Drain, SNL’s Gain
The increase in entertainers such as Belushi and Chase temporarily increased the popularity of the National Lampoon label, which was originally established by ex-Harvard students, notably humorists Henry Beard and Doug Kenney. This publication, known for its satirical style, aimed to offend every group, no matter their sensitivities or opinions. One magazine cover even promised to shoot a dog if not enough people bought the issue. By hiring the witty and eccentric O’Donoghue, National Lampoon amassed a dedicated fanbase.
John Hughes and Harold Ramis demonstrated their talent outside the SNL (Saturday Night Live) path, as Hollywood capitalized on the magazine’s pool of underpaid and underappreciated creatives. After Kenney’s death in 1980, the magazine started to decline significantly, though the “National Lampoon Family Vacation” film series maintained some shallow relevance. As former editor PJ O’Rourke explained in a retrospective for The Hollywood Reporter in 2015, NBC was not the only entity that could have caused National Lampoon’s demise: someone else would have eventually done so.
As a great admirer of your work, I find myself pondering over an intriguing comparison: if one were to observe a pattern in remuneration, it’s often called money. In this context, considering the amount Hughes received for crafting the screenplay for National Lampoon’s Vacation and the sum I paid him for the short story “Vacation ’58,” which served as the movie’s foundation – it’s quite evident that we are dealing with two distinct monetary values. If one were to liken these figures, perhaps a comparison to chalk and cheese would be apt, as I suspect John Hughes preferred the taste of real cheese more than he did chalk.
This informal collaboration leaned heavily towards television, as NBC capitalized on popular SNL characters such as The Blues Brothers and Coneheads by turning skits into films, effectively grabbing the attention away from National Lampoon magazine. The once influential magazine became virtually invisible in the 80s, eventually ceasing publication in 1998 with little to no fanfare. SNL managed to navigate their difficulties, but National Lampoon was not as fortunate. As Brian O’Rourke admitted, it mirrored SNL in being a stressful and dysfunctional workplace, albeit without the same financial compensation. “National Lampoon was never a pleasant place to work,” he said, “having a bunch of humorists in one place is like having a bunch of cats in a sack.” It’s no wonder that people eagerly sought employment elsewhere when Hollywood producers appeared on the scene.
The Ignoble Finale to the Greatest Comedy Brand in American History
The success of National Lampoon was a unique coincidence, occurring at the perfect moment, with the ideal team, due to the appropriate societal context… and the appropriate use of certain substances. By the end of the 2000s, that enigma had completely faded away, and so did O’Donoghue, Radner, and Belushi, all of whom suffered premature demises.
Currently, National Lampoon exists more in theory than reality, lacking a media platform and creative leader. It’s been sold to various corporate entities trying to capitalize on boomer nostalgia, but unfortunately, much of the content produced has been of low quality, damaging rather than rehabilitating its reputation. You comedy enthusiasts might not be familiar with films like “National Lampoon Presents: Jake’s Booty Call”.
In the Showtime documentary National Lampoon: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, it’s revealed that the peak of NL was relatively brief, reaching its zenith with the 1979 film Animal House. This movie was created by combining pieces from magazine articles and semi-fictionalized essays. The unique, personal touch that made the magazine so remarkable is no longer present. National Lampoon faded away quietly, and its founder, O’Rourke, regretted it didn’t get a fitting farewell.
Interestingly, Saturday Night Live (SNL) has occasionally faced demands for its cancellation, despite its generally successful run of over half a century. More recently, it’s been grappling with issues like dwindling viewer numbers and waning film popularity. The aftermath of the writers’ strike seems to have driven many viewers away, and comedies now struggle to maintain their relevance compared to other genres.
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2024-09-29 02:02