SNL broadcasts 40th Anniversary television special

Ethan Shicks, Reporter|February 17, 2015

Justin Timberlake (left) and Jimmy Fallon (right) open SNL40 with a musical number. It involved a medley of sketches and songs from the show’s history. Photo courtesy of NBC.

The popular comedy-sketch show, Saturday Night Live, celebrated its 40 year with a 3-hour television special on NBC, celebrating it’s history of popular sketches and musical performances.

The television special, dubbed SNL40, aired Sunday evening (as opposed to the normal Saturday evening slot).

The special featured many previous cast members reprising their characters from the show’s most memorable sketches from over the last 40 years. Legendary cast members such as Betty White, Steve Martin, Andy Samberg, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell and countless others payed homage to the show.

SNL’s television special began with a comedy bit featuring Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake singing a medley about the show’s most popular skits and songs.

A monologue featuring original member Steve Martin followed with the gathering of previous hosts on the show, reminiscing of their experiences on the show.

Many of SNL’s most classic sketches were revived throughout the special, like Celebrity Jeopardy, Wayne’s World and the Weekend News to name a few. There were also several monologues featuring some of the shows memorable hosts.

Eddie Murphy makes an awkward, brief appearance on SNL40. He thanked the audience before going to commercial break. It was one of the most talked about segments of the evening on social media. Photo courtesy of NBC.

One of the show’s more awkward moments was the hyped, long awaited return of comedian Eddie Murphy. During the special, an uncomfortable Murphy made a brief appearance, giving a short ‘thank you’ before cutting to commercial break without making any jokes.

Musical performances by Paul McCartney, Miley Cyrus, Prince, Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Paul Simon were some of the show’s highlights.

The show also featured a segment which paid tribute to some of its deceased cast members from previous years.

SNL40 drew strong ratings for NBC with an estimated 23.1 million viewers during its live broadcast. It had been almost 9 years since the network reached those numbers for the show.

However, critics had mixed reviews for the special. The show was praised for some of their better skit renditions, but was also criticized for some of its poor music performances and banal segments. Overall, the show was considered successful.