Thanks, @Vee . I'd heard about this and wondered what Ryan would have to say, as SNL is very difficult to write about, which you can tell from the piece (and she says at one point). It's simultaneously open and about as walled off as you can get. I'd read most of her various quotes before, but I do wonder how someone who isn't as trapped in the show's tendrils must feel. The Horatio Sanz story was heinous, and was one of the times where I finally saw just how much power Lorne (and NBC and their owners) have to be able to suppress it as much as they did.
I don't really believe there is an aw shucks persona of Lorne Michaels - he went on TV for years in his expensive suits, sipping champagne and being imperious. If anything I think he projects an image of power that was not always there (due to the terrible culture he'd gotten SNL into by the mid-90s, and various finger-in-every-pie men who took over at NBC, he was weakened for most of the mid/late '90s and through a good chunk of the '00s). There's a whole mythology of how challenging he is which amounts to saying he can't stop playing mind games.
I'll also say Seth Simons, who is right about much of comedy culture and SNL, is a very erratic figure, as I used to read his Twitter before he put it on private. I never could take him as seriously afterward.
I believe the Danitra Vance characters she refers to were characters Danitra brought with her to the show, although I'm not 100%.
I assume the rest of the SNL material in there talks about Trump, as Ryan was one of the critics (rightfully so) most disgusted with him being booked.
I like her comparison to Doctor Who. In both cases I often think the narratives of the show, all the generations of history, compel me more than the material itself, with some glorious exceptions (glorious more in the case of Doctor Who - SNL never really hit those heights). It's also one of those shows you have to start when you're young to care about, which is one of the reasons why, although I would like to see how a fully Lorne-free SNL would be, I am expecting it to go off within the next year or two once Lorne is gone from NBC (Doctor Who has shown more of an ability to regenerate [no pun intended] so I am hoping that can keep chugging along).