That Week In SNL (A Vintage Saturday Night Live Podcast)

As is tradition, we look to MAD's Christmas episode to chart the evolution of the show and what an evolution it's taken since we last covered it. We see the show slowly transitioning into the cast it would be most known for, kicking back with a cozy little Holiday special that is a bunch of fun. And, as an added bonus, we get some primo Karn Facts!

The threat of apocalypse hangs over every moment of this decidedly chilly Christmas episode of SNL so we've called upon the dual forces of Tim Barnes and Ian Abramson to lighten things up a bit. It's the last stand of Michael O'Donoghue's vision for the show and as usual he never fails to bring the goods, with forces both internal and external colliding for the darkest holiday outing ever.

Before SNL, before the movies, before the sitcoms, Jan Hooks and Bonnie & Terry Turner found themselves working on an obscure Atlanta based sketch show called Tush. Who was Bill Tush? Where did he come from? Why did he have a sketch show? We dive deep into the fascinating history of the man and his show.

Fever and sickness grips the studio as we boldly attempt to cover one of the most influential and well-known episodes of the show's history. Will Andy's cough medicine gag crash against the rocks of Timmy's all consuming chaotic energy? Will William ever get a word in edge-wise? Is this SNL episode actually any good? All these questions are asked (and more!) and maybe - just maybe - some might be answered.

Jon Schneider of Saturday Night Network drops by yet again to cover a momentous episode of SNL! At only 7 years of age, Drew Barrymore grabs claim to the youngest host ever and a live call-in vote was conducted to see if Andy Kaufman would ever appear on the show again. We try to place our own vote, share some scary stories of house break-ins, get a remembrance from Gary Kroeger and more!

We're going all the way back to the subject of our very first test episode we recorded for the show to give it another go, this time minus a Timmy but adding a William. And really, it's an episode with a lot of firsts: the first Stuart Smalley, the first credited episode for Tim Meadows & Adam Sandler and the whole thing just generally points to the future of the show. It's up to you to decide if that's a good or a bad thing.

Join us for a long, winding tale of the podcasting origins that brought us to That Week and 100 episodes thereof! Correspondence from the audience! Questions! Answers! It's all here as we kick back and celebrate the podcast for a bit.

By god, we made it. 100 episodes of this mess! And to celebrate, we're breaking our usual cover-an-episode-from-the-same-month-the-podcast-gets-released format to jump ahead to March 1980 to cover SNL's own 100th episode! Kinda host-less, kinda not, and nowhere near as celebratory as you'd think, this one nevertheless delivers some odd moments worth digging into, including the show's first ever f-bomb.

It's time we finally dive into SNL's second ever episode, one that has a vibe and format the show would never replicate. It's basically a Paul Simon concert show with a few sketches thrown in, including a rare reunion of Simon and Garfunkel. Thankfully, we've got a live copy to really get the full scope of the night...and somehow, it all adds up to one of the biggest episodes we've ever recorded. We need help.

We're kicking off our sixth season of the show with special guest Tim Barnes to explore the beginning of the show's Silver Age, Lorne's second attempt to reboot the show after returning. It's the first episode for Phil, Dana, Jan, Kevin and Victoria and somehow, with no REAL credited musical guest, also manages to pack in four musical segments. It's got some bangers. It's got some clangers. It's got a format the show wouldn't ever really try again. SNL. It's back, baby.