Wasn't That Special: 50 Years of SNL Podcast

Season 39 came as a shock to Saturday Night Live, with classic cast members Jason Sudeikis, Fred Armisen, and Bill Hader all exiting. Executive Producer Lorne Michaels brought in six new players to replace what the show had lost, but by Season 40, four of them had been scuttled. Season 40 saw some additions, such as new Weekend Update co-host Michael Che and previously uncredited writer Leslie Jon...

We spent a good portion of the Season 38 show explaining to you how Saturday Night Live actually improved without the presence of Kristen Wiig. Does the trend hold in Season 39 despite the departures of Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, and Fred Armisen? In a word, no. In a sentence, well, this is a season with a number of issues that linger and haunt episodes… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

It doesn’t make any sense that Saturday Night Live would actually improve when an all-time great cast member like Kristen Wiig leaves the show. We have seen what happens when a legend leaves in the past; the show’s quality dipped, for instance, when Will Ferrell left in 2002 after Season 27 wrapped. But after Wiig’s post-Season 37 exit, the show not only… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

It hasn’t been that often that Lorne Michaels brings back an identical cast from the year before, but that’s exactly what happened after Season 36 and into Season 37. Everyone returns, even the cast members struggling for screen time - it is only in the 18th episode of the latter season that Michaels introduces a new cast member named Kate McKinnon. Yet… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

One a show called Saturday Night Live , one would expect the live sketches to be the most exciting part of each episode. Half the fun is the possibility that something completely unexpected could happen, from an actor flubbing a line to a light falling from the rafters. But in Season 36, it’s the pre-recorded Digital Shorts that really shine. With Will Fo… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 5...

In this free episode, we discuss Season 35 of SNL, including the f-bomb being dropped in the season’s first episode, the rise of Kenan Thompson as the backbone of the show, the regression of Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen, the all-time classic episode hosted by Betty White, and the emergence of newcomer Nasim Pedrad as a worthy cast member. We also talk about Will Forte’s career on the show and the...

Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin. Season 34 will likely be known forever for one thing, and that’s returning cast member Tina Fey’s impression of the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate. But the 2008-09 season had a lot more going on than simply politics. For one, the show bumped the number of episodes up to 22 per season (up from 20). And be… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 5...

The Wasn’t That Special Season 34 episode will be a day late next week, so as a peace offering, we recorded a review of the new movie Saturday Nigh t, which “documents” the 90 minutes leading up to the first SNL episode on October 11, 1975. Did we like the movie overall? What did it get wrong and what did it get right? What would we have liked to have seen? How accurate were the actors playing the...

Every season of Saturday Night Live has its classic episodes and its real bombs. In virtually every case, these peaks and valleys average out to make each season simply “pretty good.” But what if there was a season that had no bad episodes but no great ones? That is the case with Season 33, in which no single show reaches the heights of the past, but no … Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

Real-world Saturday Night Live events are dotting the calendar at this point. Season 50 officially kicked off on September 28 (did you like Maya Rudolph, Dana Carvey, Andy Samberg, and Jim Gaffigan?) and the new SNL film Saturday Night is in theaters on October 11. Reviews for the movie so far are … well, let’s not talk about that right now. But you can… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

Every now and then in Saturday Night Live history, you have these seasons in which an older, established cast is on their way out, and a newer cast is on their way in. They cross paths for maybe a year or two, and looking back, it is hard to believe all these people were on the same cast at the same time. This certainly happened in Season 16, when the es… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

Please enjoy this complimentary edition of Wasn’t That Special - every few episodes we will release for free so you can hear what you’re missing out on by not being a paid subscriber. To do so and unlock all 30-plus of our episodes, simply go here: The cast in Season 30 returns with very few changes - Lorne Michaels effectively swapped out Jimmy Fallon, who left to do movies, with newcomer Rob Rig...

After Will Ferrell left following Season 27, Saturday Night Live began the process of remaking itself without Ferrell’s star power on board. They brought in new cast members like Fred Armisen and Will Forte to join Jimmy Fallon, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, and Rachel Dratch, but none of the sketches reached the heights they had during the Fe… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

In Season 27, Saturday Night Live viewers occasionally got a glimpse of what the show would look like when one of its all-time great cast members bolted. For a few episodes, Will Ferrell was off filming movies like Old School, leaving the rest of the cast to pick up the slack. And the results weren’t promising. In Season 28, the show has to grapple with … Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

When Will Ferrell joined Saturday Night Live in 1995, the show was on the ropes. Adam Sandler and Chris Farley had been fired and SNL was on the brink of cancelation. But then Lorne Michaels brought on Ferrell and fellow Los Angeles-based Groundlings Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan and suddenly the show once again had life. These new cast members, coupled w… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

Any viewer of Season 26 of Saturday Night Live may alternate between loving it or hating it based on the episode or even the sketch they are watching. This, of course, happens in every season - there are high and low points to every year. But Season 26 can be sliced into many halves, each of which appear to be running away from each other. There are, for… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

When Saturday Night Live celebrated its 15th anniversary in 1989, it was the first time the show could stop, take a breath, and brag about its accomplishments. After the fifth season, it looked as if the show was headed for certain cancelation. After the tenth season, SNL was still on uneven footing, recycling its entire cast for Season Eleven. But after Season Fifteen, it appeared the show had fi...

Who we choose as the greatest Saturday Night Live cast member is still up in the air, but as we enter the 25th year of the show, it is clear that no cast member has been as dominant for as long as Will Ferrell. In 1999-2000, Ferrell began his fifth year on the show, rescuing from near-cancelation after Season 20, and he only appears to be getting strong… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

There are celebrity cameos on Saturday Night Live , and then there is the cameo that occurred on the show on May 8 of 1999, which may have been the most surprising of all. When a dark-haired woman appeared in the middle of a sketch about Bill Clinton’s activities after he left the White House, the audience engaged in subdued applause, as it seems they co… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

Saturday Night Live has always been dependent in some ways on the cultural and political events surrounding the show, but never was that more true than in Season 23. Midway through the season, the show roared to life with news that President Bill Clinton had engaged in an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The show’s writers took every oppor… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...

Do you like recurring characters on Saturday Night Live ? Do you like seeing those characters over and over again, episode after episode? Then SNL Season 22 is for you, my friend. If Season 21 was a return to many of the traditional devices that made SNL work in past years (recurring characters, celebrity impressions, commercials), then Season 22 is a dou… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 5...

After the disastrous Season 20, there is no way Saturday Night Live could return to its former glory, is there? Is there? As it turns out, there was a way. The show’s regeneration was found in a group of former Groundlings, most notably an unknown Irvine, California-based comedian named John William Ferrell. In Season 21, Ferrell joined the SNL cast with C… Get full access to Wasn't That Special:...

Remember Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s? Chris Farley! Adam Sandler! David Spade! How could it miss? Well, Season 20 is how it could miss. Beset by competing personal agendas, terrible press, and a plagiarism scandal, the show was ripped apart in 1994 and 1995, with all the behind-the-scenes drama affecting what was on the screen. New cast member Janeane Garofalo, effectively hired as a re...

For the intro to the Season Nineteen episode of Wasn’t That Special , we turn to a famous video of former Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi: Indeed, Coach Lombardi. What the hell is going on at SNL ? For one, we know what isn’t going on. Dana Carvey left the show midway through last season, leaving a gaping hole in the cast. And with NBC needing t… Get full access to Wasn't That Special:...

During Season 18 of Saturday Night Live , it is clear the classic run that began in Season 12 with the likes of Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, and others is gone. Halfway through the season, Carvey departs, leaving only Myers, Hartman, and Kevin Nealon from the late-1980’s glory years. And Myers missed a chunk of shows at the beg… Get full access to Wasn't That Special: 50...