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Technical glitches bring “Live” back to “Saturday Night Live”

Technical glitches bring “Live” back to “Saturday Night Live”

In the film Saturday eveningthe recreation of the minutes before the very first episode of SNLa hectic one Dick Ebersol promises Lorne Michaels that he will have the show’s broken sound system repaired in time for the live show. This also happened in real life – Ebersol hired a crew who had just finished a rock concert at Madison Square Garden to bring their equipment to Studio 8H on the day of the premiere.

Life imitated art imitated life last night as the show returned from a commercial break and ran on a freeze frame Stevie Nicks for a whole minute without explanation. Stare at it for 60 seconds to get the full effect.

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On social media, some real-time viewers found the frozen image creepy – had something nefarious happened at 30 Rock? – while others suspected the technical issues that caused the disruption.

What the hell was going on? Accordingly This week on SNLa faulty sound mixer was to blame, shades of 1975.

Whatever happened to the sound didn’t subside once Nicks was full Rock school with a bewitched “Edge of Seventeen.” The show was then shortened to a double Commercial break, presumably to fix the audio mix. But now something had to give. A late football game between Ohio State and Oregon had already delayed the start of the show by five minutes.

Add in the long pause before Nicks’ performance and the double break – several minutes of show time were lost. Just like in Saturday eveningMichaels must have sat at his bulletin board, throwing away index cards, destroying enough sketches to release the show on time.

Was the sound still flawed even after the cuts? This week on SNL says The final sketch, a black-and-white parody called “The Hotel Detective,” was actually recorded during dress rehearsal. Fans who were present at the rehearsal confirm this, saying that identical cue card bloopers from the rehearsal appeared in the broadcast version. (The cards peek into the frame at 1:44.)

Despite all the technical glitches, Ariana Grande and Co. were pretty funny last night. As in Season 41, Grande proves to be a surprisingly capable host, showcasing her talent for impersonation:

As the show finds clever ways to showcase her powerful voice:

Her best moment was her monologue, a confident song about not giving in to the temptation to sing. Maybe it’s all those years as a Nick kid, but Grande is so much more comfortable in front of the camera than other pop star hosts. She kills it.

After more than 49 years, I have often wondered why the show is simply not recorded during the week. This would eliminate the worry of equipment malfunctioning while giving writers and actors more chances to get the comedic timing right. But last night convinced me that the show’s tightrope act is something essential. It’s one of the few television shows where you can experience a disaster in real time.

Keep it up.