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Saturday Night Live in the '80s: Lost and Found

 (Special -- NBC, Sun. Nov. 13, 9 p.m.)

By BRIAN LOWRY

Dana Carvey, here as the Church Lady, is one of the 'SNL' alums who shares reminiscences in 'Saturday Night Live in the '80s: Lost and Found.'

Produced by SNL Studios and Broadway Video. Producer, Kenneth Bowser; supervising producers, Rachel Talbot, Ken Aymong; writer-director, Bowser.
 

Far from the usual clip shows, Kenneth Bowser's explorations into "Saturday Night Live" -- beginning with the Emmy-nominated "The First Five Years" earlier this year, and now this next-10 follow-up -- bring a sharp documentarian's eye and historian's savvy to the venerable program's tumultuous beginnings, pieced together through candid interviews with its cast and producers. Peppered with well-chosen sketch and musical snippets, spec provides insight into the Darwinian way in which the show functions, its near demise after the original "Not Ready for Primetime" players left and Lorne Michaels' cultlike hold on the franchise.

The one glaring absence in the fast-moving production is no-show Eddie Murphy, though his former colleagues do enough reminiscing about his impact to ensure that he's gone but not forgotten.

What director Bowser ("Easy Riders, Raging Bulls") again brings out is the behind-the-scenes turmoil that tends to surround "SNL," from cliquishness among the writers to the ruthless jockeying for screen time.

"Lost and Found" opens with the short-lived tenure of producer Jean Doumanian (not interviewed), who onetime cast member Gilbert Gottfried describes as a "sacrificial lamb" in the wake of Michaels' exit.

Next into the breach came Dick Ebersol, now chairman of NBC Sports, who sought out Michaels' blessing and then promptly engineered a house cleaning of the cast -- one of several makeovers that the show underwent during this period, when its long-term viability was anything but a certainty.

At its nadir, various critics urged NBC to put the show out of its (and their) misery. Perhaps the most interesting window into the internal politics involved importing a group of young improv players from Chicago, among them Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who at first were largely frozen out by the writers and existing cast. ("Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David was among those frustrated by the show's process, Louis-Dreyfus says, only getting one sketch on during his brief stay.)

By the time of Michaels' "second coming" in 1985, "SNL" had not only survived this tenuous stretch but demonstrated that it was capable of renewing itself -- even if that meant dismissing the previous season, widely considered a disappointment, as "all a dream." In hindsight, such longevity was by no means assured when lightweight oddities like Tim Kazurinsky's "I Married a Monkey" sketch were a regular part of the mix.

Bowser deftly chronicles the parade of new faces, from Joe Piscopo and Murphy to Billy Crystal, Nora Dunn, Martin Short and Dana Carvey. Through their reflections, he captures how the franchise has endured to improbably usher those who were teens when it premiered into middle age.

Granted, time constraints prevent fully doing justice to some of the oversized egos and personalities that passed through "SNL's" revolving door, from one writer's handy cocaine stash to "dark prince" writer Michael O'Donoghue's penchant for wildly over-the-top concepts.

Still, through these complementary projects, Bowser has deftly pulled back the curtain to provide a tantalizing glimpse behind those smiling cast members laughing and swaying as the closing theme plays, revealing the back-biting and insecurities characteristic of any good Hollywood tale.

And after virtually every permutation on mining "SNL" for themed and "Best of" specials, thank God it's not just another clip show.

Camera, Teodoro Maniaci; editor, Youna Kwak; talent coordinator, Ayala Cohen. Running time: 120 MIN.