--- description: SNL starts its 40th season without much competition — but that wasn't always the case title: The Story Behind Saturday Night Live’s Most Famous Line image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7c929873d689105/6986a54f3bc99931691a5867/snl.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The Surprising Story Behind _Saturday Night Live_’s Most Famous Line  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 26, 2014 12:00 PM CUT  The season 1 cast of 'NBC's Saturday Night' The season 1 cast of 'NBC's Saturday Night'NBC / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 26, 2014 12:00 PM CUT By now, _Saturday Night Live—_which kicks off its 40th season on Sept. 27 — is an institution. But when the show first started, it wasn’t even _Saturday Night Live_. When Chevy Chase uttered its famous catchphrase for the first time, live from New York it was literally _Saturday Night—_as in, the show was called _Saturday Night_. Hence, the wording. The reason? There was another show premiering on ABC that season with a strangely similar name: _Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell_. That show also debuted in 1975\. It was also a variety show, though more focused on music—its premiere introduced the U.S. to the Bay City Rollers—than on comedy. And it was, at least based on TIME’s coverage that fall, the more noteworthy of the two. Describing a taping, with its “atmosphere as neon as a Hollywood première in the ’20s,” TIME [heralded](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,913504,00.html "undefined") the show as something new: It was a “latter-day vaudeville” and the first live TV variety show since Ed Sullivan’s, with big names involved and a massive publicity push, plus “ill wishes hurled at it by Cosell haters and rival NBC and CBS offices.” Of course, we know how this story ends. _Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell_ has largely been forgotten; as for _Saturday Night Live_, well, it’s starting its 40th season. The difference was clear from the start. The show then known as _NBC’s Saturday Night_ was, TIME [proclaimed](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,945531,00.html "undefined"), “the season’s surprise hit.” Dick Ebersol, the network exec who put the show together, said at the time that _Saturday Night_ was NBC’s biggest hit among advertisers since the early ’50s, despite a cast of “mostly unknowns.” Though not every sketch worked, TIME said, the success was deserved: --- > “” --- ABC’s _Saturday Night Live_ was cancelled within a few months, and it wasn’t long before NBC nabbed the name. **_Read the full review of the first season of_** **SNL** **here,** **_in TIME’s archives:_** [Flakiest Night of the Week](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,945531,00.html "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3426553/saturday-night-live-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3426553/saturday-night-live-history/"},"headline":"The Surprising Story Behind Saturday Night Live’s Most Famous Line","datePublished":"2014-09-26T12:00:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:23:42.108Z","description":"SNL starts its 40th season without much competition — but that wasn't always the case","url":"https://time.com/3426553/saturday-night-live-history/","keywords":["Television","Comedy","SNL","Saturday Night Live"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7c929873d689105/6986a54f3bc99931691a5867/snl.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7c929873d689105/6986a54f3bc99931691a5867/snl.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Saturday Night Live","caption":"Saturday Night Live","creditText":"NBC / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3426553/saturday-night-live-history/","name":"The Surprising Story Behind Saturday Night Live’s Most Famous Line"}}]}] ```