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

Fever and sickness grips the studio as we boldly attempt to cover one of the most influential and well-known episodes of the show's history. Will Andy's cough medicine gag crash against the rocks of Timmy's all consuming chaotic energy? Will William ever get a word in edge-wise? Is this SNL episode actually any good? All these questions are asked (and more!) and maybe - just maybe - some might be...

Jon Schneider of Saturday Night Network drops by yet again to cover a momentous episode of SNL! At only 7 years of age, Drew Barrymore grabs claim to the youngest host ever and a live call-in vote was conducted to see if Andy Kaufman would ever appear on the show again. We try to place our own vote, share some scary stories of house break-ins, get a remembrance from Gary Kroeger and more!

We're going all the way back to the subject of our very first test episode we recorded for the show to give it another go, this time minus a Timmy but adding a William. And really, it's an episode with a lot of firsts: the first Stuart Smalley, the first credited episode for Tim Meadows & Adam Sandler and the whole thing just generally points to the future of the show. It's up to you to decide if...

Join us for a long, winding tale of the podcasting origins that brought us to That Week and 100 episodes thereof! Correspondence from the audience! Questions! Answers! It's all here as we kick back and celebrate the podcast for a bit.

By god, we made it. 100 episodes of this mess! And to celebrate, we're breaking our usual cover-an-episode-from-the-same-month-the-podcast-gets-released format to jump ahead to March 1980 to cover SNL's own 100th episode! Kinda host-less, kinda not, and nowhere near as celebratory as you'd think, this one nevertheless delivers some odd moments worth digging into, including the show's first ever f-...

It's time we finally dive into SNL's second ever episode, one that has a vibe and format the show would never replicate. It's basically a Paul Simon concert show with a few sketches thrown in, including a rare reunion of Simon and Garfunkel. Thankfully, we've got a live copy to really get the full scope of the night...and somehow, it all adds up to one of the biggest episodes we've ever recorded....

We're kicking off our sixth season of the show with special guest Tim Barnes to explore the beginning of the show's Silver Age, Lorne's second attempt to reboot the show after returning. It's the first episode for Phil, Dana, Jan, Kevin and Victoria and somehow, with no REAL credited musical guest, also manages to pack in four musical segments. It's got some bangers. It's got some clangers. It's g...

Before his return to SNL, Lorne Michaels made a small, rather inauspicious sketch comedy pit stop with 1984's The New Show. Lasting only a scant 9 weeks as one of the lowest rated shows of the season, the show nevertheless pointed towards the future of SNL itself, though no one knew it at the time. We dig into the first episode.            

Jon Schneider is back again to help us knock out the *other* Summer '76 episode of SNL! This one is hosted by a clearly boozy Kris Kristofferson so we try our best to get on his level as we muse on if he tanks the episode or not and debate the satirical worth of one of the show's most damning take on the cops.             

Back in the early days of S4, during an off week for the show, a very peculiar special aired in the SNL time slot. It was Things We Did Last Summer, a nearly feature-length mockumentary following the exploits of the SNL cast over the summer and while it was eventually released on video/DVD, large chunks were cut due to music rights and other issues. We break down the whole shebang from it's origin...

It's time to finally return to ABC's rival sketch show, Fridays! This one is a strange beast; coming shortly after the show began to have hosts and shortly before Ronald Reagan took office, providing one last blast of old-school feminism and hippy ideals before things got truly grim.

Last year, just as the newest season of ITYSL was about to come out, we selected a handful of episodes from the first season to cover. That's right, we're talking everything from Bart Harley Jarvis and TC Tuggers to Bone Mommas and being so horny your stomach hurts! Eat this podcast's goo to gain it's sense of humor.            

As a companion piece to last year's crossover episode with Telehell about the very same subject, here's our own take on the bizarre TV movie based on Gilda's autobiography. It's got laughs, love and more dwelling on cancer than anyone could ever want!

It's the end of our fifth season and so we're closing it out with an inscrutable mess of an episode that also acts as a bit of an end of an era! But we're not gonna lie to ya here...this one was a difficult journey. A mighty difficult journey.

What better way to celebrate both Mothers Day and the LA Riots than with our old friend Tom Hanks? Yes, dark days are here again and America's Dad is here to guide us gently through these troublesome times. So strap on your Batman cowl, turn up the radio in your slightly looted Hyundai and get your Brocktoon on because this one has got Toshiba guts!

The time has come. It's finally time to talk about Canada's Finest: SCTV. We're exploring the Pledge Week episode from the show's fourth season; originally run on NBC in '81 but here in a reconfigured version for the CBC. We talk about the origins of the show, revel in some Canadian commercials, discover a rare Great White North segment and more!

We're near the end for both the original era of the show and, unbeknownst at the time, the life of our host but that's not going to stop anyone from delivering one of the most striking and original episodes the show has done. Only one viewing and you too will be a Strother Brother.

It's time to get real Diffie with the last of our "episodes we enjoyed when we got back into the show" quadrilogy! This time around it's Anna Kendrick and the man in the hat, Pharrell Williams bringing those happy, musical vibes to the show and we are here for it, i guess. Expect a few Boom Stamp Classics, maybe a Grandma, maybe even...a Diffie?!          

Bill Murray returns to the show for the third time (and the first time back with Lorne) and it may just be one most out of control, sexually repressed and angry episodes we've covered yet. Plus, we regale you with tales of Tammy Faye Bakker and fighting with pops!

We're finally getting around to reviewing one of the episodes hosted by everyone's favorite big ol' lummox, Dwayne Johnson and it turns out that this episode means a little something to us and the history of the show! Sound interesting, right? Well, it probably isn't but hey, at least we had fun talking about it.

What happens when you take a chaotic live sketch show and decide to plop it in the middle of Mardi Gras just for the hell of it? You guessed it. More chaos than you can handle. And potentially more Randy Newman than you can handle.

You know, it's like they always say: just shut up and enjoy the Fraser. Brendan Fraser, that is. We explore the second (and to this day, last) hosting gig of this incredibly charming fellow and all the intensely 1999 baggage it carries!

Join us for the most chaotic, slap-happy, improv-filled episode the show has ever had! It's the kind of pure, unfiltered and unscripted joy you so rarely see on television anymore and we bask in every insane moment.

Everyone's favorite coach/commentator/screamy-man John Madden takes to the SNL stages for another typically atypical Ebersol era episode! Moments of intrigue include what is quite possibly the weirdest Andy Kaufman appearance on the show, a chill train trip with John and one of the best musical performances on the show ever.

Two years after it all went down, Al Gore arrives on the SNL stage to exorcise the demons of the 2000 election. The mighty Ian Abramson returns to help us uncover the many mysteries of this strange Holiday episode!