Part of the reason, or so it's said, the Klein show is so weak is that Lorne Michaels had walked off the show because of a control-room error the previous week (the person working the switches at WNBC thought one of their commercial parodies was an actual commercial and cued up a local ad in its place) and spent most…

I believe that the ABBA-on-the-Titanic idea was O'Donoghue's.  (Dick Ebersol pulled rank and insisted they go on; O'Donoghue considered them kitsch and came up with the idea to make that clear.)  A case of loose lip-sync sinks ships, or something.

And Belushi outsang and outperformed him in every way, to Cocker's visible displeasure.

Two niggling, anal clarifications:  1) the Brooks bit you're referring to appears in his first-aired SNL film, The Impossible Truth, and it's Brooks' brother (chuckle) Cliff Einstein as the man.  (And for those who don't know, Einstein is Albert Brooks' real last name; you do the math.)  2) Schiller didn't do "Babies…

I've been waiting months for this episode to come up, just so I can ask this question: Did anybody else think that the scene of an unseen Phil berating Tony and Carmine, shot compositions and all, was a secret homage to the "French Taunter" scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (or a combination of that and the…

I've been waiting months for this episode to come up, just so I can ask this question: Did anybody else think that the scene of an unseen Phil berating Tony and Carmine, shot compositions and all, was a secret homage to the "French Taunter" scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (or a combination of that and the…

All I know is that they'd better be played by actual cannibals, or I'm gonna be very upset.  (And no, Hugh Grant is not half-cannibal, as some people keep insisting - yes, his mother ate a man's arm once, but those Scottish buffets can get very confusing if you're not paying attention.)

All I know is that they'd better be played by actual cannibals, or I'm gonna be very upset.  (And no, Hugh Grant is not half-cannibal, as some people keep insisting - yes, his mother ate a man's arm once, but those Scottish buffets can get very confusing if you're not paying attention.)

I'm down with most all of those, and I'd add the "Mona Lisa" sketch from the Karen Black episode (Rocket is uncharacteristically low-key and likable there, which is nice to see), "Dying to Be Heard" from Jamie Lee Curtis' show (smart, dark premise - a show where aspiring female poets commit suicide on-air to attain…

I'm down with most all of those, and I'd add the "Mona Lisa" sketch from the Karen Black episode (Rocket is uncharacteristically low-key and likable there, which is nice to see), "Dying to Be Heard" from Jamie Lee Curtis' show (smart, dark premise - a show where aspiring female poets commit suicide on-air to attain…

I preferred the full-cast version, with Bill Russell as Von Ribbentrop, Dr. J as Dr. Mengele, and Dennis Rodman as Eva Braun.  And a special guest appearance by Max "Slats" Zaslofsky as six million Jews.

I preferred the full-cast version, with Bill Russell as Von Ribbentrop, Dr. J as Dr. Mengele, and Dennis Rodman as Eva Braun.  And a special guest appearance by Max "Slats" Zaslofsky as six million Jews.

Always a favorite detail of mine: the Peanuts-derived euphemisms for genitalia, which rings true as something they would have been taught as kids and never quite grew out of.  (Apparently, the vagina is a "lucy" in Bluth-world, though I don't know if it ever actually got mentioned on the show as such.  I'd break out…

Always a favorite detail of mine: the Peanuts-derived euphemisms for genitalia, which rings true as something they would have been taught as kids and never quite grew out of.  (Apparently, the vagina is a "lucy" in Bluth-world, though I don't know if it ever actually got mentioned on the show as such.  I'd break out…

Nice bit o' commentary: when Noblet states that "95% of debate comes down to physical appearance - what you say is less important than how you look when you're saying it," one of the examples listed on the blackboard behind him is "KENNEDY vs. NIXON."

Nice bit o' commentary: when Noblet states that "95% of debate comes down to physical appearance - what you say is less important than how you look when you're saying it," one of the examples listed on the blackboard behind him is "KENNEDY vs. NIXON."

Is anybody else of the opinion that SWC is, I dunno, about eighty times better than South Park ever was?  I'll grant that the movie spin-off of the latter beats the hell out of the movie spin-off of the former, but still and all…

Is anybody else of the opinion that SWC is, I dunno, about eighty times better than South Park ever was?  I'll grant that the movie spin-off of the latter beats the hell out of the movie spin-off of the former, but still and all…

You can't go wrong with any of his four early "vocal" albums - Here Come the Warm Jets is probably my favorite.  Fripp's solo on "Baby's On Fire" may be the best guitar solo of all time.

You can't go wrong with any of his four early "vocal" albums - Here Come the Warm Jets is probably my favorite.  Fripp's solo on "Baby's On Fire" may be the best guitar solo of all time.