Charles Grodin became friends with Art Garfunkel when both worked on Catch-22 (1970). Shortly thereafter, Garfunkel introduced Grodin to Paul Simon, who also became a friend. Grodin directed their controversial television special Simon and Garfunkel: Songs of America (1969).
In his 1994 book "We're ready for you, Mr. Grodin : behind the scenes at talk shows, movies, and elsewhere", Charles Grodin mentions that during the Killer Bees sketch, Bill Murray improvised the insult "parasite" addressed at Grodin, and apologized for it during the show's after-party. Grodin was surprised as he found it a perfectly acceptable add-lib during the sketch.
In his book "How I Get Through Life", Charles Grodin briefly mentions hosting this show. In the chapter titled "Heroes" he first explains that he always wanted to meet Ralph Nader, and when he finally did, Nader mostly wanted to talk about the best way to host Saturday Night Live, which they both had done. Grodin concludes: "He a little better than I, I would say."
In his 2002 autobiography "I Like it Better when You're Funny", Charles Grodin reveals that he was asked to host again, but chose not to, because he likes to either learn a script or to improvise, but on this show he could do neither. Changes are made in script up until airtime, making the use of Teleprompters necessary.
First appearance of Gilda Radner's 'Roseanne Roseannadanna' character, who appears here in the "Hiring the Incompetent" sketch. The character's name was a play on that of Eyewitness News (1968) reporter and anchor Rose Ann Scamardella.