‘Saturday Night’ Movie Ending Explained & Recap: How Did The Show Go Live?

Even if you haven’t watched a single second of Saturday Night Live, you must be aware of the existence of the phenomenon. That is, of course, if you are into American pop culture. If you’re not, then Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night is not for you, and I don’t mean to be rude. Of course, it still might not be your thing unless you actually enjoy watching chaos unraveling on screen for almost two hours. Because Reitman’s SNL biopic is not something that tells you the story of how Lorne Michaels gathered all the people for years who made the show what it was. Instead, it focuses on the wee hours before the first ever episode actually went live. It’s chaos from the get-go, and that’s what you get for the next one hour and fifty minutes. The vibe is much similar to the likes of Succession or The Bear, so you get the drift here. There’s nothing much to explain, to be honest, but I am going to try to summarize the whole thing in this article

Spoilers Ahead

What is the movie about? 

On the night of October 11, 1975, outside the NBC building, an intern tries his best to get people to be part of the studio audience for a one-of-a-kind show that goes live in about one and a half hours. Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator, gives the intern an appreciative nod for the effort. A jittery Andy Kauffman arrives, and Lorne escorts the comedian inside the building. Andy is nervous about his performance, and Lorne does his best to calm him down. He has a thousand other things to take care of in the next ninety minutes, though, that includes explaining to his producer cum boss Dick Ebersol why he has brought an llama into the studio. Dick is very supportive though, and he’s the primary reason Lorne is getting the opportunity to land his show on a network like NBC. Apparently, there’s a dispute going on between the network and Johnny Carson (of The Tonight Show), and that’s why Bill gets to push Lorne’s show.

With less than one and a half hours to go, it is absolute chaos inside. The temperamental John Belushi is unwilling to put on a bee costume and hasn’t signed the contract yet. African American comedian Garett Morris is having an existential crisis regarding his role in the show. Puppeteer Jim Henson doesn’t have his script yet, without which he’s unable to perform. Michael O’Donoghue, one of the main writers of the show, is having constant fights with NBC executive Joan Carbuncle regarding what should be considered obscenity or not. Needless to say, Carbuncle’s moral policing is nauseating, while O’Donoghue’s handling of it is quite hilarious. 

What is the show about? 

That’s the question everyone’s asking Lorne throughout the runtime of the movie. In hindsight, it is actually hard to describe exactly what SNL is. The internet says it is a sketch comedy variety show, but that hardly does it justice. As Lorne keeps getting drawn into one issue after another, Dick gets anxious about whether the creator really knows what he’s actually trying to do. Lorne seems to have it under control, but to his wife Rosie Shuster (who’s another writer on the show), he does reveal that he’s actually nervous. One noticeable thing is the narrative taking a moment to shed some light on the marriage of Rose and Lorne. It exists only on paper as they’re not at all conjugal, but the two do share a very good working relationship, and you do realize that Rose is actually the backbone of the show.

As the clock moves forward, the chaos only intensifies. A very pointless fight breaks out between Chevy Chase and John Belushi. Things get even worse when Dick tries to bring in a Polaroid camera for the sake of product placement, which frustrates John so much that he storms out of the scene. Assigned the task of finding John, Lorne’s stressed assistant Neil ends up taking a hit and getting high as a kite. Show host George Carlin gets mad at O’Donoghue for writing a script that doesn’t make any sense to him and starts regretting saying yes to the whole thing. Lorne gets a threatening phone call from none other than Johnny Carson, who basically tells him that he’s going to fail. Lorne having a meltdown felt like an inevitable thing from the opening minute, but it’s now that it finally happens. 

How Did The Show Go Live?

As the movie progresses, it becomes abundantly clear that the people who sit at the top table of NBC don’t really want Lorne to succeed. Network executive Dave Tebet does encourage Lorne to go fully crazy with the show, but he clearly doesn’t mean it, as you find out that he’s actually contemplating running Carson reruns instead of letting Lorne have a go at his show. Tebet also tries to hijack Chevy for another program, after the latter impresses a room full of NBC executives thanks to his arresting personality and cool comic timing. Chevy also has an extremely disgusting encounter with Milton Berle (who used to be known as Mr. Television or Uncle Miltie back then for his contribution to American Television), when Berle tries to hit on his fiancee and goes to the extent of taking his junk out in public. 

With twenty-five minutes remaining, Dick floats the plan of moving the show to the next Saturday and airing a pre-recorded version, but Lorne lets him know that that would be absolutely unacceptable for him. There’s no recorded version of Saturday Night anyway. This bothers Dick so much, and he ends up having an argument with Lorne over how he’s the only one from NBC who actually cares about the show but isn’t getting any appreciation from Lorne and his team, and even being mocked for his choice of clothes. The argument is short-lived, as by now, Lorne has made up his mind. He has a show to run even if the world breaks down. Nothing else matters to him anymore, not even accidentally getting spray painted with fake blood. He ends up at a bar outside, still wearing that bloody shirt, and something remarkable happens there. Upon seeing how an older comedian is butchering the jokes actually written by young Alan Zweibel, who works at the bar, he promptly hires Alan and takes him to the studio. He also comes across John in the ice skating rink. Thanks to actress and comedian Gilda Radner—who’s a pivotal part of SNL—also being there, Lorne manages to convince John to return. 

There’s one last hitch, though. Dave Tebet is still not convinced, and he is not going to allow Lorne to go ahead with the show unless he provides a demonstration of what Saturday Night is going to be. So with ten minutes remaining, Andy performs his Mighty Mouse act, and Chevy comes up with a hilarious weather update skit with the help of Zweibel. That is followed by John and O’Donoghue doing a Wolverine sketch. With ten seconds to go and the control room still dwelling over whether to let Lorne’s show go out live or play the Carson rerun, Tebet finally gives the green signal. Chevy enters the stage and announces they’re live from New York, as the credit starts rolling at the best possible time. 

Some Notes

• Saturday Night has the best ensemble of the year for sure. No film has a cast as stacked as this—from Dylan O’Brien (Dan) to J.K. Simmons (Milton) to Willem Defoe (Tebet) to Rachel Sennot (Rosie).
• Nicholas Braun, aka cousin Greg from Succession, having a dual role as comedian Andy Kauffman and puppeteer Jim Henson is sort of an homage to SNL, where the same actor plays various characters. Not only is this a nice touch, Braun is excellent in both roles as well. 
• As a film, Saturday Night is still quite avant garde. It doesn’t exactly have the pull of something like The Social Network. That said, it might end up doing great at the Academy Awards, given the subject matter.