After returning to the helm of Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels began branching out. Reruns of SNL's early years, in edited form, were in syndication, and spent a bit of time on MTV. In recent years, Michaels has taken charge of NBC's late night slate, six nights a week, as two of his SNL graduates, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, host Tonight and Late Night, respectively, complementing SNL, which now has repeats in primetime on Saturdays some weeks ahead of the next week's episode.
Maybe NBC should've helped Michaels with this next item.
Sunday Night, later rechristened Michelob Presents Night Music, ran for 2 seasons (1988-90) on Sundays, in a spot where NBC had seemingly abandoned trying a full week of late night programming after trying out reruns of Johnny Carson era Tonight and movies. I actually thought this did air on NBC, but I'm told this was syndicated.
Saxophonist David Sanborn served as series host, often aided by pianist and resident comedy relief Jools Holland, who'd later get his own show. Unfortunately, the show was underpromoted locally, and, I'd imagine, elsewhere, leading to a short run.
By 11:30 pm (ET) on a Sunday, I was usually in bed, as I had to go to work the next morning, so I never saw the show when it first aired. This sample comes from January 1989, and the guest list includes Curtis Mayfield, Taylor Dayne, and David Lindley. Mayfield performs his early 70's solo hit, "Superfly" (title song from the movie of the same name), and jams with Dayne & Lindley on the show closing cover of "People Get Ready", also written by Mayfield. Shinehead rounds out the bill, plus vintage footage of 50's jazzman Coleman Hawkins.
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