Wednesday’s Unimaginatively Titled Newsletter

SNL Season 1 Midseason Recap

11 episodes into season 1, and the now-standard format of SNL is slowly taking shape. The cast still doesn’t merit photos in the opening credits, but at least now Don Pardo reads their names aloud. And the group hug at show closing wasn’t an every week occurrence yet, as host Dick Cavett said his thank you’s on a bare stage. Gary Weis has replaced Albert Brooks as the resident filmmaker, and the Muppets were no longer weekly regulars. This week’s musical guest, Jimmy Cliff, was given three songs to perform. No standup comics this time, but there was a performance from Al Allen Petersen, whose act consisted of singing “I’ve Gotta Be Me” while stripping from his construction worker outfit down to ladies’ lingerie, as well as an odd appearance by Marshall Efron as the winner of the national Dick Cavett Lookalike Contest. See, the joke was that he looks nothing like Cavett. I guess you had to be there.

Several of the recurring bits from the first season were in place by now, beginning with Chevy Chase’s weekly opening fall. This time he claimed he would not do it due to a back injury he had suffered the previous week. We learn that the injury was actually caused by a Chevy Chase voodoo doll that Garrett Morris was keeping. All these years later any sketch based on the premise of how much his fellow cast members hated Chase hits so much differently now that we know that was exactly the case. The open ended with Morris throwing the doll across his dressing room, cutting quickly to Chase falling face first into the audience. Similarly, Update contained many of the familiar beats - the phone call with his girlfriend, a Francisco Franco joke, an Emily Litella editorial. This week, instead of News For The Hard Of Hearing, we had News For Ricky Ricardo Fans, with Tom Schiller repeating tonight’s top story while doing a Desi Arnaz impression.

Dick Cavett was an interesting choice for host in 1976. I am old enough to remember when he was considered the younger, hipper alternative to Johnny Carson but by this time he had already morphed into the persona he is known for, the erudite, cravat-wearing raconteur. The episode rode heavily on his midwestern blandness, most notably in a talk show segment in which he promoted his new book, Nebraska Pimp. It didn’t go much beyond the sight gag of Dick Cavett dressed up as a pimp, with the twist that his girls wouldn’t go beyond simply messing around. There was also a running series of commercials for assorted Cavett branded vocational schools, one of which appears to be the only clip from the episode that I can find on YouTube.

The show also contained a running series of spoofs of the old H&R Block ad campaign that featured Henry Block himself, in this instance with John Belushi as Henry Brock pledging to his customers that he will help them cheat on their taxes. The top sketch for me was one featuring Jane Curtin as a widowed mother eagerly anticipating a proposal from boyfriend Chase. He enters the house following a duck hunt and goes on to clumsily shoot the family pet, her two teenage children, & finally Curtin herself. Until recently SNL has long been a bastion of the chauvinism too prevalent in comedy, and that was especially the case in the early run. Curtin was an outstanding comedienne, it’s a huge demerit to the show that they didn’t take advantage of that as often as they should have.

Beginning with episode #4 the show went on a run of absolute bangers - ones hosted by Candice Bergen, Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, Robert Klein, Elliott Gould, & Buck Henry - that really burnished the show’s legend. This one wasn’t one of them; Cavett gave it an honest, professional attempt, but he just did not have the proper comic instincts to make something out of this. Next time, we’ll look at the close of season 1, in which the show attempted something it hasn’t done since - a brand new episode airing in the summer. Kris Kristofferson hosted; it was one of the more notoriously poor episodes in the show’s history. That may or may not be the reason the show stopped doing summer episodes.

Time To Think About Caps?

Announcement of the Hall of Fame voting results is less than two weeks away. In addition to the voluminous data that Ryan Thibodaux collects for his ballot tracker, there are also enough public votes that Jason Sardell can begin working on his projections. He has been reliably accurate over the years, so his thoughts are worth looking at. His most recent run through the numbers reveals what everyone suspected weeks ago; Adrian Beltre will waltz in easily. The early votes are also promising for Joe Mauer; Sardell has him as relatively safe. The next two are where the suspense is going to come from. Todd Helton & Billy Wagner both project at 74%.

Now that we can reasonably surmise that this year’s class will consist of between 2-4 names, why not take a crack at guessing which cap will be depicted on the plaques? Since the Hall refuses to let me vote, I’ll take it upon myself to volunteer for the position of Cap Selector. My judgement is binding, & I will not allow inductees to take the easy way out and go in with a blank cap.

Mauer and Helton each spent their entire careers with only one team, Minnesota & Colorado respectively, so no decision necessary there. Beltre has a few options. It took time for people to recognize just how great he was; his time with the Dodgers was underappreciated to an extent. But it’s gotta be Texas. It was with the Rangers where he received most of his accolades, and he spent more time playing in Texas than he did for any other team. It’s a similar deal for Wagner. He had major success with multiple teams, but more that half of his career was spent with the Astros. That wasn’t so hard. It will take a surprising surge for Gary Sheffield to make it in, so I’ll hold off on making his choice unless/until he finishes above 75%.

Did We Win This Round?

Maybe call it a baby steps mini-victory with some guarded optimism involved. Casey Newton reported that Substack will be removing some of the content from Nazis. This comes in response to the pushback from the Substackers Against Nazis that Marisa Kabas has led.

I’m not going to bore you all with progress reports on my search for a different platform for this newsletter. I am keeping close tabs on what the writers whom I follow are doing. Long story short, my preference is to stay here. Not only have I built a small community here, but it best fits my needs. Some of the alternate platforms that other writers have investigated charge hosting fees, & I want to avoid that.

Let’s be honest, the internet in 2023 is filled with Nazis, there is no guarantee that other platforms won’t face Nazi issues of their own, nor is there a guarantee that any alternates won’t have crappy moderation policies themselves. Part of the reason why the blowback against Substack was so heated was that their response was so inadequate; management might as well have simply shrugged their shoulders and said “whatevs.”

This week’s news may have simply been PR eyewash, but at least it somewhat addressed the concerns. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it wasn’t simply a barebones way to silence their critics and that Substack will take a more proactive approach to combatting hate speech and calls to violence.

What’s In a Name?

Remember the days when Jon & Kate Plus 8 was a popular TV show, & so many were perplexed that a show like that was airing on The Learning Channel? As others had noted, the channel had long ago ceased branding itself as such & the initials TLC essentially stood for nothing. That’s fairly common; many cable networks have strayed over the years from their initial formats. Of course, the meaning of acronyms isn’t really all that important. It’s not as if many people remember that CBS a stands for Columbia Broadcasting System, or if it makes any sort of difference whether people do or not.

I first noticed that type of acronym-related rebranding around the time when Mad Men premiered. Part of the early promotion for the show described it as the first original series on AMC. That was a head scratcher; years earlier the network aired Remember WENN, a whimsical show set in a WWII era radio station. It was eventually confirmed that the old American Movie Classics was considered to be an entirely different network; AMC 2.0 was a whole new entity.

The new twist comes with the streaming services and the ways in which they attempt to differentiate themselves from their linear counterparts. The renaming of WBD’s service was extremely awkward. For some reason the decision makers felt that the name HBO Max sounded too tied to the HBO brand, so a change was necessary. That’s an arguable point, but how they decided on simplifying it to Max is puzzling. The name HBO brings with it a certain prestige, the name Cinemax, um, does not.

Which brings us to the most recent name change, which in this case actually attempts to convey a stronger connection between the streaming and linear units. The Showtime cable channel, which has been around for decades, is now known as Paramount + With Showtime. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it? Strangely, all of the ancillary channels - Showtime Family, Showtime Extreme, etc. - are still keeping those old names. I assume that Paramount has all sorts of data from focus groups that show why this makes sense, but that new name seems unnecessarily complicated. Showtime is such an established brand, there has to be a better way to raise the profile of Paramount Plus+ than to give a legacy cable channel a new name that is so lengthy that few people will call it that.

Please Stop Doing This

It happens like clockwork every election cycle. Our inboxes & social media feeds are filled with messages stating “I’m running against (fill in name of heinous Member Of Congress du jour.) Together we can flip this seat. Send me money.” Sometimes it’s even doubled down when celebrities who should know better retweet those posts. I suppose there are better ways to metaphorically set money on fire but I can’t think of many.

Folks, there’s a good reason why certain legislators can get away with not really doing their actual jobs and spending most of their time s***posting & owning the libs. The likes of Matt Gaetz or Marjorie Taylor-Greene are in some of the safest districts in the nation. They could conceivably be primaried, but there is next to zero chance that they would lose a general election. Donating to the campaign of an MTG opponent is foolish. (That goes in both directions of course. I proudly live in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s district, and I was so amused to see how much money was being sent to her opponent the first time she ran for reelection. His campaign was so flush with cash that there was no escaping his TV ads. Needless to say, he was trounced.)

I get it, it’s tempting. I’d love to see Gaetz go the way of Madison Cawthorn or Steve King. The fact that Lauren Boebert came so close to losing in 2022 makes it even more enticing. But let’s be realistic when it comes to budgeting our political contributions. Please take a minute to do at least some rudimentary research and don’t waste money propping up a futile campaign. Look & see which races are close enough that cash will make an actual difference. Thank you for attending my TED talk.

The Injury Gremlins Strike Again

I don’t know if I would officially classify it as parity, but there are a disproportionate number of NBA teams that are so closely matched in talent that there is a huge logjam in the standings. That’s most apparent in the battles to both squeak into the play-in tournament or to avoid it all together and directly pass Go into the playoffs. Any significant injury to a key player is terribly damaging, and unfortunately two teams drew the short straw on Monday.

Ja Morant’s season opening suspension had already placed the Memphis Grizzlies in a deep hole, but their improved play upon his return sparked a bit of optimism. Those hopes are now completely dashed with the news that Morant has suffered a season ending labrum tear. The Grizz are lottery bound. The Indiana Pacers, on the other hand, seem to have avoided the worst news. Tyrese Haliburton suffered a hamstring strain, but an MRI showed it is only a Grade 1 strain, so it looks he’ll be out 2-4 weeks. Not ideal, but it could have been much worse.

On a personal note, as fun as it is to watch the super teams, I have an affinity for seeing some fresh blood rise to contending status. It’s been such a pleasure to see how strong the Thunder & the Timberwolves are. The Magic & Pelicans have shown encouraging improvement as well. That makes it a real bummer to see misfortune befall the Grizzlies & Pacers.

Closing Laughs

Photo:

Michael Warburton/ X

It may only be the first full week of the new year, but we might already have the image of 2024 - Paul Giamatti celebrating his Golden Globes victory at In-N-Out Burger. It’s simultaneously the most Los Angeles and the most Giamatti thing conceivable. May we all celebrate our greatest triumph wherever makes us most happy. See you all on Friday.