The AFU and Urban Legend Archive
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 john and paul on SNL more




Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: edm@twisto.compaq.com (Ed McCreary)
Subject: Re: "Van Rape Video" UL Confirmed (was:Re: Bigtime Credulity
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 16:08:22 GMT

In article <4330bb$nc8@saltmine.Radix.Net>, moe@Radix.Net says... >

>ObUL: In the early days of SNL, Lorne Michaels had a sketch where he
>offered the Beatles a chance to reunite on the show, the joke being that
>he was offering an absurdly silly low amount of money as inducement,
>ironically suggesting that the hundred dollars or so would be the
deciding
>factor. According to the legend, Paul happened to be visiting John, and
>they thought it would be a lark to show up on the set and collect the
>money. They obviously didn't make it. The version I heard had them
getting
>stuck in traffic; a friend heard that they had trouble getting a cab.
>
>Is there a factual basis for this story? If not, where did it originate?

From the rec.music.beatles faq:

2.20 What's the deal with the "Saturday Night Live" reunion offer?

During the first season of "Saturday Night Live," (April, 1976) producer Lorne Michaels parodied the multimillion dollar offers for a Beatles reunion by publicly offering the "generous" sum of $3000 live on the air. Little did Michaels know that the offer nearly succeeded, with John and Paul going so far as to call a taxi to take them to the studios from the nearby Dakota. (Where the duo were watching the show together) As John relates in his "Playboy" interview, "We nearly got into a cab, but we were actually too tired." The program would milk the "offer" for all it was worth. These included: a second plea from Michaels (where he upped the offer to $3200), the launch of the Rutles on SNL (October, 1976), and joking asides from Michaels to both George Harrison (November, 1976) and Paul McCartney (February, 1993) when they appeared as musical guests.

I've never researched it myself, getting a copy of the Playboy interview with John would be a good place to start.

-- 

Who can turn a man into a mane?                             ed mccreary
Who can turn a van into a vane?                        compaq computers
A little hug, becomes HUGE instantly.             edm@twisto.compaq.com

Don't add w, don't add x, and don't add y or z, just add silent-e. TL


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