SNL opens 50th with A-Team grads, plan B scripts

We’d seen the clips and read the hype. Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan would play Vice President Kamala Harris and V.P. hopeful Tim Walz when Saturday Night Live returned for its 50th season. Anticipation was high that the series, five weeks before an election, would hit it out of the park.

It did not. A few singles; maybe a two-bagger.

This despite a cold opener featuring some proven comedy talents. Besides Rudolph and Gaffigan (surprisingly effective despite never being a cast member on the show), there was SNL Hall of Famer Dana Carvey. He won the assignment to play departing president Joe Biden. A few others, including Jim Carrey, have tackled the role in the past. Carvey brought his great ear for dialogue, repeating phrases Biden had worn out in the past, including “Stop right there”; “folks”; and “No joke.” Physically, he had Biden down to the stutter-step. Brooklyn Nine-Nine and SNL alumni Andy Samberg also made the scene and was almost unrecognizable as Harris’s potential First Husband.

Showcasing the all-star alumni was an effective way to set up the 50th season opener, although the bit could have been funnier and shorter. Current castmates James Austin Johnson and Bowen Yang grabbed a minute or two as Trump and J.D. Vance.

Much more impressive was the visually dazzling new cast credit sequence for this golden anniversary season. The camera work and editing are stunning. The whole sequence flows as if captured from sketches on the series, with one Not-Ready-For-Primetime-player cut and panned into the next. Andrew Dismukes seems late for work. Chloe Fineman is still riding a subway car that is apparently still in Studio 8H. Kenan Thompson is all over Times Square. Bowen Yang towers over the Manhattan skyline.

It all moves so fast you barely notice that Punkie Johnson and a few others are no longer on the show. Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim and Jane Wicklin are the Season 50 rookies.

Sixteen minutes went by before host Jean Smart begins her opening monologue. The Emmy winning Hacks star looked pretty in pink but only had time to sing a little song. It was safe and simple and got us to the 20 minute mark.

Where was the part where they march up Fifth Avenue carrying Lorne Michaels on a golden throne? I guess they’re saving that for the 50th anniversary specials coming in January.

After the break there was a game show sketch, a take off on the $100,000 Pyramid, that was incredibly forgettable. It was built around the mayor of New York (played by always funny Thompson) giving guesses that were all things he should not be bringing up.

There was a filmed bit which goofed on the fact that, for six weeks at the end of every September, those empty big box stores in all the malls get turned into Halloween emporiums. It was funny because it’s true.

There were other sketches. One had a romance novelist (played by Smart) upsetting parents and educators after writing a math book. Think about pitching that premise; now think about what other skits were rejected. Then musical guest Jelly Roll, he who sang the In Memoriam sequence at the recent Emmy Awards, followed.

Weekend Update returned and Colin Jost noted that he and desk mate Michael Che missed all the hot political action during the summer break. So, yeah, it didn’t seem that special when it was pointed out that Trump at a rally suggested Harris was a”mentally disabled person” right before air time. Mayor Eric Adams of New York, recently busted for accepting bribes, came in for some more SNL ribbing. Then, in the nick of time, Bowen Yang was brought on to the desk in a rubber suit as a hippo baby and was intermittently hosed down with water, with some of it splashing onto Jost.

Look, I get it, comedy is hard. I applaud SNL for stooping to physical shtick. In fact, turn the hose on some other sketches.

For example, SNL has some ‘splainin’ to do after what came next: a cheerless take down of the classic sitcom I Love Lucy. The premise, a CNN “History of the Sitcom” host (Yang) tells viewers that CBS originally hired a more dramatic actress than Lucille Ball to play Ricky Ricardo’s wife. Turns out she was a bad fit. Again, this was pitched at a meeting. What a waste of some well-crafted sets.

Cursed with high expectations, it is good that the first episode of the new season is out of the way. Look for the writers and cast members to bounce back with funnier stuff now that the pressure is off for episode two. If only Smart had waited 50 years and one more week to host the show.

Next week (Oct. 5):  comedian Nate Bargatze hosts with musical guest Coldplay.