A little early? Sure. But since over half of the nation could use a pick-me-up, I decided to go ahead and share this.
New this year, he highlights what big, traditional shows are debuting each day. Helpful for making sure you don’t miss a show that is on just a handful of times, and early in the season.
I went through a stretch a few weeks back where I was watching a lot of Veep, the HBO comedy where Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Vice President Selina Meyer.[1] And this week I finally cracked the seal on our DVR’s collection of The Good Place, the new Michael Schur comedy starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson.
That combination means I can finally share this piece from a few weeks back in which Steven Hyden posits that Louis-Dreyfus and Danson are the two finest comedy actors of the modern age. Then he breaks it down. It’s pretty excellent and I can’t believe no one has done it before.
Louis-Dreyfus is an absolute treasure. She’s come a long way from those forgettable SNL days.[2] And Danson has put together an incredibly solid post-Cheers run. As I said last winter, of all the amazing elements of season two of Fargo, he may have been the best. He was totally, recognizably Danson while adding incredible layers that were new. Seriously, watch the clip Hyden embeds.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus And Ted Danson Are The Two Best TV Actors Of The Modern Era
Note: I began this Thursday morning but failed to post it. Please excuse my use of what appears to be the incorrect tense.
Spring break is almost here. Today is the girls’ last day of school before vacation. I have a full day of laundry, errands, and packing ahead of me. So a few quick notes before I jump into all that.
I did not watch season one of Fargo, but after hearing so many raves about it, I set the DVR to record season two. And since I always put jumping into series off for awhile, I finally started it about three weeks ago. I wrapped it up last week and OH MY GOD! What a great show, in every way. Incredible story and writing. Brilliant acting, from the main players to the supporting ones. I absolutely loved the look and feel, with the Kodachrome-like colors fooling my child-of-the–70s brain into thinking I was actually watching something from 1979. And all the complimentary bits were perfect, too, such as the music choices and the little pop culture/society elements to ground the show even more firmly in 1979. The inclusion of a campaigning Ronald Reagan in the early episodes was the perfect cherry on top.
Kirsten Dunst, Ted Danson, Patrick Wilson, Bokeem Woodbine, and Jean Smart were all amazing.
I loved how tight the show was. With only 10 episodes there wasn’t much time for throw-away or set-up episodes. In fact, with most of the story getting wrapped up in the brutal ninth episode, the final episode functioned as a proper denouement with a few elements in there to build for future seasons.
The whole UFO thing was a little weird, though.
And there’s never anything wrong with those upper Midwestern, Scandinavia-derived accents. You betcha. Ok then.
It’s always tough to balance out what the “Best Show On TV” is, whether you’re talking about shows airing currently, or looking at a broader selection to determine best overall show. With my viewing of Fargo so fresh in my memory, it may get a little boost. But it’s right up there with The Americans, Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, and The Wire as my favorite dramas of recent years.
Carolina’s to lose. Which is certainly possible. I think the Oklahoma – Villanova game will likely be the best of the weekend. OU pounded ‘Nova back in December. Buddy Hield is locked in, and the rest of the Sooners have shaken their February funk. But Villanova has that feel of a team that might be capable of doing more than you expect.
Carolina is going to roll Syracuse in the battle of scandal-laden traditional powers.
I had two predictions regarding North Carolina during the season. One, they win the title, Roy retires, and then the NCAA absolutely hammers the school for its academic scandal. The other, Carolina wins title, Roy retires, then the NCAA sweeps the scandal under the rug, saying “No former players would talk to us, we don’t know what happened.”
Heels over Sooners in final, Roy stubbornly refuses to retire and threatens to fight anyone who thinks Carolina did something wrong in giving kids passing grades for classes that didn’t exist. Then he pulls a Dean Smith and quits just as practice is beginning next October so his choice as successor gets the job.
I’m ready.
We have a star in the family.
My wife appeared on the local noon news yesterday in an Ask the Doc segment. Her topic was kids and sleep, one that was especially timely given the time change this weekend and the state reading test that all third graders begin on Monday.[1]
It was a fairly quick three-minute appearance, but it was very much live and I think it’s ok for me to share that she was a little nervous. There was the nervousness that comes with being on live TV. But I think the thing that gave her the most issues was something we didn’t know about: live bits like hers often have to be roughly scripted ahead of time so that the closed captioning can be keyed in before the the actual segment.
So while she could talk about how much sleep kids need, get on average, and so on for hours, in the back of her head she had to make sure she was not drifting too far from the words she and the producers had agreed on ahead of time. I think that would freak me out more than being on live TV. I’d be afraid I’d start rambling, realize it, and then get super flustered because I knew I had screwed up the closed captioning.
She did great. Which is good because she’s going to be doing this every couple of months. It’s always good when the first experience isn’t a nightmare!
I have to give her a little grief. She told almost no one that she was going to be on. A couple of her sisters knew and that was about it. So her dad and step-mom were surprised when they looked up and saw her on their TV screen. That makes me laugh.
The girls’ reactions were funny, too. I recorded the segment and we watched it after we got back from volleyball and dinner. The first thing they did was laugh uncontrollably. M especially would not stop laughing like a donkey and making weird faces and body movements. I really should have recorded her reaction because it was completely ridiculous. I think they were all laughing just because it was so weird to look at the TV and see their mother’s face on it. I’m anxious to see if any of them bragged about it at school today.
The host took a quick pic and put it on Twitter before the segment aired, too. So S got her first live TV appearance and Tweet in the same day. Not bad for a Tuesday!
I should have shared this earlier, as it kicks off on November 1 each year and includes Thanksgiving shows. But my annual link to this page listing all the holiday shows. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is on tonight!
Check daily and set your DVRs accordingly.
As you know, I dig series finales. I love it when a show that has been on for years, and has built a loyal audience and deep back-story, closes everything out with one last episode and goodbye.
But when it’s a person who is leaving air rather than a show, and 33 years of history rather than just a solid 5–7 year sit-com/drama run, it’s a little different. It’s tougher to draw a straight line and connect all the dots between the first episode and last when you’re dealing with over three decades and two different networks. And when you’re dealing with one man and his idea of humor and entertainment as opposed to a cast of fictional characters.[1]
Letterman was never appointment television for me. His NBC show was on too late for me to watch live, except in the summer. When he moved to CBS, and up an hour, I did watch more often than I ever had before. But still it was not an every-night event for me. When his fastball got wonky and his audiences more adoring than critical, much of the magic of the first 15 years of his show(s) was gone. Some nights were still great, but others lacked the energy and spark that made Letterman such a comedic genius.
Fortunately, he got that fastball back. He may not have been able to throw 95 at the knees, but he could still bring it when he needed it. For people my age, who grew up idolizing him, it was fantastic to tune in occasionally and be greeted by that wacky, odd personality who helped to form our comedic preferences when we were kids.
Here’s my favorite random Dave moment: This is from an early 1980s episode that I saw about 10 years ago when some minor cable network briefly re-aired shows from the early Late Night years. Billy Crystal was a guest, but this was before he had been on Saturday Night Live or starred in movies or hosted the Oscars or done all the other things that made him one of the biggest stars of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. He was just a guy who had been on that weird Soap show a few years back.
Anyway, Billy tells this story about something that happened on a recent airline flight. The audience was absolutely not getting the jokes. Sweat and worry appeared on Crystal’s forehead as he frantically worked to make the bit work. He delivered lines that he clearly expected to get laughter, only to be greeted by awkward silence. He nervously looked from the crowd to Dave and back.
And Dave LOVED this! He roared, not just because he got what Billy was trying to say and it amused him, but also because he loved seeing Billy suffer. He was the only one enjoying the interview, and it was obviously the highlight of his day.
That discomfort was the key to Letterman’s specific brand of comedy.
In his best years, the crowd was always a little on edge. Dave would tell jokes that fell flat, or do rehearsed bits that did not quite work. And while some in the crowd got the joke immediately, other in those early crowds would squirm in their seats or chuckle nervously, uncertain of how to respond. He was always pushing forward and forcing the audience to go new places. It didn’t always work in the moment, but Dave always knew that the payoff would come. Perhaps years later, but it would come.
Which brings me to the biggest reason I stopped watching Dave. The young people who adopted his show in its early years began reaching middle age. Going to see Dave was no longer a chance to see cutting-edge comedy, but rather a chance to worship at the altar of a comedy legend. To be part of an Event. Where awkward reactions were once the norm, the audiences showed wild enthusiasm for even the least well-crafted jokes. The applause was often way out of proportion with the effort put into delivery.
That wasn’t Dave’s fault. That was the fault of his audience, and also an influence from Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, where the audience was encouraged to behave in that manner. Where once there was a risk in late night comedy, now the studio audience had become Pavlovian, laughing and applauding on cue rather than because of genuine emotional response.
I think that took a little away from Dave, and contributed to the loss of his heater.
As I said, fortunately he got it back. But the audience was still annoying and made me cringe when I watched on nights Dave wasn’t locked in. In recent years I pretty much only set the DVR to record when I band I liked was on, and for Darlene Love’s annual December appearance. Luckily, the show and CBS embraced YouTube and have been putting the best performances and clips from interviews online, so I’ve probably watched more Letterman in the past three years, in that format, than I had watched since we moved to Indiana and I had to live with the Eastern time zone TV schedule.
Last night I set the DVR and as soon as I got back from dropping the girls off at school this morning, landed on the couch and hit play. It was a rather excellent final episode. The Top Ten was fantastic.[2] The “Kids Love Me” highlight package was great. And then, in the midst of Dave thanking the staff that has worked for him over the years, the DVR cut off. So I did not get to hear his final words, nor see the Foo Fighters send him off.
Given my periodic viewing of the show over the years, that was somehow appropriate. Were I a devoted fan, I would have been apoplectic.[3] But Dave entertained me one last time and his closing words really weren’t that important.
So long, Dave. And thanks.
I found it interesting to look back on how late night television has changed. For so long it was just Johnny Carson. Letterman backed him up, appealing to a younger, hipper, more cynical generation. When Carson retired we were left with Leno vs. Letterman. Choice, but still a binary one. You either got Dave and watched The Late Show, or you didn’t and watched Leno’s more middle-of-the-road show. A decade later Jon Stewart added a third voice to the mix, and cracked things open so when Leno (first) retired, things quickly disintegrated. Until yesterday we had Stewart (for now), Fallon, Kimmel, Conan, and Dave.
Like so many other aspects of our society, that singular voice that guides our nation discussions is long gone. Now you have at least five choices if you want humor, interviews, and music after your late local news. If you make the wrong choice, or just go to bed, and hear about something amazing happening on another show when you go into work the next morning, you simply fire up your browser and watch the clip of what you missed.
As with everything that’s changed because of technology in recent years, I can’t say if that is good or bad. I do know that no one will influence people the way David Letterman influenced all of us who were growing up and coming of age in the 1980s.
A few TV notes.
First, I was a couple days late watching the series finale of Parks and Recreation. In fact, I was a couple weeks behind and watched the final five episodes in a two-night binge. And since that was two weeks ago, this is verrrrrry late. But still…
An absolutely perfect and tremendous end to a nearly perfect show. I enjoyed the flash forward gimmick that the final season was built upon, and then the further flashing forward in the finale that gave hints how each character ended up. The “Johnny Karate” episode should go into the Smithsonian. And the finale itself has to be one of the all-time great finales. As the show did in its seven seasons, it hit that ideal balance between silliness and sappiness. Ron Swanson paddling a kayak into the distance? Just a brilliant final image of him.
I’ve said this many times before: I have always liked Modern Family. But Parks & Rec was always a better show. And it’s a damn shame that Modern Family and its cast routinely won awards while the Parks & Rec crew was always looked over. Phil Dunphy is an American treasure. But Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson are pantheon sit-com characters.
So here are some things related to the end of the show I collected a couple weeks back.
‘Parks And Recreation’ Star Amy Poehler: ‘It’s Kind Of Ruined Me For Anything Else’
Knope Springs Eternal: ‘Parks and Recreation Ends Its Brilliant, Satisfying Seven-Season Run
Parks And Recreation: “One Last Ride”
You know, there’s a bigger, and frankly amazing, significance to Parks & Rec ending. With it gone, there are no more great comedies on NBC. And given that they passed on several shows that are on other networks and appear focused on dramas and reality TV, will we ever see the network embrace comedy again?
This is the network that gave us Cheers, Cosby, Seinfeld, Frasier, and Friends. Plus Family Ties, Night Court, A Different World, NewsRadio, Will and Grace, The Office, and Community. Four of the greatest series in TV history, a handful of other excellent ones, and some niche shows that pushed televised comedy forward. Plus about a 1000 shows they desperately wanted us to like but could not match the heavy hitters.
Today CBS is known as the comedy network, Modern Family is on ABC, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is on Fox, and Tina Fey’s latest work is airing on Netflix. Meanwhile NBC offers up some half-assed comedies you can tell are terrible just by watching the promos.
Like a lot of folks, I don’t watch much network TV anymore. But, for the first time since the very early 80s, I have no weekly reason to turn on NBC. Or at least set the DVR to record something aired on NBC.
Since this seems to be a meme, given the show’s pitiful ratings, an obligatory reminder that you really should be watching The Americans. Best show on TV. And given that so few people are watching it, it appears best positioned to become ‘The Next The Wire’, a show that people who watch laud as one of the finest in recent memory that just can not seem to get traction with viewers.
While talking about US-Soviet relations in the 1980s, I just got around to watching the 30 for 30 about the 1980 Soviet hockey team, Miracles and Men, over the weekend. Man, was it fantastic.
There is another, more artsy, documentary about the same subject that recently came out. But to American audiences, this is a largely new topic: how did the players on that Soviet team, generally believed to be the most talented and finest “amateur” team ever assembled, react to losing to the young Americans on that Friday night in Lake Placid, New York?
The film begins by setting up how hockey became a tool for the Soviets to demonstrate their strength on the world stage. (I had no idea that hockey was not played in the USSR until after World War II.) Behind the brilliant Anatoly Tarasov, the Soviets slowly built up not only a formidable program, but completely changed the way that hockey was played.
It’s pretty amazing to watch the video from the 1972 series between the Canadian NHL All-Stars and the Soviet national team. After they were soundly beaten early, the Canadians began playing flat-out dirty hockey, pounding the Soviets into submission. Like The Americans, you suddenly find yourself rooting for the bad guys!
One of the coolest elements of the film is how no US hockey players are interviewed. This is only about the Soviet viewpoint. So we see how they were harassed when the got to America. How Lake Placid, to them, seemed like this fierce little village full of anti-Communist propaganda. And how their rout of the US team in New York a week before the Olympics set them for a massive fall two weeks later.
While there is original video and audio from the ABC broadcast of the US-USSR game, much of the audio is provided from a Soviet radio broadcast. The terseness of the announcer as he shares that the mighty Soviets have lost to “the host team” is a stark contrast to Al Michaels’ legendary exclamation on ABC. It’s easy to imagine people back in the USSR staring at the radios in disbelief after he abruptly ends his commentary.
While the piece focuses on Tarasov and future NHL player Slava Fetisov, the star is team captain Boris Mikhailov. He plays his role as the evil Russian to the hilt. His best line is when the producer asks him if he ever saw the movie “Miracle.” “No!” he spits out in Russian. “Why would I see that? If I want to see a movie, I’ll watch a good one where my team wins!” While he roars, there is also the slightest hint of a smile and twinkle in his eye. For an intensely proud man, that night in 1980 is an embarrassment. But it was still one moment in a lengthy, stellar career. And in that twinkle, I think he shows that he understands and accepts what the game meant to Americans. And that his job is to dismiss this blip on the historical record as one bad night for a legendary team.
Compare his knowing response to the one by a former TASS press official who was in Lake Placid, who snippily replies that for a random man to kiss Sofia Loren, it is the biggest moment in his life, but for her it is just a moment. There’s no humor or lightness hidden behind his annoyance in being asked to relive the upset one more time.
The final third falls off a bit, as it focuses on Fetisov’s attempts to fight the Soviet machine and come to America to play in the NHL.
But, overall, it’s a fine addition to the history of that epic night.
I would imagine a few of my loyal readers, who share my pop culture obsessions, pulled the site up the last couple days anticipating a break down of the SNL 40 special.
My apologies for the delay. I was unable to watch live, and basketball viewing obligations got in the way Monday. But I was finally able to watch most of it Tuesday night and then finish up this morning. So, thoughts!
Overall, I really enjoyed the show. It was a tough balance to strike, and I think Lorne Michaels, et. al. did a decent job getting it right. They couldn’t show clips for 210 minutes (minus commercials). Nor could they just have extended monologues or group discussions. So, they went with the traditional format of the show and blew it up to giant size. A cold open. A super monologue. Live sketches. Four live musical performances. Several live sketches. Celebrity cameos. And clips. Lots of clips.
It wasn’t perfect, but I laughed a lot – at both the old and new stuff – and was often at least smiling if not laughing.
The thing that stuck me about the show was how did they manage the celebrity logistics of the evening. Who gets to actually perform vs. who just gets to stand on stage? Who gets extended camera time vs. a brief moment to introduce the next segment? And how did they choose which of the non-cast members in the crowd got TV time as well? The simple act of planning out a 3 1/2 hour show must have been a nightmare, between writing the live pieces and picking the taped segments from 40 years of material. But managing the egos and expectations of everyone invited must have been the toughest part of the evening.
I’ve saved several articles written after the special to Instapaper that I have not read yet. So if I’m repeating things others have said, it is because we are of like minds rather than me copying them.
On to the bullet points:
Like the cold open, I really enjoyed the monologue. Well, up to a point. It seemed a little long and a little big. And I think the focus waned as it went on. But I enjoyed the point being made.
I skipped through most of the musical performances, watching just the first 30 seconds or so of each. The contrast in performers was interesting. Paul McCartney and Paul Simon have been favorites of and friends to Michaels since the show began. It was no surprise that they were on. Being countered by Miley Cyrus and Kanye West seemed odd at first. Two exceptionally conservative choices with two rather daring choices. But McCartney and Simon were forces that changed music in their heydays. They weren’t shocking in the same way that Miley and Kanye are, but still they altered the structure of the music, and pop culture, worlds. Whether Miley and Kanye stand up the passing of time remains to be seen. But I think they embody the idea of challenging the status quo that Lorne Michaels always wanted the show to put forward. You could argue that Taylor Swift, who was on stage but did not sing, is more in line with the mainstream pop that McCartney and Simon represent. But, as good as her music is, she’s not challenging anything. She’s safe where Miley and Kanye are daring and controversial.
Speaking of McCartney, man, age has finally hit him hard. There’s a sad, tired, old man’s face hidden behind all the tucks and injections. And that hair. Positively Trump-esque. How far back on his head does that comb-over begin? And his voice is notably weaker than it was just a few years ago. But, still, when he walks on stage, you can’t help but get a jolt. That’s Paul Fucking McCartney!
I enjoyed the live sketches that were new much more than the rehashes of old stuff. Dan Aykroyd clearly had a lot less stimulants in his system than he did when he first did the Super Bass-o-matic commercial. And I did not like the bits on weekend update where actors did their favorite characters from the past at all.
But Jeopardy was pretty great. It pretty much always has been, in every form, but its highest moments were when Will Farrell was Alex Trebek. The way he struggles to hide his rage at the contestants was always fantastic.
It cracked me up that one of the first commercial breaks was from the current State Farm campaign with Hans and Franz. Throw in a commercial for an upcoming Ferrell flick and a Parks and Recreation promo and there were at least three commercials featuring SNL alums.
As I was fast-forwarding through commercials, I had to go back and watch the one with Jon Hamm for Red Nose Day. I wasn’t sure if that was a real commercial or some new, fake commercial. Interesting timing, as I bet it got a lot more attention from people who were thinking like me than it normally would have received.
The reaction to Chevy Chase’s introduction was noticeably muted. Is there anyone he hasn’t pissed off over the past 40 years? He looked kind of terrible, too.
Robert DeNiro was awful. Jack Nicholson and Christopher Walken were wasted. Amazingly, Keith Richards had the best moment of the night from the “very old guys who Lorne loves and get 30 seconds on stage” category.
I was a little surprised when Martin Short came out to host a segment. He was a cast member for only one year, although that was a pretty great year. When he hosted, many years later, he was great. But still, it seemed odd for him to get a long stretch in front of the camera. AND THEN HE FUCKING STOLE THE SHOW. He was phenomenal. He and Maya Rudolph destroyed in their segment about musical acts. Great writing, better performances.
“We’re about to flip you the funk bird.” The argument for Will Ferrell as greatest ever cast member largely stems on his longevity. You forget how many great characters he had.
So we knew Eddie was coming back. All us who grew up on his era could not wait to see what happened when he got on stage again. That said, I figured, in the back of my mind, that it would be a disappointment. Children of the 80s wanted Buckwheat and James Brown Hot Tub Party and Velvet Jones and Mr. White all wrapped up into an epic, five-minute performance. That was not fair or realistic. Instead we got a fawning introduction by Chris Rock, and then an awkward moment on stage by Eddie. My first thought, when it was over, was, “They must have promised him a Sinatra-sque introduction and no requirement to perform to get him to finally come back.” What a shame.
Eddie’s appearance became even more awkward when Jerry Seinfeld killed it moments later. He didn’t quite reach the highs that Martin Short hit, but he was still great. And the back-and-forth with Larry David was just terrific.
It’s not an official media event if Peyton Manning isn’t involved. And props to him for getting seated next to Catherine Zeta Jones, who still has it going on.
Very nice shout out to the still-recovering Tracy Morgan by Mr. and Mrs. Alec Baldwin, errrr, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin. Perfectly toned and presented.
I didn’t put a clock on it, but it seemed like “White Like Me” got one of the longest clips of the night. Which makes sense. It was such a great piece, easily one of the best in the history of the show.
The obligatory salute to cast and crew members who have died was excellent. Including people who were (mostly) behind the camera was a very nice touch, especially since their faces elicited such noticeable reactions from the people in the studio who had worked with them. And the Jon Lovitz thing was the perfect final touch. It said “We’re serious, but we’re not that serious.”
Closing out the night was Wayne’s World, which also hit all the right notes. The look of mock terror on Mike Myers face when Kanye acted like he was coming on stage the second time was brilliant. Myers has been involved in some Kanye shenanigans before. The Lorne Michaels entry in the top ten was another moment where they both honored the show, and Michaels, while making fun of the pageantry of the night at the same time. There was a lot of inside baseball in Myers’ and Carvey’s lines during that bit, but it was still all great.
Finally, the closing credits with the cast crammed onto the stage. I wondered how much jockeying there was for spots near the front, and near Lorne. Did the director or a producer place everyone, or was it a free-for-all? Lot of egos and Lorne/daddy issues in that moment. And I paused and looked, but I could not find Eddie anywhere. Maybe I just missed him in the crush.
So, 40 years down. I almost wondered, as I watched, if this was an ending, too. Would Lorne look at what he’s managed over four decades, think of his age and the other shows he’s producing, and perhaps think it was time to close the show down after this season? I think likely not. By all accounts, he still burns more for SNL than his other ventures. He’s in good health, as far as we know. I think those thoughts are a bit premature. But the end isn’t too far off, and from everything I’ve read the show will likely end when he decides he has had enough.
I’ve rarely watched the show since Ferrell left, although when I catch a clip show (like the recent Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day specials), I enjoy the segments that feature current/recent cast members. It’s still nice to know it’s there, though, and that as long as it continues, there will be reruns on at 10:00 pm Eastern on Saturdays with the occasional clip show in regular prime time.
Yes, that hallowed holiday tradition is back. It’s time for the first Holiday Jihad of 2014!
This one just baffles me. Last week I added my annual bookmark for the site Christmas TV Schedule, so I can be sure to record the best shows of the season. I scrolled through to find the highlights and noticed one show in particular was hard to find. I hit Command-F[1], typed in “Grinch,” and reviewed the results. Plenty of showings for the full-length movie starring Jim Carrey. But only one, on Christmas night, for the original cartoon.
Just to be safe, I did some more digging on the web. Sure enough, that is the only December showing of the cartoon. TBS did play it twice before Thanksgiving. But no other network or cable TV airings until the kids are coming down from their Christmas morning buzzes.
WTF?
How the hell do you show it twice in Novembe – once in the middle of the month – and not a single time in the first four weeks of December? It’s right up there with Rudolph and Frosty and Charlie Brown for classic, essential holiday cartoons. But apparently I have to either go buy the DVD or get it from Amazon or iTunes if we want to see it before Christmas night.
Unacceptable.
And for that, TBS and the rest of the major broadcast and cable networks earn my first Holiday Jihad of the year.
Somewhat odd timing, but Grantland kicked off SNL At 40 week today.1 There are already a couple solid articles posted, and day one of the bracket to pick the greatest cast member ever is up. I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy the rest of the series.
This, along with the passing of Don Pardo earlier this week, had me thinking of SNL this morning. I believe I’ve watched one full, current episode in the last 8-9 years. Once Will Ferrell and his cohorts filtered out, I was less interested in dealing with the new folks. I preferred watching compilation shows that cut out the highlights of recent years so I could see Stefon or “What Up With That?” without staying up until 1:00.
Despite that, the SNL sensibility is still central to my comedy tastes. Those early years when I watched the show were just too powerful an influence on me.
Which is kind of funny, given when I began watching the show. I remember watching prime time specials in the late 1970s, but didn’t stay up to watch the entire show on my own until the Eddie Murphy years. An era which, to many, was just Eddie and a bunch of bit players. Other than Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who didn’t become a star until nearly a decade after her time on SNL, no one else broke out and became a mainstream star.
But, man, did I love everyone on the show.
Joe Piscopo was Eddie’s sidekick, and proof that America was coming together across racial lines. Tim Kazurinsky and Mary Gross were odd, not terribly sexy, but terrifically funny. Brad Hall was goofy, and I figured probably was probably who I would most resemble if I ended up on SNL some day. Even Gary Kroeger, Robin Duke, and Rich Hall seemed like superstars to me, even if to most historians of the show, they are buried with the rest of the Never Stars of the past 40 years.
I won’t argue that the early 80s were the best era for SNL. Or even underrated. Still, that was when I discovered the show, and when my friends and I giggled on the bus or in the back of class on Mondays reviewing our favorite parts of the previous Saturday’s show.
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