It had been just 18 days.
On Sept. 29, 2001, 2½ weeks after the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania, “Saturday Night Live” returned for its 27th season. The cold open showed New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani surrounded by firefighters and police officers as Paul Simon performed “The Boxer.”
“SNL” creator Lorne Michaels joined them onstage, and asked the question that had been looming over the entire entertainment industry and, in some ways, the country.
“Can we be funny?” Michaels asked.
Giuliani quipped in response:“Why start now?”
The audience laughed, and, with that, one of our most popular television programs broke the ice and gave Americans something they desperately needed: Permission
to laugh again.
In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, much of popular culture had come to a halt. Networks abandoned their typical schedules, replacing it with nonstop news coverage. Broadway went dark. Sporting events were postponed. Late night talk shows and comedy disappeared from television. Movie premieres were canceled.
The entertainment industry had to navigate a delicate balance of how to proceed: When would it be appropriate to schedule lighthearted programming following such dark, life-changing news?
Pop culture could not repair the detrimental ways in which the world had changed overnight, but it offered millions of Americans spaces to mourn, as well as escape reality for even just half an hour, in an attempt to get back into the rhythm of normal life.
And pop culture gave back. "The Concert for New York City" organized by Paul McCartney at Madison Square Garden, benefitted first responders. "America: A Tribute to Heros,"a live telethon organized by George Clooney, raised money for victims' families. Bruce Springsteen "The Rising" gave voice to the grief, loss, and resilience Americans were still struggling to put into words.
Sports also played an important role in helping America heal. The New York Yankees were in the playoffs, and each game brought New Yorkers, and America, together. And the Super Bowl halftime show where U2 performed as the names of those killed on 9/11 scrolled behind them, transformed one of the country’s biggest sporting events into a powerful tribute to the lives that had been lost.
Reese Witherspoon, the then 25-year-old actress who was fresh off the success of “Legally Blonde,” had been scheduled to host the "SNL" episode, but that was before 9/11 changed the course of the world. On an episode of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert Podcast, Witherspoon recalled how Michaels called her up when NBC decided to bring “SNL” back, emphasizing how the episode had taken on a greater significance beyond its usual sketches and celebrity cameos.
“He said, ‘I really need you to show up. I really, really need this. Rudy Giuliani is going to be here, all the firefighters are going to be here, Paul Simon is going to sing,” Witherspoon remembered. “‘I just need you to come out and do something a little light and tell America that we got to laugh again. We’ve got to get back the national spirit.’”
While it was a lot of pressure and Witherspoon said it felt like “too much responsibility,” she pulled through. “We did it," she remembered. "And it was good."
David Letterman helped late-night TV find its way back
Six days after the attacks, David Letterman was among the first to return to his regularly scheduled programming. On Sept. 17, the “Late Show” host walked onto the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater without his usual fanfare. Instead of launching into his traditional opening monologue, Letterman sat behind his desk and spoke candidly about the attacks, questioning whether or not a comedy show like his should move forward and if so, how?
“This is our first show on the air since New York and Washington were attacked,” Letterman told viewers, at times holding back tears and struggling to get through his remarks. “If we are going to continue to do shows, I just need to hear myself talk for a couple of minutes.”
“Watching all of this, I wasn’t sure that I should be doing a television show because for 20 years we’ve been in the city making fun of everything…I’ll tell you the reason I am doing a show and the reason I am back to work is because of Mayor Giuliani.”
Letterman explained how Mayor Giuliani, “encouraged us and implored us to go back to our lives, to go on living, [and to] continue trying to make New York City the place that it should be.”
Letterman seemed to be working through the same question as millions of viewers: How do you resume your life when the world has fundamentally changed? Other late-night hosts were grappling with the same uncertainty. Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien returned to the air the following day, and Jon Stewart brought “The Daily Show” back on Sept. 20, each host temporarily setting aside their usual comedy to acknowledge the grief and unease of trying to make people laugh again.
For ‘Friends’ and ‘Will & Grace,’ escape became important
Television’s fictional New Yorkers faced a different question: Should their worlds change, too, or should they pretend nothing had happened in order to offer viewers a much-needed escape?
“Friends” returned on Sept. 27 with “The One After I Do,” the first episode of the show’s eighth season, which ended with a title card dedication: “To the People of New York City.” The sitcom did not incorporate the 9/11 attacks into the lives of Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, or Phoebe, though later episodes included small tributes like the characters wearing FDNY and NYPD T-shirts.
While that was the first episode of the massively popular sitcom that aired after 9/11, the first episode the cast members shot after the attacks was “The One With the Halloween Party” (Season 8, Episode 6).
“That whole week, while driving in L.A., people would pull up, and give me a very sad look and a quiet 'thank you' for making them laugh,” Lisa Kudrow recalled about the experience in a 2014 Reddit AMA.
“Will & Grace” confronted the same question. The NBC sitcom was also set in New York City, but instead of incorporating 9/11 into the show, its first episode after the attacks, “Bed, Bath and Beyond,” similarly returned viewers to the characters’ lives.
Kudrow also remembered experiencing firsthand why that kind of escape mattered.
“After 9/11, all I was doing was watching the news and every single thing I saw was someone who knew someone that was in one of the towers or something like that. I started watching ‘Will & Grace’ and I said…they're in New York, I wonder who they knew in the buildings,” Kudrow said in an interview with the Television Academy. “Then I went, ‘No, no. This is fiction. In this world, it didn't even happen.
She continued, “I just needed that break, and I was so grateful that there was something to watch where 9/11 hadn't happened at all. It was a break that I really needed.”
Sports helped America heal
In the weeks after 9/11, the New York Yankees gave a grieving city something else to focus on. The team entered the playoffs in October and, after initially falling behind against the Oakland Athletics, they mounted a comeback to ultimately win the playoff series.
The Yankees advanced to the World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, bringing the Fall Classic back to New York just seven weeks after the attacks. Before Game 3 at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 30, President George W. Bush threw the ceremonial first pitch while wearing an FDNY jacket to a packed crowd chanting, “U-S-A.”
The Yankees went on to win all three games played in New York, though they ultimately lost the series in Game 7. Former Yankees outfielder Paul O’Neill later said the result was almost beside the point.
“I don’t remember losing the Series as much as I do winning those three home games, watching the crowds and watching people come together,” O’Neill recalled years later. “The coming together of New Yorkers was probably more important than who won the World Series.”
Months later, U2 made a lasting impact during the Super Bowl XXXVI halftime show. As the band moved from “MLK” into “Where the Streets Have No Name,” the names of those killed on 9/11 scrolled behind them and stretched toward the stadium ceiling. At the end of the performance, Bono opened his jacket to reveal an American flag sewn into the lining.
Hollywood turned grief into action after 9/11
Entertainment’s role in the aftermath of 9/11 extended beyond just offering an escape. As Americans searched for ways to help and give back to the community of New York City as well as those who were impacted by the attacks, Hollywood and the music industry also turned their platforms into vehicles for collective mourning, fundraising, and action.
Ten days after the attacks, “America: A Tribute to Heroes” aired commercial-free across major broadcast networks. Organized with the help of George Clooney, the telethon brought a number of artists together, including Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, U2, Billy Joel, Neil Young, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and dozens of other performers and celebrities. Springsteen opened the evening with “My City of Ruins,” using his song about Asbury Park, New Jersey as a way to lament about the climate in America. The fundraiser ultimately yielded more than $200 million for victims and their families.
A month after the attacks, Paul McCartney also organized the "Concert for New York City" at Madison Square Garden to honor first responders and raise money. David Bowie opened with Simon & Garfunkel's “America” before performing his own “Heroes.” The marathon concert also featured The Who, Elton John, Bon Jovi, Jay-Z and McCartney, among so many other artists.
Broadway went dark, then turned on the lights
Broadway's return mattered, too.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the Great White Way went dark for two days. Broadway theaters had rarely closed en masse, outside of major blizzards, and major world events such as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
But on Sept. 13, just 48 hours after the attacks, Broadway reopened at the urging of Giuliani. Before the shows began, the lights of Times Square were dimmed for a minute in remembrance and inside the theaters, productions paid homage to the city of New York with moments of silence or speeches to the audience.
During the week of the attacks, Broadway attendance dropped to 65,155, compared with 181,305 during the same week the year before and, in turn, box offices fell from more than $10 million to just $3.47 million. Even longtime hits were playing to empty houses, including “The Phantom of the Opera,” which had routinely packed its 1,600-seat theater but after 9/11, the show reportedly played to an audience of roughly 380 people at one performance.
When asked how Americans across the country could be helpful to New York City’s recovery, Mayor Giuliani encouraged people across the country to come visit New York City and attend a Broadway show.
“Come here and spend money. Go to a restaurant, a play,” Giuliani said at the time. “You might actually have a better chance of getting tickets to ‘The Producers’ now, if you want to come here and see it. The life of the city goes on.”
In an interview with PBS, actor Nathan Lane remembers there being a huge line the night “The Producers” opened back up.
“It was an odd thing to have to go back and do the show after that happened…but we were asked by the mayor to go back to work, and we did,” he said. “Hopefully if people came and it made them not have to think about [the attacks] for a while, or it took their minds off of that, that was a benefit.”
Getting shows like “The Producers” back onstage wasn't simply about theater, but a way of bringing audiences, workers, and tourists back into Manhattan. The theater district was one of the major engines of New York's tourism economy, supporting the restaurants, hotels, bars, shops, cab drivers, and thousands of workers whose livelihoods depended on people coming into Manhattan. By early October, Broadway was drawing about 160,000 people a week and grossing roughly $9 million, a notable improvement from the nearly empty theaters of mid-September.
Turning the lights back on Broadway gave New Yorkers something they desperately needed in those first days following the attacks: Somewhere to gather, something familiar to do, and a small, visible declaration that life in the city would continue. It also embraced the sentiment Broadway has long embodied: The show must go on.
Those moments were about more than television shows, concerts, or football games. They became communal experiences at a time when Americans were trying to figure out how to mourn together, help one another, and eventually return to the routines that had suddenly seemed insignificant.
Entertainment couldn't erase the grief, and it couldn't rebuild what had been destroyed, but it did give people somewhere to put that grief and, eventually, laugh again.
On Sept. 23, 2001, there was an interfaith memorial service, “Prayer for America,” held at Yankee Stadium featuring politicians, religious leaders, Broadway performers, and celebrities. None other than Oprah was the master of ceremonies, someone who millions of Americans looked to for comfort, reassurance, and guidance.
“Every story we have heard pains us so much, because we know that their stories are our stories. Our lives that we trusted and often took for granted have been shaken,” Oprah said. “But we, Americans, refuse to be shattered. We shall not be moved. We're here thousands strong in Yankee Stadium to say to the world: hope lives, prayer lives, love lives.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: After 9/11, Hollywood stars were the healers we didn't know we needed
