Sony Pictures has unveiled the first trailer Saturday Night. The Jason Reitman project, telling the story of the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live, will be released on October 11th. That is the anniversary of that first broadcast.
That 1975 show was hosted by George Carlin. Although nobody knew it at the time, it would go on to become an American television legend now in its 50th season.
Reitman directs from a script co-written with Gil Kenan, based on the true story and presented in real-time format of the final 90 minutes leading up to the broadcast.
The ensemble cast includes Gabriel LaBelle (Lorne Michaels), Dylan O’Brien (Dan Aykroyd), Cory Michael Smith (Chevy Chase), Rachel Sennott (Rosie Shuster), Lamorne Morris (Garrett Morris), Nicholas Braun (Jim Henson & Andy Kaufman), Jon Batiste (Billy Preston), Ella Hunt (Gilda Radnor), Cooper Hoffman (Dick Ebersol), Andrew Barth Feldman (Neil Levy), Naomi McPherson (Janis Ian), Willem Dafoe (David Tebet), J.K. Simmons (Milton Berle), Kaia Gerber (Jacqueline Carlin), and Matthew Rhys (George Carlin).
As the blurb says:
“At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television – and culture – forever. Directed by Jason Reitman and written by Gil Kenan & Reitman, Saturday Night is based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humor, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words…”
SNL has aired 968 episodes since its debut, making it one of the longest-running network television programs in the United States. The show format has been developed and recreated in several countries, meeting with different levels of success.
Successful sketches have seen life outside the show as feature films, including The Blues Brothers (1980) and Wayne’s World (1992).
Jason Blumenfeld, Peter Rice, Reitman, and Gil Kenan are producers of Saturday Night.