Now, for a Weekend Update forecast: Watch for those golden moments in tomorrow’s milestone 50th anniversary season premiere of “Saturday Night Live” at 10:30 p.m. CDT on NBC (WSMV Channel 4).

Nashville actor/comedian James Austin Johnson, who recently returned to New York to rejoin castmates and begin working on the season-opener of SNL50, spoke with the Ledger in late July and discussed the frenetic pace that goes into writing, rehearsing and producing the show.

“We kind of go show to show and you never know what’s going to change or how the energy’s going to change,” Johnson explains two months before the Sept. 28 season-opener.

“With all that’s happened in the presidential race this summer, I can’t even imagine, if we were on TV right now, how we would handle it all. It’s been so many seismic shifts. So, gosh, it’s hard to see beyond the next show.

“I’ll know when I get to the show in September what we’re going to do with the first one and then after that we’ll figure it out that week. We do it all in the span of five days.”

In many ways, today’s shows are much the same frenzy as what the original cast dealt with during the Oct. 11, 1975 debut with comedian George Carlin as the first guest host and Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase and Jane Curtin among the featured players.

That first episode is the subject of the new Jason Reitman-directed film “Saturday Night” in theaters on that same date 49 years later.

First weeks feature Tennessee ties

The first couple of weeks will have a strong Nashville flavor with Jelly Roll as the musical guest in the season-opener and Nashville comedian Nate Bargatze as host the following week.

SNL was created and produced by Lorne Michaels, 79, who recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the 50th anniversary season and his own future with the show, promising plenty of golden moments for SNL fans all season long.

“I want to celebrate this season with people coming back who’ve been part of the show and who love the show – not so much as hosts but just making appearances, and so the election is a chance for that because that’s five or six shows,” Michaels says.

“So, Maya (Rudolph, reprising her role as Vice President Kamala Harris) and some others coming back for the election will be fun for everybody. And, at the same time, there will be new people emerging, a different generation.”

Michaels also backtracked his 2020 comments about possibly retiring after the golden anniversary season. Already announced is that a three-hour SNL50 prime-time special will air next February.

“This is kind of what I do and as long as I can keep doing it, I’ll keep doing it. There’s no immediate plan,” Michaels says in an interview with “The Hollywood Reporter.”

“It’s more about keeping (SNL) on course than anything else and, obviously, I really love it. And every year there are more and more people that I rely on for other things, but, in the end, you really need someone to say, “This is what we’re doing.”

Johnson in for long haul

That’s good news for Johnson, who calls the SNL gig his “dream job” and assures he isn’t contemplating a departure from the cast anytime soon.

“It’s long been a dream of mine to be at SNL and I love the show. I’m a fan of the show as a person and as a comedy fan. And so, no, even when I’m not there, I’m still going to be watching it,” Johnson says.

“But I plan on doing the show as long as my ability to do it lasts. I think I’ll know the right time to leave when that time comes but I would say that at this moment, having just completed my third season and going into my fourth season – which also happens to be an election year – I feel like I’m just getting started. So who knows, really?”

Throughout the history of SNL, many of the featured players who joined the cast as relative unknowns were able to build an audience before moving on to even bigger careers and becoming household names. Examples: Aykroyd and the late John Belushi, Dana Carvey, Billy Crystal, Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and many more.

Kenan Thompson is the longest-tenured current player, beginning his 22nd season.

“Lots of people leave after four or five seasons or something like that. It seems like people stay a little longer these days,” Johnson says. “I’ll know when the time is right.

“But at the moment, I can’t imagine doing anything else because I get to do so many different fun kinds of things at the show. It really uses the full extent of my abilities.”

Johnson pauses and turns philosophical about the future and where it may lead him.

“So the new dream will be, is there another dream? If this was the height that I could hope to aspire to, now I’ll have to create a whole new dream for my life after (SNL). But that seems like a tall order.”

As for those golden moments, stay tuned.