It was Friday, and RQS came up a little later than usual. Like me, she had GI Tract issues which delayed our reunion at the train station. We had a choice of going to the movies and having dinner afterwards, or having dinner first and killing time before the movie. Given that the movie started at 9:45 pm, we chose the latter option.
RQS said that she preferred to have Chinese food, so off we went to a restaurant I knew about in Yonkers. This restaurant, Tasty House, is one I've visited with a meetup group I no longer belong to I recalled that the food was good, and well worth the money, and this time we weren't disappointed. I had the Thai Tom Yum soup and some Ginger Chicken, while RQS had Wonton soup with Chicken Lo Mein. Both of our hungers were sated by the time we left the restaurant.
We stopped by the Alamo Drafthouse in Yonkers to pick up movie tickets, then went to Barnes and Noble to kill some time. At 9:00 pm, they kicked everyone out of the store, and we left for the theater. After killing a few more minutes, we went inside to our seats. I was surprised that there were few tickets available for the 6:30 pm and 6:45 pm shows, while we were among the only 7 people seated for our show.
The movie started, and it was non-stop "action" for the next 90 minutes. It's hard to believe that this now cultural icon of a show was set up to fail from the very beginning, as NBC wanted to show that they had the upper hand in negotiations with Johnny Carson in regard to the Tonight Show. Even though we know what happened after 50 seasons, supposedly the chaos of the 90 minutes preceding the show could have led to disaster before the show even aired. (Note: Some incidents depicted in the film did not happen, or they have been pieced together from incidents that happened over the first season of the show.) Casting was perfect, with several well known actors such as Robert Wuhl, J.K.Simmons, and Willem Defoe in small, but important roles. Each of the people playing one of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" was able to portray their real-life counterparts as if they were those people. In fact, the first sketch of the first SNL show was done even better in the movie than when it was first done on TV. In short, run, don't walk, to see this film!
After the movie ended, we went home and watched the first episode of the show. When this movie comes out on disk, I'll buy a copy, just so I can say I have episode #0 of the show.
