IT WASN'T THE BEST EFFORT NECESSARILY AS A SHOW, BUT IN TERMS OF BEING ABLE TO GENERATE INTEREST AND BUZZ, IT SUCCEEDED IN DROVES: So Dana Carvey hosted SNL last night, and while it was sure nice seeing the Church Lady and his Regis again, as well as the Jon Lovitz cameo, Carvey was already too old to play Garth when he was actually playing Garth, let alone 20+ years later. (And since when did Wayne Campbell speak with a pronounced Canadian accent?)
It's a shame we'll never know what could have happened with Carvey's post-SNL career. The ABC sketch show was too edgy, too soon, and then Carvey's 1997 botched open-heart surgery sidelined him for far too long. (Oh, Brokaw on the death of Gerald Ford.)
All SNL episodes are imperfect, so why not 2-3 nostalgic episodes like this each year? Lovitz can come back whenever he wants, and if that Eddie Murphy fellow were ever interested in a return ...
I'm sorry, seeing all the "classic" Carvey characters reminded me just how veryvery wrong the "SNL was so much better in X era" decriers are.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a stake in the fight over which era was best, but I don't think it's entirely fair to judge based on one performer. If 86-93 was indeed "the best," it wasn't because of Carvey alone -- it was the ensemble of Carvey and Meyers and Hartman and Lovitz and others. In fact, you could argue that the recurring roles are often the low point of the shows, probably in part because they focus so much on one actor/character.
ReplyDeleteAnd they can keep Phil Hartman's voiceovers in rotation. So good to hear him doing the cable access sponsorship last night.
ReplyDeleteSeeing Wayne's World last night made me feel old. It was so cool when I was in 6th grade . . .
ReplyDeleteAlmost every cast has its high and low points (basically excluding the Doumanian years). And 1986-1993 also includes the Victoria Jackson years, and seriously, that's someone who's gone crazy.
ReplyDeleteThe person who I wish was still around to host because he may be the cast member with the highest batting average on SNL is Phil Hartman--rarely, if ever, was he less than great.
Of other significance, while I admire those who try and do something a little different with the SNL musical performance space, WTF was up with Linkin Park's second performance in particular?
ReplyDeleteI was really disappoint that the Wayne's World just rehashed the old premise. It could have been really funny if they did the sketch with Wayne and Garth 20 years old than the original but still doing the show.
ReplyDeleteThat whole cast, other than Lovitz, was way overrated. Lovitz was the only one who could get a laugh organically, rather than out of familiarity and allegiance.
ReplyDeleteI went on the NBC Studio Tour on Saturday afternoon and got to see Carvey and others rehearsing live, which was very cool. I did not get to see the actual show.
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