Sunday night, Lynndee and I had the time of our lives when we watched the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special. Why they didn’t show it on Saturday night, I don’t know. Most likely it would have interfered with the regularly scheduled show on Saturday night. And since the anniversary show was three and a half hours long, they couldn’t start showing the anniversary show at 11:30. Not even I would have stayed up till 3:00AM to watch.
My love of this show actually goes all the way back to the very first episode which I was fortunate to see. Way back in that day, 1975, me and my good buddy, Doug, could always be found in the same spot on Friday and Saturday nights: The Longbranch Saloon. That is where we plied our weekend trade, shooting pool on the old-style 50 cent tables. At that time, we worked together in a local factory, but on the weekends we could make as much money shooting pool as we did at our regular jobs for the week. And no, we weren’t hustlers. We never set people up by faking it; we always shot our game, daring anyone to challenge us, and to back up their challenge with moolah.
The Longbranch was a new type of establishment in our area. At that time, there was no liquor by the drink. Sure, there were the usual bars where you could get a beer, but that was it; nothing hard. But hey, this is what was once known as the Bible Belt – probably still is – and that’s just the way it was, though if you knew the right places to go, you could find a bootlegger or a moonshiner and get some good ‘ol white lightning, mountain dew. There was, however, an ordinance passed that created what was called brown bagging. It was called that because you could go to the ABC store, buy a bottle and then go to a club or dance hall, carry your liquor in while still inside the brown paper bag and then buy your mixers. Longbranch changed that in their own quaint way. Once you carried your booze in, you handed it over to the bartender and they placed it on the shelf behind the bar with your own personal number on it, and when you wanted a drink mixed, you’d just go give ’em your number and order it. They even had lockers so regulars could rent one to keep their booze in. But not only was it a saloon, it was also a disco with the quintessential big revolving ball above the dance floor. And what made the place really unique, in front of the bar was a huge room with lounge chairs and sofas placed in front of several TVs for all the sports fanatics. But late night, they played whatever was on, and on that particular October eve, those of us fortunate enough to be there saw that very first SNL episode hosted by the late comedian George Carlin. It had the usual cold opening featuring John Belushi as a foreigner trying to learn English followed by Chevy Chase bellowing out the first ever, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”
Such was the beginning, and over the next weeks, then months and now years that have turned into decades, I became acquainted with so many comedians and actors and musicians who went on to become stars. Dan Aykroyd; Chevy Chase; Bill Murray; Will Ferrel; Richard Pryor; and who could ever forget Eddie Murphy, who almost single handily saved the show from cancellation in the early 80’s. And of course, there were those who tragically died early, like John Belushi, Phil Hartman; Chris Farley; and the heartbreakingly cute and sweet Gilda Radner whose notable characters on SNL were Roseanne Roseannadanna and “Baba Wawa“, a parody of news woman Barbara Walters.
From that first episode on, our Saturday night ritual at Longbranch changed. We’d stop shooting pool
around 11:15 to be sure we could get a seat because we weren’t the only ones already hooked on the show. After the show, it was back to the pool tables until last call for alcohol.
Over the years there have been so many skits that have become legend, such as the Coneheads, the Blues Brothers, John Belushi’s time-traveling Samurai and Mr. Bill (oh nooooooo!). But those were recurring skits that showed up from time to time. Just this past week I saw listed on my MSN Homepage the top 40 skits out of forty years on the air. Much to my dismay, the one I so well remember that is my all time favorite wasn’t listed. Jeff Goldblum was the host and opened talking about the upcoming release of the sequel to Jurassic Park, The Lost World. But before he could finish, he was interrupted by Jim Brewer who stalked onto the stage doing a dinosaur imitation. My daughter and I were watching and to be cliché, we were absolutely rolling in the floor laughing. In my book, the best and funniest skit I ever saw in my forty years of watching the show.
It’s hard to imagine a show lasting for forty years, especially a live show. Back in the beginning days of TV, there was Sid Ceasar’s Your Show of Shows, which could be considered a forerunner of Saturday Night Live for it was a 90 minute live show of comedic sketches, or skits, featuring the comics of the time and up and coming comedians. It was ranked #30 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, but it was on the air for only four years. I can only wonder what kind of ranking SNL might get years from now. In my book, it would have to be in the top ten. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I’ll just continue to enjoy as well as reminisce about all that came to pass over the 40-year run.
Everyone raves about Saturday NIght LIve, I have never seen one so it makes me so curious!
Most of my favorite comedians come from Saturday Night Live. I would love to see a show live! My all time fave skit will forever be “Cowbell”.
I was wondering why they didn’t show it on Saturday night? LOL I just watched the saturday night ones back that I had DVR’d 🙂
Saturday Night Live will always be a classic-and you are right–only in New York. I grew up near NYC and actually still live close to it. Back then the drinking age was 18 here (of course they casually forgot to card the females!). I never did see a show in person but I sure watched it enough on TV.
I DVR’d it. 3.5 hours was way too long for me to commit to watching at one time. I will watch it in sections this weekend.
I wish I had cable I would have loved to have watched! So sucks I can’t, but hopefully I’ll catch it at some point. I heard it was super long!
I totally missed out on the show. I haven’t watched SNL in a long time! I watched it in the 80s quite a bit though!
We watched the 40 year show. It was amazing
I have never been a Saturday Night Live fan but I do like all the skits they do. I am also a big fan of Tina Fey and have even reviewed her book.
While I missed the 40th celebration show I rarely miss it in Satirday. So many great comediand have been born and featured!
New York really is the only place this show makes sense. It is just enough crazy!
I live in New York, not the city, and I’ve always wanted to go. I love watching SNL
I haven’t seen SNL in so long, I remember how it used to be so hilarious!
Ah NYC (my favorite city) and SNL! There’s so much love from me for these!!!
I haven’t watched the special yet, but I’m planning to this weekend! I’ve always wanted to visit NYC and am excited to finally be going in May.
And you’ll certainly enjoy it. I’ve been several times and another trip is yet to come because Lynndee wants to go. Being from the Philippines, she feels that coming to the US and not seeing New York would be a sin.
I never did get into Saturday night live – BUT…when I did see episodes I would love it and enjoyed all of the people that became stars from the show – Now I want to share that I also enjoyed your storytelling writing style for this post 🙂
Thank you so much, Donna, for appreciating my work on writing this. It was so much fun; brought back many memories of those early days and my introduction to SNL. Lynndee, my wifey, is always making fun of me for writing what she calls “a novel” when I do a post. But that’s just the way I am; when I get started, I don’t know when to shut up…(“,)
I can’t believe that SNL has been on for 40 years. Mr. Bill was one of my favorite sketches, by far.
I have never got into SNL but my mother in law loves it. I like catching older skits of it on youtube though. So many stars got there start on SNL. Thanks for sharing your love for the show.
And thank you, April, for reading all about my love.
SNL has been on for so long, but it’s just not my cup of tea. There are certain segments I find funny but for the most part I find it trying to be funny too much.
I’ve never actually seen Saturday Night Live. I don’t even know if we can get it here in Ireland, I must check 🙂
It is really amazing for a show to last that long. It’s evolved with the generations though. My husband liked it back in the day and my grown kids like it now.
I absolutely love Saturday night live and totally haven’t seen this!!! I keep hearing about how great it was too
I’ve watched a couple Saturday Night Live episodes, but I could never really get in to it too much. Probably because for the most part I was always too tired to really pay attention and would fall asleep. I do however love some of the skits that I’ve seen from the past.
I am so excited for this show!!!! I absolutely love watching Saturday Night Live! Who doesn’t love how silly those actors are.
I wanted to see this particular reunion show. When I was younger, I used to stay up late with my Mom to watch SNL…a lot of classic characters then. My Mom saw this special and recorded it on the DVR, so I will catch it later – but I heard that it was really good.
I use to love watching Saturday Night Live and can’t even imaging it not in New York! We watched the special, just awesome!
I love Saturday night live! The special was so great and I loved seeing how it evolved!
One day I’ll join the rest of the cool crowd and actually watch SNL… would you believe I’ve never seen it!
My entire family likes Saturday night live. It is so funny and yet so tasteful to such a wide audience, I do not feel guilty watching it with my teenagers.