Saturday Night Live (TV Series)

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Saturday Night Live
Also known as	NBC's Saturday Night (1975–1977) Saturday Night Live '80 (1980)
Genre	Variety show
Created by	Lorne Michaels
Written by	See List of Saturday Night Live writers
Directed by	Don Roy King (2006–present) Other directors Dave Wilson (1975–1986; 1989–1995) Paul Miller (1986–1989) Beth McCarthy-Miller (1995–2006)
Starring	See List of Saturday Night Live cast members
Narrated by	Darrell Hammond (2014–present) Other narrators: Don Pardo (1975–1981; 1982–2014) Bill Hanrahan (1981) Mel Brandt (1981–1982)
Country of orgin	United States
No. of Seasons	43
No. of episodes	848 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Lorne Michaels (1975–80; 1985–present) Other producers: Jean Doumanian (1980–81) Dick Ebersol (1981–85)
Location(s)	NBC Studios New York City
Running time	93 minutes (with commercials)
Production company(s)	Broadway Video (1981–present) Other studios: NBC (1975–1982) NBC Productions (1982–96) NBC Studios (1996–99) SNL Studios (1999–present)
Release
Original network	NBC
Picture format	480i (4:3 SDTV) (1975–2005) 1080i (16:9 HDTV) (2005–present)
Audio format	[Monaural|Mono]] (1975-1985) Stereo (1985-1989) Stereo Surround (1989-1994) Dolby Surround (1994-1997) Dolby Digital (1997-present)
Original release	October 11, 1975 – present
Chronology
Related shows	TV Funhouse Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday
External links

Saturday Night Live (SNL) is an American late-night live television variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night. The show's comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers an opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast as with featured performances by a musical guest. An episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", properly beginning the show.

In 1980, Michaels left the series to explore other opportunities. He was replaced by Jean Doumanian, who was replaced by Ebersol after a season of bad reviews. Ebersol ran the show until 1985. Since Michaels' return he has held the job of show-runner. Many of SNL's cast found national stardom while appearing on the show, and achieved success in film and television, both in front of and behind the camera. Others associated with the show, such as writers, have gone on to successful careers creating, writing, and starring in television and film.

Broadcast from Studio 8H at NBC's headquarters in the Comcast Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, SNL has aired 848 episodes since its debut, and began its forty-third season on September 30, 2017, making it one of the longest-running network television programs in the United States. The show format has been developed and recreated in several countries, meeting with different levels of success. Successful sketches have seen life outside the show as feature films including The Blues Brothers (1980) and Wayne's World (1992). The show has been marketed in other ways, including home media releases of "best of" and whole seasons, and books and documentaries about behind-the-scenes activities of running and developing the show.

Throughout four decades on air, Saturday Night Live has received a number of awards, including 64 Primetime Emmy Awards, four Writers Guild of America Awards, and two Peabody Awards. In 2000, it was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. It was ranked tenth in TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time" list, and in 2007 it was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME". As of 2017, it has received 231 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, the most received by any television program. The live aspect of the show has resulted in several controversies and acts of censorship, with mistakes and intentional acts of sabotage by performers as well as guests.

Contents 1 Development 2 Cast and crew 2.1 Cast 2.2 Writers 2.3 Announcers 2.4 Hosts and musical guests 2.5 The SNL Band 3 Production 3.1 The studio 3.2 Creating an episode 3.3 Post-production 3.4 Filming and photography 4 Broadcast 5 International versions 5.1 Delays 6 US television ratings 7 Reception 7.1 Accolades 7.2 Electoral effect 8 Controversies 9 In other media 9.1 Home media 9.2 Books 9.3 Films 9.4 Music 9.5 Other 10 References 10.1 Notes 10.2 Bibliography 11 Further reading 12 External links

[edit] Development

Template:History of SNL

[edit] Cast and crew

[edit] Cast

Main article: Saturday Night Live cast members}

2017–18 season cast
Repertory players	Featured players

[edit] Writers

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live writers

[edit] Announcers

[edit] Hosts and musical guests

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live guests

[edit] The SNL Band

Main article: Saturday Night Live Band

[edit] Production

[edit] The studio

Main article: Studio 8H

[edit] Creating an episode

[edit] Post-production

[edit] Filming and photography

[edit] Broadcast

See also: List of Saturday Night Live episodes

[edit] International versions

Country	Name	Station	Broadcast	Language

[edit] Delays

[edit] US television ratings

Season	Episodes	Start Date	End Date	Viewers (Mil.)	Overall Rating	18-49 Rating

[edit] Reception

[edit] Accolades

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Saturday Night Live

[edit] Electoral effect

[edit] Controversies

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live incidents

[edit] In other media

[edit] Home media

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live home video releases

[edit] Books

[edit] Films

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live feature films

SNL has made several efforts to develop some of the more popular sketches into feature-length films, with varying degrees of commercial and critical success. The first foray into film came with the successful Aykroyd and Belushi vehicle, The Blues Brothers (1980), which earned over $115 million on a $27 million budget.

In 1990, Michaels oversaw the writing of a sketch anthology feature film titled The Saturday Night Live Movie with many of the show's then-current writing staff, including Al Franken, Tom Davis, Greg Daniels, Jim Downey, Conan O'Brien, Robert Smigel, and George Meyer, contributing. The screenplay only got as far as a Revised First Draft dated July 26, 1990 before being abandoned.

The success of Wayne's World (1992) encouraged Michaels to produce more film spin-offs, based on several popular sketch characters. Michaels revived 1970s characters for Coneheads (1993), followed by It's Pat (1994); Stuart Saves His Family (1995); A Night at the Roxbury (1998); Superstar (1999) and The Ladies Man (2000). Some did moderately well, though others did not—notably, It's Pat, which did so badly at the box office that the studio that made the film, Touchstone Pictures (owned by The Walt Disney Company, which also owns NBC's rival ABC), pulled it only one week after releasing it,and Stuart Saves His Family, which lost $14 million. Many of these films were produced by Paramount Pictures. The films based on The Blues Brothers were produced by Universal Studios, which merged with NBC in 2004 to form NBC Universal (Universal also has a joint venture with Paramount for international distribution of the two studios' films).

Film	Release date (United States)	Budget (estimated)	Box office revenue
			United States	Elsewhere	Worldwide

[edit] Music

[edit] Other

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links