Advertise on podcast: That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)

For this years SNL Halloween outing, we're going back 12 whole years to an era of the show that doesn't honestly look or feel too terribly different than the modern show of 2026 in a number of ways. It's the beginning of Jost and Che's run at Update, Mikey Day isn't in the cast yet but still contributes to a large chunk of the sketches, Kenan is screaming at people. Is that good? That's up to you to decide! That all aside, there's still some good fun to found here, including one of the shows better latter day runners and a few bits of inspired sketchin'. It's also the first episode in the cast for Leslie Jones! We also get a Jeff Daniels cameo because we're here to promote Dumb and Dumber To and Iggy Azalea...is here too! Spoooooky!

Fresh off his historic 83-84 presidential run, Jesse Jackson drops by the show to host a rather oddball outing that is still not without it's many charms. The biggest problem and through-line for the episode though is that the cast and writing staff is Oops! All White People! so they definitely try to have their fun with that, including more blackface and a piece that may have once been part of a larger call-in segment of the show. Not all of it works! Elsewhere, we get a minor classic in The Question Is Moot, Jesse's amusing fascination with cheesy 60s pop tunes, the first appearance of Willie and Frankie and two different gospel performers! Who gets the car? I get the car!

Folks, we're back! It's time for the tenth season of That Week in SNL to begin and we're kicking off by jumping a year ahead from last season's premiere to dig into the start of S28. It's the first episode without Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer, a pretty major blow to the show, but thankfully we also get the debut of both Will Forte and Fred Armisen, a pretty major boon to the show. Sadly it's still 2002 though, so American culture is absolute trash and it's reflected pretty harshly here in this episode. We've got some dire Justin Timberlake/Britney Spears material, one of the meanest, ugliest TV Funhouses of all time and a general feeling of flailing about, including one of the more baffling season-starting cold opens we've ever seen. It's not without small pockets of charm but boy...this might've been a mistake.

Long considered not only one of the worst sketch movies of all time but simply just one of the worst movies of all time, period, we're finally diving into The Underground Comedy Movie, the first (of two!) cinematic atrocities from Vince Offer (the Sham-Wow guy). Eddie Ham and Mattalamode are on hand this time to trudge through the history of this film, the similarities to it's sequel/half re-make and try to make sense of the horrors unfolding in front of us.

(Originally published on Patreon on July 14, 2004) We've finally landed halfway through the run of the New Show and this time we're bringing on Jon Schneider and William Ham to once again try and figure just what the hell is going on with this odd, odd show. Thankfully, William was there on the ground floor, watching the episode when it aired and by god, even has some pleasant memories attached to it, which is a brand new twist to our coverage of the show!

(Originally published on Patreon July 1, 2024) Inspired by Ken Shapiro's Channel One theater and The Groove Tube, Neal Israel and a ragtag gang of folks wrangled up one of the more insane cast lists in sketch comedy history to do the same thing, except this time with some LA flair. William Ham and Eddie Ham are on deck to try and uncover this semi-obscure film's production history and discuss some of the more intriguing moments it has in store for us. Read Eddie's interview with writer Rowby Goren here: https://fryvaultgrab.blogspot.com/2024/06/interview-with-rowby-goren-laugh-in.html

(Originally published on Patreon on June 17, 2024) Just like last year, we had y'all chose one episode from S49 for us to cover and this time around, it was Sydney Sweeney who won out. We discuss the trials and tribulations of the season as a whole and dig into how this episode in particular navigates those pitfalls. We get some good, we get some very bad and throw some grandmas in a bag.

(Originally published on Patreon on May 6, 2024) Just as the Ebersol era was getting underway, Lorne Michaels and a ragtag collection of the OG crew sneak back into studio 8H to pull off Steve Martin's final NBC special. Probably most notable for John Belushi's final live, televised performance, it also includes more Dan Aykroyd than you can shake a stick at, the soothing presence of Gregory Hines, and lands at a truly intriguing moment in Steve's career. William Ham and Eddie Ham (no relation) are back on board to dig through the ditches, burn through the witches and slam in the back of this strange little oddity.

(Originally published on Patreon on April 8, 2024) Who would have ever guessed that we'd have unfinished business with Turn-On and yet, here we are because in the year of our lord 2024, producer George Schlatter has collected unseen material into a "new" episode of the show. Mattalamode and Eddie Ham join us this time to discuss this latest entry into the pantheon of insane sketch comedy as we once again try our damndest to make sense of the chaos unfurling before us.

(Originally published on Patreon on March 25th, 2024) Well, here we are. Against our better judgement, we've decided to circle back around on Bizarre years after covering it's pilot episode. This time, we're taking a random episode from the DVDs (episode 5 from volume two, which may or may not still be from the first season) and delving into the horrors that await in it's usual Showtime/CTV incarnation. Is it one of the worst sketch shows of all time? Yes. Yes, it is. Join us!

(Originally published on Patreon on February 26, 2024) Oh boy. It's been awhile since we've gone to the New Show well. And hey look! It's just as dry as it usually is! That's why we've brought in Eddie Ham and Mattalamode to help us wrangle something, anything, out of this one. And wrangle we did. Join us as we slowly get more and more unmoored from reality, defending pieces that don't deserve defending and just generally losing our minds.

(Originally published on Patreon on January 29th, 2024) Get your new mustaches on because this week we're digging into one of the most infamous outings of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the season three premiere! The brothers have got Cass Elliot and Harry Belafonte on board and after a full summer off, they've got a lot to say about the chaos boiling over in the US. As per usual, this led to a lot of battling with CBS, including a whole Belafonte song being left on the cutting room floor. We look at the full, un-edited (kinda) version of the episode to see just what went down.

We're wrapping up the ninth season of That Week with what is seen by some as a legendary episode: the S34 finale with Will Ferrell. Not only does this one close the curtains on one of the more popular and critically acclaimed seasons of the show but includes one of the more divisive sketches in the show's history, Goodnight Saigon. Our ol' pal Jon Schneider is back on board for this one as we hash out the many ways one can approach the show and sketch comedy and what one might demand from it.

Now here's a guy you might've heard of before. Stevie Wonder. What can you say? It's Stevie. He's a legend and now he's here doing double duty on SNL. What transpires is a charmingly loose and chaotic show as Stevie not only hits us with two yet-to-be-released tunes from 1985's In Square Circle but also reconfigures a bunch of his classics to fit into the sketches. Also, we've got a Hitler sketch and Michael Davis, back for his last guest spot on the show! Can you funk? Stevie can funk.

We return to the end of the original era for the first show hosted by a married couple! Having already crushed his first episode, Richard takes a bit of a backseat on this one to hand it over to the ladies, who respond with a number of uniquely fascinating sketches. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though. There's still some crud to wade through and that sadly includes The Grateful Dead, who are here promoting what is, to my understanding, a little bit of a low-ebb in their discography. Also, this recording includes a Timmy who watched the episode under some amount of time restraint and duress so can Andrew convince him of the finer details of the episode or will crankiness win out? Tune in to find out!