television
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 50 (2024-25)
Is Saturday Night Live Funny Again? They say it couldn’t be done. (And maybe some say it shouldn’t be done.) But we got to the 50th season. Season 50 debuted with high expectations, given the historic anniversary. While some hoped for each episode to be hosted by past cast members and filled with nostalgic callbacks, the reality Continue reading
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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 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 39 (2013-2014)
Six new featured players begin the season while another is added in the middle of the year. Can they be subsumed into the show without issues? We spent a good portion of the Season 38 show explaining to you how Saturday Night Live actually improved without the presence of Kristen Wiig. Does the trend hold in Season Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 38 (2012-13)
Filling a Kristen Wiig-Sized Hole in the Cast It doesn’t make any sense that Saturday Night Live would actually improve when an all-time great cast member like Kristen Wiig leaves the show. We have seen what happens when a legend leaves in the past; the show’s quality dipped, for instance, when Will Ferrell left in 2002 after Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 37 (2011-12)
Kristen Wiig’s Swan Song, and Hello Kate McKinnon It hasn’t been that often that Lorne Michaels brings back an identical cast from the year before, but that’s exactly what happened after Season 36 and into Season 37. Everyone returns, even the cast members struggling for screen time – it is only in the 18th episode Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 35 (2009-10)
‘What Up With That’ is Born, Betty White Reigns Supreme, and Goodbye, Will Forte In this free episode, we discuss Season 35 of SNL, including the f-bomb being dropped in the season’s first episode, the rise of Kenan Thompson as the backbone of the show, the regression of Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen, the all-time Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 33 (2007-08)
Kristen Wiig Dominates, Hillary and Barack Take Center Stage, and the Writers Strike Every season of Saturday Night Live has its classic episodes and its real bombs. In virtually every case, these peaks and valleys average out to make each season simply “pretty good.” But what if there was a season that had no bad episodes but Continue reading
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Wasn’t That Special: Season 32 (2006-07)
Budget Cuts, a New Director, a New Bush, and Things in Boxes Real-world Saturday Night Live events are dotting the calendar at this point. Season 50 officially kicked off on September 28 (did you like Maya Rudolph, Dana Carvey, Andy Samberg, and Jim Gaffigan?) and the new SNL film Saturday Night is in theaters on October 11. Continue reading
Scot Bertram 