The evening is fraught with accidents and a dysfunctional cast and crew. Michaels' boss, Dick Ebersol, warns him that David Tebet has brought executives from across the country to come and view the broadcast. Despite Tebet giving encouraging words to Michaels, Ebersol makes it known that Tebet has no faith in the show and is ready to replay a taping of an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to fill in the time.
Garrett Morris, who has a background in operatic theater, ponders his place among a cast of comedic performers; John Belushi remains detached from everyone and constantly initiates fights; Jim Henson complains over how his Muppets segment is being treated by the writers; the writers themselves are at war with censor Joan Carbunkle and her demands; host George Carlin thinks the whole show is a sham; and everyone is trying to figure out what exactly the show is about. Meanwhile, Chevy Chase confronts Milton Berle when he begins to hit on his girlfriend, Jacqueline, gets told off and is warned that he will become nothing. Michaels soon receives a call from Johnny Carson himself, who gives a very unsupportive warning.
Despite Michaels warning him not to, Ebersol attempts to sell the idea of performing a sketch with a Polaroid camera for product placement purposes. Belushi becomes enraged and storms off set with the intention of quitting. As everyone looks for him, assistant Neil Levy is given a joint by Paul Shaffer and panics, locking himself in a closet. He is eventually coaxed out by the cast. To ease the stress, Michaels heads to a local bar, where he comes across comedy writer Alan Zweibel and hires him on the spot to become a writer on the show. He, along with Gilda Radner, later find Belushi ice skating and convince him to return to the show and sign his contract. Michaels is further motivated to continue with the show after having a brief chat with Henson.
Tebet arrives, demanding that the show be shut down unless Michaels shows him exactly what it entails. Andy Kaufman performs his Mighty Mouse skit, which makes everyone laugh. Michaels then tells Chase to take over Weekend Update, which he had planned to host himself. Chase does an impromptu version of Weekend Update using Zweibel's newly written material, which lands. The audience arrives and fills the venue as cast and crew finish all the sets and get into place. Tebet allows the live show to proceed on air. Michael O'Donoghue and Belushi perform the Wolverine sketch, which is well received by the audience. In the film’s final moments, Chase enters the scene and announces, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"
Nicholas Braun amazed me in a dual role as Jim Henson AND Andy Kaufman. He gained fame on the HBO series "Succession". The real scene stealer for me was J.K. Simmons as Milton Berle. He not only captured how Berle acted but he looked so much like him. The whole cast did well, and while they were not the famous first season cast, they all resembled and acted like the original stars enough that you forgot for a moment this was a bio film and not a documentary. I recommend this movie for anyone who was a fan of the early Saturday Night Live, and also just a fan of a good biographical film...
MY RATING: 9 OUT OF 10
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