In a new book about bad behavior in the television and film industry, author Maureen Ryan writes that Saturday Night Live is marked by “a culture of impunity within the world of comedy, in which abuse and toxicity are not just permitted but often celebrated.”
The Hollywood Reporter published an excerpt from Ryan’s Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood, released Tuesday by Mariner, in which the author writes that the long-running comedy series has been a haven for toxic behavior.
“I’d challenge anyone to come up with a truthful history of the show that does not include stories of gross misconduct, racism, sexism, abusive dynamics, various forms of assault, substance abuse, and mental health struggles exacerbated by punishing working conditions,” Ryan writes. “Nobody has cared much about the people affected by these things, not in general.”
Ryan interviewed a woman identified as Jane Doe, who claims that she was assaulted by former SNL comedian Horatio Sanz when she was a 17-year-old fan of the show. Sanz, Doe claims, “put his hands on her breasts and genitals, in full view of several SNL cast members” at a party after an episode of the series.
“Sanz was clearly pursuing me, physically pursuing me across years of these parties,” Doe told Ryan. “If I saw my colleague doing that with a teenage fan, I would absolutely intervene or I would go up the chain of command and I would want something to be done. I would want it to be handled. And I don’t think that that happened.”
Doe sued Sanz, Michaels, and NBCUniversal, settling out of court last year.
Ryan writes that people who have been involved with the show have criticized Lorne Michaels, the series’ co-creator and longtime producer, for his approach to the cast.
Former cast member Harry Shearer said that acting “like an adult” didn’t get results from Michaels.
“I believe, and I think the evidence pretty much shows, that Lorne’s approach to the cast was to try to infantilize them,” Shearer told Ryan.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
