31/23
In reality, it came right away
Plot
At 11.30pm on October 11, 1975, a fierce band of young comedians and writers changed television forever. Find out what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live (1975). Matt Wood stars as John Belushi on Saturday Night, see the rest of the cast and their real-life counterparts. Dan Aykroyd was the only SNL cast member to read the script. As the show aired, John Belushi entered a door 39 seconds late.
Paul Shaffer: Aykroyd
Don Pardo: [practicing his lines] Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Dan… Ike… [to Paul Shaffer] Don Pardo: How the hell do you pronounce that? The film opens with a quote from Lorne Michaels: “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready, it goes on because it’s 11:30.” Featured in Eddie Murphy, The Black King of Hollywood (2023). Ixoo ‘Chickenweed’ ChawzWritten by Don Cento and Martin GarnerStarred by Don Cento and Martin Garner.
to come together in a form that works and produces a viable show by the time the curtain rises
It was presented to us as taking place in "real time" as the hour-and-a-half film counts down the last 90 minutes before the first episode of "Saturday Night Live" (then called “Saturday Night”) was broadcast live. We are invited to witness and be dragged behind the scenes as we enter the chaos of this magical Hollywood version of the beginning of a legendary TV show. Longtime SNL fans will be delighted to find many, many Easter egg references on SNL' his most famous and beloved sketches, most of which would not have been present and ready before this first presentation. The pace and action are frenetic as disaster after disaster unfolds as the hundreds of little gears needed to make something like SNL try it all. The character actors chosen to emulate the first cast are perfect and do a great job of truly embodying what are undoubtedly huge shoes to fill.
forgetting them as he moves on to the next
They are extremely fun to watch and wear most of the film with great humor. But I’m afraid Lorne Michaels was miscast or poorly written, because as the main focus of this frustratingly inept management maelstrom, he’s largely turned into an annoying little buffoon. twit, we keep waiting and waiting to rise to the occasion, and it never really does. He can barely share his vision of the show with mouthy human words and wanders from fire to fire, never putting one out immediately. When the first show is done, it’s mostly because everyone else went on without him and made it work in spite of him.
This film is a nostalgic and entertaining tribute
I also just irrationally hate his face and the little look he gets when something goes wrong; it’s like an overwhelmed and angry child smells something bad. A visit from the spirit of SNL past. But it is definitely NOT a biopic recreation of what actually happened and should not be viewed as such. This is very much a fan film, and other viewers will find it wrong or missed, and most likely Google the said sketches. eventually.