Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary was filled with cultural waves this week, including the re-air of the first episode of 1975 on Saturday at 11:30 pm. I looked at it, but it didn’t need it because it was burned to my brain. I watched it when it was originally aired with my mother. We like to stay up late and see what we want. I really didn’t have a fixed bedtime as a kid because I was always a night owl so I had to watch anything at 10pm – impossible tasks or similar.
As I watched this weekend, I forgot most of the sketches from the show because they are mostly memorable, but in about 20 minutes Andy Kaufman In the two-minute part, this changed my life.
I mean: This changed my life. This is my first encounter with something strange and ridiculous, and I know I want more. I guess what made me a childish record. The next day, I took out my Kiddie Records (Peter Pan Players!) and started playing them and syncing with them.
One of the cool things about record players is that they are different speeds: 16 2/3, 33, 45 and 78 rpm. I think I had only one record player at that time, and the most common speed was the most common speed. 33 is for LP (familiar big record), while 45 is for singles… You have to use the adapter to properly center the small disc.
Sometime after that, I got an old stereo record player at the flea market. Not only is it the first Hi-Fi technology I have, it also has four speeds. Honestly, I don’t know how my family survived my voice experiments because I like to play records at the wrong speed and I’ll do it for hours. I remember one day I started playing Richard Wagner’s five-hour opera Sheep’s horns On 16 2/3s, but then I realized even though I went too far.
Kaufman’s humor is based on what we now call “Cringe Comedy” – a review of the editing, which is his embarrassment that promotes humorous attitude, and of course, his entire career has been based on questioning what is just an act, what It’s reality. I think there is a range of social media available now (when everything is real, nothing real), but Kaufman pushed many boundaries like everyone else in his time.
Several other parts on the first SNL are also left in my memory. I think my mom and I are the only ones who love puppets on the show and “I can’t release the darts” became the lang language in my family.
Another thing for me is one thing, an Ad Hawk triple blade razor that includes an animation that shows that the razor does not cut the hair, but rather pulls it out in pain . I think that’s fun.
Another thing is bee sketches. I grew up in Somerville, New Jersey, and it was a famous for two things: a horrible traffic circle, in that circle, a fried chicken place called Mr. Bee, hired a man in a bee suit and Dancing in front. Secretly, I was sure that a guy who performed (I wasn’t a writer and director’s Hep at the time) must have inspired the sketch after a trip to Somerville, so I cheered whenever the bees were on.
Before SNL, my mother also introduced me to Monty Python, so I’ve seen ridiculous humor before… I like it. In one of the many articles about SNL 50 (I can’t find it now because there are many) Lorne Michaels Quote everyone’s favorite actor was in high school. I didn’t go to high school, but I was the right age to be my aspirational role model. That actor clearly embodies the tenacity of the era, downtown fashion…an era that still looks cool, at least based on the return of bell-bottom trousers. The show always has random photos of New York scenes that are part of its aesthetic – that picture of an old guy eating watermelon is another thing in my brain. Much of the early days was rooted in the atmosphere and down-to-earth role of the New York City. A little bit like that PSA with a kid with an accent, it was very popular on Instagram the other day.
The New York-centric show lasted for a while – a clip from Philip Glass who was a music guest at the Music Retrospective in 1986, reminding it was something of the New York City type in downtown New York. Now, although we don’t have a monoculture, we have a homogeneity, and there is less of a thing about SNL in New York. The exception is John Mullaney’s mini musician, which is definitely some of our local quirks. I often wonder why lobsters are completely restaurants on the menu.
As a kid who grew up in a tri-state era, SNL’s opening honors show that the actor’s excellent performance in adults New York is shocking. I might be stuck at home watching TV on Saturday nights, but I will do those cool things one day too!
Life took me to other states, but when I returned to New York in the 90s, fantasy became a reality. I occasionally see actors hanging out on some of my group chats and I remembered once being turned away from the bar because the party was closed after the party. Not long after, I met Seth Meyers and Bill Hader They’re on Comic Club Liveboth of them are very good! Watching all the edited shows, I realized that my memory of shows from 1995 to 2005 is dim because…I always go out on Saturday nights and do cool downtown like the real New Yorker! We don’t have DVRS or YouTube watching the show on Sunday mornings now, just like I do now.
Another thing that excites me is Marvel Team #74 From 1978, Spider-Man worked with the SNL actors when Stan Lee became the host. The question was written by Chris Claremont, set by Bob Hall, and was ink and colored by Marie Severin. In 1978, comics were not cool, but miracles were also a thing in New York, with most of the comics industry at that time. This story involves glowing rings and silver samurai, Spidey and Spidey help the actor defeat the villain and work with some swords John Belushi – It’s easy to see Marvel trying to be hips now, but maybe they’ve surpassed what they know.
“Superhero Sketch” with host Margot Kidder in 1979 was another comic of the time, and despite the success of Superman’s movies, it’s still a big deal to see the comic “Mainstream” become “Mainstream” surprise.
Of course, of course, most of the movie stars hosting SNL have starred in comic-book movies, and no one expected twice when the writer or actor revealed they read comics.
When Saturday Night Live debuted, it was still considered “subversive” and comics are the art of outsiders. Now, SNL is an institution, and comics are educational and accepting. It’s hard for me to think of the entire SNL as a whole because of my personal nostalgia for episode one and early on. But I’m sure a kid somewhere is watching YouTube videos or reading comics, which is changing their lives. That is something that never changes.
