SNL50: The Anniversary Special

It is Saturday Night Live at 50. The names don't get much bigger and that's just the audience. This opens with Sabrina Carpenter joining Paul Simon as he reprises his first performance. Paul isn't doing so well. Sabrina's age joke hits hard. Steve Martin's opening monologue also hits when he says that people can be dead by natural causes now. Eddie Murphy playing Tracy Morgan is probably the best. He actually got the others to break. Tom Hanks comes in and brings that skit to a halt. In a way, that is the quintessential SNL experience. Some of it is genius and the next is comedy death. This is better than most episodes by its sheer comedy power.

SNL 50: The Anniversary Special was a highly anticipated event, bringing together past and present cast members, legendary hosts, and iconic sketches to celebrate five decades of Saturday Night Live. While the nostalgia factor was strong and there were definitely some standout moments, the special ultimately felt like a mixed bag, earning a solid 6 out of 10 from me.

The best parts of the show were the well-executed callbacks to classic sketches and the surprise guest appearances. Seeing former cast members reprise their roles brought back great memories, and there were a few genuinely funny new bits that reminded us why SNL has lasted so long. The tribute segments honoring late cast members and behind-the-scenes legends were also touching and well done.

However, the pacing was inconsistent, and some segments felt like filler rather than a true celebration of SNL's legacy. While nostalgia is great, certain sketches dragged on too long or felt more like a rehash than a fresh take. Additionally, the balance between old and new cast members felt a bit off-while longtime fans may have enjoyed the throwbacks, newer audiences might have felt a little left out.

Overall, SNL 50 was a fun but flawed tribute. It had some great highs but also some lows that kept it from being truly great. A solid watch for longtime fans, but not quite the perfect anniversary special it could have been.

I have always loved SNL and yes, I started watching 50 years ago when it debuted. I wish they'd give had given more honor and respect to original cast members, done a real In Memory for the brilliance lost, and been a little braver in the face of what's happening politically right now. My biggest disappointment was the inclusion of the faux star Kim K. She was a disappointment as a host and with all the talent to showcase it leaves me dumbfounded as to why they would feature someone with none. There were other cringey moments, things that didn't quite land but still, overall not bad except with one notable exception.

I appreciated the opening that paired Paul Simon (from the second ever SNL) with Sabrina Carpenter (from RIGHT NOW). I personally wish that they had picked a different right now "it" girl - but that's just me. Paul at the end was just magical. Those two numbers alone were done with more respect for the audience and the artists than the entire "music" special. I love both Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard. The comic material was great. They found cool ways to remind us of how wide and deep the talent of the cast and the celebrities that have been on that stage over the years is. Overall, I enjoyed this a lot.

They brought an impressive array of celebrities and past cast members for this much anticipated special. Wondering who might pop up next did hold your attention. The novelty of seeing past and current cast members and the odd celebrity thrown together in skits was entertaining to some degree. There were also skits that mixed characters from different seasons, or were modern versions of old skits - all adding a novelty to the show.

BUT BUT BUT!! But novelty is not enough for a comedy show. Strip away the novelty and the skits simply weren't funny or clever or well fleshed out. The only skit that struck as funny at all was the UFO sketch with Kate McKinnon, Meryl Streep, Jon Hamm, Woody Harrelson, Pedro Pascal, and Aidy Bryant. The humor was mostly due to Kate's dialogue and delivery (and Harrelson and Pascal trying not to crack). Overall there's disappointingly little that sticks out at memorable, which is sad for a 50th anniversary show crammed with celebrities.