S(unday)NL to go long

81 views
Skip to first unread message

Brad Beam

unread,
Feb 13, 2015, 12:34:23 PM2/13/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
The 40th anniversary special will now match the Oscars in length, running 8-11:30 ET.
http://www.thewrap.com/nbc-extends-snl-40th-anniversay-special-by-30-minutes/

Sent from my iPhone

Tom Wolper

unread,
Feb 13, 2015, 3:33:04 PM2/13/15
to TV or not TV
On Fri, Feb 13, 2015 at 12:34 PM, Brad Beam <b.b...@suddenlink.net> wrote:
The 40th anniversary special will now match the Oscars in length, running 8-11:30 ET.
http://www.thewrap.com/nbc-extends-snl-40th-anniversay-special-by-30-minutes/

And only the part from 8-10 will be funny.

Dave Sikula

unread,
Feb 14, 2015, 6:34:04 PM2/14/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
Probably more like 8:00-8:10 will be funny.

Dave Sikula

Darren Glass

unread,
Feb 14, 2015, 7:37:57 PM2/14/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
The weird part is that everyone will insist that the first segment they watch was the best and it went downhill from there, no matter when they tuned in.

dg


> On Feb 14, 2015, at 6:34 PM, 'Dave Sikula' via TVorNotTV <tvor...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> Probably more like 8:00-8:10 will be funny.
>
> Dave Sikula
>
> --
> --
> TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People!
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "TV or Not TV" group.
> To post to this group, send email to tvor...@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> tvornottv-...@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Kevin M.

unread,
Feb 14, 2015, 7:52:32 PM2/14/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
Given the media roller coaster ride of a week, it would please me if Lorne Michaels took the opportunity of announcing his retirement
--
Kevin M. (RPCV)

Michael

unread,
Feb 15, 2015, 12:53:38 AM2/15/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
Laughter: Not only the best medicine, but the most subjective. Side effects may include snark, contempt and generally curmudgeon-like behavior.

Kevin M.

unread,
Feb 15, 2015, 12:57:05 AM2/15/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 9:53 PM, Michael <miketh...@gmail.com> wrote:
Laughter: Not only the best medicine, but the most subjective. Side effects may include snark, contempt and generally curmudgeon-like behavior.

I'm not a curmudgeon; I just want Lorne Michaels to get off my lawn.  

--
Kevin M. (RPCV)

Steve Timko

unread,
Feb 15, 2015, 11:48:10 PM2/15/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com, tvor...@googlegroups.com

Why did they even bring out Eddie Murphy?  He didn't match Chris Rock's build up.

Sent from Blue Mail

Tom Wolper

unread,
Feb 16, 2015, 1:20:55 AM2/16/15
to TV or not TV
On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 11:48 PM, Steve Timko <steve...@gmail.com> wrote:

Why did they even bring out Eddie Murphy?  He didn't match Chris Rock's build up.


As he hasn't participated in any SNL activity since he left the show, it was enough of a big deal just to have him appear on the stage. Considering how much of a challenge the logistics of a live show like that were, there must not have been any priority to give Eddie lines or put him in a sketch.

Dave Sikula

unread,
Feb 16, 2015, 6:10:00 AM2/16/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
My takeaway was that Rock's eulogy was the price Lorne agreed to to guarantee Murphy's appearance. Personally, I'd have preferred more Martin Short or Lovitz. At least She Who Will Not Be Named didn't get own segment - though having her show up with Armisen was poison enough.

Dave Sikula

Michael

unread,
Feb 16, 2015, 7:00:58 AM2/16/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
Even a (sometime) Wiig fan like me cannot abide Garth & Kat -- recurring characters that are so reliably awful and tedious that they make "The Californians" seem like G.B. Shaw..Would I have preferred more Kanye indulgence instead of Garth & Kat? Absolutely not. But a Garth & Kat/Garth & Wayne tag-team match to the death -- one that Garth & Wayne win? Sure.
Message has been deleted

M-D November

unread,
Feb 16, 2015, 3:19:50 PM2/16/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
Personally, I was happy to see that they didn't go with the standard clip show format that previous SNL anniversary specials have favored.  In a nutshell, here's what I thought of the non-retread/non-musical performances:
  • Fallon/Timberlake cold open: I appreciate the fact that they did a song & dance to work in other cast members (like Drach & her "Debbie Downer"), I feel like the open was more reminiscent of their 'history of rap' segments from LNWJF than anything either did on SNL.  I would have much rather had them do "Barry Gibb Talk Show", since it's a sketch that only gets done every 3 years, and it would have allowed past & current cast members to do some political impersonations.
  • Steve Martin & friends monologue: spot on, except Miley Cyrus had no business being on stage with 5+ timers.
  • Super Bass-O-Matic 2150: Almost perfect, and I like how Ackroyd handled the blender's failure at the end of the sketch.  (Could the props department not afford a VitaMix?  It's the SBOM2150, not the BOM76, for chrissake.)
  • Celebrity Jeopardy: YES.  ALL OF THE YES. (And I'm kicking myself for missing the jokes in the category names.)
  • The Californians: Betty White saves the sketch.  Godddamn that woman is game for just about anything.  Complete waste of time otherwise.  (Although a decent idea to have David Spades' snarky flight attendant kill the sketch, Graham Chapman style.)
  • Weekend Update: I would have liked more of this and less of the Californians.  
  • Marty Short/Maya Rudolph: Loved this except for the aforementioned Garth/Kat appearance.  G&K were redeemed by Murray as Nick Ocean (with Paul Schaffer!) and, as much as I hate to say it, "What's Up With That?" (Sudekis in the tracksuit FTW.)  Again, the lack of Fallon & Timberlake as Barry & Robin Gibb was a big oversight here, if you're not going to do BGTS.
  • Digital Short ("That's When You Break"): a nice way to use both Sandler & Samberg that highlights the challenges of live TV.  Also, an entire verse of "Here's another one of Fallon & Sanz" - yep.
  • Wayne's World: it was good to see Wayne & Garth again, but I wish they'd done more than just a top 10 list.  (Again, swap this for the Californians in both placement & timing.)  Would have preferred to see W&G interact with some other SNL talk show hosts - the "Girlfriends Talk Show" girls, Jarret & Gobi, Dieter (oh, wait - never mind), Barry & Robin Gibb (damn it!), Steve Harvey, Fernando...well, you get the picture.  I did like the shout-out to the crew at the very end of the sketch.
I also really liked that the band got to have a moment of their own as he introduced the memorial reel, which also featured cast, crew & band alike.  And seeing Jan, Phil & Chris all in a row during memorial reel was like three hard shots to the gut.  That was the one that got me.

Musical performances?  Sir Paul needs some Ricola (and probably should have been scratched in favor of another performer/sketch), Miley actually did a nice job with 50 Ways, Kanye & his 'genius' can eat a bag of dicks, and Paul Simon was great, but I was disappointed that Lorne didn't have Paul perform "Still Crazy After All These Years" in the turkey costume for old times' sake.

Brad Beam

unread,
Feb 16, 2015, 3:55:10 PM2/16/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com

The numbers are in: 23.1M average during the three-hour primetime window (8-11et). That’s NBC’s biggest non-sports audience since the ’04 “Frasier” finale (23.9M).

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2015/02/16/saturday-night-live-anniversary-special-scores-big-ratings-for-nbc/23504265/

 

_  _

|_>|_>  Brad Beam- Belle WV

|_>|_>  http://www.facebook.com/74bmw

David Bruggeman

unread,
Feb 16, 2015, 5:27:08 PM2/16/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
Much of the program appears in clip form on the Hulu, which is where I'm catching up.

Of what I've seen, I'm pretty much with M-D, except for the spelling of Paul S.'s name.  For my taste, you can't take the piss out of Lorne enough, and you can't take the piss out of li'l Jimmy enough, but some folks sure tried.

First Take, a late night weekend offering for (I think) NBC affiliates, had an SNL episode, talking to many of the recent cast, Kevin Nealon and Paul Shaffer.  It's a nice complement, if you can stand the host (she used to be on one of the MTV 'reality' programs around LA).

David


From: M-D November <mdnov...@gmail.com>
To: tvor...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2015 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] S(unday)NL to go long

M-D November

unread,
Feb 16, 2015, 6:03:22 PM2/16/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com, dbr...@alumni.whitman.edu, bru...@yahoo.com
My apologies to Mr. Shaffer and his family.

Re: NBC's 'hyperlocal' late night offering - do you mean "1st Look"? http://1stlooktv.com

David Bruggeman

unread,
Feb 16, 2015, 6:17:58 PM2/16/15
to Tvornottv
Yeah, it's 1st Look.

And no, I can't think of a plausible means of conflating an entertainment program on NBC with the shoutiest of pundit shows on the four-letter.

David


From: M-D November <mdnov...@gmail.com>
To: tvor...@googlegroups.com
Cc: dbr...@alumni.whitman.edu; bru...@yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2015 6:03 PM

Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] S(unday)NL to go long

Dave Sikula

unread,
Feb 16, 2015, 9:57:38 PM2/16/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
I mostly agree with your sentiments. I was ready to give them all the credit in the world for not giving in to the temptation of having Simon sing "Still Crazy" when it started. Oh, well ...

--Dave Sikula 


On Monday, February 16, 2015, M-D November <mdnov...@gmail.com> wrote:
Personally, I was happy to see that they didn't go with the standard clip show format that previous SNL anniversary specials have favored.  In a nutshell, here's what I thought of the non-retread/non-musical performances:
  • Fallon/Timberlake cold open: I appreciate the fact that they did a song & dance to work in other cast members (like Drach & her "Debbie Downer"), I feel like the open was more reminiscent of their 'history of rap' segments from LNWJF than anything either did on SNL.  I would have much rather had them do "Barry Gibb Talk Show", since it's a sketch that only gets done every 3 years, and it would have allowed past & current cast members to do some political impersonations.
  • Steve Martin & friends monologue: spot on, except Miley Cyrus had no business being on stage with 5+ timers.
  • Super Bass-O-Matic 2150: Almost perfect, and I like how Ackroyd handled the blender's failure at the end of the sketch.  (Could the props department not afford a VitaMix?  It's the SBOM2150, not the BOM76, for chrissake.)
  • Celebrity Jeopardy: YES.  ALL OF THE YES. (And I'm kicking myself for missing the jokes in the category names.)
  • The Californians: Betty White saves the sketch.  Godddamn that woman is game for just about anything.  Complete waste of time otherwise.  (Although a decent idea to have David Spades' snarky flight attendant kill the sketch, Graham Chapman style.)
  • Weekend Update: I would have liked more of this and less of the Californians.  
  • Marty Short/Maya Rudolph: Loved this except for the aforementioned Garth/Kat appearance.  G&K were redeemed by Murray as Nick Ocean (with Paul Schaffer!) and, as much as I hate to say it, "What's Up With That?" (Sudekis in the tracksuit FTW.)  Again, the lack of Fallon & Timberlake as Barry & Robin Gibb was a big oversight here, if you're not going to do BGTS.
  • Digital Short ("That's When You Break"): a nice way to use both Sandler & Samberg that highlights the challenges of live TV.  Also, an entire verse of "Here's another one of Fallon & Sanz" - yep.
  • Wayne's World: it was good to see Wayne & Garth again, but I wish they'd done more than just a top 10 list.  (Again, swap this for the Californians in both placement & timing.)  Would have preferred to see W&G interact with some other SNL talk show hosts - the "Girlfriends Talk Show" girls, Jarret & Gobi, Dieter (oh, wait - never mind), Barry & Robin Gibb (damn it!), Steve Harvey, Fernando...well, you get the picture.  I did like the shout-out to the crew at the very end of the sketch.
I also really liked that the band got to have a moment of their own as he introduced the memorial reel, which also featured cast, crew & band alike.  And seeing Nora, Phil & Chris all in a row during memorial reel was like three hard shots to the gut.  That was the one that got me.

Musical performances?  Sir Paul needs some Ricola (and probably should have been scratched in favor of another performer/sketch), Miley actually did a nice job with 50 Ways, Kanye & his 'genius' can eat a bag of dicks, and Paul Simon was great, but I was disappointed that Lorne didn't have Paul perform "Still Crazy After All These Years" in the turkey costume for old times' sake.
On Monday, February 16, 2015 at 7:00:58 AM UTC-5, Michael wrote:

--
--
TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People!
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "TV or Not TV" group.
To post to this group, send email to tvor...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
tvornottv-...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/tvornottv/lkKfnfs66fE/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to tvornottv+...@googlegroups.com.

PGage

unread,
Feb 16, 2015, 10:25:23 PM2/16/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
I was very ambivalent about this show going in, and pretty sure I was going to not like it. I would up feeling pretty good about it, for many of the reasons noted in this thread. I like that they were being self-congratulatory, and kind of owned it.

I don't understand why so many people hate The Californians; it probably would not have been my choice to feature so prominently (I absolutely love The Prince Show, and could have gone with 5 minutes of that plus 5 minutes of "What's Up With That"), but there are plenty of things on SNL over the years that I hate more.

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+...@googlegroups.com.

Joe Hass

unread,
Feb 16, 2015, 10:37:39 PM2/16/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
The best quote I've read about it came from Bill Simmons: "If you think of SNL 40 as a massive dress rehearsal that inadvertently became the live show, the whole night makes more sense."

--
--
TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People!
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "TV or Not TV" group.
To post to this group, send email to tvor...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

Kevin M.

unread,
Feb 16, 2015, 11:37:36 PM2/16/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 7:37 PM, Joe Hass <hassg...@gmail.com> wrote:
The best quote I've read about it came from Bill Simmons: "If you think of SNL 40 as a massive dress rehearsal that inadvertently became the live show, the whole night makes more sense."

I confess that -- no surprise -- from all I've seen and read about the show, I don't think I missed a thing by watching Top Gear instead.

Two things that stand out for me are semi-related. First, the number of photos of people in attendance who supposedly despise each other smiling and hugging, specifically Sarah Palin and a Baldwin. Second, someone I know posted a screenshot of what I assume to be the closing of the show, and there stood Norm MacDonald, who was fired from the series in as bitter and spite-filled rejection as I've ever seen on TV. Are these people such media whores so desperate for attention that they all clamber to appear on this show in the hopes of... what... appearing cool? Hip? Contemporary? 


--
Kevin M. (RPCV)

PGage

unread,
Feb 17, 2015, 12:45:01 AM2/17/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
Well, I think that is a bit harsh. A stint at SNL is often referred to as time in high school or college. It is not uncommon that 15 or 30 or 40 years later, conflicts and feuds and grudges that seemed so raw and important back in the years of one's youth fade over time, and one is able to attend a reunion and focus on the better times. That was certainly Murphy's message, and I think the reunion vibe dominated the whole night. Simmon's quote above works less as a criticism of the show's production values than as an observation of what made the show work - it did not come across as hip or contemporary (well, maybe those Kanye jokes did); it came across as a very large extended community throwing a party for themselves. I thought what captured this best was that during the death reel, some of the biggest reactions were for crew members who I had never heard of - because it was a line producer or a writer or a costume person who meant something to the people who worked on the show over the years.

Sarah Palin is another matter - although I think even that was less a forced attempt at BS amiability than, as referenced during a bit on the show, fell really flat.

Jim Ellwanger

unread,
Feb 17, 2015, 1:17:30 AM2/17/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com

> On Feb 16, 2015, at 9:44 PM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I thought what captured this best was that during the death reel, some of the biggest reactions were for crew members who I had never heard of - because it was a line producer or a writer or a costume person who meant something to the people who worked on the show over the years.

And by far the biggest in-studio laugh was Mike Myers imitating Lorne Michaels during the "Wayne's World" sketch: "That got a laugh, but I'm not sure it was the right kind of laugh."

Incidentally, I was a little disappointed that the "in memoriam" reel appearance was the only tribute Don Pardo has had on the show, considering how long he was a part of it (his death hasn't been acknowledged on the regular shows this season) -- seems like they could have carved out a little bit of time for some former cast member to talk about how great it was to hear him say your name, et cetera.

--
Jim Ellwanger <trai...@ellwanger.tv>
<http://www.ellwanger.tv>


PGage

unread,
Feb 17, 2015, 1:57:36 AM2/17/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
Excellent point Jim - about both the season and the special. It seems like there is something going on here - either Michaels doesn't want Pardo to be seen as bigger than the show, or maybe Pardo insisted that they not focus on him in death, as his career was about staying in the background. Or maybe (and this is what I prefer to believe for now) - they are planning some kind of special remembrance of him later in the season, and don't want to step on it. 

JW

unread,
Feb 17, 2015, 4:48:03 AM2/17/15
to tvornottv
> Simmon's quote above works less as a criticism of the show's production
> values than as an observation of what made the show work - it did not come
> across as hip or contemporary (well, maybe those Kanye jokes did); it came
> across as a very large extended community throwing a party for themselves.

The show came across as having been done for the people in the room, which the Murphy segment exemplified. I understand why the SNL people are happy that he's back in the family, but I'd prefer to have been entertained.

I will give everyone involved credit for the Jon Lovitz gag.

Jon Delfin

unread,
Feb 17, 2015, 9:40:42 AM2/17/15
to tvornottv
On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 11:37 PM, Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:[snip]
Two things that stand out for me are semi-related. First, the number of photos of people in attendance who supposedly despise each other smiling and hugging, specifically Sarah Palin and a Baldwin.

I recorded the pre-show "red carpet" hour, and managed to watch all of about a minute of it. The first group of guests to the microphone were Baldwin and his child bride, and Sarah Palin. I stopped and deleted it instantly. 

Jim Ellwanger

unread,
Feb 17, 2015, 9:43:34 AM2/17/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com

> On Feb 16, 2015, at 10:57 PM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> It seems like there is something going on here - either Michaels doesn't want Pardo to be seen as bigger than the show, or maybe Pardo insisted that they not focus on him in death, as his career was about staying in the background. Or maybe (and this is what I prefer to believe for now) - they are planning some kind of special remembrance of him later in the season, and don't want to step on it.

I wonder if it also might be a case of "out of sight, out of mind," since he'd been doing the announcing from his home in Arizona for the past few seasons.

Incidentally, Darrell Hammond seems to also not be announcing the show "live from New York" -- he's currently doing his one-man show "The Darrell Hammond Project" in La Jolla, California, with 8:00 P.M. Saturday performances.

Dave Sikula

unread,
Feb 17, 2015, 2:50:43 PM2/17/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
I loathed "Wayne's World" (featuring two of my least-favorite-ever SNLers) then and hated it now. It struck me as more an opportunity to show Lorne's "sense of humor about himself" than anything else -- well, that and the chance to almost literally say how awesome SNL is.

As for Pardo, there was no reason they couldn't have dropped in a "It's Saturday Night Live!" from him at the beginning. Having sound clips of him doing the guests' names wouldn't have hurt, either, but then there are problems like Win Butler (whoever that is), so Hammond would have had to take over at some point. I was glad for the bumper, though.

--Dave Sikula

Diner

unread,
Feb 18, 2015, 8:56:48 AM2/18/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com

On Tuesday, February 17, 2015 at 1:17:30 AM UTC-5, Jim Ellwanger wrote:

Incidentally, I was a little disappointed that the "in memoriam" reel appearance was the only tribute Don Pardo has had on the show, considering how long he was a part of it (his death hasn't been acknowledged on the regular shows this season)  -- seems like they could have carved out a little bit of time for some former cast member to talk about how great it was to hear him say your name, et cetera.
 
Actually, Pardo was referenced on the season premiere - a vintage photo of Pardo at his microphone was the first bumper card of the season (coming out of the commercial break after Chris Pratt's monologue). I would have preferred more, too - although I wondered whether if they paid tribute to Pardo that night, they might have felt compelled to use up time paying tribute to lead camera operator Barry Frischer, who also died during the summer. And once you bring up crew members, that kind of opens the floodgates.
 
As for Norm MacDonald, let's not forget that he guest hosted the show less than two years after he was fired, and that he was interviewed on the retrospective specials, so it looks like he's isn't holding a grudge. And hey, it's been almost twenty years, so if he were still holding a grudge, I'd be worried for him.
 
-Tim

Kevin M.

unread,
Feb 18, 2015, 8:59:29 PM2/18/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
FYI, Norm is over on the Twitter speaking about the writer's room for the 40th. However, if you have not visited Norm's Twitter account before, he does tend to use it as performance art. I'm not saying you shouldn't believe what he's posting, but I'd certainly wait for verification from multiple sources.


For reasons known only to Norm, he tends to delete many Tweets not long after posting them, especially the ones that get noticed. 

--
--
TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People!
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "TV or Not TV" group.
To post to this group, send email to tvor...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.



--
Kevin M. (RPCV)

Steve Timko

unread,
Feb 19, 2015, 7:02:58 AM2/19/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com, tvor...@googlegroups.com

Norm wrote that Eddie Murphy refused to play Cosby.  I wonder if Cosby helped him after his prostitution scandal.

http://gu.com/p/46vmb

Sent from Blue Mail

Diner

unread,
Feb 19, 2015, 12:35:47 PM2/19/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com

On Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 7:02:58 AM UTC-5, Steve Timko wrote:

Norm wrote that Eddie Murphy refused to play Cosby.  I wonder if Cosby helped him after his prostitution scandal.

http://gu.com/p/46vmb

Sent from Blue Mail

On Feb 18, 2015, at 5:59 PM, "Kevin M." <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:
FYI, Norm is over on the Twitter speaking about the writer's room for the 40th. However, if you have not visited Norm's Twitter account before, he does tend to use it as performance art. I'm not saying you shouldn't believe what he's posting, but I'd certainly wait for verification from multiple sources.


For reasons known only to Norm, he tends to delete many Tweets not long after posting them, especially the ones that get noticed. 

 
 
Here's a piece that turns all of Norm's tweets into one easy-to-read article. Amazing reading.
 
 
-Tim
 

PGage

unread,
Feb 19, 2015, 1:15:50 PM2/19/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
SPOILER ALERT!

I would not normally do this for an internet article, but the gothamist piece is pretty amazing, and if anyone is reading this and has not yet clicked over to read the article in full, I strongly recommend that you do that now, to get the full effect for yourself.

I don't understand what this is - it can't be that Macdonald sent this whole narrative out one tweet at a time, can it? Did someone smooth it out or supplement it?

I had only paid attention to the headline that Norm tweeted that Murphy has refused to do the Cosby bit, and I assumed his intent was to criticize Murphy for not having the comedy balls to make fun of one of his own mentors. But the last paragraph, assuming it is meant to be read as straight, and not as some weird Norm Macdonald irony, has a much different tone:






"It's my job to talk him in to doing Jeopardy. We talk in his dressing room a good hour. When it's over, I'm convinced he'll do it. He doesn't. He knew the laughs would bring the house down. Eddie Murphy knows what will work on SNL better than any one. Eddie decides the laughs are not worth it. He will not kick a man when he is down. Eddie Murphy, I realize, is not like the rest of us. Eddie does not need the laughs. Eddie Murphy is the coolest, a rockstar even in a room with actual rockstars."

--

Tom Wolper

unread,
Feb 19, 2015, 1:21:54 PM2/19/15
to TV or not TV
On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 1:15 PM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't understand what this is - it can't be that Macdonald sent this whole narrative out one tweet at a time, can it? Did someone smooth it out or supplement it?

I can confirm that Norm sent the story out as a series of tweets yesterday evening. The first mention I saw on Twitter was a reference from Ken Jennings.

Joe Hass

unread,
Feb 19, 2015, 1:47:26 PM2/19/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com

I can tell you my Twitter app alerted me that three people I follow were now following MacDonald. I went to check it out about 90 to 100 minutes in, and was so hooked, I turned on notifications so I knew when he posted something.

MacDonald is a master story teller. I still consider his Uecker story on Letterman one of the great talk show stories ever.

Joe Hass

unread,
Feb 19, 2015, 6:02:59 PM2/19/15
to tvor...@googlegroups.com
God...this thing keeps on giving.

Seth Meyers gave a backstory to Bill Simmons on the Nick Ocean "Love Theme From Jaws" bit, including one of the greatest rights approval stories in TV history.

 


For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
--
TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People!
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "TV or Not TV" group.
To post to this group, send email to tvor...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

JW

unread,
Feb 21, 2015, 3:03:24 AM2/21/15
to tvornottv
Gary Kroeger describes his experience:

http://garyhasissues.com/2015/02/backstage-at-snls-40th/
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages