UPDATE: It appears that SNL has decided to run the Vintage episodes in chronological order after all:
#SNLVintage tonight: Host – @SteveMartinToGo Musical Guest – The Blues Brothers Original Air Date – April 22, 1978 pic.twitter.com/m1lJzXT3g0
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) October 5, 2014
Feel free to print out this preview, and hold on to it for the eventual airing of the “Cowbell” episode.
To celebrate the 40th season of Saturday Night Live, NBC will be airing classic episodes they have dubbed SNL Vintage. Airing during the 10 P.M. time slot on Saturday nights, these condensed episodes will replace reruns from the current season of SNL.
SNL Vintage jumps ahead this week to the 25th season, and the April 8, 2000 episode with host Christopher Walken. So why should you watch?
The Classic Sketch: Behind the Music: Blue Oyster Cult
More famously known as “More Cowbell,” this may be the most popular SNL sketch from the past 14 years not created by The Lonely Island. From THE Bruce Dickinson’s (Walken) insistence that the only cure for his fever is more cowbell to fictional Blue Oyster Cult cowbell player Gene Frenkle’s (Will Ferrell) tiny shirt, this sketch is filled with laughs from beginning to end.
In the updated edition of Live From New York, Walken recalled the popularity of “Cowbell.”
“A few years after I had done the cowbell sketch, I did a play on Broadway, and people brought cowbells to the theater and banged them at the curtain call, and at the stage door, people had special pens and asked me if I would sign their cowbell.”
Other notable sketches: “Elian, The Cuban Boy!” is a musical about Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez. Just two weeks after this episode aired, federal agents stormed a home in Miami, and returned Gonzalez to his father. “The Census” features Tim Meadows as a census taker speaking with an eccentric man (Walken) who lives with a bobcat.
Recurring Characters:
Jacob Silj, a man afflicted with Voice Immodulation Syndrome, appears for the second time on “Weekend Update.” “The Continental” returns for the third time, and the first time since the death of sketch narrator Phil Hartman in 1998. Also, Molly Shannon‘s “Sally O’Malley” wins a beauty pageant in her third appearance.
SNL Vintage starring Walken with musical guest Christina Aguilera airs Oct. 4th at 10 p.m. on NBC.
