How SNL Kept It Alive in the '90s
Once upon a not very long time ago,
Saturday Night Live had character — make that characters. Wayne and Garth, Hans and Franz, Linda Richman, Mary Katherine Gallagher, the sexually ambiguous Pat, Mango, the Cheerleaders. And so on. "It was the Yankees," remembers Chris Rock of a cast so stuffed with talent that the competition to get on air and create new comic icons and catchphrases was ferocious. (Eddie Murphy once advised Rock to create "Weekend Update" pieces delivered straight to the camera to help him break through. Which he did.) Anecdotes like these make the frankly funny and admirably frank
Saturday Night Live in the '90s: Pop Culture Nation (May 6, 9 pm/ET, NBC) so much more than a nostalgic clip job. There's plenty that's celebratory in this two-hour special, but also much that's self-critical — especially in addressing the mid-'90s cast upheaval that led to falling ratings, corporate interference and a new wave of "Saturday Night Dead" headlines. Enter Will Ferrell and a trio of dynamic women (Cheri Oteri, Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer), and
SNL's fortunes took off again. Like two previous
SNL specials produced by Kenneth Bowser, this is a terrificoral history of a pop institution that has weathered highs and lows — these days, I wonder how it would survive without Amy Poehler — but whose obits have always been premature.
Long may SNL live.
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Music Man
Ahmet Ertegun was a suit with soul. He didn't just produce classic R&B, he wrote it, and his passion for the fusion of blues, jazz and rock is colorfully told in Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built (May 2, PBS; check listings). This American Masters tribute, filmed over the course of four years (before his death last December), features the raconteur sharing stories with the adoring likes of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Bette Midler. You'll hang on every word and every note.
Method Man
"He was like all the stuff that we studied," gushes James Caan. "He was a dangerous man," Angie Dickinson says, giggling. "He took pleasure in throwing people off balance," muses Jane Fonda. The object of their undying fascination: Brando (May 1 and 2, 8 pm/ET, TCM), an intoxicating two-part biographical profile that is as analytical of the actor's mercurial personality and activism as it is worshipful of the influence and impact of his intensely human, unforgettably raw performances.
