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As a baby boomer, I came of age in the early years of Saturday Night Live. The unique program broadcast live from Rockefeller Center in New York was a weekly event for all of us. Whenever any major newsworthy incident happened, the question we always asked was: “What will Saturday Night Live do about it this weekend?”
Such events even included a comedy satire about the worst nuclear accident in the United States: Three Mile Island. (TMI)
I still remember Richard Benjamin acting in a skit as a TMI company spokesman that the nuclear radiation release was minimal: “Like if you dried your hair in a microwave oven.” (Do not try this at home or anywhere else.)
I remember Dan Ackroyd acting as Tom Snyder or Jimmy Carter. Gilda Radner as Roseanne Rosannadanna and Emily Litella and her “nevermind,” when Chevy Chase corrected her on such things as issues not with Soviet jewelry, but Soviet Jewry. Who can forget the exhortation: “It will behoove ya, to care for your uvula”.
We would watch it live usually with a few beers. Today, you can also watch it on demand, but that misses the point. The program was ground-breaking by members of our generation and for our generation.
I don’t watch it all today. I am in bed by 11:30pm falling asleep to the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday Night, which also is…
