Saturday Night Dead

Correct me if I am wrong...but isn’t Saturday Night Live supposed to be a comedy show? With that premise in mind, regardless of the fact that it is the longest running something on network television...it’s just not funny any longer!

I must admit, I don’t watch SNL. I haven’t watched it for many years, until last night. My curiosity got the best of me and I tuned into NBC at 11:32. The opening skit was a Bush news conference thing. Since I don’t recognize any of the NRFPTP, I was not quite sure it was even SNL I was watching. But it was not funny. Not witty. Not mildly amusing. Not anything. It was just an overly-long, blathering of something concocted by an alien civilization cloning what they thought was a Saturday Night Live skit. The show then opened with the signature, trendy, iconic, neo-NewYork filmmaker montage of the “stars”. That in itself was kind of bittersweet for me considering years ago that montage once splashed images of John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radner, Larraine Newman, Jane Curtin, Bill Murray, Billy Crystal, and Chevy Chase on our T.V. screens. Yes, the Not Ready for Prime Time Players from the Golden Era of SNL. Even with Scarlett Johanssen (my current, favorite celebrity eye-candy) hosting last night, she appeared to be squirming a bit while on camera. An uncomfortableness, like she was saying to herself, "Geeze, I shouldn't be here. This can't be helping my career!"

To be fair to the current (and recent) casts of that show, not every episode from the so-called Golden Era was side-slappingly funny either. In fact, many of the skits bombed back then as well. After all, it is a weekly, one and a half hour show broadcast “live” (on the East coast). Some of the most amusing moments came from it being live, ie, the screw ups, the cast not being able to keep straight faces, the occasional ad lib. But it seems that SNL is now just a sad parody of its former self.

I think I really bailed permanently as a semi-regular viewer when Adam Sandler joined the cast around 1996. I still to this day do not understand the draw of this guy, despite the fact that he can demand (and get) $20 million a movie now. I don’t think he is the least bit funny! But he is laughing all the way to the bank...so be it...more power to him.

Dana Carvey, Mike Meyers, Phil Hartman, and Chris Farley...just a few of my favorite funny people who graced the “middle years” of Saturday Night Live. They were genuinely, entertainingly funny.

Maybe some of the current cast members are funny at times. Maybe they too have their “moments”. Most are not and do not. Maybe it’s a function of the show's writing now, I just don’t know. New comedic ground can not be broken without stretching the bounds of good taste and public acceptance I suppose. It has all been done before, many times over.

Saturday Night Live brought us something to watch on the tube on that night. The night when we got home early from partying, or had no plans, or just couldn't find a date. In my case, it was a combination of all three in 1975! Long before SNL debuted, it was The Hollywood Palace on Saturday night. Remember that variety show that featured Juggling Chimpanzee Acts, rising comedians, 60's crooners, and lame showtune numbers with Las Vegas showgirls? Oh...you don't remember The Hollywood Palace? No biggee...it just means you are under 50! BTW...Saturday Night Live started out with that kind of format before it's 1975 transformation...hosted by none other than Howard Cosell!

The Coneheads, the Two Wild and Crazy Guys, Weekend Update (with Ackroyd & Curtin), Wayne’s World, and a hundred other memorable skits...we won’t have to say “Goodbye” to those fond moments in television history when SNL ends someday. We already have...years ago.