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With Tina Fey gone from the writers' staff to primetimier pastures and Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Finesse Mitchell axed from the staff, people were wondering how this season of Saturday Night Live would stack up. And while articles calling it "Saturday Night Dead" are a mainstay every fall, Gothamist wasn't very confident given that the host would be Dane Cook, who already hosted not even a year ago! Here's our thoughts about the season premiere:
- The cold opener about Republicans not really wanting President Bush's support was terrible! We like Will Forte as President Bush, but it was too weak to be the season premiere's cold opener. Maybe they rejected a Dateline "To Catch a Predator" spoof of the Representative Mark Foley instant messages
- The opening credits (YouTube clip above) seemed louder and looked more graphic than before. And we miss Chris Parnell so much, even though it was a crapshoot whether he'd be on.
- Dane Cook's monologue probably worked for you if you like Dane and his audience prowling; if you're not a Dane Cook fan, well, you probably fell asleep the way we did.
- Dane Cook in the skits: The Homeland Security TSA Training skit was really lame (though it did bring up some very good questions about the program) and the digital short, Cubicle Fight, seemed too familiar in the underbelly-of-office realm. Also, the skit about Poland Spring water deliverers - honestly WTF? They must have tacked on the ending about suggesting this to an SNL writer in order to explain why they showed it because it was really terrible (we personally think some SNL writers emptied the water cooler and were fooling around with the water jug during some writer's block). Then the skit with Farrah Fawcett then breaking the fourth wall into another skit - is breaking the fourth wall the new black?
- We liked the Hugo Chavez group, though Amy Poehler's Kim Jong Il reminded us of Kaitlin, the hyperactive kid she plays. That said, she looked funny. And we get that Bill Hader does really good impresions and we get that people have said things like "I'd watch Al Pacino read the telephone book"; however, that does not mean watching Hader's Al Pacino on the phone with Wells Fargo was funny.
- The highlight was Brian Williams thinking he was the new co-anchor (below) for Weekend Update. Amy Poehler was strong as usual, but wWe're concerned that Seth Meyers has jimmyfallonitis, where he can't really read a Weekend Update without smirking (maybe he needs some more time to adjust?). Weekend Update appearances: Bill Clinton & Condi - good to see Darrell Hammond and Maya Rudolph, but it went on for too long; Jason Sudeikis as George Allen was amusing but it got old fast; and Andy Samberg looked just like Dustin Diamond - except Andy's neck is way wider.
Our verdict: Disappointing though predictably uneven. (Verdict on the music here.) Next week's guest is Jamie Pressley, with musical guset Corinne Bailey Rae (we're expecting a lot of white trash skits/jokes). Anyway, the new pared-down cast and writers' staff have a few more episodes to find their way. Or else we'll leave our late-night sketch show escapes to watching Studio 60 and 30 Rock.
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This show has been going down hill for years. I only wonder when they will revamp the show with fresh ideas and substance.
I'm just glad Horatio Sanz is gone. Watching him crack a smile and laugh in every skit got real old, real fast.
It always kills me when the season opener is lame like this one was. These writers have all summer to come up with 1 good sketch a piece, and they can't deliver?
Just Tivo Studio 60 and rescreen it again on Saturday nights. Problem solved.
The show blows, plain & simple. Lorne Michaels is clearly behind the times, (gee, can we a suburban-safe Paul Simon playing on the show AGAIN? Even he was terrible last time he was on...Lorne, what IS your target audience anyway?)
Everyone's on You Tube & Myspace these days. Not to mention the TIMING of their skits is awful. Any kid with a videocamera in their dorm room can screen a better weekly show in my opinion.
Late 80s to early 90s was the best IMHO (maybe because I began watching SNL at that time)
Dana Carvey
Nora Dunn
Phil Hartman (my favorite SNL actor, RIP)
Jan Hooks
Victoria Jackson
Jon Lovitz
Dennis Miller
Mike Myers
Kevin Nealon
Chris Rock
Julia Sweeney
Adam Sandler
Rob Schneider
Chris Farley
Tim Meadows
David Spade
SNL has been going downhill since then (with a few exceptions)
I rather watch Studio 60 than SNL.
NBC would be better off repeating the original, actually funny episodes from the 70s. Think they used to run late Saturday night/early Sunday morning and they were really better written and performed and held up pretty well. I am guessing the more recent vintage stuff will not hold up as well thirty years on.
What's funny is that every year since the first cast was rotated out, people have said it is going down hill. Basically whenever you start watching SNL, those are the good years.
I actually thought the Water jug skit was the only funny skit of the entire episode minus the dumb "maybe they'll use this on SNL" bit. The Hugo Chavez one was mind-numbingly long and took way too long to get to the punchline. Firing Parnell was dumb as he was one of the only guys on the show that could straight man without cracking up. Oh, and he was in the most popular skit of the last five seasons. Great casting decision.
The Killers sounded embarassingly bad after their really good performance last season.
And people don't like GWB... way to be cutting edge, guys. You couldn't have taken cracks at Janine Pirro's mess or pedo-publicans?
SNL is like a pro sports franchise. Some players contribute, even star, for years before moving on to new teams. Other folks never make it off the bench. And some years SNL is the NY Yankees, other years its the KC Royals.
SNL was undeniably funny its last couple years with Will Ferrell, and undeniably lame the last three seasons or so. This seasons looks last-place already. 0-1.
By the way, can they perhaps get one non-white person on screen, or maybe one person who knows the difference between George Allen and a Texas cattle rancher?
SNL bit the shark a long time ago. Since they have no serious competition at their time slot, Michaels has no incentive to make neccessary radical changes to amp up the laughs and the relevance. He's probably under the delusion the the show is still good because it keeps getting renewed.
I do admit that I will tune in to watch weekend update cause Amy Poehler is a hottie.
The Wells Fargo sketch was clearly an advertisement. Why else would they use an actual bank name? They didn't poke fun at Wells Fargo at all, really, if you think about it, Wells Fargo's answering woman was presented as unrealistically helpful and wonderful.
Can SNL sink any lower????
Teddy N., you and I are cut from the same cloth. Phil Hartman was the king of that show. I was very, very bummed when he died. I thought he was the funniest thing alive.
One thing I'm grateful for is that they pared down on the musical sketches. For the last few seasons, every other sketch has involved some boring musical number. It was as though SNL hit rock-bottom.
Then again, the fact that they pared down on musical sketches may also be a testament to how untalented the cast is now.
Didn't Parnell leave to do a movie?
Totally agree on Phil Hartman. Super Colon Blow...enough said. News Radio was probably my favorite show of all time - Joe Rogan notwithstanding.
Back to Dane Cook for a moment. Dane:comedy what Shake Shack:food.
Discomfort usually followed by barfing involved with both.
If they had any wit at all, the opening skit should have been something about Bush addressing the nation, when suddenly Lorne Michaels would come out and tell the audience "That remote in your hand is a crack pipe...and for god's sake, keep holding it!" And so on, doing a parody of the Judd Hirsch speech. That really would have been the only clever response.
"jimmyfallonitis"
Eat me.
The promo's for 30 Rock are more funny than any of this weeks skits. Dane Cock?????
God, these are lame posts. And that was a lame article.
Janine Pirro's lack of Prosecution In Harrison, N.Y. at another typically drunken house party when a fight broke out. One guy punched another guy, who fell backwards onto the concrete patio and hit his head hard. Rather than calling for an ambulance, the kids at the party rushed around throwing away all the alcohol and cups, destroying the evidence that they had been drinking, then concocted a story about how he had somehow hit his head in a nearby park. They finally did take the kid to the hospital, but it was too late, and he died from the head trauma. It was acknowledged that he might have survived had they called an ambulance straight away and had not tried to orchestrate a cover-up. None of them went to jail because Janine Pirro orchestrated a cover-up.