By: Kaitlin O’Meara, Asst. Copy Editor
As you’re probably well aware, there wasn’t a whole lot to do during the Covid-19 pandemic, so when I wasn’t doing online “school” or making sure my siblings were entertained, I became a big fan of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL). I don’t quite remember how it happened, but I assume it was some sort of YouTube rabbit hole that resulted in me watching hours of SNL sketches, from both current seasons and as far back as I could find. So when I heard that there was a movie coming out about the making of the first episode of SNL, I immediately knew I HAD to go see it. Although I missed it in theaters, “Saturday Night” just came out on Netflix,
so I finally got the opportunity to watch it the other night.
The movie takes place between 10 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 11, 1975, which is the last hour and a half before the first episode went live on the air. Between figuring out which sketches were going to go on air and ensuring that it would actually be the show that was going on air, the hour and 47 minutes runtime of this movie is chaotic, tense and so entertaining. Given the fact that SNL has been on the air for 50 years now, I knew everything was going to work out, but I did not know what was going to happen in the meantime. That being said, I was still watching, stressed that somehow it was going to change the course of history and it wasn’t going to make it to air.
Since the movie was more about getting the show on the air than about the first episode itself, they only showed the cold open in the movie, ending it all with the iconic, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” When I finished watching the movie, I immediately sought out the real cold open of the first episode to compare the portrayals of the actors compared to the real thing. Matt Wood, who played John Belushi, and Tommy Dewey, who played Michael O’Donoghue – the head writer at the time – did a fantastic job of staying true to the original cold open while also making it somewhat their own. Cory Michael Smith was an excellent choice for Chevy Chase, as the two resemble each other to an incredible degree, and his mannerisms for his one line in this opening were right on point.
In the height of my SNL obsession, I got a book called, “Live from New York” by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, which tells the story of the first 40 seasons of SNL through interviews with previous cast members, writers, hosts, executives and more. Having read that, I had an idea of some of what went into getting the show on the air for the first time. There was some background drama at play during this first season, but it was very interesting to see how it all played out. Whether it was the fights with NBC standards or the beginnings of Chevy Chase’s inflated ego and feeling that he was too big for the show, augmented with him getting the Weekend Update spot, the movie let us peer behind the curtain into the creation and birth of the trailblazing television phenomena we all know today.
Though much has changed in Studio 8H, with cast and writer turnover, the topics of sketches, impressions and more, the desire to be something completely new – which was emphasized as being so important to Lorne Michaels throughout the movie – remains. I am no longer a fan of SNL to the degree that I once was, but there is something to be appreciated in the way that they are able to pull together a show every week with the insane schedule they operate on. It kind of sounds like Thursday nights in the office, pulling this paper together the best we can. Though I could never be a writer or cast member, I can’t help but be allured by their world and want to be a part of the magical process of it all, and “Saturday Night” lets viewers into that world.