From the moment Morgan Neville was approached about making a documentary tied to the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live,” he knew that he didn’t want to capture this comedy staple in a traditional way.
“The idea of doing 50 years of ‘SNL’ in 90 minutes, it’s going to be a greatest hits clip show, which is not interesting to me,” Neville, the executive producer behind Peacock’s ‘SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night,” told TheWrap. “I always feel like the fool’s errand of a lot of storytelling is trying to be completist. Everything is reductive, but filmmaking is particularly reductive.”
Instead of the predictable, Neville opted for a format that was “more irreverent and risk-taking,” an ethos that has always defined NBC’s crown jewel. To do that, Neville recruited four of his favorite directors — Robert Alexander, Neil Berkeley, Marshall Curry and Jason Zeldes — to each direct their own distinct episode. The result is a series that feels as eclectic and interesting as “SNL” itself. One moment, “Beyond Saturday Night” is zooming in on all-star cast members as they squirm while watching their auditions. The next it’s diving headfirst into the iconic “More Cowbell” sketch, examining everything from how it impacted cowbell sales to why Will Ferrell changed his shirt between dress rehearsal and air.
“We tend to think of ‘SNL’ as one thing, but actually, it’s not at all one thing. It’s always been a variety of things,” Neville said. “These [episodes] are really individualized stories that can stand on their own completely, but then collectively, they paint a bigger picture of ‘SNL.’”
It’s an approach that has defined Neville’s work as a director and producer. Whether he’s working on “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” a documentary about Mister Rogers, or “Piece by Piece,” the lego documentary about Pharrell Williams, always takes care to reflect what his subjects tell him. “I sometimes say I’m a method director. I’m trying to channel the DNA of the subject into the thing itself,” Neville explained.
One of the most interesting episodes in the series is Curry’s “Written By: A Week Inside the ‘SNL’ Writers Room.” Much like the “South Park” documentary “6 Days to Air,” the episode zeroes in on what goes into creating one specific episode of “SNL,” specifically, the Season 49 episode hosted by “The Bear” star Ayo Edebiri. Early on, Neville knew he wanted an episode about the writing process and knew that Curry with his “vérité background” was a perfect fit for the project. The problem was finding an “SNL” host who would be on board with the process.
“There were a number of people who didn’t want us filming throughout their week. I think coming into a place like ‘SNL’ as a host is incredibly stressful, and you don’t want to be seen flailing,” Neville said.
It was also difficult for the team to decide which of the show’s storied writers they wanted for the episode. Major talents like John Mulaney, Tina Fey, Bob Odenkirk, Larry David and Simon Rich — all of whom were writers on “SNL” — appear in the episode as a chorus emphasizing how stressful this job is. But one of the most difficult challenges for the episode was a practical one. Because the “SNL” staff is based in an older New York office, navigating a crew of camera and sound people in these tiny spaces was nearly impossible. On several occasions, Neville simply ended up filming interviews himself.
“These spaces are like closets, so you can’t have a crew of eight people in there. It’s like one or two people, that’s it. But that’s part of it too,” Neville said.
That’s without touching on the anxious tone that defines one of the most coveted and highest-stake jobs in the world of comedy. “It’s such a chaotic high-wire act, how the show works, but also it’s an intense, neurotic place. We just had to build a lot of relationships,” Neville said. “I said to somebody, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been filming in a room where every single person in the room has an agent and a manager’ … It’s not a normal documentary shooting environment.”
Though much of “Beyond Saturday Night” celebrates the show’s successes, there is one episode fully dedicated to its most notorious failure: Season 11. The 1985 to 1986 season marked series creator Lorne Michaels’ return to “SNL” after a five-year absence, and he wanted his return to make a splash. That season Michaels added established, buzzy names like Randy Quaid, Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey Jr. and Joan Cusack to his cast. And it failed — miserably.
Tracy Morgan in “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” Season 1 (Photo by: Peacock)
The season was haunted by scathing reviews from critics, low ratings and a writing staff that did not mesh well with the show’s performers. “Saturday Night Live” was almost canceled after that season. When the series did return, it did so with only Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz and Dennis Miller along with featured player A. Whitney Brown returning.
“The point of the whole episode is that it’s in failure the show figures out its DNA,” Neville said, pointing out that Season 11 is filled with “great actors.” “It doesn’t work, I think, because you have actors and you have writers. What that show really needs is actors who are writers.”
Though Neville has executive produced four hours of documentary fillmaking about “SNL,” he feels he’s only scratched the surface. “I think you could actually make four more episodes,” Neville said. “If they wanted to make more, I would totally be into it.”
“SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night” is currently available to stream on Peacock.
The post ‘SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night’ EP Wanted Peacock Docuseries to Be More Than a ‘Greatest Hits Clip Show’ appeared first on TheWrap.
