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[ktownson]

NBC re-aired the original "Saturday Night Live" (Then just "Saturday Night") episode this weekend in tribute to George Carlin, the very first guest host.

I expected a good bit of the topical humor to be lost without the 70's as a reference point, but most of it just flopped, IMO. Scarily, I remembered just about every punchline.  

Carlin was not nearly at his best, though I've heard he was seriously coked up for the performance. His now familiar rant on God was his best bit, but much of his other material seemed disjointed and rambling, and not in a good way.

I guess it took a few episodes for the show to hit its' stride. Still trying to figure out who thought the Muppets was a good idea. The "Show Us Your Guns" was a parody of an ad campaign of the time (deodorant, maybe?) but stood on its own.

I'm afraid I may have romanticized just how funny the show was over the years...gotta get over to Amazon.com and take the first season on DVD off of my wish list.

I really feel old, now.

[Barry Hufker]

My thoughts are the same as yours.  It was an extremely disjointed format with a scatter-gun approach - let's throw all kinds of stuff at the audience and see what sticks.

I don't know about Carlin being coked, but it was obvious that he wasn't making a connection with the audience and so went from one joke to another in the hope of hitting something.  And each time he came back in the show he had to start all over again building a rapport with them.

It's amazing it stayed on the air with a beginning such as this, but at the time we were all probably thrilled

It doesn't make me feel old.  It just kind of amazes me.

[PRobb]

The quantities of Peruvian Marching Powder consumed on that set was legendary.

The "show us your guns" bit was shot in my home town.

I loved the Muppet bits.

It did take a few shows for it to hit its stride. But there sure was a period when Saturday night required being in front of a TV at 11:30!