LAWRENCE, Kan. – I am a die-hard Saturday Night Live fan and have been since I was in elementary school. (Too bad my classmates didn’t always appreciate my not-ready-for-prime-time sense of humor.) But for as much as I love the show, I have often been as critical of the show as any outsider with better than cursory knowledge of the inner workings of the show.

The show is currently in a sort of transition, with new writers coming and going and talent cycling through like college athletes. Even so, SNL has recently shown the sort of signs of life that illustrate just how close it is to striking yet another memorable balance in both its on and off air ensemble. And that’s just the purely content-driven side of the show.

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer

O’FALLON, Mo. – Where do I begin? There’s been a lot of interesting television in the last week, and some other intriguing item looking forward.

Late Night

Saturday Night Live delivered one of its best episodes in recent memory. And I have a pretty good memory, particularly with regard to SNL. Beginning with a well-executed cold open and perhaps the most physically demanding monologue since Bill Murray scaled the “Homebase” set 10 seasons ago, Joseph Gordon-Levitt proved himself a more-than-formidable host. Musical guests Dave Matthews Band made yet another appearance on the show. DMB is the only musical act I can think of who’s performances have now spanned the three longest-tenured directors in SNL’s history – the late Dave Wilson (with host Courteney Cox in 1994), multiple appearances with director Beth McCarthy Miller, and now Don Roy King. I have no doubt I’m the only person who really cares.

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Music/Variety, Sports TV, Technology, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Back for its 33rd year, Saturday Night Live kicked off the new season with host Lebron James and musical guest Kanye West, marking the second time the season premiere featured both an African American host and musical guest. Oddly enough, the previous time featured Michael Jordan as host and Public Enemy as musical guest in 1991.

Many would argue that ’91 was during SNL’s glory days, with one of its most popular and successful casts and a top-notch writing staff. However, on the heels of some unfortunate off-beat summer films starring current cast members – Hot Rod with Andy Samberg and Bill Hader and The Brothers Solomon written and starring Will Forte with Kristen Wiig and a Hader cameo, the current cast still has a lot to prove.

Filed under:
Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – With every episode of the current season of Saturday Night Live, it seems as if the show’s production crew has lost its touch.

Part of the problem is Don Roy King, the show’s new director. His qualifications were suspect in the first place, and as each week passes, it has become clear that he has no business directing the long-running variety show. His direction of SNL’s comedy sketches has been subpar at best, and he has done a horrendous job cutting the music performances. But King isn’t the only one to blame.

The show’s producer Steve Higgins has somehow managed to keep his job amid the program’s plummetting ratings, and the timing of this season’s shows has been some of the worst in recent memory. For two straight weeks, there have been issues with how much time is left at the end of the show. The final sketch of last week’s episode hosted by Annette Bening had to be prematurely cut off because the show was going too long. For this week’s show hosted by Justin Timberlake, there wasn’t even enough time for a sketch in the last segment of the show. Instead, the SNL band played on camera before the final commercial break.

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Saturday Night Live may have suffered one of the biggest losses in the show’s 32-year history. The show returned last weekend without director Beth McCarthy Miller calling the shots, for the first time in 11 years. Reports from USA Today and Variety have been unclear about who made the decision to end McCarthy Miller’s reign as director, and it’s even more baffling how Don Roy King was chosen as her replacement.

McCarthy Miller came to SNL after rising to the rank of senior director at MTV before leaving to direct The Jon Stewart Show, whose short lifespan perfectly coincided with the late Dave Wilson’s retirement from SNL. Wilson’s departure, however, appeared to have been far more premeditated as a live shot in the control room showed him salute at the close of the 1994-95 season finale. McCarthy Miller had no such curtain call.

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. — For the fifth time in her career, Beth McCarthy Miller has been nominated by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Outstanding Directing for Variety, Music or Comedy programming. McCarthy Miller, nominated for last season’s episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Steve Martin, has never won an Emmy despite past nominations for America: A Tribute to Heroes, Saturday Night Live: The 25th Anniversary and Saturday Night Live. This year, her category consists of fellow veterans Louis J. Horvitz (78th Annual Academy Awards) and Bruce Gowers (American Idol) as well as Chuck O’Neil (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart) and newcomer Jim Hoskinson (The Colbert Report). Unlike in prevous attempts, however, McCarthy Miller is the lone representative of non-cable late-night programming. Her nomination is one of only two for the 31-year-old show; the other went to SNL’s technical crew for the episode hosted by Jack Black.

Filed under:
Music/Variety by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – I’m back at KU for the spring semester, introducing a new look to the site, to me and to Jayhawk Sports Talk. While specifics of the coming season at KUJH are still pending, I will share my recommendations for the weekend programs you shouldn’t miss:

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV, Television by Scott A. Winer

ROSWELL, Ga. — After a series of poor live programming decisions by MTV, such as the Live 8 debacle, the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and Video Music Awards, and the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show, the cable network seems to be headed back on the right track for the upcoming Video Music Awards.

For the second straight year the show will be on a Sunday at the American Airlines Arena after having been held on Thursdays for the past several years in either New York or Los Angeles at various locations, including Radio City Music Hall, New York’s Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center and the Universal Amphitheatre.

Filed under:
Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer

ROSWELL, Ga. – SNL wrapped up its 30th season with an unfortunate performance by both the on and off-air crew. The writing continued to lag, as writing supervisor Paula Pell ended her time at the show. One careless tech mistake in a UPN parody and questionable staging for Coldplay ended the show’s third decade in disappointing fashion. Despite NBC’s stellar coverage of the triumphant display by Afleet Alex in the 130th running of The Preakness Stakes, led by producer David Michaels and director John Gonzalez, at Maryland’s Pimlico Race Course, the SNL finale fell short of an otherwise superb day for the network. Whether producer Steve Higgins is where the change must be made is for the show’s creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels to decide. Since the departure of Tim Herlihy in the late-1990s, Higgins has been at the helm with director Beth McCarthy Miller. McCarthy Miller, who dodged the bullet of being the director behind the disastrous Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, has remained in good standing at SNL although she was passed over by alma mater MTV for the 2004 Video Music Awards. She deserves to remain in her position on the show, but better musical guests need to be booked throughout the season in order to ensure that she has good material to work with. Furthermore, tech errors must be addressed before the show converts to high definition in coming years.

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV, Television by Scott A. Winer

ROSWELL, Ga. – After Johnny Knoxville hosted one of the funniest episodes of Saturday Night Live all season, and possibly one of the funniest in the last few years, Will Ferrell returned last Saturday to host one of the worst SNLs I have ever seen. Aside from the “Cold Open” and “Celebrity Jeopardy!” the show got worse by the minute.

To add to the problems, SNL has been technically unsound for many of the past few episodes, a fact that is inexcusable. I have had many experiences with remote sports productions that have gone smoothly despite being in a new location every week, facing new challenges in each venue and juggling issues arising from producing TV for both standard and high definition. A show like SNL that is shot in a studio with its own control room in standard definition has no reason to be experiencing tech problems on a regular basis. Many of these errors have been made by operators rather than equipment. The show hosted by Tom Brady had several graphics that were put on screen at the wrong time; the Cameron Diaz-hosted episode was horribly flawed with misplaced or poorly-timed visual effects (like the pixelated blur made famous by “COPS”); and the Ferrell show most notably featured a cut to something other than a camera (still not sure what it was) during one of the sketches.

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Technology, Television by Scott A. Winer