Canada

by Mike Myers

Here was the coolest show on American TV, created by a Canadian, co-starring Dan Aykroyd. These are the fruits of the dreaded big government. In fact, a case could be made that American big government also played a hand in the creation of Saturday Night Live. SNL owes as much to the CBC as it does to FDR and the WPA. And here’s the link: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, under the New Deal, created the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was a make-work project during The Depression. The WPA hired a dramatist, Viola Spolin, to teach immigrant children English through the use of improvisational theatre games. Viola Spolin’s son, Paul Sills, brought these improv games to Chicago in the 1950s, and he, with David Shepherd, formed the improv sketch troupe the Compass Players. Enter Mike Nichols, Elaine May, and Bernie Sahlins, and thus the Second City Theater Company was born. The Second City franchised to Toronto, where a young Lorne Michaels met Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, and, in Chicago, John Belushi and Bill Murray. They formed the nucleus of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players, and Saturday Night Live was born. No FDR? No SNL.