Strikebound 'SNL' Swings Ax

[SNLMedia]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 1:48am

Could this mean the end of "Saturday Night Live"?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11172007/gossip/pagesix/pagesix.htm

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 2:53am

Calamity! I hope not! I love SNL.

Of course, I don't actually have a television at the moment, but I watch clips online... which is what the strike is about in the first place.

[SNLMedia]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 2:58am

I love SNL too. I wouldn't want to see it go because of this. But FF, don't watch the clips, support the writers!

[Liverpool]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 3:01am

the Natalie Portman Digital Short from a couple years ago is the only good thing to come out of SNL in the last 6 or 7 years.

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 3:05am

But honestly, if I watch the clips online, isn't that indirectly supporting the writers? By proving that people watch them online, and that they are therefore valuable? I mean, if we all stop watching things online, then what is there to strike about?

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 8:10am

"Laid off until further notice" does not mean the show is history. But why pay the entire staff until the strike is settled? One of the many casualties of the strike, but it does not mean they won't be back as soon as the strike is settled.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 2:06pm

SNL will return. NBC has just laid off the staff of the show without pay until the writer's strike is over. SNL has a very large staff, it takes a lot of people to put on that live 1 1/2 hour show each week. NBC isn't going to pay hundreds of people to sit around with no show to put on. All the other late night shows are facing the same problem, ergo you have Letterman and Conan stepping up to the plate and paying their salaries.
FF, when you watch the clips on line you are putting money in the Producer's pockets and the writers are getting zip. This, ultimatly is what the whole strike is about!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 2:21pm

Meanwhile don't the writers and performers get paid for the episodes being re-run?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 2:24pm

They get residuals, yes. It is the other staff who don't get paid. Designers, wardrobe set, dressers, etc,.etc.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 1:01am

I always wondered, since SNL takes so much time off (often re-running episodes it aired 2 weeks prior), do they get paid per episode or per week?

If it's per episode, chances are after the November sweeps, there would be maybe one episode around Christmas, then re-runs again until February.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 6:59am

They will not be airing ANY new episodes until the strike is settled. As for them taking "so much time off", I don't think they re-run any more episodes than any other show. However, since they are LIVE, it might be excusable to re-run something at the last minute if something should come up unexpectedly.

They DID do a show Saturday night. LIVE and in person at Upright Citizens Brigade.

[RadiGal2]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 9:46am

No the writers do not get paid for anything on the web.....including the webisodes and extras. Watching them online is counterproductive to the supporting the strike. It's been painful because I have missed many of my favorite shows and unable to watch them since Nov 5.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 10:58am

SNL has been gone for years. It bears no resemblence to the show it once was.

[Pippin]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 11:16am

blah, blah, blah. Same old argument. That's all people ever say. How can it resemble the same show it had been 30+ years ago? It can't. It was a different time period, different cast, different everything, except Lorne Michaels and Eugene Lee.

The truth is, if they were still doing a carbon copy of the show in '75-'80, it would pale in comparison, because how can one compete with the original performers? Can't be done. Gilda Radner? Belushi? Murphy? People would complain how the show today is trying in vain to copy the show the way it once was. We can't have it both ways folks. The show goes up and down, up and down. We know this.

The fact is, it's an institution and no matter how many highs or lows it has per season, it still does manage to offer something different and current on television, and there is always a diamond or two to be found in the rough.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 11:41am

Same old argument. That's all people ever say.

If it's all people ever say, then there's probably a reason.

How can it resemble the same show it had been 30+ years ago?

By being good. Or at least funny. It's been neither for so long, audiences have lowered their expectations to the basement level of sketch comedy.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 3:07pm

People have been saying that since the 2nd Season of the show when the phrase "Saturday Night Dead" was first used. It has since been used in practically every season by some creative reviewer who think they are the first. People have been saying that about the show forever, even during the Dana Carvey/ Phil Hartman years (which are now toted by some as classics).
It is funny how even though people say it isn't funny anymore will e-mail around the skits, declaring "Dick in a Box is hysterical!"
SNL is an institution and if for nothing more then being the long running LIVE sketch comedy show. It has it's unfunny cringe worthy periods but it also has it's diamond edged bright periods, that is the risk of live television .Sometimes things that work in dress fall flat on their faces during the live broadcast. SNL ebbs and flows and never ceases to entertain , IMO.