How to watch Saturday Night Live's firstever episode from 1975

How to watch Saturday Night Live's first-ever episode from 1975

The episode that launched 50 years of comedy is only available on one streaming service.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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on October 11, 2025 3:00 p.m. ET

Chevy Chase in 'The Wolverines,' the very first 'Saturday Night Live' sketch from the series premiere on Oct. 11, 1975. Credit:

*Saturday Night Live* premiered 50 years ago on Oct. 11, 1975. With today's anniversary, it is the perfect time to revisit the show's first-ever episode.**

Fortunately for comedy fans, all 50 seasons of the legendary NBC sketch show are currently streaming on Peacock. That means you can watch the very first episode of *SNL*, which features host George Carlin and musical guests Billy Preston and Janis Ian, by scrolling back to the very beginning of the show's catalog on the streamer.

The first ep of the show introduced the world to cast members who have now become comedy legends: Chevy Chase anchors the first-ever "Weekend Update" segment with special correspondence from Laraine Newman; John Belushi gets a morbid English lesson from head writer Michael O'Donaghue; Dan Aykroyd tests the limits of Gilda Radner's home security; and Garrett Morris assists Jane Curtin in court as she writes down her disturbing testimony instead of speaking it aloud.

John Belushi in 'The Wolverines,' the very first 'Saturday Night Live' sketch from the series premiere on Oct. 11, 1975.

The show hadn't solidified its now-predictable structure at the time of the premiere, so the episode features a number of deviations from the contemporary *SNL* formula that might surprise modern viewers. For example, Carlin has four different standup segments rather than the now-standard singular monologue (and doesn't appear in any sketches), and there are a total of four musical performances, two each from Ian and Preston.**

The episode also features a number of segments supplied by comedians and entertainers who weren't part of *SNL*'s cast. Legendary comic Andy Kaufman does a brief lip-sync routine to the *Mighty Mouse* theme, Albert Brooks provides a short film about bizarre news stories, Valri Bromfield does her own short standup routine, and Jim Henson sends the Muppets into the Land of Gorch for the first time.

'Saturday Night Live' season 1 cast: Where are they now?

See every host in 'Saturday Night Live' Five-Timers Club

*Saturday Night Live *creator and longtime show boss Lorne Michaels has said one of his biggest fights during season 1 was updating the quality of TV audio recording to enlist big name musical guests to perform live on the small screen.

"Rock-and-roll people did not do television because they sounded terrible. So we had to figure that out, and that was a big, big fight over the first season," Michaels said. "If you look at, say, Elvis Presley on *The Ed Sullivan Show*, or the Beatles for that matter, it's all on a boom [microphone], you know, and the sound was more than good enough for that period for them to catch fire and all that. But by the time we came on, the music was recorded in a completely different way, and television was still using a boom."**

George Carlin hosts 'SNL' season 1 episode 1.

Herb Ball/NBCU Photo Bank

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*SNL* celebrated its big 5-0 earlier this year with a series of special programming, including an Emmy-winning 50th anniversary special, a star-studded concert at Radio City Music Hall, and a four-part documentary on Peacock, plus Jason Reitman's theatrical *SNL* biopic,* Saturday Night*.**

Set in the 90 minutes leading up to *SNL*'s first broadcast, *Saturday Night* peeks behind the curtain at the chaos of putting a countercultural live comedy show on the air for the first time. The film ends just as the real show finally begins, with Chevy Chase (played by Cory Michael Smith) saying, "Live from New York, it's Saturday night!"**

*SNL* is currently in its 51st season. Tonight's live show is hosted by show alum Amy Poehler featuring musical guest Role Model. Other hosts this season include Bad Bunny and Sabrina Carpenter.

*Saturday Night Live* airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.

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