‘SNL’ celebrates four decades of ‘Live, from New York!’

Special brings back variety of names from the past.

NEW YORK — “Saturday Night Live,” which has never shied from self-congratulation with countless best-of, holiday and anniversary shindigs, is doing it again, big-time.

“The SNL 40th Anniversary Special,” three hours of it, will air live on Sunday at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.

Everyone who has ever been an “SNL” regular, guest host, musical guest or behind-the-scenes cre- ative force has been invited. Indeed, it seems every boldface name who ever tuned in to watch might be showing up at fabled Studio 8H. Attendees announced so far range from Dan Aykroyd, Alec Baldwin and Robert De Niro to Kanye West, Betty White and Kristen Wiig. And to welcome them all, the “Today” show anchor team will host “The SNL 40th Red Carpet Live” at 7 p.m.

“We waited to see who RSVPed, then we started thinking about what we could do with the people we knew were coming,” said Lorne Michaels last week.

The show will include sketches and other comedy bits employing what Michaels calls “a mash-up of different generations, so you’ll see people working with people they never actually worked with” as “SNL” regulars.

“SNL” was born as the brainchild of Michaels, then 31, who today, at 70, remains very much hands-on. He’s also very much in charge of Sunday’s retrospective.

He pointed with special satisfaction to the expected return of Eddie Mur- phy, among the series’ biggest discoveries whose “SNL” tenure fell during Michaels’ absence between 1980 and 1985.

“Eddie Murphy coming is a huge thing,” says Michaels, adding that his role in the proceedings “is still being worked out, but he’s been very open to different ideas.”

“SNL” was born into a world where there was nothing much to watch on TV other than a trio of broadcast networks. Topical comedy was almost nonexistent.

No wonder each week of “SNL” was greeted as a video godsend by its first generation of disciples, who, powered by 60cents-a-gallon gasoline and $15-an-ounce marijuana, flocked to one another’s living rooms for smoky viewing parties.

The New York it originated from, a city that “SNL” celebrated as its own hip version of urban decay, was in fact crimeridden and destitute. Late that October, President Gerald Ford would deny federal assistance to spare New York from bankruptcy.

Ford was an instant target of “SNL.” On the first-ever “Weekend Update,” anchor Chevy Chase seized on this mishap: “Yesterday, President Ford bumped his head three times getting into his helicopter. The CIA immediately denied reports that it had deliberately lowered the top of the doorway.”

“Weekend Update,” of course, would become the show’s most enduring comic fixture. By the fourth show, with Candice Bergen hosting, the show had found the look and format it hews to today.

Sunday night will be an opportunity for viewers to survey how it got from there to here.

“I’m sure it will be very emotional,” Michaels acknowledges. “But right now, I’m trying to just think about it as a show, and how to get it on the air.”