Saturday Night Live

Yup. I think AMH was the youngest cast member ever.

Hall joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (SNL) during its 1985–86 season at the age of 17. He was, and remains, the youngest cast member in the show's history.[6] His recurring characters on the show were 'Craig Sundberg, Idiot Savant', an intelligent, talented teenager with a vacant expression and stilted speech, and 'Fed Jones', one half of the habitually high, hustling pitchmen known as The Jones Brothers (the other Jones Brother was played by short-lived featured player Damon Wayans). Art Garfunkel, Edd Byrnes, Bobby Kennedy and Daryl Hall were among Hall's celebrity impersonations.

Here's an interesting trivia question:

Who appeared on SNL first as a musical guest, then as a host, and then as a cast member?

mckean?

^^ Going with that.

Yep.

nobody ever says gary kroeger.

I seriously think he was the first cast member I ever saw (based on my dim memory that the first episode I ever saw was the Bruce Dern/Leon Redbone episode). That whole 83 to 85 or so era was the only time I watched the show semi-consistently.

I watched every Phil Ebersol SNL, visiting my dad on the weekends. We'd watch the show at his girlfriend's house and then at midnight when the show ended, go back to his apartment.

That guy lighting a cigarette with a blowtorch in the opening credits is the first thing I visualize whenever old SNLs get brought up.

cmon worst ep ever has to be nancy kerrigan

I miss Rich Hall. I remember the David Byrne clothing commercial skit!

well, it's dire just about every time an athlete hosts, but they keep booking them since they're apparently great for ratings (last week's Palin episode was the highest rated since the Kerrigan episode).

xpost

The Joe Montana episode had another one of my favorite sketches:

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/86/86istu.phtml

^^ ok yeah, that sketch was classic

I think that Montana sketch was the first time I heard the word "masturbating."

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/91/pics/91asmalley.jpg

The Garth Brooks episode was shockingly amazing

OLD
FRENCH
WHORE

I remember reading somewhere that OFW was Tina Fey's favorite self-penned sketch.

The Garth episode was great. "Just regular cowboy stuff", "thank you for coming to Loews" etc.

how many people got their mental image of new york from SNL credits montages?

I got my earliest NYC images from the old "Late Night With David Letterman" openings.

I was talking about the original open, but this one is a bit crepey in hindsight (starts about 1:00 into clip.)

it was the Tomorrow show for me, but the late 80s era with Hartman, Dunn, Carvey, Hooks, Miller, etc. had the best "ooh like you caught me doing in NYC" montage.

I always remember the raver dude humping the convenience store ride for a split second.

For some reason old SCTVs seem to hold up better than the really old SNLs, the rare times they play either on TV

SCTV was always funnier. And you can get all the 1981-1983 SCTVs on DVD - and those episodes often include segments from the 1976-1980 period.

So how accurate are my images of Toronto, where televisions are constantly being defenestrated?

you mean melonville.

I thought SCTV was originally filmed in Edmonton(?) -- at least in the David Thomas years.

SCTV became markedly less funny when they shifted producers and moved to Toronto.

So "Second City" is in relation to Calgary?

Second City was always based around Chicago and anyone else who they were friends with.

SCTV started in Toronto, but temporarily moved to Edmonton when they reignited the series to the full 90 minute form in 1981 or so.

xp: not really true, I think ... The Toronto branch of Second City developed its own identity, tho some actors moved back and forth btwn it and Chi (Aykroyd & Radner, I think).

One SCTV producer left it for Letterman cuz he was sick of cast infighting.

most awful host of recent memory was de niro a couple years back

he recited from the cue cards like a 4th grader reading a history textbook aloud

at least pretend to try

that's one of the few recent ones I've seen. it was indeed an awulf performance.

awful, too

I remember that one. He was in some kind-of Peter Pan play sketch

peter and awulf

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/23/will-ferrell-back-as-bush_n_137399.html

tina fey's Palin is morphing into laraine newman's sherrie the air stewardess

i thought the ras trent thing samberg did saturday was funny. i know it's basically just the white guy rapping joke. but it was specific and kinda funny.

Merciful Zeus, please end this election, if only so Tina Fey can shelve her annoying Sarah Palin impression. Every age gets the satire it deserves, and from the looks of things, we are in a cheap, plasticine era....

"Fridays" went into more political depth than SNL even pretends to plumb today. Some of the material on recent shows has been incredibly inane and pointless, like John McCain challenging Obama to a pie eating contest. Have SNL's writers stopped doing drugs? Or is this merely Vicodin comedy?

It'll be interesting to see how present-day parodists deal with the Obama administration. So far, they've given us really nothing. Fred Armisen's impression on SNL is not only bad, the writers have found no satirical hook. You'd think that a fiftysomething Repub like Jim Downey might have some angle on Obama, out of partisan hatred if nothing else. Liberals are too swoony at the moment to write any decent attacks on the next imperial manager, a condition I'm sure will continue well past Obama's coronation.

http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/2008/10/when-bippy-meant-something.html

(there's an ace Richard Pryor-as-prez clip from his variety show at the end)

(there's an ace Richard Pryor-as-prez clip from his variety show at the end)

huh? its the trailer for a billy jack movie, surely?

It'll be interesting to see how present-day parodists deal with the Obama administration. So far, they've given us really nothing.

he isn't president yet.

thanks for that

(there's a hyperlink of Pryor above Billy Jack)

i missed that.

you know what? i love Richard Pryor but his TV series was pretty dud, IMHO. though i enjoyed the roast that was included on the DVD extras. also, Perrin's Michael O'Donoghue book was fantastic.

only watched the last episode through weekend update but don draper's guide to picking up women was classic

be glad you missed the MAd Men skit, akm. It had Roger and Peggy and SNL still ruined it (with slight redemption at end). Sigh.

yeah it wasn't funny, I saw that one. guy doing Sal was the only really funny thing in it.

otm. the guide to picking up women had me cracking up. first time i've actually watched snl in maybe 5 years!