"Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special" (also billed as "SNL40") is a three-and-a-half-hour prime-time special that aired on February 15, 2015, on NBC, celebrating Saturday Night Live's 40th year on the air, having premiered on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night.[1][2] The special was produced by Broadway Video and directed by then-series director Don Roy King. This special generated 23.1 million viewers, becoming NBC's most-watched prime-time, non-sports, entertainment telecast (excluding Super Bowl lead-outs) since the Friends series finale in 2004.[3][4][5][6] It is the third such anniversary special to be broadcast, with celebratory episodes also held during the 15th and 25th seasons.
The special was preceded on NBC by an hour-long SNL 40th Red Carpet Live, hosted by Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Carson Daly and Al Roker, who interviewed past hosts, current and previous cast members, and musical legends who had previously performed on the show.[7]
Synopsis
The special followed the format of a typical Saturday Night Live episode, extended to 3½ hours instead of the usual 1½, and included a cold open, a monologue, sketches, a short film, commercial parodies, and musical performances. The sketches, most of which were revivals of sketches that appeared over the show's run, made reference to the show and its four decades on air, with the original cast members who appeared in those sketches reprising their roles along with numerous guest stars. A handful of commercial parodies, including "Colon Blow" and "Mom Jeans", reran as they originally appeared on the show. In order of appearance:
Chris Rock introduced Murphy with a lengthy and loving tribute to him. The appearance by Murphy marked his first appearance on the show since departing as a cast member in 1984.[9] Many at the time were surprised that Murphy chose not to give a comedic monologue or reprise any of his characters. His remarks were described as being "brief" and "awkward" according to The Hollywood Reporter.[10]
Jon Lovitz (not deceased), cast member—jokingly included in the segment as part of a running gag during the special that Lovitz, who was alive and present in the audience, was dead. Lovitz's exasperated reaction to being included in the "In Memoriam" is shown.
Guest appearances
This special assembled together a large list of current and former cast members, hosts, and musical acts from throughout the show's forty seasons.[2][11] Show creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels stated that every host and most musical guests were invited, plus any cast member or writer who had been on the show more than a year.[12] Ultimately, over a hundred in all were then confirmed to appear.[13]
In the opening sequence, 81 performers were credited. Unlike a regular episode, all performers were credited as repertory:[14][15]
Of those former hosts, musical guests, former cast members and writers invited, the people who sent back an RSVP were then considered to be written for.[21] Dan Aykroyd was asked by Lorne Michaels about doing a "Bass-O-Matic" sketch, while Mike Myers and Dana Carvey requested to reprise Wayne's World.[22] Michaels stated that since different generations of former cast members were coming, they wanted to do sketches featuring mashups between different casts.[23]
Writer Jim Downey conceived the idea of Nick the Lounge Singer singing the theme to Jaws way back in the 1970s, but was never able to pull it off during Bill Murray's tenure on SNL. They were unsure if they could obtain the necessary copyright clearance to show footage of Jaws on a monitor in the background until they realized that, since NBC had already acquired the rights to Jaws with its purchase of Universal Pictures in 2002, they could just ask director Steven Spielberg, who was in attendance.[22]
Eddie Murphy was originally asked to play Bill Cosby in the "Celebrity Jeopardy!" sketch, but refused.[24]
Nora Dunn was asked to participate in the musical medley as Liz Sweeney, but refused because Jan Hooks (the other Sweeney Sister) had died.[25]
NSYNC were scheduled to appear in this special but their appearance was cancelled at the last minute.
Marketing and promotion
A 15-second spot premiered during the Super Bowl XLIX broadcast and – along with two other 15-second clips – was uploaded on to the official Saturday Night LiveYouTube page.[26][27][28] While the clips promoted appearances by Jon Hamm and Paul Rudd, neither of these occurred during the live show.[28] Numerous articles, features and interviews were published in the weeks prior to the broadcast.
VH1 Classic aired a 19-day marathon of SNL-related programming that ended on the day of the special, featuring notable episodes in a reverse chronological order (alongside theme blocks focusing on specific cast members, and films featuring them), concluding with the original series premiere.[29][30]
