There is one show that stands out when you hear the name Lorne Michaels. In 1975, Michaels and fellow NBC employee, Dick Ebersol, created NBC’s Saturday Night, which two years later would change its name to Saturday Night Live.

Marked as one of the longest running weekly television programs, Michaels has spent thirty of the series’ thirty-five years on NBC working with the show as a producer, writer and occasional performer. Being such an integral part of the series led Michaels to produce several big screen film spinoffs, such as Wayne’s World, Coneheads, Black Sheep, Superstar, Hot Rod and Baby Mama.

Aside from his work on Saturday Night Live, Michaels also produced the successful Canadian comedy series, The Kids in the Hall, which aired on CBC in 1987, and was later picked up by HBO in the United States in 1989.

For sixteen seasons, and more then 1500 episodes, Michaels was the executive producer of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and over 50 episodes of NBC’s 30 Rock, from 2006 to 2009. Currently, he is executive producer of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and has numerous projects in production.

Throughout the course of his career, Michaels has won a variety of awards and honors, including induction into the Television Hall of Fame, and was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Saturday Night Live has had its ups and downs since it’s conception in 1975, but the fact that it is still on the air with Michaels at the helm is reason enough to name Lorne Michaels a TV visionary.