SATURDAY NIGHT

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens with audition tapes of the main cast – Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien), Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), John Belushi (Matt Wood), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), and Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn) – just before their big debuts.

October 11th, 1975, New York City, 10:00 PM – Creator Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) arrives at 30 Rockefeller Plaza for the very first live airing of “Saturday Night”, a new sketch show conceived by Lorne. They have 90 minutes to air, and there are several issues with the cast and crew. Lorne is aided by Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman), NBC’s Director of Weekend Late Night Programming who went to bat for Lorne, as well as Lorne’s cousin/assistant Neil Levy (Andrew Barth Feldman). Also arriving for the show is comedian Andy Kaufman (Nicholas Braun), while additional cast members Billy Crystal (Nicholas Podany) and Valri Bromfield (Corinne Britti) are waiting to get a chance to talk to Lorne. Chevy has also brought his fiance Jacqueline (Kaia Gerber) to the set.

The cast and crew gather to rehearse their first sketch, with John and Gilda playing a couple, and Dan and Garrett playing robbers. In the middle of the act, a set of lights comes crashing down and sparks a small fire on the couch that is quickly put out. John nearly gets into it with the light technician, who ends up quitting after everyone else dumps on him. Lorne then scrambles to find a new light technician while he is also being told that he has too many planned sketches for the night and might not be able to fit them all within a 90 minute period.

Garrett is told by Billy Preston (Jon Batiste) and his band that he is too uptight and needs to loosen up before he goes on camera. He also privately confides to Gilda that he doesn’t know why they picked him, a Julliard-trained performer, to be among a group of comedians. Meanwhile, head writer Michael O’Donoghue (Tommy Dewey) butts heads with network censor Joan Carbunkle (Catherine Curtin) over the raunchy jokes in the script, leading Michael to mock Joan’s religious faith. Jim Henson (also Braun) also complains over the way the cast and crew are treating his Muppets.

Lorne goes to find Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott), his wife and co-writer for the show. She tries to get John to agree to put on a bee costume for a sketch, which he finds degrading because he views himself as a more serious performer. Together, they discuss the show and its potential, as well as whether or not Rosie wants to be credited under her maiden name or as “Michaels”.

Lorne and Dick are called to the green room to meet with NBC executives, who will decide the show’s fate by the end of the night or just play a rerun of “The Tonight Show” to fill the slot. Dick is approached by Dave Tebet (Willem Dafoe), an exec who doesn’t have faith in “Saturday Night”. However, Tebet is impressed by Chevy when he comes in and puts on a little show for the big wigs, and Tebet approaches Chevy about potentially replacing Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show”. Chevy brags about it in the writers room but is warned by Herb Sargent (Tracy Letts) that he will eventually die alone and forgotten because he’s such an asshole.

Outside the studio, Lorne has to break up a fight between a crew member and a guy delivering the bricks for the set to be built. Leo Yoshimura (Abraham Hsu) is left to lay the bricks himself since the union guys don’t have it in their contracts to do that kind of thing. At the same time, Dick tries to help Lorne but also asks him to explain what the show is really supposed to be about, and Lorne cannot give him a clear answer. Host George Carlin (Matthew Rhys) and musical guest Janis Ian (Naomi McPherson) try to rehearse, but Carlin is abrasive towards everyone and thinks the show is a joke.

While preparing for a sketch, John and Chevy get into a fight in the dressing room. John complains because he doesn’t want to shave his beard, until it takes some convincing from Lorne and Rosie to get him to go through with it. Lorne and John then go up to rehearse their Weekend Update segment. Lorne does a bit awkwardly, but John makes everybody in the room laugh with his high energy performance. Lorne then approaches John, who still technically had not signed his contract, and John appears to finally agree to do it.

Lorne gets a phone call from Johnny Carson himself (voice of Jeff Witzke) in his office. While Carson initially seems friendly, he makes it clear that he thinks they’re going to pull the plug on Lorne’s show since he already claimed the Saturday night spot, but also because he knows how the NBC executives mess around. From his window, Lorne sees John throwing another fit in front of Dick as he throws Dick’s new polaroid camera away and then leaves the studio. Lorne frantically goes looking for him and enlists in Neil’s help with finding John. Neil goes around asking and ends up taking a hit of a joint from one of the writers, which gets him too stoned and causes him to lock himself in a room while the cast tries to talk him down.

Legendary comedian Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons) arrives for his spot during the “Rumpus Hour” sketch of the show. Tebet finds Lorne and points out that there are still issues with the sound system and warns him about replacing his show with an episode of Carson. Meanwhile, Billy and Valri are worried that they will not get enough time to showcase their talents with such a stuffed schedule.

The cast is set to do an Ancient Greece-themed sketch until they pivot to having Jane, Gilda, and Laraine do a construction workers sketch while they have Dan walking in wearing a tight outfit for them to gawk at him. While this happens, Chevy finds Jacqueline talking to Milton, and he confronts him over it. While Chevy hurls petty insults, Milton is unfazed and hits him back with how he will end up becoming irrelevant, all while whipping his dick out in front of Chevy and Jacqueline (who is somewhat impressed) to make it worse. Finally, Carlin storms off when he gets into an argument with Michael over Carlin’s complaints on the script.

With the stress growing on him, Lorne messes up the cue cards schedule out of spite and then tells Billy and Valri that they can only do two minutes apiece. Dick finds Lorne in the stairwell and tries to pull him together until he lets him know that nobody at the studio has any faith in the show and that they are counting on him to fail. Lorne walks out and accidentally gets sprayed with fake blood for a sketch. On his way down in an elevator, Lorne talks to Jim, who says he knows how people perceive him with his Muppets, but talks to Lorne in the sense that he understands that he is doing something that he is passionate about, even if others don’t see it the same way.

Lorne exits the studio and sees Billy and Valri getting in a cab to leave. He goes to a bar where he finds a writer, Alan Zweibel (Josh Brener), lamenting that the comedian (Brad Garrett) that he wrote for is not using any of his jokes and is bombing. Lorne looks over Alan’s jokes and hires him on the spot as a writer. Afterwards, Lorne goes to Rockefeller Plaza, where he finds Gilda watching John ice-skating. Gilda muses on how 20 years from now when they become famous, if they will remember this evening. Lorne talks to John and convinces him to officially sign on.

Lorne returns to the studio and is fixed up by Rosie. A young page (Finn Wolfhard) brings in a full audience for the show, just a little over ten minutes before it’s time to air. Lorne gathers the cast and crew until they are confronted by Tebet, who threatens to shut everything down then and there unless Lorne can say what the show is about. Lorne then finally says that the show is an idea of what people can expect on a Saturday night in New York City, from the mundane to the eccentric. With this, the cast and crew are energized to get their shit together in ten minutes. The union guys help Leo lay the bricks, Lorne gets a new sound director, they help Carlin come down from lockjaw after he does too much cocaine, Andy does a “Mighty Mouse” routine, Garrett performs a brief song with Preston’s band, and Chevy does “Weekend Update” off the dome when the cue cards get messed up.

The audience is seated, and the clock is about to strike 11:30. With seconds to spare, Tebet finally tells them to go live. Michael and John first do their “Wolverines” sketch, which gets a huge laugh and applause from the cast, crew, and audience. Then, Chevy takes to the stage to say these iconic words for the very first time: “Live from New York, it’s SATURDAY NIGHT!”

The film is a fictionalized look at the 90 minutes leading up to the very first airing of "Saturday Night Live". Creator Lorne Michaels struggles to get his cast and crew in order as NBC executives, led by Dave Tebet, do not have much faith in the program and are set to pull the plug at any moment. Among the issues are John Belushi seeing himself above the cast as a more talented performer, host George Carlin being a jerk, and a ton of issues with lighting and sound. He has back-up from his wife/fellow writer Rosie Shuster and his boss, Dick Ebersol.

When it seems like things are at their lowest, Lorne goes to a nearby bar and hires writer Alan Zweibel on the spot after being impressed with his material. He also gets John to officially sign his contract. With barely ten minutes to go before they air, Lorne moves the whole cast and crew by telling Tebet just what the show is about (a look at a regular Saturday night in a place like New York City).

In a matter of minutes, the cast and crew pulls it together, and they find themselves with a full audience. John performs the very first sketch with writer Michael O'Donoghue, paving the way for one of the longest running shows in history.