TTH 8/5/26
Classic SNL Recap - Season 32 Finale
Zach Braff served as your host for the season 32 finale. #32 was one of the rare seasons in which the entire cast returned for the following year, so there is no need for any exit interviews this time around. Let’s get right into things; it was another episode which fairly heavily included recurring sketches of varying quality. I’m pretty much done with Deep House Dish, but this week also included Bronx Beat, which is always welcome.
But first, it’s not just SNL which is ready to take the summer off. In the cold open, George W. Bush (Jason Sudeikis) is addressing the nation from the Oval Office in which he informs the populace about his summer plans, which mostly consist of leaving Washington and letting things run their course. The camera constantly cuts to Dick Cheney (Darrell Hammond) offering approving thumbs up. Bush ends by assuring America that someone will be in charge during his extended vacation - Condoleeza Rice (Maya Rudolph) will run the country throughout the summer.
The monologue was a musical one, as Braff reminded the audience of his starring role in Garden State from a few years earlier - this episode ran in May 2007 - by singing a song promoting the finer points of his home state of New Jersey. The Saturday TV Funhouse animated sketch of the week was a solid one. In an acknowledgment that the 2008 Presidential campaign would soon kick into high gear, the likely contenders all appeared on Oprah to get ahead of any negative pieces of information that might come out. The various pre-revelations were comically absurd for the most part. If nothing else, the piece served as a reminder about some of the candidates whose campaigns crashed out quickly. Remember Dennis Kucinich? Those were the days.
This week’s Update included 2 desk pieces and one cameo. The cameo came after a mild joke about Law & Order; a stern Sam Waterson (Fred Armisen) admonished Seth & Amy in full Jack McCoy mode. Kristen Wiig’s Aunt Linda character offered her latest movie reviews. Aunt Linda was one of my favorite Wiig characters because I used to work with someone exactly like that - she would describe movies she hated with a series of facial gestures and nonsensical phrases which barely made sense. Boy, could I relate to what I was seeing from Wiig. Update ended with an appearance from Whitney Houston (Rudolph) also trying her best, and failing, to sound coherent.
Another one of my favorite recurring sketches from this era was Bill Hader’s Italian talk show La Revista Della, starring Vinny Vedecci. It was a simple formula, and it admittedly fell into stereotypes, but Hader’s performance was so amazing that he held everything together. In this edition Braff was the guest, but since he speaks no Italian and Vedecci spoke no English, it quickly fell into chaos. A regular part of the sketch would show Vedecci and his producer (Armisen) screaming at each other in Pig Italian while another crew member (Will Forte) would be seen silently eating a bowl of spaghetti.
Braff’s specific physical type guaranteed that he would act in a Bronx Beat segment in which Betty and Jody (Amy Poehler and Rudolph) would playfully flirt with a much younger man. In this instance their originally booked guest did not show, so Braff portrayed an intern who was recruited to act as the last minute replacement. Cue Betty and Jody spending their time telling him how adorable they find him to be.
That closes the books on season 32. This is a period in SNL history in which I fell into the “this show isn’t as good as it used to be” cliche, but in retrospect I could not have been more wrong. It is amazing how stacked the cast was in this era. It’s true, you rarely appreciate what you have at the time. Next week I will move on to the premiere episode of season 33. That was hosted by LeBron James of the Philadelphia 76ers.
40 Years Later
Last weekend the Mets celebrated the 40th anniversary of the 1986 World Series champs. The ceremony was more bittersweet than what was expected when it was originally scheduled. This season has been such a dumpster fire that fan attendance was something of a disappointment. The date of the reunion didn’t do anyone any favors either. When the season began the assumption was that the ceremony would take place in the middle of a pennant push; the fact that it happened during trade deadline weekend as the major league roster was in the process of being stripped for parts made things awkward.
Despite that it was great to see nearly everyone return. Don’t get me wrong, I surely wish that my team has won more than 2 WS titles in its history, but if there is a sliver lining it’s that I can easily list the names of the 49 men who were on the World Series rosters. (1986 was a collusion year; owners took advantage of a loophole which permitted them to limit rosters to only 24 players that year.) 22 of 24 Mets players attended; the late Gary Carter was represented by his widow and children. In addition, most of the coaching staff was also represented by surviving family members. The only player who was not in attendance was Rick Aguilera.
These ceremonies are easy to pull off; show some highlights on the scoreboard, and introduce the players so that the fans can greet them warmly. In this case the players were introduced two at a time, with Keith Hernandez and Mookie Wilson earning the honor of being the final pair. In some cases the reality of 40 years slapped me in the face. There was a lot less hair, much of it gray, on top, lots of paunchy middles, and too much sights of aging heroes walking with slow gaits for my blood. I wasn’t fully prepared for that much f***ing perspective.
The day also came with the cold reality that this will be the last celebration of this type the Mets will hold for quite some time. Since the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Miracle Mets several members of that team have passed. The 60th anniversary is 3 years from now; it’s hard to imagine that there will still be enough of those men physically able to travel to New York to make a ceremony feasible. What else can the franchise celebrate? The 50th anniversary of the 1973 pennant winners? The 30th anniversary of 2000? Mets fans might have to wait until the golden anniversary of these same 1986 champs.
One final note - the 1986 roster is yet another sign of how drastically the sport has changed. These were the 24 men who were on the playoff roster, but it’s not as if there was a large number of additional 1986 Mets. In-season roster churn was almost non-existent in those days. You know how many men played at least one game for that team? This includes players traded away mid-season, rookies who had cups of coffee to replace disabled players, September call-ups, etc. Only 36 in total. Nowadays teams cycle through that many pitchers over the course of a season. It’s barely the same sport today.
Congratulations, You Too May Have Been Traded
The rich got richer at this year’s MLB trade deadline, as the collective baseball fandom was united in its dismay over the fact that the 2-time defending World Series champion Dodgers further improved their roster by trading for the pitcher who was this year’s big prize. But enough about Kris Bubic.
No, the Tarik Skubal deal is not evidence that the league needs a salary cap. Literally any contending team could have put together a similar package than the one that Dodgers offered. The Dodgers should not have to apologize for being the team willing to go the extra yard. Nor does the trade sew up the World Series. Need we be reminded again about the randomness of October baseball? The Dodgers are obviously the strongest team in the league, but nothing is guaranteed. I have lost track of the number of times I have looked at trades a team has made at the deadline and declared that it’s all over only to be proven wrong. This is why they play the games; anything can happen. An ace starter gets bombed, a shutdown reliever suffers a meltdown, an important player suffers an ill-timed injury, an obscure player has the month of his life. Any one of these events can have major ramifications in the playoffs.
I won’t criticize the Dodgers for using all of their considerable resources to strengthen the team, but I do have one issue with their standard operating procedure, even though it works. They have discovered the cheat code. The most important thing to have in October is a relatively healthy and rested pitching staff. This year’s Dodgers have had almost no contributions from Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, or Edwin Díaz. Do you think they really care about that if these pitchers are available in the playoffs with few miles on their arms as they face opponents who are gassed? That is the one financial advantage the Dodgers have which I find to be unfair. The majority of teams can’t afford to carry what is essentially a taxi squad.
Trading season is now over. Teams are basically stuck with what they have. Let’s see how it plays out. Titles are won with more than just the front line talent; it takes everyone from 1 to 26 in a team’s hierarchy to succeed. In the end the lower profile deals could turn out to be just as important as the bright and shiny moves will.
50 Years Ago - Boston
Released in 1976, it did not take long for the first Boston album - with its familiar spaceships which look like upside down guitars cover art - to become the biggest selling debut album in history. All these years later it still ranks in second place, behind only Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction. That is not much of a surprise; the record dominated album rock and later classic rock radio for years. 7 of the 8 songs on the album (sorry, Something About You) were in fairly heavy rotation and even as newer songs have become radio staples over the years and push older ones aside the songs from Boston’s debut continue to be radio perennials.
Boston has its own little niche in the rock music world. They are generally categorized as part of the musical movement derisively called either arena rock or corporate rock. That is reserved for artists who specialize in a mainstream sound, but are fairly anonymous. Unless one is a devoted fan of a specific band, many people could not easily identify a band from its photo. Boston was kind of like that, but they stood out a bit from that pack.
Boston was more or less the brainchild of guitarist Tom Scholz. He formed the band, co-produced the album, and wrote almost all of the songs. (Lead singer Brad Delp has sole songwriting credit on one song, and co-credit on another, but otherwise it’s all Scholz.) The songs are all meticulously crafted; Scholz is one of the biggest perfectionists in rock music history; and that is not necessarily a good thing. You almost feel as if he spent months agonizing over each specific note. There is little sense of spontaneity heard here.
Despite that, it is still an impeccable example of its subgenre. The riffs and hooks are as good as it gets, and More Than a Feeling, the album’s leadoff track and hit single, was practically a template for the next decade of AOR. Almost every power ballad heard since is a direct descendant of this song, and it also proves that Boston was more than just the project of a one-man mad genius tinkering in the recording studio. Delp hits some amazing notes in his vocal performance.
More Than a Feeling is just one of many highlights. Songs such as Peace Of Mind or Long Time have a way of sticking in your head forever. IMHO the best song on the album is Rock & Roll Band. A semi-fictional account of the rise into prominence of a New England based band that sounds a lot like Boston, it tells a compelling narrative quite well.
I must admit that I didn’t give Boston the credit they deserved when I was in my prolonged “too hip for the room” phase. There was nothing adventurous about this band, but they weren’t trying to be. There’s nothing wrong with radio friendly, arena friendly rock music and the 8 songs on this album are as good an example of that as one can hear. Sure, it’s a bit over produced, but the collection as a whole is tight.
They couldn’t keep things going, largely due to Scholz’s perfectionist instincts. He can’t help but tinker; it wasn’t a huge problem with this debut. He had written some of the songs as far back as 1971, so he had plenty of time to work on them. He did not have the same luxury going forward; a major label constantly demands new product. It took 2 years for their follow-up to come out; which was an unusually long gap at the time but not completely unheard of. It took 8 years until their 3rd album saw the light of day. Even though that 3rd album was a hit - and it also produced their only #1 hit single - there was a sense that their time had passed. Subsequent albums had similarly long gaps between release, but those came with zero anticipation. Fans only care about the debut; when Boston was still an active touring band, those songs were greeted with massive enthusiasm, other songs not so much. Even if Boston’s legacy is almost entirely tied to the contents of one album, they did create major history with that release.
Closing Laughs
I invoked my no-trade clause, so I am still here. Glad to see that all of you are as well. Thanks for sticking around. Enjoy your day, everyone. See ya again on Friday.
