{"id":62958,"date":"2025-11-05T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T00:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/?post_type=lecture&#038;p=62958"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:09:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:09:28","slug":"lorne-michaels","status":"publish","type":"lecture","link":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/lecture\/lorne-michaels\/","title":{"rendered":"Lorne Michaels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"wp-block-umw-hero alignfull umw-custom-block umw-hero umw-hero--dark-text umw-hero--white umw-hero--with-no-media\"><div class=\"umw-hero__inner\"><div class=\"umw-hero__media\"><\/div><div class=\"umw-hero__title\"><div class=\"container\"><div class=\"umw-hero__title__wrapper\"><div class=\"umw-hero__eyebrow\">great lives lecture series<\/div><h1 class=\"umw-hero__title__header\">Lorne Michaels<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-umw-hero-ctas alignfull\"><div class=\"umw-hero__links\"><div class=\"container\"><div class=\"umw-hero__links__wrapper\">\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Great Lives 2026: Lorne Michaels\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1162636625?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"1100\" height=\"619\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-lecture-date-february-3-2026\">Lecture Date: February 3, 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-umw-dining-lecture\">The UMW Dining Lecture<\/h3>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/11\/Michaels_cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"257\" height=\"388\" src=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/11\/Michaels_cover.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-62945\" style=\"width:276px;height:auto\" title=\"\" srcset=\"\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/11\/Michaels_cover.jpg 257w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/11\/Michaels_cover-199x300.jpg 199w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 257px) 100vw, 257px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Over the fifty years that Lorne Michaels has been at the helm of&nbsp;<em>Saturday Night Live,<\/em>&nbsp;he has become a revered and inimitable presence in the entertainment world. He\u2019s a tastemaker, a mogul, a withholding father figure, a genius spotter of talent, a shrewd businessman, a name-dropper, a raconteur, the inspiration for Dr. Evil, the winner of more than a hundred Emmys\u2014and, essentially, a mystery. Generations of writers and performers have spent their lives trying to figure him out, by turns demonizing and lionizing him. He\u2019s \u201cObi-Wan Kenobi\u201d (Tracy Morgan), the \u201cgreat and powerful Oz\u201d (Kate McKinnon), \u201csome kind of very distant, strange comedy god\u201d (Bob Odenkirk).<br><br><em>Lorne<\/em>&nbsp;will introduce you to him, in full, for the first time. With unprecedented access to Michaels and the entire SNL apparatus, Susan Morrison takes readers behind the curtain for the lively, up-and-down, definitive story of how Michaels created and maintained the institution that changed comedy forever. Drawn from hundreds of interviews\u2014with Michaels, his friends, and SNL\u2019s iconic stars and writers, from Will Ferrell to Tina Fey to John Mulaney to Chris Rock to Dan Aykroyd\u2014<em>Lorne<\/em>&nbsp;is a deeply reported, wildly entertaining account of a man singularly obsessed with the show that would define his life and have a profound impact on American culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/presentation\/d\/1vfuCKGagrVh-rLqceNkuZEN4wabJXc06\/edit?usp=sharing&amp;ouid=103238403274382254745&amp;rtpof=true&amp;sd=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">VIEW PHOTO SLIDESHOW<div class='arrow'><\/div><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-speaker-susan-morrison\">Speaker: Susan Morrison<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/10\/morrison-susan.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/10\/morrison-susan.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63014\" style=\"width:236px;height:auto\" srcset=\"\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/10\/morrison-susan.png 400w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/10\/morrison-susan-300x300.png 300w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/10\/morrison-susan-150x150.png 150w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/10\/morrison-susan-50x50.png 50w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/10\/morrison-susan-75x75.png 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Susan&nbsp;Morrison&nbsp;is the Articles Editor of&nbsp;<em>The New Yorker<\/em>.&nbsp;Formerly, she was the editor\u2013in\u2013chief of the&nbsp;<em>New York Observer<\/em>, an original editor of&nbsp;<em>SPY<\/em>&nbsp;magazine, and the one-time features director of <em>Vogue<\/em>. She lives in New York City.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"season":[1263],"class_list":{"0":"post-62958","1":"lecture","2":"type-lecture","3":"status-publish","5":"season-1263","6":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lorne Michaels - Great Lives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/lecture\/lorne-michaels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lorne Michaels\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lecture Date: February 3, 2026 The UMW Dining Lecture Over the fifty years that Lorne Michaels has been at the helm of&nbsp;Saturday Night Live,&nbsp;he has become a revered and inimitable presence in the entertainment world. 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