Fifty Years of SNL

And I've been watching almost all of it

Photo by Tiziano Brignoli on Unsplash

Most of our friends look at me funny when I say we’re still watching Saturday Night Live. (In truth, we usually watch only the first thirty minutes because Noir Alley comes on Turner Classic Movies, and that’s Must-See-TV in our house.)

Yes, I sat in the Schmidt Hall TV lounge with all the other dateless deplorables and watched the first episode on October 11, 1975. Years later, at an Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop, I would hear the speaker Alan Zweibel, who was an original writer and wrote the first joke Chevy Chase ever told on air.

"The post office is issuing a stamp commemorating prostitution in the United States. It's a 10-cent stamp, but if you lick it, it's a quarter." (Citation)

Now, it’s been fifty years. I am no longer a college freshman, uncertain of who I am and how I fit into the world. And I’ve religiously watched SNL with my spouse all that time. We suffered through the Victoria “I am not a Bimbo” Jackson years and didn’t laugh at so many people.

While we still watch, we rarely know both the host and the musical guest. While I enjoyed Nate Bargatze last week, I did not appreciate Dana Carvey making fun of Joe Biden. A little of that goes a long way, and this was the second week in a row to mock Biden’s possible declining mental status.

I’ve been fortunate to tour NBC several times (including once as a child when we saw Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show studio and ran into Joe Garagiola in the hall when he was doing the Today Show. But more exciting than even those two things was seeing Studio 8H, where SNL is taped.

Here are some of my favorite moments from SNL over the years. What are your favorites?

Steve Martin and Gilda Radner dancing

Coneheads

Simon and Garfunkle

Andy Kauffman and Mighty Mouse

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