I have long considered Season 3 of SNL to be its best season ever. After rewatching it for this project, I still feel that way. I also believe it was the last season where the entire cast gave a damn and saw it as their primary creative outlet.
Saturday Night Live became part of the mainstream of American popular culture in Season 3. Between the third and fourth seasons, the movie Animal House was released. It was a huge box office success, making $141 million and becoming the biggest comedy movie of all time. John Belushi played Brother Bluto in the film and he became a bona fide movie star. It also led to Belushi appearing on the August 10, 1978 cover of Rolling Stone. The cover said it all:"From Samurai Night Live To Matinee Idol."
Shortly after the 4th season premiere, he was featured on the cover of Newsweek.
The cast (drawn by Jack Davis) appeared on the July 29 cover of TV Guide, which was mainstream as it got in 1978.
That issue featured a profile of Gilda Radner.
All of this media exposure meant there would be more viewers tuning in to SNL in Season 4. During the 1978-79 season, Saturday Night averaged 17 million viewers and some episodes were watched by as many as 19 million. [1]
Three weeks prior to the premiere of Season 4, the 30th annual Primetime Emmy Awards were presented on September 17. For the third year in a row, Saturday Night Live was nominated in multiple categories:
Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Series
Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in Variety or Music:
Dan Aykroyd
John Belushi
Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music:
Jane Curtin
Gilda Radner
Outstanding Directing in a Comedy-Variety or Music Series:
Dave Wilson-Episode 18, with Steve Martin and the Blues Brothers
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy-Variety or Music Series:
Episode 18, with Steve Martin and the Blues Brothers
Radner would win the only award for SNL that night. Still, winning Emmys in each of its three seasons was impressive by any metric.
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| Gilda Radner shows off her Emmy award. |
Between Seasons 3 and 4, Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, as the Blues Brothers, served as Steve Martin's opening act for several concerts. Recordings of those concerts would be released on November 28 as Briefcase Full Of Blues. It would sell two million copies and reach #1 on Billboard's album chart. Like SNL, the Blues Brothers became a national phenomenon and Aykroyd and Belushi became full-fledged rock stars.
They were not the only members of the cast who were busy entertaining outside offers. Bill Murray filmed Meatballs in the summer and fall of '78. NBC wanted to build a variety series around Gilda Radner.
In other words, Saturday Night Live's days of being a countercultural, underdog show were long gone. How would this impact the content of the show? Check back tomorrow when I began posting annotated reviews of Season 4.
Source:
[1]Hill, Doug, Weingrad, Jeff; Saturday Night. Vintage, 1985, p.225
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