You’ve seen the show a thousand times, but honestly, you probably haven't seen it like this. When Jason Reitman set out to film Saturday Night, he wasn't looking to make some dusty, reverent biopic about a television institution. He wanted to capture the smell of sweat and the sound of things breaking.
Basically, the movie is a pressure cooker. It follows the exact 90 minutes leading up to the very first broadcast of Saturday Night Live on October 11, 1975. No slow-burn character arcs here. Just a bunch of 20-somethings in 30 Rockefeller Plaza trying to figure out if they're making history or just a massive, career-ending mess.
Why the Jason Reitman Saturday Night Energy Feels So Different
Most movies about "the making of" something great are kind of boring. They feel like a Wikipedia page come to life. But Reitman—who’s been around sets his whole life because of his dad, Ivan Reitman—knows that real creativity is loud, annoying, and frequently involves people crying in closets.
The film stars Gabriel LaBelle as a young, harried Lorne Michaels. You know Lorne as the untouchable kingmaker of comedy, right? Here, he’s a kid. He’s 30 years old, he’s got hair down to his shoulders, and he’s being bullied by NBC executives like David Tebet (played with a delicious chill by Willem Dafoe).
The ticking clock isn't just a gimmick. It’s the whole point. Reitman and his co-writer, Gil Kenan, actually interviewed almost everyone who was in the building that night to get the details right. Or, well, "spiritually" right.
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The cast that barely held it together
The ensemble is genuinely insane. You’ve got:
- Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase (smug, talented, and kind of a jerk).
- Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd (obsessive, fast-talking, and wearing those tiny shorts).
- Matt Wood as John Belushi (the wildcard who refuses to sign his contract).
- Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner (the heart of the group).
- Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris (the classically trained singer wondering why he's there).
The dynamic between them isn't "best friends forever." It’s "we are in a foxhole together and I might hate you." That’s the authentic 1970s SNL vibe.
Fact vs. Fiction: What Really Happened?
If you’re a die-hard fan, you’re going to notice some things in Saturday Night that feel a little too perfect for a movie. And you'd be right.
For instance, the scene where Lorne Michaels wanders into a bar and hires Alan Zweibel (Josh Brener) on the spot 20 minutes before air? Yeah, that didn’t happen exactly like that. Lorne did discover Zweibel at a bar, but it was much earlier. Reitman just condensed the timeline to make the "90 minutes to air" structure work.
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Same goes for the fire. In the movie, the set literally starts burning. In real life, it was more of a metaphorical fire, though John Belushi did once accidentally set Lorne’s mattress on fire—just not on opening night.
The Belushi contract drama
This part is actually true. John Belushi was a nightmare to get a signature from. He hated the idea of "selling out" to television. He thought TV was beneath him. The movie shows him wandering off to go ice skating at Rockefeller Center in his bee costume. While the skating might be a bit of creative license, the fact that he didn't sign until minutes before the "Live from New York" line is stone-cold fact.
The Technical Chaos of 30 Rock
Reitman didn't shoot this on a clean digital camera. He used 16mm film. It’s grainy. It’s messy. It feels like someone found a lost documentary from 1975 and polished it up.
The sound design is a character on its own. Jon Batiste, who plays musical guest Billy Preston in the film, also composed the score. He actually recorded a lot of it live on set to capture the frantic energy. You hear the hammers hitting the nails, the shouting in the hallways, and the feedback from the microphones.
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It makes you realize how much of a miracle it was that the show even happened. NBC didn't want it. They wanted Johnny Carson reruns. They thought these kids were "counter-culture" freaks who would swear on air and get the station sued.
What the critics (and the real players) thought
The reception has been a bit of a rollercoaster.
- The Good: Most critics loved the "frenetic" pace. Gabriel LaBelle got a Golden Globe nod for playing Lorne.
- The Bad: Some older critics felt it was too much of a "valentine" and not enough of a deep dive into the actual darkness of the era.
- The Legends: Dan Aykroyd called it a "masterpiece." Chevy Chase, being Chevy Chase, reportedly told Reitman "you should be embarrassed" after seeing it.
Why You Should Care About This Story Now
We live in a world where everything is polished and focus-grouped. Saturday Night reminds us that the best things usually start as a disaster. It’s a movie for anyone who has ever tried to build something from scratch while everyone else was telling them it was a bad idea.
The film didn't set the box office on fire—it made about $10 million against a $25-30 million budget—but it’s destined to be one of those movies people discover on streaming and obsess over. It's a love letter to the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" before they were icons.
Practical ways to experience the SNL history
If the movie gets you hooked, there are a few things you should actually do to see the real story:
- Read "Live From New York": This is the oral history by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. It’s the "Bible" that Reitman used for research.
- Watch the actual first episode: It’s on Peacock. You’ll see George Carlin hosting and the Muppets segment that the writers hated so much.
- Check out the 16mm cinematography: If you're a film nerd, look up Eric Steelberg’s work on this. The way they moved the camera through the "eighth floor" sets—which were actually built in Atlanta—is a technical marvel.
The movie ends right as the show begins. It doesn't show the fame or the drug problems or the eventual departures. It just shows the win. And sometimes, just getting to the starting line is the biggest victory there is.