They had ninety minutes to prove to the world that this undefined show was worthwhile. 

“Saturday Night,” directed by Jason Reitman, will have audiences on the edge of their seats for an hour and forty-nine minutes, wondering whether the cast, crew and Lorne Michaels himself can pull together this live comedy sketch show.

From the very first scene, you are thrown into the hustle and bustle of New York City streets and quickly introduced to the secret star of the show, Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle). Burning scripts are falling from many floors above onto the sidewalk as an NBC page (Finn Wolfhard) works hard, and fails just as hard, to pull together a live audience for this unknown show. 

This movie isn’t the biopic that many audiences may be expecting. 

This journey starts two hours before the show is going on air live. Audiences are traveling through the sets, all over backstage, up and down the floors for the skyscraper alongside Lorne Michaels as he attempts to pull together a show that seems to be sinking at a rapid pace. 

Unknown actors and comedians are fully in disarray, fighting one another, fighting to bring their sketches to light —or in this case, moonlight – and also fighting to stay focused on the task at hand. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be a movie about Saturday Night Live without having a star-studded cast to portray some of the most memorable names in the history of the show. Cory Michael Smith plays Chevy Chase, the heartthrob comedian of the time who had something to prove not only to the NBC executives, but also to himself. Ella Hunt portrays the beloved Gilda Radner in an upbeat and lighthearted Midwest way that Radner was known and loved for during her life. 

Lamorne Morris, who some may recognize from New Girl, brought his own unique take on Garrett Morris, who was looking to find his true place on the show. And to the delight of many teenage girls and adult women, the ever-beloved, Dylan O’Brien brought his quirky personality to the set as Dan Aykroyd. 

While those names may be impressive in the Hollywood world, audiences should expect to see a lot of unexpected characters that happened to play a bigger role in the success of this show than they are given credit for. 

If it wasn’t for a boatload of talent, creativity and even more luck, Saturday night television would look a lot different today. 

So grab your friends, crack open a fizzy Coke and settle in for a wild ride. 

Saturday Nights will never be the same again