Name the SNL extras (and guests), volume 2

I thought I'd try to get a few more names to faces here:

Burl Ives Fan: This extra has a small speaking role at the end of "Viewer Letter" in the Robert Blake show (Eddie Murphy dispelling that he hates white people like his Tyrone Green character).

Hallway Blondes: Right at the beginning of the Drew Barrymore show, these two extras get a few seconds of airtime before Brad Hall and Joe Piscopo enter the scene.

Garage Band drummer: The bearded guy.  (Hey Late Show fans, that's Tom "Bones" Malone with the bass!) [Addendum: Identified! He's Malone's personal assistant Barry Nicholls]

Guest singers, 11/05/88: The SNL Band would occasionally have a guest musician sitting in with them, and they would normally be acknowledged during the goodnights, or at least credited with the SNL Band personnel.   I've been trying to identify this trio of doo-wop singers for a long time now.

My first Splitsider contribution

I made a list of 10 random sketches that were taken out of repeat versions of SNL.  By no means is it a complete list, but I figured it would be an interesting topic for an article.  Read it here.

PS: if someone has a copy of the live Robert Blake show with "Best Little Whorehouse On The Prairie" intact, let me know.  I didn't include it in the list because I stuck to segments I've actually seen.

Ambiguous Sesame Street Song Corner

Is "Kids Just Love To Brush" merely a Cyndi Lauper parody that promotes good oral hygiene?  Or is it really a chronicle of obsessive-compulsive behavior by Muppets that don't even have teeth?  You be the judge. 

If you're watching videos with your preschooler and would like to do so in a safe, child-friendly environment, please join us at http://www.sesamestreet.org A musical number about brushing teeth. Sesame Street is a production of Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organization which also produces Pinky Dinky Doo, The Electric Company, and other programs for children around the world.

(SNL connection: the song was co-written by Cheryl Hardwick, longtime SNL band member).

Name the SNL extras

As part of my research for the SNL Archives, I go through old episodes to see if I can identify writers, crew, and various other production staff, especially if they are used prominently in sketches.  I was wondering if anyone reading can confirm the identities of some of these staffers:

Nerdy writer guy: seen in the cold opening of Howard Hesseman / Men At Work (original air 10/23/1982).  If I had to guess out of anyone on the writing staff it would be Tracy Torme but I can't say for sure if it is him. [ADDENDUM: Identified! It's writer Paul Barrosse.]

Grey-haired lady: seen prominently in season 2 (particularly in Hollywood Bingo as "Joanie" who "eats food").  I've spotted her around other sketches; I believe that's her in the Fred Willard cold opening as the uncomfortable woman sitting next to Bill Murray as Honker, and I've even seen her in the Hesseman cold opening that the "nerdy writer" cap comes from. [ADDENDUM: Identified!  It's costume designer Karen Roston]

Ski Lodge extras: there's a prominent extra playing Vicky Lazlo (top picture, far left with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Eddie Murphy), but she doesn't have lines. [Addendum: Identified!  It's talent executive Laurie Zaks] There are two that have lines, though: "But, Rick, what about Vail?" (middle picture, standing in background) and "But Rick, what about Sun Valley?" (bottom picture, in purple).

This is not really important by any stretch of the imagination, but I figured I'd throw the questions out there.

The "Glee" episode I'd like to see

I have to admit I'm not a fan of the show Glee.  I've seen a few episodes, and while there is talent in the cast (this is the show that got Jane Lynch much-overdue mainstream recognition) and I admire them for putting certain issues in the forefront, the simple problem I have with the show is that it's just not very good.  The writing is inconsistent, the characters aren't particularly likable (which is more a problem if it's not deliberate), and the whole thing seems like it only exists to move compilation albums of cover versions.  I was thinking, though, it would be entertaining to see those kids do some music that's so horrifically inappropriate for a high school environment.   But at the same time, it has to fit the Glee aesthetic.  It wouldn't work with covers of death metal.  But what band fits the melodic aesthetic the show has while having incredibly dark, inappropriate-for-school lyrics and subject matter?

The answer is clear: Steely Dan.

But they wouldn't stick to "Do It Again".  Too easy.  "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" is a cop-out.  "Any World (That I'm Welcome To)" would actually be thematically appropriate for the show, but not any fun.  No.  I want the songs that Sue Sylvester could use as ammo to gave the Glee club shut down once and for all:

• Time Out Of Mind: A smooth, mellow bit of upbeat jazz-pop about smoking heroin ("Tonight when I chase the dragon...")
• Everyone's Gone To The Movies: The song's movie-screener Mr. LaPage is not someone you want around your children.
• Everything You Did: An infidelity song that takes a disturbing turn by changing a verb in one of the lyrics.
• Peg: Porn!
• Kid Charlemagne: The Owsley Stanley song (more drugs!)
• Chain Lightning: I'm not going to spoil it for you.  Look it up.
• Gaslighting Abbie: Fun with psychological abuse!

The episode ends with all the students expelled and Mr. Shu being led out of the building in handcuffs.

Capsule comments on some SNLs I watched

I've been transferring some of my original broadcasts of SNL to DVD format, and I'm using the chance to watch some of these shows for the first time in years.  I thought I'd give some of my thoughts on some of them.

• Elijah Wood / Jet:  OK show, good host. This had Amy Poehler's first Hillary Clinton impression, one of Maya Rudolph's earlier Whitney Houston bits (not quite as exaggerated and mean-spirited as they would get), and Chris Kattan making his second cameo since leaving the show. Not as good as I remembered it, though.

• Jack Black / John Mayer:  Better than I remembered, still Black's weakest outing (2002 was probably his best though 2005 had Lazy Sunday and Spelling Bee). It's a shame they didn't do the Adult Students after this time. Wade Robson Project was kind of odd to have so early in the show (does anyone even remember that show now?) but Black saved a lot of the weaker material. Best sketch was Cat's In The Cradle, with Jack as the singer airing out childhood issues with his father (Horatio Sanz) while on stage, as new step-mom Shelley Long (Amy Poehler) points out she was on Cheers. I heard that was actually Jason Sudeikis' first aired sketch as a writer.

• Jennifer Garner / Beck:  The start of a four-show hot streak for an uneven season. Will Forte and Seth Meyers look like little kids in the monologue that Tracy Morgan steals by dressing as cupid ("You make me feel like the Lion King!"). Good early Fred Armisen stuff with the "Lights Out" sketch. Garner had good energy and presence in her sketches. Debut of Amy Poehler's cartoonish Michael Jackson impression, kind of a slap in the face for Dean Edwards who does a better job as one of the alien Michaels. Saddam and Osama was actually funnier than I remembered it. I used to be sick of Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz cracking each other up but I couldn't help but laugh at this one.

• Paris Hilton / Keane:  At the time I didn't think it was bad as it could be, but yeah, this was one that was even worse than I remembered. I couldn't help but think about Tina Fey referring to Hilton as "a piece of shit" on Howard Stern all through the episode. She always seemed to be doing that damn hand-on-hip pose in sketches combined with this air of doing the show a favor just by being there, which would be annoying enough without blatant gaffes (crossing between Chris Parnell and the camera during the closing of Merv The Perv, not hiding her real arm when holding a fake for a Barbie sketch). Aside from an American Idol sketch and a nerd phone-sex line, the sketches were pretty weak too. Cheapkids.net seemed to be Jim Downey's way of showing disapproval of the host (the audience seemed a little uncomfortable in those, because they veered a little close to dead baby comedy).

It's interesting to see some of these shows and then watch a new show where Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen and Kenan Thompson are still hanging around.  I'm also realizing Horatio Sanz was a much better cast member than I remembered.

How Full House should have ended

Confession time: I used to watch Full House religiously as a kid.  At least, until I hit the age where I could understand just how completely inane and awful the show actually was.  I think I was about 11 or 12...maybe that's a little old.  Even before that, I have to admit something about it just bugged me sometimes.  Maybe it was the whole principle of "familiarity breeds contempt", but even then the nauseating treacle started to get to me after a while.  Once I outgrew the show, I just avoided it like the plague afterwards.  I still can't actually watch more than a minute of it.

However, I can't help but enjoy reading the discussion thread about the show at Television Without Pity, or Full House Reviewed, mainly because both these sites articulate a few of the major problems with the show.  In addition to bad writing and sugary moralizing, the characters themselves are largely awful and/or disturbing.  If rebooted like other old series, it could actually work as a cautionary tale of the effects of incompetent parenting.  

Special scorn goes to two characters: the majority goes towards Michelle, an entitled budding sociopath who has a creepy co-dependent relationship with her Uncle Jesse and inconceivably holds the balance of power in major family decisions despite being noticeably dim for her age.  The other character who gets as much hate is Joey Gladstone.  If you think about it, Joey is a pretty disturbing character once you realize there's really no reason for an unemployed manchild with a questionable stand-up career and a compulsion to do cartoon voices to live in the Tanner house.  Maybe the whole Dave Coulier / Alanis Morissette thing has something to do with Joey's dark undercurrent.  

The family's tendency to hate on Kimmy Gibbler is also a little disturbing when you realize that she's a minor and not a particularly bad kid.  It would have been more apparently nasty if Danny, Jesse and Joey ganging up on her fazed her in the slightest.

Maybe that's how the show should have ended: Gibbler finally breaks after the family gangs up on her, and after her family's cruelty is dismissed by D.J., Gibbler reports the family to social services.  The authorities discover Danny Tanner's declining mental state and crippling OCD, have suspicions about Joey's proximity to three underage girls, and Jesse and Becky's weird attic apartment with Buster Bluths-in-the-making Nicky and Alex.  Stephanie is starting fires but nobody cares, because the adults in the house think D.J. is selling drugs when she's really spearheading a community initiative.  

At first, the authorities recommend that the men only just discipline Michelle once in a while, but when they see Danny, Joey and Jesse have another complete mental collapse upon Michelle reacting badly to it, they order them all to live separately or lose custody of the children.  The family finds out about Gibbler's complaint and disproportionately punishes D.J.  

Then, out of nowhere, one of the social services agents gives a heartwarming moral (with sappy background music) about how sometimes growth means doing painful things, and the family agrees it's time for them to move into separate quarters.  D.J. and Gibbler are still on the outs for a while after this, until magically (like so many other Full House resolutions), D.J. realizes that her family really was messed up and Gibbler indirectly fixed a problem they didn't know they had.

They all have a party celebrating the new chapter of their lives, with a sing-along that fades into a really bad cover of a Beatles song.  Fade to black.

Infamously Bad SNL Musical Performances

Last night's performance by Lana Del Rey on Saturday Night Live received a lot of attention, but it wasn't exactly what the singer or her label wanted: within minutes of Del Rey's American television debut, Twitter exploded with biting comments.

One likened her performance to a real-life example of what they were making fun of minutes earlier in a sketch called "You Can Do Anything", where people who have never been given honest reactions to their lack of talent perform.  Even more tellingly, the likes of Juliette Lewis, Eliza Dushku and Rachel Dratch had pithy zingers of their own directed at Del Rey's wobbly singing.  One article even surmised this might be a career-killer.  Her second performance in particular reminded me of an obscure Victoria Jackson character from the late 80's: Nancy Maloney, a lounge singer who goes from high-pitched screeching to a forced deep, husky voice all in the space of a single song.

The last time a musical guest bombed this bad on the 'SNL' stage was in April 2010.  Ke$ha performed "Tik Tok" with an American flag cape a bizarre laser show and astronaut-suited backing band, with a pause to ask "Did anyone ever stop to think we were the aliens?", which seemed to be an attempt at invoking Robert Plant's "Does anybody remember laughter?" while just looking even sillier.  Her second number, "Your Love Is My Drug" was even more bizarre, with her and her band covered in day-glo body paint.  I wrote at the time that Ke$ha came off as a half-assed Lady Gaga impersonator: I stand by that assessment.

Some other SNL musical moments of note, for all the wrong reasons:

• Kanye West's attempt to replicate his autotune album "808s and Heartbreak" on the SNL stage with a giant video screen behind him.  There were a few times when the autotune "glitches" weren't able to cover West's weak singing ability, and the whole stage presence felt completely underwhelming.  I actually don't mind West's other performances (despite his braggadocio) and actually thought his 2010 performance art style numbers were a significant bounce back from this misstep.

• Ashlee Simpson's appearance in 2004 has been the subject of enough commentary already.  When she was booked on the show, I just thought it was weak to have someone best known for riding the coattails of her more successful older sister (who by that point was better known for being an airhead on an MTV reality show than any music she put out beforehand).  For a brief moment, Ashlee did eclipse her sister...but only as the subject of scorn and derision.  Once her second number began with her vocals from the first song playing, while her mic was at hip level, she realized what was going on, did a little jig to save face and then left her band on stage to play out.  The show had to scramble to fill time because her aborted performance threw the timing off that night, and Simpson blamed her gaffe on her band playing the wrong song during the goodnights.  Post-script: Simpson got a do-over performance for her next album a year later to mass indifference.

• Brian Wilson appeared on the show in 1976, during one of his low ebbs.  Overweight, bearded and with hair resembling that of a Fisher-Price man, Wilson was there to promote the Beach Boys' "comeback" 15 Big Ones, but despite able backing from the SNL band, he was not in any shape to perform.  His missed high notes in "Love Is A Woman" are painful enough to watch even without the tragic biography, but even sadder is a solo piano "Good Vibrations" in a giant sandbox at the end of the show.

• Laura Branigan had a big hit with "Gloria" in 1982, and was booked on the show in December of that year.  Unfortunately, it seems she was under the weather that weekend because her voice was shot.  She resorts to speak-singing for much of the song, but at one point her voice gives out and squeaks a high note.

• Spice Girls received much criticism when they performed "Wannabe" and "Say You'll Be There" in 1997: their vocal performances left much to be desired, but their dance moves bordered along the territory of the Juul Haalmeyer Dancers from SCTV, without the intentional comedy.

• Backstreet Boys' appearance in March 1998 had a dance break where with the Boys doing this bit of choreography with folding chairs.  Even watching this with the benefit of hindsight and a bit of distance from when they were all over the radio playlists, it wasn't a very good performance to begin with, and the chair dance just made them look stupid.

• The Go-Gos' appearance in 1981 was completely flimsy, slippy and lethargic at the same time.  Belinda Carlisle has admitted in her autobiography that this is due to being coked and boozed up that particular night, even going so far as calling it the worst performance the band ever did.

Much has already been written about Sinead O'Connor's well-intentioned but overly-strident protest of Catholic sex abuse at the end of her performance of "War", and Rage Against The Machine being tossed out of the studio for hanging down an upside-down flag on their amps (which was torn down before showtime) but I didn't really find too much fault with either performance.

Anyone who has their own nominees for infamously bad SNL performances, please leave a detailed comment.

Brunswick News, paywalls, and journalism in NB

The print media in New Brunswick is mostly owned by an entity called Brunswick News, which is a division of the Irving Group of Companies, the dominant economic force in the province.   There are very few alternative voices in this field- even the free weekly "alternative" paper in the province is an Irving publication.  Recently, they decided to put all their newspapers behind an online paywall, a practice that is fairly common, and actually quite reasonable for an industry that faces more challenges to turn a profit.  The New York Times has been able to use the paywall in a reasonable way, with a certain number of free articles per month and a few different subscription options   The price of the Brunswick News paywall, however, is not worth it: $16.95 per month with a subscription to one of their dailies, and $19.95 per month without.  No free articles, no reduced prices if you don't necessarily want to read the Miramichi Leader or any of the other small-town papers.  

Before the paywall was activated, there were no updates for breaking news: the next time any change was made to the online content would be when the next morning's paper was published. The quality of journalism is another sticking point I have with the amount they charge: there are a few bright spots here and there buried beneath articles cribbed wholesale from wire services, trivial city boosterism, and a lack of true analysis.  The front of the Moncton Times & Transcript, for example, usually has a piece on the front page about how great a place Moncton is to shop.  The "News Today" (ostensibly for actual current events in Canada and abroad) section once counted the birth of Suri Cruise as front-page material.  Compared to their sister paper, Saint John's Telegraph-Journal, it makes Moncton (and Eastern New Brunswick by default) look like a region of morons.  There's a sense of redundancy as well, you feel like you've read the same pieces last month.  (For a more thorough discussion of the media and short-sighted city strategy in Moncton, check out Graeme Decarie's blog).  The small town papers are important for their local coverage, but for every worthwhile story in the Miramichi Leader, there's another four page spread of old ladies at luncheons.

Irving can get away with charging so much for so little because print media is a captive market in New Brunswick.  There are other sources for news, especially online, but Irving still has the power to muscle out or absorb anything that comes along.  Some speculate that Irving will take a hit because of the people cancelling their subscriptions in protest, and revert back to the old model, but I doubt it will ever go back to free online content.  The way they have it now, though, is like having each newspaper at a newsstand covered in an opaque bag, bundled together with every other newspaper in the province.

A listener's diary: January 2, 2012

Thoughts about the music I listen to on a given day.

The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall, disc 3 - The Fall This disc collects the band's assorted BBC Radio sessions done to promote the album when it was originally released in 1984.  Since the LP was one of their more "produced" efforts, it's interesting to hear the songs in a more straightforward presentation, without a whole lot of echo, effects or Gavin Friday's guest vocals.  "Copped It" has its early punkish Fall sound more apparent in this setting.

This Nation's Saving Grace, disc 2 - The Fall Like with the BBC sessions disc for the previous Fall album, this lets you hear less polished versions of tracks that would show up on the album, as well as a few that didn't make it including "Ma Riley" and Brix Smith's guitar instrumental "Edie".  I particularly liked hearing the rough "Paintwork", which on the album is a sonic collage.

Bernstein Conducts Bernstein and Gershwin: The Royal Edition (14/100) - Leonard Bernstein I'm trying to get into more instrumental music these days, and I got this as a Christmas present.  This has a little more flourish and presence to the music, either because of the 20th-century origins of the compositions or just the conducting and recording.  I haven't really developed my ear as well as I want to.  Hopefully this will help.

Jazz From Hell - Frank Zappa I've been on a Zappa kick lately.  Interesting album: it's all performed on the Synclavier except for the guitar solo "St. Etienne".  It did free him up to do more challenging compositions that the technically-accomplished musicians in his band would still have difficulty with, but the technology does sound a little dated.

I'm looking for more recommendations for music as well, especially classical music.

RIP Joe Bodolai

When I logged into the SNL message board this afternoon, I saw that Joe Bodolai was found dead of an apparent suicide.  I had a bad feeling it was going to come to this before: I actually had seen his final post posted a few days before Christmas, and it did worry me based on the finality of it all, and sent him a message.  

We had been twitter buddies (for what that means) since February, and we replied and retweeted each other quite a bit since then.  He had quite the life, and an unsung importance in the world of Canadian comedy: SNL, Kids In The Hall and Comics! were three of the shows he worked on.  I never met the man in real life, but if going by what he left online reflects who he was, he was someone who had seen and accomplished so much, and helped so many people on their way, and was generous enough to even offer a few words of encouragement about my own writing.

He leaves behind a lot of friends that miss him (I recommend that you read Tara Dublin's post about him) and of course family and co-workers.  His pain is over.  We're left to make whatever sense we can of the whole thing. 

Thanks for everything, Joe.