Fact-checking 'Saturday Night': Did the show really almost never air? What the movie got right and wrong

saturday night A fast-paced, head-turning movie that takes place 90 minutes ago Saturday Night Live First aired on October 11, 1975, but not everything in the picture is 100 percent accurate.

Directed by Jason Reitman, the movie focuses on Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) as he tries to put together a show just an hour before showtime with a fighting cast, a suspicious studio and pressure from a badgering staff weighing against him.

The movie recounts several stories that have since become infamous, including how the late comedian John Belushi (Matt Wood) still hadn't signed his contract before the show, and that Billy Crystal (Nicholas Podany) was originally supposed to be in the first episode, but his scene has passed

However, other stories were more fabricated, such as Michaels going to a bar and hiring a writer on the spot 20 minutes before the show went live. Reitman told People that being completely accurate wasn't necessarily the goal. Rather, it was to encapsulate the moments before the show became what it is.

“The main takeaway was that on October 11, 1975, at 11:29 p.m., none of these young people knew what was going to happen,” he said. “None of them knew that their lives were going to change, the culture was going to change. They were just trying to put on a show.”

so how much saturday night True? Here's everything you need to know about which stories are true or fiction

Did the show really almost go off the air?

for a full 90 minutes before showing the live performance saturday nightMichaels faced concerns that the show wouldn't be ready for airing amid a warring cast, production mishaps and suspicious network executives. During the movie's climax, Dick Ebersole (Cooper Hoffman), NBC's vice president of late-night programming at the time, tells Michaels that the network expects the show to fail and that Michaels isn't as behind it as he thought. .

Michaels is also confronted by NBC head talent David Tebbett (Willem Dafoe), who seems to be threatening to drag the show down for the rest of the evening. In fact, withdraw at Michaels SNL Oral history books Live from New York Jay Tebbett was more than supportive but worried about host George Carlin's appearance because he refused to wear a suit.

“The main focus of the night, oddly enough, was on a directive that we got that Carlin had to wear a suit on the show,” Michaels said.. “He wanted to wear a T-shirt. The directive came from Dave Tebbett; he was head of talent and very supportive of the show, but he also tried to anticipate.”

Did Garrett Morris really sing a song about killing white people at soundcheck?

The only black member of the cast and with a background more in theater than comedy, Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris) struggled to find his place on the show. His arc in the movie shows him having an identity crisis and asking the cast and crew what his purpose is on the show. It all ends with Morris singing a song during soundcheck, “I'll give me a shotgun and kill every white man I see.”

Although this did not happen prior to the show's real-life debut, Morris sang the song in episode 11 of the first season during a sketch in which he auditioned for a jailhouse production. Gigi.

In 2012, Morris told Emmy TV Legends that he got the idea for the song from a Harry Belafonte singer who told him a story about how a woman on Art Linklater's TV show wrote a racist song that he actually performed, inspiring Morris to parody it. of

Was Milton Barley walking around the set and did he flash Chevy Chase after flirting with his fiancee?

Milton Barley (JK Simmons), the legendary TV comedian known as “Mr. Television”, is portrayed in a brutal light, SNL Set and being aggressive towards the stars. In one scene, he flirts with Chevy Chase's (Corey Michael Smith) fiance Jacqueline Carlin (Kaia Gerber), and when Chase calls him out on it, Barley drops his pants and flirts with her in an attempt to humiliate her.

In reality, it didn't happen on opening night or for Chase, but every Live from New YorkBerle had Flash writer Alan Zweibel in his dressing room in 1979 when he was set to host the show. Zweibel recalled that he explained to Barley that he had started writing his sex jokes, and Barley responded by showing his genitalia just as costar Gilda Radner walked into the room.

“She opened her dressing room door just in time to see me looking at her D— saying, 'Yeah, it's really pretty,' ” Zwiebel said.

Did Chevy Chase and John Belushi really fight?

Chase once got into a physical altercation before a show — but it wasn't with Belushi. In Live from New YorkCast and crew members recall how Chase returned to host an episode of the show in Season 2, after leaving Season 1, after he got into an altercation with Bill Murray, who was new to the cast that season.

“I had a fight with Chewie the night he came back to host [in 1978]Murray repeated Live from New York. “It's almost like I was driven by it. You know, I think everybody was hoping for it… I think they resented Chevy leaving, for one thing. They wanted to take a big part of the success and leave and It bothered him to make his own career go.”

Belushi was finally hurt in the fight when he fell between two men, and community The actor even blamed her for starting the argument.

“In a sense, John caused that fight with Billy, but we both hurt John by mistake,” Chase said in the book. “I was nervous for sure, but I noticed John when I was going into Billy's dressing room, and John was like a Cheshire cat – sitting there 'mission accomplished'.”

Did John Belushi really refuse to sign his contract until he was on ice at Rockefeller Center?

Yes, this story was allegedly (mostly) true because Belushi didn't sign his contract until after the cold opening due to his hesitation about the show and joining TV in general. Five minutes before the show started, Michaels' manager, Bernie Brillstein, was begging Belushi to sign or NBC wouldn't let him go, he recalled. Live from New York.

“He said, 'OK, if you manage me, I'll sign the contract,' ” Brillstein said. “I swear to God, it was five minutes before showtime… At the time, I didn't know how great Belushi was, so I just said yes to signing him to the damn contract.”

In the movie, Belushi leaves the studio only to find Michaels at the Rockefeller Center ice skating rink, decked out in his bee costume, attempting a difficult skating move. Belushi signed the contract only after he fell and Michaels rushed to his aid. Although that story is untrue, Belushi was part of a skit for Bee, one of SNL's first recurring characters, who appeared in an ice skating sketch later in the season.

Did Dan Aykroyd really have an affair with Lorne Michaels' wife Rosie Shuster?

Michaels was married to Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennett) for nine years before their divorce in 1980, and their relationship was mostly portrayed as accurate. saturday night. Although the two were married in 1975, they were childhood friends rather than husband and wife, with Shuster even struggling to decide whose last name to use in the show's opening credits (which did not happen in real life).

Both in the movie and in real life, Shuster had an open relationship with Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O'Brien), who was also dating Laraine Newman after previously going out with Gilda Rodner.

Director John Landis reflects on the nature of relationships SNL Set in Live from New YorkRecalls how, after seeing an attractive woman, he asked Belushi who she was.

“John said, 'That's Rosie Shuster. That's Lorne's wife and Danny's girlfriend.' Which is true,” Landis said.

Did Lorne Michaels leave the set covered in blood and go to a bar where he hired a writer on the spot?

In a moment of despair and seeming failure in the movie, Michaels leaves the NBC studio entirely — covered in fake blood after a trick is exploded on him — and goes to a bar across the street, hoping to find Belushi but wanting to drown his sorrows. Sitting next to him, he finds comedy writer Alan Zwiebel who tells Michaels that he writes jokes for stand-up comedians who now perform on stage and is only paid if the audience laughs.

Michaels reads one of his jokes and hires him on the spot, bringing Zweibel back to 30 Rock, where he gives Chase one of his zingers: “The Post Office is issuing a stamp commemorating prostitution in the United States. It's a 10-cent stamp, but if you Lick, it's a quarter.”

In reality, Michaels met Zweibel at a bar, but it was the writer who performed the gruesome stand-up set, and that was a year before the premiere. Michaels approached him and told him his material was “not bad,” and Zweibel went home and wrote “1,100 of my best jokes,” which he presented to Michaels two days later, he said. The New York Times In 2004.

Michaels hired him right after reading the first one, as he did in the movie, and the iconic Chase joke was used in the premiere episode.

Did Big Bird really hang in Jim Henson's dressing room?

Starring Nicholas Brown, Jim Henson is portrayed in the movie as fiercely defensive of his Muppets and complains to Michaels that not only did he not get a script, but one of his most cherished characters, Big Bird, was hung in his dressing room.

Although it didn't happen in the premiere episode, it's true that the writers hated bringing in material for Henson because of how protective he was of the Muppets and how much he argued about what they would or wouldn't say, Zweibel recalled. in Live from New York.

And although Big Bird was never specifically hung in Henson's room, Zwiebel said that head writer Michael O'Donoghue actually decapitated the character when they first met.

“He took the cord from Big Bird, a stuffed toy of Big Bird and Venetian blinds and wrapped the cord around Big Bird's neck,” he said. “He was beating Big Bird. And that's how we all felt about the Muppets.”

Was Lorne Michaels originally supposed to be the Weekend Update anchor instead of Chevy Chase?

Basically a circulation set of SNL In the most iconic sketch to date, Weekend Update, Michaels is awkward and not very funny in the movie as he rehearses it. At the last moment, he threw it to Chase, who famously executed it all season.

However, in real life, Michaels knew he was handing the bit to Chase ahead of time — even though he originally envisioned it with himself in the role.

“I did the equivalent of Weekend Update in Canada,” Michaels told Deadline in 2014. “But as we got closer to the air show, I started to realize that I didn't think I could be the kind of person who could cut other people up. I put my own in pieces.”