Kind of a reality check for Saturday Night Live, as tonight they re-run the Justin Timberlake Christmas Show instead of new material in the middle of Feb. sweeps. (Although, I must say this was a very funny episode!)...but the show must be struggling if they revert back to re-runs during sweeps.

The show has been "struggling" since 1993 in my opinion. Since then, it's had rare moments of quality. I kind of expect it to suck and on the rare occasions that it doesn't, I act surprised.

Andrew

This season has a super strong cast. I mean, legendary talent. Seth Meyers is not pulling off the head writer gig very well. It's mypoic and lacks...something.

I have watched every single episode since 1982 and have watched all the others via syndication and DVDs. This cast is really strong. But you'd never know it right now.

Tonight's re-run episode with Justin Timberlake is the best in 5 years though. Strong all the way past 12:30. Very rare.

OK, I'm watching it, and I must concede: this one doesn't suck.

Andrew

Perhaps it has something to do with the tin plated dictator, Lorne Michaels? Any freshness issues since 1981 -- the first of the worst -- have been almost entirely his fault.

He is a misogynist, an egomaniac and often, just plain stupid. No female cast member has had anything nice to say about the man, ever. He has let brilliant people utterly destroy themselves, and sometimes die, right under his nose. To top it off, he has had the gaul to ban someone like, Elvis Costello for over a decade for breaking with script, but books morons like what's-her-sister-oops-wrong-song-bimbo and I bet would do it again.

He also fired only one of several cast members who dropped an F-bomb, yes, not to speculate, but you guessed it, the one that didn't quite look the same as the others, Garret Morris. Tim Meadows is a very funny guy -- the office sketch with Farley? Oh yeah! -- and I hope is treated with more respect than his forbears, but I doubt it. Being a semi-permanent token for Lorne is probably not a picnic.

At the end of the day, a lucky SOB to have assembled such great talents, but mostly an SOB. I have liked the show in the past in spite of him.

Yes, as I started this post, this one was quite good for this crop. Whatever you may think about Justin, he lit it up on this show with his comedy (Target skit was great, and "D" in the box will go down as a classic, sorry to say), PLUS his music sounded good. And I'm no Justin fan, really! Makes me wonder if this current cast needs a high profile host to kill.

Well it doesn't hurt that Timberlake actually can act a bit within a sketch. I mean, he knew his lines, can hit his mark, sold it and has got decent timing.

And there were TONS of low points within any heyday era. Even at their best, each cast has missed the mark. They just haven't nailed as many high points as they aim for.

The fact that is an institution carried no weight with me critically. But I enjoy my habit of watching it without exception.

Right on, Chickenjuggler!

Now, come on Lorne, let's re-create the magic!
(but if you don't, I guess 30+ years is more than we can ask from you...)

Er, Garrett Morris was not fired for dropping the F-bomb. He left the show along with Lorne and the remnants of the original cast at the end of the 79-80 season (after Chase, Aykroyd, and Belushi had split). He might have been fired for becoming a coke head but then again, look at the drug use among the first SNL cast. Garrett's biggest failure was his inability to handle being a coke addict as well as some of the others, and of course, Garrett wasn't a particularly talented performer.

Charles Rocket was fired for dropping the F-bomb, but that was during Lorne's sabbatical from SNL in the early 80's.

Andrew

I cannot stress enough how often I STILL get pissed about Phil Hartman's death. That guy did not deserve to die.

Grrr. I'm angry just typing it again.

SNL was what got me to like Timberlake in the first place.

"Bring it on down to Omeletville!"

JT is also one of the only people to guest on the show (Besides Baldwin) who doesn't flat out read the cue-cards all the time. Even Darrell Hammond can't be assed to memorize his lines. That's the defining characteristic of modern-day SNL: Nobody is looking at the audience, the camera, or the other actors. They're always looking off into this strange netherworld, reading lines off the cue-card and not even making an effort to apply some semblance of craft to those line readings.

As far as Lorne goes--a lot of people forget that Ebersol probably assembled the most talented cast ever (84-85) and was leading the Eddie Murphy era. The show can be run without Michaels, and I think if anything is going to save the show (it almost got canceled last eason) it would be a change of showrunner

SNL's performers have always lived by cue cards, since the first season. The problem is, the creative process for the show is pure chaos, and things are constantly changing right up until air time, so it's difficult for the actors to memorize the exact lines way ahead of time. Some of them are better at making it look easy than others.

As for the Ebersol years: yes, in terms of pure comic talent, the 84-85 season's may have been the best (though Murphy was gone by then). But it wasn't a cast that wanted to come back, really. Many of the performers were unhappy for various reasons. It was a cast of people who had been brought in as individuals and were already pretty well established talents (Billy Crystal, Martin Short, etc.). And Ebersol was getting tired of the live aspect; more and more of the show was being taped. He didn't want to continue after 84-85 either and proposed to NBC that he start pre-taping pretty much all of the show. For whatever reason it didn't work out and Lorne Michaels came back instead. Many of the faithful thought that for the good laughs of Ebersol's SNL that he sapped the soul out of the show.

I think that as long as Lorne gets half-decent ratings he'll be allowed to continue; even if his ratings aren't specacular, he consciously creates a show for a very young audience that the advertisers love to reach, blah blah blah so the show must still be hugely profitable. I don't konw if it was ever that close to being canceled - there have been such rumors through the entire run of the show.

It really wouldn't be Saturday Night Live without Lorne Michaels. If he leaves, they should simply retire the show period.

Andrew

Andrew, I stand corrected -- thanks for clearing up that bit of history. FBR & CJ, thanks for your insight too. I think the show outlived it's usefulness and is now just a sketch comedy like the Peter Iredale is just a ship.

Second City, Kids in the Hall, Upright Citizens Brigade, Mad TV, In Living Color -- hell, how about Laugh-In and Carol Burnett -- all had a wonderful time in the sun and have either gotten better or left the airwaves. SNL is legendary, but it is now Willie Mays circa 1973. It could retire a winner if it hurries up and moves on.

There have been some good books about SNL. One was "SATURDAY NIGHT A BACKSTAGE HISTORY OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" by Doug Hill - published just after Dick Ebersol left the show and Lorne Michaels was returning, in early 86. Another more recent one is "Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, as Told By Its Stars, Writers and Guests" by James A. Miller and Tom Shales. If you love the show as I did in its early years, these books are terrific reads.

Andrew

Thanks Andrew! I should check those books out. I love that kind of read. Since I brought up the many talented women of SNL, here's a chestnut.

“You can be a murderous tyrant and the world will remember you fondly. But fuck one horse and you’re a horse-fucker for all eternity.”
-- Tina Fey

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/031103fa_fact?031103fa_fact

Comedy is such a subjective thing too. I mean, obviously. I can really understand why someone doesn't like SNL right now - or even ever. Hey, it's not their bag. I get it. I look to SNL to be funny. I do not look to them for biting satire ( at least within the sketches - Weekend Update is another matter ). I think Jon Stewart has that covered so well ( The satire angle ) that I'd rather other shows use a different angle. ( And Colbert, while sharp, is only funny to me in small doses. That character he does is just full tilt all the time. The discipline of being able to do that is awesome. [ And " The Word " is positively perfect ]. But while his style delivery is spot on, his actual content delivery can show a misstep too often. )

And while I like(d) Bill Hicks, he was preaching to the choir. Although I've seen some footage of how he hendled hecklers - so maybe that's not entirely accurate.

Dennis Miller used to be sharp. But he lost his way.

Pryor pushed the envelope - but did it with such a dose of humanity ( especially at the end ) - that he made you laugh at yourself twice as hard as others. I like that. I LOVE self-effacing humor. Which brings me to my current favorites;

Hands down - funniest man on the planet to me is Eddie Izzard. He may have peaked with Glorious and Dress to Kill - but that cerebral theater of the absurd goes a long way for me. Dress to Kill in particular may be impossible for anyone to top when it comes to that kind of stand up routine.

I also enjoy the silly. Brian Regan is sharp.

But the one I am really pulling for is Zach Galifianakis. I want him to get whatever he wants to get out of his career. I like the guy. He doesn't just say funny things - he just IS funny. March 9th he comes to The Crystal Ballroom.

Alright - sorry for the rant. But I follow comedians like other people follow bands. I have no desire to do it myself. I just like to laugh for cryin' out loud.

SNL will be back live next week. I'm guessing the rerun is some kind of union / holiday weekend thing.

Zach's a good guy. Both him and Brian Posehn are truly funny guys.

I'm a fairly big fan of Sarah Silverman too...and Eddie Izzard is one of my favorites.

I saw An Evening at the Improv where all the comics had a physical disability. Hats off to Bud Friedman and the crew for doing this. I wondered if the audience or a least some felt some uneasy seeing them and felt compelled to laugh just to be polite. The reaction seing them on stage was great I just through this out for a comment.

I am totally out of it. I haven't watched SNL for probably 10 years or more.