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

This week, we do battle with one of the most confounding motion pictures we've seen in quite some time: Neighbors from 1981. Featuring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi playing against type and directed by John G. Avildsen of Rocky and Karate Kid fame, Neighbors is a dark comedy that ALMOST comes together...but mostly serves to destroy our brains.

With it's mix of vulgar humor, topless ladies and Bob Einstein's Super Dave character, Bizarre was an early hit for Showtime, landing six seasons and even a spin-off show. It's a fascinating document of early cable TV sketch comedy. But...we're not watching that today. No, we've decided to go back to see what the show looked like when it was being potentially produced for ABC, with host Richard Dawson in place of John Byner.

Mistakes might have been made.

This week we're having a little free form discussion about the Eddie Murphy Christmas episode and our thoughts on season 45 so far. Also, some small corrections and additions to our MADtv episode.

We're taking a look at one of SNL's longest surviving competitors, MADtv and it's first Christmas episode! We discuss the history of the show, it's cast members and the rather weird Holiday episode they put together in '95 that features both Pauly Shore and a whole lotta of sadness.

In April of 1980, ABC launched their own live sketch to compete with SNL entitled Fridays. Despite lasting only three seasons, the show was able to build a voice of it's own and knock out a number of memorable episodes. None were more infamous than this one, with guest host Andy Kaufman deciding to implode the entire episode. Was it real? Was it fake? We dive deep on one of the most fascinating moments in live television.

Once again, another mix of legendary SNL musical performances and interstitial songs from the podcast! Track listing: 1. Derrick J. Hines: Way Back Saturday Night Sax

2. Foo Fighters: Rope (4-9-2011)

3. Michael Kiwanuka: You Ain't The Problem

4. Aretha Franklin: Can't Turn You Loose (12-6-1980)

5. REM: Man On The Moon (12-11-1999)

6. Taeko Ohnuki: Kusuri wo Takusan

7. The Lonely Island: Ras Trent (10-25-2008)

8. The Stanley Clarke Trio: Wild Dog (1-17-1981)

9. Brian Protheroe: Money Love

9. Satan: Sparklebrite Jingle (3-18-1995)

10. Mason Williams: Classical Gas

11. Ray Sharkey and The SNL Band: Abuse Somebody (1-10-1981)

12. James Brown: Medley (12-13-1980)

13. The Roches: We

14. Annie Lennox: Train In Vain (3-18-1995)

15. Nightmares of Pauley

16. CAN: Moonshake

17: Kyle Maclachlan, Phil Hartman and Dana Carvey: The Cattle Song (9-29-1990)

We're kicking back this week and celebrating the end of our third season with questions from the audience, clips from the show, season 45 discussion, some music and other fun things!

We're saving the best for last with one of the most gleefully offensive episodes of the show ever! It's also the final show for Beth Cahill, Siobhan Fallon and Victoria Jackson and it pulls no punches, despite being one of the more apolitical episodes we've seen in quite some time.

It's a weird, wild and chaotic one. This episode not only features the most popular (?!) SNL sketch of all time but also mass loads of breaking, a show-stopping outburst from someone in the audience, exploitation of an underage host and a surprising amount of fun.

This week, we're covering the third (and sadly, final) hosting gig for ol' Zach Galifianakis! There's a few direct connections to the Helen Mirren episode we just covered but this one is always remembered for the one-two punch of the mighty Darrell's House. And strap yourselves in for the saltiest music discussion yet!