Last weekend, my wife and I went to see the new movie Saturday Night. Yes, we love movies and the experience of seeing them at the theater. We have been 50-year fans of Saturday Night Live, upon which the movie is based. The movie was OK, not great.

The positive part of the experience was that it brought back memories of the one snowy night when we had four tickets to see Saturday Night Live live. It was February 22, 1997. We picked up our friends and drove in our Toyota wagon through a blizzard, slipping and sliding all the way, to get to Manhattan just before they closed the doors at 30 Rock.

It was great fun to see Billy Crystal in person doing his famous Fernando Lamas impersonation. Remember, “It’s better to look good than to feel good!” We were surprised to see how small each of the individual sets for the sketches was. They were little cubicles not much larger than walk-in closets, one right next to the other, from which the action shifted one-by-one through the show.

Tina Turner

The musical guest was Tina Turner who blew us away with a thunderous performance of What’s Love Got to Do With It? Her radioactive energy in this compact studio will stick with me forever.

So back to the movie Saturday Night. It portrays the chaotic wind-up to the production of the 1st episode of Saturday Night Live 50 years ago. It was so frenetic that I almost wanted to walk out. The last half-hour was a bit redeeming when everything for that first show fell into place.

Studio 60

Still, if you are an SNL fan and want to see a superb story-behind-the-story, then check out Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It’s a series not available on the usual streaming services, but I rented it on Amazon. It was well worth it. Sorkin is a master storyteller and for fans of the late Matthew Perry, he has an endearing, starring role.

So, what’s love got to do with it? Everything…

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Catch up on my original fast-paced thriller NOT SO DEAD and the Sam Sunborn Series They are available on Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com
If you like short reads you can really finish, grab a copy of my short story collections: The Last Appointment: 30 Collected Short Stories
Or my children’s adventure book: Nougo and His Basketball.

And read for FREE some of Charles Levin’s short stories:

I’m Processing
Books Unread
Nora Delivers the Package
The Permission Slip
10 Life Lessons I Learned from Playing Poker
Missing the Ghost in the Palace Theater
Moon Landing Memories
Word Drunk

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