October 11, 1975. It was a mess.
If you watch it now on Peacock, it feels like a fever dream. The pacing is weird. The set looks like it was built in a basement. George Carlin is hosting, but he’s not doing sketches—he’s just doing stand-up sets between segments.
The 1st Saturday Night Live show wasn't the polished, political machine we see today. It was a high-stakes gamble by a young Canadian producer named Lorne Michaels who wanted to capture the "underground" energy of the 70s. Honestly, NBC only gave him the slot because they needed something to replace reruns of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on weekends. Carson wanted those reruns moved to weeknights so he could take more time off.
NBC figured they’d give this weird "Saturday Night" experiment a shot. They didn't expect a cultural revolution. They just wanted to fill 90 minutes of dead air.
What Really Happened on the 1st Saturday Night Live Show
Most people think the premiere was a non-stop riot of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players." It wasn't. It was actually crowded with musical guests and variety acts because nobody knew if the cast could carry a whole show.
Billy Preston was there. Janis Ian sang "At Seventeen." There were two musical guests! That never happens now.
And then there were the Muppets. Yes, Jim Henson’s Muppets were part of the 1st Saturday Night Live show. But they weren't the cute Sesame Street versions. They were weird, slightly grotesque creatures from a land called Gorch. The writers hated them. Michael O'Donoghue, the show’s first head writer, famously refused to write for them, saying he didn't write for "felt."
The very first sketch? It’s legendary. "The Wolverines."
Michael O'Donoghue plays an English tutor. John Belushi plays a foreign student.
"I would like... to feed your fingertips... to the wolverines."
Belushi repeats it. Then O'Donoghue drops dead of a heart attack. Belushi mimics the heart attack and falls over.
Then Chevy Chase walks onto the stage in a suit, looks at the camera, and shouts the line that changed television: "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"
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The Cast Nobody Knew
Imagine seeing this lineup for the first time. You've got Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner.
They weren't stars. They were kids from Second City and National Lampoon.
Chevy Chase was the immediate breakout. He did the "Weekend Update" segment, which was basically a parody of the local news anchors of the time. He’d start the segment by pretending to be on the phone with a girlfriend, saying something incredibly awkward, then realizing the camera was on. It was physical, silly, and mean. People loved it.
The 1st Saturday Night Live show worked because it felt dangerous. It felt like something your parents would hate. In 1975, TV was very "safe." You had The Waltons. You had The Jeffersons. Then you had these long-haired weirdos doing a sketch about "New Kids' Home Movie" which was just a blank screen. It was meta before people really used the word meta.
The George Carlin Disconnection
George Carlin was the perfect host on paper, but the way they used him was bizarre. He was high. Like, really high. He admitted later he was "floating" through the whole experience.
Because Carlin refused to do sketches, the flow of the 1st Saturday Night Live show felt more like a variety hour than a sketch comedy show. He came out in a t-shirt and a vest, looking like he’d just walked in from the street. He did his bit about baseball vs. football. He talked about "the words you can't say."
It’s a misconception that he was part of the comedy bits. He was the anchor, but he stayed in his own lane.
The real comedy heavy lifting came from the "Short Show" by Albert Brooks and the Andy Kaufman segment.
Kaufman’s appearance is one of the most famous moments in TV history. He stood there, looking terrified, next to a small record player. He played the theme from Mighty Mouse. He stood perfectly still, looking like he was about to cry, until the chorus: "Here I come to save the day!" Then he’d lip-sync with massive energy.
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The audience didn't know whether to laugh or be confused. That was the point.
Why It Almost Failed
The reviews weren't all glowing. Some critics thought it was messy.
Technically, it was a mess. The sound was off. Transitions were clunky. Lorne Michaels was in the control room fighting with NBC executives who wanted to cut segments. The network was terrified of the "Weekend Update" bit where Chevy Chase made fun of President Gerald Ford.
But the messy nature of the 1st Saturday Night Live show is exactly why it survived.
It looked like real life. It looked like New York in the 70s—gritty, unpolished, and slightly frantic. If it had been too perfect, it would have just been another variety show like The Carol Burnett Show. Instead, it felt like a pirate radio station had hijacked a TV signal.
The Evolution of the Show
If you compare that first episode to what's on now, the differences are jarring.
- The Musical Load: In the early days, music was huge. They had two or three songs per episode.
- The Commercials: They did fake commercials, like "New Shimmer" (it’s a floor wax AND a dessert topping!). This became a staple of the brand.
- The Political Edge: While the first episode wasn't overtly political outside of the Ford jokes, it set the stage for the show to become the "unofficial" branch of the American political system.
The 1st Saturday Night Live show didn't have a "Cold Open" in the way we think of it now—a topical parody of the week's news. It was just a weird surrealist bit. The show had to find its feet over the first season. By the time Richard Pryor hosted later that year, the show had figured out that its real strength was social commentary and the chemistry of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players."
Behind the Scenes Chaos
Lorne Michaels had to fight for every inch of that show.
He didn't want a "host" in the traditional sense. He wanted a "guest" who would live in the world of the show. NBC executives kept trying to push him toward old-school entertainers. Lorne pushed back. He hired writers like Herb Sargent and Anne Beatts—people who had a cynical, sharp edge.
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They were all working on a shoestring budget. They were fueled by caffeine, adrenaline, and, frankly, a lot of illegal substances that were common in the mid-70s comedy scene. You can see it in the eyes of the performers in that first episode. There is a frantic, "we might get fired in ten minutes" energy that you just can't manufacture in a corporate studio environment today.
Key Moments to Rewatch
If you’re going back to watch the 1st Saturday Night Live show, look for these specific things:
- The Show Bees: The cast dressed up in bee costumes with antennas. It was a recurring gag that made no sense. It was a protest against the network's demand for "signature characters."
- Valri Bromfield: She was a guest comedian who did a bit about a teacher. She’s often forgotten in the history of the show, but she was part of that first night's DNA.
- Chevy's Fall: The physical comedy of Chevy Chase tripping and falling became the opening of almost every show for the first year. It started right here.
How to Watch the Original SNL Today
You can't just find the full, unedited 1975 broadcast easily on YouTube because of music licensing issues. Music rights are the bane of SNL’s historical archive.
The best way to see it is through Peacock, though some segments (specifically some musical performances or sketches with licensed songs) might be edited out or swapped.
Alternatively, there are the "Classic SNL" DVD sets. These are the "Holy Grail" for fans because they usually contain the full episodes as they aired, including the awkward silences and the weird musical guests that streaming services sometimes have to trim.
Taking it Further: Experience the History
If you really want to understand the impact of the 1st Saturday Night Live show, don't just watch the clips.
- Read "Live From New York": This is the definitive oral history by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. It gives the raw, uncensored accounts of what happened that night from the people who were there.
- Visit Studio 8H: If you’re ever in New York, the NBC Studio Tour takes you through the space. It’s remarkably small. Seeing how they fit those massive sets into that tiny room makes the feat of a live broadcast even more impressive.
- Watch "Saturday Night": The 2024 film directed by Jason Reitman. It’s a dramatization of the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast. While it takes some creative liberties, it perfectly captures the absolute panic and brilliance of October 11, 1975.
The 1st Saturday Night Live show wasn't perfect, but it was honest. It was a group of people in their 20s telling the establishment that they were taking over the airwaves. Fifty years later, we’re still watching the ripples of that one Saturday night in October.
To truly appreciate where the show is now, you have to see where it started: with a dead tutor, a man pretending to be a mouse, and a bunch of people dressed as bees. It was weird. It was loud. It was exactly what television needed.
Actionable Next Steps
- Compare the eras: Watch the first 10 minutes of the 1975 premiere on a streaming service, then jump to a 2024 or 2025 episode. Notice how the camera work has changed from static, stage-like shots to cinematic movements.
- Research the "Lost" segments: Look up the history of the "Muppets in Land of Gorch." It’s a fascinating rabbit hole of why Jim Henson and the SNL writers were a terrible match.
- Check out the 1975 musical guests: Listen to Billy Preston’s "Nothing from Nothing" or Janis Ian’s "At Seventeen." These songs topped the charts right as the show launched, providing a perfect time capsule of the era's sound.