Wasn’t That Special
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 48 (2022-23)
James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman Take Over as Cecily Strong Bolts Season 48 of Saturday Night Live represented a subtle but notable step forward for a show that had been mired in several years of creative stagnation. While far from a return to peak form, the season was generally considered a “standard deviation” — a slight… Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 47 (2021-22)
SNL Gets a New Trump, the Cast Swells, and Kate McKinnon Says Goodbye Season 47 of Saturday Night Live was defined by overpopulation, inertia, and hints of a creative reset. While it wasn’t a creative renaissance, there were signs of potential – new cast members, fresh writers, and a few flashes of promise – amidst a bloated… Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 46 (2020-21)
Jim Carrey Flops as Joe Biden, Ego Nwodim Takes the Wheel as the Show Sags If you like your comedy sleepy, inconsistent, and oddly celebrity-packed, Season 46 of Saturday Night Live was ready to serve. But if you were hoping for a creative rebound after the shaky COVID lockdown season before it, well… sorry. This was the… Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 45 (2019-20)
Eddie Murphy Returns, Shane Gillis Gets the Boot, and COVID-19 Halts the Show Season 45 of Saturday Night Live was one of the most unusual in the show’s long history, defined by both the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and lingering creative stagnation. In this episode, we each described the season with medically themed words—“viral” and… Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 44 (2018-19)
John Mulaney Saves the Season From the Mueller Report Doldrums Never has any television show wanted anything more than Saturday Night Live wanted to see President Donald Trump imprisoned over his alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. In sketch after sketch this season, SNL writers pleaded with Special Investigator Robert Mueller to recommend criminal… Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 43 (2017-18)
The Trump Reality Sets In, Celebrity Cameos Reign, and John Mulaney Gets His Shot Among the many complaints you always hear about Saturday Night Live these days is that the show is saturated with celebrity cameos. The actual cast members don’t get their chance to shine because the show is overstuffed with big names showing… Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 42 (2016-17)
Politics Shocks the Show Back to Life, Bayer and Moynihan Say Goodbye We have said it in prior seasons – sometimes, huge political and cultural shifts push Saturday Night Live to rise to the occasion. It happened with the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the late 1990s. It happened when Sarah Palin joined the Republican presidential ticket in… Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: SNL50 Preview/Recap
On Friday night, Wasn’t That Special co-host Scot Bertram joined WTMJ Radio host Sandy Maxx to preview the big SNL 50th Anniversary Special on NBC. Who might attend, what might happen, and what’s the special sauce the powers Lorne Michaels’ success? Here’s the audio. Then, on Monday night, Wasn’t That Special co-host Scot Bertram joined WTMJ Radio host Sandy… Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 41 (2015-16)
SNL Dives Into Politics and a Future President Crashes the Party Since its inception, Saturday Night Live has been political. But rarely has the show delved into politics more deeply than in Season 41, when President Barack Obama had one foot out of the door, Hillary Clinton was taking a presumptive victory lap, and a group of… Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: The SNL 40th Anniversary Special and the Best Sketches from Seasons 26-40
In this free episode, we run through the SNL 40th Anniversary Special that aired in February 2015, and list our five favorite sketches between seasons 26 and 40. (We did the same thing when SNL ran anniversary specials after seasons 15 and 25.) Enjoy this free trip through fifteen years of SNL and please join us as a subscriber! Continue reading
Scot Bertram 