Saturday Night (#606)


I am not, and never was, a big fan of Saturday Night Live like some of my dear friends.  But I have seen several episodes and usually found them clever and funny, particularly in the earlier years.  So with that preface I went to see SATURDAY NIGHT, billed as the first night the show went on the air in October of 1975, and as it is today, it was a live performance unusual for television shows then.  Largely focusing on Lorne Michaels, the show's creator and still its producer today.  What we see is utter chaos, not only on the set but in the film because no one seems to be quite sure what was going to happen, particularly the big shots from NBC, depicted in the film by the fiendish looking Willem Dafoe.  When all is said and done, it is a fun film, with actor's playing such memorable Saturday Night characters as John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase and Dan Ackroyd.  And in the middle of the chaos avoiding questions from Dafoe about the makeup of the show is the man who plays Michaels and plays him well.  He handles all situations with calm and patience, including Belushi's cocaine addiction and refusal to sign a contract, the pot smoking of the cast snd crew, and the threat of writers, actors and the crew walking off the set.  He's also faced with changing scripts and replacing scheduled skits. I got the feeling a good time was had by all in making this movie. But it certainly won't encourage me to watch the show live in the near future.  FYI, 80% of critics and 86% of audiences gave Saturday Night a thumbs up.

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