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What ‘Saturday Night’ gets right and wrong about the late-night sketch comedy show’s chaotic first broadcast

October 15, 20240
From left: Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Matt Wood as John Belushi, and Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd in “Saturday Night.”

Hopper Stone/Sony Pictures Entertainment

“Saturday Night” doesn’t get too deep into the specifics of the contract dispute, but the real Belushi also refused to sign the document until minutes before the show started.

Per Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad’s oral history book “Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live,” the original cast members were going to be signed to “identical five-year contracts” that entailed getting paid between $25,000 and $30,000 during their first season. It was considered a measly amount and Belushi wasn’t in favor of it.

In “Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests,” written by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, manager Bernie Brillstein recalled lying to Belushi to get him to sign the contract.

“I just happened to walk by at the time, and I didn’t really know John well at all,” Brillstein said. “I couldn’t believe NBC in its stupidity was pressuring him at such a time. So John said to me, ‘Should I sign this contract?’ and I said, ‘Of course you should sign this contract.’ He said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Because I wrote it’ — which, by the way, wasn’t true. But I knew I had to get him to sign it.”

Brillstein, who was managing Michaels, said that Belushi agreed to sign the contract if he decided to manage him too.

“I swear to God, it was five minutes before showtime,” Brillstein recalled.

Fiction: Lorne Michaels ordered a llama for an opening night skit.
Matt Wood as John Belushi and Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner in “Saturday Night.”

Sony Pictures

Reitman told USA Today that the actors weren’t in the middle of a lighting rig mishap, but there was a different equipment disaster that occurred.

“The story we heard was that their famous camera crane, the so-called Chapman Crane that someone would actually ride, lost its brakes and plowed through the set,” he said.

Additionally, cowriter Gil Kenan told the Los Angeles Times that the sofa did catch fire on premiere night and got replaced by one from the writers’ room.

“That is all stuff we got from the interviews,” Kenan said.

Fiction: Lorne Michaels was set to be the “Weekend Update” anchor until right before airing.
Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster and Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels in “Saturday Night.”

Sony Pictures

Rosie Shuster, a writer on the show in the 1970s and 1980s, was married to Michaels from 1967 to 1980. By the time “SNL” started, they had already worked together on other shows. In the movie, Shuster (played by Rachel Sennott) describes their love story in an unromantic way and says Michaels was like a stray dog who followed her around.

This isn’t too different from Shuster and Michaels’ real-life relationship. The pair were childhood friends who met while living in the same Toronto neighborhood. Shuster’s dad, Frank Shuster, was part of the comedy duo Wayne and Shuster and ended up being a mentor to Michaels.

“Lorne Michaels arrived in my life before puberty, let’s put it that way,” Shuster recalled in “Live From New York.”

Shuster said that Michaels “observed me from the sidelines.”

“And I guess he was struck by my mojo, or whatever, and he basically started following me around,” she said. “We were inseparable after that.”

Fact: Dan Aykroyd did have relationships and flirtations with multiple “SNL” cast and crew members.
Kaia Gerber as Jacqueline Carlin and J.K. Simmons as Milton Berle in “Saturday Night.”

Sony Pictures

Chase has a tense interaction with Berle, known as Mr. Television, when he finds the legendary star (played by J.K. Simmons) sitting on a couch and flirting with his fiancée, Jacqueline Carlin (Kaia Gerber).

The two men take digs at each other, with Berle telling Chase that he’s not a star and won’t be remembered. Then, Berle unzips his pants to brag about his penis.

Although Berle, who died in 2002, wasn’t around for the premiere of “SNL,” his actions in that scene are on par with stories that cast and crew members have shared about him.

In “Live From New York,” comedy writer Alan Zweibel said that Berle was known as “the guy with the big dick, one of the biggest in show business.” Zweibel also claimed that Berle opened his bathrobe to show off his penis to him while in his dressing room at “SNL.”

“Milton used to pull his penis out in front of everybody,” Reitman told Entertainment Weekly. “I personally know multiple people that Milton’s pulled his dick out in front of.”

The director also explained why “Saturday Night” included the Berle scene even though it didn’t happen on premiere night.

“We’re not egregiously rewriting history,” he said. “It’s not as though Milton Berle was a guy who was a saint. We’re using a guy who did this all the time, and now we’re choosing to use it in a moment that propels the story.”

Berle, who had a reputation for being difficult to work with, hosted the show during season four and was regarded as one the worst hosts ever.

Fact: Michaels randomly found a surprisingly good, aspiring comedian at a bar and hired him for “SNL”
Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris in “Saturday Night.”

Hopper Stone/Sony Pictures

In the movie, Morris (played by Lamorne Morris) sings a song with the lyrics “I’m gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I see,” during musical guest Billy Preston’s soundcheck minutes before showtime. He’s met with applause from the cast and crew.

In real life, Morris performed that shotgun song not on premiere night, but during the famous “Death Row Follies” sketch later in season one. The moment was inspired by a racist song that a white woman performed on TV in the ’50s. Morris replaced the slur she used with “whiteys” on “SNL.”

“Saturday Night” is in theaters now.