Saturday Night Live has been a comedy behemoth since 1975 when it began to blast the airwaves with subversive comedy aimed at disrupting the status quo of network television. Behind the scenes, SNL was even more caustic and rowdy than it was onscreen, with drug-fueled writing sessions that lasted for days, and after parties that would go on until the sun came up. Drugs at SNL didn’t end when the original cast moved on to bigger and better things, the cast simply became less open about their usage with the press. Some late period Saturday Night Live performers struggled with addictions while they were appearing on camera, and a few of them even lost their lives to the habit. Keep reading to take a look at SNL behind the scenes.

For the last half of the '70s, Saturday Night Live was synonymous with drug culture. The show was essentially a celebration of the boomer generation ousting Nixon out of office, and despite their sardonic nature there was still an optimism for what the next day could bring. The drug culture of the late '70s was a grim sewer world that led to the deaths of many prominent figures in the entertainment industry, and SNL wasn’t immune to the loss of life. Throughout SNL’s 40-plus years on television there have been several cast members with drug problems, and stories of wild parties happening in the writers rooms. For some fans of SNL, drugs will always be synonymous with the greatest comedy show on television.

SNL

Read on to discover some pretty shocking stories of just how much drug use was going on backstage ofback in the day.