My SNL Story: Matt Neuman

Veteran comedy writer Matt Neuman, whose story starts all the way back in the early 70s, joins us today to share his SNL story. He talks about the creation of his own sketch comedy show, The Chicken Little Show (where Father Guido Sarducci made his television debut 6 years before appearing on Saturday Night Live), working with a pre-SNL Al Franken & Tom Davis, and putting together a TV pilot with Rob Reiner. All this led him to work on the Emmy-nominated Lily Tomlin special where he would meet a young Canadian-born producer named Lorne Michaels. 

Matt shares why he turned down the offer to write for Saturday Night Live in Season 1, eventually joined the show for Season 5, and then returned once more after the firing of Jean Doumanian in Season 6.  In addition to his time working on SNL, Matt talks about visiting the show during its first season, contributing sketches during its second, and helping write the Bob & Ray, Jane, Laraine, & Gilda special during Season 4.

As the one established writer to join the staff at the start of Season 5, Matt has a unique perspective on how the final season of the original era unfolded.  He takes us from the pre-season “retreat” that was held in upstate New York all the way through the final send-off of the season finale – on which he is featured in the monologue (which he helped write).

Along the way we are treated to a firsthand account of one of the most infamously bad sketches in show history (by the man who wrote it), getting a private concert by Bob Dylan, and what impact– if any – the first competition to Saturday Night Live’s dominance would have.

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