Saturday Night Live 

A famous guest host stars in parodies and sketches created by the cast of this witty show.

Creator:

Lorne Michaels

Stars:

Don Pardo, Lenny Pickett, Darrell Hammond

Won 71 Primetime Emmys. Another 86 wins & 425 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Don Pardo	...	Himself - Announcer / ... 727 episodes, 1975-2014
Lenny Pickett	...	Himself - Bandleader / ... 416 episodes, 1985-2018
Darrell Hammond	...	Various / ... 385 episodes, 1995-2019
Kenan Thompson	...	Various / ... 329 episodes, 2003-2019

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:

20th century | 21st century | 1970s | 2000s | 2010s | 

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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 Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 October 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

SNL 25

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:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Candy was offered a chance to join the cast for the 1981-1982 season. He turned it down to stay with SCTV Network (1981).

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Goofs

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

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Quotes

Host: Good evening. I'm Lawrence Flyshacker, and welcome to, "The Real Story." Tonight we continue our series on the U.S. Presidents. You know history often whitewashes itself? For example, for years it was thought that Thomas Jefferson was a man, and that his wife slept around... whereas we now know the opposite to be true. Tonight we'll go behind another of history's myths to learn, "The Real Story."
Abraham Lincoln: [Lincoln enters Ford's Theatre box, loudly and apparently drunk] Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me! ...
[...]

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Alternate Versions

Two more sketches of Chris Rock's were edited for TV and not for video. For example, the "Russell Simmonds' Def Emergency Room Jam" has all the bad words bleeped, on NBC the part where the doctor (Chris) yells "Breathe nigga!" three times changed to one. When released to video on THE BEST OF CHRIS ROCK, the only edited parts are the bad words bleeped, but when released under THE BAD BOYS OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, no bad words are bleeped, except for the f-word. In the other one, "Russell Simmonds Def Magic Show Jam", swear words are all bleeped out. But when released on the home video: THE BAD BOYS OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, all the bad words are intact, except for the f-word. But when the BAD BOYS program aired on TV, the edited version was played.

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Connections

Featured in Atop the Fourth Wall: Marvel Super Special #7: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (2016)

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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!