MagneticMediaFed

Before I go and get all speculative, I want to say for the record that the first three sketches and shockingly the entirety of Weekend Update this week was more or less SNL-perfect (meaning it certainly could be better, but not given the way the show is produced and what it tries to accomplish or not accomplidh). Brian Williams was hilarious in those three sketches right after the monologue and then kind of disappeared for thirty minutes before playing himself in the last few sketches of the evening. Still, I loved those first three because he did, in fact, play a character and in at least two of them spoke with an accent(!). Also Feist! Who knew? Certainly not I (on the Rick J. Pecoraro Hotness Meter playing a Gretsch guitar puts you very close to the top). But, what this their season finale? More after the jump…

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One of the big stories in television today was that four members of the current SNL cast are about to be fired. They know who they are, but we don’t. This is according to a New York Post article in which interviews with executive producer Lorne Michaels suggest that the jobs that are safe include Seth Myers (who is now the head writer), Amy Poehler, and *GASP* Darrell Hammond. He also suggests that the four featured members of last year’s cast will be sticking around and basically carrying the show. “I think everything that was strong last season is back,” Michaels says.

Here is who I predict got the ax:

1) Chris Parnell
2) Maya Rudolph
3) Will Forte
4) Finesse Mitchell

I was thinking about this and I realized that what SNL should really do is go back to their original formula of seven players. Based on Tom Shales’ Live From New York it seems most of the drama in the modern era of SNL has come from cast member worrying whether they’ll be on the show or not. If you only have seven cast members, then you’re guaranteed screen time and everyone can just mellow the hell out a little bit. Really, what’s the point of having a cast of thousands? No one is ever on the screen enough to get a real fan base, and those that are will either become exceptionally grating (Parnell) or will become a crutch (Will Ferrell).

ANYWAY. What is most telling in this whole story is the quote from Lorne Michaels that appears at the very end of The Post story. He says, “For me, the most important thing is keeping the show on the air.”

OK.

You read that quote and you initially think that it makes perfect sense. SNL is an institution. It’s like Meet The Press. No one should want to live in a world where either program no longer exists. But then you reread the statement and you think, “Huh, that’s an odd thing to say.”

Keeping the show on the air is more important than making sure the show is, um, good? When the show’s good people watch it, and when they watch it NBC makes money and the show stays on the air. I’d like to think that is precisely the logic the Mr. Michaels used before making his statement, but why do I feel it isn’t? Why do I feel he’s trying to build a bridge out of toothpicks, shaving-cream and straws?

UPDATE 8.24.06 (18:13)

Well, as of right now it appears that no one is really sure just what the hell is going on over at studio 8H. Zap2It now reports that Horatio Sanz had no idea he was getting the ax until he read about it (I’d like to think that he found out about it here at MagneticMediaFed).

There was also some speculation that Will Forte and Maya Rudolph were going to be thrown into the mix, but at this point we just have to retreat to the original information (the obvious information) that only Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch are leaving the show. I guess we can assume that Jason Sudeikis is still getting Weekend Update.

And while we’re all spreading gossip, I’d like to add that I’ll be a castmember on Saturday Night Live next season. My signature character is “Wesley, the boring twenty-something who sits in his chair on Saturday nights and complains SNL isn’t Funnier.”

Picture via the AV Club

So Tina Fey is leaving SNL. That’s the word on the street, and by ‘word on the street’ I obviously mean, ‘what she told Jay Leno on the Tonight Show.’ I assume she has no reason to lie. Frankly, this (along with her costar Rachel Dratch’s departure from the Saturday staple to network programming) was about the least shocking thing to come from Hollywood since the revelations that Suri Cruise is actually a composite of several different celebrity babies. If you remember this years finale of SNL, you’d recall that Fey and Dratch were very thank-youey during the goodbye.

The fact that she has a must succeed sit-com premiering in the fall (30 Rock) obviously has some impact on the whole thing. (NBC has some info/video.) Based on the clips that are available, and the assumption that Tina Fey is a pretty decent comedy writer, I’d say that 30 Rock will be a good show despite the fact that I’m putting the odds of survival at 4:1. Keep reading by clicking below…

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Remember Kevin Spacey? Remember how awesome he was? Usual Suspects, L.A. Confidential, Midnight and the Garden of Good and Evil were all good if not great movies. In the mid-90s people LOVED Kevin Spacey, but as soon as the American Beauty thing died down something happened. I’m not going to say it was Pay It Forward, but it was. I saw that movie in the theater on a double-bill with Space Cowboys, which is completely irrelevant to my point about Kevin Spacey, but is quite funny nonetheless.
In short, Kevin Spacey has become a bit of a punchline. All that being said, I think he will make an AMAZING Lex Luthor.  But that’s not all, click below for more…

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This past week’s SNL featured a digital short burried in the last 4 minutes of the show. The premise was one of a joke you saw coming– cop trying to talk down a suicide jumper only to reveal that jumper is standing on the ground.

SO BITING!

The problem is this sketch was done identically by the NYC prank group Improv Anywhere (whose most recent actions involved getting 50 people dressed in khakis and royal-blue polo shirts to walk into a Best Buy). Shame on you SNL.

[Read more at Office Pirates]
Thanks to Greg for the tip

In 1997 it used to be posh to say things like, “remember when SNL was good back in 1993?” Then Will Ferrell hit and the 2000 presidential election happened and everyone was all, “SNL is soooo good!” Way better than it was in 1993!” Then, as you probably remember, Will Ferrell left and no one else could figure out how the hell to write a biting political sketch despite the fact that SNL puts only 20 episodes on every year and The Daily Show was doing that many in a month with much greater success and people began to say, “Man, this show is awful. Remember when it was good back in 2000?” But then this aging show started to embrace digital media and began putting those fun little shorts on the air (like they did in 1976, only without the film processing fees) and in December “Lazy Sunday” hit and suddenly people were saying, “Dude, did you see that SNL clip on YouTube?” To which I’d sometimes respond, “Yeah, I actually saw it when it aired.” And then they’d say, “What do you mean, aired?” And then I’d have to go into this long explanation about how they do this show on Saturday nights and 20 times a year it’s live and as the person’s face slowly glazes over with confusion I just change the subject and start talking about World of Warcraft or some such nonsense.

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