11.30.06 6:00 AM CST
• TV & DVDs
• Robert DeSalvo
If you’re feeling underwhelmed with the current incarnation of Saturday Night Live, you’ll want to check out Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season, which debuts on DVD December 5, and remind yourself how the show became a late-night institution. This handsome eight-disc set is packaged with a collectible book and features all your favorites from the SNL Class of 1975, including John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris. The set includes all 24 unedited episodes (digitally remastered) with guest hosts such as Richard Pryor, Rob Reiner, Candice Bergen, Buck Henry and George Carlin as well as musical guests Simon and Garfunkel, Jimmy Cliff, Carly Simon and Patti Smith. After watching over 30 hours of unforgettable characters and hilarious sketches, the only thing that won’t seem funny about SNL is thinking about all the comic geniuses who have graduated from the show and left it where it is now. Do you think SNL can recapture the glory of its early years? Let us know.
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Comments on this entry:
I was impressed by the current season's episode with Hugh Laurie of House. It had many good moments, including an appearance by Borat. I haven't seen the DVD set, but I wonder if people's memories of earlier seasons are affected by the fact that a 90-minute show has been condensed to 30 or 60 minutes for reruns on cable. Separating the wheat from the chaff could make them look better by comparison.