In 1975, NBC launched an audacious late night comedy sketch show called Saturday Night Live, run by Lorne Michaels and starring the Not Ready for Prime Time Players. The show was a hit, indeed, and will be entering its 50th season this fall. But after the show's first five years, the entire cast left, and so did Lorne Michaels. The 1980-81 season, helmed by Jean Doumanian and featuring an entirely new cast, became known as the worst SNL season ever, with only one bright spot, a newcomer named Eddie Murphy. It took five years for the show to climb out of the trash heap, a time during which it may as well have been called The Eddie Murphy Show. Things turned around when Lorne Michaels returned, which only makes us think about what will happen when Michaels, now 79, decides to retire. Nerdstalgic explains exactly what occurred to create that awful 1980-81 season of Saturday Night Live. -via Digg
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SNL premiered as I was going into my senior year in high school. Later that fall, my family was contacted about doing a Nielson rating week. We had two TV sets, so they gave us two diaries to keep. No one ever watched the old black and white set, but it had its own diary. I made it a point to be home by 11:30 that Saturday night so that diary could have one show on it.
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