PROFILE SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE:'Saturday Night Live' is a cultural institution in the US and its parody of Sarah Palin, courtesy of Tina Fey, has seen its ratings rocket
'EVERY MORNING, when Alaskans wake up, one of the first things they do is look outside to see if there are any Russians hanging around. If there are, you gotta go up to them and ask, 'Whattaya doin' here?' and if they can't give you a good reason, it's our responsibility to say, you know, 'Shoo! Get back over there!'" simpers Sarah Palin doppelgänger Tina Fey in what purports to be part four of Katie Couric's CBS Evening Newsinterview with the vice-presidential candidate.
"Anything else you'd like to say, Mrs Palin?" asks Amy Poehler's Couric as the "interview" draws to a close, at which prompt "Palin" inelegantly hollers at the camera: "Live from New York, it's Saturday night!"
It's a line that has rung out on American television every Saturday night at 11.30pm Eastern Time for 33 years, always ending the first sketch of this NBC fixture and signalling the start of 90 minutes of live comedy and music piped into millions of homes around America from a small studio in the Rockefeller Center.
The variety sketch show first aired on October 11th, 1975 under the title NBC's Saturday Night- it changed its name to Saturday Night Livein 1977 - kicking off with the words, uttered to John Belushi by head writer and occasional cast member Michael O'Donahue: "Let us begin."
Over its lengthy run, the show's trademark format has remained relatively unchanged: a regular cast of actors and comedians provide a core of comic sketches and are joined each week by a celebrity guest host and a musical act.
Behind it all is its Canadian creator Lorne Michaels, whose involvement with the series has been almost as lengthy as the show's run. As well as writing and producing, Michaels also occasionally appeared on the show, using the opportunity in its first season to offer the Beatles a cheque for $3,000 to reunite for the show and sing She Loves You Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. "Like I said, this is made out to the Beatles - you divide it up any way you want. If you want to give less to Ringo, that's up to you - I'd rather not get involved," he told viewers.
The Beatles, unfortunately for the show's growing fan base, never took up the offer, but there were plenty of other rising stars to keep them entertained. The original cast - known then as the Not Ready For Prime Time Players - included Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Chevy Chase, with the latter's news parody sketch Weekend Update an instant hit that has continued as part of the format long after the actor's departure, making it the show's longest-running sketch. Many of the cast members who were relatively unknown to American audiences before their Saturday Night Liveappearances went on to establish independent careers in film, with the stars of Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers all rising significantly.
Then there were the hosts, usually actors: Elliott Gould, Jodie Foster, Steve Martin, Christopher Walken, Tom Hanks and Colin Farrell have all taken their turn over the years, some more than once. Others include Paul Simon, Hugh Hefner, Johnny Cash and even, in 1977, Ralph Nader.
Although it has continued to reel in big names over the years, the early days of Saturday Night Liveare still seen by many as its golden age, a time when its very existence helped shake up existing perceptions about the possibilities of television. According to Tom Shales, Washington PostTV critic and co-author, with James Andrew Miller, of Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, the early days were a revelation for viewers and critics alike.
"The first five years were the most glorious and it took everyone by surprise," says Shales. "It overturned a lot of television traditions and inhibitions and changed what you could say on TV and what you could joke about." It also introduced, as Shales points out "a whole lot of great new personalities", but many left with the departure of Lorne Michaels at the end of the fifth season and its initial dramatic impact appeared to wane.
"It levelled off, it didn't die off," explains Shales of the show's dip in fortune, though Michaels was reinstated after five years.
By then, however, the show had already made a serious mark on the US's cultural landscape, a fact that had not gone unnoticed in political circles. "It got noticed by Washington almost right away," says Shales. "They [ the SNL cast and producers] were invited to the White House at the end of their first season."
TINA FEY'S PALIN impersonation is just the latest in a long tradition of sketches poking fun at political figures, and in the process, impacting on public perceptions. "They became so influential that politicians started trying to embrace the show and become part of the joke rather than the object of it," explains Shale.
Though the show was traditionally hosted by actors and entertainment celebrities, politicians started to appear in the mix. "More and more politicians showed up on the programme," says Shale. "Gerald Ford was one of the first. As president, he was taped from the Oval Office saying 'Live from New York, it's Saturday night', the opening words, and ever since then politicians have tried to co-opt the show."
They're not the only ones. Sports personalities, socialites and business magnates have also taken up the gauntlet over the years, while musical guests appearing over the show's lengthy run have included Aretha Franklin, U2, James Brown, Neil Young and The Clash. Sinéad O'Connor caused no shortage of controversy (and the show's switchboards to jam) when she ripped up a picture of the then Pope John Paul II and threw the pieces at the camera.
It wasn't the only controversy over the show's history as a live, and therefore unpredictable, broadcast. In 1981, cast member Charles Rocket was "shot" in a parody of the plot line from television show Dallas, where viewers were left guessing who had done it. When asked for his thoughts on being shot, he swiftly replied: "I'd like to know who the f**k did it." The slip, if that's what it was, ended up costing Rocket, as well as then producer Jean Doumanian and several other cast members, their jobs.
Despite such moments, Saturday Night Livesurvived. Ratings have varied, however, with the show's star fading somewhat in recent years until the kickstart by Fey and Poehler as Palin and Couric drew its biggest audience for a season opening in seven years, 64 per cent more than tuned into the previous year's opening show.
Is this a return to form for a groundbreaking American cultural icon? "They're trying to recover some of that lost punch and sparkle that they had, and they're getting back to their roots," says Shales. "Of course they always brighten up during an election year, because the material is so ripe and it's so much fun to make fun of politicians."
It's more than just entertainment, however, with Shales warning against any underestimation of the show's power to sway public opinion. "It's a very influential thing," he says. "When they did a sketch earlier this year about the press supposedly being too nice to Mr Obama, that idea caught fire, and the press really seemed to change its attitude and become more aggressive in its questioning of him. It was as if they had contributed to public discourse on the issue when in fact they were just making a joke."
Obama isn't the only politician to have suffered at the hands of Saturday Night Live. "They redefined Bob Dole so that the actual person was less important culturally than their impression of him," says Shales, adding that Chevy Chase did a similar job on Gerald Ford, presenting him so effectively as a klutz that he is now remembered as such. "That impression took root and everyone thought of him and still think of him in that way."
NOT EVERY POLITICIAN is as easy to satirise, however. "They don't really have a good George W Bush right now is the problem," says Shales. "But then the real George W Bush does such a good job himself of being preposterous."
For a new generation of YouTubers and internet viewers, Saturday Night Liveis packing a lively punch with its successful take-off of the Republican vice-presidential candidate.
"The Sarah Palin thing is going over so well that Lorne Michaels says they literally have to open with a Sarah Palin sketch every week now because the public demands it," he says. "People are just eating it up. They love it."
With its impact on ratings already in evidence, the question now is over its impact on the Republican campaign, with the answer due to be broadcast to the nation on November 4th.
CV 'SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE'
What is it?A long-running live comedy show on US television network NBC
Why is it in the news?Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's Sarah Palin, Katie Couric send-up on the show has gone viral
Most appealing characteristic:It's gone 33 years without jumping the shark
Least appealing characteristic:Ad breaks every five minutes
Most likely to say:"Live from New York, it's Saturday night"
Least likely to say:"On a more serious note . . . "