During my time at the University of Southern California, I tried to work on something that would allow me to look into Saturday Night Live, a show that I know way too much about. The show will be starting its 40th season this fall.
Now, I’ve written on the NetworksUnited before on SNL, in preparation for the 2012 United States Presidential Election. I later took Joe Saltzman’s course, “The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture.” The class was like a media criticism course that looked at how journalists and journalism is portrayed in popular media – books, radio and television shows, films, etc.
Jane Curtin and Chevy Chase on SNL’s “Weekend Update.” (Credit: NBC)
It took me longer than originally intended, but I produced an article on the first five years of the “Weekend Update” segment of SNL, entitled “The Fake News: Examining the Image of the Journalist Through Weekend Update.”
From the abstract:
The image of the broadcast news journalist is one that we can identify with on a regular basis. We see the news as an opportunity to be engaged in the world at large. Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” brought a different take on the image of the journalist: one that was a satire on its head, but a criticism of news culture as a whole. This article looks at the first five seasons of Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” and the image of the journalist portrayed by the SNL cast members serving as cast members from 1975 (Chevy Chase) until 1980 (Bill Murray and Jane Curtin). This article will show how the anchors’ style and substance does more than tell jokes about the news. The image of the journalist portrayed through the 1970s version of “Weekend Update” is mostly a negative one; while it acknowledges the importance of news and information by being a staple of the show, it ultimately mocks the news and the journalists who are prominently featured on the news.
In addition to the article, I also spoke with Dr. Stephen Tropiano, Ithaca College Los Angeles film and television program director and author of Saturday Night Live FAQ. My interview with him, where we eventually went beyond the 1970s, is here:
I’ve always been fascinated with “Weekend Update” to the point where I modeled the “MADDSKILLZ Update” after it. The segment has had many peaks and a few valleys – I actually think the current version with Colin Jost and Cecily Strong is in the latter category for now. Though, that shouldn’t be a surprise considering the fact that Strong was thrown on the desk with outgoing anchor Seth Meyers after only one season on the show, and Jost became the first “Weekend Update” anchor to debut as a new cast member in the middle of the season. It was jarring to say the least, so perhaps they’ll make people forget the awkwardness of 2013-2014 over the course of Season 40.
Also, for the record, I feel like Dennis Miller is the best “Weekend Update” anchor of all time – and this has nothing to do with anything he’s done since leaving the show in 1991!
Check out the article here: The Fake News: Examining the Image of the Journalist Through Weekend Update.
-1SKILLZ