October 11, 1975. A day that changed television history forever.
That was the Saturday night (live) when a new sketch show first debuted on NBC. Cobbled together by an inexperienced group of actors, producers, and writers, many of whom were getting their first exposure on national TV, the series was not expected to be a major success. ABC’s new show, titled Saturday Night Live, was considered far more promising at the time, because it starred popular broadcaster Howard Cosell.
The show was originally titled NBC’s Saturday Night. But after Cosell’s Saturday Night Live was canceled, it adopted that name as its own — along the way to becoming one of the most popular and most influential television comedies in history.
The fraught early days of SNL are now the subject of Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, a historical dramedy about the very first airing of SNL on October 11, 1975. Because SNL continues to loom large in pop culture — and because the show in the early days involved such pop culture icons as John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and Chevy Chase — there’s a lot of curiosity both about the movie, and about who is playing who in it. (And, almost as importantly, how much they look like the people they’re playing.)
Below, you’ll find 15 members of the Saturday Night, and see how they stack up with their real-life counterparts. In my opinion, most of them look pretty great. A couple … uh, less great.
Who’s Playing Who in the ‘Saturday Night Live’ Movie
Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night tells the story of the first episode of SNL. Here’s who’s who in the film.
Saturday Night is scheduled to open in theaters on October 11 — the exact 49th anniversary of that very first SNL broadcast that the show is all about.
READ MORE: Every Saturday Night Live Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best
10 American Remakes of Foreign Horror Movies That Ruined the Original
We’d rather lock our heads in cages full of angry bees than watch these American horror remakes again.
Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky