The chaotic first night of Saturday Night Live — and how the show was almost dead-on-arrival — is the focus of the upcoming “thriller-comedy” Saturday Night, which depicts the hours leading up to the premiere broadcast.

“At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television – and culture – forever,” Sony Pictures Entertainment said in the film’s synopsis.

Length 2:17 (closed captions available)


“Saturday Night is based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humor, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words…”

Directed by Jason Reitman, who also co-wrote the film with Gil Kenan, Saturday Night boasts an all-star cast portraying SNL’s all-star cast and crew, with Gabriel LaBelle leading the way as Lorne Michaels. Rachel Sennott (as SNL writer Rosie Shuster), Cooper Hoffman (as future NBC exec Dick Ebersol), Nicholas Braun (as both Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman), Finn Wolfhard (as an NBC page struggling to fill the live audience), and Matthew Rhys (as first-ever SNL host George Carlin) are also among the cast.