Richard Pryor became the first African-American to host Saturday Night Live on December 13, 1975.
Pryor’s foul mouth routines were so infamous that producers of SNL enacted a 7 second delay, to catch any possible mishaps, for the first time in the history of the show.
Pryor had a few demands for his appearance on the show.
He requested that fellow comedian Paul Mooney write his segments and Mooney delivered the famous “Word Association” skit with Chevy Chase and Pryor.
Pryor also demanded that Gil Scott-Heron be the evening’s performer.
Gil Scott Heron was in a classical period of his career, having released albums like The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Pieces of a Man, Free Will, on Bob Thiele’s Flying Dutchman imprint.
After the album Winter in America in 1974 for the Strata-East label, Heron signed with Arista.
The track hit #29 on the R&B chart in 1975.
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