Live From ScreenCrush, It’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ Secrets!
You know Saturday Night Live as a staple of late-night TV for decades. But did you know the show had a different title when it first debuted in the fall of 1975? SNL was originally called NBC’s Saturday Night, because at the time a different show was using the title Saturday Night Live. That show, hosted by Howard Cosell, lasted 18 episodes on ABC before it was cancelled. Soon after, SNL adopted the Saturday Night Live name, which is how it’s been known ever since. That’s just one of the facts packed into the latest episode of the ScreenCrush series You Think You Know TV?
The very first SNL host was George Carlin. Regular features of the first season included short films by comedian Albert Brooks and sketches starring adult versions of Jim Henson’s Muppets. The impetus for SNL came from Tonight Show host Johnny Carson. At the time, NBC used to air The Tonight Show on Saturday nights; Carson demanded his show only air on weekdays, which left a hole in the network’s schedule. Eventually producer Lorne Michaels was chosen to create its replacement, and that’s what ultimately became Saturday Night Live (or NBC’s Saturday Night, at least for a little while).
‘You Think You Know TV?’ is a ScreenCrush original series that dives deep into the worlds of your favorite TV series and freeze frames a few tidbits you might not have known, as with our other installments for The Wire, 1966’s Batman, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and many more. Our companion series ‘You Think You Know Movies?’ has already tackled everything from Star Wars to Suicide Squad, but now we’re headed to Studio 8H to learn some SNL facts. Watch more TV installments of ‘You Think You Know’ down below, and let us know what shows we should cover next!