Anyone remember the infamous 1980-1981 season?

I wish they'd release it on DVD so I could rent it and see if it's as bad as people said it was. I did watch it, but it was 30 years ago and I don't remember if it was really that bad. I suspect that it's probably no worse than some of the recent shows.

After 12 episodes, the producer was fired and after a month's hiatus, the show returned, retooled by producer Dick Ebersol. Al Franken had a thing or two to say about that.



Franken never did get to host, as his show was cancelled due to a writers strike. But he returned as a writer and occasional performer in 1985.

I read the wonderful book Live from New York, composed entirely of interview material edited into chronological subjects.

Lorne Michaels hated those years so bad he didn't consider them to be SNL. That goes for the Ebersol years that followed. There were anniversary shows and get-togethers that he left them out of.

Interesting. I never knew he had left....I also remember how bad the cast was with Anthony Michael Hall too. It is amazing he has kept the show on as long as he has. There have been some really awful seasons mixed in with the good....but I have always had a soft spot for SNL.

I read that book and loved it too, Jay.

I totally want to steal that oral history format for a comics history book.

I love the oral history format. Unfortunately I'd read some I liked a lot more, with a music scene theme so I was a little disappointed with the SNL book, still it was entertaining.

I don't remember much about that season either, what with me being 1 and all, I did watch reruns of the older stuff when I was young though. I suspect as Chris said, that it couldn't have been worse than some of the more current stuff.

I used to have a soft spot for SNL and still do for the older stuff, it was bludgeoned to death at some point. I kept stopping in to see if it was funny or not and it was a ton of formulaic repetitive skits with only one joke being repeated constantly throughout. bleh.

Actually, cast members from those years have appeared on the anniversary shows and clips from those years have been shown as well. I mean, you can't omit Eddie Murphy from an SNL retrospective.

But yeah, those years are not regarded well by Lorne and his people.

I still wish they'd release season six, though.

I remember being 10 years old and staying up to watch the first episode of that season.

Oh, god, that was fucking horrible. I've come to the conclusion that nothing that added "80" or "1980" after their name is in any way good. They're obviously trying way too hard to appear new... which is like rock stars coming back with dread locks.

Anywho, caught one of that season's episodes not long ago. Jamie Lee Curtis was in it and one of the skits had no fucking jokes. It was just one drug reference after another.

Was that a young Gilbert Gottfried???


I graduated high school in 1979 and, while I watched the show religiously from 1975-79, I was too busy getting drunk and chasing girls in 1980 to watch (so I thankfully missed all those shitty shows). I watched it more regularly around 1981 an 1982 -- with Piscopo and Murphy in the cast. It was pretty weak, except for Eddie Murphy, but got good again in 1985 or so, when Christopher Guest and Billy Crystal joined.

I absolutely HATED the season with Downey Jr and Anthony Michael Hall. That may not be the worst season ever of SNL, but it's close.

I watched a few on Netflix. They're not the full episodes, but you get about half a show. Not great, but certainly no worse than current SNL. And it's interesting to see Gilbert Gottfried before his manic persona took over. He actually talks in a normal, non-annoying voice.

I was just gonna post that some of season 6 was available streaming on Netflix

I'm watching it as we speak.

Are the season sets on DVD skipping those years?

They haven't released any full season sets since season five, so I don't know.

Well, how long ago was S5 released?

Couple of years ago, I think.

Man, those were pretty weak.

Had to bail halfway through the second episode.

Maybe you needed to be stoned or something to appreciate the "humor."

That would be interesting, it's hard to imagine him not using his annoying voice.

Actually, it was a big deal when he finally did it. You can read the book (or not), but for years Lorne Michaels would not acknowledge the Ebersol years as legit, and would not include them in anniversary shows.

For years, it was assumed that full season sets of SNL on DVD were a pipe dream, as getting all the music clearances would seem to be prohibitive. That turned out not to be the case.

I don't know if Lorne Michaels has any veto power in terms of a Season Six DVD set, but I'm not sure if his OK is the issue as much as the fact that it would be an item that would only generate limited interest.

They should skip ahead to the Mike Myers/Dana Carvey/Phil Hartman/Jon Lovitz/Dennis Miller years.

It's funny that when Lorne Michaels finally came back to SNL after his five-year hiatus, he brought together one of the worst cast in the history of the show -- the dreaded Robert Downey Jr/Anthony Michael Hall/ Joan Cusak/Randy Quaid debacle -- and almost got the thing canceled.

I never knew that Lorne walked away from the show after season 5. I always assumed he'd "discovered" Eddie Murphy.

Yeah that is what I thought too. I would have never guessed he wasn't involved in those years.