SNL Premiere commercials, 1975

[BFSEsq]

In honor of the 50th anniversary show of SNL tonight, I thought it would be fun to take a look at a reel of the commercials that aired during the premiere of NBC's Saturday Night, October 11, 1975. Recorded from WNBC.

https://youtu.be/jLg99fMNd4Y?si=TVe-g2J ... JSXIaLHUXT

I think my biggest surprise was the fact that they didn't tailor the commercials to the late night period at all, in my opinion. It's weird to me that it's still a bunch of commercials for grocery items. Frozen food, pet food, coffee, aspirin. It's all very middle of the road, 'standard' commercials that I'd expect to see during the middle of the day. I don't know around what time that started to change. Maybe it's just that commercials changed in general over time.

[Bobbertt]

In honor of the 50th anniversary show of SNL tonight, I thought it would be fun to take a look at a reel of the commercials that aired during the premiere of NBC's Saturday Night, October 11, 1975. Recorded from WNBC.

https://youtu.be/jLg99fMNd4Y?si=TVe-g2J ... JSXIaLHUXT

I think my biggest surprise was the fact that they didn't tailor the commercials to the late night period at all, in my opinion. It's weird to me that it's still a bunch of commercials for grocery items. Frozen food, pet food, coffee, aspirin. It's all very middle of the road, 'standard' commercials that I'd expect to see during the middle of the day. I don't know around what time that started to change. Maybe it's just that commercials changed in general over time.

I guess that somehow connects with the reluctance by some stations to even carry the show when it started, including Channel 4 in Detroit. In both cases, it seems like people really didn't know what to expect from SNL.

https://www.freep.com/story/entertainme ... 761425007/

[BFSEsq]

Yeah, it's crazy to think that in Detroit, SNL wasn't seen for the entire first couple seasons. It seems like 4 was always so conservative. They also wouldn't clear certain Letterman shows in the 80s.

But like you were saying, with the commercials: "Channel 4 decided to run movies instead in the late-night timeslot after considering the cost factors, including the profits from commercials." Local airings of movies meant only local commercial profit. It was more dependable. So being conservative was a solid business decision.

[edj]

Didn’t 50 air it the first few years?

[Bobbertt]

But like you were saying, with the commercials: "Channel 4 decided to run movies instead in the late-night timeslot after considering the cost factors, including the profits from commercials." Local airings of movies meant only local commercial profit. It was more dependable. So being conservative was a solid business decision.

Here's the local lineup at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 11, 1975 (from the Detroit Free Press):

Channel 2: Movie (Moulin Rouge, 1952, Jose Ferrer)
Channel 4: Movie (Pillow Talk, 1959, Doris Day, Rock Hudson)
Channel 7: Movies (In Cold Blood, 1967, Robert Blake; Black Water Gold, 1969, Bradford Dillman)
Channel 50: Movie (Ghoul) (Track of the Cat, 1954, Robert Mitchum)

The listings also included stations for Canada, Toledo, Jackson, Lansing and East Lansing. Of all the stations listed, only Channel 10 in Jackson showed SNL.

Also at 11:30, Channel 20 was showing an interesting sounding show called "Right On!"

Didn't see anything for Channel 62 after a 9:30 p.m. show titled "Detroit Open Line". I guess this was before they started showing their all-night movies.

[Bobbertt]

Didn’t 50 air it the first few years?

Yes. From the above link:

When "SNL" first started, it was such an unknown factor that WDIV — then known as WWJ-TV — didn't carry the first two seasons and let WKBD-TV (Channel 50), a fuzzy UHF station at the time (ask your grandparents) pick them up instead.

[CurlyHoward]

In honor of the 50th anniversary show of SNL tonight, I thought it would be fun to take a look at a reel of the commercials that aired during the premiere of NBC's Saturday Night, October 11, 1975. Recorded from WNBC.

https://youtu.be/jLg99fMNd4Y?si=TVe-g2J ... JSXIaLHUXT

I think my biggest surprise was the fact that they didn't tailor the commercials to the late night period at all, in my opinion. It's weird to me that it's still a bunch of commercials for grocery items. Frozen food, pet food, coffee, aspirin. It's all very middle of the road, 'standard' commercials that I'd expect to see during the middle of the day. I don't know around what time that started to change. Maybe it's just that commercials changed in general over time.

I don't think they really started specifically tailoring ads to demographics until maybe the 90s. I watched a full broadcast of a 1985 baseball playoff game not long ago and likewise about every third ad was for Purina pet food. These days sports broadcast commercials are almost all beer and cars.

[matt1]

I only saw Future wax & the Palmotive lady commercials back then when I was 10 years old on October 11, 1975 during daytime!!

[kager]

These days sports broadcast commercials are almost all beer and cars.

With sportsbooks and casinos - real and imagined - sprinkled in as glue.