It has been at least 10 or 15 years since I have watched an episode of "Saturday Night Live."

In fact, I don't think I have watched it regularly since Dana Carvey was doing impressions of George H.W. Bush. Partly it was because the show didn't seem particularly funny  anymore, and part of it was that 11:30 p.m. on Saturdays wasn't exactly prime time fun time for me with a wife and kids.

Oh, I watch clips on the Internet, especially during election campaigns. I got as much of a kick as anyone out of Tina Fey's spot-on Sarah Palin impression, and I certainly enjoyed Will Ferrell as George Dubya Bush.

But not enough to watch the show.

[caption id="attachment_1786" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Season One, 1975-76"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/00012676-436121_catl_348.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1786" title="00012676-436121_catl_348" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/00012676-436121_catl_348-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

Still, once was the time I wouldn't have missed it. I was 25 when SNL came on the air in October 1975, and I don't think I could possibly explain what a big deal it was in those final years before cable TV and the decades before home video and the Internet.

Three television networks plus PBS and local independent stations, and very few stations stayed on the air all night. Late night music shows had been successful earlier in the decade -- "Midnight Special" and "In Concert" had drawn young audiences to see musical acts they loved.

NBC lost the right to show "Tonight Show" reruns on weekends, so the network decided to put together a live comedy/music show that would run for 90 minutes. Lorne Michael assembled a cast of unknowns. got some stars to host and perform and went to work. A look back at the first show demonstrates how different the original premise was from what followed. George Carlin was the host, and he didn't participate in any skits or interact at all with the cast members. All he did was perform parts of his standup comedy act at various points in the show.

If you look at that first season, there were oddities. Candice Bergen hosted twice in the first eight weeks, and Elliott Gould (remember him?) hosted in January and again in May. There were two shows in the middle of summer, which was also strange.

Most people who are familiar with the show know the names of the seven original Not Quite Ready for Prime Time Players -- Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner and Larraine Newman. But most don't remember -- I certainly didn't -- that the first cast included two additional names, Michael O'Donoghue and George Coe. I still have no idea who George Coe is.

It's strange to look at that first show and realize how many of the people who played major roles are no longer with us. Belushi died in 1982, Radner in 1989 and O'Donoghue in 1994. Musical guest Billy Preston died in 2006 and Carlin himself died in 2008. Of the still living members of the cast, except for maybe Chase and Curtin, they never surpassed their SNL work, and Chase only spent one season on the show.

In these days of hundreds of entertainment choices, with Tivo and DVRs and all sorts of other ways to time-shift shows, it's tough to understand that in the fall of 1975, a lot of us in our 20s went out on Saturday night and made sure we were home by 11:30 so that we could watch SNL.

Boy, things really do change.

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