'Wasn't That Special' Season Six Bonus Clips
Wawtch below and be able to say you've seen some of the worst of the worst of SNL
As always, for those who have signed up for the podcast at the Executive Producer level, we send out notable video and newspaper clips that aided us in preparing for the episode. Below are some of the Saturday Night Live sketches and media clips we reference throughout the episode, to enhance the listening process.
So please help keep the podcast advertisement-free and upgrade to the Executive Producer level, which will keep these emails coming in the future!
(Although if you want to support us at a lower level and want to just hear the shows, you can do that, too!)
Here are some of the materials we discuss throughout the Season Six episode:
The Mean Majority
A dreadful sketch that neither of us can believe made it to air:
Surrogate Mothers
A perfectly average sketch, which makes it one of the best of Season Six.
Couples Interpretation
There was something here, although the writers didn’t quite find it.
Lazlo’s Confession
Borrowed heavily from both the Season Two sketch about an electric chair execution as a television show and an earlier Season Six sketch in which Gilbert Gottfried robs a bank to create an SNL audition tape on the security camera.
Black People Fighting
While not a great bit - it’s just Eddie doing standup - it was historically significant. This episode was running short, so talent coordinator Neil Levy had the idea of just letting Eddie go out and do the stand-up bit he used to audition for SNL. It was from this moment on that the producers they could just put Eddie on stage and let him cook.
SNL Action Dolls
Just an atrocious sketch, but a fair representation of the typical Season Six bit. And Charles Rocket…oof.
Obviously, Season Six was panned by critics. Here’s a January 11, 1981 New York Times piece hammering the show and wondering whether it could survive.
But the most entertaining struggle session belonged to Newsday columnist Marvin Kitman, who penned the following columns while working through his stages of grief:
After the dreadful third episode, Jean Doumanian was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune and blamed the poor reaction to the show to the “Moral Majority,” saying she could feel the oppressive hand of conservatism “in the air.”
