Saturday Night Live
Season 1
Starring	Dan Aykroyd John Belushi Chevy Chase George Coe Jane Curtin Garrett Morris Laraine Newman Michael O'Donoghue Gilda Radner
No. of episodes	24
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	October 11, 1975 (1975-10-11) – July 31, 1976 (1976-07-31)
Season chronology
Next → season 2
List of episodes

The first season ofSaturday Night Live (then known asNBC's Saturday Night to avoid confusion withthe similarly named variety show hosted byHoward Cosell), an Americansketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States onNBC from October 11, 1975, to July 31, 1976. The show served as a vehicle that launched to stardom the careers of a number of major comedians and actors, includingGilda Radner,Chevy Chase,John Belushi, andDan Aykroyd.

In 1974,NBCTonight Show hostJohnny Carson asked that the weekend broadcasts of "Best of Carson" (officially known asThe Weekend Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson) come to an end (The Tonight Show was a 90-minute program at the time), so he could take two weeknights off; NBC would thus air those repeats on those nights rather than feed them to affiliates for broadcast on either Saturdays or Sundays. Given Carson's undisputed status as the king of late-night television, NBC heard his request as an ultimatum, fearing he might use the issue as grounds to defect to eitherABC orCBS. To fill the gap, the network drew up some ideas and brought inDick Ebersol – a protégé of legendary ABC Sports presidentRoone Arledge – to develop a 90-minute late-night variety show. Ebersol's first order of business was hiring a young Canadian producer namedLorne Michaels to be the show-runner.^[1]

Television production in New York was already in decline in the mid-1970s (The Tonight Show had departed forLos Angeles two years prior), so NBC decided to base the show at their studios inRockefeller Center to offset the overhead of maintaining those facilities. Michaels was given Studio 8H, a converted radio studio that prior to that point was most famous for having hostedArturo Toscanini and theNBC Symphony Orchestra from 1937 to 1951, but was being used largely for network election coverage by the mid-1970s.^[2]

When the first show aired on October 11, 1975, withGeorge Carlin as its host, it was calledNBC's Saturday Night becauseABC featured a program at the same time titledSaturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. After ABC cancelled the Cosell program in 1976, the NBC program changed its name toSaturday Night Live, starting with the17th episode of the second season – the episode hosted byJack Burns on March 26, 1977 (and subsequently picked upBill Murray from Cosell's show in 1977, as well). Starting from the first episode,Don Pardo introduced the cast, a job he would hold for 39 years until his death in 2014.

The original concept was for a comedy-variety show featuring young comedians, live musical performances, short films byAlbert Brooks and segments byJim Henson featuring atypically adult and abstract characters fromThe Muppets world. Rather than have one permanent host, Michaels elected to have a different guest host each week. The first episode featured two musical guests (Billy Preston andJanis Ian), and the second episode, hosted byPaul Simon on October 18, was almost entirely a musical variety show with various acts. The Not Ready for Prime Time Players did not appear in this episode at all, other than as the bees with Paul Simon telling them they were cancelled, andChevy Chase in the opening and in "Weekend Update". Over the course of Season 1, sketch comedy would begin to dominate the show andSNL would more closely resemble its current format.

Andy Kaufman made several appearances over the season that were popular with the audience, while the extremely unpopularMuppet'sLand of Gorch bits were essentially cancelled after episode 10, although the associated Muppet characters still made sporadic appearances after that. After one final appearance at the start of season two, the Muppet characters were permanently dropped fromSNL.

During the season, Michaels appeared on-camera four times, the first being on January 10, when during Elliot Gould's monologue in "The Killer Bees" sketch, the camera appears to malfunction and Michaels is introduced as a co-producer. On February 28, Michaels appear during the cold open of a Jill Clayburgh hosted episode where he tries to persuade Chase to keep opening the show with a fall. On April 24 and May 22, he makes an offer toThe Beatles to reunite on the show. In the second appearance, he offered a certified check of $3000. In the third appearance, he increased his offer to $3200 and free hotel accommodations.John Lennon andPaul McCartney later both admitted they had been watchingSNL from Lennon's apartment on May 8 (the episode after Michaels' first offer) and briefly toyed with actually going down to the studio, but decided to stay in the apartment because they were too tired.^[3][4]

The first cast member hired wasGilda Radner.^[5] The rest of the cast included fellowSecond City alumniDan Aykroyd andJohn Belushi, as well asNational Lampoon "Lemmings" alumnusChevy Chase (whose trademark became his usual falls and opening spiel that cued the show's opening) who was chosen as anchor for Weekend Update,Jane Curtin,Garrett Morris, andGroundlings alumnaLaraine Newman. WriterMichael O'Donoghue, a writer at National Lampoon, had worked alongside several cast members while directingThe National Lampoon Radio Hour. The original theme music was written by futureAcademy Award–winning composerHoward Shore, who – along with his band (occasionally billed as the "All Nurse Band" or "Band of Angels") – was the original band leader on the show.^[6]Paul Shaffer, who would go on to leadDavid Letterman's band onLate Night and thenThe Late Show, was also band leader in the early years.

Much of the talent pool involved in the inaugural season was recruited from theNational Lampoon Radio Hour, a nationally syndicated comedy series that often satirized current events.

This would be the only season forGeorge Coe andMichael O'Donoghue as official cast members. While Coe was billed only in the premiere, he was seen in various small roles through the season before leaving the show altogether. O'Donoghue was credited for the first, third, and fourth episodes and would continue to work for the show as a writer, as well as an occasional guest performer (particularly as "Mr. Mike"), throughseason 5.^{[citation needed]}

The Not Ready for Prime Time Players

• Dan Aykroyd
• John Belushi
• Chevy Chase (alsoWeekend Update anchor)
• George Coe (only episode: October 11, 1975)
• Jane Curtin
• Garrett Morris
• Laraine Newman
• Michael O'Donoghue (final episode: November 8, 1975)
• Gilda Radner

The original writing staff includedAnne Beatts,Chevy Chase,Tom Davis,Al Franken,Lorne Michaels,Marilyn Suzanne Miller,Michael O'Donoghue,Herb Sargent,Tom Schiller,Rosie Shuster andAlan Zweibel. Michaels did not designate a head writer in the early years, despite Chase and O'Donoghue claiming that they were head writers, according to various SNL books.

• Saturday Night Live seasons
• Saturday Night Live in the 1970s
• 1975 American television seasons
• 1976 American television seasons

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