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{{infobox television| show_name = Saturday Night Live| image = | caption = 32nd-33rd Season logo for Saturday Night Live| format = Sketch comedy, Comedy, Variety show| runtime = 90 minutes (1 hour and 30 minutes) per episode| rating = | creator = Lorne Michaels| country = / | network = [NBC ([SDTV),
1080i (HDTV)], 1975, as of [October 13, 2007 [comedy-variety show based in New York City that has been broadcast live by NBC on Saturday nights since October 11, 1975. In Canada it is simulcast on the Global Television Network, live in the Eastern Time Zone (North America), Central Time Zone (North America), and Atlantic Standard Time Zone time zones and with recorded broadcasts from NBC stations in the Mountain Time Zone and Pacific Time Zones. It is one of the List of longest running U.S. television series network entertainment programs in American television history. Each week, the #Cast is joined by a List of Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests.

Originally, the show was called NBC's Saturday Night until NBC retitled its show in 1976 (the Saturday Night Live title having been previously attached to a short-lived Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell hosted by Howard Cosell and airing on rival network American Broadcasting Company). The first show with the new title was broadcast on March 26, 1977.

The show — broadcast from Studio 8H at the GE Building (called the RCA Building until 1988) in New York's Rockefeller Center — has been the launching place for many major American comedy stars of the last thirty years. It was created by Canadian Lorne Michaels who, excluding a hiatus from Season 6 through Season 10, has television producer and writer for the show and remains its executive producer (Jean Doumanian produced most of Season 6, and Dick Ebersol Seasons 7–10).

In 2005, NBC renewed SNL's contract until 2012.

History

Current Cast See also: Saturday Night Live cast

Repertory Players

Featured Players None, although featured players could enter the show any time.

The studio Since the show's inception, SNL has aired from Studio 8H, located on floors 8 and 9 of GE Building (30 Rockefeller Plaza, or "30 Rock"). Due to the studio originally being a radio soundstage for Arturo Toscanini and his NBC Symphony Orchestra, the layout of the studio floor and the audience positioning causes some audience members to have an obstructed view of many of the sketches. According to NBC, the 8H studio has an almost perfect sound acoustic. The offices of SNL writers, producers, and other staff can be found on the 17th floor of "30 Rock".

During the summer 2005 shooting hiatus, crews began renovations on Studio 8H. With its thirty-first season premiere in October 2005, the show began broadcasting in High Definition Television, appearing letterboxed on conventional screens.

Other productions have occasionally used the studio. Three of the first four shows of the 1976-77 season were shot at the former NBC Studios in Brooklyn, due to NBC News using Studio 8H for Presidential election coverage. The first season finale of The Apprentice (US TV series) and the 5th Anniversary special of Late Night with Conan O'Brien have used the studio for one night. Last Call with Carson Daly used the studio until 2005, when the show moved to Studio 9 at the NBC Studios in Burbank, California.

Production process The following is a summary of the process used to produce the show. It is based in part on an August 2000 Writer's Digest article and an April 28, 2004 Fresh Air interview with writer and performer Tina Fey:

Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: Saturday:

The status of the show during the week is maintained on a bulletin board. Sketches and other segments are given labels which are put on index cards and put on the board in the order of their performance. The order is based on content as well as production limitations such as camera placement and performer availability. Segments which have been cut are kept to the side of the board. As the broadcast approaches, often the writer/producer discovers the fate of his or her segment only by consulting the bulletin board.

A 60 Minutes report taped in October 2004 depicted the intense writing frenzy that goes on during the week leading up to a show, with crowded meetings and long hours. The report particularly noted the involvement of the guest hosts in developing and selecting the sketches in which they will appear.

When it's not live Reruns SNL reruns are aired out of its original broadcast sequence, usually determined by which episodes have not yet been repeated, but had high ratings or acclaim for its live broadcast. Shows usually air twice during a particular season, but often the highest rated shows of the season have a second encore show towards the end of the off-season, or episodes will be repeated a second or third time to coincide with a new event connected with the person who hosted. For example, the Natalie Portman episode aired in March 2006 to promote V for Vendetta was repeated August 5 2006, prior to the film's DVD release August 8.

Encore showings are not always identical to the original broadcast. Successful sketches aired later in the show during the original broadcast may be reedited to appear earlier, and segments that did not work well during the live broadcast may be replaced by the dress rehearsal version, or entirely new sketches. A Peter Sarsgaard sketch from his January 21 2006 episode, involving a TV meant to broadcast Rachel Dratch's fake newscast, met with technical difficulties during the live broadcast when the in-sketch TV stopped working and a stagehand was seen fixing it. It was replaced with a dress rehearsal version in rerun. A sketch involving "butt pregnancy" during the first broadcast of the November 12, 2005, Jason Lee episode was replaced with a musical sketch about cafeteria food during the repeat. In the earlier years of the show's history, reruns occasionally replaced weaker sketches with segments from other episodes, usually from episodes that did not have an encore showing at all.

The show is never live in the western half of the USA. NBC airs a recording of the live show for the Mountain and Pacific time zones rather than have the cast do a second performance.

Compilations From time-to-time, SNL airs compilation shows. Such shows will feature hand-selected best sketches from the previous season; of a particular cast member or multiple-time host; or centered on a particular theme (eg. Halloween, Christmas). Political sketches are typically culled for a special in presidential election years; the 2000 special was notable for having self-deprecating (though separate) appearances by candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Delays

Musical guests Frequent musical guests The following performers have been musical guests on SNL at least five times:

{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;"|- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center"| Musical Guest || Number of Episodes || First Musical Appearance ||Last Musical Appearance || Other Notes|-| Paul Simon ], 1975 ], 2006 ] on May 10, 1986, during the 11th season. He solely hosted the second show on October 18, 1975 where he performed with Art Garfunkel and Phoebe Snow (musician) and on November 20, 1976, where he was one of two musical guests. Is also best friend of show creator Lorne Michaels.] || 7 || November 10, 1979 ], 1999 ] || 9 || January 11, 1992 ], 2007 in their two performances, was a drummer for [Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on one performance, was a drummer for Tenacious D on one performance, and performed with his most recent band, Foo Fighters, five times.] || 6 || October 18, 1975 ], 1988 ] ||6 ||September 18, 1976 ], 1993 ] || 6 || January 11, 1997 ], 2006 ] (with hosts Bill Paxton and Christina Ricci).] || 5 ||October 17, 1987 ], 1999 ] || 5 || December 2, 1995 ], 2007 |||}

Musical guests who simultaneously hosted The following performers have pulled a double duty as both musical guests and host during the same SNL episode:

{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;"|- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center"| Musical Guest || Date of Hosting/Musical Appearance || Other Notes|-| Lily Tomlin ], 1975 ] || February 21, 1976 ] || November 20, 1976 ] || November 12, 1977 ] || October 7, 1978 ], Charlie Watts, and Ron Wood were the only band members to appear in sketches)] || October 21, 1978 ] || May 22, 1982 ] || January 22, 1983 ]|-| Stevie Wonder ], 1983 ] || February 21, 1987 ] || April 15, 1989 ] || February 10, 1990 ] || January 19, 1991 ] || December 7, 1991 || [February 28, 1998 and November 13, 1999 ] as musical guest.|-| Jennifer Lopez ], 2001 ] || May 13, 2000 and February 2, 2002 ] || October 11, 2003 and December 16, 2006 ] || April 10, 2004 ] || October 9, 2004 ] || May 14, 2005 ]" character, Gene Frenkle.|-| Ludacris ], 2006 ] || October 13, 2007 ] performing once.|}

Recurring characters and sketches Films based on SNL sketches The early days of SNL spawned a few movies and low-budget films. However, it was not until the huge success of Wayne's World (film) that Broadway Video (Lorne Michaels' production company) became encouraged to feature more film spinoffs, with several popular 1990s sketch characters (and a few unlikely ones) becoming adapted into movies. Producers tried their luck with a revival of 1970s characters The Coneheads, followed by movies based around Pat, Stuart Smalley, The Ladies Man, The Butabi Brothers and Mary Katherine Gallagher. Some did moderate business but others bombed disastrously — notably It's Pat! and Stuart Saves His Family, with the latter losing US$15 million despite good reviews.

DVD release and controversy On 13 October 2006 it was announced that Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season would be released by Universal Studios on 5 December 2006, in its full, 90-minute uncut format with all musical performances and sketches intact. Also, there will be a raft of bonus material to accompany the set.

After the set was released, it was picked apart by online reviewers and newsgroups of ardent fans, many of whom had original live (not rerun) bootleg copies with which to compare the "complete" episodes against. Each episode has been edited to appear as one continuous 66-minute performance, with the commercial breaks edited out. As such, the bumper art used in each commercial break is missing, save for the final bumper of each episode, which marks the transition to the goodnights and credits. At least two episodes in the set -the Rob Reiner and Dick Cavett shows - are confirmed as being the rerun versions, as opposed to the original live versions. There is one original commercial parody (Wrigley's) missing, from the Rob Reiner show (the parody was cut from the rerun because the show went long live, and there were no goodnights and credits; the parody was cut to allow time for a makeshift credit roll in the repeat. Since Broadway Video used the rerun to master the DVD, they likely were unaware of this omission. This practice would also seem to suggest that Broadway Video defaulted to the repeat version for the majority of this set, though the aforementioned shows are the only confirmed instances thus far. A repeat of the Wrigley's commercial, which aired in a Buck Henry episode later that season, has also been cut. These factors seem to negate the set's claim that the shows are complete and as originally aired.

Besides these issues, no other discrepancies have yet to be found between the original shows and the DVDs. However, the wildly-fluctuating run times of each episode suggests that there's more cut from these shows that has yet to be identified, as the show had a steady, unchanging run time each week of 01:29:30, 00:20:40 of that being designated commercial and station breaks, leaving 01.08.50 for show content (including usually one in-show billboard for promotional services, which would be expected to be cut, though these were never longer than 5 seconds each.) Each episode would have originally contained 9 bumpers at app. 5 seconds each. Since 8 of these are cut from the DVD versions, that trims off about 40 seconds. One can safely add the 5-second in-show promos and excessive black video due to mid-70s video technology would add up to anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds over a show. This 1 minute or so still does not explain DVD run times such as the following:

Disc 4 (3:20:02)Buck Henry (1:06:06)Peter Cook & Dudley Moore (1:06:42)Dick Cavett (1:07:14)

Disc 5 (3:15:49)Peter Boyle (1:02:53)Desi Arnaz (1:06:34)Jill Clayburgh (1:06:22)

If the set contained truly complete, uncut episodes, each would have a run time of 01.08.50, give or take a few seconds.

The complete second season is scheduled to be released on DVD on December 4, 2007.

Criticism Notably, the show's quality has been called into question during various points in its history and has been the source of criticism by fans and critics due to its changing of castmembers and writers, starting with Chevy Chase's departure in 1976 and Bill Murray being hired in his place, though this would be short-lived when Bill Murray finally found his niche on the show. This would later resurface when Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi left SNL in 1979, with Harry Shearer, Dan Aykroyd's brother Peter, and several SNL writers such as Alan Zweibel, Brian Doyle-Murray, Tom Davis, Don Novello, and Al Franken being hired as replacements.

However, the most well-known change occurred when Lorne Michaels and the remaining original castmembers left SNL in May 1980. Though now a normal occurrence, the cast change that occurred in Fall 1980 is the most infamous because it followed the departure of the original cast and series creator/producer Lorne Michaels. The entire season was dogged with criticism for its poor casting, weak writing, and Jean Doumanian's position as producer. But the real shocker was in the infamous February 1981 episode where new cast member Charles Rocket uttered the word "fuck" on national television. After that, the entire cast, with the exception of Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo, and all of the writing staff, except Brian Doyle-Murray, were fired at the end of the season. Dick Ebersol was brought in after Doumanian was fired and remained until spring of 1985. When Lorne Michaels decided to come back for the show's 11th season, most were hoping for a return to the show's quality during his first period as producer (1975–80). Unfortunately, Michaels' first season back was dogged yet again with criticism, only the criticisms were directed at the fact that Lorne chose a cast of up-and-coming (or already somewhat known) celebrities who were not experienced in comedy as a cover-up for the show's waning popularity. Michaels subsequently fired the majority of the Season 11 cast (retaining cast members Jon Lovitz, Nora Dunn, and Dennis Miller, featured player A. Whitney Brown, and longtime writer/featured player Al Franken) and hired new castmembers (Dana Carvey, Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, Victoria Jackson, and Kevin Nealon) to replace them.

Of course, criticisms over SNL's quality have not stopped. Lorne Michaels would hear them again later in the early and mid-1990s (when Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, David Spade, Rob Schneider, and Chris Rock--a.k.a "The Bad Boys of SNL" were hired and Phil Hartman left the show after the nineteenth season, leaving Season 20 to be yet another critical and ratings low point, much like seasons six and eleven), and once again in early and mid 2000s (after Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer left the show). Usually the season after a castmember or castmembers have left, the show is questioned as to whether the upcoming season will be better than the previous.

Rights to SNL NBC and Broadway Video share the copyright to every episode of the show made thus far.

Broadway Video has released a number of Best of Specials for Home Video release such as:

Broadway Video has also released the following sets of complete seasons, or have announces scheduled release dates for them:

The Television syndication rights to the original incarnation, syndication of shows made from 1975 forward have been held by Broadway Video, Lorne Michaels' production company. The home video rights are also held by Broadway Video.

For many years, Comedy Central aired SNL reruns, until 2003, when E! Entertainment Television signed a deal to reruns.

Trivia

See also

References

External links

Further reading

{{infobox television| show_name = Saturday Night Live| image = | caption = 32nd-33rd Season logo for Saturday Night Live| format = Sketch comedy, Comedy, Variety show| runtime = 90 minutes (1 hour and 30 minutes) per episode| rating = | creator = Lorne Michaels| country = / | network = [NBC ([SDTV),
1080i (HDTV)], 1975, as of [October 13, 2007 [comedy-variety show based in New York City that has been broadcast live by NBC on Saturday nights since October 11, 1975. In Canada it is simulcast on the Global Television Network, live in the Eastern Time Zone (North America), Central Time Zone (North America), and Atlantic Standard Time Zone time zones and with recorded broadcasts from NBC stations in the Mountain Time Zone and Pacific Time Zones. It is one of the List of longest running U.S. television series network entertainment programs in American television history. Each week, the #Cast is joined by a List of Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests.

Originally, the show was called NBC's Saturday Night until NBC retitled its show in 1976 (the Saturday Night Live title having been previously attached to a short-lived Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell hosted by Howard Cosell and airing on rival network American Broadcasting Company). The first show with the new title was broadcast on March 26, 1977.

The show — broadcast from Studio 8H at the GE Building (called the RCA Building until 1988) in New York's Rockefeller Center — has been the launching place for many major American comedy stars of the last thirty years. It was created by Canadian Lorne Michaels who, excluding a hiatus from Season 6 through Season 10, has television producer and writer for the show and remains its executive producer (Jean Doumanian produced most of Season 6, and Dick Ebersol Seasons 7–10).

In 2005, NBC renewed SNL's contract until 2012.

History

Current Cast See also: Saturday Night Live cast

Repertory Players

Featured Players None, although featured players could enter the show any time.

The studio Since the show's inception, SNL has aired from Studio 8H, located on floors 8 and 9 of GE Building (30 Rockefeller Plaza, or "30 Rock"). Due to the studio originally being a radio soundstage for Arturo Toscanini and his NBC Symphony Orchestra, the layout of the studio floor and the audience positioning causes some audience members to have an obstructed view of many of the sketches. According to NBC, the 8H studio has an almost perfect sound acoustic. The offices of SNL writers, producers, and other staff can be found on the 17th floor of "30 Rock".

During the summer 2005 shooting hiatus, crews began renovations on Studio 8H. With its thirty-first season premiere in October 2005, the show began broadcasting in High Definition Television, appearing letterboxed on conventional screens.

Other productions have occasionally used the studio. Three of the first four shows of the 1976-77 season were shot at the former NBC Studios in Brooklyn, due to NBC News using Studio 8H for Presidential election coverage. The first season finale of The Apprentice (US TV series) and the 5th Anniversary special of Late Night with Conan O'Brien have used the studio for one night. Last Call with Carson Daly used the studio until 2005, when the show moved to Studio 9 at the NBC Studios in Burbank, California.

Production process The following is a summary of the process used to produce the show. It is based in part on an August 2000 Writer's Digest article and an April 28, 2004 Fresh Air interview with writer and performer Tina Fey:

Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: Saturday:

The status of the show during the week is maintained on a bulletin board. Sketches and other segments are given labels which are put on index cards and put on the board in the order of their performance. The order is based on content as well as production limitations such as camera placement and performer availability. Segments which have been cut are kept to the side of the board. As the broadcast approaches, often the writer/producer discovers the fate of his or her segment only by consulting the bulletin board.

A 60 Minutes report taped in October 2004 depicted the intense writing frenzy that goes on during the week leading up to a show, with crowded meetings and long hours. The report particularly noted the involvement of the guest hosts in developing and selecting the sketches in which they will appear.

When it's not live Reruns SNL reruns are aired out of its original broadcast sequence, usually determined by which episodes have not yet been repeated, but had high ratings or acclaim for its live broadcast. Shows usually air twice during a particular season, but often the highest rated shows of the season have a second encore show towards the end of the off-season, or episodes will be repeated a second or third time to coincide with a new event connected with the person who hosted. For example, the Natalie Portman episode aired in March 2006 to promote V for Vendetta was repeated August 5 2006, prior to the film's DVD release August 8.

Encore showings are not always identical to the original broadcast. Successful sketches aired later in the show during the original broadcast may be reedited to appear earlier, and segments that did not work well during the live broadcast may be replaced by the dress rehearsal version, or entirely new sketches. A Peter Sarsgaard sketch from his January 21 2006 episode, involving a TV meant to broadcast Rachel Dratch's fake newscast, met with technical difficulties during the live broadcast when the in-sketch TV stopped working and a stagehand was seen fixing it. It was replaced with a dress rehearsal version in rerun. A sketch involving "butt pregnancy" during the first broadcast of the November 12, 2005, Jason Lee episode was replaced with a musical sketch about cafeteria food during the repeat. In the earlier years of the show's history, reruns occasionally replaced weaker sketches with segments from other episodes, usually from episodes that did not have an encore showing at all.

The show is never live in the western half of the USA. NBC airs a recording of the live show for the Mountain and Pacific time zones rather than have the cast do a second performance.

Compilations From time-to-time, SNL airs compilation shows. Such shows will feature hand-selected best sketches from the previous season; of a particular cast member or multiple-time host; or centered on a particular theme (eg. Halloween, Christmas). Political sketches are typically culled for a special in presidential election years; the 2000 special was notable for having self-deprecating (though separate) appearances by candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Delays

Musical guests Frequent musical guests The following performers have been musical guests on SNL at least five times:

{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;"|- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center"| Musical Guest || Number of Episodes || First Musical Appearance ||Last Musical Appearance || Other Notes|-| Paul Simon ], 1975 ], 2006 ] on May 10, 1986, during the 11th season. He solely hosted the second show on October 18, 1975 where he performed with Art Garfunkel and Phoebe Snow (musician) and on November 20, 1976, where he was one of two musical guests. Is also best friend of show creator Lorne Michaels.] || 7 || November 10, 1979 ], 1999 ] || 9 || January 11, 1992 ], 2007 in their two performances, was a drummer for [Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on one performance, was a drummer for Tenacious D on one performance, and performed with his most recent band, Foo Fighters, five times.] || 6 || October 18, 1975 ], 1988 ] ||6 ||September 18, 1976 ], 1993 ] || 6 || January 11, 1997 ], 2006 ] (with hosts Bill Paxton and Christina Ricci).] || 5 ||October 17, 1987 ], 1999 ] || 5 || December 2, 1995 ], 2007 |||}

Musical guests who simultaneously hosted The following performers have pulled a double duty as both musical guests and host during the same SNL episode:

{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;"|- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center"| Musical Guest || Date of Hosting/Musical Appearance || Other Notes|-| Lily Tomlin ], 1975 ] || February 21, 1976 ] || November 20, 1976 ] || November 12, 1977 ] || October 7, 1978 ], Charlie Watts, and Ron Wood were the only band members to appear in sketches)] || October 21, 1978 ] || May 22, 1982 ] || January 22, 1983 ]|-| Stevie Wonder ], 1983 ] || February 21, 1987 ] || April 15, 1989 ] || February 10, 1990 ] || January 19, 1991 ] || December 7, 1991 || [February 28, 1998 and November 13, 1999 ] as musical guest.|-| Jennifer Lopez ], 2001 ] || May 13, 2000 and February 2, 2002 ] || October 11, 2003 and December 16, 2006 ] || April 10, 2004 ] || October 9, 2004 ] || May 14, 2005 ]" character, Gene Frenkle.|-| Ludacris ], 2006 ] || October 13, 2007 ] performing once.|}

Recurring characters and sketches Films based on SNL sketches The early days of SNL spawned a few movies and low-budget films. However, it was not until the huge success of Wayne's World (film) that Broadway Video (Lorne Michaels' production company) became encouraged to feature more film spinoffs, with several popular 1990s sketch characters (and a few unlikely ones) becoming adapted into movies. Producers tried their luck with a revival of 1970s characters The Coneheads, followed by movies based around Pat, Stuart Smalley, The Ladies Man, The Butabi Brothers and Mary Katherine Gallagher. Some did moderate business but others bombed disastrously — notably It's Pat! and Stuart Saves His Family, with the latter losing US$15 million despite good reviews.

DVD release and controversy On 13 October 2006 it was announced that Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season would be released by Universal Studios on 5 December 2006, in its full, 90-minute uncut format with all musical performances and sketches intact. Also, there will be a raft of bonus material to accompany the set.

After the set was released, it was picked apart by online reviewers and newsgroups of ardent fans, many of whom had original live (not rerun) bootleg copies with which to compare the "complete" episodes against. Each episode has been edited to appear as one continuous 66-minute performance, with the commercial breaks edited out. As such, the bumper art used in each commercial break is missing, save for the final bumper of each episode, which marks the transition to the goodnights and credits. At least two episodes in the set -the Rob Reiner and Dick Cavett shows - are confirmed as being the rerun versions, as opposed to the original live versions. There is one original commercial parody (Wrigley's) missing, from the Rob Reiner show (the parody was cut from the rerun because the show went long live, and there were no goodnights and credits; the parody was cut to allow time for a makeshift credit roll in the repeat. Since Broadway Video used the rerun to master the DVD, they likely were unaware of this omission. This practice would also seem to suggest that Broadway Video defaulted to the repeat version for the majority of this set, though the aforementioned shows are the only confirmed instances thus far. A repeat of the Wrigley's commercial, which aired in a Buck Henry episode later that season, has also been cut. These factors seem to negate the set's claim that the shows are complete and as originally aired.

Besides these issues, no other discrepancies have yet to be found between the original shows and the DVDs. However, the wildly-fluctuating run times of each episode suggests that there's more cut from these shows that has yet to be identified, as the show had a steady, unchanging run time each week of 01:29:30, 00:20:40 of that being designated commercial and station breaks, leaving 01.08.50 for show content (including usually one in-show billboard for promotional services, which would be expected to be cut, though these were never longer than 5 seconds each.) Each episode would have originally contained 9 bumpers at app. 5 seconds each. Since 8 of these are cut from the DVD versions, that trims off about 40 seconds. One can safely add the 5-second in-show promos and excessive black video due to mid-70s video technology would add up to anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds over a show. This 1 minute or so still does not explain DVD run times such as the following:

Disc 4 (3:20:02)Buck Henry (1:06:06)Peter Cook & Dudley Moore (1:06:42)Dick Cavett (1:07:14)

Disc 5 (3:15:49)Peter Boyle (1:02:53)Desi Arnaz (1:06:34)Jill Clayburgh (1:06:22)

If the set contained truly complete, uncut episodes, each would have a run time of 01.08.50, give or take a few seconds.

The complete second season is scheduled to be released on DVD on December 4, 2007.

Criticism Notably, the show's quality has been called into question during various points in its history and has been the source of criticism by fans and critics due to its changing of castmembers and writers, starting with Chevy Chase's departure in 1976 and Bill Murray being hired in his place, though this would be short-lived when Bill Murray finally found his niche on the show. This would later resurface when Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi left SNL in 1979, with Harry Shearer, Dan Aykroyd's brother Peter, and several SNL writers such as Alan Zweibel, Brian Doyle-Murray, Tom Davis, Don Novello, and Al Franken being hired as replacements.

However, the most well-known change occurred when Lorne Michaels and the remaining original castmembers left SNL in May 1980. Though now a normal occurrence, the cast change that occurred in Fall 1980 is the most infamous because it followed the departure of the original cast and series creator/producer Lorne Michaels. The entire season was dogged with criticism for its poor casting, weak writing, and Jean Doumanian's position as producer. But the real shocker was in the infamous February 1981 episode where new cast member Charles Rocket uttered the word "fuck" on national television. After that, the entire cast, with the exception of Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo, and all of the writing staff, except Brian Doyle-Murray, were fired at the end of the season. Dick Ebersol was brought in after Doumanian was fired and remained until spring of 1985. When Lorne Michaels decided to come back for the show's 11th season, most were hoping for a return to the show's quality during his first period as producer (1975–80). Unfortunately, Michaels' first season back was dogged yet again with criticism, only the criticisms were directed at the fact that Lorne chose a cast of up-and-coming (or already somewhat known) celebrities who were not experienced in comedy as a cover-up for the show's waning popularity. Michaels subsequently fired the majority of the Season 11 cast (retaining cast members Jon Lovitz, Nora Dunn, and Dennis Miller, featured player A. Whitney Brown, and longtime writer/featured player Al Franken) and hired new castmembers (Dana Carvey, Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, Victoria Jackson, and Kevin Nealon) to replace them.

Of course, criticisms over SNL's quality have not stopped. Lorne Michaels would hear them again later in the early and mid-1990s (when Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, David Spade, Rob Schneider, and Chris Rock--a.k.a "The Bad Boys of SNL" were hired and Phil Hartman left the show after the nineteenth season, leaving Season 20 to be yet another critical and ratings low point, much like seasons six and eleven), and once again in early and mid 2000s (after Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer left the show). Usually the season after a castmember or castmembers have left, the show is questioned as to whether the upcoming season will be better than the previous.

Rights to SNL NBC and Broadway Video share the copyright to every episode of the show made thus far.

Broadway Video has released a number of Best of Specials for Home Video release such as:

Broadway Video has also released the following sets of complete seasons, or have announces scheduled release dates for them:

The Television syndication rights to the original incarnation, syndication of shows made from 1975 forward have been held by Broadway Video, Lorne Michaels' production company. The home video rights are also held by Broadway Video.

For many years, Comedy Central aired SNL reruns, until 2003, when E! Entertainment Television signed a deal to reruns.

Trivia

See also

References

External links

Further reading



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