Comments on: Reliving the maiden voyage of ‘Saturday Night Live’

By: Kara

Kara — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:50:41 +0000

I loved watching this episode, which only emphasized how far SNL has fallen over the last 33 years. It was nice to see sketches that didn’t revolve around bad costumes or over-the-top impersonations. So many of the sketches of the original episode wouldn’t make it to the final show today simply because they don’t have those now-cliche characteristics. It’s stuff like this episode that make me sad I wasn’t around to see it when it first aired.

By: a

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:46:16 +0000

I was pleasantly surprised to find Andy Kaufman’s Mighty Mouse bit to be every bit as funny as I remembered!! I miss him, John, and Gilda.

By: dan jones

dan jones — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:55:23 +0000

I’d take the rebroadcasted classics over any SNL made in the last 20 years… ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. I’m seriously in disbelief that anyone would even consider that they’d rather watch the new crap. I’m embarrassed for you on your behalf Kate… seriously, get some taste. New SNL is atrocious!

By: Anne

Anne — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:22:43 +0000

I stayed up for the whole thing, even though I’ve seen this particular episode a couple times. It wasn’t that funny. Even Carlin wasn’t that great. Maybe it’s because I’ve heard “baseball vs. football” about a thousand times now. And wow, riffing on religion. Not even in 1975 could that be considered original. The wolverine sketch was a pale imitation of a similar Monty Python bit. The muppets were dull. OK, just call me Miss Cranky-Pants this morning. The triple-bladed razor commercial, however, was hilarious, precisely BECAUSE my husband uses a 5-bladed razor now.

By: rta

rta — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:21:20 +0000

What I noticed more than anything else was the patience that the audience had for Andy Kaufman’s skit. I’m not sure that he’d survive in today’s instant-gratification culture and that would be a shame. He was delightfully different.

By: Stephanie T.

Stephanie T. — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:20:40 +0000

1. I never realized that Don Pardo screwed up the name of the acting company on the first episode. He said “…and the Not for Ready Prime Time Players” instead of The Not Ready For Prime Time Players.
2. I could have sworn that the lady back up singer on Billy Preston’s left was jazz/R&B singer Randy Crawford.
3. It’s so amazing how far SNL has come in terms of what they can get away with when it comes to verbally explicit word and phrase gags. First it was “Jamitall” and now it’s “Sofa King”.

By: Winona

Winona — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:46:39 +0000

It was a very nice trip down memory lane, memories that I didn’t have, seeing as I was one year old when SNL premiered – but I had never seen the entire episode. It’s nice to see a full episode like that to put things in historical context.

By: dep

dep — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:39:13 +0000

I enjoyed most of it, but I agree with orville–it was pretty clunky. I found much of it funny, but I’m not sure if it’s because it was actually funny or if I was laughing because of the nostalgia. But gosh it was great to see Gilda and John again.

By: orville

orville — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:26:22 +0000

I rented the first two seasons recently (since I was too young the first time around). As good as a lot of the stuff was, and still is, I think people forget how just plain bad a lot of it was too. In the rush to praise and worship the original cast (rightly so in many respects), we forget how clunky the first season was and how long it took them to reach their stride. Most of the first season, the original cast didn’t actually do a whole lot–the guest hosts were supposed to be the big stars.

By: Annabelle

Annabelle — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:23:50 +0000

I showed my middle school students a clip of “Happy Fun Ball” and they didn’t get it!