Here Are 15 Behind-the-Scenes Facts About ‘Saturday Night Live’ to Celebrate Its Anniversary

Saturday Night Live has been making history ever since its 1975 debut. Not only has it launched the careers of some of the biggest and funniest names in showbiz, but it's provided endless commentary on some of the most significant moments in pop culture, politics, sports and more over the course of its run. With October 11 marking the anniversary of the very first episode of the series and the release of the film Saturday Night , which tells the origin story of the series, take a look at some of these facts about the famed sketch comedy series you may not have known.

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1. Saturday Night Live has the most Emmy Awards of any other television show—90 in total, with 331 nominations!
2. Before it became known as Saturday Night Live , the show was actually NBC’s Saturday Night .
3. The five timers club—those who have hosted the show five times or more—has grown exponentially over the years, but some of our favorites include Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Kristen Wiig, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell and countless others.
4. Jim Carey actually auditioned to be a cast member twice but didn’t make it either time. Luckily, things worked out just fine for him!
5. The first woman to be a head writer on the show was Tina Fey.
6. Adam Sandler and Chris Farley were actually fired from the show. Sandler said during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show that some of the higher ups at NBC weren't a big fan of the crew had had on the show, including Farley, David Spade and others.
7. The first person to say the famed line, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night,” was Chevy Chase. He is another member of the five timers club, and was one of the original cast members.
8. Drew Barrymore hosted the show at just 7 years old, making her the youngest to do so in the show’s history.
9. While many famous faces have passed through the doors of SNL , not all of them made it to the writer’s room or in front of the screen. For example, Aubrey Plaza worked there as an intern before her career took off.
10. Alec Baldwin has hosted the most in the show’s history, doing so 17 times.
11. Many of the sets used in each sketch get recycled and repurposed for other sketches.
12. One day, when Larry David was working as a writer on the show, he became so frustrated over his sketches continuously being cut that he quit the show. When he left the studio and began to regret it, he decided that on Monday morning, he’d return as if nothing happened—and he did. He ended up basing an episode of Seinfeld on this exact experience.
13. Mindy Kaling, who is known by many for her role as Kelly on The Office, turned down a writer role on the show because she had already committed to the famed sitcom.
14. Writers and cast members begin their work for the show on Monday and work diligently throughout the week, from pitch meetings to writing sketches, up until the big show on Saturday night.
15. Everyone loves Bill Hader’s character of Stefon, and John Mulaney would go out of his way to make him laugh by incorporating new and unexpected lines into his script that Hader would only see for the first time once he was on the air reading them.

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