When Norm Macdonald closed out his Dec. 13, 1997, “Weekend Update,” the Saturday Night Live star had no concept he’d by no means sit on the “Update” desk once more. Nobody at Saturday Night Live knew that Macdonald can be fired from his job as SNL’s faux newsreader earlier than the present returned from its vacation hiatus or that Colin Quinn can be put in in Macdonald’s place. Saturday Night Live is all about forged turnover. Still, Macdonald’s three-and-a-half yr reign because the deadpan anchor of SNL’s venerable midshow centerpiece took viewers, forged members and even Macdonald fully unexpectedly.
That “and-a-half” phase of Macdonald’s time as “Weekend Update”’s anchor incorporates a mess of backstage and community politicking, full with unprecedented NBC interference in how SNL was run, producer Lorne Michaels’ determined battle to take care of management over the late-night comedy present that had grow to be his life’s work and maybe a little bit intrigue surrounding Macdonald’s penchant for mocking America’s most infamously acquitted double-murderer, O.J. Simpson, the legendary NFL Hall of Famer whose 1995 acquittal for the murders of his estranged spouse and a buddy continued to supply the brashly cheeky Macdonald with explosive comedian materials proper as much as and together with his final present.
Noting that Simpson’s lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, had lately taken the case of NBA star Latrell Sprewell (who’d simply been accused of making an attempt to strangle his coach), Macdonald explains that Cochran is floating a “second choker” principle, referencing Simpson’s never-materializing promise to search out “the real killers.” And, extra straight, Macdonald later references an incident the place the freed Simpson was denied seating at a Los Angeles restaurant, noting that, in recompense, the eatery will now have to supply “murderer” and “non-murderer” sections.
Macdonald, who had a manner of punching such jokes with simply the correct amount of knowingness to make them land even more durable, had made a banquet out of O.J. jokes on “Update.” “Well, it’s finally official. Murder is legal in the state of California,” Macdonald famously beamed, kicking off the primary “Weekend Update” after Simpson’s trial had concluded, a cathartically explosive zinger proper into the guts of a problem that had your entire nation wound tight. It was a go-to vein of can’t-miss materials for Macdonald over time, which continued to get big laughs from seemingly everybody however Don Ohlmeyer, then NBC’s highly effective West Coast president and a longtime buddy of O.J. Simpson.
James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales’ oral historical past of the present, Live From New York, goes into this era at size, offering a harrowing glimpse into how NBC — flush with the large in-house success of Friends — started to use the identical micromanaging method to all of its programming, together with the beforehand extra unbiased Saturday Night Live of Lorne Michaels. While it’s true that SNL of the mid-’90s was in one thing of a artistic lull, what the authors uncover is an influence wrestle between a distant and overweening govt and a producer who’d maybe grow to be a bit indifferent from the present he’d been operating for many years. (Ohlmeyer is quoted as even taking pictures at how a lot time Michaels spent at his most well-liked trip retreat of St. Barts as a part of the exec’s long-distance sniping marketing campaign.)
Hear Norm MacDonald’s Last ‘Weekend Update’
Olhmeyer’s affect was sturdy sufficient that Michaels conceded to firing fan-favorite forged members Adam Sandler and Chris Farley (two of the preferred proponents of the type of SNL bro-humor critics had been railing in opposition to) earlier than their contracts had been formally up. But these departures occurred after the season, as is the SNL manner of easing performers and writers out the door. Macdonald’s firing from “Weekend Update,” together with that of venerable SNL author and “Update: scribe Jim Downey, happened midseason and took Macdonald so by surprise that he went into the next show week still wondering if he had a job. Macdonald eventually had to phone Ohlmeyer himself to receive the bad news, with the executive puzzled that neither Michaels nor anyone else at SNL had stepped up to definitively explain the situation to their now ex-anchor.
In Live From New York, the O.J. Simpson conspiracy theory is aired out, with various parties expressing some skepticism that Ohlmeyer’s crusade to meddle in Michaels’ domain stemmed specifically from the fact that “Weekend Update” was rarely free from “Of course he did it” jokes. Ohlmeyer, who died in 2017, maintained that he just didn’t find Macdonald or Downey’s take on the news funny and that he felt that a change was necessary, citing internal numbers showing people tuning out during “Weekend Update.”
And there may be some truth to that last point, as Macdonald’s style, while held up as brilliant and original by many (Chevy Chase called Macdonald the best of his “Update” successors), was fashioned to be deliberately alienating. Macdonald holds on for a beat or two too long after a joke that doesn’t land with his audience, his defiant stare-down with viewers more challenging than the crowd-pleasing laugh lines they’re used to. There’s also a complexly layered meta-bit in this last outing where Macdonald subverted his joke about female drivers by flipping the script on the audience not once, but twice, toying with his penchant for perceived misogyny in a technical marvel of joke-telling that, nonetheless, left the in-studio audience more uneasy than rolling with laughter. “I don’t want to say anything that an audience already thinks,” Macdonald stated in Live From New York, adding, “’Update’ was never a big pep rally when I was there. It was never a big party. So I think the network started going, ‘It doesn’t seem like as much fun as it could be.’”
Whatever Ohlmeyer’s motivations were for messing with Saturday Night Live, the writing was on the wall, not just for Macdonald, but for Michaels’ ability to steer the show free from outside interference. There’s an offhandedness to Macdonald’s sign-off on his last “Update,” with the comic already pulling off his lapel mic as he says a casual, “That’s the news, folks. Thanks.” It’s interesting in retrospect that the one correspondent piece that night came from Colin Quinn, playing an eggnog-drunk version of himself and mocking Macdonald’s position as “some antihero” and belittling his “precious little ‘Update’ desk, from whence the oracle will enlighten us.” When Saturday Night Live came back for the Samuel L. Jackson-hosted Jan. 10, 1998, episode, it would be Quinn at the desk, addressing the elephant in the room (after a deep sigh) with an anecdote about your favorite bar changing bartenders, but you still wanting a drink even though new guy Steve doesn’t make things as well as old bartender Jeff. “Well, I’m Steve,” Quinn kicked off his, as it turned out, brief time as the anchor. “What can I get you?”
Watch Norm MacDonald’s ‘Weekend Update’ O.J. Simpson Jokes
As for Macdonald, Olhmeyer’s ultimatum to Michaels somehow added insult to injury in that Ohlymeyer still wanted Macdonald to stay on the show — just not doing “Weekend Update.” “I didn’t want to do sketches,” Macdonald explained in Live From New York, noting how he parlayed his “Update” firing into a timely spot on The Late Show With David Letterman where the two comics (both of whom had now been fired by NBC) engaged in some high-profile mockery of Ohlmeyer. “I know Don Ohlymeyer and, just between you and me, he’s an idiot,” stated Letterman, with Macdonald offering little in the way of resistance. (Letterman notably did edit out a reference he made to Ohlymeyer’s drinking habits, although the cut joke was duly reported in the press.)
Macdonald finally got his wish and left Saturday Night Live entirely after the season. The Ohlmeyer campaign against Macdonald wasn’t over, though. After Macdonald’s comedy movie Dirty Work was released later in 1998, Ohlmeyer specifically banned all advertisements for the film from NBC’s airwaves, citing Macdonald’s mockery of the network on Letterman and Howard Stern’s shows as the vindictive reason.
Later, after Macdonald’s death from cancer in 2021, Conan O’Brien revealed that he’d fought an ultimately successful battle to continue to book the comedian and favorite guest on his NBC show — against the mandates of Ohlmeyer. With signature aplomb, Macdonald addressed Ohlmeyer’s ongoing campaign against him by noting that, for a guy who’s “about a thousand times more powerful” than Macdonald, Ohlmeyer “should get a life, man.”
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