A Queer History of SNL, Part Four: The Lost Years
Added 2024-03-27 05:05:25 +0000 UTCPeople use the term “the lost years” differently when speaking of Saturday Night Live, but this podcast is using it specifically from the time Lorne Michaels left the show after season five up until season eleven. Aside from Eddie Murphy’s presence on the show, these are the sketches that are less remembered today because they weren’t rerun on Comedy Central in the 2000s as much and they’re largely absent from the cache of episodes preserved online today. And that’s too bad, because this is when the show boasted some legends in the cast — Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Billy Crystal, Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Martin Short and Damon Wayans among them, as well as queer cast members Terry Sweeney, Denny Dillon and Danitra Vance.
The sketches (and click here if you want to watch them):
“SoHo Lesbians” (S6E10: Debbie Harry)
“Little Richard Simmons” (S7E1: No host)
“James Coburn Is a Homosexual” (S7E11: James Coburn)
“Focus on Film: Making Love” (S7E12: Bruce Dern)
“Penny Lane” (S10E11: Roy Scheider)
“Pinklisting” (S11E1: Madonna)
“Mr. Monopoly” (S11E12: Griffin Dunne)
Monologue (S11E16: Catherine Oxenberg)
“Lesbian Pick-Ups” (S11E18: Anjelica Huston)
Comments
I think the Madonna/Pinkwashing sketch is a comment on the “Rock Hudson kissing Linda Evans on Dynasty” scandal. When his AIDS diagnosis became known soon after, that led to lots of actors refusing to do kissing scenes etc throughout industry. That happened around the same time as this (1984/1985). And I think Madonna, with the wig and accent, is doing a kinda Joan Collins impression?
Costa
2024-03-30 10:21:07 +0000 UTCI have an affection for these lost years of SNL because they were the episodes I watched with friends every week in my college dorm. Having Terry Sweeney onscreen felt revolutionary to me, at the time. I'm sad to report, though, if you didn't know, that Christine Ebersole became a very outspoken 9/11 truther, as well as some other crazy stuff.
Vance Briceland
2024-03-29 19:33:54 +0000 UTC
