My Top 30 Films From 1975-1999

Manhattan (1979) Allen

Astute readers of this blog (I'm looking at you Forsyth Tanglefoot of Helena, Montana) doubtless recall that at the beginning of last month I published a list of my top thirty films from the first quarter of this century. I have since struck upon the idea of listing my top thirty films from preceding twenty-five year periods. So for  this month I offer my top thirty from the last 25 years of the preceding century. In April I'll publish my top thirty from 1950-1974 and will conclude the series in May with thirty from 1925-1959. You're welcome. Not surprisingly it was much more difficult to narrow down the many films I love for this list than the previous ones, principally because the time period includes the last five years of the Seventies, my favorite decade of films. You will note that nine of thirty films come from the that half decade. There are three films from Woody Allen on the list, four from Martin Scorsese, two from Aki Kaurismäki and -- amazingly -- the other twenty-one are all from different directors. There were some terrific films that didn't make the list, indeed too many to mention. Here are the ones that did.

1. Manhattan (1979) Allen

2. Goodfellas (1990) Scorsese

3. Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987) Malle

4. Stalker (1979) Tarkovsky

5. Taxi Driver (1976) Scorsese

6. Europa (1991) von Trier

7. Fanny and Alexander (1982) Bergman

8. Heaven’s Gate (1980) Cimino

9. Tess (1979) Polanski

10. The Ice Storm (1997) A. Lee

11. Apocalypse Now (1979) F. Coppola

12. Annie Hall (1977) Allen

13. Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Lumet

14. Dead Man (1995) Jarmusch

15. Radio Days (1987) Allen

16. Raging Bull (1980) Scorsese

17. The Big Lebowski (1998) Coens

18. Rushmore (1998) W. Anderson

19. Ariel (1998) Kaurismaki

20. My Own Private Idaho (1991) van Sant

21. Barry Lyndon (1975) Kubrick

22. La Haine (1995) Kassovitz

23. Local Hero (1983) Forsyth

24. Pulp Fiction (1994) Tarantino

25. Come and See (1985) Klimov

26. The Age of Innocence (1993) Scorsese

27. Beau Travail (1999) Denis

28. The Match Factory Girl (1990) Kaurismaki

29. Das Boot (1981) Peterson

30. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Weir

They Say a Good Blog Post is Worth Repeating: "If I Had My Way: Each Year's Oscar Winner for Best Picture, My Favorite Nominee of the Nominees and My Favorite Picture" is here Reprised and Updated

Anora

A few years ago I offered the post below described in the title above. I thought it worth re-running especially in light of the fact that for only the eighth time my favorite picture of the year, Anora, actually was awarded the Best Picture Oscar tonight. (Not that I watched, I never do). It feels weird when my favorite of the nominees wins the award as happened last year with Oppenheimer. When my overall pic wins it feels even weirder. Weirdness aside, here's that post from a few years ago, updated.

Below you will find each year's Oscar winner for best picture followed by my favorite of that year's nominees and my favorite film for that year. You will note that in a few cases for best nominee I put N/A (not applicable) because in my estimation, there wasn't anything nominated worthy of the prize. In only seven years did the Oscar winner match what I thought was the best movie (All Quiet on the Western From '30, Casablanca '42, On the Waterfront '54, The Godfather '72, Annie Hall '77, No Country for Old Men '07 and Birdman '14). On sixteen occasions the best picture was, in my opinion, the best of the nominees. Sixty-five times my favorite film of the year did not receive a nomination (although many were foreign language films and some of those were nominated in that category.). Please excuse my failure to link the films to IMDb as I normally do, but with over two hundred titles, it's simply too time-consuming a task.

1928 Wings/Wings/Sunrise

1929 Broadway Melody/NA/Diary of a Lost Girl

1930 All Quiet on the Western Front/All Quiet on the Western Front/All Quiet on the Western Front

1931 Cimarron/ The Front Page/City Lights

1932 Grand Hotel/Shanghai Express/Red Dust

1933 Cavalcade/42nd Street/Duck Soup

1934 It Happened One Night/The Thin Man/The Thin Man

1935 Mutiny on the Bounty/Ruggles of Red Gap/The Thirty-Nine Steps

1936 The Great Ziegfeld/Libeled Lady/My Man Godfrey

1937 The Life of Emile Zola/The Awful Truth/The Awful Truth

1938 You Can’t Take it With You/Grand Illusion/Holiday

1939 Gone With the Wind/Mr. Smith Goes to Washington/Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

1940 Rebecca/ The Grapes of Wrath/His Girl Friday

1941 How Green Was My Valley/Citizen Kane/Sullivan’s Travels

1942 Mrs. Miniver/The Talk of the Town/The Talk of the Town

1943 Casablanca/Casablanca/Casablanca

1944 Going My Way/Double Indemnity/Double Indemnity

1945 The Lost Weekend/The Lost Weekend/Rome: Open City

1946 The Best Years of Our Lives/It’s a Wonderful Life/It’s a Wonderful Life

1947 Gentleman’s Agreement/Great Expectations/Odd Man Out

1948 Hamlet/Treasure of the Sierra Madre/Treasure of the Sierra Madre

1949 All the King’s Men/Battleground/The Third Man

1950 All About Eve/Sunset Blvd./Sunset Blvd.

1951 An American in Paris/A Streetcar Named Desire/A Streetcar Named Desire

1952 The Greatest Show on Earth/High Noon/Umberto D

1952 From Here to Eternity/Julius Caesar/Ikiru

1954 On the Waterfront/On the Waterfront/On the Waterfront

1955 Marty/Mister Roberts/Rebel Without a Cause

1956 Around the World in 80 Days/NA/The Searchers

1957 Bridge on the River Kwai/Bridge on the River Kwai/The Seventh Seal

1958 Gigi/The Defiant One/Elevator to the Gallows

1959 Ben-Hur/NA/Some Like it Hot

1960 The Apartment/The Apartment/La Dolce Vita

1961 West Side Story/The Hustler/Through a Glass Darkly

1962 Lawrence of Arabia/To Kill a Mockingbird/L’Eclisse

1963 Tom Jones/NA/Winter Light

1964 My Fair Lady/Dr. Strangelove/Red Desert

1965 The Sound of Music/A Thousand Clowns/I Knew Her Well

1966 A Man for All Seasons/The Sand Pebbles/Persona

1967 In the Heat of the Night/Bonnie and Clyde/Bonnie and Clyde

1968 Oliver/The Lion in Winter/2001: A Space Odyssey

1969 Midnight Cowboy/Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid/The Wild Bunch

1970 Patton/M*A*S*H*/Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

1971 The French Connection/A Clockwork Orange/A Clockwork Orange

1972 The Godfather/The Godfather/The Godfather

1973 The Sting/The Exorcist/Amacord

1974 Godfather Part 2/ Chinatown/Chinatown

1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest/Barry Lyndon/Barry Lyndon

1976 Rocky/Taxi Driver/Taxi Driver

1977 Annie Hall/Annie Hall/Annie Hall

1978 Deer Hunter/Deer Hunter/Animal House

1979 Kramer vs. Kramer/Apocalypse Now/Manhattan

1980 Ordinary People/Raging Bull/Heaven’s Gate

1981 Chariots of Fire/Reds/Reds

1982 Gandhi/The Verdict/Fanny and Alexander

1983 Terms of Endearment/The Right Stuff/Local Hero

1984 Amadeus/Places in the Heart/Broadway Danny Rose

1985 Out of Africa/Witness/Come and See

1986 Platoon/Platoon/Down by Law

1987 The Last Emperor/NA/Au Revoir Les Enfants

1988 Rain Man/Dangerous Liaisons/Bull Durham

1989 Driving Miss Daisy/My Left Foot/Crimes & Misdemeanors

1990 Dances With Wolves/Goodfellas/Goodfellas

1991 The Silence of the Lambs/JFK/Europa

1992 Unforgiven/The Crying Game/La Vie de boheme

1993 Schindler’s List/Schindler’s List/Groundhog Day

1994 Forrest Gump/Pulp Fiction/Pulp Fiction

1995 Braveheart/Il Postino/Dead Man

1996 The English Patient/Fargo/Drifting Clouds

1997 Titanic/Good Will Hunting/Ice Storm

1998 Shakespeare in Love/Saving Private Ryan/The Big Lebowski

1999 American Beauty/American Beauty/The Virgin Suicides

2000 Gladiator/Traffic/In the Mood For Love

2001 A Beautiful Mind/Gosford Park/Y Tu Mama Tambien

2002 Chicago/Gangs of New York/Hable Con Ella

2003 Lord of the Rings/Lost in Translation/The Man Without a Past

2004 Million Dollar Baby/The Aviator/Mean Girls

2005 Crash/Good Night and Good Luck/Match Point

2006 The Departed/The Departed/Half Nelson

2007 No Country For Old Men/No Country For Old Men/No Country For Old Men

2008 Slumdog Millionaire/Milk/Vicky Cristina Barcelona

2009 The Hurt Locker/Inglourious Basterds/Inglourious Basterds

2010 The King’s Speech/Winter’s Bone/Of Gods and Men

2011 The Artist/Midnight in Paris/Midnight in Paris

2012 Argo/Silver Linings Playbook/Silver Linings Playbook

2013 12 Years a Slave/Nebraska/Inside Llewyn Davis

2014 Birdman/Birdman/Birdman

2015 Spotlight/The Revenant/Carol

2016 Moonlight/Manchester by the Sea/Manchester by the Sea

2017 The Shape of Water/Call Me by Your Name/Personal Shopper

2018 Green Book/Roma/First Reformed

2019 Parasite/Once Upon a Time in Hollywood/Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

2020 Nomadland/Promising Young Woman/Another Round

2021 CODA/Drive My Car/Drive My Car

2022 Everything Everywhere All At Once/Tar/Aftersun

2023 Oppenheimer/Oppenheimer/Fallen Leaves

2024 Anora/Anora/Anora

The Author Celebrates His Birthday By Reviewing His Life and Times

That's me on the far right with brother and mother.

It’s my birthday. 

I’ve had one every year starting with my debut in this world in 1954. I was born a few months before the United States Supreme Court handed down their epic decision in Brown v. Education. I was born seven and half months before the then New York Giants baseball team won their last World Series title in the Big Apple. (It would be 2010 before they won one in San Francisco.)

I was born during the second year of Dwight Eisenhower’s first term as president. I was born during the relatively early days of the Cold War. I was born when there were 48 states in the USA. Statehood was four years away for Hawaii and Alaska. I was born a month after Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio married. I was born just a few days after the polio vaccination was first administered on a mass basis. (This was at a time when science in general and vaccinations in particular were held in high regard.) I was born a month before From Here to Eternity was awarded the Oscar for best picture. Two months after I was born Senator Joseph McCarthy began the Army hearings that would help bring about his downfall (today he’d be Attorney General). I was born a few months before the words “under God” where added to the Pledge of Allegiance. I was born just before Elvis Presley became famous and before Sports Illustrated had published its first issue. I was born within a few weeks of Matt Groening, Patty Hearst, John Travolta, Ron Howard and Rene Russo. I was born five months before On the Waterfront hit theaters. 

When I was born about 65% of American households had televisions and about 0% had personal computers. Telephones were infinitely more likely to be on walls than in pockets. Indeed the very idea of taking your telephone with you when you left the house was still absurd when I left for college. When I was born Vietnam was generally referred to as Indochina and it was the French who were entangled there, not the U.S. When I was born The Beatles were just under ten years from the American television debut. Major League baseball had sixteen teams, the NFL had twelve, the NHL six and the NBA had eight including teams in Fort Wayne, Syracuse and Rochester. Only the NFL had teams west of the Rockies. NCAA football teams were in geographically sane conferences of workable numbers. For example the University of California was in the nine-team Pacific Coast Conference which consisted of four schools in California, two in Washington, two in Oregon and one in Idaho. Today the Bears are in the unwieldy seventeen-team Atlantic Coast Conference which is comprised of two California schools and one from Texas with most of the rest being in states boarding the Atlantic Ocean and ranging from Syracuse in the north to Miami in the south.

When I was born Jim Crow still ruled in the American South and for that matter much of the rest of the country. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was over a year away and Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcom X were not well known. The US Senate hadn’t passed a federal anti-lynching law. Civil Rights bills wouldn’t be passed for another ten years. 

Gays were still very much in the closet and were not spoken of except as being perverse oddities that were lible to molest children. 

Women were being raised to be future housewives and were not afforded the same legal rights as men.

Me in 1978

Many African and Asian countries were still under colonial rule. Most African countries were under French or British rule. There was both an East and West Germany and countries like Poland, Estonia and Romania were under Soviet rule.

In my life time there have been the assassinations of a president, John F. Kennedy, his brother Bobby, then a presidential candidate, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Fred Hampton and scores of other civil rights leaders. There was also been the entire run of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. I’ve been alive for the all of the Watergate saga which brought down a president. I was around for the Zodiac killings which terrorized the Bay Area and the Patty Hearst kidnapping and her conversion to an SLA warrior and her magical transformation back to a law-abiding citizen. I have memories of the Jim Jones cult and their mass suicide in Jonestown and the murders of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk that same month. My life has also coincided with Charles Manson, his "family" and the brutal slayings they inflicted. I also recall Woodstock and Altamont. Likewise the arrival of the Beatles which transformed my life and sensibilities. I was witness to the emergence of the Hippie Movement and the protests of the Sixties some of which I participated in. 

I started life with a black and white TV that had five channels and now have a large high definition color TV with a flat screen and more channels than I can count plus several streaming services. For most of my life if I wanted to see a movie that was not in theaters I had to wait for it to be on TV where it would be decimated by commercials. Now I can find any movie I want (with rare exceptions) and watch it at my leisure, commercial free. Indeed I own about 300 films on DVD. Similarly, in my youth if I wanted to listen to a song that I didn’t have on an album or a 45 I had to hope that it would be on the radio. Now I can find it, often accompanied by a video, on YouTube.

Information that used to require a trip to the library is now at our fingertips. Then again a great deal of lies that we would not have been exposed to in the past are also at our fingertips. 

I was born into a more dangerous world. There were no seat belts, bike riders didn’t wear helmets, playgrounds could be veritable death traps. On the other hand school shootings were not nearly so ubiquitous and the government was actively trying to make us safer from disease rather than making false claims about the dangers of inoculations. This gets to the worst thing about the world today. A reckless idiot who is dismantling all the good things that the government can do for the people, especially the most vulnerable, is bending over backwards to serve the needs of the wealthiest. He holds the highest position in the land. 

When I was growing up climate change was not a thing though people were becoming aware of the need to protect our environment. I was in high school when we had the first Earth Day. Today we’re already living with the effects of climate change.

I was born before Jack Kerouac’s On the Road was published and before Allen Ginsberg’s first public reading of Howl. Both those pieces of literature have been meaningful in my life.

I was born when my beloved Cal football team was mediocre. Today they are mediocre. In between they have mostly been mediocre and bad more often than good. I love them no less. It was seventeen years before I became aware of London’s Arsenal Football club and I have loved them ever since. They have given me much joy. As previously noted the San Francisco Giants were in New York when I came into the world. They are playing in their third different ballpark in SF. Virtually every professional team that you can name is in their second or third home since the fifties. The astroturf era has come and mostly gone. Women's sports have become popular and I am a dedicated fan of Cal's women's basketball team.

My wife was already in the world when I was born. She is the love of my life and offsets any travails I’ve ever experienced. Only the love I have more daughters matches the way I feel about her. I've had many friends, sadly too many of them died young. In 2017 two great friends died within six months of each other. Life can be cruel. I've seen many other people suffer great misfortune and have had a fair share of my own mostly in the form of a mentally ill mother. I've struggled with PTSD all my life and attendant issues such as drug and alcohol addiction, depression, anxiety and panic attacks. With all that I've been luckier than most. I've remained physically healthy and had a long and rewarding career in teaching. 

I enter a new year feeling incredibly lucky that I’ve been along for the ride and I’d like to stick around for as long as possible. It’s been a lot of fun and damned if you know what's going to happen next in this world.

Excesses in Writing and Speech, Euphemisms and Word Order Are All Tackled in this Delightful Post

What do you write when you don’t know what to write? What do you do when you don’t know what to do? Where do you go when you don’t know where to go? What do you think when you don’t know what to think?

Such questions are puzzling me now….

I would have been well within my rights to write “such questions are puzzling me at this moment in time.” To most readers (I flatter myself that there are any) that would be perfectly fine and many would think it more eloquent. But is it necessary? Why the five words of “at this moment in time” when the simple single word “now” suffices?

I’ll “take the matter into consideration.” Or "think about it.”

We do love to slap on extra words — often long ones — in an effort to sound erudite. Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemingway — to name but two esteemed writers — didn’t waste words. Each was precious and they saw no need for clutter.

In addition to excessive verbiage I’m also bothered by euphemisms, a curse of modern society. Classic examples include “passed away” and “we lost” in lieu of died. Some people can't even manage “passed away” and simply say that Aunt Martha “passed.” The question is did she pass gas  or passed away? Perhaps she’s now a quarterback and passed the football. Lost is worse for me. If “we lost our Aunt Martha” the inevitable question is: are you still looking for her?

In most countries people “go to the toilet.” In the US that’s far too graphic and we go to the bathroom or restroom though no bathing or resting are about to happen. 

I can’t recall where this happened but shortly after a lengthy stay in the UK I was back in the states and told someone I had to go to the toilet. By the look on their face you’d have thought I’d gone to the toilet right in front of them. Thereafter I made a point to say restroom. You simply don't want to offend delicate sensibilities. 

Society has become sensitive to the feelings of others (except of course for those in the MAGA movement whose members celebrate their indifference to the suffering of others). This is well and good. (Why do we say “well and good”? Isn’t saying “good” enough?) Sometimes there’s overreach. Referring to someone as “fat” seems cruel but do we have to replace it with “big boned?”  Is overweight so bad? Hearing impaired and sight impaired have replaced deaf and blind and I can’t imagine why. Unhoused for homeless seems bloody ridiculous.

Ever been running a little behind partially because you’re under the weather and you spaced out on the meeting? Or are you late because you’re sick  and you forgot the meeting? Be careful because they might “let you go” which isn’t nearly as bad as being fired. Maybe you prefer being made redundant. 

It would appear that I’m addressing the question posited at the beginning of this writing which was about what to write when you don’t know what to write. The answer is: anything. I suppose something is also a good answer. It may depend on whether you prefer something or anything. Could be related to whether you prefer somewhere to anywhere. Somewhere is a place though we don’t know where. Anywhere is any place and again we don’t know where. Just like somebody is an unknown person while anybody is any unknown person. Somebody sounds more specific. But barely.

I’m going to change the subject….

Every time you call any kind of physician's office for any reason you’re told that if this is a medical emergency you should hang up and dial 9-1-1. What do they think we are, a bunch of idiots? I’ve heard this when calling a psychiatrist’s office, dermatologist’s office and my GP. Do they really think that someone who’s having a heart attack or was just hit by a truck is going to call their dermatologist? Maybe it’s happened. We always have to account for morons.

By the way, last week I had my annual physical — nope, I’m sorry, it was a wellness check. Puhleeeze. I did not go see a physician, I saw my health care provider. Enough already. 

I saw this the other day: “we are sadly going to have to say goodbye to….” Why do they have to do it sadly? Or is this a case in which they should have written: “sadly, we are going to have say goodbye to….” Which suggests that it a sad occasion and not that they have to write “sadly.”

I’m glad I could be of help.

Live From this Blog, It's Saturday Night!

SNL's original cast

Saturday Night Live and I go way back. To the beginning it's, not mine). I started watching in the first season. I was in college and SNL soon became a big talking point in many young people’s lives. Truth be told the show — originally featuring such comedy legends as Gilda Radner, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd — really screwed with Saturday nights. Prime partying time was (I imagine this still to be the case) from ten through one. That meant that right smack in the middle of the time you should be going nuts on the dance floor, or chatting up a lovely young woman or doing lines (of coke, silly) there was an irresistible comedy show on television. There were no recording devices, no DVRs, no You Tube or streaming service to allow you to catch up later. It was then or waiting for a re-run which would likewise be on when you were at a club or kegger. I remember parties coming to virtual halt as many partiers huddled around a TV set (they were generally small in those day, HDTV was years away). And it was the brightest of us who really appreciated SNL and its irreverence.

SNL was — sorry to trot out the cliche — groundbreaking. The closest we’d seen to it was the Smothers Brothers and it’s short-lived run on prime time in the late sixties. SNL was unfettered, original, sometimes political and replete with great comic actors.

The first five years or so was the first golden age of SNL. By the eighties the show had began to fade in my consciousness. Monty Python had come across the pond to demonstrate comedy that was beyond groundbreaking, more like earth-shattering. Sitcoms were starting to have a bite to them and comedy films were enjoying a revival. I only occasionally watched SNL, the big stars had left for other ventures. But then a second golden age came to the show beginning in the late nineties and extending about ten years into the 21st century. The cast had always included a superstar or two such as Eddie Murphy, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Martin Short and Phil Hartman. But as the 2000s got rolling there was an embarrassment of riches. Will Ferrell, Fred Armisen, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Will Forte, Chris Parnell, Kenan Thompson (remarkably, he’s still there), Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Cecily Strong, Seth Meyer, Jason Sudekis, Tracy Morgan and Maya Rudolph. Those are comedy all stars.

SNL again became must-see television. I had a particular interest because Samberg and two writers (Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer) who joined the show when he did in 2005 were former students of mine. I came to honor their efforts, I stayed because they made me laugh, particularly with digital shorts always a highlight of the show.

Along with original cast members Radner and Belushi, I consider Wiig and Hader to be in the Mount Rushmore of SNL cast members and they were two of the shining stars of that era.

In the last five or so years the show has badly regressed. I’ve tried watching a couple of times a year and found the show to be unoriginal and tedious. At it’s best eighty  percent of an episode is top quality. At it’s worst, which is where it’s at today, maybe ten per cent is worth a look. Good writing is the key to  scripted material whether it is a dramatic film or a sketch comedy show. SNL does not have good writers these days, nor has it had for much of its run. But even more importantly, like great sports team, you need your superstars. When the show was flagging in the eighties, Eddie Murphy kept it propped up. Later the likes of Meyers and Carvey did the trick. When there’ve been an abundance of comedy greats the show has flourished. Easier said than done. SNL has been good for maybe twenty of it’s fifty seasons. Truly excellent for half of that.

One of the problems is that they’ll have a funny bit but will keep it going too long. Perhaps sketches need to fill a certain block of time, say seven minutes. The first three minutes are funny but we’ve got the joke and there’s nothing more to be done with it, but the sketch goes on trying our patience rather than making us laugh. This was what was so good about Monty Python. Skits lasted as long as they needed to and not a second more. Get the laugh and get out. SNL can be like a comic who has killed with a joke then keeps repeating it.

The show has also long since lost it’s originality. The political bite is long gone. That’s what made the Digital Shorts so damn good, no one had done anything quite like them before. Whether it was Lazy Sunday, Laser Cats or Dick in a Box  it was audacious and original.

One of SNL’s greatest contributions to our culture is the mega stars it has produced. Bill Murray, Murphy, Carvey, Samberg, Fey, Morgan, Murphy, Rudolph et al who have graced films, other TV shows and concert venues. Making the giant leap from obscurity to SNL can make it a much smaller leap to stardom in other places.

Sunday night NBC aired a three-hour long 50th anniversary schedule. While I was disappointed that there weren’t more of the “best of” clips that many of us love, it was a solid show. There were three notable absences: Hader, Aykroyd and Carvey. It seemed the show decided to punish Hader for his absence by including barely a glimpse of him in any retrospective footage.

I wondered about some of the celebrities prominently shown in the audience. It was great to get a quick look at Jack Nicholson, but one hardly associates him with the show. Not sure what Kevin Costner and his young trophy wife were doing there and I guess Steven Speilberg was in attendance based on his friendship with SNL’s long-time show runner, Lorne Michaels. Herein is a problem with the SNL of today, it is more about the glitz than the political satire. We get an endless run of celebrity cameos but very little controversy. A lot is self referential. It's a safe, establishment show, the opposite of what it started as.

Frankly I’m SNL’d out after watching the special and seeing all the articles about the show’s birthday, many in the New York Times.

SNL has a complicated legacy. It seems a large part of it’s import today stems from the show’s age. It’s been around from the Ford administration through Trumpy II. People are forever referencing it as if what it has to say is any more relevant or interesting or funny than what you get watching The Daily Show, Letterman, Seth Meyers, or Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. News outlets refer to what or who was on SNL seemingly out of habit. CNN will often have stories on who or what SNL has poked fun at as if there were newsworthy. Sometimes it seems SNL is still on not because we want it, but it would see weird without it. There’s little interesting or provocative anymore. 

But as Sunday's night special demonstrated there are plenty of memories. Some are pretty damn funny.