Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels reportedly took a “tough love” approach to helping Chris Farley overcome his substance abuse before the comedy legend tragically passed away in 1997.
Michaels’ biographer Susan Morrison, author of Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, revealed during a recent appearance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast that John Belushi‘s tragic overdose in 1982 spurred Michaels to crack down on the cast’s alcohol and drug abuse. He even went on to ban and suspend Farley from the show because of his substance abuse to push him to get help.
“When Belushi died, it really hit him hard,” Morrison explained. “And I think he felt like this whole approach of just letting people do their own thing on their own time, this was the wrong approach. We’re a tribe, we’re a group, and we have to look out for each other.”
Morrison added that Michaels would “call him into his office” to discuss his drug use when he “clearly had addiction issues.” But when that approach did not seem to work on Farley, Michaels banned him from the show and helped him enter rehab.
“Lorne had really changed his approach,” Morrison recalled on the show. “He would ban Farley from the show for weeks at a time if he was too fucked up. And he sent him to a series of really tough love rehab places. And obviously, it didn’t do it for him.”
She added, “After getting clean once and relapsing, he’d been suspended by Michaels, who sent him to a tough-love rehab facility in Alabama. Michaels knew that the show was what Farley liked best, so taking it away from him, he hoped, would make an impression.”
Farley is remembered as one of the most iconic cast members to star on Saturday Night Live.
The Coneheads actor starred on Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1995. He returned to host in 1996, shortly before his tragic death in December 1997.
Morrison also claimed on Armchair Expert that she believed Michaels had a “pretty hands-on in guiding Pete Davidson through his different issues” when he was on the cast from 2014 to 2022, and John Mulaney, who was a writer on the show from 2008 to 2013.