Lorne Michaels has been under criticism for some time for a certain lack of racial diversity on Saturday Night Live. Recently, he did a marathon of auditions of potential black female cast members and he's told the press he will hire one in the next week or so. That sounds to me like the wrong way to achieve the right goal. I mean, how about just hiring one because she's funny? But here's what the article about this made me think of…
Years ago, a then-former member of that show's cast — someone from its "middle" era — said something to me. I said something that this person thought was unlikely and she said to me, "That's about as likely as Lorne Michaels hiring an SNL cast member who didn't have a full head of hair." At the time, he hadn't. Has he since?
I must admit I haven't followed the show closely enough to notice if that's ever changed. When I see sketches, I can't tell who half the cast members are anyway, and many of them seem to be wearing wigs as part of being in character. I get that they don't hire older performers to join the cast…but there are some pretty funny young guys around who are losing their hair or have shaved what's left off to make it appear they wanted to be bald.
She said — and again, this could have been disproven since — that Michaels didn't even like guest hosts or musical acts who were thinning or hairless. Years ago when Sinead O'Connor performed on the show, the crew joked that she was the first and last bald performer Lorne would ever allow on the premises. And around that time when Kelsey Grammer hosted, he came out in a wig and the whole monologue spot was about how he wanted the world to think he had more hair than he did. I seem to recall that Michaels was on-camera in the segment and he brought on Sy Sperling, the "president" of the Hair Club for Men to counsel Mr. Grammer on follicle restoration options.
I'm not sure I trust my source here. Can anyone cite evidence that Mr. Michaels either has stopped caring about hairlines or never did?