SNL Season 1 on 12/5/06 (and season sets in general)

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

Wow, that is HUGE news! Weird that there has been no mention of this anywhere else. Is it some kind of CH Club exclusive? Or does CH have the scoop on some announcement of this release?

In either case, I'm a member of CH and will be putting an order in for this as soon as I can be sure it isn't some snafu.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

This is a big deal.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

If They have to snip some Musical acts here and there, that wouldn't be unfortunate at all (That's par for the course for all variety shows whn it comes to DVD), I just hope this isn't some weird mistake.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

Have I fallen into a parallel universe ?

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

This is one for the "I'll believe it when I see it" files.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

Exactly. Maybe it's a 'Best of S1'?

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

Holy crap! I'm hoping this isn't a CH exclusive (although I think that it might make more sense). I'm dying for more classic-era SNL so this is a must.

Doesn't look like there are any extras, but that doesn't matter to me. This is one of the few shows I wouldn't feel a need to purchase every single season of, so as long as the classics get out there, I'm satisfied.

ETA: From the description:

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

Someone pinch me because I MUST be dreaming. I thought it would never happen, especially considering it would be a music rights nightmare. It's odd how we're hearing about this now, because as stated above, this IS a big deal.

But I'll sit with baited breath until we know more about this release. There are questions that need to be answered. Is this a Columbia House exclusive? Will subsequent seasons follow?

I hope to god this is the real deal because I can't begin to express how long I've wanted complete season sets of SNL on DVD. This news is too good to be true.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

I'm sure Gord will enlighten us soonly

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

Wow. Been waiting for this for a long time. Still, I'll believe it when we have confirmation.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

Ok, NOW there's room for suspicion. And for 69.95? Cmon The 5-6 episode SCTV sets were $100 apiece and even THOSE didn't retain all of the music

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

I'm searching for a loophole, and I can't find one. They're explicitly promising EVERYTHING. I think it's for real.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

I don't want seasons of the entire SNL run, but I'm definitely on board for the full run of the originial Not Ready For Primetime Players.

I just hope this isn't a Columbia House exclusive.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

How in the world did they get EVERY musical number and be able to charge such a hefty set for around $60?

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

It's for real all right, and this is incredible news to me!

Columbia House is one of the oldest and most reliable entertainment media distributors in the world, having been around for half a century.

I used to subscribe to their GUNSMOKE VHS tape collection in the early 1990s and I purchased a number of Wild Wild West TV episodes on DVDs a few years ago. With the recent death of singer Billy Preston (SNL's very first musical guest), it must have been even easier. The premiere show with George Carlin is one of a number of first, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th season SNL shows to be re-broadcast in their 66 minute entirety in recent years.

This is the longest-running sketch comedy series in TV history and it's still going. The fact that Lorne Michaels was recently able to get music clearance from the first season (1975-1976) isn't an issue because he did it before with the special DVD musical guest compilations he put together a few years ago.

I already have 8 of the 1975-76 season SNL shows on my own DVDs, which I recorded off-air from NBC last year and earlier this year. Unfortunately, NBC All Night these days primarily airs episodes from recent years in the 1:01 to 2:30 AM time slot (airing after the new 2006 episodes), and calls them "Classic" Saturday Night Live shows. No SNL in my still small collection is newer than 1998 (once Norm McDonald was fired from Weekend Update). Although I never stopped watching this show, because SNL still has its moments.

Will I buy these season sets from the early years (and beyond)? Absolutely! And this one might be complete -- 24 hours of material on 8 discs with no commercials means everything is there....or is it? 24 shows makes the premiere season the one with the most episodes in SNL history (20 has been the standard for many years), however I suspect this collection will only have 23. NBC persuaded Lorne Michaels to do two additional episodes in July 1976. The next-to-last show featured comedianne Louise Lasser, who was drunk that night! I don't know the details, but from what little I read about it the show was regarded as a disaster. Lorne has vowed to never release that one, and it would be a shame to not include it in this set. I've seen most of the episodes of SNL from that season, but not that one. I was too young to stay up that late in the 1970s.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

I don't know about SNL season sets. I have watched since the seventies and in syndication and found that I remember a few funny sketches and was surprised at the amount of "drek" in episodes from all seasons (admittedly, some years are worse than others). I would rather be able to download sketches a'la carte from the network and burn my own dvds of what I want.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

I would have been willing to accept the hour long edited versions if that's all that had been made available. In a way that wouldn't have been so bad because even the best SNL eps need editing to cut the fat. But if these are indeed unedited then that's fabulous. The first season started off rather slow quality-wise but thankfully picked up steam with regard to the sketches and musical guests - which have always been a mixed bag at best.

"You know, we all can't be brainy like Fern here" -
Gilda Rander adlibbing to Candice Bergen after an infamous dialogue slip-up.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

They spelt Jane Curtin wrong ... it must be an elaborate hoax!

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

At least a dozen episodes of the original era of SNL (1975 to early 1980) were released on VHS....but they were often missing the musical guests. Don't forget that Belushi & Aykroyd left in the show in the spring of 1979 to concentrate on their movie careers. But John first returned as a guest in March 1980 for SNL's 100th show. (He re-appeared in a non-speaking cameo in October 1981, when Donald Pleasance hosted). The original Saturday Night Live ended after 106 episodes in May 1980.

A complete 90 minute SNL show both now and back then is usually 66 minutes each without commercials.

Correction on what I said earlier: Someone in Canada told me that the July 1976 episode with Louise Lasser is available on their Global Network, but it's an edited 60 minute version. I'm in the USA and don't get Global, so I've never seen that particular one here.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

I guess there's no harm in pasting the ad copy:

Rating:
Number of Discs: 1
Running Time: 24:00
Color: COLOR

Here it is. After years of waiting and compilation videos, the incredible Season One of the groundbreaking late night sketch comedy series. Everything you could possibly want is featured in this 8-disc set including all of the episodes in their entirety and as they appeared when they first aired, all of the musical numbers and much more. And don't forget the amazing cast of young soon-to-be superstars that included Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtain and more. Guest host the inaugural season include Rob Reiner, George Carlin, Candice Bergen, Lily Tomlin, Anthony Perkins, Raquel Welch and, in a major coup, Richard Pryor. Musical guests were abound as well with a line-up that includes Paul Simon, Joe Cocker, ABBA, Anne Murray, Jimmy Cliff, Toni Basil, Patti Smith, Gordon Lightfoot and more. This was the season where anything went and the amazing cast set the standard for years to come. Whether you are watching a commercial for the Bass-O-Matic or laughing at Belushi's Samurai Deli, this set is sure to be one you watch over and over.

Um...notice it says ONE DISC??? Uh...that must be a mistake. But notice it does say complete with ALL the musical numbers. That utterly amazes me. We have heard from people from Broadway Video who have stated that it is a huge nightmare clearing the music rights from that show. If they actually managed to clear it all, then god bless them for doing all that work. I wonder if somehow Columbia House has it easier, because they cleared the music for all those episodes of Carol Burnett. And Carol used far more songs per episode, because of all those medleys they would do. Well, it's just an amazing amount of work. And I would like to hear from Gord what he knows. I tell you, if they've actually managed to do a complete SNL, after I faint, I will immediately join Columbia House.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

It says eight discs in the description.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

Yep. It does. Maybe they didn't actually fill out those statistics at the beginning. Maybe in that case, the running time is a little off. I have a book called "Saturday Night Live: The First 20 Years" and it lists 24 episodes for the first season, including the infamous Louise Lasser turn. However, it's weird because the season seemed to wrap in May and they came back in July to do the Louise Lasser and one more. Then they wrapped again and didn't come back till September. I'm not sure if the Louise episode is really part of season one or season two. Very, very strange to reassemble the cast for two weeks during their hiatus and then send them back again. Other SNL books don't even mention the matter. Could the July date have been a rerun date? Or was that the original date?? Lorne Michaels supposedly never wanted to rerun it, but I certainly wasn't up at 11:30 back in those days to figure it out (I was 11). At any rate, if it is considered part of the first season, then the first season is hardly complete without it. I hope it's in there. I think a complete SNL boxed set needs to be "warts and all."

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

TSOD has an item up on this. No word on whether all the music is intact, and what I really want to know is whether this is a Columbia House exclusive?

http://tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=6503

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

The Louise Lasser episode was controversial - but the one I'd be curious to see if they include - which wouldn't be until the 4th season - is the Milton Berle episode. Apparently he clashed with Lorne Michaels and some cast members to the point where Michaels pulled it from all possible reruns out of spite.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

No, it's not an exclusive, CH just posted the ordering info first.

Gord

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

Is the CH description provided by the studio? It mentions music intact and I somehow doubt they managed to get every single song, is it possible they just typed that up themselves and don't really know?

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

In 30 years from now, will people be as excited about getting full seasons from SNL's 2000-2006 years? I seriously doubt it.

These first few years were really interesting & fun. This first season set will probably be a big seller.

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

Alright, Universal just released artwork, and an ad for the set:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=6503

They say that this will include all the musical guests, but I'm going to keep digging to make sure they don't mean "you see the musical guests" and omit the actual music I think many of my contacts are overseas at an event, so I likely won't hear anything back until next week.

Gord

Re: SNL Season 1 on 12/5?

Good to hear confirmation that it's NOT a CH exclusive! With a $70 list Amazon should have this in the $50-$55 range.

But I gotta say, I really didn't need anything else to buy on 12/5...