Did You Know?

The word "fuck" has been said several times live on the air: during a sketch in 1980, Paul Shaffer said "fuckin'" instead of "floggin'"; in 1981, Charles Rocket, said "I'd like to know who the fuck did it" during a "Who Shot JR?" parody and on the same night Prince sang the lyric "Fightin' war is such a fuckin' bore"; in 1990, singer Morris Day of The Time said "Where the fuck this chicken come from?" and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith sang "feedin' that fuckin' monkey on my back" during their performances; in 1994, Michael Stipe of R.E.M. sang "Don't fuck with me" and Adam Horovitz of Beastie Boys sang "So won't you fuckin' listen" in their performances and in 1997, Norm MacDonald accidentally said, "The fuck was that?" after flubbing a line during "Weekend Update". James Hetfield of Metallica sang "Fuck 'em man, white knuckle tight" during their performance in 1997. In 2009, Jenny Slate accidentally said, "You know what, you stood up for yourself and I fucking love you for that."

Janeane Garofalo was a cast member during the 1994-1995 season. She left before the end of the season due to creative differences.

The shows that were hosted by Louise Lasser and Milton Berle have never been seen in reruns since their original air date, at Lorne Michaels' insistence. Lasser refused to do all skits, and locked herself in her dressing room just before airtime, coming out just in time to do the opening monologue. Berle called everyone "Booby" and impressed no one but John Belushi with his mugging, racist jokes, and egomania.

Contrary to popular belief, Steve Martin was never a cast member on the show. The misconception stems from the fact that he has hosted the show 15 times, in addition to doing occasional surprise appearances.

Lorne Michaels left the show after the fifth season as did the remaining cast members. For the 1980-1981 season, the show was revamped with a new cast and new producer Jean Doumanian. The sixth was so disastrous that director Dave Wilson called in programming executive Dick Ebersol (one of the creative masterminds of the original show) to save the show. Ebersol fired Doumanian and the rest of the cast except Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. He hired a new cast and the show eventually regained its ratings mainly due to Murphy's popularity. When Michaels returned in the 1985-1986 season, he wanted his own cast so the remaining members were fired. This season was low-rated putting the show on the brink of cancellation. But Michaels convinced executive Brandon Tartikoff that he could revive the show with a better cast. The show regained popularity and Michaels has stayed with the show ever since. He later claimed that leaving SNL, was the biggest mistake of his life.

When Eddie Murphy was first hired, he was not a regular cast member, he was a guest performer who was given nothing to do. He threatened to quit until he was given a segment of Weekend Update to perform. He was so funny, he eventually appeared in sketches and became a regular cast member.

Ray Romano was originally scheduled to host the show for the second time in April 2002 but had to drop out due to a busy schedule. He was replaced by "The Rock" aka Dwayne Johnson.

Will Ferrell became the highest paid cast member in SNL history in 2001. He received a salary of USD 350,000 (USD 105,000 in 1975 prices) for the 2001-2002 season.

John Goodman hosted the show 11 years in a row.

Randy Quaid is the only cast member to be nominated for an acting Academy Award before joining the show.

The show has only had four directors in its history: Dave Wilson, Paul Miller, Beth McCarthy-Miller and Don Roy King

Mike Myers' English character Simon was a spoof of the UK TV children's series Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings. His character of Linda Richman was based on his mother-in-law.

Anthony Michael Hall was the youngest member of SNL at 17 years old.

Beginning in 1995, the Saturday Night Live logo used the abbreviation SNL, which became how the show was known.

When Eric Idle hosted on 20 October 1979, a clip was shown from Idle's project Rutland Weekend Television of his Beatles parody The Rutles. The success of the clip led to Lorne Michaels co-producing the movie version, All You Need Is Cash, which includes appearances by numerous SNL alums and regulars.

Prior to the 83/84 season, Eddie Murphy agreed to appear in ten live broadcasts, and via a taped sketch in ten others. Those ten sketches were taped in September of 1983 and were alternated with Eddie Murphy's live appearances throughout the season.

Mike Myers based the character 'Dieter' on a student he met in art college. The real Dieter would often say things like "I once had a course where we had to touch tapioca, styrofoam and monkeys. Michael, perhaps we can go to the zoo and touch monkeys." (Thus giving rise to Myers's character constantly saying, "Would you like to touch my monkey?")

The map of the world on Weekend Update during the show's first years (1975-1980) shows Vietnam split into the pre-1975 North and South.

The first "Weekend Update" anchor, Chevy Chase, has said that he modeled his catchphrase "Good evening, I'm Chevy Chase and you're not" after Eyewitness News anchor Roger Grimsby's opening line "Good evening, I'm Roger Grimsby, here now the news." However, Chase's successor as "Update" anchor, Jane Curtin, would go on to use Grimsby's original intro to open the newscast, and once, on the 22 April 1978 edition, ended that night's "Update" with Grimsby's closing line, "Hoping your news is good news."

When Harry Shearer left the show during the 1984-1985 season he cited "creative differences." Shearer would later remark, "I was creative... and they were different."

The following performers are all alumni of the famed Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles, California: Laraine Newman, Jon Lovitz, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, Cheri Oteri, Chris Parnell, Julia Sweeney, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig and Siobhan Fallon. The following performers are all alumni of the famed Second City Theater in Chicago, Illinois: John Belushi and his younger brother James Belushi, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, Danitra Vance, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tim Kazurinsky, Mary Gross, Tim Meadows, Chris Farley, David Koechner, Ana Gasteyer, Nancy Carell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch and Horatio Sanz. The following performers are all alumni of the famed Second City Theater in Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Dan Aykroyd, Peter Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Mike Myers, Tony Rosato, Robin Duke, and Martin Short. Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney from the comedy troupe "The Kids In the Hall" both wrote and performed for the show after The Kids in the Hall TV show ended production.

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.

In November 2007, the cast, excluding Maya Rudolph, gave a live unaired performance of SNL at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City as a result of the WGA Strike. The show featured old and rejected sketches with the proceeds going to the show's production staff. The host was Michael Cera and the musical guest was Yo La Tengo. Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz, and Norah Jones made cameo appearances.

The Folksmen (a folk music group seen in A Mighty Wind) was formed in the mid-1980s when Michael McKean hosted the show, and Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer were cast members.

Michael McKean and Dan Aykroyd are the only people to host, be musical guests (as Spinal Tap and "The Blues Brothers", respectively) and be cast members.

Catherine O'Hara was going to join the cast for the 1981-1982 season but she backed out after Michael O'Donoghue screamed at the cast and crew during a meeting. She recommended her SCTV co-star Robin Duke to replace her.

Amy Poehler's 2008 Emmy-nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series made her the first cast-member to be nominated in a category that is usually reserved for traditional comedy series.

Dwayne Johnson was scheduled to host on November 10, 2007 with Amy Winehouse as musical guest. But the 2007 writers' strike caused this episode to be canceled.

Playwright Garrett Morris was originally hired as a writer. But he submitted sketches that were deemed too long and dramatic. Chevy Chase suggested that he join the cast as a performer instead.

Guest performances were recurrent in the show's first years, mostly by Andy Kaufman, Al Franken and Tom Davis (who joined the cast in late 1979 as featured players), Michael O'Donoghue (one of the first cast members), Michael Davis, Harry Anderson (who hosted in early 1985), Steven Wright, Penn Jillette and Teller and Sam Kinison. However, by the late 1980s, guest performances became very rare.

During the 2007-2008 season, Wyatt Cenac, Jordan Carlos, Donald Glover, and Jordan Peele auditioned to join the cast and play Barack Obama. But Fred Armisen, who is not African-American, was cast as Obama.

Liz Cackowski and Maribeth Monroe are among the women who auditioned for the 2005-2006 season but both lost out to a newcomer, Kristen Wiig.

Roseanne is the only host to appear under different names (Roseanne Barr, Roseanne Arnold and Roseanne). John Mellencamp is the only musical guest to appear under different names (John Cougar, John Cougar Mellencamp and John Mellencamp).

Kel Mitchell auditioned for a spot in the cast but was beat out his former Kenan & Kel co-star Kenan Thompson.

One of Kenan Thompson's regular character he portrays on the show is an imitation of Bill Cosby, a character he often performed as originally on the show All That.

During the initial 1975-76 season, the series was first titled "Saturday Night" as "Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell" aired earlier in the evening on ABC but was canceled after the first season.

Darrell Hammond revealed in 2011 that he at first opposed the idea of impersonating John McCain on the show. Hammond's father, a veteran of World War II, had been severely traumatized by his war experiences, and Hammond felt that poking fun at a former prisoner-of-war would be in poor taste.

Street performer Charlie Barnett was cast for the 1980-1981 season. But it was discovered that Barnett was illiterate. He was replaced by Eddie Murphy.