(Updated 10/01/2024)
"Saturday Night Live" is such an institution at this point that you don't even need to say the show's full title — SNL is universally recognized as the show's name at this point. But SNL had humble beginnings as a scrappy variety show created so that late-night TV mega-star Johnny Carson could air reruns during the week instead of on weekends, and therefore take time off once in a while.
SATURDAY NIGHT chronicles the lead-up to the show's first broadcast in October 1975. It features a young cast playing the original classic SNL team. Check out the first trailer and learn everything else you need to know about SATURDAY NIGHT here.
What's the Saturday Night Release Date?
Sony Pictures wll release SATURDAY NIGHT in movie theaters on October 11, 2024.
Watch the Saturday Night Trailer
SATURDAY NIGHT does not try to recreate the first episode of SNL. Rather, it pulls back the curtain to reveal and revel in the turmoil and chaos that took place behind the scenes as Lorne Michaels and the show's cast and writers raced to get the show's debut ready to go.
Since the show is, by default, a live performance, there was no safety net. This trailer captures the frantic surge of creativity and panic that Michaels and the rest of the SNL cast and crew experienced.
The Origins of Saturday Night
Jason Reitman has said that SNL "defines my sense of humor. It defines the way I look at the world." He has also explained that this movie specifically was born out of the week in 2008, between the releases of JUNO and UP IN THE AIR, when he was a guest writer on the show. He describes it as "one of the great weeks of my life."
"Anyone who loves SNL, who [reads] all the articles and books about what it’s like going through that Monday to Saturday experience…if you’re a comedy nerd, it’s like reading about the moon landing. You pore over every detail. You want to know exactly what it’s like, what’s the temperature in Rockefeller Center at three in the morning, when these guys are writing on a Tuesday night, and what kind of coffee are they drinking at the table read. And at what point do they finish painting the sets on Saturday morning? We just obsess over it."
Who's in the Cast of Saturday Night?
The cast of SATURDAY NIGHT is massive, because the movie aims to recreate the entire backstage drama that swirled around the show's inaugural airing. That means this movie's cast doesn't merely feature everyone who appeared on screen; it brings in seemingly everyone who was in the building at the time.
Gabriel LaBelle leads the cast as Lorne Michaels, who, as creator of the show, is the most responsible for its success — and therefore the most anxious about its potential failure. Rachel Sennott plays Rosie Shuster, who was married to Michaels and worked as a key writer on the show.
The original SNL cast, aka the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players," is played by Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, and Kim Matula as Jane Curtin. Matthew Rhys plays George Carlin, who hosted the first episode, and Jon Batiste (who also scored the movie) plays Billy Preston and Naomi McPherson plays Janis Ian, the show's first musical guests. Paul Rust appears as SNL house band member Paul Shaffer; we don't know if anyone plays film score superstar Howard Shore, who was the show's original musical director.
The SATURDAY NIGHT cast also features a wide variety of other talents. Finn Wolfhard plays an NBC page; Nicholas Braun is both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson; Cooper Hoffman plays exec Dick Ebersol; Kaia Gerber is Jacqueline Carlin, Andrew Barth Feldman is Neil Levy; Tommy Dewey plays Michael O'Donoghue; Willem Dafoe plays David Tebet; and J. K. Simmons appears as Milton Berle.
Finally, there's also Taylor Gray as Al Franken, Mcabe Gregg as Tom Davis, Nicholas Podany as Billy Crystal,Ellen Boscov as Mrs. Kaufman, Joe Chrest as Herb Sargent, Catherine Curtin as Joan Carbunkle, and Leander Suleiman as Anne Beatts.
SATURDAY NIGHT opens on October 11.
All images courtesy of Sony Pictures.