If you grow as tired of those crappy cast-compilation discs as I do, you’ll welcome with open arms this entire first season of Saturday Night Live.
On the long list of releases I thought would never see the light of
Tuesday, this one ranked pretty high… just beneath anamorphic
editions of the unscrewed-with original Star Wars trilogy.
The argument against this title is staggering. An eight-disc release of
a show thirty-two years old that would require numerous musical
clearances and a likely high production cost? It’s not exactly an
attractive proposition. But now that the unthinkable has been thought
and before me sit twenty-two episodes of SNL, how does it stack up?
Feature
NBC’s Saturday Night (which would become Saturday Night Live
the next season) is a topical and zany sketch comedy show that airs
live on Saturday nights. Each show has a celebrity host who
participates in the sketches as well as a musical guest who performs
between skits. Now in it’s thirty-second season, the show has been
wildly successful, you may have heard of it.
The quality of the show varies with each season, ranging from painfully
unfunny to comedic genius. It’s currently quite painful, but public
opinion on recent seasons has always been diverse. I find that most
agree, however, that the show was best when it was new. Being a child
of the 80s, I wasn’t around when these were first aired, so this marks
my first experience with old-school SNL and I can now verify: the show really was best when it was new.
It takes SNL
a few episodes to settle in with a comfortable blend of zany sketches,
spoof commercials, fake news, movie parodies and musical numbers. The
worst episode in the entire set happens to be the second one, largely
due to Simon and Garfunkel performing eleven mind-numbingly mundane
songs and the cast only cranking out six short sketches. Lucky for us,
the musical guests are given less prominence in later episodes.
Arguably the finest cast ever assembled for SNL,
this first season features the original ‘Not Ready For Prime Time
Players’. This includes Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane
Curtin, Garrett Morris, Gilda Radner and Laraine Newman, each one a
comedic gem. Chase has the most screen-time, opening each episode with
‘Live from New York…’ and hosting Weekend Update. There’s ample
material featuring Aykroyd and Belushi with mostly everyone else
playing second fiddle to these three bad boys of comedy.
For the most part, the sketches are comedy gold. Much of this material
is every bit as relevant and funny today as it was when it first aired,
if not more so. George Carlin’s commentary on airport security measures
and military intelligence (which he believes to be an oxymoron) is
timeless. Similarly, Chase’s ‘Weekend Update’ ribbing of President Ford
feels very familiar, showing that the series hasn’t changed all that
much over the years – only the faces. Like most shows in their first
season, SNL is still a work-in-progress here. The episodes
are more hit than miss, but not every skit is worthwhile and some of
the musical numbers feel painfully dated.
The first season has episodes hosted by George Carlin, Paul Simon, Rob
Reiner, Candice Bergen, Robert Klein, Lily Tomlin, Richard Pryor,
Candice Bergen, Elliot Gould, Buck Henry, Peter Cook & Dudley
Moore, Dick Cavett, Peter Boyle, Desi Arnaz, Jill Clayburgh, Anthony
Perkins, Ron Nessen, Raquel Welch, Madeline Kahn, Dyan Cannon, Buck
Henry, Elliot Gould, Louise Lasser and Kriss Kristofferson,
respectively. Musical guest highlights include Billy Preston, Joe
Cocker (with John Belushi), Howard Shore (yes, that one!), Desi Arnaz and Kriss Kristofferson.
Video
All twenty-two episodes are shown in their original fullscreen aspect
ratio. The presentation is just as rough as you’d expect for something
thirty odd years old and shot for television. The video quality is
often soft and I did spot the occasional tracking line across the
top/bottom of the frame, but honestly, nothing so horrible that it
detracts from what’s happening onscreen.
Audio
The only audio option provided is a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Like the
video, the audio quality is less than perfect, but does the job
satisfactorily most of the time. For the musical numbers, it sounds as
though the sound technician blindly tossed a single boom mic somewhere
near the action and hoped for the best. Luckily, the sketches often
sound better than the musical performances.
Extras
On disc eight, you’ll find seven screen tests featuring Chevy Chase,
Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman
and Garrett Morris. Ranging from two to five minutes in length. These
are every bit as funny as the episodes that followed from them.
Clearly, this cast was hand-picked by God who then gave divine
inspiration Lorne Michaels. Following those lovely gems is a five
minute group-interview with Lorne and the cast on The Today Show
dated 9/27/75. Finishing out the set is a thirty-two page booklet is
included, chock full of fantastic behind the scenes photographs.
Overall
As it would turn out, this classic first season is just as great as
they say it is… (‘they’ being the elderly people who were around for
its original broadcast, such as my parents). As far as quasi-vintage
television goes, this release is well put-together set and I commend
Universal Studios for having the testicular fortitude to release an
entire season of Saturday Night Live. To even the most
casual fans, I say run, not walk, to the nearest retailer and grab your
own copy of this landmark first season. I’m Dustin McNeill and that’s
news to me.
::Tullycast:: 