Season 1 poster

Season 1

24 episodes October 11, 1975

The first season of Saturday Night Live, the weekly late-night 90-minute American sketch comedy/variety show on NBC, aired during the 1975–1976 television season. Saturday Night Live premiered on October 11, 1975 and consisted of a total of 24 episodes, the last of which aired on July 31, 1976. In 1974, NBC Tonight Show host Johnny Carson requested that the weekend broadcasts of "Best of Carson" come to an end, so that Carson could take two weeknights off and NBC would thus air those repeats on those nights rather than feed them to affiliates for broadcast on either Saturdays or Sundays. Given Carson's undisputed status as the dean of late-night television, NBC heard his request as an ultimatum, fearing he might use the issue as grounds to defect to either ABC or CBS. To fill the gap, the network drew up some ideas and brought in Dick Ebersol – a protégé of legendary ABC Sports president Roone Arledge – to develop a 90-minute late-night variety show. Ebersol's first order of business was hiring a young Canadian producer named Lorne Michaels to be the show-runner.

Episodes

1 George Carlin with Billy Preston and Janis Ian Oct 11, 1975 No ratings 2 Paul Simon with Randy Newman and Phoebe Snow Oct 18, 1975 No ratings 3 Rob Reiner Oct 25, 1975 No ratings 4 Candice Bergen with Esther Phillips Nov 8, 1975 No ratings 5 Robert Klein with ABBA and Loudon Wainwright III Nov 15, 1975 No ratings 6 Lily Tomlin Nov 22, 1975 No ratings 7 Richard Pryor with Gil Scott-Heron Dec 13, 1975 No ratings 8 Candice Bergen with Martha Reeves and The Stylistics Dec 20, 1975 No ratings 9 Elliott Gould with Anne Murray Jan 10, 1976 No ratings 10 Buck Henry with Bill Withers and Toni Basil Jan 17, 1976 No ratings 11 Peter Cook & Dudley Moore with Neil Sedaka Jan 24, 1976 No ratings 12 Dick Cavett with Jimmy Cliff Jan 31, 1976 No ratings 13 Peter Boyle with Al Jarreau Feb 14, 1976 No ratings 14 Desi Arnaz with Desi Arnaz Jr. Feb 21, 1976 No ratings 15 Jill Clayburgh with Leon Redbone Feb 28, 1976 No ratings 16 Anthony Perkins with Betty Carter Mar 13, 1976 No ratings 17 Ron Nessen with the Patti Smith Group Apr 17, 1976 No ratings 18 Raquel Welch with Phoebe Snow and John Sebastian Apr 24, 1976 No ratings 19 Madeline Kahn with Carly Simon May 8, 1976 No ratings 20 Dyan Cannon with Leon & Mary Russell May 15, 1976 No ratings 21 Buck Henry with Gordon Lightfoot May 22, 1976 No ratings 22 Elliott Gould with Leon Redbone and Harlan Collins & Joyce Everson May 29, 1976 No ratings 23 Louise Lasser with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band Jul 24, 1976 No ratings 24 Kris Kristofferson with Rita Coolidge Jul 31, 1976 No ratings