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In the "Seinfeld" episode "The Revenge", George (Jason Alexander) has become fed up with his boring office job and wants to quit. Specifically, George is outraged by the fact that he was barred access to his company's executive washroom. He storms into his boss' office early in the episode and goes on a wrathful tirade about how his boss, Mr. Levitan (Fred Applegate), is a talentless hack and that he has no thoughts in his head. George yells, "I quit!" and angrily storms out. 

He then immediately goes to see his friend Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) to talk about his potential job prospects. He has none. George has no talents or interests. He idly muses that he could be a sports announcer, despite not having any experience in broadcasting. Jerry convinces George to go back into the office on Monday and pretend like nothing happened. Just go back to work, and...

Which cast members missed out on Saturday Night live’s 50th anniversary special? (Photo Credit – Instagram)

On Sunday, February 16, Saturday Night Live celebrated its 50th anniversary at 30 Rockefeller Center, and some of the biggest stars from the industry were present at the event, making it a star-studded affair. However, even though over 180 cast members, along with Hollywood A-listers, gathered together to honor the legacy of the comedy sketch show, a few were noticeably missing from the ceremony.

After SNL50: The Anniversary Special episode ended, and stars walked down a carpet posing for the camera, people were quick to notice that some of the great SNL cast members, including Dan Aykroyd, Bill Hader, and others, were absent. Scroll ahead to find out who didn’t come and why.

Two days before SNL50 took place, Dan Aykroyd took to his X (formerly known as Twitter) account and congratulated the team for celebrating...

Bill Hader won’t be in Saturday Night Live’s anniversary special SNL 50 this Sunday, but don’t get mad at Lorne Michaels just because his former star found a hotter club.

Just days away from the SNL half-century celebration, there is a fitting amount of division and controversy among the comedy institution’s fanbase who so famously disagree about which era was the show’s best, which cast was the worst and whether or not SNL has ever actually been funny. Despite the fact that the lineup of A-list guests and illustrious alumni who are willing to give Michaels three hours of their Sunday would make the average awards show afterparty planner swoon, all the SNL fandom wants to talk about is the group of beloved SNL veterans who won’t make an appearance while NBC forces us watch Chevy Chase cling to what’s left of his legacy.

If Lorne Michaels is the father of “Saturday Night Live,” then Rosie Shuster is its criminally under-acknowledged mother. Michaels may be prolific for his ability to wrangle talent and reassure network heads, but Shuster was vital in establishing the tone of this comedy institution that turns 50 this year.

“The show was one of the first to break through and represent what was actually going on,” Rosie Shuster told TheWrap during an extensive interview ahead of the “SNL” milestone.

When Shuster is written about, it’s often through the men in her life. The daughter of the Canadian comedy legend Frank Shuster, she is credited with introducing Michaels to the world of professional comedy. The two started writing together in high school and were married from 1967 to 1980. Their professional lives were just as intertwined as their personal as they both began their careers on “The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour,” contributed...

We’re celebrating 50 years of “Saturday Night Live“! All this week, we’re digging into the late-night comedy institution with new stories, including lists, essays, interviews, and more.

It’s certainly a familiar scene by now, one we’ve all become quite accustom to over the last half century: There’s Lorne Michaels, the famed producer of a televised sketch comedy show airing on NBC. There’s a cast of ever-changing talented performers. At this particular point in time, Jim Downey is the head writer. Al Franken, Tom Davis, Jack Handey, and Alan Zweibel are all on the writing staff. There’s a live audience. There’s a musical guest. There’s the familiar parody newscast. On this particular night, Steve Martin is a guest, as he often is to this very day. Watching a clip on YouTube from this particular night from the mid-’80s, Steve Martin opens the...

Legendary comedian Chevy Chase has officially joined the cast ofa comedic thriller starring Bruce Dern and Joey Lauren Adams.

Per Deadline, Chase joins Dern and Adams in CATnip, a new thriller written and directed by Nyle Cavazos Garcia. An official description of the film reads: "A struggling family’s fresh start in a run-down apartment building turns into a fight for survival as a horde of feral cats unleashes terror, revealing the dark and deadly horrors lurking within its walls." Nyle Cavazos Garcia serves as both writer and director on the film, which also stars Jake Busey, Geoffrey Arend, Keli Price, Lorelei Linklater, Charlotte Kirk, Brooke Bundy, Kylee Levien, and River Jose.

RelatedDan Aykroyd Joins Filmgoers in Raving Over Jason Reitman's Saturday Night Live Movie

Original SNL cast member Dan Aykroyd has nothing but good things to say about the acclaimed new film, Saturday Night.

The film is expected to begin shooting in February,...

Dylan O'Brien's breakout role was Stiles Stilinski in the MTV supernatural teen series Teen Wolf, but since the show's ending, he has established himself as a successful actor. He's had his own dystopian trilogy, The Maze Runner, starred in the two-time Oscar-nominated film Deepwater Horizon, and his latest roles have cemented him as a very successful star.

In 2024, O'Brien attempted a different role as he played a real person on Saturday Night. The film is based on the late-night live sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, most specifically the show's premiere night in 1975, and O'Brien played Dan Aykroyd. Following the critical success of the film, Saturday Night is a new hit on Netflix, Tudum reports.

Related'i Never Saw Him Laugh': SNL Star Recalls Doing 'Nerve-Wracking' Impression of Star Wars Star to His Face

Saturday Night Live cast member James Austin Johnson has admitted it was “pretty nerve-wracking” to impersonate Adam Driver to his face.

Way back in Saturday Night Live’s seventh season, Bill Murray went on live television and told America that the Ussr had raided Poland. A few people in the audience laughed, but Murray assured them he was serious. “I guess that means this is World War III,” Murray said according to Ultimate Classic Rock.

That bleak goodnight message is still on the edited Peacock version of the episode. “We’ve had a very good time tonight here in the studio,” began a somber Murray, surrounded by cast members decked out in Christmas sweatshirts and stocking caps. “But what all of us don’t know and what we’ve just found out is that the members of the Solidarity in Poland were all arrested and the country’s been taken over by the Soviets.”

The crowd chuckled uneasily, unsure if the invasion announcement was a War of the Worlds-style bit. Murray...

For the last several decades, Saturday Night Live has been faced with questions of its future. While so many people claim not to watch or call it unfunny, everyone still talks about it and sketches still go viral. Some feel the show has run its course, the sketches need work, or members of the cast need to go. Nothing ever comes of it because Saturday Night Live is engrained as part of the fabric of late-night television that no one really ever expects to end. But there’s one point in time when Saturday Night Live almost did get canceled, and arguably should have been. The show was hanging by a thread, and instead of a complete cast shake-up saving the show, it led to a year that has become known as the “weird season.”

This was in 1985 during season 11, a bizarre season that the new Peacock docuseries SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night...

Punk rock band Fear caused mayhem on Saturday Night Live on Halloween in 1981, bringing a mosh-pit to Studio 8H for the first time.

Days after the show, rumors started to swirl that the band fronted by Lee Ving, who would later star as Mr. Body on cult movie Clue, was permanently banned from SNL as a result of the destruction caused.

Over 45 years later, Questlove, who has directed Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music, which premieres on NBC on January 27, has uncovered the truth.

“I’ll occasionally read in the [NY] Post that so and so is banned for life. We’ve never banned anyone. We’re way too crass and opportunistic. If something’s hot, we’re going to go for it and have it on,” says creator Lorne Michaels.

How did a California punk band that once featured Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea end up performing on the hallowed NBC variety show?...

While Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary celebration seems to mainly consist of self-congratulatory TV specials and useless merchandise (including a $96 scented candle that presumably smells like cocaine and wig glue), one piece of SNL 50 content actually sounds promising.

Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music is a nearly three-hour documentary about the show’s musical history that was co-directed by Questlove. In addition to fronting The Roots and putting up with Jimmy Fallon on a nightly basis, Questlove is an Oscar-winning filmmaker — he took home the Best Documentary Oscar for Summer of Soul, which a lot of people might forget about because it happened just moments after the slap.

The documentary doesn’t come out until next week, but Questlove recently spoke to The New York Times and revealed that one of the most infamous moments in SNL music history secretly featured one of the show’s biggest stars.

When...

Even the most original shows aren’t created from nothing. Saturday Night Live, like every comedy show before or since, can point to funny ancestors that helped draw up the blueprint for its success. Here are five comedy classics that formed the template for the show that became SNL…

[subtitle]1Your Show of Shows [/subtitle]

“Saturday Night Live always had its roots showing,” wrote Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller in their oral history Live From New York. Those roots began in the golden era of live TV in New York, especially Your Show of Shows featuring Sid Caesar and his troupe. The comedy was enhanced by the thrill of the live broadcast, a “this is happening now!” quality that had disappeared from television before SNL brought it back in 1975.

When Dick Ebersol made his initial Saturday Night pitch to NBC, Your Show of Shows was one of his examples of what SNL would try to emulate,...

To mark the 50th season of “Saturday Night Live,” putting together 90 minutes of live TV in six days — already a herculean feat — is not enough. In addition, the venerable variety show is flooding the zone with shows of its pop cultural might. On the heels of Jason Reitman’s hagiographic film “Saturday Night” and ahead of next month’s three-hour telecast from Studio 8H comes the four-part docuseries “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night.” Executive produced by Oscar-winner Morgan Neville, the show is the latest prong in NBC’s full-court marketing press to celebrate the anarchic experiment turned established institution. But 50 years in, the legend of Lorne Michaels’ merry circus has already been celebrated, many times over. “SNL50” adds little to this half-century of anecdotes, oral histories and archival footage. Instead, it embellishes around the edges, making use of gimmicky formats and the access that comes with aiding a corporate PR push to dress up old chestnuts.

Saturday Night filmmaker Jason Reitman received quite a critical review for his film from one of the original SNL castmembers.

During a recent episode of the Fly on the Wall podcast, the director revealed Chevy Chase’s reaction to the movie, prefacing, “Chevy loves to say the thing you’re not supposed to say.” The film follows the chaotic 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of SNL in 1975.

“So, Chevy comes in to watch the movie, and he is there with [wife] Jayni and they watch the film, and he’s in the group, and he comes up to me after and he pats me on the shoulder and goes, ‘Well, you should be embarrassed,’” Reitman recalled to hosts David Spade and Dana Carvey.

As everyone bursts out in laughter, Spade said, “You couldn’t even write it better.” Carvey added that Chase “knows that’s funny, like that’s...

Although Jason Reitman has earned rave reviews for his depiction of the 90 minutes leading up to the first Saturday Night Live, some critiques sting a bit more than others.

The Saturday Night co-writer and director recently revealed original SNL cast member Chevy Chase‘s reaction to the film, which fellow sketch comedy alum David Spade called “an exact Chevy thing” to say.

“So, Chevy comes in to watch the movie, and he is there with [wife] Jayni and they watch the film, and he’s in the group, and he comes up to me after and he pats me on the shoulder and goes, ‘Well, you should be embarrassed,'” he told Spade and Dana Carvey on their Fly on the Wall podcast.

Spade said of Chase’s response, “You couldn’t even write it better.” Carvey added that Chase “knows that’s funny, like that’s the roughest thing you...

Martin Short had a one-season run on Saturday Night Live 40 years ago — alongside several other big names — but he was so nervous making the NBC sketch comedy show that he tried to quit after the first few weeks, as he revealed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “I had a one-year contract. Because it was a very weird year,” he told host Jimmy Fallon during the Tonight Show’s December 19 episode. “You know, Eddie Murphy had left and Joe Piscopo had left, and they thought the show was going to be canceled. So, Dick Ebersol, who was running it then, not Lorne [Michaels], called it the George Steinbrenner year.” Short joined stars like Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer in SNL Season 10. “[Ebersol] hired these guys that had been on television. I had done Sctv. Billy was already a big star. And Chris Guest and Harry had done Spinal Tap that summer.

Although Martin Short made a splash during his brief run on Saturday Night Live, he constantly had one foot out the door.

The 3x Golden Globe nominee, who returns to host SNL this weekend with musical guest Hozier, recently admitted that he “was terrified every show” during his tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show.

“This is really bizarre. I was a cast member 40 years ago,” Short noted on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, explaining that he “had a one-year contract because it was a very weird year” following Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo’s exits.

“And they thought the show was going to be canceled,” he continued. “So, Dick Ebersol, who was running it then, not Lorne, called it ‘the George Steinbrenner year.'”

Short added, “I was terrified every show. I treated it like a special. In fact, during the fourth show, on...

Martin Short only got one season as a Saturday Night Live cast member, but he almost didn’t make it that long. He was hired during the show’s “George Steinbrenner Year,” Steinbrenner being the legendary New York Yankees owner who spent big bucks filling out his roster with All-Star players. That was SNL’s strategy to save the floundering show during its 10th year, hiring established comics like Short, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer on one-year deals.

“I was terrified every show because I think I treated it like a special,” Short told Jimmy Fallon this week on The Tonight Show. “In fact, during the fourth show, on the Tuesday, I went in to try to quit.”

Being “Canadian and savvy,” Short visited producer Dick Ebersol to turn in his comedy wigs. (Lorne Michaels wouldn’t return until the following season.) “You know, I haven’t cashed any checks yet,...

2024 was a packed year for several actors working in Hollywood, whether they are continuously rising stars or already well-established names in the industry. The year had plenty of noteworthy character-driven dramas, animated features, chaotic comedies, and big-budget blockbusters to keep audiences entertained. More importantly, these actors proved their capability of playing two different types of characters.

For example, multiple actors from the enthralling and visually stunning Dune: Part Two, like Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and Austin Butler, also appeared in acclaimed and award-worthy dramas in the same year. They are just a few of many actors who stole the show in 2024 with their commanding screen presence and shockingly good versatility. From newcomers like Cailee Spaeny to big-name stars like Chris Hemsworth, 2024 was a spectacular year for these particular performers.

Gabriel Labelle Ran a Food Stand & Portrayed The Iconic Lorne Michaels Snack Shack & Saturday Night

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Character

Snack Shack

Moose

Saturday Night...

Get ready to know more about the creation of Saturday Night Live than ever before. In celebration of the iconic sketch comedy show's 50th season, NBC streamer Peacock is set to premiere SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, a four-part docuseries "honoring the legacy of SNL" that's slated to premiere on January 16, 2025.

Peacock announced the new, four-part docuseries in a press release on Wednesday, highlighting how each standalone episode will delve "into the rich history of SNL" while also pulling "back the curtain on the audition process, the writers' room, the fan favorite 'More Cowbell' sketch, and the pivotal season 11."

Executive produced by Emmy and Academy Award winner Morgan Neville, the new series will feature "over 60 contributors, including SNL alumni," recalling a multitude of different aspects of the Lorne Michaels-created series' rich history and iconic standing in American comedy.

Here's The Episodic Breakdown For 'SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night'

All...

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series that shines a spotlight on the scripts for this year’s buzziest films is now pointing the viewfinder on Saturday Night, the Jason Reitman-directed film that tells the origin story of NBC’s venerable late-night franchise by focusing on the 90 minutes leading up to its TV debut.

The flick written by Reitman and Gil Kenan takes place on October 11, 1975, when an ambitious troupe of young comedians and writers would go on to change television forever. Formerly titled SNL 1975 (that’s the title on the script), the film tells the true story of what happened behind the scenes that night leading up to the first-ever broadcast of SNL.

The movie stars Gabriel Labelle as SNL honcho Lorne Michaels, Dylan O’Brien (as Dan Aykroyd), Cory Michael Smith (Chevy Chase), Rachel Sennott (Rosie Shuster), Lamorne Morris (Garrett Morris), Nicholas Braun (Jim Henson), Finn Wolfhard (NBC...

In taking on the role of Gilda Radner in Jason Reitman’s film Saturday Night, British actress Ella Hunt was stepping into the shoes of a beloved U.S. treasure and a Saturday Night Live-verse she herself had not grown up with. In Saturday Night, Reitman details the hours approaching the very first broadcast of SNL—resulting in a fast-paced, comedic romp in which chaos reigns. For Hunt, it was not only a case of working through the character development with no long-held cultural connection to Radner, but also of honoring her in a way that resonated with all the SNL viewers who’ve loved her for so long.

Deadline: As a Brit, what was your feeling going into the role of Gilda Radner?

Ella Hunt: Honestly, for me, approaching this movie or when I got sent the audition, part of my initial hesitancy was, I can’t...

Even if you haven’t watched a single second of Saturday Night Live, you must be aware of the existence of the phenomenon. That is, of course, if you are into American pop culture. If you’re not, then Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night is not for you, and I don’t mean to be rude. Of course, it still might not be your thing unless you actually enjoy watching chaos unraveling on screen for almost two hours. Because Reitman’s SNL biopic is not something that tells you the story of how Lorne Michaels gathered all the people for years who made the show what it was. Instead, it focuses on the wee hours before the first ever episode actually went live. It’s chaos from the get-go, and that’s what you get for the next one hour and fifty minutes. The vibe is much similar to the...

If you’re interested in American comedy, you must have heard of SNL at some point in your life. Launched in 1975, this NBC sketch comedy show became a cultural touchstone, crafted by baby boomers and adored by Gen X and millennials throughout their formative years. Now, five decades after its inception, people understand its influence on the American comedy. While the SNL sketches impacted other forms of comedy like movies and sitcoms for decades, it is now borrowing its style of humor from other formats to satisfy another generation of viewers. Be that as it may, it is fascinating to learn about its foundation through Jason Reitman’s exhilarating “Saturday Night” (2024). While calling it a formative moment in American comedy will be reductive considering the history of this form, it is certainly a milestone that shaped generations of comedic minds to come. Find the film’s ending explained here.

Spoilers...

Saturday Night's digital release date has been revealed.

Saturday Night will be available to buy or rent on digital platforms on November 12, followed by Blu-ray and DVD on January 7.

More to come...

Source: Sony Pictures

Saturday Night 4/10

Saturday Night (2024) is a forthcoming film with an undisclosed director. The movie centers on the vibrant nightlife of a bustling city, capturing the intertwining lives and stories of a diverse ensemble cast navigating personal and social challenges over the course of a single evening.

Director Jason ReitmanRelease Date October 11, 2024Writers Jason Reitman, Gil KenanCast Presley Coley, Abraham Hsu, Justin Matthew Smith, Ellen Boscov, Naomi McPherson, Kirsty Woodward, Mcabe Gregg, Leander Suleiman, Corinne Britti, Rowan Joseph, James Logan, Drew Scheid, Parker Wierling, Jon Batiste, Matt Wood, Emily Fairn, Kim Matula, Brian Welch, Kaia Gerber, Andrew Barth Feldman, Nicholas Podany, Billy Bryk, Gabriel Labelle, Rachel Sennott, Catherine Curtin, Robert Wuhl, Tracy Letts, Brad Garrett, Cory Michael Smith,...

The early 1980s were a tough time for Saturday Night Live. After Lorne Michaels and the remaining members of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players left at the end of Season Five, an all-new cast starred in a truncated Season Six before they were all fired — save for two breakout stars: Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo.

With the departing cast members went new showrunner Jean Doumanian, who was replaced by Dick Ebersol for Seasons Seven through 10 (Michaels returned in Season 11). Ebersol was a controversial figure at SNL, as the show struggled to regain its cultural relevance during his reign and suffered from frequent cast turnover.

Smack-dab in the middle of Ebersol’s run came Brad Hall, who was a cast member for all of Seasons Eight and Nine. While he was in some sketches, he mostly helmed the Weekend Update desk for a season and a half before...

2024 has been a year packed with great cinema from all different genres. Some of the years biggest hits have also been the most financially successful, like Dune: Part Two, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Deadpool & Wolverine. However, unfortunately, many other great films have fallen by the popularity wayside.

Every year brings a number of films that dont live up to financial or critical expectations, but there are also a lot of films that simply dont spark huge love from audiences. These films are absolutely not failures; they are completely underrated and deserve a second look.

Watch the Chaotic Origin Story of Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is one of the longest-running TV shows of all time, but its premiere episode was filled with production problems that should have doomed the series from the start. And this year, Jason Reitman tells the story of that tumultuous and chaotic night with Saturday Night.

Hosting "Saturday Night Live" is one of the most exclusive gigs in show business. Spanning 50 years, the late night sketch comedy show averages around 20 episodes each season, with only a few exceptions, giving us exactly 970 episodes of "SNL" so far (and counting). That might sound like a lot, but it's relatively few, especially when you consider that the show has a handful of favorites who have hosted the show multiple times. In fact, the top three actors who have hosted "SNL" the most during the show's run are spread across 45 episodes by themselves, which is basically two full seasons.

Not only is hosting "SNL" a tough job to land, but it's also not easy when you get it, which is why plenty of the biggest stars haven't done it. "Avengers" and "Captain America" franchise star Chris Evans even admitted to being terrified of potentially hosting the show. The live nature...

When Nate Bargatze returned to host Saturday Night Live earlier this month, it had been less than one calendar year since his previous headlining gig in October 2023. That’s a pretty speedy reappearance! But it doesn’t even crack the top 20 in terms of quickest returns to 30 Rock between hosting gigs.

Who got back even quicker? Here are the five SNL hosts who returned the fastest…

5 Tie: Buck Henry and Steve Martin: 126 Days

Maybe the hosting talent pool wasn’t as deep in the early days of Saturday Night Live, or maybe Lorne Michaels knew to ride a funny horse once he found one. Take Buck Henry, for instance. He hosted SNL’s 10th episode ever in January 1976, then returned in May of the same year to host the 21st as well. “Buck Henry so totally got it,” Michaels has explained. “When he got there, he said, ‘Do...

Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night” has hit theaters nationwide, chronicling the chaotic 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of “Saturday Night Live” in 1975, releasing on the 49th anniversary of the long-running sketch comedy on October 11. With this movie expected to be a contender at the upcoming 2025 Academy Awards, let’s take a closer look at the filmmaker’s previous four Oscar nominations in three different categories for just two of his films.

After Reitman’s directorial debut in 2005 for “Thank You For Smoking,” he achieved commercial and critical success for his coming-of-age film “Juno” in 2007, starring Elliot Page as the titular teenage character who deals with her unexpected pregnancy and wants to give it up for adoption. While the comedy was praised for its screenplay by Diablo Cody and lead performance, Reitman’s direction was not recognized at any of the major precursor award ceremonies, which is why it...

Exclusive: Euphoria’s Maude Apatow has set the leads for her feature directorial debut, Poetic License, bringing aboard Andrew Barth Feldman (No Hard Feelings), Cooper Hoffman (Saturday Night), Leslie Mann (This Is 40) and Nico Parker (The Last of Us) for the film penned by Raffi Donatich.

Marking the first produced project for Jewelbox Pictures, Apatow’s recently launched production company with longtime collaborator and friend Olivia Rosenbloom, on which we were first to report, Poetic License follows Liz, a former therapist and soon-to-be empty nester, as she becomes the unexpected point of tension between two inseparable best friends and college seniors, Sam and Ari. Liz is forced to reexamine her life as the boys’ friendship unravels in a fierce competition for her affection.

No word on the roles today’s quartet will be playing. Producers include Jewelbox Pictures, Apatow Productions, and Levantine Films.

Perhaps best known for her role...

Michael Keaton is hosting Saturday Night Live tonight, presumably to promote his latest movie, while also ensuring that every Halloween party in America contains at least seven to nine dudes dressed like Beetlejuice.

Keaton’s first outing as host, back in 1982, didn’t go too well (producer Dick Ebersol enlisted Michael Palin to come be a backup host), but he was much more famous when he returned to host a decade later. I mean, he was literally Batman. And Keaton’s ‘92 monologue was all about how the former stand-up is such a big star now that he can, and will, throw out any audience member who rubs him the wrong way.

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In 2015, Keaton hosted for a third time, not long after his career had been rejuvenated by the Oscar-winning Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Despite the fact that he had just starred in the most recent Oscar Best Picture,...

In the movie Saturday Night, the recreation of the minutes leading up to the first-ever episode of SNL, a frantic Dick Ebersol promises Lorne Michaels that he’d get the show’s faulty sound system fixed in time for the live show. This also happened in real life — Ebersol hired a crew that had just finished a Madison Square Garden rock concert to hurry their gear into Studio 8H on the day of the first broadcast.

Life imitated art imitating life last night, as the show returned from a commercial break and sat on a still of Stevie Nicks for a full minute without explanation. Stare at this for 60 seconds to get the full effect.

On social media, some real-time viewers found the frozen image to be spooky — was something nefarious happening at 30 Rock? — while others guessed at the technical issues causing the interruption.

What the heck was going on?...

Cory Michael Smith had some big shoes to fill with his latest role.

The Saturday Night actor recently opened up about the “terror” of mastering his portrayal of Chevy Chase and his “very compulsive” process to prepare for the film, which premiered Friday on the 49th anniversary of Saturday Night Live‘s debut.

“I have loved Chevy Chase since I was a kid. He’s one of my favorite comedic actors,” he told People. “It was such an honor that I did not want to mess this up, and I didn’t want to mess my career up. So I really dove in, and for about two months I would only let myself watch Chevy Chase.

“I just was like, I have to know how this man would say every line, what his body and face would be doing instinctually and sort of deprogram myself and my instincts from this,...

Although Lorne Michaels is most often credited with creating Saturday Night Live, whose origins are explored in the new film, Saturday Night, the television producer is responsible for other projects beyond the beloved sketch show. Released in October 2024, Saturday Night is a comedy that follows the lead up to the premiere of the first episode of Saturday Night Live. Directed by Jason Reitman, the film is a deep dive into the origins of SNL, and also the iconic performers who made it happen. Understandably, there is an abundance of history that comes with a movie like this.

Lorne Michaels created SNL, originally titled NBC's Saturday Night, alongside his colleagues Dick Ebersol and Herb Schlosser in 1975. Michaels is not only the series' creator but, over the years, has served as a writer and producer for the show. He even appears on-screen occasionally, showing off his deadpan personality. Initially, Saturday Night Live...

As Saturday Night Live marks a landmark season, the NBC sketch comedy show threw it back to 1975.

Celebrating the 49th anniversary of SNL‘s first broadcast, with Season 50 continuing this weekend, the show shared its original opening credit sequence Friday on social media.

“SNL premiered on October 11, 1975!” they wrote on X with the intro clip for what was then titled Saturday Night.

The lineup included George Carlin, Janis Ian, Billy Preston, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, George Coe, Michael O’Donoghue, Valri Bromfield and Andy Kaufman, with a film by Albert Brooks and Jim Henson’s Muppets.

In honor of the anniversary, Jason Reitman‘s Saturday Night premieres Friday in theaters. The film is set on Oct. 11, 1975, as a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers change television forever. Formerly titled SNL 1975, the film tells the true story of what happened...

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Saturday Night.

Saturday Night tells the true story of what happened on the first episode of Saturday Night Live, providing a re-enactment of the beginning of the long-running series. NBC launched the first season of NBC's Saturday Night in 1975 after Dick Ebersol hired Lorne Michaels to create a new piece of late-night programming. The importance and legacy of the sketch comedy show grew in the decades that followed, with it becoming a place where many famous comedians, such as Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, and Adam Sandler, became breakout stars.

While multiple Saturday Night Live skits became movies over the years, it took until 2024 for a movie to be made specifically about the show itself. Directed by Jason Reitman, Saturday Night tackles the true story of the show's origin, bringing in a cast of young, rising stars to play some of SNL's most important cast members,...

It was no small feat to get “Saturday Night Live” off the ground at NBC, and as a result, the cast of “Saturday Night” is pretty huge. In many cases, the actors also look eerily similar to the people they’re playing.

Hitting theaters everywhere on Oct. 11 after a limited theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles, Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night” tells the story of the 90 minutes right before the first-ever episode of “SNL.” It’s chaotic and at the time, even Lorne Michaels couldn’t explain what the show was going to be.

Below, you’ll find the cast of “Saturday Night” alongside what their real-life counterparts looked like back then.

Sony/Getty Images Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle)

Lorne Michaels is the creator and, to this day, producer of “Saturday Night Live.” He’s played in “Saturday Night” by Gabriel Labelle, who had his breakout role in Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.

This article contains spoilers for "Saturday Night."

By the time the credits roll on the fantastic "Saturday Night" (read our review here), you've experienced a complete story that unfolds across the chaotic 90 minutes before the first episode of "Saturday Night Live" aired on NBC back in October 1975. 

After Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle) has proven to the network brass that his chaotic sketch comedy show deserves to go live on NBC, the final sequence recreates the first sketch that debuted in the series premiere, featuring cast member John Belushi (Matt Wood) and writer Michael O'Donoghue (Tommy Dewey) engaging in an English lesson with the famous line, "I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines." When it ends with O'Donoghue's character having a heart attack and Belushi's character feigning the cardiac arrest in response, with the cast and crew looking on with pride and laughter, Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith...

(L to R) Garret Morris (Lamorne Morris), Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), Jim Belushi (Matt Wood), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Jane Curtain (Kim Matula) and Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien) in Saturday Night. Photo Credit: Hopper Stone. Copyright © 2024 Ctmg, Inc. All Rights Reserved. **All Images Are Property Of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Saturday Night takes audiences deep into the whirlwind that was the birth of Saturday Night Live, capturing the electrifying 90 minutes before that iconic first airing in 1975. Under the direction of Jason Reitman, the film crafts a thrilling and sometimes frantic portrayal that echoes the unpredictable essence of live TV. The relentless pace of last-minute tweaks, creative disputes, and looming disasters keeps viewers on the edge, sharing the tension experienced by the characters. The film is alive with the vibrant chaos of a live broadcast. Its cast shines, particularly Gabriel Labelle, who plays the young and ambitious Lorne Michaels,...

In 2008, director Jason Reitman lived his “SNL” dream.

He was fresh off the success of “Juno,” which earned Reitman a Best Director Oscar nomination and the film a Best Picture nomination. His agent reached out to Lorne Michaels and relayed Reitman’s wish — to do a guest writing stint on “Saturday Night Live.” And, incredibly, it happened.

“It was like getting to suit up for the Los Angeles Lakers for one night,” Reitman told TheWrap. He and “SNL” writer Simon Rich stayed up until four in the morning on a Tuesday night working on ideas. On Wednesday, they took their three sketch ideas to the table read. “And then later that afternoon I got to be there for the moment when they come out of Lorne’s office and pinned a piece of paper to the wall,” Reitman said. That’s when he found out that one of his sketches...

Plot: In the ninety minutes before the live airing of the first episode of Saturday Night Live, a young Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle) desperately tries to keep NBC from pulling the plug while dealing with a cast, writers and crew in open rebellion.

Review: Comedy would be very different nowadays if not for Saturday Night Live‘s impact. Most noteworthy comedy film stars of the last four decades emerged from their ranks, and nearly fifty years since its premiere, it remains as vital as ever. Yet, the making of the show itself had become an almost mythological tale, with it a known fact that the young Lorne Michaels had to overcome overwhelming odds to make the show in the first place.

What Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night does is that it distills most of the big challenges Michaels had to overcome into one ninety-minute period. It’s a conceit that...

Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Jane Curtain (Kim Matula), Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman), Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), Alan Zweibel (Josh Brener) and Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle) in Saturday Night.

Ah, the weekend, a time to kick back and relax after the drudgery of the nine-to-fives grind. Well, that’s the case for most of us. For the folks working at “30 Rock” in the “Big Apple” it’s truly “crunch time” Most weeks, that is. And it all started exactly 49 years ago. That’s when one of the “big three” networks (in those “prehistoric’ times before cable and streaming), the National Broadcasting Company decided to gamble on a risky concept, one that was once the “norm” nearly twenty years prior. Back in the 1950s almost everything on the tube (other than creaky old movies) was aired live. But with the advent of video tape, most of the...

Rachel Sennott didn’t get into the premier sketch comedy group during her tenure at NYU. Now she’s playing one of the architects of the world’s most famous sketch comedy show in Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night. Co-written by the latter and Gil Kenan, the biographical comedy-drama chronicles the messy 90-minute period before the first episode of Saturday Night Live on Oct. 11, 1975. Sennott portrays writer Rosie Shuster, who’s also the first wife of SNL creator Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle). And much like their ambitious attempt to shake up NBC’s Saturday night programming, their marriage, as depicted in the film, is in a similarly fragile, yet oddly collaborative, state.

In contrast with a lot of her castmates, Sennott didn’t have a great deal of existing material to reference during prep, but she did have the ultimate resource one phone call away.

“I spoke to Rosie, which was amazing.

Larry David could have had a bright future as an action-comedy hero if a certain Saturday Night Live clone had survived long enough to make its own sketch-to-movie adaptations — after all, Enter The Matzoi: The Movie couldn’t have done that much worse at the box office than MacGruber.

The legendary Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm creator’s brief career in sketch comedy is best remembered for his Saturday Night Live era, during which David quit the show in a fit of rage halfway through his first and only season before returning to work the next day as if nothing had happened. David’s SNL antics formed the basis of one of the most iconic Seinfeld episodes ever with “The Revenge,” but it wasn’t David’s first memorable and slightly disastrous brush with televised sketch comedy. In his first-ever TV comedy job, David served as a staff writer and...

What can we say about Chevy Chase on his 81st birthday that we haven’t already said before?

Here’s the good news: We don’t have to say it. After decades of burning down every bridge in sight, it was no problem to find 81 burns to light the candles on his cake. Below is a birthday portrait of the man of the hour, courtesy of the co-workers, directors and other unfortunates who’ve worked with Chase over the years.

1 Will Ferrell

“The worst (SNL) host was Chevy Chase.”

(Live From New York: The Complete Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live)

2 Buck Henry

“I thought Chevy shouldn’t have left (SNL). I thought it was really stupid.”

(Live From New York: The Complete Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live)

3 John Carpenter 4 Director Kevin Smith

“Chevy went on to claim he invented every funny thing that ever happened in the history of not just comedy,...

With Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night now out in theaters, many viewers may find themselves on the edge of their seats and wanting to see what happened in the very first episode of Saturday Night Live.

Saturday Night follows the 90 minutes leading up to SNL’s first-ever broadcast on the evening of Oct. 11, 1975, ending just before all the cast were set to go on air. Starring Gabriel Labelle, Rachel Sennott, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Lamorne Morris, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman and others, the film arrived in theaters a week before the actual 50thanniversary, on which the film will be released wide.

For details about how to watch the first episode of Saturday Night Live, read on.

Where can I stream the very first episode of SNL?

Only one streaming service has all 50 seasons of Saturday Night Live available for streaming, and that is Peacock.

The inaugural sketch comedy...

Chicago – Kinetic. Frenetic. Chaotic. Live! Those are just some words to describe the Saturday Night Live origin story “Saturday Night.” Director Jason Reitman has infused this nearly real time tale of the struggle to get the first episode of SNL with an energy that grabs your attention and never lets go. That takes some doing when we all know the ending. SNL would not only make it onto American airwaves, but it would become an improbable television institution and comedy touchstone, now celebrating its 50th season.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

We begin in the 90 minutes between the end of dress rehearsal and showtime, and creator Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle) is besieged on all sides as he attempts to bring it to life. He’s got three hours of show and just 90 minutes of air time. The network suits, represented by Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) and Dave Tebbetts (an oily Willem Dafoe) are either...

For his latest nonfiction role, Gabriel Labelle had a rare peek inside his character’s world.

The Saturday Night star recently recalled his visit to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where he saw a Saturday Night Live taping and met creator Lorne Michaels while portraying him in the film, which premieres nationwide on Oct. 11 following a limited release.

“Our first two days of shooting were in New York, just to shoot outside of 30 Rock, and Lorne was super cool and invited us to watch the Josh Brolin episode live,” he told IndieWire. “And so a handful of us, those who live in New York and then those who were just in New York to shoot regardless, we were able to go and check it out. It was really great.

“Lorne was there, and I actually got to speak with him briefly after the show. We didn’t say too much to each other.

At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television – and culture – forever. Directed by Jason Reitman and written by Gil Kenan & Reitman, Saturday Night is based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humor, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words…

The film features Gabriel Labelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, J.K. Simmons. Also rounding out the ensemble cast are Jon Batiste and Naomi McPherson.

Saturday Night Opens Exclusively in Movie Theaters October 11, 2024.

https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/saturdaynight

The St.