SNL: The Current Cast Discussion

[ajsnaves]

Actually they could have Beck play both VP Candidates.  Just switch out ties.  Carvey did it in 1992 when he was both Bush and Perot. I think they filmed and green-screened in Perot for the debate.

Another idea, have Trump show up for the VP debate and do all the talking, ala the 60 Minutes interview.  Maybe have "Pence
 cower behind him like a scared puppy. (For some reason I am picturing Jon Hamm and Micheal Buble in the Hamm and Buble sketch)

[cpcathy]

That would be awesome!

And that Hamm and Buble memory is making me crack up now. "You are on the thinnest of ice."

[BoogieBurns]

The VP picks are so unique and interesting that we only think one guy can play them both. Haha. This election is weird!

[vb68]

Quote

But I loved Latifah as Gwen Ifill!

I actually did too.  Her reaction shots were priceless.

I just realized the Fox Morning show sketches are probably done too. Maybe they can still work Bobby's character into Update or something.

Edited August 9, 2016 by vb68
I had the wrong quote!

[absnow54]

I figured Bobby Moynihan would play Tim Kaine. 

I'm super bummed about Taran and Jay. Jay didn't quite mesh with the sketch format, but his bits on Weekend Update was always hysterical. And Taran was such an underrated every man (I guess they're entrusting Beck Bennett with that role.) It's a shame they aren't getting proper sendoffs. 

[Princess Sparkle]

30 minutes ago, vb68 said:

I actually did too.  Her reaction shots were priceless.

I just realized the Fox Morning show sketches are probably done too. Maybe they can still work Bobby's character into Update or something.

I wonder if they'll slide Beck into those Fox Morning sketches now. 

[Peace 47]

I'm sorry to see both Jay and Taran go because I think they've both been major contributors.

I actually got the sense a couple of months before last season's end, though, that Taran may have been a little checked out.  I don't really know how to describe it other than his seeming a little less "present" (emotionally) in some of the sketches in which he appeared and also not appearing (physically) quite as often as he seemed to be in episodes prior.  If he's been very busy prepping his Schwartzenager movie, though, that might explain it.  From reading his exit interview, it sounds as though he really wanted to stay.

Jay brings so many impressions to the table that I'm shocked they would lose him over, say, Sasheer, who doesn't really do impressions or have funny characters or Weekend Update guest shots or memorable pretaped sketches like some of the others.  She always plays the straight woman.  I know they can't just rely on Jay to amaze with his soundalike abilities, week-in and week-out, but man, that seems like a loss.

[7-Zark-7]

I would have expected four other performers to be let go sooner than these two. I don't know if the SNL people ever reach out to Tina Fey for her opinion about how to shape the cast, but it would be a good idea if they did. The cast decisions on her shows are smart. Yes, I know she doesn't have 100% say and that Jane Krakowski wasn't her first choice for 30 Rock, but she realized what a good performer Krakowski was and chose to work with her again. Also, she wrote Unbreakable's Titus Andromedon for Tituss Burgess, who was ready to walk away from acting before her call.

[Gemma Violet]

I'm really disappointed in this news about Taran and Jay, especially Taran.  And I'm going to really miss Jay's Shaq impression on Weekend Update.

[LJonEarth]

3 hours ago, 7-Zark-7 said:

I would have expected four other performers to be let go sooner than these two.

Of the men, they're the only ones other than Bobby and Kenan I thought would leave on their own terms.

[helenamonster]

13 hours ago, Dancingjaneway said:

I can't believe we are losing Taran and Jay but keeping Brooks Whelan and fucking Kyle Mooney! Ugh. I can't say I'm out though because Leslie, Aidy, Kate & Vanessa are still there and I love them so much!

Brooks Wheelan has been off the show for a couple seasons now.

Can't say I'm shocked about Jon, but losing Taran and Jay seems like it came out of nowhere and smells kinda fishy to me. Idk exactly how or why, but it's just so strange that we'd lose both of them so randomly, even if Taran was having schedule conflicts. Taran contributes so much to the show, and Jay's impressions are stellar. They should have least kept him around until Obama was out of the White House. We might have to wait on the next reissue of Live from New York to get the juicy deets on this absurdity.

I'm...skeptical about the talent they're now going to have to bring in to replace these two. Not only does getting rid of them not help with the show's bloat in recent years (there are about 4 or 5 other cast members that I think the show could have lost and not felt the need to replace), but these are some super big shoes to fill. The only guy currently in the cast that I believe matches Taran's level of versatility is Bobby, and it'll take a while for any new hire to get into the comfortable spot that Taran was in.

Just...ugh. Just when I felt the show was getting back on track, it pulls this bullshit.

[Cornhusker12]

Yeah add me to the list of people who don't really get how these two got booted instead of about 4 others. It makes me wonder if:

A) More people will be leaving as well
B) They are going to be adding some semi "well known" people as castmembers who won't have as many growing pains.

I know that B is not the norm at all, but taking out two relatively heavy hitters with bigtime crowd pleasing bits makes me wonder how they'll fill those roles. I looooove the Good Neighbor guys, but part of their charm is just letting them do their own thing regardless of how the audience reacts. The women have a lot of that star power lately, but they obviously like to have that "leading man" type in every cast too. It'll be really interesting!

[nowandlater]

It's unusual that Taran and Jay started on the same night, and finished on the same night.

When was the last time that happened?

(Both Andy Samberg and Kristin Wiig started in fall 2005 and left after the May 2012 season finale, but Wiig started a few weeks after Samberg.)

I remember their first night since Amy Poehler was hosting, and she gave a shout-out to the 4 newbies in her monologue.

That 4th cast member, Paul Brittain, was dumped after one season. He's in the movie that Taran is directing. And he appeared with Taran in Grown Ups 2.

I remember watching a really long (more than 2 hours) interview with Killam from a year and a half ago (below) in which he expressed shock about Brittain's ouster. Taht it was a revelation for him.

Edited August 10, 2016 by nowandlater

[burner]

We're Jay and Taran pretty good friends? I seem to remember some article about them going out drinking in NYC a lot? Maybe Jay left after he got word of Taran. Jay wasn't being used all that much anyways (even his Obama wasn't actually used all that often and I don't think he NEEDS to be a major focus of this current election).

Anyways, I'm still really surprised by Taran but they did stop using him A LOT this last year. He was kind of anchoring the show for a few seasons but had definitely stepped back. His leaving could have opened the door for more Jon but I guess that's out now too.

[ajsnaves]

Do we low for certain if Jay was let go, or did he ask to leave? 

[Princess Sparkle]

I don't think we know for certain one way or the other - the SNL spokesperson said "they won't be returning", and the only thing Jay has done is post a picture of him, Taran, and Vanessa on his Instagram with the caption "My fam for life."  My best guess is that he was let go like Taran - I feel like if it had been his choice, the SNL spokesperson would have said something more like "Jay has decided to leave SNL", or that Jay (or his people) would have put out a statement saying that leaving was his idea. The radio silence suggests to me that he was let go. 

[formerlyfreedom]

I'm surprised about Taran but not shocked - he wasn't in as much as last season, and he does seem to have a lot going on outside the show. On top of that, he was basically commuting (I remember reading an interview about that) when he did do the show. So if they looked at scheduling for the next year, and how busy they're going to be with the election, I can see that it would make sense. He was planning on it being his last year, after all. Taran is going to land on his feet, he's already got stuff lined up, so I'm not worried about him. He Mr. Cobie Smulders after all!

Jay surprises me a bit more, because of his ability to do so many great impressions, especially Obama. I'd think they'd get a lot of mileage out of him this fall. The show gave him a great platform and got his name out there, so he should be fine too.

I hope Jon got to keep the Patrick Swayze outfit. Maybe they're hiring in the Catskills.

[VCRTracking]

Here's Jay's instagram post:

[Eucrid]

Strange to let Taram as the strongest most versatile male in the cast go but I think its ever weirder to let Jay go. The show made Pharoh, at least as a sketch performer. He was terrible at the start and now he was/is a really solid member of the cast with the added bonus of his great impressions and Obama. Who the hell is going to do Obama now? Such a shame. I hope to see them both in interesting projects very soon. I do fear the show will suffer without them though, just as this cast had finally had a really good couple of seasons.

[ruby24]

The failure of this show to get Obama right over eight years is pretty stunning. Jay's wasn't so bad, but we haven't seen him in over a year! And now he's gone, so that's just it for Obama on the show?

[burner]

They never found a good comedic angle for Obama, IMO. Jay sounded just like him but there wasn't really anything funny about him. With Hillary they've got the aggressive / "wants it so bad" angle. Trump, well, he's Trump and there's plenty of fodder there. The most recent presidents got written as idiots (Bush) or fat and horny (Bill). Honestly I don't know what I'd really do with Obama...

[Fisher King]

Jay and Taran Head to Showtime

[Eucrid]

9 hours ago, ruby24 said:

The failure of this show to get Obama right over eight years is pretty stunning. Jay's wasn't so bad, but we haven't seen him in over a year! And now he's gone, so that's just it for Obama on the show?

The only good Obama sketch they've ever done was the The Rock Obama.

[peeayebee]

3 hours ago, Fisher King said:

Jay and Taran Head to Showtime

Maybe that's why they were let go. The article says that Showtime was going to work around their SNL schedules, but maybe Lorne didn't want to have them on another network.

Jay's show sounds better to me than Taran's, but I don't get Showtime.

[cpcathy]

On 8/12/2016 at 5:24 AM, Eucrid said:

The only good Obama sketch they've ever done was the The Rock Obama.

The debate with Romney was excellent, made even better by an appearance by Tom Hanks.

[JZL]

On 8/11/2016 at 7:30 PM, ruby24 said:

The failure of this show to get Obama right over eight years is pretty stunning. Jay's wasn't so bad, but we haven't seen him in over a year! And now he's gone, so that's just it for Obama on the show?

The sketch where Obama and Boehner get drunk was pretty good.

No one approached the genius of Key & Peele's approach to uncorking Obama, who's cool, collected, and calculating demeanor made him tough nut to crack comedically.  They rolled with it but added the character of Luther the Anger Translator. 

[peeayebee]

Maybe the key is making Obama the straight man reacting to funnier characters.

[nowandlater]

On 8/11/2016 at 5:30 PM, ruby24 said:

The failure of this show to get Obama right over eight years is pretty stunning. Jay's wasn't so bad, but we haven't seen him in over a year! And now he's gone, so that's just it for Obama on the show?

I mentioned this before, but I recall SNL being really late to the Obama phenomenon. Does anybody know when exactly Fred made his debut as Obama? I just remember it being staggeringly late, perhaps in early 2008?

[ruby24]

Yeah, it was very late in the election cycle. They never even had an Obama/Hillary debate sketch during the primaries, because they didn't have anyone to play him. I remember they were getting a lot of flak for that too, and then when Fred finally took it there were a lot of raised eyebrows, because of course he's not black. I think he made his debut during the debates, maybe? I can't remember exactly when his first appearance as Obama was, but I think it was late 2008.

To be honest, they were late to it because they had no black cast members besides Kenan, and this was what really drew attention to that fact.

[Peace 47]

There was a Hillary-Obama debate back in the day during the primary process.  I think this was from March 2008.  I just watched this a few months ago for some reason, which is why I thought to link to it.

They've done some decent stuff during the "Jay as Obama" era (another that comes to mind is the one where he is making an Obama Care speech, and the members of the public he keeps citing are embarrassing in some way, and it ends with "Jesse Pinkman" talking about his friend with cancer being forced to sell meth).  Nothing has approached the brilliance of Key and Peele's take, though.

Edited August 14, 2016 by Peace 47

[ajsnaves]

I think one of reasons it took so long to get "Obama" to appear on SNL was that much of the Primary season was lost to the show because of the 2007-08 WGA Strike.  They lost probably 3 or 4 months there.  The real Obama did appear in a Halloween sketch as himself in an Obama mask.  I don't remember there being 500 debates before the Primaries that year, but I may be looking back with rose colored glasses, before the dark times.

That of course does not excuse Fred's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad impression.

[Bruinsfan]

On 8/13/2016 at 2:16 PM, JZL said:

No one approached the genius of Key & Peele's approach to uncorking Obama, who's cool, collected, and calculating demeanor made him tough nut to crack comedically.  They rolled with it but added the character of Luther the Anger Translator. 

I thought Keegan-Michael Key also did a great job as Obama himself on Mad TV, particularly in the music video spoofs. Maybe they could bring Key or Peele on as an outside contractor like they have with Larry David as Sanders?

It does seem really weird for both Taran and Jay to get dropped like this without warning. (I like Jon Rudnitsky, but him getting pink slipped wasn't exactly a huge shock.) And apparently Jost has lost the head writer job to Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, although I haven't heard departure news so presumably he'll remain behind the newsdesk with Michael Che.

[formerlyfreedom]

10 minutes ago, Bruinsfan said:

And apparently Jost has lost the head writer job to Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, although I haven't heard departure news so presumably he'll remain behind the newsdesk with Michael Che.

This actually happened last season - he was interviewed about it after the first month or so, and said that he didn't feel he could do his best at both jobs, so he chose the newsdesk. Here's a link to the article.

[Bruinsfan]

Ah, so it was Tucker and Klein that got demoted.

With Taran getting the boot, is anyone but Keenan and Kate guaranteed a return? (I feel like Leslie should be given her energy and the shitstorm that dropping her would entail, but it wouldn't surprise me for Lorne to only discover that after the fact.)

[Princess Sparkle]

I think locks to come back other than Keenan & Kate are:
Leslie - she's not going anywhere, especially not after the summer she's had.  NBC inviting her to Rio is just the cherry on the sundae.  I actually wouldn't be surprised to see her promoted to the main cast early.
Bobby - I truly think he's one of Lorne's favorites, and is a pretty vocal support of Lorne
Colin & Michael - you don't do election specials over the summer with your two WU anchors if you're going to fire them.

Though at this point, I'd be surprised if we see any other major firings - it would give the sense that last season was a dumpster fire, when I think on the whole it was pretty strong (and was an improvement over season 41).  The only person that I could maaaaybe see getting the boot is Sasheer, just because she has been such a non-entity in sketches - however, and I fully recognize how cynical this sounds, but since they went through an emergency casting in order to get a black female comedian, I don't think Sasheer will get fired unless they have another black female ready to replace her.  

Edited August 16, 2016 by Princess Sparkle
typo

[formerlyfreedom]

Looks like everybody else is back!

Quote

Taran Killam, Jay Pharaoh, and Jon Rudnitsky won’t return to Studio 8H for season 42 of Saturday Night Live this fall, but the show’s remaining cast is still on board.

[vb68]

 Sounds like two new cast members, one of whom is Mikey Day.  Princess Sparkle and I were calling that one! :)  Mikey had a very good tryout on Maya and Marty over the summer, and he does remind me a lot of Taran.

Edited September 9, 2016 by vb68

[nowandlater]

Taran Killam co-wrote his new movie (out today!) with Mikey Day. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4000956/

(Co-directed by the recently departed Matt Villines.)

[peeayebee]

I had to look up Mikey Day. I saw him in the US Kath & Kim. I liked him. Hope he does well here.

[BoogieBurns]

Chris Redd (the other new cast member) was in the Lonely Island movie, Popstar, this summer. He's funny! He played Hunter if anyone saw the movie. 

[burner]

More new cast members: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/snl-cast-additions-season-42-927040

[cpcathy]

Villasenor looks too much like the last new cast member, the one who played Lena Dunham?

I have a sinking feeling we will be saying goodbye to them next September!

[vb68]

Hmm, wonder what happened with Chris Redd?

[cpcathy]

Was he ever confirmed as a cast member?

[BoogieBurns]

4 hours ago, vb68 said:

Hmm, wonder what happened with Chris Redd?

They have all 4 listed on AV club

[helenamonster]

They announced the new cast members on NBC Nightly News last night and I don't think they mentioned Chris Redd.

This article says that Chris Redd's addition was incorrect. Not sure what the full story is there.

[vb68]

I wonder if he did get an offer (and that is what whoever the source was knew), but then he turned it down?   It must be something like that.  I never remember someone's getting leaked like that and it not happening.

[Fostersmom]

And one has already been deleting her racist Tweets. What the hell, does SNL not do any research before hiring? 

[helenamonster]

9 hours ago, Fostersmom said:

And one has already been deleting her racist Tweets. What the hell, does SNL not do any research before hiring? 

That's what I said to my mom when we were talking about this tonight. Or at least maybe do some social media housekeeping as soon as you get the call to audition for such a high-profile gig?

Or, ya know, you could just not tweet racist shit in the first place. That could work.

[Fostersmom]

15 minutes ago, helenamonster said:

That's what I said to my mom when we were talking about this tonight. Or at least maybe do some social media housekeeping as soon as you get the call to audition for such a high-profile gig?

Or, ya know, you could just not tweet racist shit in the first place. That could work.

Well, yeah, there is that! Plus, you'd think given all the issues Twitter gave Leslie Jones this summer, thru NO fault of her own, the cast and potential cast, would be taking extra care with their accounts.