How SNL Became the Most Successful Comedy Show Ever

There’s a fun game I like to play called “Spot the Saturday Night Live Alum.” It’s a simple game, usually played when I’m watching a TV show or movie and suddenly think, “Was Billy Murray on Saturday Night Live or was he just friends with everyone who was?” (Answer: Of course he was. It’s his Caddyshack director and Ghostbusters co-star Harold Ramis who wasn’t.)

The game can be trickier than you’d think. Who on Showtime’s Shameless came from SNL? That would be Joan Cusack, a cast member for one season in the 1980s. Anthony Michael Hall connects the show to pretty much every 1980s teen movie. Steve Higgens, Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show announcer and the inspiration for the character of Andy Dwyer on Parks and Recreation, is a former writer. This is more intimate than the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game—it’s more like the Four Degrees of Lorne Michaels.

When Saturday Night Live starts its 40th season on Sept. 27, it will have been on the air for 39 years. It’s one of the longest-running programs in television history, certainly the longest-running weekly comedy program. SNL is broadcast in more than 200 countries. Films starring its cast members have brought in more than $66.5 billion at the box office.