In the closing moments of the first-ever “Saturday Night Live From Home,” the show paid tribute to Hal Willner, who died on April 7 with symptoms consistent with coronavirus. Willner was renowned as a multi-talented producer of albums by Lou Reed, Marianne Faithfull, Lucinda Williams as well as elaborate multi-artist tribute compilations to Charles Mingus, Kurt Weil and others — but unquestionably his most widely-heard work was the music he helmed for the skits on “SNL” for nearly 40 years, beginning in 1981.
The segment features multiple castmembers from across the years — ranging from Adam Sandler and Tina Fey to Pete Davidson and Fred Armisen — paying tribute to Willner (from home, of course).
Willner’s musical versatility made him an ideal contributor to the show, as castmember Kate McKinnon explains at the beginning of the segment. “Some of the show’s sketches are more cinematic in quality and need to be scored more like a movie in order for them to make sense and for the jokes to land. The music becomes such an integral part of the sketch that you kind of don’t notice it, but without it, it wouldn’t make any sense. The guy who scores it only has a few hours — and that guy’s name is Hal Willner, and we lost him this week.”
Mackinnon, tearing up, called him “One of the coolest and most passionate and good natured people”; Armisen said “He used to come up to my dressing room and share music with me.”
The strains of Lou Reed’s 1972 song “Perfect Day” (which was actually produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson) played in the background during the tributes, and then came up in full as a Zoom-style lineup of female “SNL” castmembers, including Fey, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer, sang the song in tribute to Willner.
“We appreciate everything you did for us, Hal,” Pete Davidson said. “We’re gonna miss you so much.”
The segment closes with Willner speaking of his many years working on the show. “The live thing is what’s really exciting to me — it’s an amazing gig. When it’s all working, there’s nothing like it. I kinda get off on the danger, because it can really f— up, or ‘This is gonna be so magical.’”
