‘Saturday Night Live’ 50th anniversary special watched by nearly 15 million people

NEW YORK (AP) — By the time Cher sang “If I Could Turn Back Time,” it seemed as if time had indeed been turned back, and every single “Saturday Night Live” musical guest of 50 years had magically found their way to Radio City Music Hall.

Of course, it was only a smattering. But “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert” boasted an epic lineup. It was an evening of memorable solo performances and often fascinating, one-time-only collaborations: Bonnie Raitt and Chris Martin. Arcade Fire, David Byrne, St. Vincent and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Post Malone and Nirvana.

The concert, hosted by Jimmy Fallon, was only one element of what has become an enormous celebration of the show’s 50 years in existence, leading up to Sunday’s “SNL50: The Anniversary Special,” live from Studio 8H.

But Friday night (Feb. 14, 2025) was all about music.

Some highlights:

Return of the 1990s

If a decade can win the night, let’s hear it for the 1990s. A classic performance from that decade was most likely to get the Radio City audience on its feet, singing along and pulling out their phones to record.

The Backstreet Boys proved irresistible when they broke into “I Want it That Way.” Snoop Dogg may have sung “Gin and Juice,” but he was trailed by enough smoke to give nearby audience members a contact high.

Wearing a gigantic coat befitting a winter night, Lauryn Hill commanded the stage with Wyclef Jean and the crowd melted at the first notes of “Killing Me Softly.”

Yes, (some) comics can do music

Naturally, some former “SNL” cast members reprised old characters, with varying levels of success.

The Culps, the stuffy music teachers played by Will Ferrell and Ana Gastayer, hit harder and funnier than they ever did on the show. Their attempts at being current were hilarious and they even worked in a few verses of “Not Like Us,” with a plea for harmony between Kendrick Lamar and Drake.

Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell’s “Lazy Sunday” was welcome, but too short. Lady Gaga was a good sport, replacing Justin Timberlake to sing about a Christmas gift whose title can’t be repeated here. But Bill Murray’s lounge singer “foursome” routine with Gastayer, Maya Rudolph and Cecily Strong fell a bit flat.

They love Lorne

“SNL” creator Lorne Michaels didn’t perform, but he was referred to all night long.

“I love you, Lorne Michaels,” declared Miley Cyrus, dedicating her hit song “Flowers” to the show’s founder.

Raitt, finishing “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” thanked Michaels for having her on the show so many times.

“Let’s give it up for Lorne,” said former cast member Adam Sandler, introducing a collaboration between Post Malone and Nirvana. “We love you buddy.”

And Marcus Mumford, lead singer of the British folk band Mumford & Sons, said he was there to represent Michaels’ admirers from across the pond.

Creative collabs

The night featured fascinating collaborations that brought together musicians of all kinds.

Cyrus teamed with Brittany Howard to sing Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

Arcade Fire joined with David Byrne, St. Vincent and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to perform David Bowie’s “Heroes.” Byrne later also collaborated with Robyn, in matching khaki suits, for “Dancing On My Own” and “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody).”

And for Raitt’s second song, she sat down with Chris Martin, the Coldplay frontman becoming her pianist for “I Can’t Make You Love Me.”

In another collab of sorts, the B-52s were joined on “Love Shack” by former and current SNL cast members Fred Armisen, Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman, singing the “bang bang” lyrics.

Lady Gaga collaborated with herself, singing both parts of “Shallow” and bringing down the house.

Most valuable player

Questlove is more associated with the “Tonight” show, but he is proving to be the MVP of these “Saturday Night Live” anniversary festivities.

Not only did the drummer produce the splendid documentary on the “SNL” musical legacy, but he effortlessly kept the beat with The Roots, his legendary hip-hop group and “Tonight” show house band, as they covered every style imaginable, from Snoop to Eddie Vedder to Brandi Carlile. Byrne bowed in appreciation.

No ‘Joke’

Carlile has become known lately for her collaborations, most notably coaxing Joni Mitchell back to the stage.

Friday night provided a reminder of her own artistry with the political climate adding a special urgency to her impassioned version of “The Joke.”

A second Nirvana reunion

For the second time in as many weeks, the surviving members of Nirvana reunited.

Rather than the quartet of women who fronted the band for the Fire Aid concert, Malone took Kurt Cobain’s place on Friday (Feb. 14, 2025).

Their version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was fierce, a reminder of why the song packed such a wallop when it was first heard.

NEW YORK (AP) — Legions of comedic talent have paraded through NBC’s Studio 8H, whether as cast members, writers or hosts of “Saturday Night Live.”

As the sketch show marks its 50th anniversary with a bevy of celebrations, its cast members and alumni look back on their favorite sketches and the enduring legacy of “Saturday Night Live.”

Fred Armisen, cast member 2002-2013, one-time host

FAVORITE SKETCH: “The Wizard of Oz”

“There’s a ‘Wizard of Oz’ one that we did that actually John Mulaney wrote, where there’s like this new footage of ‘Wizard of Oz,’ of a character that got cut out of a movie, and it’s a weather vane,” said Armisen, who played Weathervane alongside Anne Hathaway’s Dorothy. “Something about it, I just I really love that sketch.”

Chloe Fineman, cast member 2019-present

FAVORITE SKETCH: “Everything is amazing,” the current cast member said, but she seemed to hope the anniversary special would see a reprise of “The Californians.”

“All of it are sort of ‘pinch me’ moments and I feel like it’ll be even bigger than the 40th,” she said of the upcoming special.

Will Forte, cast member 2002-2010, one-time host

FAVORITE SKETCHES: “More Cowbell,” with Christopher Walken fixated on adding that signature sound to Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” Forte named a few, but “Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer” was another favorite. Then, of course, there’s Adam Sandler’s classic “The Chanukah Song.”

“I hadn’t seen ‘The Chanukah Song’ in a long time. … It just happened to be on the other day,” said Forte, who was freshly reminded: “It’s so good.”

Seth Meyers, cast member 2001-2014, former head writer, one-time host

FAVORITE SKETCH: “More Cowbell,” perhaps a universal favorite.

“I think ‘Cowbell’ would work if English was your like 10th language. … I think that’s a safe pick,” he said. “It’s Will Ferrell at the height of his powers. … It’s an all-time host Christopher Walken doing a thing that only Christopher Walken could do.” (Of the last 12 months, Meyers is also partial to Nate Bargatze’s “Washington’s Dream” sketches.)

WHY “SNL” ENDURES: To Meyers, who now hosts “Late Night” in Studio 8G, “Saturday Night Live” is like sports. It’s live. No one knows what’s going to happen.

“It’s so beautifully uneven. I’ve always said the worst show has something great and the best show has something terrible,” Meyers said. “And there’s no there’s no host that can guarantee consistency. … If you laid all the Alec Baldwin-hosted episodes out there, there’s a huge gap between the best one and the worst one. And there’s no real reason to explain that, other than just everybody sort of had a bad week.”

Bobby Moynihan, cast member 2008-2017

FAVORITE SKETCHES: “Haunted Elevator,” with Tom Hanks as the spooky-yet-goofy David S. Pumpkins; “Calculator Christmas Gift,” where Fred Armisen and John Malkovich have their odd holiday wish list fulfilled; “Tennis Talk with Time-Traveling Scott Joplin,” which is somehow exactly what it sounds like.

“David Pumpkins always comes to mind as just, like, the weirdest thing we ever got on. And I love the idea of future generations trying to figure it out, as well,” said Moynihan, who added that he was drawn to “amazing, weird sketches.”

John Mulaney, writer 2008-2013, six-time host

FAVORITE SKETCHES: “Toilet Death Ejector,” an infomercial flogging an “elegant” solution to avert the indignity of dying on the commode, and “Monkey Trial,” featuring, yes, a monkey but not one on trial — one presiding over it.

“Those are two quality Simon Rich premises executed,” said Mulaney, who wrote the former with frequent collaborators Rich and Marika Sawyer and the latter with Rich. Both sketches date to Mulaney’s hosting stints.

Laraine Newman, cast member 1975-1980

FAVORITE SKETCH: “Plato’s Cave” from the Not Ready for Prime Time Players era, where Steve Martin plays a beatnik, and “The Swan,” a parody of a 2000s reality show.

“I remember seeing there was a horrible reality show called ‘The Swan’ where they did this massive plastic surgery on people. And I think they did a parody of that with Amy Poehler and a bunch of other people. And it was the first time I’d seen her and I was like, ‘My God, this girl is so good,’” Newman said. “But as far as our show, I think that this one sketch called ‘Plato’s Cave’ or the beatnik sketch, is, I think, a really good representation of our show. And it’s the whole cast.”

WHY “SNL” ENDURES: There’s a long list of people responsible, she says, but atop that list? Show creator Lorne Michaels.

“The fact that the show has remained relevant is because of the approach that Lorne has, which is that he always has new people, whether they be writers or performers with new perspectives and original ideas and characters,” Newman said. “And that’s, I think, what moves the show along in terms of tone and relevance.”

Jason Sudeikis, writer 2003-2005, cast member 2005-2013, one-time host

FAVORITE SKETCH: “What’s Up With That?” a recurring series with Kenan Thompson as a game show host.

“Part of the reason I put it in there is because I feel very proud of the group, the generation I came up on and through the show … both on camera and behind the scenes,” Sudeikis said, noting the “real wild” cameos like Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.

Kenan Thompson, cast member 2003-present

WHY “SNL” ENDURES: It has good people, and they know where the line is.

“We work with brilliant people. I think we all have a pretty solid sensibility, where we kind of know where the offense is and we work really hard trying not to tread in places that are uncomfortable or whatever without warrant,” the longtime cast member said. “But at the same time, I can’t please everybody and we’re still trying to like, like lighten the mood, if you will. So, you know, we’re doing that as long as we’re not like overly stepping — like if you step on a toe, you say, ‘I’m sorry. Excuse me.’ Then that should be OK. … We should be able to just move on and continue to explore or continue conversations that may or may not be uncomfortable. That’s kind of our job.”

Bowen Yang, writer 2018-2019, cast member 2019-present

WHY “SNL” ENDURES: At its heart, it’s a variety show.

“I think with a show like ‘SNL,’ we have the latitude to be a little variety show and give you different sensibilities and different parts of that, different perspectives. I love it,” the current cast member said. “It’s a very pluralistic place for comedy because it’s one of the last places where you can sort of have a grab bag of different kinds of stuff.”

NEW YORK (AP) — “Saturday Night Live” was intended for countercultural comedy. Fifty years later, it is firmly part of the culture. Some memorable moments from 50 seasons include Eddie Murphy going undercover as a white man, the time Ashlee Simpson was caught lip-syncing and when Sinéad O’Connor ripped up a photo of the pope. Less than three weeks after 9/11, “Saturday Night Live” aired one of its most memorable openings with Rudy Giuliani. It tackled the #MeToo movement with a pitch-perfect music video called “Welcome to Hell” and the joke-rap digital short “Lazy Sunday” was the first TV show clip to have a viral second life online.

NEW YORK (AP) — “Saturday Night Live” was built with a cast of young no-names performing countercultural comedy. Fifty years later, it is firmly part of the culture, dictating mainstream comedy instead of throwing spitballs from the margins.

The show has become an incubator of talent — think Will Ferrell, Chris Rock, Amy Poehler, Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Phil Hartman, Pete Davidson and Tracy Morgan. Its sketches have sparked Hollywood movies, from “The Blues Brothers” and “Wayne’s World” to “MacGruber” and “Coneheads.”

But “SNL” has embedded itself in our culture in deeper ways, from slogans like “We’re not worthy!” to “You look mahvelous!” It inspires Halloween costumes, connects viewers to the news via “Weekend Update” and may even have influenced elections.

As the show gears up to celebrate its milestone, here are 12 moments over the past five decades when the show didn’t just reflect pop culture — it drove it.

“Wolverines,” 1975

This was the first sketch from the first show, an absurdist-meets-physical comedy interaction between a student — played by John Belushi — and his English teacher, played by head writer Michael O’Donoghue. “I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines,” the teacher asks his pupil to repeat.

The show, then called “NBC’s Saturday Night,” would have George Carlin as the first host. Jim Henson’s Muppets had a sketch and Andy Kaufman lip-synched the “Mighty Mouse” theme song. Billy Preston played his hit “Nothing From Nothing” and later folk singer Janis Ian sang “At Seventeen” and “In the Winter.” Preston closed things out with “Fancy Lady.”

New York magazine called its promise “enormous” and the Chicago Tribune said it “premiered in superb fashion.” The Los Angeles Times said it was “bright and bouncy” and even suggested it move to prime time.

“King Tut,” 1978

Steve Martin saw this off-the-wall novelty song about ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun capture the nation’s imagination during a goofy performance. It eventually reached No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over 1 million copies after he performed it on “SNL.”

The comedian was parodying the hysteria and commercialization surrounding a traveling Tutankhamun exhibit, dancing sideways as he sang “King Tut/Buried with a donkey/Funky Tut/He’s my favorite honky!”

The song was riddled with errors: King Tut was not “born in Arizona,” he did not live in a “condo made of stone-a” and he was not “buried in his jammies.” Nevertheless, the song went viral long before there was an internet.

“The French Chef,” 1978

Dan Aykroyd parodied iconic chef Julia Child in a cooking segment gone horribly wrong: She cuts “the dickens” out of her finger, releasing staggeringly large spurts of blood, tries first aid and then collapses face-first in a puddle of her own blood.

It was inspired by a real injury on the set of Child’s “The French Chef” and was written by Tom Davis and Al Franken (the future former senator was also under the table pumping blood out of a tube on Aykroyd’s arm).

Instead of being offended, Child enjoyed Aykroyd’s parody of herself so much that the book “Baking With Julia” recounts she would play the tape at her own dinner parties, crying out, “Save the liver!’”

“White Like Me,” 1984

Long before white privilege became a mainstream concept, Eddie Murphy in a landmark sketch put on white face makeup to see how he would be treated as a white man in New York.

It was a parody of the famous 1961 book “Black Like Me,” in which a white journalist went undercover as a Black man. You can see the legacy in “Chappelle’s Show,” Whoopi Goldberg’s “The Associate” and “White Chicks.”

In the skit, a cashier won’t take his money for a newspaper (“Slowly, I began to realize that when white people are alone, they give things to each other for free”), a city bus turns into a party after the lone Black passenger gets off and a bank clerk simply hands him $50,000 in cash. “So what did I learn from all of this?” Murphy asks at the end. “I learned that we still have a very long way to go in this country before all men are truly equal.”

Sinéad O’Connor, 1992

The Irish singer capped her a cappella cover of Bob Marley’s “War” by holding up a photo of Pope John Paul II and tearing it into pieces. “Fight the real enemy,” she said. “SNL” was blindsided. During rehearsals, O’Connor had instead held up an image of a refugee child.

She was protesting child sex abuse in the Catholic Church, a decade before the Boston Globe revealed a systematic cover-up that forced the church to apologize and pay millions.

NBC banned O’Connor from “SNL” for life, Joe Pesci mocked her during the next week’s show and Frank Sinatra called her “one stupid broad.” Her albums were crushed by a steamroller in Times Square. Less than two weeks later, O’Connor made her first public appearance following the incident at a Bob Dylan concert at Madison Square Garden and she was jeered as Kris Kristofferson consoled her.

White House vs. “Wayne’s World,” 1993

White House figures are a long-standing target for “SNL.” In 1993, the White House fired back.

In a “Wayne’s World” sketch, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey’s immature, basement-dwelling characters suggested first daughter Chelsea Clinton, then 13, wasn’t as attractive as then-vice president Al Gore’s daughters.

Hillary Clinton scolded producer Lorne Michaels and his writers for “having nothing better to do than be mean and cruel to a young girl.” Michaels issued an apology, Myers apologized to the Clintons and the joke was cut from subsequent reruns of the sketch.

“More Cowbell,” 2000

Another wacky skit that permanently entered the culture was when Christopher Walken, playing a producer as Blue Öyster Cult recorded “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper,” insisted: “I gotta have more cowbell.”

The sketch — widely regarded as one of the show’s greatest — lampooned the excess of ’70s rock and became a shorthand for adding one too many layers. The irony is that the idea was submitted some seven times before finally airing.

Blue Öyster Cult had to ban people from bringing actual cowbells to their concerts and Walken has said people tease him about cowbells everywhere he goes. The sketch was so influential that producers of the four-part “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” dedicated an entire episode to the parody.

First show

after 9/11, 2001

Less than three weeks after 9/11, “Saturday Night Live” aired one of its most memorable openings. Rudy Giuliani, then New York City’s mayor, was flanked by firefighters and police officers who had just left ground zero.

Calling “Saturday Night Live” one of New York’s greatest institutions, Giuliani said: “Having our city’s institutions up and running sends a message that New York City is open for business.”

“Can we be funny?” Michaels asked, to which the mayor responded with perfect timing, “Why start now?”

That joke told everyone that things could be all right.

Ashlee Simpson, 2004

The younger sister of Jessica Simpson, making her “SNL” musical debut, first performed her hit “Pieces of Me.” All good. But when she came back to play the title track from her album “Autobiography,” the audience heard the vocal track from the first song by mistake.

Awkwardness ensued. Simpson did a silly shuffle and then walked off stage as her group continued to play and the show cut to commercial. She later said a case of acid reflux forced her to lip-sync that night.

The incident drew attention to one of pop culture’s worst-kept secrets: Lip-syncing was way more common than performers or the music industry wanted us to think. Billboard magazine ranked it second among lip-sync scandals in modern pop history — after Milli Vanilli.

“Lazy Sunday,” 2005

“SNL” is live, of course, but sometimes the funniest bits are pretaped, like the digital shorts from Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island compatriots, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer. They crafted 101 digital shorts between 2005 and 2012 — many of them destined for virality, from “Dick in a Box,” with Justin Timberlake, to “Natalie’s Rap” with Natalie Portman and “Shy Ronnie” with Rihanna.

“Lazy Sunday” was the second video “SNL” viewers got from the trio, starring Samberg and Chris Parnell rapping about hilariously mundane yuppie activities, like grabbing cupcakes and using Google Maps. It inspired an entire genre of video-shot joke raps and fed a fast-growing site that people had only just become aware of — YouTube.

“Lazy Sunday” was the first TV show clip to have a viral second life online, with 2 million-plus viewings in its first week alone. That week, YouTube’s traffic was up 83%.

Tina Fey does Sarah Palin, 2008

Many people believe that Republican vice-presidential candidate Palin once uttered: “I can see Russia from my house.” She never said that. That was Fey in her first appearance as Palin on “SNL.”

Fey’s spot-on impression — later leaning into the more ridiculous sayings the candidate had offered — may have changed some minds and therefore influenced the presidential election, an amazing thing for a comedy show. CNN coined the phrase the “Tina Fey Effect.”

People actually did studies on the “Tina Fey Effect” after the 2008 election and found Republican and independent voters liked Palin less after watching the “SNL” rendition of the politician, even though Palin herself appeared on the show alongside Fey to show she was in on the joke.

“Welcome to Hell,” 2017

“SNL” addressed the #MeToo movement with a pitch-perfect video — a bubblegum song with lyrics about how women have suffered abuse and harassment for centuries.

Guest host Saoirse Ronan was joined by cast members Melissa Villaseñor, Leslie Jones, Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong, many of whom had teamed up for hysterical pop girl group songs like “First Got Horny 2 U,”“Back Home Ballers,” and “(Do It on My) Twin Bed.”

This time, the comedy was bleak: “Now ‘House of Cards’ is ruined,” goes the song, “and that really sucks. Well, here’s a list of stuff that’s ruined for us: parking, and walking, and Uber, and ponytails, and bathrobes, and nighttime, and drinking, and hotels, and vans.”