The Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special was the gigantic, nostalgic whirlwind of a walk down Studio 8H that we were led to believe it was. 

Cast members, hosts, writers, etc. from the show in 1975 until now were in attendance to pay homage to SNL not only as a show, but a cultural institution. 

There was a big ol’ musical revue kicked off by Martin Short and Maya Rudolph as Beyonce, Weekend Update anchored by Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Jane Curtin, a touching In Memoriam tribute (that also has a pretty great burn at the end), and rare glimpses into auditions of SNL cast members as well as some folks that should have been cast members like Stephen Colbert.

Also, SNL’s Celebrity Jeopardy lived once more, complete with Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery and Norm MacDonald as Burt Reynolds,  and was every bit as glorious during its run in the late 90’s through the 2000s.

It should come as no surprise that this special scored a record 23 million viewers from last night (via Variety) and will probably have millions watching several of the clips over at Hulu and YouTube.

With all of the reminiscing of seasons past, it’s perfect timing on SNL’s part to push their SNL app that gives access to thousands of clips from the past 40 seasons.

If you didn’t catch the special last night, hopefully you’ll have today off to catch up.