If the strike-shortened thirteenth season of Saturday Night Live was merely an appetizer, Season Fourteen is the full course, stuffed with classic sketches and top-flight performances.
When Conan had Bob Odenkirk on his podcast, they briefly talked about how Nora Dunn wasn’t thrilled to have them there. In a interview with Salon, she also makes mention of Adam Sandler joining at the tail end of her tenure leading to an increase in juvenile humor. I guess she was mixing him up with upcoming writers Spade or Schneider because Nora and Sandler never overlapped. Nonetheless, tensions between her and the staff would come to a turning point next season.
Geez, YOU BROUGHT IT UP EARLIER, but how did Coneheads Today not be on your prescient lists for predicting “gritty and “more realistic” reboots, reimaginings and continuations” that still plague movies, TV shows and even theatre shows to this day!
“Robot Repair” is something I could NEVER see coming from the Ebersol years.
Dana’s Buddy Precisely (the “Wait at the bar” guy) is one of his more forgotten recurring characters. I can see why it didn’t go on beyond this season. It’s centered around a couple catch phrases and the joke is the same every time.
Speaking of Dana, it’s always interesting seeing him in regular straight roles like in the chapstick sketch and the heaven piece with Larroquette a couple seasons ago. His career trajectory after SNL may have been negatively affected by the fact that we don’t see the real person very often. He tends to lapse into a celebrity impression a lot in interviews. I will say Opportunity Knocks is a hilarious sleeper comedy.
Scot: Opportunity Knocks is a *fantastic* film. He shot that in between Seasons 14 and 15, I believe. In a way, it's the first time his fully-developed Bush is deployed.
I’m now envisioning an alternate universe, just to annoy Scot, where Sprockets, not Wayne’s World was the big SNL movie franchise that launched Mike’s movie career.
Though I suppose it’d be harder to be Dieter for 90 minutes than using a his Canadian accent or variations of Western Europeans as he has over the years ;)
But actually a spoof of pretentious European avante guard through the on goings of a German TV talk show would be an interesting movie...not saying a GOOD one, just an interesting one! ;)
Glad to see the drill instructor cold open get a shout out. Joss Whedon must have been watching that one because he loves to write dialogue where characters struggle with what to say.
I like A. Whitney Brown's Big Picture commentaries. Mind you, I wouldn't want a whole show full of them, but it's a nice change of pace from the rest of the show. His wry commentaries hearken back a little bit to a bygone era. There is of course a political perspective to them, but they land a lot more gently for me than the harsh and shrill cable news commentaries you get nowadays from all corners of the political spectrum.
Scot: I think I mentioned in this show that I liked the initial "The Big Picture" stuff more than I remember I did. Early on, I think it fit the tone and direction of the Miller WU desk very well. At some point, though, Miller and WU "leveled up" and I just don't think Brown was able to follow.
Yup, you made that point and it's fair. It's definitely one of those parts of SNL that some are really going to like but won't do much for other folks.
I probably should save it for the next EP questions suggestions, but at some point I think the show should track when/where the show becomes to Lorne “Okay, this IS NOW the gig that I’ll either die working on or it will be the gig that I’ll walk off into the sunset from entertainment with” as we are getting up to the same amount of time of Lorne’s second tenure as the original 5 years.
So when does it become fun, or comfortable for him that EP of SNL becomes a career appointment, as opposed to “I’ll do this for a few years, either show ends it’s run or I hand the reigns off, and it’s on to the next major project of my career.”
Is it now (1988-1989) time frame? The first anniversary celebration is upon the show, and it’s getting close to “institution/un-cancelable by network forces” territory? Or is it at some later point through the decades?
I know the show isn’t there yet, but I wonder how much of Nealon’s legacy comes from his time at the WU desk. Which is interesting considering he is sandwiched between two Weekend Update icons in Dennis and Norm.
Scot: I'm looking forward to this because I remember liking Nealon a lot behind the desk, but it's been a loooong time since I've seen some of those episodes. Don't know how well it will hold up.
When Conan had Bob Odenkirk on his podcast, they briefly talked about how Nora Dunn wasn’t thrilled to have them there. In a interview with Salon, she also makes mention of Adam Sandler joining at the tail end of her tenure leading to an increase in juvenile humor. I guess she was mixing him up with upcoming writers Spade or Schneider because Nora and Sandler never overlapped. Nonetheless, tensions between her and the staff would come to a turning point next season.
Conan and Odenkirk's humor and Nora's humor come from different planets.
Geez, YOU BROUGHT IT UP EARLIER, but how did Coneheads Today not be on your prescient lists for predicting “gritty and “more realistic” reboots, reimaginings and continuations” that still plague movies, TV shows and even theatre shows to this day!
“Robot Repair” is something I could NEVER see coming from the Ebersol years.
Dana’s Buddy Precisely (the “Wait at the bar” guy) is one of his more forgotten recurring characters. I can see why it didn’t go on beyond this season. It’s centered around a couple catch phrases and the joke is the same every time.
Speaking of Dana, it’s always interesting seeing him in regular straight roles like in the chapstick sketch and the heaven piece with Larroquette a couple seasons ago. His career trajectory after SNL may have been negatively affected by the fact that we don’t see the real person very often. He tends to lapse into a celebrity impression a lot in interviews. I will say Opportunity Knocks is a hilarious sleeper comedy.
Scot: Opportunity Knocks is a *fantastic* film. He shot that in between Seasons 14 and 15, I believe. In a way, it's the first time his fully-developed Bush is deployed.
I’m now envisioning an alternate universe, just to annoy Scot, where Sprockets, not Wayne’s World was the big SNL movie franchise that launched Mike’s movie career.
Though I suppose it’d be harder to be Dieter for 90 minutes than using a his Canadian accent or variations of Western Europeans as he has over the years ;)
But actually a spoof of pretentious European avante guard through the on goings of a German TV talk show would be an interesting movie...not saying a GOOD one, just an interesting one! ;)
YES, MORE SPROCKETS. (This is Christian, by the way, if that wasn't obvious.)
Glad to see the drill instructor cold open get a shout out. Joss Whedon must have been watching that one because he loves to write dialogue where characters struggle with what to say.
I like A. Whitney Brown's Big Picture commentaries. Mind you, I wouldn't want a whole show full of them, but it's a nice change of pace from the rest of the show. His wry commentaries hearken back a little bit to a bygone era. There is of course a political perspective to them, but they land a lot more gently for me than the harsh and shrill cable news commentaries you get nowadays from all corners of the political spectrum.
Scot: I think I mentioned in this show that I liked the initial "The Big Picture" stuff more than I remember I did. Early on, I think it fit the tone and direction of the Miller WU desk very well. At some point, though, Miller and WU "leveled up" and I just don't think Brown was able to follow.
Yup, you made that point and it's fair. It's definitely one of those parts of SNL that some are really going to like but won't do much for other folks.
I probably should save it for the next EP questions suggestions, but at some point I think the show should track when/where the show becomes to Lorne “Okay, this IS NOW the gig that I’ll either die working on or it will be the gig that I’ll walk off into the sunset from entertainment with” as we are getting up to the same amount of time of Lorne’s second tenure as the original 5 years.
So when does it become fun, or comfortable for him that EP of SNL becomes a career appointment, as opposed to “I’ll do this for a few years, either show ends it’s run or I hand the reigns off, and it’s on to the next major project of my career.”
Is it now (1988-1989) time frame? The first anniversary celebration is upon the show, and it’s getting close to “institution/un-cancelable by network forces” territory? Or is it at some later point through the decades?
I know the show isn’t there yet, but I wonder how much of Nealon’s legacy comes from his time at the WU desk. Which is interesting considering he is sandwiched between two Weekend Update icons in Dennis and Norm.
Scot: I'm looking forward to this because I remember liking Nealon a lot behind the desk, but it's been a loooong time since I've seen some of those episodes. Don't know how well it will hold up.