Taking everything together: - The BTS documentaries - Questlove's music documentary (which I still haven't seen but have heard nothing but raves about) - The homecoming concert (which was largely excellent) - The primetime special ...I think the team accomplished what they set up to accomplish, and that was to create a larger retrospective than 3 hours on a Sunday night could possibly allow for.
As for the primetime special on its own? It wasn't for us. Much like the Homecoming concert, I took it to be a party for the SNL faithful that we were allowed to peek into. It was for the cast, the crew, the previous hosts & musical guests, and on that level, it appears to have succeeded. Did it make for a slightly diminished viewing experience for the home viewer? Sure, but that's always going to be the case when you're on the outside looking in - you're not going to get the in-jokes, you're always going to ask "what were they thinking?" about some aspect of the gathering, but again, it's not for you. Sure, it would have been nice to see more 'classic' sketches represented, but as the 'in memoriam' montage pointed out, many of the sketches we consider classics are also considered deeply offensive to the groups depicted in the sketches. Factor in the age of some of the original cast members, the lack of availability of some from the middle-years (for instance, Carvey apparently had a wicked case of the flu, which immediately takes Wayne's World, Hans & Franz and Church Chat off the board) and the desire to capitalize on the more viral nature of modern SNL (Black Jeopardy, the Digital Short, the musical parody, *Domingo*), and...you're just not going to please everyone. But I thought the special did a nice job of merging the generations (Newman & Davidson, Eddie's 2 appearances), and the original cast was expressly called out via a full re-air of "Don't Look Back in Anger". In short, it was far more successful than at least the last 2 anniversary specials, and that's probably good enough. (That it killed in the ratings doesn't hurt either.) On Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 10:52:32 PM UTC-5 Stan S wrote: > > A full-on clip show would be a retread of the previous three anniversary > shows. > > The show on Sunday has to be considered as part of a larger SNL50 > celebration. Once Friday night’s concert was over there was a feeling that > Sunday’s show would pale in comparison. > > The cast reminiscing and clip show requirement was served by the four part > special on Peacock as well as the music special. Maybe at some point > they’ll get run on NBC as a Friday or Saturday night special. > > -Stan > On Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 6:03:35 AM UTC-5 JW wrote: > >> I watched the recording last night. >> >> They'd have been much better served by having beloved cast members/hosts >> introducing clips than by writing new material for characters whom I had no >> interest in seeing again, even if it allowed for some celebrity cameos. >> > -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/9e182153-d107-4e3b-bc25-f588bb05f633n%40googlegroups.com.
