‘Wow, This Is Really Weird!’: When 80-Year-Old Grandmother Miskel Spillman Hosted SNL

Before Betty White brought down the house at Studio 8H in 2010, another octogenarian took over Saturday Night Live for an evening. On December 17, 1977, 80-year-old Miskel Spillman made her mark on late-night history as the first—and, to this day, the only—non-celebrity (or public figure) to host SNL.

Spillman, a German immigrant and grandma from New Orleans, was the winner of the show’s “Anyone Can Host” contest. Lorne Michaels first announced the contest in October 1977, inviting viewers to throw their hat in the ring for a chance to host the Season 3 Christmas show.

“How many of you out there watching this show right now are saying to yourselves, ‘You know, Madeline Kahn is pretty good, but I think I could do a better job than that?’” Michaels said to the audience. “Well, here’s your chance—because now, anyone can host Saturday Night Live. All you have to do is write a postcard and state in 25 words or less why you want to host… You need no theatrical experience, just talent and a strong belief in yourself.”

Michaels explained that the SNL staff would select five finalists, who would be flown out to New York in November to read their postcard entries live on air. Then, the viewers at home would cast their votes (via a ballot printed in TV Guide) to decide the lucky winner, who would be “flown to New York, put up at the swank Essex House Hotel, and get to meet and work with the Not Ready for Primetime Players.” In addition to getting to host, the winner would also walk away with $3,000.

“However, if you should see any of the Not Ready for Primetime Players or anyone from Saturday Night, including myself, at, say, a fancy restaurant and you say to yourself, ‘Hey, why mail a postcard? I’ll just drop it off now at their table,’ you’ll be immediately disqualified,” Michaels added sternly. “Otherwise, we don’t care who or what you are. If you can lick a stamp, you’re on your way to stardom.”

The show claimed to have received a total of 150,000 entries from across the country. The five finalists—who were featured on the November 19, 1977 episode hosted by Buck Henry—included Spillman; Connie Crawford, a freshman at Vassar College; David Lewis, an “unemployed guy from Oregon;” Deb Blair, a mom of three from Illinois; and South Dakota Governor Richard Kneip. 

“I love everyone in the cast. I watch it every Saturday night,” Spillman said when asked why she should be chosen to host the Christmas show. “And I thought, as I am 80 years old, I want a lot of old, old people in the world to watch it, to get the thrill that I have every Saturday night watching it.”

Although Spillman ultimately prevailed as the winner, just getting to appear on an episode of SNL was a big deal for everyone involved. In a 2023 episode of the SNL Stories podcast, finalist Connie Crawford opened up about the experience and revealed the hilarious story behind her entry, which was only two words.

“It’s 1977, I’m at college, and so a friend of mine and I drop acid,” Crawford recalled. “We’re tripping, and I pulled out my college ID card from my back pocket and I looked at it, and my face was kind of unhappy, and right underneath it, it said in big black letters, ‘Expires in [a few months.]’ And I thought, ‘Oh God, wouldn’t it be awful what if this person in the card was alive?’ The next day, I haven’t slept all night, I go to the post office. I stapled my card, and I’ve got a Holiday Inn postcard. I said to the postal person, ‘Is this mailable?’ And they looked at me like, ‘Yeah.’ So, that’s what I mailed in. I stapled my college ID card and just wrote, ‘Free me.’”

That December, Spillman hosted the Christmas show (Season 3, Episode 8) alongside Buck Henry. The episode also featured Elvis Costello’s equally memorable debut as a musical guest, during which he and his band infamously stopped mid-performance and switched songs (the incident earned Costello a 12-year ban from the show).

In the cold open, John Belushi told Buck Henry and Laraine Newman that he just tricked Spillman into smoking a joint, telling her it was just a “French cigarette.”

Moments later, she emerged for her monologue, gripping onto a fruit basket and staring wide-eyed at the audience, still “stoned.”

“Wow! This is really weird!” she addressed the crowd. “There’s so much happening. But it almost seems like everything’s in slow motion. I mean… am I making sense? Or am I blowing it? I don’t know, I can’t tell. The producer, a nice young man, told me to just flow with it and have a good time. But I didn’t really know what he meant… until Belushi visited me in my dressing room. And the colors. Wow-ow!”

Later in the episode, Spillman appeared alongside Belushi in the sketch “Elderly Girlfriend,” in which a young man named Jeff (Belushi) surprises his parents (Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin) by bringing home his senior-citizen girlfriend (Spillman) for the holidays.

Twelve years after her hosting stint, Spillman—who died in 1992—reflected back on the experience in an interview with People. “I love the current cast, especially that fella in the dress,” she said, referring to Dana Carvey’s Church Lady character. “I take naps in the afternoon so that I can stay up [to watch]. I’d love to host again.”

The complete saga of SNL‘s “Anyone Can Host” contest can be viewed in its entirety on Peacock across episodes 2 , 6, and 10 of the show’s third season.