SNL's 50th Anniversary Special is ... on a Sunday!?
Also: I went to New Orleans for Super Bowl Week
SNL 50, plus some other things I’m watching. But first:👇🏼 A video with me in it! Did I lose sleep before I saw the final cut, wondering if I would somehow come out looking like Matty Healy?? YES, I DID!
Hi friends, and welcome back to us all after the Super Bowl break! I am seven naps into the umpteen it will take me to catch up on my sleep.
I was given the golden opportunity to be down in New Orleans for the Monday-Saturday before the game, and for not a moment did my feet touch the ground. I got to talk to ginormous athletes, fangirl in person over podcasters I’m obsessed with, eat crawfish and King Cake and beignets and gumbo, and chat up giddy fans. I got to shoot videos for The Athletic and write and edit stories about football and Swifties. I got to bond with so many very cool/amazing/talented/funny people on my team — in the city that I love most in the world!
Being in New Orleans so soon after the New Year’s attack was also sobering, almost like a pilgrimage to offer my sorrow and my joy to the city. It’s the place of my roots, and it was so amazing that I got to see some of my family, too, during that wild, wonderful week.
Let’s do some quick NOLA recommendations from my trip!
Favorite dinner: Gran’s rich Cajun stew she made Friday night.
Runner-up: Atchafalaya, a gorgeous little spot in a townhouse in the beautiful Garden District. [Thanks to Chris Branch and Mike Hume for the rec!]
Bronze medal: the post-dinner dinner1 I had at 34, Emeril’s new restaurant.
Favorite lunch: the Muffaletta from Central Grocery & Deli.
Favorite dessert: pralines [praw-LEENS] from Loretta’s.
Favorite drink: the sazerac at Jewel of the South.
Favorite Uber driver quote: “Honey, if you can count it, you ain’t rich!”
If you want to try the two spots where Taylor Swift was spotted having dinner: Lilette and Gianna Restaurant.
Another Super Bowl video you didn’t ask for and for which I absolutely coordinated a hair-wash day:
TONIGHT: Saturday Night Live’s 3-Hour Anniversary Special
Yes, the 50th-anniversary special of a show that turned Saturday night into the “It Girl” of Times of the Week is airing tonight — on a Sunday. I do not know why; ask Lorne Michaels. [And don’t tell Saturday!]
The show is at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, with a red carpet at 7 p.m. hosted by SNL alum Leslie Jones, Sunday TODAY host Willie Geist, and one of this blog’s two favorite sons2, comedian Matt Rogers.
I am a Saturday Night Live disciple. My dad was a youth pastor when I was little, and being a youth pastor in the 1990s was the Evangelical-Christian equivalent of doing improv theater — if you know, you know. I grew up with a father who LOVED SNL and who put all the energy of Dana Carvey singing “Choppin’ Broccoli” into his Wednesday night skits and talks. When we were old enough, my sister and I watched SNL highlights with my parents, all piled on the couch.
Now, Ben and I watch every episode, no matter how much we have going on, or how bad the host is, or how many times Michael Che makes a misogynistic joke.
And, as I keep saying, this season SLAPS. The cast right now is a pretty exceptional one — my favorites are Chloe Fineman, Ego Nwodim, Bowen Yang, Heidi Gardner, Mikey Day, Marcello Hernandez, and Andrew Dismukes — and they clearly pulled out all the stops for the 50th anniversary season, which started last fall. [That Ariana Grande episode has zero skips! I’ve watched the entire thing twice.]
May we always live in a world where comedians are doing skits on Saturday nights a little bit past everyone’s bedtime.
Here are a few great reads/recaps ahead of tonight’s special:
“The Best ‘Saturday Night Live’ Sketches, According to the People Who Made Them,” The Ringer.
“The 50 Best ‘SNL’ Commercial Parodies of All Time,” Rolling Stone.
“The secret to the success of “Saturday Night Live,” The Economist.
“Live From New York, It’s Lorne Michaels,” The New York Times. The legendary Maureen Dowd gives SNL creator Lorne Michaels her profile treatment. Michaels is, according to Netflix’s chief executive — and me — “the most important and influential person in the history of television, including Johnny Carson and Ed Sullivan.” An excerpt:
Those who have worked closely with Michaels say his greatest gift is spotting raw talent. Adam McKay, the acclaimed filmmaker who was a head writer at S.N.L. in the ’90s, recalled a telling story Lorne once shared about a trip abroad:
“He saw a guy with a little table and chair who’s selling watermelons and Lorne can’t resist. He goes over to the guy and says: ‘I’m surrounded by a million watermelons. Why would I come to this table?’
“And the guy says, ‘For my eye.’”
After watching S.N.L. auditions with his boss, McKay realized that “Lorne’s eye is his superpower.” He added: “He has had a remarkable run of choosing people that no one else was choosing.”
I’m also enjoying this 👆🏼 four-part docuseries, “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night,” which is less a documentary than an oral history: people recalling what it was like to work at one of the most storied, glitzy, showbizzy jobs in entertainment. It doesn’t necessarily add much insight, but it’s wonderful to just hear the people who brought us SNL … talk about what it was like to bring us SNL.
What Else I’m Watching This Week
“White Lotus” Season 3 drops tonight, in the middle of SNL50! What are the girls and the gays to do!??
“One of Them Days” with SZA and my favorite human woman outside of my family and friends, Keke Palmer.
Several sports shows — I wrote again for The Athletic’s daily newsletter about four upcoming sports shows I’m excited to try out! (linked here)
“Mo” Season 2! Here’s what I wrote about Season 1. 👇🏼
“Mo is equal parts hilarity and anxiety. It’s about the ‘comedy and tragedy of the immigrant experience,’ and they don’t pull punches on either one. It made me laugh with glee and anxiety-butt-clench in equal measure!”
That’s all for this week! Next up: Go home, Oscars, you’re drunk! A.K.A. I wax annoyed and excited about the Academy Awards!
It’s South Louisiana. Another meal is always queued up.
The first is Timothée Chalamet, obviously.
Woohoo!! I gotta work through each of those SNL recs! 🤩
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