9 hours ago, DRW50 said:

One of the only other writers of note was Marilyn Suzanne Miller, who had written for the show in its first four seasons. She did again in 1981-1982 and wrote two of my favorite sketches - one where Robin Duke has a one-night stand she regrets with Tim Kazurinsky, only for this to get much worse when she gets a call that her father has died and he is still there (in a second part of the sketch post-commercial break, we see the funeral...which he has followed her to), and another when Elizabeth Ashley hosted where we see her and the female cast as teenagers, then jump forward 20 years. They have the same dialogue in both parts of the sketch, it's just the different parts of their lives, along with their deliveries, shift the meaning.

A dream project of mine is to cull and publish the best of Marilyn Suzanne Miller's SNL sketches. To me, they weren't just sketches. They were more like one-act plays with very rich characters. You always knew when you were watching a "Marilyn sketch," too, because the actors involved (including John Belushi) seemed to do less mugging and more actual acting.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Khan

23 minutes ago, Khan said:

A dream project of mine is to cull and publish the best of Marilyn Suzanne Miller's SNL sketches. To me, they weren't just sketches. They were more like one-act plays with very rich characters. You always knew when you were watching a "Marilyn sketch," too, because the actors involved (including John Belushi) seemed to do less mugging and more actual acting.

I would love that. She was a brilliant writer back when the show was still willing to challenge viewers. They haven't really had slice-of-life sketches along those lines since the early '90s (still mostly written by her) and they were rare even by then.

39 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

They haven't really had slice-of-life sketches along those lines since the early '90s [...] and they were rare even by then.

That's because the writers don't have real-life experiences to draw from. They don't even read classic literature or watch classic cinema. That's why most half-hour comedies today don't tell real stories anymore, or why most drama shows and movies feel like rehashes of other, better shows and movies. It's sad.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Khan