13 Comments

I didn't catch the first few episodes, but SNL was must-see in the Common Room of our college residential building. There weren't many TV's in the rooms then.

What the modern-day critics of the show may not realize is the degree to which it was always hit-or-miss, with the misses being at least half of the segments. It still has its special moments, as it always did.

Totally loved the comments about how sequels dominate current mainstream releases--we need more venues showing the alternatives, which do exist.

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Saw the movie last night and loved it; read your piece this morning and loved it more. SNL has been important to our culture and we’re fortunate it made it to liftoff and beyond.

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The listing of acts which provided the confluence of the comedy revolution of the late '60s and '70s is not complete unless the first mainstream one is mentioned. Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In was a TV show like no other, and was the start of the revolution, pressing previously set boundaries yet somehow remaining mainstream.

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Don't forget the Smothers Brothers!

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Totally agree! I lived through all of it, and Laugh-in was the first one that I always got loaded on weed to watch. Later on I did the same with SNL and Monty Python. 🤩

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I'm not too optimistic about the film. The "likeness wars" will determine the success of the film. Looking at the photo, I don't see much resemblance, especially of Belushi.

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Because humans aren't stupid enough, technology is stepping in to show us how idiocy is really done.

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Sketch comedy lets each comic inhabit their various characters, but leaves little room for them to be an individual separate from their amalgam of characters. Trying to give them a real world identity that isn’t one of their characters is probably impossible, but nice try.

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>>>On the one hand, this feels completely insane. Conversely, it is the obvious legal and ethical >>>conclusion to selling yourself to the highest bidder, a sort of perpetual virtual slavery.

I wonder if any of the big music stars who sold off their legacy songs to Hipgnosis (great name, by the way) are starting to have regrets over the multi-million dollar deals they made.

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Great read, Sonny. Thanks

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I'll have to check that out...the first episode of SNL, was actually on my 18th Birthday, so I have strong memories of it...and I watched it regularly for years...and while after I stopped watching, it was still good, I am partial to the older members probably because that's who I remember the most and the best. And they were formative to my early adulthood.

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Man, at my screening I had a dude just going to town on his home-brought snacks and the sound was f*cked so the soundtrack played louder than the dialogue. Yet, I was still utterly captivated by it all.

Speaking to things being better in the past, I told an usher and they just sort of shrugged. Back when I worked in a theater as an usher I would have radio’ed the projectionist and they would have fixed it. Sometimes the past is actually better

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Your experience is my worse nightmare. I hate going to the movies anymore.

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