Page 10 Thursday, November 1, 1984 The Capitol Times
Saturday Night reaches for past glory
By Don Strausburger
"Live from New York, it's
Saturday Night."
Well, that's the way it used
to be. After nine seasons
. and
four entire cast changes,
"Saturday Night" has attemp
ted to become the radical hot
bed of controversy which
originally brought the show to
fame in 1975.
In the fall of 1975, NBC in
troduced the late-night viewing
audience to the Not Ready for
Prime Time Players, featuring
the comedic talents of people
like Chevy Chase, Gilda
Radner, Dan Ackroyd and the
late John Belushi.
The show featured guest
hosts taken from the entertain
ment world and musical guests
to add variety to the general
insanity.
In the spring of 1980,
"Saturday Night" executives
removed the few remaining cast
members and gave the show a
new image. However, with the
departure of the remaining
original stars and its added at
traction, Bill Murray, the show
lost the spontaneity and com
edic timing that kept the show
exciting and fresh.
The second cast, which
featured two of the writers
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Television perspective
from earlier shows, was boring
during the good scenes but
otherwise terrible. The two
highlights of those dismal
seasons were the "Franken and
Davis Show" featuring writers
Al Franken and Tom Davis,
and the "Rocket Report" with
Chevy Chase's heir-apparent,
Peter Rocket, who silently
disappeared after using one of
the "seven words you can't use
on TV."
The entire second cast was
relieved of active duty (yes,
watching them was like doing
time on the front line!) after
two seasons of poor ratings and
even worse reviews. So, in
typical NBC fashion, the net
work executives hired a new
cast of "comedians" for a
limited season of even less fun
ny shows. The only person of
note in that seaon was Gail
Mathias who went on to greater
fame serving a soft drink to a
hunchback in recent
commercials.
While "Saturday Night" suf
fered through these frequent
cast changes, they faced a
serious problem, competition
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from growing two comedy
series: "Second City TV" and
"Fridays." In 1978, "SCTV"
joined the NBC late-night
schedule, after several highly
successful years in syndication,
following Johnny Carson, and
eventually became an occa
sional substitute for "Saturday
Night."
ABC introduced "Fridays"
in 1980 giving viewers their first
chance to see how another net
work would handle the same
type of humor. Luckily for
NBC, "Fridays" never reached
a consistent audience and was
cancelled half way through its
second season.
"Saturday Night" finally
showed signs of improvement
in 1982 with its fourth cast. The
show introduced new talents
who for the first time since the
Not Ready for Prime Time
Players worked as an ensemble
rather than several comedians
in the same scene. The days of
Chase, Ackroyd, Belushi and
Radner returned, but this time,
with Tim Kazurinsky, Mary
Gross, Joe Piscopo and Eddie
Murphy.
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This new cast marked first
signs that Dick Ebersole, the
producer, and his writing staff
wanted to return to the original
concept of being controversial.
Once again, SNL Newsbreak
featured cast members playing
crazy feature reporters, such as
Kazurinsky playing Dr. Jack
Badofsky, a medical quack who
discussed different types of the
same disease, and Julia Louis-
Dreyfuss as Patti Lynn Hun
sacker, a teenage valley girl who
reported on the high-school
scene.
"Saturday Night" officials
shocked the viewing audience in
the spring when they announc
ed the release of Brad Hall, the
SNL Newsbreak anchor,
Christine Ebersole, Robin
Duke and Gary Kroeger, in ad
dition to Murphy and Piscopo
leaving to pursue other careers.
For the fourth time, "Satur
day Night" presented a new
cast; however, this time, several
cast members from the previous
season remained. Gross, Louis-
Dreyfuss and Jim Belushi,
John's brother, were joined by
four new comics all coming
from various entertainment
backgrounds. Billy Crystal, of
"Soap" fame, Rich Hall, of
"Fridays" and, more recently,
"Not Necessarily the News,"
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Christopher Guest from the
film "This Is Spinal Tap," and
Martin Short, from "SCTV."
The show hsa again become
controversial but for a much
different reason. Instead of try
ing to shock the public, "Satur
day Night" is fighting with the
comedy efforts of the
unrestricted cable networks.
With "SCTV" and "Not
Necessarily the News" on
cable, "Saturday Night" suf
fers from the censorship with
which the network burdens the
staff writers. But don't think
the censors are holding the
writers back too much.
In the most recent episode,
Rev. Jesse Jackson spent much
of the show poking fun at
everyone from the presidential
candidates to Jean Kirkpatrick,
the American ambassador to
the United Nations. Jackson,
with the help of the show's
writers, also offered a subtle
but funny insight about the
equal rights of minorities in
television.
"Saturday Night" will pro
bably never equal those insane
episodes of the early years, but
don't count them out yet. With
each episode, the scenes im
prove and show the possibility
of a return to being the con
troversial show it once was.
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