That was a great sketch! As a frequent traveler, it really nails the tone of some of those hotel checkouts.
Today's Peacock edit: in season 41 they removed Elizabeth Banks's monologue because she sang the theme from Flashdance.
Ugh, in the Chris Hemsworth episode Peacock removed Will Ferrell's hilarious opening as George W. Bush making fun of all the Republican candidates. This makes no sense at all.
Lately I've been watching the original SNL seasons 1-5. Those are my favorites due to the nostalgia factor, and so much talent in the cast and in guest hosts like Steve Martin, Buck Henry, Bea Arthur, etc. They had great musical guests like Chicago, Ray Charles (who actually hosted a show), Sun Ra, David Bowie, etc. Does anyone else agree that SNL would get funnier later on when Eddie Murphy became a major player, and then through the periods of Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, David Spade, Chris Farley, and so on? The 1st 5 seasons (Belushi, Aykroyd, Murray, Morris, etc.) were the best but they weren't as funny as later seasons. It was more experimental, weird, hip, edgy, inventive with the original cast but often the audience didn't laugh at the skits. No one really understood what the hell SNL was doing but they knew it was interesting. It was like a bunch of talented college kids took over 90 minutes of air time on a major network and invited big celebrity stars that they liked and their fave musicians to join in the madness. Later seasons were funnier but not as cool.
The book Saturday Night by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad offers a lot of fascinating information regarding how different the show was originally intended to be, versus what it became. Lorne Michaels' initial concept (per the book) was to mix sketch comedy, avant-garde short films, live music, and even dramatic pieces. Not a variety show, exactly, but a modern mix of hip ideas. That's where Albert Brooks and Jim Henson, among others, came in. Over time, everything that wasn't the sketch comedy (or live music) was slowly phased out. Great book.
For example I don't think anyone "gets" the Bad Playhouse sketches. I love them but I love weird things.
This is the best book on SNL that I've read. There are so many surprising things in it from the early days. Even before the first episode, Lorne Michaels suddenly had mega-celebrities like the Rolling Stones hanging around his apartment like he was as big as they were. It was also amazing how Michaels constantly argued with the network in a controlled way so they never lost their respect for him no matter what he demanded. One NBC executive said he just liked listening to Michaels argue because he was so good at it. He also maintained a sense of humor no matter what happened. When the first rehearsal of the first episode was a disaster, he told everyone not to worry about it. "Worst case, we'll just never work in show business again."
I just did a double shot of watching The Big Chill and the SNL alternate ending when Kevin Kline hosted. Season 14 was the absolute best!
Controversial opinion the last 10 years were/are better the first 10 years (and by a mile) (comedy only) the only comedy stuff that holds up in the first 10 years is the Eddie Murphy material
This may have been brought up in the thread already, and I apologize if it was, but does anyone remember watching the mid-week "The Best of Saturday Night Live" shows circa 1979-80? It was a great way to catch up on the classic Aykroyd-Belushi material for those of us just starting to watch the show. As I recall it was one hour of the best sketches like Coneheads, the foreign wild and crazy guys, the Greek cheeseburger diner, the Blues Brothers, Mr. Bill, etc. I believe 10:00 P.M on Wednesday on most NBC affiliates maybe?
Yeah, I remember those. That was how I discovered SNL, since I was too young to stay up late enough to watch it during its first few seasons. NBC was in last place in the primetime ratings and they were so desperate to find anything to fill out their schedule that they resorted to making "Best of SNL" a weekly series during the 1979-80 season. It started out with okay weekly ratings (in the low 40s) but by the end of the season it had slid to the bottom of the ratings and was cancelled. So I guess maybe you and I were the only ones watching...
I would kinda agree with you but I think the show has really suffered ever since COVID showed up. I don't think the 70s era has aged very well but I can appreciate it for doing something very different than what other networks on American TV were doing. It definitely had that gonzo energy which I don't think could ever be replicated.
Nick at Night showed these as well in the late 80's-early 90's. It was my introduction to the 70s era.
Not sure if this appeared in the Hill/Weingrad book or a magazine article back when, but there was an early-days anecdote where Michaels asked the NBC brass not to judge SNL on its first episode, but its tenth. Much to his surprise, they replied "OK, we'll watch the tenth."
There was also a shorter, 30-minute version that I think was made for syndication. I'm pretty sure that was the version Nick at Nite ran for awhile. Those reruns on Nick was my introduction to the show. 23 condensed minutes (not counting commercials) was a perfect introduction to the classic years.
I've mention this before, but if you poke around the archive.org website, you can find plenty of uncut, recorded-off-air episodes of the show, from all over the 40+ years. Not the entire series, but there are plenty of episodes. Archive.org is particularly helpful if you want to watch, say, the hard-to-find 1980-1981 episodes.
The Peacock version of the Melissa McCarthy episode from season 41 took some major edits. The opening was snipped because of two presidential candidates singing Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" then her monologue was taken out because their parody of "Born to Be Alive" was apparently too close to the original.
The season 42 episode with Benedict Cumberbatch was really chopped up by Peacock. The opening segment was removed apparently because of technical problems (a microphone wasn't turned on at the beginning) or maybe because of the music during the filmed part which I didn't recognize. Then they had to cut the surprise party sketch because the male strippers had copyrighted music. Then in Weekend Update they completely removed the Church Lady part because Dana Carvey sings "What a Wonderful World". And then... they had to cut the end off of Weekend Update because "Go Cubs Go" is a copyrighted song. This only left 35 minutes in the episode!
Today's amusing Peacock edit was in the season 42 finale with Dwayne Johnson. During the Wrestlemania promo sketch (which get very personal) they had to flash cut the part where we hear the wrestler is a big Katy Perry fan because of the song "California Gurls". At least they didn't cut the whole sketch.
Today's weird Peacock edits: Saoirse Ronan's monologue in season 43 was removed. Apparently the song she sings to explain how to pronounce her name was based on a copyrighted song. Then in the next episode with James Franco, they removed Michael Che's segment on Weekend Update as he made a failed attempt at going undercover as a white woman. I have no idea why.
