Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell

Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell
Saturdaynightlivewithhowardcosellad.jpg
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Format Sketch comedy,
Comedy, Variety
Starring Howard Cosell
Bill Murray
Brian Doyle-Murray
Christopher Guest
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 18
Production
Executive producer(s) Roone Arledge
Running time 48 minutes
Production company(s) ABC
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
Original run September 20, 1975 – January 17, 1976

Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell was a television comedy-variety program that ran on ABC from September 1975 to January 1976, hosted by Howard Cosell and executive-produced by Roone Arledge. The series ran for 18 episodes before being cancelled.[1] The show was later remembered by its director Don Mischer as "one of the greatest disasters in the history of television," largely due to Cosell and Arledge, both veterans of sports broadcasting, being entirely unfamiliar with comedy and variety programming.[1]

Despite having highly notable celebrities both as cast members and guests, Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell has never been made available on home video.

Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell should not be confused with the sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live, which debuted on rival network NBC in October 1975 when NBC began airing a late night comedy show produced by Lorne Michaels titled Saturday Night. After Cosell's show was cancelled, the NBC show renamed itself Saturday Night Live.[2] The shows did not directly compete, as Cosell's Saturday Night Live aired at 8 p.m. EST/PST, whereas NBC's Saturday Night aired at 11:30 p.m.

History

Cast and guests

The premiere episode featured celebrity guests Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Paul Anka, Siegfried and Roy, the cast of the Broadway version of The Wiz, tennis pro Jimmy Connors and John Denver.[3] The episode's musical guest was the Bay City Rollers, from Scotland, whom Cosell dubbed "the next" British phenomenon.[4]

The Cosell show featured Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Christopher Guest as regular comedy performers, dubbed "The Prime Time Players". In response, the NBC Saturday Night show called its regular performers "the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players". Eventually, Murray, Doyle-Murray and Guest would all work on the NBC program.[5]Billy Crystal, who appeared on the premiere episode of Cosell's program, was also scheduled to appear on the premiere episode of the NBC show but was bumped when the show ran long; he later joined the NBC program's cast. Cosell himself guest-hosted the NBC program a decade later.

Cancellation

Mischer described the Cosell show as chronically hectic and unprepared. He recalled one particular episode wherein executive producer Roone Arledge discovered that jazz icon Lionel Hampton was in New York, and invited the musician to appear on the show an hour before airtime.[1]

The show fared poorly among critics and audiences alike, with TV Guide calling it "dead on arrival, with a cringingly awkward host."[6]Alan King, the show's "executive in charge of comedy," later admitted that it was difficult trying to turn Cosell into a variety show host, saying that he "made Ed Sullivan look like Buster Keaton."[6]

Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell was canceled on January 17, 1976, after only 18 episodes.[1] A year later, in 1977, NBC's Saturday Night was renamed Saturday Night Live.

Reception

In 2002 TV Guide ranked the series number 37 on its '50 Worst TV Shows of All Time' list.[7]

Episodes

Only three episodes are known to survive:

References

  1. ^ a b c d YouTube video: "Don Mischer Interview with the American Archive of Television - Part 1 of 5".
  2. ^ NBC.com page: "Saturday Night Live."
  3. ^ IMDB page: "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell - Pilot (1975)."
  4. ^ Pittsburgh Press article: "Saturday Night Live Over-Packed With Superstars: Scripted, Rehearsed, Structured Cosell No Fun At All."
  5. ^ Old TV Tickets
  6. ^ a b TV Guide article: "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell".
  7. ^ TV Guide Book of Lists. Running Press. 2007. pp. 181. ISBN 0-7624-3007-9. 

External links


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