Saturday Night Live-Season 5...Any News? (1 Viewer)

[Mark Y]

Originally Posted by FrankNolan




Did you ever watch the VHS tapes of the old shows? The bumpers aren't the least bit intrusive. I think it would take a major effort to be irritated by them - at least as much as Cheetah has exerted in his annoyance over their absence. It's not really a big deal to me either, but the decision to leave them out seems completely arbitrary.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I am pretty sure this has come up several times (each time they have released one of these season sets).

I, too, am disappointed that the bumpers were cut; I would have much rather had them included within the shows -- like another member mentioned above, maybe it's because I watched this era of SNL when these shows originally aired live. So the bumpers were an integral part of the presentation, as were the promotional announcements for Mariott's Essex House in the middle of the show -- I believe one of those actually ended up being left in (in Season 4) because that one time only, the plug was worked into the context of a skit (although Bill Murray did the voice-over instead of Don Pardo).

But I think I understand why the bumpers were cut. If I am not mistaken, when the show would go to a commercial break, the control room would go to a still image of that week's host with the show's logo on it, and stay on that for the duration of the commercial break, then cross--fade to studio 8H after the break was over. A local station would catch the last couple of seconds of the bumper. So the thinking may be, a local station would catch the last couple seconds of these bumpers, which otherwise sat there static in the control room, with the signal going nowhere most of that time. So with that kind of reasoning, it would make sense for them to not consider them really "part of the show" but to leave the last one in just so they are represented (notwithstanding those cases where they used different ones for the various breaks). That makes sense to me, but I actually find the dubbed clapping they've added to cover these edits even more annoying.

SCTV had the bumpers left in -- on the first volume, even multiple bumpers (including the extra ones that would come on in the middle of a commercial break sometimes). I would rather have them than not have them.

 

[Brian Himes]

I just finished watching the Season 5 set. Finally seeing all five seasons was just great. I'm so glad to have these sets. For me, my SNL collection is complete.

 

[Ric Easton]

Originally Posted by GE Cafe




Did you really just compare a bug to unique photography art that is different not only every week, but almost every single instance within a given episode? I'm getting what you're saying, but it's not a fair comparison. (I WOULD like original commercials, fwiw, and no locals... just 60 seconds of the SNL band playing under the bumper. But I'm fucking insane, so.)

Not insane! I would also like to see those old commecials (in show that are over 20 years old anyway). A friend of mine gave me a copy of his recording of the Star Wars Holiday Special. The show sucked... but those commercials were gold! If you don't wan't to see the original ads, you should be able to skip them like chapters.
Feel free to leave out any bugs and lower screen animations though!

 

[FrankNolan]

With the entire original run out now (sans bumpers), I wanted to do a kind of roundup of what was left out, as far as possible bonus material. I especially want to focus on the SNL-related specials that have come up here and in other threads related to these releases.

As far as I can tell, there were 9 NBC specials produced by Lorne between 1976 - 83 that featured appearances by one or more of the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players (things like Chevy's specials probably never would've been featured on these sets, as Lorne & the rest of the original team had nothing to do with them). Two - The Rutles and Mr. Mike's Mondo Video - were released independent of these sets. Two others - the Mardi Gras special and Things We Did Last Summer - were released as part of these sets, though TWDLS is pretty far from complete. Two more - The Beach Boys It's Ok and The Paul Simon Special - were also available on DVD at one point, though the former was a gray-market release, and the latter was apparently in-print for five seconds (check the price on Amazon etc). Being mostly music, I don't think either were very likely to turn up as bonus features, though the Simon special would've made a nice companion to the 3rd season Charles Grodin/PS show (Grodin is featured very heavily in the special). Almost all of these came out on VHS in the '80s.

So the things still not available at all (with the exception of one sketch) are:

• Bob & Ray, Jane, Laraine & Gilda - This is easily the most inexplicable absence. This was a well-remembered, Emmy-nominated special that was released on video and even aired by Comedy Central a few times in its early days. Format-wise, this was pretty much a typical SNL show, only sans male cast members. Would have found a natural home on the fourth season set. Can't see why it wasn't included, though they did seem to scale back the bonus material with each release following the first two. Oddly, if the Jean Doumanian season is ever released - a big "if" - this would be a logical candidate for that as well; it was the first SNL project that credited Doumanian as producer (along with Franken & Davis).
• Steve Martin's Best Show Ever - This was one I was really hoping would end up in the fifth-season set, since I've only seen bits and pieces of it since the original airing in '81. I also thought it would be logical to add a show with Aykroyd to the one season he doesn't appear on at all. But sometime last year, I read hints on another board about a possible Martin release that would compile his specials. Let's hope that pans out.
• The Coneheads (animated special) - This was a relatively minor project but short enough - 23 minutes - to work as a bonus.

It's late, so I'll come back and mention some of the other missing bits-and-pieces later.

 

[Dale MA]

Wow, thanks for that Frank. Fascinating stuff.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Kevin's SNL Season 5 review is now posted: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/296345/htf-dvd-review-saturday-night-live-the-complete-5th-season