In 1977, Lorne Michaels took his show to New Orleans.
Things didnt exactly go as planned.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
On February 20, 1977,Saturday Night Livewas not live from New York on Saturday night.
For another, it filmed over 1,300 miles southwest of New York.
The idea of filming live comedy there on the fly is an absurd sketch premise unto itself.
For better or worse,Saturday Night Livenever tried anything like this again.
Well, I do, Michaels recalls telling the connection executives in a recent phone interview.
Their response was something like Well, they must have a better educational system in Canada.
Michaels had about one month to put it all together.
My reaction was Oh yay.
Were going to the Mardi Gras, rememberswriter Alan Zweibel.
I had never been to New Orleans before, so I thought,Oh wow.
This is going to be cool.
But NBC executives werent the only ones who needed some convincing.
The town is not efficient.
Its the greatest place in the world, I think.
As usual, the bulk of the show would be made up of original sketches and musical performances.
In case somebody didnt make it, I could cut to the parade).
Plus, Michaels was already down South tackling the logistics.
So decisions on where we were going to be shooting happened before we were writing.
If nothing else, the cast members were beginning to settle into and even enjoy their newfound celebrity.
They talked Michaels into adding a sketch that involved Harley-Davidsons solely so they could ride them through the city.
A cast signing at the Lake Forest Plaza Mall turned into a madhouse.
The public attention so overwhelmedGilda Radnerthat she took to wearing a mask just to get around town.
But as the night of the special drew closer, panic began to set in behind the camera.
It was a lot different, writer Anne Beatts recalls about the writing process in New Orleans.
It was very disorganized.
I just remember spending hours trying to write and rewrite things in our hotel.
It was a little difficult, adds Zweibel, because you wanted to put on a show.
You were aware of where you were, so there was a consideration for that.
I understood the logistical nightmare, Michaels recalls when asked at what point the nerves started to set in.
It will be either the most humiliating night of my life or a great triumph, Michaels said.
Belushi added, This is an experiment for ourselves.
Its Lets see if we fall on our faces.
If it comes off, it will be a miracle.
There was nothing left to do but wait.
We were all isolated in our own little pods, really, Newman remembers.
The rest were out in the wild.
Not that this relieved any pressure.
I remember I went on and I could hear my voice shaking.
Try and sit erect youre on television, he advised.
And if you see yourself onscreen, take a stab at act at least reasonably intelligent.
Of course, the audience dismissed that last bit entirely.
Right on cue at 8:30 p.m. Central time, the show began.
The first thing viewers saw was Aykroyd, as President Jimmy Carter, addressing the nation.
The camera pulled out to reveal him sitting on a statue of Andrew Jackson on horseback.
Right there, says Neil Levy, who served as a production assistant on the show.
They just kind of carried themselves differently from that point on.
The opening credits rolled with a special Mardi Grasthemed montage.
Or rather, he tried.
But there was no time to dwell on that.
The show had to push on.
Even as things seemed to be running smoothly, tension was building behind the scenes.
Lorne didnt see it, Morris recounts inLive From New York.
So now Im not in one thing on the show, and nobody is saying anything about that.
The only thing I could do is walk off, but I dont want that reputation.
For a bit, things seemed fine again.
(Fun fact: This sketch featured the first appearance ofMurrays homeless character, Honker.)
The parade is just a little delayed in getting here, Henry announced.
Apparently, an overactive drum majorette has just had an unfortunate but interesting accident with her baton.
But where was Cindy Williams?
She was great, but perhaps the whole scene was too chaotic.
He thought the chaos overpowered the lyrics and always wanted the song re-performed …
So he arranged for me to fly in from Hollywood and sing the song on the show.
She got jumped, Beatts remembers.
Someone tried to stick their head up her skirt.
At last, rumors swirled that the parade might finally be on its way.
Henry and Curtin kept filling time, but time was running out and the crowd was growing more impatient.
Buck and Jane were getting pelted with flying doubloons.
Obviously, this was something they were unprepared to deal with.
Its not like the audience in Studio 8H starts throwing shit at you, Zweibel continues with a laugh.
To my knowledge, there hasnt been a lot of vomit in the last 40 years.
Everyone just had to hold out a little bit longer and it would all be over.
Randy Newman performed Kingfish, and Murray shined as French pirate Jean Lafitte in the following sketch.
But even here there was another hiccup.
And as soon as we shot off the first gun, the parrot took off and disappeared forever.
After two hours, enough was enough.
With that, it was finally over.
What do I need this in my life for?
Randy Newman found this to be the consensus among the cast and crew.
If it felt like a disaster at the time, the aftermath didnt do anything to allay those fears.
When the dust settled, Michaelss already-massive $700,000 budget had ballooned to upwards of $1 million.
I think we were beaten by a Susan Blakely movie on ABC, he admits.
Soundly beaten, from what I remember.
What began as a chance for the series to stretch its legs ended as a fiasco.
For the cast and crew, there was no time to lick their wounds.
I saw some floats on the way to the airport the next day that were being towed away.
Still, the experience continues to impact, if not traumatize, some of those who were involved.
I needed those 20 years to recover from what had happened in New Orleans.
Today the special can be found only as as an extra on the series second-season boxed set.
For what its worth, Michaels retains at least a few fond Mardi Gras memories.
And I think also the writing was more character-driven, whereas now were much more topical.
So the idea that wed be doing basically a salute to a city that we all loved is harder …
I thought we could pull it off, and in the end we did.
But it was very hard, for sure.
I think there were four people on lithium by the end of the two weeks.
It was just daunting.
For all of us, it was just sort of seeing what our limits were, he adds.
And we found them.
