long hours deep into the night, constantly revising the script. revisions made necessary by last-minute changes in the changing world. bob hope was the first guy to utilize an actual staff of writers to give you topical material of the day. he raily did intent the idea of the comedian being the head writer, managing editor, and having a bunch of writers. trat digs of stand-up comedy in the 50s were still really derived from vaudeville. those performers like bob hope had nothing more on their mind than just getting laughs. that was plenty. the guy who really came along and changed all this was mort sal. richard nixon is running for governor of california, and i realize sometimes the shows to hit on are all topical. he will be running for something no matter when this show is on, so sorry. mort sahl was the first person to talk like a human being on stage. it wasn t schmaltzy. he did for comedy what james
now with that in mind, let s continue with the opening remarks. it was just a little off. it looked like a talk show, kind of. sometimes he wore sneakers, which was weird. and they talked about the events of the day. to a certain extent. but also more focused on weirdness than on the newspaper. dave is passing out ham. dave was a very new york-centered show. jay could be monica lewinski and oj trial and dave could be like there was a squirrel today in the park. just some bizarre off beat thing. so you re not going to just get monologue jokes about the front page. it is whatever dave wants to do. sometimes it seems like a cable access show, like why is he throwing a watermelon off the building? i think that s an important consideration for all of us. and believe me, ma am, you ve come to the right place. if yyou don t tune into lettn to see what is going on into the country today. would you have tuned into jay to see that.
he makes you hear what you wish would you have thought of. oh, man, why didn t i think of that? or that s hilarious, i never thought of it like that. he grew a stronger and stronger conscience then felt the need to put it out there. nothing will change with the same people always this is the status quo? another latin word, status quo, and it stands for, in the middle, everyday americans are really getting taken for a ride. that s the kind of talk you normally hear right before the it wasn t about politics, it was moral outrage. that s what made the show so riveting and fun. gotten pretty lazy. and their work is easily
but an important moment for us at home. this is backyard. so almost incumbent upon saturday night live to play some sort of role in the nation s healing. the question is, when is it okay to laugh again? on behalf of everyone here, i want to thank you all for being here tonight. especially you, mr. mayor. thank you. thank you very much. having our institutions up and uning sends the message that new york city is open for business. saturday night live is one of our great new york city institutions and that s why it s important for you to do your show tonight. can we be funny? why start now? it was that saturday night we decided, okay, you know, we re going to be able to do this again. and they slowly brought us through it.
it wouldn t that much emphasize on it for dave because when we started on late night we weren t allowed to do a monologue. with that in mind let s continuing with the opening remarks. it was just a little off and looked like a talk show kind of, sometimes he wore sneakers which was weird and they talk about the events of the day to a certain extent but it was focussed on weirdness than the newspaper. dave s passing out ham. dave was a very new york centered show, so jay could be monica lewinski and o.j. trial and dave could be, there s a squirrel today in the park. some bizarre offbeat thing. it s what ever dave wants to do. sometimes it still seems like a cable access show. important consideration for