As part of my quarantine watch-alongs with friends online last year, I introduced my friend in Brazil to 1970's SNL (she had never seen any of SNL before) - we watched the Best Ofs for Gilda, Dan, Chevy and John. She INSTANTLY fell in love with them, especially Gilda. We tried showing her The Best of Will Ferrell, too, but that didn't grab her at all - she did enjoy, and still quotes, The Best of Eddie Murphy though. She keeps telling me I could die tomorrow, just like John David Stutts. XD
I came across another worthless mystery while watching season 14 (perhaps my favorite season). When SNL first aired I never stayed awake long enough to hear Don Pardo announce who would be hosting the next week, but during the credits of the Matthew Broderick show he said that Mary Tyler Moore would be hosting the next week. That made sense because I remember her hilariously referring to the (can I say this word here? Nope. It's the male thing...) ***** sketch in her monologue. But no! The next week was John Larroquette and no mention of Mary Tyler Moore was made. Then the next week Matthew Modine hosted and once again Pardo said Mary Tyler Moore would be hosting the next show with (previously banned) Elvis Costello. But no again! The next week was a different Moore (the Demi one) and no Elvis Costello. The Mary Tyler Moore/Elvis Costello episode didn't happen until months later. So as I watch this season, I'm wondering if Pardo is going to say this at the end of every episode until it comes true.
Are you watching on Peacock, or watching boots? If the latter, you were probably watching a repeat broadcast from season 15. Actually, I remember a lot of these streaming edits being from repeat tapes, too (with the repeat disclaimer plastered on).
There was a monthlong gap of reruns before MTM's episode aired on 3/25/1989. So I would guess those early season 14 episodes were rerun in March and they were teasing her as hosting the next upcoming new episode. As for how they handle reruns, as discussed earlier in this thread, it appears after a live broadcast, they assemble a "permanent" episode combining their preferred version of every sketch between dress rehearsal and live, and making any other edits they deem appropriate. And then those reassembled episodes are the ones we see in reruns anywhere after that. Perhaps those reruns weren't actually put together back then until it was time to rerun the episode for the first time. So those permanent episodes may only have been assembled in March 1989 when they knew MTM would be hosting the next new episode. Or they could've slapped on the MTM teaser later, but still left it on the permanent record of the episode. I'm looking at an "archived" copy of the Modine episode that is from an NBC airing (shows an NBC 2 Bangor logo at the start) and Pardo teases Demi Moore at the end, so that appears to be the original broadcast. The "archived" copy of the Broderick episode is from a Comedy Central airing and those seem to delete the Pardo voiceover on the credits to replace it with Comedy Central announcements.
Found another copy of the Broderick episode where John Larroquette is teased on the credits. While poking around I found this. A 1989 interview with the cast on Donahue. Phil Hartman opens it with his Donahue impression: Donahue- The Cast of Saturday Night Live (1989) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Conversations from Heaven: Chris: "Remember that time when you...when you were on Donahue and you...you did your Donahue impression...for Donahue?" Phil: "Yes." Chris: "That was awesome."
Those segments were a highlight for me and presumably many viewers. They were so popular they were collected in a book. IIRC, the book essays featured longer length versions of the monolgues, indicating he had whittled them down for SNL.
This talk of reruns reminds me of something going back to the late 1970s -- when a rerun would come on, after "Live from New York..." is said, as the title sequence began they would superimpose the words "The following is an encore presentation of an NBC Saturday Night Live program previously recorded." Then I remember for some reason, the Season 5 premiere (hosted by Steve Martin) had at the very beginning, the words "This is NOT a repeat," with the word "not" underlined. I believe that stayed on there when it was repeated later, although they may occasionally have clipped off the very beginning to eliminate it. It seems kind of silly; I don't remember them doing that at the beginning of any other season, and given that Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi quit after Season 4, and they used a different theme song, I would think it should have been immediately obvious to anyone watching that "this is NOT a repeat."
Thanks to the fever I got from my second COVID-19 shot I got to watch a lot more season 14 episodes last night. This is my favorite season so of course I'm going to complain again about many great episodes being cut down to a little over twenty minutes which means they're Weekend Update and one or two sketches. Of course they couldn't include the Beauty and the Beast parody with Demi Moore ("Here's your nachos.") because it included the intro from the show. Instead we get to watch the sketch in which Moore gets bit by a rattlesnake over and over. They also didn't include "One Man's Demons" probably because no one but me thought it was funny. I don't know why they skipped Arnold Schwarzenegger visiting Hans and Franz in the Danny Devito opener. All the other Hanz and Franz sketches have made the cut so far. The classic Leslie Nielsen episode is almost all there and there's one interesting edit. In the first ever Wayne's World sketch, at the end of Wayne fishing Nancy with his confession of his love, there is a flash edit to him yelling, "Fished in!" The transcript shows he began singing "Dream Weaver", so I'm glad they were able to edit that out instead of tossing the whole sketch. I'm still shocked that they ever allowed the part with Wayne telling the guy on the phone to molest his unconscious girlfriend.
Pretty much every episode was posted online last year and can be watched with one click, either from an original broadcast or an NBC, Comedy Central or E! rerun. So in far more complete form than NBC has. I don't know how long they're going to last. But if you know where things tend to get archived on the internet, they can be easily Googled.
I don't watch illegal uploads. I've seen all of these episodes at least a dozen times so it's not like I've missed anything.
Getting back to people you're surprised never hosted, kind of surprised Cheech and Chong never hosted back in the 70s when they were white hot. Guess they didnt want a "gimmick" act to host.
Cheech and Chong were kind of the Foster Brooks of their generation. If i had to guess, I’d speculate that Lorne Michaels et al considered them low-brow, and I doubt NBC was pushing for more drug humor either. They would have fit better on Fridays.
You'd also have to wonder how well an established comedy duo would work with a room full of television writers. From what I've read, a lot of what Michaels did was avoid potentially problematic hosts since putting on a live television show was hard enough already.
Watching a lot of Three’s Company reruns on IFC recently and Im pretty surprised nobody from the cast ever ever hosted.
Lorne Michaels had a general rule back then to avoid getting hosts who were only television stars, though it was a pretty loose rule, particularly in the first and fifth seasons. The Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad book about the show discusses this, and tells the story of a staffer who landed Carroll O’Connor as a guest without clearing it with Michaels first, then had to tell O’Connor’s agent the offer was off the table because Lorne thought his client was “just television,” or words to that effect.
Yeah, I was just looking over the host lists for the first four seasons, and Rob Reiner on episode three is really the only host who would qualify as "just" a TV star over that period of time. As you noted, the rule seems to go out the window in season five, with Bea Arthur, Howard Hesseman, and Ted Knight all getting the gig. John Ritter would have fit right in as host during the Ebersol years.
John Ritter seems to now be regarded as a comedic genius, but I don't think that was the case in the late 70s. As I recall, "Three's Company" was seen as cheap, tacky comedy by many - the lowest of brows. I think it's still seen that way to a large degree - and fairly, as an awful lot of the humor relied on smirky sexual innuendo - but Ritter's talents have been reassessed. I don't think anyone would've considered him "cool" in the late 70s, though, so a host spot on "SNL" would've been a stretch. "SCTV" apparently thought so little of Ritter that they put him as part of the celebs in "Shoot at the Stars", a surprisingly mean-spirited sketch (by that series' standards):
Disagree on John Ritter and Three's Company. Lucille Ball was such a big fan she hosted a best of special on Three's Company which still gets shown in syndication
Yeah, perhaps you're right. I agree that Three's Company was regarded as lowbrow and corny (which frankly, it was, regardless of Ritter's talent for slapstick). I guess I was thinking that being "cool" wasn't necessarily a criteria for hosting during the Ebersol era, but perhaps you're right that Ritter would have been a reach too far at the time.
Carvey started a new podcast this year. Haven't listened to it yet, but sounds like he does some voices on it: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantastic-with-dana-carvey/id1548073553 Dennis Miller's podcast recently ended, but he did a lot of SNL-related interviews on it with Carvey and others that can be listened to: The All New Dennis Miller Option on Apple Podcasts MAY 8, 2018 - S1 E3 Dana Carvey DEC 27, 2018 - S1 E65: Paul Shaffer APR 2, 2019 - S2 E15: Dana Carvey talks Jussie Smollett, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Paul McCartney, Greco-Roman Wrestling and more! MAY 23, 2019 - S2 E30: Kevin Nealon Discusses SNL, Bad Apartments, Hiking and More! JUL 18, 2019 - S2 E45: Bill Hader, Eagles, Mets Ball and More! JUL 30, 2019 - S2 E48: It's Julia Sweeney! SEP 3, 2019 - S2 E58: Jon Lovitz talks...ACTING! OCT 8, 2019 - S2 E68: Jim Breuer Discusses Opening for Metallica, Dave Chappelle, SNL firing Shane Gillis and more! DEC 10, 2019 - S2 E85: Dana Carvey talks Biden, Bernie, Obama, "The Crown" and more! DEC 24, 2019 - S2 E89: Christmas Eve with Martin Short MAR 26, 2020 - S2 E114: Dana Carvey On Social Distancing, Trump, Arnold and more! APR 14, 2020 - S2 E119: Original SNL Writer Alan Zweibel talks comedy, meats and more! MAY 7, 2020 - S2 E126: Jon Lovitz on Quarantine Dating, Feeding America, SNL and more! JUL 30, 2020 - S2 E150: Alan Zweibel Returns with More "SNL" Stories, PLUS- Live Phone Calls AUG 25, 2020 - S2 E157: Dana Carvey on SNL, Regis, Robin Williams and Much More NOV 17, 2020 - S2 E181: Alan Zweibel on Norm Crosby & Colin Quinn on Norm MacDonald, Bombing At Robert DeNiro's 60th Birthday Party And More! DEC 15, 2020 - S2 E189: Out of Options : Our Final Episode (with Dana Carvey)
Disagree with what about Ritter and "Three's Company"? My assertion that it was viewed as low-brow and cheesy in the 70s?
Heck, you didn't really have to be cool to host in the 1975-80 span - Milton Berle hosted in 1979, and he couldn't have seemed more uncool to the target audience if he tried! But at least Berle had credibility as a legend, whereas in the late 70s, I think Ritter was just some guy on a bad TV show to a lot of people. I really do think that "SCTV" sketch offers an indication of how he was viewed by the "cool kids" in that era. "SCTV" was usually pretty kind 'n' gentle with parodies, but they were brutal toward Ritter! All 3 of the "Three's Company" leads got zapped on "SCTV", though. Suzanne Somers became "Barbie Summers":
