Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell

We're going to explore the oddities of the mid 1970s and how one historic legacy, one athlete, one sportscaster and one city had an impact on television in some of the most unexpected ways, ever...

Howard Cosell, if you never knew, forgot or simply blocked it out, was a reporter and sportscaster for both ABC Radio and Television from the early 1960s through the mid 1980s, an extensive career in covering all sorts of events. He was the original play by play announcer for "Monday Night Football." He called the "Battle of the Sexes," the historic tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs held at the Houston Astrodome. He hosted the series of specials titled "Battle of the Network Stars," which pitted celebrities from TV shows on the "Big Three" networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) against each other in a team competition for bragging rights that really didn't matter, since they weren't Nielsen ratings.

Most importantly, Cosell was ABC's lead announcer for boxing, and it was through that element of his career that he covered the Artist of the Sweet Science known as Cassius Clay who became a teenaged star when he won Gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics, then dropped that name forever and became Muhammad Ali.

The relationship between "The Greatest" and "Humble Howard" as he was ironically nicknamed, was designed to be a power battle, and the interviews that Ali and Cosell did were events almost as epic as a Heavyweight Championship bout.

Their success was synergistic: both personalities brought out the best in each other and they both rose in fame because of their continuing verbal sparring. Of course Ali and Cosell would have become who they were even if they hadn't connected, but their recognition increased exponentially because of each other.

Meanwhile, in 1975, we were seeing signs that the "Variety Series" was starting to wane. The biggest indicator was that "The Ed Sullivan Show" was removed from the TV schedule, the year before. The granddaddy of that genre left the air, and that famed studio was vacant on Broadway and 53rd.

Roone Arledge, the head of Sports Programming for ABC, wanted to do a new kind of prime time variety series and Cosell, who was known for rubbing some members of the audience the wrong way, needed a boost of positivity. So Cosell would be the host of this show, with the whole thing originating from The Ed Sullivan Theater!

ABC spared no expense. It was going to be a program taped the day of the broadcast (so, in fact, they lied - it wasn't going to be "live") with megastars from every genre, a regular team of comic actors, called "The Prime Time Players" who would do tasteful and non-controversial humorous sketches between the big name acts, and your host, the bugle voiced know-it-all who would guide you effortlessly through the various acts presented with that jocular style he displayed in all of his work, a sort of modern day Ed Sullivan. Of course, neither Arledge nor Cosell had ever done anything related to Variety or Comedy and that element would plague the series throughout its run.

Let's take a look at the performers for that premiere night of the broadcast:

Singers Paul Anka, Shirley Bassey, John Denver and the cast of Broadway's The Wiz (featuring Stephanie Mills) and a very special appearance by Frank Sinatra, child star Mason Reese, Magicians Siegfried & Roy, tennis superstar Jimmy Connors (who sang a song to his girlfriend Chris Evert), and the phenomenon of the moment, The Beatles of 1975: The Bay City Rollers!

Plus you had the comedy of The Prime Time Players: Brian Doyle-Murray, Christopher Guest and Bill Murray!

Some of the notable things about this series is how it affected another program being produced by Lorne Michaels at about the same time. First the name of that other show was impacted, as the program had to be called "NBC's Saturday Night" when it began. The regular cast of the show wanted to distinguish itself from the sanitized humor presented on Cosell's program and called itself "The Not Ready For Prime Time Players" because of it.

Also, the NBC series was actually broadcast live, but they couldn't acknowledge it in the title because this show already had that in its name. So, they said it at the start of the program to make sure the audience knew they were watching the events as they happened, which is how the "Live, From New York... It's Saturday Night!" phrase came to be.

Also notable is that eventually all of the cast members from "Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell" wound up as cast members of that other "Saturday Night" show. Bill Murray joined the following year, when Chevy Chase departed, and part of reason why Doyle-Murray and Guest got to join could have been because Jean Doumanian, who served as an associate producer for Cosell, went on to NBC's series when Lorne Michaels stepped away from the show.

New York plays a part because it's The Ed Sullivan Theater, and there were some controversies, as Broadway musicians were on strike, shutting down all of the musicals playing (including The Wiz). In a later episode, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier were supposed to appear, via Satellite, from the Philippines on the eve of their fight, eventually dubbed "The Thrilla in Manila," but Frazier decided not to show up. Hey, it's live TV! Or, wait. It's not.

Billy Crystal often shared an anecdote in interviews, about how he was scheduled to be on the first episode of "Saturday Night Live" but got bumped, and he let most people assume it was the NBC series. But no! It was this one! So you shouldn't feel quite as bad for Billy as you might have about that story.

Very much like William Shatner's "For The People" (1965) at 380 and Kristin Chenoweth's "Kristin" at 369, the most notable thing about this show is that it got canceled.

Cosell's hoped for improved image with the public didn't happen, but he went right on doing his sportscasting duties for the Alphabet Network without missing a beat. And, even Howard hosted that other "SNL" in 1985, so everybody got to be a part of it, eventually.

PREMIERRING IN PRIMETIME at roughly the same time as NBC's Saturday NIGHT (as it was first called), this series was among the best intentioned projects ever. But, as we've all heard before, "The road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions!" That oft repeated proverb just about sums it up.

DESIGNED AS A PROGRAM that would both emulate and at the same time fill the void of the long-running ED SULLIVAN SHOW (TOAST OF THE TOWN), the series was launched off of the pad without proper consideration of the logistics, the talent handling or any regards for Mr. Cosell's considerable "baggage." That Howard was well known to the public is an indisputable fact. The facts overlooked were twofold.

FIRST OF ALL, Mr. Cosell was an established Sports Analyst/Broadcaster. Having earned his spurs by way of a daily ABC Radio Network 10 minute spot, Howard Cosell's SPEAKING OF SPORTS. Then, Network Baseball coverage added to his resume. This was followed by his ascending to the absolute Zenith of Sports-casting with partners like FRank Gifford and Don Meredith on ABC and Monday NIGHT FOOTBALL.

SECONDLY AND POSSIBLY most importantly, Cosell was never and could never be a low key guy. Some loved him; whereas most loved to hate him. His persona was that of an abrasive boat-rocker./ WE SUPPOSE THAT the powers to be at the American Broadcasting Company figured that taking a chance on Mr. Cosell could be no worse than CBS's going with newspaper columnist, Ed Sullivan in earlier times. After all, both were journalists of sorts. Neither had any detectable entertainment talents; with no singing, dancing or humorous monologues up their sleeves.

BUT THAT'S EWHERE the similarities end; for Mr. Sullivan's having the MC position was gradual rise. Stemming from Ed's hosting an annual Christmas charity event of the "Noble Fifth Estate" (the Press Boys). This gave him some resume and foundation.

ANOTHER FACTOR WAS pointed out on Tom Snyder's TOMORROW SHOW. In his interview with TV Star, Garry Moore, Snyder asked him about the sudden demise of this Cosell show. Garry said that he believed that whereas the Sullivan method called for "editing" the acts down to their best 2 or 3 minutes, no such practice was applied to this ABC Howard Cosell SATUDAY NIGHT LIVE. As a result, we saw extended performances by the Bay City Rollers, the Lockers and Magician, Mark Wilson.

IN SUPPORT OF this last assertion, we present evidence as it was played out on THE Hollywood SQUARES. Host, Peter Marshall asked regular panelist, George Gobel; "In American History, what were the Intolerable Acts?" George replied, "They were those Intolerable Acts on Howard Cosell's Saturday NIGHT LIVE Show!"

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN of the Jury, we rest our case!

NOTE: * The term, "Intolerable Acts" was a term used by the American colonists to describe laws passed by Parliament in England to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in dumping the considerable amount of Tea to be taxed into the Boston Harbor.

The late F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre says the title of the show was Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, which is certainly true. The NBC show, however, was called NBC's Saturday Night for its first few months because of the potential title conflict. (I used to vet title conflicts at ABC, although not this one.) Cosell's show was cancelled after a month or two, and NBC "reclaimed" the title not long afterward.

Roone Arledge wasn't doing any recreational medicine. He was responding to pressure from Howard Cosell, for Roone to widen Howard's appeal.(Let's remember, Howard had rather a high opinion of himself.) Roone hadn't been made head of the entire network yet, but he was still responsible for the sports division. The original "Saturday Night Live" was an Alan King production. Alan was an old-school Vegas comic, who got ABC's attention by producing "That's My Mama". This was a medium-size hit for a season or two, starring a pre-"Love Boat" Ted Lange. Alan wanted to make a bigger splash, and he needed a high-profile host for a weekend program patterned after a Vegas revue.

ABC was having trouble getting its' footing in this time slot; NBC was trumping them at every turn, even with Saturday's Tonight Show reruns. Neither Joey Bishop nor Dick Cavett could give them any leverage.

A Howard Cosell variety show. I think Roone was smoking something when he came up with this idea. The one classic moment I will always remember on the show was Howard and Barbara Walters singing a duet. This show was soooo bad that it actually has camp value. ( song and dance routines with Ali and OJ for instance) One interesting point was SNL couldn't use live in their title because Howard had it in his. They had to say "Live! it's Saturday Night." When the finally canceled this show after a year SN became SNL. I was actually a fan of Cosell when he was covering sports. Anyone who remembers Monday Night Football when Howard was doing it will remember it was an EVENT! After he left the show it just became another game.