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when did SNL stop being good (if it ever was)?

How many floor configurations can 8H currently have. They had the full bleacher setup tonight the downside is it takes away from floor space for set pieces.
In addition to SNL's configuration, 8-H was configured for the NBC Symphony and the Bell Telephone Hour, Kraft Theater, Robert Montgomery Presents and other live dramas, election night coverage, live music videos on Your Hit Parade, the Today Show, 30 Rock, That Was the Week that Was....
 
Trivia. SNL did not start as SNL. It began as "NBC's Saturday Night. There was another program already named "Saturday Night Live" It was a variety show, done live on ABC and hosted by Howard Cosell. True. NBC's Saturday Night eventually morphed into Saturday Night Live after the quick death of Howard Cosell's attempt at variety.
That's pretty much common knowledge and well-documented history at this point.
 
like music, everyone thinks SNL was the best when they were high school
I forget the guy's name but one of the people responsible for the music acts interviewed said they are aiming for at least a few of the "new hip" artists for "young night club crowd". * So I guess occasionally if you are 30 or older there will be some musical act you have never heard of and don't care to hear again. One of the signs of growing up.

*Kind of like Alternative music: you will hear something you don't recognize sooner or later.
 
I forget the guy's name but one of the people responsible for the music acts interviewed said they are aiming for at least a few of the "new hip" artists for "young night club crowd". * So I guess occasionally if you are 30 or older there will be some musical act you have never heard of and don't care to hear again. One of the signs of growing up.

*Kind of like Alternative music: you will hear something you don't recognize sooner or later.

This season's musical guests so far:


I've had to look a few of them up while watching the show, but what's surprising is how many of them my wife and I (both in our 60s, but both very big fans of music in addition to my radio career and her having played and sung music as a performer most of her life) enjoyed.
 
I heard from someone that when SNL first started, if he was at parties on Saturday nights, everyone would stop what they were doing to watch it.
My first year of college was 1975. I didn't have a TV then. But as the fall season went on, it became apparent that people stopped going out on Saturday nights. Friends, knowing I didn't have a TV, invited me over to watch SNL. That became the party, at least until midnight (Central time zone).
 
I think SNL has always had an issue of being too 'New York City' in their sketches. There's just some stuff the rest of the country just doesn't 'get'.
It's also important to recall that, when SNL first started, New York City had what might politely be called an edgy reputation. This was the era of Ford to City: Drop Dead (referring to President Ford) and, while messy from an economic and political point of view, was very productive in terms of popular culture coming out of the city. It was new and different, a chaser for the blandness of most other network television, and a lot of people in my generation (that phrase makes me feel old right there) responded to it, no matter where they were.
 
Thank you for taking the time to point that out. Here is some more trivia. NBC stands for National Broadcasting Company
Really? I always thought it stood for Nooyawk Broadcasting Company. :LOL:
 
This season's musical guests so far:


I've had to look a few of them up while watching the show, but what's surprising is how many of them my wife and I (both in our 60s, but both very big fans of music in addition to my radio career and her having played and sung music as a performer most of her life) enjoyed.
My musical taste is quite conservative but I've heard a number of good acts recently. Even Sabrina Carpenter! But some of these people actually do the kind of music I like, instead of what's popular.
 
My friends there used to call it the national biscuit company. Gotta churn out more biscuits.
There is another NBC Building in Manhattan–not in Midtown, but on 11th Avenue in Chelsea, that was home to said baking concern.

Today, we call that company by its portmanteau name of Nabisco.

Screenshot_20250217_151415.jpg
 
I really wonder how much SNL has changed vs how much we have changed. I really don't have much use for what's on the radio now days except for the oldies stations. I remember my parents griping about the music from the Beatles onward. They always complained that songs used to have words you could sing along with.

Time flies like the wind...fruit flies like bananas.
 
I remember my parents griping about the music from the Beatles onward. They always complained that songs used to have words you could sing along with.
I listen to an online station run by a man who has a daily show during the week lasting two hours and he will sometimes say The Beatles had some good songs, as long as they are performed by someone else.

I'm even more out of touch musically as I don't tend to like oldies. The format of the station I mentioned would be described as "adult standards", but with more "easy listening" instrumentals than most of those stations have.
 
It's also important to recall that, when SNL first started, New York City had what might politely be called an edgy reputation. This was the era of Ford to City: Drop Dead (referring to President Ford) and, while messy from an economic and political point of view, was very productive in terms of popular culture coming out of the city. It was new and different, a chaser for the blandness of most other network television, and a lot of people in my generation (that phrase makes me feel old right there) responded to it, no matter where they were.

Where they were is a big part of it. Back then we weren't as "connected" as we are now, and for those of us who grew up in a small town in the Midwest, it was "cool" to watch something edgy coming out of New York. Late night TV at the time was Johnny Carson and...not much else, and The Tonight Show was really aimed at our parents' generation. Yes, there were up and coming comics (Letterman, Garry Shandling, etc.) but it was more about Johnny sitting at the desk and talking to old school comedians who had played the Catskills and had variety shows back in the days of B&W TV. SNL took you on a journey. Being able to go (virtually) to a live sketch comedy show in New York City was like a whole other world for a small town kid. Plus you didn't have to actually GO to NYC and deal with the crime and the grime and the scourge of disco music.
 
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