i'm going to miss kenan so much when he leaves, honestly would love for him to beat darrell hammond's record
― da croupier, Friday, 30 January 2015 18:32 (nine years ago) link
My favorite era (after the boilerplate "when I was in jr. high/high school" response) is that period a couple years back when everyone started uploading their VHS copies of old episodes. I love being able to watch an entire old-school season as it originally aired. Eff a bowdlerized rerun.
― Runny Trumpet (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:34 (nine years ago) link
Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph all on the show at the same time is something that will probably never be paralleled as far as concentrated funny/smart on SNL goes.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 30 January 2015 18:35 (nine years ago) link
I'm looking forward to when this VH1 Rewind marathon gets into the weeds of eras I never really got to see full episodes of - ie, the mid-80s
― Οὖτις, Friday, 30 January 2015 18:36 (nine years ago) link
The best eras of snl imo1. hour-long reruns on comedy central in the 90s2. the first few seasons after i was allowed to stay up for new episodes, before i started having better things to do on a saturday night3. the invention of the dvr
1. hour-long reruns on comedy central in the 90s2. the first few seasons after i was allowed to stay up for new episodes, before i started having better things to do on a saturday night3. the invention of the dvr
I might be slightly older than you but the nick at night compressed episodes from the 70s cast were essential for me. Where else would I have seen this shit:
http://cdn.hark.com/images/000/093/757/93757/original.jpg
― panettone for the painfully alone (mayor jingleberries), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:37 (nine years ago) link
yeah all these ladies + Ferrell was such a comedy goldmine
― Οὖτις, Friday, 30 January 2015 18:37 (nine years ago) link
i find it really unnerving how quiet the audience could be back in the day, whether its the joy of millenials or the improvement of applause-sign technology you never get those "fuck this scene, fuck all these scenes, OH YAAAAY COFFEE TALK, fuck you i'm sitting on my hands" stretches of deadly silence you used to see
― da croupier, Friday, 30 January 2015 18:39 (nine years ago) link
http://snl.jt.org/caps/characters/RaDr-Qrplt_xk.jpg
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 30 January 2015 18:42 (nine years ago) link
From what I understand, the apparent lack of applause is sometimes just a sound issue.
― Runny Trumpet (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:44 (nine years ago) link
well they had a fuckton more sound issues twenty years ago then
― da croupier, Friday, 30 January 2015 18:45 (nine years ago) link
― Runny Trumpet (Old Lunch), Friday, January 30, 2015 1:34 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I bought the 3rd season DVDs, primarily for the Sun Ra and Elvis Costello performances, and some of the episodes were strictly dullsville. But there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it: you'd think the Madeline Kahn episode would be hilarious and the Hugh Hefner one would suck, but weirdly, the opposite was true.
And the Ray Charles-hosted episode should be required viewing for all hosts. Oh, you want to skip rehearsal and rely on cue cards? Yeah, Ray didn't have that option.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:48 (nine years ago) link
I'm pretty bummed that they stopped the season sets. The first five years aren't exactly my favorites but I bought them (twice, after selling off the first set during lean times) and would've kept buying them as long as they kept putting them out.
― Runny Trumpet (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:53 (nine years ago) link
I had the first season set but so much of it sucked. would've preferred 2&3 of the original cast, which I saw a bunch in re-runs as a teen
― Οὖτις, Friday, 30 January 2015 18:54 (nine years ago) link
dvd market cratered, but they should offer them in some kind of digital/streaming package.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 30 January 2015 18:55 (nine years ago) link
Hopefully Shout! Factory will pick up the reins eventually.
― Runny Trumpet (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:56 (nine years ago) link
And, yeah, season one is pretty much abysmal.
― Runny Trumpet (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:57 (nine years ago) link
the Paul Simon stuff is good
― Οὖτις, Friday, 30 January 2015 18:57 (nine years ago) link
Lorne or whoever isn't gonna shell out for music rights just for streaming. There were (are?) a bunch of seasons on Netflix, but the lack of music clearances meant that some episodes were 20 minutes long.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:58 (nine years ago) link
SNL should just create their own app and put it on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon Fire, or whatever other device people use to stream content. If HBO is going to do it, SNL surely could. There are 40 seasons of episodes now. That's plenty of material to justify its own app.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 30 January 2015 19:03 (nine years ago) link
NBC would probably object, no?
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 30 January 2015 19:05 (nine years ago) link
I don't think that would get them around the music rights problem
― Οὖτις, Friday, 30 January 2015 19:06 (nine years ago) link
I guess it would depend on subscription projections and how much they think people would pay.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 30 January 2015 19:08 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, the music rights stuff is such a drag.
Really could make an argument that SNL eps, good or bad, are as good a historical document of an era as any and should be available to anyone with a library card
― uncle banmee who can remember his live posts (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 30 January 2015 19:09 (nine years ago) link
So anyone can see The Night of the Masturbating Zombies
― uncle banmee who can remember his live posts (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 30 January 2015 19:10 (nine years ago) link
I pray for the kids of today who don't get to see that sketch before they're old enough to really understand what's going on. Such a formative experience.
― Runny Trumpet (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 January 2015 19:11 (nine years ago) link
I think SNL moved from Netflix to Hulu at some point, because I signed up for Hulu specifically hoping I could watch the old "Who's More Grizzled?" sketch one night. It wasn't included in the episode it was supposed to be in, so I canceled immediately and removed the app.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 30 January 2015 19:12 (nine years ago) link
This really is a case against contemporary copy rigs law if there ever was one
― uncle banmee who can remember his live posts (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 30 January 2015 19:15 (nine years ago) link
this eps been p funny
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 1 February 2015 05:47 (nine years ago) link
lmao @ whos more grizzled anecdote btw
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 1 February 2015 05:48 (nine years ago) link
damn if that d'angelo performance wasn't one of the best things on SNL ever
― I dunno. (amateurist), Sunday, 1 February 2015 05:51 (nine years ago) link
"charade" was fantastic
― It's strange to me too. But we're talking about praxis, man. (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 1 February 2015 20:50 (nine years ago) link
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
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 2 February 2015 19:48 (nine years ago) link
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.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 9 February 2015 19:49 (nine years ago) link
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.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 9 February 2015 19:52 (nine years ago) link
early-mid 80s SNLs were an after-school staple for me thanks to comedy central iirc
― da croupier, Monday, 9 February 2015 19:53 (nine years ago) link
back when it was a joke on the simpsons that smithers watched comedy central
― da croupier, Monday, 9 February 2015 19:54 (nine years ago) link
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.
― pplains, Monday, 9 February 2015 19:54 (nine years ago) link
yeah I didn't get cable/comedy central during that period I guess
xp
― Οὖτις, Monday, 9 February 2015 19:55 (nine years ago) link
this show is deeply embarrassing
― example (crüt), Monday, 9 February 2015 20:02 (nine years ago) link
large chunks of it def are
otoh I randomly caught Jesse Jackson reading "Green Eggs and Ham" so that was cool
― Οὖτις, Monday, 9 February 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link
Was that the same episode as the "The Question Is Moot" gameshow sketch? One of the all-time best.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 9 February 2015 20:05 (nine years ago) link
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, 9 February 2015 20:08 (nine years ago) link
Oh, nm...that sketch was from an earlier ep that Jesse hosted (84-ish).
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 9 February 2015 20:09 (nine years ago) link
http://www.maniacworld.com/question-is-moot.html
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 9 February 2015 20:11 (nine years ago) link
insane fux
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, 9 February 2015 20:21 (nine years ago) link
there's good stuff (mostly Paul Simon-related) but it's erratic
― Οὖτις, Monday, 9 February 2015 20:22 (nine years ago) link
Chevy's good right out the gate
the style of the first season IS WHY THE SHOW WAS EVER SIGNIFICANT.
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, 9 February 2015 20:23 (nine years ago) link
The Question Is Moot is classic.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 9 February 2015 21:21 (nine years ago) link
― 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."
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 9 February 2015 21:22 (nine years ago) link