As soon as we saw Carey Mulligan’s husband (I had no idea she was married to the Mumford guy; I thought he was one of those guys who had the beards that are half-emo, half-ZZ Top, not...adorable sitcom dad) join her for much of her monologue, I had a feeling they were telegraphing that she wouldn’t be thrown into…

That tends to be the SNL way...I think it was more noticeable this week because the last few episodes had managed to improve on this problem. It was mainly the space sketch tonight that bugged me on that front.

I know the shield murder is referencing the Civil War scene where Steve barely stopped himself from killing Tony with the shield, but I was reminded of a Hawkeye mini-series from the early ‘80s where we were shown an image of what would happen if the bad guy’s plan (killing Hawkeye and using his death to bring…

A great interview with Anne, from only a week before she passed away.

It’s crazy to think that those were airing on Nick at Nite in the late ‘80s. I remember watching them. Buck Henry said in an interview he saw them as a way to warn parents about what was going on under their noses (paraphrasing). I can see what he means, but boy are they a tough watch. 

Anne Beatts was also involved in the first season of A Different World, which was mostly flat and dull in spite of the great cast, and beset with backstage problems.

One of the treats of watching those episodes back is trying to guess who might have written what. Michael O’Donoghue got most of the notoriety for dark or weird sketches, so I didn’t realize for a long time how many were down to Beatts - Uncle Roy being the most famous, but also other pieces that are further lost to…

I was never quite as into Colbert (I prefer his pre-Daily Show material), but yes, I agree that both guys could be funny. I just think most of that faded away as his tenure progressed.

One of the parts of the diary that stays with me is when Laura had to go to work at OEJ and Blackie tried to let her see who was boss, only for Laura to completely dominate her and leave her humiliated. This was not written in any type of kinky or leering way, or in any type of “you go, girl,” way, but was more of a…

I know this was meant to emulate Gremlins (presumably), but it ended up reminding me of how cute the Adipose were and how much I miss Donna Noble.

I have a great deal of respect for how much Jon Stewart has done to help 9/11 first responders, long after many stopped caring, but the more time passes, the more the various Daily Show alum and their place in the political-entertainment hellscape of the last 10-15 years exhausts me. 

I think he was probably very burnt out, especially as his Daily Show was heading toward the inevitable cultural reckoning and backlash if he had kept hanging on. 

I remember when he was in The Return some fans talked about his health problems and their surprise at seeing him again. The passing away of so many of the cast since then makes me even more grateful Lynch was able to finally put something together again while he had a chance.

The previous episode had three pre-tapes, so maybe Lorne saw this as a balance, but there was another pre-tape filmed and uploaded to Youtube. I read that the beanie baby cut sketch was meant to be the last of the night, so I’m not sure where that would have left the other pre-tape. I think the longer Update threw…

As I praised the Salt Bae sketch, I should point out these guys as there’s a good chance they get the credit:

It’s been a problem for years now. Usually the cast gets the blame and people say in the olden days they didn’t need cue cards, and all the rest. I am hoping all the attention this week will finally lead to some changes. 

I’ve wondered about that too. Nothing against Darrell but he never works for me as an announcer. 

I think he did a pretty decent Cuomo. He seemed to walk through this impression (maybe he saw how weak the writing was and didn’t bother).

Chris Redd was supposedly meant to be hired in season 42 - he was initially announced, then it didn’t happen. I don’t know if it’s true but I’ve heard speculation that Melissa was cast in his place. That would help explain why they have never quite known what to do with her. Melissa does have some friends on the show…

I usually saw those as parodies of early ‘90s sitcoms, but I like that we can decide for ourselves. It’s funny you mention that because it was one of those sketches (the cut one from Claire Foy’s episode) that helped convince me to start watching the show more often again instead of just watching when John Mulaney…