Live from New York, it’s SNL50! The celebration of the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live has been a well-deserved one. And after multi-part documentaries, awesome concerts and more, it has all culminated with a three-hour extravaganza that was filled with celebrities, sketch favorites and surprises you actually couldn’t predict.
One of the highlights of SNL50 was undoubtedly Adam Sandler’s tribute to the show’s history, which was introduced by the legendary Jack Nicholson, who has more or less out of the spotlight over the years.
Also on the musical front, SNL50 opened with a performance of “Homeward Bound” by Sabrina Carpenter and Paul Simon, while Miley Cyrus did Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”, Paul McCartney helped close the show with an Abbey Road trio and Lil Wayne got to do a medley for some reason.
There were also some fantastic montages that helped showcase some of the show’s funniest moments, categorized through themes such as physical comedy, commercial parodies and more. Such montages were incredibly well-edited and demonstrated just why Saturday Night Live has been a cultural touchstone for five decades.
Of course, a number of past hosts were present and made good use of their inclusion. Opening monologue duties for SNL50 went to Steve Martin – who has hosted the show the second-most of anyone (after Alec Baldwin), who brought out the likes of John Mulaney and Martin Short to “front load” the show. Tom Hanks – who formed the Five-Timers Club – popped in a couple of times, but his most key moment came with the In Memoriam segment, which didn’t pay tribute to those cast and crew members we lost but rather the segments that did not age well and wouldn’t get made today – we’re looking at you, Canteen Boy! Plus, Eddie Murphy showed up in Black Jeopardy where he played long-time BFF Tracy Morgan, who also appeared in the sketch as another character.
And what’s Saturday Night Live without Bill Murray? The former cast member popped in for Weekend Update to rank the top anchors ever, naming his brother Brian Doyle-Murray (who served as anchor in the early ‘80s when it was called SNL NewsBreak) as the best, beating out the late Norm Macdonald (my pick for #1).
We’d love to give a full rundown of SNL50 but there was literally too much to unpack in one article. So let’s turn it over to you. What were your favorite moments from last night’s SNL50? Share your choices with us in the comments section below!
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