Saturday Night Live is back with a new episode with Tina Fey hosting and Carrie Underwood performing.

tina fey and carrie underwood?

hey now!!!

Lorne Michaels should look for someone else for the Obama impressions. Whoever did it tonight was not all that good.

steve martin!

anyone else getting weird audio issues during the rock of love sketch? Like the performers' voices are only getting picked up by the background mikes?

anyone else getting weird audio issues during the rock of love sketch? Like the performers' voices are only getting picked up by the background mikes?

Definitely got this during the "monologue" part.

anyone else getting weird audio issues during the rock of love sketch? Like the performers' voices are only getting picked up by the background mikes?


Yes.

Maybe they should go back on strike and try again?

...and hire Mike Huckabee as a role player, he was pretty good.

I liked the skit making fun of NBC's LAME programming. Next time maybe they should do one making fun of Saturday night programming. Especially that lame-ass sketch show at 11:30 PM that should have been cancelled 4 or 5 years ago..

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:Back to the quality comedy that made me support the writers' cause:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Wait, you mean to tell me that this episode's SNL was written by the actual writers and not scabs? :rolleyes: The digital short was funny as well as the news, but most of the other skits are just stupid. It's like the writers are trying to reach the dumbest people - "What dat bitch say?" Stupid. About the only comedy show on air that has some smart writers is Curb Your Enthusiasm.

I see we got the mandatory "this show has not been fuuny for years" or "it should have been cancelled years ago" posting that appear in each and every SNL thread.

SNL is a cyclical thing, always has been. It goes through rough seasons depending on the quality of the cast.

Besides watch old episodes the good episodes are few and far between, even in their hey day. People just tend to only remember the skits that were really good. The classic casts had an awful lot of misses too.

Besides if you canceled SNL its not like you are going to get anything better in that time slot... I mean it'd probably just become a syndication timeslot. So stop complaining and only tune in when Christopher Walken is hosting...

Obama guy - not funny
Grandkids in movie - slightly humorous
Milkshakes - not funny
Lady Business - not funny
Tina Fey Monologue - not funny
TF on Weekend Update - fairly humorous
Huckabee on WU - self-deprecating humor is always funny

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/#mea=221737

It looks like next week will be an awesome show. Ellen Page from Juno is hosting, and the musical guest is Wilco. If you haven't heard of Wilco, or haven't seen them play anything live, you should tune in, as they are insanely good, and one of the most polished live acts I've ever seen.

I thought with the first show back and with Tina Fey hosting that they would have aimed a little higher.

I see we got the mandatory "this show has not been fuuny for years" or "it should have been cancelled years ago" posting that appear in each and every SNL thread.

And they' be back next week. And the week after. And the week after when it's a rerun. They must hate the show.

In all honesty, you would think that the writers would have come up with some good ideas over their strike. This is the same garbage we've been getting for years. This show should at least only be an hour.

And they' be back next week. And the week after. And the week after when it's a rerun. They must hate the show.

SNL will actually be doing four straight weeks of live shows for the first time since the 70's.

In all honesty, you would think that the writers would have come up with some good ideas over their strike. This is the same garbage we've been getting for years. This show should at least only be an hour.

SNL's humor tends to be topical almost to a fault. Material written in November or December probably wouldn't be fresh enough. They would still be making fun of Fred Thompson and Rudy Guiliani and myspace.

SNL will actually be doing four straight weeks of live shows for the first time since the 70's.


That certainly won't help the quality.

Maybe they should go back on strike and try again?

...and hire Mike Huckabee as a role player, he was pretty good.

Huckabee has an great stage presence. Last week Colbert interviewed him while they played a game of Air Hockey with the state of Texas as the puck. I would never vote for him but would love to have a meal with the man.

SNL will actually be doing four straight weeks of live shows for the first time since the 70's.

As I remember it, back in the seventies they did three weeks and then ran a news magazine show called Weekend on the fourth week. Linda Ellerbe was one of the hosts.

I only watched the first 30 minutes or so. The opening was pretty good, I thought. Did that girl (?) that pulls on her hair and one-ups everyone's comment do her bit? I think that's one of the best regular routines that the show has had for a long time.

Did that girl (?) that pulls on her hair and one-ups everyone's comment do her bit? I think that's one of the best regular routines that the show has had for a long time.

No.

I don't hate the show entirely, I just hate bad comedy. Last night was bad comedy. The only good things were Huckabee on WU and the Digital Short about the grandkids in the DVDs. I like the "one-up" girl too.

Then, most of the show was horrible. "What dat bitch say", "I drink your milkshake", "Lady Business". Are you serious??

I thought with the first show back and with Tina Fey hosting that they would have aimed a little higher.Maybe that's the best they could do.

Did that girl (?) that pulls on her hair and one-ups everyone's comment do her bit?That's Kristin Wiig, and the character is Penelope. I agree, it's a terrific bit.

She did something like that character as Jill in "Knocked Up". Equally understated but hilarious.

Interesting that nobody here noticed or commented on the disappearance of Maya Rudolph from the cast! Now THAT is a tragedy. I went back and looked at the opening credits, and yeah... she appears to be gone from the credits. What a shame.

The replacement new girl intern, "featuring Casey Rose Wilson", did not impress me so far. She supposedly has considerable comedy experience, but it certainly didn't hit me in her debut skits.

Then, most of the show was horrible. "What dat bitch say", "I drink your milkshake", "Lady Business". Are you serious??
One formula SNL often falls into (and I'm talking from the very first season) is the "one-joke" sketch. In theory it can build up to a big joke ending but when it doesn't, you realize you've been ripped off. The "Penis" sketch from season 14 is good example of how to make it work. "What Dat Bitch Say?" is one of many that haven't worked.

I hope they give Ellen Page a good show next week. Juno is the funniest movie I've seen since 40 Year Old Virgin.

*sigh* I guess I'm the only one with a sense of humor left on this board who still watches SNL. Where's the main SNL thread where people focus on the show as a whole instead of just the sketches that miss? I agree that there were some misses, but there have been a lot of misses every week since Chevy Chase first screamed "Live From New York..." Some people need to take off their rose-colored glasses. :rolleyes:

The obvious misses were the opening skit, milkshake (I was more disappointed that it took the audience so long to realize it was a spoof of "There Will Be Blood" even though that line is the catch phrase du jour), and Lady Business. And I wasn't a fan of the digital short, but I can see why some might like it. And Fey's rant about Clinton sounded more like a campaign intro than a skit. Besides that...

The monologue was awesome, I don't know what some of you people are thinking. Kristin Wiig's impression of Jennifer Tilly was brilliant, and even Keenan Thompson did a dead-on Charles Barkley (finally he did something funny besides his signature blank stare), adding up to a decent Celebrity Apprentice skit. Weekend Update was great as always, and Huckabee did such a great job with his bit that I thought he might actually resign from the race right there.

I laughed, I groaned: I've been doing both since the 70's and I'll be doing it for as long as I watch SNL.

The obvious misses were the opening skit, milkshake (I was more disappointed that it took the audience so long to realize it was a spoof of "There Will Be Blood" even though that line is the catch phrase du jour), and Lady Business.


Ahhh... that explains why it went over my head. Never even heard of "There Will Be Blood" until the Oscars last night. I don't think none of the movies in the Best Picture category even ran in a theater around here.

Dudes. Milkshake skit was hilarious - best skit all night. "I DRINK YOUR MILSHAKE! I DRINK IT UP!" Honestly, SNL can't win. If they stay current enough to keep up with the mainstream (best picture for gosh sakes) - they get denounced for not being funny simply because people don't understand the skit. If they ignore the mainstream - they become out of touch with current events. I drink your milkshake is like one of the most popular sayings on college campuses across the country...

Ahhh... that explains why it went over my head. Never even heard of "There Will Be Blood" until the Oscars last night. I don't think none of the movies in the Best Picture category even ran in a theater around here.

Don't worry, the movie only made $40 million worldwide. The reason the audience didn't laugh is because they hadn't seen it either.

I enjoy SNL, and especially enjoy the Weekend Update segment. But it is definately a Tivo show, so you can skip the skits that miss the mark.

The problem with this show is that they long ago seem to have settled on a format of one skit between commercial breaks. It was probably done for production reasons (can't move too fast between skits due to costume and set changes). So that means a skit that is funny for one or two minutes gets stretched out sometimes to the point of being painful. Imagine Jay Leno's monologue if he had to stretch out a single joke for 5 minutes. Same deal. Usually jokes work best when they are short and you move on to the next one.

One of the refreshing things about Mad TV when it first started was that it wasn't live, so they could get 2 or 3 skits in each segment. They could set a joke up, go for the punchline, and move on. Much funnier that way. I've noticed that Mad TV has also started to drag out skits longer, and has suffered as a result.

I haven't watched this week's episode yet, but I'm sure there are one or two gems that work, and if so, that will match the success rate of the best casts from SNL history.

Something that's bothered me in the recent years is the too elaborate makeup/prosthetics. Who know how long it takes to put a fake nose and chin on one of the cast members to make them look like the guy he's portraying...and the skit only lasts 2 minutes. What happened to the days of Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford? CC certainly didn't look like GF. They should pay more attention to making the skit funny instead of trying to get the guy to look like Chris Matthews...does anyone even know what CM looks like anyway?

I agree that there were some misses, but there have been a lot of misses every week since Chevy Chase first screamed "Live From New York..."Don't remember there being too many of em' during the Hartman years.

There is a tendency to look at SNL's early years with less than rose colored glasses. I believe there were far more hits than misses in the old days when they had superior comic talent. Even when a skit wasn't inherently funny, John Belushi or Eddie Murphy or Dan Ackroid or Bill Murray or Phil Hartman or Jon Lovitz could raise an eyebrow and bring the house down. They simply don't have that kind of transcendent talent available today, for some reason. They can't even seem to find a stable of writers in all of New York to create funny skits in the first place. As to the Weekend Update segment, Jon Stewart does that shtick better every night on The Daily Show. They have this famous, brutal, weeding out process for sketches; considering what does make it on the air, how much worse must the ones be that don't make the cut? The mind boggles. :eek:

All that said, SNL has been on so long it's become an institution in that Saturday night time slot. People watch out of habit (or hope...) more than anything else these days. It's thus more or less "ratings proof" and they don't really have to even try that hard. They know they'll get an audience who tolerates mediocrity because it's been so long since the show has been consistently good, they've forgotten what it was like, or never experienced it in the first place. The status quo, and people's expectations, have been effectively lowered. Loren Michaels is just stealing money these days, and has been for years. He's mailing it in. Nice gig if you can get it.

Dudes. Milkshake skit was hilarious - best skit all night. "I DRINK YOUR MILSHAKE! I DRINK IT UP!" Honestly, SNL can't win. If they stay current enough to keep up with the mainstream (best picture for gosh sakes) - they get denounced for not being funny simply because people don't understand the skit. If they ignore the mainstream - they become out of touch with current events. I drink your milkshake is like one of the most popular sayings on college campuses across the country...I agree. That was one of the funniest of the night. Bill Hader is usually pretty funny.

Interesting that nobody here noticed or commented on the disappearance of Maya Rudolph from the cast! Now THAT is a tragedy. I went back and looked at the opening credits, and yeah... she appears to be gone from the credits. What a shame.

The replacement new girl intern, "featuring Casey Rose Wilson", did not impress me so far. She supposedly has considerable comedy experience, but it certainly didn't hit me in her debut skits.

Maya Rudolph retired from the show on her own. She had been wanting to do it before this season started but had been talked into returning. I guess the extended down time with her new kid at home while the show was on strike sealed it for her. It is a shame (for us) since she was very versatile doing physical comedy, some impressions (Oprah) and could sing with the best of them (she is the daughter is the late R&B singer Minnie Ripperton).

I didn't expect Casey Wilson to have a break out show since she just got there and is in the role of a "featured player" and not a full fledged cast member. She'll have some dues to pay to find her way on the show.

There is a tendency to look at SNL's early years with less than rose colored glasses. I believe there were far more hits than misses in the old days when they had superior comic talent. Even when a skit wasn't inherently funny, John Belushi or Eddie Murphy or Dan Ackroid or Bill Murray or Phil Hartman or Jon Lovitz could raise an eyebrow and bring the house down. They simply don't have that kind of transcendent talent available today, for some reason. They can't even seem to find a stable of writers in all of New York to create funny skits in the first place. As to the Weekend Update segment, Jon Stewart does that shtick better every night on The Daily Show. They have this famous, brutal, weeding out process for sketches; considering what does make it on the air, how much worse must the ones be that don't make the cut? The mind boggles. :eek:

All that said, SNL has been on so long it's become an institution in that Saturday night time slot. People watch out of habit (or hope...) more than anything else these days. It's thus more or less "ratings proof" and they don't really have to even try that hard. They know they'll get an audience who tolerates mediocrity because it's been so long since the show has been consistently good, they've forgotten what it was like, or never experienced it in the first place. The status quo, and people's expectations, have been effectively lowered. Loren Michaels is just stealing money these days, and has been for years. He's mailing it in. Nice gig if you can get it.

Unfortunately...you're right on target. The "old stuff" still makes us giggle when seen in retrospectives. Irwin Mainstay's "bag o glass"; Samurai Delicatessen; Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber; et al.

There is a tendency to look at SNL's early years with less than rose colored glasses. I believe there were far more hits than misses in the old days when they had superior comic talent. Even when a skit wasn't inherently funny, John Belushi or Eddie Murphy or Dan Ackroid or Bill Murray or Phil Hartman or Jon Lovitz could raise an eyebrow and bring the house down. They simply don't have that kind of transcendent talent available today, for some reason. They can't even seem to find a stable of writers in all of New York to create funny skits in the first place. As to the Weekend Update segment, Jon Stewart does that shtick better every night on The Daily Show. They have this famous, brutal, weeding out process for sketches; considering what does make it on the air, how much worse must the ones be that don't make the cut? The mind boggles. :eek:

All that said, SNL has been on so long it's become an institution in that Saturday night time slot. People watch out of habit (or hope...) more than anything else these days. It's thus more or less "ratings proof" and they don't really have to even try that hard. They know they'll get an audience who tolerates mediocrity because it's been so long since the show has been consistently good, they've forgotten what it was like, or never experienced it in the first place. The status quo, and people's expectations, have been effectively lowered. Loren Michaels is just stealing money these days, and has been for years. He's mailing it in. Nice gig if you can get it.

SNL did have some clunker skits that didn't do well in the early days but you have to put those days in perspective. First, there wasn't a show like it on TV and cable TV didn't exist for most US households. The last comedy show on TV that had this much talent as SNL did in the early days was over 15 years earlier on Sid Caesar's "Show of Shows" which had Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner on the writing staff. Second, the show got extremely lucky with the initial cast. They went after Chevy Chase since he was established, but all the other performers were unknowns outside of the few comedy clubs that existed in those days.

One thing going on with the show in those days versus now...all the drugs. With so much of the cast completely stoned, smashed or what-have-you, that tended to exacerbate the zanyness of the antics.

These days SNL is the "gray lady" of sketch comedy, and they have competition for talent now where as in the old days, this wasn't a problem. The aformentioned Daily Show has poached talent that might have gone to SNL in recent years. Comedy Central has given comics a bigger stage for either appearing in stand up routines, or driving entire shows on their own (not to mention other cable channels).

Still SNL is there and still gets viewers. At NBC, only the Nightly News, Today and Meet The Press have been on the air longer. And Don Pardo just turned 90!

Unfortunately...you're right on target. The "old stuff" still makes us giggle when seen in retrospectives. Irwin Mainstay's "bag o glass"; Samurai Delicatessen; Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber; et al.
Uh, did you watch any of the awful Muppets sketches in the first season? Yes, there was a Muppets sketch in nearly every show in the first season. No one laughed at them.

Watch the very first Conehead sketch. There were barely two laughs in it and a lot of confused silence. How did this painfully unfunny sketch get on the air? Were all the writers baked 24/7? For some reason another Conehead sketch made it on the show and it became one of the most popular sketches.

Today if the Coneheads had even made it on the show, it never would have been seen again. Back then there were fewer writers and less competition to get stuff on the show plus the players wrote for the show (Aykroyd came up with the Conehead idea and lobbied for it) and had more individual control. The show these days seems to be run by committee.

Second, the show got extremely lucky with the initial cast. They went after Chevy Chase since he was established, but all the other performers were unknowns outside of the few comedy clubs that existed in those days.I wouldn't exactly call the National Lampoon Radio Hour unknown. Belushi, Radner, Murray and Chase were all cast members there. Belsushi also served time as their creative director.

SNL was, for all intents and purposes, the NLRH. A lot of SNL's early writers came from there, also.

Those particular cast members were in mind well before the show even started. You could probably safely even say that the show was actually built around them. NLRH basically morphed into SNL after it ended it's run. Those weren't all exactly random, "lucky" picks. Most of the early cast members (and many still) came from Second City (Chicago and Toronto) and The Groundlings (L.A.), where they're schooled in improv and practically groomed for SNL and similar shows. It's a pretty "connected" world.

Very few of the cast members from SNL are, or ever were, "plucked out of comedy clubs".

*sigh* I guess I'm the only one with a sense of humor left on this board who still watches SNL. Where's the main SNL thread where people focus on the show as a whole instead of just the sketches that miss? I agree that there were some misses, but there have been a lot of misses every week since Chevy Chase first screamed "Live From New York..." Some people need to take off their rose-colored glasses. :rolleyes:

The obvious misses were the opening skit, milkshake (I was more disappointed that it took the audience so long to realize it was a spoof of "There Will Be Blood" even though that line is the catch phrase du jour), and Lady Business. And I wasn't a fan of the digital short, but I can see why some might like it. And Fey's rant about Clinton sounded more like a campaign intro than a skit. Besides that...

The monologue was awesome, I don't know what some of you people are thinking. Kristin Wiig's impression of Jennifer Tilly was brilliant, and even Keenan Thompson did a dead-on Charles Barkley (finally he did something funny besides his signature blank stare), adding up to a decent Celebrity Apprentice skit. Weekend Update was great as always, and Huckabee did such a great job with his bit that I thought he might actually resign from the race right there.

I laughed, I groaned: I've been doing both since the 70's and I'll be doing it for as long as I watch SNL.

Agreed!

Dudes. Milkshake skit was hilarious - best skit all night. "I DRINK YOUR MILSHAKE! I DRINK IT UP!" Honestly, SNL can't win. If they stay current enough to keep up with the mainstream (best picture for gosh sakes) - they get denounced for not being funny simply because people don't understand the skit. If they ignore the mainstream - they become out of touch with current events. I drink your milkshake is like one of the most popular sayings on college campuses across the country...

Agree, too, re: the milkshake sketch. But my wife, who didn't see the movie, didn't get it.

Thought it was funny that we had a "There Will Be Blood" parody in an episode without Maya since Maya is married to (or at least involved with) director P.T. Anderson.

I too loved the milkshake sketch. Last Christmas I saw the film on DVD so I immediately got all the sketch references.