Can't find the episode that actually has Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in it on youtube.

But this is just as good

I'm going to assume this is an Always Sunny reference and clip. I have tried on multiple occasions to enjoy that show, but really just never have. Although I did enjoy creating the universe where the Danny DeVito character is still Louie, just 20 years on.

I remember Greg Gross doing some witty radio ads in the 1980s, but I have no memory of what they were advertising.

Can't find the episode that actually has Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in it on youtube.

Crappy pirated footage of just the Howard/Utley scenes.

I vividly remember that SNL sketch. It was when the show was absolutely sucking, but the sketch was so bizarre and had so many cameos from actual random baseball players it was hilarious.

this seems like as good a place as any to put it.


i've kind of gotten into MTV's new show "i just want my pants back". the characters are awful, and the actors are pretty annoying, but that's really kind of the appeal of this type of show.

I vividly remember that SNL sketch. It was when the show was absolutely sucking...

That narrows it down to the last 25-30 years or so.

Yea, everything sucks except for the 2-3 years we discover something. Take it to the Simpsons thread!

One's definition of the last time SNL was good probably says a lot about one's age.

I always thought the late 90s years were a bit under-rated

Tim Meadows
Norm McDonald
Molly Shannon
Cheri Oteri
Will Ferrell
Darrel Hammond
Chris Kattan
Ana Gasteyer
Tracy Morgan

Coincidentally you can probably guess when I was 14-15 or so.

Also, all time favourite SNL episode would have to be the one Christopher Walken hosted on February 22, 2003. Colonel Angus, Pranksters, the worst sea captain in the world ("We know that...NOW") Jim Carey playing air guitar with his leg during the Foo Fighters song for some reason. That one may even have had Steve Martin's cameo which entirely comprised of him saying "hello, I'm just here for a cameo...I think it's going really well, don't you?"

Close second is Tom Green's. Which I realize is a bit unfashionable but he really was hugely influential on me as a person. And it certainly was a unique episode. It looked like none of the sketches had actually been written...it was just put Tom Green in a room and see who could keep up with him. Will Ferrell was the only one who could. One of them was "Tom and Lorne in a Tub". Which was exactly what it sounded like. Tom Green and Lorne Michaels in a bath tub that was essentially a Japanese game show style endurance contest to see how long Lorne Michaels would willingly stay in a tub with Tom Green on national television. I think he lasted 3 minutes before he had to jump out and run away. Good times.

Colonel Angus

My definition of good SNL is any year that had Phil Hartman.

Yeah early 90s was good too.
My understanding of the general take on SNL is that it strated very strong...faded in the mid-80s, came back strong in the early 90s with Hartman, Sandler, Myers etc. then has made the long fade.

My understanding of the general take on SNL is that it strated very strong...faded in the mid-80s, came back strong in the early 90s with Hartman, Sandler, Myers etc. then has made the long fade.

It definitely bounced back toward the end of the Will Ferrell years on the strength of its political writing and Ferrell. The Tina Fey years were pretty good too. Even now the show is pretty good, not great. Last week was one of the stronger episodes they've had in awhile. I'd rank em:

1. The First Season - 1975 (started it all and began the classics people still remember)
2. The Carvey/Myers/Hartman Seasons - 1990-1993 (you had Dana Carvey who was just coming off MVP season, with an ascending Mike Myers, the best role player ever in Phil Hartman and some great bit players off the bench like Adam Sandler)
3. Classic SNL - 1976-1980 (survived Chevy's departure and even flourished)
4. Dana Carvey Revives SNL - 1987-1990 (revived a dying franchise with perhaps the most sophisticated humor the show ever had)
5. Will Ferrell's Peak - 1999-2004 (again saved the franchise; perhaps the best political satire of the entire franchise)
6. The Women Take Over - 2007-2012 (Amy Poehler and Kristin Wiig carry the show, but its fairly "meh" with some good stuff, some bad stuff)
7. Eddie Murphy's Peak 1980-1983 - (HOF talent carrying the entire show as it started to limp towards irrelevancy)
8. Sandler/Farley Peak - 1993-1995 - (kinda the same as the Eddie peak, although Sandler and Farley weren't of Eddie's stature - and remember that hodgepodge cast in 1995? What was that?)
9. Digital Shorts - 2004-2006 - (suffered from Fey being gone a lot, didn't know how to use its talent, Digital Shorts were saving grace)
10.Norm MacDonald Says F*ck - 1996-1998 (and we agreed. Pretty much just Norm and squeezing everything they could out of the Lewinsky scandal)
11.Seriously, WTF? - 1983-1986 (there's a reason they never re-air these episodes).

The current SNL cast is really good. The show kind of mirrors the success cycle in baseball- you bring in some new prospects, try to develop them and if they pan out, they are probably leaving for a bigger market (movies, sitcoms). On top of all that, the success rate for the prospects is not terribly high. The best you can do is hope that some of the prospects develop and peak while under team control.

While YMMV on any particular cast, the most objective way to look at cast quality is probably looking at how much outside success people have while they were on the show (later success doesn't mean they were good on the show, like JLD or Robert Downey Jr.). Right now, Kristen Wiig is mashing (huge movie success and wonderful on the show), Bill Heder, Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg, Seth Meyers, and Keenan Thompson have all had independent success, and there are some very promising prospects chipping in like Jay Pharaoh and Nasim Pedrad. It also always helps to have non cast members adding value- guys like Steve Martin or Tom Hanks who would show up in past great years. Now, there is Justin Timberlake, who is better in sketch comedy than anything else, and occasional pop ins from Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Alec Baldwin. I would say they have rebuilt from the quality of the Ferrell years and the ensuing drop off to the Fallon era.

Edit- I agree with 12 that the early 90s was the best sustained run the show has had. Hartman was so underrated.

I tried a while ago to come up with an ultimate SNL cast. The key is, not just picking the biggest stars, but also the right complimentary guys to fill out the roster. Like Darrell Hammond was not a guy who carries a skit like an Eddie Murphy, but he might be the best impressionist in the history of the show, so you have to consider him for the roster.

So you have to pick 10. And you have to take into mind a good gender balance. And a good balance for the different eras as well.

(in no particular order)

1. Eddie Murphy
2. Phil Hartman
3. Darrell Hammond
4. Amy Poehler (can do Update)
5. Kristin Wiig
6. Molly Shannon
7. John Belushi
8. Will Ferrell
9. Maya Rudolph
10. Dan Ackroyd

That still might be a little top-heavy, with Belushi, Ferrell, and Murphy all on the same cast.

I'd take Gilda or Jane Curtin over Molly Shannon 12 days a week. I'd also try to find a place for Norm and Dana Carvey. Might be worth considering Samberg for the digital short stuff he has done. Those will hold up better than some of the more timely pieces.

I'd take Amy Poehler over Molly Shannon and have Norm host Update - Poehler is better suited for sketches. And I agree Carvey should be on there, probably over Akroyd. Ferrell can play a good straight man - he took a backseat for the first few seasons he was on, so he can play a second fiddle to Belushi and Murphy.

Am I the only one that thinks Bill Hader is a better impressionist than Darrell Hammond? Hammond is most well known for doing Clinton and Trump, and they're funny I guess, but Hader seems like he's a lot more versatile and can do more interesting impressions - his Al Pacino slays me. Plus he's actually funny when he's not doing impressions, like his Stefon character, or even his work on "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", whereas impressions were all Hammond had.

I would say that Heder is a better actor and funnier but Hammond is more spot on. Depends on what you want from an impressionist, I guess.

I'd be somewhat amazed if Robin Roberts or Richie Ashburn hadn't done something like this or this for television.

But if Pete hadn't used Grecian Formula then his teammates would have laughed and called him "Old Man River."

I'll endorse AG's list in #12 - and for full disclosure, I was born in 1959, so I was a teen in the early SNL years. As good as they were, the Carvey/Myers/Hartman peak was amazing, the deepest bunch imaginable, and very well written. I will admit that SNL is past my bedtime now, though :-D

That's why tebow invented Tivo

Rose's Grecian spot is one of the most deranged low-concept ads of all time. Him just massaging the shampoo into his scalp... just terrifying, and hilarious.

Eh, I'm more an SCTV kind of guy.

Close second is Tom Green's. Which I realize is a bit unfashionable but he really was hugely influential on me as a person.

I think the implied subtext here is that Greg UK jerks off horses.

Good list Retro, though you're higher on the current product than me.

It went downhill once Chevy Chase left..

It went down uphill once Chevy Chase left..

Unless your pinnacle of comedy is mugging to the camera. IMO, of course.

Hey Rose, two minutes for looking so weird!

Tina Fey and the giggly guy who has a talk show now killed SNL. It wasn't exactly good before they got there but it was somewhat watchable. Not after they took over as the stars.