We were extremely lucky to get tickets for the April 5th, 1980 episode broadcast. We had insider information that the Grateful Dead were the musical guests and Paula Prentiss was to be the hostess. Richard Benjamin was hired as co-host. At that time it was next to impossible to get tickets for the show, as it was the hottest thing on television and the audience balcony in studio 8H was small.
My memory of season five for SNL is that the quality of sketches was very uneven, especially in the first half of the season. It did seem to improve after the hundredth episode. Also, I was very disappointed that Garrett Morris was not given more to do in season 5 after the departure of Belushi & Ackroyd.
Wow, Buck Henry doin’ it ten times. I remember his skits being great and thanks to your videos I see more clearly how he was a real symbol of the show’s greatness.
I remember the protest signs: "No More Buck!" "The Buck Stops Here!" "Buck Off!" At the time... I had NO IDEA he was one of the people involved with "GET SMART", which is still one of my all-time favorite comedy shows.
I'm very curious to see how this series covers the years that Lorne was absent. Despite Lorne trying to act like those years never happened, it could be argued that Murphy, Gross, and Kazurinsky saved the show. I hope they get the respect they deserve, especially Mary and Tim.
Actually, the show was reeling from the loss of Aykroyd and Belushi and was the worst one since the first season. Of course, it was about to get a whole lot worse very soon...
David Bowie is one of the best Musical Guests during this fifth season of SNL. I saw some of his performance at the David Bowie Is exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 2018.
Thanks as always. We're through the 'golden age' already. SNL would never be this massive again - to this day you still see many people who say this was the only time they watched the show. I believe the premiere may be the highest rated episode. This is often an extremely fatigued season, to put it kindly, but a fascinating one - the Chevy Chase episode has some of the show's most disorienting moments, with sketches like You Can't Win and Talking Letter haunting...for very different reasons. This also has one of the most notorious musical performances via Marianne Faithfull, who I believe claimed that she had been slipped a drug before her numbers. They certainly are one of a kind ("Guilt," her second performance, is very good). There were a number of hosts and musical guests who were booked this season because Lorne allowed writers and cast to give him suggestions. I can't remember most of them, but I think Jane Curtin asked for Anne Murray as an MG, and Jim Downey asked for Strother Martin (a delightful host). I'd guess Franken and Davis were a big reason for the booking of the Grateful Dead.
I’m hooked. I wish these came out daily! I appreciate and understand the love and work put in to these videos and thank you for them. Can’t wait for the next one!
I got to talk to Charlene Tilton, who did the infamous episode with Charles rocket where he cursed live on the air and gave me inside information about what happened after the show ended
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the controversial “First He Cries” sketch on the Bea Arthur episode. I had read that that sketch got the highest number of outraged phone calls to the network, later surpassed by Sinead O’Connor ripping up a picture of the Pope.
Love this series. I fully accept calling this the writer’s season. Let’s expand and say this was the Women’s Empowerment Season. Rosie and Anne got female-centric pieces on air, and Jane and Laraine either introduced or expanded on their recurring characters. Gilda remained front and center with the Nerds, Roseanne, etc.
You did not mention during the Chevy Chase appearance they did one of the grossest sketches ever Pre Chew Charlie’s a spoof of the tri-state area restaurant beef steak Charlie’s. In fact, Bill Murray is wearing the clothes from that sketch in the duet with Chevy Chase.
This is a lot of fun. My brother used to babysit me when I was 9 but he'd let me stay up and watch SNL. I remember the vomitorium sketch. How can you not?
My favorite season of SNL was the 90/91 season - only because it was the first season where I was old enough to stay up to watch it. It turned out to be kind of a weird transition season, with some holdovers from the 80s mixed with some new cast members that would later be part of the Farley/Spade/Sandler era.
I remember watching the interview with Paul and Linda McCartney. That was right after his drug bust in Japan. Lorraine Newman's facial expression at 12:48 is kind of sad to watch. I guess she knew it was all over. Thanks for creating this series!
12:00 The "Lord and Lady Douchebag" was and still remains one of the funniest bits in SNL history. More than four decades after it originally aired, I still laugh out loud while watching it.
When Gary Numan performed on SNL, February 1980, Numan's performance included screen-overlaid subtitles, I guess owing to his strong accent. Was the first (and I think only) time SNL added subtitles for the musical guest. I recall Numan did 'Cars', and 'Praying to The Aliens', the latter song was subtitled.
I thought it a scream that they caught Nixon on camera right at the end of that episode -- Nixon trying to just get back into his new New York digs with Father Guido (totally in character) pressing him with questions.
Hi, I have five seasons of SNL My mother got me the fourth season and my father got me the fifth.. I could imagine in heaven that's our closure we got our firstborn SNL season!🙂
I believe this is the 1st season my hometown of Pittsburgh got to see. The NBC affiliate WPXI formerly WIIC already had a show in that timeslot Chiller Theater with Bill Cardille. The show had been on since the early 60s and was a hit for the channel. Bill Cardille to those not from Pittsburgh was the reporter interviewing the Sheriff in Night of the Living Dead. Well by 1979 NBC forced WPXI to show SNL which moved Chiller Theater to air after it and killed their rating it went off the air in 1984.
Love the series. Can’t wait to see it all the way through 49. At the end of this one, you mention about Curtin, Newman and Radner, that this is the last time the three “would appear together in a canonical episode.” By how do you mean “canonical”? Never really thought of SNL to have a canon.
Totally forgot this 5th season, and I am sure I'd watched it as I was a freshman in high school at the time, but also am now remembering I was offended by a lot of it. Unbelievable how much was not censored out, how much NY performers were running away from the '70s in those already 1960's-inspired clothing styles and I probably (even as a young teen) couldn't figure out what was going on with some of those ultra-hip Euro-type musical acts (some of whose names mentioned here I absolutely don't recall). Those New Wave acts looked like they landed from another planet when you consider what the average person looked like at the time (I was not ready for the '80s). My classmates were also attempting to keep the past alive judging by tastes in music that were popular - among them.
It seems strange that I remember what a big star Elliott Gould was, and people under 50 have no idea who he is. It's like my grandfather talking about Al Jolson or something.
Bill Murray was mad and hurt that Ackroyd and Belushi left. He felt that they left him behind. He also referred to himself as "the white man", since they didn't replace Dan and John, he was the only white male and was in almost every sketch.
I forgot how much better the earlier seasons were, there was room for hosts who were talented Fringe celebrities where is nowadays the most popular book about celebrities are the ones who host often sans talent
I remember this season during one of the Theodoric of York sketches that one of the live pigs they had on the show went out of control! If anyone could see that sketch it looks like Gilda was absolutely terrified of the pig
I still havent watched 80-85, ive seen everything else. So the next few episodes of this will be “spoilers” for me. But i can’t wait to find out what i missed.
This season was a zero watch for my then-husband and me because we discovered the exciting worlds of Saturday Night Duplicate Bridge and Dinner Parties!! Actually it sounds as if we didn't miss too much on SNL. We had been pretty loyal watchers of previous seasons. [Favorite recurring segments: LANDSHARK!! and Musical Guests of 60's, 70's rockers and well-known artists of previous decades.] [Least favorite segments: anything with Father Guido Sarducci; too much dependence on Steve Martin]
So, everybody goes crazy the French artists making a Cirque du Soleil type reenactment of a painting of the last supper yet they couldn't even do a funny nativity scene. Still uptight.
All of my friends from school couldn't wait to get together to watch every Saturday night, we would have older friends sneak in Little Kings for all of us to drink. The final show was our senior year with the old Saturday Night Live cast and we knew it was over, the next season and every other were trash!!
I think for the 50th anniversary of SNL coming in the 2024-2025 season, Lorne Michaels should have an OG cast member host a show as the season progresses. Out of the seven, there are five still around: Chase, Morris, Ackroyd, Curtain, and Newman. It would be an awesome tribute after 50 years to where the show is presently. And then Lorne should retire and let Tina Fey take the reins of the show.
How can there be a non-canonical episode of SNL? Are you talking about the Steve Martin special with Curtain, Newman, and Radner? It’s funny I just saw that for the first time in 40 years recently.
I think I stopped watching in season 4. At some point around this time I discovered a show on my local PBS station called Doctor Who. (look at my avatar, hint hint...)
How long does it take to do one if these segments? I'm very interested in them, but I was hoping they were ALL done so I could watch them in succession. It's not nice to wait for each one. I would like to see more details come out. I'm especially hopeful that you give much credit to the show during the '88 to '93 era as it was my personal favorite!
It's really about the reaction consequences of a time where you got fired, not eternally canceled or sued into the ground, for fking up on the air. Paul wouldn't be coming back... C.Rocket got fired.
I’d forgotten some of the people added to the “ original cast” as well . Shearer I liked ok , the rest I think everyone could live without. Franken was a creep from the start , never cared for him .
We were extremely lucky to get tickets for the April 5th, 1980 episode broadcast. We had insider information that the Grateful Dead were the musical guests and Paula Prentiss was to be the hostess. Richard Benjamin was hired as co-host. At that time it was next to impossible to get tickets for the show, as it was the hottest thing on television and the audience balcony in studio 8H was small.
It was much cooler back then
My memory of season five for SNL is that the quality of sketches was very uneven, especially in the first half of the season. It did seem to improve after the hundredth episode. Also, I was very disappointed that Garrett Morris was not given more to do in season 5 after the departure of Belushi & Ackroyd.
My birthday... and I'm a Deadhead
Good Lovin' !
During Buck Henry's monologue for the final episode where he introduces a fake new cast for the following season is hilarious
This is a tremendous series. I'm hooked
Wow, Buck Henry doin’ it ten times. I remember his skits being great and thanks to your videos I see more clearly how he was a real symbol of the show’s greatness.
I remember the protest signs: "No More Buck!" "The Buck Stops Here!" "Buck Off!" At the time... I had NO IDEA he was one of the people involved with "GET SMART", which is still one of my all-time favorite comedy shows.
I'm very curious to see how this series covers the years that Lorne was absent.
Despite Lorne trying to act like those years never happened, it could be argued that Murphy, Gross, and Kazurinsky saved the show. I hope they get the respect they deserve, especially Mary and Tim.
I never thought Gross was all that good, I liked Kazurinski though
Karurinski was great! I love him on Weekend Update doing that bit with words.
It Don't get much better than this series!
Actually, the show was reeling from the loss of Aykroyd and Belushi and was the worst one since the first season. Of course, it was about to get a whole lot worse very soon...
@@mikeymutual5489not to be that person but I think they were referring to the video series
@@michaelvisser6286 Ah, I got ya. Enjoying the series so far as well.
I truly love this yearly overview of each seasons! Keep up the good work!!!
David Bowie is one of the best Musical Guests during this fifth season of SNL. I saw some of his performance at the David Bowie Is exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 2018.
Looking forward to the next episode and a recap of the disastrous season 6. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into these.
Yes, will you be continuing this series beyond the first five years?
This SNL Series has been great !!
Thanks as always. We're through the 'golden age' already. SNL would never be this massive again - to this day you still see many people who say this was the only time they watched the show. I believe the premiere may be the highest rated episode.
This is often an extremely fatigued season, to put it kindly, but a fascinating one - the Chevy Chase episode has some of the show's most disorienting moments, with sketches like You Can't Win and Talking Letter haunting...for very different reasons. This also has one of the most notorious musical performances via Marianne Faithfull, who I believe claimed that she had been slipped a drug before her numbers. They certainly are one of a kind ("Guilt," her second performance, is very good).
There were a number of hosts and musical guests who were booked this season because Lorne allowed writers and cast to give him suggestions. I can't remember most of them, but I think Jane Curtin asked for Anne Murray as an MG, and Jim Downey asked for Strother Martin (a delightful host). I'd guess Franken and Davis were a big reason for the booking of the Grateful Dead.
Loving these season by season stories! Thank you.
I’m so into this YT. I watched the latest video and thought it was great. That ‘86 season seems underrated.
I’m hooked. I wish these came out daily! I appreciate and understand the love and work put in to these videos and thank you for them. Can’t wait for the next one!
Oh man, the next episode is gonna be brutal. I can't wait!
Should be a lot of fun. The 1980 season was a disaster. Episode will probably be 30 minutes. 😂
This one was painful by itself
I got to talk to Charlene Tilton, who did the infamous episode with Charles rocket where he cursed live on the air and gave me inside information about what happened after the show ended
@@michaelrochester48 let's hear it, man!
@@michaelrochester48 🦬💩
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the controversial “First He Cries” sketch on the Bea Arthur episode. I had read that that sketch got the highest number of outraged phone calls to the network, later surpassed by Sinead O’Connor ripping up a picture of the Pope.
Great job guys! It's great to revisit the golden years of SNL!
I'm loving this series. Good stuff in here.
Love this series. I fully accept calling this the writer’s season. Let’s expand and say this was the Women’s Empowerment Season. Rosie and Anne got female-centric pieces on air, and Jane and Laraine either introduced or expanded on their recurring characters. Gilda remained front and center with the Nerds, Roseanne, etc.
thank you - this is a wonderful record of a historical show.
You did not mention during the Chevy Chase appearance they did one of the grossest sketches ever Pre Chew Charlie’s a spoof of the tri-state area restaurant beef steak Charlie’s. In fact, Bill Murray is wearing the clothes from that sketch in the duet with Chevy Chase.
This season was my freshman year in college. I don't remember watching a single episode.
4:48 "Impression" being a generous term.
You should have mentionned at 3:20 the rare presence of Klaus Nomi behind Bowie.
You guys are going to get rich and famous!!!! Keep up the excellent work!!!❤👏👏👏👏🌞💕💗🌺🥰😎
This is a lot of fun.
My brother used to babysit me when I was 9 but he'd let me stay up and watch SNL. I remember the vomitorium sketch. How can you not?
So many of these I remember! One of my fave lines had to be Bill Russell asking... "Mom-- is it because I'm BLACK?"
My favorite season of SNL was the 90/91 season - only because it was the first season where I was old enough to stay up to watch it. It turned out to be kind of a weird transition season, with some holdovers from the 80s mixed with some new cast members that would later be part of the Farley/Spade/Sandler era.
I remember watching the interview with Paul and Linda McCartney. That was right after his drug bust in Japan. Lorraine Newman's facial expression at 12:48 is kind of sad to watch. I guess she knew it was all over. Thanks for creating this series!
Nice shoutout to G.E. Smith. Before becoming musical director he will spend 5 years at the height of Hall and Oates Career recording and touring.
This might not the best season, but, for me, the most interesting. A sign of changing times from one decade and era.
12:00 The "Lord and Lady Douchebag" was and still remains one of the funniest bits in SNL history. More than four decades after it originally aired, I still laugh out loud while watching it.
If I recall correctly, when Lord Douchebag was asked what he was drinking, he answered "vinegar and water."
I got to talk to one of the writers and actors from that Alan Zweibel
I am LOVING this!
EXCELLENT!
Can't wait for the Doumanian drama.
@@jbizz80 They could make a two parter out of it.
Lord and lady Douchebag is the best all time SNL sketch by far.
This was the season also with one of the most hilarious parodies ever of the Beverly hillbillies the Bel Airabs
Granted John Belushi & Dan Aykroyd had left the previous season but the sketches were still hilarious.
These videos have been great!
You have forgot to mention Blonde were the first musical guest of the Season 5 premiere.
Also the B-52s!
Great coverage of season 5. Thank you!
I was at the season 5 finale show. Very emotional.
@@dianek4621I’d love to hear more about your experience at that show!
When Gary Numan performed on SNL, February 1980, Numan's performance included screen-overlaid subtitles, I guess owing to his strong accent. Was the first (and I think only) time SNL added subtitles for the musical guest. I recall Numan did 'Cars', and 'Praying to The Aliens', the latter song was subtitled.
Looking forward to season 6. It will probably be a long one to describe what went wrong, and there's A LOT.
I thought it a scream that they caught Nixon on camera right at the end of that episode -- Nixon trying to just get back into his new New York digs with Father Guido (totally in character) pressing him with questions.
Hi, I have five seasons of SNL My mother got me the fourth season and my father got me the fifth.. I could imagine in heaven that's our closure we got our firstborn SNL season!🙂
Only because my mother passed away in August, 2021 that's her closure from our father
I believe this is the 1st season my hometown of Pittsburgh got to see. The NBC affiliate WPXI formerly WIIC already had a show in that timeslot Chiller Theater with Bill Cardille. The show had been on since the early 60s and was a hit for the channel. Bill Cardille to those not from Pittsburgh was the reporter interviewing the Sheriff in Night of the Living Dead. Well by 1979 NBC forced WPXI to show SNL which moved Chiller Theater to air after it and killed their rating it went off the air in 1984.
Harry Sheerer is the unsung hero here. No one was prepared for Derk Small's Mark II!
I love these!!!
Love the series. Can’t wait to see it all the way through 49.
At the end of this one, you mention about Curtin, Newman and Radner, that this is the last time the three “would appear together in a canonical episode.” By how do you mean “canonical”? Never really thought of SNL to have a canon.
Thanks! SNL has also aired anniversary shows and other specials that are non-canonical to the 11:30pm-1:00am traditional Saturday night broadcast
Gilda Radners first husband was G.E. Smith.
Awesome series!
Comedy Central used to Show the Classic series but entitled "The Best of Saturday Night" .
Thanks!
Thank you so much!
Totally forgot this 5th season, and I am sure I'd watched it as I was a freshman in high school at the time, but also am now remembering I was offended by a lot of it. Unbelievable how much was not censored out, how much NY performers were running away from the '70s in those already 1960's-inspired clothing styles and I probably (even as a young teen) couldn't figure out what was going on with some of those ultra-hip Euro-type musical acts (some of whose names mentioned here I absolutely don't recall). Those New Wave acts looked like they landed from another planet when you consider what the average person looked like at the time (I was not ready for the '80s). My classmates were also attempting to keep the past alive judging by tastes in music that were popular - among them.
It seems strange that I remember what a big star Elliott Gould was, and people under 50 have no idea who he is. It's like my grandfather talking about Al Jolson or something.
This videos are amazing
Great stuff
The rise of Saturday Night and comedy savior Eddie Murphy is coming baby ...
Looking forward to the next one :)
Buck Henry is my favorite SNL host.
As a teenager, we thought SNL was so cool and we were cool watching it back then. ❤
Bill Murray was mad and hurt that Ackroyd and Belushi left. He felt that they left him behind. He also referred to himself as "the white man", since they didn't replace Dan and John, he was the only white male and was in almost every sketch.
I forgot how much better the earlier seasons were, there was room for hosts who were talented Fringe celebrities where is nowadays the most popular book about celebrities are the ones who host often sans talent
I remember this season during one of the Theodoric of York sketches that one of the live pigs they had on the show went out of control! If anyone could see that sketch it looks like Gilda was absolutely terrified of the pig
That’s Senator Al Franken.
So, G.E. Smith has ALWAYS been unwatchably self-aware
David Bowie and KLAUS NOMI!!
4:25 - I've been told that G.E. Smith is Les Paul's grandson.
This was right before SNL entered its first era of "suck."
I still havent watched 80-85, ive seen everything else. So the next few episodes of this will be “spoilers” for me. But i can’t wait to find out what i missed.
I am realizing that I didn't watch this season at all. I was 18, and had watched faithfully since it began. I guess I was just over it at that point.
This season was a zero watch for my then-husband and me because we discovered the exciting worlds of Saturday Night Duplicate Bridge and Dinner Parties!!
Actually it sounds as if we didn't miss too much on SNL. We had been pretty loyal watchers of previous seasons.
[Favorite recurring segments: LANDSHARK!! and Musical Guests of 60's, 70's rockers and well-known artists of previous decades.]
[Least favorite segments: anything with Father Guido Sarducci; too much dependence on Steve Martin]
"Innovative". Try LEGENDARY David Bowie
So, everybody goes crazy the French artists making a Cirque du Soleil type reenactment of a painting of the last supper yet they couldn't even do a funny nativity scene. Still uptight.
Is Franco still dead?
When is the next one for season 6 ?
This Thursday, July 25!
I thought Eddie Murphy was on one of the 1st five seasons
All of my friends from school couldn't wait to get together to watch every Saturday night, we would have older friends sneak in Little Kings for all of us to drink. The final show was our senior year with the old Saturday Night Live cast and we knew it was over, the next season and every other were trash!!
I think for the 50th anniversary of SNL coming in the 2024-2025 season, Lorne Michaels should have an OG cast member host a show as the season progresses. Out of the seven, there are five still around: Chase, Morris, Ackroyd, Curtain, and Newman. It would be an awesome tribute after 50 years to where the show is presently. And then Lorne should retire and let Tina Fey take the reins of the show.
^Like #666...
Looking forward to the next episodes, but truly these were the best years of SNL.
Y’all didn’t have anything to say about Dylan?
How can there be a non-canonical episode of SNL? Are you talking about the Steve Martin special with Curtain, Newman, and Radner? It’s funny I just saw that for the first time in 40 years recently.
Exactly! And anniversary specials
No mention of the Grateful Dead performance? Not one word? Come on guys.
I think I stopped watching in season 4. At some point around this time I discovered a show on my local PBS station called Doctor Who. (look at my avatar, hint hint...)
How long does it take to do one if these segments? I'm very interested in them, but I was hoping they were ALL done so I could watch them in succession. It's not nice to wait for each one.
I would like to see more details come out. I'm especially hopeful that you give much credit to the show during the '88 to '93 era as it was my personal favorite!
The 80's started on 1-1-81
Nah, the 80s started on 1-1-79.
@@mrchopsticks3 nag the 80s started 10-1981.... the year/month I was born. 😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The 80s started when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated and said Good Morning America. 1-20-81
Klaus Nomi?
yep
Kirk Douglas. Huh.
Why wasn't there a firestorm after Paul Shaffer dropped the f-bomb like there was when Charles Rocket did it?
He said it in an English accent?
It's really about the reaction consequences of a time where you got fired, not eternally canceled or sued into the ground, for fking up on the air.
Paul wouldn't be coming back... C.Rocket got fired.
Stop saying penultimate
You throw around the word penultimate. How many penultimates can you have per season? There were at least two penultimate guests for season five.
@@augustusbetucius2931 There was a penultimate guest of the 70s, and a penultimate guest of the season. So yes, two.
Yeah, season 4 was the end.
Bob Dylan was the musical guest on the show hosted by Eric Idle,but you never mentioned it or showed it.
Anyone else here tired of the Cheez-It tostada ads
Nope, i pay youtube. Never see em
Al Franken was never funny one day in his life.
You're 100% correct
He was hilarious.
The 80-81 season was the absolute worst.
I'd forgotten how lousy that season was. After a great four year run. Never liked Franken or his lame-o humor at all.
I’d forgotten some of the people added to the “ original cast” as well . Shearer I liked ok , the rest I think everyone could live without. Franken was a creep from the start , never cared for him .
art suxs so bad xD
You sucked on The Dukes of Hazzard
Steve Martin has never been funny.
You should see someone about that. It might be treatable.
I DESPISE AL FRANKEN