Lorne Michaels has become a legend in the world of sketch comedy, thanks to his role as producer of “Saturday Night Live.” Michaels created the NBC variety series in 1975 and it has been going strong ever since, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025. Michaels combined sketch comedy with musical guests and celebrity hosts, infusing traditional variety with fresh comedic sensibilities. “SNL”‘s continued success is proof that, even at an early stage in his career, Michaels understood the TV landscape well enough to find the winning formula. However, before helming “SNL,” Michaels first worked on some less successful series.
In 1968, Michaels, a native of Canada, landed his first TV gig in America on another sketch series, which would not be as well-loved as “SNL.” Entertainment industry legend of her day Phyllis Diller led “The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show,” on which Michaels was a writer. Like “SNL” years later, the series was a variety show, featuring sketches, musical numbers, and comedy hosting. Unlike the regular cast of “SNL,” though, Diller herself was a part of all of these different elements of the show. It ran for only one season, before being canceled due to poor ratings.
Dillerreflected on the series that gave Michaels his start in Hollywood, putting its failure down to her having too little say in the production. Decisions such as set design, guests, and even Diller’s involvement in musical numbers came solely from producers and left the iconic performer feeling uncomfortable with her role in the variety show.
Lorne Michaels learned important lessons on The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show
While “The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show” failed to attract audiences and was quickly canceled after just 12 episodes, Lorne Michaels has said that there were important lessons to be learned from the series’ failures. Discussing his time on the series in a 1979 interview with Rolling Stone, Michaels called the series “an eye-opening experience.” Understanding why the series failed helped set Michaels up for success on “SNL.”
“It was the first time I’d encountered hype. It wasn’t called that then. And people just kept saying, ‘It’s great, it’s great.’ As we drew closer to taping, it began to look pretty good and it was getting laughs,” Michaels said of his time during the first tapings of “The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show.”
Michaels recalled that Diller kicked off the show’s warm-ups with a series of off-color jokes. Even though the blue gags went down well with the studio audience, Diller’s solo show failed to connect with viewers on the other side of the “hype” that had taken over the studio. It was Michaels’ then-wife who got him thinking a little more critically. “It went on till four in the morning and people were congratulating everyone, and Rosie Shuster, whom I was then married to, said, ‘You know it’s garbage, don’t you?’ I didn’t. This was the beginning of the realization that I had to pay very close attention to that.”
