At 50, 'Saturday Night Live' celebrates its past as a comedy icon — and wonders about its future

NEW YORK (AP) — Tune into the Oct. 11, 1975 premiere episode of “Saturday Night Live” — then without “live” in its name — and you may be instantly surprised at some of the bones of the show that are still intact today.

There's the cold open skit, featuring cast members John Belushi and Michael O'Donoghue. At its end, Chevy Chase gingerly walks by the prone bodies of the two actors, playing dead, for the very first call of “Live from New York, it's Saturday night!”

NBC is rebroadcasting that episode Saturday, part of a feast of 50th anniversary programming that includes a three-hour special on Sunday reuniting dozens of past cast members and friends and a homecoming concert from Radio City Music Hall being livestreamed Friday night on Peacock.

The original cast surely would have mocked the display of showbiz excess, much like the actors in last year's fictional backstage depiction of opening night in the movie “Saturday Night” couldn't hide their disgust at Hollywood legend Milton Berle.

Back then, they were known as the Not Ready for Prime Time Players. Success has long since made a mockery of that name. Among viewers under age 50, the late-night show is more popular than anything NBC airs in so-called prime time, and that doesn't even reflect the way many people experience it now, through highlight clips online.

“Saturday Night Live” is the engine of comedy, minting generations of stars from Belushi to Bill Murray to Eddie Murphy to Adam Sandler to Will Ferrell to Amy Poehler to Kristen Wiig to Kate McKinnon to Bowen Yang. It launched movie franchises too numerous to mention, and NBC's late-night comedy lineup of Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers traces its lineage to “SNL.” It's still the first place people turn when they want to make comedic sense of current affairs.

At its center, then and now, is the inscrutable figure of Lorne Michaels, the executive producer who was 30 during that first season and turned 80 last fall — on a show night, naturally.

Michaels left “SNL” for five years and, upon his return in 1985, hit upon the formula that guaranteed its continued relevance.

He recognized, as author Susan Morrison writes in the biography “Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live,” due to be released Tuesday, that “just about every person who has ever watched SNL believes that its funniest years were the ones when they were in high school.”

That means constantly moving forward, always adding new blood, even being ruthless about it. That means trusting young writers to keep the cultural references relevant, and invent new ones. That means booking musical acts that Michaels and his good friend, singer Paul Simon, probably haven't heard of but his people tell him are on the cutting edge.

It's not perfect. It never was.

“The history of the show reads like an EKG,” said James Andrew Miller, co-author with Tom Shales of the 2002 book, “Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live.” “There are fantastic years, there are growing years, there are years to make you carsick, there are years to make you wonder if it should still be going on.”

Substitute the word “shows” for “years” in that quote, and it still makes sense.

“Saturday Night Live” is often — usually — wildly uneven. But it produced viral moments before the internet existed. Garrett Morris' news for the hard of hearing, Murphy's irascible Gumby, “Lazy Sunday,” the cowbell sketch, Tina Fey's impersonation of Sarah Palin: The memories alone produce laughs. The duds, the ideas that never took off or hosts who couldn't rise to the challenge fade away. Or maybe they're the price of genius.

It can be easy to lose sight of how hard this actually is, said Bill Carter, veteran chronicler of television comedy and author of “The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night.” A 90-minute program is written from scratch every week, sets are constructed in a New York office building, hosts of various degrees of talent accommodated.

Ready or not, the show must go on Saturday at 11:30 p.m. The clock is unforgiving.

“It's a different creative enterprise, every show,” Carter said. “That's why it is good and bad, but it's also why it's exciting ... ‘Live,’ that is the essential feature of the show. You know when you are watching that it is actually happening in New York City right now.”

Only so much polish is possible. Someone may flub a line, or get the giggles. Sinéad O'Connor may rip up a picture of the pope, or Ashlee Simpson's lip-sync might fail.

“Saturday Night Live” has leaned more into its history in recent years. Alumni make frequent reappearances, and spotting unbilled cameos has become sport. The Five-Timers Club of guest hosts, while a joke, treads the line of smugness.

It may seem like a franchise with no foreseeable conclusion, and is even built for that. Michaels will have more to say about that than anyone. The backstage boss is also the longest-running on-screen character; his appearance as a straight man to then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the first show after the Sept. 11 attacks is one of “SNL's” most poignant moments.

“Can we be funny?” Michaels asked.

Replied Giuliani: “Why start now?”

Observers say Michaels has stepped back a bit, relying more on the capable team that he's built. There's no indication that his eye for spotting talent has diminished. Those who have seen it say that his most fearsome skill — making a series of instant decisions between the show's dress rehearsal and performance, shortening or lengthening skits, moving and changing them to produce the broadcast viewers see — is flourishing.

The years leading up to the 50th anniversary have been filled with speculation that this will be when he steps down, talk he's even fueled himself in the past. But he hasn't discussed it, or even given interviews surrounding the festivities. The subject is the focus of “After Lorne,” a new piece in New York magazine, where author Reeves Wiedeman describes Michaels as a man of mystery, sometimes an intimidating force, to those around the show.

Whoever replaces him — names like Fey, Meyers and Colin Jost have been mentioned — would likely face crushing pressure. At a time when broadcast television is fading, NBC would be sorely tempted to cut costs around the program in a way they haven't with Michaels in charge, Miller said.

If the 50th anniversary were to trigger his exit, Carter said that likely would be known by now.

“It's his life,” he said. “Why would you walk away from your life if you don't have to? This was a special, unique thing that he created, and if you enjoy doing it, which I think he still does and can do it, I don't see any reason he should leave.”

Someday, that time will come. In the meantime, enjoy the show.

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social

FILE - Lorne Michaels poses in the press room with the award for outstanding variety sketch series for "Saturday Night Live" at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to "Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Nov. 22, 2016, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

FILE - Lorne Michaels, producer of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," speaks in his office in New York, Nov. 23, 1977. (AP Photo/Marty Reichenthal, File)

FILE - Lorne Michaels attends the Apple Original Film premiere of "Killers of the Flower Moon" at Alice Tully Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Lorne Michaels, producer of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," speaks in his office in New York, Nov. 23, 1977. (AP Photo/Marty Reichenthal, File)

FILE - "Saturday Night Live" host Bill Murray, a former cast member, is pictured with producer Lorne Michaels, left, during rehearsals on March 19, 1987, in New York. (AP Photo/G. Paul Burnett, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's photo portrait display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has had references to his two impeachments removed, the latest apparent change at the collection of museums he has accused of bias as he asserts his influence over how official presentations document U.S. history.

The wall text, which summarized Trump's first presidency and noted his 2024 comeback victory, was part of the museum's “American Presidents” exhibition. The description had been placed alongside a photograph of Trump taken during his first term. Now, a different photo appears without any accompanying text block, though the text was available online. Trump was the only president whose display in the gallery, as seen Sunday, did not include any extended text.

The White House did not say whether it sought any changes. Nor did a Smithsonian statement in response to Associated Press questions. But Trump ordered in August that Smithsonian officials review all exhibits before the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The Republican administration said the effort would “ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”

Trump's original “portrait label," as the Smithsonian calls it, notes Trump's Supreme Court nominations and his administration's development of COVID-19 vaccines. That section concludes: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”

Then the text continues: “After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837– 1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”

Asked about the display, White House spokesman Davis Ingle celebrated the new photograph, which shows Trump, brow furrowed, leaning over his Oval Office desk. Ingle said it ensures Trump's “unmatched aura ... will be felt throughout the halls of the National Portrait Gallery.”

The portrait was taken by White House photographer Daniel Torok, who is credited in the display that includes medallions noting Trump is the 45th and 47th president. Similar numerical medallions appear alongside other presidents' painted portraits that also include the more extended biographical summaries such as what had been part of Trump's display.

Sitting presidents are represented by photographs until their official paintings are commissioned and completed.

Ingle did not answer questions about whether Trump or a White House aide, on his behalf, asked for anything related to the portrait label.

The gallery said in a statement that it had previously rotated two photographs of Trump from its collection before putting up Torok's work.

“The museum is beginning its planned update of the America’s Presidents gallery which will undergo a larger refresh this Spring,” the gallery statement said. “For some new exhibitions and displays, the museum has been exploring quotes or tombstone labels, which provide only general information, such as the artist’s name.”

For now, references to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton being impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively, remain as part of their portrait labels, as does President Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation as a result of the Watergate scandal.

And, the gallery statement noted, “The history of Presidential impeachments continues to be represented in our museums, including the National Museum of American History.”

Trump has made clear his intentions to shape how the federal government documents U.S. history and culture. He has offered an especially harsh assessment of how the Smithsonian and other museums have featured chattel slavery as a seminal variable in the nation's development but also taken steps to reshape how he and his contemporary rivals are depicted.

In the months before his order for a Smithsonian review, he fired the head archivist of the National Archives and said he was firing the National Portrait Gallery's director, Kim Sajet, as part of his overhaul. Sajet maintained the backing of the Smithsonian's governing board, but she ultimately resigned.

At the White House, Trump has designed a notably partisan and subjective “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring gilded photographs of himself and his predecessors — with the exception of Biden, who is represented by an autopen — along with plaques describing their presidencies.

The White House said at the time that Trump himself was a primary author of the plaques. Notably, Trump's two plaques praise the 45th and 47th president as a historically successful figure while those under Biden's autopen stand-in describe the 46th executive as “by far, the worst President in American History” who “brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”

Barrow reported from Atlanta.

People react to a photograph of President Donald Trump on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Visitors to the National Portrait Gallery walk past the portrait of President Donald Trump, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Visitors stop to look at a photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

A photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Anna Johnson)

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)