A Few Thoughts on Saturday Night Live

Back in October I brilliantly posted thusly:

The show is pretty much exactly the same as it always was: each episode has one or two good sketches, sometimes a classic, and then a bunch of others that are blah or terrible or just fine or whatever. Every season, rinse lather & repeat. We can all have our favorite eras and casts of course, but the notion of one era somehow being worthy of some sort of comedy nobility over another is purely a happenstance of generational or anti-recency bias.

For you people - and only you people - I will watch two entire episodes from every season, one in the Fall and one in the Spring, and report on them. I have a feeling my premise will be borne out as true and once again, I will reign supreme. Amen, me.

Just before Christmas I went through random episodes to prove my thesis and did so with flying colors. For some reason - maybe because I was in the midst of a Family Ties marathon which always makes me think of Ronald Reagan - I picked out one show per presidential administration. Here are my findings, and you're welcome in advance.

May 1976 - Dyan Cannon

Best sketch: Participants in a hearing test don't notice that their teacher has been taken hostage by a pair of wanted criminals.

 

Grade: C-   There are some loooooong unwatchable stretches, in particular the films were almost impossible to LITERALLY see. I know we all are supposed to hate Chevy Chase, but he really was the STAR - sorry, Belushi fanatics - and everything he said and every look he gave really was funny af. And apparently they had an offer that if you (yes, YOU!) had a 2-minute film you could send it in and Trudy’s consider airing it whaaaaaaat? Why did they stop that? Legal reasons I guess. Boooooo!

 

Dec 1977 - Mary Kay Place

Grade: n/a   This entire episode had nothing even remotely funny about it, and it’s not like you can say that none of the superstars were involved - because the cast was so tiny, all the big hitters - Belushi, Ackroyd, Murray et al - were in every sketch. The episode is remarkable in how unremarkable it is; I’m pretty sure nobody involved has thought about it once in the last 45 years since it aired. Anytime someone wants to claim that the early cast was some sort of magical Wolverine of constant classic comedy, just show them this episode. 

 

Best sketch: none. No sketch was remotely funny. The Hannakhuh one could’ve been interesting/funny but never got there. 

 

Interesting note: In 1977 they were already shitting on kids for not reading.

 

Oct 1982 - Ron Howard

Grade: D-

 

Best sketch: Harry Anderson standup set, which should tell you how great the actual sketches were. “If your cat has kittens in the oven you don’t call them biscuits?” Future Ross Perot joke??! 

 

Shocking how unrecognizable the cast names even are. I consider myself a big fan of the show, have read entire books about it and I literally had never read the names Tim Kazurinsky, Mary Gross, Gary Kroeger or Robin Duke before.

 

The riff during Weekend Update about who should be unemployed was funny but went on forever.

 

Speaking of Weekend Update, I guess Brad Hall’s funny enough to get Julia Louis-Dreyfuss but from what I’ve witnessed there’s nothing funny about Brad Hall. Zero. Nada. zilch. 

 

Seems determinedly terrible. Like a 6th grader wrote it. If every week was like this then it really is surprising the show survived the non-Lorne Michael years. 

 

Apr 1987 - John Lithgow

Grade: C  Purely based on Lithgow charisma and Dennis Miller absolutely lighting up Weekend Update. 

Best sketch: Master Thespian. Classic Lovitz + classic Lithgow = classic. But even this was fucking interminable.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

 

I noticed the same thing during the Ron Howard episode, that they seemed much more comfortable with going for long stretches without the host in the olden days.

 

Feb 1991 - Kevin Bacon

Grade: C 

Best Sketches: making copies and Stuart Smalley; both are considered absolute classics by now.

May 1994 - Heather Locklear

Grade: C- (WAY too dependent on recurring sketches)

Best Sketch: the Kevin Nealon bar sketch

By now in the show’s run, every halfway decent sketch is one that recurs constantly (Coffee Talk, Canteen Boy, Wayne’s World etc).

 

Most of it is just lazy Melrose Place shit anyone could’ve written.

 

There’s even an Adam Sandler song during Weekend Update I’ve never seen or remembered it’s so forgettable.

 

Interesting that Mike Meyers’ Holocaust reaction is the exact the same as his future Kanye reaction after Hurricane Katrina.

 

April 1999 - John Goodman

Grade: D-

Best Sketch: Happy Smile Patrol

Nothing about this episode was remotely interesting other than “simmer down now!”

 

You can probably notice I’m running out of steam when it comes to writing about these episodes as we go along.

 

Nov 2002 - Eric McCormick

Grade: B-

Best sketches: the game night was pretty good, Gene shallot on Weekend Update was good, the bullhorn bit was almost good but why not make it an air horn!!!! 

Oct 2006 - John C. Reilly

Grade: C-/D+

Best sketch: n/a

Perfectly fine, completely forgettable. Was rooting hard for Bear Shark but nothing  really happened. 

 

“JARVIS” in the Oreo sketch made me think of the greatest name in college basketball ever.