"Saturday Night Live" (1975) TV series 1975-????

Creator:

Lorne Michaels

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35

Release Date:

11 October 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Music

Tagline:

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

Plot:

The classic late night live sketch comedy show.

Plot Keywords:

Satire | Sketch Comedy | Actor Playing Multiple Roles | Cult TV | Cult Favorite

Awards:

Won 25 Primetime Emmys. Another 16 wins & 130 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sat. Dec. 26	11:29 PM	NBC
Sat. Jan. 2	11:29 PM	NBC

Cast

Don Pardo	...	Himself - Announcer / ... (631 episodes, 1975-2009)
Lenny Pickett	...	Himself - Bandleader / ... (415 episodes, 1985-2006)
Darrell Hammond	...	Various / ... (274 episodes, 1995-2009)

Also Known As:

NBC's Saturday Night (USA) (complete title)
SNL (USA) (informal title)
SNL 25 (USA) (alternative title)
Saturday Night (USA) (first season title)
Saturday Night Live '80 (USA) (sixth season title)
Saturday Night Live 15 (USA) (fifteenth season title)
Saturday Night Live 20 (USA) (twentieth season title)
Saturday Night Live 25 (USA) (twentiefifth season title)
The Albert Brooks Show (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Stereo

Certification:

Australia:PG | USA:TV-14 (Some episodes) | USA:TV-PG (Some episodes)

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

NBC Studios

Trivia:

The balcony level studio audience seats in Studio 8H, where Saturday Night Live is broadcast from, are actually seats on-loan from Yankees Stadium in the Bronx, New York. NY Yankees owner George M. Steinbrenner III loaned them out in 1975 with the assumption that Saturday Night Live wouldn't stay on the air long (they were expected back upon cancellation of the show). Partly out of both tradition and superstition, the seats are still in use to this day. Since then, NBC has had to pay out annual fines to the city of New York (a relatively minor business expense, all things considered). In addition, any time repair work is needed, repair people are sent directly to the studio to do work there, which is more expensive than taking seats to a repair shop.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: ...almost everything. Live television is largely exempt from the usual rules of goofs.

Quotes:

Norm MacDonald: Who are safer drivers? Men or women? Well, according to a new survey, 55% of adults feel that women are most responsible for minor fenderbenders, while 78% blame men for most fatal crashes. Please note that the percentages in these pie graphs do not add up to 100% because the math was done by a woman.
[audience laughs or hisses]
Norm MacDonald: For those of you hissing at that joke, it should be uh noted that that joke was written by a woman. So, now you don't know what the hell to do, do ya? Nah, I'm just kidding. We don't hire women.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: Breaking News (#1.18)" (2007)

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!