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Other Discussions => Off Topic => Entertainment => Topic started by: LarBrd33 on February 13, 2015, 10:45:55 PM

Title: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: LarBrd33 on February 13, 2015, 10:45:55 PM
Forget about the all-star festivities... I'm far more pumped up for the SNL 40th Anniversary special airing Sunday.

They just increased it an extra half hour.  A 1 hour "Red Carpet" special starting at 7:00pm followed by a 3.5 hour episode.  The guest list is INSANE (and includes Eddie Murphy... who I really really really hope is involved in sketches and not just a brief cameo):  http://www.eonline.com/news/625430/saturday-night-live-40th-anniversary-special-guest-list-is-insane-check-out-everyone-appearing

Some more info here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2015/02/12/snl-celebrates-its-40th/23287933/

I've been trying to find articles on it.  Here's a quote from Lorne Michaels about the process:

Quote
The rules we used were these: Every host was invited. Every musical guest was invited. Any castmember and writer who had been here longer than a year was invited. Not everybody is going to come. The other rule we used, which was just the simplest way to go, was if people sent back their RSVP, they were in the mix of people we could write for. On the 25th anniversary ? which turned out remarkably well and was the first time I thought, "I could stop now and be good" ? we did mostly live moments with tape and clips. This time, we have some of that, but we're doing more performances.

Long story short... this has a chance to be EPIC.  It has a chance to be the Comedy Woodstock.  It could be a letdown... sure.  But there's a chance you'll see a sketch with Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell and Bill Hader together.  There's a chance you'll see popular characters meet each other... who doesn't want to see Stefon meet the Church Lady, for instance? 
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Nerf DPOY on February 13, 2015, 10:52:20 PM
I'm pumped. You've inspired me to try and envision other recurring characters from different eras crossing paths with each other. I just can't come up with anything better than Stefon and the Church Lady clashing right at the moment. :)
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: LarBrd33 on February 14, 2015, 01:44:17 AM
At first I thought they were just doing a clip show, but it sounds like they will be doing a ton of new sketches. I'm excited. I'm a big fan, though. I watch the show religiously. I think even the new cast has moments of greatness.  It will be great to see a bunch of legends together.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: mgent on February 14, 2015, 06:28:44 PM
Imagine that afterparty.......
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Nerf DPOY on February 14, 2015, 09:35:56 PM
Sort of apropos of this shindig, some guy named Rob Sheffield who writes for Rolling Stone ranked the SNL cast top to bottom for the entirety of the show's run. I realize it's just a silly subjective list, but even so there's about 50 headscratchers in there regarding their respective places.

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/lists/saturday-night-live-all-141-cast-members-ranked-20150211


He has Norm Macdonald 135 out of 141, and Brooks Wheelan at 73. Um, no. If you added up all of the time Wheelan spoke on screen during his one year on the show, would it even be 3 minutes? Macdonald's place 6 from the bottom leads me to think this Sheffield actually has something personal against him, like Norm snubbed him for an interview ten years ago or something. He has Victoria Jackson at #138. I can understand if you don't agree with her politics and worldview, but it seems petty to ignore that she was a main cast member for 6 years, especially when you look at where he has other literally forgettable SNL players on his list.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: slamtheking on February 14, 2015, 10:21:53 PM
read the article - no clue how this guy came up with his rankings.  would have a completely different ranking personally
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: LarBrd33 on February 14, 2015, 10:49:11 PM
I saw that article too. It's moronic. It must have been written by someone who has never actually watched the show. Having Tina fey and Amy poehler in the top 10 makes no sense.  It's like he said "oh hey I've heard of them".
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Nerf DPOY on February 14, 2015, 11:15:11 PM
I saw that article too. It's moronic. It must have been written by someone who has never actually watched the show. Having Tina fey and Amy poehler in the top 10 makes no sense.  It's like he said "oh hey I've heard of them".

Poehler in the top 10 is a joke but I could make a case for Fey being in the top 10 when considering she wrote for the show and had that comeback in '08 with that Palin impression(guessing you saw Palin's on that list in the link you posted BTW). She shouldn't be at #3 though. This guy is transparent with his love for 30 Rock and it looks like that's warped his sensibilities a tad.

More piling on, he has Beth Cahill at #62, ahead of performers like Joe Piscopo, Cheri Oteri, and Julia Sweeney. I'm not saying you have to like any of those three, but having Cahill that high on the list is indefensible. She did nothing notable during her span there. The only way I can make sense out of it is this guy must have had a crush on her that he never let go.

Back to that guest list, I saw Jack Nicholson will be there. He HAS to be in at least one skit. The world needs it.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: LarBrd33 on February 15, 2015, 06:57:59 PM
I'm so pumped for this show.  Spade just posted this teaser of a cast list of one of the sketches tonight:
(http://i.imgur.com/0oomxMp.jpg)

He noted that the sketch could still get cut.  Can't wait to see this show.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Nerf DPOY on February 15, 2015, 07:13:26 PM
I heard Bill Brasky wrote every skit for this show tonight.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Donoghus on February 15, 2015, 07:42:12 PM
Watching the red carpet.  The talent assembled for this is crazy.  Just an amazing collection of talent.

Really excited to see Eddie Murphy return.  It's been 30 years.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Evantime34 on February 15, 2015, 08:00:23 PM
I'm a big SNL fan. I'm pretty excited for this.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: rondohondo on February 15, 2015, 08:05:43 PM
jimmy fallon is one lame /annoying comedian.....
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Nerf DPOY on February 15, 2015, 09:06:18 PM
Not to be a Debbie Downer but I thought there was going to be more new material. Maybe the next 2+ hours will have more original stuff.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: rondohondo on February 15, 2015, 09:15:27 PM
they are trying to jam too many people into the skits, it's a cluster f so far
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Nerf DPOY on February 15, 2015, 09:34:24 PM
Chevy Chase didn't look right on the Red Carpet or in that short segment where he spoke.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Eja117 on February 15, 2015, 09:42:19 PM
Trying to watch it now.    Trying
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Eja117 on February 15, 2015, 09:55:21 PM
Imagine that afterparty.......
I think my head just exploded...
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: LarBrd33 on February 16, 2015, 03:29:48 AM
Hah you guys are harsh.  I thought it was great.  The Celebrity Jeopardy bit was fantastic.  The musical montage was fun.   I wish Eddie Murphy was less of a primadonna, but at least he crawled out of his castle and actually showed up. 

We had people over and we all enjoyed it.  My girlfriend made some SNL-themed snacks:

(http://i.imgur.com/1J0v47n.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/R5DIJyI.jpg)
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: LooseCannon on February 16, 2015, 04:15:45 AM
read the article - no clue how this guy came up with his rankings.  would have a completely different ranking personally

It looks like: cast members he loved, then cast members he liked, then cast members he was indifferent about, the cast members he could make a joke about not being that good or being wasted, then cast members he actively loathed.

My top ten, in no particular order, would probably look something like:
Phil Hartman, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Dana Carvey, Darrell Hammond, Jan Hooks, Dan Ackroyd, Jane Curtin.

If you asked me a month from now, I'd probably give eight of those names and two others, but I may be the only person who would consistently leave John Belushi out of the top ten.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Donoghus on February 16, 2015, 09:44:28 AM
I thought the special was real hit or miss.   

For the love of God, I don't understand the fascination with "The Californians".  Just have never found that skit funny.  The ending with Bradley Cooper & Betty White making out was pretty funny, though.

I thought the Weekend Update was good.  Nice to see them bring back Jane Curtin.  Didn't like the idea of celebrities imitating famous SNL characters, though.  The Emma Stone one was cringe-worthy, IMO given the fact that Gilda Radner is dead. 

The musical number with Martin Short/Maya Rudolph was pretty good, though.  Nice to see them bring back all those musical characters.  Bill  Murray as Nick Ocean was fantastic.  Great to see Joe Piscopo bring back his Frank Sinatra. 

Seeing Wayne's World again was awesome.  I was a pre-teen back when they were running those sketches.  Sentimental.

The Eddie Murphy thing was really disappointing.  Chris Rock did a helluva job setting things up with an introduction for the ages and then Eddie comes out and......falls completely flat.  He was set up to totally kill it and he just stood there & did nothing.  It took 30 years to bring him back and that was the result?  Extremely disappointing. 

Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: fairweatherfan on February 16, 2015, 10:05:10 AM
I thought the special was real hit or miss.   

For the love of God, I don't understand the fascination with "The Californians".  Just have never found that skit funny.  The ending with Bradley Cooper & Betty White making out was pretty funny, though.

I thought it was great to have kind of a meta-tribute to the show by having a one-joke sketch that went on 5 minutes too long.

Quote
I thought the Weekend Update was good.  Nice to see them bring back Jane Curtin.  Didn't like the idea of celebrities imitating famous SNL characters, though.  The Emma Stone one was cringe-worthy, IMO given the fact that Gilda Radner is dead. 

Yeah, especially since the punchline didn't feel like one.  Melissa McCarthy as Matt Foley was also embarrassing; I do a better Matt Foley than that for Pete's sake.  But Ed Norton was legit hilarious as Stefon.  And having Dick Cheney come out as Chevy Chase earlier was amazing.

EDIT: I loved that after all the musical characters Bill Murray just slew the crowd by the end of the first word.

I also agree that Eddie Murphy was pointless, it just seemed like bland ego-stroking that was completely separate from everything else.  They should've had Spade come out to make fun of him again so he could stay away for another 25 years.

The whole thing was fun in a nostalgia kind of way, but way too self-congratulatory and relying on "remember the time this funny thing happened?  Well it's kinda funny to do it again I guess."  But worth the watch overall.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: slamtheking on February 16, 2015, 12:11:06 PM
Loved celebrity jeopardy but everything else was meh.  Some good points .mixed with not so good.  Was hoping for something from cheri oteri but nada.  The Eddie Murphy piece was truly pointless.  Piscopo still does a great Sinatra. 
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Donoghus on February 16, 2015, 01:10:19 PM
The Seinfeld bit where he was taking questions from the audience was one of the highlight segments, IMO.  Thought he slayed there.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Eja117 on February 18, 2015, 07:44:04 AM
Imagine that afterparty.......
It would be like an average summer weekend on Martha's Vineyard! 
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: thirstyboots18 on February 18, 2015, 08:40:01 AM
I tried to watch, I really did.  Although I loved SNL...this was like being an outsider at a family reunion...only interesting to family members, no so much to outside observers.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: Nerf DPOY on February 19, 2015, 01:18:28 AM
This sheds some light on one reason why Eddie Murphy didn't have much of a role on SNL40.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/18/eddie-murphy-bill-cosby_n_6710034.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000024

Via twitter, Norm says at the behest of the writers he tried to convince Murphy to play the Bill Cosby part in Celebrity Jeopardy. They all knew (including Murphy) that it would have killed but Eddie didn't want to kick Cosby while he was down, despite their differences. It's understandable.

Why he wasn't in any other skit, I don't know.
Title: Re: SNL 40th Anniversary Special
Post by: LarBrd33 on February 19, 2015, 01:32:24 AM
TP Nerf.  Also found this opinion piece that suggest Eddie has stage fright:  http://screenrant.com/snl-40th-anniversary-eddie-murphy-stand-up-comedy-2015/

Really anything he could have done would be seen as a disappointment by some.  But it seems he's lost the drive to really do anything funny.  Trophy girlfriend, zillions of dollars... dude took 5 years off from even doing movies after "Tower Heist".  It doesn't seem like he's interested in entertaining people anymore.