Why was Milton Berle banned from SNL? Details explored as the show celebrates 50 Years Anniversary

The popular late-night sketch comedy show, SNL, also known as Saturday Night Live is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The show provides a humorous and satirical take on American culture and politics through live comedy sketches.

Over the past fifty years, many Hollywood stars have appeared as hosts on the show, and several stars have been banned for various reasons. One of them was the television personality of the 1940s and 1950s, Milton Berle, who hosted the Texaco Star Theatre. Berle, popularly known as ‘Mr. Television’, was banned due to his bad performance and behavior.

Berle appeared in Season 4 of SNL in 1979. As per Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests, Lorne Michaels, the show's creator, was apprehensive about Mr. Television hosting the show but still went ahead.

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Milton Berle was banned from SNL because of his bad performance

As mentioned earlier, Milton Berle hosted SNL in season 4. Initially, the cast and crew were excited about the presence of a superstar amongst them. However, the experience started to sour with Berle trying to take over.

He reportedly made suggestions for jokes that didn’t sit right with the show’s concept. During an interview with Vulture in 2014, creator Lorne Michaels recalled Milton wanting to do a scripted ad-lib which he had to deny. He reportedly told him:

"Milton, we don’t do planned ad-libs."

To which Milton replied:

"I know. Satire. Don’t worry, I’ll make it CBS."

His opening monologue was filled with racist, homophobic, and dated vaudeville jokes which came off as terrible. He even tried to arrange a staged standing ovation as told by Michaels in the interview:

"He wanted to close the show with “September Song,” him and a piano. Just before he went on to do it, he treated me like I was a child again, which half made me laugh, but half was like, Hey! He said, 'Don’t worry, the standing ovation is all set.'

He further added:

"The host has ten seats, and suddenly he starts singing and ten people in the balcony stand up. No one else is standing up. It was just bizarre. The idea of the arranged standing ovation is just a part of show business that we were trying to separate ourselves from. We all get there eventually, I guess."

The show and experience made Michaels ban Milton Berle from SNL and even prohibited rebroadcasting the episode for many years according to Ultimate Classic Rock.

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More about Milton Berle's SNL episode

SNL creator Lorne Michaels has since come to terms with and has begun airing Milton Berle’s SNL episodes. He stated in the same interview with Vulture:

"Milton Berle I was just not prepared for. I’m more sympathetic to him now than I was then, in 1979. He had ruled this place for so many years, and we were these kids telling him no."

The movie Saturday Night dramatizes the events of the premiere episode of SNL. J. K. Simmons portrays Milton Berle, even though he wasn’t part of the premiere episode.

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Catch season 50 of SNL on NBC and Peacock.