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—— ON THIS DAY ——
OCTOBER 11, 1975
New York City, USA
51 years ago
Saturday Night Live, the late-night sketch comedy and variety program created by Lorne Michaels, which was first broadcast from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center on October 11, 1975.
At 11:30 on the night of October 11, 1975, viewers tuned to NBC saw a sketch in which John Belushi, playing an immigrant, repeated absurd English phrases after his tutor, played by writer Michael O'Donoghue, until the tutor clutched his chest and dropped dead, whereupon the student did the same. Chevy Chase then walked on wearing a stage manager's headset, grinned at the camera, and announced: 'Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!' The line has opened the show ever since.
The program existed because Johnny Carson wanted more time off. NBC had been filling Saturday late nights with reruns of The Tonight Show, and when Carson asked for those episodes to be held back for his weeknight vacations, the network needed a replacement. It handed the slot to a thirty-year-old Canadian producer named Lorne Michaels, who proposed a live ninety-minute show aimed at the generation that had grown up on television and no longer saw itself in it.
—— MARQUEE EVENT ——
Lorne Michaels, the Canadian-born producer who created Saturday Night Live in 1975 and, apart from a five-year absence in the early 1980s, has run it ever since.
The first host was the comedian George Carlin, and the musical guests were Billy Preston and Janis Ian. The show was called NBC's Saturday Night, because a rival program on ABC hosted by the sportscaster Howard Cosell had already taken the title Saturday Night Live. Cosell's show was cancelled within months, and the NBC program adopted the name in 1977. The original cast, billed as the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, consisted of Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner. Most were recruited from improvisational theater companies such as Second City and from the National Lampoon's stage and radio shows.
The format settled quickly into the shape it still has: a cold open, a celebrity host's monologue, sketches, a mock newscast called Weekend Update, and a musical guest. What made it feel different was that it was live and willing to be rude about politicians, advertisers, and television itself. Chase's pratfalling impression of President Gerald Ford arguably did real damage to Ford's image in the 1976 campaign. The show had found a power that it has used, with varying skill, in every election since.
Its longer-term importance lies in the people who passed through it. Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig, and dozens more used it as a launchpad, and its alumni have shaped American film and television comedy for decades. The show has been declared dead many times, usually when a beloved cast departs, and has always regenerated. It marked its fiftieth season in 2024 and 2025 and is among the most honored programs in the history of the Emmy Awards.
—— WHY THIS MATTERS ——
The show became the central institution of American comedy. No other program has launched as many careers. For half a century, a place in the cast has been the most coveted job for a young comic performer in the United States.
It made political satire a regular part of mainstream television. Impressions of presidents and candidates on the show have repeatedly shaped how the public sees them, sometimes more vividly than the politicians' own appearances.
It proved the staying power of live broadcasting. In an age of editing and streaming, the risk that something might go wrong in front of millions remains a large part of the appeal, and the format has been copied around the world.
—— THE TAKEAWAY ——
On October 11, 1975, NBC filled a dead time slot with a live comedy show run by a thirty-year-old and performed by unknowns. The network mostly wanted to keep Johnny Carson happy. Fifty-one years later the show is still on the air, still live, and still opening with the same seven words.
—— QUOTE OF THE DAY ——
“Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!”
— Chevy Chase, opening the first broadcast, October 11, 1975
—— OUR QUIZ OF THE DAY ——
How much do you know about the first episode of Saturday Night Live, the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, Lorne Michaels, and the show's influence on American comedy and politics?
