It's a big weekend for Saturday Night Live. Not only is the NBC sketch show about to begin its historic 50th season, Saturday Night, which depicts the frantic 90 minutes before the first ever SNL episode aired, premieres in New York and Los Angeles starting September 27 before expanding elsewhere in the US over the coming weeks.
So to celebrate this 2024 new movie and Saturday Night Live season 50 premiering on September 28, I decided to rewatch that first ever episode of Saturday Night Live, which aired 49 years ago on October 11, 1975.
The show begins with a cold open sketch that ends with the iconic line "live from New York, it's Saturday Night," as it continues to do to this day. But right after that little differences became obvious. Comedian George Carlin, who served as the inaugural host for Saturday Night Live (then just called Saturday Night), was introduced first, followed by the musical acts (Billy Preston and Janis Ian), special guest comedians Andy Kaufman and Valri Bromfield a movie directed by Albert Brooks and a skit by Jim Henson with his muppets (not anyone at Kermit's level though). Only then do we get the "Not Ready for Primetime Players," but they aren't introduced individually, just a list showing their names, which famously included the likes of Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin and Larraine Newman.
The format was the next big thing that was different. After the cold open, monologue (with Carlin coming down through the audience rafters as there was no main set backdrop) and a pre-taped commercial skit, Billy Preston came on for his first performance, much earlier than we see the musical acts these days. There were these little tweaks throughout the episode. Carlin didn't appear in any of the sketches, instead he would come on to the main stage throughout the show and do bits from his stand-up act. The same thing with Kaufman and Bromfield, they're comedic bits were sprinkled in amid the skits.
But there were things that still made SNL feel the same as it is today in its first episode. The familiar voice of Don Pardo, who served as the announcer from 1975 until 2014, was comforting. There were pre-taped segments and Weekend Update was there from the get go.
The biggest thing though was that like SNL today, the skits were really hit or miss. They were much shorter than skits typically are today (though Jim Henson's weird muppets sketch surprisingly goes on for way too long), but the quality of them really did vary. Some that didn't do much for me included the cold open, which is just Belushi doing an imitation of a foreigner with a funny accent, to the usual faux commercials, which I feel like they tried to make too realistic.
But there were some gems in there. There's a skit in a courtroom that doesn't seem like it'll be funny until the final sight gag. Weekend Update was solid as it has always been with its quick hitting jokes (even if Chase had a little difficulty finding the camera a few times). The best scene of the night though was one of the final ones, when Aykroyd played a home insurance salesman that uses violent tactics to try and sell his products to unsuspecting home owners. This presumably started another SNL tradition of the weirdest, but sometimes best sketches coming toward the end of the show.
I actually don't think SNL being hit or miss with its sketches from its very first episode to today should be seen as a criticism. For almost 50 years these performers have been coming up with a multitude of new sketches every week and performing them live for audiences; no one hits a home run every time.
Comedy is hard, but for 50 years Saturday Night Live has been a TV staple and, at least for myself, something I look forward to checking out each week and seeing what worked and what didn't. It was nice to see, even reassuring, that as revered as the original cast for Saturday Night Live is, they were trying things and figuring it out on the fly. Some things worked, others didn't. But the show went on.
You can watch Saturday Night Live's first episode on Peacock, though clips are also available on YouTube. Tune in for Saturday Night Live season 50 Saturdays on NBC at 11:30 pm ET/8:30 pm PT, and streaming live on Peacock.
