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

We're completing our "Caligula on SNL" set this week with Helen Mirren! This episode is an odd collection of the very good and the very bad (which is strange for SNL, I know), but we definitely get some certified classics in here. And the Foo Fighters kick ass so there's also that.

Belushi is absent. The sketches are few and very, very long. The musical guest is an acquired taste. All the makings for a mess of an episode but this one steers right past that into classic territory. Settle in for a surprisingly chaotic break down of one of the most fascinating episodes of SNL ever.

This week in efforts to keep sane: the second episode of Saturday Night Quarantine, Tiger King, Australian post-apocalyptic exploitation trash and more!

We're again returned to the ever infamous season 20 to see what depths the show can fall. Is the Paul Reiser the deepest crater the show has ever created? Quite possibly. With such classics as Sparklebrite, One Brother Restaurant and even a little bit of plagiarism, Paul Reiser/Annie Lennox makes a strong case as the worst episode of all time.

Here's a little bit of extra nonsense: our journeys through the first week of the quarantine! We discuss Ian Abramson's fantastic Saturday Night Quarantine live stream, trying to unravel the mysteries of mahjong and a few films, including The Hunt!

Bordello of Blood is the second theatrically released Tales From The Crypt film and man, it's a doozy. A troubled production stemming from a cranky and unwilling Dennis Miller nearly threatens to sink a movie that is, at times, kinda fun. We break it all down.

This week, we welcome Justin Hart from the Telehell podcast to discuss a childhood favorite of his: Billy Crystal's season 9 hosting stint! We get a surprising Purim theme, the debut of Fernando and a bunch of questionable ethnic choices.

Last season, we covered Garth Brooks' second hosting gig from S25 and ended up receiving countless requests to cover this one as well. And so, here we are: the first outing of SNL's most unlikely beloved hosts of the 90s, Garth Brooks. We got old French whores, grizzled old men (hi, Robert Duvall!), Shelly Long movie trailers and...Mango!

This week, we're pumping up the jams with one of the youngest hosts the show has ever had: Fred Savage! Fresh from the highs of the cinematic masterpiece The Wizard, Fred anchors the show like a seasoned professional and delivers yet another strong outing for season 15. A small cameo from Rosie Perez is just icing on the cake.

Hoooo whee, this is a big one! This is one of the most fondly remembered episodes in the show's history, complete with the debuts of The Olympia Cafe, The Nerds and Nick The Lounge Singer's famous "Star Wars" song. But the real focal point is the beautiful chaos the show closes out on: The Atomic Lobsters, one of the most impressive sketches the show ever tried to pull off live. 

It's January so you know what that means: it's weird character actor time! Peter Sarsgaard drops by the show for a real strange one. Not only do we get TWO sketches based around his name, we also get one that nearly implodes live. It's a beautiful, horrible mess.

To fight back against the boredom from SNL's long winter holiday break, we've decided to let loose an episode from behind the ol' Patreon pay wall! It's the first episode from season 6 and we talk about the events that led up to Jean Doumanian getting the job, set the table for the rest of the season and dig into the horrors that await us!

It's our big ol' honkin' Christmas extravaganza with John Murray of the SNL Afterparty podcast! This week, we're covering Eddie Murphy's first grand return to studio 8H with his 1984 episode (featuring the perennial classic, White Like Me). Elsewhere, we talk Paw Patrol, try to make sense of the dense layers in Lishman's Deli and more!

It's the last show of the millennium and Danny DeVito is on hand to host what is quite possibly the horniest Christmas episode of SNL ever. Sex jokes! Body parts! Al Franken! Come party like it's 1999...because it is.

This week, we're jumping back only a few years to revisit those halcyon days of season 42. Does the show's most recent moment in the sun hold up? We'd like to think so. Containing what is still the show's best and most concise satire of Trump, there's also a bizarre Bryan Cranston cameo, an early Anna Drezen classic, round bananas and more!

Last year we covered the Betty White episode and had so much fun with that one that this week, we're traveling back to the original era to find the only other Golden Girl that hosted the show: Bea Arthur! Join us as we explore the bizarre atmosphere of season 5 and semi-controversial Al Franken pieces "First He Cries" and the Weekend Update cockroach massacre!

Before he was a cast member (but AFTER he was a musical guest), Michael McKean stops by the show for a little Spinal Tap reunion. Oddly enough this one looks to the future, featuring the birth of The Folksmen some twenty years before "A Mighty Wind" was released! There's also a Billy Crystal sketch we actually enjoyed, scattered weirdness and a heavy dose of Rock 'N' America!

Fresh off the success of Bring The Pain, SNL alum Chris Rock comes home for the first time and he's got Dana Carvey in tow. We've got a whole bunch of Bob Dole, an early TV Funhouse, some returning Chris Rock favorites, Charles Grodin and even a bit of Stephen Colbert.

This week, Mad Men's own Jon Hamm stops by to deliver a modern day Halloween classic! We get two all-time great Forte moments, a guilty pleasure Digital Short, Bill Hader's Vincent Price and THREE Coldplay songs...if you're into that sort of thing. Solid as Barack indeed.

This week, we're going all the way back to the beginning. That's right. Season One. Episode One. The big one. The birth of SNL. It's one of the show's most unique episodes, with more discrete segments than nearly any other episode. Things come flying fast and we're breaking it all down (and manage to discuss a bit of the second episode as well).

We're kicking off our third season with one of the show's most fondly remembered premieres! Take a trip back to a wonderfully weird time in America's history when Twin Peaks and Sinead O'Connor were both surprisingly popular and Chris Rock & Farley were just getting started on the show. Featuring fun with commercials!

In an episode already semi-outdated a mere 24 hours after recording it, we sit down to discuss the upcoming 45th season of SNL! We deliberate the announced hosts/musical guests, the departure of Leslie (but NOT the new featured players) and take some questions from the audience.

A semi-indulgent mixtape of interstitial music, BGM and live performances. Derrick J. Hines: Way Back Saturday Night Sax Coolio: 1, 2, 3, 4 (Live 2-10-96) 10CC: The Worst Band In The World Curtis Mayfield: Move On Up Casiopia: Midnight Rendezvous Kendrick Lamar: I (Live 11-10-14) Rotary Connection: I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun Tears For Fears: Everybody Wants To Rule The World Frank Zappa: I Am...

It's our end of season wrap up extravaganza! Within we discuss our Patreon plans, season 44 and what we'd like to see for 45, answer questions from the audience, gush about Royal Warriors and play some music! Featured Music: Mr. Jukes: Grant Green Ft. Charles Bradley Stereolab: Ping Pong The Isley Brothers: Work To Do Cage The Elephant & Beck: Night Running Post Animal: Dirtpicker Yellow Magic Orc...

It's our big ol' honkin' season finale and so, of course, we're rounding things out with SNL's second season finale with Buck Henry! We got Coneheads. We got Emily Litella. We got the Samurai. Hell, even the damn Land Shark shows up! And sadly, It all sounds better than it actually is.