‘Lorne’: The Man Who Made Everyone Famous but Himself

Lorne Michaels is one of those mythic figures. He’s the last of an era in show business when creativity mattered as much as the bottom line. Despite being rich and powerful, he’s still in the game to make you laugh. He’s also a prolific businessman who built an enormously profitable entertainment empire. And, for better or worse,  he also gave us Adam Sandler’s career.

As the heart and soul of the iconic Saturday Night Live, Michaels is reluctantly the subject of the new documentary Lorne, now streaming on Netflix.

Born in Toronto in 1944, he launched SNL in 1975 and helped turn generations of unknown comedians into household names, from John Belushi and Eddie Murphy to Tina Fey and Will Ferrell. Beyond SNL, he’s been behind 30 Rock, Late Night, and movies like Wayne’s World. Few people have shaped American comedy more. You literally know Conan O’Brien because of him.

Aside from the obvious glitz of being the show that broke everything from The Blues Brothers to “needs more cowbell,” the documentary also covers his departure from SNL, the failure of The New Show, and his eventual return. You can make your own judgment about the expansion of the Michaels franchise into the Cornball Empire that is The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville pulls back the curtain on the famously private mastermind. Through archival footage, candid interviews, and rare access to Michaels himself, the film explores how one Canadian guy built a late-night sketch show into an American institution and somehow, after more than 50 years, keeps the circus running.

But if you think you’re getting an in-depth character profile of Michaels, you’re dead wrong. The guy agreed to make the documentary, but he never said he was happy about it. One thing I did learn was that Michaels is a prodigious popcorn eater. I know this because they had a few close-ups of Michael’s disgusting machine, which, in my opinion, needed a cleaning. We also learn that he’s a creature of habit; he eats at the same three Manhattan restaurants and always orders the same things.

What’s fun about Lorne is how far he keeps people from him. People whose careers he built, like Michael Che, Fred Armisen, and Colin Jost, all muse about how little they actually know the man.

Some people, like Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, and Paul Simon, are closer to Michaels and talk candidly about his back-in-the-shadows nature, ribbing him in the process. For someone who made a career out of putting people in the spotlight, Michaels seems remarkably comfortable staying just outside of it. He keeps everything compartmentalized and predictable in his personal life, including a wife and kids he doesn’t talk about. Though the filmmakers did get to go to Michaels’ farm in Maine, they show little more than a pond and some woods.

I don’t think the documentary is for everyone. But I love Saturday Night Live, so it worked for me. Neville manages to make an entertaining film about a man who refuses to be fully understood. It’s a deep dive into the man who created the show, but only to the depths he’s willing to allow.

The documentary did make me wonder: Michaels is getting older. He can’t be the steward of the show forever. Does he handpick someone to be his successor? All signs point to yes, but with the level of involvement Saturday Night Live requires, it’s not for the faint of heart. I hope whoever it is at least orders something different for dinner.