THE SNL SKETCH THAT STARTED WHILE EVERYONE WAS WAITING FOR LORNE MICHAELS “The Californians” looks like the kind of ridiculous idea that must have taken an entire writers’ room to invent. It didn't. The basic joke began much more casually. During SNL table reads, cast members would sometimes be sitting around waiting for Lorne Michaels to arrive. Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Kenan Thompson and others had recently been spending time in Los Angeles. So they started talking about something completely ordinary: How they had driven around Los Angeles. One person would ask where someone had gone. The answer would become increasingly specific. “I took Sunset…” “Then I got on the 405…” “Then I took La Cienega…” But the way they said it was the joke. The cast exaggerated the California accent until ordinary directions sounded like the most important information anyone had ever received. It was basically an inside joke. Andy Samberg particularly loved it. Nobody was sitting there thinking: “Someday this will become one of SNL's most recognizable recurring sketches.” At that point, it was simply something funny the cast did around the table. Then something happened that changed the entire idea. The joke was about directions. But someone realized it could be about something much bigger. And suddenly, those ridiculous freeway conversations had the potential to become a soap opera.