Saturday Night Live fans are no strangers to debates, whether it's over the best cast members or funniest sketches of all time. Now the show is getting into the act with a new series that will culminate in the ultimate dream episode of Saturday Night Live.
Saturday Night Live is diving deeper into its legendary archive with a brand-new digital series, The Rundown. The series brings together past and present cast members, along with celebrity fans, to build their “dream” episode of SNL by selecting their favorite sketches, monologues, and musical moments from across the show’s 50-year history.
The premiere episode puts Colin Jost in the spotlight, and fittingly, he starts at the very top of the show: the cold open. Jost, who has spent years writing for SNL, offered insight into what makes a cold open work, explaining that the segment is often one of the most chaotic parts of the production. Unlike other sketches that can be refined throughout the week, cold opens frequently come together at the last minute, shaped by breaking news and evolving political storylines.
It also doesn't have the benefit of a warmed-up crowd that's already been entertained by previous sketches. Jost revealed that there is usually at least 10 minutes of what essentially sounds like elevator music before the cold open goes live. "You are going from an ice-cold vibe in here, and if you’re good as a performer and good as a writer at being able to get that audience laughing early on, it is a feat," he said.
That pressure is something Jost knows well. By his own estimate, he’s written around 100 cold opens during his time at the show, making him something of an authority on the subject. So which cold open did he pick as the best?
Jost ultimately chose the now-iconic 2008 cold open featuring Tina Fey as vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, opposite Amy Poehler as journalist Katie Couric. The sketch, which hilariously reenacted the real-life Couric/Palin interview, quickly became one of SNL’s most memorable political pieces. It arguably helped shape public perception of Palin during the 2008 election cycle, and put Fey into another level in SNL history.
The "Weekend Update" anchor also gave consideration to Steve Martin's season 17 cold open, where he sang "Not Going to Phone It In Tonight," the OJ Simpson trial opens of the '90s, and the "Wolverines" sketch that opened the premiere episode in 1975.
But ultimtately, Jost went with a more recent selection. He credited
Seth Meyers as the primary writer behind the sketch, while noting that Fey and Poehler likely contributed as well.
As for The Rundown, new episodes are set to roll out via YouTube on Wednesdays during weeks when Saturday Night Live is off the air, with the series expected to run into the summer. Look for Dana Carvey, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Bowen Yang, and Questlove to appear in future episodes.