Funny / Saturday Night Live Season 1

Saturday Night Live premiered on October 11, 1975.

For the main index, see here.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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• George Carlin/Billy Preston & Janis Ian: Andy Kaufman standing on the stage while the Mighty Mouse theme plays on a record player. He enthusiastically lip-syncs and gestures during the line, "Here I come to save the day!" And only during that line.
• Rob Reiner:
  • John Belushi's Joe Cocker impersonation.
  • "News for the Hard of Hearing" made its first appearance on Weekend Update. Garrett Morris appears in a circle onscreen and shouts the headlines as Chevy Chase reads them.
  • Everything about "The Land of Gorch"
• Candace Bergen/Esther Phillips:
  • Two words: Land Shark
  • Chevy Chase's portrayal of President Gerald Ford
  • "Good evening. I'm Chevy Chase, and you're not." It would become his regular greeting on Weekend Update.
• Lily Tomlin:
  • Chevy Chase's first report on the death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, which ends with, "Despite Franco's death, and an expected burial tomorrow, doctors say the dictator's health has taken a turn for the worse."
• Richard Pryor/Gil Scott-Heron:
  • The classic racist word association sketch - taking Refuge in Audacity to a whole new level and forever cementing SNL's reputation as the edgy late-night show where anything can happen (scripted or otherwise).
  • Pryor plays Father Karras in a parody of The Exorcist. At on point, demanding the levitating bed be on the floor has the obvious result: "The bed is on my foot!"
  • "Samurai Hotel", the first Samurai Futaba sketch, featuring John Belushi and Richard Pryor as feuding hotel-clerk samurai. two words: YO MAMA-SAN!
  • "Our top story tonight, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!" This would become a Running Gag for the rest of the season.
• Peter Cook & Dudley Moore/Neil Sedaka:
  • The Lifer Follies skit, in which prison inmates perform the songs they've composed as part of an outreach program with a local theater group:
  Inmate: (singing) "I'm gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whities I see! I'm gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whities I see—" (guards drag him away)
  • "Our top story tonight, Generalissimo Francisco Franco has been critically dead now for eleven weeks, and doctors refuse to speculate on how long he can last in his present condition."
• Desi Arnaz/Desi Arnaz & Desi Arnaz, Jr.: Arnaz, Sr. displaying various other concepts that were trotted out for I Love Lucy, like one where Lucy never actually appears and Ricky just brags about seeing her, Ricky being an abusive husband, or just professing his love for asparagus. What really makes it work is his utterly stone-faced explanations for each one, really selling the concept that these were somehow genuine pitches.
• Jill Clayburgh/Leon Redbone & The Idlers:
  • Everything about Mr. Bill.
  • "This Just In! from Spain, medical teams announced that Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still valiantly holding on in his fight to remain dead."
• Ron Nessen/Patti Smith: The Ronco Bassomatic '76 commercial.
• Raquel Welch/Phoebe Snow & John Sebastian:
  • Lorne Michaels trying to bribe The Beatles to come on the show...with $3,000. "You can split up the money however you want. If you want to give Ringo less, that's fine."
    • Turned into a really lost opportunity when you find out that Paul McCartney and John Lennon were in Lennon's New York apartment that night watching the show, and seriously considered taking a taxi down to Rockerfeller Plaza and taking Lorne up on his offer.
    • Sixteen years later, during an episode hosted by Alec Baldwin, this brief exchange between Lorne and that night's musical guest:
      Lorne Michaels: I just assumed George would have given you the money..
      Paul McCartney: No, I-I never even heard from George.
      Lorne Michaels: I mean, I can't be responsible for that. I mean, he said that he would take care of the band..
  • Baba Wawa, anyone?
• Buck Henry/Gordon Lightfoot & Garrett Morris:
  • Samurai Futaba interrupts Lightfoot's third song of the night, "Sundown."
  • Michaels appears again during the opening monologue to urge the Beatles to reunite on the show, this time offering them $3,200 and hotel accommodations to perform three songs.
• Elliot Gould/Leon Redbone, Harlan Collins & Joyce Everson: "The Last Voyage of the Starship 'Enterprise'". A hilarious takeoff on Star Trek: The Original Series, as the crew faces their greatest threat: cancellation by NBC. Features Chevy Chase as Mr. Spock, Dan Aykroyd as McCoy (and the voice of Scotty), and John Belushi as Kirk.
• Dyan Cannon/Leon and Mary Russell:
  • "Charlie Chaplin's classic comedy film The Great Dictator was finally released in Spain this week. The film had been banned during the forty year reign of Generalissimo Francisco Franco because it made fun of Franco's friend Adolf Hitler. Hitler could not be reached for comment in Argentina, and sources report that Franco now only watches underground movies."
• Kris Kristofferson/Rita Coolidge:
  • "Our final story tonight took place today in Montreal, where Generalissimo Francisco Franco scored a perfect 10/10 in the cadaver diving. The former ruler of Spain, now known as El Cadaver, scored an upset over Daniel Gearhart, ex-mercenary, who was considered to be the favorite until he lost points for his execution."