Saturday Night Live

That's a good point. They should at least chop it down to one song instead of two so they can cram in another sketch.

― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, September 10, 2014 12:30 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They did this for a few shows in the 1998-99 season. I remember Elliott Smith only did one song, and I don't think it was because the show was running long.

Whereas I've seen way more instances of a third musical performance in recent years than I ever remember previously. I don't know if I remember that ever happening in the '80s or '90s.

Back to the upcoming hosts, I hope the writers leave room in sketches for Chris Pratt to improv a little bit. He's super gifted in that department.

I don't know if I remember that ever happening in the '80s or '90s.

rem did three songs from monster during the godawful pre-will ferrell year

I wonder how much they're getting off the Budweiser sponsorships for the musical performances now. NBC probably doesn't want to chop that in half, no matter how little it might be.

XP They did the same thing with Eric Clapton. It was kind of funny because it felt like after every other sketch it was like, "...and once again, Eric Clapton!" It felt like he did ten songs.

like like like like like

so they're taking cecily off the update desk and replacing her with michael che; colin jost remains???????

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/business/media/new-comic-to-anchor-update-on-snl.html

What the fuuuuuuuu

I mean replace Jost with Che; or get rid of Jost and leave Che on the Daily Show because he's great there.

Michael Che is so great. I think a Cecily Strong and Michael Che team could've been great, but Colin Jost is going to continue driving the shit into the ground no matter who he's paired with.

Apparently Cecily asked to leave WU so she could concentrate more on sketches, so that's our loss. But...ugh, FUCK Colin Jost and whatever Lorne Michaels sees in him.

Bummed about cecily :(

QUIT TRYING TO MAKE COLIN JOST HAPPEN

we survived multiple years of Colin Quinn, ppl; calm down

Colin Quinn was indeed terrible at the WU desk, but somehow I feel more invested in the show's inner politics now than I ever did in the 90s.

Nobody could ever be worse than colin quinn its true. At least jost can read.

Che and Strong would've been perfect, and Strong really started to get comfortable (and hilarious) last season.

I don't care that Jost can read. I would vastly prefer a WU anchor who constantly squints at the cue cards and phonetically sounds out every word to Jost.

don't think jost is much worse than seth myers tbh

o_O

there's norm mcdonald, fey & poehler, and then a bunch of riff raff as far as I can tell

As despicable as Dennis Miller is now, he was quite good at the Update desk. WU was never stable in the early years, but Chevy, Aykroyd and Curtin were all memorable. Kevin Nealon...could be okay sometimes. Jimmy Fallon was never a good partner for Tina Fey, but Fey was never held back by him as evidenced during the time she flew solo. The addition of Poehler just took that pairing into the stratosphere. Poehler ever upped Seth's game and left him better prepared to go it alone.

I honestly don't remember who all went through the Update ranks during the Ebersol years, but none of them were great. That's where the riff raff is (along with Colin Quinn).

i feel like nealon's a little underrated, but he was the anchor during the years i first watched snl so it's probably just bias on my part.

Yeah, so I think we basically agree that jost would even be fine with Poehler xp

I love nealon's standup but I don't recall his weekend update

I honestly don't remember who all went through the Update ranks during the Ebersol years, but none of them were great

iirc it was like joe piscopo + father guido sarducci

Yeah, so I think we basically agree that jost would even be fine with Poehler xp

We don't.

haha. How can we know for sure?

Colin Jost's grandmother is probably better on camera than he is.

Mr Julia Louis-Dreyfus was a Weekend Update anchor!

The first episode of SNL I ever saw was the night Buckwheat was assassinated (which the internet tells me was March of 1983). I didn't become a regular viewer until the 86/87 season, which is when Lorne returned and Carvey, Hartman, Hooks, Nealon, and Victoria Jackson all joined what was left of the previous cast (Lovitz, Nora Dunn and Dennis Miller). Surprise, surprise! The old adage about your favorite era of SNL being the one you watched when you were 13 holds true in my case. It's a shame about Jackson and Miller now, and definitely a shame about Phil Hartman, but pound for pound it was the best cast the show ever had all at once.

For the longest time, the measuring stick for WU for me was Dennis Miller. Now it's Fey & Poehler (which is the best WU has EVER been).

Dennis Miller lives up here and is generally a nice dude outside of his politics fwiw

Ha, the first episode of SNL that I remember watching is one hosted by Matthew Broderick in 198. It was originally run in October, but it was rerun on New Years Eve, and my parents let me stay up to watch. (I was 9.) It featured this infamous sketch: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/88/88bnudebeach.phtml.

I'm still not 100% convinced he actually believes all that shit, because he seems like the kind of guy who can spot a pretty good mealticket. xp

Haha, I remember watching that nude beach sketch with my mom in the room. Oof.

I think that one had my all-time fave: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/88/88bmonkey.phtml

The old adage about your favorite era of SNL being the one you watched when you were 13 holds true in my case.

Well, yes, but also because that is objectively and inarguably the best SNL cast ever.

(Although, admittedly, I may also have possibly been 13 during that era.)

I honestly don't remember who all went through the Update ranks during the Ebersol years, but none of them were great. That's where the riff raff is (along with Colin Quinn).

― Johnny Fever, Friday, September 12, 2014 12:58 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Brad Hall ('82-'84) and Christopher Guest ('84-'85 season). Guest was surprisingly awful at it, no personality whatsoever, and shitty timing. But compared to Colin Jost, he was Richard Pryor.

Anyone who doesn't think Norm was the best update anchor, gtfoh

Fey & Poehler > Norm > Dennis Miller >>>>>>>>>> everybody else >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Jost

yeah probably

At any rate, I think we can all agree that Colins should never work the Update desk.

your granny on bongos >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Jost

Agreed. xp

Also agreed, lol. xp

Is this where we were discussing the Mulaney sitcom? Because that shit looks bad.

Is there where someone explains to me why people expected so much of John Mulaney to begin with? his on camera segments on SNL were always painful imo.

I wasn't expecting much, really, because yeah the dude's a good writer but his persona sucks. But him being a writer I was kind of expecting jokes that could at least, in theory, be funny when delivered by someone more appealing than him.

yeah he's been a writer on enough things i've enjoyed that i assume he's talented, but whenever he turned up on Best Week Ever or a Comedy Central standup show i was just like this guy is awkward as hell, send him back to the writer's room

His New In Town special was great

Great on kroll show too