The donation came directly from Michaels, who approached the center more than a year ago, Enniss said. It traces the full arc of his career, including his early days as a writer and performer in the comedy scene in Toronto and his pre-“S.N.L.” work on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” and “The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show.”
But the “lion’s share,” Enniss said, covers Michaels’s nearly five decades of work on “Saturday Night Live,” which first aired under the title “Saturday Night.”
Michaels, 80, is known for his dedication to old-fashioned communication, refusing to use teleprompters and requiring that all script revisions be done on paper, according to Susan Morrison’s forthcoming biography, “Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live.”
The archive, Enniss said, captures the full writing and production process for each episode, including many examples of the index cards used to shuffle and assemble the elements of the show up until the last minute.
