"Saturday Night Live" (1975) TV series 1975-????

Creator:

Lorne Michaels

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35

Release Date:

11 October 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Music

Tagline:

And now, from New York, the most dangerous city in America, it's Saturday Night Live. (seventh season)

Plot:

The classic late night live sketch comedy show.

Plot Keywords:

Sketch Comedy | Cult Favorite | Satire | Cult TV | Actor Playing Multiple Roles

Awards:

Won 25 Primetime Emmys. Another 16 wins & 130 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sat. Nov. 28	11:29 PM	NBC
Sat. Dec. 5	11:29 PM	NBC

Cast

Don Pardo	...	Himself - Announcer / ... (629 episodes, 1975-2009)
Lenny Pickett	...	Himself - Bandleader / ... (415 episodes, 1985-2006)
Darrell Hammond	...	Various / ... (274 episodes, 1995-2009)

Also Known As:

NBC's Saturday Night (USA) (complete title)
SNL (USA) (informal title)
SNL 25 (USA) (alternative title)
Saturday Night (USA) (first season title)
Saturday Night Live '80 (USA) (sixth season title)
Saturday Night Live 15 (USA) (fifteenth season title)
Saturday Night Live 20 (USA) (twentieth season title)
Saturday Night Live 25 (USA) (twentiefifth season title)
The Albert Brooks Show (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Stereo

Certification:

Australia:PG | USA:TV-14 (Some episodes) | USA:TV-PG (Some episodes)

Filming Locations:

JC Studios, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

NBC Studios

Trivia:

The following performers are all alumni of the famed Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles, California: Laraine Newman, Jon Lovitz, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, Cheri Oteri, Chris Parnell, Julia Sweeney, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig and Siobhan Fallon. The following performers are all alumni of the famed Second City Theater in Chicago, Illinois: John Belushi and his younger brother James Belushi, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, Danitra Vance, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tim Kazurinsky, Mary Gross, Tim Meadows, Chris Farley, David Koechner, Ana Gasteyer, Nancy Carell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch and Horatio Sanz. The following performers are all alumni of the famed Second City Theater in Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Dan Aykroyd, Peter Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Mike Myers, Tony Rosato, Robin Duke, and Martin Short. Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney from the comedy troupe "The Kids In the Hall" both wrote and performed for the show after "The Kids in the Hall" (1988) TV show ended production.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: ...almost everything. Live television is largely exempt from the usual rules of goofs.

Quotes:

Langford T. Belmont: So when it comes time to fix that refrigerator magnet or put together a little house of popsicle sticks, you don't want some cheap synthetic glue. You want pure mutilated horse paste.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Jay Leno Show: (#1.19)" (2009)

Template for the irreverent comedy show genre.

Saturday Night Live premiered in the fall of 1975. At that time, the show broke new ground in the otherwise stale, late-night TV landscape. It was fresh, cutting-edge, and boiling-over with it's unprecedented brand of risqué humor.

It's target audience, was mainly the teen and twenty-something 70s baby-boomers. These viewers finally had a comedy show, that they could instantly relate to. It poked fun at everything their parent's generation tended to take too seriously; religion, politics, social proprieties, etc.

It goes without saying, that the splendidly talented Not Ready For Prime Time Players, were the centerpiece of the show. They included Chevy Chase, Dan Akroid, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Jane Kurtin, Garrett Morris, and Lorraine Newman. When they left the show after the first few seasons, it never quite regained it's comedic edge, that it had when they were regulars.

Saturday Night Live also had the hippest guest hosts every week. These various hosts, always seemed to mesh marvelously with the overall comedic hi-jinx of the show.

During it's early years, and even today, Saturday Night Live has featured some of the most cutting-edge musical performers; Patti Smith (the 'godmother' of Punk), Run DMC, Queen Latifah, The Talking Heads, Nirvana, etc. So the musical performance segment of the show, was always as much of a treat as the comedic sketches were.

In summation, Saturday Night Live was the original template, for all of the irreverent comedy sketch shows that came later; SCTV, The Kids In The Hall, Mad TV, etc. And though the first few seasons of the show were the best, it still holds its own, even after being on the air nearly 33 years now.