“Had I known how everything would end up I would have been better off saying something about it, as opposed to being quiet because I thought it would get in the way of work,” he said. Now, Kattan tells Variety that he wishes he had spoken up - and might have today. “The ‘SNL’ family I was part of had stopped taking care of me, and soon I wasn’t able to pay for everything myself.” I wanted to hide everything, pretending I was okay and in good enough shape to be go out in public and be social.” I never wanted to be that person: spending my life debilitated and fighting a network.
![saturday night live night at the roxbury saturday night live night at the roxbury](https://cache.moviestillsdb.com/i/500x/vb4b7ypl/a-night-at-the-roxbury-lg.jpg)
I had been brought up to be responsible for myself.
![saturday night live night at the roxbury saturday night live night at the roxbury](https://static0.thethingsimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Untitled-design-2020-05-26T003050.785.jpg)
I never thought about the potential legal ramifications of what had happened to me on the set and what was happening now. But I never really fought for myself or demanded anything. “The ‘SNL’ family I was part of had stopped taking care of me, and soon I wasn’t able to pay for everything myself. “NBC had stopped paying my medical costs after the second surgery,” he wrote. Years later, when he asked lawyers to finally look into workers’ compensation, he was told it was too late. Yet beyond that, he wrote that he never really went to NBC, “SNL” or Michaels for help. Almost a year later, as it worsened, Kattan said his chiropractor finally convinced him to have it checked out. He said he hit his head hard that night, and wrote that he began to feel pain in the weeks and months that followed - but he assumed it would go away. The comedian said he questioned the safety of the move, and asked the props department for a different chair - but it never came. He wrote that in the “MSNBC Investigates” parody sketch, about a group of kids who role play as the “Golden Girls,” Kattan was supposed to fall backwards in his chair for big laughs. But they weren’t - leaving insiders to wonder if Kattan was remembering correctly.īut Kattan goes into lengthy detail about what he believes happened the night he broke his neck. Carl Lauryssen scroll down to the end of the story for more information.) Insiders said they would have known had Kattan broken his neck on the show - it would have been a serious enough incident that the network’s legal team and human resources would have been involved, particularly because it happened on camera. (UPDATED: Variety has now heard back from Dr. Kattan was unable to provide documentation that NBC was aware of the injury, and Variety also attempted to contact Kattan’s surgeon, who didn’t respond to several requests by press time. But none of them could recall Kattan’s injury, even after they made their own internal inquiries to see if anyone else remembered it. Variety spoke to several insiders, including staffers mentioned by Kattan in his book, who have worked closely with Kattan as part of the “SNL” production team and who also would have been present on set and aware of any follow-up claims. A spokesperson for NBC said the network had no record of any claim and declined to comment further. Michaels declined a request to be interviewed for this story. Kattan also told Variety that NBC paid for two of the five surgeries he had over the years.
![saturday night live night at the roxbury saturday night live night at the roxbury](http://www.austinchronicle.com/binary/f894/B00819FOUS_ANightattheRoxbury_UXPA1._V143206094_RI_SX940_.jpg)
Aymong, the comedian said, promised to “take care of it,” and that Michaels passed along a doctor recommendation. In an interview this week at Variety’s offices, Kattan said he told SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels and producer Ken Aymong about the accident.
![saturday night live night at the roxbury saturday night live night at the roxbury](https://64.media.tumblr.com/8769f85ea085a8cca72da979013d579b/tumblr_ny8wsxRoez1u7leb2o3_500.png)
“The impact that my injury and subsequent surgeries had on my career was immense, but more importantly, the fallout proved to be devastating to some of the closest relationships in my life.” “Even today, I still can’t open my hand wide enough to use my fingers normally on the keyboard,” he wrote. In the book, Kattan complains that he still suffers the effects of that moment, which can be found as a clip on NBC’s website.