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Weekend Update
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Posted by: Fustanella

Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon have to be the best team behind the fake news desk since Jane Curtin & Co. I found Colin Quinn and Norm Macdonald painful to watch in recent reruns, and the audience seemed to agree. Discuss.

Posted by: DougF

Yeah, they are pretty funny. It doesn't hurt that Tina Fey is so damn hot!

As for Colin Quinn, I have to agree. I never laughed once during his updates (what few I saw).

Norm was a different story for me, though. I think he was hilarious. Thinkiing about him making fun of Frank Stallone makes me laugh out loud as I write this.

Posted by: LoadStar

You're skipping over a couple of classic Weekend Update hosts, Dennis Miller and Kevin Nealon (not at the same time of course)... both of those IMHO surpass Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon.

Posted by: devdogaz

Two words -- Dennis Miller. I thought his brand of humor and sarcasm was by far the best ever as a Weekend Update anchor. The news desk has pretty much gone downhill since he left. For that matter, the whole show has pretty much gone downhill since the cast from that era moved on.

Posted by: edc

Two other words (one name): Charles Rocket.

Posted by: DLSith

I have to put in a shout for Dennis Miller too. I think Tina and Jimmy are awesome and do the best "team" news (Jane and Co were probably the best, but I wasnt old enough then), but Dennis did the best solo news.

Posted by: Fustanella

Kevin Nealon was okay, but I found Dennis Miller to be too self-absorbed. YMMV of course.

Maybe it's that I have a thing for smart brunettes in glasses (glancing over to my wife). :D

Posted by: whoknows55

Tina Fey

*drool*

Posted by: Steveknj

To me, nobody beats the original, Chevy Chase. He created what Weekend Update is all about, and because of him, it's really the one thing that has survived all these years from the original show, pretty much intact. I liked Dennis Miller as well. Of course I probably haven't watched the show consistantly since the early 90s, and I can't stand most of what is on there now (I think I outgrew what the below 35s think is funny these days).

Posted by: Supfreak26

quote:
Originally posted by Steveknj
To me, nobody beats the original, Chevy Chase. He created what Weekend Update is all about, and because of him, it's really the one thing that has survived all these years from the original show, pretty much intact. I liked Dennis Miller as well. Of course I probably haven't watched the show consistantly since the early 90s, and I can't stand most of what is on there now (I think I outgrew what the below 35s think is funny these days).

I don't think it's what the under-35 crowd thinks is funny either. It's just not funny. I've been a huge fan of SNL for years and it's just painful to watch these days. If it wasn't for the Weekend Update, the show would be off of my SP. As long as Tina Fey is doing news, I'm there. :)

Posted by: Steveknj

I don't think it's been funny since the days of Hartman, Carvey, etc. I think it is generational though, with this show as the humor is more geared to the under 30 crowd (as it was in the 70s and 80s when I was that age). I remember my dad watching the 1970s incarnation and wondering what was so funny about Akroyd doing Bass-O-Matic, or Belushi doing Samurai-whatever!! There IS some comedy that is just funny, no matter what generation is watching because the situations are just timeless. Watch a Father Knows Best or a show from the 50s, and some of it is just so dated it's not really funny to someone of this generation. But watch the Honeymooners or I Love Lucy and most of what they did is funny, because it can happen to anyone in any era.

I saw a list recently on the web of all the famous performers who were regulars on SNL. It boggles the mind that ONE show can basically define modern comedy for almost 30 years now.

Posted by: scooterboy

They still have moments (and even shows) of very funny stuff. The entire Justin Timberlake episode was very good (minus his musical numbers but I'm not a fan). One thing seems a constant (to me) of the current show: whenever something is really funny, Jimmy Fallon is usually in it.

The Barry Gibb Talk Show was the funniest thing that's been on there in a long time. I just hope they leave it alone and don't run it into the ground like every other sketch that's at all successful.

Posted by: Grumpy Pants

RGR That!

Posted by: JTAnderson

NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM! NORM!

(I haven't watched since they dumped Norm.)

Posted by: Smiles

quote:
Originally posted by whoknows55
Tina Fey

*drool*

Can I second that drool?

Posted by: bentleyml

Dennis Miller was the man! I've always been a fan of his humor though. However what I have seen of Jimmy and Tina has been quite good too.

Posted by: appleye1

Norm was my favorite too, followed closely by Chevy Chase and then Dennis Miller. Tina Fey is tolerable, but Jimmy Fallon is lousy (and I really don't like the dual anchor format anyway.)

Posted by: brenrher

The Church Lady - one of the greatest characters dreamed up - "ain't that special.."

Tina Fey

*drool* #2

Posted by: scooterboy

quote:
Originally posted by brenrher
The Church Lady - one of the greatest characters dreamed up - "ain't that special.."

Tina Fey

*drool* #2

The church lady would never say "ain't", and she wasn't on weekend update. :p

And I can see why Tina Fey makes you drool, but why does she make you do a #2? That's just gross. :)

Posted by: IJustLikeTivo

OK, How bout I just drool but not say what. Tina Fey is a seriously tasty dish. I think they are the best team since chevy and jane.

There will never be a line funnier than "Jane you ignorant slut". Ah, the good ol days.

Posted by: David Platt

quote:
Originally posted by IJustLikeTivo
OK, How bout I just drool but not say what. Tina Fey is a seriously tasty dish. I think they are the best team since chevy and jane.

There will never be a line funnier than "Jane you ignorant slut". Ah, the good ol days.

Were Chevy and Jane ever a team? "Jane, you ignorant slut" was Akroyd's line, not Chase's, IIRC.

Posted by: Frylock

I am sorry, but what is with this "Under 30 crowd likes the show"? I am under 30, and it is a big steaminng pile right now. The original cast with Checy Chase and Jim Belushi and Eddie Murphy was great. Then the cast with Phil Hartman and Dana Carvey and Chris Farley was as good if not better. But what is on their now is just crap. It's not funny, and it just doesn't appeal to any major groups anymore. I don't know why they keep it on the air...

Posted by: Fustanella

I'm over 30, but only watch SNL at present for Weekend Update, fwiw. I'm giving MAD TV another try, with similar success - I quickscan for bits that seem interesting, and drop back into normal time to confirm.

Posted by: bidger

quote:
Originally posted by Frylock
I am sorry, but what is with this "Under 30 crowd likes the show"? I am under 30, and it is a big steaminng pile right now. The original cast with Checy Chase and Jim Belushi and Eddie Murphy was great.

Yeah, it pretty obvious how big a fan you are of the show. Your memory is a little faulty, however. It's Chevy Chase (maybe your finger slipped on the keyboard), John (not Jim) Belushi (though at some point Jim was a cast member. Sorry, he's not the equal of his bro, IMO), and Eddy came after Lorne Michaels and the rest of the original cast had left.

The original cast had very little cutting-edge comedy to compete against. When I first saw SCTV out of Canada, I came to the conclusion that it was better than SNL. People tend to wax nostalgic over the original cast, and there were some very talented people, but not every second of every show they did was "gold, baby". Despite what people say, there are still talented people on this show. But, it's hardly the best comedy show on TV and, IMO, it never really was.

Posted by: Steveknj

Like anything else, not everybody under 30 will love this show, just like not everyone over 30 will hate it. I just think the humor has always been geared toward the under 30 crowd from day 1.

I was never a big fan of SCTV when it came out around the same time as SNL, but I watch it now (well when it is on) and think it's funny (I saw it recently on a trip to Canada and laughed hysterically). To me though, the show that brought on the SNL/SCTV revolution in the 70s was Monty Python. I remember it being shown (uncut mind you) on PBS about a year before SNL and all of my friends loved it. In fact, during the early days of SNL, some of the cast members of Monty Python guested on the show (I definitely recall Eric Idle, I am pretty sure Michael Palin hosted once as well). If you want to go back further even, you can say the root of this type of comedy was Carol Burnett, but she was far from cutting edge, and appealed to an older crowd.

Posted by: jimborst

SNL has always been spotty in my opinion, even in the early days there would be some bad skits.

As for weekend update, the team of Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey are the best that have done the news in quite some time. Don't you remember that it was almost killed by the previous newsman (Collin Quinn). Whoever hired him to do the news, I hope has long been fired and no longer works in any entertainment industry.

Posted by: IJustLikeTivo

quote:
Originally posted by David Platt
Were Chevy and Jane ever a team? "Jane, you ignorant slut" was Akroyd's line, not Chase's, IIRC.

Thinking about it you were right. They were doing a takeoff on the Nicky Von Hoffman vs Shana alexander point - counterpoint segment that used to be on 60 minutes in the early years of that show. Still it was very funny. In another one, Jane took off her blouse to try and win the argument. Classic.

Posted by: brenrher

ahhh, and who says we live free or die types don't talk to each other....and #2 only because I realized I'd have to stand in line....

Posted by: Fustanella

An aged SNL rerun recently had Cleese and (Palin?) doing the "ignorant slut" bit. It didn't work. No fair stealing lines. :)

Posted by: bidger

quote:
Originally posted by Steveknj
If you want to go back further even, you can say the root of this type of comedy was Carol Burnett, but she was far from cutting edge, and appealed to an older crowd.

Agree about Monty Python and even though I love other sketch comedy shows, IMO the only show that comes close to capturing the spirit/pacing of the Pythons is "Mr. Show".

It's funny you mention Carol Burnett because I saw a Bio on her late last year and the narrator mention that her intentions w/ that show was to capture the spirit of Vaudeville for TV. Very fine cast on that show and the only change was in Tim Conway becoming a regular cast member. Maybe I'm wrong on that because I seem to recall Ken Berry becoming a regular late in the shows' existence, but I can't recall who he replaced.

You can go back even further to "Your Show Of Shows", which it would seem SNL was patterned after, and Ernie Kovacs. I'd agree that the Pythons were the first to really "push the envelope". There's a lot more you could do on British TV at that time.

Posted by: trainman

Lorne Michaels does cite "Monty Python's Flying Circus" as a major influence on "SNL"...unfortunately, this being American television, "SNL" was pretty much locked into a 90-minute live format with commercials, so as it turned out, any resemblance to Monty Python was purely coincidental.

Why 90 minutes? What "SNL" replaced on NBC was a weekend rerun of "The Tonight Show," which was 90 minutes long at the time. Why live? NBC's affiliates were allowed to air the "Tonight Show" rerun on either Saturday or Sunday night, but NBC wanted to get them all "in pattern," and figured no affiliate would delay the show until Sunday if it were live (and had "Saturday" in the title, no less).