The Reel Review
On this 50th season of Saturday Night Live, this four-episode docuseries speaks with its creator Lorne Michaels, as well as current and former cast members and staff writers to share how the popular comedy sketch show is made.
The first two episodes of this love letter to SNL are the strongest. Episode 1 focuses on the nerve-wracking audition process, where each aspiring cast member has five minutes to do five characters. Seeing cast members cringe at their auditions is priceless. Episode 2 follows a week in the creative process, from the Monday pitch session with the coming week’s host, all the expected stressful late nights of writing and re-writing and then working with set designers and costumers on the sketches that get the midweek thumbs up, only to find out after Saturday’s dress rehearsal if they will make the live show. It’s a lot of inside baseball but SNL superfans will enjoy it.
The last two episodes, one dedicated to the iconic Will Ferrell cowbell sketch, and one about the critically panned Season 11 “weird year” when Lorne Michaels returned after a five-year break with a totally new cast, fill more like an unnecessary bloat to an otherwise interesting docuseries that would have been better as a tight two-hour documentary.
REEL FACTS
• Throughout its five decades on air, Saturday Night Live has won 84 Primetime Emmys, six Writers Guild of America Awards and three Peabody Awards. In 2000, it was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
• Terry Sweeney was the first openly gay SNL castmember, appearing on the 1985-86 season. As of 2012, he and his former SNL comedy writer husband split their time between Los Angeles and Beaufort, South Carolina.
• Timothée Chalamet will host the Season 50 finale and be the musical guest on January 25, 2025 with a special on the show’s 50 years in mid February.
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