SNL reviews to resume shortly

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My self-imposed hiatus from posting SNL reviews will be ending in the near future; I won't guarantee a return date, but once I'm back you should be seeing a new review on a semi-regular schedule. The next review will be of the Don Rickles / Billy Idol show, and I commit to completing the remaining reviews of the 1983-84 and 1984-85 seasons.

I have access to original broadcasts of many of these shows, although my copy of the original airing Rickles is incomplete (no second Billy Idol performance, Letterman promo or goodnights); I do have a complete repeat version, though, and a reader has graciously provided a transcript and captures of the Letterman promo. While I'm not missing any of these shows, there are a few original broadcasts I'm still looking for. As usual, any episode where I have an edited repeat version will be done with my existing copy of the show, and will be altered/corrected accordingly if I get an original broadcast.

I'm debating what to do after I wrap up the Ebersol years. It would be fun to continue with 1985-86, although the reruns after Lorne Michaels' return have a fair bit more post-production done to them, and to track specific changes to shows may take more time and effort than I'd be willing to put in (not to mention the number of gaps I still have in my original broadcast collection). I still think there needs to be more to this blog than SNL reviews, but they're what my readers come for, and I like having the excuse to talk about the show.

Finally, I want to thank Kevin Kelton, Nate Herman and Gary Kroeger for their invaluable background info on the previous ten shows.

Another thought on SNL rerun edits

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I had written before about how the repeats of Saturday Night Live are different from the live shows before (in an earlier blog post as well as a piece for Splitsider.com about segments cut from reruns), but one thing I've been thinking about lately is how there really isn't any detailed information in the major SNL episode guides about the repeat-only segments, although sometimes there would be information added to the trivia section of the TV.com listings.  

Part of it is that some of these bits are so rare and unaccounted for (such as Gilda Radner's segment in Aviva Slesin's "First Love" series), and part of it is that if you're going to compile a list of those segments, you might as well compile a list of the segments that have major changes between live broadcast and rerun, including dress rehearsal substitutions and fixed errors.  The amount of effort that would go into it wouldn't really be worth it, unless I were actually getting paid to do this (and you know Broadway Video / SNL Studios must have all this information on a private file somewhere).  It still seems like an interesting project, though.

Here are but two examples of the many dress rehearsal changes that have become the "official" version of segments in reruns, syndication or streaming.  Both come from the heavily edited 1985-86 season, which is notable in itself for the amount of technical issues fixed and canned laughter added in the rebroadcast versions.

"You Can Call Me Al" (Catherine Oxenberg, Paul Simon / Ladysmith Black Mambazo, 05/10/86)
The dress rehearsal take can be quickly differentiated from the live version by the color of Paul's shirt (pink in dress, blue in live), but the performances themselves turned out quite different.  The dress rehearsal version is pretty straightforward: Paul sings the song, then introduces himself before delivering the "Live from New York" (which is a slight variant on the usual line this time around).  The live show version is somewhat of a disaster: part of the problem is that the audience gives Paul an extended burst of applause at the very beginning, which delays his cue to start singing.  All through the first verse, Paul struggles to keep up with the music (a backing track that the musicians are miming to) and gives up part of the lyric so he can sing the chorus in time.  He seems a little thrown all through the song, but another big gaffe happens later when the director cuts to the SNL band after the "palindromic bass solo": the horn line begins but one of the players obviously doesn't have his instrument at his mouth.

The Cliffhanger (Anjelica Huston, Billy Martin / George Clinton & the Parliament-Funkadelic, 05/24/86)
The season finale of the troubled 1985-86 season had a runner where the devil (Jon Lovitz in a cheap Halloween costume) gets Billy Martin to fall off the wagon during the show, which leads to his inevitable "firing" as host.  This plotline culminates in the final segment of the show: instead of going straight to home base with the hosts, guests and cast waving goodbye, the cast congregates in the locker room to congratulate themselves on the season, before it cuts to Billy pouring gasoline just outside to light the whole place on fire.  The green-screened fire effect is marred somewhat in the live show by a visible folding chair in the flames, and Lorne Michaels doesn't look at the camera when he delivers the "they won't be able to do the show next year line".  The biggest difference is in the part where Martin joins Anjelica Huston and George Clinton at home base for the goodnights: when Anjelica asks where Billy is, her question is interrupted by a still mic'd Billy's very loud footsteps running; Anjelica laughs and does a slashy "cut" motion with her hand, and they don't do their dialogue for the closing.  The rerun also has a visible edit during the end sequence with the cast in the smoke-filled locker room (removing Anthony Michael Hall yelling for help in an exaggerated way).