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What is Saturday Night?

What is Saturday Night


This is the question that plagues Lorne Michaels on Oct. 11, 1975 as he attempts to create the very first episode of his now hit program, Saturday Night (now known as SNL). And now, I am struggling with that same question—What is Saturday Night? How can I properly explain the allure of this movie portrayal of a TV show that is so near and dear to thousands of viewers?


The entire movie takes place in the span of one night, marked by intermittent time counts as the clock strikes closer and closer to midnight. Throughout the movie, we follow SNL creator Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) and other members of the cast through a variety of hijinks and issues that pop up in the chaos of a show like Saturday Night. Typical of the SNL we know today, we are treated to a wide variety of comedic tools ranging from sexual humor—highlighted by the disdain of the NBC Standards representative as she attempts to censor the crude jokes and innuendos written into the script—to role-reversing societal commentaries, present in a sketch rehearsal where the female cast members dress up as construction workers and harass a skimpily dressed Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien) who had been flirting with them all earlier that night. However, Saturday Night steps away from the bright lights of the stage by showing us the behind-the-scenes stress and mayhem throughout the tumultuous night. 


From falling light fixtures to disappearing cast members, the show seems doomed to fail. In fact, this fear of failure is one of the movie’s strongest features. Although we as the audience know that the show does succeed, the film successfully makes us doubt whether what we know is true. Incomplete sets, excessive run times, unsigned actor contracts, plotting NBC executives, squabbling costars—any of these problems on their own would be enough to sink a struggling show on its first episode. Altogether, they pose a seemingly insurmountable task for Michaels, a first time producer who can’t even answer the simple question as to what his show is about. This tension is only amplified by the structure of the movie. It switches from hurried scenes in the crowded hallways of NBC as Michaels is bombarded with questions to slow, anxiety-inducing camera pans as fresh-faced Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) searches for his fiancée, only to find her perched by one of the most famous (and pompous) television stars of their time. The key of Saturday Night is that we hold the comfort of a known happy ending, but the movie is strong enough to make us doubt and worry right along with the characters on their various journeys.


Another key strength of Saturday Night is the cast—both for the actors’s highly immersive performances and for the cast list’s diversity. The casting choices step away from the trend of filling a cast with well-known actors in a desperate grab for the highest potential profits. Instead, Saturday Night features a cast list with varying levels of fame. One of my personal adulations of the movie is that a large number of the main cast are relatively unknown actors. This allows the audience to watch the film and truly believe that Chevy Chase or John Belushi are on the screen in front of us, rather than seeing a wildly famous face that is already iconic for a number of other roles. A cast of lesser known actors not only has the benefit of opening opportunities for those newer to the industry, but it also allows the viewers to feel as if they are living the same pre-show uncertainties the characters are suffering. 


Once again, let me ask—What is Saturday Night? It’s a window into the world of chaos, creativity, and comedic genius that spawned one of the most influential shows in television history. It’s not just a nostalgic homage to the birth of SNL but also an exploration of the fragility of success, the anxiety of creation, and the unpredictability of live television. The film reminds us that the making of a cultural phenomenon is far from glamorous—it’s messy, stressful, and fraught with uncertainty. Yet, in this whirlwind of setbacks and successes, there is an undeniable magic that pulls everything together just in time for the curtain to rise. In the end, Saturday Night is a love letter to the artistic process, a story about resilience and the courage to embrace the unknown. So, what is Saturday Night? My answer: it’s the embodiment of risk, laughter, and that exhilarating feeling when everything could fall apart—but doesn't. 


Rating: INDY

 

Sasha Jayne is a sophomore in the College studying psychology, and is one of the current Spotlight editors. Their true loves and passions are metal music, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and wearing excessive amounts of black clothing.


Image Credits: NBC Studios

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