Joe's TV List Stays Up Way Too Late

#28: Saturday Night Live
(NBC, 1975-present)

After 33 seasons, anyone who’s ever watched Saturday Night Live thinks they know what era was the best. I suspect that, for most, it’s probably whatever seasons aired when they were in college. They all can stake a legitimate claim (well, except for anyone in school between 1980 and 1985). I mean, I can appreciate the original five seasons in the late ’70s, but they don’t speak to me; they seem like funny museum pieces from someone else’s life. My peak SNL-watching period, the late ’80s into the early ’90s, was the era of Carvey, Nealon, Lovitz, Myers, Hooks, Sweeney, and especially Phil Hartman, who remains one of my all-time favorite TV people, as well as an instructive lesson on why it’s important to marry wisely. Anyway, by throwing so much at the collective wall of pop culture over the years, SNL scored dozens of lasting direct hits, but my top two moments are probably not yours. My favorite musical performance was Robbie Robertson in 1992, backed by a large, multicultural ensemble, giving thrilling wing to “Go Back to Your Woods” and the Band classic “The Weight.” As for my all-time favorite skit, it’s not even a contest: the 1987 music video, introduced by Walter Payton, for “We Are the Kickers,” with ‘Raul’ Carvey, ‘Hosni’ Lovitz, and ‘Horst’ Hartman, backed by … well, a large, multicultural ensemble wearing football jerseys and shouting, “Brrr Green Bay!” OK, for sheer artistry, it was no “Lazy Sunday,” but in its time (that is, my time), it captured everything grandly nutty about a comedy show that will never know when to quit. Indeed, we are kickers. We kick ball. We play with ball. We kick the ball. Oooph.