The SNL Companion

The very nature of a blog is that you get to put your opinion out there in print for anyone, or preferably everyone, to read.

There are many reasons for this.

But speaking for those of us who do this consistently and with regularity (Note: Because why wouldn’t I?) we also believe we are here to inform, entertain, educate and/or yell and scream at the world when we think it deserves it because someone has to and no one can do it the way it needs to be done except for us.

At our idealistic best, we’re merely trying to help.

At our unvarnished worst, we’re promoting our thoughts and/or ourselves.

Often shamelessly.

So, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s the thing:

My husband and I wrote a fun and informative book on Saturday Night Live that will be released on Sept. 17^th from Rowman & Littlefield and we want you all to read it, enjoy it and, if you can, BUY IT!

It’s titled:

The SNL Companion: An Unofficial Guide to the Seasons, Sketches, and Stars of Saturday Night Live.

(Here’s the link to it on Amazon)

The list price is $36.95 but you can get it for 38% off at $22.81.

And it’s a whopping 648 pages!!

AND IT’S NOT BORING!!!

So here’s the deal and some background.

This book is more than a list of stars, sketches, hosts and musical guests through the seasons. It takes readers through all of the notable highlights, the transitions and the necessary evolutions it took to make SNL the longest-running comedy series on television. Also, through an analysis of all of the historical information, as well as interviews about how the show portrayed what was going on in the country, it becomes a sort of time capsule of comedic and musical American pop culture, as well as a showcase for much of the political and sociological change we’ve endured and evolved from over the last 50 years.

So what you’re saying is…. THIS. BOOK. HAS. EVERYTHING.

This was not necessarily the plan.

It only became that through extensive research on every key sketch (Note: And I mean EVERY) and seasonal high and low and in-between point throughout the history of the series.

We interpreted the information but at the end of the day it’s Lorne Michaels and everyone associated with SNL who deserve the credit. They are responsible for creating the many hundreds of hours of outstanding television memories (Note: Oh, and of course, every episode and season has moments that bomb, that’s the case with every long-running series that’s ever been on television) we had the pleasure, and sometimes appalled bemusement, of reliving.

It’s not like every notable comedy star, writer, director or creator stepped through the doors of SNL since it began. But, well, A LOT of them did. Like — A LOT. As we write in the book:

…Consider the popularity over the last fifty years of films starring: Bill Murray, Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Mike Myers. Or the impact on TV made by shows created by, produced by or starring: Tina Fey, Larry David, Amy Poehler, Jane Curtin, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Conan O’Brien, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Maya Rudolph, Andy Samberg and Will Forte. Not to mention writers and directors like Adam McKay, Michael Schur, Greg Daniels and Bob Odenkirk…

And that’s a partial list that leaves out stand-up comics, Broadway and concert performers, musical guests in pretty much every genre, and even any number of flash-in-the pan one hit or one bit wonders.

Here’s a more polished promotional link from the publisher: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781493072606

Two more personal points worth noting.

My husband and co-author, Stephen Tropiano, published the forerunner to this book, Saturday Night Live FAQ, through Applause Books almost a decade and a half ago. But with the 50^th anniversary coming around and SNL’s enduring influence in the zeitgeist, especially in politics and through a continuous loop of viral moments, R & L (Note: They acquired Applause Books some years ago) asked him to revisit the material and expand the scope.

Knowing I’m a political junkie who can’t resist comment and chronicling my every thought about that and pop culture somewhere, he generously asked me to co-author what has become a much more gargantuan and strangely personal project than we both imagined.

This brings me to the second thought.

One of the best things I ever did in my life was to say “yes” in 1987 when a friend asked me to get together with someone he went to school with at NYU who had just moved to L.A. to get his PhD and didn’t know many people. I took that someone to a party, spent the next three hours talking to him about something I was writing in between a few requisite questions about himself, and then drove him back to his college apartment at USC.

When we got inside we hung out and watched a new episode of SNL where guest host Sean Penn (then married to Madonna) joked about beating up paparazzi (Note: He used to do that kind of stuff and in fact had just done so mere days before the broadcast).

Then we…..well, never mind.

In any event, that was thirty-seven years ago and that someone is now DR. Tropiano, the guy who I am married to and still hanging out with watching SNL.

We should really write a book about that.

Or maybe not.

Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg – “Lazy Sunday”

02.20.22

by notesfromachair

Our Friends and Family

As Russia is just about to invade Ukraine, and the U.S. and its European allies are just about to retaliate by crippling Russia economically, and the combined fallout from those actions are just about to start the 21^st century version of World War III, I spent my Friday night with my good friend Midge Maisel.

Not only that, I plan to spend Sunday night with my new friend Sam, as played by the magnificently freaky Bridget Everett, and might even this week, if I have time and have to escape that badly, finally check in with my four-decade old frenemy Tammy Faye Baker via the unique metamorphosis of Jessica Chastain.

Though I considered loving Lucy (and Desi) a second time if Nicole (and Javier) will have me (Note: As if THEY (or anyone else) have a say these days about ANYTHING I do).

I’m talking about the fourth season of The (indeed) MARVELOUS Mrs. Maisel, the new episodes of the first season of my fellow freaks on HBO’s Somebody Somewhere and the reverse of nostalgia (Note: Rage?) provided by the 2021 feature film I’ve thus far resisted, The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

Not to mention my favorite film (or is it streaming platformed movie) of 2021, Being The Ricardos, which didn’t get a best picture Oscar nomination but should have.

And no, I don’t care that you didn’t like it. I was thoroughly and totally entertained.

As for Russia, F them and the Trump they rode in on.

I write all this to remind myself, and anyone within earshot (or brain-shot), that TV and movies, especially these days, are important.

These people are our friends and family because too often our real family and friends are not to be had or enjoyed at the snap of our fingers.

Even if they are, who knows if they’re our 2022 definition of safe to be around without wearing a f’n mask?

The good ones probably are but when this week we hear that the U.S. Surgeon General’s 4-year-old kid gave him and his wife and their other kid symptomatic COVID all bets are off about what’s safe.

Screw Bill Maher and the rest of his acolytes who are over masks. Safe is safe and sometimes only a pre-selected and pre-screened handful of a virtual few can provide true comfort and joy in an age of duress.

Duress meaning not so much threats or pressure but looming and persistent international insanity.

It might seem strange that a gay male adult of advancing years such as myself could find pleasure in spending time in 1960. But the brittle, sarcastic wit and survival skills of Midge Maisel reminds me of just how much I have survived and just how much I’ve used my humor, brittleness and sarcasm to get me through in the past.

Plus, um, the clothes. I couldn’t fit into them but there is something inspiring when you take the time to match your hat and shirt with the color of your wallpaper. That kind of attention, that effort, well, it does make you believe that anything is possible if you can get yourself motivated enough.

As for Somebody Somewhere, it’s not like I’ve ever lived in, or even been to, small town Kansas. I’m a New York City boy whose idea of exploring the heartland was the two years I spent in grad school and working in Chicago.

However, what Sam and her non-traditional cohort of friends point out to me in each edgy half-hour segment is just how small town everyone’s life truly is when you strip away the big buildings and your own ego.

No amount of sophistication can diffuse the internal rage you inflict on yourself because of the actions of some friend, family member or acquaintance the kid version of yourself endured in the past.

Not to mention, it’s nice to remember that big can be just as small and equally as lethal if you don’t figure out a way to get over yourself and be honest and bold from this moment going forward.

But what the first season of this show helps remind me most is that no one, not any one person, can do this alone. We like to think we’re one-man bands in survival and endurance, especially those of us who see ourselves as survivors.

Really makes you think about how talented Bert is.

Yet watching Ms. Everett and company I’m reminded that often it’s only when you stop pretending and admit that you’re at your absolutely crappiest in the presence of someone you’d normally never tell anything to, and certainly never deign to hang out with, that you learn anything valuable about yourself.

Meaning insanity IS doing the same thing (or person) over and over again but expecting different results. (Note: Thanks Einstein and sorry for the parens).

I can’t explain why I am once again tempted to be in the presence of Tammy Faye since she and her then evangelical hubby remind me of many of the hypocritical bigoted, destructive and hateful forces that truly changed American society for the worst.

Not only do we still feel their effects today but understanding the personal foibles that caused them to create a movement that is still with us in an even more poisonous form somehow makes it all worse.

Many of us got her, and them, then. I mean, is it really that difficult to understand those were the actions of several deluded and damaged people?

But perhaps that’s exactly the reason to spend a few hours with her now. To remind ourselves (Note: Okay, myself) that it’s nice to understand but it’s even better to use that knowledge to move around, over and right damn, gub through them.

In order to diffuse the bomb you need to know what makes it tick, if you want to use World War lingo.

Which leaves us with Lucy (and Desi), who so many of us still love.

I can count on one finger the number of TV characters from the fifties who have survived to this day. And still make us laugh uproariously. And are still loveable.

One.

Finger.

This provides me, and you, with perhaps the greatest gift of all.

To know that survival is, indeed, possible. Especially if you are able to laugh at yourself and the world as it quickly unfolds, and sometimes upends, all around you.

I Love Lucy Theme

notes from a chair

Tag Archives: Will Ferrell

The SNL Companion

Our Friends and Family