I am watching DVD's of SNL's first year and some of the shows

[Hardrada]

are surpassingly wonderful and some really suck so I guess nothing's really changed. For instance the episode with Madeline Kahn was beyond excellent and the one with Louise Lasser was appallingly bad. I had to keep myself from flicking forward past her interminable unfunny whiny monologues. The Robert Kline episode was bad too but at least had ABBA on it. And Chevy Chase was quite clearly wearing his material rather thin. Probably just as well he moved on. Have any of the rest of you seen this collection?

[noshenanigans]

1. I got it for Christmas..

I write and perform sketch comedy so my husband got this for me- I remember most of the actual comedy sketches from when they were repackaged in reruns but this was the first I'd seen the God's honest real show. (I wasnt born until 79, what canya do). It took them a while to get into the format- the whole second episode should be called "Paul Simon & Friends (oh, and Art Garfunkel)". It seems much, much more risktaking than they would ever be now-a-days.

[Hardrada]

2. I write also. Mostly history but some lit also

and I am for that reason very interested in how the show evolved. I think that a lot of the material would not appear now. The very knowing drug humor (and get the audience reaction to LSD jokes for instance), the very anti-military sketches (Belushi does one that combines both), the jesting racial name-calling, some of the really dangerous stuff like the falls (not only Chevy Chase) and the obviously sharp samurai sword (I remember Buck Henry getting nicked one time in the second season, I think.) I think this risktaking (they had no idea how it would work out with Richard Pryor) is what is missing from the show and probably has been missing since 1980. As for seeing the whole show, I feel that some of the segments make a lot more sense when they take place in the original context and sequence.

Good for you, doing sketch comedy. I always admire people who do that since I am far too shy myself and my prose style too pompous.

[noshenanigans]

3. It's funny you say that..

as I find the sketch comedy life too always be either "too pompous" or "too shy". :)

[Hardrada]

5. Laraine Newman on the early SNL admitted to being shy

and she had been trained as a mime and not a comedienne so that is why she isn't
doing the physical comedy Gilda Radner did. I was amazed to see how much Gilda was being swatted around the stage. You had to be rather extroverted and aggressive on that show to do well, I think. The current SNL does not have the physical comedy to that extent and is more "talky." The first long unfunny bit on the old SNL was with Dick Cavett who had two lengthy routines which drew little audience response. One of them was some kind of dialogue with Chevy Chase during which Cavett ad libbed about how the audience was being kind and polite by not laughing at them. Not Cavett's fault. It was, as they say, the material.

[tigereye]

6. it's much worse now

it's not even funny, other than the news segment. I've been watching them off and on since the beginning, and sure there were misses, but now, I ocasionally watch the current ones for a while and shake my head in amazement at how dull and unfunny it is.

We gave up in the 90s? and started watching Mad TV. It was much funnier. I don't even know if it's still on. The Drew Carey improv show was also much funnier.

[Left Is Write]

9. Mad TV is still on, but it's gone down awful road also.

I agree that SNL has had its hits and misses all along, it's just that it seems the misses come more often now than the hits. There were a couple of seasons in the 80s, though, that were worse than anything they do now.

[Hardrada]

12. The newest SNL has talented people like Amy Poehler

but they just don't give them a chance to really perform. And the pop culture is so often these days a self-parody that humorous attempts are wasted.

[enigmatic]

4. It was hit and miss back then, too

I watched it every Saturday Night like everyone else did as a kid in the 70's and it was just as hit and miss as it is now, except when they were on (and had Buck Henry as host) they were light years better than everything else at that time. The George Carlin and Richard Pryor shows were classics; I can even moderately tolerate Chevy Chase, too...

[Hardrada]

7. SNL was a bright light in the dismal 70's TV line-up. There was

MASH and MTM but All in the Family had outstayed its welcome for me by 1973 or so and Star Trek had been cancelled even before 1970. I had forgotten the Muppets section on SNL and thought that part was pretty much a waste of time. They were removed even before Chevy Chase jumped ship.

[johnnie]

8. I keep trying to point that out

I think many people only remember the really funny parts, or they have seen the reruns that are cut to shit. I remember them in the beginning and it wasn't always the best.

It's like anything though, people tend to reminisce with rose covered glasses.

[Hardrada]

10. I know. There were even some bits with their top people

like Jane and Gilda that just don't click! They had to go through a lot of material but it still is amazing that such a high percentage is so good. One thing I noticed then that is true now and that is they come up with a good sketch and then reuse it or use a very similar routine until it is not bringing in the laughs. An exception, of course, is the Samurai series which is consistently hilarious. Another thing I noticed is that the guest musicians seemed to perform more songs.

[Ekirh]

11. I got SNL For Christmas. .

And yah it's hit or miss.. but so far 5 shows in I've really enjoyed the box set. . . and godbless the Landshark.. "CANDYGRAM" BWHAHAHAHAA

I'll hopefully finish up disc two tommorrow so I can move on to disc three.

[driver8]

13. Robert Kline at the Greek diner is one of my favorites.

"Uhm, I'd like some eggs, sausage...is the sausage links or patties? Links?"

"No eggs -- Cheeseburger!"

"But I don't want a cheeseburger..."

"Look! Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger..."

That sketch kills me!

[regularguy]

15. No coke, Pepsi!

[Dukkha]

14. They need to do an all music DVD

there were a lot of great performances over the years and a ton of artists can be squeezed onto a two hour DVD. Not a whole lot to show from the modern lip-syncers but back in the 70's they had some big talent and the 80's saw a lot of big starts who were just starting out and it's neat to see them getting their first big exposure on SNL.

[Hardrada]

16. I agree. Phoebe Snow, ABBA, Patti Smith were on early SNL

but they never could get all the Beatles.