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The First Episode of Saturday Night Live: Everything to Know and How to Watch
The October 11, 1975 series premiere featured two Musical Guests and no Billy Crystal (he was cut for time).
When Saturday Night Live premiered on October 11, 1975 — then titled NBC’s Saturday Night — there was no way to know that the show would quickly become a massive success, going on to air 50 seasons and counting.
"The year 1975 was a hinge moment in America. The president of the United States had recently resigned in disgrace, and politics was deeply unsettled," SNL creator Lorne Michaels said of the world that Saturday Night Live was born into, writing in a 2013 Vanity Fair essay. Prior to devising his trailblazing late night format, Michaels' TV experience had included writing jobs on two NBC variety shows, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show.
"The Vietnam War had ended with the last helicopter taking off from the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon. New York City was flat broke. It was a moment of chaos, doubt, and, of course, opportunity. The perfect time to start a new comedy show," Michaels joked.
RELATED: Why the First Saturday Night Live Cast Were Called The Not Ready for Prime Time Players
The first episode of Michaels' televised comedy experiment has become rich lore, told and retold over decades. It introduced viewers across the country to cast members who'd go on to have award-winning comedy careers in movies and TV, like Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin, as well as dazzling performers who were gone too soon, like Gilda Radner and special guest Andy Kaufman. It also boasted a short film by actor and director Albert Brooks, and two different Musical Guests.
Here's everything to know about Saturday Night Live Episode 1, Season 1 — including how to watch it.
Michael O'Donoghue was the first person ever to appear on Saturday Night Live, in the "Wolverines" cold open.
Though head writer Michael O'Donoghue isn't one of the seven Not Ready for Prime Time Players — Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Garrett Morris, Chevy Chase, and Laraine Newman — he's listed with them as a performer in the opening credits alongside performer George Coe. And he opens the show's premiere playing John Belushi's English tutor in "Wolverines" cold open.
Watch the "Wolverines" cold open above.
Saturday Night Live was titled NBC's Saturday Night at first.
As evident in the opening credits, Saturday Night Live was originally called NBC's Saturday Night. That's because ABC's rival comedy show was called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell.
It wasn't until the Season 3 premiere hosted by Steve Martin that the show officially became Saturday Night Live.
RELATED: Was Steve Martin a Cast Member on SNL? The Comedian's Long History with the Show
George Carlin was the first SNL Host.
Like Season 49 and Season 50 Host Nate Bargatze, Carlin kicked things off with a masterful stand-up comedy monologue. What Carlin didn't do was appear in any of the night's sketches, instead appearing three more times during the show to deliver short stand-up sets.
Carlin would return to host again on November 10, 1984.
The first SNL Musical Guests were Billy Preston and Janis Ian.
Singer and keyboardist Billy Preston and his band followed the first sketch with an electric performance of his hit "Nothing From Nothing."
Later in the show, folk singer Janis Ian sang "At Seventeen" and "In the Winter," and Preston closed things out with "Fancy Lady."
While Preston died in 2006, Janis Ian told The New York Times that she was sick with strep throat and a 104 degree fever — but you'd never know it from her gorgeous performance. She added that as seasoned touring performers, she, Carlin, and Preston weren't super fazed by the "live" aspect of the show.
Andy Kaufman lip-synced the Mighty Mouse theme.
Actor and performance artist Andy Kaufman made awkward an art form, and he brought his unique act to the Studio 8H stage during the premiere, doing his "Mighty Mouse" routine during which he lip synced to the "here I come to save the day" theme song (literally, just that one line).
Kaufman appeared on Saturday Night Live both live and on tape a total of 10 times between 1975 and 1979.
Billy Crystal wasn't in the premiere — but Richard Belzer technically was.
Per 2002's exhaustive oral history book Live from New York, young stand-up comedian Billy Crystal was asked by Lorne Michaels to prepare a piece for the first episode. He performed the six-and-a-half-minute sketch at the dress rehearsal on Friday, but it was ultimately cut from the Saturday show.
Not to worry, though: In addition to his successful movie career, Crystal was back on Saturday Night Live guesting with a monologue in the second half of Season 1, hosted twice, and was an official cast member from 1984-1985.
RELATED: See Photos of Chevy Chase During His Saturday Night Live Years
Meanwhile, original Law & Order: Special Victims Unit cast member Richard Belzer was in Saturday Night Live's first episode — but blink, and you'll miss him. A peer of Crystal's on the New York City standup scene, Belzer was a background actor that night (look to Chevy Chase's left at the beginning of "The Courtroom" sketch).
Comedian Valri Bromfeld also performed a piece that night, pretending to be a schoolteacher addressing students.
Chevy Chase was the first "Weekend Update" anchor, but Lorne Michaels considered doing it.
While the matter was settled well before the day of premiere, Michaels told Deadline in 2014 that his earliest pitch of the show had him behind the "Update" desk, "because I'd done the equivalent of Weekend Update in Canada."
RELATED: Every "Weekend Update" Host Through the Years
"But as we got closer to the air show, I began to realize that I didn’t think I could be the person who cut other people’s pieces and left my own in," Michaels told Deadline. Like Tina Fey and Colin Jost in future years, Chevy Chase was another staff writer who became part of the cast this way.
Notably, the first "Weekend Update" had a break in the middle for a commercial parody before returning for more news jokes.
Jim Henson's Muppets had a sketch in the episode.
After Chase's "Weekend Update" came the debut of Jim Henson's short-lived recurring sketch series in Season 1, "The Land of Gorch."
You can watch one of Jim Henson's Saturday Night Live sketches below.
How to watch the full first episode of Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live Season 1, Episode 1 is available to stream on Peacock anytime, complete with the performances from Billy Preston and Janis Ian.
