Wasn't That Special: 50 Years of SNL

1 week ago | wasntthatspecial.com | Christian Schneider

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -23:28Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. 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 and often sluggish season.

3 weeks ago | wasntthatspecial.com | Christian Schneider

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -26:08Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. 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 first season back in Studio 8H after the “At Home” episodes that ended Season 45.

1 month ago | wasntthatspecial.com | Christian Schneider

Season 45 of Saturday Night Live was one of the most unusual and pivotal 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 “infected”—capturing its literal interruption by the coronavirus and the metaphorical symptoms of deeper artistic problems. The pandemic played a defining role in this season, with production halting in March 2020.

2 months ago | wasntthatspecial.com | Christian Schneider

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -24:22Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. 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 up to play the week’s newsmakers.

2 months ago | wasntthatspecial.com | Christian Schneider

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -25:00Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. 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 2008.