What Does ‘Saturday Night’ Think ‘Saturday Night Live’ Is About?
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic When I first heard about the premise of Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night” — the entire film takes place in the 90 minutes leading up to the late-night comedy landmark’s first episode in 1975 — I confess that I found the idea to be a head-scratcher.
Sure, it seemed like there would be a backstage let’s-put-on-a-show “What can go wrong? Everything can go wrong!” real-time frenetic bustle to the thing.
And that sounded like fun. More to the point, though: The show that came to be called “Saturday Night Live” — in the first season, it was just called “Saturday Night” — didn’t come together overnight, or in 90 minutes.
A universe of pitching and planning and casting and writing, along with an infinite number of decisions large and small, went into the formation of a revolutionary new television comedy spirit and form.
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