SNL 1975 Film In the Works

February 3, 2024

Director Jason Reitman has announced that a new film about the debut episode of Saturday Night Live is in the works. Most of the cast, including all the “not-ready-for-prime-time players,” has been announced, and you can see them on the People website. I don’t see mentioned yet who will be playing Michael O’Donoghue, who was head writer for the show from 1975-78 and also appeared in the first “cold opening” of the show with John Belushi.

Many of the writers and performers of the show had also worked on the National Lampoon Radio Hour (1974) and on National Lampoon comedy albums, as well as National Lampoon magazine itself. These included writers Michael O’Donoghue and Anne Beatts, and performers John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, and Gilda Radner.

It will be interesting to compare the cast of this to the cast of the 2018 Doug Kenney biopic A Stupid and Futile Gesture, which features some of the same people played by different actors.

(Thanks to Al for the tip!)

Comments

A small note - if the People article is correct, it looks like the film was announced by Jason Reitman (Ivan Reitman's son).

—Rob

February 5, 2024 9:33 pm

Oops! You're right. I'll fix it.

—Mark

February 5, 2024 9:39 pm

This film recently had its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. I didn't get to see it but it reportedly received a "most rapturous response." https://deadline.com/2024/09/saturday-night-tiff-premiere-1236084412/

—Rob Savage

September 18, 2024 10:09 pm

Great! Looks like the response has been very positive.

—Mark

September 18, 2024 10:12 pm

Original material (excluding quoted material) © 1997-2024 Mark Simonson.
Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site is not affiliated with National Lampoon or National Lampoon Inc.
Click here for the real thing.