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To me, the best was the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players.
I loved Weekend Update. ("I'm Chevy Chase & you're not.") I especially loved it when Jane Curtin took over after Chevy left. And of course Gilda as both Emily Latella ("Oh that's different. Nevermind, b**ch) & Rosanne Rosannadana. And the Point/Counter Point with Dan Ackroyd. (Jane, you ignorant sl**.)
There was one time, Jane got on and said something like, "Some of you have written saying, 'Whatever happened to that sexy Chevy Chase?' Well, how's THIS for sexy!" And she rips open her blouse. When I saw that, I was stoned out of my mind and I just couldn't believe what I saw! I was like, WHOA!!!!
Some of the other sketches that I liked:
-The Killer Bees
-Land Shark
-The Giant Lobsters
-The Pepsi Syndrome
-Dan Ackroyd as Julia Child
-Coneheads
-Two Wild & Crazy Guys
-Cheesebugger, Cheesesbugger.
-The Thing That Wouldn't Leave
I stopped watching for the longest time and would catch it once in a great while but it just didn't seem the same. There have been a few outstanding performers over the years, Eddie Murphy, Dana Carvey, Tina Fey, to name a few. Today, I will watch the opening & Weekend Update on YouTube. I do love Kate McKinnon. I think she is brilliant.
Over the years, I find that I do like their political satire. That usually cracks me up. "I can see Russia from my house."
I watched that recent prime time replay of the 1976 show & found myself laughing a lot but also remembered that they had edited 30+ minutes out from the original show.
That's the thing that people forget about the original cast show. I watched all of them. Lots of really bad sketches in the last part of the show. Like the bees, that was utterly stupid. It was obvious they chose the best skits and put them on in the first 45 minutes or so. You don't notice this when they edit out all the filler for hour long rerun shows.
And the show really stunk when all the original cast left. The next two season were terrible. Fridays, the ABC rival/copycat show that aired late Friday night during these years, was much better. But SNL made cast changes and there were many seasons that were great again. Then every 5 or so years casts would change, there would be an off season or two, then it gets good again. But around the mid 2000s I finally gave up on the show, realizing after watching off and on for a few seasona its just not funny and not good anymore
Last edited by unfocused; 01-29-2020 at 08:04 PM..
It will always make money. I mean, it's Saturday Night at 11:30pm.. and the production costs on it are negligible. They're not hiring well known people to be in the cast.. So they're not paying them a whole lot..
it's kinda like the fact that America's Funniest Home Videos is still on the air. I didn't know that until a couple of years ago. But.. The timeslot it's in.. Sunday at 7pm. Basically production costs are paying Alfonso Ribiero to host the show and some staffers to go though the videos and taping the show.
I can't imagine that it costs even $100k per show to put that thing on the air. Which is probably the rate they get for a single 30 second commercial.
The hosts only get paid $5,000 and I think the musical guests get paid the same.
Last edited by Aspe4; 01-30-2020 at 07:22 AM..
Reason: added some information.
To me, the best was the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players.
I loved Weekend Update. ("I'm Chevy Chase & you're not.") I especially loved it when Jane Curtin took over after Chevy left. And of course Gilda as both Emily Latella ("Oh that's different. Nevermind, b**ch) & Rosanne Rosannadana. And the Point/Counter Point with Dan Ackroyd. (Jane, you ignorant sl**.)
There was one time, Jane got on and said something like, "Some of you have written saying, 'Whatever happened to that sexy Chevy Chase?' Well, how's THIS for sexy!" And she rips open her blouse. When I saw that, I was stoned out of my mind and I just couldn't believe what I saw! I was like, WHOA!!!!
Some of the other sketches that I liked:
-The Killer Bees
-Land Shark
-The Giant Lobsters
-The Pepsi Syndrome
-Dan Ackroyd as Julia Child
-Coneheads
-Two Wild & Crazy Guys
-Cheesebugger, Cheesesbugger.
-The Thing That Wouldn't Leave
I stopped watching for the longest time and would catch it once in a great while but it just didn't seem the same. There have been a few outstanding performers over the years, Eddie Murphy, Dana Carvey, Tina Fey, to name a few. Today, I will watch the opening & Weekend Update on YouTube. I do love Kate McKinnon. I think she is brilliant.
Over the years, I find that I do like their political satire. That usually cracks me up. "I can see Russia from my house."
Cat
Just about anyone can point to their favorite.. personally.. i thought Weekend Update's "Golden" years were the Dennis Miller years.
Kevin Nealon didn't do bad at it, but he wasn't a favorite.. Though, some of the 'guests' he had, such as Opera Man and Cajun Man and so on.. Those were really good. Norm McDonald.. Wow.. That's.. I can say how good and how bad he was at it. I think he's certainly a love him or hate him Weekend Update host.
But.. I have to give credit to the Chevy Chase years, because he kinda set the tone. While I don't think his were the funniest/best years of Weekend Update.. He got the ball rolling on it. And I give him all the credit in the world for that. I mean, you can still pretty much say "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead" and people know SNL.. Even if they have no idea who the hell Franco was.
Last Saturday, SNL aired the 1980 episode hosted by Kirk Douglas. This was in the so-called "golden era" of SNL. And most of the show was painfully unfunny. Nothing against Douglas. The writing was just flat. It inspired a smile or two, but no real laughs.
So it just goes to show that even in the era that most consider the show's golden age, they still suffered more misses than hits.
So why has this show survived so long???
KEY & PEELE, MAD TV, and THE CHAPPELLE SHOW put SNL to shame. They manage to make a point and be funny. SNL rarely manages either. Why is this show still gasping along?
Just about anyone can point to their favorite.. personally.. i thought Weekend Update's "Golden" years were the Dennis Miller years.
Kevin Nealon didn't do bad at it, but he wasn't a favorite.. Though, some of the 'guests' he had, such as Opera Man and Cajun Man and so on.. Those were really good. Norm McDonald.. Wow.. That's.. I can say how good and how bad he was at it. I think he's certainly a love him or hate him Weekend Update host.
But.. I have to give credit to the Chevy Chase years, because he kinda set the tone. While I don't think his were the funniest/best years of Weekend Update.. He got the ball rolling on it. And I give him all the credit in the world for that. I mean, you can still pretty much say "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead" and people know SNL.. Even if they have no idea who the hell Franco was.
Agree regarding Dennis Miller being the best Weekend Update anchor.
Last Saturday, SNL aired the 1980 episode hosted by Kirk Douglas. This was in the so-called "golden era" of SNL. And most of the show was painfully unfunny. Nothing against Douglas. The writing was just flat. It inspired a smile or two, but no real laughs.
So it just goes to show that even in the era that most consider the show's golden age, they still suffered more misses than hits.
So why has this show survived so long???
KEY & PEELE, MAD TV, and THE CHAPPELLE SHOW put SNL to shame. They manage to make a point and be funny. SNL rarely manages either. Why is this show still gasping along?
I don't think the first five years of SNL are the best. Maybe because of my age, but comedy just had a different sensibility in the 1970's and early 1980's. As I posted above, my favorite SNL era is 1986 to 1993. The show is 90 minutes so we don't get to see the the really bad sketches when 60 minute reruns come on.
To be fair, Key & Peele, Mad TV and The Chappelle Show have way more time to make material because they're not under the constraints of live television.
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