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TUESDAY AUGUST 22 2006 8:30 PM

Saturday Night Living Dead

Submitted by johnnyfu

Edited by johnnyfu

Tags: SNL, TV

Its hard not to be happy reading that six Saturday Night Live cast members are slated to be axed. Comedy-wise, pretty much the whole group is deadweight. The problem is apparently theyre not bringing in any new blood to revive the show; evidently, the most bloated comedy spectacle on American television is getting its budget cut.

SNL producer Lorne Michaels told the Post he thinks everything that was strong last season is back. Great. That means the Lazy Sunday guys job is safe. And how pathetic is it that what was essentially a glorified You Tube clip was the undisputed season highlight?

The show is apparently never going to die; thanks to lack of competition (Mad TV, Im looking at you for a reason) its ratings have been steady even though its been embarrassing for years.

Its largely been supplanted by The Daily Show as the go-to source for current events satire. When the show has done political commentary in recent years, it seems like they do so out of obligation its like they feel they have to and would much rather be making fun of safe pop culture topics like The View or MTVs Video Music Awards.

In Jay Mohrs self serving memoir about his early 90s stint on the show, Mohr painted the creative process on the show as a soul-deadening exercise in desperation. According to the hack comic, the writing process was driven by the kind of fear that permeates corporate boardrooms. Its depressing, especially when compared with the riotous gonzo spirit that fueled the shows early days.

I interviewed Gilbert Gottfried after the suicide of his fellow cast member Charles Rocket last year. The Aflac pitchman (who talked like a normal guy over the phone) was on the show in 1980, when an entirely new cast replaced the original heavy hitters. Gottfried wrote off his time on the show, during a season considered to be one of the worst ever.

As far as bad seasons of Saturday Night Live, its not like thats a rarity, Gottfried said.

In the Post article, Michaels expressed optimism that the show would have a creative resurgence similar to the one it underwent in 1981 when Eddie Murphy was the break-out star.

The show has motored over rough road - most memorably in 1980 and 1995, when the show underwent wholesale cast changes and which, by no coincidence, were the two worst-received seasons ever.

Maybe the show can motor over this. Or maybe were looking at the death of an American institution. Wouldnt that be nice?

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Comments

jeffvader

San Diego, CA

November 2004

AUG 22, 2006 11:35 PM

"someone get norm macdonald on the phone..."

-some dude in el cajon

Emperor_Norton

Phoenix, AZ

February 2006

AUG 22, 2006 11:51 PM

The biggest problem with SNL is Lorne Michaels. The guy has been at the helm for far too long. Let someone like Robert Smigel put on the big-wig pants for awhile, and I'd be willing to bet that the show would improve vastly. They also need better musical guests.

And please please shit-can Horatio Sanz. That bastard can't keep a straight face during a skit. Laughing and breaking character every once in a while can be quite funny, but its excrutiating when the same guy does it during every freakin' show. And they need to murder whoever thought that "Techno Hour" MTV4 skit was funny enough to deserve new installments. Every time Kenan Thompson says "ooooh-weee Tiara", I want to stab my brain with a rusty spork.

dingoes8

Milwaukee, WI

March 2004

AUG 23, 2006 01:35 AM

They should just replace the entire cast with Alec Baldwin, and have Christopher Walken host every episode.

AndersWolleck

Astoria, NY

February 2003

AUG 23, 2006 04:25 AM

bcguitar33 said:

legionnaire said:
Yeah, that one, the one that you stopped thinking was funny about 11 seconds into it, but it dragged on for another 9 excrutiating minutes of the same crap.

Um, you actually just described EVERY saturday night live sketch in the last decade or two. Every single sketch is one single joke stretched out to fill the space between commercials and then concluded with a lukewarm punchline.

They could learn a lot from some real sketch comedy, like Mr. Show or the UCB.

SNL sketches have always always gone on too long, since 1975

guynotnorml

Nashville, TN

September 2005

AUG 23, 2006 05:01 AM

i have faithfully watched snl since the first show aired. i was like 6 or something. i grew up watching and rarely miss sat. nite...it's a ritual.

some seasons have stunk beyond belief. no laughs. i agree.

ive never given up on the concepts of organized humor and lornes attempts to keep it all together. comedy is one of the hardest things to accomplish as well as one of the most important things to our society.

i wish the best to the new season. tough business, yo.

hope it never ends no matter how BAD, "some seasons" can get.

i still luv you snl. gnn

Cigarette

Cleveland, OH

April 2004

AUG 23, 2006 06:03 AM

Every so often, some other show or movie will have something that would be a perfect SNL skit.

Like when I saw Napoleon Dynamite. I laughed at a lot of the jokes, but I thought as a whole movie, it wasn't very good. Now as a series of SNL skits, I thought it would be brilliant.

Maybe they're relying to heavily on recruiting from improv troupes like the Groundlings and Second City. I suspect that in the last couple years, that pool has gotten a bit diluted. Maybe they should be looking at independent filmmakers, playwrights coming out of places like the Humana Festival, and me.

Cash

USA

OLD SKOOL

AUG 23, 2006 06:10 AM

ObservingOne said:
What's Dana Carvey doing nowadays?

Being painfully un-funny as always.

DeceptiviewFilm

Parlin, NJ

February 2004

AUG 23, 2006 06:59 AM

I havent watched SNL in years. I caught the Oprah Winfrey parody with Maya Rudolph and Kenan. They need to keep Kenan because the guy is pretty funny. He was great in Snakes on a plane.

_panda_

I'm lost

November 2005

AUG 23, 2006 06:33 PM

I wish they would axe melenie huxtall and gary kroger!