‘Saturday Night Live’ celebrates 40 years

Former cast members and hosts attend special broadcast of the popular comedy programme.

Top actors, pop stars, sports heroes and veteran comics turned out in force on Sunday for a special broadcast celebrating the 40th anniversary of the seminal late night comedy program, Saturday Night Live (SNL) during a marathon live show, reported Reuters.

The three-and-a-half hour show on NBC, which has aired the Saturday night staple since 1975 and launched the careers of comedy stars, ranging from Eddie Murphy to Martin Short, featured a series of rapid-fire clips of classic SNL bits, with the show’s veterans reprising or reinventing their most-loved sketches.

Ostensibly hosted by Steve Martin, the anniversary show included appearances by some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Tom Hanks. Dozens of cast members from the checkered history of SNL were on hand, notably first-season regulars Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris.

Top figures from the music world, such as Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Taylor Swift and Keith Richards joined sports heroes Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning, crowding into the studio at NBC’s Rockefeller Center headquarters that comprised a veritable who’s who of popular culture.

Hanks, Alec Baldwin, Chris Rock, Billy Crystal and others took to the stage to argue about who should have served as host and Will Ferrell hosted a segment of ‘Celebrity Jeopardy’.

Aykroyd and Newman reprised an old Bass-o-Matic fake commercial, Curtin joined Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler to host ‘Weekend Update’, and a series of old tapes showed auditions by cast members, as well as some famous names that didn’t make the cut, such as Stephen Colbert and Jim Carrey.

Jack Nicholson introduced a segment on the show’s political humour, Short handled the duties on its musical history and Rock paid tribute to, and introduced, Murphy.

Eddie Murphy returned to the SNL stage for the first time in more than 30 years with his last appearance being in 1984 as a regular cast member reported Yahoo News. He paid his tribute to the show saying, “This show is such a big part of who I am and my life. And I’m so happy to be back here,” said the comedian.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th,  2015.

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