- Oops, excuse me.
It's 'Saturday Night Live!'
God! This is the studio.
This is where it all happens.
And it's St. Patrick's Day today.
That's why everything's green.
- Alright. So, you've got the beginning. See, that's the best, though.
- And to say "Live from New York," et cetera. - You know? Oh my god.
- So, when I do that, I have to do it big, right? - That is awesome.
- I have to, like, give it everything?
- Just belt it out, 'cause you get the show going.
- Yeah. - Oh my God, do you know how great that is?
- I know. I'm totally psyched. I'm ‚Äî that's, like, very cool.
- That is very cool. - Yeah.
- I've said it, like, twice or three times. - Yeah?
- Yeah, in four years. - 'Cause Phil Hartman says it a lot, doesn't he?
- Yeah, and Dana [Carvey] used to say it all the time.
But all of us, like, fight to say that.
That's great! Good for you, man. - Yeah, I know. Thank you.
I'm really excited, my first 'SNL.' - You're gonna get the show rollin'.
- [Crawford] Is it still fun for you?
- Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think it's ‚Äî
I'm always surprised at dress rehearsal at how -
and you've caught me just before dress rehearsal, but I'm always ‚Äî
- Yeah, me too. My first dress rehearsal. - Yeah, exactly [laughs].
- I'm always surprised at how often I'm scared by it,
and how I go, "How could this," you know ‚Äî well, you've lived through read-through,
and something that was incredibly funny just completely unravels at dress rehearsal.
And the show doesn't go on so much 'cause it's ready. It goes on 'cause it's 11:30.
And so, it takes a little time to come down from it,
and then get some perspective on it.
And then, of course, there's a new host there on Monday.
- Hi, I'm Linda Richman, and I'm shvitzing because Helen Hunt ‚Äî
- Hello.
- And Snoop Doggy Dogg will be hosting 'Saturday Night Live' this week.
Snoopy, you're rather quiet.
- [Laughs] I tripped.
- [Crowd laughter]
- It's too ‚Äî let me see the second card.
- Why do you think it's important to do 'Saturday Night Live,' as an artist?
- 'Cause it's a whole other view of your audience, you know what I'm saying?
Basically, I don't even know what kind of audience it is,
but I know, you know, they're probably into my music.
So, I'm gonna come here and give a good performance,
as far as that goes.
- Snoop Doggy Dogg is neither a Snoop, nor a Doggy, nor a Dogg ‚Äî discuss.
- Linda, that makes no sense.
- There‚Äôs goyim, and then there‚Äôs goyim.
Ooh. Can I just get a ‚Äî I can't do anything.
It's like I have these hooks for hands.
- [Crawford] What do you think your strong point as a comedian, or comedic actor, is?
Is it timing, impersonations, or ‚Äî
- Um, I think comedy is...
timing [laughs].
I put in a pause, and ‚Äî huh? Now, I'm cross-eyed.
What? Sorry. - [Laughs] OK.
- My strength, I don't know. I'm ‚Äî mostly characters.
I'm more like a Dan Aykroyd, a Gilda Radner, I guess.
My hero is Peter Sellers.
- Peter Sellers? - Alec Guinness.
Christopher Guest.
- Yeah. Did you watch 'Saturday Night Live' ‚Äî
- Phil Hartman.
- Phil Hartman. He's your hero? - Yeah.
- I'm gonna tell him that. He'll be very flattered.
- We're going into Phil Hartman's office right now.
He's actually writing sketches, I think, or, you know ‚Äî
maybe screwing around, but we'll see.
And I'm gonna knock 'cause, you know,
he's a very important guy here at 'Saturday Night Live.'
[Knocking on door]
- [Hartman] Come in.
- Come in.
It's locked [laughs]. You're trying to give me a message?
- [Hartman] Wait a minute.
[Hartman screams]
- So it seems very loose around here, like who works with which talent,
or performer works with which writer, and how you get a sketch going, and ‚Äî
I mean, how does that work?
- Oh, there are a lot of different ways.
I would say, most of the time, writers create things in their own fevered brains,
and tomorrow, when I come into work, before read-through,
they'll say, "Will you take a look at this?"
I like to respect the writer's creativity and work with what I get,
because there's a wonderful symbiosis there,
and it's very tender.
You want to preserve that relationship.
- [Off-camera] Imagine if we caught that on camera.
- This is the new girl, Sarah Silverman.
Alright.
- Are you the youngest person here?
Or one ‚Äî you've definitely ‚Äî - I think I'm the youngest in the cast,
but as ‚Äî I'm a writer, too,
and the writers ‚Äî there are a lot of writers my age, actually, fresh out of Harvard.
- Ooh. Are you from Harvard?
- No, I'm from stand-up. I went to college for a year.
Good year. I liked it a lot.
- The college of stand-up. - Yeah.
With stand-up, you work on pieces, and you can perfect them, week after week,
and drop things you don't like, and it's a constant process,
whereas this is something that you work hard, and then, it's over.
And then, it's all something new the next week, you know.
There's never really time to, like, develop things, you know.
But that's the ‚Äî that's what makes it so neat, too.
- Right. - It's neat.
- [Producer] Where are we going, Rob?
- We're going to the plane for [the "Total Bastard Airlines" sketch].
"Bye-bye, bye-bye." You know, the plane stories.
- Now, this is cheating.
We're not actually going through the door.
We're going through the set. Come on.
Come on, I'll take you to the back of the plane.
Keep coming.
I didn't realize ‚Äî
this is the engine of the plane.
Right there [laughs].
- Bye-bye. - Hey, I'm going to be waiting for you,
out in the terminal. - OK, great. Bye-bye.
- No, no, no, no, no. There's more. I'm gonna pound your face in.
- Bye-bye. - OK. Oh my God, I'm gonna destroy you.
- Yeah, bye-bye!
- I'm gonna kick the living crap out of you!
- Yeah, bye-bye!
- How cool is it to be on 'Saturday Night Live,' if -
you know, just because you're from the same ‚Äî
you have the same age as me, and ‚Äî - Yeah.
- 'Saturday Night Live' was so cool when we were, like, in seventh grade.
- Right, right, right. - Is it just unbelievable that you're here?
- It is, it is. It was ‚Äî when I got into comedy ‚Äî
I didn't know, growing up, I was gonna get into this,
but I started comedy, stand-up, when I was 17,
and then, it might ‚Äî I always used to talk to my friend, Tim Herlihy,
who's just writing on the show now,
say, "'Saturday Night Live,' that would be the thing. That would be the place to go."
- And here you are. - Yeah, I really lucked out.
I didn't know it was gonna happen, but I'm glad it happened.
- And is it funny just working with a lot of other funny people? Do you guys just ‚Äî
- Yeah, it's great. That's ‚Äî
we're all good friends.
We were good friends, a lot of us, before this.
So, it's a good feeling to be hanging out,
and everyone ‚Äî we're all going through the same stuff.
We're all slowly getting a little famous, walking down the street together.
You know, when I'm walking down the street with the other guys, that they feel
the same kind of weirdness that you feel, you know.
I think what is most important to us is to be funny on the show.
And we know that other stuff's probably ‚Äî
we're gonna get a shot at that other stuff, anyway.
So, movies and ‚Äî it's gonna be fun, and that should be down the line for ‚Äî
like, you know, we just want to concentrate.
I want to concentrate on being funny here.
- 'Saturday Night Live' was a, it's a ‚Äî
that was definitely my dream, you know.
It's pretty much the only thing I wanted after Second City,
'cause it was ‚Äî like I said, my earlier idols, they all went to here,
and I just loved 'Saturday Night Live' since I was in sixth grade,
you know, watching [John] Belushi, [Bill] Murray, [Dan] Aykroyd, all those guys.
And I just loved it.
I remember when I was a kid, like,
my mom was in the middle of all these nuns around a semicircle, and they were saying,
"Mrs. Farley, the children in school are laughing at Christopher, not with him."
- [Laughs]
- So, I pretty much was disruptive all through school.
- But now, people are laughing with you, or at you?
- They're still laughing at me, but I get paid. - [Laughs]
How do you have a life, though? I mean, you guys work so much.
- Yeah, there's not much of a life.
Comedy ain't pretty, It's a lonely road for you young fellows that wanna get out there
and be the class clown, and "Hey, look at me!"
Well, you better buck up, young man. - [Laughs]
- No, it's ‚Äî it is, but it's worth it. It's fun, man.
I love making people laugh when I can.
- Oh! - Gotta go! Comedy, haha!
Oh! - [Laughs]
- [Crawford] Where do you think it's heading, 'Saturday Night Live'?
- [Michaels] I think it's ‚Äî
I think it will go through what it's gone through in the last ‚Äî
or at least since I've been back since '85,
I think it's ‚Äî
- [House band starts playing music] - [Laughs]
- I think it will go through, you know, bumps.
You know, and there'll be great shows, and I think there'll be ‚Äî
and there'll be times where we connect and that we're really proud,
and there'll be times when it kind of doesn't connect,
but I think we'll be here every week, and I think we'll just keep trying.
- The whole cast is in this one.
I'm playing an MTV News reporter. Big stretch, huh?
So, what's the line, exactly?
It's "Live from New York"?
Hope I do good.
Then, maybe, they'll ask me back to host. Right, Lorne?
Well, I've learned more from that song than in all my years at MTV.
Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!
- [Crowd cheers and applause]