In the past few weeks, NBC has been re-running episodes from the “classic” period - 1975-79 and you know, they suck! SNL has always followed the same pattern: the good sketches were great and the bad sketches suck so hard they left pucker marks on my TV screen. Take last week’s for example: the host was Bea Arthur (ooooohhhh, Maude) and the musical guest was The Roches (three annoying sisters who sing annoying songs). NONE of the sketches worked (granted, Dan and John were not on this season). I guess your memory tends to gloos over the bad in favor of the good.
BTW, anyone remember such sketches as “X-Police” in which Dan and John played cops who had lost their jobs, but continued to investigate crimes?
I personally liked that cast of SNL ok but you’re not saying anything which you’ll get an argument about from the majority of writers. The only people who consider those to be from the classic era must be the syndicaters. I assure you, those episodes did not used to be referred to as classics or be grouped with those of the original cast.
Trumpy–I think you partially had it there. The really good sketches were outstanding, but each episode only had a few of those. That left the rest of the 90 minutes to be filled, so a lot of weaker stuff got in.
The original SNL actors/writers were notoriously sloppy. I read in an interview with Eric Idle (of Monty Python) about his appearances on the show that the SNL used to have terrible dress rehearsals, but didn’t care. They were sure the excitement of the live performance would “fix” the problems. This worked for Ackroyd and Belushi, who thrived under that kind of pressure, but less well for the rest. Besides, by the 3rd season the original members were already getting burned out by the grind of performance and celebrityhood.
I have to disagree with your comment about the Roaches. I love their work! Their Christmas music is some of the best I’ve heard. Did they do the “Ing Song” on the episode you saw?
I have to agree about the original shows. We remember them as great because the whole concept was so original at the time. Looked at now, most of the sketches are pretty lame. Overall, I think the writing and acting is better now than it was then.
I prefer the Mike Myers/Dana Carvey/Dennis Miller/Jan Hooks/Victoria Jackson/Job Lovitz/Phil Hartman cast myself. The cast right after, with Rob Schneider, Adam Sandler, Norm MacDonald, etc. was also great.
What really sucked about SNL was when the remainder of the original cast was let go and Gilbert Godfried & company came on. That sucked goose eggs until Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo arrived.
On a tangent: which cast members were the best and worst addition to the show?
My votes: [list]
[li]Worst: Terry Sweeney, who’s only “talent” was doing a drag queen impersonation of Nancy Reagan.[/li]Best: Phil Hartman. He was much more versitile than anyone else ever.
Just a thought about the early years and our appreciation of them: a.) I think dhanson’s on to part of it, the then originality, b.) a whole lot more of the folks who are old enough to remember that period smoked pot then than do now.
Yeah, the guy who did Nancy Reagan was bad. I’d rate Christine Ebersol worse though. All I remember her doing was sing country songs. How funny was that?