Saturday Night Live: 1980-85

The years 1980 to 85 are known in SNL history as some of the worst years with horrible ratings.  Why did this occur? Well, we all know that Lorne Michaels has been the executive producer of the show, but did you know that he left for these 5 years, and was replaced by two different producers?

It's true, the first was a woman named Jean Doumainan who literally only lasted one year. Sadly she was very inexperienced in producing the show and the ratings dropped dramtically.  Many people think nothing good came out of that one year, but that is not completely true. In fact, one of the most well known comedy actors of our time came out of the Doumainan Era. This actor, the amazing Eddie Murphy, has gone down as one of the few people that legitamtely kept Saturday Night Live on air. With out him, who knows if it would still be on today.

After Jean's one year reign, a much more strict Dick Ebersol came to take over.  He helped create SNL and was much more experienced in producing than Jean. It's true that SNL did gain better ratings when Ebersol was producing, but it wasn't by much. The show was still hanging by a thread, and it had completely lost it's "coolness" it had gained in the "Golden Age." Also, many of the cast members did not like Ebersol. He did not have a very good sense of humor, and many of their sketches that they believed to be very funny were rejected.  Ebersol also replaced all the cast members except for Piscopo and Murphy who were doing very well on the show. 

Overall, these five years of plummeting ratings proved more than just the fact that it was possible SNL could end.  These years showed that SNL, even with conflict and turmoil, could survive. With hardworking writers, performers, and crew, this show could survive anything.  There may have been close calls, but Saturday Night Live still lives today.

Here's a favorite Murphy character named Buckwheat. So popular, they had to kill him off.