For decades, Lorne Michaels has loomed as comedy’s ultimate gatekeeper — the man “Saturday Night Live” stars believed could make or break their careers.

But filmmaker Morgan Neville painted a different picture of the legendary boss after speaking to cast members including Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, John Mulaney and Chris Rock for a documentary project decades in the making. “LORNE” hit theaters on April 17.

Neville said the documentary captures a wide range of perspectives from past and present “Saturday Night Live” cast members who have wrestled with Michaels’ outsized influence over their careers.

“I mean, some of these people, he was their boss. Some, he was a former boss,” Neville told Fox News Digital. “And I think people have all different kinds of experiences of Lorne — where they think of him as the person that controls everything about their fate. You know, how many minutes they get on air, where their career is gonna go. I mean, I understand why people are neurotic about Lorne, and people feel like, ‘Oh, he didn’t get this, or he doesn’t understand this.'”

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But Neville said that view of Michaels’ influence only tells part of the story.

“But I also get what John Mulaney says in the documentary, which is Lorne’s protecting people in ways they don’t understand at all, you know?” he explained. “And I think one thing … that I’ve seen is that Lorne is totally paying attention and trying to do the right thing for the right person at all times. But that may seem unfair sometimes to people, you know. And again, if they feel like their entire future is in his hands, that’s a lot of weight for all of them to carry. But I think there’s also this sense from the outside that Lorne is sitting on the throne of comedy, deciding who makes it and who doesn’t make it.“

Michaels himself feels “beleaguered” and “in the trenches,” according to Neville. The comedy giant’s main focus is on solving the little problems and trying to make next week’s live show work.

“He feels like he’s barely making it himself, which is crazy,” Neville said. “But I think it’s part of what motivates him … but he’s very focused on the challenges immediately in front of him. He’s not one to take a victory lap, really, or to think about the big picture of things.”

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Michaels began his career as a writer for Canadian radio and television before moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s. He worked on shows such as “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” before NBC decided to take a chance on the young comedy writer. Michaels’ idea for a new late-night show that blended sketch comedy and live music evolved into “Saturday Night Live.”

The show quickly became a pop culture phenomenon and would launch the careers of many famous comedians, including John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell and more.

As the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live” came and went in February 2025, Michaels realized, “this is kind of the end of an era.”

“I think Lorne is going to stay as long as he can,” Neville clarified. “But he’s not going to be doing this for another 50 years. So it was just kind of an understanding of, if we’re ever going to do it, now is the time to do it. I think that’s his thinking.”

Neville said it feels like a rare chance to finally witness what comedy fans have heard about for years — seeing this almost “‘Wizard of Oz’ character in action” — watching how he moves through the show, assembles it, and thinks, and how “SNL” ultimately reflects his vision.

“I mean, everything about the show, from the hours it keeps to the way it’s made to the culture of the show is so directly related to Lorne,” Neville said. “…I can’t think of another example of any show that is made in the form of its creator in such a way.”

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Neville pointed to the “liveness of the show” as the true defining element — not just that “SNL” is live, but how “significant that is to everything about the show.”

There’s very little second-guessing, with decisions driven largely by a “first instinct, go” mentality. That immediacy puts both performers and the audience in the moment, essentially deciding together whether a sketch works.

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The other element that sets the late-night comedy show apart — the writer is king.

“A 24-year-old writer can be writing a sketch and then essentially directing it and have it on national TV three days later,” Neville explained. “There’s kind of like a real meritocracy to it too, that it’s just… the laughs win, what’s funny, wins.”

Fey was hired as a writer in her 20s and quickly rose through the ranks to become the show’s first female head writer. Other notable young hires included Conan O’Brien, Mulaney, Seth Meyers and Adam McKay.

Michaels has almost “resisted hierarchy,” Neville said, instead focusing on creative freedom to shape the show’s long-term evolution.

“It’s part of why I think he now embraces change so much, that the show has to change,” Neville explained. “Even if things are going well.”

“In a way, if things are going well, Lorne’s worried,” he added. “Because two years from now, it’s not going to be going well, because all the successful people are going to get movie deals or go off and do other things. And he knows it’ll go badly. But when the show’s not doing well, he’s happy because he knows in two years it’s going to gel. And suddenly, he sees what it’s going to become. So he’s always kind of thinking a couple years in the future, which in television is unheard of pretty much.“

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Future doctors at some medical schools are learning more than anatomy, pathology and pharmacology these days. They’re learning to cook healthy foods patients will actually want to eat.

The training is part of a growing field called culinary medicine, which blends cooking skills with nutrition education. It’s gaining momentum at medical schools nationwide, The New York Times recently reported, with schools like Tufts University launching courses in 2025.

In many programs, that means stepping into a kitchen and learning to prepare meals firsthand, not just studying nutrition from a distance. 

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“It’s combining the culinary arts with evidence-based medicine and educational techniques to teach nutrition in a way that young doctors and other health care professionals can use in counseling and talking to patients,” Dr. Ron Quinton, medical director of Tulane University’s Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine in New Orleans, told Fox News Digital. 

Rising rates of diet-related diseases, including diabetes, obesity and heart disease, are fueling demand for more nutrition-focused care, experts say.

“Most people are eating the standard American diet, which is high in saturated fat, high in sugar, high in salt,” Quinton added. “There are at least 13 obesity-related cancers that are directly diet-related,” he noted.

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At Tulane’s School of Medicine, students work through mock patient cases before heading into the Goldring Center’s teaching kitchen — one of the nation’s first, established in 2012 — to prepare healthy, flavorful and affordable meals.

“We don’t want to make bland food,” Quinton said.

They also don’t want patients thinking they must overhaul their diets overnight, he said.

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“Our first goal is to add things to their diet,” he said. “We’re not trying to take things away.”

One of the first cooking lessons Tulane students get, meanwhile, is about a familiar favorite: tacos. Quinton said the program adds more vegetables than traditional versions and uses homemade, low-sodium seasoning.

“A big part of our teaching is substituting things for what we consider bad for you — the sugar, the salt — and putting spices and other things in so the food tastes just as good,” Quinton said.

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Jordan Lo, a fourth-year Tulane medical student planning to pursue neurosurgery, said the teaching kitchen has given him tools he already uses when talking with patients during clinical rotations.

“Patients ask me, ‘How can I eat healthier? Where can I go to get better recipes?'” Lo said.

Understanding nutrition can benefit doctors in any specialty, particularly in preventing conditions such as stroke linked to diet, he said. “Knowing about food and culinary medicine and how it affects your patients just overall makes you a better doctor.”

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He said the hands-on classes show students how to make healthier meals feel doable at home. 

Students learn simple tips — like prepping ingredients and using small bowls to stay organized — that they can pass on to patients.

The kitchen lessons also challenge assumptions about what “healthy” food looks like. 

Lo said one surprising recipe was a dark chocolate mousse made mostly with avocado. Quinton pointed to black and white bean brownies as desserts that deliver more fiber with less fat than traditional versions, adding that they’re favorites of his grandkids.

More than 60 medical, nursing and residency programs now use versions of Tulane’s curriculum, with newer programs emerging at schools like Tufts University as part of a broader “food is medicine” movement.

Tuft’s launched a course in 2025 that brings together medical, dental and nutrition students to learn in partnership with Community Servings, a nonprofit that provides medically tailored meals to people with serious and chronic illnesses.

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Eliza Leone, a registered dietitian nutritionist and instructor in the program, said the training focuses on turning nutrition advice into practical guidance for patients.

“What’s more meaningful than telling your patient, ‘You should eat more calcium,’ is saying, ‘Here are a few recipes that incorporate calcium,'” she told Fox News Digital.

Research shows doctors are more likely to encourage healthy eating habits when they practice those behaviors themselves, Leone noted. 

“You can’t have nutrition without food, so you have to know how to make food that tastes good and also meets your nutritional needs,” she said.

Interest in culinary medicine is growing, Leone said, as more students seek hands-on nutrition training and schools respond by expanding programs.

Quinton agreed the trend is here to stay, as more doctors shift toward preventing disease rather than reacting to it.