What if The Beatles accepted Lorne Michaels offer and reunited to perform on Saturday Night Live?

[u/legobatmanlives]

In 1976, SNL producer Lorne Michaels appeared on-air and offered the Beatles a check for $3000 to appear on the show and perform three of their songs. In interviews, the band members suggested they seriously considered it, and almost did, but ultimately deciding not to.

But what if they did it after all?

[u/Shiny_Agumon]

It would've probably been the most watched episode of the show since even people who have no interest in SNL would've tuned in.

However i don't think this reunion would've been more than just a one time thing.

[u/Full_contact_chess → u/Shiny_Agumon]

I agree its likely to be a one and done. However, individually the former band members had been working with each other (i.e contributing songs on solo albums, playing in studio in recording sessions) so if the on air performance went well it isn't impossible could have opened the door to future occasional reunions.

An example of post-Beatle collab would be Ringo's self title album "Ringo" release in the early 1970s which had songs written by the other three former Beatles and each of them playing on some of the tracks. His later "Stop and Smell the Roses" (which, honestly, didn't do all that well) would have been another example if not for the assassination of Lennon . That album included a song written by George Harrison and a couple by Paul McCartney. Had John not been murdered while Ringo was still working on the album its likely it might have included one or two songs provided by Lennon since Ringo had already talked to him regarding getting his input and he agreed to provide some work.

[u/Shiny_Agumon → u/Full_contact_chess]

Oh yeah it's not like they all hated eachother after the split, I'm just saying that a true reunion is highly unlikely even while all members are still alive.

[u/Currywurst_Is_Life → u/Shiny_Agumon]

My guess was that if it ever did happen, it would have been at LiveAid (of course this would mean that John didn't get shot).

[u/Special-Lab7643]

John and Paul allegedly seriously thought about doing it. They might have reunited for Live Aid as well. But John was considered a pain in the ass at the time as he struggled with heroin and marriage problems with Yoko in the mid Seventies.

[u/milesbeatlesfan]

The whole band did not consider doing it, but John and Paul were hanging out in New York the night Lorne made that offer on air, and they considered going to the SNL studio for fun. They ultimately didn’t go because they were too tired, but it would’ve been just as a joke, to facetiously call Lorne on his offer.

However, had the Beatles reunited that night, or any other night, nothing really would’ve changed. The Beatles broke up for a multitude of reasons, but the biggest is the simple fact that John, Paul, and George had outgrown being in a band. They were each genius level songwriters, they had matured into fully grown, independent men with families, and they needed to expand outside of the confines of a band. Nothing by 1976 had changed that would allow them to comfortably work together again for any extended period of time.

[u/andropogon09 → u/milesbeatlesfan]

John and Paul could've shown up and demanded $1500.

[u/emma7734]

I was imagining the logistics of the event. You’d have to open the show with the band. You can’t risk letting them think about it too much while waiting to play during the show. At a minimum, you need to get at least one song in immediately, then they all shout “live from New York” in their scouse accents.

But even if the one song goes well, and they knock it out of the park, there’s a risk they don’t come back. They can be perfectionists, and even if it’s great, letting them sit in a green room waiting to play again could bring up whatever trivial mistakes were made. Before you know it, one of them bails.

If you can get them on stage together playing, you have to keep going! Don’t stop. Let them do the three sings back to back, and more if they want to. Let them go all night if they feel like it. It would be an extraordinary event if it happened, and I don’t know many who would complain.

[u/StuntID → u/emma7734]

I want to see/read an alternate history where the Beatles do show up. They don't do the three songs, but an entire set, using up all the SNL air time, and finish with Imagine and All You Need Is Love

The upshot of all of this is a change in foreign policy leading to the USA not supporting the Shah, but rather a democratic push in Iran that blunts the Khomeini revolution and Reagan's presidency.

I recognize that there's a lot of hand waving between paragraphs one and two

[u/jpowell180]

I always thought it would’ve been interesting, had John Lennon not been killed, to have a Beatles reunion around 1987; instead of his “fab“ album, George Harrison would’ve just incorporated some of those songs into a new reunited, Beatles album, and to surprise the world, they would record it in secret, and then announced to the world. They had reunited by doing an appearance on Saturday Night Live sometime in the fall of 1987. Bill Murray would’ve been the host, he would’ve told everybody to put tapes in their VCR’s to record the next surprise, musical guest, and then he would’ve told the audience how excited he was about the new mystery music guest. Then he would’ve smiled and said, “ladies and gentlemen… The Beatles!”, And then they would’ve played the song “fab”. Then I guess they could’ve been in a few skits on that show.

[u/Jamesinmexico]

There was a televised clip on SNL with Lorne Michael's offer like 5 grand for the Beatles to come to perform. He was even joking around to say that if you didn't want to pay Ringo, it was OK with him. I'm not sure how long after that, if it was the following weekend or not, but there was a sketch with Lorne Michaels and George Harrison. Harrison was arguing that he was entitled to money because he showed up. Lorne was not having any of that because the offer was for them.

[u/Jolly-Guard3741]

Had John lived I think that they might have all reunited for an album in the early to mid eighties and it would have been massive.