Flakiest Night of the Week

"Satire is what closes Saturday night" said George Kaufman. NBC's Saturday Night is proving him wrong. For 90 minutes, three out of four Saturday nights after 11:30, a small, subversive group of iconoclasts is throwing the air waves into disorder, tossing barbs at the presidency, the system, the revolution(s), motherhood, feminism, civil rights and democracy. Only on the air for four months, this live and unpredictable show is the season's surprise hit. It already has a loyal following of more than seven million. Says Dick Ebersol, 28, the network's late-night programming vice president,...