Classic Saturday Night Live Thread

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

  1. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    In the middle of this interview, David Spade tells a story of how he picked up a piece of the Pope picture Sinead tore up and took it home. He said he was thinking someone might think it was an interesting anecdote years down the road, but no one had any idea it would become a huge media story. He did tell people he took it later. He said SNL security confronted him, said the rumor is someone took a piece and sold it for tens of thousands of dollars. Which pressured him to produce the piece, and they made him give it back.

     
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  2. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I have no memory of this one at all!

     
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  3. MarkTheShark

    MarkTheShark Senior Member

    I remember in 1979-1980 (the final season for the original SNL), NBC ran a weekly prime time series called "The Best Of Saturday Night Live" which normally ran an hour (though at least once it was expanded to 90 minutes). The opening was based on the Season 4 intro, but a shorter version using one photo (rather than two) of each cast member. Chevy Chase was added to the show opening and most weeks "all eight" cast members were featured (although Chase was absent from a few shows).

    They started out having a guest host for the night like the live show, and often combined segments from different appearances by the same host from different seasons. But later in the season they were more haphazard about the selection of segments, including sketches with different hosts and then billing them in the opening as "special guests."

    Anyway, I really enjoyed seeing this version of the show when it was on, maybe because it was an opportunity to see a lot of material from the early seasons which I hadn't seen before (I had started watching the show in Season 4 and quickly became a big fan).

    This was different from the syndicated one-hour "Saturday Night" of a couple years later (which were original shows cut to one hour) and the half-hour "Best Of Saturday Night" which aired in syndication and later on Nick At Nite. I never saw these compilation shows again and wondered if they were even archived as each one only aired once. I brought this up at Home Theater Forum and someone replied that not only were they saved, but 10 of the episodes were actually released on VHS in the early 1990s. I tracked down a VHS box set which I got for a few bucks on ebay and it was great fun to see these again, even though I have the entire set of Seasons 1-5 on DVD.

    I was just shocked these were out there -- not only were they out there, but I know for certain I saw those tapes in the stores, probably looked them over but never realized what they were -- even though they have all the segments in each show listed on the back cover.

    They're a footnote, but while there have been many compilation videos of the series over the years, this was actually a prime time series which was fairly successful in its own right.
     
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  4. modrevolve

    modrevolve Forum Resident

    I’ve always wondered what these episodes were I used to watch when I was a kid. Thanks for clearing that up!

    “This was different from the syndicated one-hour "Saturday Night" of a couple years later (which were original shows cut to one hour) and the half-hour "Best Of Saturday Night" which aired in syndication and later on Nick At Nite.”
     
  5. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    The Nick at Nite reruns are really why I started watching the show. I remember as a young kid seeing some parts of the early '80s episodes. I know I saw Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood, something from Buckwheat gets shot and the Nathan Thurm 60 minutes bit, in their original airings or reruns not long after. I think I had some inkling of the original cast, maybe from other reruns of those episodes that were aired less often or later at night. But after being familiar with Aykroyd and Murray from Ghostbusters, as well as Steve Martin from other movies, I jumped at the chance to watch the Best of reruns on Nick at Nite when they started airing in 1988. I assume they used those to promote the new season, because I can see from episode guides that I watched most of the 1988-1989 season, and have much more memory of continuing to watch through the '90s, when it became common for all of my friends in high school to watch and quote the show. I definitely have seen very few of the first two years of the Carvey/Hartman era, the 1986-87 and 1987-88 seasons, because it was those Nick at Nite reruns that started shortly before the 1988-89 season premiere which seem to have gotten me watching the live show regularly for the first time in that cast's third year.
     
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  6. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    I find it odd that the Comedy Central reruns (which is what got me watching) started off with the 1980-81 season. Sure, they eventually got the 30 minute "best of SNL" eps (which surprisingly included the Louise Lasser episode), but the one hour ones started with one of the weaker seasons (I also question why the CC reruns, for all the seasons, kept in the musical guests, since if they cut out the music you could probably fit in all of the sketches in a single hour).
     
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  7. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    I had never even heard of the 1985-1986 cast before they showed up on some of the Comedy Central reruns. I'm pretty sure at least parts of the Lasser episode were on the Nick at Nite Best Ofs. I've never watched it as a full episode. Looking over the onesnladay recap, the only thing that rings a big bell is the Land Shark going to her dressing room and then possibly the Girl Talk sketch that Lasser wasn't in.
     
  8. MarkTheShark

    MarkTheShark Senior Member

    Comedy Central started with 1980-1981 because 1975-1980 were at the time part of a syndication package. There were 2 versions, 60 minutes (officially called "Saturday Night," although most episodes from Seasons 3-5 carried the name "Saturday Night Live") and a 30-minute version called "The Best Of Saturday Night." The Louise Lasser episode was always part of the package, but a few others (including Milton Berle) were left out.
     
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  9. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
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    I looked it up and surprisingly "The Best of Saturday Night Live" didn't get above #30 in prime time ratings. Despite costing almost nothing NBC cancelled it after a few months. I'm sure it sounded like a slam-dunk, but NBC couldn't do much right back then.
     
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  10. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    As far as I can tell, the next time NBC aired any full SNL program in prime time was the 15th Anniversary Special in 1989 (there was an SNL clip segment in the 1986 NBC 60th Anniversary Special). The next, somewhat less eventful time was October 28, 1991, when Wayne and Garth hosted a Halloween Special. Then next year there was a Mother's Day special. Specials continued through Season 19, then seemed to stop for a while. By season 24, they definitely started up again. Season 23 had specials, but I can't tell if they were prime time because they all aired on Saturdays when a regular episode didn't air.
     
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  11. MarkTheShark

    MarkTheShark Senior Member

    I guess I never looked at actual ratings, but I was going by the two specials they aired in the 1978-79 season leading to a weekly series the following year.

    The regular SNL was one of the few "hits" NBC had in the late 1970s so it's not surprising that they wanted to capitalize on its success, even if the prime time series wasn't as successful.

    Am I correct then that it ran 13 weeks? If that's correct, then the three missing ones from the VHS box set featured Fran Tarkenton, Michael Palin and Richard Pryor (although the latter might have featured Pyor as one of several "special guests" as opposed to the sole host). I remember that one aired not long after the incident when he was in a fire.

    At least two of the episodes in the VHS box are edited (the one with Elliott Gould which was originally 90 minutes, and one of the ones with Steve Martin). The edits might be musical guests or otherwise music rights related, but I'm not sure (it was a lot of years ago).
     
  12. 40WattPhasedPlasmaRifle

    40WattPhasedPlasmaRifle Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pineville, NC
    Was it part of his "I became a cheerleader but they'd never use my cheers" routine?

    His cheers were:
    "Die, you gravy-sucking pigs!"
    "Try and make a touchdown you scumbags!"
     
  13. 40WattPhasedPlasmaRifle

    40WattPhasedPlasmaRifle Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pineville, NC
    The SNL skit for which I have the most fondness is no longer "officially" available anywhere. It's the one they aired during the 2008 housing/financial crisis that did a far more straightforward job of explaining the totality of Washington DC complicity in the crisis than any mainstream news network. But mixed in with characters like President George W. Bush, George Soros, and Congressman Barney Frank were Herb and Marion Sandler of Golden West Financial. Wachovia bought Golden West and then imploded when the subprime mortgage scam in which GW was a major player was exposed.

    As "Herb" and "Marion" explained that they sold GW to Wachovia for $24 billion, the chyron read "People who should be shot". Turns out Lorne Michaels didn't know that the Sandlers were real people and not just characters concocted to represent the malfeasance of banking executives. NBC & Michaels claimed that an edited version of the sketch would replace the original. That version never materialized.

    SNL Skit
     
  14. Cokelike-

    Cokelike- Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Oh
    I love that skit too. "That money now belongs to me." "You are so wise."
     
  15. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    ?
    I loved that sketch since at the time I was hate-following a couple of blogs by people who had been taking out fraudulent loans and buying real estate all over the country assuming they could flip it all in a few months. The only edit they would have had to do is put a block over the "People who should be shot" graphic.

    This reminded me of an infamous sketch they wisely passed on: "People Who Want to Shoot Ted Kennedy". Michaels explained: "We air this on Saturday, Ted Kennedy gets shot on Sunday, then on Monday the show is cancelled."
     
  16. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    I'd love to see the scripts for some of these controversial sketches that were passed on. Some are printed in the Bill Clotworthy book I discussed earlier, but not enough (Personally, I would LOVE to see the full script for the "The Last Days of (Fred) Silverman's Bunker" sketch Michael O'Donohughe wrote).
     
  17. BwanaBob

    BwanaBob Forum Resident

    Location:
    Maryland, USA
    Nothing beats "Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute".
     
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  18. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Sounds like the Newsradio episode where Bill/Phil says on the radio that ambassadors who don't pay their parking tickets should be dragged from their cars and beaten. A few minutes later they read a news report, "Today in midtown Manhattan, Ambassador so-and-so was dragged from his car and brutally beaten." More Newsradio Season 4 genius.

     
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  19. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    ?
    I'm half way through season 18 on Peacock. They included "MTV's Spring Break U.K. '93" but no surprise they edited out Chris Farley singing Duran Duran's "The Reflex" ("why-y-y-y-y-y-y-y, try-y-y-y-y-y-y-y")
     
  20. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Before they were famous. A popular '90s SNL cast member appears in the audience of Oprah in 1989, because the Second City cast was invited there to watch an interview with the Ghostbusters 2 cast.

    4:45 and 38:01.

     
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  21. MekkaGodzilla

    MekkaGodzilla Forum Resident

    Location:
    Westerville, Ohio
    John Murray!
     
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  22. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    ?
    There was an interesting Peacock edit in the season 19 episode with Charlton Heston. David Spade's "Hollywood Minute" had an abrupt cut from the Madonna and Michael Jackson joke ("These two are in a race to see who can end their career first.") to more jokes about Michael Jackson. It wasn't even a flash cut, just a "snip".

    I was surprised to see Heston in a sketch making fun of the NRA. He did know that he was making fun of the NRA, didn't he?
     
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  23. 905

    905 Senior Member

    Location:
    Midwest USA
    I'm currently up to early 1987, via Peacock. The cast is firing on all cylinders so to speak.
     
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  24. TheLazenby

    TheLazenby Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    Pittsburgh
    "Silverman's Bunker" was posted page by page on Twitter several months back, but sadly I can't remember who it was who posted it. Someone who co-wrote the sketch, I think.
     
  25. Marry a Carrot

    Marry a Carrot Interesting blues gets a convincing reading.

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    That edit was made in 1994 to remove a joke about John Candy, who had died between the live broadcast and the initial repeat.
     
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