a very special birthday today ...

and i mean this in the best way since i am currently in the midst of a 30 rock season 1 marathon through netflix instant viewing:

It's the birthday of the man who created Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels, born in Toronto, Canada (1944). He majored in English at the University of Toronto, and then moved to Britain in the 1960s to pursue a career selling cars. His friends loved his sense of humor, they knew that he liked to be in charge, and they encouraged him to quit his job as a car salesman and consider another career.

So he moved back to Canada, where he formed a comedy duo with Hart Pomerantz, and they had a television variety show on Canadian television, The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour. They contracted their talents to comedic acts in the United States, writing for Phyllis Diller, Lily Tomlin, Joan Rivers, and Woody Allen. They also wrote for the NBC show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and then NBC asked Michaels to come up with a comedy show to replace the Johnny Carson reruns that aired Saturday nights at 11 p.m.

Michaels recruited talent from all sorts of places. Dan Aykroyd was a fellow Canadian, and Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Gilda Radner had worked on the National Lampoon show. Muppet creator Jim Henson created sketches for the show, and recent Harvard grad Al Franken was signed on as a writer. And so Michaels put together the first season, 1975–-1976, and won an Emmy for it.

This year, SNL has received some of its highest ratings, due largely to the popularity of Tina Fey's uncanny portrayal of Sarah Palin. Palin herself appeared on SNL in October.