Saturday Night Live

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flyonthewall2983
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#201 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Sep 02, 2019 10:27 pm

I think allegations against him were made public before this period, in which the Weinstein stuff was also coming out and the #MeToo stuff started in earnest, but he somehow got in front of it before it really caught fire.

The doc doesn't bury him at all really, but his contributions aren't mentioned on the same level as the Steves or Smigel. It is more mentioned in passing, but it's that moment where they bring up the Fallon incident that makes me think the filmmaker was taking a position without clearly stating it.

That said I liked it, I didn't quite realize that The Ambiguously Gay Duo and the Tom Brokaw-Gerald Ford skit were repurposed from the show onto SNL.


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hearthesilence
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#203 Post by hearthesilence » Thu Dec 19, 2019 5:47 pm

The show's greatest cast member, IMHO - the only one who pretty much carried the show on his own.

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Re: Saturday Night Live

#204 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Dec 19, 2019 5:54 pm

Undoubtedly, and more crucially he is the reason the show is still on the air.

black&huge
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#205 Post by black&huge » Thu Dec 19, 2019 9:24 pm

So now it is actually happening. Haven't been this excited so an SNL since the last time Chapelle hosted and that was not too great but hopefully they'll knock it out of the park here. I wonder if Murphy had a hand in most of the pitches that make it to air this weekend.

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Re: Saturday Night Live

#206 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Dec 22, 2019 9:50 am

Well that was a treat. They got the most use out of him and in return you wouldn't think he missed a day of those 35 years he was gone.

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Big Ben
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#207 Post by Big Ben » Sun Dec 22, 2019 2:22 pm

This was one of the best shows SNL has had in years. Aside from the opening which didn't feature Murphy I thought everything he was in was incredibly amusing. More of this please.

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Roscoe
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#208 Post by Roscoe » Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:54 pm

Buckwheat's medley had me as happy as I've been in a while, gotta admit.

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Andre Jurieu
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#209 Post by Andre Jurieu » Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:56 pm

I'm likely one of the only people who found it to be kind of bland. It definitely had some moments that were amusing - including Murphy swearing on camera - but a lot of the content just seemed like repetition. Then again, I'm usually fairly skeptical when something leans heavily on nostalgia.

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Roscoe
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#210 Post by Roscoe » Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:11 pm

I liked updating Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood to address gentrification a good deal -- more than mere nostalgia. On the other hand, they did nothing with Velvet Jones, who really should be supplying wives to Republican senators out of the basement of his own Church by now.

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Murdoch
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#211 Post by Murdoch » Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:32 pm

It was pretty hit or miss for me outside of the baking segment. I thought the Chance the Rapper episode was the best of this season. These last few episodes before the midseason break have been okay, but the Will Ferrell episode was very underwhelming and the Murphy ep had too many callbacks for me.

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Re: Saturday Night Live

#212 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Dec 23, 2019 5:41 pm

Roscoe wrote:
Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:11 pm
I liked updating Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood to address gentrification a good deal -- more than mere nostalgia. On the other hand, they did nothing with Velvet Jones, who really should be supplying wives to Republican senators out of the basement of his own Church by now.
I can see him refusing to do political humor. The Distinguished Gentleman wasn't a big hit.

The only thing I didn't laugh at much was the opening spoof of the debate. Update and the two skits (and one filmed bit) unrelated to Murphy's past characters were maybe the funniest for me. Update was pretty solid even without the guest appearance, and I love seeing Che and Jost and telling the jokes the other one wrote. First time seeing Pete Davidson and I thought he was hilarious.

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Andre Jurieu
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#213 Post by Andre Jurieu » Mon Dec 23, 2019 6:11 pm

I'm always impressed with how willing Jost is to make himself the target of the comedy during Update. The flipped jokes between Jost and Che are always pretty good (the cue-card joke was solid), and Davidson (or, previously, Leslie Jones) usually has a few jokes directed to him, but in this episode Jost also decided it would be great if he got puked on.

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Black Hat
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#214 Post by Black Hat » Thu Dec 26, 2019 1:10 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Mon Dec 23, 2019 5:41 pm
Roscoe wrote:
Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:11 pm
I liked updating Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood to address gentrification a good deal -- more than mere nostalgia. On the other hand, they did nothing with Velvet Jones, who really should be supplying wives to Republican senators out of the basement of his own Church by now.
I can see him refusing to do political humor. The Distinguished Gentleman wasn't a big hit.

The only thing I didn't laugh at much was the opening spoof of the debate.
Does anybody think this stuff is funny? It's so overdone to the point where it's become a parody of a parody. To say nothing of wasting 10 minutes of Eddie Murphy time on this crap.

Andre Jurieu wrote:
Mon Dec 23, 2019 6:11 pm
I'm always impressed with how willing Jost is to make himself the target of the comedy during Update. The flipped jokes between Jost and Che are always pretty good (the cue-card joke was solid), and Davidson (or, previously, Leslie Jones) usually has a few jokes directed to him, but in this episode Jost also decided it would be great if he got puked on.
Completely agree. Jost seems to be someone who 'gets it'.

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Re: Saturday Night Live

#215 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Dec 26, 2019 1:52 pm

The woman who was Jeanine Pirro on Update was hilarious. They should shift more towards spoofing the cable news drones, and not just the ones on Fox either.

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Re: Saturday Night Live

#216 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Feb 28, 2022 10:15 pm


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hearthesilence
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#217 Post by hearthesilence » Thu Jul 07, 2022 12:38 pm

I was watching the episode hosted by Ray Charles back in 1977. (FWIW, the first five seasons are generally streaming in complete, unedited and uncensored form as they were broadcast for the very first time. After that, virtually every episode will have musical numbers and certain sketches cut due to licensing costs, not to mention past changes made for rebroadcast.)

Ray Charles is marvelous - except for a brief run through "What I'd Say," the main numbers don't figure among his best-known hits, but he still sounded great. A lot of the humor was actually pretty lame. What was really depressing was the political sketches - a herculean attempt at passing his energy policy into law has failed so miserably that even though Carter's been in office for only ten months, there's already talk that he won't get a second term. That's not the depressing part, it's Aykroyd's appearance as Carter during Charles's monologue - he basically berates the American public for failing to get behind his policy. But with the benefit of hindsight, you see how completely WRONG he was. We didn't run out of natural gas or petroleum in the '80s - not even close - but he also slips in one mention of his plan's intention to fulfill a lot more of the country's energy needs from coal. Climate change wasn't really known at the time, but that still doesn't change the eventual consequences of such a plan. To be clear, I think Carter's a great humanitarian - his life after the White House is commendable to say the least and I have no doubt he was an honest, sincere and moral individual, and that is the kind of character you'd want in a world leader. (The peace accord between Israel and Egypt likely happened as a result of that in light of Carter's decision to take Anwar El Sadat and Menachem Begin to Gettysburg and what he said there to both of them.) But that sketch as well as material elsewhere in the episode was a pretty sobering reminder of how disappointing his Presidency could be in terms of achieving policy and getting things completely wrong despite the best intentions.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#218 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Aug 06, 2022 9:35 pm

Just watched a few episodes from the 1985-1986 season, notoriously a candidate for their worst as well as one of the very few that nearly saw it cancelled. (Possibly the only one where it WAS cancelled until the executive who made the decision realized it would be extremely difficult to find anything else that could succeed in that time slot.)

The Griffin Dunne episode is worth seeing, possibly because of his presence - some of the skits feel like they carry his style of humor. Even better is the acknowledgment that the show is facing cancellation - one of the high points is Dennis Miller holding a real contest called "Pinochet Countdown" where you had to guess how he was going to exit his dictatorship (A - Killed, B - Deported, C - FBI Witness Relocation Program), and the prize includes a trip to NYC (including a nice hotel and a good deal of spending money) plus two tickets to a taping of the show. Miller adds "This offer is only good while Saturday Night Live is on the air...[laughter]...LIVE. So you might want to get on that pretty soon!" [applause] "I'm going out with my shield!...See who lasts longer, Pinochet or Saturday Night Live!" In contrast to the depressing end of the 1980-1981 season, it feels like Miller, Lovitz and a few others are just having fun and going out on a high note. It's no surprise Miller and Lovitz (along with Nora Dunn) were the only three cast members invited back the following year. I'm sorry to see Cusack go, but she was probably better suited for movies rather than sketch comedy anyway. (I think she's still the only SNL cast member to land two Oscar nominations for acting.)

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Re: Saturday Night Live

#219 Post by beamish14 » Sat Aug 06, 2022 11:31 pm

hearthesilence wrote:
Sat Aug 06, 2022 9:35 pm
Just watched a few episodes from the 1985-1986 season, notoriously a candidate for their worst as well as one of the very few that nearly saw it cancelled. (Possibly the only one where it WAS cancelled until the executive who made the decision realized it would be extremely difficult to find anything else that could succeed in that time slot.)

The Griffin Dunne episode is worth seeing, possibly because of his presence - some of the skits feel like they carry his style of humor. Even better is the acknowledgment that the show is facing cancellation - one of the high points is Dennis Miller holding a real contest called "Pinochet Countdown" where you had to guess how he was going to exit his dictatorship (A - Killed, B - Deported, C - FBI Witness Relocation Program), and the prize includes a trip to NYC (including a nice hotel and a good deal of spending money) plus two tickets to a taping of the show. Miller adds "This offer is only good while Saturday Night Live is on the air...[laughter]...LIVE. So you might want to get on that pretty soon!" [applause] "I'm going out with my shield!...See who lasts longer, Pinochet or Saturday Night Live!" In contrast to the depressing end of the 1980-1981 season, it feels like Miller, Lovitz and a few others are just having fun and going out on a high note. It's no surprise Miller and Lovitz (along with Nora Dunn) were the only three cast members invited back the following year. I'm sorry to see Cusack go, but she was probably better suited for movies rather than sketch comedy anyway. (I think she's still the only SNL cast member to land two Oscar nominations for acting.)

There are a number of things about the 1985-86 season that stand out, chief among them being that Terry Sweeney was basically the show’s Scott Thompson; the lone openly gay male who often played women and ultra-effeminate men. Unlike Thompson, though, Sweeney had to contend with terrible material.

The writers (including an uncredited Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch) had no clue as to what they could do with Robert Downey, Jr., Anthony Michael Hall, or Joan Cusack. There is one particularly embarrassing skit that I remember with Downey and Hall playing Simon and Garfunkel, who strike a deal with the devil, played by Jon Lovitz. Hall says “Oh, we don’t believe in that. We’re Jewish.” Lovitz retorts, “I am, too.”

As dire as this season was, I don’t think anything approaches the total misery and torture of the Malcolm McDowell episode from 1981, which was basically made with unfinished skits

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hearthesilence
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#220 Post by hearthesilence » Sun Aug 07, 2022 6:32 pm

beamish14 wrote:
Sat Aug 06, 2022 11:31 pm
There are a number of things about the 1985-86 season that stand out, chief among them being that Terry Sweeney was basically the show’s Scott Thompson; the lone openly gay male who often played women and ultra-effeminate men. Unlike Thompson, though, Sweeney had to contend with terrible material.

The writers (including an uncredited Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch) had no clue as to what they could do with Robert Downey, Jr., Anthony Michael Hall, or Joan Cusack. There is one particularly embarrassing skit that I remember with Downey and Hall playing Simon and Garfunkel, who strike a deal with the devil, played by Jon Lovitz. Hall says “Oh, we don’t believe in that. We’re Jewish.” Lovitz retorts, “I am, too.”

As dire as this season was, I don’t think anything approaches the total misery and torture of the Malcolm McDowell episode from 1981, which was basically made with unfinished skits
I saw that Paul Simon sketch as well! It was amusing to see how they pictured an elderly Simon in 2010 - obviously it wasn't never meant to be a serious projection, he just had to be a worn-down old man ready to die, but he certainly held up better than that!

Downey and Hall really did seem worthless, but it's tough to say if that was completely the writers' fault. It's very impressive that a 17-year-old can be a cast member, but Hall's work just seems to prove why you've never seen anymore 17-year-olds joining the cast - simply too undeveloped as a sketch actor. I always thought Nora Dunn did fine work, but next to everyone else, it's tempting to say it proved how much experience could be welcome. She was already in her mid-'30s and her performances all seemed very polished yet very relaxed and lived in compared to the others. There were also a few sketches where I got the impression that they wouldn't have worked without her providing some grounding in the non-comedic role, just so that the wackier jokes didn't feel too whimsical.

I also looked into her reaction against Andrew Dice Clay, just to get more details on her protest, and there's a Salon interview in 2015 where she said this:

"Lorne said, 'Andrew Dice Clay was a phenomenon worth examining.' And yeah, he was a phenomenon, but if you’re going to examine him, he shouldn’t be the host, you should write an article. We didn’t examine the hosts of "SNL." We supported them, we wrote for them, and we made them look good. Otherwise you’d never get a host. You’re there to make them look good […] My objection to Andrew Dice Clay was that his character was only about one thing: abusing women and laughing about abusing women. There was nothing else behind it. There was nothing else about it except to make him look harmless."

And she's right. And it's really pathetic that Michaels never got that, especially given who he put on the show the year after Dunn's Salon interview, something that the show seemed to regret far too late.

beamish14
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#221 Post by beamish14 » Sun Aug 07, 2022 6:50 pm

hearthesilence wrote:
Sun Aug 07, 2022 6:32 pm
beamish14 wrote:
Sat Aug 06, 2022 11:31 pm
There are a number of things about the 1985-86 season that stand out, chief among them being that Terry Sweeney was basically the show’s Scott Thompson; the lone openly gay male who often played women and ultra-effeminate men. Unlike Thompson, though, Sweeney had to contend with terrible material.

The writers (including an uncredited Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch) had no clue as to what they could do with Robert Downey, Jr., Anthony Michael Hall, or Joan Cusack. There is one particularly embarrassing skit that I remember with Downey and Hall playing Simon and Garfunkel, who strike a deal with the devil, played by Jon Lovitz. Hall says “Oh, we don’t believe in that. We’re Jewish.” Lovitz retorts, “I am, too.”

As dire as this season was, I don’t think anything approaches the total misery and torture of the Malcolm McDowell episode from 1981, which was basically made with unfinished skits
I saw that Paul Simon sketch as well! It was amusing to see how they pictured an elderly Simon in 2010 - obviously it wasn't never meant to be a serious projection, he just had to be a worn-down old man ready to die, but he certainly held up better than that!

Downey and Hall really did seem worthless, but it's tough to say if that was completely the writers' fault. It's very impressive that a 17-year-old can be a cast member, but Hall's work just seems to prove why you've never seen anymore 17-year-olds joining the cast - simply too undeveloped as a sketch actor. I always thought Nora Dunn did fine work, but next to everyone else, it's tempting to say it proved how much experience could be welcome. She was already in her mid-'30s and her performances all seemed very polished yet very relaxed and lived in compared to the others. There were also a few sketches where I got the impression that they wouldn't have worked without her providing some grounding in the non-comedic role, just so that the wackier jokes didn't feel too whimsical.

I also looked into her reaction against Andrew Dice Clay, just to get more details on her protest, and there's a Salon interview in 2015 where she said this:

"Lorne said, 'Andrew Dice Clay was a phenomenon worth examining.' And yeah, he was a phenomenon, but if you’re going to examine him, he shouldn’t be the host, you should write an article. We didn’t examine the hosts of "SNL." We supported them, we wrote for them, and we made them look good. Otherwise you’d never get a host. You’re there to make them look good […] My objection to Andrew Dice Clay was that his character was only about one thing: abusing women and laughing about abusing women. There was nothing else behind it. There was nothing else about it except to make him look harmless."

And she's right. And it's really pathetic that Michaels never got that, especially given who he put on the show the year after Dunn's Salon interview, something that the show seemed to regret far too late.


I think that SNL has always been a fundamentally reactionary program. Remember, this is the show that also gave right-wing figureheads like Mike Huckabee and Malcolm Forbes free airtime. Jim Downey (longtime head writer and brother of Robert Downey, Sr.) and Michaels are known to be very conservative. There is an excellent take-down of this in Bob Roberts

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knives
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#222 Post by knives » Sun Aug 07, 2022 8:04 pm

Also 30 Rock with the pseudo-Michaels character played by Baldwin.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#223 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Aug 08, 2022 1:32 am

beamish14 wrote:
Sun Aug 07, 2022 6:50 pm
I think that SNL has always been a fundamentally reactionary program. Remember, this is the show that also gave right-wing figureheads like Mike Huckabee and Malcolm Forbes free airtime. Jim Downey (longtime head writer and brother of Robert Downey, Sr.) and Michaels are known to be very conservative. There is an excellent take-down of this in Bob Roberts
You mean Steve Forbes! Jesus that was a low point, especially when they threw Rage Against the Machine under a bus. And that Bob Roberts parody makes them look especially pathetic because they continued to act it out.

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swo17
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Re: Saturday Night Live

#224 Post by swo17 » Sun Mar 26, 2023 11:26 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:
Fri Jul 14, 2017 12:21 pm
Brian C wrote:While I'm on the subject, I'm going to miss Vanessa Bayer. I always thought she was a very underrated performer with a lot of range, and she leaves a big hole for the show to fill.
Amen. With McKinnon sucking up much of the oxygen in this era of the show, and Wiig in the previous era that Bayer's stint overlapped with, she never really got the accolades she deserved. Going to miss Jacob the Bar Mitzvah boy, a classic instance of something that's pretty specific to NYC that is funny no matter where the viewer is from or what their experiences are. She had a real penchant for nailing the mannerisms of children - any time she did a Disney/Nickelodeon actor of some kind it was always really, really funny.
I hadn't been paying too close of attention to SNL this century, but am catching up to Bayer's stuff and must concede that she's some kind of genius, in the realm of someone like Paul Reubens. I also noticed she got a show on Showtime last year called I Love That for You which also stars Molly Shannon, has a small supporting role for Jason Schwartzman, and has its first two episodes (which can be streamed for free) directed by Michael Showalter, so I gave it a shot. Bayer's greatest strengths seem to come from the timbre and cadence of her speech, which made her a natural for playing certain sketch comedy characters. This show doesn't really exist in a world that allows for much of that (there's even a scene that sets her up to do an impression of a character from Friends only for it not to be the one she's known for doing) so the main thing left in Bayer's repertoire is her particular way of navigating awkward social situations, but that can be pretty funny too! The cast runs deep with endearing characters, it's smartly written, and plays fair with the stakes it sets up--I think people here would like it. Apparently a second season has been written but the show hasn't been renewed yet. (This is why I don't normally like to watch TV series.)

As a side note, I was able to get a free trial of Showtime for a week to finish the series, but man, they really don't have much to offer outside of this and the Twin Peaks revival

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Re: Saturday Night Live

#225 Post by brundlefly » Mon Mar 27, 2023 1:20 am

swo17 wrote:
Sun Mar 26, 2023 11:26 pm
I hadn't been paying too close of attention to SNL this century, but am catching up to Bayer's stuff and must concede that she's some kind of genius, in the realm of someone like Paul Reubens. I also noticed she got a show on Showtime last year called I Love That for You which also stars Molly Shannon, has a small supporting role for Jason Schwartzman, and has its first two episodes (which can be streamed for free) directed by Michael Showalter, so I gave it a shot. Bayer's greatest strengths seem to come from the timbre and cadence of her speech, which made her a natural for playing certain sketch comedy characters. This show doesn't really exist in a world that allows for much of that (there's even a scene that sets her up to do an impression of a character from Friends only for it not to be the one she's known for doing) so the main thing left in Bayer's repertoire is her particular way of navigating awkward social situations, but that can be pretty funny too! The cast runs deep with endearing characters, it's smartly written, and plays fair with the stakes it sets up--I think people here would like it. Apparently a second season has been written but the show hasn't been renewed yet. (This is why I don't normally like to watch TV series.)
Was surprised how much I enjoyed I Love That for You when I binged it last year and am saddened it's in limbo. You'd think something with Bayer and Shannon would be indulgent and broad, and the setting (a QVC-style network) lends itself to easy laughs (any dollmaker would know that), but they made some winning unexpected moves. Making it an ensemble piece and giving Jenifer Lewis so much time. Going for character over comedy, even while keeping the lead a little slippery. That last thing may be less a decision than another one of the show's many inconsistencies, but it works. I didn't laugh much but am hoping we get a chance to see where they go with it.
swo17 wrote:
Sun Mar 26, 2023 11:26 pm
As a side note, I was able to get a free trial of Showtime for a week to finish the series, but man, they really don't have much to offer outside of this and the Twin Peaks revival
And Yellowjackets, if you can bear that show's inconsistencies. But yeah, the network's offerings are so slim I mostly get everything I want from it during my cable co's free trial weeks. The only thing the most recent one taught me is that something as modest as Confess, Fletch could still wind up disappointing.

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