is Dana Carvey making a mistake hosting SNL this week?

[70s show watcher]

i for one love when former cast members come back to snl to host but for some reason i have mixed feelings about dana carvey coming back this week on the one hand there is a comfort level about alumni hosts because you know that they know what they are doing and i have never seen a truly bad alumni show but i wonder in dana;s case if he has been gone way too long and if the kids watching today will think stuff like church lady is funny or not and i also wonder if he will be able energy wise to keep up with the current cast i just dont want to see dana not do well im i overreacting or do you have some of the same concerns that i do?

[robyrob]

i'm not a big fan of Dana Carvey, but I think he'll do fine

[Marvo301]

If Betty White could keep up with the cast at age 88 then it will be a piece of Cake for Dana Carvey! I think your fears about Dana's age and how long it's been since his last SNL appearance are completely unfounded. It's not like he hasn't been working. He is a regular guest on Jay Leno's Tonight Show. And based on what I've seen on those appearances his comedy chops are as good as ever!

[AKA]

I was a huge Dana Carvey fan in his day (I was even a devout watcher of The Dana Carvey Show), but I think he's well past his prime. I have low expectations, but am open to being pleasantly surprised.

[70s show watcher]

Originally Posted by AKA

I was a huge Dana Carvey fan in his day (I was even a devout watcher of The Dana Carvey Show), but I think he's well past his prime. I have low expectations, but am open to being pleasantly surprised.

i liked the dana carvey show too remember the week that it was sponsored by taco bell and they had the dancing tacos?

[AKA]

Yep! I used to have them all on tape from their original airings. I liked how they had a different sponsor every week. Good stuff!

[Zoneboy]

Originally Posted by robyrob

i'm not a big fan of Dana Carvey, but I think he'll do fine

I can't stand him but I haven't seen SNL in over 25 years so I really don't care how he does hosting the show.

[Schmoopie]

I liked him for a little while (call it an insane celebrity crush-key word here is insane) but for the most part he's really annoying. Loved him in Wayne's World and also in Opportunity Knocks. I just read the description for that movie and now it sounds really stupid, so I'd proably hate it if I saw it again.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100301/plotsummary

[Retro4Life]

Carvey will do fine. Yes, he's in his fifties now and yes, SNL does really target an increasingly young audience (which is probably why I can barely make it through most episodes these days) but Carvey's very sharp and I'm sure he's not going to make any Ross Perot jokes or stuff that would date him badly.

He's a great impressionist and I have always found him to have a real biting edge to his humor that people don't seem to pick up on, concentrating more on his iconic stuff like Church Lady, Bush Sr, Garth, etc.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...depending on who appears as guest host, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" will either deliver a great show, a good show, an "okay" show....or a "piece of s&$t" show. Now, Carvey's talents fall into the "great"/"good" show range, so I wouldn't worry too much about how he'll do. It's the writing I'm worried about.


It seems strange to me that, with that entire platoon of writers listed in the closing credits, you'd think they'd come up with better material. This past season, I've seen more "rehashings" of what previously worked best for the show over the past few years- Keenan Thompson's "What's Up With That?", Bill Hader's "The Secret Word" '60s game show parody and his Vincent Price "seasonal specials" satires, Fred Armisen's "Lawrence Welk Show" parodies, and assorted other routines I won't mention here. And does Andy Samberg HAVE to be the center of attention in virtually every "SNL Digital Short"? Quite frankly, I'm sick of him....

Lorne Michaels had better start paying more attention to his "day-to-day" operations as producer, and shake the series out of its creative doldrums, or the habit of using "high-profile" guest stars to pump up the ratings is going to falter to the point where....perhaps it's happened already.

[treky]

yea, I think after 36 years (REALLY-that's how long this show's been on. It premiered in Oct. 1975 and always held the same time slot-saturdays at 11:30)it's time for "SNL" to call it quits.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

a) Lorne Michaels has a long-term contract with NBC, and he's not ready to "retire" yet;
b) "SNL" makes too much money for the network to cancel outright [and its ratings are better than most of their prime-time series this season, save for "SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL"];
c) I saw Dana Carvey's appearance last weekend....and his was the best show I've seen so far this season!!!

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by AKA

I was a huge Dana Carvey fan in his day (I was even a devout watcher of The Dana Carvey Show), but I think he's well past his prime. I have low expectations, but am open to being pleasantly surprised.

When did that show air? Wasn't it in 1995 or 1996?

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...aired in early 1996, on Tuesdays (right after "HOME IMPROVEMENT"), and was primarily sponsored by PepsiCo; they featured one of their products in the opening title {"THE TACO BELL DANA CARVEY SHOW", "THE DIET MUG ROOT BEER DANA CARVEY SHOW", et. al.}. Unfortunately, Carvey's brand of satiric humor soon strained his relationship with PepsiCo, who terminated their sponsorship after three weeks. And the series wasn't "compatible" with the "family-friendly" comedy (and Tim {ECCH!} Allen) of "HOME IMPROVEMENT"- the ratings were terrible enough for ABC to pull the show off the air after a little over a month [seven episodes were taped].

[catlover79]

Thanks - I thought it was somewhere around that time frame.