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NBC 1975-present


FRIDAYS
ABC 1980-1982


SATURDAYS
National Lampoon #147, June 1982
w: Al Jean, Ted Mann, Michael Reiss

Done during the time when there were two late-night comedy shows on the air, Saturday Night Live, which still exists today, and Fridays, a short-lived imitation out of the West Coast. I don't count SCTV in the same category. It was not performed in front of a live audience, everything they did existed in one single reality, and some seasons didn't have laughtracks.

National Lampoon was always dissing it for being just another TV comedy show, but they were really jealous that their writers and cast members from their records and radio shows were being poached.

MAD had a few references to the show. This is from The Lighter Side of The Idiot Box in #215, June 1980 by who else—Dave Berg.

From MAD's Plan to Make the Congressional TV Show More Entertaining in #216, July 1980, by Lou Silverstone and Jack Davis. One of the correspondents on SNL was Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner).

Marvel Team-Up was their showcase title, teaming Spider-Man with new or secondary Marvel characters. This particular issue, that didn't team him up with Marvel characters, is never used in reprint collections for licensing reasons.

LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT
Marvel Team-Up #74, October 1978
w: Chris Claremont
a: Bob Hall & Marie Severin

John Belushi's Samurai was one of the recurring characters.

The general public would never have heard of most of the Marvel characters then, though many were used in a superhero sketch (see below).

George Carlin hosted the first Saturday Night Live and Chevy Chase was one of the original cast members. College used to be where most comedians did their act because students were more socially conscious, but now the social conscience of students is the reason they won't.

Here's a cover Jack Davis did for TV Guide.

SCTV did their parody Thursday Night Live. If you look at the other sketches, you can see why I feel the two shows are different.