In case the star-studded 40th anniversary special of “Saturday Night Live” wasn’t self-congratulatory enough for you, there’s now a documentary singing the iconic late night sketch show’s praises. Did you know that “SNL” not only shapes America’s perception of presidential candidates, but also was largely responsible for aiding America’s healing process after 9/11? That’s what Live from New York! is here to tell you. Not bad for a show with an outmoded format that’s only sporadically funny.
Live from New York! brims with “SNL” alumni who are quick to laud the show that made them famous. Rather than digging deep into the inner-workings of the program, or delving into its more controversial moments, first-time director Bao Nguyen cobbles together what amounts to a flashy “SNL” infomercial. The documentary goes so far as to posit that Darrell Hammond’s impression of Al Gore as a pedantic wet blanket (paired with Will Ferrell’s Bush as a dimwitted but likable wild card) may have swung the historically close 2000 election to Dubya. To ensure it stays bombastically political, Rudy Giuliani is given far too much screen time and insufferable blowhard Bill O’Reilly is interviewed for some reason.
Live from New York! feels completely like a Lorne Michaels vanity project. Lorne gets plenty of face time—and every word he utters proves just how much Mike Myers’ parroted the SNL creator through Dr. Evil. Some of Lorne’s insights into the early days of the show do prove compelling. There’s something wonderfully strange about watching the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players being stiffly interviewed by network news on the eve of the show’s debut. And it’s intriguing to hear about how, in the early ‘80s, the show’s original cast and crew hung it up after five years, Michaels left the show and “SNL” would’ve folded if not for the bolstering talent of Eddie Murphy.
By the same token, the documentary overcompensates for “SNL”’s historical dearth of diversity (especially black women) by trotting out plenty of Leslie Jones, who just joined the cast in 2014. The doc mentions but largely breezes over the fact that original cast member Garrett Morris (the lone African American among the show’s early ranks) was often left with little to do. Meanwhile, controversial moments (such as Sinéad O’Connor tearing up a photo of the Pope after a musical performance) are given some historical context. After all, O’Connor was pilloried for such a brazen act (compelling Joe Pesci to tape the Pope’s photo back together the following week), even though O’Connor looks prescient given how the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal soon blew up. But we don’t get to hear the nitty-gritty of Michael’s micromanaging in such moments, or his tendency to ban hosts or performers who had the audacity to even benignly go off-script.
The purported behind-the-scenes look into how a given episode comes together is only afforded a cursory look, with the likes of Taran Killam or Andy Samberg emoting about what a wonderfully frantic whirlwind it all is. And there’s not nearly enough time spent on popular recurring sketches that were simply funny for the sake of funny. Instead, we hear former cast and crew talk about how Chevy Chase basically made all of America believe that Gerald Ford was perpetually clumsy, or that George H.W. Bush really did say all the things that actually only came out of Dana Carvey’s mouth. The political and social aspects of “SNL” are played up to grandiose heights, while the meat-and-potatoes (say, Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri’s ridiculous cheerleading or Chris Farley dancing topless alongside Patrick Swayze) stick in fans’ minds are given short shrift.
We get it—“SNL” has been on for a long time. A huge number of stars have walked in and out of the studio doors. That’s why there was a 40th anniversary bash. To tack on corporately-minded feel-goodery that turns to the likes of Giuliani or O’Reilly (or even Alec Baldwin) over crucial pillars in the show’s epic run feels out of step its best moments. Fans of “SNL” will get a kick out of some of the clips, but there’s not much here that digs below the surface.
