What's the Deal with Saturday Night Live?

Tina Fey is an absolute cougar. I have a major crush on her, even though she's almost old enough to be my mom.

 

Refer to the first 5 minutes of the first episode of Studio 60 for Aaron Sorkin's take on your question.

 

The Tonight Show went from 90 to 60 minutes in 1980, and it definitely helped. That extra 30 minutes, most of the time, was pure filler.

 

That idea of Will Ferrell's -- have Bush in the flight suit no matter what the setting -- is excellent.

 

Some of it is casting decisions. Some of it is poor writing. Some of it is picking featured performers that are truly not ready for primetime. Some of it is the fact that people who, at one time, would have been naturals for the show (Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, John Cho, etc...) have been able to make it without SNL.

But, yes, the show sucks. The Target Lady skit is absolutely awful. I don't understand what's funny about it, and it was obviously put together in 15 minutes (every Target I've ever been too has the employees wearing red shirts, not smocks over regular clothes).

 

Several years ago, SNL was 30 minutes of good skits, leading up Weekend Update, followed by 30 minutes or so of suckage...

After the last few seasons, I long for those days.

As others have pointed out, the cast has talent. My guess is that the writing has taken a serious hit since Fey left.

Also, Poehler is way too annoying to be considered the go-to-guy on the show. At her best, she's mildly funny. Her Hillary impression sucks and the only reason she doesn't come across as awful on the news, is because Meyers is worse.

I would say they average about 1-2 good skits a week, not counting Update... In an election year, when there is so much material out there, that's a disgrace...

 

It's just the inconsistency.
Give them enough inspiration or the right guest host (Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, Justin Timberlake, Drew Barrymore, maybe even Shia Laboeuf), and the writing staff delivers. But if they don't like the guest host or they just want to phone it in...
Even the performers are the same way. Darrell Hammond simply can't carry the impersonations anymore. Amy Poehler, as talented as she is (seems like one foot's out the door), does not deliver the definitive Hillary - still waiting. As awesome as Kristin Wiig can be (Penelope, the A-holes, the lesbian TV reporter), the Target Lady should be taken out and shot, and her body dumped alongside Carol, the Bronx Beat chicks and the DJ from Deep House Dish.

 

Good thing there's an on-off switch on everyone's TV.

 

NOW you tell me!

 

I blame Lorne. Some of the funniest stuff I've seen from the newbiws gets absolutely buried. 'Two A-holes' started after update, has fought its way up in the rotation. Best thing I've seen over the past couple of years was Hader as Vincent Price, hosting a variety show. One-and-done, never to be revisited. And Lorne is the guy that keeps greenlighting crap like the Target lady, Deep Dish and Laser Cats, which even the premise admits 'okay, this sucks, but...'

 

I think it's gotten marginally better -- not much -- than last year. I just cannot stomach Will Forte in much of anything. How Jason Sudekis has been on this show this long is beyond me. (Didn't they do a Parnell on that guy: Fire him and then let him return?)

No, this cast CAN'T be compared with the best ones, and it's not because of their best members ... it's because of their worst. The cast in the Eddie Murphy years had nobody as bad as the worst of these people. Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman easily had better characters than these people.

The worst thing, though, and I've said it before, is that you watch some of these sketches and just can't imagine how they made a cut. I mean, they're picking from 40-50 bits, and THIS is what makes it? How embarrassing awful is SOME of the shit coming from these writers?

And yet, it's still better than the next best option on Saturday late-night TV. What am I gonna do, watch a movie rerun? Uh-uh. Even if it disintegrates into background noise after WU, I'll still have it on.

(BTW, the funny-names cold open was hilarious. I do not see what some of you didn't get on that.)

 

In the past, even the worst cast members contributed a lot because they had to. Unless I'm forgetting someone, the original cast only had seven people. If you include the "And introducing..." people, they're at 14 or 15... I'm guessing some of that cast go weeks between appearances.