That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)

(Originally posted on Patreon on August 31, 2023) It's been one hell of a journey but we've finally come to the end of the road with The Richard Pryor Show. It's clear all involved in the show are pretty happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel and the material collected for this episode is of generally lesser fare than you might expect but there's still moments of fascination and at least...

(Originally posted on Patreon on August 11, 2023)  On one hand, The Edge is just another semi-forgotten 90s sketch show of little renown. On the other, it's one of the most insane assemblage of talent in front of the camera and behind that the fact that it failed is kinda shocking. This week, we dig up as much history on this bizarre little show show as we can possibly could and dissect it's final...

(Originally posted on July 28, 2023)  By popular demand, this week we're covering one of sketch comedy's most fondly remembered entries: Upright Citizens Brigade! Lasting for only three beautiful seasons on Comedy Central, UCB (both the show and the theaters) nevertheless created a wave of cherished performers and influence that can still be felt to this day. In this episode, we briefly dig into t...

(Originally posted on June 30, 2023) It's the Chevy Chase/Dog film you never knew existed! Eddie Ham and Mattalamode drop the show once again as we dive into the feverish world of Bob Clark's The Karate Dog, a family film about Dirt Nasty and a CGI dog getting revenge for the death of Pat Morita. Oh, and Jon Voight is there and he's, uh uh, cranked up to 11, baby! 

(Originally posted on June 16, 2023) In the midst of a week of intense personal chaos for Richard comes this episode, a dreamlike outing of the show that balances melancholy with silent-era pantomime. Oh, and there's a good chance a bunch of stuff ended up getting cut by the network so we gotta fill that time somehow! How about some...uh, standup and improv?? Strap yourselves in for a wild one, fo...

(Originally posted on June 2, 2023) This week, we've got the first of our community/catching up on things podcast! Let us know what you think of this! What you'd like to see more of from it or, maybe, you'd like to see that we never do it again! Anyway, in this one, we discuss the long history of SNL episodes lost to various writers strikes, answer a few questions from the audience, and discuss Ev...

(Originally posted on May 15, 2023) We're doing something we haven't done in a looooong time: doing an Off Week episode about the current season of SNL. Timmy has more or less missed the bulk of the season and so, as selected by you, our lovely Patrons, we're digging into the Quinta Brunson episode to see if we can win him over. Will we find some boom stamp classics? Will we find some bombs? I mea...

It's the end of our eighth season of the podcast and so we're celebrating by going all the back to the season finale of the very first season (well, if you don't count those summer episodes as being part of the season). Anyway, our ol' pal Jon Schneider is back with us again to discuss Elliott Gould's second hosting gig and what be the first of many for musical guest Leon Redbone. This episode is...

Sometimes you get towards the end of a season, you're getting tired and you just say "screw it" and hit the big red button labeled John Goodman. It's the eighth time hosting for the beloved character actor and this go-around gives us a chance to finally cover a perennial SNL favorite that has somehow alluded this podcast: Celebrity Jeopardy. Elsewhere, it's a pretty typical slice of this era: some...

Pass the podcast 'pon the left hand side, ammirite? Ha ha ha. We have fun. And speaking of fun, here's a wild one from the Ebersol years. Joan Rivers! Y'all know her. Comedienne extraordinaire, red carpet correspondent and world class Liz Taylor hater. She's here to host one of the loudest episodes of the show's history, complete with one of the show's most strangely under-seen moments of joyfully...

It's another historical outing for the show, with the first political figure to ever host the show: Ron Nessen, Press Secretary for Gerald Ford! What better way for Ford to gain some momentum in the upcoming election against Jimmy Carter then make it seem like he's in on all the fun going on down at SNL? Just have Ron host the show, Ford can make a few pre-taped appearances, everything will be fin...

I've been meaning to get around to this one forever and so, by god by Gumby, we finally did it. William Ham returns to fold to discuss an episode that I firmly believe might be the most underrated of the entire OG era. Few outings of the show crackle with as much southern chaos as this one and that's not entirely surprising considering, ya know, Gary, a host the show gives way to so completely tha...

The night before the very first Wrestlemania, Mr. T and Hulk Hogan drop by to host the show together...except they mostly don't. It was supposed to be Steve Landesberg but he had to drop out for reasons. I guess? He's still a special guest though, as well as Liberace, Bob Orton Jr. and Rowdy Roddy Piper. I know I say this a lot, but this is an ODD one. It's basically a host-less episode, one of th...

Here's a bit of an oddity selected for us by one of our Patrons. Mostly known these days for having a surprise appearance of Barbra Streisand in Coffee Talk (which already has a sketch-long cameo performance from Madonna), there's also the fascinating and far less talked about case of the Red Hot Chili Peppers basically imploding live on stage, with John Frusciante going completely rogue from the...

By special request, we're heading back to S38 to cover Christoph's only hosting gig to date. Why this one in particular? I dunno. Mattalamode really wanted us to do it so...here we are! And it's certainly an episode, that much is true. Join us as we discuss a surprisingly stellar cold open, a memorable pre-tape, whether or not Christoph is a decent host and oh! The Alabama Shakes! They're a really...

This week, we've got what is quietly one of the most important episodes of SNL ever. Not only do we get Ralph Nader, who would go on to cameo on the show up until 2000, but it's also the debut of one Mr. Bill Murray on the cast side of things, Jim Downey on the writing side of things and the very first appearance of both the Coneheads AND Rhoda Weiss. Even Andy Kaufman gets in one of his most cele...

It's the first episode of 2025 and we're kicking it off in style with two of America's most beloved performers still to this day: DAG and Snoop Dogg. It's the first time going back to S22 in quite some time for us and we've landed on a pretty fascinating one. Can the show correctly navigate yet another Jesse Jackson sketch? What does Snoop Dogg have in store for his first album in three years, san...

Our old pal Jon Schneider is back once again to discuss one of the most integral episodes of the first season: it's Christmas episode. Not only is it the first time a host would return to the show but it manages to include a number of iconic moments while somehow also managing to seem incredibly loose and nearly incomplete at times. But that's just the magic of S1 SNL. Lots of weirdness abounds: l...

Hey, look. It's that guy. The guy from Party of Five and Lost. Good ol' what's his face. He's hosting SNL! Join us as we explore a surprisingly grim outing of the show (Car Bombs! The Michael Richards Incident!) and take in some super fun Tenacious D performances just as it's become infinitely less fun to think about Tenacious D!

It's the first of Buck's two hosting gigs in S5 (his 9th overall) and he's here to get this season back on track after a shaky start. We've got some real interesting ones in here, including Yvonne Hudson's first big sketch (Bad Clams), a rather notorious epic (The Mystery of Toad Island) and one of the naughtier outings of the Nerds we've seen yet. Oh, and Tom Petty is here to play some pretty und...

From the iconic to the absolute depths of comedic hell, the Betty Thomas episode has it all. We've got an episode long runner, one of Eddie Murphy's most famous and iconic sketches, a whole lot of Jim Belushi trying to establish himself on the show and one of the most problematic sketches we've seen in quite some time. Oh, and one of us watched the live version and the other watched the rerun and...

Ah, yes. Another infamous outing from a rather infamous season. We return to S30 to explore what is probably it's most notable episode and sadly, it's notoriety has nothing to do with the comedy or the host or anything like that. It's all about Ashlee Simpson and her second (botched) musical performance. But there's still an episode that happens on either side of that. Kinda. Mostly, it's Oops! Al...

Eddie Ham and Mattalamode join us for another odd little outing of the show. A still mostly unknown Fred Willard hosts one of the mellower episodes of the original era, with Devo, still at their most abrasive, making their national television debut. It's slice of life heavy, including the debut of Don Novello's Mall sketches, while also being incredibly broad, with the official debut of Bill Murra...

WE'RE BACK AT IT ONCE AGAIN, kicking off the premiere of the eighth season of the podcast with the episode that began one of SNL's more successful and celebrated transitional years. We've got some late period bangers from Bill Hader, some late period slop from Fred Armisen, attempts at capitalizing on the summertime explosions of Gangnam Style and Honey Boo Boo and, at the center of it all, the ra...

Here we are! We're closing out the seventh season of That Week with the season finale of S24 and we've once again brought Jon Schneider along for the ride. Join us we cover one of the horniest episodes of sketch comedy ever produced and battle over the musical legitimacy of the Backstreet Boys!