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.
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.
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.
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.Big Phil said:I didn't see Rob Schneider, Dennis Miller, Victoria Jackson, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss there last night to name a few.
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.RockLobster said: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.
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.
I should probably remember this, but does anyone remember why Lorne left in 1980 and then came back in 1985?
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.
Hasn't Victoria Jackson kind of gone of the rails recently with the political stuff?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.
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.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.
Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer will always be my favorite because of the way he really hammed it up playing the title character.
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.
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.
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".
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.
"Sassy's Sassiest Boys" was one of my favorite Hartman sketches.
[spoil]SASSY!![/spoil]
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.
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.
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.
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.
Was hoping for some Harry Caray.