I wouldn't have had this on my 2025 bingo card, but Saturday Night Live creator/executive producer Lorne Michaels is donating his archives to the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
With that donation comes a chance for us SNL fans to see part of the collection in the Fall of 2025 with the "Live From New York! The Making of Lorne Michaels" exhibition. Besides the expected photographs, artifacts, and scripts, the collection also includes items such as the behind-the-scenes rehearsal notes for SNL, Coneheads dailies, and annotated Mean Girls scripts.
“Lorne Michaels has kept us up late and laughing for 50 years,” said Ransom Center Director Stephen Enniss, “and I'm confident for years to come his archive will be studied by students and researchers looking for insight into the social, political, and cultural history of our time. We are deeply grateful to him for entrusting this rich legacy to us.”
The exhibition will be on view from September 20, 2025, through March 15, 2026.
“Live from New York and now home in Austin has a great ring to it,” said UT President Jay Hartzell. “Lorne Michaels changed entertainment and shaped generations of American culture, and we could not be more grateful and excited that he has selected UT and the Harry Ransom Center as the home to much of his life's work. Having five decades of Saturday Night Live on our campus creates unique learning and research opportunities for future generations, and especially our students. It also enhances UT as a destination for the arts, consistent with our vision and goals. We welcome Lorne and SNL to Texas.”
The collection is expected to be fully available for research in January 2026.
There is no word if Texas A&M will get the Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell archives. Joking aside, yes, that was a real show the same year as the NBC SNL you know today. The NBC version was first called NBC's Saturday Night when it debuted in October 1975.
