SATURDAY NITE DEAD
I’d long since given up any hope that “Saturday Night Live” would ever again even approach the level of excellence of producer Lorne Michaels’ original effort of 10 years ago. But to have him return and present us with a show absolutely devoid of any sense of purpose, playfulness or humor at all was truly a shock to me.
The fact that Madonna was chosen to host the show, rather than to be satirized on it, was an indication that the show would no more have offered tasteless skits deriding sufferers of AIDS, gays, drug addicts, feeble-minded individuals and dead movie stars than it would have offered David Eisenhower and Julie Nixon as hosts.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Nov. 24, 1985 IMPERFECTIONS
Los Angeles Times Sunday November 24, 1985 Home Edition Calendar Page 99 Calendar Desk 2 inches; 46 words Type of Material: Correction
BAD REDACTIONS: Tony Lynn’s letter last week lamenting the lassitude and lack of laughs on “Saturday Night Live”--even though producer Lorne Michaels has returned--got garbled. What Lynn said was that Madonna’s role as “SNL” host and the cheap jokes about AIDS and drug-addicts proves Michaels has lost his touch of a decade ago.
It might be too early to write off Michaels’ return. However, nothing indicated this one show’s failure more eloquently than a 30-second commercial promoting the new “Best of John Belushi” videotape. It held my attention far more completely than any yuppie, generic, allegedly entertaining program ever could. If you’re listening, Lorne, there’s a message there for you.
TONY LYNN
Los Angeles
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