50 fun facts about ‘Saturday Night Live' for its 50th season

Live from New York, it's Saturday night!

That signature line has been repeated on a weekly basis since it was first said during the debut of "Saturday Night Live" on Oct. 11, 1975.

But who was the first cast member to say it? Who has said it the most? Who will say it next when the show's 50th season premieres on Saturday, Sept. 28?

Tune in to NBC to find out the answer to that last question, but we've got you covered on the others, along with more fun facts … and more cowbell.

NBC's Saturday Night

1. The show was originally called “NBC’s Saturday Night” when it debuted in 1975 because ABC was launching a variety series called “Saturday Night with Howard Cosell.” When it was canceled after its first season, NBC purchased the rights to the title and changed it during the 1977-1978 season.

2. The original title lives on in some form each episode with the closing line of cold open sketch: “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” The first cast member to say it was Chevy Chase.

3. Darrell Hammond, whose 14 years on the show from 1995 to 2009 makes him the second longest-running SNL cast member, has said the “Live from New York …” line during the cold open 70 times, more than any other cast member (at least according to an unofficial count on IMDB).

4. The longest-tenured cast member in the history of SNL is Kenan Thompson, who is set to begin his 21^st season.  

5. Gilda Radner was the first cast member hired for the show.

6. The show’s original cast, in addition to Radner, also included Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman.

7. The show’s first host was comedian George Carlin, who performed three monologues but did not appear in any sketches.

8. There were two musical guests on SNL’s first episode: Billy Preston and Janis Ian.

9. The balcony-level seats in Studio 8H in 30 Rock where SNL is filmed are from Yankee Stadium.

10. The first sketch of all time was called “The Wolverines” – in which John Belushi takes English lessons. After that sketch, Chase became the first cast member to say “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

"And your host..."

11. Alec Baldwin has hosted SNL 17 times, the most all time. He first hosted in 1990, and he most recently hosted in 2017, the same year he won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2017 for his SNL portrayal of Donald Trump.

12. Baldwin is one of only five people to host SNL 10 or more times, along with Steve Martin (16 times), John Goodman (13 times), Buck Henry (10 times) and Tom Hanks (10 times).

13. Buck Henry was the first member of the Five-Timer’s Club, which inducts those who have hosted or been a musical guest five times. Henry -- creator of the TV show “Get Smart” – hosted two episodes in each of SNL’s first five seasons between 1976 and 1980.

14. The other members of the Five-Timer’s Club for hosting include: Chase (eight), Christopher Walken (seven), Elliott Gould (six), Danny DeVito (six), Drew Barrymore (six), Tina Fey (six), Scarlett Johansson (six), Ben Affleck (five), Candice Bergen (five), Will Ferrell (five), Woody Harrelson (five), Jonah Hill (five), Dwayne Johnson (five), Melissa McCarthy (five), John Mulaney (five), Bill Murray (five), Paul Rudd (five), Emma Stone (five), Justin Timberlake (five) and Kristen Wiig (five). Club members are presented with a jacket, often on-air, for their fifth appearance.

15. Candice Bergen became the first female host in the show’s fourth episode.

16. Steve Martin has hosted the most season-opening shows with four.

17. Two hosts have appeared under different names: Roseanne Barr (Roseanne Barr, Roseanne Arnold, and Roseanne) and Dwayne Johnson (The Rock and Dwayne Johnson).

18. The oldest host was Betty White at 88 years old in 2010.

19. The youngest SNL host was Drew Barrymore at 7 years old in 1982 after her role in “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.”  

"With musical guest...."

20. Dave Grohl has been the most frequent musical guest on SNL with 16 appearances, having performed multiple times with both Nirvana and The Foo Fighters and as a special guest.

21. The first musical guest to appear multiple times was Phoebe Snow after performing twice in the first season.

22. The Beatles nearly reunited on “Saturday Night Live.” Lorne Michaels in a 1976 sketch begged the Fab Four of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Star to perform on the show for $3,000. Lennon was at his apartment at The Dakota with McCartney when the two nearly decided making a surprise appearance at the nearby SNL studio during the show’s live broadcast.

“Paul and I were together watching that show. He was visiting us at our place in the Dakota,” Lennon said in a New York Times interview. “We were watching it and almost went down to the studio, just as a gag. We nearly got into a cab, but we were actually too tired.”

McCartney later confirmed that the two considered going to the studio, but said it was the week after Michaels’ offer.

23. Paul Simon was the first of dozens to pull double duty at SNL by serving as host and musical guest in 1975.

24. The most recent double-duty host and musical guest was Dua Lipa in 2024.

25. Other notable double-duty performers include Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Olivia Newton-John, M.C. Hammer, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson, Elton John, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Drake, Megan Thee Stallion, Taylor Swift and others.

26. Queen made its lone SNL appearance on Sept. 25, 1982, in what would be their final U.S. performance before the death of singer Freddie Mercury. The group sang their hits “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Under Pressure.”

27. What is widely considered the show’s most controversial moments occurred in 1992 when musical guest Sinead O’Conner -- while performing an a cappella rendition of Bob Marley’s “War” and changing the line “fight racial injustice” to “fight sexual abuse” – ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II in protest against child sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

28. Rolling Stone in 2017 ranked the top musical performances in SNL history, giving the top spot to the 1981 performance by the Los Angeles punk rock band Fear, who were invited by John Belushi and writer Michael O’Donoghue. The mayhem of the performance and the moshpit was described as a “riot” in a New York Post headline. SNL co-creator cut away from the performance during the band’s third song. That performance was ranked just ahead of the 1975 reunion of Simon and Garfunkel in SNL’s second episode.

29. The show is live, and so are the musical performances … usually. One of the most infamous musical performances on SNL was when Ashlee Simpson was caught lip-synching. The vocals from the song she sang earlier in the show began playing, causing her to dance awkwardly before she abruptly left the stage, leaving her band behind.

'We've got a great show for you tonight!'

31. The youngest cast member to join SNL was Anthony Michael Hall at 17 years old in 1985. The oldest cast member to join SNL was Leslie Jones at 47 years old in 2014.

32. The Blues Brothers, played by John Belushi and Jim Belushi, was one of three sets of brothers that have been SNL cast members. The others are Dan Aykroyd and Peter Aykroyd, and Bill Murray and Brian Doyle-Murray.

33. The first cast member to be the child of a former cast member was Abby Elliott, the daughter of Chris Elliott, who was on SNL during the 1994-1995. His daughter became the first second-generation cast member in 2008.

34. The first anchor on "Weekend Update" was Chase in the show's debut episode. Others who went on to sit in the prestigious seats include: Jane Curtain, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Charles Rocket, Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, Norm MacDonald, Colin Quinn, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, Cecily Strong and the present duo of Colin Jost and Michael Che -- who are the longest tenured anchors in the show's history.

35. Party on! The highest grossing movie to come from an SNL sketch was "Wayne's World" starring Mike Myers as Wayne and Dana Carvey as Garth. The 1992 movie earned over $121 million at the box office, topping "The Blues Brothers" ($57.2 million), "Wayne's World 2" ($48.2 million), "Superstar" ($30.6 million), "A Night at the Roxbury" ($30.3 million) and "Coneheads" ($21.3 million).

36. "The Chanukah Song" by Adam Sandler -- which he first performed on SNL's "Weekend Update" on Dec. 3, 1994 -- reached No. 80 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

37. Some well-known stars you may have forgotten were SNL cast members? Billy Crystal, Ben Stiller, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Damon Wayans, Joan Cusack and Robert Downey Jr.

38. For SNL's 40th anniversary in 2015, Rolling Stone ranked every cast member by their stints on their show. Taking the top spot at No. 1 was John Belushi, who just edged the legendary Eddie Murphy. Coming in last at No. 145, right behind The Muppets, was Robert Downey Jr.

39. In Esquire's recent ranking of the top 50 all-time sketches on SNL, the top five were: 5) Celebrity Jeopardy 4) Word Association 3) More Cowbell 2) Matt Foley: Van Down by the River, 1) Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.

Live from Studio 8H

41. "Saturday Night Live" has been filmed in Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza since the show debuted in 1975. It consists of three primary stages for the opening monologue, musical performances and sketches -- and over 800 set lights. Allow Tina Fey to show you around.

42. Chris Farley, when rushing off the sketch stage, would often hit his head on the ledge above the stairs leading to the exit. Padding was added to the ledge, along with a sign that reads "Watch Your Head" with "Farley" handwritten at the end. It's still there today.

43. The sets for each show are built in just two days, and nearly all are destroyed after filming. The more elaborate sets -- like the Oval Office -- are often stored for future use. Typically, for each show, 10 to 12 sets are made, 40 to 50 gallons of paint are used, and 85 to 200 costumes are designed for each show.

44. What's a week in the life of an SNL set designer like? Longtime production designer Eugene Lee, who commuted from his Rhode Island home to 30 Rock since being hired by Lorne Michaels in 1975, explained the itinerary to TIME in 2016 when he was 77 years old and still working:

"We work Wednesday to Saturday. I always take the Acela in on Wednesday for read-through. We decide what we want to do and hopefully get out of the building by midnight. Thursday we do the music in the studio. After music we do promos. Then we do some little sketches, but we don’t have scenery yet. Like a theater play, we put up flats to try to show the director and actors how much space they have. Then when we come in Friday, two-thirds of scenery, unpainted, has come overnight. On Friday, Lorne has a meeting late — around midnight, sometimes 1:00 am — to decide the order of the pieces. Then Saturday, we’re dressing the set, finishing the painting. At 1:00 pm we start a technical rehearsal; if someone is flying we test if we can do that. At 8:00 p.m., we do a dress rehearsal with an audience. Lorne cuts things he doesn’t like. Even if it’s a really great job for the set, if it’s not funny to him, it gets cut. That’s just how it is. And then at 11:30, it goes live. I leave a little early once I’ve seen the dress rehearsal, and a driver takes me back to Rhode Island. I haven’t been to an after-party for a few decades."

45. Crew members have less than two minutes during the show's opening credits to change sets from the cold open to the monologue stage, as seen here....

46. Cars used in sketches on SNL are real, but the engines have been removed and the vehicles have been cut in half in order to fit into the 30 Rock elevators.

47. Don Pardo was the announcer for SNL for 38 seasons, introducing the cast, host and musical guest. Even after moving to Arizona in 1995, he continued to do SNL, flying to New York once a week. In the seasons prior to his death in 2014 at the age of 96, Pardo recorded his intros from Arizona. Pardo was succeeded as SNL announcer by longtime cast member Darrell Hammond.

48. When asked by The Hollywood Reporter in 2015 which actors he regrets overlooking for SNL, Lorne Michaels named Steve Carell, Lisa Kudrow, Stephen Colbert and Jim Carrey.

"I wasn’t at the Jim Carrey audition, but somebody who was there said, 'I don’t think Lorne would like it,' and they were probably wrong, but it doesn’t matter. Or maybe they were right — who knows? No one gets it all right," Michaels said.

49. SNL has won more Emmy awards than any television show in history with 90. It’s followed by “Game of Thrones,” which won 49. Creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels has 102 Emmy nominations, the most ever for an individual, and 21 wins.

50. SNL will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a three-hour live primetime special that will air Sunday, Feb. 16, at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. Yes, Sunday, not Saturday. So ...

Live from New York, it's Sunday night!