New Trailer for Lorne Michaels ‘SNL’ Documentary Teases His Retirement

Lorne Michaels isn’t going to be around one day. That’s what struck me the most in a new trailer for Lorne, a documentary about the famed producer and creator of Saturday Night Live. He’s always felt like such a gargantuan presence, and that was the case long before I even knew who he was. But copious SNL reruns on Comedy Central would soon make me familiar with this comedy godfather, and part of me, somewhere, foolishly thought he would be around forever.

I have no exact explanation of why I felt that way, but I did. Perhaps it has to do with how many generations he has inspired (or platformed). When watching the trailer, you see everyone from Paul Simon to Sarah Sherman sitting down for interviews. That’s a pretty wide net! Surely, only someone with the secrets of eternal life could be involved with so many wonderful people for so long. But, like everyone, Lorne Michaels is a mortal man, just one with a humongous legacy.

That’s what the trailer seems to touch on the most. Lorne is more than just a producer. He’s a mystery. Several former castmembers joke at one point that the man could be in the CIA or make maple syrup, and they wouldn’t be surprised. And yet, he also can make himself clear simply by exhaling a certain way, something that Colin Jost remarks on at one point, saying, “It feels like he’s blowing the soul out of your body.” You can feel the reverence (and a little bit of fear) whenever, like, anyone talks about him.

And they show off a lot of behind-the-scenes footage as well. You get to see people like John Mulaney and Bill Hader when they look like babies. Hell, there are some shots of Lorne where he looks pretty young, too. There’s also the standard, pensive shots of Lorne looking out over the water on a dock, like we’re supposed to believe he doesn’t just roam the halls of Studio 8H when no one is around, feeding off of the energy the old building brings to him (complementary).

The trailer even tees up the retirement question, with SNL stalwart Steve Martin asking Lorne if he is going to retire, and Lorne not only doesn’t respond, he eats some of Martin’s food. It’s pretty funny, and I think it means that we likely won’t get an answer by the end of the doc, and that’s fine. This may end up feeling like a collection of things former castmembers and the like have said over the years when asked about Lorne, but that’s fine. I don’t expect him to drop the mystery at this point.