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It was a guest-a-rama on SNL... and NBC ruins the surprise
by Joel Keller, posted Nov 13th 2006 9:02AM
Man, that must have been a hell of an after-party Saturday night, huh?Saturday's episode, hosted by Alec Baldwin, set the record for guest cameos: Tracy Morgan, Tina Fey, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Tony Bennett, and Paul McCartney all showed up to help bring some juice to what turned out to be a middling episode (the Nancy Pelosi sketch and the Baldwin/Martin sketch were good, as was Alec's line, "Bobby McFerrin raped my grandmother," but that was about it). Some of the participants, like Short and McCartney, were true surprises, but the others weren't. Why? Because NBC's promotions department are a bunch of putzes, that's why.
The "what's going on at dress rehersal" ad that NBC usually shows during the local news showed both Martin and Bennett, and the news anchors mentioned Fey and Morgan as they ended the broadcast and said SNL was up next.
Jeez. Way to spoil the surprise, NBC.The best moments on Saturday Night Live always come when a surprise guest pops up in a sketch; usually it's a huge superstar or someone who has never been on the show before, and the audience usually explodes with joy upon recognizing said celebrity. Think Barbra Streisand showing up on a "Coffee Talk" sketch that already had Roseanne and Madonna in it, and you'll know they make for big SNL moments that are played for years afterwards.
It might have been a reasonable expectation to see Fey and Morgan pop up on the show; after all, they're in 30 Rock with Baldwin and are both recent SNL alums. But seeing Martin and Bennett pop up would have been one of those goose bump-inducing moments that you only see on shows like SNL. But, of course, since I knew they were both going to be there, and on which sketches, I was robbed of that feeling in those cases.
I did get a tiny chill when I saw Short, and a bigger one when Short dragged Sir Paul onto the stage (too bad they didn't let Paul say anything... he also looked like he's aged five years in the last six months. Divorce will do that to you). So, at least they salvaged their screw-up by bringing on those guys.
But how cool would it have been to see all of these guest stars show up unexpectedly, one after the other? People would have been talking about the episode for weeks afterwards. Oh, well, NBC's promo folks have never been known for their subtlety or nuance, and this is yet another example of that.
By the way, how'd you folks like the duet Bennett did with musical guest Christina Aguilera? Talk about a mismatch; Bennett is the epitome of understated cool, while Aguilera can't do anything else but sing to the back of the theater and do vocal gymnastics. Yikes. Hopefully, that duet sounds better on Bennett's new CD.
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