TTH 6/24/26
Classic SNL Recap - Season 30 Finale
Of all of the people who have hosted SNL 4 times, Lindsay Lohan might be the one for whom I am rooting the hardest to receive the 5 Timers jacket, largely because that would be a sign that her long comeback from assorted personal issues is complete. Her first time as host was an all-timer of a great episode; the finale of season 30 was her second hosting stint. It is obvious that Lorne and crew feel protective of her; in fact this episode has a bit of fame because instead of the normal afterparty, an intervention was held for Lohan at the end of the evening. You can see why; she looked almost frighteningly thin, but she wasn’t so far gone that she was incapable of doing her job.
There was only limited cast turnover at the end of this season. Season 30 would be a one-and-done for Rob Riggle; he has gone on to have a solid career but did not leave much of an impression on SNL. A bigger name would temporarily depart the writer’s room this year. During the closing goodbyes, Horatio Sanz held up a sign which read “Good Luck, P.P.” That would be Paula Pell, who left to write a sitcom of her own. The cast gave her a warm embrace on the stage, but the sitcom wound up not being picked up and she returned to SNL early in season 31. There was another new name in the cast; late in season 30 Jason Sudeikis left the writing staff to become a featured player. He was not in any sketches which made it to the Peacock edit, but he was present on stage during those goodbyes. His time would come.
This episode was heavy on recurring bits, starting with the cold open. This was an edition of Hardball, with Darrell Hammond as Chris Matthews. Hammond did a great job of aping Matthews’ tendency to ask long questions of his guests, after which he would frequently interrupt them. This also included one of my favorite bits in the Hardball sketches, Will Forte as former Georgia Governor and Senator Zell Miller. The two once had a famous confrontation on the real Hardball, and in the sketches Forte would grow increasingly agitated, with his face turning redder and redder.
The monologue referenced Lohan’s, um, issues. Amy Poehler appeared as Future Lindsay, giving a hint as to what was in store for her, and let’s just say that some of the predictions made were sadly accurate. A top notch commercial parody followed, this one for the Woomba, a new product from the makers of Roomba. This one senses when a woman is in need of a feminine hygiene product, and by the end Maya Rudolph was running through a field in terror as she tried to escape from the intrusive device.
Rudolph also portrayed Tyra Banks in an America’s Next Top Model sketch. The 3 finalists were Lohan as an insecure cheerleader, Rachel Dratch as an oddball, and Poehler as her one-legged, flatulent character Amber. Rudolph was an excellent Banks, perfectly recreating her signature gestures and off-kilter comments.
I liked the movie theater sketch. Poehler and Chris Parnell were a couple getting ready to view a screening of Monster In Law, until a quintet of people dressed up in costume as Star Wars characters sit behind them because Seth Meyers had forgotten to pre-purchase tickets for Revenge Of the Sith, so this was their only option. This episode also contained a solid edition of Saturday TV Funhouse. This one featured Divertor, a superhero who would be summoned to create a distraction anytime there was a news story which looked bad for the Bush administration.
In this week’s Update the jokes from the anchors were considerably better than the 2 desk pieces. In the first one, which coincided with the one year anniversary of marriage equality in California, Rudolph and Dratch were a couple who were having the sort of silly bickering that married couples often go through after the honeymoon is over. In the other, there had apparently been some awkward comments between Al Sharpton and Mexican President Vicente Fox. Here, Kenan Thompson and Fred Armisen as the pair appeared on Update to make peace, but they continued to hurl lightly veiled insults at each other.
There are 2 additional recurring bits to mention. The first was an edition of Appalachian Emergency Room, which was an OK sketch, mostly an excuse to throw out a rapid series of jokes about the various ways rural citizens could embarrassingly injure themselves. Much better was The Prince Show. A talk show hosted by Prince (Armisen) with Beyoncé (Rudolph) as his sidekick, the sketches played up his famous eccentricity. This week the guests were Jessica Simpson (Lohan) and Nick Lachey (Forte.) More accurately, Simpson, because the hosts showed little interest in paying attention to Lachey.
This episode was a strong finish to the season, and it demonstrates how sad Lindsay Lohan’s downfall was. At her best she had great poise as well as a strong comic flair which serves her well on SNL. All indications are that her head is in a good place now, it’s not out of the question that she can still come back for that 5th time. Next week it’s time for the season premiere of #31, a year which came with some historic changes to the cast. Beyond Kenan’s promotion to the main cast, a few legendary SNL names - both on screen and in the writer’s room - climbed aboard. Steve Carell hosted the premiere.
Giannis On The Move
One of our long national nightmares is finally over. After discourse on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future sucked a lot of oxygen out of the NBA room for much of this season, he has finally been traded. The deal won’t be made official until the league’s new calendar year begins next month, but once it does he will be the newest member of the Miami Heat. Moving him out of Milwaukee has been a laborious process. He clearly did not want to be the bad guy by stating in so many words that he wanted out, but it had been just as clear that it would be best for both player and team to part ways.
Because he missed so much time last season due to injury, and because the Bucks have dropped further and further down the Eastern Conference pecking order with each passing season, it’s easy to forget that Giannis is still a top 5 player. However, the Knicks proved this year that a team doesn’t necessarily need such a player to win the championship. Time will tell if this is a trend or simply a one year anomaly, but either way a Giannis trade comes with a bit of risk.
It took a lot to complete the trade; has Miami expended too much capital? 4 players, including core player Tyler Herro and the promising Kel’el Ware, along with 5 future draft picks is a heavy price to pay, and Antetokounmpo’s hefty salary is going to make working around the salary cap a challenge. One could almost call it a blessing in disguise for the teams which fell short.
There could also be some collateral damage. The Celtics were all-in on the quest for Giannis, and any potential trade would have had to include Jaylen Brown. This is not the first time that Brown has been dangled as trade bait; he would have been the return prize had the Celtics been able to complete a deal for Kevin Durant. The Celtics may have to do some work in repairing their relationship. Also, what does this mean for the other Antetokounmpo brothers on Milwaukee’s roster? Will Pat Riley pick up the phone when Thanasis gives him a call?
Clive
There have been few figures in the music industry whose careers have been as consequential as that of Clive Davis. Over the course of more than a half century in the business, he was instrumental in building the careers of scores of some of the biggest artists in history. Known as the Man With The Golden Ears, he wasn’t as musically adventurous as someone like Seymour Stein was, but he had a knack for knowing what the public wanted.
A native of Brooklyn who never dropped that deep accent, he entered the biz as an attorney before working his way into the creative division, eventually becoming president of CBS Records. One of his first big signings was Big Brother and the Holding Company, and in his years at the helm of CBS, the likes of Santana, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Aerosmith were added to the roster.
After being ousted from CBS, he went on to found Arista Records, one of the most commercially successful record companies for the following 20 years. It was at Arista where he made his most fruitful discovery, Whitney Houston. His vision molded her into the dominant force that she was. He was a populist, so he too often presented her with material which didn’t do justice to her full talents, but you can’t argue with success.
It wasn’t just newbies whom he mentored. He helped steward big comebacks from Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin, but that was nothing compared to what he did with Carlos Santana. Davis arguably had the deepest Rolodex in the business, and his multitude of contacts spearheaded Santana’s smooth late millennium resurgence. Even in his later years he remained vital; he signed Alicia Keys to her first deal.
One of the annual highlights of Grammy Week was his pre-Grammy party held the night before the awards ceremony. Dozens upon dozens of stars would attend each year, it was the place to be. Davis collected just about every accolade that one could receive in music, and in the previous paragraphs I have mentioned only a small percentage of the big names who owe their careers to Clive Davis. Davis died at the age of 94.
50 Years Ago - The Gong Show
Every era has its own pieces of pop culture which are unique to their time, but it’s safe to say that there are few better examples of that notion than The Gong Show. This was about the most 1970’s show imaginable; it has been revived a couple of times but it’s not the same. It was of its place, of its time, and a Gong Show with a different host just seems pointless.
And that host, how about Chuck Barris? He was one of the more prolific game show producers, having created both The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game, so he wasn’t exactly known for catering to a highbrow audience. This time he stepped in front of the camera and it’s unclear as to what extent his on-air presence was shtick as opposed to being uncomfortable on camera. His wardrobe consisted of an array of tuxes and leisure suits. He would squint, make strange hand gestures, and had a weird cadence to his voice. There was a bit of Johnny Show Biz parody to his whole deal, and he made the show look like the sort of insane party that you almost feel relieved that you were not invited to.
The show’s format had classic roots. It was an old fashioned amateur show; in each episode a series of acts would audition in front of a panel of 3 celebrity judges. Some of the acts were sincere. It was a bit of a cliche that the majority of pop singers would perform their rendition of Feelings. Other acts were a bit more conceptual, and every once in a while someone would push the boundaries of good taste. The celebrities would rate each act on a scale of 1-10, whoever accumulated the most points would be the winner.
That is assuming that each contestant would be able to finish their act. The judges had the option of striking a gong if they deemed the act too inept to carry on. That’s where the juice of the show came from, similar to the audition episodes of American Idol. In the early weeks the audience doesn’t want to see the skilled singers, they want to see William Hung. Here, the acts which couldn’t even complete their act before they were asked to step away are what made the show so memorable. There were dozens of celebrities who sat on the judge’s table, but there were a handful of regulars who were as closely identified with the show as Barris was. I’m thinking of Jamie Farr. And Arte Johnson. And Rip Taylor. And especially Jaye P. Morgan. And how could I forget Rex Reed? I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to recruit such a notoriously mean-spirited critic to judge amateur acts, but he did not hold back.
No discussion of The Gong Show would be complete without mentioning two other “only in the 1970’s” names. The show would on occasion pause the competitive portion of the proceedings to place a couple of recurring characters on stage. The Unknown Comic was a guy who would tell standard Borscht Belt type jokes while wearing a paper bag over his head to hide his identity. And Gene Gene The Dancing Machine was an exceptionally enthusiastic, if not particularly skilled, dancer.
All this for a first prize which Barris would describe as an unusual amount of money. The cash prize varied depending on whether it was the daytime or nighttime version of the show, but it was in the vicinity of around $700. Virtually all of the contestants faded immediately into obscurity, but there were a small handful who did in fact have better things ahead. Paul Reubens competed, as did Andrea McArdle, and the band which would eventually become Oingo Boingo.
As mentioned, this show has been revived a couple of times. Once it was hosted by Dave Atell. More recently, Mike Myers hosted, honoring the Chuck Barris legacy by filling the role as a “famous” British TV presenter. The revivals were unnecessary; the original was so bizarre that I can’t believe it was actually on TV. You can’t recreate that sort of madness.
Closing Laughs
Here is hoping that all of your mock drafts held to form. Thanks as always for joining in on the fun, and let’s do this again on Friday. Have a great day, everyone!
