Saturday Night Live: Encyclopedia II - Saturday Night Live - Infamous moments

Saturday Night Live - Infamous moments

Since it is broadcast live, SNL has had several infamous events that were either unplanned or provoked sufficient controversy to receive media coverage. Several hosts and musical guests have also been banned from returning due to their actions during the show.

• On the second season premiere (September 18, 1976) Chevy Chase, playing Gerald Ford during a Ford/Carter debate sketch, falls over an unpadded podium and injures his testicles in the process. He misses the next two shows.
• October 30, 1976, John Belushi accidentally gashes Buck Henry on the forehead with a sword during one of his samurai sketches. Henry has to wear a bandage for the remainder of the show. The rest of the cast also wear bandages on their foreheads for the rest of the show, as a tribute to Henry.
• On May 10, 1980, writer Al Franken performed the sketch "A Limo for the Lame-o" which mocked NBC president Fred Silverman's failure to improve the network's ratings. NBC executives were furious, and the sketch was thought to be the reason why Franken was not considered to replace Lorne Michaels at the end of the season.
• On February 21, 1981, Charles Rocket, portraying the gunshot victim in a parody of the "Who Shot J.R." plot on the program Dallas, said, "I'd like to know who the fuck did it," during the live feed of the "goodnights" segment. Afterward, everyone except Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo was fired [2].
• On October 31, 1981, John Belushi invited infamous LA punks Fear to serve as musical guests for an episode that aired on Halloween. The band played some not ready for prime time numbers ("I Don't Care About You" and "Beef Balogna," among others) and invited members of the audience to come up on stage and mosh, prompting Belushi and various members of the crowd to trash the place.
• On January 18, 1986, the influential alternative group The Replacements appeared on SNL to promote Tim, their first album with Sire Records. In the past, the band had a reputation for indulging in alcohol just before their concerts, and as the show went on the air, the band did not hesitate to consume much of the beer in their backstage dressing room. When it came time for them to perform their first number, "Bastards of Young," they were clearly intoxicated and several cast members were unsure whether they could perform, unfamiliar with their history of performing under such circumstances. Their performance was later described as "transcendent" by music critic Robert Wilonsky, but lead singer Paul Westerberg would further aggravate their relationship with the show when he yelled "fuck" during "Bastards of Young." The band went on to perform one more song, "Kiss Me on the Bus," but at the end of the show the cast members did not bother to interact with them, reportedly because of their behavior. When Lorne Michaels later discovered that The Replacements had also trashed their hotel room, he demanded that Sire Records pay for all damages or else their entire label would be banned from the show. The Replacements are presumably banned regardless, and in subsequent rebroadcasts of this episode, "fuck" is censored out of "Bastards of Young."
• On the March 15, 1986 episode hosted by Griffin Dunne in a sketch called "Mr. Monopoly", Damon Wayans decided between dress rehearsal and air that his cop character should be played with more flamboyance (akin to his Blane Edwards character from In Living Color). The deviation from the script ultimately resulted in Wayans being fired. Damon Wayans though, would come back to host SNL during the 1994-1995 season.
• In 1988, a sketch set at a nudist colony used the word penis many times, culminating in a performance of the nudist club anthem, "The Penis Song." [3]
• In 1990, comedian Andrew Dice Clay was chosen to host; cast member Nora Dunn and scheduled musical guest Sinéad O'Connor boycotted the show in protest, due to perceptions that his jokes were misogynistic.[4]
• On the October 20, 1990 episode hosted by George Steinbrenner, musical guest The Time performed "Chocolate" as their second song. In the few seconds of silence before the song's 'finale,' lead singer Morris Day quite clearly looks at Jerome Benton and says, "Where the fuck this chicken come from - I thought I ordered ribs!" On subsequent broadcasts, "fuck" is censored, leaving a silent gap in its place.
• Perhaps the most infamous incident came in 1992, when Sinéad O'Connor appeared on the October 3 episode with host Tim Robbins. In her second set of the show, she performed an a capella version of Bob Marley's "War." At the end, she picked up a picture of Pope John Paul II, ripped it up, and shouted, "Fight the real enemy!".[5] From the booth, Director Dave Wilson immediately turned off the "applause" cue. NBC received many complaints about this within a matter of minutes. At the end of the show, Robbins refused to even thank O'Connor—as is custom—for being the musical guest. O'Connor was given a verbal beating by many other celebrities and public figures. To this day, NBC refuses to lend out the footage of the performance to any media outlet. They have also edited out the incident from the syndicated version of the episode. However, it was finally released in 2003, with an explanation from Lorne Michaels, on Disc 4 of the "Saturday Night Live - 25 Years of Music" DVD set. Madonna would spoof the incident in a later show by ripping up a photo of Joey Buttafuco, quoting O'Connor's words.
• In 1994, SNL aired a sketch in which host Alec Baldwin played a pedophile scoutmaster that sought to molest Adam Sandler's Canteen Boy character. This moment generated more hostile letters than any sketch in the show's history. [6]
• In 1995, Cheri Oteri slips and says "shit" during a sketch. Surprisingly not much was made from the incident. The cast and crew poked fun at Oteri's mistake during the "goodnights" by making Oteri put money in a swear jar.
• In 1996, Rage Against the Machine performed "Bulls on Parade" on Saturday Night Live, hanging inverted American flags from their amplifiers in protest of Steve Forbes, who was the host that night. However, the stage crew took the flags off, and cut them down to only one song instead of the normal two.
• In 1997, during his Weekend Update Norm MacDonald fumbled with his words and then said, "What the fuck was that", not realizing what he had said.[7]
• In 1998, a TV Funhouse segment entitled "Conspiracy Theory Rock" aired. A parody of the public service Schoolhouse Rock cartoons of the 1970s, this segment vilified the "media-opoly" (buyouts of media stations by large corporations with whom they may have a conflict of interest) and those corporations' alleged use of corporate welfare to pay off and campaign for congressmen. The cartoon aired only in the original broadcast and was edited out of reruns, with Lorne Michaels claiming that the cut was made because he didn't feel the segment "worked comedically." Later, Harry Shearer said in an interview that the move was actually made because "he [Michaels] wanted to keep working at 30 Rock."
• During the build up to the wedding between Tom Green and Drew Barrymore (who got engaged in July 2000), the two frequently joked with the media about when and where they were going to wed. The most notable incident came on November 18, 2000 when Green hosted Saturday Night Live. During the monologue, Green brought Barrymore on stage and teased the audience about the couple marrying at the end of the episode. Ultimately, the stage was set for a wedding before Barrymore in the end, got "cold feet." The SNL incident initially left viewers and the media confused about whether the couple had actually planned to marry on live TV, or were simply staging a publicity stunt. Green ultimately filed for divorce from Barrymore in December 2001 after just six months of marriage.
• In 2004, musical guest Ashlee Simpson became the first SNL musical guest to walk offstage when a pre-recorded backing track for the wrong song was accidentally played. To many it appeared that Simpson had been lip synching; the singer later claimed she was using a backing track due to acid reflux. The incident was spoofed on the show the following week, much to Simpson's dismay, and was the subject of widespread coverage in the news and subsequent SNL skits. Simpson returned as a musical guest in October 2005, mentioning that she wrote the song she was performing first as a result of her previous SNL experience. She performed without incident.

Saturday Night Live - Banned from the show

Saturday Night Live's producers, especially Lorne Michaels have sometimes been accused of governing the show in a heavy-handed authoritarian manner. Over the years, the producers have famously and dramatically "banned for life" several celebrities from ever appearing on the television show. Reasons for these bans vary; sometimes they can be seen as a rational response to a star's grossly innappropriate on-stage behavior, while at other times the reasons are harder to understand as they stem from far more mild, or even superficial transgressions.

• Louise Lasser, who hosted at the end of the first season on July 24, 1976 was the first host banned by the producers. Lasser was said to be going through personal problems at the time and was reportedly nearly incoherent throughout the broadcast. This episode was such a disappointment to producer Lorne Michaels that it was also barred from syndication until 2002.
• Charles Grodin was banned, in a way, in October 1977, due to his clumsy performance. Grodin had missed rehearsal, and stumbled his way through the show. Many of his lines were ad-libbed. Grodin has never been asked back to host.
• On December 17, 1977, Elvis Costello and the Attractions were slated to perform as a last-minute replacement for the Sex Pistols, who were unable to obtain passports. NBC and the show's producer Lorne Michaels didn't want the band to perform "Radio, Radio", since the song protests the state of the media. The band defied them by beginning to play their song "Less Than Zero", stopping, with Costello telling the audience that there was no reason to do that song, and telling the band to play "Radio, Radio" instead. Besides the defiance, it also infuriated Michaels because it put the show off schedule. Costello was finally invited to come back and play in 1989, and even reenacted his act of defiance on the 25th Anniversary Show with the Beastie Boys in 1999.
• Frank Zappa was banned from the show after his hosting stint on October 21, 1978. His acerbic and often misunderstood sense of humor made him more than unpopular with the cast and crew. During his performance, he made a habit of reading cue-cards and mugging for the camera. Many cast members (save for John Belushi) stood noticeably far from him during the goodnights.
• The April 24, 1979, episode of the show hosted by Milton Berle resulted in his banning due to his habit of upstaging other performers, overacting, mugging for the camera, insertion of "classic" comedy bits and his maudlin performance of "September Song". This episode was also barred from rebroadcast for over twenty years (until February 2003 when an edited version was shown on E!; it aired in full several times in Canada on The Comedy Network beginning in the late 1990s) as Lorne Michaels felt that the broadcast, and Berle in particular, brought the show down.
• The 1981 Halloween episode aired on October 31st with Donald Pleasence and musical guest FEAR. By personal favor/request from Fear fan John Belushi the band performed because Belushi promised them a spot after they failed to make the final cut (movie studio refusal) as musical composers in his movie 1941. The band proceeded to play offensive music and bussed in "dancers" (many were in well-known East Coast punk acts). The band used obscene language and the dancers destroyed the set with slam dancing on the stage. The end result was FEAR were banned from playing and their actual performance was cut short; as they played "Let's Have a War" the audio and video cut to a commercial.
  • In an interview with the drummer from FEAR Spit Stix, Stix explained Belushi hadn't been on SNL for years, but "for the show that we were on, he did make an appearance. In the beginning, he's at the urinal and he turns around to the camera, 'Live! From New York!' That was a favor he did for us because during rehearsal some of our crowd - bussed-in slamdancers - tripped over a cable or something, and the union people didn't want any dancers. So as a trade-off, he went up to Grant Tinker's office for us and said, 'I'll make an appearance on the show if the dancers stay.' John was such a generous guy." [8]

• On November 13, 1982, host Robert Blake, who had been very dissatisfied with the scripts that had been given him throughout the week (at one point, he even crumpled up a script presented to him by cast member and writer Gary Kroeger, and threw it back in his face), was barred from performing on the show again.
• Another banning of sorts happened exactly one week after Robert Blake's, when the fate of a frequent guest was left in the hands of viewers. Andy Kaufman, who had appeared on the show periodically since its beginning in 1975, was on the chopping block. Viewers had to call a 900 number to decide if Kaufman should be allowed to stay, or be banned for life from the show. Viewers decided to kick him off and Kaufman never returned to the show. In truth, Kaufman pitched the idea to Dick Ebersol weeks before, and Ebersol used the idea after he had a fight with Kaufman. When Kaufman heard the news that he was banned, he felt betrayed.
• Steven Seagal, who hosted on April 20, 1991, has also been barred from hosting due to his difficulty in working with the cast and crew, who weren't afraid to make note of the occasion almost a year and a half later. During Nicolas Cage's monologue on September 26, 1992, Nicolas is speaking with Lorne backstage and says, "...they probably think I'm the biggest jerk who's ever been on the show!" To which Lorne replied, "No, no. That would be Steven Seagal."
• Sinéad O'Connor was banned from appearing on SNL again after her October 3, 1992 musical performance (see above, in Infamous Moments)
• Cypress Hill, who was the musical guest on the October 2, 1993 episode, was banned from appearing on SNL again after DJ Muggs lit up a marijuana joint and the band trashed their instruments while playing their second single "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That."
• Comedian Martin Lawrence has also been banned from the show. His opening monologue on the February 19, 1994 episode included comments about female genitalia. The monologue has been completely edited out in the syndicated version, with just a graphic describing in general what Lawrence had said. The graphic also told viewers that it was a lively monologue and it almost cost many SNL employees their jobs. [9]
• The latest person banned was host Adrien Brody (on May 10, 2003). He came out to introduce reggae musician Sean Paul, while wearing Rastafarian attire (including faux dreadlocks). Without any prior notice, Brody began rambling in a Jamaican accent for close to 45 seconds before finally introducing the act incorrectly, misannouncing "Sean Paul" as "Sean John." Michaels is notorious for his dislike of improvisation and unannounced performances (as was also the case in Costello's incident), and therefore was furious with Brody for not obtaining clearance before performing this "monologue."

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Infamous moments", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki