“Saturday Night Live” will not be live this weekend. It won’t even be from this century. With the death of George Carlin, NBC has gone into its video vault and will re-air the very first SNL from 1975. Carlin, already a famous comedian by then, was the very first guest host. “He was gracious, fearless, and most important of all, funny,” recalled SNL creator and Executive Producer Lorne Michaels.
RBR/TVBR observation: What a landmark show. Not only will we be recalling all of the laughs that George Carlin gave us over the years, but we’ll be remembering some other great comics who died much too young. We’ll again see original SNL cast members John Belushi and Gilda Radner. Also, Andy Kaufman, then little known, was a guest performer on that first SNL.
