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OT: SNL 40

NBC 8pm. 3 hours with a lot of original members (Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, Adam Sandler, etc).

This post was edited on 2/15 6:23 PM by FGF Supercock

SNL at 40
 
Originally posted by FGF Supercock:
NBC 8pm. 3 hours with a lot of original members (Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, Adam Sandler, etc).

This post was edited on 2/15 6:23 PM by FGF Supercock
Original? I guess if the first 5 years qualify as original.
 
Re: I wish I had another hand

I agree.".

I know musicians are important to the show and NYC as well. But 3-5 singers and a NYC retrospective kept a lot of cool skits from being replayed.
 
I enjoyed the Dana Carvey John Lovitz years along with Hooks, Swinney, Hartman, Neeland.
Church Lady, Liar, etc

It really struggled since the Mike Myers, Fallon, Farley, Ferrell lots of good ladies during that time.
Some of today's cast are good....overall...not must see TV.

This post was edited on 2/16 6:21 AM by Poultry King

Current Funny
 
I've seen most episodes of every season more or less through reruns, tapes, steaming, and just watching it every week. Some seasons are more tough to find than others, but I've seen most all of the episodes that matter.

I think in terms of star power, the first 5 seasons are hard to beat. Radner, Murray, Chase, Aykroyd, Belushi, Curtin, and Morris were all extremely talented and most of them went on to superstar status. There were some great individual sketches from those years, and when you had someone like Steve Martin or Buck Henry hosting, there were some fantastic episodes. And it was groundbreaking stuff at the time. That said, several episodes of that era are basically unwatchable today. That's especially true of the first season. It mainly had to do with the show getting its legs and figuring out what it wanted to be. Still great stuff and probably its strongest era.

I do think that someone who dismisses everything on SNL post 1980 is missing out, though. The 80s were a pretty weak period for SNL, but Eddie Murphy had some funny stuff. I'm not a big Murphy fan, but my goodness was he talented.

Maybe my favorite period of the show was from about 1989-1993, which is when you had Phil Hartman, Dennis Miller, Dana Carvey, Jon Lovitz, and Jan Hooks anchoring things with Chris Rock, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Adam Sandler coming in soon after. For my money, Phil Hartman was one of the top 2 or 3 sketch talents the show ever had.

I always liked Will Ferrell, and there was lots of good support during his tenure too. Since Ferrell left, Bill Hader was probably my favorite cast member. Tina Fey and Amy Pohler are national treasures as well.

Right now they have a very young cast, so it might be another year or so before it's worth watching. Kate McKinnon is probably my favorite right now followed by the little-used Kyle Mooney. Anyway, it's safe to say I'm a SNL lifer, so I'll be watching. It's a weird show; it's probably been called "Saturday Night Dead" for more of its history than not but when it's on its game, it's really good stuff.
 
Granted I missed the first hour of the show last night, but it was not what I was hoping to see. I wanted to see the best sketches from previous years, original airings. Not super quick 2 second highlights all run together and rehashes of skits by current celebs. Guess they were going for a different demographic than the old fart.
 
I wanted to turn it off after Kanye West did some sort of weird music thing. Hes a douche bag anyway, but that was strange. I want my 3 hours back.
 
Originally posted by stevestrat2:
Granted I missed the first hour of the show last night, but it was not what I was hoping to see. I wanted to see the best sketches from previous years, original airings. Not super quick 2 second highlights all run together and rehashes of skits by current celebs. Guess they were going for a different demographic than the old fart.


Same here. I wanted to see much longer clips of some of the all-time great skits - not live clips of the aging stars performing modern versions of their old stuff. And, yes, several long musical performances only took away from the time they could have been showing great moments. We watch SNL to see Chris Farley in a dance-off with Patrick Swazey or Christopher Walken wanting more cow bell. We don't tune in to see Kanye West do a bizarre 5 minute performance.
 
Funny you guys didn't like the live portions, since that's what I was looking forward to (and what makes the show great). For a second it looked like it was going to turn into a "greatest clips" show, but they do those pretty frequently, actually, and of course you can find most of your old favorites online.

I was looking for a good mix of live skits, old clips, and musical acts new and returned. With the Kanye thing... I don't know, that's how musical acts always are on SNL. Hit and miss. It's always funny to see someone host, say some classic actor like De Niro, and he has to introduce the latest one-hit pop flavor of the week. That's just how it works on SNL.

I will say that whoever cut the clips together for various montages must have been on speed, because the cuts were about one second to quick to be very watchable!

Biggest disappointment definitely goes to Eddie Murphy. WTF?
 
Yeah, the special was disappointing at times. It was cool seeing the old cast members, but more full clips would have been nice. Showing the one or two second clips of the old episodes basically disappointed old timers by shortchanging us while confusing younger folks who never saw the old sketches in the first place. I liked the new Celebrity Jeopardy, but for a 3 hour special there wasn't too much to see.
 
Originally posted by cj_mc7:
The jeopardy skit towards the beginning was pretty funny!
Sean Connery will take "le tits now" (read: "let it snow") for 800.
 
Definitely, and maybe I'm old but could have done without Kanye's

song. Too long. I wanted more SNL. And more cowbell.


GOCOCKS! BEATFU! BEATGA! BEATARK!
 
Originally posted by vacock#:

Originally posted by cj_mc7:
The jeopardy skit towards the beginning was pretty funny!
Sean Connery will take "le tits now" (read: "let it snow") for 800.
"The pen is mightier" - Alex

"Gussy it up however you like. What matters is, does it work?" - Sean
 
Old people like me: anyone else kind of sketched out by this

SNL video with John Belushi going to a graveyard to lay a wreath? Yeah, I know that at the time it was supposed to be funny. Until it wasn't.

GOCOCKS! BEATFU! BEATGA! BEATARK!



This post was edited on 2/16 6:56 PM by chick75

Don't Look Back in Anger
 
It is hard to say that the original cast wasn't the best... But when I go back and watch the old episode re- runs they just aren't that funny. The material is all based around current events that I don't get because it was stuff that happened before I was born or when I was a toddler. I still remember some of the old skits being funny.. When I was a kid and they were current.. land shark was one of my favorites back in the day... But I was born in 78, so most of the original cast was known to me as movie stars not SNL stars. I have seen most of it through reruns and such... I like watching them from a nostalgic stand point, but they aren't as funny as I want them to be.

Chris Farley was the funniest person ever on the show. Period. Bill Murray is a close second, but Farley had this energy... He could just make anybody laugh at any time... Great skit, great writing, he nailed it. GARBAGE skits with a bunch of stiffs around him on the stage... And he just went all "VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER" , then trashed some furniture as he perfected the fall in a way even chevy Chase never could... It was gold every time. He wasn't the most talented when it came to impressions.., he wasn't some creative genius or great writer, he couldn't sing and dance... But he could take an... Undersized suit coat and make it funny. He made Guys around him who turned out to be questionable comedic talents seem like superstars! Farley was the funniest person ever. Hartmen was a talented sketch artist, no doubt, but Farley could just turn it on and take things to a whole other level that nobody else could touch.. Not even Belushi.

The best guest host? Timberlake. All day. I know the old farts won't agree... But- Dick in a box, bring it on down to homelessvilllllllle, all those music videos with Sandberg... He can sing, dance, act and is funny in his own way... He is the best guest host of the modern era for sure, probably of any era. Alec Baldwin did some good ones too, but Timberlake has recurring characters that are better than most of the real cast members' characters!

As for the special, I only watched the first half so far... But I love it! A great mix of old and new... I do NOT get that California skit though- WTF? Never have gotten it... Is it some sort of rip on a show I haven't seen maybe? I just.... Don't get it.... And it was ssoooo looonnggg.

I haven't seen the Kanye performance yet and I WILL NOT see it. Few celebrities in this world I detest more than him.
 
Originally posted by Gamecock Lifer:
. I do NOT get that California skit though- WTF? Never have gotten it... Is it some sort of rip on a show I haven't seen maybe? I just.... Don't get it.... And it was ssoooo looonnggg.

You're not missing some reference point. It's satirizing people Los Angelenos' obsession with navigating traffic and their affected SoCal dude-bro (think Drew Barrymore) accents. Really not much more to it. Fred Armisen humor.
 
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