Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live and TV Icons

by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com

Saturday Night Live has been and continues to be a launching pad for actors to break into the movies.

Chevy Chase and
Foul Play.

John Belushi and
Animal House.

Eddie Murphy and 48 Hours.

Mike Myers and Wayne’s World.

Tina Fey and Mean Girls.

But
Saturday Night Live is also the launching pad for television icons beyond Saturday nights in Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center.

In 1993,
SNL creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels took over NBC’s Late Night franchise after David Letterman bolted for CBS. Michaels tapped Conan O’Brien to succeed Letterman. O’Brien was a writer on Saturday Night Live in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. He hosted Late Night for sixteen years, from 1993 to 2009.

Again, Michaels need to find a
Late Night host. He went to the ultimately likable Jimmy Fallon, an SNL icon who had the keystone role of a Weekend Update co-anchor with Tina Fey.

Fey created and stars in the comedy
30 Rock airing Thursday nights on NBC. Michaels’ company Broadway Video produces 30 Rock.

30 Rock, a multiple Emmy Award winner, concerns the behind-the-scenes antics of the staff at TGS or The Girlie Show, an NBC comedy-variety show, like Saturday Night Live. Fey plays Liz Lemon, the head writer. Alec Baldwin, a longtime guest host of SNL, also stars on 30 Rock. He plays NBC executive Jack Donaghy. Donaghy retools TGS by bringing in Tracy Jordan, played by Tracy Morgan in a thinly veiled depiction of his bombastic, hilarious, and affable public persona.

Another former
Weekend Update anchor has a Thursday night comedy on NBC. From the team that brought you The Office, you now have Parks and Recreation starring Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, a dedicated public servant in the fictional Pawnee, Indiana. Though idealistic about Pawnee’s Parks and Recreation Department, she encounters apathy, bureaucracy, and ignorance among her staff, the town, and other public servants.

Year in Review

by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com

As 2009 turns into 2010, we take a look back at the year in television.

We saw Ziva David leave her role as a Mossad liaison in
NCIS and return to the Mossad full-time under the reign of her father, Mossad Chief Eli David.

After she got captured during a mission in North Africa, the NCIS crew rescued her.

And Ziva returned to NCIS as a full-fledged member of the team, thereby abandoning any remaining and confusing loyalties to her father.

We met the team’s Los Angeles counterparts in a crossover appearance that set the stage for the spinoff
NCIS: Los Angeles.

We saw Sarah Palin confront David Letterman in the media because of a joke about her daughter’s pregnancy.

And we saw David Letterman in another media controversy rooted in his extracurricular relationships with female staff members.

We saw Jay Leno move to 10:00 pm with the slogan
It’s About Time. We saw Conan O’Brien move into The Tonight Show host position with a new studio at NBC Universal.

We saw Jimmy Fallon take over Conan’s old job as the host of
Late Night.

We saw Julianna Marguiles return to network prime time as the scorned spouse of an adulterous Chicago politician in
The Good Wife. Her character returns to the practice of law after a 15-year absence so she can support her children.

We saw a story line span all three
CSI shows during the November sweeps period.

On
Entourage, we saw Ari Gold merge his agency, Miller Gold, with the agency of his mentor and nemesis, Terrence McQuewick.

We saw Johnny Chase get his big break with a network holding deal for a television series to be centered on him.

We saw Eric fold up his small talent management company to take a job with a legendary talent management company.

We saw Turtle and Jamie-Lynn Sigler break up.

And we saw Eric and Sloane get engaged.

On cable news channels, we saw a balloon that looked like a huge Jiffy Pop container travel across Colorado and we feared that a six-year-old boy was inside the balloon.

We soon learned that no one was inside. It was a hoax so the parents could get media attention and pitch themselves for a reality show.

We saw Jon and Kate split up.

We saw
Southland get cancelled before its second season even aired one episode because its content is suited for a 10:00 pm broadcast time slot, but NBC does not have that time slot available. TNT picked up the show.

We saw the return of sitcom favorites.

Courtney Cox in
Cougar Town.

Ed O’Neill in
Modern Family.

Kelsey Grammer in
Hank.

Patricia Heaton in
The Middle.

Ray Romano in
Men of a Certain Age.

We saw Jim and Pam get married on
The Office.

We saw the end of
King of the Hill and the launch of its replacement -- Family Guy spinoff The Cleveland Show.

We saw
The Simpsons begin its 20th season.

We saw the debut of Amy Poehler’s comedy,
Parks and Recreation.

We saw Chevy Chase finally ready for prime time as part of the ensemble cast of NBC’s rookie comedy,
Community.

And we saw America’s favorite high school football coach, Eric Taylor, begin the next chapter of his career in
Friday Night Lights. Same town -- Dillon, Texas. Different high school -- East Dillon High.

We saw unknown Taylor Schilling capture our hearts as the lead character in
Mercy, Veronica Callahan, a nurse at the fictional Mercy Hospital in Jersey City, New Jersey.

We saw
Saturday Night Live begin its 35th season.

We saw a remake of
The Prisoner, the revolutionary late 1960’s drama.

And we saw a
Seinfeld reunion of sorts on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

We said hello to Royal Pains, White Collar, and Castle.

We said goodbye to
Monk, The Unusuals, and Life on Mars.

We also said goodbye to icons of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s.

Soupy Sales, who entertained children of the 1960’s as an unofficial precursor to Pee Wee Herman.

Farrah Fawcett, who inspired women in the late 1970’s to wear their hair long and feathered.

And Michael Jackson, who helped launch MTV in the 1980’s with videos that told stories.

2010 is just around the corner. If it’s anything like 2009, it should take us on quite an odyssey in the world of television.

The Last Great Ride

by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com

Brandon Tartikoff saw the best of times and the worst of times during his reign as NBC’s uberprogrammer.

The best of times --
Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Night Court, Cheers, The Cosby Show, St. Elsewhere, Family Ties, Miami Vice, Crime Story, Hunter, Late Night with David Letterman.

The worst of times --
Manimal, Misfits of Science, Supertrain, Lewis & Clark, Hull High, Pink Lady, Gavilan, Nightingales, The Nutt House, Partners in Crime.

Tartikoff was a rare television executive in that the general public knew his name. He was a guest host on
Saturday Night Live. He appeared as himself in an episode of Night Court.

Tartikoff passed away in 1997. Fortunately, he recorded his life story in his 1992 autobiography,
The Last Great Ride with Charles Leerhsen.

Tartikoff explains the television business as if he was talking to you informally at the kitchen table, the corner bar, or the airport terminal. And he’s fiercely honest about the realities of ratings, missed opportunities, and severe pressure in television’s executive suites.

The Last Great Ride unveils terrific television stories through the eyes of a baby boomer who possessed extraordinary passion, talent, and drive.

Tartikoff tells the details of how NBC cast Michael J. Fox instead of Matthew Broderick for the role of Alex P. Keaton in
Family Ties, how William Devane lost the role of Sam Malone during his audition for Cheers, and how The Cosby Show helped rebuild NBC.

We also learn the turning points in Tartikoff’s career and personal life, including his battle with Hodgkins Disease. Ultimately, he lost the battle. But his constant strive to win under pressure in his personal life matched the same desire in his professional life.

Consequently, NBC’s peacock rose like a phoenix with newfound success in the 1980’s.

Indeed, when Brandon Tartikoff was at the helm, NBC’s shows, stations, and viewers enjoyed a great ride.

SNL at the Movies

by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com

Saturday Night Live is in its 35th season.

35 years of sketches, recurring characters, and
Weekend Update.

35 years of
Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!

35 years of laughter.

Shortly after it premiered in 1975, cast members started appearing in movies. They soon became box office gold.

Animal House, Caddyshack, Beverly Hills Cop, Wayne’s World, Wedding Crashers, Stripes, Meatballs, The Blues Brothers, Foul Play, Land of the Lost, Old School, Ghostbusters, Trading Places, Scrooged, Seems Like Old Times, Tootsie, Tommy Boy, 48 Hours, Driving Miss Daisy, Anchorman, Semi-Pro, Dr. Doolittle, Mean Girls, Baby Mama, and Shrek.

These movies all starred or featured at least one
SNL cast member in a prominent role.

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are not and were never cast members of
Saturday Night Live, but their numerous appearances as guest host arguably give them honorary cast member status.

Add their movies to the
SNL cast member movie roster.

Altogether, the total box office gross of these movies will likely be in the billions.

Quite a contribution for a show that was christened
Saturday Night Dead by the media at several times in its history.

Saturday Night Live cast members leave Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center for the big screen.

It’s part of the show’s history dating back to a little movie directed by John Landis that captures America’s fascination with a time that was simpler -- before the Vietnam War, the JFK assassination, and Watergate.

The setting was 1962.

The film was National Lampoon’s
Animal House.

Produced on a budget reportedly less than $3 million in 1978,
Animal House became a pop culture icon, conquered the box office dragon, and secured John Belushi’s rightful place as a box office attraction.

He was the first
SNL cast member to truly break through the television-film barrier.

Belushi was also a good dramatic actor. The romantic comedy
Continental Divide pits Belushi’s hardened, cynical, Chicago newspaper columnist Ernie Souchak against Blair Brown’s environmentally aware eagle researcher Nell Porter.

Belushi died in 1981 from a drug overdose at the age of 33. His premature death prevented us from knowing the true depths of his acting talents.

But Belushi’s breakthrough role as Bluto in
Animal House set a trend that continues today.

From Eddie Murphy to Mike Myers.

From Dan Aykroyd to Tina Fey.

From Bill Murray to Will Ferrell.

SNL & Partridge Family

by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com

Since 1975,
Saturday Night Live has poked fun at popular culture.

A sketch from 1992 stands out.

Susan Dey was enjoying a second wave of television success as A.D.A. Grace Van Owen on
L.A. Law when she hosted SNL on February 8, 1992.

Dey’s first stint in the spotlight occurred in the early 1970’s as feminist keyboard player Laurie Partridge on ABC’s
The Partridge Family.

For the boys, Dey was a sex symbol.

For the girls, she was a voice of independence.

The Partridge Family filled the years between Woodstock and disco with a bubble-gum sound.

And it was this sound at the heart of the
Saturday Night Live sketch pitting two popular culture icons against each other.

The sketch opens with a familiar clip from the show’s theme: a cartoon of partridges walking to the sound of
The Partridge Family theme song, C’mon Get Happy. The audience erupts in applause and shouts, responding to an immediate connection with the fictional singing family from San Pueblo, California.

We see the familiar garage with highway signs on the walls.

We see the
Saturday Night Live cast in 1970’s outfits. Dana Carvey as Keith. David Spade as Chris. And Chris Farley watching with great satisfaction as Reuben Kincaid.

And of course, we see Susan Dey back in her familiar position at the keyboard with a brown, long-hair wig to recreate Laurie Partridge.

Dey truly looks like she’s enjoying herself. It amplifies the sketch’s power.

Okay. Pop culture idol recreates her retro persona. Interesting. Funny. Appealing.

But the sketch takes off when Melanie Hutsell enters the garage with her spot-on impersonation of Eve Plumb’s Jan Brady from
The Brady Bunch.

When Jan realizes
The Partridge Family doesn’t sing its own songs and lip syncs, she rushes to get her brothers and sisters.

More 1970s clothing.

And Kevin Nealon as Greg Brady challenges the Partridge Family to a battle of the bands.
The Brady Six versus the Partridge Family.

Sunshine Day versus I Think I Love You

When It’s Time to Change versus I Woke Up in Love This Morning

After some choice words, the conflict looks like it will continue with no resolution in sight, until Chris Rock enters as another 1970s character, Mushmouth from
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. He inspires the two bands to patch up their differences.

The sketch struck a nostalgic chord with the songs and dialogue that referenced well-known incidents from the two shows.

Laurie recalls a skunk’s spraying forcing the Partridge Family to take baths in tomato juice to get rid of the odor.

Jan recalls Marcia dumping Charlie for Doug Simpson, the big man on campus.

But an interesting question remains. Who would win in a battle of the bands? For that matter, who would win in a battle of the shows? And what do we use as a measure? Record sales? Ratings? Longevity?

Indeed, the question is a pop culture conundrum.

But on this particular night, let the record show that in a fictional world of a
Saturday Night Live sketch, the Brady Six and the Partridge Family joined together in harmony.