The 90 Minutes Before the FIRST Saturday Night Live are INSANE | Saturday Night Review
James Blinken ‘24 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Spoiler Free Review
I first watched Saturday Night Live (SNL for short) when I was about ten years old. The first segment I ever saw was Weekend Update with Seth Meyers and even then, I was entertained and hypnotized by the live production that occurred on Saturday nights at 11:30. Now, years later, in SNL’s 50th Season, a film about the 90 minutes before the first SNL is front center titled Saturday Night!
In 1975, SNL was not the show we know today. It was not even called Saturday Night Live, as ABC had a show with the same name until 1976! The basic format of the show still stands: a cold open (a sketch before the opening credits and monologue), guest hosts, musical guests, and a weekend update! Yet the vibe in 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City—home to NBC and Studio 8H, where SNL is filmed—could not be more different! The film shows writers lighting scripts on fire out the windows, lights falling apart, literal animals running wild, and actors not signing their contracts… mass hysteria ensues! Keeping it all together was the executive producer Lorne Michaels (played by The Fablemans star, Gabriel LaBelle), who is being watched by the top brass of NBC, waiting for him to fail.
The film is less of a comedy and more of a thriller. Many montages play throughout the movie in long, drawn-out singular camera shots as the audience is guided through the insanity of backstage in Studio 8H. Costume designers are moving outfits; actors and writers are messing around doing things they are not supposed to, and Andy Kaufman is in the freight elevator?! Yes, the film does a great job putting the viewer/audience in the crazy action leading up to the first episode! When not in these montage-like segments, most of the film’s time is spent following Lorne around and the never-ending list of issues and fires (literally, there are multiple fires!).
The first cast of SNL was called ‘The Not Ready for Primetime Players.’ It included Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), John Belushi (Matt Wood), Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), Gilda Radner ( Ella Hunt), Dan Aykroyd ( Dylan O’Brien), Garrett Morris ( Lamorne Morris, no relation), and Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith). Not only were ‘The Not Ready for Primetime Players’ played brilliantly by this cast, but other characters behind the scenes are also present, including Lorne’s childhood friend Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott from Bottoms), and radio star Milton Berle ( Whiplash star J.K. Simmons). I would also be remiss not to mention that Nicholas Braun, who played double duty as Andy Kaufman and Jim Hensory, was brilliant.
I have no problems with the fantastic cast and how they played it, except Finn Wolfhard’s and Andrew Barth Feldmen’s roles, as the page and Neil Levy—Lorne’s cousin— respectively, felt like a bit of a forceful inclusion at times that overstayed their welcome. More on that later… In addition, the way in which the film presents the audience with the premise is convoluted.
Besides the main point, the film may be more challenging to understand if one was not around in 1975 or unaware of SNL history, especially since there is no real introduction to the characters’ cast. And since the film has so many characters and moving parts, it is harder to understand all the characters’ motivations and have enough time with each cast member. Besides, for characters like Chevy Chase and Garrett Morris, the main cast had less attention than someone like the page or Lorne’s cousin/assistant.
These complaints, of course, don’t take away from my enjoyment but rather nitpicks. My biggest nitpick is wishing the movie was precisely 90 minutes to fit the timing! As a big fan, I loved the film, but I can see people not liking it as much if they know little to nothing about SNL. An easy fix to this problem would have been bios for each significant character in front and behind the camera; instead, we are left to figure it out ourselves. Simple pieces of text would have also helped this situation.
As I mentioned, I have been watching SNL for years and know a lot about it. Some would call me a SNL superfan, and that did add to my enjoyment of the film. I honestly smiled through the whole film’s runtime…! SNL super fans will find many easter eggs in the show’s history through the film’s runtime. For example, a colon blow cereal box is shown as being eaten by a writer. Colon Blow would be written as a commercial parody a decade later in the late 1980s.
Overall, Saturday Night is an exhilarating watch from start to end! Although creative liberties are taken for the sake of the plot, the chaos of putting on a live show, no less the first episode, is very much accurate. As a superfan, I loved this movie, but it is easy to get lost in the quickly-paced film especially if one doesn’t know much about SNL history. To conclude, everyone may like the film, however; but the degrees of enjoyment may vary based on one’s prior knowledge.
Review Score → A-