Ticket 2 Ride

The show and the movie. Fifty years is an amazing accomplishment. I loved Johnny Carson, but am also part of that generation the show was developed for; we watched the show, flexing our usual Saturday night bar activities around it. Funny or not, it spoke to us. Raw and often overshooting the mark, we loved the effort, so we tuned in every week.

“The movie is about one generation ripping television out of the hands of the other. How do you personify that?” director and co-writer Jason Reitman told Entertainment Weekly of his film. “Alright, well, we’re going to have a group of young people, and then we’re going to have a group of old people. Milton Berle represents everything that television was. He’s the ghost of television past. He is vaudeville, he is radio, he is old variety shows, he is sexual harassment, he is all of these things.”

When I watch SNL the show now, it feels overproduced and often missing the target, but still I tune in. My wife says that I’m optimistic each week, hoping to find at least humor and connection, even though it’s not my generation the show seeks.

My interest in SNL has wavered through the decades. I found the 1980s seasons generally to be painful to watch – a show lost and trying anything to avoid cancellation. Outside of Eddie Murphy, I have few memories of that decade, but it slowly regenerated and spawned some creative and entertaining seasons in the 1990s as I found my way back to SNL. Phil Hartman was amazing, what an incredible talent and tragedy.

Cast members who left the show seemed to either made it big or disappeared from sight. Joe Piscopo? I’m amazed at the size of the show’s cast now, verses then. It’s must take more people to be funny now? Ponder that.

I was excited when I heard about the new movie, although I knew almost nothing about it when we sat down to watch it. That was no accident, I avoided reading about it or even watching the trailer. Again, I was hopeful.

Currently, the critics score on Rottentomatoes.com is 78 percent; audience is 84 percent. Those are pretty good scores for any film. Sylvester Stallone would kill for those scores. The film didn’t play very long in theaters, that’s a big complaint, but what films do? Only superhero films seem to have long theater runs. Most films get a week or two before heading to the streaming platforms, or go there immediately. It’s the post-COVIT movie reality. Saturday Night is doing quite well on Netflix.

Some observations…

Jason Reitman was the right choice for the film. Although his batting average for a filmmaker is uneven, he nails it here. The film’s structure is linear, but it’s a crazy, episodic collection of snippets, strung together showing the 90 minutes before the first live episode. The tension builds as problems mount, cast members have their own issues, the network is ready to replay an old episode of The Tonight Show, the older show business generation hopes the show flops, and producer Lorne Michaels comes close to buckling under the pressure.

How much of the film is accurate? Most of it, although for condensing events and characters into a shorter narrative, some creative license was used. The Milton Berle part of the story has some basis in reality, but that part of the story dramatizes how generations were colliding, and what a big prick Uncle Miltie was, or swung.

Kudos to Cory Michael Smith (Chevy Chase), Dylan O’Brien (Dan Aykroyd), Matt Wood (John Belushi), Lamorne Morris (Garrett Morris), Gabriel LaBelle (Lorne Michaels), Robert Wuhl (Dave Wilson), Jon Batiste (Billy Preston), Willem Dafoe (Dave Tebet), J.K. Simmons (Milton Berle), Nicholas Braun (Andy Kaufman/Jim Henson), Kim Matula (Jane Curtin), Ella Hunt (Gilda Radner) and Rachel Sennot (Rosie Shuster). I was particularly impressed with Lamorne Morris who nailed the mannerisms and confusion of Garrett Morris, no relation. Dafoe made you believe that he alone, had the power to put the show on the air or play a Carson rerun. Braun played two characters, brilliantly, the strange Kaufman and the naive Henson. Smith as Chevy Chase really stands out because he actually gave Chase some soul and likability, a task I thought was impossible. No wonder Chase hates the film, it makes him appear human.

The TV show’s format is basically unchanged through the years. The show opens with a skit, someone announces “live from New York…”, credits roll, the host comes out and does some version of a monologue, and the madness begins. Mostly comedy skits, a musical guest does two songs, a Weekend Update skit, more skits, a short film, commercial parodies…the host closes the show.

For the first show, George Carlin was host, didn’t participate in any skits, but appeared several times to tell a few jokes and introduce the musical guest, of which there were two: Billy Preston and Janis Ian. Comedian Albert Brooks would contribute short films, a start of his film directing career. Jim Henson’s Muppets appeared in the first season, doing more avant garde material; I never thought this worked very well. The first episode also included comedian Andy Kaufman doing something really off the wall, but was strangely funny. The show also squeezed in one of two other planned comedians; Valri Bromfield performed, Billy Crystal did not.

I rather enjoyed the chaotic nature of the film’s structure; I understood the atmosphere and pressure Michaels and others were under with the first show, that was barely coming together as a live performance. Reitman captures the wackiness and party atmosphere of 1975, and the rebellious attitude of the show’s staff and cast.

Reitman also brilliantly portrays the show business old guard who want to be hip and above the fray, but don’t want to give an inch to these long-haired, drug using, foul comedy newcomers, who haven’t paid their dues and don’t understand real comedy. They wanted this experiment to fail.

Fifty years later, SNL is trying to remain hip and rebellious, but respectful to the show’s beginning – a difficult task.

After watching the movie, I found my DVD set of the first season. We watched the first episode and marveled at how close the movie and TV show were. Not everything was funny (like the current show) and the production was rough in places, but it worked. At least enough to keep going. The second episode was hosted by songwriter Paul Simon and the show focused as much on music as comedy skits, which might have given the writers time to adjust and develop material for episode three. Simon would prove to be a great host, in this episode he reunited with Art Garfunkel, and in second two, would bring on George Harrison for some special performances.

I enjoyed Saturday Night and look forward to watching again so that I can notice things I missed the first viewing.