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Live from New Orleans, it’s Saturday Night: Remembering when SNL came to Mardi Gras in 1977

(From left to right) John Belushi, Randy Newman and David Cuthbert at the SNL media party in New Orleans.jpg
Courtesy of David Cuthbert
(From left to right) John Belushi, Randy Newman and David Cuthbert at the SNL media party in New Orleans.jpg

Over the weekend, the acclaimed sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live celebrated 50 years on the air! While the show is filmed at 30 Rockefeller plaza in Manhattan, it does have some interesting ties to New Orleans. Original cast member Garrett Morris is a born and raised New Orleanian, who made a special appearance at last weekend's reunion show. The Crescent City also claimed Vance Degeneres, the voice of claymation character Mr. Bill, and a more recent player, Punkie Johnson.

But what many do not know is that Saturday Night Live once filmed an episode in New Orleans – or at least, they tried to. Although cast members were scattered throughout the city, parade delays, technology failures and general Mardi Gras mayhem made for one of the most chaotic shows in SNL's history.

David Cuthbert, is a longtime New Orleans reporter who covered the event for The Times Picayune back in 1977. He joins us to share his SNL memories.

It’s Thursday and that means it’s time to catch up on the week in politics with The Times-Picayune/The Advocate’s editorial director and columnist, Stephanie Grace. She joins us for the latest in the New Orleans mayor’s race and the election for Orleans Parish Sheriff.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Bob Pavlovich. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber; our contributing producers are Matt Bloom and Adam Vos; we receive production and technical support from Garrett Pittman and our assistant producer, Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, Google Play, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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A longtime fill-in host for New Orleans Public Radio, Bob Pavlovich joined the station full-time in 2023. He hosts "All Things Considered" and "Louisiana Considered" on Thursdays.
Alana Schreiber is the managing producer for the live daily news program, Louisiana Considered. She comes to WWNO from KUNC in Northern Colorado, where she worked as a radio producer for the daily news magazine, Colorado Edition. She has previously interned for Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul.