Whats the deal with the “Saturday Night Live” reunion offer?
During the first season of “Saturday Night Live,” (April 24, 1976) producer Lorne Michaels parodied the multimillion dollar offers for a Beatles reunion by publicly offering the “generous” sum of $3000 live on the air. Little did Michaels know that the offer nearly succeeded, with John and Paul going so far as to call a taxi to take them to the studios from the nearby Dakota. (Where the duo were watching the show together) As John relates in his “Playboy” interview, “We nearly got into a cab, but we were actually too tired.” The program would milk the “offer” for all it was worth. These included: a second plea from Michaels (where he upped the offer to $3200), the launch of the Rutles on SNL (October, 1976), and joking asides from Michaels to both George Harrison (November 20, 1976) and Paul McCartney (February 13, 1993) when they appeared as musical guests.
