Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night trailer brings us back to the sketch variety show’s nerve-racking roots

Last Updated on August 12, 2024

Live from New York! It’s the Saturday Night trailer! Steel yourselves for a chaotic evening of unpredictability, unprofessionalism, and rampant consumption of sensory-altering substances because Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) hopes to make miracles happen on the sketch variety show’s opening night.

In Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night trailer, LaBelle’s Lorne Michaels scrambles to get his show on the road in the face of impending failure. Between battling Rockafella Center security, being at odds with MBC programming higher-up David Tebet (Willem Dafoe), and trying to keep his cast from killing each other, Michaels faces an uphill battle of wills to launch what eventually becomes an institution among television programming.

Saturday Night explores the evening of October 11, 1975, when “a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. SNL 1975 is the true story of what happened behind the scenes that night in the moments leading up to the first broadcast of NBC‘s Saturday Night Live. It depicts the chaos and magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, counting down the minutes in real-time to the infamous words, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan’s script is inspired by interviews they recorded with living members of the SNL cast, writers, and crew. Anyone who knows anything about Saturday Night Live knows how chaotic and unpredictable the show can be, including breaks in character, last-minute script changes, inexperienced guests, and technical snafus.

Reitman’s Saturday Night trailer features a parade of talent portraying the first batch of SNL cast members, with Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Matt Wood as John Belushi, and Nicolas Braun as Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson. Other stars include Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster, Matthew Rhys as George Carlin, Jon Batiste as Billy Preston, Finn Wolfhard as an NBC page, Taylor Gray as Al Franken, Nicolas Podany as Billy Crystal, and more.

Holy f**k! What a mess that evening must have been. I can’t imagine contending with all the production issues, egos, and negative attitudes of that fateful evening. What do you think about Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night trailer? I’m interested in seeing all the star players of SNL‘s launch portrayed by some of today’s most promising actors. How about you?