SNL and Dissertations
On October 11, 1975 NBC’s Saturday Night premiered. That show lasted less than a year and a half until it was renamed Saturday Night Live. Since then? It’s done alright. Here are three lessons from SNL for dissertation students everywhere…
1. Set Realistic Expectations: NBC’s Saturday Night replaced weekend reruns of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. For the decade preceding, NBC had aired a rerun of a Tonight Show episode on Saturday or Sunday night, at the affiliate’s discretion. Then, in 1974, Carson decided that those episodes should be reserved for replay during the week, so that he might take the occasional night off.
There was no need to swing for the fences, here. The new show simply had to perform about as well as reruns for another, admittedly very popular, show. And, it nearly failed to do so.
SNL was so different, so out there, that it could not generate the same mass appeal. Executives were about to pull the plug.
When you’re working on your dissertation, don’t lose sight of your goal: to graduate! Your dissertation doesn’t need to blaze new trials. It doesn’t need to change the world. It just need to be approved so that you can graduate.
Completing a dissertation is hard. Earning a doctoral degree is hard. Don’t make life harder and put your dreams at risk by setting unreasonable expectations for yourself.
2. Write for Your Audience: So SNL was on the chopping block before it even officially had the name, SNL. Executives didn’t like the overall ratings the show was receiving. They felt that something safer, more mainstream, would be a better investment.
And, that would have been that had the show’s producer, Lorne Micheals, not dug into the ratings data to demonstrate for these executives the show’s commercial saving grace. At the time, television was having a very difficult time attracting Baby Boomers, a demographic advertisers highly prized. SNL‘s audience, however, was largely comprised of Baby Boomers, many of whom watched little else on television. If you wanted to advertise to Boomers, SNL was the way to do it!
Being able to attract that vital audience is the only reason SNL ever became more than a footnote in broadcasting history. The success of your doctoral study similarly rests on you being able to find your audience, too.
In your case, the audience is your dissertation committee. It’s not important that your friends like your dissertation. It’s not important that your family likes your dissertation. It’s not even important that you like your dissertation. All that matters is that your committee likes your dissertation, and even then, just enough to approve it.
3. Avoid Controversy: SNL has challenged public figures and social conventions from Day One. And, the show has taken its fair share of hits because of it.
Advertisers have been lost. Apologies have been made. Actors have been fired. Maintaining a quirky and irreverent perspective is tough to do in a mainstream world. There’s a price to pay.
Don’t pay that price while you’re working on your dissertation. Find a topic that’s safe. Develop a plan that’s sound. Keep your head down, get it done, and graduate!
That’s no way to live a life, but it’s a great way to earn your degree. Once you’re officially Dr. You, you can be as controversial, contrarian, and unconventional as you like. Shake things up. Break a few eggs. Just graduate, first!
Here’s a quick bonus lesson: as tough as the dissertation process is, you should still take time to laugh every now and then. SNL has laughed at anything and everything that ever bothered anyone. Take time to remove yourself from the maelstrom, to relax and look at things from a different perspective. You’ll be amazed at the problems you can solve when you’re not beating yourself up over not being able to solve them.
