A look back at Saturday Night Live's very first cast
Live from New York!
It's 50 seasons later for SNL.
The landmark NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live premiered October 11, 1975, with drop-dead dark humour and pratfalls, George Carlin as host and not one but two musical guests: Billy Preston and Janis Ian.
On Saturday nights, in those early years, young people gathered around TVs to watch the Lorne Michaels production that served up counterculture to the mass market via the Not Ready for Prime Time Players.
"What is attractive and unusual about the program is that it is an attempt, finally, to provide entertainment on television in a recognisable human, non-celebrity voice, and in a voice, too, that tries to deal with the morass of media-induced show business culture that increasingly pervades American life," The New Yorker's Michael J. Arlen wrote in a 1975 review.
Fast forward to this year, September 28, when the first episode of SNL's half-century season is set to air in a lead-up to a three-hour live primetime special February 16 on, gasp, a Sunday.
Jean Smart will host to open the season, with Jelly Roll as musical guest.
Over the decades, some seasons were better than others, with breakout stars like Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Mike Myers and more following the original seven.
So what became of the very first cast, the freshman class, post-SNL?
Here's a catchup...
John Belushi
National Lampoon's Animal House, Continental Divide, Neighbors and all things The Blues Brothers.
Belushi left SNL in 1979 to pursue music and film projects. That he did, to bad reviews and good.
Following years of drug use, he died March 5, 1982, at 33 after overdosing at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles.
Belushi's death stunned and saddened his friends and fans and symbolised the end of the hard-living '70s.
In addition to his mischievous, often frenzied performances on SNL, Belushi appeared in other films as well, including the drama Old Boyfriends and the poorly-reviewed Steven Spielberg–directed historical comedy 1941.
Before that, Belushi birthed his Joliet Jake Blues, joining fellow SNL cast member Dan Aykroyd as brother Elwood. Their TV debut as the brothers blue came on SNL in 1978.
Gilda Radner
Nasally Roseanne Roseannadanna. Weird teen Lisa Loopner. Weekend Update's "never mind" complainer Emily Litella.
Radner contributed an endearing sweetness to the inaugural season of SNL.
She stayed for five years.
In 1979, the Emmy and Grammy winner took to Broadway to perform a one-woman show, Gilda Live.
Included were some of her most beloved SNL characters, including Baba Wawa, a spoof of Barbara Walters. The show was filmed and released as a movie.
Radner appeared in several other films, including First Family and The Woman in Red, the latter a 1984 hit written and directed by her co-star and future husband, Gene Wilder.
Among other projects: She starred in the 1980 Broadway drama Lunch Hour.
Radner died May 20, 1989, at age 42 after a long battle with ovarian cancer. Her book detailing her cancer fight was released earlier that year. A documentary about her life, Love Gilda, was released in 2018.
Chevy Chase
Chase was the first to utter the words: "Live from New York, it's Saturday night!" And he has a long list of post-SNL credits, including many commercial successes and his share of flops.
He was also the first cast member to leave the show.
Initially hired as a writer, he was known on SNL for Weekend Update, his bumbling President Gerald Ford, his pratfalls in general and his feuds with cast members.
Chase was replaced in the middle of the second season by Bill Murray.
Years later (2013), Chase exited TV's Community during the fourth season amid complaints about racial slurs directed at fellow cast member Donald Glover.
In between SNL and that moment, Chase worked a lot, at least for a time.
Chevy Chase
There were two Fletch movies. There was Caddyshack and a poorly-received sequel.
There was The Three Amigos! There were five Vacation movies, though his appearance in the last one (in 2015) was a cameo.
Chase's first hit was Foul Play with Goldie Hawn in 1978. He tried his hand at a late-night talk show, The Chevy Chase Show, on Fox in 1993. It was canceled after six weeks.
Among his awards: A writing Emmy for SNL in 1976, a performance Emmy on the show the same year and a shared writing Emmy for The Paul Simon Special in 1977.
Chase put out a biography in 2007, I'm Chevy Chase ... and You're Not, named for his famous catchphrase as anchor of Weekend Update.
In his book, he detailed childhood physical abuse at the hands of his mother and stepfather, John Cederquist - both of whom are dead.
Now 80, Chase has taken in recent years to hosting screenings with audience Q&As for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, the most enduring movie in that franchise.
He also makes chicken sounds and posts fan meetups and family gatherings on TikTok, where he has 1.2 million followers.
Laraine Newman
She left SNL in 1980 after portraying Connie Conehead, Valley Girl stewardess Sherry and ditzy public access TV co-host Christie Christina. She was also a recurring reporter on Weekend Update.
Newman has spoken openly about her struggles with depression and drug addiction during that time. She got sober in 1987.
Before leaving SNL, Newman appeared in the 1978 film American Hot Wax.
Steady film, TV and voice work followed through the 1980s into the 2000s.
She was the antagonist in the 1991 comedy Problem Child 2 and appeared in 1993's Coneheads as Connie's Aunt Laarta.
Newman, 72, appeared in episodes of Friends, 3rd Rock from the Sun, 7th Heaven, Laverne & Shirley and St. Elsewhere, and in the 1994 live action Flintstones film.
She lent her voice to several animated hit films, including Wall-E, Up, Toy Story 3 and Tangled.
And she has worked as a magazine writer and editor. In 2021, she put out May You Live in Interesting Times, an audio memoir.
Fun fact: After high school graduation, Newman studied mime in Paris with Marcel Marceau.
In 2017, with the rest of SNL's original cast, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Dan Aykroyd
When he wasn't bleeding out as Julia Child or declaring, "Jane, you ignorant s---!" on Weekend Update, Aykroyd swagged with Steve Martin as one of two wild and crazy guys, and led the Conehead family as patriarch Beldar.
And he lent so much more to SNL before leaving in 1979, including as half of The Blues Brothers and impersonations of talk show host Tom Snyder, Rod Serling and two presidents: Nixon and Carter.
With Belushi, his close friend, and backed by legit players, the bluesy and soulful brothers caught on as a band. They played gigs and released a multimillion-selling album, Briefcase Full of Blues.
His post-SNL work has taken him even higher.
He and Belushi had a smash with The Blues Brothers film.
Hit after hit followed: Neighbors in 1981, Trading Places in 1983 and the 1984 Ghostbusters that launched a franchise (Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the first two). He also appeared in 1941.
Aykroyd, 72, wrote and narrated a recent audio documentary, Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude.
Dan Aykroyd
In 1985, Aykroyd co-wrote and starred with Chase in Spies Like Us, directed by Landis.
Aykroyd earned a supporting actor Oscar nomination for 1989's Driving Miss Daisy.
The '90s weren't so kind. There were many flops, including his directorial debut in 1991, Nothing but Trouble starring Demi Moore, Chase, John Candy and Aykroyd with a grisly prosthetic face.
A bright spot was the acclaimed Grosse Pointe Blank, in which he played a rival hitman to star John Cusack.
With Hard Rock Cafe co-founder Isaac Tigrett, Aykroyd co-founded House of Blues, a chain of live music halls and restaurants that became a division of Live Nation in 2006.
Jane Curtin
Curtin left SNL, in 1980, after five seasons.
She was a master of deadpan, often playing the straight woman off such outsized performers as Belushi and Radner.
A regular on Weekend Update, she was also known for the Coneheads sketches as matriarch Prymaat and as Enid Loopner with fellow nerds Radner and Murray.
Curtin, 76, has spoken about being bothered by the drug-fueled lifestyles of some of her castmates.
She won two Emmys for her 1980s sitcom Kate & Allie. She later starred as Dr. Mary Albright in the hit series 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001).
Her post-SNL work stayed mainly on television, including some busts like the 1990 sitcom Working it Out.
It was cancelled after 13 episodes. With Fred Savage, she appeared in the sitcom Crumbs in 2006. It was canceled four months later.
There was some Broadway work: Miss Proserpine Garnett in Candida, Love Letters and the 2002 revival of Our Town that marked Paul Newman's return to Broadway after 38 years.
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