I was vaguely aware of the infamous sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live during my teenage years, but it wasn’t until the 2008 US election that I finally saw my first episode. The sketch that caught my attention was a parody of the mainstream media’s shameless fawning over then-US Senator Barack Obama as he competed against Hilary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. It was punchy, well-acted, and most importantly funny.
This first exposure didn’t exactly turn me into a die-hard fan, but it certainly put the legendary show on my radar. I’d tune in for the sketches and often tune out the musical guests (I’m very particular with my Top 40) over the years, seeing cast members come and go, although Kenan Thomson remains a constant.
It wasn’t until my stint as an assistant editor on a still-unfinished SNL documentary series that I gained a true appreciation for the history of the program. Most of my job consisted of ingesting and logging sketches of the hours of episodes we received from Broadway Video in New York. These included the very first episode to air on October 11, 1975 when audiences all over North America first heard the immortal words “Live from New York, It’s Saturday Night!”.
SNL airs in a 90 minute time slot which is roughly the timeframe examined in Jason Reitman’s biographical dramedy Saturday Night depicting the hour and a half of chaos preceding the aforementioned series premiere’s airing. Leading the charge is 30 year-old TV writer-turned-producer Lorne Michaels (Vancouver’s own Gabriel LaBelle) who finds himself stretched thin as Murphy’s Law reigns supreme in Studio 8H. His key comic John Belushi (Matt Wood) refuses to sign his contract, his partner Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) is pushing him to include tacky product placement, his maverick writer Michael O’Donaghue (Tommy Dewey) refuses to write dialogue for the Muppets of Jim Henson (Nicholas Braun), and the old-guard crewmen are unimpressed with this scrappy cast of 20-somethings.
If this all weren’t enough, network executive David Tebet seems to be looking for any excuse to pull the plug on the whole affair and run a repeat of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show instead. The whole thing seems doomed to end before it even begins.
Shot in grainy 16mm, Saturday Night positively pulses with energy from the opening frame where Ebersol pushes Michaels to explain just what the show is with the latter countering that Edison wasn’t expected to explain electricity in its first demonstration. The assembled cast doesn’t always physically resemble the real-life folks they’re portraying (LaBelle and Wood excepted), but most of them have mastered the voice and mannerisms with Smith’s Chevy Chase and Nicholas Podany’s Billy Crystal both managing astonishingly accurate embodiments.
Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan pack a lot into their screenplay without tangling any of the threads. Bursts of chaos are expertly woven with more intimate character moments and nary a single character fails to leave an impression with the audience. It’s a tall order to portray entertainment icons, but today’s talent is clearly up for the task.
It may seem counterintuitive, but it’s the slower moments in the story that almost work against the film at times. We are constantly reminded by timestamps and the characters themselves that precious seconds are slipping away until showtime at 11:30 and both the film and Lorne himself seem to lose a sense of urgency during these slower moments. It would have been a no-brainer for the film to commit to playing out in real-time, especially since it’s already 90% of the way there.
Saturday Night feels like a return to form for Reitman who hasn’t felt this on-task in nearly a decade. He’s assembled the right crew at the right time (I happened to see this on Oct 11, precisely 49 years after the events depicted) and a fitting tribute to the pioneering of Michaels and company. A spirit that’s continued to pay dividends as SNL has just begun its 50th season with Michaels still at the helm. Do yourself a favour and catch this gem on a Saturday evening before rushing home to tune into the real thing.
9/10
Saturday Night is currently playing in theatres nationwide. The 50th season of SNL is also currently underway
I was 8 years old on October 11, 1975. I had no parental supervision, so of course I stayed up till 1 am and watched this new show on NBC called “Saturday Night”. I never missed an episode after that. I was hooked with the third segment of Andy Kaufman mouthingalong while his record player, played the Mighty Mouse theme song.