When Saturday Night Live celebrated its 15th anniversary in 1989, it was the first time the show could stop, take a breath, and brag about its accomplishments. After the fifth season, it looked as if the show was headed for certain cancelation. After the tenth season, SNL was still on uneven footing, recycling its entire cast for Season Eleven.

But after Season Fifteen, it appeared the show had finally hit its stride. And even after some rough years in seasons 19 and 20, by Season 25 it was clear this was a show that wasn’t going anywhere.

So before the 1999-2000 season started, viewers got a three-hour retrospective of the show’s first quarter century, replete with sketches from each five-year segment of the show’s history. On this week’s free podcast, we run down all the bits and segments that ran during the show, then, as we did with the fifteenth anniversary show, we unveil our top five favorite sketches and episodes from the previous ten years.

Enjoy this complimentary episode, and if you want to know more about each and every season of SNL, please join us by becoming a paid subscriber. You now have a quarter-century of material to get through, so it’s well worth your time.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wasntthatspecial.com/subscribe