the list of 9 for july 19, 2005:
NINE MOVIES BASED ON "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" SKETCHES
This isn't a particularly inspired list - but then, none of these movies were particularly
inspired either. Let them serve as a reminder - as if you need one - of Hollywood's frequent
creative bankruptcy. Bad enough that a "Saturday Night Live" comedian should become a big star
(Bill Murray notwithstanding). But you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel when you decide
to sink millions into a feature film based on a barely-amusing five-minute sketch. "SNL" has
produced exactly eight such pictures, though two had sequels (one too horrible to list: Blues
Brothers 2000, anyone?).
- THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980). The first - and, some say, the
best - of the SNL movies, this strident John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd vehicle was based on their wildly
popular yet still lame and unfunny musical comedy act. Though it was a hit, it remained the only SNL
title in theatres until...
- WAYNE'S WORLD (1992). Mike Myers became a big star with this
recurring sketch, and the feature version was such a hit that it quickly yielded a sequel:
- WAYNE'S WORLD 2 (1993). Though not as successful as the
first Wayne's World, this comedy nevertheless did well enough to inspire SNL producer Lorne
Michaels - and Paramount, who had an exclusive distribution deal with Michaels - to go forth and
start mining the TV show for yet more feature material. Audiences could tell that was a bad idea
right from the outset, for behold, it was:
- CONEHEADS (1993). Michaels made the mistake of going back
to the original SNL skits first, unaware that, by 1993, nobody was interested in seeing characters
that were last popular a full fifteen years earlier - much less ones embodied by Dan Aykroyd and
Jane Curtin. Coneheads tanked.
- IT'S PAT (1994). Still, the SNL movie juggernaut foraged
on, though not even Lorne Michaels or Paramount would touch Julia Sweeney's awful "comedy," based
on her androgynous SNL character. It's Pat was so bad that it was barely even released.
- STUART SAVES HIS FAMILY (1995). Even so, it's hard to
understand why Michaels, Paramount, et al thought this would be the big winner, since even
SNL fans barely acknowledged occasional cast member Al Franken's lisping "self-empowerment"
proponent. They put a lot of time, money and talent into this picture - and watched it go down
like a lead balloon.
- A NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY (1998). After the previous
disasters, Michaels and Paramount took a few years off to regroup. Fresh faces in the SNL cast
provided the inspiration for a new breed of cheaply-made, easily-profitable comedies. A Night
at the Roxbury, which helped propel Will Ferrell to stardom, was the first, though it
immediately dates itself, not least because the actual Roxbury nightclub closed soon after.
- SUPERSTAR (1999). Ferrell again, but this time playing
second fiddle to castmate Molly Shannon's geeky Catholic school girl. Superstar is almost
weird enough to recommend (cast and crew, well aware that their low-budget/fast-buck comedy was
hardly going to be scrutinized by studio bean counters, indulge in some downright surreal
moments), but the SNL movie franchise was clearly getting weaker by the year.
- THE LADIES MAN (2000). You know things are tough when
you're releasing Molly Shannon and Tim Meadows vehicles - even if rising star Ferrell kept
generously lending his talents in supporting roles - and so did Lorne Michaels, for this was the
final nail in the "Saturday Night Live movie" coffin. Michaels decided it was wiser to use the
talents of his writers and performers in non-sketch-inspired films, and thus the profitable,
well-received Mean Girls - written by SNL alumna Tina Fey and starring Fey, Meadows, and
other cast members - was born.
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