Season 1 poster
Saturday Night Live

Season 1

The first season of Saturday Night Live, the weekly late-night 90-minute American sketch comedy/variety show on NBC, aired during the 1975–1976 television season. Saturday Night Live premiered on October 11, 1975 and consisted of a total of 24 episodes, the last of which aired on July 31, 1976. In 1974, NBC Tonight Show host Johnny Carson requested that the weekend broadcasts of "Best of Carson" come to an end, so that Carson could take two weeknights off and NBC would thus air those repeats on those nights rather than feed them to affiliates for broadcast on either Saturdays or Sundays. Given Carson's undisputed status as the dean of late-night television, NBC heard his request as an ultimatum, fearing he might use the issue as grounds to defect to either ABC or CBS. To fill the gap, the network drew up some ideas and brought in Dick Ebersol – a protégé of legendary ABC Sports president Roone Arledge – to develop a 90-minute late-night variety show. Ebersol's first order of business was hiring a young Canadian producer named Lorne Michaels to be the show-runner.

Air dateOct 11, 1975
Episodes24

Episodes

  1. 1. George Carlin with Billy Preston and Janis Ian Oct 11, 1975 · 66 min · ★ 8.1
  2. 2. Paul Simon with Randy Newman and Phoebe Snow Oct 18, 1975 · 66 min · ★ 5.8
  3. 3. Rob Reiner Oct 25, 1975 · 66 min · ★ 7.2
  4. 4. Candice Bergen with Esther Phillips Nov 8, 1975 · 68 min · ★ 7.7
  5. 5. Robert Klein with ABBA and Loudon Wainwright III Nov 15, 1975 · 67 min · ★ 6.7
  6. 6. Lily Tomlin Nov 22, 1975 · 65 min · ★ 7.2
  7. 7. Richard Pryor with Gil Scott-Heron Dec 13, 1975 · 67 min · ★ 8.0
  8. 8. Candice Bergen with Martha Reeves and The Stylistics Dec 20, 1975 · 67 min · ★ 6.6
  9. 9. Elliott Gould with Anne Murray Jan 10, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 6.8
  10. 10. Buck Henry with Bill Withers and Toni Basil Jan 17, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 6.8
  11. 11. Peter Cook & Dudley Moore with Neil Sedaka Jan 24, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 6.2
  12. 12. Dick Cavett with Jimmy Cliff Jan 31, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 6.3
  13. 13. Peter Boyle with Al Jarreau Feb 14, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 7.0
  14. 14. Desi Arnaz with Desi Arnaz Jr. Feb 21, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 6.3
  15. 15. Jill Clayburgh with Leon Redbone Feb 28, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 6.3
  16. 16. Anthony Perkins with Betty Carter Mar 13, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 6.7
  17. 17. Ron Nessen with the Patti Smith Group Apr 17, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 7.7
  18. 18. Raquel Welch with Phoebe Snow and John Sebastian Apr 24, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 6.3
  19. 19. Madeline Kahn with Carly Simon May 8, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 6.5
  20. 20. Dyan Cannon with Leon & Mary Russell May 15, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 5.3
  21. 21. Buck Henry with Gordon Lightfoot May 22, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 6.7
  22. 22. Elliott Gould with Leon Redbone and Harlan Collins & Joyce Everson May 29, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 6.3
  23. 23. Louise Lasser with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band Jul 24, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 3.0
  24. 24. Kris Kristofferson with Rita Coolidge Jul 31, 1976 · 67 min · ★ 6.3