Saturday Night Live

"charade" was fantastic

This is old news apparently, but I just noticed today that Cecily Strong is slated to host the 2015 White House Correspondents' Dinner: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/cecily-strong-white-house-correspondents-dinner-113019.html

man catching a bunch of this VH1 Classic marathon has really soured me on several "eras" - the Bush years are depressing from end to end, although mostly for what was going on in the country. Knowing how things turned out and seeing people trying to milk Iraq invasion etc for laughs is just hard to watch. Non-topical stuff from that period fares better.

And then going back to the early 90s things get super-grim again but this time it's because of the cast and, I guess, the writing. I'm referring to the Sandler/Spade/Farley/Meyers era where you've got a bunch of guys who really just can't do character acting at all (well, Meyers can to a limited extent) and sketches end up relying a *lot* on endlessly repeated catchphrases and recycled jokes. Every Matt Foley sketch is exactly the same, for example. Wayne's World sketches recycle jokes mirthlessly. Sandler and Spade can't be bothered to do anything resembling acting. It's just embarassing.

I'm curious what episodes they're going to cherrypick from the 80s, since I've never seen a bunch of those episodes as I was too young and they were not endlessly re-run.

they were not endlessly re-run

Weird. It seemed to me at one time that all the SNL reruns on VH1 or some other cable outlet were from the Piscopo/Murphy era or the season with Billy Crystal and Martin Short. I've seen many of those SO MANY TIMES.

early-mid 80s SNLs were an after-school staple for me thanks to comedy central iirc

back when it was a joke on the simpsons that smithers watched comedy central

Bush II era is when my attention started to wane, especially when Chris Parnell started doing Bush.

Will Ferrell was right - should've kept the president in the Mission Accomplished bodysuit for the rest of his terms, getting more worn out as time goes by.

yeah I didn't get cable/comedy central during that period I guess

xp

this show is deeply embarrassing

large chunks of it def are

otoh I randomly caught Jesse Jackson reading "Green Eggs and Ham" so that was cool

Was that the same episode as the "The Question Is Moot" gameshow sketch? One of the all-time best.

I didn't see that so I'm not sure. It was hosted by Michael Jordan and musical guest was Public Enemy so I guess that was one of their "let's put some black people on" episodes

Oh, nm...that sketch was from an earlier ep that Jesse hosted (84-ish).

http://www.maniacworld.com/question-is-moot.html

And, yeah, season one is pretty much abysmal.

insane fux

there's good stuff (mostly Paul Simon-related) but it's erratic

Chevy's good right out the gate

the style of the first season IS WHY THE SHOW WAS EVER SIGNIFICANT.

The Question Is Moot is classic.

I didn't see that so I'm not sure. It was hosted by Michael Jordan and musical guest was Public Enemy so I guess that was one of their "let's put some black people on" episodes

― Οὖτις, Monday, February 9, 2015 3:08 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I remember this episode well, as it aired the night Miles Davis died. Public Enemy asked for a moment of silence for Miles before their second song saying, "Without him, there'd be no us."

Rolling Stone ranks the cast members!

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/lists/saturday-night-live-all-141-cast-members-ranked-20150211

(something something one old, irrelevant institution reviews another something something)

man the pre-Hartman/Lovitz 80s seasons are a real wasteland (occasional Eddie Murphy brilliance excepted)

138. Victoria Jackson

She's got so much to answer for, but still...Ouch

Some funny stuff during the season of ringers (Short, Crystal, Guest and Shearer), but yeah.

One of the funniest things from the years prior to Lorne's return is Madonna's monologue where she shows a filmed piece of her wedding to Sean Penn.

Even though Lovitz was in the top 20 on Rob's list, he should've been top 10.

I remember the ringer season being solid (and there were some all-time classic bits: synchronized swimming, Murphy's "White Like Me"), but I'm probably overrating it since it was the first season I was allowed to stay up and watch every week.

The first page of that shit made me so angry haha

I have a soft spot for the assassination of Buckwheat because it's the first SNL episode I ever saw. I was at the house of some friends of the family—the adults were doing bible study and the kids were staying up watching tv—and it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

I didn't watch it again until the 86/87 season, though, when Hartman and Hooks and Carvey and Lovitz etc all came together for the beginning of the show's best era.

The Buckwheat assassination bit has one of my favorite Murphy moments, when the guy who shot Buckwheat (and who was voted "Most Likely to Kill Buckwheat" in high school) talked about tasting lime jello in a dream.

Bobby Moynihan deserved better imho.

That huge unsorted pile of new cast members bummed me out

Moynihan's placement was a slight and Jay Pharaoh's placement was inflated.

That huge unsorted pile of new cast members bummed me out

Kinda true, though. Also, I'd never thought about it, but I'm totally cool with Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan sharing a placement.

I was sad Melanie Hutsell placed so low.

I don't agree w that list at all (quel surprise) - for one thing my opinion of the Sandler/Farley/Spade axis has dropped considerably since the 90s

it's kind of terrifying/awesome how many talented people have been on this show

Farley the best of the three and not bad really but Sandler and Spade are just awful

xp

a number of the most talented cast members (eg Danitra Vance) were abominably underutilized.

It's truly a shame that Pat is Julia Sweeney's SNL legacy, because she was so much better than that.

her WTF episode was great

I tried to watch her stage show (I think it was about cancer?) and couldn't get through it

I think Fey is spectacularly overrated, and i would have put Murphy ahead of Belushi. And Hartman #3

I've got nothing against Belushi (either of them, tbh), but the saintly adulation of John is totally mysterious to me.

Fey is incredibly important, though, and may have even been underrated in this list.

Also think Norm McDonald got the shaft.

You're high if you think Fey is better than Murphy or Belushi

i watched an episode of this a few weeks back with that country singer dude in it and it was hands down the worst tv show ive watched in several years.

Norm - again, I like Norm, but he falls into the same category as John Belushi for me where I think he's okay, he's funny, but nowhere near worthy of that kind of adulation.

Norm's standup is better than his SNL work

I remember that Michael Jordan/Public Enemy episode very clearly. Being a 15 year-old kid in Illinois super into the Bulls and Public Enemy meant that this felt like a really big "event" in a way the show had never seemed before.

As usual I cant get RS's f'ed up site to work but if they didn' t put Hartman at number one then its probably not worth looking at

Tho lol at young Gilbert Gottfried looking like Drake

man, a 3-1/2 hr anniversary special; how fitting. "What's the difference between life and SNL 40?"