Highlights from a Jam-Packed, Star-Filled 'SNL' 50th Anniversary Special

Musical Open — Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter perform “Homeward Bound,” which Simon also performed in 1976 with George Harrison.

Steven Martin Monologue — Anyone who was part of the original SNL — 50 years ago — has to be at least 70 years old. Steve Martin — though not an original cast member — is maybe the best choice among them to tackle the monologue. He was in the five-timers club by 1978. He’s hosted 16 times. He also happens to be hilarious. He’s joined, briefly, by John Mulaney (“Over the course of 50 years, 894 people have hosted Saturday Night Live, and it amazes me that only two of them have committed murder”) and Martin Short (“the only Canadian who wasn’t in Schitt’s Creek”), who is taken away by ICE. Good monologue! The two murderers? O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake, although I think that Matthew Broderick suffered some collateral damage on Google. (Score 7 out 10)

Lawrence Welk Show with Dooneese — They’re kicking off the show with Armisen’s Lawrence Welk Show, joined by Will Ferrell’s Robert Goulet (really appealing to the 70-year-old demo, so far), and the Sisters (Ana Gastayer, ScarJo, and Kim Kardashian), and Kristen Wiig’s Dooneese, who plays the drums on Kardashian’s butt. Looks like the 50th is leaning into the familiar, so far. (Score: 6 out of 10)

Black Jeopardy — OK, hell yes! Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, and Eddie Murphy — as Tracy Morgan! — and hosted by Kenan. Chris Rock makes an appearance to ask a question, but mostly, Jones and Morgan crack up over Murphy’s Tracy Morgan impression. Tom Hanks’ Doug — who wears a MAGA hat — also makes an amusing appearance (that I understand has pissed off the MAGA audiences). (Score: 7.5 out of 10)

Sally O’Malley - Molly Shannon’s Sally O’Malley interrupts an Emma Stone intro with a few kicks ahead of a physical comedy highlights package that is absolutely sublime.

Domingo — Sabrina Carpenter joins the regular cast to do one of the few recurring skits of the present-day SNL, which entails bad singing by professional musicians about the bride sleeping with Domingo, the Marcello Hernandez character they’re really pushing. This time around, there’s a male version badly performing a Sabrina song (Bowen, Samberg, Bennet, and goddamnit, Kyle Mooney), and Domingo’s brother, Rinaldo (Pedro Pascal!) and Bad Bunny shows up, too. Gen Z loves this skit, but it doesn’t do much for me, and it’s kind of worn out. (Watch Here) (Score: 5 out of 10)

Tina and Amy — They host a Q&A with the audience — it’s mostly fun to spot the celebrities in the crowd, but also Ryan Reynolds — before asking his question — jokes, “Why? What have you heard?” Cher, sitting next to Kevin Costner, probably has a story behind it. Lots of participating celebrities, including Jon Hamm, Galifianakis, Ray Romano, Peyton Manning, and … you know what. There are too many to name. It’s fun. Watch it. Or don’t. Your call. (Watch Here) (Score: 6.5 out of 10)

Digital Short — Andy Samberg fronts an ’80s-like song about cast members having insane anxiety and IBS while on the show. It’s funny because it’s true (and there are a lot of cast members, both current and past involved). (Score: 7 out of 10)

Musical Number — Brittany Howard and Miley Cyrus perform one of SNL’s most famous songs, Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” That performance, which ended with O’Connor ripping up a photo of the Pope, got her banned from SNL. And Aubrey Plaza introduced!

Weekend Update — The “Update” jokes are SNL-specific, and then Cecily Strong returned to play the Drunk Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party, and she is pregnant. She’s the “press secretary at the White House” now. Accurate. And the father of the baby is … DRUNK UNCLE! (And no: Bobby Moynihan is not problematic, that’s Horatio Sanz. Stop asking!). Seth takes over to throw it to Lorne Michaels’s Best Friends from When He Was a Kid (Vanessa Bayer, Fred Armisen (AGAIN)), who whisper shits on Lorne. Bill Murray decides to rank all the “Update” anchors, starting with the Black anchors, Michael Che. “Now we’ll move on to the regular ‘Weekend Update’ anchors.” Great “Update,” but mostly because of Drunk Uncle. The Mat skit is below, but I suspect, as with me, that Drunk Uncle is his favorite moment of the night, too. (Score: 8 out of 10. Would have been a 10/10 with Stefon)

Close Encounters — Kate McKinnon returns as Rafferty, who once again has been abducted by aliens (along with Woody Harrelson and Pedro Pascal). The skit is funny, but what made it so successful the first time was the fact that Ryan Gosling could not keep his shit together. Pedro and Woody crack a little when Kate grabs their crotch, and then Rafferty’s mom — Meryl Streep! — makes an appearance. This feels like the Mat skit of the 50th. (Score: 7 out of 10)

Chad — Lorraine Newman returns to the stage to reminisce but encounters Pete Davidson’s Chad. It’s typical Chad but tinged with nostalgia. (Watch Here) (Score: 5.5 out of 10)

Adam Sandler — Sandler does one of his Adam Sandler songs about SNL being on for 50 years, and freakin’ Jack Nicholson introduces him. The song is both funny and sweet, and it has lots of wonderful inside jokes. How do they not end the show with this? I cannot imagine the show topping it. (Score: 9.5 out of 10)

New York City — It’s one of John Mulaney’s musical numbers, set in 1975 and featuring, among others, Maya Rudolph and Adam Driver (as the hot dog); cocaine and vodka in the ’90s with Nathan Lane; cartoon mascots featuring Will Forte and Jason Sudeikis; the Green M&M played by Kristen Wiig; Kate McKinnon’s Rudy Guiliani throwing away his shot with Lin Manuel-Miranda; and ScarJo and Paul Rudd shitting on e-bikes, among others. (Score: 8.5 out 10)

Bronx Beat — Maya and Amy make a return for “Bronx Beat,” where they basically harass Miles Teller about Top Gun 2, and Mike Meyers’ Linda Richmond makes a surprise appearance and she’s a little verklempt. Always so verklempt. It is vaguely amusing! (Watch Here) (Score: 5 out of 10)

Musical Number - Lil Wayne and the Roots are just straight-up awesome.

In Memoriam — Tom Hanks covers the intro for an In Memorium for the many, many characters and accents and harassing moments that have not aged well over the years. A lot of very funny moments but also some very Yikes moments.

Debbie Downer — Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore, and Ayo Edebiri join Rachel Dratch to celebrate 50 years of SNL with Debbie Downer. DeNiro also makes an appearance. I find it amusing that DeNiro is somewhat of a SNL fixture because he’s actually not that funny, but I suspect he’s probably close with Lorne. Oh, Debbie. She’s honestly always been more funny in theory than in practice (Watch Here) (Score: 5 out of 10)

Scared Straight — Kenan Thompson and Eddie Murphy play inmates who try and scare some shoplifting kids with references to Harry Potter and, un, The Nutty Professor. Will Ferrell shows up in maybe the least attractive getup I have ever seen. They should go ahead and put this one in the skits that age poorly highlight reel but it’s insane to see Will Ferrell and Eddie Murphy in the same room. I wish it were for a better comedic cause. (Watch Here) (Score: 4.5 out of 10)

Look Back in Anger — Garrett Morris — who is 88 years old! — introduces a short film from 1978 that features John Belushi visiting the gravesites of the original cast members. It’s a cool time capsule, though ironic that Belushi — in the short film — is the last surviving member of the OG cast.

Paul McCartney — McCartney does “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry that Weight,” and “The End” to close out the musical numbers and the show. It would’ve been much better as a medley with Dana Carvey’s “Choppin’ Broccoli,” but I don’t make the decisions. (Also weird, given how involved Dana Carvey has been with this season, that he didn’t make an appearance on the show).

Finally, here are the goodbyes for those of you who like to see famous people mill about and hug each other.

Average Score: 6.47 — It’s almost exactly what one might expect from a 50th Anniversary special: It leans hard on the familiar, shoehorns a lot of celebrities into every sketch, and is occasionally very funny and always nostalgic. The recurring bits are largely from the last 10 to 20 years, which would be great but for the fact that most of the recurring skits from the last decade are mediocre (save for John Mulaney’s musical numbers). It really is strange to have a 50th without Bill Hader and Dana Carvey, both of whom are responsible for a number of the best recurring characters over the years. In any respect, they’ll chop up the show and we’ll be seeing them on our Instagram Reels and TikToks for years to come.

For what it’s worth, I just checked, and this is my 15th year of doing SNL recaps, which is insane. It is both my favorite thing to do on the site and also the most logistically nightmarish for a guy with a wife and three kids who has to arrange 20 Saturday nights and/or Sunday mornings a year around these posts. My favorite part, of course, is the first comment on every other SNL post saying, “This show is still on?”