In Shakespeare in Love, Geoffrey Rush is accosted by villains wanting their investment money back. He is questioned how will the play (you know) go on? Rush answers, “I don’t know. It’s a mystery.” That is the theme for the frenetic ninety minutes preceding the launch of what is now known as Saturday Night Live (SNL). Fifty years ago, the show was called Saturday Night. and in the runup to that first episode it’s not ready for primetime players were living up to their name. This inside baseball, making sausage, behind the scenes look at what has become an institution is enjoyable if only for posing the question, did that really happen? Since the movie ends with the show going live, we had to watch that original episode next, which was much better than one would expect.