I thought that Bill Murray's rating of the WU hosts was nicely catty. Didn't care for the bit on commercials. "Here's 2 seconds of our hest commercial bits, ignoring the parts that made them funny." Just give us 5 really good ones in their entirety, please.
Also, from the opener, "When SNL first aired 50 years ago, I wasn't alive yet. Neither were my parents."
I fell asleep after the Lorraine Newman/Chad bit, so I can't speak to the stuff after that.
posted by Spike Glee at 8:17 AM on February 18

Also, from the opener, "When SNL first aired 50 years ago, I wasn't alive yet. Neither were my parents."

Yeah, that made me, who is not quite 50 myself, feel very very old. "Wait, could someone a year or so younger than me have a 25 year old kid?" (actually, a 28 year old kid, Sabrina is the youngest of 4? I'm probably overthinking this plate of beans.)
posted by Kyol at 8:56 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]

Didn't care for the bit on commercials. "Here's 2 seconds of our hest commercial bits, ignoring the parts that made them funny." Just give us 5 really good ones in their entirety, please.
...
I fell asleep after the Lorraine Newman/Chad bit, so I can't speak to the stuff after that.


Alec Baldwin for 'After Update' sleep medication: “After Update: because nothing puts you to sleep faster than the sketches that air after Weekend Update."
posted by AndrewInDC at 9:13 AM on February 18 [2 favorites]

The Sabrina Carpenter thing was a bit (her parents were born in the '60s) but yes, I definitely spent some time looking it up. (Also: the two hosts that committed murder, per Mulaney, were presumably OJ and Robert Blake.)

Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With + Drunk Uncle made a really good one-two punch for Update, which was pretty solid all around; I think the best sketch overall was Alien Abductees—Meryl Streep breaks! Pedro Pascal just barely avoids it!—though by that point I was also at the ideal state of inebriation for SNL hijinks.

(I really enjoyed the Digital Short, not only for all of the 80s music video parodies but because at some point in the last five years my stress dreams pivoted from "final exam for a class I never went to" to "Got tickets to see SNL in studio but Lorne grabs me and puts me to work." It's a mix of terrifying and comforting to know that's at least a little bit of a thing.)
posted by thecaddy at 9:33 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]

can't believe NPR liked the new york musical and not Ferrel and Wiig being funny AF on the lawrence welk show parody.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:56 AM on February 18

I enjoyed this whole thing including the goofy red carpet walk. I've been watching SNL for a long time and I know it's had its ups and downs but it's a venerable television institution now which is kind of wild. And this year in particular they seem to be really pulling out all the stops, so much content including this show. I'm always fascinated by who gets put in stuff and mentioned and who does not. I figure some people maybe just don't want to be in the spotlight (Jane Curtin was, I think, there but not in anything, contrasted with Garrett Morris who introduced that longtime short and Bill Murray on Update) A few things I liked or didn't.

- Leslie Jones was so good at the red carpet stuff. I just love her energy and it was fun to see her all dolled up and giving that gig her all
- Adam Sandler's musical bit was sweet and funny and it was cool to see all those random past folks
- I loved Norm Macdonald and it was good to see him honored
- It was fun to pick out famous people in the audience with all the crowd shots starting with Tina and Amy's Q&A
- I didn't mind the rapid fire commercials, I did notice that the "Things we can't do anymore" thing seemed... very specific. Like they didn't include two NOTABLE awful people who have hosted recently, they included "gay panic" but not "all those times we had the punchline be people dressing differently than the gender they identified with" but in general I think it was better that they owned some of that stuff instead of ignoring it
- I was worried that the two murder hosts were Blake and Baldwin and that felt very pointed (but then I figured it out) because I knew Baldwin was there
- I felt it got more serious towards the end and me and my SO had really different feelings about that long John Belushi short at the end (and also Paul McCartney, I get that he's a big deal but it felt like a weird ending to me) but we watched it in two pieces so maybe that was just the different vibe of the days

(I have now read the NPR bit and it seems they noted some of the same things - where was Hader? More people from the Murphy era?)
posted by jessamyn at 10:10 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]

I saw the whole thing minus the first 5 minutes. Here's my rambling take on it:

I was 5 years old when the show premiered, and my brother (5 years older than me) would stay up and watch it together. My parents had no clue what it was and didn't care if we watched it, apparently! I'm not claiming I remember every thing I saw when I was 5, but I do remember staying up late and watching it (we were Central Time zone so it started at 10:30pm). So while there's been seasons that I ignored (in my 20s -30s I was mostly out partying on Saturday nights, so I missed entire years except an episode here and there). I put the Phil Hartman years as my favorite, personally.

Overall I really liked this show. I'd say this 50th Anniversary Show was about as good as it could have been. Any way they made this show would annoy someone, as it's covering 50 years of material and memories. Impossible to make something that pleases everyone.

It was nice to see Meryl Streep, but she was woefully unprepared and it seemed like she barely tried. (I don't like when they put famous people on just for "OMG I recognize them!" reactions). She easily could have done better... just breaking into laughs doesn't equal funny to me. Boo.

It was nice to see Paul McCartney. But he just cannot sing anymore. I found it mildly sad to watch. I think he should have appeared, said a few words, etc... but an entire song was just not a great choice. Just made me feel kinda bad.

The end B&W film with Belushi visiting the graves of the former cast members was nice and poignant to see again in its entirety --- but I'm sure it lost at least half of the younger audience. But it was a perfect fit for the end of the show.

Great to see Garrett Morris again and Laraine Newman. Bill Murray played the weekend Update sketch "straight" as in he didn't do too much "Bill Murray schtick" and I thought he was really good. The NYC musical had its heart in the right place, but John Mulaney has done better versions of those musical sketches in the past.

Agreed they should have given more time to the fake ads, as those were truly groundbreaking way back when (viewers really weren't sure it was a spoof until halfway through, which was extremely wild in 1975). They got short shrift and they were an essential part of the show's DNA since the beginning.

No Mister Bill? I didn't see any Gumby, either (might have been the first few minutes I missed). No Land Shark (I'd have been happy with a quick cut)?

They called out the blackface stuff and other inappropriate bits from yesteryear, which I found admirable. But then they put in a new sketch with about 15 prison-rape jokes. Hardee-har-har.

If you have even a halfway good memories of the show over the years, this was entirely worth watching.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:11 AM on February 18 [3 favorites]

No Land Shark

Drunk Uncle, one of my all-time favorite recurring characters, woefully blurting out “So I’m not Land Shark!” had me in stitches.
posted by ejs at 10:46 AM on February 18 [3 favorites]

where was Hader?

All the reporting I've seen said Hader "polititely declined" participation. The best joke I've seen was that he was the Designated Survivor.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:53 AM on February 18 [5 favorites]

Hader has spoken about the crippling anxiety he felt when he was there. I'm guessing he preferred to avoid that in front of SNL's largest audience ever. I loved that they addressed anxiety and the weird anxiety/attention connection they share.
posted by Stanczyk at 12:01 PM on February 18

Very disappointed Jane Curtin wasn't at the Weekend Update desk; I don't think she performed in any sketches? (it went way past my bedtime) but I heard she was at the 'goodbye' at the end.

Drunk Uncle and Girl You Regret Starting A Conversation With was the funniest thing I saw, I was laughing so hard.

Although it got mixed reviews, I really liked the Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard duet, even though it could have used a more direct acknowledgement of Sinead O'connor.
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:25 PM on February 18

Although it got mixed reviews, I really liked the Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard duet, even though it could have used a more direct acknowledgement of Sinead O'connor.

And Aubrey Plaza introduced them! I was so sorry to hear about her husband. Apparently he was really into tie-dying tshirts recently and she was wearing a tie-dyed shirt when she introduced Miley and Alabama. Heartbreaking.
posted by ishmael at 3:02 PM on February 18 [1 favorite]

And Aubrey Plaza introduced them!

They got married in tie-dye pyjamas, heartbreaking but parasocially good to see her. (Archive link)

I really enjoyed this anniversary special!
posted by ellieBOA at 9:47 AM on February 19 [2 favorites]

I thought it was fine for what it was, compressing 50 years of culture and changing mores into 2 hours has to be hard task.

They played it safe for sure, not much focus on the more avant-garde 70s sketches and a lot more focus on post 2010(?). I didn't recognize a lot of the former, younger, cast members, so I'm assuming they were later players.

Eddie Murphy was top-tier. I thought it interesting that the older cast members, either by inclination or talent, appeared to have put a lot more effort into learning the sketch. Not reading the cue cards for every line is a lost skill SNL should bring back.

Paul McCartney, a legend and SNL fixture for sure but maybe it's time to gently retire.

Bill Murray playing it straight without being "Bill Murray" reminds you how good he could be when he tries.

Not sure why Sabrina was upfront at the close over so many veterans.

Overall, for someone who doesn't really watch SNL anymore, I enjoyed it though, of course, there weren't enough sketches from "the good era".
posted by madajb at 10:33 AM on February 19 [1 favorite]

Also, the way they handled the this-was-kinda-acceptable-in-the-past sketches was on respectable.
Acknowledging that culture has moved on by poking fun at themselves was a good way to handle it.
posted by madajb at 10:40 AM on February 19 [1 favorite]