Saturday Night Live - Winnipeg Fan 1975-2025

It was October 11, 1975 when Saturday Night premiered on NBC. The Saturday Night Live moniker would not be used till the following year. I was a ten year old kid at the time still getting used to cable. It only arrived at our house in 1971, the same year we got a colour TV. By 1974 CKND arrived and in 1975 Prairie Public TV was in place. For kids though, it was an avalanche of programming from CBS, NBC and ABC aimed at youth. Saturday morning cartoons was not something that was found on our CBC, CKY and CKND channels.

By 10 years old, most Saturdays were filled with sports but soccer and hockey were largely played outdoors. It still left young kids able to watch cartoons which started at 8 AM or earlier in the central time zones and ran to noon-ish. Most kids in sports were home early enough for dinner and Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday. 

In 1975, almost everything was closed on Sundays in Manitoba except church which generally had 11 am services. This meant that if kids were going to stay up later hours, it was going to be Friday and especially Saturday because of being able to sleep in a bit later than all the rest of the week. Entire families watched Hockey Night in Canada on Saturdays. Back then it was only one game on that night. And while Winnipeggers loved the WHA and the Winnipeg Jets from their start in 1972, they could love an NHL team as well because it was different league. In our house and many homes in Winnipeg, it was the Montreal Canadiens.

After a game, my parents were usually exhausted and whereas, week nights where they had lunches to make and kids to organize, no extra child care was needed when all that was happening was church the next morning. Stores were closed, workplaces closed. It was very sleepy most Sunday except for maybe some kids sports. 

So what did Gen X kids do on a Saturday? At 10 years old, as long as I wasn't outside, I was able to stay and watch TV in the living room as my parent's slept. My siblings sometimes stayed up but were often asleep as well by 10:30. Most networks would show movies before going off the air shortly after midnight. There were no 24 hour stations back then. But what could I watch?

I was a Winnipeg Tribune carrier which was delivered 6 days a week after school or afternoons Saturday. Both the Free Press and Tribune had TV guides in their Saturday papers and at 10, I had several part of the paper that I read first: comics, sports and TV guide. It was there and other places I noticed something on NBC called Saturday Night which was going to be on after the hockey game.

At the time, I didn't know the show format had been pitched to the CBC and rejected or that that executive producer was a Canadian named Lorne Michaels. I was too young to remember the Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour in 1970 that was on Saturdays at 9 PM on CBC. Lorne Michaels had been working on both sides of the border for comedy. There were so many variety/music shows in the 1970s. The TV guide just said there was a live comedy variety show on Saturday after the hockey game.

NBC already had a musical variety show called the Midnight Special. In central time zone it came on at midnight but in east and west zones it was at 1 AM.  It was the first time I got to see Wolfman Jack. The Royal Canadian Air Farce was a comedy sketch series in Canada that started on CBC Radio in 1973 so I was familiar with the format so a live TV comedy/music show sounded awesome.

In the end, when everyone else went to bed, I watched the very first episode of Saturday Night and was introduced to the characters  of John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Dan Ackroyd along with the rest of the cast. I was delighted by the sketches, the musical guests and the whole rebellious demeanor of the show. It felt very Canadian and of course, I didn't know that so many of the people involved were Canadian.

For young people who had few options for going out Saturday night or who were coming home from hockey, movies and the like, watching Saturday Night Live at 10:30 PM was a real treat. The show started a little rough but by the fourth episode or so started to take shape. I saw Weekend Update with Chevy Chase and it was a fascinating and funny look U.S. news. It would be Chase who would be the first big film star to emerge from the cast. But soon after Belushi and Ackroyd would go to take their SNL characters of the Blue Brothers to film.

The show has ebbed and flowed for the 50 years it has been on. Some amazing years and some awful ones. In some years I was busy and sometimes was doing things on a Saturday night but I have kept coming back in years when things are really top level. And nowadays, segments will appear on social media if I miss an episode.

I do still try to see the show on and off. Sometimes it will be a guest music act or a host that will bring me in. Sometimes it will be the outstanding performances. In 2025, I think they have an excellence in their cast that has really made for a new relevance. It is curious though if the medium of TV continues to be relevant long into the future.

Inspector Morse/Inspector Lewis/Endeavour

Inspector Morse was the creation of Colin Dexter, a British writer who began his mysteries in 1975 while employed at Oxford University. Much like his muse, Dexter loved a good crossword, wanted problems to solve and the leafy green Oxford seemed a perfect place to have murder mysteries take place. Audiences in North America had already seen Oxford in Brideshead Revisited and Tinker Tailor, Soldier Spy from 1979 to early 1980s so a murder mystery series from the university town sounded perfect.

Prairie Public began in 1975 in Manitoba beamed in from North Dakota. I have written about the impact it has had on the province and what impact Manitoba has had an Prairie Public. The evening fare on a weekend of Prairie Public is a reflection of the strong influence of Manitoba viewers. Don't believe it? Then contrast Detroit Public TV which is also on cable with Prairie Public. Saturday might comedies from Britain don't appear on Detroit despite the large Canadian viewership. Prairie Public also has a Canadian charitable tax status which is not available for all those in Canada who donate.

My parents loved to watch the comedies on Saturday and if Jets were not playing on Hockey Night in Canada, a frequent occurrence,  they'd watch Keeping Up Appearance, Yes, Minister? or Are You Being Served? There were others over the years such as Vicar of Dibley, As Time Goes By and, of course, Fawlty Towers. I ended up watching a lot of it with them if there was a stinker of a game and with the Leafs on, for many decades, it was always a possibility. 

Sundays were for Masterpiece which started in 1971 in the States and in Winnipeg, we first started getting it  in 1975. It was mostly classics TV from the Brits that showed but eventually, Masterpiece Mystery came to the fore. The Colin Dexter series of Inspector Morse mysteries was now more than decade old in print and in 1987 it about to be introduced to the UK and the world on screen.

John Thaw was cast as Morse. He was no stranger to the Brits playing a cop. Most in Canada didn't see him in his other shows but he was an experienced hand and fit the role of Inspector Morse like a glove. Compared to the book, they went with a younger man to play Sergeant Lewis. Their two styles of policing very different but their teamwork often needed to get the case right.

The music by Barrington Pheloung was classic and started off with Morse Code before it sweetly played over the beginning and end credits in a way that tugged at the heart. And then there was Oxford in all its glory. And let's not forget Morse's car. So in 1987, on that first Sunday I was able to watch with my parents who were now paying members of Prairie Public. I was still living at home and attending University of Winnipeg. Sunday shopping started that year so I was done by 6 and Sunday evenings were all the major networks with their movie nights. My parents usually watched Murder, She Wrote in 1987 on Sunday.

I was hooked on Morse from the moment I saw it and watched its first season with appreciation in January of that year. I had seen Sherlock Holmes in 1984 when it was ran on CBC and PBS in North America till 1994. I had a stuffed dog named Sherlock as a child so my interest in mystery came naturally. Many mystery shows in North America is that year ranged from gentle fare of Matlock and Murder, She Wrote. I was ready for an Inspector Morse that had many twists and turns as well as an acerbic investigator.

I was able to watch three seasons of Morse and adored it but from 1989 on I was in Japan. Had to catch up on past episodes only when I returned in 1992 (along with past episodes of Sherlock Holmes). More often than not, I'd watch with my mom and dad. It was sad when it came to an end, especially the end in 2000 but there was some comfort that six years later, Inspector Lewis would have a series of his own. I could have done without the wait but it was another super series with a Kevin Whatley reprising his role as Lewis. 

Lewis was exceptional in showing what a partnership of detectives could do in solving mysteries in Oxford. Making Lewis a widow and having to impress the boss all over again became part a very human development in character. As well as having a partner in Hathaway who takes the intellectual role that Morse had in the original series. The series lasted into 2015 when the main actors decided they had taken the show as far as they could take it. In Whatley's case, 30 years.

While Inspector Lewis was on, PBS went ahead with another spin off series called Endeavour that was set in 1965 and on with a young Morse joining the force and being partnered with a senior detective in Oxford. A brilliant paring of Shaun Evans and Roger Allam and a great ensemble captured the times, look and feel of the era and showed Oxford in a whole new way. The first shows started in 2012 and I watched with my parents if I was able to drop by. By mid-run of the show my parents started began having health problem, including memory problems, and Endeavour became harder to follow although they tried. They passed away before this year's final episode. I can't help think they would be watching if they could.

The show's 36 years and how it showed the UK was among several reasons why my parents travelled there in retirement. I often wonder what they would have thought as the last show wraps this weekend.  I know it will be a lot of good memories over the decades and I will miss show and what it brought to mystery on Sunday nights on PBS.