At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. This is the story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live.
Direction
Reitman's real-time countdown structure builds genuine sweaty-palm tension.
Acting
Gabriel LaBelle captures Lorne's desperate calm of a man faking competence.
Production
NBC Studio 8H recreated with obsessive period-detail accuracy.
Director
Jason Reitman
Gabriel LaBelle
Lorne Michaels
Rachel Sennott
Rosie Shuster
Cory Michael Smith
Chevy Chase
Ella Hunt
Gilda Radner
Dylan O'Brien
Dan Aykroyd
Emily Fairn
Laraine Newman
Matt Wood
John Belushi
Lamorne Morris
Garrett Morris
Kim Matula
Jane Curtin
Tommy Dewey
Michael O'Donoghue
Cooper Hoffman
Dick Ebersol
Nicholas Braun
Andy Kaufman / Jim Henson
Andrew Barth Feldman
Neil Levy
Finn Wolfhard
NBC Page
Willem Dafoe
David Tebet
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Lorne Michaels visited set and reportedly told Jason Reitman, 'You got the fear right.'
The film intentionally excludes any actual SNL sketches because Reitman wanted to focus on the creative labor, not the comedy—ironically making it less funny than the chaos surrounding it.
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