The first time you do anything can be tough.

That’s abundantly evident in Saturday Night, the story of producer Lorne Michael’s fight to put the first episode of Saturday Night Live on the air. Fighting cast chaos, staff rebellion and network interference, the trailer makes the premiere seem like it may never happen, though it definitely did.

Gabriel LaBelle, who played the young Steven Spielberg clone in The Fablemans stars as Michaels in director Jason Reitman’s sort of biopic about the early days behind the scenes of SNL. The movie gives a play-by-play of the final 90 minutes leading up to the first airing of SNL on October 11th, 1975 at 11:30pm. 

We see Michaels bicker with NBC VP of late night programming Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) over the show’s appearance, and he also butts heads with NBC programming exec David Tebet (Willem Dafoe).

As the tension builds, Ebersol tries to get Michaels to skip the live broadcast and air the dress rehearsal in its’s place, but Michaels refuses. “They want you to fail,” Ebersol tries to rationalize to Michaels.

“NBC is lucky to have something as relevant as this show!” exclaims Michaels.

Meanwhile, the Not Ready for Primetime Players, the premiere episode’s host and special guests, and the show’s crew pout, preen and make life more difficult for Michaels.

Alongside LaBelle, the film’s ensemble cast includes Dylan O’Brien (Dan Aykroyd), Cory Michael Smith (Chevy Chase), Rachel Sennott (Rosie Shuster), Lamorne Morris (Garrett Morris), Nicholas Braun (Jim Henson), Finn Wolfhard (an NBC page), Jon Batiste (Billy Preston), Ella Hunt (Gilda Radnor), Andrew Barth Feldman (Neil Levy), Naomi McPherson (Janis Ian), J.K. Simmons (Milton Berle) and Kaia Gerber (Jacqueline Carlin), among others.

Saturday Night premieres in theaters on October 11th, 2024.