Looking Back At SNL’s Best Moments In Honor Of Its 50th Anniversary
Saturday Night Live started out in 1975 as a sketch comedy variety show, similar to many others of its era. Half a century later, it's still a sketch comedy variety show — one that's regarded as a comedy institution.
In addition to entertaining audiences on Saturday nights with its lively, often unscripted moments and celebrity guests, the venerable show has also launched countless comedy careers. As SNL celebrates 50 years, let's take a look back at the path it took to get here.
The first episode started with a bang.
SNL was known officially as NBC's Saturday Night during its first season to avoid confusion with the variety show Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell. Lorne Michaels was tasked with assembling the cast.
The very first episode aired on October 11, 1975 and featured legendary comedian George Carlin as its host. Core cast members of the first season were drawn from the Second City comedy troupe, including Gilda Radner (the first to be hired), Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi. National Lampoon's Chevy Chase, along with Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Michael O'Donoghue and Laraine Newman rounded out the cast.
It was a proving ground for comedians.
Mercurial comedian Andy Kaufman can be seen here during SNL's first season. Although he wasn't a cast member, he made a few appearances during the season, starting with the very first episode.
While some of Kaufman's skits fell flat, one skit — in which he played a foreign man named "Foreign Man" — led to future success. That's because Kaufman's character Latka Gravas in Taxi was largely based on Foreign Man.
Garrett Morris made his debut in the first episode.
Morris, a founding cast member and also the first Black cast member of SNL, appeared on the program between 1975 and 1980 before moving on to work on a variety of sitcoms.
Modern viewers who look back at these early episodes of SNL will likely be shocked by the length of the skits, which were generally only around two minutes in length. This is a marked contrast to skits of the '90s and 2000s, many of which were criticized for overstaying their welcome.
"I'm Chevy Chase, and you're not."
While Chevy Chase initially split duties between writing and performing, he eventually became iconic for his Weekend Update skit — a format that carries on to this day — and his signature tagline, "I'm Chevy Chase, and you're not."
Chase's dry comedic sensibilities and charisma led to big-budget comedy success in the decades to come, but his prickly reputation behind the scenes has limited his work in recent years.
Jane Curtin was also a Weekend Update mainstay.
Jane Curtin was another cast member to make their debut in the very first episode. She often appeared behind the Weekend Update desk during her five seasons on the show.
Curtin was known to be a driven and focused comedian who sometimes found herself at odds with other cast members. While the rest of the cast of the era was known for its hard-partying ways, Curtin rejected this lifestyle.
The first season was uneven, but successful.
It stands to reason that it took SNL some time to perfect its format, even if all the pieces were there right from the start. This 1975 publicity photo features the original cast of SNL: Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Michael O'Donoghue, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Garrett Morris.
Ratings during this season were good enough for NBC to greenlight a second season in 1976. With ABC's Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell now cancelled, SNL took on its current name.
The show attracted some controversy.
It's said that anything can happen on live TV, and this has frequently been the case on SNL. Here, musician Elvis Costello is seen angering SNL's producers by playing a then-unrecorded and non-approved song, "Radio Radio," which was critical of corporate interests.
Lorne Michaels was reportedly furious at the stunt. Years later, Costello would be invited back as a musical guest, and jokingly re-created the performance — with full approval this time — and invited the Beastie Boys to be his backup band.
A new decade meant new stars.
Eddie Murphy became one of the biggest comedic stars to emerge from the '80s, and the genesis of his mainstream success came with his debut on SNL in the early years of the decade.
Murphy was known for numerous memorable characters, including a version of Mister Rogers, a despondent Gumby, and a grown-up version of Buckwheat from Little Rascals, which is shown here. Murphy is credited as one of the few bright spots during a low ebb for the show.
The show has always attracted top-notch musical guests.
This photo shows Prince performing on the February 21, 1981 episode of SNL. The vast majority of musical performances on the show have gone off without a hitch, with the musicians often taking part in some skits.
Of course, there's also been controversy. In addition to the Elvis Costello incident, the most famous musical controversy came when singer Sinéad O'Connor tore up a photo of the Pope following a performance.
Season 10 was unique.
The season starting in October of 1984 featured names like Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Martin Short, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer.
This all-star cast unfortunately didn't have much to work with, as budget constraints combined with a writer's strike meant that only 17 episodes were produced, with a notably lower budget than previous seasons.
As the '80s wore on, new stars rose up.
Cast members like Dana Carvey entered the mix in the late '80s. Carvey, along with comedians like Phil Hartman and Kevin Nealon, ushered in the early stages of what would be seen as one of SNL's golden eras.
Carvey's iconic character, the Church Lady, proved to be a breakout hit. He was also known for playing Garth Algar in the Wayne's World skits with Mike Myers.
SNL celebrated 15 years in 1990.
At this point, many of the show's most memorable cast members were in place, including Carvey, Phil Hartman, Chris Farley, Dennis Miller, Chris Rock, and Mike Myers.
The season featured John Goodman as a guest host. This is intriguing because Goodman had unsuccessfully auditioned to be a cast member in 1980 and went on to become a frequent host of the show. Although he was never a cast member, he did go on to play several recurring SNL characters in the '90s.
Weekend Update was still going strong.
Dennis Miller and Chris Rock can be seen here behind the Weekend Update desk, where Chevy Chase and Jane Curtin once sat.
The Weekend Update segment gives comedians a chance to essentially deliver a standup routine, along with some light skits, under the guise of being news reporters. Other notable hosts over the years have included Norm Macdonald, Colin Quinn, Jimmy Fallon, and Tina Fey.
The show was firing on all cylinders in the '90s.
This cast photo from season 18 shows the level of star power on SNL: Adam Sandler, David Spade, Tim Meadows, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and Chris Farley are all present.
The show would add more comedians to its cast as the decade wore on, and served as a springboard to some of the biggest breakout comedy stars of the era.
Of course there were spinoffs.
SNL skits, which often come about during a last-second brainstorm before the show goes to air, have a way of entering mainstream comedy — and in some cases, becoming such hits that they spawn their own movies.
Many skits have been turned into movies, with differing results at the box office. Movies like Wayne's World were successful enough to get a sequel, while Coneheads — starring Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin — was largely forgotten.
Guest hosts were often megastars.
The guest host of SNL is always a recognizable name, and the show has alternated between choosing repeated hosts who work well with the format and big stars who are part of the cultural zeitgeist.
In the '90s, basketball superstar Michael Jordan was one of the most recognized figures on the planet, so SNL made sure to book him for an episode. In this photo, Air Jordan is flanked by Julia Sweeney, Chris Rock, Tim Meadows, Mike Myers, Rob Schneider, Phil Hartman, and Victoria Jackson.
A dynamite trio on Weekend Update.
The Weekend Update segment is generally the most topical on SNL, as it doesn't typically require elaborate sets or costumes. This enables cast members to riff about current events without building a skit around them.
This 1994 photo shows some of the decade's most venerable stars: Kevin Nealon, Chris Farley, and David Spade. Just two months after this photo was taken, real world events would make this segment the center of controversy and infighting.
Norm Macdonald took no prisoners on Weekend Update.
In June of 1994, there was no bigger news than O.J. Simpson, who was accused of murdering his ex-wife and her friend. Weekend Update host Norm Macdonald gleefully went all-in on the drama, ruthlessly roasting Simpson at every opportunity.
This came to a head when Don Ohlmeyer, a former NBC exec and close friend of O.J. Simpson, saw some of Macdonald's material. Ohlmeyer fired Macdonald for this — a topic that Macdonald revisited many times in the years to come.
Music didn't always come from the guests.
Many of SNL's cast members over the years have had talents beyond physical comedy, and in some cases have shown off their musical chops.
Adam Sandler, seen here with the guitar along with Rob Schneider, Tim Meadows, and Chris Farley, was known for his humorous songs on the show, including "The Hanukkah Song." His work led him to release several well-performing musical comedy albums.
Lorne Michaels makes the occasional appearance.
Series creator Lorne Michaels is generally seen as a behind-the-scenes figure — and indeed, he's a writer and producer, not an actor or a comedian.
Still, this hasn't stopped Michaels from making occasional on-screen appearances, beginning with the show's first season. He generally plays a deadpan, serious character — an apparent riff on what he's really like.
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey were dynamic cast members.
Poehler and Fey, two real-life friends with undeniable on-screen chemistry, were versatile cast members in the early 2000s. Both were known for impressive impersonations, with Poehler depicting Hillary Clinton and Fey depicting Sarah Palin in a series of memorable political sketches.
Of course, like many other cast members, both women were able to use SNL as a springboard to greater success in TV and movies. They've both returned to SNL as guests on many occasions.
The 2000s brought more memorable stars.
Comedian Andy Samberg got his start making comedic videos with his friends Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, in a troupe that became known as The Lonely Island.
Samberg parlayed this success into an SNL gig as a featured player in 2005. Along with Chris Parnell, Samberg starred in the "Lazy Sunday" music video — one of the very first videos to go viral on YouTube.
The star power has always been there.
Taylor Swift is perhaps the biggest star the musical industry has ever seen, and was already well on her way to this status when she performed on SNL in 2009.
This performance was noteworthy because Swift not only did double duty as musical guest and host, but also reportedly was the first guest host to ever write their own opening monologue in the show's long history.
Who could forget Celebrity Jeopardy?
One of the most popular recurring sketches of the '90s was "Celebrity Jeopardy," in which Will Ferrell played an exasperated Alex Trebek — generally with Darrell Hammond portraying Sean Connery and Norm Macdonald as Burt Reynolds.
This 2009 photo shows the trio reprising their roles. They're joined by Kristen Wiig, who plays Kathie Lee Gifford, and Tom Hanks as himself.
2015 marked 40 years of SNL.
The 40th anniversary special episode of SNL aired on February 15, 2015. Many of the show's biggest stars from years past came back to join the festivities.
This star-studded skit, showing "The Californians," included Bradley Cooper, Laraine Newman, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Taran Killam, Kerry Washington, Fred Armisen, and Vanessa Bayer.
Cast members need to be chameleons.
While it's usually easy to identify which cast member is portraying a given celebrity, the topical nature of the show means that cast members need to be adept at emulating the mannerisms and general appearance of the celebrity they're spoofing.
The show always needs a cast member who can ably portray the sitting president. Here, Will Ferrell is shown in his role as George W. Bush.
Old friends are always welcomed back.
SNL is constantly splitting the difference between featuring old favorites and new stars. Behind-the-scenes drama has led to a few spats where specific celebrities have been temporarily or permanently banned from the show, but in general, the show is welcoming to former stars.
Steve Martin and Martin Short are frequent collaborators in the comedy genre, and are also SNL favorites — Short was a cast member while Martin was a frequent host. They served as guest hosts on this December 10, 2022 episode.
The newer generation has plenty of star power as well.
While SNL frequently finds itself under the pop culture microscope and faces criticism on a near-weekly basis, its more recent crop of stars has continued to carry the torch.
This 2016 still shows guest host Emma Stone along with cast members Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant. Just like episodes in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, the image shows a big Hollywood star, along with cast members who will soon find further comedy success.
The 50th anniversary special aired on February 16, 2025.
Long-time viewers who remember the 15th or 25th anniversary (or those who were around from the start) might be shocked to realize that the series has been going strong for a full half-century.
The 50th anniversary bash was full of beloved cast members. This sketch included Chris Rock, Kenan Thompson, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, and Eddie Murphy.
SNL shows no sign of slowing down.
Across 50 years and countless sketches, SNL is a comedy monolith, known not just for its unpredictable and hilarious blend of live entertainment, but also for serving as a springboard for numerous comedy careers.
To date, it's received more than 300 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, the most of all time. At its current rate, it seems more likely than not that SNL will still be around to mark its hundredth anniversary.
