Lorne's Exile

  Chicago-born Jean Doumanian was appointed into the tough job of trying to fill Lorne Michaels' shoes as the new producer of NBC's Saturday Night Live . Jean joined the staff as talent coordinator in early 1976, shortly after the show she had worked for in the same capacity, Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell , was cancelled by ABC cancelled in January of 1976. Before that, Jean worked for Dick Cavett (who hosted SNL twice). It was her job to find a new cast and new writing staff----and her budget, $350,000, was roughly a third of what Lorne worked with in the 1979-80 season. In 1979, she produced and took a writer's credit for the NBC Special, Bob and Ray and Jane, Laraine, and Gilda .

  That made  all this possible. Negotiations between embattled NBC president and CEO Fred Silverman and Lorne Michaels were cancelled as a result of Al's " Limo For A Lame-O " bit on Weekend Update .  That led to Mr. Silverman breaking off negotiations with Lorne and so Fred asked one of his key assistants, Barbara Gallagher with a suggestion who should replace Mr. Michaels.  Barbara suggested her good friend, Saturday Night Live 's talent coordinator-turned-associate producer Jean Doumanian, who eventually got the gig. Lorne had wanted the show to be put on hiatus for several months, than return around the start of the 1981 calendar year, starting fresh and re-casting the show; if that weren't possible, he suggested that writers Al Franken, Tom Davis, and Jim Downey to become the show's new producers.   But Al's "Limo for the Lame-o" bit made Fred angry, and as one might say, the rest is history.