Lorne Michaels donates ‘Saturday Night Live' archive to University of Texas

SNL 50th anniversary special to air live on Feb. 16; HRC exhibition to open this September and run until March 15, 2026

Lorne Michaels, the creator of the long-running sketch comedy television show “Saturday Night Live,” has donated his career archive to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, the center announced Wednesday.

The Lorne Michaels Collection includes behind-the-scenes rehearsal notes, scripts and photographs of iconic characters and sketches from a show that launched the careers of comedians Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and others. It also includes some of 80-year-old Michaels' personal correspondence.

The Harry Ransom Center is preparing the archive for exhibition this fall. The HRC said,"'Live From New York! The Making of Lorne Michaels' will highlight key moments from 'SNL’s' history and its role in reflecting and shaping societal discourse on politics, culture and identity." The exhibition is expected to be on view from Sept. 20, 2025, through March 15, 2026.

SNL, the most Emmy Award-nominated show in television history, is in its 50th season. It is set to broadcast “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” live on Feb. 16. A four-episode documentary series will drop on Peacock on Thursday, Jan. 16.

Although way off-Broadway and far from the show's New York City roots, the Ransom Center is one of the country's top literary and humanities archives and research institutions.

Its literary archive includes the collections of Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee, Pulitzer Prize winners David Mamet and Norman Mailer, actor Robert DeNiro, the television drama “Mad Men” and the “Gone With the Wind” collection of Hollywood producer David O. Selznick.

The Michaels collection documents his career in television from his earliest writing for “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” and “The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show,” but the bulk of it is related to SNL.

The Ransom Center plans an exhibit, “Live from New York! The Making of Lorne Michaels” to open in September with sketch drafts, correspondence, video, photos and artifacts that detail show production and highlight SNL's role as a comedic window into, and influence on, culture and politics.

Lorne Michaels donates ‘SNL' archive to Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin

“Lorne Michaels has kept us up late and laughing for 50 years,” Ransom Center Director Stephen Enniss said, “and I’m confident for years to come his archive will be studied by students and researchers looking for insight into the social, political, and cultural history of our time. We are deeply grateful to him for entrusting this rich legacy to us.”

A Michaels representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.