Lorne Michaels Told David Letterman About the One Sketch NBC Would Never Allow

To mark the beginning of Saturday Night Live’s 50th season (or prematurely honor Three Amigos’ 38th anniversary), David Letterman’s YouTube account just posted an old interview with Lorne Michaels. The long-time SNL producer stopped by Late Night on February 14, 1983. Shout out to all the sad sacks who spent Valentine’s Day ‘83 watching Lorne Michaels tell stories on TV. 

Following an awkward chat about the weather, an awkward conversation about Michaels’ reputation as a television “pioneer” and a discussion of the time he collaborated with Woody Allen (which is awkward, in retrospect), Michaels finally talked about Saturday Night Live.

Weirdly, this interview came during the five-year period when Michaels wasn’t working at SNL. Still, he was happy to answer questions about the show, including Letterman’s query about any sketches that were censored by NBC. 

Michaels then went on to somewhat hesitantly recount how the writers responded to a news story concerning the debate over capital punishment, specifically how “a Senator from Upstate New York made the point that if the Romans hadn’t believed in capital punishment, then Jesus would not have been crucified, and therefore there would be no Christianity today.”

So SNL was going to do a sketch imagining what would have happened if the Romans didn’t believe in capital punishment, and instead of dying for our sins “Jesus had gotten 8 to 10, and been out on parole.” Once out of the slammer, Jesus’ Apostles would try to convince him to perform just one more miracle, which was intended as a parody of the Dustin Hoffman crime drama Straight Time.

But the sketch “touched a nerve” with the network. While it made it all the way to dress rehearsal, soon afterwards, the NBC censors torpedoed the sketch, claiming that it was “calling into question the divinity of Christ.”

In the book Live From New York, writer Rosie Shuster recalled that the Jesus bit was one of only two sketches “where the censors were pulled out of bed and came running down to 8H right away between dress and air.” 

Michaels was extra frustrated because the cut left him with a “20-minute hole” in the the show. The costumes and sets had already been made, and several live animals were brought in. Michaels also mentioned that the role of Jesus was to be played by Canadian actor Michael Sarrazin, so presumably this all went down during the one episode he hosted in April 1978.

Michaels told Letterman that he continued to battle the network even once the show started, and didn’t give up until midnight.

When Michaels finally finished the lengthy anecdote, Letterman was forced to wrap up the show, which meant bumping the young comedian the show had booked: some guy named “Bill Maher.” 

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