Wasn't That Special: 50 Years of SNL Podcast

Jan 28 2025 47 ep. 47 mins 37

Wasn't That Special: 50 Years of SNL Podcast artwork

A podcast covering 50 years of Saturday Night Live. With hosts Christian Schneider and Scot Bertram.

www.wasntthatspecial.com

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Free Episode: The SNL 40th Anniversary Special and the Best Sketches from Seasons 26-40

Jan 28 2025 79 mins

In this free episode, we run through the SNL 40th Anniversary Special that aired in February 2015, and list our five favorite sketches between seasons 26 and 40. (We did the same thing when SNL ran anniversary specials after seasons 15 and 25.)Enjoy this free trip through fifteen years of SNL and please join us as a subscriber!Wasn't That Special: 50 Years of SNL is a reader-suppor

Free Episode: Season 40 (2014-15): Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Vanessa Bayer Battle for the Top Spot

Jan 27 2025 152 mins

Season 39 came as a shock to Saturday Night Live, with classic cast members Jason Sudeikis, Fred Armisen, and Bill Hader all exiting. Executive Producer Lorne Michaels brought in six new players to replace what the show had lost, but by Season 40, four of them had been scuttled.Season 40 saw some additions, such as new Weekend Update co-host Michael Che and previously uncredited wr

Season 39 (2013-14): Cast Expansion and the Search For a Center

Jan 10 2025 23 mins

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wasntthatspecial.comWe spent a good portion of the Season 38 show explaining to you how Saturday Night Live actually improved without the presence of Kristen Wiig. Does the trend hold in Season 39 despite the departures of Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, and Fred Armisen?In a word, no. In a sentence, well, this is a seas

Season 38 (2012-13): Filling a Kristen Wiig-Sized Hole in the Cast

Dec 23 2024 22 mins

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wasntthatspecial.comIt doesn’t make any sense that Saturday Night Live would actually improve when an all-time great cast member like Kristen Wiig leaves the show. We have seen what happens when a legend leaves in the past; the show’s quality dipped, for instance, when Will Ferrell left in 2002 after Season 27 wr

Season 37 (2011-12): Kristen Wiig's Swan Song, and Hello Kate McKinnon

Dec 09 2024 23 mins

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wasntthatspecial.comIt hasn’t been that often that Lorne Michaels brings back an identical cast from the year before, but that’s exactly what happened after Season 36 and into Season 37. Everyone returns, even the cast members struggling for screen time - it is only in the 18th episode of the latter season that M

Season 36 (2010-11): Digital Shorts Dominate, Stefon Takes Off, and Vanessa Bayer Joins the Cast

Nov 25 2024 24 mins

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wasntthatspecial.comOne a show called Saturday Night Live, one would expect the live sketches to be the most exciting part of each episode. Half the fun is the possibility that something completely unexpected could happen, from an actor flubbing a line to a light falling from the rafters.But in Season 36, it’s the

Free Episode: Season 35 (2009-10): 'What Up With That' is Born, Betty White Reigns Supreme, and Goodbye, Will Forte

Nov 11 2024 158 mins

SALE ALERT: If you’ve been wanting to upgrade to a paid subscription or move to our Executive Producer tier, now is the time. You can go here and take advantage of our 20 percent off sale until November 14, 2024! Grab it now! (Makes a great Christmas gift, too!)In this free episode, we discuss Season 35 of SNL, including the f-bomb being dropped in the season’s first episode, t

Season 34 (2008-09): Sarah Palin Enters, Amy Poehler Exits, and an All-Star Host List Dominates

Oct 29 2024 25 mins

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wasntthatspecial.comSarah Palin, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin.Season 34 will likely be known forever for one thing, and that’s returning cast member Tina Fey’s impression of the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate.But the 2008-09 season had a lot more going on than simply politics. For one, the show bumped th

Movie Review: Is 'Saturday Night' Ready for Prime Time?

Oct 21 2024 41 mins

The Wasn’t That Special Season 34 episode will be a day late next week, so as a peace offering, we recorded a review of the new movie Saturday Night, which “documents” the 90 minutes leading up to the first SNL episode on October 11, 1975.Did we like the movie overall? What did it get wrong and what did it get right? What would we have liked to have seen? How accurate were th

Season 33 (2007-08): Kristen Wiig Dominates, Hillary and Barack Take Center Stage, and the Writers Strike

Oct 14 2024 23 mins

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wasntthatspecial.comEvery season of Saturday Night Live has its classic episodes and its real bombs. In virtually every case, these peaks and valleys average out to make each season simply “pretty good.”But what if there was a season that had no bad episodes but no great ones? That is the case with Season 33, in