The charming story of Miskel Spillman, the 80-year-old grandmother who once hosted ‘SNL’

Miskel Spillman was just a regular 80-year-old grandmother from New Orleans when she hosted “SNL” in 1977. The winner of a contest and the only non-public figure to ever host the show, her story is as charming as the episode that resulted from the sketch show’s one-time experiment.

An unemployed Oregonian, a divorced mother of three, a freshman college student, the governor of South Dakota and an 80-year-old grandmother from New Orleans all wanted the same thing: to host “Saturday Night Live.” On November 19, 1977, the five finalists of the show’s first — and, ultimately, only — Anyone Can Host contest took the stage in Studio 8H alongside the evening’s host, actor and screenwriter Buck Henry, and introduced themselves to America. They were vying for a chance to guest host the Christmas episode two weeks later. Henry joked that two-thirds of the 150,000 entries the show had received had to be burned “for obscenity and weirdness.” In the end, the public voted via snail mail for a person who embodied perhaps the exact opposite of both — Miskel Spillman, an elderly widow whose first plane ride ever brought her to New York City to stand beside her fellow finalists. As “SNL” turns 50, the tale of the show’s most unlikely presenter and the only non-public figure to ever take on the task is incontrovertible proof that – despite the contest’s name – not just anybody can host the Saturday night show. Spillman’s contest entry was a punchy pitch that abided by the 25-word count limit in the rules: “I’m 80 years old. I need one more cheap thrill since my doctor told me I only have another 25 years left.” She told the Associated Press at the time that her message was inspired by her frequent declaration that she would live until 105. (According to online records, she died a little more than ten years shy of her goal.)