Saturday Night Live on NBC hosted a 50th anniversary special with a wide variety of cast members, sketches, hosts and other collaborators.
Jimmy Fallon, a previous cast member on Saturday Night Live, was the host at the beginning of the anniversary weekend, with the Homecoming Concert on Feb. 14. This event was packed with a lineup of 22 artists, including artists like the Backstreet Boys, Jelly Roll, Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus.
Going back to where it all began, the first episode of Saturday Night Live was aired on Oct. 17, 1975.
According to NBC, the second day of a three-day special will be hosted by George Carlin, featuring performances by musical guests Billy Preston and Janis Ian. The episode will star the Not Ready for Prime Time Players with appearances by comedian Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson’s Muppets.
The final three-hour primetime Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special had sketches, cast members, hosts, and other collaborators to make this night of comedy one for the ages.
Pat Janssen, Wayne State alumni and current communications professor, talked about his stand-up comedian background and his connection with the popular show Saturday Night Live.
“Whenever I was feeling down, I’d go to 30 rock, the place where they do The Today Show and Saturday Night Live, and I would basically kind of picture going there for work, and knowing that, you know, a lot of people had made great stuff there.” Janssen said.
Janssen said these experiences served as inspiration for his future career.
Janssen also had his own style of comedy special with some of the first surrounding performers back in their “comedy home of IO West,” just before it closed.
“But everybody in that community, just like we found out we basically got a week’s notice that it was closing, and everybody just rallied for, like, the most incredible week of shows,” Janssen said. “Improv, sketch, you name it. All the all the big shooters. And the place was just jam-packed.”
When asked if Saturday Night Live will ever get old, Janssen said, “You know, it has its parts about it that are great, and it has parts that are maybe you know, aren’t so great, but it’s one of those few pieces left in society where we all have some sort of awareness and recognition of it.’’