Saturday Night

Sharon and I watched Saturday Night as a rental on the AppleTV. This is loosely part of our annual journey to see all of the films that MIGHT be nominated for any Oscar. The movie received one Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for Gabriel LaBelle's performance as the show's creator and producer, Lorne Michaels.

Saturday Night is a biographical comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman. It is about the night of the 1975 premiere of NBC's Saturday Night, later known as Saturday Night Live.

The film stars a large ensemble cast portraying the various Saturday Night cast and crew. In addition to Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, I particularly enjoyed Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd and Matt Wood as John Belushi.

Frankly, I wanted to watch the movie because I have always been a Saturday Night Live fan. One of my cherished memories is watching a SNL skit with Nooter.  It was Steve Martin and Bill Murray pointing and asking “What the hell is that…?”.  This skit ran in October of 1979, more than forty-five years ago.

I read a 750 page oral history of the first five years of the show in 2020. While I was reading the book, I watched the first episode. Running on the treadmill, I watched the entire first session during the pandemic. I am currently slowly working my way through the second season.

Saturday Night won't win any awards. It will not be nominated for any Oscars. Nevertheless, as a fan of the show, I enjoyed the movie.