For me, Saturday Night Live has been hit-or-miss my entire life.
Sure, it’s had an awesome rotation of comedians and a variety of sketch segments at any given time, but largely I’m not an avid viewer.
Still, I was always a little curious how such a late-night TV show came into being – enter “Saturday Night” to satisfy that bit of wondering.
What worked for me most of all were the casting choices for classic comedians like George Carlin, Chevy Chase or Dan Aykroyd.
Sure there was plenty of drama in the film overall but it also made me laugh out loud at the on-screen antics.
Saturday Night is a 2024 American biographical comedy-drama film, directed by Jason Reitman, about the night of the 1975 premiere of NBC’s Saturday Night, later known as Saturday Night Live.
The script was written by Reitman and Gil Kenan, with both also co-producing it alongside Jason Blumenfeld and Peter Rice.
The film features an ensemble cast that includes Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Catherine Curtin, 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, Jeff Witzke, and J.K. Simmons.
Clocking in at 109 minutes long, the film is rated R for language throughout, sexual references, some drug use, and brief graphic nudity.
On Oct. 11, 1975, Lorne Michaels (LaBelle) arrived at the NBC building to prepare for the airing of the first episode of NBC’s Saturday Night.
The evening is fraught with accidents and a dysfunctional cast and crew.
Michaels’s boss, Dick Ebersol (Hoffman) warns him that David Tebet (Dafoe) has brought executives from across the country to come and see the taping.
Despite Tebet giving encouraging words to Michaels, Ebersol makes it known that Tebet has no faith in the show and is ready to replay a taping of an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to fill in for time.
Garrett Morris (Morris), who has a background in operatic theater, ponders his place among a cast of comedic performers while John Belushi (Wood) remains detached from everyone and constantly picks fights.
Jim Henson (Braun) complains over how he is being treated by the writers while the writers are at war with censor Joan Carbunkle (Curtin) and her demands.
Not to mention host George Carlin (Rhys) thinks the whole show is a sham because everyone is trying to figure out what exactly the show is about and no one knows what it is yet.
At one point, Tebet brings in Milton Berle (Simmons) to host the show, despite them having already hired Carlin.
Chevy Chase (Smith) confronts Berle when he begins to hit on his girlfriend Jacqueline (Gerber) and gets told off by Berele and warned that he will become nothing.
Michaels gets a call from Johnny Carson (Witzke) himself who gives a very unsupportive warning.
Despite Michaels warning him not to, Ebersol attempts to sell the idea of performing a sketch with a Polaroid camera for promotional purposes.
Belushi becomes enraged and storms off the set, claiming that he quits.
Of course, we all know that the end result is Saturday Night Live - as the show continues to this day.
However, I find the movie to overall be an entertaining romp for a view into the past and can fully endorse it if you’re looking to laugh out loud at plenty of absurd personalities.
