A week ago, on Saturday, October 11th, marked the anniversary of the debut episode of Saturday Night Live when it aired on NBC in 1975. Actually that year it was called, NBC's Saturday Night because Howard Cosell had a prime time show on ABC that year called, Saturday Night Live (Bill Murray was one of the regular performers on that show.)
In honor of this anniversary I’ve got six links to a video and online articles about the first year of SNL and then this week’s MBIP Coming Attractions.
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Sunday Links
Original SNL Cast and Lorne Michaels on Tom Snyder’s Tomorrow show in 1975 - This is the first TV appearance of Lorne Michaels and The Not Ready For Prime Time Players on the Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. Little did Tom know that in a year or two, he’d be the target of Dan Aykroyd’s spot-on impersonation.
Saturday Night Live at 40: first episode now seems brilliant, dated and special - This article is memorable because they refer to John Belushi as “Jim” Belushi! Copy editor alert!
Original Saturday Night Live Cast Member Garrett Morris Recalls the Show’s First Few Seasons - Garrett Morris discusses his struggles on the first season and talks about his cast mates and being the only black member of the cast.
SNL Season One On NBC - Here’s the official listings of every episode of the first season, the cast and featured sketches.
Saturday Night Live’s Very First Sketch: Watch John Belushi Launch SNL in October, 1975 - This article writes about the very first cold-opening on the show and it features a video of that sketch along with first host, George Carlin’s monologue.
The History of Saturday Night Live - A five minute video documenting the history of SNL.
SNL 50th Anniversary Special - Last February there was a SNL three and a half hour special commemorating the 50th anniversary of the show. This is a playlist of the 27 sketches that were performed on the special.
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MBIP Coming Attractions
Monday: I had a rare Friday night out on the town and I went to The Third Friday Comedy Show at the 3300 Event Center. This is a monthly show produced and hosted by Blind Stein and it starred the two Hypnotizing Comedians, Terry Grawey and Terry Blome. It was a fun night and I’ll have photos and a post from the show tomorrow.
Tuesday: The MBIP Appetizer Tour continues and I enjoyed appetizers at the West Town Tap with my friend Mike last week. Tune in Tuesday to check that out.
Wednesday: I’m going on the first Scott Turley Road Trip of 2025 today. You can see the photos from this adventure on Wednesday!
Thursday: We’ll turn the Marty Monologues Spotlight on my friends Amber and Joe, who serve as the Marty Monologues Story Editors. We have a bout three weeks until the show and we had a rehearsal last night and I’ll post about that on Thursday!
Friday: We’re going to have a special Friday Bites snack post this Friday, as Young’s Popcorn Heaven had their 10th anniversary party yesterday and I went and got photos and some popcorn to snack on!
Saturday: As always, we’ll be looking back at something in Peoria’s past for another Meanwhile, Back In Peoria’s Past post.
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Sunday Comic
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Related Posts: Sunday Links: Rubber Soul, O.J. Simpson and The Runaways.