Saturday Night Live is now a TV comedy institution. 50 years ago, it was just some weird experimental sketch show made by and starring a bunch of unknowns. Of course, those unknowns turned out to be John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, and more — many of the funniest actors of their generation.
How that group become the original stars of SNL is the subject of a new movie coming this fall called Saturday Night. Directed by Jason Reitman (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), the film is set on the night of the very first SNL broadcast — which wasn’t even called Saturday Night Live because back in 1975 there was already another show on another network called Saturday Night Live. (That one starred Howard Cosell. It didn’t last long.)
The first trailer for Saturday Night is below;it lets you see some of the up-and-coming talent playing that original SNL crew, including The Fabelmans’ Gabriel Labelle as Lorne Michaels, Cooper Hoffman as NBC executive Dick Ebersol, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, and Matt Wood as John Belushi. See how you think they measure up against their real-world counterparts…
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Here is the SNL movie’s official synopsis:
At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television – and culture – forever. Directed by Jason Reitman and written by Gil Kenan & Reitman, 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 Saturday Night Live. 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…
There’s a poster for the film as well, which includes a word I would have presumed you are not permitted to put on a movie poster. Apparently, I was mistaken.
Saturday Night is scheduled to open in theaters on October 11. In a nice bit of synchronicity, that is the 49th anniversary of that very first airing of Saturday Night Live.
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