I remember the 1980 ep with Malcolm McDowell being quite terrible (w/ MM sending up John Lennon a few weeks before his murder)
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 13:30 (fifteen years ago) link
wow Laurie Metcalf was on SNL during the 1980 season????
― Pipe Wrench Fight (HI DERE), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 13:37 (fifteen years ago) link
I just learned that Gilbert Gottfried was in the cast that year, too.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 13:52 (fifteen years ago) link
yes, weirdly trying to fit in.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 13:55 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah there's kind of a whole bunch of famous people who were on SNL in the 80s but didn't have memorable tenures or get a real career boost from it (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Robert Downey Jr., Damon Wayans, Ben Stiller, etc.)
― some dude, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 14:00 (fifteen years ago) link
Julia Louis-Dreyfus was my favorite cast member from her season!
― Pipe Wrench Fight (HI DERE), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 14:08 (fifteen years ago) link
nobody ever says gary kroeger.
i still have his "my name is needleman! i'm an oral surgeon!" song going through my head.
― REIGN IN FUDGE (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 14:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Wayans wasn't given't enough to do, and when he tried to improvise, was fired. He and the way underrated Danitra Vance were in probably the best sketch of that whole season, "That Black Girl."
― Sara Sara Sara, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 14:16 (fifteen years ago) link
joan cusack and anthony michael hall were cast members?
― mizzell, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 14:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Yup. I think AMH was the youngest cast member ever.
― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 14:33 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― mizzell, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 14:39 (fifteen years ago) link
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?
― jaymc, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 14:55 (fifteen years ago) link
mckean?
― flyover statesman (will), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 14:56 (fifteen years ago) link
^^ Going with that.
― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Yep.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:04 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:04 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:07 (fifteen years ago) link
cmon worst ep ever has to be nancy kerrigan
― goole, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:11 (fifteen years ago) link
I miss Rich Hall. I remember the David Byrne clothing commercial skit!
― Woman Who Force Madonna At House Party To Make Bold Statement (Mackro Mackro), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:19 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― some dude, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:22 (fifteen years ago) link
The Joe Montana episode had another one of my favorite sketches:
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/86/86istu.phtml
― Pipe Wrench Fight (HI DERE), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:24 (fifteen years ago) link
^^ ok yeah, that sketch was classic
― some dude, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:33 (fifteen years ago) link
I think that Montana sketch was the first time I heard the word "masturbating."
― The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:36 (fifteen years ago) link
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/91/pics/91asmalley.jpg
― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:37 (fifteen years ago) link
The Garth Brooks episode was shockingly amazing
― Woman Who Force Madonna At House Party To Make Bold Statement (Mackro Mackro), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:42 (fifteen years ago) link
OLDFRENCHWHORE
I remember reading somewhere that OFW was Tina Fey's favorite self-penned sketch.
― The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:45 (fifteen years ago) link
The Garth episode was great. "Just regular cowboy stuff", "thank you for coming to Loews" etc.
― dan selzer, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:54 (fifteen years ago) link
how many people got their mental image of new york from SNL credits montages?
― s1ocki, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:56 (fifteen years ago) link
I got my earliest NYC images from the old "Late Night With David Letterman" openings.
― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:58 (fifteen years ago) link
I was talking about the original open, but this one is a bit crepey in hindsight (starts about 1:00 into clip.)
― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:01 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Joe Petagno's Imagination Station! (Mackro Mackro), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:03 (fifteen years ago) link
For some reason old SCTVs seem to hold up better than the really old SNLs, the rare times they play either on TV
― burt_stanton, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:08 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Josefa, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:15 (fifteen years ago) link
So how accurate are my images of Toronto, where televisions are constantly being defenestrated?
― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:27 (fifteen years ago) link
you mean melonville.
― s1ocki, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:29 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought SCTV was originally filmed in Edmonton(?) -- at least in the David Thomas years.
― Joe Petagno's Imagination Station! (Mackro Mackro), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:30 (fifteen years ago) link
SCTV became markedly less funny when they shifted producers and moved to Toronto.
So "Second City" is in relation to Calgary?
― jaymc, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Second City was always based around Chicago and anyone else who they were friends with.
― Joe Petagno's Imagination Station! (Mackro Mackro), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:35 (fifteen years ago) link
SCTV started in Toronto, but temporarily moved to Edmonton when they reignited the series to the full 90 minute form in 1981 or so.
― Joe Petagno's Imagination Station! (Mackro Mackro), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:37 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:39 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― Edward III, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:44 (fifteen years ago) link
that's one of the few recent ones I've seen. it was indeed an awulf performance.
― Granny Dainger, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:49 (fifteen years ago) link
awful, too
I remember that one. He was in some kind-of Peter Pan play sketch
― burt_stanton, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 17:08 (fifteen years ago) link
peter and awulf
― s1ocki, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 17:24 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― MacElby's Puddin'© (stevie), Friday, 24 October 2008 14:21 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― news is dicks. (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Monday, 27 October 2008 08:52 (fifteen years ago) link
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)
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 27 October 2008 13:12 (fifteen years ago) link