A plea to Lorne Michaels

I give Saturday Night Live a free pass more often than probably anything else. But I have to say I don't understand what Lorne Michaels is doing right now. Sure Tina Fey's two appearances as VP Nominee Sarah Palin have been great but otherwise the new season has started off rather weak and stale. And how often can Tina be trumped out to do Palin? Hopefully it will become a moot point come Nov. 4th and we can all just forget about the Dan Quayle of the new century.

After seven years, Amy Poehler is moving on, which it was definitely time for her to do and she'll be fine with a sitcom on NBC set for mid-season and more roles in features to come as well. That leaves Kristen Wiig as the senior female cast member and she's undoubtedly the star now, she easily outshines the male cast members, which there are too many of. I would whittle the cast down to Wiig, Jason Sudekis, Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Fred Armisen and the newest female cast member Casey Wilson because we haven't seen enough of her yet to know whether she's in for the long haul. Even so I'd recommend looking for at least one more new female cast member and Fred Armisen only gets a reprieve due to the fact that he's playing Obama right now, but if they can find someone else who can do a better Obama then by all means bring them on and let Armisen go as well. One other recommendation I would make to Lorne Michaels would be for him to get Adam Sandler to host. Now I haven't been the biggest fan of his recent movies, but I love his earlier films and grew-up on his SNL days. I don't understand why the biggest star to ever come out of SNL has not returned to host the show. I'm not aware of there being any rift between Sandler and Michaels but whatever it is get through it because Sandler hosting SNL would be a huge event. Sandler has a big movie coming out this Christmas season, Bedtime Stories, that would be a perfect time.

These are just suggestions I make out of love. I'll be watching this Saturday, as I always do, when the lovely Anne Hathaway host with musical guests The Killers.

Post Script : Still reeling from the death of Paul Newman I just have to pass on this fantastic article from NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd about the legend.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/opinion/01dowd.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin