TV: Saturday Night Live 40 years live? and beyond -MOD 724

[Big Phil]

I should probably remember this, but does anyone remember why Lorne left in 1980 and then came back in 1985?

 

[Sharpshooter]

Celebrity Jeopardy
Steve Martin
Bill Murray's Jaws song
Seinfeld Q&A

...were my favourite parts of the show.

I miss Phil Hartman moreso after seeing him in the clips. Easily one of the most talented cast members in 40 years.

 

[RockLobster]

Celebrity Jeopardy
Steve Martin
Bill Murray's Jaws song
Seinfeld Q&A

...were my favourite parts of the show.

I miss Phil Hartman moreso after seeing him in the clips. Easily one of the most talented cast members in 40 years.

I know what you mean man...Hartman was just rock solid in EVERYTHING he did. A lot of people have mentioned over the years that while he wasn't a performer who could do a really good impersonation of anyone in particular, he was GREAT as someone you could put in every sketch...just really was funny all the way around.

Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer will always be my favorite because of the way he really hammed it up playing the title character.

Cirroc: [ stepping out] It's just "Cirroc", your Honor.. and, yes, I'm ready. [ approaches the jury box ] Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and later got thawed out by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me! Sometimes the honking horns of your traffic make me want to get out of my BMW.. and run off into the hills, or wherever.. Sometimes when I get a message on my fax machine, I wonder: "Did little demons get inside and type it?" I don't know! My primitive mind can't grasp these concepts. But there is one thing I do know - when a man like my client slips and falls on a sidewalk in front of a public library, then he is entitled to no less than two million in compensatory damages, and two million in punitive damages. Thank you.

 

[kingsholygrail]

I think this showed how awful the show has become from the actors to the writing.

When they did that montage of clips over the last 40 years, you could practically pinpoint right when the show started to suck and it was basically in the late 90s.

 

[CupInSIX]

When they did that montage of clips over the last 40 years, you could practically pinpoint right when the show started to suck and it was basically in the late 90s.

It's funny because every 5 years a new generation of fans talk about 'when the show was good'

 

[reckoning]

The special got huge ratings. Easily beat the combined totals of the other three major networks.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/02/16/tv-ratings-sunday-saturday-night-live-40th-anniversary-gigantic-csi-finale-brooklyn-nine-nine-hit-lows/363356/

I didn't see Rob Schneider, Dennis Miller, Victoria Jackson, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss there last night to name a few.

Miller wasn't there, but the other three were in attendance. Don't know why they weren't featured. I never cared much for Schneider or Jackson, but JLD should've been given something considering how big a star she became after SNL.

I know what you mean man...Hartman was just rock solid in EVERYTHING he did. A lot of people have mentioned over the years that while he wasn't a performer who could do a really good impersonation of anyone in particular, he was GREAT as someone you could put in every sketch...just really was funny all the way around.

Hartman would be my pick for greatest cast member ever for that reason- he could do everything. It's no coincidence that that the show went downhill right after he left.

 

[kingsholygrail]

It's funny because every 5 years a new generation of fans talk about 'when the show was good'

5 years is a bit short for a generation.

 

[CupInSIX]

5 years is a bit short for a generation.

it's a whole lifetime as far as network execs are concerned

 

[Brodeur]

I should probably remember this, but does anyone remember why Lorne left in 1980 and then came back in 1985?

VH1 did a nice marathon of these 2 hour retrospective shows about the different decades. Not sure if you get VH1 in Canada, but they are fun to watch. Although it seems like some things are twisted (ie, the 70s one Chevy Chase claims to leave because of his girlfriend, but omits how everybody says he left for the money/fame and the girlfriend angle was just an excuse).

As for Lorne leaving in 1980:

According to Tom Shales' book Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, Executive Producer Lorne Michaels cited burnout as the reason behind his desire to take a year off, and had been led to believe by NBC executives that the show would go on hiatus with him, and be ready to start fresh upon his return.

However, Michaels learned from associate producer Jean Doumanian that the show would go on with or without him, and that she had been chosen as his replacement, much to Michaels' surprise and dismay.

By the end of the fifth season, it seemed like most of the cast/writers were burnt out and were looking to do different things.

Similarly in 1985, Dick Ebersol was burnt out and suggested that he'd only return if the show was (predominantly) taped.

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

"Sassy's Sassiest Boys" was one of my favorite Hartman sketches.

[spoil]SASSY!![/spoil]

 

[Arthur*]

The special got huge ratings. Easily beat the combined totals of the other three major networks.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/02/16/tv-ratings-sunday-saturday-night-live-40th-anniversary-gigantic-csi-finale-brooklyn-nine-nine-hit-lows/363356/


Miller wasn't there, but the other three were in attendance. Don't know why they weren't featured. I never cared much for Schneider or Jackson, but JLD should've been given something considering how big a star she became after SNL.


Hartman would be my pick for greatest cast member ever for that reason- he could do everything. It's no coincidence that that the show went downhill right after he left.

Hasn't Victoria Jackson kind of gone of the rails recently with the political stuff?

If they were going to use Julia Louis-Dreyfus, it should've been during Seinfeld's part, obviously.

And you know what, I haven't seen any 1980-1985 SNL episodes to judge. I've seen the highlights of Murphy and Piscopo's best sketches, but I really haven't had the opportunity to see the seasons as a whole because Lorne Michaels has kind of buried their existence. I grew up on the Hartman/Nealon/Carvey/Myers/Spade/Farley seasons on Comedy Central repeats, watched much of the Ferrell era live, and even got to see the 1975-1980 seasons when the E! network started showing them when I was in high school. But the early 80s are just a blank spot. I know they've released DVDs and such, but I haven't ever watched any of them. I wonder if it's really so bad that it's worth hiding (aside from one good Eddie Murphy sketch here and there), or if it's just the fact that it's not as good as the original and not Lorne's work, so he's buried it.

 

[parabola]

Le **** now.

 

[discostu]

I should probably remember this, but does anyone remember why Lorne left in 1980 and then came back in 1985?

One version that I heard is that he essentially moved on after the original cast did, largely because that's what it seemed he should do, to move up and onwards like most producers of successful TV shows.

But, he was drawn back, as he realized he enjoyed it more than anything else he was doing. Looking at his credits in that time period, nothing else really took off for him.

 

[reckoning]

And you know what, I haven't seen any 1980-1985 SNL episodes to judge. I've seen the highlights of Murphy and Piscopo's best sketches, but I really haven't had the opportunity to see the seasons as a whole because Lorne Michaels has kind of buried their existence. I grew up on the Hartman/Nealon/Carvey/Myers/Spade/Farley seasons on Comedy Central repeats, watched much of the Ferrell era live, and even got to see the 1975-1980 seasons when the E! network started showing them when I was in high school. But the early 80s are just a blank spot. I know they've released DVDs and such, but I haven't ever watched any of them. I wonder if it's really so bad that it's worth hiding (aside from one good Eddie Murphy sketch here and there), or if it's just the fact that it's not as good as the original and not Lorne's work, so he's buried it.

The early-80s were when I first started watching it. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't that great either. Murphy carried the show, (Piscopo and Kazurinsky were also good, but the rest of the cast was forgettable). What Rock said last night was no exaggeration: Eddie Murphy's popularity was what kept the show from being cancelled.

They stopped putting out dvds after Season 5, but I think it was because the sales didn't justify the money they had to spend on securing the music rights.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

1. When did the phrase "mark out" come into existence? Let's do our part to send it back to the void.

2. Will Ferrell was so much better on SNL than he's given credit for. Tons of amazing, diverse characters. He's one of the very best cast members ever, even if many people have since overdosed on his movies.

Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer will always be my favorite because of the way he really hammed it up playing the title character.

It was great because Hartman was great, and the writer Jack Handey is great.

 

[kingsholygrail]

1. When did the phrase "mark out" come into existence? Let's do our part to send it back to the void.

2. Will Ferrell was so much better on SNL than he's given credit for. Tons of amazing, diverse characters. He's one of the very best cast members ever, even if many people have since overdosed on his movies.



It was great because Hartman was great, and the writer Jack Handey is great.

Was hoping for some Harry Caray.

 

[Pugs35]

1. When did the phrase "mark out" come into existence? Let's do our part to send it back to the void.

2. Will Ferrell was so much better on SNL than he's given credit for. Tons of amazing, diverse characters. He's one of the very best cast members ever, even if many people have since overdosed on his movies.



It was great because Hartman was great, and the writer Jack Handey is great.

Amen. This is the only place I've ever seen it and it was driving me crazy.

 

[donghabs98]

Anyone know where I can watch old SNL clips? I heard there is a SNL app with a bunch of old clips but I think it's only for Americans.

 

[KaylaJ]

Boy, some writer/reviewer at Yahoo! (at least that's where I read it this morning, but now I can't find the damn link on that site!) doesn't seem to understand the concept of "just having a good time".

Sorry to cut everything. While I hardly remembered her impression and I thought that part was a bit cringe worthy (the only thing that saved Norton was Hader), I wouldn't call it the worst.

Well said Rock.

And I agree. Those tributes were well done. As that's what they were. I thought Stone did a very fine job.

I thought the show also showed how hard it is to do comedy. As a couple of the very painful cringe worthy moments were Taylor Swift, and to a lesser degree Bradley Cooper trying to be funny in that soap opera skit. Swift really came up short, imo, to the point of being a sore thumb in that skit. And Cooper, a good actor, was definitely better than Swift, but not very good. Just some nitpicking things, but yeah, I thought the show was great.

The Californians skit is always horrible. I think when they used to show it more regularly, only one poster was a fan. I think part of the act is to be so soap opera acting bad, but no one is ever really good at it.

"Sassy's Sassiest Boys" was one of my favorite Hartman sketches.

[spoil]SASSY!![/spoil]

I still use that.

The early-80s were when I first started watching it. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't that great either. Murphy carried the show, (Piscopo and Kazurinsky were also good, but the rest of the cast was forgettable). What Rock said last night was no exaggeration: Eddie Murphy's popularity was what kept the show from being cancelled.

They stopped putting out dvds after Season 5, but I think it was because the sales didn't justify the money they had to spend on securing the music rights.

Some of the older shows get a lot more credit than they deserve. I mean they were great, but even they had some bumps in the road. They used to show full length SNLs after the new episode here and while you got some classic skits, you had to go through a few others to get to them.

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

Overall I enjoyed it, but man was that Murphy appearance a disappointment. He was the #1 reason I wanted to watch this special in the first place.


And I agree with the posters who said that this made them miss Phil Hartman even more. Seeing his clips reminded me of how devastated I was when we lost him and Farley within months of each other.

 

[Jumptheshark]

I should probably remember this, but does anyone remember why Lorne left in 1980 and then came back in 1985?

The early-80s were when I first started watching it. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't that great either. Murphy carried the show, (Piscopo and Kazurinsky were also good, but the rest of the cast was forgettable). What Rock said last night was no exaggeration: Eddie Murphy's popularity was what kept the show from being cancelled.

They stopped putting out dvds after Season 5, but I think it was because the sales didn't justify the money they had to spend on securing the music rights.

One version that I heard is that he essentially moved on after the original cast did, largely because that's what it seemed he should do, to move up and onwards like most producers of successful TV shows.

But, he was drawn back, as he realized he enjoyed it more than anything else he was doing. Looking at his credits in that time period, nothing else really took off for him.

He left for several reason--the old cast had left, ratings dipped and NBC started to get more involved. He went on and formed a production company and when NBC realized that needed him back--he got a blank check and ore or less comtrol of the place.

The one thing I picked up on was the multiple OJ simpson jokes--I think that was a sort of F.U to certain people who stepped on Lornes shoes during that time and it was his way of saying he had not forgotten. It was nice to have Norm Macdonald back

 

[Big Phil]

When they did that montage of clips over the last 40 years, you could practically pinpoint right when the show started to suck and it was basically in the late 90s.

I know it sounds like a broken record, but there were definitely better eras than others on SNL. Almost anyone who watched during the time would probably agree that 1986-'94 was an exceptional time period. For a lot of reasons. The 1985-'86 season was horrible. Lorne brought in Hartman and Carvey and Jan Hooks and Victoria Jackson the year after. Miller and Lovitz were already there. From then on the show was great and it isn't a coincidence that 1994 was the last best year at SNL for a while. Hartman left, Carvey had left and while 1994-'95 was still a decent year, it wasn't the same. But 1995 onwards is when it just stayed being brutal.

Will Ferrell in that late 1990s/early 2000s era was sort of like Eddie Murphy in the early 1980s, the lone bright spot. There were guys like Jim Breuer, Chris Kattan, Cheri Oteri, Tracy Morgan, etc. They fired Norm MacDonald who actually was funny. It was a dark time. Colin Quinn was not a good Weekend Update guy. Dennis Miller he wasn't. Then Jimmy Fallon comes in and I just never got into Fallon on that show. I think maybe by the time the mid 2000s came around things started to pick up a bit. Hader, Samberg, Wiig, Forte, Sudekis, etc. came around. The 2008 Presidential era was pretty good, sort of got me watching it more regularly again. And I would say up until 2012 the show was pretty good again. But since 2012, not so much.

So I would definitely say the best era was 1986-'94 followed up by 1975-'80. The original cast, once they got the chemistry going did well obviously.

 

[SPV]

Anyone know where I can watch old SNL clips? I heard there is a SNL app with a bunch of old clips but I think it's only for Americans.

There is an SNL app for the iphone; it's pretty excellent. has clips from every episode from every season. I've been watching it a lot today.

Really enjoyed the show last night. I'm in my early 40's; so kinda grew up with the show, and come back to it every few years as a new cast gets their footing. I feel like the show re-invents itself every couple of years and continues to be topical and entertaining. And it continues to be a star making factory.

Was nice to see nearly everyone show up and willing to go out and have fun like that . I agree with the assessment that they could have cut some musical numbers; but I know that is a big part of the show. I thought the tribute, McCartney and of course Simon with Still Crazy were all good; but the other two were horrid.

 

[bohlmeister]

One thing that I believe got said last night was that it was edgy, and stretching the boundaries. Not sure in the past, but that certainly doesn't feel like the case now. There are so many online options that it is harder to be edgy on network tv.

The biggest thing though, as was mentioned lots, SNL is a comedy institution. It has touched so much of the mainstream comedy through the last 40 years. Really an amazing show.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Was hoping for some Harry Caray.

Harry Caray, Dubya, Terence Maddox, James Lipton, Robert Goulet, Janet Reno, Alex Trebek, Neil Diamond, the skit with Dratch where they were "lovahs", etc.

I mean, that's a ******** of great characters. The Ferrell backlash accusations of being a one-note comedian really doesn't apply.