Bowen Yang Knows Why You Like a Certain Era of ‘SNL'

Everyone who watches Saturday Night Live has a favorite era of the show. It may be the one that was airing when they started watching, the first cast that graced their eyes. Perhaps they watched the show on the seemingly (but not actually) endless reruns that made up most of Comedy Central’s scheduling for years and found a cast or period that appealed to them the most. Maybe whatever one they are watching is their favorite, and that is always in flux because the show has been on the air for almost 50 years, and there’s lots to choose from. No matter which is your favorite, Bowen Yang knows why.

Yang, along with several other SNL cast members (Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, James Austin Johnson, Sarah Sherman, and Ego Nwodim, with Fred Armisen moderating), sat for an Emmy consideration panel this last Monday night. I was there! Not in the room with the cast; that was in LA. But I know people who are much cooler than I am (his name is Tim Barnes, and we made a short film together that you can watch), and was invited to the NYC version of the night, which included a live panel with several SNL head writers Kent Sublette, Streeter Seidell, and Alison Gates and the show’s director, Liz Patrick. Then, we got to watch a live feed of the cast. They were great. I ate too much candy. It was a good time.

Before the panel with the cast, we were shown a highlight reel for this last season of the show. I enjoy the show in general, but even I was kind of taken aback by how good the reel was. Seeing all the best moments stacked up like that was fantastic, as it’s supposed to be. When the chat got going, Yang connected highlight reels to people’s SNL preferences. “When people say SNL was better or was especially good at a certain era, they’re thinking of the best of this cast member, they’re thinking of the hits, and the highlight reels,” he theorized. “But you don’t get a highlight reel unless you do the full season of the show.”

The man makes a lot of sense! You’re going to think of your favorite moments when reflecting on your … favorite seasons/eras/casts/what have ya. But what made the whole thing even better is that the cast spent most of the rest of their time on stage giving each other their flowers, as the children say. They seem like a tight, supportive group, which is just nice to be around, even if they weren’t performers. Heidi Gardner got emotional reflecting on how bizarre it was that this was her life right after everyone had said nice things about her. It was wonderful.

Yang tried to be humble at a certain point, comparing his misses on the show to incidents that should be reported to the FAA, but people weren’t having it. With all the rumors surrounding who is and isn’t leaving, I hope it’s no one I saw onstage via what was essentially a fancy Zoom call on Monday night (that I am very grateful to have attended). Given how much they were getting along, I kinda doubt it.