Starring: Gabrielle La Belle, Cory Michael Smith, Nicholas Braun, Matt Wood, Willem Dafoe, Dylan O’Brien, Ella Hunt, Naomi McPherson, JK Simmons and Nichola Podany
Distributor: Colombia
Runtime: 109 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2024
Reviewer: Ann Rennie
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At 11.30pm on 11 October 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. Find out what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live.
There is nothing quite like the adrenalin rush of putting on a live show. I remember having a couple of walk-on lines in university revues with a young Steve Vizard when I was a fabulous K-Tel poppet, all spangled and doo-woppy. There were skits and jokes and dancing and great deal of energy, and some talent sprayed into the auditorium at the University of Melbourne. There was behind-the scenes mayhem, lighting blips, cues missed, notes approximated, wobbly sets, ad-libbing, some instant romance and a feel-good rush of undergraduate bravado and a bit of two-fingers up at tradition and convention.
So it is on 11 October 1975 when Saturday Night Live goes to air for the very first time in New York’s Rockefeller Centre Studios. This film documents that famed opening night and is fast-paced and frenetic. It is time-stamped between 10pm and 11.30pm when the show goes live. I enjoyed much of the film and there were some really funny lines and some inappropriate ones, which, of course, is the nature of the beast. Skits, sketches, satire, spoofs and shenanigans with the occasional music item are the consistent fare of Saturday Night Live. As one of the cast says in the movie, ‘Live TV is a lava lamp with a slightly better audience.’ The 1970s vibe is well executed with big hair, brown flairs and a marijuana haze wafting amongst the cast drawn from the local comedy circuit.
We watch as director of the show Lorne Michaels (LaBelle) makes changes, placates performers, worries and wonders about exactly what sort of show he is putting to air. So, too, does the erstwhile NBC executive David Tebet (Dafoe) who speaks of the show having no budget, rather a ransom note for the cavalcade of underground talent that will provide the line-up. Michaels has too much material and last-minute changes are made right until the show goes on. Billy Crystal (Podany) was dropped as the show premiered.
There’s a hippie Jim Henson (Braun, who also plays comedian Andy Kaufman) who wanders around ‘speaking Muppet’ and John Belushi (Wood) in a bee suit who thinks he is better than Brando. Comedians abound – Chevy Chase (Smith), Dan Ackroyd (O’Brien), Gilda Radner (Hunt). JK Simmons as the old master, the oleaginous Milton Berle is particularly good, a lounge-lizardy creep. Janis Ian is played by McPherson rendering ‘At Seventeen’ with tortured teenage angst. There is all the last-minuteness of a show and the fear and excitement of not knowing whether or not it will be a hit. Live entertainment is a highwire act – either it flies or plummets.
I enjoyed this film with its huge cast and rapid fire approach, even though I was not familiar with the original show. The Joan Carbunkle character (Catherine Curtin) was the ‘standards’ person for NBC. This character was based on multiple people who had the unedifying role of censoring material. In the film, Carbunkle appears to be totally out of her depth surrounded as she was by youthful exuberance and iconoclasm.
Now, a cultural placemat as far as USA TV goes with Michaels still at the helm as it enters its 50th year, this film celebrates the marvellous mayhem, originality and talent of those who dared to step on toes and put on a live show that really got audiences laughing.
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