{"id":6022,"date":"2025-02-17T23:19:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T06:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/?p=6022"},"modified":"2025-06-15T17:52:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T23:52:22","slug":"dead-from-new-york-snl-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/archives\/6022","title":{"rendered":"Dead From New York: SNL 50&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ex1\">\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial; font-size:20px ;\"><em>If you reached this Balkingpoints article by direct external link, stop by the front page for a <a href=\"http:\/\/Balkingpoints.com\"  target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>rotating satellite view<\/strong><\/a> of the earth at night<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/div.png\"\/><\/center><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/platform-api.sharethis.com\/js\/sharethis.js#property=6005a7edc6ae2f001213eb1d&amp;product=inline-share-buttons\" async=\"async\"><\/script>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/SNL-50th-Anniversary.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/center><\/p>\n<p><code><\/code><br \/>\n<code><\/code><\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\np{font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; color: black;}<br \/>\n<\/style>\n<p class=\"ex1\">Wow. I suppose it depends on your perspective &#038; the era when you watched Saturday Night Live. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLS_gQd8UB-hIa5h1xViTe_gslNuVOAJVQ\"  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">that thing last night<\/a> was a flop from my viewpoint.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">You&#8217;d expect &#038; like this to be an epic, best-ever kind of production, and maybe the retirement offering of show founder \/ producer Lorne Michaels. He opens the show with a Paul Simon whom appeared occasionally in the 1970&#8217;s. He&#8217;s years on from good voice, maybe you pinch him in there somewhere for nostalgia but come on, not to open.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">A few prompts to an AI bot (below), takes the open in a better direction. Perhaps then to all 5 of the surviving original cast riffing something, then an inset clip of <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/_bvxZgCryUE?si=AAKnBEGqG3Vhc3Ky&#038;t=122\"  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chevy falling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">As it was, Garrett had a small part in the show, as did Laraine Newman &#8211; Chase and Jane Curtin, none. Dan Aykroyd, not even there. Nor were Dana Carvey or Bill Hader. Also <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Saturday_Night_Live_50th_Anniversary_Special#Audience_members\"  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">audience-only<\/a> with Chase and Curtin: Victoria Jackson, Joe Piscopo, Billy Crystal, Cheri Oteri, Jim Belushi, Rob Schneider and Dennis Miller.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\"><em>What?<\/em> In some cases health issues could apply, but that is a lot to skip over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">The Atlantic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/culture\/archive\/2025\/02\/saturday-night-live-50th-anniversary-special-review\/681717\/\"  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">got at the recency bias<\/a> of the sketches. It&#8217;s paywalled but you can read the first few paragraphs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">NPR was similarly, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/02\/17\/nx-s1-5292384\/saturday-night-live-snl-50-anniversary-special-takeaways\"  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">not doing cartwheels<\/a>. Toss Kim Kardashian in (<em>SNL 50 did that<\/em>&#8230;), and you know it&#8217;s off it&#8217;s rails.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">\n<p class=\"ex1\"> <strong>Now Then ;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">Beyond the pass you might have given Paul Simon, Lorne closed the music performances with Paul McCartney &#8211; whom continues to tour about 2 decades past when he could still sing. Play yourself back Paul &#038; ask whether you are passing the audition at this point. Dreadful and just, don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">(McCartney is an icon of course. For my dime, the most prolific songwriter of the rock era. Add up his songs in The Beatles and in Wings, and it&#8217;s through the roof. Painful now to see what he&#8217;s reduced himself to).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">\n<p class=\"ex1\">Even given 3 1\/2 hours run time, I would have dialed the musicians way back in favor of more, and better from the show&#8217;s best known comedians. I would have tried something which if the answer came back &#8220;yes&#8221;, would have been the only music statement needed on the show: Call up Neal Schon, Jonathan Cain and Steve Perry and see if they&#8217;d do a one-off reunion. Make a concert out of it &#038; stream the rest on Peacock.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">Now <em>that<\/em>, would have played. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=D3mfORg_DLs\"  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A band founded<\/a> in the &#8217;70&#8217;s and gigantic in the &#8217;80&#8217;s, not much different from the show itself. If <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4RYIxViWyCI\"  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roger Waters and David Gilmour<\/a> can put down the knives for Live 8 (2005), why not try for it. Work up something worthy of, commensurate to the occasion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">Lorne is 80 now and his product last night was perhaps a parallel to McCartney. Maybe you can&#8217;t go back&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><code><\/code><br \/>\n<center><div style=\"width: 634px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-6022-1\" width=\"634\" height=\"494\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GM.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GM.mp4\" >https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GM.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div><\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">I&#8217;ve heard of deep fakes but this is ridiculous&#8230;  \ud83d\ude04<\/p>\n<p><\/center><br \/>\n<code><\/code><\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.online\/@Balkingpoints\" >Roy@Balkingpoints<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><code><\/code><\/p>\n<p><center><span style=\"font-family: arial; font-size:18px ;\">Published 2025 \/ all rights reserved<\/span><\/center><\/p>\n<p><code><\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you reached this Balkingpoints article by direct external link, stop by the front page for a rotating satellite view of the earth at night Wow. I suppose it depends on your perspective &#038; the era when you watched Saturday Night Live. But that thing last night was a flop from my viewpoint. You&#8217;d expect [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6022"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6176,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6022\/revisions\/6176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}