Kevin Lynch Staff Writer
On Oct. 11, the highly anticipated “Saturday Night” movie was released in theaters nationwide. The release came 49 years to the day after the first episode of “Saturday Night Live.”
The film, which was directed by Jason Reitman, details the chaotic 90 minutes that lead up to the premiere of the NBC show, which is currently the longest-running sketch comedy program for television in the U.S.
The biopic presents an ensemble cast comprised of Dylan O’Brien, LaMorne Morris, and Ella Hunt who portray Dan Aykroyd, Garrett Morris, and Gilda Radner respectively. Notable ensemble cast members who portrayed the dedicated crew are made up of Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, and Cooper Hoffman, who were tasked with the powerful roles of Lorne Michaels, Rosie Schuster, and Dick Ebersol respectively.
The film whisks us through preparations to air the sketch comedy show “Saturday Night” in front of not only a live studio audience but also tens of thousands of people through television sets all across the country. There was high pressure as the showrunner of the program, Lorne Michaels, navigated what the show would look like by the 11:30 p.m. start time. Michaels’ uncertainty about what the show actually is leads his collaborators and his bosses to question and not even believe his vision.
Many of the “Not Ready For Primetime Players” questioned their worth and why they even decided to be on the show in the first place, among them Garrett Morris, who was known for being a playwright, and John Belushi, who was fighting with everyone from Chevy Chase to even Lorne Michaels.
Further problems ensued as lighting equipment fell from the ceiling, crew members quit, and censorship became an unstoppable force from NBC executives. Despite these “technical difficulties,” the cast and crew on the eighth floor of Rockefeller Center put together one of the most notable live television programs in history.
As a “Saturday Night Live” enthusiast, I personally loved watching this film and highly recommend it to all who love biopics and dramedies. It captures the chaos and uncertainty of a constantly evolving television program, something that was revolutionary for its time. I loved the first episode of the show and was astounded by all of the hurdles the cast and crew had to go through over the course of this film. It’ll be tough to see “Saturday Night Live” the same way again after feeling like I was transported to the backstage of one of the greatest shows of all time.