The theme of the Pilot, first aired during the summer of 1972, was to encourage 18-year-olds to vote in the upcoming presidential election. The 26th Amendment, passed in July 1971, lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.
Although this was shot live in front of an audience, the show was not broadcast live in the way that SNL is. Performances from the tapings were regularly split across several episodes to create the illusion that big-named guests kept returning. In an era before home video, most viewers were likely oblivious, but this became very evident when the uncut shows began streaming weekly on YouTube. Returning stars are often dressed in the same clothing.
The show was canceled in 1981 because of declining ratings even though the show was very successful from 1972-1978 in the ratings but by 1979-1981 ratings declined because by 1981 MTV launched in May 1981 and completely changed the music world by doing music videos and modern and fast paced of channel and so many viewers quickly switched to MTV and so this made this show feel slow and outdated and NBC opted not to renew the show because of declining ratings and high production costs and changing viewer habits and so the show was canceled in 1981.
In 1978 at the height of the disco craze the set was changed to resemble a disco nightclub complete with a dance floor but by fall 1979 as the genres popularity waned the disco set was replaced the show was canceled in March 1981 and remained on air in reruns until May 1981.