It’s a Questlove jawn, so you know the music will be on point. But how could it not be? As a documentary, Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music on Peacock, which Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson directs with Oz Rodriguez, has five decades’ worth of artist appearances to highlight as it celebrates Saturday Night Live as an institution for performance. Telling the story are Lorne Michaels, SNL cast members old and new, and musicians themselves, some of whom – like Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny, Justin Timberlake, and Miley Cyrus – highlight the excitement and chaos of being both host and featured performer for something as legendary as it is terrifyingly live. “Kind of the guts of the show,” Miley says, whether you’re talking about the music or the comedy, comes down to one question. “Do you have it? Or do you not?”
The Gist: “When the music changes, it changes. And you can say, ‘that’s not really music.’ But if it’s the music, it’s the music.” Lorne Michaels would know – as the creator of Saturday Night Live and its longtime producer, he’s seen basically every act that ever came through Studio 8H. He was even instrumental in booking a few of them, like when Nirvana debuted in 1992 after David Geffen, boss of the band’s label, called Lorne directly. And as for Nirvana’s performance? According to Dave Grohl in Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music, it was nearly a “Titanic-level disaster.” He was hitting his drums so hard – this was SNL, it was live, and he was terribly nervous – that Grohl busted a stick 20 seconds into “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
It’s cool to get some behind-the-scenes juice like this from two sides, show producer and featured musician, and more than once, Ladies & Gentlemen proves adept at this trick. There is no way the doc would be able to talk to everyone who ever played SNL, or present some kind of attenuated live music history of the show. 50 years of mostly two numbers per show! Instead it features an introduction that is just plain stunning as it mashes up five decades of artistry, a many-headed example of Saturday Night Live as the premiere platform to feature the sound of music in American culture. Whatever that may be. SNL, continues Lorne, “has to look and sound like today. You should be able to look at a rerun and tell what was going on in the country.”
People definitely heard about SNL October 1992, when Sinead O’Conner tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II during her performance. They heard about SNL in December 2005, when The Lonely Island debuted “Lazy Sunday.” (Bill Hader, like so many of us, says it was the first YouTube clip he was ever sent.) And they were seated for so many other moments where music met the culture in a New York television studio, from classic impersonations of musicians by the cast (Eddie Murphy as Stevie Wonder), musicians themselves starring in sketches (remember Madonna on “Coffee Talk”?), and more reflective moments, like the first Saturday Night Live after 9/11. (Musical guest: Paul Simon.) After COVID hit, Jack White was the first musical guest, and he says that to play SNL in that climate was both an honor and an imperative. “Live music. This is what we’re missing.”
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? For a dramatic account of SNL’s 1975 debut, look no further. But as documentaries go, Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music is unique in that it showcases what America has no other examples of, namely a live variety show featuring comedy and music that has resonated for decades. The film joins the docuseries SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night under the ‘SNL 50’ tab on Peacock’s homepage, where there also exists a handful of behind-the-scenes vignettes about various aspects of the show, from its famous handwritten cue cards to camera work, makeup, wardrobe, and special effects.
Performance Worth Watching: You’re gonna wanna rewind the intro to Ladies & Gentlemen. Probably a few times. That iconic title phrase itself is artfully directed and edited into a lengthy montage – even Daniel Craig’s meme-tastic version is in there – that puts a unifying beat to fifty years of disparate artists, genres, and musical performance. It’s Questlove’s mind at work in sound and vision.
Memorable Dialogue: “They were bold enough to say ‘Let the hip-hoppers come on, let the punk guys come on,’” says Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC in Ladies & Gentlemen, and the doc emphasizes how cultural awareness has always been a factor in the music bookings for Saturday Night Live. The late Hal Willner, who curated many seasons of music as an SNL producer, observes that the show always followed the rhythms of its home city. Avant-garde themes in the NYC of the 1970s reflected onto the show through performances by artists like Patti Smith Group and Sun Ra.
Sex and Skin: None.
Our Take: Beyond the rich palette of sonics and visuals showcased in Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music, a flurry really, where we catch expressive snippets of performances from an incredibly fertile cross-section of musicians – they’re often so quick, they blend together; wait, was Busta Rhymes onstage with David Bowie? – the documentary expresses an important deeper meaning about creativity. As SNL musical director Eli Brueggemann puts it, in key matters of timing, cadence, and misdirection, “the similarities between music and comedy are plentiful.” Maybe that’s why the doc’s segment that discusses musicians also hosting is one of its most effective. Because in that scenario, everything is doubly live and doubly unpredictable. Take it from Billie Eilish, who hosted/performed in 2021: “Dude, like people don’t understand: SNL is hard. You don’t sleep much, and everyone is on edge in an exciting way. But also in a terrifying way.”
But it’s also exhilarating, right? Jams smashing into laughs? As Ladies & Gentlemen explores this notion from different perspectives, it also highlights a classic 2010 sketch, “Band Reunion at the Wedding.” Star and writer Fred Armisen calls it a love letter to the punk bands he grew up with, and says he was inspired by Saturday Night Live itself – as a comic actor, it offered him the opportunity to make art in a personal way. But for our purposes, the sketch is also one of those perfect musical capsules on SNL: it’s hilarious in a way specific to sketch comedy, and in addition features Dave Grohl as both a musician and an actor. “Fist fight! Fist fight! Fist fight in the parking lot!” You really can’t go wrong when Saturday Night Live puts comedy and music together, and Ladies & Gentlemen offers five decades of illustration to this point.
Our Call: Stream It! Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music is wonderful look back at so many of the artists who have graced the stage at Studio 8H. With their performances, certainly, but also with insight into the preparation, the proper fuck-ups, and the giant piles of nerves that accompany a live production of its caliber.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
