Last night Saturday Night Live celebrated its 50th anniversary with a star-studded special full of memorable skits and emotional performances in an apt love letter to the long-running sketch show.
The three-hour special featured a massive list of guest-stars, former hosts and cast members from throughout the various decades including Adam Sandler, Tracy Morgan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Leslie Jones and Lin-Manuel Miranda, among many others.
Prior to the show, SNL cast member Chloe Fineman told NBC, “There are some appearances that I teared up about when I found out they would be a part of Sunday — and also, just the celebration of all of our greatest hits,” Fineman continued. “We rehearsed today — it was honestly one of the most fun rehearsals I’ve had in six years!”
A Brief History of the Show
Saturday Night Live (SNL) first premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975.
The 90-minute program was created by Dick Ebersol and Lorne Michaels (and Michaels remains the executive producer to this day). The show quickly gained popularity with a mix of edgy humor, political satire and pop culture that made it truly one of a kind.
It has continued to churn out iconic skits and coin memorable phrases over the years such as “more cowbell” and “You Look, Mahvelous!”
Thanks to the ever-rotating cast ensemble, countless celebrities have gotten their starts and risen to fame, in part, due to their appearances on SNL. The show has won over 100 Emmys and countless other awards over its multi-decade span.
There was much fanfare leading up to the 3-hour special including an SNL concert the night before and a four-part documentary series on the history of SNL, which aired on Peacock in the preceding weeks.
A Recap of the Night’s Sketches
As expected the show was full of nostalgic callbacks to popular sketches and characters.
The highly-anticipated premiere began with an unexpected and touching duet between Sabrina Carpenter and Paul Simon singing the classic Simon and Garfunkel tune, “Homeward Bound.” Paul recalled he originally sang the song on SNL with George Harrison in 1976.
Steve Martin followed up with an opening monologue, which he half-jokingly dubbed the “weakest part of the show.”
Will Ferrell kicked off the first sketch reprising his role from the 2000’s SNL era impersonating French-Canadian actor Robert Goulet.
The recurring sketch “Black Jeopardy” was next with Kenan Thompson as host Darnell Hayes. Guests included Leslie Jones and Tracy Morgan posed as fictional contestants while Eddie Murphy hilariously impersonated Tracy Morgan himself as the third contestant. The sketch revolved around the punchline that none of the contestants knew what the show Saturday Night Live was.
One particularly celebrity-filled sketch involved a series of parody songs of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me” and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso”, sung by Carpenter herself with Andy Samberg, Bad Bunny and Pedro Pascal, alongside much of the current SNL cast.
As usual, Weekend Update was a standout section of the show. Seth Meyers (who served as a weekend update host in the early 2000’s) returned to the chair to interview Fred Armisen and Vanessa Bayer who played Lorne Michaels‘ “best friends from growing up.” The two loudly espoused their love for the SNL director before dishing some fictional tea in hushed voices.
Bill Murrary proceeded to rank the weekend update hosts throughout the years, notably leaving Jost off the list, despite sitting right next to him. Bobby Moynihan also played the memorable “Drunk Uncle” next to Cecily Strong’s “Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party” character.
Another sketch saw John Mulaney guiding David Spade and Pete Davidson through the various decades of New York City with short and snappy musician numbers. The ’70s featured Adam Driver dressed up as a hotdog and Maya Rudolph as heroin. A second musical number about cocaine and vodka set to the tune of The Lion King’s “Hakuna Matata” was also a big driver of laughs.
A particularly memorable skit recounted an alien abduction, led by an unhinged Kate McKinnon playing popular character Miss Rafferty and Meryl Streep as her mother. The two’s barrage of dirty jokes and physical comedy pertaining to their “unkempt private areas” had all cast members involved (John Hamm, Woody Harrelson, Aidy Bryant and Pedro Pascal) breaking character by the end.
Tom Hanks introduced a montage of horribly-aged SNL skits that included guest performance from R. Kelly and Diddy, various racist jokes and other questionable moments that Hanks noted would certainly be a “cancellable” offense nowadays.
Rachel Dratch playing her iconic “Debby Downer” character scored some of the biggest laughs of the night accompanied by Robert DeNiro, Jimmy Fallon, Ayo Edebiri and Drew Barrymore. Aided by honky sound effects and creative camera zooms, this sketch was perhaps the best revival of a beloved SNL character.
Throughout the show there was also a sprinkling of musical guest acts including Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard performing a soulful cover of “Nothing Compares 2 U” originally by Sinéad O’Connor. Later in the show, Lil Wayne was joined by Questlove and the Roots for an energetic medley of Wayne’s hits including “Lollipop” and “Mrs. Officer.”
The entire show closed with a lively performance of “Golden Slumbers / Carry that Weight” by Sir Paul McCartney. Halfway through McCartney stood up from his colorful piano to rip a guitar solo in true rockstar fashion.
An Honest Review Of The Show
For long-time fans of the show, this anniversary special was certainly a treat. With nostalgic callbacks to classic characters and skits, the show offered a brief return to what many would consider the golden age era of SNL. For the casual or new fan, many of the references could certainly be lost in translation and result in certain jokes not landing. And while seeing classic characters return to the big screen offered a certain level of nostalgia, few of the reprisals really measured up to their former glory.
The three hour run-time (not counting the hour long pre-show) led to the show feeling a bit bloated at times. Most sketches seemed far too drawn out and relied on a steady stream of guest appearance throughout to inject new life into the skit.
The sheer quantity of celebrities in attendance in both the sketches and the general audience was mind-boggling and a true testament to the impact the show has had over the decades. As a viewer, every moment made me feel like the meme of Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the television screen in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. By the end, I was left wondering who wasn’t in attendance?
Some of the best sketches were able to tread the fine line between old and new. In a particularly memorable pre-recorded sketch, original cast member Laraine Newman returns to the set of SNL for a stroll down memory lane. She befriends Pete Davidson playing his classic “Chad” character who’s dead-pan, one-line responses played perfectly off Newman’s emotional responses to returning “home” to set. The skit was surprisingly moving, at one point overlaying clips from the original season as Newman gracefully remembered the lights, cameras and music that she so loved.
The balance between humor and emotion and the combining of two completely different eras of SNL really stood out here.
Similarly Adam Sandler gave an acoustic music number written specially for the show with the refrain “50 years,” where he harkened back to many memories he shared with his fellow cast members. While full of lines that could make you chuckle, the song gradually built in dynamics and emotion becoming a moving ode to the best parts of the show and the amazing actors who have graced the stage over the decades.
In general, I felt the show got off to a relatively slow start but gained steady momentum throughout. From Weekend Update on, I found myself enjoying and laughing at the majority of the skits. The last few skits including the reprisal of “Debby Downer” and the “Scared Straight” series provided some of the biggest highlights of the night.
Overall, the special anniversary show was a huge affair and required an immense amount of coordination to pull off successfully and credit must be given to this point. Ultimately, the show successfully captured the reasons why Saturday Night Live has become such a beloved staple in American pop culture.
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