Time/Life Press Release: Saturday Night Live: The Early Years (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

​ LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!​ IN 1975, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE USHERED IN AN ERA OF GROUNDBREAKING LIVE SKETCH COMEDY, AND TV WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME... ​ TIME LIFE INVITES HOME AUDIENCES TO FRONT ROW SEATS FOR THE MOST HILARIOUS EPISODES FROM SNL'S FIRST FIVE SEASONS FEATURING THE ORIGINAL CAST SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: THE EARLY YEARS This Hilarious 12-Disc Set Includes 33 Complete Episodes Featuring All-Time-Classic Characters Like The Coneheads, John Belushi's Samurai, Emily Litella, The Blues Brothers and More, Incredible Guest Hosts and Musical Acts, Rare Behind-the-Scenes Footage, a 28-Page Collector's Book, a Bonus DVD and More! Not Available at Retail, This Set is Only Available Via Direct Response or Online at TimeLife.com/SaturdayNightLive ​ Fairfax, VA (October 13, 2020) - On October 11, 1975, Saturday Night Live, a topical comedy sketch show, made its debut on NBC. Created by Canadian-born comedy writer Lorne Michaels, it would go on to become a renowned launch pad for generational talent and unforgettable characters and become the longest-running, highest-rated show on late-night television. The first five years of Saturday Night Live featured some of the most beloved cast members of all time, including Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Garrett Morris, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, and Laraine Newman and they set the stage for some of the most hilarious live television comedy American audiences had ever seen. Now the best of the original cast is available unlike ever before. To commemorate this landmark show, the TV DVD specialists at Time Life have brought together the very best episodes from the first five seasons with SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: THE EARLY YEARS, a hilarity-packed 12-disc collector's DVD set featuring the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" iconic characters, legendary guest hosts like George Carlin, Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin and Richard Pryor, exclusive bonus features and more! They're still not ready for prime time, but now you can watch them any time! Available now exclusively at TimeLife.com/SaturdayNightLive this specially-curated collection includes: This 12-DVD Collector's Set Includes: 33 Complete Episodes from Seasons 1-5 The original groundbreaking, irreverent, hilarious cast All-time classic sketches including "Land Shark," "Word Association," "The Killer Bees," "Super Bass-o-Matic," "Weekend Update," and so many more Iconic characters including Coneheads, Samurai, Emily Litella, Chevy Chase as President Ford, Shower Mike, The Blues Brothers, Baba Wawa, Roseanne Roseannadanna, the Nerds, the wild and crazy Festrunk brothers, a singing King Tut, Father Guido Sarducci, Dan Aykroyd's French Chef, and more! Legendary guest hosts including Buck Henry, Madeline Kahn, Elliot Gould, Eric Idle, Candice Bergen, Charles Grodin, Robert Klein, Fred Willard, Carrie Fisher Incredible musical guests such as Patti Smith,Carly Simon, Joe Cocker, The Band, Paul Simon, Santana, Frank Zappa, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, Van Morrison, Blondie and more Plus rare footage of the original cast, including screen tests and interviews 28-Page Collector's Book telling the story of the show and all of your favorite "Not Ready For Primetime Players" FREE Bonus DVD with three classic episodes, including Chevy Chase's return to SNL with music icon Billy Joel, plus the historic 100th episode! About Time Life Time Life is one of the world's pre-eminent creators and direct marketers of unique music and video/DVD products, specializing in distinctive multi-media collections that evoke memories of yesterday, capture the spirit of today, and can be enjoyed for a lifetime. TIME LIFE and the TIME LIFE logo are registered trademarks of Time Warner Inc. and affiliated companies used under license by Direct Holdings Americas Inc., which is not affiliated with Time Warner Inc. or Time Inc. # # # ​

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[texboil]

What a waste of time. All the original DVDs are still available. Would love to think that this is a sign of future seasons to come but doubt it.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

What a waste of time. All the original DVDs are still available. Would love to think that this is a sign of future seasons to come but doubt it.

Jeff, I was thinking the same thing as I posted this press release.

Meanwhile, nobody is doing anything about SNL's best years which I think was during the late 80s to mid-90s. Of course, everyone has their favorite era but so far, Universal isn't doing anything other than licensing material that is already out there.

 

[texboil]

Well, I think almost all of the remaining seasons of SNL are somewhat marketable for a physical release. The Ebersol years obviously have Eddie Murphy while the late 80s were a definite resurgence and are almost -- for me, anyway -- on par with the original years. I don't know how they licensed the musical performances on the original sets, but I assume that's -- along with malaise on the physical media side in general -- the biggest barrier to any future releases. I worry that if this Time Life series continues that it will feature the same butchered versions currently available on Peacock, not full episodes.

What's mildly interesting is this is not the first SNL series put out by Time Life. They did VHS-by-mail "annual" releases which were either heavily-edited versions of episodes or pre-existing best ofs. Then when they ran out of years they did a few host-centric releases before the series petered out. I could see something similar happening here but I think there will be limited interest unless they can do complete episodes.

 

[nobajoba]

I couldn't agree with you guys more. TL putting out the original cast SNL is a huge waste of time. It's already out there. It's just like when they did a Lucy set with I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show. BIG waste for them. There's so many other shows they could focus on. 2020 was the 50th anniversary of The Flip Wilson Show. How about that one? At least a Best Of would've been nice. But no, they went and did a show that was already out on dvd. ZZZZZZZZZ

 

[Radioman970]

or they could just continue with season 6 and on. I sure wanna hear Charles Rocket say f*** live again. :p just all the goodness and badness, and badness with a bit of goodness that comes through. those weird musical groups I'd never heard of then. half asleep and watching.

 

[Bryan^H]

or they could just continue with season 6 and on. I sure wanna hear Charles Rocket say f*** live again. :p just all the goodness and badness, and badness with a bit of goodness that comes through. those weird musical groups I'd never heard of then. half asleep and watching.

I would love to see 6, and all after released.

 

[PMF]

Nothing wrong with keeping the SNL torches burning bright. But, hey, what could be expected from Time/Life home discs? Their boxed-sets seem to cast a wide net out to those remaining, in the most outer of reaches, who are just catching on to the idea that a TV show could even be purchased.

 

[Radioman970]

btw, me off topic but throwing out fridays too. another volume or 2 with as much music clearences as they could muster.