‘Saturday Night Live’ Docuseries Set at Peacock Ahead of 50th Anniversary

Rick Porter

Wed, December 11, 2024 at 4:43 PM UTC

2 min read

Peacock will stream a four-part series called SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night on Jan. 16, delving into the behind-the-scenes life of NBC’s long-running sketch comedy show.
The series will feature a number of SNL alumni and previously unseen footage, with episodes focusing on topics such as the audition process, the SNL writers room, the making of the classic "More Cowbell" sketch, and the rocky 1985-86 season of the show.
Morgan Neville is among the executive producers of the project, which will premiere one month before NBC’s primetime celebration of Saturday Night Live's 50 seasons.

Ahead of Saturday Night Live' s 50th anniversary celebration in February, Peacock will take a deeper dive into the show's five decades of history.

The NBCUniversal-owned platform will stream SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night , a four-part series delving into the behind-the-scenes life of NBC's long-running sketch comedy show, on Jan. 16. Morgan Neville ( 20 Feet From Stardom, Won't You Be My Neighbor? ) is among the executive producers of the project, which will feature a number of SNL alumni and a trove of previously unseen footage, as the filmmakers were given unfettered access to the show's archives.

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Robert Alexander ( The Shop ), Marshall Curry ( The Neighbors' Window ), Neil Berkeley ( Harmontown ) and Jason Zeldes ( Ugly Delicious ) directed the episodes, which will each focus on a different aspect of the show. The episodes are as follows:

"Five Minutes": A look at the SNL audition process, featuring never-before-seen footage from past auditions and firsthand accounts from castmembers about how they prepared for their auditions. Directed by Alexander.

"Written By: A Week Inside the SNL Writers Room": Directed by Curry, it follows the process of getting a sketch from the page to the live show on Saturday.

"More Cowbell": A deep dive, directed by Berkeley, into the making of the classic sketch from 2000 featuring host Christopher Walken and castmembers Will Ferrell, Chris Parnell, Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz and Chris Kattan.

"Season 11: The Weird Year": Director Zeldes explores the 1985-86 season of SNL , which marked Lorne Michaels' return to the show after five years away but proved to be an exceptionally rocky one on screen.

Neville, Caitrin Rogers and showrunner Juaquin Cambron executive produce SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night . Jonathan Formica (episodes one and four) and Allison Klein (episodes two and three) are producers.

The docuseries is set to premiere one month before NBC's primetime celebration of the show's 50 seasons.

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