SNL Season Four Announced (1 Viewer)

[Jon Martin]

Has there been any news on SNL Season 4 yet? It is being released next month, yet I don't think they have even issued a press release of what is on it yet.

 

[Stephen Wight]

DVD Talk has a review up. Saturday Night Live - The Complete Fourth Season : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video

 

[Kevin EK]

I am going through the discs now and I'll have a review up before Tuesday's street date.

I noted the DVD Talk review and had an issue with it. The reviewer feels that the mediocrity of recent years is nothing new - that the old seasons had a few good skits near the beginning and a lot of bad ones, and that the show has been consistent from the beginning til now. This is simply untrue. the first years of the show were the rawest, edgiest, and in my opinion, the truest expression of what SNL was intended to be - a counterculture repudiation of what had been the television comedy style of the past. This was 20-30 year olds basically thumbing their noses at the established rules and daring the audience to go with them on the trip. This was comedy that didn't wait to see if you got the joke. It's not an accident that Lorne Michaels kept putting Andy Kaufman on. Now, by the end of the 3rd season, Michael O'Donohue was gone. But the 4th season still represents the last big hurrah of the original edition of the show. And I strongly disagree with the other reviewer that most of the skits didn't work. There's a lot of really good stuff in the 4th season. I will cheerfully admit that in the 5th season, things got a bit strained since Belushi and Aykroyd left and there was no way to fill that void. And once Lorne Michaels and crew left, things really changed. The 5 non-Lorne seasons were a completely different idea. And once Lorne returned in 1985 following the crash of The New Show, his sensibilities had changed. The overall sense was of people in their mid-late 30's making sense of the Reagan era - not just politically but in terms of how society had shifted. (I would argue that the show enjoyed a second wind from 1986 to about 1994, and that perhaps the Will Ferrell years buoyed it up again until he left, but that there hasn't been the same mix of real edge and effective comedy since the earliest years of the show.) And the current edition of SNL is a completely different sensibility again.

The Lorne Michaels who started the show with Dick Ebersol back in 1975 was about 30, with a specific perspective. The Lorne Michaels running the show today is 33 years older, 28 of those spent working on the same show. And the show today reflects what the writers currently think will appeal to young viewers. There are times when they'll strike a rich vein - the Tina Fey/Sarah Palin skits being one example. The "Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals" bit is another - it's so ridiculous that it becomes hysterical the longer it goes on. But to say that the early seasons of the show are at the same level as the most recent years would be inaccurate.

 

[Corey3rd]

My favorite part of the review is: " There's always been lousy stuff after 1am."

Of course there's lousy stuff since I can't think of any time zone that had the show after 1 a.m. Unless you got stuck in one of those lame cities where they pushed the show back to midnight.

night on freak mountain was a great late sketch along with Tape store. the show also didn't seem devoted to just doing dumb sketches to grab a cheap laugh.

plus this boxset features the "lost" Kate Bush performances. and by Lost I mean the were snipped off the original VHS tapes of the early early years.

 

[Kevin EK]

Yeah, I noticed the "after 1am" bit. I figured he misspoke and meant in the 1250am spot - the last skit to air before the goodnights. But that actually isn't a death slot - it was and still is the time that they would air the really experimental stuff that could wind up taking over the show. Roseanne Roseannadanna first appeared in a skit at that time. Wayne's World originally appeared in that slot. I think Hans & Franz first appeared in that slot, but I'd have to verify it. In the Robert Klein ep from Season 3, that was the giant lobster attacking the studio.

 

[TVAdam]

I plan on buying every single season. However, the two eras I especially want are the first five seasons (1975-1980) and then the Phil Hartman years (1986-1994). But I'm the kind of guy who has to have it all. So, like I say, I'll be purchasing all the seasons they release.

I want them to release them in order, but just at a quicker pace. Now I know they're taking their time because of the music and so as long as the wait is for a better product I'm okay. But it just seems like it will take FOREVER to release all the seasons (besides the current season).

 

[AnthonyC]

SNL fans might be interested in this...Mr. Mike's Mondo Video on DVD.

 

[FrankNolan]

Nice. I was sort of hoping that this would turn up as an extra on one of the SNL season sets, but a full-fledged DVD complete with commentary track is even better. I'm hoping the Bob & Ray, Jane, Laraine & Gilda special comes out in some fashion, too. I'm really surprised it was left off the Season 4 box, since it was essentially a Season 4 SNL, minus the male cast members.

 

[Radioman970]

(Cool. I posted a picture of my doggies here. Thanks for not complaining. )

Sounds like the Mondo video is a must purchase.

 

[Jon Martin]

When I first read the DVD Talk review, I immediately went to the extras to see if MR MIKE'S MONDO VIDEO was on it. I was disappointed it wasn't but that Shout Factory disc looks amazing!!!! A must buy for all SNL fans.

One question to Kevin (and I don't know where my MR MIKE bio is, so I can't look it up there, and its been years since I read it) was O'Donoghue gone for this season? The DVD Talk review notes the Fred Silverman's Bunker sketch in the Kate Jackson episode. That was one of his big pieces.

 

[streeter]

Great news! I wonder if it will have the Sid Vicious song intact, or if it will be the version from the home video version. (I'm not sure what was used in the theatrical run)

 

[Corey3rd]

The thing with Mr. Mike's Mondo Video is that it was distributed theatrically and put out on VHS so the right holders probably weren't going to cough it up to be a mere bonus feature.

I'm happy they're tossing the Least Loved Bedtime stories as a bonus feature

The Fred Silverman's Bunker sketch as written by Mr. Mike is not what took place on the Kate Jackson show. His was much more elaborate with huge Nazi-era sets. It was supposed to take place when he returned for the show in 1981 for a short tenure

 

[Kevin EK]

Michael O'Donoghue was gone at the end of the 3rd season, from what I can tell. He is not credited as a writer on any of the end credit rolls I have seen for the 4th season.

Corey is correct that the "Silverman in the Bunker" bit was supposed to happen when Dick Ebersol brought him back in the post-Lorne era. (And O'Donoghue's antics at the time are legendary today, including screaming at the writers and cast of SNL '80 about how bad their shows were and then trying to spray-paint "DANGER" on the wall, only to run out of spray-paint after getting to "DAN"... It was O'Donoghue and John Belushi's idea to have Fear be the musical guest for Halloween 1981, and O'Donoghue was reportedly delighted when the slamdancers went nuts on the air. O'Donoghue made a point when he returned in 81 that he just wanted to give the show "a proper Viking funeral."

That said, the absence of O'Donoghue doesn't mean that the show somehow lost its edge. One Weekend Update lampoons the funeral of Harvey Milk in San Francisco. Another show has the famous Dan Aykroyd impression of Julia Childs - "I've gone and cut the dickens out of my finger!"

I would argue that the original show kept trying to find new ways to get more outrageous than before until the end of the 5th season, at which point they realized they'd gone as far as they could go.

 

[FrankNolan]

M. O'D does appear at the very end of the fourth season, doing a variation on his needles-in-the-eyes impressionist bit.

 

[Jon Baker]

I noticed Best Buy did not have any of these in stock today. I wanted to purchase this at a store because I want the limited edition box-like packaging. I'm afraid if i order it though Amazon or Deep discount I will receive the standard release. has anyone gotten the 4th season Limited Edition packaging and where did you get it?

 

[AnthonyC]

If it's anything like the previous releases, the "hardcover book" packaging is there for the entire first run, so if you purchase it anywhere in the first few months, you should get that package style. I haven't even seen season 3 in the conventional cardboard package yet.

 

[Jon Martin]

I got it from Amazon and it had the standard packaging the previous seasons came in.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Jon Baker: I got it thru amazon with the bigger packaging...and it has a nice big dent on its spine because of the crummy shipping.

 

[Kevin EK]

I have confirmed that Michael O'Donoghue indeed makes an appearance at the very end of the final episode of the season, during the time that Buck Henry would have been saying his goodnights. Instead, he turns the floor over to "the great impressionist, Mr. Michael O'Donoghue!" And then we get the man's take on how Elvis Presley (the King) would react of steel needles were to be plunged into, say, both of his, well, eyes. It might go something like this...

And then, as Buck and the cast happily wave goodnight, we are treated to the sight of Michael O'Donoghue falling off the stage into the audience and then thrashing around and shrieking on the floor. Just the thing to send everyone off for a very happy summer, right?


BTW I will post the review tonight. Sorry about the delay - just backed up at work and trying to do my usual in-depth look. I have gone through discs 1,2,3 and 7 pretty carefully. What I'll do at this point is post the review with those discs examined in depth, and as I get the other three discs processed, I'll edit the review to include their details.

This is a 7 disc set in the same kind of packaging as the last three seasons. However, there is no insert this time. (First season, there was an in-depth booklet of photos; second season, there was something a bit skimpier; third season, there were a few "character cards"; fourth season, just the discs, ma'am.) The cover art is a "Nerds" sketch, but the photo is clearly from the prior season when Bill Murray had a moustache. The inside cast photo is from the 3rd season, and the photo on the disc holder is the show's portrait of the Rolling Stones from the week of their appearance. The only extras present on the 7th disc are some archival interviews - snippets, really, from cast appearances on talk shows at the time. I'll detail these out in the review. The episodes are just as we have seen them on the prior sets - vintage video and sound from the original broadcasts.

As a plus, there is a notable pair of musical performances by Kate Bush, a bit of Mozart opera performed by Garrett Morris, a second appearance by Mick Jagger to sing with Peter Tosh, and a solid pair of songs by Devo in their prime.

 

[Ethan Riley]

I watched the infamous Milton Berle episode, because I'd never seen it. All in all, it's not as bad as I'd expected. The usual sketches were pretty good, and Berle was good in them. It's Berle's opening monologue and closing "September Song" bit that show him to be the absolute showbiz whore he'd become at the time. He's absolutely ghastly in the opening monologue, making fun of the black musicians onstage behind him, telling unfunny ethnic jokes. Later, he introduces 5 middle-aged Asian men (who supposedly don't speak English) as his "writers." Ha ha.