Did Something Go Wrong With The SNL 50th Anniversary? It Was So Chaotic

February 17, 2025

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While the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special was generally well received by viewers and a great trip down memory lane, it’s hard to argue that it wasn’t a chaotic mess. SNL50 saw a plethora of returning cast and special guest stars return, with every celebrity guest having hosted at least one episode of the show before, and veteran SNL alumni appearing in skits alongside the current cast. While not quite as numerous, the SNL50 musical guests were just as eclectic and diverse, sprinkling musical interludes throughout the night.

Unsurprisingly, then, SNL‘s 50th-anniversary special episode wasn’t the most smoothly-delivered episode they’d ever produced. It wasn’t always clear which guest stars had practiced their lines beforehand and there were a few times the chemistry between cast and guests just felt really awkward. When it clicked, it really clicked, but, boy, there were definitely some rough spots throughout the more than three-hour special. Considering how the special episode came together, however, it’s sort of a miracle it even happened, just like Saturday Night Live itself back in 1975.

The SNL50 Anniversary Special Was Allegedly Still Being Tweaked On The Red Carpet

Amy Poehler Joked The Skits Were Still Being Worked On

It’s not something most viewers think about from week to week, but the SNL cast doesn’t get much rehearsal time before they go on air. Even the best SNL skits are written new each week, with the cast and guest hosts only getting a few days to practice before they go live on Saturday. Often, jokes get scrapped after dress rehearsal, and other skits get changed, and tweaks continue to happen right up to air time. With the nature of a live show, it often requires the cast to roll with it when things go wrong during the live airing such as when someone forgets their lines, breaks, or a prop malfunctions.

Despite some of the SNL50 special being planned out in advance and pre-taped, quite a bit of it was still written the same old-school way as every Saturday Night Live episode, with skits being written the week of the show. Interestingly, on the red carpet, Amy Poehler revealed that some of the jokes were still being tweaked as of that night. While it’s not certain if she was being completely serious or exaggerating, it’s clear that they were still ironing out the skits’ kinks at the last minute, just like any other week.

Steve Martin Alluded To The Last-Minute Nature Of Everything In His Monologue

Guest Stars Probably Didn’t Confirm Until Late

Normally, that last-minute writing wouldn’t be such a big deal. The cast knows each other’s strengths and weaknesses, they have chemistry, and they can roll with it. However, the SNL50 special was massive, with an astounding number of special guests, musical stars, returning SNL veterans, and the current cast. That requires moving many, many more chess pieces around on the board than normal, which already presents a unique challenge simply from a logistics standpoint.

Adam Sandler with Shawn Mendes on Saturday Night Live

The most surprisingly sad part of the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special was headed by none other than funnyman Adam Sandler.

Creating more of an issue was the lateness that some of them joined. Steve Martin joked right in his opening monologue that many of the guest stars and celebrities weren’t confirmed to be on the show until quite recently. “I can’t believe I even made it here in time,” he confessed. “It was only a few days ago that Lorne told me I was doing the monologue, and I was actually vacationing on a friend’s boat down in the Gulf of Steve Martin and I finally– it took me a while to get here, but I did.”

If Steve Martin only just found out at the last minute that he was going to be part of it, then it’s a near certainty that other special guests and actors were also only confirmed late. Whether this is because they were asked later or they couldn’t get their schedules cleared to confirm until the past week, it’s fair to assume at least a handful didn’t exactly have a lot of prep time before stepping onto the stage to do their thing live. The best SNL guest hosts are great, but they usually get more time to rehearse. It all added to the chaotic and sometimes stilted nature of the skits in the SNL50 special.

SNL50 Still Coasted By On Goodwill & Star Power

The Messy Nature Of The Episode Didn’t Even Matter

Despite the unpolished feel of the 50th anniversary special and the fact that few of the cast or the guest stars seemed to be fully comfortable in the skits, the SNL50 special was still great. In the end, it wasn’t about the new skits landing with the at-home audience the same way it is in a normal week, not about airing new material. Instead, it was about celebrating the old, a loving homage to those who built Saturday Night Live from its first season in 1975, from the original season 1 cast to the behind-the-scenes crew holding it all together.

Instead, it was about celebrating the old, a loving homage to those who built Saturday Night Live from its first season in 1975, from the original season 1 cast to the behind-the-scenes crew holding it all together.

In that sense, the SNL 50th anniversary special was an unequivocal success. No one cared if everyone in the new “Close Encounter” skit was nailing their lines; they just wanted to see the Meryl Streep appear as Colleen Rafferty’s mother. No one really cared if the timing of the cast was off and they stepped on each other’s lines or forgot their lines completely. They just wanted to see Eddie Murphy and Will Ferrell stealing every scene again, and to remember and mourn the SNL cast members who died too soon.

Custom image of D- in a Box, Mister Robinson and Coneheads on Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live has taken its place amongst some of the greatest TV shows of all time. These seasons are the best that SNL has to offer.

SNL may not draw the huge numbers it once did; as the country gets more polarized, so does the show, which has never shied away from political skits. It’s harder than ever to do comedy these days, especially live comedy. Still, while the SNL50 special was a mess from a technical execution standpoint, it was excellent from a historical one. It reminded audiences that, while it may not swing the punch it once did, Saturday Night Live has been a juggernaut of pop culture influence for half a century now. That’s worth celebrating, imperfect as the celebration may be.