Pete Martell

https://www.king5.com/article/entertainment/television/programs/evening/snl-cast-member-mikey-day-season-48-puget-sound/281-f9803b5b-688d-42d1-9ed2-081b3d78ea7f https://www.wwlp.com/news/entertainment/mikey-day-of-saturday-night-live-reveals-origin-story-behind-halloween-character-david-s-pumpkins/

Glad they finally had one more (weird that the musical guest has been in none - maybe he was busy). This has a lovely '70s, Tom Schiller feel to it.

Douglas McGrath wrote for the show during its ill-fated 80-81 season. He talked about that briefly here: https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/18/movies/film-thank-you-saturday-night-live-for-firing-me.html

This was a solid enough episode to me, so much so that I had little to say about it that wasn't already said (I too liked most of the Joker sketch, was happy to see Bobby again, and thought Jack was pleasant enough). I just wanted to say, again, how draining these cold opens are to me when they just go into politics (and they didn't even try to make Heidi bear much resemblance to Judy Woodruff, beyond having the same haircut). Cecily was terrific, showing just why she is among the best, but literally nothing else worked for me here. I don't understand why they had a cold open in the premiere making fun of just what they proceeded to do with this sketch. I'm also half-convinced no one there has actually seen Herschel Walker.

There's still a day to go, but as of right now the traditional Thursday promo with host/MG/cast member is still not up. I have to wonder if the Ego backstage tour (which I posted in another thread) is the replacement. Some fans commented on how downbeat these photos looked compared to what you usually see, which along with the lack of promos makes me wonder if they are having a tough time backstage this week with illness or other factors. I guess we'll see how much they can cut and paste together tomorrow night.

A neat little backstage tour, hosted by Ego.

A sweet story from a man who finally achieved a longtime dream of getting to see SNL live, due to his daughter winning the ticket lottery. https://www.inforum.com/lifestyle/arts-and-entertainment/fargo-teen-wins-snl-essay-lottery-takes-family-to-oct-29-taping-in-new-york

Dress rehearsal for the episode.

He's not the show's first openly gay actor, although he is the first openly gay man on the show to get a great deal of publicity. There may be a political element, but I think the main reason is that in order to get anywhere on SNL, you usually have to have one niche, and stay within that niche. Sometimes you can try a few different roles, but usually you end up in one lane.

There hadn't been any this season. I thought they might have stopped, but we finally got one earlier today:

She definitely has a show to promote, I just still tend to think of her comedy as being more part of a specific time and place, which is why I don't know if I would have asked her to host while trying to bring the show into a new era.

He's a hip-hop performer. His best known hit ("First Class") is a sample of Fergie's old hit. He was on SNL as MG a few years ago. He appeared in the NFTs pre-tape. (weird to think everyone in this is gone) I have no real expectations for him as host, so I'm hoping to just be pleasantly surprised, but some of the choices this season make me wonder just how much trouble the show is having getting hosts and MGs.

She's far from the only cast member to struggle at SNL, of course, and I'm hoping she is now in a much happier place. I do think she made a mistake staying as long as she did and I think NBC and Lorne should have let her go a few years ago for her own sake. To be honest, her behavior in season 46 is what worried me most - she was very online, complaining about crowd reactions, complaining about her job, and at one point saying she was going to quit, then taking that back (I think she may have said she was drunk posting, I can't remember). That is where, if I were an employer, I'd be a bit nervous. With that said, she seemed to be well-liked and respected at the show, so maybe I can chalk that up to the pandemic.

They used to film the promos this way about a decade ago. A nice treat to see it back again, for however long.

Not a fan of Amy Schumer, particularly right before an election, although she at least has a consistent comic voice and will be more sure of herself than most of the hosts this season have been. Given how shaky the writing is that will probably help the show out. With that said, she is far from a host I would pick for a show that claims it is going into a new era. She's very tied to the late '10s and she's so polarizing many are likely to actively avoid her (the last episode she hosted had a promo with a staggering amount of dislikes on Youtube). I'm not sure entirely what is going into the host choices this season. I don't want to blame the new booker. I am just assuming it's becoming more and more difficult to find people. That we are now getting choices week by week rather than what they had been doing (announcing three in advance) is telling. Poor Chris.

As you can see, Cecily is back.

Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase are in a new movie together. https://ew.com/movies/dan-aykroyd-chevy-chase-reunion-zombie-town-r-l-stine-movie/ (Chevy was also on the Dana and Spade podcast recently) Kevin Nealon, including an appeaerance on CBB: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/kevin-nealon-is-hiking-and-laughing-and-drawing Nasim Pedrad's show, Chad, has been saved. Melissa Villasenor talks about why she left SNL (her comments have gotten a lot of attention): https://www.thedailybeast.com/melissa-villasenor-is-living-her-best-life-after-struggling-on-snl Various Bob Odenkirk projects: https://www.slashfilm.com/1030432/straight-man-everything-we-know-so-far-about-bob-odenkirks-new-amc-series/ https://deadline.com/2022/09/bob-odenkirk-breaking-bad-comedy-movie-making-jesus-diabetes-1235127844/

I would guess Coolie is the sole reason that was chosen, although I enjoy a good amount of that episode (Gary Macdonald, Hi-C and Turkey, the mafia sketch).

Johnny Knoxville talks with Seth about his episode.

Marcello was in the hospital sketch. I didn't think most of the impressions in the cold open were very believable, which would be less bothersome if there was any content in this I found amusing or pointed. Instead they just went to the default of trying to create "moments" that made me cringe (Liz Cheney talking about "Big Dick Cheney Energy" and Pelosi going on about "poo-poo"). I'm aware there's an audience for these but I thought the whole point of going on about changes this season was to actually have changes? There was only one woman in the Hocus Pocus controversy. These aren't the full writing credits but they give an outline. I think this is why they've been trying so hard with Chloe in these first three episodes. The problem I have with this is I don't think you can create a star - the audience has to discover them.

He was the musical guest in Maya Rudolph's episode a few years ago. He was also in a rap pre-tape I'm not a big fan of (NFTs).

The sound problems in the Girl Talk sketch were so bad, I've rarely heard them to that degree on the show. The sketch wasn't great either way but I did enjoy the work from Andrew and Ego until hearing Kenan backstage took over any momentum. The teacher sketch also had bad audio. They replaced two of the sketches with dress rehearsal versions for Youtube.

Her home was broken into earlier this week while she was in New York for the show. Not sure whether to expect much tonight given what's going on. I hope she has some nice rest once everything is over.

Brendan and Colin talk with Seth about SNL. Their joy is very infectious. Colin also says he had to ask Brendan to host many times.