- Detroit’s NBC station will carry the first-ever ‘Saturday Night Live’ episode from 1975 on Saturday.
- WDIV-TV (Channel 4) didn’t air the landmark episode in 1975, although stories conflict as to why.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live,” NBC will show the first-ever episode of the landmark series at 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
“SNL” made its debuts on Oct. 11, 1975, with George Carlin as host and Billy Preston and Janis Ian as musical guests.
Detroit’s NBC affiliate, WDIV-TV, will be airing the original episode Saturday night — unlike in 1975, when it chose not to be part of TV’s comedy revolution.
Other NBC stations aired what was then titled “NBC’s Saturday Night,” which began with head writer Michael O’Donoghue playing John Belushi’s English-as-a-second-language tutor in a skit called “Wolverines.”
As Belushi himself might have said, but, nooooooooo, WDIV wasn’t among those stations.
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When “SNL” first started, it was such an unknown factor that WDIV — then known as WWJ-TV — didn’t carry the first two seasons and let WKBD-TV (Channel 50), a fuzzy UHF station at the time (ask your grandparents) pick them up instead.
Why? There are different theories on the reasons for ignoring a show that is still going strong after a half-century of irreverence (and a show that made a star that first season out of metro Detroit’s own beloved Gilda Radner).
According to 2022’s “Going 4 It: The Inside story of the Rise of WDIV,” the decision was a matter of taste. The station “banned it from their airwaves because it was too sarcastic, too satirical, too funny, too smart,” said Joe Lapointe, a former Free Press sportswriter, in the documentary.
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But in 1977, Free Press television writer Bettelou Peterson wrote that Channel 4’s choice to skip the early seasons of “SNL” had nothing to do with its sometimes controversial content. According to Peterson, Channel 4 decided to run movies instead in the late-night timeslot after considering the cost factors, including the profits from commercials.
Since NBC wouldn’t allow the show to be taped for a delayed viewing, the network, with Channel 4’s permission, persuaded Channel 50 to pick up “SNL,” according to Peterson.
It’s not clear exactly when Channel 50 picked up “SNL.” But according to the Free Press TV listings for the historic Oct. 11, 1975, premiere date, Channel 4 aired the 1959 rom-com “Pillow Talk” with Doris Day and Rock Hudson at 11:30 p.m., while Channel 50 had a 1954 movie called “Track of the Cat” starring Robert Mitchum.
It’s a Detroit-related footnote in the history of “SNL.” Just don’t get us started on WDIV’s decision to delay NBC’s “Late Night With David Letterman” in the 1980s.
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at [email protected].
