Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter duetted on Simon's song “Homeward Bound” and five-decade “Saturday Night Live” luminary Steve Martin delivered the monologue to open the a 50th anniversary special celebrating the sketch institution that was overflowing with famous former cast members, superstar hosts and other A-list guests.
The 83-year-old Simon has been essential to “SNL” since its earliest episodes in 1975, and performed on the first show after the 9/11 attacks. He was joined by the 25-year-old pop sensation of the moment, Carpenter.
“I sang this song with George Harrison on 'Saturday Night Live' in 1976," Simon said.
“I was not born then,” Carpenter said, getting a laugh. “And neither were my parents,” she added, getting a bigger laugh.
“SNL50: The Anniversary Celebration" was airing live from New York, of course, on NBC and Peacock.
The evening included huge cameos from Oscar winners Meryl Streep and 87-year-old Jack Nicholson, who once was a media constant in the front row of the Oscars and Los Angeles Lakers games, but rarely appears in public anymore.
Martin, one of the shows most prolific hosts and guests since the first season in 1975, tried to keep it current in the monologue even on a backward-looking night.
Martin said when the show's creator Lorne Michaels only told him he'd be doing the monologue, “I was actually vacationing on a friend’s boat down on the Gulf of Steve Martin.”
He was joined by former “SNL” luminaries and frequent hosts Martin Short and John Mulaney, who looked at the star-studded crowd full of former hosts in the same Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza that has been the show's longtime home.
“As I look around, I see some of the most difficult people I have ever met in my entire life," Mulaney said. “Over the course of 50 years, 894 people have hosted ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and it amazes me that only two of them have committed murder.”
Later, on the night's “Weekend Update,” anchor Colin Jost said there are so many former hosts and musical guests that wanted to see the show that many had to be seated in a neighboring studio and some had to watch “from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn" as a photo of Sean “Diddy” Combs appeared.
The pop culture juggernaut has launched the careers of generations of comedians including Eddie Murphy, Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell, who all appeared in early sketches.
Martin took a jab at the always-difficult-to-wrangle Bill Murray in his monologue.
“We wanted to make sure that Bill would be here tonight,” Martin said, “so we didn’t invite him.”
Murray appeared on “Weekend Update” to rank the show's anchors since they began with Chevy Chase in 1975. He poked at the whiteness of the group by first ranking its Black anchors, a list of just one, current co-anchor Michael Che. He paid tribute to the late Norm MacDonald, saying he “may have been the best ever.”
The three-hour extravaganza comes after months of celebrations of “Saturday Night Live,” which premiered Oct. 11, 1975, with an original cast that included John Belushi, Chase and Gilda Radner.
It’s become appointment television over the years as the show has skewered presidents, politics and pop culture and been a platform for the biggest musical stars of the moment.
“It is a honor and a thrill to be hosting weekend update for the 50th and if it was up to our president final season of SNL," Jost said.
The first sketch featured a mash-up of former cast members and hosts. Fred Armisen hosted a mock version of “The Lawrence Welk Show” that featured Ferrell as Robert Goulet.
Former hosts Kim Kardashian and Scarlett Johansson — Jost's wife — gave an updated version of the elegant singing Maharelle Sisters with former cast members Ana Gasteyer and Wiig, who provided the traditional punchline “And I’m Dooneese” with a balding head and creepy, tiny doll arms.
It was followed by “Black Jeopardy,” hosted by the show’s longest running (and still current) cast member, Kenan Thompson, who called the game show the only one “where every single viewer fully understood Kendrick’s halftime performance.”
It showcased many of the show’s most prominent Black cast members through the years including Tracy Morgan and Eddie Murphy, doing a Morgan impression.
“Big Dog gonna make some big money!” Murphy-as-Morgan shouted.
Streep walked on as the mother of McKinnon's constant alien abductee Miss Rafferty, with the same spread legs and vulgar manner.
Former cast member Amy Poehler and former lead writer Tina Fey, who partnered as “Weekend Update” anchors and Golden Globes hosts, led a Q-and-A with questions from the absurdly A-list audience.
Ryan Reynolds stood, and they asked him how it's going.
“Great, why?” he said defensively. “What have you heard?”
Reynolds and wife Blake Lively, sitting next to him, have been locked in a heated legal and media battle with her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Adam Driver, Cher, Jon Hamm and Bad Bunny, Jason Momoa, Peyton Manning and Keith Richards were also featured in the bit.
“I left a scarf here in 1988, I'm kind of wondering if anyone has seen it around,” the Rolling Stone asked.
“Look it's simply not here OK!” Zach Galifianakis said, a scarf tied to his head.
Aubrey Plaza made one of her first public appearances since the January death of her husband when she introduced the night's next pair of musical guests, Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard. They made a duet of “Nothing Compares 2 U” by the late Sinead O'Connor, who gave the show one of its most memorable musical moments when she tore up a picture of the pope on the air in 1992.
Nicholson's appearance was to introduce his “Anger Management” co-star Adam Sandler, who sang in his signature style about the show's history. He gave a roll-call of cast members, including many lesser known ones, and a tribute to several who have died, including his friends Chris Farley and MacDonald.
The show already celebrated its musical legacy with a Radio City Music Hall concert on Friday hosted with a lineup that included Cher, Miley Cyrus, Arcade Fire, David Byrne, Post Malone and Nirvana.
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Writer John Carucci contributed to this report.
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For more coverage of the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live,” visit: https://apnews.com/hub/saturday-night-live
