On the original version of Saturday Night Live (with the original Not Ready for Primetime Players), there were two episodes that producer Lorne Michaels hated and would never allow to be rerun. One was guest-hosted by Louise Lasser, who was reportedly going through personal problems (including a recent drug bust) and the other toplined Milton Berle, who apparently acted a lot like Milton Berle. In Ms. Lasser's case, the story is that she freaked out just before the live broadcast, locked herself in her dressing room and refused to go on. As Michaels pounded on the door, the cast began to improvise how to work around an absent guest host who was in almost every sketch.
The idea they came up with was that Chevy Chase would go on as Louise Lasser, wearing a wig with pigtails on it. Chase's roles would be assumed by Bill Murray, who was not then a part of the program. He was merely an actor who was under consideration for some future opening and he'd dropped by the studio to watch the show that evening. Lasser was finally yanked from her dressing room and forced to perform but many of those involved in SNL later wished they'd had Chevy in the wig, instead.
So why am I telling you this? Because Michaels eventually changed his mind about letting it rerun. The Lasser episode was long absent from the SNL syndication package but was eventually added in. The E! network is running a one-hour version of it tonight…at 4 PM and again at 10PM on my set. No word on if and when the Berle episode may see the light of day…