One of the buzziest films of the 2024 Telluride Film Festival has been the upcoming Sony feature based on the first ever live performance of the pop culture staple “Saturday Night Live.” What no one saw coming was that one of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, Bill Murray, would introduce the film alongside director Jason Reitman, who were both welcomed with a standing ovation of massively supportive fans and industry insiders.
At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television and pop culture forever. “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 what was originally called “NBC’s Saturday Night” (because a competing show with Howard Cosell had the “Saturday Night Live” title). 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…”Live From New York, it’s ‘Saturday Night.’”
Told from the point of view of creator Lorne Michaels, Reitman’s film makes audience members privy to all the insider fighting, stress, set mishaps, censorship issues and incestual relationships taking place as these seven unknowns, some as young as their early 20s, were just hours away from making history.
The energy pulsates with nervous enthusiasm as the film opens with a montage of major events that could have stopped the show from going live or appearing on NBC. John Belushi hadn’t signed his contract and refused to participate in the infamous bee sketch. Light fixtures dropped from the rafters inches away from key cast members. Andy Kaufman is dropped off at Rockefeller Center by his mom and randomly disappears numerous times throughout the evening. Jim Henson grappled with crew members who hung Big Bird from his dressing room door and was mocked for having his hand up a puppet. All of this happens in the first 20 minutes. Can you even imagine what this must have felt like in real time?
Directors Reitman and Gil Kenan perfectly capture the chaos and unbridled energy of every individual, department, censor and studio brass executive in the process of trying to produce live television. Audiences are given a bird’s-eye view of how sketch comedy bits are created, cut and cultivated by some of the best to ever do it.
One incident that will surprise viewers takes place between Chevy Chase and Milton Berle (Oscar winner J.K. Simmons) as Berle puts the moves on Chevy’s girlfriend. These two egomaniacs enter a round of the dozens (a tit-for-tat type of rapid-fire joke relay) with a resolution you will never see coming. “Weekend Update” was a Lorne Michaels’ bit that was handed over to Chase moments before the live broadcast, leading to Chase being unofficially courted to replace Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show.”
The cast is great, with standouts including Lamorne Morris (Garrett Morris), Kim Matula (Jane Curtin), Cory Michael Smith (Chevy Chase), Dylan O’Brien (Dan Aykroyd) and Matt Wood (John Belushi). By the time Morris and Richard Pryor begin to sing a song whose title can’t be mentioned, coupled with Andy Kaufman’s iconic rendition lip sync of “Mighty Mouse,’ it becomes abundantly clear that “Saturday Night” was about to become a permanent fixture in the pop culture zeitgeist (with that “Live” added to its name in 1977).
It’s sad that the women who wonderfully playing Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt) and Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn) weren’t given more screen time. But that’s not surprising, as the same held true in real time when the ladies had to literally fight for the sketches and voices to be heard in order to make it to the live show (a fact they have all recounted publicly over the years). Their fight would eventually result in the show embracing sketch comedy queens including Molly Shannon, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, Leslie Jones, Aidy Bryant and Michaela Watkins.
The show itself, meanwhile, helped boost the careers of George Carlin, Jim Henson, Janis Ian, Eddie Murphy, John Candy, Billy Crystal and hundreds more.
“Saturday Night” is not just a recollection of a night when the crew revolted, writers were wasted, the sound system was a hot mess and actors physically assaulted one another. It also serves as a love letter to the millions of global fans who have religiously tuned in to decompress and get their giggle on. As Bill Murray shared to the packed crowd, “‘Saturday Night Live’ is the best piece of luck I have ever had in my life.”
No Bill, we are the lucky ones that every past and present member of “SNL” brings much needed laughter into a world drenched in negativity at any given moment. Laughter is and will always be the best medicine.
“Saturday Night” will be released by Sony.
