Today’s Musings and Ramblings

SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night - The Writers

It’s an old axiom of show business that “if it ain’t on the stage, it ain’t on the page.” That has certainly been the case with SNL. So many huge names in comedy have spent time in the writer’s room, from OG legends such as Franken & Davis, Anne Beatts, and Alan Zweibel, to later big names such as Robert Smigel, Paula Pell, and John Mulaney, to stars that many may not realize were once show writers such as Conan O’Brien, Bob Odenkirk, and Larry David. Most importantly is the now retired Jim Downey, who is the single most significant creative force in the show’s epic history behind only Lorne Michaels himself.

It’s almost a miracle that in the span of only 5 days the cast and crew go from staring at blank pages with mere germs of ideas in their heads to a live network show. As Lorne has said, the show isn’t ready because it’s ready, it’s ready because it’s 11:30PM. The third in the series of Peacock’s new documentaries follows the writers throughout the creation of last season’s Ayo Edebiri hosted episode. I’ve mentioned in the past that among the cast it’s practically a Hunger Games type battle for airtime. It is just as brutal in the writer’s room.

The special cuts from talks with show writers past and present to a fly on the wall view of the process of constructing that week’s show. We briefly see the multiple steps that take place throughout the week - the pitch meeting, the all night writing sessions, the read through, the constant rewriting, and the crucial moments that cause the most anxiety among the writing staff. Those would be the periods in which the writers impatiently await Lorne’s decisions. First is to see which of the pieces he gives the green light to, followed by the period between dress rehearsal and show time where he makes the final cuts at the same time that he builds the actual order of sketches on the live show.

The Edebiri episode was one of the better ones from season 49, and it is interesting that the doc mostly focused on the creation of several sketches that ultimately did not make it to air. That process involves not just the writing but the time and expense it takes to build sets that would not wind up being used. I know it’s the lowest hanging fruit to complain about how SNL isn’t as funny as it used to be. But let’s not kid ourselves either. “SNL really sucks these days” chatter is a long lasting tradition. Assuming the show will still exist to celebrate its 75th year, at that time people will make the same complaints about how SNL in 2050 pales in comparison to the Andrew Dismukes era. A behind the scenes special such as this demonstrates how Herculean of a task it is to put the show together and have it ready for the world to see at 11:30.

For further proof of that inherent difficulty, the 4th and final Peacock documentary is titled The Weird Season. It is about the infamous and creatively bankrupt Return Of Lorne Michaels season, or if you prefer the Randy Quaid/Anthony Michael Hall year. I will discuss that one on Friday.

Grammy Show Wrap-Up

Fun fact: A few years back two major recording artists each ripped the Recording Academy a new one, claiming that the system is corrupt and going so far as to refuse to submit their recordings for award consideration. The Academy has mended fences with one of the two; The Weeknd made a surprise performance at this year’s ceremony. The other? Let’s just say that Drake did not have as enjoyable of an evening. When Kendrick Lamar came to the stage to accept one of his awards, the audience could be heard chanting “a minor!” Safe to say that Lamar has won yet another round. (BTW I had a major brain freeze on Friday when I speculated on Lamar’s chances of winning Album Of the Year. Not Like Us was nominated for, and won, multiple awards, but the GNX album came out too late in the year to be eligible for this year’s awards. Would you believe I was doing an early preview of the 2026 Grammys? No?)

Going into the ceremony there were 3 key questions. 1) How long would it take for the first camera shot of Taylor Swift dancing in the aisle? About 15 minutes. 2) How far into the televised show would it take to actually present the first award? About 30 minutes. 3) How many awards would be presented on camera? 9, or less than 10% of the total awards given. There was a lot of wealth spreading this year; no backstage shot of one artist with so many trophies that he or she could barely hold them all at once. Kendrick Lamar was the day’s big overall winner, with 5 wins all told. There were 2 big winners in the pre-show ceremony. St. Vincent (yay!) won 3 awards in the rock & alternative categories, and Sierra Ferrell, an artist with whom I am not familiar, swept the Americana categories. No new EGOTs however.

As much as viewers want to believe otherwise, show producers do NOT know the winners beforehand. For proof, think back to the year that Oscar producers amended the usual show rundown and presented Best Actor last, assuming that a posthumous award for Chadwick Boseman would end the show on an emotional high, only to have Anthony Hopkins win instead. They gambled and lost badly. This year’s Grammy producers, on the other hand, won. Swift presented the award for Best Country Album, and the wishes for a viral moment came through. Beyoncé won, and I’m pretty sure the presence of Queen Bey and T-Swift together on stage must have opened up some sort of nexus to the universe.

The awards, oddly enough, are only of secondary concern to CBS. The focus is on the performances. The show felt a little different this year, and not just because of the wildfires, which have finally been contained. There were none of the once in a lifetime collaborations that are often seen on the show. Instead, many of the performances served to celebrate Los Angeles, its people, and the firefighters.

That was seen in the evening’s first performance. The Goldsmith brothers from Dawes - who both lost their homes in the fires - led an all-star band (John Legend, Sheryl Crow, Brad Paisley, Brittany Howard, and St. Vincent) - in a rendition of I Love L.A. Later on, Billie Eilish and Finneas performed in front of a mountain backdrop and Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars duetted on a stripped down version of California Dreamin’.

The big story in music this year was that it was a huge one for pop. Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan both had splashy performances early in the show and Charli XCX had the honor of giving the final performance of the evening. This is where things get a little tricky for me. I admire the talent and craftsmanship of those artists, but at the same time I have aged out of that demographic. I don’t feel as connected to them as I would have a few years ago, but I once again remind myself not to be an old grouch. They make great pop music and fully deserve their success.

In addition to Carpenter and Roan, the show carved out time for all 8 Best New Artist nominees to perform. Most of those played as part of an extended medley. Among the standouts in that portion of the show were Benson Boone, Doechii, and Shaboozey. Shaboozey’s hit has been so omnipresent that I should have gotten sick of it, but it is so darn catchy and Shaboozey has a very likable presence. One new artist nominee stood out above the others. Raye blew the roof off the house, and hers was my second favorite performance of the show.

In addition to the In Memoriam section, this one with Chris Martin performing the accompanying song, the show also featured an extended tribute to Quincy Jones. Will Smith hosted the segment; it’s a daring choice to invite Smith to an awards show but everyone escaped unscathed. The likes of Herbie Hancock, Cynthia Erivo, and Stevie Wonder participated, but the climax of the Q tribute included the single standout performance of the night. Certified force of nature Janelle Monae channeled Off the Wall era Michael Jackson, complete with the tux and metallic silver socks, and did a spectacular version of Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough.

The evening also served as a fundraiser for those affected by the fires. Host Trevor Noah took every opportunity to urge those in Crypto.com Arena and those watching at home to donate. And of course as part of Beyoncé’s haul, which increased her record for most career Grammys, she finally won the Album Of the Year award for Cowboy Carter. I will also say that as big of a Beatles fan as I am, at the same time I am relieved that even though Now and Then won an award in the pre-show portion of the ceremony, it did not win Record Of the Year. Giving one of the most prestigious awards of the evening to the 170th best Beatles song would have been an unfortunate OK, boomer moment. Crisis averted.

Some Whom We Have Lost

Several notable people have passed away over the past couple of weeks who are worthy of mention, beginning with Marianne Faithfull. One of the avatars of the Swinging London era, she was a successful pop singer and served as somewhat of a muse for Mick Jagger. In addition to scoring a major hit with her recording of As Tears Go By, she also co-wrote the classic Sister Morphine, although she did not receive proper songwriting credit until years later. She lived quite a life, the ravages of which were evident in her voice when she made a spectacular comeback in 1980 with the Broken English album. Really, listen to As Tears Go By and Broken English back to back and it’s impossible to believe they were sung by the same person. Most of her later work was in the jazz realm, and with her backlog of stories she was an exceptional raconteur and a go-to interview for any retrospective of the era. Faithfull was 78.

I just missed out on the golden age of the Village Voice, but there were still several crucial members of the staff on board when I started reading it in my college years. One such name was long time cartoonist Jules Feiffer, who died at the age of 95. Calling him the resident cartoonist is too limiting; he did so much more. He was a premiere satirist and a prolific playwright and screenwriter, writing Carnal Knowledge and Little Murders among others.

Barry Michael Cooper was a writer and critic for the newspaper, and he made a major contribution to the vernacular with his profile of record producer Teddy Riley. He coined the term New Jack Swing to describe Riley’s signature not quite hip-hop, not quite R&B sound. Cooper moved on to screenwriting himself, penning New Jack City, the first part of he later labeled his Harlem Trilogy along with Sugar Hill and Above the Rim. Cooper was 66.

There has probably been no one more significant in American figure skating than Dick Button. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, he originated several of the jumps and spins that are now commonplace in the sport. He truly became a household name from his years as the figure skating analyst for ABC Sports. He rarely held back when describing a routine that failed to impress him; the disdain in his voice was clear when he used the word “pedestrian” while analyzing a skater’s routine. As a sign of his impact, 1988 was the last time that ABC broadcast the Olympics, yet he was still considered THE figure skating guy. There had been a couple of occasions in which NBC brought him in for a day or two to supplement their coverage as a sort of analyst emeritus, and he still had his fire. Button was 95.

Finally, former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent died at the age of 86. He was the league’s deputy commissioner when Bart Giamatti suddenly died of a heart attack, and Vincent inherited the job at a volatile period for the sport. Only a few months into his reign he steered the ship through the World Series earthquake in 1989 as well as the owner’s lockout during the next season’s spring training. He was unwilling to fall in line with the owners’ attempts to break the players’ union, and the owners eventually ousted him from the job. Vincent’s fate served as the ultimate reminder that as much as we fans would love to believe that a commissioner should have everyone’s best interests at heart, in reality a commissioner serves at the behest of the team owners, not the fans or players. That’s how we wind up with a Rob Manfred in charge of the game.

50 Years Ago - S.W.A.T.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this show; I can count the number of episodes I have seen on one hand with fingers to spare, but when a TV series gets remade years later it illustrates the way TV has changed over the years. This original version was your basic cookie cutter police drama of its era; the remake was your basic cookie cutter CBS procedural drama of the current era, all the way down to a cast filled with actors with biceps the size of car engines wielding weaponry just as oversized.

This show aired past my bedtime, but despite that I have 3 memories of S.W.A.T. along with a 4th semi-memory. First, at the time it aired it received a lot of criticism due to its excessive violence. Now, was it really all that violent, or would it seem quaint in comparison to more recent programs? Second, this show was an early showcase for one of the most prolific television actors of the next 20 years, Robert Urich. Third, it had one of the coolest theme songs. In fact, the Theme From S.W.A.T. would go on to become the very first television theme show to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

As for the 4th? I had vague memories of a police drama that included Rose Marie in the cast as a sidewalk food vendor. She would show up on occasion to throw wisecracks at the police officers to lighten the mood. Well, when I did my research I discovered that the show I was thinking of was in fact S.W.A.T.

I was also mildly surprised to see that S.W.A.T. only ran for 2 seasons. When you’re a child you don’t always have the keenest sense of time, but I would have sworn that this was a 4 season show. I would have been wrong. Despite the short run, it still left a mark. In addition to the CBS revival which is currently in its 8th (!) season, it also inspired a Samuel L. Jackson starring movie several years ago.

Closing Laughs

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