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 66 Primetime Emmys. Another 80 wins & 390 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Don Pardo	...	Himself - Announcer / ... 727 episodes, 1975-2014
Lenny Pickett	...	Himself - Bandleader / ... 416 episodes, 1985-2018
Darrell Hammond	...	Various / ... 373 episodes, 1995-2019
Kenan Thompson	...	Various / ... 316 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:

guest | parody | late night | three word title | sketch | 

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Taglines:

It's "NBC's Saturday Night"! (used until 19 March 1977)

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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

In 2015, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked all 141 cast members, with John Belushi at #1 and Robert Downey Jr. at #141.

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Goofs

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

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Quotes

Kevin Nealon: [adding onto a report on the Weekend Update] ... and in addition, two plus two equals four.

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Alternate Versions

In recent years, episodes are often reedited for syndication and rebroadcast, often with skits and/or individual jokes that were taped during dress rehearsal being substituted for segments that either didn't work the first time, or were considered offensive.

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Connections

Referenced in Late Night with Seth Meyers: Jason Sudeikis/Kelly Rohrbach/Matthew Heineman (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!