Lorne Michaels and Shakespeare
As a lifelong fan of SNL, I loved Susan Morrison’s biography Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live. When the show debuted in 1975, my wacky parents allowed me to stay up late every Saturday night, even though I was in Kindergarten. Kindergarten! I snuggled with them on our crappy couch, clad in Sears Roebuck pajamas, laughing even though I didn’t fully get the skits. But I got something. Especially Gilda Radner in the disco with her “Jewess Jeans” and the faux commercial advertising a car so smooth-driving that you could perform a bris in the backseat (demonstrated by Gilda, as a new mother with a babe in arms, and a mohel passenger). And now, many lifetimes later, more personal connections of a different kind. Or maybe a foreshadowing of my professional fandom? As Morrison tells it, Lorne Michaels compares himself to Shakespeare, another multitasking, show-must-go-on striver.