Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'' (''SNL'') is a late-night

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

and

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...

created by

Lorne Michaels Lorne Michaels (born Lorne David Lipowitz; November 17, 1944) is a Canadian-American producer, screenwriter, and comedian. He is best known for creating and producing ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1980, 1985–present) and producing the '' La ...

. It premiered on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

Television Network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...

on October 11, 1975, under the title ''NBC's Saturday Night''. The show often satirizes contemporary American popular

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

and politics. ''Saturday Night Live'' features a two-tiered cast: the repertory members, also known as the "Not Ready for Prime-Time Players," and newer cast members, known as "Featured Players." Each week, the show features a host, often a well-known celebrity, who delivers an opening

monologue In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

and performs in sketches with the cast. A musical guest is also invited to perform several sets (usually two, occasionally more). Every so often a host or musical guest fills both roles. With the exception of

season 7 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

and several other rare cases, the show begins with a

cold open A cold open (also called a teaser sequence) is a narrative technique used in television and films. It is the practice of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In Ameri ...

that ends with someone

breaking character In theatre (especially in the illusionistic Western tradition), breaking character occurs when an actor ceases to maintain the illusion that they are identical with the character they are portraying. This is a more acceptable occurrence while in ...

and proclaiming "

Live from New York, it's Saturday Night! "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" is a famous phrase typically featured on the American sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', which runs on the NBC broadcast network. It is generally used as a way to end a cold opening sketch and lea ...

" ''Saturday Night Live'' is one of the longest-running network programs in American television history, with more than 900 episodes broadcast over five

decade A decade () is a period of ten years. Decades may describe any ten-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years. Usage Any period of ten years is a "decade". For example, the statement that "du ...

s. A number of the show's sketches have been developed into

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

s, including ''

The Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on ''Saturday Night Live''. Belushi and Aykroyd fronted the band, in character, respective ...

'', ''

Wayne's World "Wayne's World" was originally a recurring sketch from the NBC television series ''Saturday Night Live''. It evolved from a segment titled "Wayne's Power Minute" (1987) on the CBC Television series '' It's Only Rock & Roll'', as the main characte ...

'', ''

A Night at the Roxbury ''A Night at the Roxbury'' is a 1998 American comedy film based on a recurring sketch on television's long-running ''Saturday Night Live'' called "The Roxbury Guys". ''Saturday Night Live'' regulars Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Molly Shannon, Mark ...

'', ''

Superstar A superstar is someone who has great popular appeal and is widely known, prominent, or successful in their field. Celebrities referred to as "superstars" may include individuals who work as actors, musicians, athletes, and other media-based profe ...

'', ''

Coneheads The Coneheads are a fictional family of extraterrestrials with bald conical heads, created for a series of recurring sketches on ''Saturday Night Live'' (SNL). They first appeared on the January 15, 1977 episode hosted by Ralph Nader (episode 3 ...

'', ''

The Ladies Man ''The Ladies Man'' is a 1961 American comedy film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis. It was released on June 28, 1961 by Paramount Pictures. Plot Herbert H. Heebert is a young man who loses his girlfriend, swears off romance, and then takes ...

'' and ''

MacGruber ''MacGruber'' was a recurring sketch on the NBC television series ''Saturday Night Live'', first appearing on the show in January 2007. The sketch is a parody of the 1985–1992 adventure series ''MacGyver''. The sketch stars Will Forte as spec ...

''. Seasons 1 through 5 are available on DVD in Region1. Various ''Saturday Night Live'' sketches are available in several

new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...

formats, including

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

and

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

. A number of sketches are available to view via the show's official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel, along with best-of compilations for sale through digital video retailers. As of October 1, 2020, the full catalogue of Saturday Night Live episodes is available on the streaming service

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...

, updated actively as new episodes release.

Episodes

Seasons 1–30 (1975–2005)

Season 31–present (2005–present)

References

{{Saturday Night Live

Episodes Episodes may refer to: * Episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption. The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Gree ...