1975

▪️The first episode of Saturday Night Live makes its television debut on NBC with announcer Don Pardo, host George Carlin and musical guests Billy Preston and Janis Ian.

▪️Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman and Gilbert Radner make their debut as cast members. Musician Paul Shaffer and writers Al Franken and Michael O’Donoghue also make frequent appearances on screen this year.

▪️George Coe makes his only appearance as a main cast member in the first episode. NBC insisted on his inclusion to counterbalance the young cast with an older cast member.

▪️Albert Brooks makes his SNL debut with a short film that he directed. Brooks’ short films are a staple of the first season.

▪️Andy Kaufman makes his SNL debut.

▪️The Muppets make their SNL debut in the recurring sketch The Land of Gorch featuring the puppeteering of Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Rhonda Hansome, Alice Tweedy and Fran Brill. Jim Henson would leave SNL a year later and create The Muppet Show.

▪️Celebrities who have hosted SNL in its first year on the air include Paul Simon, Rob Reiner, Candice Bergen, Robert Klein, Lily Tomlin and Richard Pryor. Candice Bergen became the first to host the show twice.

▪️Musical guests who have performed on SNL in its first year on the air include Randy Newman, Phoebe Snow, Art Garfunkel, Esther Phillips, ABBA, Loudon Wainwright III, Gil Scott-Heron and Martha Reeves.

▪️Chevy Chase becomes the first cast member to say “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” in the first episode’s cold open.

▪️Weekend Update makes its debut with Chevy Chase as its lead anchor.

▪️John Belushi’s Samurai character makes his first appearance.

▪️Emily Litella (Gilda Radner) makes her first appearance on Weekend Update.

▪️The Killer Bees make their first appearance.

▪️Landshark makes its first appearance.

▪️Garrett Morris makes his first appearance as Chevy Chase’s translator for “News for the Hard of Hearing” on Weekend Update.

▪️”Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead” is uttered during Weekend Update for the first time.

▪️Chevy Chase impersonates Gerald Ford, marking the first time an SNL cast member impersonates a U.S. president.

▪️”Racist Word Association Interview” starring Chevy Chase and host Richard Pryor is one of SNL’s most famous sketches. It was written by comedian Paul Mooney, who Pryor brought in as a guest writer.

▪️Anti-war activist and counterculture icon Jerry Rubin appears on the show.

1976

▪️Bill Murray is hired as a writer.

▪️Chevy Chase leaves the show this year.

▪️Frequent SNL hosts Elliott Gould, Buck Henry, Steve Martin and Eric Idle host the show for the first time. Other hosts this year include Dick Cavett, Peter Boyle, Desi Arnaz, Anthony Perkins, Raquel Welch, Madeline Kahn, Louise Lasser, Kris Kristofferson, Norman Lear and Jodie Foster.

▪️Musical guests who made their SNL debut this year include Anne Murray, Patti Smith, Carly Simon, George Harrison, Brian Wilson and Frank Zappa.

▪️Gilda Radner parodies Barbara Walters with her character Baba Wawa for the first time.

▪️Dan Aykroyd impersonates Tomorrow Show host Tom Snyder for the first time.

▪️Mr. Bill makes his first appearance.

▪️Dangerous toy inventor Irwin Mainway (Dan Aykroyd) makes his first appearance.

▪️Mr. Mike’s Least-Loved Bedtime Stories featuring Michael O’Donoghue makes its SNL debut.

▪️Al Franken and writer Tom Davis perform a comedy bit on the show together for the first time.

▪️Creator Lorne Michaels appears on screen for the first time in Episode 9 “Elliott Gould/Patti Smith.” This episode also won SNL its first Emmy.

▪️White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen hosted an episode this year, marking the first time a politician hosted SNL.

▪️President Gerald Ford appears on the show.

▪️Billy Crystal makes his first appearance on SNL, eight years before becoming a cast member.

▪️John Belushi impersonates Joe Cocker while performing “Welcome Back” with John Sebastian. Later that year John Belushi would impersonate Joe Cocker while performing in a duet with the real Joe Cocker singing “Feelin’ Alright.”

▪️Lorne Michaels offers the Beatles $3,000 to perform on SNL during this episode. They never answered. Although George Harrison and Paul McCartney would later end up performing on the show.

▪️Star Trek is parodied on SNL for the first time in a sketch written by Michael O’Donoghue and starring John Belushi as Captain Kirk, in which the Starship Enterprise is boarded by NBC executives who want to cancel Star Trek.

▪️Sitcom stars Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Bea Arthur, Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Stanford make appearances in the episode hosted by Norman Lear.

1977

▪️Season 2 Episode 17 “Jack Burns/Santana” is the first episode in which the show is referred to as “Saturday Night Live” rather than “Saturday Night.” By Season 3 that title change would become permanent.

▪️Bill Murray becomes a full-time cast member following the departure of Chevy Chase.

▪️Don Novello is hired as a writer.

▪️Ralph Nader, Sissy Spacek, Shelley Duvall, Hugh Hefner, Charles Grodin and Ray Charles all host for the first time this year.

▪️Chuck Berry, The Kinks, Santana, Willie Nelson and Elvis Costello all perform as musical guests for the first time this year.

▪️Buck Henry becomes the first SNL host to host the show five times.

▪️80-year-old German immigrant and grandmother Miskel Spillman becomes the winner of SNL’s “Anyone Can Host” contest and to this day she remains the only non-celebrity to ever host SNL.

▪️Dan Aykroyd joins Weekend Update as Jane Curtin’s co-anchor.

▪️The Coneheads make their first appearance.

▪️Nick the Lounge Singer (Bill Murray) makes his first appearance.

▪️Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd make their first appearance as the Festrunk Brothers (“We are two wild and crazy guys.”)

▪️Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner) makes her first appearance.

▪️The Franken and Davis Show starring Al Franken and Tom Davis makes its debut.

1978

▪️Bryan Doyle-Murray is hired as a writer. He would join the cast the following year.

▪️O.J. Simpson, Art Garfunkel, Christopher Lee, Michael Palin, Richard Dreyfuss, the Rolling Stones, Fred Willard, Frank Zappa, Carrie Fisher and Walter Matthau host for the first time.

▪️Bonnie Raitt, Billy Joel, Eddie Money, Meat Loaf, Jimmy Buffett, Devo, Van Morrison, the Grateful Dead, Kate Bush, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones perform as musical guests for the first time.

▪️Chevy Chase becomes the first former cast member to return to SNL as a host.

▪️The episode where the Rolling Stones both host and perform as musical guests features a monologue by then-Mayor of New York City Ed Koch. The Rolling Stones perform “Beast of Burden,” “Respectable” and “Shattered.”

▪️Bill Murray replaces Dan Aykroyd as Jane Curtin’s co-anchor on Weekend Update while Aykroyd becomes Weekend Update’s station manager.

▪️Roseanne Roseannadanna makes her debut as Weekend Update’s consumer affairs correspondent, replacing Gilda Radner’s other character Emily Latella.

▪️The Blues Brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi) make their first appearance on SNL.

▪️Singer Candy Slice (Gilda Radner) makes her first appearance.

▪️The Nerds aka Lisa (Gilda Radner) and Todd (Bill Murray) make their first appearance.

▪️The Olympia Cafe (Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger) sketch makes its debut.

▪️Baseball player Chico Escuela (Garrett Morris) makes his first appearance on Weekend Update.

▪️Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello) makes his first appearance on Weekend Update.

▪️Weekend Update’s Point/Counterpoint segment makes its debut. During their argument Dan Aykroyd famously calls Jane Curtin an “ignorant slut.”

▪️In one of the show’s most famous sketches Dan Aykroyd impersonates Julia Child, who cuts her finger during her cooking show.

▪️In what is now seem as an ironic sketch in retrospect, “Don’t Look Back in Anger” features an elderly John Belushi as the last surviving cast member of SNL.

▪️Bill Murray as Nick the Lounge Singer famously puts lyrics to John Williams’ Star Wars theme (“Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars …”)

▪️Host and star of Jaws Richard Dreyfuss gets attacked by Landshark. John Williams’ Jaws theme can also be heard.

▪️The comedy duo of Bob and Ray appears on the show.

▪️Season 3 Episode 18 “Steve Martin/The Blues Brothers” would later be selected by TV Guide as the # 12 Top TV Episode of All Time.

1979

▪️Dan Aykroyd’s brother Peter Aykroyd is hired as a writer.

▪️Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi leave the show this year to make the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.

▪️Cicely Tyson, Ricky Nelson, Kate Jackson, Gary Busey, Margot Kidder, Milton Berle, Bea Arthur and Martin Sheen host for the first time.

▪️The Doobie Brothers, Talking Heads, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, Bette Midler, Blondie, Bob Dylan, Chicago, Tom Petty and David Bowie perform as musical guests for the first time.

▪️Season 5 Episode 5 “Bea Arthur/The Roches” is the first episode of SNL to credit featured players along with the main cast. Those featured players are Tom Davis, Paul Shaffer and Harry Shearer. Don Novello would be credited as a featured player the following episode and Al Franken would be credited in the episode after that.

▪️Lorne Michaels called the episode hosted by Milton Berle the worst ever. Lorne didn’t like how much Berle ad-libbed.

▪️Rodney Dangerfield appears on the show for the first time.