Yeah, I know that no one watches this anymore because it really has gotten that bad, but there was a time when this show was really good.
Watching some of it on Netflix (Yes I have Netflix now... yay.), though it only has from like 1994-2010 missing A LOT of great stuff, pretty much everything up to when Will Ferrel leaves and Mad TV started destroying it is pretty great. Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Mike Meyers, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, David Spade, Tim Meadows, Kevin Nealon, Chris Rock, and pretty much everyone else were pretty damn good at the time and the mix of low brow and satire was probably the best it had been in a long time.
How can you not enjoy material like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wy_EUn5bQ0), and this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skQuhoG7fFM)? Love this stuff.
Anyone else enjoy SNL? Or... well, old SNL?
So Tiny Fey became the head writer in 1998-1999? So that explains why the show got so lousy and has yet to recover. Sorry to you 30 Rock fans, but I have never found here even remotely funny.
1986-1998 material is pretty great as a whole, but after that... it became really lousy. Especially when Fallon and Sans took over the show with their sub-Sandler and Farley act.
Well for me, I never cared for Tina Fey or Amy Poehler's SNL work, but I really grew to like them on their own shows.
I think a lot of the people on SNL now can be quite funny, actually, but something just kills all hope for them to be on the show itself.
The writing, probably. It's just like, not funny. There are no punchlines or build ups to anything, it's usually all just "Weird characters confound people for 5 minutes" or "Hey, this is weird and funny!" without anything really behind it.
I'm not going to say there's no talent there, but the last time anything from SNL was talked about was back when Will Ferrell was doing Bush. I really don't understand why that wasn't an issue, yet they had no problem firing people like Chris Farley and others like him back in the day. SNL needs a kick in the pants, badly.
I remember Tina Fey's Palin impression getting serious buzz not that long ago. And I sadly know a lot of people who watch the show now. I don't think they've ever had a chance to see the show at its prime, which is just sad. I remember watching repeats on Comedy Central, back when they had the rights to the show, and I think I was alone in watching those.
That said, I fucking love Lonely Island and there's nothing any of you can do about it. :swoon:
Yep, lots of good stuff from the show. There might be some from the newer cast, but have little patience or time to keep it in my rotation.
I just got to the 1998 season and I was right, you can see the difference right off the bat. It's not all bad, but there's a clear shift in direction here. The skits are louder, more vulgar, and rely a LOT on recurring characters. Such as that Molly Shannon character whose whole schtick is to yell "I LUV IT!" repeatedly for five minutes.
And even though Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sans are only featured players at this point, they still get WAY too much push. More deserving featured players in the past never got the push these two got (like Jay Mohr) and it's clear they're trying to set them up to be the next Farley and Sandler, but they just aren't very funny.
On the plus side, Will Ferrel, Ana Gasteyer, Darrel Hammond, and Cheri Oteri hold the show up pretty well in this season. Without them it wouldn't nearly be as watchable.
I'm watching the most recent episode, with Jason Segel. If only for the Muppet scenes.
I just finished the Weekend Update, and SHIT, it's gone downhill since Amy Poehler left. Seth Meyers just can't hold his own on the sketch. His little winks towards the audience are just so fucking obvious and obnoxious, and his commentary is dry.
Say what you will about Poehler and Tina Fey, but you have to at least admit that the WU sketches were better with them, arguably the most bearable aspect of the show. Now it's just as dull as the rest of the show is now.
It's so weird to watch old episodes of SNL when they are so topical. I just watched a Weekend Update segment on VH1 from an episode in I think 2002, and they are talking about the possibility of President Bush wanting to go into Iraq(which would happen in March 2003), and for one joke the "Dude, you're getting a Dell!" guy shows up, at which point Tina and Jimmy make fun of him for his annoying commercials. I'm not sure if I should be nostalgic or ashamed of the stuff happening in 2002.
It's weird because the older Weekend Updates were not so topical despite being based on current news. Norm MacDonald and Colin Quinn's stuff still feel like good jokes instead of relying on you "being there" to get where they're coming from.
I'm watching Jeremy Renner's episode from this week, and he didn't even have a monologue.
How many times has this happened before? I can't recall any instances.
So, Don Pardo died.
If I was in charge of NBC, I'd just end the show now, before the season started. I know he left for a little while ages ago, but the show really never will be the same without him. And it's not like I need a reason to want to end SNL. :sweat:
Yeah, they should cancel Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy too because Don Pardo!
...what's that? Don Pardo has had nothing to do with any of these show in 30 years? SCREW THAT! I'm old and I'm not happy!
It's never getting canceled no matter how bad it gets, man.
The assumption is that it will end when Lorne dies, but I actually want to see the show continue without him. I'm 95% sure that the show's long-standing dip into mediocrity is his fault.
what's wrong with the show? i never watched it regularly.
I made a list of my favorite sketches a while back (http://www.toonzone.net/forums/entertainment-board/297000-speedys-top-20-snl-sketches.html ) but in retrospect it was a pretty shortsighted list. There are definitely funnier ones than some that I listed. Then again, maybe it's more the fact than only twenty picks isn't enough.
Yeah, that was a good stuff from all across the board. Yours and Dalek's lists.
Those are some great choices. I've always been a fan of the early 80s (after the failed cast overhaul) to Will Ferrel's exit as well as the original cast episodes. Everything else is just so highly awful, or incredibly bland.
The McLaughlin Group was particularly hysterical due to the insane questions. Of course Chris Farley's Matt Foley was hilarious, too. But I would give tops to anything with Phil Hartman in it, his performances were always gold.
The creepiest would be that skit from the early years where John Belushi is an old man sitting in a graveyard and is the only one left alive. There he muses over the failed lives of his cast members. It's really eerie watching this now.
Just as an example, a skit that would definitely be on my "top SNL sketches" list now is Angry Boss: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/00/00roffice.phtml . Matter of fact that whole SNL Best of Will Ferrell vol. 2 DVD was pretty good. Definitely don't agree with the negative reviews.
Figured this would be a good a place as any to ask this. Forgive my fuzzy memories of the sketch, as I only saw it once:
There was an SNL skit from, I want to say four or five years back, where there were three singers. One of them, I believe, had an ass for a head, or it might've been a fly's head, I can't really remember. All I know is he spurted... something when he sang. Anyone remember what this sketch was called and what episode it was from?
Have they done a tribute to Don Pardo yet?
EDIT: The next season starts on September 27. Okay...
NBC will air classic SNL episodes. (http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/09/24/saturday-night-live-snl-vintage-nbc)
Saturdays at 10PM.
The first 2 choices are great ones! But I can't help but wonder if they're going to keep THAT sketch in the Pryor episode, and how it'll fly with today's audience if they do.
This Saturday at 9 they showed a Steve Martin guest episode from the '70s. Are they planning any more of these vintage episodes planned for this time slot? I say keep it going. Might as well.
Quote from: Speedy on October 06, 2014, 02:24:02 PMThis Saturday at 9 they showed a Steve Martin guest episode from the '70s. Are they planning any more of these vintage episodes planned for this time slot? I say keep it going. Might as well.
I posted earlier that NBC is showing classic
SNL episodes every week.
Frankly, I think it's a great idea. This series is surprisingly better the farther back you go.
They were supposed to air the Christopher Walken "more cowbell" episode this week, but went with Martin's Blues Brothers stint instead.
Do you know which episode is supposed to air this week, Daikun?
Quote from: Avaitor on October 06, 2014, 06:14:56 PMDo you know which episode is supposed to air this week, Daikun?
This week's new episode will be hosted by Bill Hader.
I'm not sure about the classic episode, though. My usual TV sources aren't providing descriptions.
Last night's classic episode was the Alec Baldwin/B-52's episode from 1990, with Jan Hook's Garbo impression. A good choice, with her recent passing and all. RIP
Quote from: Avaitor on October 12, 2014, 01:54:09 PM
Last night's classic episode was the Alec Baldwin/B-52's episode from 1990, with Jan Hook's Garbo impression. A good choice, with her recent passing and all. RIP
I saw it too. Good episode all around ("I know how escrow works!"), albeit not exactly brimming with surprises if you own many of the SNL best-of DVDs.
I still couldn't believe Jan Hooks died recently. She was so young.
The cowbell episode finally aired tonight! I hadn't seen it before, so I didn't know that Dana Carvey showed up as Bush in the cold opening. Awesome!
As fun as it was seeing that episode, I hope they show more vintage episodes that -aren't- heavily featured on the SNL compilations. Many of the skits on last night's episode were featured on the Best of Christopher Walken DVD.
Which brings me to my question: Which episodes do you want them to re-run?
-Kyle MacLachlan / Sinead O'Connor: Hey, Twin Peaks is coming back, the time is right!
-George Steinbrenner / The Time: I wanna see Slim Fast again!
-Patrick Stewart / Salt-n-Pepa: To boldly fly where no man has gone in space.
-Emilio Estevez / Pearl Jam: Whip it good.
I haven't really seen the compilations, so that's not much of an issue for me.
Personally, I'd like to see some of the 11th season again, Lorne's first back on the show. I know it's a hit or miss year for many people, but there's some great stuff there, along with some of the best musical performances on the show. I also just love the George Wendt and Coppola episode, for obvious reasons.
Tonight's classic episode is going to be the Tom Hanks/Aerosmith ep from 1990.
I might have to miss it this week, though. We'll see.
^ Tales of Ribaldry was my favorite of the bunch, though of course Aerosmith Visit Wayne's World is a classic. "I'm gonna HURL!" "Keep it together, Garth!"
It's really disappointing how much is cut out from these re-runs. It's to be expected when you're going from 1.5 hours to one, of course, but it's a shame we missed out on a good chunk of the second half of the episode: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/89/89m.phtml
It's especially annoying because it's hard to find the full versions of the post-70's episodes, especially legally. Every other time that NBC has released these episodes, they use the syndication cuts.
It would be nice if they would release the rest of the show beyond season 5 on DVD sets, even if they have to cut the musical performances out to save money. Just having as close of an approximation to the full episodes as possible would be awesome.
Although it would be tough to get people to buy the sixth season. Even the next few have the commercial advantage of Eddie Murphy playing a bigger role on the show.
Missed the memo that NBC was showing classic episodes, that's pretty neat. I usually watch the older episodes on VH1/VH1 Classic, although they very rarely play any pre-1990's episodes.
I know that VH1 Classic still airs the show, but I'm pretty sure they don't air anything before this century.
They'll air mid to late 90s stuff, but yeah it does seem like most of the time it's shows from the early 2000s.
I have to admit, I lose interest in the show after Norm Macdonald leaves Weekend Update. That's when the show starts to get mostly dry for me.
Mid-80s to late 90s for me. The stuff after that loses all sorts of steam for me.
They showed a Josh Brolin episode from 2008 on Saturday: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/08/08e.phtml . I switched over to Svengoolie.
My TV is being weird, and won't play NBC or the other broadcast networks anyway, so I had to miss it
Target has the first 2 seasons for $13 each. I've been wanting to collect the sets for a while now, so when I can get into a little more money, I'll have to hit those up.
I missed Saturday's re-run. What did they show?
Ricky Nelson/Judy Collins from season 4. I had to miss it as well, but I found out before it aired.
I'm working tonight, but according to my guide, the classic ep should be Drew Barrymore/Lily Allen from 2007. Speedy, Daikun, or whoever's able to watch, feel free to tell me if that's right.
^ That is indeed what aired. It was a pretty good episode- my favorite sketches were Drew as a nervous job applicant who kept coming back in and making faux pas after faux pas, and of course, Baby Toupees.
As part of SNL's 40th anniversary, they showed a Thanksgiving special last night. I didn't catch all of it, but I saw these sketches (don't know their "names", sorry):
-Will Ferrell as angry dad who shouts banal things to end arguments, like "I HAVE A PARKING SPOT FOR A MITSUBISHI GALANT!"
-Pumpkin douche
-Joseph Gordon Levitt, tense dinner with woman who keeps almost leaving the table
-Super Fans Thanksgiving episode (my fave!)
-Jimmy Fallon as college kid doing webcast, Thanksgiving episode
-The Loud Family with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Garrett Morris, and Carrie Fisher (!).
-Ed Grimley Rear Window parody
I saw the Nikey Pump-it Up Turkey in the title cards- was it featured as well?
Oh, cool!
Also, I didn't catch it, but I know the classic from Saturday was Paul Simon/George Harrison from 76. I recall it being a good one.
No vintage episode this week. They were airing It's a Wonderful Life instead. I like the movie but I didn't want to watch it on TV. I'll wait to watch my Blu-ray.
Did you catch last week's classic? I missed that as well.
^ I was watching Svengoolie but I briefly switched over and it was a newer (post-2000s) episode IIRC.
No vintage SNL on 12/13. They were showing a repeat of live Peter Pan instead. That's okay, Svengoolie was showing "The Ghost of Frankenstein", which was actually pretty good.
Does anybody know the contents of the "Best of (year)" SNL VHS tapes? Example: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Snl-1992-Christopher-Guest/dp/6305079927 (http://www.amazon.com/Best-Snl-1992-Christopher-Guest/dp/6305079927) . Unfortunately there are no customer reviews detailing what sketches are included in these tapes, but I didn't know if anybody here happened to have any of these and could be kind enough to say what's included.
Quote from: Speedy on December 29, 2014, 10:18:03 AM
Does anybody know the contents of the "Best of (year)" SNL VHS tapes? Example: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Snl-1992-Christopher-Guest/dp/6305079927 (http://www.amazon.com/Best-Snl-1992-Christopher-Guest/dp/6305079927) . Unfortunately there are no customer reviews detailing what sketches are included in these tapes, but I didn't know if anybody here happened to have any of these and could be kind enough to say what's included.
This may sound weird but check listings on ebay. Some people have the backs of the sleeves photographed which have legible contents shown.
It's not going to do you much good at the moment, but I do believe I have them in storage from my uncle's estate from two years ago. This is simply because, well.... VHS an' all. :il_hahaha: I still have the best of intentions with these, though!
Good idea, thanks. I'll check some of those ebay listings.
Hey, here's something I never knew: They apparently made a VHS of nothing but Toonces the Driving Cat. Awwwww.
The vintage SNL this Saturday was the William Shatner "Get a life, people!" one. Great episode, nearly every skit a hit (though I didn't get into the "Christmas singers" sketch).
I didn't know they were doing classics again! I wish I caught it.
I missed this Saturday- was entertaining some guests. What was the vintage episode?
No vintage this week. They were showing ice skating. That's all right; I watched "House of Horrors" on Svengoolie. Gotta love Rondo Hatton.
I keep on working on Saturdays, so I always miss the opportunity anyway.
If any of you have VH1 Classic, they are running a 19 day marathon(yes, this will beat FXX's marathon of The Simpsons last year) starting tonight at 7pm Eastern.
The era they've been playing over the last couple days, late 80s/early 90s, has been so solid. I wish these episodes were on TV more often.
^ Unfortunately no VH1 for me.
But Saturday's vintage ep. was Patrick Swayze. That means, you guessed it, the Chippendale's and Hans & Frans "questioning his own sexuality" sketches. Good stuff, but again, I already have both of those on a couple SNL DVDs I own.
I keep on working on Saturdays, and haven't had a chance to watch the marathon. I think that I'm even going to miss the 40th anniversary...
Anybody watching the 40th Anniversary special? They had a good Celebrity Jeopardy sketch, other than that so far a bunch of montages.
Quote from: Comeau on February 15, 2015, 07:59:19 PM
Anybody watching the 40th Anniversary special? They had a good Celebrity Jeopardy sketch, other than that so far a bunch of montages.
I watched it, all 3 1/2 hours. I hope it comes to DVD.
That was a great special!
Pros: It was great seeing revivals of the old sketches we haven't seen in years. Celebrity Jeopardy was obvious and was great to see again, but holy crap! WAYNE & GARTH? :huh: It was also nice to have a tribute video for the departed.
Cons: Most of the recurring cast seemed underutilized (i.e. David Spade, Jim Carrey). They listed off so many people and didn't put them to good use. Also, what was the deal with that Kanye West video? It felt like a waste of the limited time they had left.
Aside from that, it was a great reunion.
I didn't catch the whole thing, but I saw the bit where Bill Murray was singing the "Love Theme from Jaws". I was nearly crying from laughter.
"You got-damn JAAWssss!"
Church Lady came back! (http://www.hulu.com/watch/939405#i1,p0,d1)
Damn. Blast from the past.
R.I.P. Norm MacDonald (https://deadline.com/2021/09/norm-macdonald-dead-obituary-comedian-saturday-night-live-weekend-update-anchor-was-61-1234833212)
Man, this one hits hard for me. He was the only Weekend Update host to fit Chevy Chase's huge shoes, and all his roles (on and off SNL) were funny to boot.
Loved Norm, glad I watched his run on SNL. Utterly pathetic that the show to this day has not come up with so much as a single good comic to fill in for him. They likely never will, since NBC is just irreversibly incompetent it seems.