Here we are at an important crossroads for the show: the final live episode for Eddie Murphy as a cast member. Yes, the show would still have two pre-taped sketches left to air in later episodes but this is basically it for Eddie. And who does the show bring into host for this momentous occasion? Recently retired NBC newsman Edwin Newman. Huh. That doesn't seem terribly exciting. I mean, yeah, Kool & The Gang are there to very literally bring the Celebration but Edwin Newman? Seems like an odd choice...or is it?

The show's first black female host. One of the coolest bands in NYC providing the tunes. Quite possibly the most amount of people watching the show in it's entire history. What could go wrong? Turns out, everything! In a move that can only be described as "yeah, that sounds like something SNL would do", the show manages to torpedo this moment in time with some of the most grim, grimy, sexist and just plain ugly sketches to ever grace your television screens. Strap in for this one, folks because it's not getting any easier.

Against the backdrop of a snowed in New York, the cast and crew of the thirtieth season of SNL huddle into 30 Rock with beloved character actor Paul Giamatti to do what is quite possibly the finest outing of a fairly infamous season. We get two decent political efforts, a rare Finesse Mitchell showcase, some quality oddities and the ridiculous, joyous nonsense that is Ludacris and Sum 41 as our musical guests. And, as an added bonus, a few commercials and weirdness from an incomplete live airing I found! OH NO!

We're kicking off 2026 with another one of those quietly important episodes of the show, featuring the debut of a number of sketches that would go on to define the early 90s era of SNL. We get the first Richmeister sketch, the debut of Deep Thoughts (kicking off with FOUR of those tonight) and the first Coffee Talk, here in it's original form with host Paul Baldwin. And hey, we even get the widely loved Sinatra Group sketch in there as well! Elsewhere, things are pretty damn odd though (including one that never made it in reruns of this episode) and the Gulf War had just kicked off only a few days before so that's a lingering thing as well. And the sweetest plum of them all? Andy is sick! Ladies and gentlemen, we are BACK!

This week, we're covering the one and only episode of an offshoot series of SNL called The Eddie Murphy Show. It's got the same cast, same writers, same format, except that it's the only time a cast member hosted the show while still in the cast and that person is Eddie Murphy and so now it's The Eddie Murphy Show. So, yeah. You might've heard about this one. Original host Nick Nolte has to drop out, his 48 Hours co-star steps in and thus, an fairly notable episode is born. We've got Jon Schneider with us on this one to explore all of the herpes, the endless run of failed jokes from Brad Hall, the only appearance of Steve Martin in a episode produced by Dick Ebersol and more! Not a LOT more mind you. Just the normal amount of more. Happy Holidays, y'all!

(Originally posted on Patreon on December 11, 2023) We continue our yearly journey through the history of MADtv with it's fifth Christmas episode, an episode that spells the end of a period of semi-stability for the show. As per usual, we get some Mrs. Swan and we get some Stuart because of course we do but as an extra holiday treat, we also get Deborah Harry and Blondie as special guests!

After crashing out a little bit with the January Jones episode, we thought we'd return to this era for a slightly better outing, this time hosted by Steve Buscemi! Who doesn't love Steve? No one, that's who. And if you don't like Steve Buscemi, keep that to yourself, ya weirdo. So what do we got on deck for this one? Well, we've got a fairly well remembered sketch with Coach Bert, a cameo from Maya Rudolph as Whitney Houston, some fun debuts, some last iterations of a few sketches and The Black Keys playing some songs you may remember and have very little opinion on. Friends, it looks like we got ourselves an episode of SNL.

Hey, it's another one of those episodes hosted by an extremely young child! This time around it's Macaulay Culkin, here promoting Home Alo...wait, hold on...I'm getting word that he is in fact here promoting My Girl. Huh. Well, they sure do spend a lot of time riffing on Home Alone in this one, but I do suppose that was the style at the time. We do get an all-timer Lorne Michaels performance out of it though so that's cool. Kieran Culkin is here too and he's in this about as much as Macaulay, which is certainly notable. And Tin Machine. My god, Tin Machine. That band is a David Bowie side project that is mostly lost to time at this point and you'll never believe your ears. Happy Thanksgiving, I guess!

Gather round, Mad-Mennies because this week, we've got a doozy for ya. For better or worse, the Wiig/Hader/Samberg era was generally consistent enough that it really doesn't have too many notable infamous episodes but this...this sucker right here is definitely one of them. It's a deadly combo at play: a host who simply isn't cut out for the live sketch comedy game, a musical guest at the peak of their obnoxiousness giving three performances and only one single cast member who seems hell bent on carrying the night to the finish line. There's brief moments of glory contained within, sure, but not only do we get another banger SNL Fart Sketch but also What If Gay and other questionable material! SNL. You've done it again.

In celebration of the show now fully hitting it's 50th anniversary, we're going back to the earliest episode we've yet to cover: Rob Reiner, with no real musical guest. Except, we do get some music in the episode. We get A LOT of things, actually. Much like the show's first episode, there's a bunch of elements in the gumbo for tonight; John Belushi doing his Joe Cocker, Andy Kaufman and his record player return to the show, The Lockers do some street dancing, Albert Brooks turns in what has to be the longest pre-taped segment the show has ever aired. Hell, even Denny Dillon is there! It's a fascinating building block towards what the show would become, with a myriad of "firsts" in play and William Ham is on board to help us figure it all out!