occupation beth cahill
Saturday Night Live ( abbreviated as SNL ) is an American late - night live ___MASK20___ sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol . The show premiered on NBC on October 11 , 1975 , under the original title NBC ' s Saturday Night . The show ' s comedy sketches , which parody contemporary culture and politics , are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members . Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest ( who usually delivers an opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast ) and features performances by a musical guest . An episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming , " Live from New York , it ' s Saturday Night !", properly beginning the show . Beth Cahill ( born September 15 , 1963 ) is an American ___MASK20___ ___MASK45___ who is best known for having been a featured cast member on Saturday Night Live during the 1991 -- 1992 season . Lorne Michaels ( born Lorne Lipowitz ; November 17 , 1944 ) is a Canadian - American ___MASK20___ producer , writer , ___MASK62___ , and actor , best known for creating and producing " Saturday Night Live ", and producing the " Late Night " series ( since 1993 ), and " The Tonight Show " ( since 2014 ). An ___MASK59___ ( or ___MASK45___ for females ; see terminology ) is a person who portrays a character in a performance . The ___MASK59___ performs " in the flesh " in the traditional medium of the theatre , or in modern mediums such as film , ___MASK76___ , and television . The analogous Greek term is , literally " one who answers ". The ___MASK59___ ' s interpretation of their role pertains to the role played , whether based on a real person or fictional character . Interpretation occurs even when the ___MASK59___ is " playing themselves ", as in some forms of experimental performance art , or , more commonly ; to act , is to create , a character in performance . A cast ___MASK97___ is : Etymology . The word cast comes from the Old English word ' " casten " ' or ' " kasta " '( c . 1230 ), to throw in , to consider , plot , imagine , and design . This ultimately led to its meaning when referring to a " group of actors in a play " ( c . 1631 ). Live ___MASK20___ is a ___MASK20___ production broadcast in real - time , as events happen , in the present . Shows broadcast live include newscasts , morning shows , awards shows , sports programs , and , occasionally , episodes of ___MASK20___ series . Live ___MASK20___ was more common until the late 1950s , when videotape technology was invented . Because of the prohibitive cost , adoption was slow , and some ___MASK20___ show remained live until the 1970s , such as soap operas . To prevent unforeseen issues , live ___MASK20___ programs may be delayed , which allows censors to edit the program . Some programs may be broadcast live in certain time zones and delayed in others . The National Broadcasting Company ( NBC ) is an American ___MASK61___ broadcast ___MASK20___ network that is the flagship property of NBCUniversal , a subsidiary of Comcast . The network is headquartered in the Comcast Building ( formerly known as the GE Building ) at Rockefeller Center in New York City , with additional major offices near Los Angeles ( at Universal City Plaza ), Chicago ( at the NBC Tower ) and soon in Philadelphia at Comcast Innovation and Technology Center . The network is part of the Big Three ___MASK20___ networks . NBC is sometimes referred to as the " Peacock Network ", in reference to its stylized peacock logo , which was originally created in 1956 for its then - new color broadcasts and became the network ' s ___MASK68___ emblem in 1979 . Sketch comedy comprises a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes , called " sketches ", commonly between one and ten minutes long . Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians , either on stage or through an audio or visual medium such as ___MASK76___ and television . Often sketches are first improvised by the actors and written down based on the outcome of these improv sessions ; however , such improvisation is not necessarily involved in sketch comedy . Duncan " Dick " Ebersol ( born July 28 , 1947 ) is an American ___MASK20___ executive and a senior adviser for NBC Universal Sports & Olympics . He had previously been the chairman of NBC Sports , producing large scale ___MASK20___ events such as the Olympic Games and National Football League broadcasts . A variety show , also known as variety arts or variety ___MASK71___ , is ___MASK71___ made up of a variety of acts ( hence the name ), especially musical performances and sketch comedy , and is normally introduced by a compère ( master of ceremonies ) or host . Other types of acts include magic , animal and circus acts , acrobatics , juggling , and ventriloquism . The variety format made its way from Victorian era stage to ___MASK76___ to television . Variety shows were a staple of anglophone television from its early days ( late 1940s ) into the 1980s . In theatre ( especially in the illusionistic Western tradition ), breaking character occurs when an ___MASK59___ ceases to maintain the illusion that they are identical with the character they are portraying . If the breaking of character is particularly serious , it is considered corpsing , which in film or ___MASK20___ would normally result in an abandonment of that take . A cold open ( also called a teaser ) in a ___MASK20___ program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown . On ___MASK20___ , this is often done on the theory that involving the audience in the plot as soon as possible will reduce the likelihood of their switching away from a show during the opening commercial . A cold open may summarize events in previous episodes or storylines that will be revisited during the current episode . In theatre , a monologue ( from , from  " mónos ", " alone , solitary " and  " lógos ", " speech ") is a speech presented by a single character , most often to express their mental thoughts aloud , though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience . Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media ( plays , films , etc .), as well as in non - dramatic media such as poetry . Monologues share much in common with several other ___MASK86___ devices including soliloquies , apostrophes , and aside . There are , however , distinctions between each of these devices . Old English or Anglo - Saxon is the earliest historical form of the English language , spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages . It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo - Saxon settlers probably in the mid 5th century , and the first Old English ___MASK86___ works date from the mid - 7th century . After the Norman Conquest of 1066 , English was replaced , for a time , as the language of the upper classes by Anglo - Norman , a relative of French , and Old English developed into the next historical form of English , known as Middle English .