EPISODE #1 - GEORGE CARLIN

George Carlin passed away early this week, as most of you know. In his wake there were many tributes and/or protests to signify his departure from our material earth. One of the most joyous of these, however, was the airing of the first episode of SNL, which he himself hosted.
For those of you who watched it live yesterday, or on DVD in the past couple of years, you will know it's not exactly the "cutting edge comedy and political satire that pales today's show in comparrison" to quote many critics. No, in fact, most people, even the most die-hard fans will find it EXTREMELY boring. Yes, horrible. Absolutely a piece of crap.
Now, I bet you weren't expecting that. Don't get me wrong, I did see the elements there, but if I were some sort of critic, I would have to say that show sucked.
"But SNL Examiner, why would you say that? Half of what everybody says about SNL is about how the first era was a great legacy that could never be compared by any other!"
Sort of. When SNL first started out, by our standards, it wasn't very funny. Since then, comedy has evolved, become more fast-paced and many things that would never EVER be said then can now be said openly on Television for the entire world to hear. Even though the show in its early days did have many funny sketches, one major thing that drew audiences in was this new feeling of a TV show actually speaking the truth! It was going out there and saying and doing things that everybody thought but nobody ever really brought up on Television. Not to mention that the cast was quickly defined as the very essence of Cool. In the eyes of America, they could go out on stage and take a crap while singing the national anthem, and the audience would applaude. They were simply uncomparable, with no show ever doing anything like this, and no former cast to compete against.
But as for that very first show, I doubt things were even in that direction.
Lorne Michaels, creater and executive producer of the show, once said:
"When it all started out, I knew all the ingredients, I just didn't know the proportions."
And that is apparant in the first episode. Every one is there, everything is as it should be, but not in the same amounts. George Carline came out and did 4 giant monolouges for goodness sake! Billy Preston and Janies Ian both played twice (I'm not completely sure on those spellings (forgive me)) for a good 5 minutes! The few times that the legendary Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players came on stage, their material was shoddy and not very satisfying. In days to come, people would start tuning in more and more for the comedy, and not so much for the host. This is probaby a good thing, because I don't know if there were enough people who could fill up 4 monolougues of material to keep the show running. Pretty much by the beginning of the second season, the standard format of the show had been set with sketches, 2 musical performances, and one host monolougue.
As for George Carlin himself, his stand-ups were pretty good. Nothing special. It got me to chuckle a few times, for examply when he pointed out that everything God has ever made dies. Famously, he was stoned for the entire week, and may very well have been stoned during the show for all we know.