SNL Loses 5 Cast Members

[Mark]

This might explain why my overall feeling on the show is still positive. If the political opener sketch is good, we watch it. If it's not, ca-click, ca-click, ca-click, and stop when the guest host walks out. Watch the monologue unless it gets uncomfortably bad, watch the commercial, watch just about everything before the first song. Skip the first song, watch the news update, and then give everything after the update two minutes to be funny.

Yup. That's the best way to watch anything if the technology is available. There's still a lot of good on that show but I don't see how anybody has time to sit through crap anymore when an alternative is at hand. Once you get rid of the real commercials (almost always keep the fake one!), dump the musical guests if they don't appeal to you, and axe two to four out of five sketches, you've got a really enjoyable half hour of SNL television to watch at your leisure.

 

[takyris]

I'm embarrassed by the fact that I'm still glad "The Falconer" will be around.

Maybe I just have a soft spot for puppets. Or Will Forte, who will forever be "Abe Lincoln's Clone" to me.

 

[billd91]

I can't claim to have watched regularly since the mid 1980s with Christopher Guest and Billy Crystal, but I did take time to watch a bit more often after I saw Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon do Weekend Update after the 2000 election. I was shopping at my local comics store and they were playing a videotape of that episode. I was completely floored. It was the funniest Weekend Update since the days of "Jane, you ignorant slut!".

 

[takyris]

Yeah, even when a guest was bad enough (or just distasteful enough to me personally) that the rest of the episode was nigh-unwatchable (in my case, Dane Cook), we always watched the update. Fallon and Fey were really good, and Amy Poehler grew into the co-anchor seat after a slightly shaky first season.

But man, you could feel it when Fey was out on maternity leave. The overall show didn't suffer too badly, but the update was just a bummer.

That's what I'm worried about. That, and oddly, Chris Parnell. I really liked how Parnell played with the rest of the cast, and he could do gay, snooty, or sincerely insincere really well. If I had to guess, I'd say that he was let go because that's usually what he was doing -- well, that and the guy on Appalachian Emergency Room... and I always laughed at Appalachian Emergency Room, knowing as I did that I was losing brain cells every time.

 

[Mark]

That's what I'm worried about. That, and oddly, Chris Parnell. I really liked how Parnell played with the rest of the cast, and he could do gay, snooty, or sincerely insincere really well. If I had to guess, I'd say that he was let go because that's usually what he was doing -- well, that and the guy on Appalachian Emergency Room... and I always laughed at Appalachian Emergency Room, knowing as I did that I was losing brain cells every time.

Yeah, I like Parnell, too. For those who may not have picked up on this, or just wouldn't have known, the original Chicago play from the Organic Theatre company called E/R Emergency Room has one particular character who comes into the emergency room and sheepishly goes about the business of trying to explain his circumstances without ever quite explaining the precise predicament. It's eventually revealed that he has some sort of object lodged where the sun doesn't shine . . . a lightbulb . . . which begged the question, "WTF?". I have no doubt that Parnell's recurring character in the Appalachian Emergency Room sketches is a homage to that early eighties stage play, since so many of the writers and cast members have spent time in the Windy City. And you have to love how Seth Meyers's character resignedly allows him to get to his latest excuse for his fetish and resultant jam, so to speak.

 

[Vrecknidj]

Parnell will be missed, that's for sure. It's always tough watching that show dismiss a handful of talented folks all at once. But, I've weathered it before. Gotta give the new blood a chance.

Dave

 

[Celtavian]

re

I'm kind of surprised they cut Chris Parnell. He was pretty funny and could keep a straight face no matter what was going on. He had good delivery too. Gonna miss him on the show.

The last guy who could carry SNL was Wil Ferril. Now with the cast weaker I don't how the show can continue to perform well in the ratings.

 

[DonTadow]

Chris Parnell was a big surprise for me too. My guess was it was money. Stayiing on the show so long and having had something to do wit hthe two most talked about sketches over the last three years, he obviously had a salary too high to pay. The reasons for the cuts from what I understand was money.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chris Parnell had been cut once before and they brought him back a year later. I can see that happening again, expecilly if Darrel Hammond moves on to something else.

I'm not surprised by this cutback, it appeared obvious last year that they were now building the show to feature Stamburg and Pohler. I'm glad they kept Will Forte.

 

[TarionzCousin]

On the season opener, Amy Poehler was hilarious as Kim Jong-Il.

I watched the whole show. It was better than I expected. I don't remember much, but I laughed a few times.