'SNL' celebrates 49 years with throwback to original opening credits

Saturday Night Live took a trip down memory lane to mark the 49th anniversary of its first broadcast.

With season 50 continuing this weekend, the NBC comedy sketch celebrates the milestone with a blast from the past. On Friday, October 11, they shared the original opening credit sequence on X, formerly Twitter.

"SNL premiered on October 11, 1975!" they captioned the intro clip for what was then titled Saturday Night.

The line-up included Andy Kaufman, Billy Preston, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Garrett Morris, George Carlin, George Coe, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Janis Ian, John Belushi, Laraine Newman, Michael O’Donoghue and Valri Bromfield.

Moreover, to add an extra charm to the anniversary, Saturday Night, directed by Jason Reitman, premieres at the theatre on the same day.

The film is set on Oct. 11, 1975, as a chaotic passionate group of young comedians and writers change television forever.

Formerly titled SNL 1975, the film chronicled the true story of the 90-minute behind-the-scenes preparation for the first-ever broadcast of SNL.

The film stars Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman and Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels. 

Kaia Gerber as Jacqueline Carlin, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Nicholas Braun as Andy Kaufman/Jim Henson, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster and Willem Dafoe as David Tebet also joined the steller cast.