Off Week 79: Tunnel Vision (1976)

Oh, Jon Lovitz. Beloved SNL cast member, owner of the one of the most distinct voices of all time, and general all-around weird guy. Here he is, hosting SNL for the first and only time! It's an interesting little snapshot of time: tech oligarchs running roughshod over the president, Norm MacDonald near the end of his tenure at Update, Tim Meadows finally scoring a popular recurring character, and that British nanny that killed a kid. Remember that? Speaking of remembering things, Jane's Addiction is here too, freshly reunited to play only one song, rather poorly! But don't worry, we put aside plenty of time to muse about Bill Bellamy because that's really what we're here for. 

(Originally published on Patreon on August 12, 2024) We're back to the our old Fridays stomping grounds and exploring an important entry in their very first season. On the night before SNL wrapped up it's original era, leaving the future of the show in a state of limbo, Fridays had the chance to plant it's flag in the sand and tell the world that IT was new hot stuff in town. With Devo in tow, they embark on this difficult task and we break it all down, including a sketch not in the rerun version of the show that's available on streaming.

For this years SNL Halloween outing, we're going back 12 whole years to an era of the show that doesn't honestly look or feel too terribly different than the modern show of 2026 in a number of ways. It's the beginning of Jost and Che's run at Update, Mikey Day isn't in the cast yet but still contributes to a large chunk of the sketches, Kenan is screaming at people. Is that good? That's up to you to decide! That all aside, there's still some good fun to found here, including one of the shows better latter day runners and a few bits of inspired sketchin'. It's also the first episode in the cast for Leslie Jones! We also get a Jeff Daniels cameo because we're here to promote Dumb and Dumber To and Iggy Azalea...is here too! Spoooooky! 

Fresh off his historic 83-84 presidential run, Jesse Jackson drops by the show to host a rather oddball outing that is still not without it's many charms. The biggest problem and through-line for the episode though is that the cast and writing staff is Oops! All White People! so they definitely try to have their fun with that, including more blackface and a piece that may have once been part of a larger call-in segment of the show. Not all of it works! Elsewhere, we get a minor classic in The Question Is Moot, Jesse's amusing fascination with cheesy 60s pop tunes, the first appearance of Willie and Frankie and two different gospel performers! Who gets the car? I get the car!  

Folks, we're back! It's time for the tenth season of That Week in SNL to begin and we're kicking off by jumping a year ahead from last season's premiere to dig into the start of S28. It's the first episode without Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer, a pretty major blow to the show, but thankfully we also get the debut of both Will Forte and Fred Armisen, a pretty major boon to the show. Sadly it's still 2002 though, so American culture is absolute trash and it's reflected pretty harshly here in this episode. We've got some dire Justin Timberlake/Britney Spears material, one of the meanest, ugliest TV Funhouses of all time and a general feeling of flailing about, including one of the more baffling season-starting cold opens we've ever seen. It's not without small pockets of charm but boy...this might've been a mistake.

(Originally published on Patreon on July 29, 2024) Long considered not only one of the worst sketch movies of all time but simply just one of the worst movies of all time, period, we're finally diving into The Underground Comedy Movie, the first (of two!) cinematic atrocities from Vince Offer (the Sham-Wow guy). Eddie Ham and Mattalamode are on hand this time to trudge through the history of this film, the similarities to it's sequel/half re-make and try to make sense of the horrors unfolding in front of us. 

(Originally published on Patreon on July 14, 2004) We've finally landed halfway through the run of the New Show and this time we're bringing on Jon Schneider and William Ham to once again try and figure just what the hell is going on with this odd, odd show. Thankfully, William was there on the ground floor, watching the episode when it aired and by god, even has some pleasant memories attached to it, which is a brand new twist to our coverage of the show! 

(Originally published on Patreon July 1, 2024) Inspired by Ken Shapiro's Channel One theater and The Groove Tube, Neal Israel and a ragtag gang of folks wrangled up one of the more insane cast lists in sketch comedy history to do the same thing, except this time with some LA flair. William Ham and Eddie Ham are on deck to try and uncover this semi-obscure film's production history and discuss some of the more intriguing moments it has in store for us. Read Eddie's interview with writer Rowby Goren here: https://fryvaultgrab.blogspot.com/2024/06/interview-with-rowby-goren-laugh-in.html

(Originally published on Patreon on June 17, 2024) Just like last year, we had y'all chose one episode from S49 for us to cover and this time around, it was Sydney Sweeney who won out. We discuss the trials and tribulations of the season as a whole and dig into how this episode in particular navigates those pitfalls. We get some good, we get some very bad and throw some grandmas in a bag.  

(Originally published on Patreon on May 6, 2024) Just as the Ebersol era was getting underway, Lorne Michaels and a ragtag collection of the OG crew sneak back into studio 8H to pull off Steve Martin's final NBC special. Probably most notable for John Belushi's final live, televised performance, it also includes more Dan Aykroyd than you can shake a stick at, the soothing presence of Gregory Hines, and lands at a truly intriguing moment in Steve's career. William Ham and Eddie Ham (no relation) are back on board to dig through the ditches, burn through the witches and slam in the back of this strange little oddity.