SNL 40 Year Reunion

[Gonzo14]

I'm surprised that there's not already a thread for this! (if there is and I missed it, I'm sorry)

I didn't catch the entire thing, but I'll let you know what I thought some highlights were

Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake rapping the history of SNL
Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Jane Curtain doing the Weekend Update
Melissa McCarthy paying tribute to Chris Farley as Matt Foley: Motivational Speaker
Emma Stone paying tribute to Gilda Radner as Roseanne Rosannadanna
Mike Myers and Dana Carvey reviving Waynes World
Will Ferrel as Alex Trebec on an epic game of Celebrity Jeopardy with Celebrity impersonations of Sean Connery (obviously), Burt Reynolds, Justin Bieber, and Matthew McConaghey
Dan Akroyd and Jim Belushi as The Blues Brothers

So much great stuff in this special! I definitely want to watch this again, anyone else see it?

 

[Drtooth]

Caught only the last hour as it was opposite Fox's Sunday programming. Sure, I could have waited for The Simpsons and Family Guy, but Bob's Burgers is always a must, as is Brooklyn 99. I flipped around during commercials, though.

Loved seeing Wayne's World and news that Generalissimo Fransisco Franco was still dead. Almost fell off the chair when they said Jon Lovitz was dead, only for it to be a joke. It was supposedly a running gag, I wasn't aware. I was going to check out Hulu if any of the highlights were on there, but didn't get around to it today. I did catch some of the, I can't remember the name of the characters or skit, but that bit where Will Ferrel and Ana Geister (I can never get her last name right) did a much better version of "All about dat Bass." The Adam Sandler/Andy Samberg Digital Short about corpsing (Breaking) was a nice touch. Love how they made a backhanded comment about Son in Law or whatever that movie was called.

 

[D'Snowth]

All I know about BROOKLYN 99 is that I assume that's the reason why Chelsea Peretti stopped appearing on WORLD'S DUMBEST...

I didn't see a lot of the special, as I spent most of the night last night editing, but I did see the very first episode on Saturday night - it was great to get to see LAND OF GORCH. I'm assuming the crew wasn't able to find a way to get the Muppet Performers headsets or mics, because you could tell they were basically shouting their lines from under the set. King Ploobis sounds like a drunk Rowlf, and the Mighty Favog sounds like a stoned Bert.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Recap based mostly on memory (SPOILERS):

The special started out with a red carpet event hosted by the gang from Today. Dan Akroyd, Jim Belushi, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Sarah Palin, John Bon Jovi, Jim Carrey, Billy Crystal, Martin Short, and Rudy Giuliani were among those interviewed. Both Carrey and Giuliani took jabs at Brian Williams. Surprised to see Dave Chapelle there (he seemed equally surprised to be there). Poor Chevy Chase did not look well. Eddie Murphy seemed incredibly laid back. J.B. Smoove was... J.B. Smoove. The segment ended with Kanye West interrupting the Today gang. That joke has gotten really old.

The show opened with Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake doing a rap duet on SNL's history. Not a bad start, though it wouldn't surprised me if NBC requested putting Fallon at the beginning as a cross-promotion for The Tonight Show. Speaking of which, both Fallon and Timerblake made a few jokes about the network. Rachel Dratch briefly showed up with a great Debbie Downer line.

After an intro in which every single person appearing in the special was listed, Steve Martin came on stage with a monologue on SNL hosts. Martin had some of the best lines of the night. Alec Baldwin, Miley Cyrus, Chris Rock, Melissa McCarthy, Tom Hanks, Peyton Manning, Billy Crystal, and *GASP* Paul Simon AND Paul McCartney joined Martin. Simon and McCartney briefly performed a duo. Epic! Also, this is where the "Lovitz is dead" joke began.

Yes! Dan Akroyd got his own sketch! There was a minor technical problem during it, but Akroyd kept going like a pro.

Celebrity Jeopardy! was brought back, with Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, and Norm McDonald reprising their Trebek, Connery, and Reynolds roles. Kate McKinnon did a darn good Justin Beiber and Jim Carrey played Matthew McConaughey. Taran Killan's Christoph Waltz was... okay. They even squeezed Kenan Thompson's Bill Cosby in. This was one of the best sketches of the night.

A way too short ESPN Classic skit was also featured.

The Weekend Update segment was pretty awesome, mostly because of the presence of Jane Curtin. Much like Steve Martin, she had some of best lines of the night. A few celebs paid tribute to their favorite SNL characters (Roseanne Roseannadanna, Stefon, Matt Foley). Decent impersonations.

A Californians sketch was included. Its biggest highlight was the presence of Betty White (no, they didn't make her do a dumb accent) and SNL's original 'valley girl' Larrane Newman.

Martin Short and Maya Rudolph (as Beyonce) featured a tribute to SNL's comedic music acts. In attendance were The Blues Brothers (Akroyd, with Jim Belushi filling in for brother John), Billy Ocean, Nick the Lounge Singer (Bill Murray), Opera Man (Adam Sandler), Sinatra (Joe Piscopo), King Tut (Steve Martin), Garth and Kat (Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig), Marty and Bobbi Culp (Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer), Derek Stevens (Dana Carvey), and DeAndre Cole (Kenan). Pleasantly surprised to see Paul Shaffer accompanying Murray. Short and Rudolph have really good chemistry together. Very enjoyable.

Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg collaborated on a digital short paying tribute to the many times cast members broke up with laughter during live shows. There were some nice jabs at the many times Jimmy Fannlon and Horatio Sanz broke up, as well as a jab at That's My Boy.

I believe the only other live sketch that night was the Wayne's World segment, where Wayne and Garth give their top ten best thing about SNL list. Another fun segment.

There were 'serious' musical moments, naturally. Miley Cyrus paid tribute to Paul Simon with a cover of "50 Ways to Leave your Love." Kanye West also performed a number. I'm admittedly not a fan of either of the two, so I really didn't watch their segments. The great Paul McCartney sang "Maybe I'm Amazed," and Paul Simon fittingly closed the show with "Still Crazy After All These Years."

Plenty of tributes were also featured. Chris Rock gave a heartfelt introduction to Eddie Murphy. He even mentioned that SNL probably would have failed if Murphy wasn't hired during the disatrous sixth season. Murphy gave a brief 'thank you' speech, though honestly seemed as though he didn't want to be there.

Some of the past Weekend Update anchors introduced Chevy Chase. Again, he didn't look well. Thankfully, his speech was saved by Garrett Morris reprising his "News for the Hard of Hearing" schtick. Unlike Chase, Morris (and Akroyd, Curtin, and Newman) have all aged quite well. John Goodman also made an appearance at some point in the special (I can't remember where). He looked equally unhealthy. A montage of the Update anchors was shown, including (surprisingly) a Charles Rocket clip. However, Bill Murray, Horatio Sanz, and Cecily Strong's stints behind the desk was rather rudely skipped.

Newcomers Pete Davidson and Leslie Jones introduced a montage of SNL auditions. Yes, real auditions. Gilda Radner's audition was adorable. Phil Hartman's looked awesome (too bad we didn't see all of it). Audition tapes of some rejected cast members (Jim Carrey, Stephen Colbert, Kevin Hart, Zach Galifanakis, and even Andy Kaufman).

Peyton Manning and Derek Jeter introduced a montage of SNL sports moments. I felt this segment could have been cut.

Jerry Seinfeld took questions from the audience, an obvious excuse for more cameos. Larry David had some great lines, including one about his brief stint as an SNL writer. Surprisingly, Julia Louis-Dreyfus was nowhere to be found. Tim Meadows mentioned Rolling Stone's 'Best to Worst' cast members list (yes, that was really written, and yes, Robert Downey Jr. really was at the bottom).

Robert De Niro stumbled through his speech.

Bill Murray introduced a montage of the many SNL-ers that have passed on, including crew members. In fact, the crew got several pats on the back throughout the special, which I was glad to see. Poor Charles Rocket. When his picture came up, the audience seemed hesitant to applaud. It's as if they were saying, "who's that?" Naturally, Belushi was listed last. Another Jon Lovitz joke, and a great Generalissimo Fransico Franco reference.

Jack Nicholson introduced a montage of clips showing SNL poking fun at politics. I did not expect to see Nicholson!

Keith Richards introduced Paul McCartney. Simply epic.

C.K. Louis accurately described one of the flaws with SNL being live. A montage of pre-recorded short films was then shown, including a Mr. Bill segment.

Tracy Morgan was unable to attend due to his recent car accident. Tina Fey and Alec Balwin gave a brief but nice tribute to him.

The special ended with pretty much everyone featured crowded onto that tiny stage. It must have been uncomfortable.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by SNL '40.' By no means was it perfect, but what do you expect? It's SNL.

During the red carpet segment, Lorne Michaels mentioned that about 40 mintues of pre-recorded material had to be cut for timesake. I hope those show up online in the near future.

 

[charlietheowl]

Emma Stone's Roseanne Rosannadanna was spot-on, so much so that it was kind of scary. I thought the continual stream of cameos in the Weekend Update sketch was a high point, plus Jane Curtin is one of the most underrated comedic actresses of all time.

I'm a big Kanye fan, but that performance was odd. I wish he picked one song and did it the whole way through, the jump from "Jesus Walks" to "Only One" to "Wolves" was really odd. I did love his bit in the Wayne's World sketch, shows that he does have a good sense of humor.

I wonder if the odd reaction to Charles Rocket had to do with his manner of death (suicide by throat-slash) and almost getting the entire show cancelled by cursing on the air in 1981. That led to lots of people losing their jobs and almost ended Eddie Murphy's career before it began.

Was a good special and reminded me that I perhaps need to watch SNL more often, or watch older episodes.

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm a big Kanye fan

I didn't know Kanye fans existed.

 

[charlietheowl]

I didn't know Kanye fans existed.

I know it's certainly a minority opinion here, not to mention a lot of other places, but he is super-creative and an excellent rapper. His songs always have genuine emotion behind them, you know whatever he is saying is straight from the heart and unfiltered. Plus he gets loads of people to appear on his songs, from rappers to Elton John and Paul McCartney. I can't defend a lot of his public actions, but he delivers the goods when it comes to his music.

 

[Mo Frackle]

I wonder if the odd reaction to Charles Rocket had to do with his manner of death (suicide by throat-slash) and almost getting the entire show cancelled by cursing on the air in 1981. That led to lots of people losing their jobs and almost ended Eddie Murphy's career before it began.

My understanding was that the main reason most of the 1980 cast got canned had to do with the poor ratings the show was getting at the time. The entire cast was kept for one more episode after the cursing incident. Dick Ebersol became the new producer and fired the cast members he felt weren't working out, Rocket being one of them. Rocket's only known for his one season on SNL, a season people try to ignore. It wouldn't surprise me if a good chunk of last night's audience had no idea who he was.

And hey, that wasn't the first time a cast member dropped the F-bomb on air.

I've definitely been meaning to get one of those behind-the-scenes of SNL books. Maybe they'll clear things up.

 

[minor muppetz]

Rocket's only known for his one season on SNL, a season people try to ignore. It wouldn't surprise me if a good chunk of last night's audience had no idea who he was.

I knew who he was before I knew he was an SNL cast member (which was before I knew of the majority of the shows cast members). Saw his name in the cast listings for Earth Girls are Easy and Dumb and Dumber in a video movie guide, but didn't exactly know who he played in those movies. And then I knew what he looked like when I first saw It's Pat (and yet, even after that, it wasn't until a few years ago that I realized who he played in Dumb and Dumber).

 

[WalterLinz]

I watched Justin and Jimmy's opening number, Steve Martin's monologue, and Celebrity Jeopardy on the NBC app earlier today. I thought they were all super hilarious and I enjoyed them very much. I'll be watching the rest of the reunion later on.

Even though I don't watch TV that very often, I'm starting to enjoy watching SNL and the Tonight Show. I don't know why, they just give me such a happy feeling and they really inspire me to have such a good sense of humor. Just like The Muppet Show, or the Muppets in general.