Few television programs have the longevity that Saturday Night Live (1975- ), known commonly as SNL, has. This year, the show is celebrating its’ 50th season, and a weird coincidence took place! Jason Reitman (director of 2007’s Juno and 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife) made Saturday Night (2024), which is about the making of the first episode of SNL. That episode premiered on October 11th, 1975. Saturday Night’s wide theatrical release date? October 11th, 2024!
However, Reitman’s work comes at an odd time for the show, which is still held as an American cultural institution. Newer seasons seem to have divided viewers, who feel that the show might be turning into a relic rather than the hip, satirical show it once was. With Saturday Night showing us the lead-up to the fateful first episode, is there hope in looking to the past?
How did SNL come to be?
Fun fact: SNL couldn’t originally go by Saturday Night Live because of a rival program at the time. Hence, that’s why our movie and the show (at the time) goes by Saturday Night.
The show was developed by NBC to find a new late-night comedy program to fill the void of Johnny Carson reruns on Saturday evenings. They enlisted Lorne Michaels, a young Canadian showrunner who had helped run various comedy specials and variety shows.
Working with Dick Ebersol, who ran such programming for NBC at the time, Michaels gathered multiple up-and-coming comedians and writers for the show. Each show would have a host and a musical guest (the host occasionally takes on both roles if they are a musician).
The show wasn’t easy to produce. The budget grew unexpectedly. The executives were ultimately doubtful it would get good advertising revenue. They were even nervous it wouldn’t hold the audience’s attention. However, as history has shown us, it’s held our collective attention for 49 years!
How entertaining is Saturday Night?
While Jason Reitman’s movie captures the brief history of the show’s creation I shared, it’s fair to say certain elements are dramatized or added for the sake of drama. However, that’s typically the norm for a film like this.
Reitman is an interesting choice to touch this material because of his familial connections. His father, Ivan Reitman, worked with many stars from the show, such as Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray. The risk here, perhaps since Reitman grew up around these stars, is he plays things too safe and nostalgic.
I think that’s a solid criticism to throw towards Saturday Night. One could argue the movie could’ve gone deeper into the inner-workings of the show that’s about to premiere in ninety minutes. One might also argue that while the cast of the show and Lorne Michaels seem like genius, iconoclastic heroes, other comedy figures like George Carlin (Matthew Rhys) and Jim Henson (Nicolas Braun) seem like punching bags.
However, there’s a beating heart and vibrant pulse to Saturday Night that’s hard to ignore. Considering how we all know SNL persevered after the first episode, Reitman and the editors absorb you in an atmosphere that makes you wonder, “how did they do that?”. The usage of long takes, overlapping dialogue, and smash cuts emphasize the chaos.
The script is also razor sharp, which helps! A film about SNL should probably be funny, and Reitman and co-screenwriter Gil Kenan create memorable lines that adapt to the different people’s personalities. Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) is funny in his sort of earnestness. Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith, who’s my favorite part) is the sarcastic jerk.
Some people inevitably will get a little shafted, like Dylan O’Brien’s excellent Dan Aykroyd or Rachel Sennott’s particularly crafty Rosie Shuster. However, while not an ensemble movie with the best sense of balance, Saturday Night still manages to give a bunch of these people the spotlight in fun ways.
The Old and The New
The only area I would say Saturday Night falls a little flat in the scripting arena is when we have LaBelle’s Lorne Michaels spout about how important the show is. I have no doubt that Michaels was passionate about his program, but it feels like insider praise for the show.
However, the show has proven to be important, whether it’s informing the public on current affairs, or giving rise to some of the most popular comedic stars of all time, like Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, and Will Ferrell!
If you talk to most people of different generations now, SNL is floundering, and not the comedic juggernaut it once was. Every once in a while, a sketch or musical performance will go viral, but the idea of sitting down to watch a full episode seems unthinkable now.
We all have our favorite SNL casts and rewatch our favorite sketches on YouTube, but newer episodes of the show seem to be lackluster. The political content isn’t as revolutionary. More and more celebrities come in for cameos, and certain routines become stale. While I surely respect the comedians who currently work at SNL, changes might have to be made.
Is Saturday Night worth seeing?
People wanting to see a totally true depiction of the events before SNL‘s first show probably won’t enjoy Saturday Night. It didn’t give me everything I wanted, either. However, it delivered on the main things: good humor, an excellent ensemble, and getting tension out of a scenario where we all know the end result.
After my friends and I left the movie, we went home and watched the actual first episode of this show. For so many of us used to the format, it felt so bizarre. There were multiple musical performances from two different singers. Half of the sketches were commercial parodies. Host George Carlin didn’t even participate in any sketch.
After that, we watched Ariana Grande’s recent episode, and while the structure was more familiar, a thought struck me: SNL can always be inconsistent. It just depends on the episode. However, it’s a ride nonetheless. Saturday Night captures that experience.
The entertainment landscape will always shift. New sketch shows will come and go. SNL‘s place in popular culture definitely should change, but Lorne Michaels has certainly helped guide great talent that can make us laugh. Saturday Night‘s tense, funny, and overwhelming journey shows us how hard everyone works to make that magic happen.
Kurt
November 3, 2024 at 9:50 pm
Spot on as SNL is in a period of transition and as to where remains unseen. Your description is spot on