‘SNL’s’ ‘Update’: ‘Daily’ it is not

IT’S not accidental that last season’s most popular bit on “Saturday Night Live” was not anything uttered by the co-anchors of the fake-news segment “Weekend Update,” Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, nor indeed anything performed live in NBC’s Studio 8H. It was an off-the-wall taped piece, the rap parody “Lazy Sunday,” which became a hit on Internet video-sharing sites.

For at least the last couple of seasons, the theme music for “Weekend Update” has been the signal to climb out of bed and finish flossing your teeth. You wouldn’t want to miss the musical act -- not to mention a skit that might actually be funny -- so “Update” has offered a perfect interlude to get something else done.

For those who do stick around, “Update” still offers a nice, tart punch line or two and sometimes an amusing bit by a mock commentator or a surprise guest (Drew Barrymore, for example, did a walk-on in January to object to a joke about her breasts). But who buzzes on Monday morning about “Update” the way many people do the rest of the workweek about Comedy Central’s frequently brilliant and incisive “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart”?

Last week, “SNL” executive producer Lorne Michaels confirmed Rockefeller Center’s worst-kept secret: that head writer Seth Meyers would join Poehler on “Update” when a downsized “SNL” returns for its 32nd season on NBC on Saturday.

So it’s worth asking what the role of “Update” should be in a world where the news is updated with every click of a browser’s refresh button, and Stewart has thoroughly lampooned many of those headlines long before the weekend. Just like real newscasts, “Update” depends hugely on its anchors, which is why the heat is now on Meyers to improve the segment.

In fairness, “Update” virtually invented the fake-news format that Stewart and his compatriot Stephen Colbert are so brilliantly exploiting. Unlike “The Daily Show,” “Update” is not self-contained; it remains part of a larger comedy-variety show and runs only about 10 minutes. One also hesitates to complain about “Update” because ... well, everyone does, just as critics carp about the inconsistent quality of “SNL” overall. An army of reviewers, late-night junkies and assorted haters have piled on ever since Chevy Chase introduced “Update” during the Oct. 11, 1975, premiere of “SNL” (the debut segment opened with Chase murmuring into his desk phone, “What are you wearing right now? No bathrobe?,” then glimpsing the camera and promptly hanging up).

Whenever a new anchor takes the “Update” seat -- and the list now numbers some 31 names, most notably Chase, Bill Murray, Dennis Miller, Norm MacDonald and the now-departed Fey -- a legion of fans inevitably compares him or her unfavorably with a predecessor and declares the format obsolete. Former Los Angeles Times TV critic Howard Rosenberg thought “Weekend Update” should have been put out of its misery long ago: “It has always tilted toward the infantile, and now there’s the added problem of old age and a faint pulse.”

Not too faint, evidently. Rosenberg wrote those words in 1980, when Jimmy Carter was in the White House and Charles Rocket was at the anchor desk. Since then, “Saturday Night Live” has done more than 500 fake-news segments. For better or worse, “Update” has become “SNL’s” signature.

Since 2000, the bit has relied on two anchors, which has proved to be a mistake. Fey, who left to make the comedy “30 Rock” for NBC, has an acidic wit but always seemed boxed in by Poehler, a talented sketch artist who’s out of her element as a fake newscaster, and Fey’s former co-anchor, Jimmy Fallon. The most successful “Update” anchors have either embraced Chase and writer Herb Sargent’s initial blueprint for absurdity (Chase informed viewers that “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead”) or turned a merciless eye on celebrity foibles (the deadpan MacDonald, reportedly Chase’s personal favorite among his many successors, informed viewers with barely contained glee that Michael Jackson is “a homosexual pedophile”).

But in today’s super-heated political environment, “Update” can often come off as a “Daily Show” for people with lower SAT scores. Take the mock editorial last October from Horatio Sanz, who argued that President Bush is a genius because he follows each miscue with a bigger one that distracts from the initial mistake. “I tried this Bush technique this past week, and it was very useful,” Sanz told viewers. “On Wednesday I showed up two hours late for rehearsal, so to distract people from that, I was also drunk.”

It was an amusing enough punch line, but not the sort of thing that would make Jon Stewart look over his shoulder. “The Daily Show” has made bold use of archival video that sharply questions the assumptions that led to the Iraq war -- and that, topped with Stewart’s editorial asides, is often hilarious to boot.

But then, “Update” has survived six presidential administrations and all signs point to it outlasting the current one too.

Legendary manager Bernie Brillstein, who handled John Belushi and other young comics from the early “SNL,” applauds his old friend Michaels for keeping “SNL” and “Update” going through endless cast changes. He admitted that having to replace the anchors every few years makes it hard for viewers to know what to expect from “Update.” But he suggested that a comparison between “The Daily Show” and “Saturday Night Live” isn’t exactly fair, because “SNL” is aiming for, and attracting, a much broader audience.

“The show has stayed true to its original beginnings,” Brillstein said of “SNL.” “To keep doing that for [31] years is amazing.”

As for “Update” itself, he added, “I don’t see any reason it shouldn’t be on ‘SNL.’ Lorne’s only concept in starting ‘SNL’ was, ‘I’m going to do a television show for people who were brought up on TV.’ Even today, I think the news remains part of that.”