‘Saturday Night Live’ celebrates 40th anniversary

NEW YORK— Saturday Night Live celebrated its 40th season on Sunday with a three-and-a-half-hour gala of stars, laughs and memories.

It aired live from New York’s Studio 8H at NBC, which has been SNL headquarters since premiering on a Saturday night in October 1975. It was a black-tie event so jammed with SNL alumni and other celebs, they fueled an hour-long red carpet event before the big show even began. Some 80 names were listed in the opening credits.

It started with a medley of catchphrases, music and characters performed by Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake that concluded, inevitably, with their pronouncement, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

Who was the rightful host? Steve Martin stepped up first, but was joined one by one by stars including Peyton Manning, Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin, Billy Crystal, Melissa McCarthy, Paul McCartney and Paul Simon to dispute his selection.

Among the night’s many tributes, Jack Nicholson noted that “when SNL started, the last helicopter had just flown out of Vietnam, Watergate was still fresh in everyone’s minds, and New York was broke.”

Robert De Niro marveled that, 40 years later, SNL “is still at it. Forty years! That’s like back when TV was still watched on TV.”

But it wasn’t all live. The first clip: John Belushi and Michael O’Donoghue in the language-lesson sketch with which the very first SNL episode opened.

A remarkable montage of audition tapes from prospective SNL cast members included Jim Carrey and Stephen Colbert.

New York was honored with clips and comic sketches capturing the love-it-hate-it spirit of the Big Apple through the decades, as well as a pivotal moment from the first

SNL episode to air after 9-11 when thenmayor Rudolph Giuliani told SNL creator Michaels “that Saturday Night Live is one of our great New York City institutions, and that’s why it’s important for you to do your show tonight.”

On a serious note, an in memoriam segment remembered the members of the

SNL troupe who have passed, and not just the on-camera stars (and The Voice, Don Pardo), but departed members of the behind-the-scenes company and crew.

“Viewers of Saturday Night Live span several generations,” Tina Fey reported, “from the Baby Boomers to Generation X all the way to whatever you call the little dummies who are live-tweeting this right now instead of watching it.”