Matthew Belloni’s Shocking Hot Take On The Future Of Late Night TV

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I was listening to the most recent The Town podcast and was taken aback at how…bad…Matthew Belloni’s take on late night TV was. He, essentially, proposes that as TV transitions into the streaming era that some basic elements of the formula should be ditched.

The reason — the monologue that typically opens these shows has a very short shelf life and doesn’t work well on streaming. As such, the entire idea of what a late night TV show should be re-imagined.

I find this a very, very bad hot take. If we did as Belloni suggested, it would mark the end of late night TV unto itself. Yes, topical humor is ephemeral but that’s kind of the whole point. The point is there is a cultural potency to topical humor that is essential to people watching late night TV, be it a talk show or SNL.

Belloni’s suggestion does make one wonder if there is any future for Saturday Night Live. It seems possible that if someone as influential as Belloni is talking like this, then it seems reasonable to assume that there may come a point when the fate of SNL is very much up in the air.

There may be a luminial moment between the transition to streaming and the advent of AI generated entertainment when whenever may be everything up in the air. Who knows.

Anyway, it could be that things are going to be very bumpy as TV transitions to streaming. The idea that something as basic as dumping the traditional late night talkshow format simply because it doesn’t play well on streaming is mindblowing.

But, then, maybe I’m just an Old.

SNL Succession Drama: The Case For John Mulaney

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Saturday Night Live finds itself at something of a crossroads. The case could be made that the show should end with the final show of its 50th season. All good things must come to and end and as, luz, there you go.

John Mulaney

Despite this, there has been a lot of talk about Seth Meyers replacing SNL’s current executive producer Lorne Michaels. But if you think back to the origins of SNL that it would make a lot more sense if SNL was handed to the 40 year old John Mulaney rather than the 49-year-old Meyers.

SNL was originally created by a then 30-year-old Michaels in 1975. So, I think it would make a lot more sense for someone a little younger than Meyers be the new leader of the show.

But, remember, in general, studio execs always screw things up, so it would make a lot of sense if SNL was just unilaterally canceled without any consideration to what might happen. I do believe, in general, that a streamer would pick SNL up or there might be a freak out to the point we’ll all be talking about the cultural significance of SNL and What It All Means.

It will be interesting to see how things play out.

Will ‘A Very American Autocracy’ End SNL In 2025?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I’m still not sure the United States is going to make it through 2025 in one piece, let’s assume we go the other route and slip into autocracy. It sure would fit the needs of our new autocrat for SNL to end when Lorne Michaels retires in 2025 after about 50 years with the show.

It would be a face-saving measure for NBC. By the end of the 2025 – 2026 TV season the United States will be well on its way to being a Russia clone and our insecure autocrat will probably be pressuring all media in the United States to tow the line.

So, while they won’t SAY that they’re deciding to end SNL because of pressure from the autocrat, that’s what will be happening behind the scenes. And this will happen in conjunction with mysterious purge of late night talk show hosts. A new generation of late night TV hosts will come in who never talk about politics. There will be a lot of talk about how the public just isn’t interested in the partisan nature of late night TV, but all of that will just be bullshit.

This will all happen as at least 1 million — maybe a lot more — wealthy liberals flee the country as our personal freedoms are curtailed one by one. And that will be that. DeSantis will change the Constitution and never leave office. We’ll wake up in 2045 and wonder why DeSantis is invading Canada.

Anyway, if we have a civil war then the fate of SNL will be moot. We’ll all be so busy dodging WMD that what happens on TV will be the least of our worries.

I Had A Surreal, Inspiring Dream About Lorne Michaels

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I love to be creative just to be creative. I am known to write song lyrics even though there’s absolute no point to do it. I mean, it’s not as if I’m ever going to write lyrics to a song — I don’t even know anything about music. I still have a lingering idea to buy a guitar and try to write one pop song that sells.

Lorne Michaels

Anyway, a few nights ago, I had a VERY VIVID dream involving Lorne Michaels. I dreamed I was working at SNL and, I don’t know, I was doing something at the show where I had to talk to him about a sketch I had written.

So, it has occurred to me that it would be fun to write sketches for myself and post them to this blog. I have long been interested in writing a movie, but it had never occurred to me to try to write a sketch.

I have no idea if I’m going to actually do this, but it’s something I my actually attempt. And given that I’m 100% extroverted if I’m ever going to practice laying out a screenplay then writing a sketch and posting them here would be practice.

Or not. It’s just something to think about.

John Mulaney As The Darkhorse Candidate To Replace Lorne Michaels At SNL

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ahh, the dead of summer when absolutely nothing happens I find myself scrounging for any possible angle on any possible interesting subject to see if unusual locations pop up in my Webstats. The people coming from exotic locales like the Maldives and Seychelles Islands are the coolest because I feel like I’ve caught the attention of the Power Elite for just a moment. (This is very pathetic, but fuck you. Wink)

Things really are pretty dull at the moment.

So, here we are — in a few years, Lorne Michaels has suggested that he will retire from SNL. I’ve heard rumors that the 2025 season will be it for SNL. NBCUniversal will pull the plug and walk away.

And, yet, maybe not? The most obvious candidate to replace Michaels would be Tina Fey. But she’s a movie star and probably doesn’t want the gig. Then there’s Seth Meyers. He’s young enough and knows the show well enough that he could at least take up a part of Michaels expansive mantle.

If he doesn’t want the gig, then…maybe John Mulaney? The numbers jibe pretty well age wise — Michaels was 30 when SNL started and Mulaney is about 39 now, if my brief, lazy Google search was right. Mulvaney’s comic sensibilities are in total lock step with SNL and he would be perfect.

But we all know how the real world works — just because it would make sense for Mulaney to get the gig, doesn’t mean the NBCUniversal suits won’t look for someone else. I could see someone like Lin-Manuel Miranda being offered the gig for a few years in between Michaels and Mulaney’s tenures.

Or not. What do I know. I’m just bored and this is interesting to write about.

Imagining Life Without ‘Saturday Night Live’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though there’s a greater-than-zero-sum chance that Saturday Night Live might end with its 2025 season. It’s not unprecedented for long-running TV shows to call it quits, but for a signature show like SNL to wrap things up at its 50th year would be a Huge Deal.

What would it be like without SNL in the modern era?

As an Old, the thing I’ve noticed is how quickly the Youngs forget what has come before. So, within five or so years, there would begin to be the occasional wave of younger people who would discover this or that SNL sketch and ask Olds whatever happened to it and why it stopping being aired.

There might be talk of either brining it back or another network doing something similar, but SNL has always been something of magic in a bottle and I just can’t imagine any new, similar show being as much of an institution. SNL is so old that it harkens back to the era when there were only three TV channels, music was good and the figures of Watergate were household names.

Do I think SNL is going to shuffle off this media coil?

That is a very good question. If how the real world works is any guide, what will happen is this — Lorne Michaels will retire. NBC suits will come after the show and there will be a lot, and I mean A LOT, of chatter about it being on the cusp of being canceled once and for all.

This will cause a huge amount of blowback within Hollywood and for a few days (weeks?) it will be the thing that everyone talks about on Twitter, YouTube and podcasts. Tom Hanks may have to step in and say, “Nope, not going to allow that to happen, NBC.”

And then, NBC suits will be like, “Oh, we would NEVER cancel SNL! You guys are so silly!”

The mad scramble to figure out how will replace Michaels will begin. And, in the end, it probably will be Seth Meyers, even though Tina Fey will always be floating around, as if she might take over if necessary.

But, I can’t predict the future. Who knows what may happen.

Could SNL Just…End…After It Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Saturday Night Live finds itself in an interesting situation as it approaches its 50th anniversary. On one hand, it is doing quite well and has more cultural significance than ever for a legacy TV show. A whole new generation of people have discovered the show and there’s every reason to believe it is set for another 50 years of comedic success.

And then there’s the issue of Lorne Michaels telling everyone he wants to leave the show after its 50th anniversary in a few years.

It’s my impression that this is some chatter among the higher ups at NBCUniversal that they want to end the show once and for all for this or that reason. And I’ve reached the age where I know that SNL could very well end and in a few years a lot of young people would discover it and ask, “Whatever happened to that show? It seemed like a lot of fun.”

This is all very speculative and highly unlikely to happen. What’s more likely to happen is there will be a lot of talk about the show ending, but in the end, someone like Seth Meyers will take over some of Michaels’ role while a number of other elements are handed off to SNL stalwarts.

That would be the logical thing to do. But there have been plenty of other really long-running shows that ended and they’re barely a memory now. But I would be flabbergasted if even the harshest critics of the show at NBCUniversal would do something so draconian as to just cancel it.

But, who knows. Only time will tell.

Joe Rogan’s Hatred Of SNL Is A Tell


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Because everything is fucked, we find ourselves in a situation where Joe Rogan is the voice for millions of mostly white mostly men who feel disenfranchise. What’s interesting is Rogan is a gateway drug to the fascist MAGA New Right. One of his quirk is he’s not exactly a fan of Saturday Night Live.

So, he brings on all these washed up, has been comics who also hate SNL. Rogan often asks leading questions about SNL in hopes that people will agree with him and shit on SNL.

It seems like this probably comes from Rogan’s secret longing to have been on SNL at some point in the past. SNL is a sink-or-swim workplace and this is something that is latched on by Rogan whenever he criticizes the show.

But the key thing is, Rogan’s hatred of SNL is a prism for us his overall worldview. Rogan is a standup comic who was a minor player on Newsradio decades ago. It’s just he’s lucky that he’s able to hide who he is by wrapping everything in an earnest masculinity that really appeals to bros who think they’re at risk of being canceled by “the woke cancel culture mob.”

Yet, I think we need to step back and appricate who Rogan really is. I would suggest that the best equivalent would be Jon Stewart at his height. Both men love the power they have, but whenever there’s any blowback on stray comment he makes, he falls back to “but I’m a comic!” as a defense.

Anyway, I dunno. The whole situation is annoying.

SNL Is…Actually Good Now?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The old saying about SNL is it’s a mediocre restaurant at a great location and if there’s one thing about the show that is consistent — it’s how inconsistent it is. It usually inhabits the same comedic space as Bob Hope and Garfield: funny, but not THAT funny.

And the show has been around long enough that it goes through an ebb and flow. Sometimes it seems to simply exist because it always has existed and sometime it has something of a renaissance. The season, it seems, Lorne Michaels has decided to go back to the show’s Not Ready For Primetime Players roots.

SNL.

Several times over the last two seasons, I’ve noticed the show has done far more edgy material. Usually, it’s really funny in the way SNL used to be funny way back in the 1970s when its type of humor was new and fresh. There is, of course, a danger to doing this.

There’s a reason why Bob Hope had a 50 year career — he was like warm milk and just kind of drifted through comedy, never being very provocative. The more provocative your humor, the less timeless it is. The addition of edgier performers like Sarah Sherman, Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang has really spiced things up of late.

If you really wanted to be optimistic, you might say this is all part of a broader “vibe shift” whereby we are entering a decade with some cultural grit and personality like, say, the 1980s

Or not. Only time will tell.

How SNL Should Open This Weekend


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Given that The Tonight Show choked on Monday night when it came to addressing The Slap, I have every reason to believe that SNL will be similarly subdued on the subject.

And, yet, this is a great opportunity for some historic TV on the part of SNL. Here’s what I would do for the snow’s cold open:

We open with Lorne Michaels standing next to Chris Rock. The entire cast of SNL stands behind them. The two crack some jokes and Michaels gives Rock some words of advice and maybe a hug.

Then they all say “Live, From New York, It’s Saturday Night!”

The other option is the same open, but they give Rock a five minute set to address what happened.

I would be pretty amazed if anything like this happened, however.