Saturday Night Live (SNL) 2016-2017 Season Thread

That 88-93 cast was the second golden age.

 

I'd amend that to '86-'93 myself.

Watched the Kristen Stewart episode with my Bro and some brews. There were a lot of dud jokes but whaddayaknow beer makes SNL funnier! Haven't watched regularly in years - I just may start.

 

agreed and then i would say the 1997-2001 cast , something like that, was the final time the show was pretty funny week after week. just looking at who was there during those years, ferrell, fallon, fey, dratch, breuer, gasteyer, hammond, kattan, meadows, shannon, morgan, oteri, parnell, quinn, sanz, man what a cast they had. since then i'd say they have had 6-7 cast members who were funny. not a a good ratio. i'd like to also say the transition years 1994-1997 had some pretty funny but short lived cast members. if i remember correctly the main players from the early 90's, myers, spade, farley, nealon, sandler and hartman all stuck around until about 1995 and supporting cast were brought in and work 2-3 years max as they tried to transition the show. a lot of good people were hired from 1994-1997 but most of them were gone by 1998

 

I'd rank them Dana Carvey era first, then the original cast, then Ferrell. And, yes, I watched the mid-'70s shows when they aired. (Was I too young to fully appreciate the early years? That may be the case.)

 

I think it's hard to fairly rate the 1975-80 cast because the show was so new and fresh. A lot of crap material gets overlooked because of the impact it had at the time.

Of course, there was a lot of talent in those years, and Bill Murray is arguably the best "SNL" produced period, but their position as the first group will always give them an edge.

If that cast was the third cast, would they get the same acclaim?

 

You mistyped "84-85".

 

Nope. Indeed, some of those early eps are borderline unwatchable, and most are pretty mixed IMHO.

Anyway, my fave era is perhaps '81 though '85 or so, when the likes of Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, and Martin Short were on the show. Perhaps not coincidentally, that was also the era I got old enough to regularly stay up late enough to watch the show.

 

I always thought Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky and Mary Gross were under-appreciated. I also always loved to see Father Guido Sarducci, Andy Kaufman and Al Franken in the early days. I think I missed at least the first Chevy Chase season; it was always Bill Murray who was the anchor man for me, although I liked the Mister Mike guy that read insane stories, plus Dan Akroyd, Gilda Radner and John Belushi were never boring.

 

The early seasons were to early for me age wise too but I remember watching some when I was older.

I didn't always get the humour in the early seasons and, at the time, I figured that it must be of "its time" in some cases. When I read stories about all the coke on set it explained a lot. lol But although I didn't always laugh there just seemed something so fresh and unhinged about those years and there's no question they had a talented cast. I found myself just watching them to experience the energy rather than the actual comedy. Not sure if I've explained that well and reading it back it sounds a little pretentious(!).

 

Makes sense to me.

 

I don't think you can count 1984-85 in the same group as 1981-1984. Yeah, I know you said "era" but the 1984-85 cast was a huge break from the prior group and should be viewed as a totally separate entity.

I have no choice for "favorite cast" as so many have had their strengths. I AM old enough that I watched the show in its original years - I was 8 when "SNL" hit the air, and I know I started to watch it at some point during Season 1, if not from the very start.

I have fond memories of those shows but like you, I think a lot of the 1975-1980 stuff is pretty awful. Some great stuff, too, but a lot more crap than some people want to admit.

I watched "SNL" pretty regularly for decades - I honestly have no idea when I stopped watching it weekly. As I got more invested in my website, I stopped watching all broadcast TV - I spent so much time in from of a TV for my reviews that I didn't want to watch more TV on my downtime - so I think I bailed probably in the late 90s.

Still see it occasionally - usually because a girlfriend wants to watch - but I don't know the show intimately like I did through 1999 or 2000 or whenever...

 

Coming up:

3/4: Octavia Spencer / Father John Misty

3/11: Scarlett Johansson / Lorde

 

Scarlett Johansson has to be the most consistently unimpressive host to join the Five Timers Club.

 

We like to turn the sound down on her and say rude things.

 

I love her 2007 appearance with Bjork as the musical guest. A big part of that for me though is that she played the grape stomping news lady who tried to jokingly cheat and then fell flat on her face. I loved that, both the original and ScarJo's take on it.

 

That's random...

 

I seem to recall Scarlett is a pretty good, if not amazing, host. But I suspect being asked back frequently also has a lot to do with how much the cast enjoys having you around.

 

She was just announced as hosting for the fifth time.......

Of course there were some redeeming moments in her previous appearances ("Fly High Duluth" is an underrated gem) but I feel like as a whole each show has been underwhelming. Compare that to someone like Anne Hathaway, who hosted three fantastic episodes but hasn't appeared since 2012, or awesome one-time hosts like Neil Patrick Harris and Anna Kendrick. Even Will Ferrell has only hosted three times, and his first time was before Scarlett's first.

 

I like Lorde a whole lot. When the performance is on YouTube, I will definitely make sure to watch.

 

Watch Dino Bones from Saturday Night Live on NBC.com

 

Ah, I see what you did there.

 

Now that's actually a pretty random sidebar.

 

What sidebar?

 

The "when on Youtube" comment. I'm sure it's true, but why make the distinction?