Cast and guests The premiere episode featured celebrity guests
Frank Sinatra,
Shirley Bassey,
Paul Anka,
Siegfried and Roy,
Yogi Berra, and the cast of the
Broadway musical of
The Wiz, who opened up the show as they danced out of the
Majestic Theatre onto a yellow brick road as they sang their pop hit "
Ease on Down the Road" straight to the
Ed Sullivan Theater as they met and escorted
Howard Cosell on stage, tennis pro
Jimmy Connors (who sang, while profusely sweating, Anka's "Girl, You Turn Me On" as a dedication to his girlfriend
Chris Evert. Anka played the piano to accompany Connors), and
John Denver. The episode's musical guest was the
Bay City Rollers, from Scotland, whom Cosell dubbed "the next" British phenomenon. The show featured
Bill Murray,
Brian Doyle-Murray, and
Christopher Guest as regular comedy performers, dubbed "The Prime Time Players". In response, NBC's show
Saturday Night called its regular performers "The Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players" (especially since the show didn't air in prime time, but late-night). Eventually, Murray, Doyle-Murray, and Guest would all work on the NBC program.
Billy Crystal, who appeared on the premiere episode of Cosell's program, was also scheduled to appear on the premiere episode of the NBC show, but was bumped when the show ran long; he later joined the NBC program's cast, along with Guest, during
Season 10 a decade later. Also that season, Cosell himself guest-hosted the NBC program in its season finale on April 13, 1985.
Cancellation Mischer described the show as chronically hectic and unprepared. He recalled one particular episode wherein executive producer Roone Arledge discovered that jazz musician
Lionel Hampton was in
New York City and invited him to appear on the show an hour before airtime.
Alan King—the show's "executive in charge of comedy"—later admitted that it was difficult trying to turn Cosell into a variety show host, saying that he "made
Ed Sullivan look like
Buster Keaton". The eighteenth and final episode was aired on January 17, 1976. A year later, in 1977, NBC's
Saturday Night added
Live to its name. ==Reception==