MICHAELS, LORNE

MICHAELS, LORNE (1944– ), Canadian writer-producer. Born Lorne David Lipowitz to successful furrier Abraham and Florence (née Becker) Lipowitz in the affluent Forest Hill area of Toronto, Ontario, Michaels got involved with a theater group and began working on sketch comedy and satires while studying in the English program at the University of Toronto. After graduating college, Michaels left for England, where he worked briefly as a car salesman. Upon his return to Canada in 1966, Michaels and Hart Pomerantz began performing as a popular comedy duo on the CBC. In November 1967, he married comedy writer Rosie Schuster. Michaels and Pomerantz went to Hollywood to write for The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show (1968), but the show only lasted six weeks. The duo picked up work with Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, writing the opening monologues for the hosts from 1968 to 1969; however, their material was often rewritten by senior writers or dismissed altogether. Disillusioned with the experience of writing for Laugh-In, Michaels and Pomerantz returned to Canada to create their own television programs. In 1970, the pair inked a deal with the CBC to create such specials as The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour and Today Makes Me Nervous. Over the next four years Michaels continued to pitch ideas for TV shows in Hollywood, and in 1975 NBC agreed to launch a live sketch comedy program called Saturday Night. (The show was retitled Saturday Night Live in 1977 after Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell was cancelled in 1976.) The show launched the careers of such SNL players as Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, gilda radner , Laraine Newman, Eddie Murphy, billy crystal , Mike Myers, adam sandler , and Will Ferrell in its more than 30-year history and has won 18 Emmy Awards and nabbed 60 nominations. Over the years Michaels also produced a film version of Gilda Radner's Broadway show Gilda Live (1980), Simon and Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park (1982), Nothing Lasts Forever (1984), and the TV series Kids in the Hall (1988–94). By the early 1990s, a reinvigorated Saturday Night Live served as the springboard for a variety of successful comedy features, including Wayne's World (1992), Coneheads (1993), and Tommy Boy (1994). Michaels became executive producer of NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 1993 and The Colin Quinn Show in 2002. He was inducted into the Order of Canada and the Television Academy's Hall of Fame, and received a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame. In 2004, Michaels produced the hit comedy Mean Girls and received an honorary award from the Producers Guild of America. (Adam Wills (2nd ed.)