Abby tended to go for long stretches without anything to do so I can see why people would think she was only on briefly.

From just looking at the photo I initially thought Toni was making a movie with Ed Helms.

Yes, and I think Louis was booked in before he got his Oscar, so it made him look a bit bad having such gunk as the followup.

Or The Powers of Matthew Starr, where they seemed to find as many ‘mature’ high school extras as possible to mask how badly suited Peter Barton was for the role. 

Wasn’t the age issue a pretty large criticism of The Politician (along with how terrible the writing was)?

That cracked me up. The other I saw that amused me was that he looked like a Kyle Mooney character. 

I’m fond of Grease, but the whole film is an obvious pastiche of the ‘50s rather than an attempt at reality. And that’s fine with me because Stockard Channing kills in that film even if she looks 40, but it’s definitely not something a realistic drama should emulate. 

The end flagged a bit, but the piece felt much more ‘alive’ than a lot of modern SNL does. Really committed performance by Keegan too, with Kenan’s reactions a great backup. It helped that we got to see the puppets being traumatized and actually reacting. 

This reminds me of John Mulaney’s attempts to get SNL to have a Weekend Update segment hosted by kids. I guess with the popularity of Sack Lunch Bunch and the desperation for different ideas, everything clicked into place.

True. I guess it depends on whether they originated the character at the show (Martin didn’t). Or maybe that doesn’t matter and he and SNL didn’t really want to do them, I don’t know. Mo Collins did some Youtube videos last year as Lorraine, after all...

I wonder if he was in a hurry to find an impressionist, as Darrell Hammond was having a lot of personal problems (he had to go to rehab in the middle of that season, which is one of the reasons Chris Parnell was rehired).

I feel like the female cast can pick up the slack if she leaves - they have been somewhat stunted by just how dominant she has been (although at least it never got to Kristen Wiig levels of suppression).

Cecily had some family problems and was sick for some of last season. This season she missed the first half to film her Apple TV show with Keegan. She’s missed a few more since - my best guess is she is phasing herself out of the show.

I am not sure he had the rights to his Mad TV characters.

Keegan has said he’s a big fan of the show - he even said he used to listen to sketches on a cassette tape when he was a kid. Of course people say that, doesn’t mean they are being honest, but he seemed absolutely thrilled to be there, even during the musical guest intros. I wish the writing had been better (as…

Of course Keegan is now working on an Apple TV show produced by Lorne Michaels, so while Mad TV did produce new talent (many of whom have never gotten the careers they should have had), Lorne’s power was never challenged. It’s just branched out.

Mikey and Beck were Statler and Waldorf.

This was David’s second episode, I think. He’d hosted the season before, which definitely was a rebuilding year, and was fantastic. I read somewhere that he was asked to join the cast, but declined. 

I’ve only seen The Vacant Lot a few times, but I would say it manages to have its own voice even if it only existed to try to carry on from Kids in the Hall. The cast is a bit more ragged and the concepts feel more abstract. 

The shot of the band member early on feels relatively common, but they had sort of worked out the running order better for a while this season so that we didn’t have as many of the clunky band shots late in the episode. I guess this week ran off schedule more than usual.