The Writers’ Room Struggles to Find Its Footing
Dana Carvey left the show midway through last season, leaving a gaping hole in the cast. And with NBC needing to replace David Letterman, Conan O’Brien departed the writing staff, taking writer Robert Smigel with him.
To take the football analogy even further: You know how, after a team’s quarterback gets injured and the team tanks, fans think the QB should be named league MVP because you see how bad the team is without him? This is the case with Season 19 – without Smigel in the writers’ room, the quality of the sketches fizzles.
There is still plenty of talent on the cast – Phil Hartman is back for what seems like his 20th season (he is actually four years older than Dan Aykroyd), and he is flanked by Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Rob Schneider, David Spade, and others. But despite their best efforts, the cast simply can’t spin these substandard sketches into gold.
The pick of hosts doesn’t help their efforts, as this year’s roster included athletes like Charles Barkley and an especially wooden Nancy Kerrigan. A mid-season episode featuring host Jason Patric is the season’s nadir, sending a warning shot to personality-free handsome actors everywhere – if you host SNL, your true talents (or lack thereof) will be exposed.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t highlights. The show finished strong with host Heather Locklear, and episodes hosted by Kelsey Grammer, Helen Hunt, and Patrick Stewart turned out just fine.
But the new talent brought in barely saw any screen time. New writer/performer Sarah Silverman didn’t get a single sketch on the air. New cast member Jay Mohr shows up to do his Christopher Walken impersonation a couple of times, but that is basically it. The only dent made by a newbie was by Norm Macdonald, who shows some flashes of greatness in limited screen time.
We discuss all these topics and much more on this week’s episode of Wasn’t That Special.
Scot Bertram 
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