The Trouble with Saturday Night Live
Some of you may have tuned in to NBC on Sunday night at 9:00, as did I, to catch highlights of "Saturday Night Live in the 90s." I tuned in to see the classic "Motivational Speaker" sketch with Chris Farley and David Spade, Tim Meadows as the Ladies' Man, Norm MacDonald and Will Ferrell as Burt Reynolds and Alex in Celebrity Jeopardy, Cheri Oteri as Barbara Walters, Molly Shannon, aka Superstar, Ana Gasteyer and Shannon in the NPR takeoffs, not to mention Darrell Hammond's outstanding impersonations of Bill Clinton and Dana Carvey's George H. W. Bush. That's what I tuned in to see, but it is not what I saw.
Instead, they interviewed the stars, writers, producers, and executives about the various classic scenes, gave a very thorough backstory on the inner workings of the show, and threw out occasional clips of the sketches that lasted no longer than 30 seconds. Who in the NBC hierarchy thinks that we want to hear about the intricacies and reasons behind Norm MacDonald getting fired? We want to see his sketches! I don't care if Chris Rock and Adam Sandler look back on their time of sharing an office as the absolute dream accomodation for comedians. I want to see funny scenes. My idea of a highlights show is one or a few hosts - no more than three at a time, but they can rotate - giving a brief backstory and introducing the greatest moments from "Saturday Night Live" in the 90s, and counting down the 25 greatest sketches. Then, having announced the sketch, they get out of the way and let us watch it. There is nothing worse than seeing only 10 seconds of Alec Baldwin advertising his Schwetty meat balls on the NPR lampoon, a 5-second dose of Barbara Walters, Matt Foley doing 15 seconds of his commentary on "living in a van down by the river," etc.
They did the same thing on a "Saturday Night Live" highlights show a few years back, so now I am officially finished watching these sorts of shows. If the producers don't even know why people watch the show, as evidently they do not, it augurs poorly for the future. A show so narcissistic that the makers think we would rather hear them talk about the great moments than see them has a dim future.
Instead, they interviewed the stars, writers, producers, and executives about the various classic scenes, gave a very thorough backstory on the inner workings of the show, and threw out occasional clips of the sketches that lasted no longer than 30 seconds. Who in the NBC hierarchy thinks that we want to hear about the intricacies and reasons behind Norm MacDonald getting fired? We want to see his sketches! I don't care if Chris Rock and Adam Sandler look back on their time of sharing an office as the absolute dream accomodation for comedians. I want to see funny scenes. My idea of a highlights show is one or a few hosts - no more than three at a time, but they can rotate - giving a brief backstory and introducing the greatest moments from "Saturday Night Live" in the 90s, and counting down the 25 greatest sketches. Then, having announced the sketch, they get out of the way and let us watch it. There is nothing worse than seeing only 10 seconds of Alec Baldwin advertising his Schwetty meat balls on the NPR lampoon, a 5-second dose of Barbara Walters, Matt Foley doing 15 seconds of his commentary on "living in a van down by the river," etc.
They did the same thing on a "Saturday Night Live" highlights show a few years back, so now I am officially finished watching these sorts of shows. If the producers don't even know why people watch the show, as evidently they do not, it augurs poorly for the future. A show so narcissistic that the makers think we would rather hear them talk about the great moments than see them has a dim future.
posted by Bountyhawk at 8:12 AM
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