Sunday, February 16 marked half a century of NBC’s beloved show, Saturday Night Live. To celebrate this huge milestone, Studio 8H hosted an unforgettable Saturday Night Live Anniversary Special.
Opening Monologue: Saturday Night Live allowed 16 time host Steve Martin to deliver the opening monologue to kick off the show. Other celebrities such as John Mulvaney and Martin Short joined Steve in his hysterical monologue. Martin poked jokes as far as being the “ newest diversity hire.” To renaming the Gulf of Mexico after himself. Steve Martin got the crowd rallied up, and for the 3 hour Anniversary show.
Sketches: Some of the biggest Hollywood legends, along with members of the original cast, were all in attendance at this celebration. Household names such as Paul McCartney, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell and a sea ton more of celebrities all took part in the historic celebration. This anniversary provided laughter, and bittersweet memories, by taking the audience down memory lane. SNL decided to resurrect some of their fan favorite sketches for their anniversary special. Former SNL star, Kate MCkinnon made a cameo in the iconic “Close Encounters” sketch, playing the character of an alien abductee, alongside Hollywood actors, Meryl Streep, Pedro Pascal, and Woody Harrelson. Continuing the party, former SNL icon, Kristin Wiig stepped back into the role of her receded hairline, baby handed character in the sketch, “Dooneese”, Kristin Wiig, accompanied by Will Ferrell, Scarlett Johansson, Kim Kardashian, and Ana Gasteyer, did an outstanding job of recreating this fan favorite sketch. A recent SNL skit from this SNL season, “Domingo” won over the hearts of many fans, allowing a full circle Domingo sketch to make it into the 50th Anniversary Special. Gen Z pop star Sabrina Carpenter showed off her tone def vocals, at the vow renewal of the married couple Kelsey (Chloe Fineman) and Matt (Andrew Dismukes.) Chaos took place when Marcello Hernandez’s character, Domingo, in company with surprise guests, Pedro Pascal and Bad Bunny, crashed the wedding celebration once again. Other incredible cameos consisted of Pete Davidson and David Spade in an outstanding “New York Musical” and Rachel Dratch in “Debbie Downer.”
Musical Guest: To start up the special celebration, singers Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter covered a duet of “HomeWard Bound” by Simon & Garfunkel. Further into the show, musical guests, Miley Cyrus, Brittany Howard and the Roots, performed a beautiful cover of “Nothing Compares t2 U” by Sinèad O’Conner. The group’s vocals left audiences all over the world speechless. Towards the end of the show, SNL brought out Paul Mccartney to close, providing a sentimental performance shortly followed by Martin Short’s goodnight speech. One of the most emotional moments during this special was when Adam Sandler took the stage to perform his original song, “50 Years” Sandler wrote a song dedicated to the original cast of Saturday Night Live. The love that was intertwined with each written lyric, and the emotion Sandler poured into his performance, left not a single eye dry in the studio. Sandler managed to tug on the heart strings of all SNL fans with his tribute to the beloved SNL superstars, Chris Farley and Norman Macdonald.
This 3 hour special provided audiences all over the world with laughter, and with tears. The bittersweet celebration took the audience back in time to watch the growth the show underwent through half a century. Saturday Night Live has introduced America to some of our most beloved stars, such as Jimmy Fallon, Chevy Chase, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Robert Downey Jr, and thousands more. Saturday Night Live has been making people laugh since 1975, and Studio 8H has no intentions of stopping anytime soon. Thanks to these stars, the show had the ability to blossom into something greater than anyone could have imagined, Thank you Saturday Night Live!