Hi, do any of you guys think there should be a British version of Saturday Night Live? I for one think it would be cool. no Billy.
What's happened to Saturday nights?
The schedules are crying out for a big comedy show on Saturday nights. I think Lee Mack's show was the latest attempt to fill the void but it hasn't gone down too well.
Quote: dennispennis123 @ July 31 2011, 2:07 AM BSTThe schedules are crying out for a big comedy show on Saturday nights. I think Lee Mack's show was the latest attempt to fill the void but it hasn't gone down too well.
Hmm. Couldn't Harry Hill run to an hour, and get rid of the clips?
There used to be one in the 80s on a Friday night.
Friday Night Live.
ITV tried to bring back the show as Saturday Night Live! Again... but it wasn't entirely successful.
The problem is, it's very hard to make humour suitable for the whole family (Saturday night is family viewing, weekday nights less so). Lee Mack's effort was valiant, but you could see where the weaknesses were. The stand-up acts struggled to make their routines suitably family-friendly, mainstream and accessible for example.
Sad as it is, it's much easier for the channel controllers just to put on a singing contest or dancing contest and clock up 10m viewers easy.
That all said, the BBC are trying... next up on a Saturday night is Epic Win, a comedy game hosted by Alexander Armstrong.
Lee Mack's All Star Cast was the closest the BBC have come - probably since Noel's House Party in the mid-1990s - to a big, all-round, family pleasing comedy/entertainment show. They seem to be trying to emulate something not wholly dissimilar to The Two Ronnies or The Morecambe & Wise Show, but still managing to make the wrong few key decisions and balls it up each time.
But they're trying. I'll just try to take solace in that for now.
As for Saturday Night Live, isn't that largely awful, and just on because it's on? We need something, certainly, but emulating that particular format strikes me as a mistake.
Would families even watch stuff together now? Modern ones seem a very fragmented bunch, each member off in their own little worlds.
Quote: chipolata @ August 1 2011, 2:36 PM BSTWould families even watch stuff together now? Modern ones seem a very fragmented bunch, each member off in their own little worlds.
With their own Televisions. In the old days there would be only one in the house so everyone watched together.
Saturday Night Live is an hour and a half of new, live comedy every week for months, so the quality is going to jump around, but it's pretty amazing that a show like that exists. And it must be doing something right, as it still seems to spit out comedy star after comedy star.
I presume you mean the American one. We don't have one here currently do we?
Quote: Matthew Stott @ August 1 2011, 6:20 PM BSTSaturday Night Live is an hour and a half of new, live comedy every week for months, so the quality is going to jump around, but it's pretty amazing that a show like that exists. And it must be doing something right, as it still seems to spit out comedy star after comedy star.
Anything that puts that kind of demand on its performers is going to churn out a pretty high standard of person; doesn't mean that SNL itself is necessarily any good.