If you’re a student of Saturday Night Live history, this clip from last night’s Watch What Happens Live will probably come as no surprise to you. But if you’re looking for more confirmation of prevalent drug usage behind the scenes of the show during the early years, Candice Bergen has some for you. Andy Cohen asked Bergen, who hosted the show multiple times starting in 1975, about what the “vibe†was like at SNL in those days and, more specifically, if it was “cokey,†so Bergen broke down the drug progression for him. “It started being sort of marijuana-based, and they realized in a second that the show was almost impossible to produce, and to do it stoned on grass made it just a lost cause. Because you’d be backstage — you have literally split-second costume and wig changes and makeup changes …†Bergen explained. “So that’s when the coke came in?†Cohen asked. “That’s when the coke came in, yeah,†she confirmed. Again, not earth-shattering news to an SNL fan, but we’d argue it’s fun to see this confirmed while Bergen’s fellow WWHL guest Dianne Wiest is also displayed onscreen looking stone-faced and uninterested in all this cokey nonsense.
Candice Bergen Confirms Most Obvious Fact About Early SNL
