Lorne Michaels: The Architect Who Built American Comedy

In 1976, a stiff young producer looked into the camera and offered the Beatles a grand total of 3,000 dollars to reunite on his show. The audacity was staggering, and John Lennon and Paul McCartney, watching together that night, nearly hailed a cab to call his bluff.This episode explores the life and legacy of Lorne Michaels, the kid from Toronto who built the defining American comedy empire. We trace his turning points, the myths surrounding him, and how he became less a comedy writer than a master architect who built the entire stadium where modern comedy is played.His real name, Lorne Lipowitz, and the false kibbutz birth myth that Paul Simon invented as a jokeThe advice that led him to change his name and the Emmy-winning Lily Tomlin specials that gave him leverageHow NBC's need for cheap weekend programming handed him the keys to Saturday Night Live in 1975Founding Broadway Video in 1979 to own his content and build a late-night and film empireWhy he profits from being parodied as Dr. Evil and 30 Rock's Jack Donaghy, and the failure of The New Show