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"Saturday Night" - movie about 1975 SNL


Chuckie Finster

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If I remember correctly, the original cast got along pretty well with exception of Chevy. He also doesn’t have any juice to hit back, so there’s your protagonist. 
 

By most accounts, Lorne is kind of an elitist dick, but fair. I don’t think there will be a juicy reveal. 

Edited by billfromlaketravis
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I’m really looking forward to this. Good read on Vanity Fair: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/saturday-night-first-look

The basic premise is this a “live” look-in of the first night the show aired, starting at 10pm, 90 mins before air time. Never knew that Billy Crystal, then a fledgling comic, only found out just before the show that his bit had been cut. Story is he made it home to tell his family not to bother watching as he wouldn’t be on.

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I finally watched it last night. The more  I sit with it, the more I like it. There was obviously some nepotism and dead dad sympathy in getting it made, but Reitman made a real film instead of some tribute band bullshit. 
 

He did a couple clever things

- He filmed the movie in Atlanta. If they had filmed at 30 Rock, many, many things would have polished or outright cut from the film. 

- Studio and distribution. Sony made the movie, Netflix will have the streaming rights. No Universal, no NBC, no Peacock, no Lorne.

- in the film, Lorne is actively being cucked by check notes, Dan Aykroyd. 

- Chevy Chase is a full on crazy person. Probably accurate, but Chevy has famously said he didn’t like the film.

- Milton Berle pills out his horse cock in a showdown with Chevy and his finance. I always thought of Berle as a beloved comedian. The giant cock fame feels fairly new. I’m sure his estate wasn’t thrilled with this scene. 

- The Rockefeller ice rink scene was tragic and beautiful. I hope it happened. It’s pleasant to think of Belushi and Gilda in that moment.

- I love the casting. Garrett Morris probably got too much screen time, and Belushi was a flat out miss. The actor did a Jack Black impression the whole film. Also a lot of Billy Chrystal for a guy who famously had his sketch cut from the first show.

- Finally credit to Reitman for creating the correct vibe. 

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3 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Milton Berle pills out his horse cock in a showdown with Chevy and his finance. I always thought of Berle as a beloved comedian. The giant cock fame feels fairly new. I’m sure his estate wasn’t thrilled with this scene. 

Its not new. 

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I liked it, but it was kind of a let down to get through the opener, and it's over.  I get that there's no point to recreating anything after that, but it was a lot of build up for a tickle and a squirt.

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I watched this the other night, and I really enjoyed it, it was very entertaining. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes old SNL, it hits you with nostalgia. The casting was on point, very believable choices for so many characters, and the guy who played Lorne was perfect. I agree with Bill that the Jim Belushi guy was the one character that was a miss. It felt like his only knowledge of the actor was watching him in Animal House. 

It was a lot of fun, good vibes, and lots of laughs. Parts of it felt unbelievable from a timeline perspective, which is a bit distracting but can be overlooked. It's interesting to re-watch some of the old skits the movie showed, and seeing how well they recreated those scenes and how good the actors were in mimicking the original cast. Here's the original Hard Hats skit, it's hard to believe that it was 50 years ago. 

Quote


Killer Bees:

Wolverines: 

Weekend Update:

 

Here's Carlin talking about hosting the first SNL episode:

Andy Kaufman:


 

 

 

 

 

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18 minutes ago, Dutchrudder said:

I agree with Bill that the Jim Belushi guy was the one character that was a miss. It felt like his only knowledge of the actor was watching him in Animal House. 

Probably would have been better if they'd tried casting for John instead of Jim.

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3 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

The Carlin beef is bizarre. Ebersol not letting him host while Lorne was gone is strange. Not acknowledging him during the anniversary specials is baffling. I wonder if Carlin does not knowing what he did to piss them off. 

Carlin was still not sure why he didn’t get invited back to any of the anniversary shows.  He thinks maybe it was because he was high as hell on cocaine during the first episode and maybe he said or did something that turned Lorne off forever during that week.   He talks about it in the 4-minute clip below

 

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34 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Carlin was still not sure why he didn’t get invited back to any of the anniversary shows.  He thinks maybe it was because he was high as hell on cocaine during the first episode and maybe he said or did something that turned Lorne off forever during that week.   He talks about it in the 4-minute clip below

 

Yes we watched the same clip. 

Edited by billfromlaketravis
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AppleTV. I just watched it there during its free weekend. 

Is it free on Apple? I looked last week to see when it was coming free to the streaming service and I think it’s on Netflix starting this weekend or early next week.
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On 1/4/2025 at 11:34 AM, billfromlaketravis said:

Milton Berle pills out his horse cock in a showdown with Chevy and his finance. I always thought of Berle as a beloved comedian. The giant cock fame feels fairly new. I’m sure his estate wasn’t thrilled with this scene. 

Can we get a J.K. Simmons biopic of Milton Berle?

 

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Saw it on the plane yesterday.  I enjoyed it so much that I nearly watched it a second time.  Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I think it deserved awards noms for screenplay and directing.  I liked it a lot more than Complete Unknown, which I also liked.  

Jason Reitman is a badass.  

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On 1/6/2025 at 3:48 PM, atomheartbevo said:

Carlin was still not sure why he didn’t get invited back to any of the anniversary shows.  He thinks maybe it was because he was high as hell on cocaine during the first episode and maybe he said or did something that turned Lorne off forever during that week.   He talks about it in the 4-minute clip below

 

yeah, drugs around snl were a big no-no. 

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10 hours ago, C-Man said:

I just watched it on Netflix. Great fucking movie. Definitely should’ve gotten some Oscar love. I had to look up who was on playing Carlin — Matthe Rhys! Anyway, really enjoyable movie.

Seeing bits and pieces on YouTube and a bit of the making of, doesn’t do it justice. Some of the sets and filming were amazing when they would pan through the various stages and departments.  

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1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Seeing bits and pieces on YouTube and a bit of the making of, doesn’t do it justice. Some of the sets and filming were amazing when they would pan through the various stages and departments.  

It really is amazing they even got that show on-air that first night. That was a chaotic scene to say the least.

I've seen the first episode a few times but I fired it up last year after this movie was announced. I didn't get all the way through for whatever reason but it was kind of a disjointed mess IIRC. But the OG cast talent was off-the-charts good. That's what made it work and paved the way for the next 49 years. Just incredible.

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3 minutes ago, C-Man said:

It really is amazing they even got that show on-air that first night. That was a chaotic scene to say the least.

I've seen the first episode a few times but I fired it up last year after this movie was announced. I didn't get all the way through for whatever reason but it was kind of a disjointed mess IIRC. But the OG cast talent was off-the-charts good. That's what made it work and paved the way for the next 49 years. Just incredible.

The first episode of SNL pretty much has zero laughs in it on a current-day watch.  

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Somebody clear up something that was hit on for a few mins during the movie. Willem Dafoe's character said SNL was part of a contract disagreement involving SNL and Carson. Who was going to benefit if the Saturday Night show failed -- Carson or NBC? Because instead they were going to air Carson re-runs on Saturday Night? 

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6 minutes ago, C-Man said:

Somebody clear up something that was hit on for a few mins during the movie. Willem Dafoe's character said SNL was part of a contract disagreement involving SNL and Carson. Who was going to benefit if the Saturday Night show failed -- Carson or NBC? Because instead they were going to air Carson re-runs on Saturday Night? 

This article explains it in detail, but the movie did change a lot of what really happened between them. This movie makes the first night seem much more dramatic and chaotic than what really happened by compressing a ton of storylines. However the choices keep the story moving and make for an enjoyable viewer experience. Hopefully no one is too sore about the changes.

Quote

In actuality, Saturday Night was created and greenlit to solve an ongoing dispute between Carson and NBC. No longer wanting reruns of The Tonight Show to air on the weekends, Carson instead wanted to do his show three nights a week and have the reruns air on the remaining two days, allowing him to have more time off. As such, Saturday Night Live was created as a means to fill the newly opened weekend slot.

Instead of losing the ad revenue to local stations, NBC decided to create its own programming for Saturday night, hence turning to Lorne Michaels and the creation of a new live variety show. This way, Carson could have his reruns on the weeknights as he wanted. As such, to suggest that Carson wanted Saturday Night Live to outright fail is far too simple and largely untrue.

https://screenrant.com/saturday-night-live-johnny-carson-lorne-michaels-true-story/

 

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tv deals were way different in the 60's and 70's but it makes sense that even though carson basically owned that time slot with nbc, he wasn't ever looking to work 6+ nights per week so they needed something on sat. carson was a god back then and usually got what he wanted.

i can't remember if it was "the history of comedy" or the comedy store docuseries, but i remember the story about the la comedy scene essentially being born from carson's divorce. he was bored in ny in the late 60's post-divorce and wanted to play more golf, so he moved the show to la in 1972.

since they had comedians on so often, comedy clubs opened up all over la, which gave rise to the whole scene - the comedy store, la improv, the laugh factory, all because johnny wanted to play golf. not to mention the practice of having comics open for rock shows at the troubadour, the roxy, the whiskey, etc. 

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5 hours ago, Surly Bevo said:

The first episode of SNL pretty much has zero laughs in it on a current-day watch.  

Wolverines works pretty well still. Kaufman too. But yeah, it’s sketch comedy. A lot of stuff doesn’t work. Chappelle Show probably has the highest hit rate I’ve ever seen, but it was basically a 15 minute show entirely operated by one of the greatest comics of our time. 

Edited by billfromlaketravis
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As an old guy who watched the show from the beginning as a 17 year old, the show and this movie spoke to me. It is a fantastic movie and brought me back to those days. It was such a cultural phenomenon and we watched the show every Saturday night and then went out and partied.

 

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Enjoyed it on airplane last week.  Led me down the rabbit hole to watch first episode on Peacock and keep going. 

Some small things said are interesting to SNL history of that first season:   movie says network was worried that fake commercials would confuse audience regarding real commercials -- so far in first 7 episodes of SNL - fake ads are introduced as taped messages or something similar. 

The beef with the Bees is played out in first episodes as each week's stars comment on the Bee skits with the cast in bee costumes.

Polaroid camera appears in first few episodes as a placement product. 

I agree with above that last 30 mins were great.  Show is approaching 1000 episodes. Its hard to believe when I was at UT we taped every Saturday night and watched together on Sunday afternoon.  Crazy that it was only season 15 of the show. 

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3 hours ago, Cooterhorn said:

Enjoyed it on airplane last week.  Led me down the rabbit hole to watch first episode on Peacock and keep going. 

Some small things said are interesting to SNL history of that first season:   movie says network was worried that fake commercials would confuse audience regarding real commercials -- so far in first 7 episodes of SNL - fake ads are introduced as taped messages or something similar. 

The beef with the Bees is played out in first episodes as each week's stars comment on the Bee skits with the cast in bee costumes.

Polaroid camera appears in first few episodes as a placement product. 

I agree with above that last 30 mins were great.  Show is approaching 1000 episodes. Its hard to believe when I was at UT we taped every Saturday night and watched together on Sunday afternoon.  Crazy that it was only season 15 of the show. 

The 15th anniversary special that they did was solid gold 

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3 hours ago, Cooterhorn said:

Enjoyed it on airplane last week.  Led me down the rabbit hole to watch first episode on Peacock and keep going. 

Some small things said are interesting to SNL history of that first season:   movie says network was worried that fake commercials would confuse audience regarding real commercials -- so far in first 7 episodes of SNL - fake ads are introduced as taped messages or something similar. 

The beef with the Bees is played out in first episodes as each week's stars comment on the Bee skits with the cast in bee costumes.

Polaroid camera appears in first few episodes as a placement product. 

I agree with above that last 30 mins were great.  Show is approaching 1000 episodes. Its hard to believe when I was at UT we taped every Saturday night and watched together on Sunday afternoon.  Crazy that it was only season 15 of the show. 

I did same once the movie finished. 
 

went straight to the cock and watched season 1 episode 1. 

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16 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Wolverines works pretty well still. Kaufman too. But yeah, it’s sketch comedy. A lot of stuff doesn’t work. Chappelle Show probably has the highest hit rate I’ve ever seen, but it was basically a 15 minute show entirely operated by one of the greatest comics of our time. 

And Chappelle wasn't doing it live after only starting writing the material the Tuesday before. 

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I was in junior high. We’d stay up late (11:30 in Georgia’s time zone) and watch, and then I’d rehash it with buddies in home room on Monday. 
 
WRT Shuster- she explains the Michaels relationship, which the Wiki bio details just make sound more creepy. Lorne Nichaels is six years older, and she was 17 when they married. He was a 20 year old dating a 14 year old. 

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