101 Most Unforgettable SNL Moments (2004 TV Special) User Reviews

Some nice memories, but fails to be a serious countdown IMHO

[medrjel · 5/10 · 24 November 2008]

Yes, these were 101 nice moments. However, any list that fails to mention John Belushi performing as Joe Cocker WITH Joe Cocker on stage just isn't serious about finding the greatest and most memorable moments in SNL history. That moment isn't just a great SNL moment, it's one of TV's GREATEST MOMENTS of ALL TIME! Belushi's imitation of Joe Cocker is SO PERFECT, IT'S UNBELIEVABLE! Seeing them side by side just proves it! Heck, I'd even put John's spin on "Get by with a little help from my friends" above over 2/3rds of the list! I'm sure not mentioning Will Ferrell in a patriotic thong would not have been missed if replaced by this moment.

And Wayne's World #1???!!! Sure, it's a great sketch worthy of the top 10, but if I had to pick a skit turned movie as #1, it'd be the Blues Brothers by far, not because they were famous in their time, but they re-popularized a whole subculture of music that was dying out! And that didn't even make the top 10 (it was #11), but the Cowbell sketch AND Bradys vs. Partridges did? Ewwww!

My Top 10? 1) Joe Cocker meets John Belushi (MISSING!) 2) Rudy after 9/11 (#2 on old list) 3) The Blues Brothers (#11) 4) Wayne's World (#1) 5) Eddie Murphy doing the Cannon Commercial as Stevie Wonder (Come on! it's classic when he takes the lens cap off for Joe Piscipo! This replaces old #7 - Stevie and Frank) 6) Channukah Song (#8) 7) The Church Lady (#12) 8) Chris Farley vs. Patrick Swayze for Chippendales (#9) 9) Anytime someone "Crashed" a party (Streisand, Pesci and DeNiro, Arnold, Reno, Etc....) (#6, #88, #57, and #92) 10) Steve Martin and Gilda Radner dance (#82) Hon Mention- Shiller's Reel - "Don't look back in Anger" (#62), "Da Bears" (#75), "White Like Me"(#41), and Emily Latella - "Nevermind. (Missing!).

A hysterical review of a hysterically hyper "show"

[Patrik_Lemberg · 2/10 · 5 February 2006]

The ANNOYING, hysterical, OVER-THE-TOP, incredibly Hollywood and unnaturally excited narrator is the main reason why this "documentary" ruins it for me (among others.) Another reason why it simply is NOT GOOD is that it's cut together in a way which results in a hysterical and hyper presentation; 10 to 20 people are interviewed in one minute. The result of cutting together one sentence from a few words each by three or four people makes you kind of go "huh!?" Among many other clips, the footage of Britney Spears' moving boobs is shown over and over and over again as is comedian Rachel Quaintance's suggestion that "B-bye should almost go in Webster's dictionary." "...and remember: E! is the only place to catch all these episodes every weeknight at 5 and midnight!" The constant background music, moving of camera angles, zooming, spinning and blinking images will have you rolling on the floor drooling saliva within seconds, so I would ESPECIALLY not recommend this program to epileptics - you could DIE! Out of the 101 "most unforgettable SNL moments" (according to whom I don't know,) not ONE sketch is performed from beginning to end. Actually, I don't think more than 10 seconds of a sketch is presented (at least not without interruption in order to be repeated or proceeded.) In order to understand what the fudge all the 100 million+ people who are interviewed for about 5 seconds each are talking about, you'll have to recall all these "moments" from TV, or you'll have to catch them from reruns, because way way way too little material from the actually aired SNL shows, which everyone are reminiscing about, is shown here in order for you to appreciate all the endless praise people are giving these supposedly hilarious moments. Commercial breaks appear about every 2 to 3 minutes, BTW. There is good material in here, but it's presented in such a hyper way that it cannot be properly enjoyed. It's hysterical, but far from hysterically funny or entertaining. I'd expected to actually SEE 101 SNL moments. Incidentally, and the worst fact of all: Steve Martin's legendary 'King Tut' sketch is NOT included (!!!) ...and I don't think having included 'Massive Head Wound Harry' and 'The McLaughlin Group' somewhere in the swamp would've been a mistake either, as both these sketches are celebrated pieces shown on both the 'Best of Dana Carvey' and the '25th Anniversary' tapes.

I leave you now with the narrators' sing-out from the first of the five installments of this show (imagine the following spoken in a VERY "fake excitement kind of you're on candid camera manner"): "Alas! We've run out of time in this hour, but TRUST US, there are plenty more Will Ferrell moments left in our countdown. Check out what's in store in the NEXT installment of our 101 most unforgettable SNL moments. From the CHEERful...to the MILItant...from guys in DRAA-AAG...to Lord and Lady Douchebag. We have more hilarious moments from the show you can't stop quoting as we work our way down to number one. You can catch every single ONE of these moments plus many more of your favorites every weeknight at four and midnight, right here on E! But for now..." (ending with a two seconds long clip of David Spade saying "b-bye.")

How did they rate these clips anyway?

[Chip_douglas · 8/10 · 26 September 2005]

This fast moving comedy countdown is really one big self made promo for E!, constantly reminding the audience that they are showing Saturday Night Live reruns twice a day. Even in five parts, they cannot show all 101 moments in their entirety when most of the time is spent on comments by hip celebrities. Many of them sat down to talk about SNL, but an equal number seem to haven been interviewed at social gatherings. This is also where most of the SNL alumni appear: in old footage from press junkets (all of these come with the original air dates in the corner, as do the memorable moments themselves, to keep us anal retentive date-o-philes happy). The few former cast members that did show up for this tribute are basically has-beens and never were's: Joe Piscopo, Ellen Cleghorne, Beth Cahil and I'm sorry to say, Dana Carvey, who is trying way to hard to be funny here.

They did manage to round up a big chunk of the SNL writing staff, who give insight into the origin of many a classic skit. Most prominent of them is Robert Smigel the insult comic dog, who's infamous Nude Beach sketch is still so controversial they can't even show stills from it on E!. Neither can anybody finish one sentence without cutting to something else thanks to E1's trademark frantic editing. Even when they have nothing to cut to, they still flip the image or zoom and skew it after 30 seconds. In sketches that rely heavily on music, they put in different songs (probably something about the rights). But there really is no time for music in this countdown, that was another series on VH1. So don't look for King Tut or Sinéad O'Connor vs the Pope. Sure, they could not leave the Blues Brothers out of the top ten, but we never hear them sing a note.

Having to feature so many familiar recurring characters, the definition of 'moment' is sometimes stretched a bit. For some reason Chris Kattan got almost completely neglected: No Mango, Mr. Peepers or Antonio Banderas, just the Roxbury Guys down at no 68 (and then they them with Pam Anderson instead of the one everybody knows with Jim Carrey). Each episode seems to open or close with a Eddie Murphy clip, yet Bill Murray and Steve Martin only appear twice each in the countdown. Tom Hanks has more airtime then the two of those combined, while Chris Farley and Phil Hartman get the most praise and appear all over the place. Hartman's roast of Sinatra gets two spots on the list (!), but Piscopo's version with Eddie Murphy as Stevie Wonder still finishes higher.

I was surprised to see a couple of mid nineties characters I never heard of up in the final stretch, like "Lyle the effeminate heterosexual" and the "Sensitive Naked Guy". Hang on, what are the Boston Teens doing at number 18? It seems to me they tried to shoehorn all the major players into each episode. It can't be a coincidence that every 20 number countdown has a touching or serious moment in the second to last spot either. Of course the top spot goes to the skit that spawned the most successful SNL movie ever. You see, Saturday Night Live has never really caught on across Europe (what's the point showing it when it's not live) but Waynes World became universally popular. So I guess Wayne and Garth would be considered most unforgettable of all.

8 out of 10