Hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to episode 173 of Awards Chatter, the Hollywood Reporters Awards Podcast.

I'm the host Scott Feinberg and my guest today is I would argue the most important

figure in the history of comedy.

The man who created NBC's Saturday Night Live back in

1975 and has served as its producer or executive producer for all but five years

since and who also currently serves as executive producer of the

Peacock network's late night programs the tonight show starring Jimmy Fallon

and late night with Seth Myers and of the IFC Variety Sketch Series documentary now and Portlandia,

the legendary Lauren Michaels, who is 72 was born in Canada

where he was raised and where his sense of humor was formed.

He ventured into comedy at summer camps and in high school.

He co-wrote, directed, and performed in a review featuring comedy and music while an undergrad

at the University of Toronto. And after graduate and satire for CBC Radio and also wrote jokes on the side for other comedians

including Woody Allen, Dick Cavett, and Joan Rivers. Michael's first jobs in

TV were writing for, appropriately enough, NBC Variety Shows.

First, the beautiful Phyllis Diller show,

and then, after it got cancelled,

Rowan and Martin's Laughin,

which was the highest rated program on TV at the time,

and for which Michael Michaels received his first

Emmy nomination for writing in 1969.

Subsequently, he briefly returned to the CBC and then wrote for a couple of Lily

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