Saturday Night Live at 50

[Mendalla]

NBC and their Peacock streaming service are pulling out all the stops to celebrate the 50th anniversary of SNL (meaning I was almost 10 when it launched). There was a concert of bands that have appeared as musical guests, they re-ran the very first episode last night, and tonight there's a live special with returning cast members, past hosts, and more musical acts. I have watched it sporadically over the years but really know it as much from seeing clips and from watching movies and other shows featuring alumni. I know there's constant talk about how the current version isn't as good as X or Y version, but it seems to keep going and going. It started as a Boomer/Gen X thing and apparently there are Gen Zs watching the current cast.

Any SNL fans, past or present, here?

Have you ever been one of those people who stayed up late on Saturday just to catch it?

Favourite past or present cast members?

Is the show still relevant as comedy in the 2020s? (given that Trump has been mad about some of their recent shots at him, I would say so)

One thing I wonder is how much longer it can last. Lorne Michaels, creator and still producer of the show, is now 80. What's the succession plan? Can it outlive him? Michaels is, in case you didn't know, Canadian. He grew up in Toronto, went to high school and university there, and worked for the CBC before heading South, initially to write for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in. Besides SNL, he has produced for The Tonight Show, 30 Rock, and a raft of other shows, movies, and specials. Trivia fact: One of his mentors in his early days in Toronto was Frank Shuster of Wayne & Shuster and his first wife was Shuster's daughter Rosie.

 

[Delightful Life]

i still think of it as a seminal show
and an example of a successful Canadian invasion of US culture :3

Some of my fav sketches;
Most bizarre was one of the fake ads for the Roadside Inn where people could enter but not leave because they would be eaten alive by some kind of blobby substance

Chris Farley and Winowna Rider Tales of Little Women for some reason I find HILARIOUS

My crew is people like Newman, Akroyd, older Belushi, Radner, Curtain, Morris, Chase...

I looked forward to Weekend Update. Totally bonkers news

It was ana amzing show
It took chances
And influenced so much it seems :3

Bless it to bits

 

[Jaebius]

Favourite cast members
- Phil Hartman
- Dana Carvey
- Martin Short
- Dennis Miller
- Kenan Thompson

 

[Delightful Life]

miss Phil
i found him subtly hilarious

EDIT: I got my Hartman fix thru Almost Live's Pat Cashman

 

[Delightful Life]

Hartman

Cashman

 

[Mendalla]

Of course, the musical guests were almost as important to the show as the guest hosts. Here's the story of the show in 1995 when Kingston, Ontario band The Tragically Hip were the guests.

The Tragically Hip’s mix of weed and improvisation on live TV remembered as SNL turns 50

Feeling the pressure ahead of the March 25, 1995, show, the band decided to take the edge off with a few puffs of marijuana, but as a bandmate recalls, they may have been too relaxed

www.theglobeandmail.com

 

[Waterfall]

Favourite cast members
- Phil Hartman
- Dana Carvey
- Martin Short
- Dennis Miller
- Kenan Thompson

Plus Gilda Radner, Jane Curtain, Chevy Chase, John Balushi?, loved Martin Short even before SNL when he was on Second City....I guess I'm showing my agei

 

[Jaebius]

Plus Gilda Radner, Jane Curtain, Chevy Chase, John Balushi?, loved Martin Short even before SNL when he was on Second City....I guess I'm showing my agei

Gilda was okay. I did really enjoy Jane in some skits. Chevy was okay, though I've heard difficult to work with. I preferred Jim Balushi to John. Someone I should have mentioned is John Lovitz

 

[Carolla]

We watched SNL pretty regularly through university years. SO many talented folks passed through those ranks over the decades. I recorded the special & we just watched it tonight - really enjoyed it. So many memories - mostly off colour!

 

[Mendalla]

Someone I should have mentioned is John Lovitz

Oo, I kind of forgot he'd been on SNL. So many people have passed through there, one kind of loses track. An since I haven't really seen it since the nineties, there's a whole raft of stars like Kristen Wiig and TIna Fey that I never saw on SNL itself, just knew they'd been on it.

 

[Jaebius]

Oo, I kind of forgot he'd been on SNL. So many people have passed through there, one kind of loses track. An since I haven't really seen it since the nineties, there's a whole raft of stars like Kristen Wiig and TIna Fey that I never saw on SNL itself, just knew they'd been on it.

It's wild how SNL has been a launching pad for so many incredible talents. Lovitz was a gem, and the '90s were definitely a golden era. I also liked Wiig and Fey. They brought so much laughter and brilliance to the show. Which SNL sketch or star is your all-time favorite?

 

[Mendalla]

That's a toughie. I was always rather amused by Toonces but it was also a bit of a one-joke thing. Blue Brothers (Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi, I think Dan later revived the characters with Jim taking John's place) was actually not bad musically given who it was.

One person who hasn't been mentioned is Steve Martin. He has never actually been part of the cast, but one could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. He has hosted the show 16 times to date and is also a frequent special guest. He did the monologue for the 50th anniversary, too, I have heard. One of my favourite comic actors of all time, and his SNL appearances have often been highlights of the show.

 

[Waterfall]

Well I love so many sketches, but the sketches called Celebrity Jeopardy with Sean Connery ( Darrel Hammond) and Burt Reynolds (Norm McDonald) crack me up everytime.....of course they're extremely off colour especially when Sean Connery starts talking about Trebecks' mother.

 

[Delightful Life]

Ah yes, I can still view this classic Radner skit

And Curtin and Radner together. Perfection

(getting memory dumps of other SNLmemories I enjoyed a lot -- Father Guido Sarducci, Lily Tomlin, Landshark, Coke coke no Pepsi, Roseanna Anna Danna...)

 

[Delightful Life]

Omg, this still can be viewed, a teeny bit with Radner and Newman

Oh goodness and this fun short bit with Chase and Pryor

 

[Mendalla]

Note that appearance from 1975 made Pryor the first Black guest host of SNL. Gil Scott-Heron, a multi-talented Black artist (singer, poet, author), was the musical guest.

 

[Delightful Life]

Pyror had quite the childhood, being born in a town where even hardened organized pro Chicago criminals would when visiting be gobsmacked at all the open crime, which apparently his grandmother saw as an opportunity so moved there where she opened a brothel and made a good living.

I love his comedy. Brilliant nuclear energy

 

[Delightful Life]

Oh and, of course, another part of my favs of SNL (the cast when I saw it first, I'm so old lol)

Morris!

 

[Luce NDs]

There are stranger things under Midnight Son ... some as early as 10:00? Maybe a time shift ... Timaeus? Mousey ... it can gnaw at yah ...

 

[Delightful Life]

And for those who were wondering, Garrett Morris was the first Black cast member of SNL. Right from the beginning :3