Columbia Pictures announced Jason Reitman’s movie about the first episode of Saturday Night Live will be titled simply Saturday Night, and will appear in theaters on Oct. 11.
The date matches the 49th anniversary of the variety show’s debut in 1975 under its original name NBC’s Saturday Night.
Directed by Jason Reitman and co-written with Gil Kenan based on interviews with those who were there, it’s an exploration of the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast.
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The cast includes Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster and Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris. The soundtrack is being composed by five-time Grammy winner Jon Batiste, who also plays the show’s first musical guest, Billy Preston.
Producer Michaels had big ambitions ahead of its launch. “So much of what Saturday Night Live wanted to be, or what I wanted it to be when it began, was cool,” he said later. “This was taking the sensibilities that were in music, stage and the movies and bringing them to television.”
First ‘SNL’ Show Featured Future Mainstays
The cold open featured John Belushi and Michael O’Donoghue in a sketch titled “The Wolverines,” while the episode also included future mainstays, the “Live from New York” intro, the host’s monologue – in this case George Carlin – and the “Weekend Update” skit.
Despite the success that lay ahead, the first episode wasn’t well-received, with reviewers using terms such as “less than auspicious,” “lackluster” and “uneven.”
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Gallery Credit: Corey Irwin