Live from New York, it’s the funny and chaotic preparation for the taping of the first SNL episode.
Jason Reitman’s next movie “Saturday Night” retells how the very first episode of “Saturday Night Live” went on the air on October 11, 1975 at 11:30 PM EST, and was a very busy night for young Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator. There’s conflicts regarding the cast members, the network executives, the props and sets, and everything that would an underdog series would require. And yet none of these people would dream that it would one day celebrate its 50th season.
Back when it was called just “Saturday Night,” it featured a number of up and coming comedians, known as the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players (consisting of Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner), in different sketches, as well as some musical performances and guest hosts. And the writing staff included Michaels, Chase, Anne Beatts, Tom Davis, Al Franken, Michael O’Donoguhe, Rosie Shuster, and Alan Zweibel.
I’m a big fan of the earlier seasons of the show, and there are some 90s and 2010s materials that I think are brilliant. So, I was eager to see how Reitman and his co-writer Gil Kenan would represent the preparation of the very first episode, which would have George Carlin as the host and Billy Preston and Janis Ian as the musical guests. And they represent everything with big laughs, attitude, and strong dialogue.
Gabriel LaBelle, who played the young Steven Spielberg dreamer renamed Sammy Fabelman in “The Fabelmans,” is back as another iconic entertainment figure Lorne Michaels, who is struggling to keep everything on track before the clock strikes 11:30. He’s intimated by Johnny Carson (voiced on the phone by Jeff Witzke) and the network executives (featuring Willem Dafoe as David Tebet and Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol), who all know he may fail, his cast members are having issues, and he also has conversations with his staff writer wife Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott).
The Not Ready for Prime Time Players are played by Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, and Lamorne Morris as Garret Morris (no relation). And we also have Nicholas Braun in a dual role as Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson (when he had his muppets on the earlier seasons), Finn Wolfhard as an NBC page trying to promote the first episode, Tommy Dewey as Michael O’Donaghue, Nicholas Podany as Billy Crystal, Matthew Rhys as George Carlin, JK Simmons as Milton Berle, Brad Garrett as a Borscht Belt comedian, and Josh Brener as Alan Zweibel.
Does every behind the scenes moment work? Not all, but lots of them do, like how Chase is intimated by more well known comedians at the time or how Belushi hates wearing the bee costume (back when SNL loved bees). “Saturday Night” has its comedy and emotions in the right place.
LaBelle has already proven himself to be a natural young actor in “The Fabelmans,” and as Lorne Michaels, he merges with the stress and dialogue quite well. Sennott has chemistry with him. And the best actors impersonating the celebrities here consist of Wood, O’Brien, Smith, Morris, and Rhys. It’s fun to see how most of the cast is able to play the original cast without overselling themselves.
I’m so glad I bought the first five seasons of the show on DVD way before this movie existed, because I’m able to enjoy the nostalgia presented here. We have the dress rehearsals, the muppets, the bee costumes, and how getting tickets for the show was before things got more complicated. I had a really fun time watching how challenging it was to get the show on the air.
Now Playing in Select Theaters
Expands Next Week