If the shirt Heidi Gardner wore in this week’s SNL promo looked familiar, you’ve got a great memory… for someone your age.
Gardner’s pink shirt with the early 1980s-era Saturday Night Live logo stitched on the breast pocket is an SNL family heirloom, having first appeared on the show in 1982.
Like most wardrobe worn on the show, it’s been stored at an offsite warehouse for more than forty years. Our spies tell us it was brought back to 30 Rock when the show’s longtime costume designer Tom Broecker collaborated with clothing company Tombolo to create a line of vintage-inspired SNL apparel for the show’s 50th anniversary, and has been hanging in the show’s costume room all season.
The shirt was first seen on the show when Louis Gossett Jr. hosted on October 2, 1982, just two months after the release of An Officer and a Gentleman, for which he would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting role.
For his SNL monologue, Gossett reprised his character from the film, the stern but decent Sergeant Emil Foley, in leading the show’s cast (including a young Eddie Murphy and Julia Louis-Dreyfus) in a comedy-themed drill, commanding each cast member to deliver insults, mugs, pratfalls and schtick at his pleasure
The pink shirts (along with a blue variant) were worn by the cast as their duty uniforms for the sketch. Show lore suggests that the shirts were later reproduced as gifts for the show’s cast and crew.
It’s not the first time that SNL has re-used wardrobe items on the air. Among the items eagle-eyed fans have spotted in multiple sketches is a dress that was worn multiple times by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, then years later, Jan Hooks, and—even later—Ana Gasteyer.
All of which is to say, when you’re watching SNL, keep your eyes peeled. You never know when you might spot some vintage show couture.
Scarlett Johansson hosts SNL‘s Season 50 finale with musical guest Bad Bunny this Saturday, May 17 on NBC and Peacock.
