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NBC celebrated Saturday Night Live on Friday night with over three hours of music history on SNL50: The Homecoming Concert. The special hosted by Emmy winner Jimmy Fallon streamed live from Radio City Music Hall in New York City and is now available to stream on Peacock.

Musical acts included Arcade Fire, Backstreet Boys, Bad Bunny, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Brittany Howard, Cher, Chris Martin, Dave Grohl, David Byrne, Devo, Eddie Vedder, Jack White, Jelly Roll, Lady Gaga, Lauryn Hill, Miley Cyrus, Mumford & Sons, Post Malone, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Robyn, Snoop Dogg, St. Vincent, the B-52s, the Roots, and Wyclef Jean. Surprise comedy musical performances included Bill Murray, Paul Shaffer, Andy Samberg, Chris Parnell, Will Ferrell, Ana Gasteyer, Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, and Tracy Morgan.

But that doesn’t end the festivities. Sunday night’s SNL50: The Anniversary Special will switch over from mostly music to almost...

The early 1980s were a tough time for Saturday Night Live. After Lorne Michaels and the remaining members of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players left at the end of Season Five, an all-new cast starred in a truncated Season Six before they were all fired — save for two breakout stars: Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo.

With the departing cast members went new showrunner Jean Doumanian, who was replaced by Dick Ebersol for Seasons Seven through 10 (Michaels returned in Season 11). Ebersol was a controversial figure at SNL, as the show struggled to regain its cultural relevance during his reign and suffered from frequent cast turnover.

Smack-dab in the middle of Ebersol’s run came Brad Hall, who was a cast member for all of Seasons Eight and Nine. While he was in some sketches, he mostly helmed the Weekend Update desk for a season and a half before...

With its 50th season currently airing, Saturday Night Live has seen its share of ups, downs and humiliations. It, too, has seen well over 150 cast members take the stage throughout its history, and that includes plenty that you either forgot about or had no idea were even on SNL. We’re talking people like Gilbert Gottfried, Laurie Metcalf, Joan Cusack, Julia Louis-Dreyfus – you probably could have guessed these were all in the ‘80s…Far removed from her brutal days on SNL in the mid-’80s, Louis-Dreyfus remembers where it all started – and not in a good way.

Appearing on the Wiser Than Me podcast, Julia Louis-Dreyfus recalled being spotted at a Chicago-based theater and being invited, along with what she called fellow “complete and total unknowns”, to perform part of the show in New York. Unfortunately, the setting and circumstances didn’t lend to the environment Louis-Dreyfus and company were...

Legendary daytime talk show host Phil Donahue passed away last night at the age of 88 after a long illness. Donahue practically invented many conventions that are now talk-show staples, such as walking into the audience and interacting with its members. As his show took off in the 1970s, he also tackled issues that no other talk show dared touch. “If there had been no Phil Donahue Show, there would be no Oprah Winfrey show,” Winfrey said in 2002. “He was the first to acknowledge that women are interested in more than mascara tips and cake recipes — that we’re intelligent, we’re concerned about the world around us and we want the best possible lives for ourselves.”

Donahue’s signature cadence, dramatic mannerisms and audience interactions not only made for engaging TV but a go-to impression for three generations of Saturday Night Live cast members.

Joe Piscopo’s version in 1982 was...

Join the Saturday Night Network as we take a dive deep into all of the most interesting moments from this weekend’s Saturday Night Live with host Ryan Gosling and musical guest Chris Stapleton (S49 E17). This week on our roundtable podcast, host Jon Schneider is joined by panelists and SNL superfans Bill Kenney & Kirstin Rajala as well as former SNL cast member Gary Kroeger.

Our roundtable show streams live Mondays on SNL weeks beginning at 8:00pm Et. To watch the episode, click the YouTube embed above.

Meet your panelists:

Jon Schneider is the main host of the Saturday Night Network. Jon has seen every episode of Saturday Night Live going back to 1975 and loves discussing how new episodes affect the legacy of the show. His favorite SNL cast member of all time is Will Forte.

Bill Kenney has an incredible 38-year streak of never missing an SNL episode.

33 years ago today, at age 7, Drew Barrymore hosted “Saturday Night Live,” making her the youngest ever host of the NBC sketch comedy show. She still holds that record today, and she’s hosted the show five additional times since. Her 1982 gig on the show came five months after the release of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestiral.” She reprised her “E.T.” role when she played a homicidal Gertie on “SNL.” Above she’s pictured in the iconic healing E.T. pose with “SNL” cast members Tim Kazurinsky, Gary Kroeger, Brad Hall and Joe Piscopo. As for the second and third youngest “SNL” hosts, Macaulay Culkin and Fred Savage hold those titles, respectively. Other notable November 20 happenings in pop culture history: • 1955: Rock and roll pioneer Bo Diddley made his television debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” • 1959: “The Twilight Zone” episode “Time Enough at Last” — featuring first aired. It featured Burgess Meredith in his...

Happy birthday Julia Louis-Dreyfus! The wildly successful Veep actress celebrates her 54th birthday Tuesday – but we all have start somewhere, and for Julia it was at The Practical Theater Company in Chicago.

Back in 1982, Et stopped by the theater for a special performance from Julia and the fellow members of her improv group, The Golden 50th Anniversary Jubilee, as they prepared to take their final bow for the opportunity of a lifetime.

"I am incredibly excited about moving to New York, working on Saturday Night Live! I can hardly sleep!" Julia told Et back in '82.

Watch: On The Set of 'Malcolm in the Middle' 15 Years Ago

That's right! Not just Julia, but the entire improv group was just hired by SNL as their newest cast members.

"This was kind of this supreme opportunity to become nationally successful," said Julia.

Other members of the group included Gary Kroeger, Paul Barrosse, and Brad Hall...

Before we begin, an explanation: This is not a list of the 39 best SNL sketches of all time.

Any institution that lasts as long as Saturday Night Live has—and that experiences as much cast and writer turnover as Saturday Night Live does—will necessarily have stronger years and leaner years. In SNL’s case, the difference between eras can be especially stark; you’re more likely to laugh at a meh John Belushi sketch than you are at even the finest display of Charles Rocket’s talents. Given that fact, it’s easy for a simple “best sketches ever...

Julia Louis-Dreyfus has reflected on joining Saturday Night Live at just 21 years old. The actress was hired along with future husband Brad Hall and Gary Kroeger of the Practical Theater Group to fill out SNL's cast in 1982, before she'd even graduated from Northwestern University. Louis-Dreyfus discussed the near-overnight transition from college student to national celebrity in an interview with Capitol File. "When SNL first began, I was their demographic - a young teenager watching Gilda [Radner] and [John] Belushi and Bill Murray and all those guys - and I was just riveted," she told the magazine. "It was a huge Cinderella-getting-to-go-to-the-ball kind of experience, really." (more)...

Charles Rocket: 1980 - 1981. Weekend update anchor. The most prolific male cast member during the 1980-81 season besides Joe Piscopo, He was fired, in part, for cursing on air. (The scene below is the one that got him fired).

Danitra Vance: 1985 - 1986. Recurring characters: "That black girl," and Cabrini Green Jackson, a professional teenage mother who gives advice on pregnancy. (She also died in 1994 from breast cancer). Check out this sketch -- not something they could pull off today.

Tim Kazurinsky: 1981 - 1984. Recurring characters: The landlord from Eddie Murphy's "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood," Father Timothy Owens, and network censor Worthington Clotman.

Mary Gross: 1981 - 1985. Co-anchor of Weekend Update (briefly). Recurring characters: Alfalfa in the "Little Rascals" sketches, Chi Chi, Celeste, and Siobhan Cahill.

Robin Duke: 1981 - 1984. Recurring character: Wendy Whiner. Also played Mr. T.

Jim Breur: 1995 - 1998. Recurring character: Goat boy. He was in those Goth Talk sketches.

GSN has tapped Kim Coles and stand-up comedian Judy Gold to host the pilots for The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game, respectively.

The cable network is prepping new versions of the popular 1970s game shows, which are Sony-owned titles, that will incorporate modern elements like online dating sites. Michael Davies is executive producing both shows through his overall deal at Sony Pictures TV.

As for the hosts, GSN senior vp programming Jamie Roberts said this month that the network was looking for "unusual candidates to take these shows and reinvent them."

Newlywed often is identified with Bob Eubanks, who hosted most of the show's incarnations, though Jim Lange, Paul Rodriguez and Gary Kroeger were featured in some editions. Dating has been hosted by Lange, Elaine Joyce, Jeff MacGregor, Brad Sherwood and Chuck Woolery.

Coles is repped by Abrams Artists Agency.

Gold is repped by Rain Management Group.