The backstage guys were older, from another time. From the start, Michaels had told NBC that he wanted everyone assigned to the show-lawyers, publicists, graphic design-ers, accountants-to be under thirty, but that demand wasn't practicable when it came to the 8H crew members, many of whom regarded Michaels's people as a bunch of stoners and high-handed amateurs.
According to Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad's 1986 book, Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, some old-timers started referring to the show as "The Children's Television Work-shop." When rehearsals started, crew members were offended by the material; booing could be heard from the wings. Joe Dicso, the stage manager, later said that if crew members told Michaels that something was too difficult to execute, he wouldn't engage. "Lorne was full of exactlys' and 'ahhs' and of courses," Dicso told Hill and Weingrad. ''Ahh' meant he'd made a mistake. There were no apologies."
Michaels's young charges, however, soon came to realize that the old guys knew their way around. "When we saw the crew kick into action, it was a whole different thing," he said. "A crane was flying around the studio, cameras were moving. The 8H crew was the only one in New York that could do that."
