I’m going on fifty year old memories here, but was O’Donoghue ever a cast member? I thought he was just one of the writing staff.
I don’t remember George Coe at all.
Michael O’Donoghue was the show’s first head writer.
Chevy got a shout-out from Jimmy Fallon during Friday night’s concert.
I did not see that (I want to though).
Like most all of SNL’s episodes, this one was hit and miss. I can’t believe I made it to the end. And yeah, McCartney and Simon both need to retire. Great poets with huge impacts on music, but the day is done, boys.
Simon has retired. Although he didn’t stay completely retired. But he’s a good friend of Lorne and has a long history with the show, and so it was entirely appropriate that he made an appearance.
And something similar could be said about McCartney, although he hasn’t retired and is still performing regularly. People still want to see him, even though he isn’t what he used to be—and I can’t say that I blame them.
The two Pauls’ were the musical performances that meant the most to me, and I was glad to see them, for obvious sentimental reasons. I could have done without some of the others; but that’s just me.
Paul and Ringo should have both appeared and then claimed that Beatles reunion money from Lorne.
This would have been a fun payoff to an old joke.
My wife was unimpressed. She thought the new sketches weren’t that funny and the clips were too chopped up to be anything more than snapshots.
One thing we agreed on was casting Meryl Streep in the alien abduction sketch was brilliant, especially with her legendary commitment to her character.
My opinion, FWIW: Overall, the show was…okay. It was, for the most part, entertaining, and I watched all 3+ hours. There were highlights and lowlights. The McCartney song was fine, as there were plenty of other talented musicians onstage to overcome Paul’s diminished voice. Sandler’s song was excellent, and may have been the highlight of the show. The film starring Belushi was rather poignant.
The show wasn’t what I was expecting or hoping for. I wanted to see 50 years of highlights. There were some teasers, but I really wanted to see a sketch or two from Weekend Update or The Coneheads or Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood.
Maybe NBC is planning a show of highlights, which would include musical acts (which were in short supply on the SNL 50 Year Music Special.) I’d certainly watch it.
Yes, that was one of the better sketches, so naturally it was in the middle of that one when our cable box decided it needed to reboot. 
I agree that a lot more clips would’ve been nice. What made the aforementioned 15th anniversary so great (and rewatchable for my 15-year-old self) was that I got to experience some of the greatness of earlier seasons for the first time (Martin Short and Harry Shearer in the men’s synchronized swimming sketch, for instance). I also got to see some of my favorites from the most recent years all bundled together too. Last night just felt like a live rehash of old sketches by a lot of really old looking people.
My teenage kids dropped out after about an hour last night. They almost drew my daughter in with Sabrina opening the show, but she quickly lost interest.
Were I in charge, it would’ve been 3.5 hours of clips introduced by former performers and hosts, with regular crowd interactions like Tina and Amy did, and the occasional new sketch or character cameo (like Mike Meyers’ Linda Richman).
I sort of agree, but I also appreciated the chance to see so many SNL legends performing new material (live) with each other.
I agree with her. I would have rather seen more complete clips of the old material, but I do understand those have been widely seen over the past 50 years and this was a reunion show.
As for Meryl Streep, ever since she shot to the top from her appearances on Only Murders with Steve Martin and Martin Short she’s been acting like some kind of big deal prima donna. Man! Just being around SNL stars goes right to some people’s heads.
I agree! My husband and I were really looking forward to this show and we were both really disappointed. Most of the new skits were just blah. The Scared Straight skit was funny. But the others were not. As usual they make them way too long and they become more unfunny as they go on.
I watched most of it and enjoyed most of what I watched. What I really didn’t want to see was a bunch of clips, for me the best way to celebrate 50 years of a variety show was to keep doing it; and as others have said, the historical clips are available in lots of places.
I read some of the online comments on the show last night, and I think for some people it must be about recovering lost youth. They complain about it not being as good as it used to be, yet they apparently tune in anyway [really not talking about this group, more the Facebook crowd].
I don’t know what they could have changed to make it better. Just replaying old clips is a waste of airtime. If that’s what you miss, just put together a YouTube playlist. Many of the clips they did show were deliciously ironic, predictive or culturally taboo. My favorite section was the montage of material that hasn’t aged well. Showing the punchline to “word association” was quite brave, even if they did mute the n-word. “Don’t Look Back in Anger” with Garrett Morris’ introduction was a nice way to finish things off.
You guys gotta remember that they did a big to-do for the 25th and just 10 years ago for the 40th. So they’ve already done complete retrospectives, twice. It woulda been a huge bummer to see the 40th show again.
I thought it was really fun. The best thing I’ve ever seen?? No way. Perfect? Far from it. But fun for the people involved.
Eddie Murphy was really on his game, and it was great seeing him work with Kenan and Will Ferrell all at once.
Black Jeopardy was great but I think they REALLY ruined it with the Hanks appearance. Hanks’ original appearance on Black Jeopardy was HILARIOUS but this time it fell soooooo flat, and really took the wind out of the “Eddie as Tracy” sails. They even did the bit at the end with Kenan going to shake his hand and Hanks being afraid - something we just learned in one of the SNL50 documentaries was hilariously improvised. This time around it was just cringe.
I was so glad to see Cicely’s “Girl At a Party” and Bobby Monihan’s “Drunk Uncle” they were recent classics!
Meryl Streep was great, she was having the time of her life.
He was. He also had the first speaking part in the first sketch of the inaugural episode.
I didn’t see the 40th anniversary show, did they do any kind of “in memorium” list of the cast members who have passed away over the years? If not, something like that would have been nice to see last night. It looked like they were going there, then veered into the clips that haven’t aged well.
Adam Sandler’s song was basically that.