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I WATCHED THE FIRST "NBC SATURDAY NIGHT" LIVE -- Paul Simon Made it a Hit on Show #2 [1]
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Date: 2025-02-17
It was fitting that Paul Simon opened the 50th Anniversary show last night. Simon and Garfunkel had gone their separate ways in 1970 and that was like, forever ago, and final (for comparison, the Beatles also broke up in 1970 and never got back together on stage). Not many remember that 5 years later, for the 2nd show of NBC Saturday Night , Paul Simon was the host, and Art joined him as the musical guest. They sang some of their hits. It was well promoted, and a lot of people watched just to see them. That show, the 2nd show, is what created the audience. The audience stayed, and here we are 50 years later.
For the first show the week before, I was a high school nerd without a date or a party to go to. I was a fan of George Carlin, and when I saw he was hosting a show on Saturday night, I stayed up to watch.
The context many of you are too young to know is that, in 1975, network television was barely more than 25 years old, and cable was in its infancy. Early TV was almost all live, by necessity. Milton Berle and Sid Ceasar had hosted live variety shows among others, Ceasar brilliantly for 90 minutes, but it these shows were live out of necessity. And this was not sustainable.
But SNL was live because they wanted to be live.
Simon & Garfunkel gave them an audience. The "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" kept them. 50 years later, Paul Simon opened the show last night. Paul McCartney, who never did get the Beatles together even though Lorne Michaels famously offered them $3,000 to do so, closed it.
There is a movie about that first show. It's worth seeing. And, it was show #2 that put "NBC Saturday Night on the map. That Simon & Garfunkel reunion.
During that show, 5 foot nothing Paul Simon played a game of one-on-one and “beat” 6'9" basketball legend Connie Hawkins,the match announced with a straight face, tongue firmly in cheek, by Marv Albert. They showed filmed clips from the game over "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard." Chevy Chase was the breakout star on Weekend Update ("Hi. I'm Chevy Chase and you're not!") Even my parents stayed up for the chance to watch Paul & Art sing together again.
Ceasar and Berle, and others, in the first decade of network television, created something out of nothing every week, live, and flamed out. Lorne Michaels created this, walked away for 5 years, came back, and somehow, it's stayed with us 50 years.
50 years is just about twice as long as Network TV had *existed* before SNL began.
Think about that for a moment....
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