TMC
05-19-2025, 12:24 AM
Do you agree with any of these ideas (https://www.datalounge.com/thread/35553630-you-are-the-new-lorne-michaels!):
No more than 10 cast members and no "featured players." The original cast was seven and they did everything.
No more guest stars playing famous people. The cast does it. If they're not that versatile, they don't belong. You don't need a six-year-old kid to play a kid. People will accept it.
First-year cast members get half-season contracts. When you make a mistake like Molly Kearney or Luke Null, get 'em out and give someone else a chance. Always have new cast members on deck.
No pretaped bits (including the opening credits). Lean into the live aspect of the show. Even if it's rough, people like watching actors on a tightrope, even when they fail.
Offer half-season contracts to hosts who have proven themselves like ScarJo or Ariana Grande. It would be fun seeing them as part of the ensemble. Big Hollywood actors take a few months to do live theater all the time.
Musicians — famous or unknown — perform in front of the same backdrop every week (a subway wall, a dive bar). No animations, no special props.
Rotate Weekend Update hosts. Everyone in the ensemble does it at least once.
Have spies regularly attending Groundlings and Second City performances, where many sketches are written from successful previous improvs.
Five years and you're gone, no matter how popular you are.
Cast members should arrive each season with their own sketch/character ideas, fleshed out as much as possible.
No former cast member coming back to do their old characters
Stop celebrating yourself. The "Five-Timers Club" bit was novel in 1990, but doesn't need to be trotted out EVERY DAMN TIME someone hosts for their fifth time.
No more of the stunt conservative guest hosts & musicians: Wallen, Musk, Trump, Kanye.
Maybe have guest writers.
No more than 10 cast members and no "featured players." The original cast was seven and they did everything.
No more guest stars playing famous people. The cast does it. If they're not that versatile, they don't belong. You don't need a six-year-old kid to play a kid. People will accept it.
First-year cast members get half-season contracts. When you make a mistake like Molly Kearney or Luke Null, get 'em out and give someone else a chance. Always have new cast members on deck.
No pretaped bits (including the opening credits). Lean into the live aspect of the show. Even if it's rough, people like watching actors on a tightrope, even when they fail.
Offer half-season contracts to hosts who have proven themselves like ScarJo or Ariana Grande. It would be fun seeing them as part of the ensemble. Big Hollywood actors take a few months to do live theater all the time.
Musicians — famous or unknown — perform in front of the same backdrop every week (a subway wall, a dive bar). No animations, no special props.
Rotate Weekend Update hosts. Everyone in the ensemble does it at least once.
Have spies regularly attending Groundlings and Second City performances, where many sketches are written from successful previous improvs.
Five years and you're gone, no matter how popular you are.
Cast members should arrive each season with their own sketch/character ideas, fleshed out as much as possible.
No former cast member coming back to do their old characters
Stop celebrating yourself. The "Five-Timers Club" bit was novel in 1990, but doesn't need to be trotted out EVERY DAMN TIME someone hosts for their fifth time.
No more of the stunt conservative guest hosts & musicians: Wallen, Musk, Trump, Kanye.
Maybe have guest writers.