Summary Lorne Michaels had a vision: to bring live late-night comedy/variety totelevision. NBC was playing reruns of “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” on Saturday nights, but wanted to feature new programming instead. And so, “Saturday Night Live” was born, albeit under the name “NBC’s Saturday Night”, since sportscaster Howard Cosell was already using the name for his prime-time comedy/variety show. To mock him even further, Michaels dubbed his cast members “The Not Ready For Prime Time Players”, after Cosell’s own “Prime Time Players”. Despite the overabundance of material for the first show (which included two musical guests, an Albert Brooks film, a Muppets piece and several commercial parodies), “SNL” found a vacancy in viewers’ eyes. As standard throughout the years that followed, “SNL” beat the competition, and the only thing to survive Cosell’s show was a young comedian named Billy Murray, who would join the successful NBC comedy program during its second season.
Don Roy King is directing his fourteenth season of Saturday Night Live. That work has earned him nine Emmys and thirteen nominations. Additionally, he has been nominated for thirteen DGA Awards and won in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Mr. King is also the creative director of Broadway Worldwide which brings theatrical events to theaters. The company has produced Smokey Joe’s Café; Putting It Together with Carol Burnett; Jekyll & Hyde; and Memphis, all directed by Mr. King. He completed the screen capture of Broadway's Romeo & Juliet in 2013. - LinkedIn
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