Saturday Night Live marked its 50th birthday on – surprise, Sunday night – with a star-studded, three-hour extravaganza featuring everyone from early stalwarts Paul Simon and Steve Martin to SNL alumni Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Bill Murray, and Tina Fey, along with cameos by the likes of Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, and Keith Richards.
The show was a cultural phenomenon after premiering on October 11, 1975, with a cast including then-unknowns Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Gilda Radner.
Platform for comedians and musicians
Over the years, it led cultural and musical trends, irreverently skewering politics and pop culture, while presenting a far-reaching platform for some of the last 50 years’ comedians and musicians.
The 83-year-old Simon, who hosted the show’s second episode, opened the tribute by duetting with Sabrina Carpenter on Simon’s “Homeward Bound.”
Simon told the 25-year-old pop sensation that he first performed “Homeward Bound” on SNL in 1976.“I was not born then,” Carpenter said. “And neither were my parents.”
Paul McCartney closed the show with the song cycle from the Beatles’ Abbey Road, featuring “Golden Slumbers” and “Carry That Weight” with a guitar jamming “The End,” making way for the wistful ending, “The love you take is equal to the love you make.”
Among the other musical guests were Lil Wayne and Miley Cyrus.
Frequent host John Mulaney said in his monologue: “I see some of the most difficult people I have ever met in my entire life.
Over the course of 50 years, 894 people have hosted Saturday Night Live, and it amazes me that only two of them have committed murder.”