SNL 1-15-2005 Topher Grace (1 Viewer)

[TonyD]

if this was a normal prime time show this would have been cancelled right after it aired.

i havent seen snl much the last few years but this ep was just bad.
i'm watching it right now and i already can barely remember what the first couple of skits were.

again it opened with a bush imprsonation by someone who does the worst bush i have seen.
do they open every show with this?
everytime i put snl on in the last few months it opens with a bush skit everytime.

i think the second one was truckers talking about brad pitt splitting with jennifer aniston.

then grace in a skit with him losing virginity to an old lady in a brothel.
not even the news was funny.
it included a way too long cosby bit.

grace clearly doesnt want to be there.
did they write this whole show tonight?

they mentioned somethng about je garner was to be the host but she was injured.

 

[Scott L]

It's been this way for a while, though the occasional Chris Walken episode is always good. Tina Fey is now my favorite cast member, which is sad.

 

[Karl_Luph]

Tony, don't feel alone,believe it or not, I noticed the change about 10 to 15 years ago when it seemed like more and more of the skits dealt with poking fun at the handicapped,less fortunate people. Maybe I'm being a bit too sens__si_tive__,nah, I just quite watching it altogether.

 

[chuck_b]

Not funny, not creative, not well rehearsed, not SNL.

 

[ScottR]

They need to fire some of the writers and about half of the cast and get some new talent. Darryl H., Chris Parnell, the new guy (can't even remember his name) have to go.

 

[Jonathan_]

I thought the Hardball episode was funny. Especially in towards the end of the skit when "Zell Miller" was ranting. They cut back to Hammond who had to look down to hide his laughing. Also while the brothel skit wasn't that good, Rachel Dratch did a good adlib. She went to change the music, but the sound guy changed it before she changed records. She said something about it did it by itself. Don't know why, but I found that funny. Besides that it was a pretty bad show.

 

[MattGentry]

The monologue wasn't bad, but the entire episode as a whole was. Hardball was decent, only for the fact that Forte does a funny Miller bit.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

people have been complaining about the "current cast" and how not-funny the show is since 1975.

this show's been on its "last legs" for as long as i've been alive.

 

[AnthonyC]

The monologue and Huxtable bit were the only parts I enjoyed.

 

[teapot2001]

I thought this episode wasn't that bad and it contained some good stuff.

The dollar sketch was just great!

The Germans, the Huxtables, and Chris Matthews segments were good.

Forte does my favorite SNL impersonation of Bush.

~T

 

[David Fisher]

I usually just TiVo SNL so I can flash through the crap music guests and the bad skits. This means that I can usually watch the latest SNL in about half an hour.

In the previous years, I realized that somebody must have been enjoying the Mango and Superstar skits, and I could tolerate them. I have yet to speak with anybody who actually enjoys the show anymore.

And Weekend Update is worse than a kick in the balls. Holy crap. I think Drunk Girl generated more laughs than the new co-anchor.

And yes, the Bush skits are shockingly weak. (Yes, I know, it's hard work!) His impression is so bad, he makes MadTV's Paul Vogt look like Darrel Hammond. They might as well let Maya Rudolph do it, or maybe just let Robert Smigel animate it. Both choices would be ridiculous enough to actually generate laughter.

 

[Jeff R.]

I only saw a couple of skits and the one thing I noticed was that several of the actors where obviously reading off of cue cards. When they were supposed to be looking at another character, there eyes where looking somewhere off camera.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Now THIS I agree with, and is certainly a more recent problem, originating in the late 1990's with the Will Ferrell cast. Jimmy Fallon was one of the most guilty of this (if you notice, they never really gave him any sketches unless he was playing direct to camera [like weekend update, the kid doing the show from his dorm room, the drunken boston couple]--- that way he could read his lines direct off the cards under the camera without it looking bad.

I met a kid a while back who interned at NBC/SNL and I mentioned that I didn't watch the show much as it seemed like the cast no longer bothered to learn their lines (where previously it seemed only the guest host read from cards)--- he deadpaned "It's hard to see the script under all those lines of coke."

Classic.

-V

 

[GuruAskew]

The amount of praise Tina Fey recieves is amazing when you consider that the common consensus is that the show started to take a huge nosedive when she took over as head writer when Adam McKay left. They rely far too heavily on TV show parodies and political humor, which they're not that good at, quite honestly. The stuff from the '92 election with Phil Hartman as Clinton and Dana Carvey as Bush is still golden. None of the "current events" stuff from Fey's reign is gonna stand the test of time. "Weekend Update" is just atrocious. Amy Poehler is a welcome improvement over Jimmy Fallon but it's a definite case of "too little, too late". I think "The Daily Show" is over-rated but it's vastly superior to "WU", which is absolutely unacceptable when SNL practically invented the "Daily Show" format and they only have to prepare about 5 minutes worth of material every week or so when "The Daily Show" does four half-hour episodes per week. It's sad that the current cast has the best group of females (with the exception of Fey) to ever be on the show, plus two great male castmembers in Fred Armisen and Chris Parnell, and they have to fight for airtime with mediocre talent like Horatio Sanz and the "All That" guy. It's a shame, SNL has to resort to stealing "talent" from Nickelodeon when they've been successful in recruiting castmembers from great sketch comedy shows like "SCTV", "Kids in the Hall", "Mr. Show", "Upright Citizens Brigade" and "The Ben Stiller Show" in the past. Something definitely needs to be done at SNL. They should fire Fey, keep Armisen, Parnell and the female castmembers, cut the stupid pop-culture/fad/topical stuff down to maybe 30% of what they're doing now, and either pay McKay to come back or hire Robert Smigel as head-writer.

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

The same thing they've been doing for the past 10 years with the same disasterous results. To me, SNL is totally unwatchable now.

Bruce

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Yeah, but looking back there have been two standout casts. You have the Chevy Chase/John Belushi era and the Adam Sandler/David Spade/Chris Farley episode. The in between was largely filler and I think we've been on filler for a long time now. What stand outs the late 90's did have (Will Ferrell primarily) have also gone.

I do agree that it's not going anywhere, and that's alright with me. I'm sure I'll hear when the next great era rolls in.

 

[Malcolm R]

I would have to disagree with your second choice. My second standout cast would be Phil Hartman/Dana Carvey/Mike Myers.

IMO, the Sandler/Spade/Farley years were the beginning of the end.

And though I kept falling asleep this week, I was mildly amused by "Dot, the Oldest Working Prostitute."

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I group both into one and the same. That's probably a little to general on my part.

 

[RickGr]

Eddie Murphy years were pretty funny as well.

 

[Joe Bernardi]

I recorded the topher Grace SNL only because I expected to see a parody of That 70's Show.

I'm amazed that the show was so unfunny when they could have done an at-least amusing parody.

I rarely watch SNL anymore. Except for Darrell Hammond, they seem to have no talent, IMHO.