By LEIGH VASSALLO

COLUMNIST

In honor of forty years at Studio 8h in 30 Rockefeller Center, Lorne Michaels put together a three and a half hour special commemorating and celebrating all of our favorite sketches and alums to come out of Saturday Night Live.  Each aspect of the show received acknowledgement and praise in its own special segment. 

Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake did the cold opening, which normally is a political or current event related satire piece.  Instead, it consisted of a musical number.  They rapped and sang about the different elements of Saturday Night Live that have made it so famous and memorable.  And of course, their own special bromance and chemistry combined with hilarious lyrics that have made them such an entertaining pair to watch. 

For the monologue that is typically given by the host of the show, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Melissa McCarthy, Chris Rock, Alec Baldwin, Paul McCartney and many others shared why their own brand of performer was the best type to be the host of the show.  Just the amount of star power on that stage at one time was enough to blind people in the audience for at least twenty minutes.

Our favorite sketches returned, like “Celebrity Jeopardy” with Will Ferrell, Norm Macdonald, Darrell Hammond, and many more like “Wayne’s World” with Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey and “The Californians” with Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Vanessa Bayer and many more.  The sketches were made up mostly of alums, with a few current cast members here and there reminding us that they still exist. Honestly, that is why the sketches were as great as they were.  People want to see the originals doing their original things.  If “Celebrity Jeopardy” happened without Will Ferrell at the helm as Alex Trebek, people would be utterly confused and immediately close off from the sketch. Overall, the sketches were a success.  You could tell just by watching that everyone was on their game and ready to play those roles that they love one more time.

The musical sketches were also given their moment in the spotlight by Martin Short and Maya Rudolph as Beyonce.  Adam Sandler reprised his “Opera Man” character; Dana Carvey made a ballad about chopping broccoli; Steve Martin became King Tut once again; Jim Belushi and Dan Aykroyd put on their wayfarers and fedoras and sang the blues as the famous Blues Brothers. The entire segment made my sides hurt as I realized how much music the cast is really responsible for.    The cast over the years has been just as creative and hilarious when incorporating music into their characters. 

Many tributes were made throughout the show as well.  Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin acknowledged Tracy Morgan since he could not be there and wished him a speedy recovery from the serious car accident he is still recovering from.  The oddest tribute was to Eddie Murphy and Chevy Chase.  Chevy Chase was honored for being the first to man the Weekend Update desk.  His “acceptance” speech was neither funny nor coherent.  I had a difficult time understanding him and connecting to what was going on while he was on the stage.  Even weirder was Eddie Murphy’s tribute, which was just awkward.  Chris Rock gave a glowing and flattering opening about how Eddie Murphy is a “one of a kind comedian” and how he has saved the show on multiple occasions.  Ironically, once Eddie Murphy came out, people were left disappointed.  Instead of being funny like he is so famous for, he talked about how this was just like returning to high school for the first time in thirty years.  He was only being honored because he hasn’t been back to the studio in that amount of time.  Adam Sandler had not come back since he was a cast member either, but he was not honored in any way. These tributes were the low point of the entire special.  Of course, the tributes took a turn for the better when Bill Murray introduced the “In Memoriam” segment of the show, where the audience could take a moment to acknowledge those talents that are no longer with us. 

There were musical performances by Miley Cyrus, Kanye West and Paul McCartney.  Each artist brought their own type of music and performance style to the show and give it their all, and Paul McCartney sat at a piano and sang his iconic set, while Kanye West began his show laying down on his back with an illuminated white sheet over him.  Isn’t that what you would just expect from him at this point?  Each artist killed it and reaffirmed how important musical guests have been to the show for the last forty years. 

The original political and current event satire, also known as Weekend Update was honored as well.  Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Jane Curtin took the desk and did a few pieces of news before turning their attention to the guests that have graced the desk along with the anchors.  Emma Stone did her best Roseanne Rosannadanna impression in honor of the late Gilda Radner.  Edward Norton did his best Stefon, but of course that was not enough, and the real Stefon, played by Bill Hader, came out followed by his husband, Seth Meyers, to do their bit as the newly married couple. The weekend update wouldn’t be complete without Melissa McCarthy paying tribute to her favorite character, Matt Foley who was originally played by the late Chris Farley.  With a video of clips of Weekend Update throughout the years to polish off the segment we were reminded of just how groundbreaking of an idea it was.  Weekend Update was the first of its kind and has inspired satirists and comedians alike to have a smarter wit and sense of humor. 

That is why this reunion was such a success.  It was like jumping into a time machine and seeing your old friends from high school doing the goofy sketches and jokes they were so famous for back in the day.