Alec Baldwin, the show’s most frequent host with 17 stints, appeared to introduce an evening of commercial parodies, seven months after his trial was halted and an involuntary manslaughter charge was dropped in the shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

The all-star format had characters from different generations of “SNL” (plus one star who'd never been on before) join in classic sketches, songs, jokes and nostalgia.

What happened during SNL50? Three hours of slapdash sketch comedy and celebrity cameos, such as Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, Paul Simon and Meryl Streep.