SNL's Chaotic Opening Night Captured in First Trailer for 'Saturday Night'

[FakeNoose]

Jason Reitman's all-star "thriller comedy" arrives Oct. 11 on the 49th anniversary of the late-night show's premiere episode



Rolling Stone link: https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/saturday-night-trailer-snl-1235076323/

Archived (no paywall) link: https://archive.ph/fedbZ

Dear DUers: History was made on the night of the first episode of Saturday Night Live - 49 years ago. They premiered on the night of October 11, 1975. Now a movie is being made to enshrine that epic event. Rolling Stone Magazine posted this article a few weeks ago, and I'm finally catching up on past articles.

The chaotic first night of Saturday Night Live — and how the show was almost dead-on-arrival — is the focus of the upcoming “thriller-comedy” Saturday Night, which depicts the hours leading up to the premiere broadcast.

“At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television – and culture – forever,” Sony Pictures Entertainment said in the film’s synopsis.

Length 2:17 (closed captions available)

“Saturday Night is based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humor, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words…”

Directed by Jason Reitman, who also co-wrote the film with Gil Kenan, Saturday Night boasts an all-star cast portraying SNL’s all-star cast and crew, with Gabriel LaBelle leading the way as Lorne Michaels. Rachel Sennott (as SNL writer Rosie Shuster), Cooper Hoffman (as future NBC exec Dick Ebersol), Nicholas Braun (as both Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman), Finn Wolfhard (as an NBC page struggling to fill the live audience), and Matthew Rhys (as first-ever SNL host George Carlin) are also among the cast.

- more at link -



This movie is going to be more fun than watching the original premiere show.

[Westcoast4life]

1. I never knew I wanted a peek behind this curtain till now. Can't wait.

[blm]

2. I heard a lot about that first show, and how scared they all really were.

Older DUers here know one of my longterm relationships was with Michael O’Donoghue. So if he said they were scared, you can believe they were scared.

He wrote and produced the National Lampoon radio hour and had worked with many of them already. Even their deep-down cockiness and the fearlessness they had in spades were tested that night. They weren’t sure they had enough ready to get through to the end of the show, though, and with so much riding on an untested format, that scared them.

I am not getting my hopes too high for this because A Stupid and Futile Gesture didn’t turn out great, but, the way MO’D would tell the story of that night, it certainly should be worth watching.

[FakeNoose]

4. Movie poster (courtesy of IMDB)

Michael O'Donoghue is shown as a character in this movie, but I don't believe he appears on this poster. He's played by the actor Tommy Dewey.

[blm]

5. Well, MO'D wasn't drunk. 😏

[Sequoia]

3. Saturday Night. A book

Right now I just happen to be reading, "The Blues Btothers...", by Daniel De Vise, and how the actors came together to put on this show...(Chapter 9). I probably started watching SNL from the 3rd episode. Was with some friends having a brew at the local pub who'd seen it, so we all piled in a car to her house and watched it. Hooked immediately!