I missed that. Elaborate?
Eh, depends who you ask. Some people who worked for him (e.g. Steve Vai, Pauline Butcher) have nothing but good things to say about him. Others didn’t like him. I’ve read a few books about him, and I don’t think I would classify him as a “jerk.”
You may be thinking of the time in the early '70s when Tomlin walked off of The Dick Cavett Show after Chad Everett made a sexist comment.
I’ve heard John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) is not the nicest guy.
By the way, the relevant portion of the clip begins at 6:25.
Well there is this book…
Complicated, is probably most accurate. He could be supportive and kind at times, but also a very deliberately contrarian asshole at others. He was a loving father, but not always a great one. A loving husband, but never a monogamous one (he seemed to draw a very hippie-like distinction between love and sex, which his wife did not appreciate). I read Howard Kaylan’s biography who liked and looked up to him (and purportedly got him to smoke pot exactly once). But then five-time married Kaylan was himself a poster boy for infidelity.
I don’t mean for this to be a hijack, and if it is, delete it.
That was an interesting Top 10 SNL Worst Guest Host list, and in some cases, it’s easy to see why the host just wasn’t going to work. Who couldn’t see that Michael Phelps was going to literally be a “fish out of water?”
But has there ever been a case in which they realized by Wednesday or Thursday that the guest host was going to stink, gave them their walking papers and filled with someone else? There must have been, in 50 years. In Phelps case, why embarrass a guy who was clearly out of his element (H2O)? With all his accomplishments as an athlete, making a joke of himself on SNL must have stung.
I don’t know, but sometimes they’ll bring in a ringer to back the host up. I remember a few years back Elton John (who cannot act) was the host, and somehow, “special guest” Tom Hanks ended up appearing in half the sketches and running away with them. I think Lorne has a bunch of guys - Hanks, Alec Baldwin, John Goodman, Christopher Walken, a few others - that he knows he can call on Friday to come save his show,.
Buck Henry could always be counted on to come through. I wonder how many times he hosted.
10 times in just about 4 years time.
Some athletes have been surprisingly good as SNL hosts. Others, not so much. This article ranks Phelps #24 out of 30 of “Jock Hosts of SNL.”
I bet there are just as many stories of people who they thought would suck and ended up surprising everyone and killing it. You never know
Some people who are not actors or comedians have surprised me. It’s always chancy when the musical guest is also the host, but one that was especially good was Billie Eilish. I’m rather ambivalent about her music but she was so good in the sketches and monologue that she could’ve been in the cast! And she was only 20 years old at the time.
I remember when Brian Williams hosted in 2007. At the time, he was the anchor of NBC Nightly News but he was, I thought, pretty good.
(Frank Zappa) “Clean” but he was clearly addicted to nicotine and caffeine, both in mega doses.
Not the same thing but Timothée Chalamet was both the host and musical guest this week. He played a couple of Bob Dylan songs that nobody knows. He seems to have decent comedy chops but the material was very weak.
Here is Al Franken discussing with Tom Segura how bad Steven Seagal was on Saturday Night Live: https://youtu.be/L1G2ghhxYpE?si=7IFchH5bmQR1hyLL
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Whatever you may think of Franken, he worked there for on SNL for a long time, so he should know what a bad or good host is.
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Likewise Billy Bob Thornton and his sullen, non-responsive appearance on CBC Radio’s “Studio Q”: