Saturday Night Live and American TV

For over 35 years, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" has greeted late night–TV viewers looking for the best in sketch comedy and popular music. SNL is the variety show that launched the careers of a mass of comedians including Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Chris Farley, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Adam Sandler, among others. Week after week, SNL has produced unforgettable sketches and provocative political satire, adapting to changing times while staying true to its original vision of performing timely topical humor. With essays that address issues ranging from race and gender to authorship and comedic performance, "Saturday Night Live" and American TV follows the history of this 36-time Emmy-winning show and its place in the shifting social and media landscape of American television.

1. Introduction: Situating Saturday Night Live within American Television Culture / Nick Marx, Matt Sienkiewicz, and Ron Becker
Part I: Live from New York on NBC
2. The Evolution of Saturday Night / Michele Hilmes
3. "Live from New York!" / Susan Murray
4. Michael O'Donoghue, Experimental Television Comedy, and Saturday Night Live's Authorship / Evan Elkins
Part II: Staying Alive on Saturday Night
5. Politics and the Brand: Saturday Night Live's Campaign Season Humor and Cultural Relevance / Jeffrey P. Jones
6. Speaking Too Soon: SNL, 9/11 and the Remaking of American Irony / Matt Sienkiewicz
7. Live Music: Mediating Musical Performance and Discord on Saturday Night Live / Alyxandra Vesey
8. Going Backstage: Network Heritage, Industrial Identities, and Reiterated Mediation of Saturday Night Live's Work Worlds / Derek Johnson
Part III: Social Politics and Comedic Representation
9: Bringing the Black: Eddie Murphy and African American Humor on Saturday Night Live / Racquel Gates
10. "Is this the Era of the Woman?": SNL's Gender Politics in the New Millennium / Caryn Murphy
11. "Reading Fauxbama: 'Honeyface' Performance on SNL" / Mary Beltrán
Part IV: Beyond Saturday Night, Beyond Television
12.Skits Strung Together: Performance, Narrative, and the Sketch Comedy Aesthetic in SNL Films / Nick Marx
13. Andy Samberg's Digital Success Story and Other Myths of the Internet Comedy Club / Ethan Thompson and Ethan Tussey
14. Sketches Gone Viral: From Watercooler Talk to Participatory Comedy / David Gurney
Contributors
Index