Saturday Night Live 2006-2007 Season - Page 2

It's a guy doing an Al Pacino impression. It's not just that Al Pacino isn't hot right now, it's that Pacino impressions aren't funny anymore. It's been done so much and there's a guy on SNL whose only discernable talent is doing an impression that was old 5 years ago. There's a big difference between being irreverent (samurai deli, Czech brothers) and being out of touch (Pacino impressions).

The show is pretty much unwatchable. I was drunk and in a great mood and I still couldn't laugh at anything they were doing. The only humor I found on the show was during the opening sketch when no one was laughing. I mean, it's the first show of the season, people are getting fired and the show's in danger of being cancelled, and the best you can do is a sketch in which the very best joke gets only sympathy chuckles from a couple people in the audience? Now that's funny.

I guess I'm imagining this huge Scarface re-release that's all over the place then. Maybe it hasn't made Pacino "hot," but he's certainly in the public consciousness. Besides, it's a funny impression and the mundanity of the scene made it work.

The opening sketch was indeed a wasteland though. Took forever to get to the point and then wasn't worth the trip when it did.

Like every single year since what, 1992? It will never get cancelled. Whether that's a good thing, I dunno, but it'll ALWAYS have a place on NBC.

There have certainly been years where they've come close, but in the past when that's happened, they've put together a great cast which has saved it. They haven't brought on anyone this year. It's the same shit with a couple fewer peanuts.

Can Saturday Night Live really get cancelled?

I mean the show is on at 11:30-1:00 am eastern for a reason. It was never a "man what a incredible timeslot, how can we lose one of the best viewed timeslots ever".

Isn't the only way saturday night live get cancelled is if the informerals would make more money for the network than advertising revenue during SNL? Shows that run in these timeslots are not as "ratings driven" as the prime time shows.

I smiled at "A:F6", but otherwise, Dane Cook opening with his routine was weak. The rest of it had many bright spots, and I laughed quite a bit. And Bill Hader's Pacino deserves to be there because it's one of those all-time great impersonations- fucking brilliant.

Do you think its a casting issue or a writing issue?

For me, its a writing issue. Guys like Armisen and Forte, when given good material, deliver the goods. However, they aren't given good material all that often.

I thought last year's issue was horrific writing. It was a bunch of uninspired sketches with lazy writing. Just awful.

I thought the show, while not great, was a pretty solid effort.

Sometimes you add by subtracting. I'm really glad to see Sanz, Parnell, Dratch, and Fey gone finally. The younger cast members who didn't get a lot of screentime last year will have a chance to spread their wings a bit.

As for Saturday's show goes, I honestly thought it was one of the funnier SNLs in a while. Whatever you think of Dane Cook, at least they got an actor/comedian instead of a sports star/political figure to host - those shows are almost always terrible. A few of his monologue jokes hit with me. It did go on too long though.

While I like Forte a lot, his Bush impression is still DOA - it's just not absurd enough.

The airport security sketch hit. The Hugo Chavez sketch was lame. I hated the Oteri-Shannon-Kattan years on the show specifically for sketches like these - spastic, mugging performers jumping around on stage, like fifth graders at a talent show trying desperately to impress their parents. And that's what Armisen and Poehler were doing. I'd much rather hear a well-told fart joke or heaven forbid, an actual moment of wit.

The Cubicle Fight short was good. Pacino was funny albeit overlong - Hader deserves a lot more screentime this season, and hopefully he'll get it. Update was not bad at all - there were a few decent punchlines in there, and Sudekis' and Samberg's bits hit for me, even if they lacked a certain edge. I really wish they would do something different with the format though. When they started the two anchor format, I'd really been hoping that we would see a return to the Curtin-Murray-Aykroyd days of actually satirizing the news, instead of the boring stand up routine that it became and continues to be. Beyond that, having two anchors more or less prohibits a cast member from putting his own unique stamp on the segment, like Miller and Macdonald and some of the other anchors did. Meyers-Poehler isn't much different than Fey-Fallon.

The water bottle sketch hit, I thought, even if it again went on too long (and that they acknowleged that fact wasn't funny or clever). The Geico parody at the end was also not bad. Given SNL's decade-long trend of 1-2 sketches a show that I actually laugh at, I think this was an improvement.

I thought I read that after the '94-95 season, the show mostly returned to being much more performer-driven, as opposed to the writer-driven late 80's-early 90's (excepting Sandler and Farley, I guess). So we're mostly seeing the cast's ideas.

Hugh Laurie is hosting on 10/28. Looking forward to it.

Ditching Sanz was the best move they've made in years, and it's amazing he lasted so long. Adding by subtracting is exactly right in his case - it felt like a fog had lifted a little on this episode. I'm impartial on Dratch (although pleased that Debbie Downer is hopefully gone forever), but Parnell and Fey will be missed.

I liked the Chavez sketch, but then I like Armisen on general principle. Despite the over-the-top caricatures, the guy's smart and kind of absurdist - his humor's almost more in line with Kids in the Hall than SNL. And I couldn't help but crack up at Poehler's creepy, smiling Kim Jong Il.

Overall, I thought it was pretty promising, and I typically don't even like Dane Cook. Even so, the Killers performance probably made me laugh more than any sketch.

I think it's both the writers and the performers. I don't agree with you about Forte (and am baffled by people's appreciation for him), but Armisen and Poehler can both be very funny at times. The rest of the crew is so white bread, though. They don't take any chances in the writing or the performances. Al Pacino impressions in 2006? Are you kidding me?

And they need more goofy looking people. I mean that seriously, but I can't quite find the way to express it. Let's look at it this way - the best looking guy of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players was Chevy Chase. People who aren't pretty boys/girls have a bit more edge to their comedy for some reason (yes, there are exceptions).

Sanz was the first Latino cast member. They kept him as a token.

I applaud you some of the brave few in this thread who still actually look forward to anything from this show. You truly are courageous tv viewers.

SNL is DEAD.

David cross was on SNL last week and he made a comment about his girlfriend working upstairs (pointed upstairs). They both laughed because he made it seem like she was working in heaven. Then he clarified she was working for SNL. Conan then inadvertently said, "SNL IS DEAD...and your girlfriend is doing makeup for them in Heaven". The crowd actually hissed a bit at that.

I am pretty sure Conan meant nothing deeper with that comment, but my guess is that he probably believes that its shit in his heart.

Fred Armisen is part Latino.

Which is why they can get rid of Sanz now. But you gotta pay homage to the first, and I'm sure they held on to him a few years more than they needed to out of loyalty (and probably to fulfill his contract).

Molecul-O would NEVER say that.

It seems to me that in the past few years they weren't shipping ANYONE out the door. Those that left most often did it on their own accord. I think they kept Sanz around because they had the misguided impression that having such a familiar face on board kept viewers around. Strangely enough, while the show has been tanking, I think they've feared change.

It's true. Thay had quite a large cast for the past few years. But I still think race plays a big part in keeping certain cast members around. There are few people of color on the show, and as I mentioned before, Sanz was the first Latino hired. Viewers seemed to like him (particularly when he did skits with Jimmy Fallon), and I suspect the writers/producers liked him as well (Sanz sat in for Tina Fey on Weekend Update when she was on maternity leave). All the reports say Sanz left on his own accord, so I don't know if I take any of the reports as fact of others leaving because they wanted to as well.

I browsed the SNL Wikipedia page and it turns out Fred Armisan is of German, Japanese, and Venezuelan descent. That's quite the mixture! Also, Will Forte's actual first name is Orville. Will is short for his middle name, Willis.

And, a little bit of trivia:

Q: What was the highest rating/share ever for a live episode?
A: 16.0 / 47 (October 13, 1979). Steve Martin / Blondie.


Q: What was the lowest rating/share ever for a live episode?
A: 4.2 / 16 (November 8, 1975). Candice Bergen / Esther Phillips.

I have heard that Horatio can be funny. Most of his appearances on SNL and brief movie bits have not shown that. I think it's quite possible that he is actually pretty funny, and SNL never found his niche. His final year or two he gets a reoccuring character (much like Tim Meadows, who also never found his niche but was around for a very long time), and then leaves. Sanz may yet become something more than this.

Probably not.

Or... definitely not.

Then again, maybe this post is a joke.

I'll own up that one of my favorite sketches was a Sanz creation; the christmas song they did for like three weeks in a row one year just killed me each time. I don't know the year, but Tracy Morgan, Kattan, and Jimmy Fallon were in it, too.

Well, anyone who sticks around for that long is bound to do something fun, and that song really did kill, particularly Tracy Morgan's deadly-serious face.

I was partial to Gobi myself, because I knew a guy just like that.

"Get it on, turkey bong!"

I'm hoping tonight's show will better than last weeks. At least one skit with Jaime Pressly in a tight outfit will accomplish that.

When Studio 60 does Saturday Night Live, better than Saturday Night Live, then you know that the show's in the shitter.

So...how long into the show before they do a "My Name is Earl" Parody. My guess is the first skit after the monologue.

I loved that skit! However, despite being the singer Sanz wasn't my favorite part. Chris Kattan holding the keyboard while shaking his head back and forth, with Tracy Morgan dancing in place never failed to crack me up.

I don't care what your daddy says, "Christmas time is here! Christmas time is here!"

Also, they did that skit on a number of other Holidays and changed the chorus to "Christmas is number one".

i dont plan on watching SNL ever again, but I am pretty excited about Tracy Morgan's role in 30 rock. The show looks decent, but Tracy really looks to be the superstar of it.

I cant wait for that.


"I AM A JEDI...I AM A JEDI"

I'm taping the show since I was out tonight, but I did just see a screen advertising next weeks show as ... Dane Cook and the Killers? What, two new shows and a rerun already??

Show was pretty good. I really enjoyed Hader as Peter O'Toole.

The real significance of this show, however, is that I am now head over heels in love with a woman named Corinne Bailey Rae. My God.

Yeah, Hader's O'Toole was good. The "New York Memories" were amusing. Poehler was pretty good again this week too.

Corinne Bailey Rae is really,really,really cute. She even has a cute name.

I've never tried to write a comedy skit, is it really that hard to do? They need to take a break after two weeks?

Pressley was better than I thought she'd be but the show was still bland. The best skit by far was the last one when she and Kristen Wig were drinking cider and the conversation got weirder and weirder. The show's geared to be so top loaded it used to be that the best skits were up front, but now it seems like the better stuff comes after Update, sometimes after the second musical number. That's how "Talkin it Up!" started (maybe my favorite regular skit of the Fallon era), and I'm pretty sure that's how The Falconer started. Dane Cook's wool sweater skit came near the end. I'm sure there's more but I can't think of any off the top of my head at the moment.

Agreed as to the quality of the show. It was pretty much blah, but Pressley did exceed my low expectations.

Also good point about the late skits. Wayne's World was a 12:55 skit as well.

Two of my favorite tail end sketches were the one where Matt Damon supposedly built a sex robot for the government, and when Sylvester Stallone was working at a computer store but never adapted to it as he was used to working at an Orange Julius, and was taken on because he was clearly "special."

Both of those are HILARIOUS.

Those sketches are for gays.

Yeah I really like that Stallone sketch.

Also, as Guttenberg knows, centaurs.

im shocked that there are people who can still through this show from beginning to end.

Yeah, nah, nah, it's a computer, it's like a... Star Trek computer.

"Well, this computer over here really kicks ass. So, will that be cash or charge?"

"No, you don't want that computer. It's for gays. Gays gays."

I saw 2 of the sketches from saturday's show, and they were actually funny.
The big wigs, and the quato one were really funny. Maybe I'll have to sit through an entire show sometime to see if there's more that's funny.

The thing about the Quato sketch was that my friends and I thought that one up in high school. It started when were wondering why this seeminly nice attractive girl never stayed in relationships. Our theory was that she had a Quato that freaked guys out.

So while it cracked me up back in high school, part of me thinks that the sketches on the show should be better than something I could think up.

That Stallone sketch was great.

"I tried to open my own Orange Julius. But a lot of people got sick. Some died."

The long pause Sly threw in after Will Ferrel corrected him regarding the name Captain Kirk killed me.

"........No, Captain Clark. Captain Clark."

Am I the only one puzzled that they are repeating an episode(in this case the premier) just two weeks into the season.

I mean maybe they couldn't book a guest host, but they should have had enough time to resolve something like that before hand. It just seems weird.

I think the baseball playoffs might have something to do with it.

How do baseball playoffs on Fox affect an NBC late-night show?