You might not know this about me, but I’m a decently big fan of Saturday Night Live. I wouldn’t say I’m the type of person who stays up and watches it late at night because I’m an actual baby who goes to bed at ten almost every single time. But I will say I’ll watch it the next day with my morning coffee.
From some of Adam Sandler’s funniest quotes to the hilarious SNL clips on their YouTube channel, I’ve enjoyed the television show for a while. Of course, when Saturday Night finally became available to stream on Netflix, I knew I’d have to check it out. After I watched it, I realized something – I had never seen the original broadcast.
I had seen so many episodes, countless ones of the past and present, but never the one that started it all. So, in honor of SNL50, I decided to check it out after seeing Saturday Night—and it was not what I was expecting whatsoever.
There Have Been So Many Changes Made Since The Beginning
Any show that has been running for fifty years is guaranteed to make some changes. But I didn’t reasonably expect there to be so many.
When I first found out Jim Henson’s Muppets were a part of the show at some point – thanks to Saturday Night – I nearly laughed my head off because how did that even happen? As someone who really loves anything Jim Henson had his hands on (especially Labyrinth, which should have been a bigger hit), I was eager to see how the puppets did on the broadcast.
And it was so bad that I nearly started to laugh out of embarrassment. I really don’t know who thought it was a good idea to involve puppets in adult entertainment, but they did not work here.
Another thing that’s changed is the host. The first host of SNL was comedian George Carlin, but he didn’t do any of the sketches. In fact, all he did was stand up during the breaks and come onto the stage a few times while the rest of the cast did the sketches.
As anyone who watches the series knows, modern-day SNL hosts are expected to not only do the skits but do them well. And it’s hilarious how the first show started with the host barely doing anything aside from stand-up.
Also, whose idea was it to have four musical performances? Granted, they were from the same artist, but that was valuable airtime that could have been used for more extended skits. And speaking of skits, did we really need that many fake drug commercials? I’m not sure how many there were, but there was one too many.
I’m glad it made the changes it did to evolve from what it originally was.
Chevy Chase Was Honestly The Star For Me When I Thought It Would Be Belushi
I have heard nothing but great things about Jim Belushi’s time on SNL. Everyone says he’s the most fantastic cast member ever, and I’ve seen some of his older skits. I totally agree.
But I have to say he did not make me laugh this time around.
Instead, I found myself snickering a lot more with Chevy Chase, who almost felt like a background player in regard to many of the others. I mean, arguably, Chevy Chase is one of the few stars from that cast that took off into the world, from his National Lampoon films all the way to his role in the Community cast, so it’s clear his comedy has gotten him far.
But I don’t know; I just found myself laughing a lot more at him than I did at Belushi in this episode. Maybe it was his delivery on Weekend Update, but something clicked and made me want to watch more of his skits on the show. Or perhaps I have to give Belushi another shot. I’m not sure.
Some Of These Jokes Would Probably Not Fly Today
Yeah, some of these jokes would not fly today. Whatsoever.
Honestly, I think I was expecting a lot worse since this premiered in 1975, but it wasn’t as bad as I believed it could be. However, there were still some skits that certainly would not pass today, in the era of social media.
For example, one of the first sketches centered on a woman writing down what a man did to her in a courtroom during a sexual assault case, and it’s passed around the jury until one woman, who was sleeping the entire time, doesn’t understand what it is at first and makes a joke out of it. You can probably see how that wouldn’t work today.
Or, there was another joke where the SNL cast was driving around asking people to show them their guns. And it was just a long list of people randomly pulling guns from nowhere, from their purses and even from behind a wedding dress as if yanking it from thin air.
To me, I didn’t care. I’m not the kind of person to get offended by jokes, and I never have been. However, I can see how it might upset some people today, so maybe it’s best to leave this broadcast in the past.
Either way, I still enjoyed watching. It was nice to revisit where it all began and think that somehow, we’re all here, fifty years later, doing a crazy SNL50 special where people are annoyed at things like the fact that Bill Hader didn’t show But we never would have gotten there if not for the first broadcast.
So, I can respect it. Without it, I would never have seen this show and made the connections I have because of it, so thank you, SNL. However, I think that’ll be the first and last time I watch it—at least until SNL60 because we’ll get there.