SNL kicked off its 39th season Saturday night with guest host Tina Fey and music by Arcade Fire. Tina, a long-time favorite writer for the show and all-around amazing lady, claimed that this will be a “rebuilding year” for the show – with six new cast members to prove it.
Though the sketch series lost three of its best players this year – Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, and Fred Armisen – the premiere went pretty smoothly. Perhaps it was veteran Tina Fey’s presence, Aaron Paul’s visit from Breaking Bad, or maybe it’s because “SNL itself has become a well-oiled machine, one built to survive any major departures,” according to Pop Watch.
The show opened with a classic political sketch about Obamacare (watch it here), featuring Jay Pharaoh’s Obama impression, of course. The sketch brought “ordinary Americans” to the podium to comment on the Affordable Care Act, though you could hardly call Kate McKinnon’s impression of a nurse “ordinary.” Other visits to the podium were made by Taran Killam as Dr. Seuss-reciting Ted Cruz, angry iPhone 5 user Cecily Strong, and of course, a guest appearance by Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul.
“Unless I’m on TV once every three weeks, a little part of me dies,” says Tina Fey in her opening monologue. Though Tina is an SNL favorite, she’s had better times guest hosting. She cracked some jokes about her lack of recurring characters on the show, then went on to introduce the six (yes, six) new cast members – via song and dance of course.
The new members got a surprising amount of showtime, being featured on a Girls digital short, a fake car commercial, and even as a guest on Weekend Update.
Weekend Update also proved NBC’s theme of rebuilding with a new face behind the desk. Cecily Strong has joined Seth Meyers at the Update desk since he’ll be leaving in a few months to host his own late night show. Cecily did a fine job at the desk Saturday night, but we’ll see how she does as the season goes along.
In review, the sketches went smoothly, Tina met our expectations, and Arcade Fire probably confused the most of us. Though many will miss Hader, Sudeikis, and Armisen, we have high hopes for the 39th season and all of their “rebuilding” plans.