The 50th anniversary special for "Saturday Night Live" began with music generations colliding, with Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter singing "Homeward ... before comedy legend Steve Martin took the stage to give a host's traditional monologue.

Sabrina Carpenter and Paul Simon starred in the cold open segment ... “I was not born then and neither were my parents,” Carpenter said. Steve Martin was given the honor of delivering the opening monologue, calling himself the how’s “newest ...

The Grammy winners performed a touching duet of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound,” which he sang on the show decades earlier in 1976.

It’s hard to believe that Saturday Night Live is almost old enough to qualify for AARP benefits. Yet the groundbreaking sketch comedy series is indeed celebrating five decades on the air, commemorated with a 50th Anniversary Special on Sunday night.

Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter opened the 50th anniversary celebration of "Saturday Night Live" and Paul McCartney closed it down.

Bill Murray showed up on 'Weekend Update' to mock the anchors, Tom Hanks introduced an "In Memoriam" segment devoted to "characters and sketches that have aged horribly" and other highlights.

"Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey" was a long-standing segment on SNL in the ‘90s where Phil Hartman offered surreally soothing adages as Jack Handey. "Looking back over 50 years, we treasure the laughs, the friendship, the fond memories,” Handey’s voice said."But the real treasure was how much money we were making."

The star-studded, three-hour primetime special on Sunday also featured musical performances by Miley Cyrus, Brittany Howard, Paul McCartney and Lil Wayne

SNL50: The Anniversary Special is billed to be a star-studded affair, and it opened on Sunday with some big guns: Sabrina Carpenter joined Paul Simon to perform a tender rendition of Simon and Garfunkel’s 1966 classic, “Homeward Bound.”