Classic Saturday Night Live Thread

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by MikaelaArsenault, Jun 20, 2020.

  1. Instant Dharma

    Instant Dharma Dude/man

    Location:
    CoCoCo, Ca
    I know a lot of people consider the OG SNL the best, its the late 80’s/early 90’s ensemble for me. They were amazing. The 79’s stuff seems dated. the Hartman/Carvey/Myers era...that’s the stuff.
     
  2. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    I watched the 15th Anniversary Special, which was basically a long clip show with monologues interspersed, and I still thought the 1970s material they showed was great. I used to watch a lot of that in reruns on Nick at Nite during the '80s-'90s era. I'll rewatch those episodes at some point...I've probably rarely if ever watched an unedited 1970s episode. But the writing of what I've watched of it recently still seems very sharp. They broke taboos in a smart way without making the entire joke dependent on that. I don't think the stuff that's dated is dated in a significant or fatal way. People still know Jaws, Star Wars, Superman, Night of the Living Dead and other things they parodied. Characters like Fred Garvin Male Prostitute, Irwin Mainway, Emily Latella, Baba Wawa and Mr. Bill could still work today. Both that era and the Carvey/Myers era mixed the lowbrow with the highbrow really well. Starting in the late '90s, the highbrow side of the show started evaporating. So you started getting the bathroom humor, sexual humor and "bad word" humor for its own sake, without any extra angle or spin put on it.
     
    hi_watt and MarkTheShark like this.
  3. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    I just bought William Clotworthy (NBC censor from 1979 to 1990)'s book "Saturday Night Live: Equal Opportunity Offender", and it's pretty interesting. Granted, he does come off a bit "moralistic" at times (and some chapters have nothing to do with SNL), he is complimentary of the cast and talks about why he approved and disapproved certain sketches, and it does offer a look at the show's battles with censors.
     
    krock2009 and MarkTheShark like this.
  4. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    When Laraine Newman did her Instagram chat a couple weeks ago, I asked her if there was anything the censors bothered her about. She said they didn't want her to say "pissed off" on the air, which had been scripted. Lorne told her not to say it in the dress rehearsal, but to go ahead and say it on the air. She said she got in a lot of trouble for that.

    I know that in the late '80s, the "*****" sketch with Matthew Broderick was a controversial one that the media talked about a lot.

    There was also a Newsradio episode in the '90s where the word "*****" was used a lot, which got delayed from one season to the next and I think had to have some uses of the word cut out before it was allowed to air.

    Oh, and I now see I'm not even allowed to use the word for that particular male body part here. Darn you, censors!
     
    Last edited: May 31, 2021
  5. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    Same here, I respect the 75-80 stuff for how innovative it was, and the early 80s stuff does have great stuff with Eddie Murphy and later, Billy Crystal, but for me, the best era is 86-94 (essentially, the Phil Hartman era), they were on a roll at that point. It took a long time to get back in the groove, even the 1995-96 season still was missing something (and the less said about 94-95, though not completely without merit, the better).
     
    Matthew Tate likes this.
  6. Instant Dharma

    Instant Dharma Dude/man

    Location:
    CoCoCo, Ca
    Yep. Lisa has gone totally bitchcakes. Omg so funny. I still use that. ;)
     
  7. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    I noticed on the Leslie Nielsen episode, comparing broadcast to what was released online officially and on Peacock now, in the Wayne's World sketch, Wayne sings "Dreamweaver" to Jan Hooks for five seconds. The NBC copy blips the screen white for a second and just snips that part right out.

    Also, how did I never hear about THIS show before?

    Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell - Wikipedia

    Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell is an American television variety show that aired on ABC from September 20, 1975, to January 17, 1976, hosted by Howard Cosell and executive-produced by Roone Arledge. The series ran for 18 episodes before being cancelled.[1]

    After Cosell's show was cancelled, the NBC show was renamed Saturday Night Live.[2]

    The show featured Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Christopher Guest as regular comedy performers, dubbed "The Prime Time Players". In response, NBC's show Saturday Night called its regular performers "The Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players" (especially since the show didn't air in prime time, but late-night). Eventually, Murray, Doyle-Murray, and Guest would all work on the NBC program.[5] Billy Crystal, who appeared on the premiere episode of Cosell's program...

    A year later, in 1977, NBC's Saturday Night appropriated the name of its former (indirect) competition.

    Only three episodes are known to survive on video:[citation needed]

    ................................

    So it's a bit of a misnomer that they didn't change the opening catch phrase to "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night Live" to match.
     
    Last edited: May 31, 2021
  8. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    ?
    Another mystery of Peacock's editing is why there are no Lothar of the Hill People sketches. I thought they could at least include the one with Chris Evert ("Women walk differently from men.") but nope. They finally included a Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein sketch in the Quincy Jones episode in which they look at the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue ("Jane had body like that. Before boy.") but it wasn't as funny as any of the "As World Turn" sketches.
     
    hi_watt and Matthew Tate like this.
  9. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    ?
    I mentioned that a few posts ago. It was great they put some effort into including the first Wayne's World sketch.
     
    Matthew Tate likes this.
  10. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    Speaking of Peacock, I've heard that all the Buckwheat sketches have been removed. I dont have time to search every episode, but if so, that's a pretty big omission (I know the first one is already iffy due to the licensed music, but the rest should be ok).
     
  11. MekkaGodzilla

    MekkaGodzilla Forum Resident

    Location:
    Westerville, Ohio
    The family of John David Stutz sued NBC in the late 80's, won a 6 figure settlement as well as PERMANENT removal of those sketches.
     
  12. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    SNL's YouTube still has a few Buckwheat sketches. I would assume at least those were ported over to Peacock. It sounds like Eddie played him again on his recent hosting job.

    My earliest memory of SNL is seeing a Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood sketch. I remember being excited because it reminded me of Mr. Rogers. My second earliest memory of SNL is the Buckwheat gets shot episode, with the constant repeated announcements that he'd been shot.

    The first Wayne's sketch is real nice in that you can see the original concept. They are truly portrayed as loser guys doing a low-grade public access show that has their friends and family on as guests. Something got lost later on when they started having celebrity guests on and their top ten lists had more sophisticated jokes than David Letterman's. Wayne is also meaner here to everybody. Later on he seemed to get polished up into a nicer, more heroic figure who was only mean to the heavies. But I like this "jerkass" Wayne.
     
    Last edited: May 31, 2021
    hi_watt likes this.
  13. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    ?
    I know the return of Buckwheat (when we find out he wasn't really assassinated) is definitely on Peacock. I don't think anything from the classic assassination episode was included.
    I can't find any news articles about this.
     
    hi_watt likes this.
  14. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    hi_watt, Scowl and Oatsdad like this.
  15. MarkTheShark

    MarkTheShark Senior Member

    Hugh Hefner said it when he hosted. Immediately a "please stand by" graphic came on screen for a few seconds. I believe what he said was along the lines of, "on Saturday Night Live one can say what one likes, for example the word..." And of course Steve Martin said it during his "what I believe" routine in the next-to-last show. (I caught myself saying "the next-to-last show" instead of "the next-to-last show of the original era." For me, having been a fan for a few years leading up to then, what followed really did feel like a different show rather than a continuation.)
     
    Scowl likes this.
  16. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    ?
    When he did that routine on the Tonight Show, he smoothly left that line out and didn't even hint that he had censored anything. You did not say that word in front of Carson.
     
  17. Jay_Z

    Jay_Z Forum Resident

    That's because the person who posted the comment is lying.
     
    krock2009, Scowl and JediJones like this.
  18. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    mmars982 and Matthew Tate like this.
  19. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    ?
    I had hoped that the editing mess of the Bruce Willis episode on Peacock was a single mistake, but the child who did that one definitely edited the Alec Baldwin episode too. Why not screw up the best episode of season 15?

    The "Garbo I Knew" sketch began and as soon as we saw Garbo hanging from the chandelier, it faded for no reason to the "Only in New York" sketch. What? The Weekend Update segment started with a dark screen and the normal theme song, then it suddenly faded out and the actual Weekend Update with the Led Zeppelin song they actually used faded in. Now if that song didn't cost money, surely the Doors song they used in a joke should have, right? The great "Diner" sketch was going great, then just before Alec Baldwin stormed out of the diner ("Makes you look cheap!") the damn thing fades out before he can deliver this great line! WTF? The complete sketch is right on the Saturday Night Live YouTube channel!

    Just like the mess on the Bruce Willis episode, there is thirty seconds of the SNL bumper card with the band playing (Is the episode over already? Nope!) but to top that, there's even one part with about twenty seconds of a completely dark screen -- just blackness! Unbelievable. As you would expect, they left out "Middle Aged Man" and worst of all, "Greenhilly" which had undoubtedly the funniest moment of season 15 which has become an SNL classic.

    To summarize: aarrrrggghhh!
     
    hi_watt, OldSoul and 905 like this.
  20. Cokelike-

    Cokelike- Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Oh
    ^ This is why I won't even bother. That sounds beyond maddening.
     
    hi_watt, OldSoul and 905 like this.
  21. OldSoul

    OldSoul Don't you hear the wind blowin'?

    Location:
    NYC
    FWIW, I really don't think anyone at the show cares about the bootlegs going around. The official Twitter account follows and likes tweets from fan accounts that openly talk about watching and streaming old boots. The whole series certainly wouldn't be openly sitting on a well known site for over a year if they wanted it taken down. I'm thinking the only reason stuff gets taken off of YouTube is automatic content ID on NBCUniversal's part.
     
  22. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    ?
    I feels it's good to see what a terrible job Peacock is doing instead of ignoring it like they want you to. What kind of amateur operation would let a television episode stream with twenty seconds of black screen in the middle of it?
     
    hi_watt and 905 like this.
  23. Chip TRG

    Chip TRG Senior Member

    This will be the greatest laugh I have this month. Bravo, Sirs!

    [​IMG]
     
    Dudley Morris and krock2009 like this.
  24. 905

    905 Senior Member

    Location:
    Midwest USA
    I'm not a Peacock fan at all. Besides the SNL issues, the WWE section is a hot mess. I was wrestling fan growing up in the eighties and nineties, and so I subscribed to the old WWE Network for nostalgia. Since they ended the old Network and migrated to Peacock, it's been pretty bad.
     
    hi_watt, R79 and Matthew Tate like this.
  25. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    ?
    I've watched a lot of good stuff on it including the short-lived Mike Judge series "The Goode Family".
     
    905 likes this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine