That Other Force Majeure SNL
“SNL At Home” reminded me of Nov. 17, 2007 — the only other time the show was forced out of 8H
I watched “SNL At Home” last night, knowing it would be special, and historic. In Saturday Night Live’s 45-year history the show has only left Studio 8H three other times — for in 1976 to make way for NBC election coverage, in 1977 to broadcast a Mardi Gras special from New Orleans, and on Saturday, November 17, 2007, when the industry-wide writer’s strike closed down productions everywhere. Of those three examples, the first was an intra-NBC decision and did not disrupt the broadcast, and the second was a prime-time special on a Sunday so didn’t really count as Saturday night, anyway. But on that night late in 2007, SNL was performed off-air twenty-plus blocks south of 30 Rockefeller Plaza and Studio 8H in a no-frills basement theater because that was the only way the show could go on.
The phrase “force majeure” has bubbled up during the Coronavirus crisis — it literally means “superior force” and in the context of contract law represents an unexpected, unsurmountable condition under which the contract can no longer be fulfilled. So in that respect, maybe it’s not the right term to describe these two episodes, which despite being shoved unceremoniously out of 8H by circumstances beyond SNL’s control, were still…
