Saturday Night Live Makes Its Most Baffling Move Yet
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that between the sky-high ratings and the pile of Emmys, Satur..
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that between the sky-high ratings and the pile of Emmys, Saturday Night Live enjoyed a killer season last year. This season, however, has been a little bumpier thanks to either Donald Trump fatigue or a shift in both the writer’s room and cast line-up. Perhaps as an answer to that, Lorne Michaels has promotedS.N.L. “Weekend Update” hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che to the position of co-head writers alongside Kent Sublette and Bryan Tucker in a move that, confusingly, feels as though the show is moving even further away from what made it successful last season. Even more baffling, this will be the second time in less than five years that Jost has been promoted to head writer.
From the outside looking in, it’s impossible to know the true reasons behind staffing changes—but here are some facts. Before last season, S.N.L. was in a serious ratings slide after the exit of head writer Seth Meyers and number of familiar cast members. Meyers’ heir apparent and replacement, Colin Jost, quietly stepped down as head writer in 2015 allegedly to focus on “Weekend Update.”
In the summer of 2016, just as Michaels was reaching out to Alec Baldwin to see if he would play Trump for a series of pre-election debate sketches, S.N.L. promoted Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider to join Bryan Tucker as head writers. Under Kelly, Schneider, and Tucker, the show enjoyed unprecedented success during the 2016-2017 season with Kent Sublette joining the head writer team halfway through the season. (Sublette's promotion came just one week before his suggestion that Melissa McCarthy impersonate Sean Spicer turned into one of the most viral sensations of the year.) Though it was Sublette and Michaels who each had the brilliant idea to outsource political impressions last year, the 2016-2017 season bore the unmistakable mark of Kelly and Schneider’s sharp, progressive, female-fronted Millennial humor.
This past summer Kelly and Schneider abruptly and quietly left S.N.L. after only one season to potentially pursue their own Comedy Central series though no other explanation about their exit has been given. It’s odd to see the pair unquestionably responsible for at least some of last year’s success leave so quickly. Their absence has been felt this season as S.N.L. feels sluggish on some of the culture’s hottest topics and, with that lack relevancy, ratings are starting to cool somewhat from an average of 11 million viewers and a 3.51 rating for adults 18–49 for first-run episodes last year to 2.9 rating in adults 18-49 and 9.6 million viewers per episode this year.
A re-promoted Jost and freshly-promoted Che are a particularly unexpected choice to replace the female-friendly Schneider and Kelly. “Weekend Update’s” record on female-fronted, progressive comedy is patchy, at best. Then again, Che co-wrote one of the best sketches of 2016 featuring Tom Hanks and an incisive look at the common ground between black and Trump voters. He also tackled his persistent unpopularity with liberal white women head on in last week’s episode with a sketch called “Gretchen” that was much funnier and far less confrontational than one might expect.
Jost and Che also have a feather in their cap thanks to the ratings success of their experimental summer run of Thursday night installments of “Weekend Update.” Buoyed by guest stars, but nonetheless fronted by Jost and Che, the episodes held steady in the ratings despite being divorced from the late-night comedy institution. Nonetheless, replacing Kelly and Schneider with Jost and Che seems like a further pivot away from the writing that made last season of S.N.L. feel so fresh. To distance oneself from a highly-acclaimed, award-winning tone is a baffling choice, but Lorne Michaels has proven us all wrong before.
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“Coffee Talk with Linda Richman”
One of Mike Myers’s hallmark sketches, “Coffee Talk” featured the actor in drag as an over-the-top Jewish New Yorker who wears gaudy jewelry, constantly adjusts her teased hair with fake nails, and reroutes all conversation back to Barbra Streisand and butter similes. Following the success of Wayne’s World, “Coffee Talk” was actually briefly developed as a movie—(which like Wayne’s World, centered on a talk show hosted from home)—but it never materialized. If it had, we imagine Linda Richman (left, with guest star Heather Locklear, in May 1994) flying out to Hollywood to drum up the awards-season support that she believes Streisand deserves. Despite the fact that it is neither Oscar season nor a year in which Streisand is even eligible for an Academy Award, Richman’s chutzpah makes her a local celebrity, earns her a Land O’Lakes sponsorship deal, and in a mishegas-heavy finale: a show-biz audition in which she has to compete against her idol.Photo: by Gerry Goodstein/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“The Nerds”
Few Saturday Night Live sketches have managed to delve into terrain as genuinely sweet as “The Nerds,” which starred Bill Murray and Gilda Radner as teenage dweebs Lisa Loopner and Tod Deluca. The comedians had such chemistry that S.N.L. writers graduated the pair from a noogie-punctuated prom night to one clumsy makeout session, during which Bill Murray hilariously attempts to unfurl a fold-out couch into a bed position while still seated on it, kissing Radner. While some of its charm came from Radner breaking character when Murray tickled her or force-fed her champagne, the sketch could have been adapted into a promising romantic comedy chronicling the couple’s awkward courtship.Photo: By Alan Singer/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“Church Lady”
Last year, Dana Carvey’s holier-than-thou parishioner returned to Saturday Night Live for a one-shot reprisal, during which she attempted to exorcise Snooki and the Kardashians before having an unexpected moment with Justin Bieber on her show, Church Chat. The funniness inherent in the setup—a God-fearing elder interviewing “the holy trinity of sluts” and “the star of Jersey Whore”—was a reminder of how promising a fish-out-of-water film scenario could have been for the Carvey character.
Left, the Church Lady does her signature shuffle with guest star Dennis Hopper in May 1987.
Photo: by Reggie Lewis/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“Matt Foley”
Remember the ingenious scene in Tommy Boy when Chris Farley terrifies a potential brake-pad buyer by acting out a fiery car crash that could kill the buyer and his entire family if he purchases “the other guy’s” product? If Farley had adapted his “Tom Foley” sketch—about an overactive cynic of a motivational speaker—into a film, Farley would have presumably maintained that amusing red-in-the-face sputtering mode for its entirety. In case you need further proof that “Tom Foley” was versatile enough to be expanded into a 90-minute format, refer to the sketches in which he moonlights as a motivational Santa at a shopping mall, scares some juvenile delinquents straight in a prison cell, and tries to pump up gym-goers—all with his cautionary tale about being 35, thrice divorced, and living in a van down by the river.Photo: by Gene Page/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“The Festrunk Brothers”
The same season that Saturday Night Live debuted “The Blues Brothers,” in 1978, Dan Aykroyd and recurring host Steve Martin introduced their “Festrunk Brothers” sketch, about two “wild and crazy guys” who lust after “swinging foxes” and wear bell bottoms as tight as their grasp of English is loose. Had Martin not already devoted himself to other films in the late 70s and early 80s (including The Jerk and Pennies from Heaven) and Aykroyd not been busy with The Blues Brothers, Two Wild and Crazy Guys would have made the next-best S.N.L. adaptation. (Part Borat, part A Night at the Roxbury—but with miles more comedy potential and even worse clothes.) Ultimately, instead of translating the characters for film, Martin adapted the sketch for two tracks on his Grammy-winning comedy album, A Wild and Crazy Guy, which went double platinum.Photo: From NBC Television/Archive Photos/Getty Images.
“Penelope”
A disclaimer: the ideal Kristen Wiig Saturday Night Live movie would have been an ensemble comedy in which all of the comedian’s best characters (Judy Grimes, Aunt Linda, Sexy Shana, Target Lady, et al) were able to interact with one another in their own insular world. But, assuming the unavailability of Duplicity-style camera tricks, Penelope, the obsessive one-upper, would have offered the next-best option for a film adaptation. As with Matt Foley, the motivational speaker, S.N.L. writers proved that Penelope can operate in a number of different scenarios, whether she is out-recovering fellow group-therapy members or out-ladling other soup-kitchen volunteers on Thanksgiving.
Bill Hader and Wiig appear with guest star Amy Adams in “Traffic School,” a skit that aired in March 2008.
Photo: By Dana Edelson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“Delicious Dish”
The satirical NPR cooking show featured Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon as the hosts and unwitting participants in segments crammed with double entendres. The most famous sketch, aired in December 1998, featured Alec Baldwin as a dessert-maker named Pete Schweddy, who discusses his specialty: candy and cake balls. Even without the constant innuendo, “Delicious Dish” could have been adapted as a parody of the celebrity-chef industry as Gasteyer and Shannon’s hosts humbly attempt to launch a Martha Stewart–like empire. Baldwin would naturally have been courted to co-star.Photo: By Mary Ellen Matthews/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank.PreviousNext
“Coffee Talk with Linda Richman”
One of Mike Myers’s hallmark sketches, “Coffee Talk” featured the actor in drag as an over-the-top Jewish New Yorker who wears gaudy jewelry, constantly adjusts her teased hair with fake nails, and reroutes all conversation back to Barbra Streisand and butter similes. Following the success of Wayne’s World, “Coffee Talk” was actually briefly developed as a movie—(which like Wayne’s World, centered on a talk show hosted from home)—but it never materialized. If it had, we imagine Linda Richman (left, with guest star Heather Locklear, in May 1994) flying out to Hollywood to drum up the awards-season support that she believes Streisand deserves. Despite the fact that it is neither Oscar season nor a year in which Streisand is even eligible for an Academy Award, Richman’s chutzpah makes her a local celebrity, earns her a Land O’Lakes sponsorship deal, and in a mishegas-heavy finale: a show-biz audition in which she has to compete against her idol.by Gerry Goodstein/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“The Nerds”
Few Saturday Night Live sketches have managed to delve into terrain as genuinely sweet as “The Nerds,” which starred Bill Murray and Gilda Radner as teenage dweebs Lisa Loopner and Tod Deluca. The comedians had such chemistry that S.N.L. writers graduated the pair from a noogie-punctuated prom night to one clumsy makeout session, during which Bill Murray hilariously attempts to unfurl a fold-out couch into a bed position while still seated on it, kissing Radner. While some of its charm came from Radner breaking character when Murray tickled her or force-fed her champagne, the sketch could have been adapted into a promising romantic comedy chronicling the couple’s awkward courtship.By Alan Singer/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“Church Lady”
Last year, Dana Carvey’s holier-than-thou parishioner returned to Saturday Night Live for a one-shot reprisal, during which she attempted to exorcise Snooki and the Kardashians before having an unexpected moment with Justin Bieber on her show, Church Chat. The funniness inherent in the setup—a God-fearing elder interviewing “the holy trinity of sluts” and “the star of Jersey Whore”—was a reminder of how promising a fish-out-of-water film scenario could have been for the Carvey character.
Left, the Church Lady does her signature shuffle with guest star Dennis Hopper in May 1987.
by Reggie Lewis/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“Matt Foley”
Remember the ingenious scene in Tommy Boy when Chris Farley terrifies a potential brake-pad buyer by acting out a fiery car crash that could kill the buyer and his entire family if he purchases “the other guy’s” product? If Farley had adapted his “Tom Foley” sketch—about an overactive cynic of a motivational speaker—into a film, Farley would have presumably maintained that amusing red-in-the-face sputtering mode for its entirety. In case you need further proof that “Tom Foley” was versatile enough to be expanded into a 90-minute format, refer to the sketches in which he moonlights as a motivational Santa at a shopping mall, scares some juvenile delinquents straight in a prison cell, and tries to pump up gym-goers—all with his cautionary tale about being 35, thrice divorced, and living in a van down by the river.by Gene Page/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“More Cowbell”
During his tenure at Saturday Night Live, Will Ferrell committed to each of his characters with such unflinching intensity that a film adaptation of most of his work could be argued for. But few sketches offered the same feature-length comedic potential as the one-time bit from April 2000, “More Cowbell.” The piece stars the night’s host, Christopher Walken, as a slick-haired record producer, who, during a 1976 recording session with Blue Öyster Cult, continually advises its cowbell player (Ferrell) to “really explore the studio space” and incorporate more of the obscure instrument into the real-life track, “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper.” After a viewing of the sketch, it’s easy to envision the band and producer as subjects of a Christopher Guest–style rock-band mockumentary.
Left, Ferrell gets into his instrument flanked by fellow S.N.L. regulars Chris Kattan and Chris Parnell.
By Mary Ellen Matthews/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“Gumby”
Considering last year’s craze for developing any manner of board game, toy, and action figure for a film, imagine how forward-thinking an Eddie Murphy “Gumby” movie would have been. The sketch centered on Murphy playing the Art Clokey clay character when cameras were turned off—and Gumby reverted to his “true self,” a profane, cigar-chomping Hollywood star unafraid to use his celebrity to get what he wants. (Hence, the tagline “I’m Gumby, dammit.”) One particular installment, “The Gumby Story,” could have passed as a teaser for a feature-length film about the character’s attempt to transition from actor to all-powerful director. In it, the Eddie Murphy character coolly directs his own life story—barking out orders to a film crew, yelling stage directions at the actor playing him, and asking security to remove his wife from set. All in the trademark costume and green makeup.by RM Lewis Jr./NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“The Spartan Cheerleaders”
East Lake High’s unofficial cheerleaders, Arianna (Cheri Oteri) and Craig (Will Ferrell), debuted on S.N.L. in 1995 with their own backstory (they were rejected by their school’s varsity squad), nemesis (Alexis, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt), and dream (to prove their cheer skills, whether it be at a chess tournament or a math competition). In essence, the sketch came pre-packaged with a feature-length premise and charismatic oddballs as leads. Imagine a bizarro-world Bring It On, in which the stars are vertically mismatched cheerleaders overeagerly cheering on charity car washes, fire drills, and any other event that could possibly boost their résumé in time for next year’s varsity auditions.by Norman Ng/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“The Festrunk Brothers”
The same season that Saturday Night Live debuted “The Blues Brothers,” in 1978, Dan Aykroyd and recurring host Steve Martin introduced their “Festrunk Brothers” sketch, about two “wild and crazy guys” who lust after “swinging foxes” and wear bell bottoms as tight as their grasp of English is loose. Had Martin not already devoted himself to other films in the late 70s and early 80s (including The Jerk and Pennies from Heaven) and Aykroyd not been busy with The Blues Brothers, Two Wild and Crazy Guys would have made the next-best S.N.L. adaptation. (Part Borat, part A Night at the Roxbury—but with miles more comedy potential and even worse clothes.) Ultimately, instead of translating the characters for film, Martin adapted the sketch for two tracks on his Grammy-winning comedy album, A Wild and Crazy Guy, which went double platinum.From NBC Television/Archive Photos/Getty Images.
“Penelope”
A disclaimer: the ideal Kristen Wiig Saturday Night Live movie would have been an ensemble comedy in which all of the comedian’s best characters (Judy Grimes, Aunt Linda, Sexy Shana, Target Lady, et al) were able to interact with one another in their own insular world. But, assuming the unavailability of Duplicity-style camera tricks, Penelope, the obsessive one-upper, would have offered the next-best option for a film adaptation. As with Matt Foley, the motivational speaker, S.N.L. writers proved that Penelope can operate in a number of different scenarios, whether she is out-recovering fellow group-therapy members or out-ladling other soup-kitchen volunteers on Thanksgiving.
Bill Hader and Wiig appear with guest star Amy Adams in “Traffic School,” a skit that aired in March 2008.
By Dana Edelson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.
“Delicious Dish”
The satirical NPR cooking show featured Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon as the hosts and unwitting participants in segments crammed with double entendres. The most famous sketch, aired in December 1998, featured Alec Baldwin as a dessert-maker named Pete Schweddy, who discusses his specialty: candy and cake balls. Even without the constant innuendo, “Delicious Dish” could have been adapted as a parody of the celebrity-chef industry as Gasteyer and Shannon’s hosts humbly attempt to launch a Martha Stewart–like empire. Baldwin would naturally have been courted to co-star.By Mary Ellen Matthews/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank.
Joanna RobinsonJoanna Robinson is a Hollywood writer covering TV and film for VanityFair.com.
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