I must admit I no longer watch SNL diligently as I did back in the 1970s and 1980s. It is more a matter of wanting to go to bed earlier rather than losing interest. I will always be a fan of SNL.
So it was with great anticipation that I settled in last night to view this retrospective, highlights from 50 years of SNL. I didn't think I'd stick with it, I figured there would be little programming time and lots of commercials.
I was happily surprised that the first full 15 minutes was program, then a rather brief 3-minute commercial. I thought to myself, "This is good. I can tolerate three minutes of commercials every 15 minutes." However, that didn't last long. Oh, the commercials stayed at just a bit over three minutes but the content between commercials kept shrinking as the night wore on until I had to give up at around the two-hour mark. Just too many commercials for the amount of content.
I was disappointed but I do appreciate the retrospective that I did watch. It was done very well and it was nice to see most of the musical groups featured. I found the rap and hip-hop rather tedious, I never did care for any of it. But the legitimate musical acts were all interesting.
So, the next day I found the program streaming on Peacock so I was able to finish it with only a few one-minute commercials. I am glad I did, the last 30 minutes or so are the best, in my view, lots of famous guests and singing groups are showcased and it drives home how influential SNL has been in the music industry.
Thanks NBC for putting this together.
