I watched “Saturday Night” on Netflix, which encapsulates the few hours leading up to the moment SNL went on the air for the first time in 1975.
Every actor in this movie does a great job at contributing to an ensemble performance which details the transition into a new television show format. That’s the simple way of putting this movie. Watching it digs you into the world of what the atmosphere was really like and the attention to detail is very cool.
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Scene from Saturday Night
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Scene from Saturday Night
JK Simmons as Milton Berle and Willem Dafoe’s David Tebet (NBC Executive) are the veteran anchors that give a steady contrast to the seemingly continuous movement of the camera and characters gliding in and out of each scene in and around 30 Rockefeller Center. For the first time that I can recall Milton Berle is portrayed in a movie which features a secondary character, one that has been famously talked about for years, and resides behind the zipper of his pants. You can search YouTube for verification. In addition, Robert Wuhl warmly shows up in the control room as the director of “Saturday Night.” Another veteran actor who is perhaps lesser known to some but has appeared in many good movies is Tracy Letts as writer and producer Herb Sargent, who adds to the “older and wiser” generation mentoring the newer class of television players in the mid-70s.
The younger crowd of actors such as Gabrielle Labelle as Lorne Michaels and Cooper Hoffman as NBC executive Dick Ebersole provide a realistic levity against their veteran counterparts. Lorne Michaels is the epicenter of the movie, as he is for the real SNL show, and serves as the glue holding the tornado of drug use, egos, contrasting personalities, and the seemingly unending array of technical logistics together. Rachel Sennott plays Rosie Shuster, who brought to life many famous sketches on SNL in the early years. In this movie we see her primarily as a co-director and the wife of Lorne Michaels who holds him together through numerous metaphorical (and literal) fires around Studio 8H.
You’ll see or hear the portrayals of Johnny Carson, Milton Berle, Jim Hensen, Andy Kaufman, Billy Crystal, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, George Carlin, Jane Curtin, Paul Shaffer, Dan Ackroyd, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Al Franken, John Belushi, Billy Preston, Tom Davis, and so much more including little Easter Eggs and other familiar actors trickled throughout. I particularly loved the dialects of Dylan O’Brien as Dan Ackroyd, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase and Brian Welch as SNL announcer Don Pardo, who has a humorous scene trying to pronounce Ackroyd’s name. Altogether, the cast brings the story to a crucial and pivotal point at 11:30pm on October 11, 1975 when a decision had to be made on whether to go live across the NBC network or show a repeat of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. What came after is television history, most of which can be found streaming today.
There’s so much more to say about this movie and I admit I haven’t watched SNL as much in recent years but this movie shows how it set a new standard in television broadcasting. Saturday Night freezes in time the moments that came before the original SNL players moved on to movies, other television shows, or tragic untimely deaths. It demonstrates talent that was brought together in a time where “professionals” were still trying to figure something out, and it wound up resonating with millions of people. Gabriel Labelle said it best as Lorne Michaels early on during a scene in an elevator, “Did anyone ask Edison what a lightbulb was before he harnessed electricity?” As someone who loves the craft of broadcast entertainment and production I say this movie is, “Beautifully chaotic.”