Sunday, December 13th, 2020
My Dear America:
It's 11:30 PM On Saturday Night, December 12th, 2020 and my wife and I are watching our NBC Station, Channel 10 broadcasting out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Kate Mckinnon is portraying Doctor Anthony Fauci and Heidi Gardener is Portraying Doctor Debra Birx. After a couple minutes of imitation the dynamic duo say the magic words.
"Live From New York, Its Saturday Night"
And once again through the magic of Television we are watching one of the longest running, consistently funny, truly satiric Broadcast Masterpieces of the modern age coming into our homes.
Throughout the past four years Saturday Night Live has done what it has done since it came on the air in the mid seventies. It has made us laugh during hard times and good times and all times in between.
It has reminded us at least once a week that we are living in a free society in which no matter who is in power they cannot and will not silence every critic like they do in some repressive societies such as Russia, China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia, for example.
We are free in America to skewer our political leaders with impunity and no American Television Program does it better than Saturday Night Live.
SNL did it with Gerald Ford, with Jimmy Carter, with Ronald Reagan, with George H.W. Bush & with George W. Bush, with Bill Clinton, with Barack Obama and with Donald Trump.
Most Presidents took it in stride and even brought some Satiric Saturday Night Live Comedians to the White House for the Annual White House Correspondent's Dinner.
Indeed, legend has it that Barack Obama and Seth Myers at one of those White House Correspondent's dinners poked fun at Donald Trump. Trump's reaction was to get angry and to run for President himself and after winning the Presidency to try to undo nearly everything that Barack Obama had done to push the United States forward.
This Past Saturday Night Live was to my mind very special. Timothy Shalome did a good job hosting The skits were good and the music was Bruce Springsteen playing new Material. How could you go wrong with Bruce Springsteen returning to Saturday Night Live once again after a long absence.
Quite Frankly Watching Saturday Night Live almost every Saturday has been a lifeline for my wife and I during not only the past four years but also the past forty plus years. It has been extremely important, however, during the Trump years to be able to watch in their skits with Alec Baldwin playing Trump and on Weekend Update with Colin Jost and Michael Che putting Donald Trump in his place week after week.
I loved it. Some weeks I lived for it.
While I was watching Saturday Night Live this past weekend I came to what I feel was an important revelation. SNL had been part of my life for nearly 45 years. My wife and I have watched SNL religiously for nearly as long as we have been together and we're still watching it. Certainly SNL has changed over the years. The SNL Cast has changed often, sometimes not in a good way, sometimes in a great way. I think that SNL Producer, Lorne Michaels has, for the most part, made some good decisions and some bad ones but overall every cast has had some outstanding cast members.
The Original Cast was called the Not Ready For Prime Time Players. That Cast caught on very quickly. The cast included John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Larraine Newman and Gilda Radner. It was truly an Outstanding Comedy Troupe.
Over the years many incredibly talented people have wandered the halls of Saturday Night Live during all night Writing Sessions in order to produce weekly miracles. Although things are a bit different these days in the old days the Writers and Cast Members would produce a brand new show every week during Fall, Winter and Spring. These days the Cast and crew seem to get a little more down time.
Certainly Being asked to be a Guest Host on Saturday Night Live has got to be a signal that the Guest Host has "Made It." Anybody who is anything has either Guest Hosted on SNL or is dying to do so.
Some of my favorite Cast members over the years in addition to all of the the Not Ready For Prime Time Players have been Will Ferrell, Kristin Wiig, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Chris Farley, Eddie Murphy and so many others whose names escape me right now. Some like Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock have gone on to great success. Unfortunately some other cast members have left the show only to find obscurity awaiting them.
Some like John Belushi, Chris Farley and Steve Hartman have found Tragedy awaiting them after leaving the show.
Steve Martin during his comedy Heyday released a record called "Comedy Is Not Pretty."
Seeing some of the tragedy mixed in with the Comedy (Richard Pryor Comes To Mind) Steve Martin had it right.
This past Saturday as I watched SNL I thought about all the Saturdays during the Trump Era when I watched the show and was angry about what Trump had done the previous week to screw up the country. Day after Day, Week after Week we had to put up with the madness of King Donald running roughshod over our Democracy. It was terribly Frustrating to accept every week.
But nearly every week we had Saturday Night Live to point out what an incredible Jackass Trump was and I honestly felt better knowing that I wasn't alone in my disgust with Trump. SNL helped me and I am sure many other Americans to get through the terrible Trump Years.
The truth is that although SNL was a very important Comedy Program letting the Democracy shine through to Reasonable Americans we had other stalwart Comedy Democracy Warriors in addition to Saturday Night Live.
Every night on CBS Stephen Colbert reminded us that Trump was crazy and out of control. So did Seth Myers on NBC. Some of the other Comedy Soldiers included: Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah on Comedy Central, Bill Maher and John Oliver on HBO and Samantha Bee on TBS.
As I watched SNL on Saturday Night I thanked God that we live in a Country where every four years we vote for a President.
Despite the fact that many Republicans refused to recognize reality, we had a free and fair election in November in which Donald Trump, while he got more votes than I had expected, lost the Presidential Race to Joe Biden. Despite Trump appointing three Supreme Court Justices, None of the Supreme Court Judges were willing to support any of Trump's baseless and worthless claims of fraud.
The Supreme Court had announced on Friday, the day before SNL, that they were not going to hear any case involving Trump's election.
It made this past Saturday Night Live even more enjoyable than usual because it certainly seemed as though in the United States of America the worst was over.
Unfortunately, however, while I was enjoying Saturday Night Live many Trump Supporters were clogging the streets of Washington D. C.. Some were beating and stabbing their fellow citizens and desecrating black churches.
It appeared as though Donald Trump's Poison was not yet out of our system of Government. Hopefully it would be soon.
Sincerely Yours
Jerry Gallagher
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