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

[Cheetah]

After all of these years I still watch the show live every week that it's live, but I also record them all to keep.

 

[Jeff#]

And that was used for a full season and also for the first two months of Hall's sencond / last year after he was ousted from the newsdesk (though he was still in sketches) with guest hosts anchoring (Robin Williams, NY Mayor Ed Koch, Billy Crystal) and in the 1984-85 season too with more of the same (Jesse Jackson, George Carlin, Ed Asner, etc). Then finally cast member Christopher Guest was sole anchor for the rest of the season until Lorne Michaels returns and fired who remained of the entire Ebersol cast.

 

[Cheetah]

I thought that Hall was not bad as an anchor and I missed having a regular at the news desk after he stopped doing SNN. I know he had supposedly called Ebersol a liar right to his face during a crowded staff meeting which eventually led to his termination by the time the 1983-84 season had ended. Depending on what time in the season that incident had occurred, it would probably explain why he was removed from his SNN duties. I never heard any other reason that would explain why he ceased to be the anchor.

 

[Jeff#]

Tune in during the last half-hour on NBC during any given week (new or repeat) and you'll see. Tonight's is a repeat with a lousy guest (football player Payton Manning) between 1 and 1:30 AM. You'll understand what I mean with one of those shorter breaks that comes on usually between 1:08 and 1:20 AM.

I liked Brad Hall as the fake news anchor too. Julia Louis-Dreyfus liked him a lot more than anyone though, because they were married a few years later.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

Jeff# - what are you talking about?

11:35 to 1am is 90 minutes

There is no SNL on between 1-1:30 am Eastern time. Unless your affiliate starts the show at midnight!

 

[Jeff#]

Point taken, Moe. Although 11:35 PM to 1 AM is 85 minutes.

My affiliate airs it from 11:30 to 1:01 AM. Forget what I said about the short break in the last half hour for the current shows. It previously applied to the 90 minute reruns of the "Classic SNL" that NBC used to rerun after the new shows from 1 AM to 2:30, and what I was referring to happened between 2:07 AM and 2:20. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Bill Robertson]

I don't know, in the case of the Landshark I got the feeling that the repetition made that one funnier as they keep turning the punchline on its head (Garret Morris and Dan Akroyd getting bashed instead of the shark)

That kind of set up reminds me a show we had in the UK called "The Fast Show" which was filled with recurring characters and catchphrases. Over the course of the series the amusement came not from the catchphrases themselves but in seeing how the writers would set them up in new ways.

 

[Jeff#]

Saturday Night Live has a long history of playing a sketch to death....and beyond.
The "JAWS II" sketches with the Land Shark just happens to be an early example of that.

 

[RyanAn]

Mine used to air at about 11:35 or 11:36 and now it's as early as 11:29 - mostly 11:30 - no complaints, except for my local newscasters inability to be interesting.

Thanks for the heads up on August as the projected release date. That's earlier than one release a year from the last season. Hopefully a month or two earlier and if my math is correct, as I'm to lazy and tired to check - we might get 2 a year - which I can live with. Three or Four would be better, but I will take what I can get.

And if for any reason Broadway is looking in - I'll reaffirm my commitment to purchase EVERY season available.

ry

 

[Jeff#]

I noticed that NBC has been running their prime-time sitcoms in odd time slots. For example, on Thursdays some weeks they have My Name Is Earl from 8 to 8:40 , The Office from 8:40 to 9:20 , and Scrubs from 9:20 to 10 PM. But it varies each week, which is disturbing. (After all, I only watch Earl).

At least SNL is consistent every week with the West Coast feed that I watch. 11:30 PM to 1:01 or 1:02 AM.

 

[Dean C]

WOW, FOR $19 Canadian I picked up SNL's 25Years of Music 5 disc set. I enjoyed almost all the songs.

 

[Jonathon M]

I ordered season 1 from amazon about a fortnight ago, and had been meaning to order it since release, but money's been a bit tight.

anyway, long story short (too late!), it arrived today, and it's now 3am, when i'm just about to put disc 3 in. i get the feeling i wont be rewatching this all too often, but damn i'm loving it right now. can't wait to see the king bee performance too.

 

[RyanAn]

I've gotta say I was dissapointed when I found out that the reason this thread was bumped was not because of news on season 2... ;(

Ryan

 

[Dean C]

bILL mURRAY DOESN'T EVEN COME ON THE FIRST FEW SEASONS. sO WHY STOP AFTER HE LEAVES?

The parts on Sat Night Live I like are with Chevy Chase and also the TV game of Pong and people are talking as if they are playing real Tennis.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I think it would be difficult to market future full-length sets
such as this one.

We all know that SNL had some very bad years around 1980.
It would be almost impossible to sell those years to the public,
but does that mean that it would be a mistake not to produce
them nonetheless if you are going to do them all?

If Universal/NBC continue to release these sets, I agree that it
would be a good idea to jump around in years rather than the slow
process of starting from 1976 onward. Save the least popular
years for the very end and those of us that have bought it all will
then decide if they are worthy to add to our collection.

I am sort of surprised that no future sets have been announced.
Was this a one-shot deal?

 

[TravisR]

Yeah, my guess is that when/if they do more sets, they'll eventually start skipping around. Once they finish the 'golden years', you may start seeing seasons with Mike Myers or Adam Sandler before you see sets from the early 1980's.

 

[WillG]

Of course, the saving grace is that IIRC Eddie Murphy (and to a lesser extent, Joe Piscopo) joined then. So it's not like they have nothing to market those seasons around. Hell, I think even "Norbit" is selling pretty well.

 

[David Rain]

Yes, Eddie & Joe are just about the only selling points of the 1980 season. But I'm not sure if even that would be enough to sell it. Eddie wasn't even a full-time player at first.

I think the first 3 seasons of the "classic" years would sell. But eventually even that version of the show lost it's appeal as so many cast members left. Perhaps after the first few seasons they should skip to the first full season of the Eddie & Joe era. I believe that would be the 81-82 season. I think the Eddie years were quite good primarily because of him but also because of a lot of other great cast members who unfortunately never got the proper credit. I loved Mary Gross but people barely seem to remember her.

The first few Eddie years (or perhaps all of them) would be a good idea. Then without doubt the Martin/Billy season. Now that's a classic. Then skipping that infamous year where they brought in "famous" faces for no reason. Then picking up again with the Dana, Jon, Phil, Jan years.

I think skipping around is the way to go. Why go to to the trouble of clearing and mastering seasons that are clearly substandard and aren't likely to sell much. Save them for the end or much later. Perhaps releasing them 2 at a time or even in a bare bones package.

 

[AnthonyC]

The '80-81 season is pretty short (13 eps I think) so it would likely cost a lot less (possibly $30-40) so that might lead people on the fence to pick it up. And honestly, they can't possibly justify skipping the early 80s seasons if they release the horrendous '94-95 "Let Adam Sandler and Chris Farley do whatever the hell they want" season.

SNL is the one show that I would actually encourage leaping around with releases--the late 80s Phil Hartman/Dana Carvey/Jan Hooks era is my favorite, and I'd rather have a little variety rather than have an entire era released consecutively, since there's not a whole lot different when the cast is one single core group. (And don't get me started on the semi-recent phenomenon of cast members outstaying their welcome--the show needs to set a five-year maximum. Get Darrell Hammond out, stat.)

And when it comes to musical guests, bring on the early/mid-90s episodes!

I definitely don't want it to be just the first five "classic" seasons because they don't meet the hype of being the show's best years by far.

 

[Claude North]

I would absolutely buy the 1980-1981 Jean Doumanian season, as long as all the episodes are intact (including musical numbers) and they don't bleep Charles Rocket's infamous dropping of the f-bomb. I know that many people consider it the single worst season in the show's history, but I have fond memories of those shows. 1980 was the year that my parents decided that I could stay up as late as I wanted on non-school nights, so that was the first season I watched on a regular basis. I suspect that I'm not the only SNL viewer out there with a nostalgic feeling for that season.

Someone (and if I remembered who, I would gladly give him or her credit for it) once wrote about SNL, "It's never as bad as people say it is, and it was never as good as people say it was." I think that is quite possibly the most perceptive thing every written about the show. Perhaps seen almost thirty years later, the 80-81 season might not seem so bad after all.