Mary Ellen Matthews was trying to make the cast of “Saturday Night Live” look funny. Bouncing around a studio in Lower Manhattan in cowboy boots last week, she lobbed suggestions at four cast members like the leader of an improv troupe. “Group hug!” “How about a trust fall?” “You guys …
After a half-century of comedy and music (and what at times felt like an equal amount of buildup and hype), how do you at last kick off a prime-time 50th anniversary special for “Saturday Night Live”? Calmly and serenely, it turns out. The long-awaited “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” opened on …
“Saturday Night Live” begins the back half of its 50th season this weekend. Here, we kick off a series of features exploring and assessing its history and cultural impact. From the first episode, which featured a live spot for the multivitamin “Jamitol,” TV advertising has been one of the show’s …