SNL Best of the '90s

Too late for this to mean much, but last Sunday's primetime SNL special was really well done, I thought. Rather than being a real Best Of, it was more of a documentary, with no sketches shown in their entirety in favor of lots of interviews chopped up and placed into different chapters such as those on Chris Farley, the change from the old guard of Carvey, Hartman et al to the infusion of fresh talent like Sandler, Spade, Farley, Rock, and a chapter on perennial guest hosts John Goodman and Alec Baldwin. Of course you would want every single person to be interviewed, so Sandler's absence is a disappointment, but there's good stuff from Spade, Oteri, Farrell, Franken, Davis, Rock, Shannon, Myers, Nealon, Smigel and more. Norm McDonald seems really out of it but still wth some semblance of humor. You're reminded of things easily forgotten, like how critics and the public didn't at first take to the new kids, or how Sandler's groundbreaking idiocy was so divisive. I liked how Chris Rock cheerfully admitted that his "I'm Chillin'" sketch was a blatant rip-off of the breakout Wayne's World. Another excellent element of this special, easily overlooked, is how they wove in bits of important '90s musical guests like Dave Matthews Band and Pearl Jam, with their songs always echoing the theme of the particular chapter. For example, Pearl Jam's angry "Not for You" played throughout the chapter about Norm McDonald's ballsy stint as Weekend Update anchor, that led to his being fired by NBC President Don Ohlmeyer over Lorne Michaels' objections. And of course, Farley's stuff, though I've seen it many times, still cracks me up, then makes me sad.