Key Takeaways
- SNL started with a small cast and writers, thriving on chaos and creativity, but now features a larger staff and more bureaucracy.
- The show’s magic once came from spontaneity, whereas now it results from a structured approach and multiple rewrites.
- Lorne Michaels emphasizes the importance of editing and simplicity to sustain creativity in comedy.
- Reviving the ‘Not Ready for Prime Time’ spirit could help SNL rediscover its original essence of risk-taking and humor.
- The real lesson from SNL teaches us that creativity flourishes when it is simpler and less crowded.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
I’m writing this because the word count for this piece might actually rival the number of writers and actors on Saturday Night Live’s 51st season. When the show began in 1975, it was the definition of minimalism — 7 cast members, 11 writers, and pure, unfiltered chaos. No departments. No overthinking. Just fearless performers, live television, and magic born from mayhem. Now, at a time when decluttering is trending, maybe it’s time for SNL to do the same in a TikTok fast world. To return to the year it all started. To rediscover the raw impulse, the surprise, and the unpredictable joy that made Saturday nights worth staying up for.
Would Saturday Night Live become even bigger by getting smaller? That’s the question that started this whole thing.
When Comedy Got Too Crowded. SNL’s Biggest Strikeout: Less Is More
Too many writers for 70 minutes: what Saturday Night Live teaches us about simplicity. I’ve watched Saturday Night Live since its very first episode in 1975, when the credits were shorter than a TikTok. Half a century later, those credits now scroll longer than the sketches. What happened to Season 51, which once thrived on “controlled anarchy”?
Too Many Writers, Not Enough Magic: The Real SNL Story
Every Saturday night since 1975, SNL has aired live from Studio 8H. Ninety minutes on the schedule, about 70 minutes of real showtime once you cut the commercials. That hasn’t changed in 51 seasons. But the staff sure has.
In Season 1, Saturday Night Live had seven (Not Ready For Prime Time) cast members and eleven writers. The Not Ready for Prime Time Players were lean, chaotic, and fearless. Today, the show features approximately seventeen cast members and more than twenty writers — excluding producers, segment editors, and digital teams.
Twice the people… Same 70 minutes of comedy.
Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by (one author) Susan Morrison
The Spirit of Controlled Chaos
In Live from New York by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, Lorne Michaels described his early vision as “controlled anarchy.” The show’s magic came from its small team, last-minute panic, and creative trust. The writers weren’t just filling airtime—they were filling America’s imagination. In those early days, sketches were born in hallways, not spreadsheets. Gilda Radner and John Belushi could bomb gloriously and still be legendary by morning. There was risk, danger, and laughter that felt alive.
Fast Forward: The Bureaucracy of Funny
Now? The show is brilliant but bureaucratic. There’s a writers’ room for every segment. Rewrites, approvals, rewrites again. Comedy by committee.
As Susan Morrison writes in Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, Lorne, Michaels has always been a “ruthless editor.” She reveals that he literally watches rehearsals from a small booth under the bleachers, making notes, trimming fat, and reshaping sketches on the fly. Even now, he’s the one person who still believes less can be more. But the irony is clear: what began as a handful of misfits creating chaos has grown into an industrial comedy complex. More meetings. More rewrites. Less danger. Morrison’s book also traces Michaels’s roots back to his early days producing small, simple shows—the purest form of creative leadership. She writes that his success came from clarity, not complexity. From editing, not expanding. That’s the lesson we keep forgetting.
The Mies van der Rohe Rule
Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe famously said, “Less is more.” He meant design, but it applies perfectly to sketch comedy — and to life. When you remove the clutter, you rediscover the spark. Maybe SNL should try a “retro season” — seven cast members, eleven writers, a live band, and one unfiltered hour and a half of risk-taking. Bring back the Not Ready for Prime Time spirit, not the production hierarchy. Because every truly creative moment starts with someone brave enough to say, “Let’s just do it live.”
The Lesson Beyond the Stage
We all have our own version of SNL — our work, our projects, our lives. Over time, we add layers, approvals, and to-do lists until the fun fades and everything feels like a meeting.
But the truth is simple: There are still only 70 minutes in the show. What matters is how we fill them. Saturday Night Live has grown from 7 cast members and 11 writers to over 17 cast and 20 writers — yet it’s still just 70 minutes long. In the end, Saturday Night Live is more than a comedy show — it’s a mirror.
What started as a scrappy experiment became a machine. The same thing happens to all of us when success adds layers and meetings replace instincts. But every now and then, it helps to strip things back. To remember that creativity thrives in small spaces, not crowded rooms. Maybe that’s the real lesson from Studio 8H: brilliance doesn’t come from how many people are in the room… it comes from the few who still dare to go live.
Saturday Night Live has spent half a century capturing the mood of the moment — the chaos, the change, the humor that defines an era. Similarly, that’s what photographs do too. They mark what mattered, even when the moment felt ordinary. At ScanMyPhotos, we’ve spent decades surrounded by those fragments of history — reminders that simplicity often reveals the most profound truths. Comedy, creativity, and memory all share the same lesson: what lasts isn’t the noise, but the clarity that remains after it fades. Keep it simple.
