Lorne Michaels Wants ‘SNL U.K.’ to Be ‘Smarter and Funnier’ Than U.S. Version: It Should Be the ‘Cooler of the Two Shows’

By Marc Malkin

Marc Malkin

Senior Editor, Culture and Events

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“Saturday Night Live” creator and longtime producer Lorne Michaels may be involved with recently launched U.K. version of the sketch comedy show, but he insists he’s not too hands-on.

“My design for it was that it would be the cooler of the two shows, and it would be the thing they beat us up with that. That it’s smarter, funnier, more original, and it had to be that,” Michaels said Tuesday night at the Los Angeles premiere of his documentary, “Lorne,” on the Universal lot. “It had to be its own thing. It couldn’t be an imitation of what we do.”

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