The “most important performer” in ‘Saturday Night Live’ history, according to co-creator Dick EbersolBased entirely on the sheer volume of icons, legends, and superstars who’ve passed through the doors of 30 Rockefeller Plaza’s Studio 8H over the last 50 years, trying to name the single most important performer in Saturday Night Live history sounds like an impossible task. Lorne Michaels has been the driving force behind SNL since its inception, but he didn’t bring the series to the airwaves single-handedly. Although he hasn’t been actively involved in Saturday Night Live for the last four decades, it hasn’t dropped off his radar. More than that, though, he believes that the Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places superstar dragged SNL up to his level, sparing it from the creative and ratings doldrums. “Eddie’s the single most important performer in the history of the show,” he told The Washington Post.