Episode 139: Roseanne and Tom Arnold/Red Hot Chili Peppers (Feb. 22, 1992)
That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)
Release Date: 02/28/2025
Episode 152: Eddie Murphy/Lionel Richie (Dec. 11, 1982)
That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)
This week, we're covering the one and only episode of an offshoot series of SNL called The Eddie Murphy Show. It's got the same cast, same writers, same format, except that it's the only time a cast member hosted the show while still in the cast and that person is Eddie Murphy and so now it's The Eddie Murphy Show. So, yeah. You might've heard about this one. Original host Nick Nolte has to drop out, his 48 Hours co-star steps in and thus, an fairly notable episode is born. We've got Jon Schneider with us on this one to explore all of the herpes, the endless run of failed jokes from Brad Hall,...
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Off Week 72: MADtv's Fifth Christmas Episode (Dec. 11, 1999)
That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)
(Originally posted on Patreon on December 11, 2023) We continue our yearly journey through the history of MADtv with it's fifth Christmas episode, an episode that spells the end of a period of semi-stability for the show. As per usual, we get some Mrs. Swan and we get some Stuart because of course we do but as an extra holiday treat, we also get Deborah Harry and Blondie as special guests!
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Episode 151: Steve Buscemi/The Black Keys (December 3, 2011)
That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)
After crashing out a little bit with the January Jones episode, we thought we'd return to this era for a slightly better outing, this time hosted by Steve Buscemi! Who doesn't love Steve? No one, that's who. And if you don't like Steve Buscemi, keep that to yourself, ya weirdo. So what do we got on deck for this one? Well, we've got a fairly well remembered sketch with Coach Bert, a cameo from Maya Rudolph as Whitney Houston, some fun debuts, some last iterations of a few sketches and The Black Keys playing some songs you may remember and have very little opinion on. Friends, it looks like we...
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Episode 150: Macaulay Culkin/Tin Machine (November 23, 1991)
That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)
Hey, it's another one of those episodes hosted by an extremely young child! This time around it's Macaulay Culkin, here promoting Home Alo...wait, hold on...I'm getting word that he is in fact here promoting My Girl. Huh. Well, they sure do spend a lot of time riffing on Home Alone in this one, but I do suppose that was the style at the time. We do get an all-timer Lorne Michaels performance out of it though so that's cool. Kieran Culkin is here too and he's in this about as much as Macaulay, which is certainly notable. And Tin Machine. My god, Tin Machine. That band is a David Bowie side...
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Episode 149: January Jones/Black Eyed Peas (November 14, 2009)
That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)
Gather round, Mad-Mennies because this week, we've got a doozy for ya. For better or worse, the Wiig/Hader/Samberg era was generally consistent enough that it really doesn't have too many notable infamous episodes but this...this sucker right here is definitely one of them. It's a deadly combo at play: a host who simply isn't cut out for the live sketch comedy game, a musical guest at the peak of their obnoxiousness giving three performances and only one single cast member who seems hell bent on carrying the night to the finish line. There's brief moments of glory contained within, sure, but...
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Episode 148: Rob Reiner/No Musical Guest (Oct. 25, 1975)
That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)
In celebration of the show now fully hitting it's 50th anniversary, we're going back to the earliest episode we've yet to cover: Rob Reiner, with no real musical guest. Except, we do get some music in the episode. We get A LOT of things, actually. Much like the show's first episode, there's a bunch of elements in the gumbo for tonight; John Belushi doing his Joe Cocker, Andy Kaufman and his record player return to the show, The Lockers do some street dancing, Albert Brooks turns in what has to be the longest pre-taped segment the show has ever aired. Hell, even Denny Dillon is there! It's a...
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Episode 147: Malcolm-Jamal Warner/Run-DMC (Oct. 18, 1986)
That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)
We return again to the birth of the show's second golden age! This time hosted by a then 16 year old Malcolm-Jamal Warner, with musical guests Run-DMC and a special cameo by Spike Lee in character as Mars Blackmon from She's Gotta Have It...well, it's all a little interesting when you consider the show doesn't really have a single black person in the cast or in the writing room at the moment. Sam Kinison is there too, screamin' and hollerin'. Buster Poindexter is there too and he's, you guessed it, screamin' and hollerin'. We've also got censored jokes, important debuts, one of Dennis Miller's...
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Episode 146: Reese Witherspoon/Alicia Keys (Sept. 29, 2001)
That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)
Ladies and gentlemen, we are BACK FOR OUR NINTH SEASON OF THE SHOW! And we're kicking off with a real doozy. Everyone and their mother knows the infamy of this one. That's right...we're doing Jeff Richard's first episode as a cast member. Lord help us. I guess this one is also kinda notable for being the first episode of SNL post 9/11. I suppose that's why they got Rudy Giuliani there in the cold open. And probably why Paul Simon sings The Boxer. But really, it was at this time that the nation turned it's lonely eyes to Jeff Richards. How will Jeff Richards meet the moment? What will he say?...
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Off Week 71: Pink Lady (and Jeff)
That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)
(Originally posted on Patreon on Oct. 16, 2023) What happens when you mix an iconic singing duo from Japan with minimal knowledge of the English language with a comedian of dubious quality and wrap it all up in a dying variety show format? You get Pink Lady! Or...is it Pink Lady and Jeff? Even the show itself doesn't know what to call this glorious mess. We dig into the history of this infamous disaster and cover it's fifth, and last, episode to air on NBC.
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Off Week 70: Turn-On (1969)
That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)
(Originally posted to Patreon on September 18, 2023) Barely making it through it's first televised airing in some parts of the country, completely unseen in others, and more or less cancelled before the whole thing was even over, Turn-On was exiled to the land of wind and ghosts, never to be seen again...until now. We discuss the history and fallout of this beguiling assault on the senses and bravely attempt to cover the two episodes they managed to produce before the entire house of cards came tumbling down.
info_outlineHere's a bit of an oddity selected for us by one of our Patrons. Mostly known these days for having a surprise appearance of Barbra Streisand in Coffee Talk (which already has a sketch-long cameo performance from Madonna), there's also the fascinating and far less talked about case of the Red Hot Chili Peppers basically imploding live on stage, with John Frusciante going completely rogue from the band. And you've also got Roseanne, who's, uh...a lot less fun personality these days than here in 1992. Tom Arnold is there too, i suppose. The whole thing is just a strange gumbo. There's a lot of narratively focused sketches that work out both for the better and for the worse, the tricky balance of having two hosts, and just a strange vibe overall.