NEW YORK -- Live from New York! It's 50 seasons later for “SNL.”The landmark NBC sketch comedy show “Saturday Night Live” premiered Oct.11, 1975, with drop-dead dark humor and pratfalls, George Carlin as host and not one but two musical guests: Billy Preston and Janis Ian.On Saturday nights, in those early years, young people gathered around TVs to watch the Lorne Michaels production that served up counterculture to the mass market via the Not Ready for Prime Time Players.
“What is attractive and unusual about the program is that it is an attempt, finally, to provide entertainment on television in a recognizable human, non-celebrity voice, and in a voice, too, that tries to deal with the morass of media-induced show business culture that increasingly pervades American life,” The New Yorker's Michael J.Arlen wrote in a 1975 review.
Fast forward to this year, Sept.28, when the first episode of “SNL's” half-century season is set to air in a lead-up to a three-hour live primetime special Feb.
16 on, gasp, a Sunday.Jean Smart will host to open the season, with Jelly Roll as musical guest.Over the decades, some seasons were better than others, with breakout stars like Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Mike Myers and more following the original seven.
So what became of the very first cast, the freshman class, post-"SNL?" Here's a catchup.“National Lampoon's Animal House,” “Continental Divide,” “Neighbors” and all things The Blues Brothers.
Belushi left “SNL” in 1979 to pursue music and film projects.That he did, to bad reviews and good.
Following years of drug use, he died March 5, 1982, at 33 after overdosing at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles.Belushi's death stunned and saddened his friends and fans and symbolized the end of the hard-living '70s.In addition to his mischievous, often frenzied performances on “SNL,” Belushi appeared in other films as well, including the drama “Old Boyfriends” and the poorl...