Saturday Night Live

I thought SCTV was originally filmed in Edmonton(?) -- at least in the David Thomas years.

SCTV became markedly less funny when they shifted producers and moved to Toronto.

So "Second City" is in relation to Calgary?

Second City was always based around Chicago and anyone else who they were friends with.

SCTV started in Toronto, but temporarily moved to Edmonton when they reignited the series to the full 90 minute form in 1981 or so.

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.

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

that's one of the few recent ones I've seen. it was indeed an awulf performance.

awful, too

I remember that one. He was in some kind-of Peter Pan play sketch

peter and awulf

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

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.

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)

(there's an ace Richard Pryor-as-prez clip from his variety show at the end)

huh? its the trailer for a billy jack movie, surely?

It'll be interesting to see how present-day parodists deal with the Obama administration. So far, they've given us really nothing.

he isn't president yet.

thanks for that

(there's a hyperlink of Pryor above Billy Jack)

i missed that.

you know what? i love Richard Pryor but his TV series was pretty dud, IMHO. though i enjoyed the roast that was included on the DVD extras. also, Perrin's Michael O'Donoghue book was fantastic.

only watched the last episode through weekend update but don draper's guide to picking up women was classic

be glad you missed the MAd Men skit, akm. It had Roger and Peggy and SNL still ruined it (with slight redemption at end). Sigh.

yeah it wasn't funny, I saw that one. guy doing Sal was the only really funny thing in it.

otm. the guide to picking up women had me cracking up. first time i've actually watched snl in maybe 5 years!

"blow people away everytime you say anything / take six hour lunches / disappear for weeks at a time"

Actually yeah, Sal was pretty great in that skit. Everyone was great except the "inventors" and it was just so over the top and terrible in true SNL form. I cheered when I saw Peggy and Roger.

It was the first time I even bothered to watch the show in ages and one of the few times when I've seen anything from it where I genuinely laughed.

That was my favorite part. Although Forte as the sex offender was also kind of lulzy, he's good at playing creepy guys.

Horrible, horrible episode. They obviously blew their load with the W sketch on Thursday night. I did chuckle at the Vincent Price skit though.

that picking up women sketch was weak sauce. i've seen enough of Mad Men to 'get' the joke, but there really wasn't much of a joke there, wtf is the big deal about it. i kinda love those Vincent Price sketches, as dumb as they are.

It would be easier to hearken unto Perrin's complaints about other writers, if he could write a decent phrase or two himself. Merciful Zeus? Fiftysomething Repub??

the last two episodes have been two of the worst in the past three or four years. the michael phelps episode was in that class, too. i think the thursday weekend updates are taking their toll.

It's not like SNL was that fantastic before the thursday weekend updates, though.

took their toll, past tense, last week's was the final Thursday WU. anyway I don't see it, those episodes were as hit'n'miss as any other.

I'm sure it's been discussed but why is Kenan on this show?

Because he's a good character actor and funny and has lots of experience doing sketch comedy.

i thought the point of the Palin rap was that it was a bad idea for a sketch and Palin was sitting it out. It was making fun of jokey white-rap sketches because it was extra retarded.

the vincent price skit was pretty funny.

i thought the point of the Palin rap was that it was a bad idea for a sketch and Palin was sitting it out. It was making fun of jokey white-rap sketches because it was extra retarded.

― Whiney G. Soundgarden (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, October 27, 2008 3:01 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you can't actually be serious, right

Palin was all "I'm not gonna do this" and Amy Poehler played it WAY WAY WAY up. And then eskimos came out. You were supposed to imagine Palin doing this idiotic sketch in rehearsal.

I'm not saying it was funny, but I'm saying it was at least smarter then the Honeymooner's Rap or whatever you guys think it is

i really, really don't think you are right about that, at all. amy poehler was selling it hardcore because it's not like the palin camp was going to agree to do anything worthwhile so do the best with what you've got. like, seriously, i don't understand how you'd even get this idea about this amazing meta-joke.

i'm not saying it's amazing.

This is going to be "Sleep, that's where I'm a viking" pt. 2

i really, really don't think you are right about that, at all. amy poehler was selling it hardcore because it's not like the palin camp was going to agree to do anything worthwhile so do the best with what you've got. like, seriously, i don't understand how you'd even get this idea about this amazing meta-joke.

he just described the premise, and then you agreed that that's what the premise was but acted as if you were disagreeing.

haha

Because he's a good character actor and funny and has lots of experience doing sketch comedy.

Any time I see him I hit fast-forward on my DVR.

so you're not familiar with his work enough to speak about it, is what you're saying.

There was a time when I didn't have a DVR, and that was when I decided that if I ever got one, I would adopt this crucial policy.

Aimless, "Merciful Zeus" is a decent W.C. Fieldsism to my eyes. And it's a fucking blog, how good does it have to be?

he just described the premise, and then you agreed that that's what the premise was but acted as if you were disagreeing.

― some dude, Monday, October 27, 2008 3:21 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I was taking issue with him putting the word "amazing" in my mouth.

I just saw Lorne Michaels summarizing the joke as something like "let's think up the absolute last thing Palin would agree to do on this show," so yeah, I think Whiney's description is accurate, along with his assessment that it wasn't particularly funny.

I know I kinda said this before, but it never ceases to amaze me how totally divergent people's estimations of this show's funniness are, even from weak to weak -- I thought this weekend's was as funny as it's been thus far this season. Draper's hula-hoop pitch totally got me (and NB maybe its creators are funnier if you've seen them as recurring characters); the guide to picking up women got me; and I feel bad for anyone who turned off after the news and missed out on "Jon Hamm's John Ham."

I'm also appalled that anyone would see Kenan as anything other than terrific in this cast...