The debut night for Saturday Night Live was no walk in the park, as seen in the trailer for Jason Reitman‘s forthcoming movie about the NBC sketch show’s origins.
Sony Pictures released the first trailer for Saturday Night ahead of its Oct. 11 theatrical release. Reitman helmed the feature that focuses on the behind-the-scenes moments leading up to SNL‘s premiere broadcast that aired Oct. 11, 1975.
The trailer highlights the chaos that transpired over the course of the final 90 minutes prior to the start of that first-ever episode. This includes a tense exchange between series creator Lorne Michaels (played by Gabriel LaBelle) and NBC executive Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman).
Ebersol says in the footage, “Lorne, 90 minutes of live television by a group of 20-year-olds who have never made anything? Do you every stop and wonder why they said yes [to] a counterculture show starring total unknowns, with zero narrative and even less structure? They want you to fail.”
This leads Lorne to respond, “We just have to make it to air.”
Reitman and Gil Kenan wrote the screenplay based on their interviews with living cast, writers and crew about the launch of the show that is currently heading into its 50th season. Reitman, Kenan, Jason Blumenfeld and Peter Rice are producers on the film formerly known by the working title SNL 1975. Executive producing are Erica Mills and JoAnn Perritano.
Portraying SNL’s inaugural players are Dylan O’Brien (as Dan Aykroyd), Lamorne Morris (Garrett Morris), Cory Michael Smith (Chevy Chase), Matt Wood (John Belushi), Ella Hunt (Gilda Radner), Emily Fairn (Laraine Newman) and Kim Matula (Jane Curtin).
Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott) and John Belushi (Matt Wood) in Saturday Night.
Hopper Stone
Other castmembers include Willem Dafoe (David Tebet), Nicholas Braun (Jim Henson), Matthew Rhys (George Carlin), Kaia Gerber (Jacqueline Carlin), J.K. Simmons (Milton Berle), Jon Batiste (Billy Preston), Andrew Barth Feldman (Neil Levy), Naomi McPherson (Janis Ian) and Finn Wolfhard as an NBC page.
In a recent piece for Vanity Fair, LaBelle — known for his starring role in The Fabelmans — discussed his mindset for playing Michaels. The actor noted that Michaels “started [SNL] when he was 30. He’s now 80 and has been doing it for 50 years. Nobody knows what to do when they first start.”