“I always say Eugene is the only actual genius I’ve worked with.” High praise coming from Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels for a profile in the New York Times in 2014. Providence resident Eugene Lee was the production designer for ‘Saturday Night Live’ from that opening night in 1975 until his death at age 83 in 2023, and he never left town. The NYT piece explains how that was possible:
While much of his work is based in Manhattan, the Lees have never considered leaving Providence, where his career began in 1967 as a designer for the Trinity Repertory Company, an organization he continues to be associated with as the resident designer. But during the weeks that “Saturday Night Live” is in production, Mr. Lee catches the train on Wednesday morning, arriving at NBC in time for the afternoon story meeting and, like the rest of his design team, works almost around the clock until the show goes live. Meetings are routinely held at midnight or later, and Mr. Lee lives spartanly, sleeping when he can at the nearby Yale Club (he got his M.F.A. at Yale).
(Big credit to Mrs. Lee who worked behind the scenes, keeping the operation running smoothly.)
Happily, NBC has created two ancillary specials for this banner year and they are both excellent. If you have missed the network airings, it is streaming on Peacock and through other avenues.
The opening 6-minute montage from Questlove’s Ladies & Gentlemen . . . 50 Years of SNL Music is now famous and rightly so. But watch the whole thing. There is footage from the early years that was new to me. (What I finally got clear on was that Elvis Costello/Beastie Boys thang, and what was happening the night Kanye decided to take over the closing.)
And every minute of the four-part SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night is must-see. The first episode goes into the audition process, complete with the original footage, which many of the cast members are filmed watching for the first time. The second episode is “More Cowbell” which I promise is hugely entertaining and insanely comprehensive. (The piece includes an interview with the owner of the cowbell factory and goes behind the scenes with Blue Oyster Cult — both of these parties had their lives changed!) The third episode covers the all-important writers. Once a sketch has been selected, the writer basically becomes a director, taking control of the whole production. If you have ever wondered what the week is like — it’s insane. (This is where we see Mr. Lee drawing up plans.) And the fourth episode covers Season 11: The Weird Year.
I have been watching this show for all fifty years so I wasn’t sure how that perspective would affect my take on these shows, so I consulted the thirtysomething in my life, and she loved them as well . . . even Cow Bell. . . especially Cow Bell.
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LIVE from New York! Tonight the SNL 5oth Anniversary Special will air live on NBC, beginning at 7pm with the Red Carpet, which I think will not be like other carpets. The show will stream thereafter on Peacock but why not watch it live.
Gene was a brilliant designer and very nice guy. After I graduated from Brown in 1975 I worked in the Trinity Square scene shop for a season, where he designed in a loft overlooking the shop. We were all very excited waiting for the premier of SNL, originally just Saturday Night because of the confusion caused by Cosell’s short-lived Saturday Night Live show on ABC. Hence the “Live from New York” cold open. Perfect. We never missed a show for years. His work lives on, every week, just wonderful.
I designed sets for a few years, went on to architecture school, and now design cities.