Father Malone's Weekly Roundup - SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, Jaws 2

with the show. If you listened in last week, I talked about my adoration for the Lonely Island and the work they did on SNL, And if you listen to this show with any regularity, you should know the adoration I feel for their work on SNL is so minuscule when it comes for the totality of love I feel for Saturday Night Live. There's a tidal wave of ass kissing going on right now because it is the fiftieth anniversary, fiftieth season. But try to ignore all the fawning. Don't

let it cloud your judgment. SNL has always been great, and it's always been terrible, just like all your favorite things sweet and sour. I mentioned in an earlier episode that's the crossover with the Culture Cast, where we discussed Jason Reitman's film Saturday Night that chronicles the ninety minutes leading up to the pilot episode of SNL, which you can go back and listen to after this. It's all

a call to action. There, I mentioned that my very first memory of television is Dan Aykroyd as Julia Child, bleeding all over a kitchen set after slicing into his own hand. You know, everyone always asks what movie you first remember seeing, but no one ever asks about television, though I suspect that'll change with future generations given the current cratering of the theatrical experience. So anyway, my earliest

memory then threaded throughout the rest of my life. There have been fallow periods over the past five decades for SNL. During those periods when people were wondering, who even wants is that anymore?

Couple that miracle with the pressure cooker of live performance of material that was written over the past five days every week. It's a miracle anything of quality comes out of the show. But that quality is always there, and even the worst episode will get at least one laugh out of me, which is something I can't say for some two hour comedy films that were written over months and then produced and filmed and edited over a year and not one laugh. As much as I love the show, however,

I am not an apologist. Those fallow periods when the show is reinventing itself is concentrated awful. But remember, there has never been a season of perfection. That's a lie we've all accepted through the decades, thanks to repackaged reruns and videotape best of collections. Even in its renaissance periods,

there are clunkers. I end up saying that about every television series we cover here on Midnight Viewing, we go in with fond remembrance of all the gloried moments of a series, forgetting that there was a lot of chaff in that wheat. SNL is an extremely well covered television show. If you have any interest in those first ten years, check out Saturday Night A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad. It is indispensable.

They talk to everyone and pull no punches. Yes, it has the Bill Murray Chevy Chase fistfight story in all of its glory. Go fuck your wife, she needs it. Bill Murray is a savage. Also, there's line from New York The Complete Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by its star writers and guests by Tom Shils and James Andrew Miller, which gets you up to speed.

As of twenty years ago, there have been puff pieces and expose's and one hundred cries of Saturday Night Dead, but very little has come out behind the scenes from the show and Broadway video and Michael's himself. So it

was pretty exciting to hear about the slew of documentaries on the way to commemorate the fiftieth The first of those just landed over on Peacock. It is a four part look into four aspects of the show's production, and it's appropriately called SNL Beyond Saturday Night.

but more cow Bell. I loved that sketch as much as it took a song that always straddled the line between sincere and cheesy and just drop kicked it into a bucket of melted velveta, thus ruining it forever. I love that sketch. You all know it. We all had

the fever and there was only one cure. But if you're given four hours to touch on any aspect of the process of making Saturday Night Live from any era, with any cast, or any set of writers, or any musicians, and I'm not even talking about the guests who have come on to play their latest hits. I'm talking about the Saturday Night Live band that was once conducted by Howard Shore, who'd eventually write the music for the Lord

of the Rings films. His replacement was Paul Shaffer, who'd run the World's Most Dangerous Band for Letterman for three decades. Remember E. G. Smith teaching the entire world the meaning of guitar face, and that's just one small aspect of the show worth examination. But one hour devoted to the genesis of what was at best a catchphrase generator baffles me. Remember when everyone, and I fucking mean everyone thought it

was hilarious to say something and then yell not. I wouldn't suggest watching an hour about the genesis of Wayne's world either, but it would seem to be about a subject that had greater ripples in the real world than that one meme we all got. It's not a total waste of time. If you need another dose of Jimmy Fallon giggling his way through memories of how unprofessional a performer he was, or if you're actually interested in what Blue Oyster Cult thought of the sketch Boy, you're in

for a real fucking treat. So this is a three part series about SNL. The most successful is episode four, The Weird Year. It's a far more harrowing tale than just getting on the show or getting the show on the air for the first time. After five solid years of steadily declining ratings, SNL was ready for the scrap heap. Michael's return was a hail Mary for all involved. The previous season was a different kind of Hail Mary by Dick Eversol when he restocked the cast with ringers like

Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Harry Shear, and Christopher Guest. Michaels had to start from scratch, restocking the cast and pulling in writers both old and new. Remember how I said any season could work if the cast and writers sink. Not what happened here. Terry Sweeney is a very funny comedian and performer, and was not only SNL's first openly gay cast member, he may have been the first openly gay performer on television ever. But who on that writing

staff knew one fucking thing to write for him? The writing staff has always been accused of being a boys club, to which I'd say, Anne beats Marilyn Suzanne Miller, Rosie Schuster, Sarah Paley, Patricia Marx, Pamela Norris. You get the idea. The problem was more straight and white. I think it doesn't seem like Terry Sweeney was able to partner up with anyone, but then most performers couldn't seem to do that either, which is scandalous considering who was on the staff.

Not only were there returning heavy hitters like Michael O'donnahuo, Franken and Davis, Jim Downey, Herb Sargent, and Don Novello, but there was also Mark McKinney and Bruce McCullough from The Kids in the Hall, Jack Handy, Deep Thoughts, John Schwartzwelder and George Meyer, who'd go on to write the best episodes of The Simpsons, and Robert fucking' Smigel. Sounds unbeatable,

but you know, maybe the cast wasn't exactly perfect. Anthony Michael Hall, Randy Quaid, Dinitra Vance Sweeney, Damon Wayans notoriously one of the few actors fired from the show while the show was still going. He's here to give his side of it, and it's great. Rounding out the cast were the ones who'd continue forward, Dennis Miller, Nora Dunn

and John Lovetts. It's love Its his stuff that shined then and now, and it's his sketch master Thespian with John Lithgow that allows for the entire documentary's moment of clarity. John Lithgow remembers the show thusly.

but there's no great interaction with him at all. In fact, any of the on cameras straight up interview footage they have of him is from two thousand and five and

clearly from a documentary about the thirtieth anniversary. Now, the fact that he's maintained this level of mystique over the decades is admirable, even more so that basically everyone who's ever had an interaction with him, has one an impression of him, and two can tell you almost everything about their dealings with him while maintaining how inscrutable he is. I mentioned there's a slew of documentaries on the way,

and evidently one is dedicated specifically to Lorne Michael. So I'm assuming that all the intentions and motivations in theories of his will come to light there. I hope so, because as fascinating as any of these probes into the various strata of SNL can be, a little more insight from the creator would be welcome. Five minutes the first

episode is a delight. How couldn't it be. It's all of your favorite performers from the past fifty years regaling us with tales of horror and heartbreak that led to a life changing stint on a television institution. What's better

is that we get to see those moments. Every audition for SNL remains thanks to the glory of videotape, and it's pretty fucking awesome to watch someone as seasoned as Amy Poehler struggle to get through even a minute of hers Oh there is so much shudderingly cringe worthy on display. It's glorious. And there are just as many right out of the gate superstar performances. Then it's kind of staggering. Every character that Kristin Wigg auditioned with became not just

a sketch, but a recurring sketch. Speaking of staggering, the compilation of those who weren't hired, the Jim Carreyes, the Jennifer Coolidges, the Donald Glovers is mind blowing, especially when you see how fucking good they were doing. How did they not get the gig? Who could answer that? No one in this episode see what I'm saying. There are major questions at the heart of each of these segments that have answers that we can only get from one man.

And ultimately, as lovely as it is to see Bobby moynihan tearfully recall his time on the show, this episode would have been equally successful had it just been a string of the auditions themselves. The next episode, written by follows the season forty nine writers from the Monday meeting to air, interspersed with discussions on the show's environment, schedule, hierarchy, and history by some of the best writers who have ever worked There. Any chance to spotlight the writers of

this show is a winning one, so bravo. The problem, or maybe this is illustrative of the show's wildly swinging personality, is that the show that doc crew has chosen to cover isn't very funny. The writers are charming, no doubt, and we've seen them do really good work elsewhere that season and into the current season, but since nothing is really happening comedically, you hope to see some of the panic and the pressure that literally everyone interviewed here talks about.

But instead it's all very quiet and mellow and business like, which is great for them, I guess, but it ends up making this another TV magazine piece, the kind you'd get from Entertainment Tonight, except the access to the writers and the materials are beyond whatever the most sycophantic piece could ever hope to achieve. Each of the episodes, except that fucking cow Bell is worth a watch. The wealth

of material on display is incredible and incredibly funny. I doubt I'll see a funnier documentary anytime in the near future. But honestly, if you were to ask me to sit down and write a first person account of what it was like to audition and get hired and how tough my first year was, and how interacting with Lorne and the writers was, and how I found my groove. I think I could do it pretty convincingly because everything presented

in these shows has been around in copious amounts. The two books I mentioned at the top are perfect examples. If you've read them and want to know something new about the process, you're out of luck. If you want to hear personal reflections and how the actual people felt about their time there, then these are great, or would be if any of those personal reflections included those of mister Lauren Michaels. I don't want to hear your Lorne Michael's impression. Oh the listeners do? Gotcha?

think we're going to see his like again. Also passing, and oddly more importantly here on midnight viewing was mister Jeno Zwark. He directed twenty two segments of Night Gallery. He did two episodes of Twilight Zone eighty five, and in each of those, I've been his frequent champion and vocal defender. He was never less than a filmmaker in any media. Whatever faults there were in any of his

Night Gallery segments, they weren't his. Zwark's problem has always been the material you can make good great, but bad will only ever be a little better. That better part is Zwark. He toiled mightily against budget constraints and scheduling nightmares and uncooperative casts and second guessing per and managed to produce some of the most striking pieces of anthology television ever, so pressure and deadlines were nothing new to him.

When Night Gallery's production designer Joe Elves recommended he take over the already troubled production of Jaws two.

actually horrifying. Tina and her boyfriend Eddie are out in the middle of the ocean in a tiny sailboat. It's a rowboat with a sail, and the attack is brutal and while the actors are certainly helping, it is a visual treat, just ratcheting the tension and hammering you. However, there's an aftermath scene where Tina has been rescued and Anndusenberry delivers in one line all the horror you could ring out of even the best directed, most frightening sequence of all time.

after their own shark, and this one's intriguing. Howard Sackler, who is uncredited on the first film but did do a draft or two, proposed a prequel film in which they dramatized the Indianapolis speech from the first film, with young Quint as the lead. Instead, Sackler ended up giving us the further adventures of Chief Brody and that time another shark came to Amity Island. Scheider had recently dropped out of The Deer Hunter, and Universal forgave that and

the other two films. He owed them if he'd appear in Jaws two. Schider was not pleased, While he is the lead. They let him off the hook a bit, relegating the ocean adventures mainly to a group of Amity Island teenagers whose flotilla of sailboats become fouled in drifting and at the mercy of Jaws two. Now he's got scars. Jaws one he was cool. I guess in a you never see the motherfucker kind of way. Jaws two battle scars for all to see, and I'll jump battle the

water multiple times. So they've got a script, and they've got a cast, and they've got a director. And not so fast after a month of filming or thereabouts, original director John D. Hancock is pulled. And that's when Joe alves, the man responsible for the Shark and would do the

production design. Just a few years later, on Escape from New York, who recommends his frequent Night Gallery collaborator, Jeno Zwark, given that he could turn around a full episode of excellently shot television in sometimes half a day, must have been a selling point. Couldn't hurt that Spielberg also got

his start on Night Gallery. Zwark heads off to shoot the film's trailer darling sequence, the water skiing attack, which allows Carl Gottlieb, the real MVP of Jaws, him and Werner Fields to rewrite the script, dropping a bunch of teens and adding Deputy Hendrix back to the plot, and then everything went great, except the usual problems of shooting on the ocean resurfaced. Plus the cast was mainly young actors in their twenties, so hijinks and Schider clashed frequently

with Zark over the way the film was being shot. Now, I love Roy Scheider, but word is, his main complaint seemed to revolve around the fact that others were getting the spotlight in his scenes. So kind of fuck you, Roy Scheider. But that in no way means that I'm saying Roy Scheider doesn't deliver in his performance. It's as good as anything he's done, honestly. In fact, for all his bitching, his performance actually expands and deepens Brody as

a character. For all the carbon copy criticism the film would receive, you can't lay that blame on Schier. He could very easily have sleepwalked through this role. But the man is a fucking pro, even if he sometimes takes a swing at the director. One Elementark didn't change was the film's composer John Williams had already won an Academy Award for the film's iconic b I Want sanchon Williams conducting the Boston Pops with an evening of music from

the films of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg was meant to attend and introduce each piece, but Kate Capshaw was giving birth at that moment, and he bowed at selfish prick. But when the first two notes of Jaws came shivering out, the audience began tittering. It was the quietest roar I've ever heard, and John Williams turned to us very slowly, then even slower, brought his fingers to his lips and

shushed us, and that he continued. Now, I have no idea if I was making noise with everybody else, probably, but I feel pretty great having been told by John Williams to be quiet and pay attention to his music. And what music. We all know that original theme, and we probably all know the cues by heart. But I will contend, yes, I'm gonna say it, Jaws two is the superior soundtrack.

in life. I think critical reaction and the public reaction to the film was less than kind at the time. How do you follow the blockbuster with anything that would satisfy? But the fact is the film has been properly reassessed and I think has garnered a reputation that if it isn't glowing, it's at least a more fair assessment of the film on its own, especially given the fucking horrible

sequence we've been plagued with ever since. And while I don't think that behind the scenes stories of how a film came together should ever be levied against the quality of the finished endeavor, I do think my appreciation for Jaws only climbs when you consider that this mostly television director was dropped into the middle of a giant studio

machine that was already barreling forward, had barreled forward. They were filming Oversaw, a new draft of the script, contended with water and weather and unruly actors, and somehow not only turned in a cohesive film and a worthy continuation of the first film story, but an entertaining one at that Everyone was expecting any film with a two after the title to be on par with Godfather Too, which

is fucking bonkers now. Granted, what followed in the years after that film were sequels like Exorcist two and Omen two. The world wasn't ready for aliens yet. They couldn't quite grasp that the original magic wasn't coming back, and a different tack was required. Nearly every horror sequel ends up being an action remake of the first film, for good or ill. In the case of Jaws two, very very good and that was a good choice, Ripley, And you're a very good dog. Yes you are. Oh, you can't

fool me. You love it. I'm gonna scratch that belly.

Thank you once again for joining us here at Father Malone's weekly Roundup. Be sure to join us this Friday for midnight viewing the Horror Anthology podcast where we Are continuing our look and tales from the dark Side. In fact, that episode marks the start of Dark Side's third season. One of those is written by the man himself, mister George Andrew Romero. I already escorted you to subscribe, but maybe you could also give us five stars, maybe six?

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leave you with a bit from SNL. Maybe they could dedicate an entire documentary to this.

in the second season. I mean, only a real idiot who never wanted to work in Hollywood and who deserves a real big spanking would.