41 vintage photos that show 'Saturday Night Live' in its '70s heyday

The first cast consisted of Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Michael O'Donoghue, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, George Coe, and Garrett Morris. They were called the "Not Ready for Primetime Players."

Michaels created the show, and he was originally a writer and producer as well. Barring his hiatus in the '80s between seasons six and 10, Michaels has been with the show since its inception. It's entering its 46th season this year, with no signs of slowing down.

"SNL" is exactly what it's advertised to be: live. That's why, sometimes, the show has aired people cursing accidentally (or on purpose, in the case of Charlie Rocket). The control room is there to oversee everything.

You can watch Carlin's monologue here.

Pryor hosted "SNL" just once, but left his mark forever. He took part in one of the show's most controversial sketches of all time, the word association sketch with Chevy Chase. You can watch it here.

Arnaz, of course, is known for "I Love Lucy." He was, and is, TV royalty.

To be exact, Martin has hosted the show a whopping 15 times, putting him behind only Alec Baldwin as the show's most frequent host.

The Coneheads, an alien family who was trying to assimilate with American culture, was one of the show's first smash successes. It was turned into a movie in 1993 with Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin reprising their roles.

The Killer Bees was the first-ever sketch to recur on "SNL," after it debuted in the first episode of the show. The humor almost entirely consisted of puns about bee anatomy.

"The only note we got from the network on the first show was 'Cut the bees.' And so I made sure I put them in the next show," said creator Lorne Michaels, according to "Live From New York," a 2002 book about the show's history.

Bergen has hosted the show five times.

The Blues Brothers were even a musical guest on the show as time went on. They released an album in 1978 and a film, "The Blues Brothers," in 1980.

After Belushi's death, there was a sequel in 1998 entitled "Blues Brothers 2000," which had John Goodman take over Belushi's spot.

Chevy Chase was the first to host the segment. The current Weekend Update hosts are Colin Jost and Michael Che.

"NBC was so scared of what Lorne ... was doing that they insisted on Jim Henson and the Muppets [to] soften it," Bernie Brillstein, Henson's manager, told Salon. "In the first contract for 'SNL,' there were three essential factors. Lorne Michaels, Jim Henson and the Muppets, and Albert Brooks's [short] films."

However, Henson and his creations only lasted for a season.

Chase hosted Weekend Update, appeared frequently in sketches, and was the first person to ever utter the phrase, "Live from New York, it's Saturday night!"

Here's a compilation of some of Chase's most famous falls.

You can see Chase's impression of Ford here.

Chase left right in the beginning of the second season, though he returned a number of times over the years. He even appeared in the 40th Anniversary Special.

To get tickets to "SNL," you can either enter the lottery and wait to see if you win, or you can camp out outside the studio and try your luck with rush tickets, like these gentlemen.

Belushi became the other breakout star of the show. He remained part of the cast until 1979, when left to focus on a movie career.

Sadly, Belushi died in 1982 due to an overdose. He was 33.

Busey only hosted the one time, in 1979.

"There were a few people that just out-and-out believe that women should not have been there and they believe that women were not innately funny," said Jane Curtin on an episode of "Watch What Happens Live." She added that he thought that "women should not be there."

Simply put, the show would not be what it is today without the contributions of these three women.

Jane Curtin, the first female anchor of Weekend Update, did say she knew that John Belushi thought Radner was funny. "He thought Gilda was funny, but she really — he didn't classify her as a woman. She was Gilda," she said.

Here's one of Roseanne Roseannadanna's appearances of Weekend Update.

Aykroyd left at the same time as John Belushi, in 1979.

Though he's appeared sporadically in cameos on the show, Aykroyd has only hosted "SNL" once, in 2003.

Morris remained with the show until 1980, when the rest of the original cast left as well.

Bill Murray was brought in to fill the hole that Chase left.

This is part of the cast of season two.

You can watch one of the Nerds sketches here.

Here's Father Guido Sarducci in a 1979 episode.

There's a legend that, at the 35th birthday party of Laraine Newman in 1987, Murray carried around his ex-girlfriend so that everyone would be able to say goodbye to her. "[Murray] was the one to carry the tired, terminally ill Gilda Radner, the first true breakout superstar of the group, round and round the house, prolonging her departure from the party with everyone saying goodbye a hundred times, not knowing it would be their last,"writes Little White Lies' Rebecca Nicole Williams.

Sadly, Radner died two years later, in 1989, due to ovarian cancer.

Both Franken and Davis were writers on the show who would occasionally appear on-screen. When Lorne Michaels left in 1980, neither stuck with the show. Davis never returned as cast-member, but when Michaels returned to the show, so did Franken. He remained from 1985 through 1995.

Shearer was on two separate seasons: 1979-1980 and 1984-1985.

"Lorne set things up as a zero-sum game," Shearer told Grantland in 2014. "If someone gets air time, that's an incursion on somebody else's chance at air time. As opposed to fostering a cooperative and collaborative atmosphere, a competitive atmosphere is fostered. So I don't think anybody worried too much about what was happening to the new guy. That's not a comment on [the cast members], that's a comment on the system."

Musical legend Paul Shaffer was one of the first leaders of the "SNL" band.

Nelson has appeared on the show a few times.

While the Beatles famously never appeared on "SNL," Harrison stopped by in 1976 to duet with Simon, who has frequently pulled double duty on the show — in other words, he's been the host and the musical guest simultaneously.

Charles also pulled double duty during his 1977 appearance.

Performing in December of that year, he just made it within the '70s.

It's a contentious battle.

It's easy to find these debates online. Rolling Stone ranked every single cast member back in 2015.

• Read more:
• WHERE ARE THEY NOW: All 155 cast members in 'Saturday Night Live' history
• All 33 musicians who have pulled double duty as host and musical guest on 'SNL'
• 14 celebrities who got rejected by 'Saturday Night Live' and went on to become famous in their own right
• 11 things you probably never knew about 'Saturday Night Live'