That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)

Andrew Dick/Tim Cicali
That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)

Join us as we explore vintage episodes of SNL, analyzing the show and the bizarre pop culture ephemera that surrounded it. Tangents are had. Jokes are made.

  1. JUN 9

    Off Week 62: Quinta Brunson/Lil Yachty (April 1, 2023)

    (Originally posted on May 15, 2023) We're doing something we haven't done in a looooong time: doing an Off Week episode about the current season of SNL. Timmy has more or less missed the bulk of the season and so, as selected by you, our lovely Patrons, we're digging into the Quinta Brunson episode to see if we can win him over. Will we find some boom stamp classics? Will we find some bombs? I mean...yeah. It's SNL. We probably will. The real question is; how the hell do you rate Lil Yachty?

    1h 48m

  2. MAY 23

    Episode 145: Elliott Gould/Leon Redbone, Harlan Collins & Joyce Everson (May 29, 1976)

    It's the end of our eighth season of the podcast and so we're celebrating by going all the back to the season finale of the very first season (well, if you don't count those summer episodes as being part of the season). Anyway, our ol' pal Jon Schneider is back with us again to discuss Elliott Gould's second hosting gig and what be the first of many for musical guest Leon Redbone. This episode is mostly known for Micheal O'Donoghue's lengthy Star Trek sketch and generally not much else and truth to be told, I had vague memories of it just kinda being a gassed out finale with a mini-epic tossed in the middle. But no! Turns out there's more here than meets the eye, including the first of the show's two moments of female nudity, Collins & Everson performing a song that would never be officially released, and a strange 1930s-ish theming to the whole thing. So join us as we close out our season the only way we know how: by talking WAY too long about vintage comedy. Who loves ya, baby?

    2h 28m

  3. MAY 9

    Episode 144: John Goodman/Jewel (May 10, 1997)

    Sometimes you get towards the end of a season, you're getting tired and you just say "screw it" and hit the big red button labeled John Goodman. It's the eighth time hosting for the beloved character actor and this go-around gives us a chance to finally cover a perennial SNL favorite that has somehow alluded this podcast: Celebrity Jeopardy. Elsewhere, it's a pretty typical slice of this era: some real diffie takes on current events, recurring sketches aplenty (featuring the debut of Collette Reardon), a Mike Myers cameo and so on and so forth. Grab a glass of your favorite vintage of Will Ferrell vomit and enjoy.

    1h 44m

  4. APR 25

    Episode 143: Joan Rivers/Musical Youth (April 9, 1983)

    Pass the podcast 'pon the left hand side, ammirite? Ha ha ha. We have fun. And speaking of fun, here's a wild one from the Ebersol years. Joan Rivers! Y'all know her. Comedienne extraordinaire, red carpet correspondent and world class Liz Taylor hater. She's here to host one of the loudest episodes of the show's history, complete with one of the show's most strangely under-seen moments of joyfully coming off the rails. And then there's poor Musical Youth, exhaustedly performing their early 80s hits late in the night's proceedings. It's a bit of a mess and Update...ooh boy, Update. Are the bits of shocking racism and Joan River's bursting-at-the-seams energy enough to sink Timmy's ship or will the gleeful madness save him in the nick of time? Tune in to find out.

    1h 47m

  5. APR 11

    Episode 142: Ron Nessen/Patti Smith Group (April 17, 1976)

    It's another historical outing for the show, with the first political figure to ever host the show: Ron Nessen, Press Secretary for Gerald Ford! What better way for Ford to gain some momentum in the upcoming election against Jimmy Carter then make it seem like he's in on all the fun going on down at SNL? Just have Ron host the show, Ford can make a few pre-taped appearances, everything will be fine! Except it wasn't. Arriving late in the week, Ron didn't quite realize that the show had quietly written it's raunchiest outing to date, but with no time to do anything about it, well...the show must go on. In the end, Ron and Ford were made to look quite the fools indeed. But what about the show? Well, it lands an early classic (Super Bass-O-Matic), exposes America to some early punk with Patti Smith and keeps it's counter-culture image intact by making a fool of the president. Not bad for a show that was still trying to figure out just what the hell it was.

    1h 27m

  6. MAR 28

    Episode 141: Gary Busey/Eubie Blake & Gregory Hines (March 10, 1979)

    I've been meaning to get around to this one forever and so, by god by Gumby, we finally did it. William Ham returns to fold to discuss an episode that I firmly believe might be the most underrated of the entire OG era. Few outings of the show crackle with as much southern chaos as this one and that's not entirely surprising considering, ya know, Gary, a host the show gives way to so completely that he's actually doing a double duty stint here (with Rick Danko & Paul Butterfield in tow). And then you got Eubie Blake and Gregory Hines as well? Man, this one is a fun one. So pull up a chair, fellow slop jockeys, and join us as we try to figure out just what the Hot Bone is.

    2h 1m

  7. MAR 14

    Episode 140: Mr. T & Hulk Hogan/The Commodores (March 30, 1985)

    The night before the very first Wrestlemania, Mr. T and Hulk Hogan drop by to host the show together...except they mostly don't. It was supposed to be Steve Landesberg but he had to drop out for reasons. I guess? He's still a special guest though, as well as Liberace, Bob Orton Jr. and Rowdy Roddy Piper. I know I say this a lot, but this is an ODD one. It's basically a host-less episode, one of the rare episodes with no Update and the best moments of the show coming from places you would least expect them. And you get The Commodores post Lionel Richie, which is sadly, not great.

    1h 54m

  8. FEB 28

    Episode 139: Roseanne and Tom Arnold/Red Hot Chili Peppers (Feb. 22, 1992)

    Here'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.

    1h 47m
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4.2
out of 5
81 Ratings

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Join us as we explore vintage episodes of SNL, analyzing the show and the bizarre pop culture ephemera that surrounded it. Tangents are had. Jokes are made.

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