In the early days of Comedy Central, these episodes ran in 90 minute versions, if I'm not mistaken. As with other programs on the network (ie. MST3k), I didn't have access to Comedy Central until they were off the schedule, though... EDIT: Okay, I see this was mentioned above...
Woah, I didn't know Charles Rocket died this year... I knew him from the ABC version of "Max Headroom" and the movie "Earth Girls Are Easy" before I knew he had been on SNL. I'm really impressed with the volume of SNL knowledge on display here. I've always been interested in the stories...
I think you're on the right track. When a movie or TV show negotiates for a song, they have to consider both the rights to the song AND recording. Sometimes a re-recorded version can be used and save money. I'm guessing that Broadway Video owns the rights to all the recordings/performances and...