Amid all of the hoopla for this weekend’s 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live,” I watched the four-part docuseries on Peacock called “SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night.”
I really enjoyed it. I thought it was better than any individual SNL episode I’ve seen in recent years. All four parts were intriguing, as was the stand-alone episode chronicling all the musical guests and influences over the years. That was excellent.
One thing stood out to me in the final episode of the “Beyond Saturday Night” series. The creators dedicated an entire chapter to Season 11 of the show.
The cast was rebuilt after Season 10. Producer Lorne Michaels returned in 1985 in an attempt to save a rudderless show. Ratings plummeted anyway. There was turmoil between the cast and writers. Damon Wayans was fired immediately after a show. The season ended with a fake fire sketch (set by Yankees manager Billy Martin) where the entire cast and writers were “trapped” in an inferno with a giant question mark on the screen and the words, “Who will survive?” There was even some speculation the show may be canceled entirely.
Six cast members were blown out before Season 12 started. Jon Lovitz, A. Whitney Brown, Nora Dunn and Pittsburgh’s Dennis Miller were the only four that survived.
When the program returned in 1986, it came back with the likes of longtime staples Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon, Victoria Jackson and Jan Hooks.
Thirty-eight seasons later, it’s still on the air.
“There had been a codification of the right way and the wrong way to do ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and I think it had to be blown up. After the 1985 season, we allowed it to blow up,” Michaels said.
Steelers fans, see where I’m going with this?
Do yinz really think the local football franchise would ever allow itself to do something like that? Admit that things had gone awry? Admit that the approach was stale? Admit that recent attempts to move forward failed? Acknowledge that efforts to replicate glory days gone by were no longer working?
What if Michaels had just said, eh, “It’s not like we haven’t had some success around here,” as Art Rooney II did recently on WTAE?
Yeah. Michaels and SNL got a one-year reprieve after Season 11. They didn’t go eight seasons without a ratings win.
“Season 11 was the (screw) up year you needed to get back on track,” writer Carol Leifer said.
In theory, that’s what 2025 could be for the Steelers. After years of clinging to borderline relevance with nine or 10 wins and a first-round exit, maybe this is the season when the Steelers bottom out. This could be the year when the house of cards comes tumbling down.
Come to think of it, maybe it just happened in 2024 with that five-game losing streak to end the season. Clearly, though, the Steelers aren’t ready to have that come-to-Jesus moment yet. Obviously, they still think they are just a player or two away from competing with the big boys in the AFC.
They aren’t. But if you listen to the way Rooney is talking and you see the lack of significant changes on the coaching staff so far this offseason, and you gauge the apparent tone of the team likely running it back at quarterback with either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields, no one at the South Side offices appears ready to start that fire like Michaels and Martin did.
However, if it all does burn down in 2025 for the Steelers, that may be like 1985 for SNL.
A reckoning. No way to escape reality. Finally, a losing season for the first time since 2003 and the ensuing forcible realization that meaningful change is necessary. They could improve their draft position to pounce on a quarterback or move up the board when it is in their own backyard in 2026. Just save a few worthy holdovers and start the rebuild.
Or, you can just keep telling yourselves that things are just fine and that being a fringe playoff team every year is good enough. Just make the playoffs, and things will break your way eventually, as they did in 2005.
Sure. That’ll work out just fine.
In the words of Lovitz’s “Pathological Liars Anonymous” Tommy Flanagan character, “Yeah. That’s the ticket.”
LISTEN: Tim Benz and Rob Owen talk about the “Saturday Night Live” 50th Anniversary.