
The story of Lorne Michaels and Saturday Night Live is the stuff of television comedy legend. One need look no further than the local multiplex this weekend for proof of that.
While SNL is undoubtedly Michaels’ biggest claim to fame, it wasn’t his first attempt at a variety show. From 1970 to 1971, he co-created and starred in the short-lived Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour with his then-comedy partner Hart Pomerantz . (That show was an outgrowth of four specials the duo had produced over the prior year.)
Originally conceived as a Canadian take on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In (Michaels and Pomerantz had been writers on that show before returning to their native Canada), it ended up serving as something of a blueprint for what would become NBC’s Saturday Night five years later, with its more rock ‘n roll-styled spin on the traditional TV variety show, complete with political humor, comedy sketches, and some of the day’s top musical guests (including James Taylor and Cat Stevens).
Although full episodes of The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour have somehow managed to elude the internet (there are a few clips), a newly resurfaced 12-minute segment from another CBC series may be the next best thing, as it shows a 25 year-old Michaels expounding on his approach to comedy.
It originally aired as part of the CBC mid-day talk show Elwood Glover’s Luncheon Date on October 30, 1970, just two days before the premiere of The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour.
The clip shows a mustached Michaels and his partner Pomerantz yukking it up as best they can with Glover, the show’s somewhat staid host.
One sequence in particular suggests that Michaels, who, as recently as last month expressed ambivilence about political correctness in comedy, has felt this way for some time.
“Mel Brooks once defined comedy as polite hostility,” Michaels is seen explaining to host Elwood Glover. “I’m not talking in the sense of wanting to harm people, but the hostility which comes with just existing day-to-day with the insane things that happen in the normal course of events.”
“Once you limit yourself to saying, ‘Well, that’s not funny,’ or ‘That can’t be funny,’ or ‘You can’t do jokes on that,’ then you’ve limited yourself to the point where you’re ineffective as a comedian,” Michaels continued. “So, what we try to do is not limit ourselves. And if there’s a taste question involved, we just sort of decide amongst ourselves whether or not the people that we’ll be offending with it, whether or not it’s serious enough, to worry about it … You will always offend some segment of the population as soon as you step out and do comedy.”
When Glover pressed Michaels about how they know whether something is truly funny or not, the future SNL boss pointed to the importance of having a live audience. “Well, that’s what a live audience tells you,” he said.
The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour would air six episodes over the course of the next year. Michaels and Pomerantz dissolved their partnership after the show’s finale due to creative differences (watching their interview, it’s not hard to imagine there being tension between the two).
Pomerantz, who was a lawyer before connecting with Michaels, returned to his law practice but continued to dabble in TV on occasion, hosting the 1974 game show Double Up, and making frequent appearances on the CBC panel series This is the Law. Earlier this year, a Canadian legal magazine dubbed him “Canada’s Funniest Lawyer.”
Get stories like this in your inbox: Sign up for LateNighter’s free daily newsletter.