Ever wish you could have watched Saturday Night Live’s first episode when it hit the airwaves at 11:30 pm on October 11, 1975, witnessing the start of what has became one of the best TV shows of all time? Well, unless you were alive then or barring time travel, the closest you’ll probably ever get is with NBC re-airing SNL’s first episode on Saturday, February 15, at 11:30 pm ET/PT.
As part of SNL’s 50th anniversary celebration taking place this weekend, viewers will be able to watch Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman and Gilda Radner appear on the Studio 8H stage for the first time, with host George Carlin, musical guests Billy Preston and Janice Ian, and special appearances by Andy Kaufman and some Jim Henson muppets (not Kermit or Big Bird).
To watch this special showing of this historic TV episode when it airs on NBC this weekend, you need to have access to your local NBC station, either through a traditional pay-TV provider, a live TV streaming service (i.e. Fubo, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV or YouTube TV) or a Peacock Premium Plus subscription. Of course if you have any kind of Peacock subscription, you can watch the first SNL episode, and just about any other SNL episode from its 50 year run, on-demand on Peacock whenever you want.
I did just that, watching SNL’s first episode on Peacock, in the fall as SNL season 50 was about to get underway, curious to see some of the ways that the show has evolved. What struck me was how though there were some differences, the show’s format that we know today was pretty much present right from the start.
This isn’t the only way that you can relive the first episode of Saturday Night Live. The 2024 movie Saturday Night chronicles, in near real-time, the 90 minutes leading up to the first ever episode of SNL, as a young Lorne Michaels (played by Gabriel LaBelle) has to manage his young and wild cast as well as traditionalist TV execs or risk the show not making it to air. Saturday Night is currently streaming on Netflix.
Of course, the big event for SNL’s golden anniversary is the official SNL50:The Anniversary Special, a three-hour broadcast airing live on Sunday, February 16, at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT, featuring many iconic cast members, hosts and more that have helped define the show over the years. That will air on NBC as well as be simulcast on Peacock.
After all this, we’ll eventually get back to new episodes of SNL season 50, though TBD on just when that’ll be.