Last February, SNL celebrated it’s 40th anniversary. This inspired me
to go back and check out their “Best of” collections. Actually there
were two. One was a large collection released in the 90’s. featuring
every year and many of the hosts. I had a ton of these which I loved to
watch…and sad to say I gave them away. That still pisses me off, but I
can always get them back if I really wanted.
The other set was a big group release starting in 1999, distributed
by Lionsgate Home Entertainment. This lasted until 2005 when NBC ended
that deal. But there were still several of these released, and over the
last six months I have seen most of them. I couldn’t find any to buy to I
got them off Netflix. So I thought it would be fun to go over them, and
let you know what I thought. These are only the one’s I saw, a few will
be missing like Steve Martin, Gilda Radner, and John Belushi. I just
don’t care about that real old stuff. Also Chris Rock and Tracy Morgan’s
DVD’s I have not seen yet and not sure I ever will. I also find it
curious that nothing from the 1980-1985 made it, except Eddie Murphy who
I also did not watch.
So enough about what I didn’t see, let’s discuss what I did see:
SNL: The Best of Adam Sandler
If you ever thought this guy was overrated, this DVD will confirm it. I
mean was this boring! It was mostly him singing his dopey songs. I think
all of three whole sketches make it, one he was barely even in! I guess
if you liked his singing you will love it but this DVD was a fail for
me.
SNL: The Best of Alec Baldwin
I thought this was great! Baldwin has hosted like fourteen times so
there is no way everything great could be here. As it is the DVD is
longer than the standard length. But the classic stuff is here and it
even got a few laughs out of me. They also didn’t ignore the older days
as others will do. The only one of these I would buy.
SNL: The Best of Amy Poehler
Eh. This one was OK. When Poehler was on she was really good. But most
often she was kind of annoying and whiny. But it ended with the Sarah
Palin rap which I loved, so nice. They included her impression of
Christopher Walken and that alone may make this worth a watch.
SNL: The Best of Cheri Oteri
Kind of the same thing as Poehler, was she really big enough to get her
own collection? There are like three cheerleader sketches on here, and
one would have been enough. Some of the stuff on here is real good and I
enjoyed this one overall. But as I try to remember I come up empty…that
kind of says it all.
SNL: The Best of Chris Farley
To be fair, Farley did have his moments. Unlike Sandler who’s DVD shows
how untalented he was, Farley’s shows that he did have some talent
backing him up. Oh sure he could be annoying with his constant screaming
but he really could be funny. There are also outtakes and stuff on this
and it is a nice tribute.
SNL: The Best of Chris Kattan
Um, I hated Kattan. Why the hell does this exist? Next!
SNL: The Best of Christopher Walken
I am mixed about this one. Yeah Walken is great and some of the stuff on
here was a slam dunk, it pissed me off that the DVD is mostly is more
recent stuff. None of his older stuff seemed to make it, except The
Continental which there are two of for some reason. I know there were
one or two sketches I just didn’t get why they were here. Worth the
watch but a bit uneven.
SNL: The Best of Dan Aykroyd
Aykroys is awesome, I don’t remember this one but if you love Aykroyd
you’ll love it. Why did I get this one and none of the other classic
title? Dunno.
SNL: The Best of Dana Carvey
I couldn’t get this DVD because it was very much sold out. Or whatever
Netflix calls it. But I can imagine it was pretty good, since Carvey as
always hilarious. Maybe somedays I will finally get my copy.
SNL: The Best of David Spade
This really wasn’t bad, Spade has some real good moments. They did a few
to many of his lame “Spade of America” segments but overall a good
watch. I actually like Spade he was funny in Just Shoot Me, and I even
of liked Dickie Roberts. Hey if people can love Adam Sandler I can love
David Spade! His most memorable stuff is here and I had no complaints.
SNL: The Best of Jimmy Fallon
Boring. Fallon was OK but this DVD just went on and on, it felt like it
would never end. I am not sure why they stuffed so much into this but it
just got old. I turned it off I’d had enough. But that doesn’t mean
it’s not worth a watch there is some good stuff in here.
SNL: The Best of Jon Lovitz
Surpisingly this was a really good watch. It was sooo nice to see some
of the older stuff from the 80’s. And there was even stuff I either
never saw or hardly remember. Lovitz could really be funny and I totally
recommend this one.
SNL: The Best of Mike Myers
Mike Myers is very hard to like at times, some of his characters bug
me. But this DVD was pretty good, though two Wayne’s Worlds was not
needed! But they did have the classic Coffee Talk sketch featuring
Barbara Streisand so that’s cool.
SNL: The Best of Molly Shannon
This was OK. What is it with this series doing variation of the same
character? Did we need more than one Katherine Mary Gallagher sketch? I
know that’s what made Shannon famous but still!
SNL: The Best of Phil Hartman
This was a cheat since they simply took the Tribute to Phil Hartman
that SNL made and edited in a few more sketches to round it out.
However, this is totally worth a watch. Hartman was fantastic on SNL and
I love everything he was in. No complaints here.
SNL: The Best of Tom Hanks
This one was great! Maybe since Tom Hanks has one been a lot but not
that many times, this DVD hit almost all his great sketches. One I loved
didn’t make it, but that’s fair. Some of this old stuff I had never
even seen. In fact this is the only time you see stuff from the
1980-1985 era which is really cool. Joan Cusack on SNL? Oh hell yes!
Yeah I really liked this one.
SNL: The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 1
SNL: The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 2
SNL: The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 3
Yep, three volumes! And while it’s true there is a little redundancy on
these (the exact same Inside the Actor’s Studio appears twice which I
assume was an error), where can you go wrong with Will Ferrell? He had a
way of making the dumbest ideas funny as hell, and while I hate his
movies I always admire his SNL work.
Final analyses? Not sure who edited these but these are far from
perfect. Some odd choices were made and some great moments were left
off. Also there was to much repetition, we don’t need to see the same
sketched more than once. The worst was Sandler, we got four Operaman
sketches! Good lord, stop it! Yeah maybe some day they will reedit these
and re-release them, which I would be very happy to see. But still
worth a watch to bring back some good memories, if anything else.
So there you have it, though I wonder where some are. Maya Rudolph?
Kristen Wigg? Heck, what about Kevin Nealon? I guess when NBC stopped
their deal with Lionsgate the DVD’s stopped cold. Instead they started
releasing whole seasons. Ah well, maybe someday. If you are interested
in some great SNL DVD’s than you have my suggestions. It has been fun
watching this stuff again, because after 40 years you really can’t
remember every sketch. So some of the more rare stuff on these was nice
to see.
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