That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)

For this years SNL Halloween outing, we're going back 12 whole years to an era of the show that doesn't honestly look or feel too terribly different than the modern show of 2026 in a number of ways. It's the beginning of Jost and Che's run at Update, Mikey Day isn't in the cast yet but still contributes to a large chunk of the sketches, Kenan is screaming at people. Is that good? That's up to you to decide! That all aside, there's still some good fun to found here, including one of the shows better latter day runners and a...

Fresh off his historic 83-84 presidential run, Jesse Jackson drops by the show to host a rather oddball outing that is still not without it's many charms. The biggest problem and through-line for the episode though is that the cast and writing staff is Oops! All White People! so they definitely try to have their fun with that, including more blackface and a piece that may have once been part of a larger call-in segment of the show. Not all of it works! Elsewhere, we get a minor classic in The Question Is Moot, Jesse's amusing fascination with cheesy 60...

Folks, we're back! It's time for the tenth season of That Week in SNL to begin and we're kicking off by jumping a year ahead from last season's premiere to dig into the start of S28. It's the first episode without Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer, a pretty major blow to the show, but thankfully we also get the debut of both Will Forte and Fred Armisen, a pretty major boon to the show. Sadly it's still 2002 though, so American culture is absolute trash and it's reflected pretty harshly here in this episode. We've got some dire Justin Timberlake...

Long considered not only one of the worst sketch movies of all time but simply just one of the worst movies of all time, period, we're finally diving into The Underground Comedy Movie, the first (of two!) cinematic atrocities from Vince Offer (the Sham-Wow guy). Eddie Ham and Mattalamode are on hand this time to trudge through the history of this film, the similarities to it's sequel/half re-make and try to make sense of the horrors unfolding in front of us. 

(Originally published on Patreon on July 14, 2004)

We've finally landed halfway through the run of the New Show and this time we're bringing on Jon Schneider and William Ham to once again try and figure just what the hell is going on with this odd, odd show. Thankfully, William was there on the ground floor, watching the episode when it aired and by god, even has some pleasant memories attached to it, which is a brand new twist to our coverage of the show! 

(Originally published on Patreon July 1, 2024)

Inspired by Ken Shapiro's Channel One theater and The Groove Tube, Neal Israel and a ragtag gang of folks wrangled up one of the more insane cast lists in sketch comedy history to do the same thing, except this time with some LA flair. William Ham and Eddie Ham are on deck to try and uncover this semi-obscure film's production history and discuss some of the more intriguing moments it has in store for us.

Read Eddie's interview with writer Rowby Goren here: https://fryvaultgrab.blogspot.com/2024/06/interview-with-rowby-goren-laugh-in.html

(Originally published on Patreon on June 17, 2024)

Just like last year, we had y'all chose one episode from S49 for us to cover and this time around, it was Sydney Sweeney who won out. We discuss the trials and tribulations of the season as a whole and dig into how this episode in particular navigates those pitfalls. We get some good, we get some very bad and throw some grandmas in a bag.  

(Originally published on Patreon on May 6, 2024)

Just as the Ebersol era was getting underway, Lorne Michaels and a ragtag collection of the OG crew sneak back into studio 8H to pull off Steve Martin's final NBC special. Probably most notable for John Belushi's final live, televised performance, it also includes more Dan Aykroyd than you can shake a stick at, the soothing presence of Gregory Hines, and lands at a truly intriguing moment in Steve's career. William Ham and Eddie Ham (no relation) are back on board to dig through the ditches, burn through the witches and...

(Originally published on Patreon on April 8, 2024)

Who would have ever guessed that we'd have unfinished business with Turn-On and yet, here we are because in the year of our lord 2024, producer George Schlatter has collected unseen material into a "new" episode of the show. Mattalamode and Eddie Ham join us this time to discuss this latest entry into the pantheon of insane sketch comedy as we once again try our damndest to make sense of the chaos unfurling before us. 

(Originally published on Patreon on March 25th, 2024)

Well, here we are. Against our better judgement, we've decided to circle back around on Bizarre years after covering it's pilot episode. This time, we're taking a random episode from the DVDs (episode 5 from volume two, which may or may not still be from the first season) and delving into the horrors that await in it's usual Showtime/CTV incarnation. Is it one of the worst sketch shows of all time? Yes. Yes, it is. Join us!

(Originally published on Patreon on February 26, 2024)

Oh boy. It's been awhile since we've gone to the New Show well. And hey look! It's just as dry as it usually is! That's why we've brought in Eddie Ham and Mattalamode to help us wrangle something, anything, out of this one. And wrangle we did. Join us as we slowly get more and more unmoored from reality, defending pieces that don't deserve defending and just generally losing our minds. 

(Originally published on Patreon on January 29th, 2024)
Get your new mustaches on because this week we're digging into one of the most infamous outings of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the season three premiere! The brothers have got Cass Elliot and Harry Belafonte on board and after a full summer off, they've got a lot to say about the chaos boiling over in the US. As per usual, this led to a lot of battling with CBS, including a whole Belafonte song being left on the cutting room floor. We look at the full, un-edited (kinda) version of...

We're wrapping up the ninth season of That Week with what is seen by some as a legendary episode: the S34 finale with Will Ferrell. Not only does this one close the curtains on one of the more popular and critically acclaimed seasons of the show but includes one of the more divisive sketches in the show's history, Goodnight Saigon. Our ol' pal Jon Schneider is back on board for this one as we hash out the many ways one can approach the show and sketch comedy and what one might demand from it. 

Now here's a guy you might've heard of before. Stevie Wonder. What can you say? It's Stevie. He's a legend and now he's here doing double duty on SNL. What transpires is a charmingly loose and chaotic show as Stevie not only hits us with two yet-to-be-released tunes from 1985's In Square Circle but also reconfigures a bunch of his classics to fit into the sketches. Also, we've got a Hitler sketch and Michael Davis, back for his last guest spot on the show! Can you funk? Stevie can funk.

We return to the end of the original era for the first show hosted by a married couple! Having already crushed his first episode, Richard takes a bit of a backseat on this one to hand it over to the ladies, who respond with a number of uniquely fascinating sketches. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though. There's still some crud to wade through and that sadly includes The Grateful Dead, who are here promoting what is, to my understanding, a little bit of a low-ebb in their discography. Also, this recording includes a Timmy who watched the episode...

One of the true legends of sketch comedy. Almost nearly a cast member of SNL herself. Another person from this season of the podcast hosting off the back of the immense success of Home Alone. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Catherine O'Hara, who is here alongside R.E.M, who are themselves reeling from the incredible mainstream success of their newest album. Also, Randy Quaid is here and so is Carole King? Okay. Hell yeah, let's go, brother! Anyway, we've got a pretty solid representation of the era here. A real mind-melter from Jack Handey, a tour-de-force performance from Catherine...

Sweet sassy molassy! 

That's it. That's the post. 

Nah, I guess I gotta write some more here. Well, it's the first episode of SNL hosted by Ray Romano. You might remember him. Had a pretty popular sitcom for a number of years. Got a real memorable voice too. It's time to do some fun SNL gag 'em ups with him and gag them up we do! Got a few beloved sketches in this one, a few that don't really land, Weekend Update doing it's Weekend Update thing. And, of course, we make sure to dedicate a...

It's time to Art Funk with the Garf! This week, we've got a pleasantly mellow little outing from the original cast, one with a heavier bent on music than usual. And since the music is being provided by Art Garfunkel and Stephen Bishop, it's also maybe a little sleepier than usual but that doesn't mean we don't have some bangers in here too. In fact, we have one of the most recognizable SNL sketches ever nestled in this one and, for my money, one of the best musical performances as well. There's some real bafflers and Andy Kaufman so...

Here we are at an important crossroads for the show: the final live episode for Eddie Murphy as a cast member. Yes, the show would still have two pre-taped sketches left to air in later episodes but this is basically it for Eddie. And who does the show bring into host for this momentous occasion? Recently retired NBC newsman Edwin Newman. Huh. That doesn't seem terribly exciting. I mean, yeah, Kool & The Gang are there to very literally bring the Celebration but Edwin Newman? Seems like an odd choice...or is it?

The show's first black female host. One of the coolest bands in NYC providing the tunes. Quite possibly the most amount of people watching the show in it's entire history. What could go wrong? Turns out, everything! In a move that can only be described as "yeah, that sounds like something SNL would do", the show manages to torpedo this moment in time with some of the most grim, grimy, sexist and just plain ugly sketches to ever grace your television screens. Strap in for this one, folks because it's not getting any easier. 

Against the backdrop of a snowed in New York, the cast and crew of the thirtieth season of SNL huddle into 30 Rock with beloved character actor Paul Giamatti to do what is quite possibly the finest outing of a fairly infamous season. We get two decent political efforts, a rare Finesse Mitchell showcase, some quality oddities and the ridiculous, joyous nonsense that is Ludacris and Sum 41 as our musical guests. And, as an added bonus, a few commercials and weirdness from an incomplete live airing I found! OH NO!

We're kicking off 2026 with another one of those quietly important episodes of the show, featuring the debut of a number of sketches that would go on to define the early 90s era of SNL. We get the first Richmeister sketch, the debut of Deep Thoughts (kicking off with FOUR of those tonight) and the first Coffee Talk, here in it's original form with host Paul Baldwin. And hey, we even get the widely loved Sinatra Group sketch in there as well! Elsewhere, things are pretty damn odd though (including one that never made it in reruns of this episode...

This week, we're covering the one and only episode of an offshoot series of SNL called The Eddie Murphy Show. It's got the same cast, same writers, same format, except that it's the only time a cast member hosted the show while still in the cast and that person is Eddie Murphy and so now it's The Eddie Murphy Show. So, yeah. You might've heard about this one. Original host Nick Nolte has to drop out, his 48 Hours co-star steps in and thus, an fairly notable episode is born. We've got Jon Schneider with us on this one to...

(Originally posted on Patreon on December 11, 2023) We continue our yearly journey through the history of MADtv with it's fifth Christmas episode, an episode that spells the end of a period of semi-stability for the show. As per usual, we get some Mrs. Swan and we get some Stuart because of course we do but as an extra holiday treat, we also get Deborah Harry and Blondie as special guests! 

After crashing out a little bit with the January Jones episode, we thought we'd return to this era for a slightly better outing, this time hosted by Steve Buscemi! Who doesn't love Steve? No one, that's who. And if you don't like Steve Buscemi, keep that to yourself, ya weirdo. So what do we got on deck for this one? Well, we've got a fairly well remembered sketch with Coach Bert, a cameo from Maya Rudolph as Whitney Houston, some fun debuts, some last iterations of a few sketches and The Black Keys playing some songs you may remember...

Hey, it's another one of those episodes hosted by an extremely young child! This time around it's Macaulay Culkin, here promoting Home Alo...wait, hold on...I'm getting word that he is in fact here promoting My Girl. Huh. Well, they sure do spend a lot of time riffing on Home Alone in this one, but I do suppose that was the style at the time. We do get an all-timer Lorne Michaels performance out of it though so that's cool. Kieran Culkin is here too and he's in this about as much as Macaulay, which is certainly notable...

Gather round, Mad-Mennies because this week, we've got a doozy for ya. For better or worse, the Wiig/Hader/Samberg era was generally consistent enough that it really doesn't have too many notable infamous episodes but this...this sucker right here is definitely one of them. It's a deadly combo at play: a host who simply isn't cut out for the live sketch comedy game, a musical guest at the peak of their obnoxiousness giving three performances and only one single cast member who seems hell bent on carrying the night to the finish line. There's brief moments of...

In celebration of the show now fully hitting it's 50th anniversary, we're going back to the earliest episode we've yet to cover: Rob Reiner, with no real musical guest. Except, we do get some music in the episode. We get A LOT of things, actually. Much like the show's first episode, there's a bunch of elements in the gumbo for tonight; John Belushi doing his Joe Cocker, Andy Kaufman and his record player return to the show, The Lockers do some street dancing, Albert Brooks turns in what has to be the longest pre-taped segment the show has ever...

We return again to the birth of the show's second golden age! This time hosted by a then 16 year old Malcolm-Jamal Warner, with musical guests Run-DMC and a special cameo by Spike Lee in character as Mars Blackmon from She's Gotta Have It...well, it's all a little interesting when you consider the show doesn't really have a single black person in the cast or in the writing room at the moment. Sam Kinison is there too, screamin' and hollerin'. Buster Poindexter is there too and he's, you guessed it, screamin' and hollerin'. We've also got censored jokes, important...

Ladies and gentlemen, we are BACK FOR OUR NINTH SEASON OF THE SHOW! And we're kicking off with a real doozy. Everyone and their mother knows the infamy of this one. That's right...we're doing Jeff Richard's first episode as a cast member. Lord help us. I guess this one is also kinda notable for being the first episode of SNL post 9/11. I suppose that's why they got Rudy Giuliani there in the cold open. And probably why Paul Simon sings The Boxer. But really, it was at this time that the nation turned it's lonely eyes to Jeff...

(Originally posted on Patreon on Oct. 16, 2023) What happens when you mix an iconic singing duo from Japan with minimal knowledge of the English language with a comedian of dubious quality and wrap it all up in a dying variety show format? You get Pink Lady! Or...is it Pink Lady and Jeff? Even the show itself doesn't know what to call this glorious mess. We dig into the history of this infamous disaster and cover it's fifth, and last, episode to air on NBC.

(Originally posted to Patreon on September 18, 2023) Barely making it through it's first televised airing in some parts of the country, completely unseen in others, and more or less cancelled before the whole thing was even over, Turn-On was exiled to the land of wind and ghosts, never to be seen again...until now. We discuss the history and fallout of this beguiling assault on the senses and bravely attempt to cover the two episodes they managed to produce before the entire house of cards came tumbling down. 

(Originally posted on Patreon on September 8th, 2023)
We're finally closing up shop on The Richard Pryor Show by looking at the three sketches that were produced but never aired and a smattering of stuff that was written but never produced!

(Originally posted on Patreon on August 31, 2023)

It's been one hell of a journey but we've finally come to the end of the road with The Richard Pryor Show. It's clear all involved in the show are pretty happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel and the material collected for this episode is of generally lesser fare than you might expect but there's still moments of fascination and at least one more whale of a sketch. 

Also, tune in on Friday for the final part of our discussion wherein we dissect the d...

(Originally posted on Patreon on August 11, 2023) 

On one hand, The Edge is just another semi-forgotten 90s sketch show of little renown. On the other, it's one of the most insane assemblage of talent in front of the camera and behind that the fact that it failed is kinda shocking. This week, we dig up as much history on this bizarre little show show as we can possibly could and dissect it's final episode: a best-of special that is both decidedly not the best of the show and also, at least in the copy that we have, unfinished.

(Originally posted on July 28, 2023) 

By popular demand, this week we're covering one of sketch comedy's most fondly remembered entries: Upright Citizens Brigade! Lasting for only three beautiful seasons on Comedy Central, UCB (both the show and the theaters) nevertheless created a wave of cherished performers and influence that can still be felt to this day. In this episode, we briefly dig into the history of the group before diving headlong into two S1 classics! 

(Originally posted on June 30, 2023)
It's the Chevy Chase/Dog film you never knew existed! Eddie Ham and Mattalamode drop the show once again as we dive into the feverish world of Bob Clark's The Karate Dog, a family film about Dirt Nasty and a CGI dog getting revenge for the death of Pat Morita. Oh, and Jon Voight is there and he's, uh uh, cranked up to 11, baby! 

(Originally posted on June 16, 2023)
In the midst of a week of intense personal chaos for Richard comes this episode, a dreamlike outing of the show that balances melancholy with silent-era pantomime. Oh, and there's a good chance a bunch of stuff ended up getting cut by the network so we gotta fill that time somehow! How about some...uh, standup and improv?? Strap yourselves in for a wild one, folks! 

(Originally posted on June 2, 2023)
This week, we've got the first of our community/catching up on things podcast! Let us know what you think of this! What you'd like to see more of from it or, maybe, you'd like to see that we never do it again! Anyway, in this one, we discuss the long history of SNL episodes lost to various writers strikes, answer a few questions from the audience, and discuss Evil Dead Rise & Let Me Die A Woman. 

Music: 

Austin TV - Hasta Las Hifas, Un Micelio

Tennis...

(Originally posted on May 15, 2023)
We're doing something we haven't done in a looooong time: doing an Off Week episode about the current season of SNL. Timmy has more or less missed the bulk of the season and so, as selected by you, our lovely Patrons, we're digging into the Quinta Brunson episode to see if we can win him over. Will we find some boom stamp classics? Will we find some bombs? I mean...yeah. It's SNL. We probably will. The real question is; how the hell do you rate Lil Yachty?