The BEST episodes of Saturday Night Live season 1
Every episode of Saturday Night Live season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Saturday Night Live season 1!
Each week, a famous guest host appears in sketches and parodies alongside a roster of up-and-coming comedians. A popular musical guest, short films, and Weekend Update - a recurring satirical newscast - form the backbone of one of the most influential and culturally significant TV shows in history.
#1 - Richard Pryor/Gil-Scott Heron, Thalmus Rasulala
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/13/1975
On A Seven Second Delay from New York, it's...Garrett Morris Sketches include: The Clumsy Waiters, Samurai Hotel, Looks At Books, New Dad (repeat from the first episode of the series), Police Line-Up #1, Racist Word Association, SNL Film: Pong, When White Family Members Turn Black, Spud Beer, Police Line-Up #2, Early Suicide Pill, The Muppets: Ploobis and Scred Get Drunk, Police Line-Up #3, Exorcist II, SNL Film: Albert Brooks Is Home Sick, and Richard Pryor Stand-Up. Gil-Scott Heron performs: "Johannesburg" and "A Lovely Day"
#2 - Buck Henry/Bill Withers, Toni Basil
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/17/1976
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include--Suicide Prevention, "Samurai Deli", Operation Stumblebum, "Citizen Kane II", King Bee(the Blues Brothers), Auto mechanic tells bedtime story, "Presidential Foreplay", Chevy misuses a joint, The Constipated Man, The Muppets and the Japanese sex Device.
#3 - Peter Boyle/Al Jarreau
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/14/1976
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include "The Valentine's Day Massacre," "Samurai Divorce Court," "Jason and Sunshine," "The Corrida." "All Pro Wrestling," "Remembering of Things Past", "Dueling Brandos," "A Home Movie" (film), and "The Orgy." Al Jarreau performs "We'll Get By."
#4 - Elliott Gould/Leon Redbone
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/29/1976
Sketches include "Wax Museum," "Phone Operator Academy," "European Poker Player," "Babs's Uvula," "The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise," "The Bee Honeymooners," "Shirley Temple Black," "Vibramatic," "Uncle Charlie's School," and "Show Us Your Guns." Leon Redbone performed "Shine On Harvest Moon."
#5 - Desi Arnaz/Desi Arnaz, Jr.
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/21/1976
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include-- Gerald Ford gives a word association, Literary Recital, Very White(Chevy Chase)sings unsoulful songs, "The Failed Pilots of I Love Lucy", Cuban accupunture, Lucille Ball talks about Desi's book, Bisexual Minute.
#6 - George Carlin/Janis Ian & Billy Preston
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/11/1975
Host George Carlin; Janis Ian; Billy Preston.
#7 - Lily Tomlin/Howard Shore & the All Nurse Band
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/22/1975
Live from New York, it's... Sketches include "Gerald Ford Addresses the Nation," "Beethoven Sings My Girl," Jaws III, "Edith Ann On Ice," "Spud Beer," "How To Harass Men," "Beethoven's Second," "The Clumsy Bellhop and the Interracial Couple," "Suzy Forgives Patty Hearst," "Beethoven as Ray Charles," and "Skred In Love" (Muppets).
#8 - Peter Cook, Dudley Moore/Neil Sedaka
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/24/1976
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include-- Bomb Squad, Prisoner Auditions, "Don Pardo's Holiday on A Elevator", "Table Talk", "Backstage Banter", Sonny and Cher, The Baby Jesus, Chevy talks to Angola's roommate, The Muppets.
#9 - Ron Nessen/Toni Basil, Patti Smith
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 4/17/1976
Live from New York, It's...Gerald Ford Sketches include-- "The Dead String Quartet", Super Bass-O-Matic 76, An Oval Office, David Eisenhower is Anti-Nixon, Thomas Jefferson denies slavery, The New Stoner Volunteer Army, Catherine the Great, Disgusting Jam, Autumm Fizz--The Carbonated Douche, "Tomorrow With Tom Snyder".
#10 - Anthony Perkins/Betty Carter
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/13/1976
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include--'SNL is not ad-libbed' says Chevy Chase, A President's View on Marijuana, Dominatrix Cleaning Tips, "Norman Bates School of Hotel Management", Low-budget Movie Trailers, Sherry protest her B(ee), Policemen Dance Party, "Hello Dolly".
#11 - Rob Reiner/Joe Cocker
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/25/1975
Live from New York, it's.. Sketches Include: Wheelchair Bound, A Trip to the Doctor, Fashion Show, Surgery Free Healing, Dangerous But Inept, National Pancreas Association PSA, At The Blaine Hotel, What Gilda Ate, Square Dancing, Smoking Craters, and Operation. John Belushi (as Joe Cocker) performed "A Little Help From My Friends."
#12 - Jill Clayburgh/Andy Kaufman
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/28/1976
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include-- No More Falls, "Great Moments in Herstory", White Guilt Relief Fund, Inquisitive Girlfriend, Grable and Lombard, Car Yummies, Paying the Milkman, Jill Carson Guidance Counselor!, Andy Kaufman sings "Old Macdonald", "The Mr. Bill Show".
#13 - Madeline Kahn/Carly Simon
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/8/1976
Live from New York, it's Chevy Chase! Sketches are "Ronald Reagan's Jam Session," Not for Ladies Only, Wilderness Comedian, "Slumber Party," Bride of Frankenstein, "Fondue Pots for Namibia," "The Muppets Can Reunite the Beatles," New York's My Home (film), "Super Absordent Dry Hose," and "The Final Days." Carly Simon performs You're So Vain.
#14 - Buck Henry/Gordon Lightfoot
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/22/1976
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include--Emmy winner Chevy tries to get Laraine todo the fall, Samurai Tailor, "Talk Back!", "Dell Stator's Toad Ranch Resturaunt", "Looks at Books", The Crowd Audition, Peter Lemon Moodring, "Not For Ladies Only", Lorne Micheals offer to the Beatles.
#15 - Kris Kristofferson/Rita Coolidge
Season 1 - Episode 24 - Aired 7/31/1976
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include--Kristofferson signs "Help Me Make it Through The Night", new SNL employer Sherry, Samurai General Practitioner, the Great White Athelete, Gerald Ford dosent want to talk about local issues, "Talk Country", My Blind Date is My Gynocologist, Andrew Young is a Suckup, Police State, "Waiting For Don Pardo".
#16 - Dyan Cannon/Leon Russell
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/15/1976
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include--Chevy has to do the fall again, "Hearing Test," "The Adulterer," "Vacationland Adventure", "Minister with Hiccups," "Dyan Cannon's Dream," "Orange Juice," "The Bathwater of The Stars", "Johnny Angel", "Cresk Toothpaste,"" and "The Hubcap Thief" (film). Leon Russell and Joe Cocker (Belushi) perform "Daylight".
#17 - Candice Bergen/The Stylistics, Martha Reeves
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/20/1975
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include-- Fireside Chat with Gerald Ford, "Mel's Char Palace", "What Gilda Ate", Billy is guilty of murder, Teddy the Elf, "The Fritzie Kringle Show", "Minute Mystery", Candice and the cast perform 'Winter Wonderland', The Bees Christmas Party, Homeward Bound.
#18 - Candice Bergen/Esther Phillips
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/8/1975
Live from New York, It's... Sketches include: Gerald Ford adressess the nation, Ambassador Training Institute spot, "Jaws II", Garrett Morris confronts unorganized CIA, Catherine Deneuve, Black Perspective, "Midnight Probe", Andy Kaufman as Foreign Man, Crank Call to Airline Stewardess, Obnoxious journalist interviews world ruler.
#19 - Paul Simon/Simon & Garfunkel, Randy Newman, Phoebe Snow
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/18/1975
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include: "The Berkeley Collection of Grafitti Wallpaper," "Paul Simon vs.Connie Hawkins," The Bees Have Been Cut, and "The Mighty Favog," and "Try-Hard 1-11."
#20 - Robert Klein/ABBA, Loudon Wainwright III
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/15/1975
Live from New York, It's... Sketches include: Pagent winner Sherry refuses crown, Minute Mystery, Bee-Cenntinial Minute, Greg Allman dodges question about his love-life, The Eternal Crawl: Roaches Through History, Sam Peckinpah, Female fireman tips, Looks at Books.
#21 - Raquel Welch/Phoebe Snow, John Sebastian
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/24/1976
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include-- "Get to the fall Chevy!", Purina Rat Chow, Joseph Franklin's 10-letter Metric Alphabet, "The Claudine Longet Ski Invitational", "One Flew Over The Hornest Nest", Chevy tries to convince Raquel to take off her shirt, Baba Wawa, Bisexual Moment, The Muppets are finished on SNL.
#22 - Elliott Gould/Anne Murray
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/10/1976
Live from New York, it's... Chevy Chase Sketches include "The Dead String Quartet," "Interior Demolitionists," "Vito Corleone in Therapy," "The Killer Bees," "Birthright", "Gilda and Elliot," "New Shimmer," The Muppets, "Play Misty for Me" (film), "Jamitol," "Try-Hard 1-11," and "Powwow With the Press" (stand-up). Anne Murray performed "Long Distance Call" and "Boogie With You."
#23 - Dick Cavett/Marshall Efron, Jimmy Cliff
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/31/1976
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include--Voodoo on Chevy Chase, Alcohol and Firearms, Lowell Brock of H&R Brock, "Looks at Books", Dick Cavett's School of Hydroplane Operation, Dance To The Nation, "The Apple Follies", Our Town.
#24 - Louise Lasser/Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 7/24/1976
Live from New York, It's...Chevy Chase Sketches include--Belushi thinks Chevy has a big head, Louise Lasser locks herself dressing room, General "V.D" Amin, Sven and Inger, John Belushi tries to sell his clothes, Ode to Television, Louise apologizes to her dog, Jimmy Carter talks about the campagin.