Saturday Night Live (1975– )

The classic late night live sketch comedy show.

Creator:

Lorne Michaels

Stars:

Don Pardo, Lenny Pickett, Darrell Hammond

Won 36 Primetime Emmys. Another 20 wins & 174 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Don Pardo	...	Himself - Announcer (560 episodes, 1975-2013)
Lenny Pickett	...	Himself - Bandleader (385 episodes, 1985-2012)
Darrell Hammond	...	Various (273 episodes, 1995-2010)
Seth Meyers	...	Weekend Update Anchor (240 episodes, 2001-2013)

Storyline

A late-night comedy show featuring several short skits, parodies of television commercials, a live guest band, and a pop-cultural guest host each week. Many of the SNL players have spun off successful independent comedy and/or movie careers from here.

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Plot Keywords:

late night | guest | sketch | commercial | parody | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Comedy | Music

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Official Sites:

NBC

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 October 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

NBC's Saturday Night

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

NBC Studios, NBC Universal Television, Broadway Video

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Candice Bergen was the first female host, the first person to host the show for a second time, and the first woman to host five times. Drew Barrymore has also hosted five times, her first being in 1982.

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Goofs

...almost everything. Live television is largely exempt from the usual rules of goofs.

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Quotes

George H.W. Bush: [talking about George W. Bush] You always were a little bit slow. The doctors call it dyslexia. But when you were younger we just called it retardation...

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Connections

Edited into Saturday Night Live Goes Commercial (1991)

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Soundtracks

(closing theme song)
Composed by Howard Shore

User Reviews

It sucks now! It's great again!

Every once in awhile I read reviews of SNL. Almost never do the reviews say "it was OK". Unless it is a review by a frequent viewer, they always say something like "SNL is great again!" or "SNL sucks now". Usually these reviews are from people who never or rarely watch the show, and only remember it from 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years ago. These types of reviews have been the same for as long as I can remember. The periods that people now call "classic" frequently met with poor reviews at the time.

One thing to remember is that the show is an hour and a half, longer than most any other TV show. It is hard to fill such a long show with consistently funny material. It is also hard to make every episode funny. Therefore the show (like most shows) wavers between great and awful, depending on the sketch or episode you are watching at the moment. To judge an entire series on one episode (or part of one) is a mischaracterization.

I've watched SNL for most of its life, and although it has ranged from hilarious to horrible, I would say the average show is "pretty funny". The bottom line: there's nothing better to watch on Saturday night, so until there is, I will always watch SNL!