Ithaca Blog

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Saturday Night Live Rebroadcasts First Show, With Host George Carlin

On Saturday, June 28, Saturday Night Live will re-broadcast its first show, from 1975, which featured George Carlin as host.

Carlin's historic performance is not included in any SNL compilation, nor re-run on any SNL forum. Our understanding is that SNL does not pay royalties to performers for these deals, and our surmisal is that Carlin was ready to eff with them mightily if they tried to exploit him like that.

Carlin performs three brief monologues in the course of the show, which features early stars John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, and the rest of the original "Not Ready for Prime Time Players." The broadcast is also noteworthy for the first TV appearance of Andy Kauffman.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca Blog

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