LIVE FROM NEW YORK...

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
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.

ROUTE 67

ROUTE 66
CBS 1960-1964

ROUTE 67
MAD #70. April 1962
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker

Anthology show that took place on location mainly on the eponymous highway between Chicago and Santa Monica. It starred two guys, Tod (Martin Milner), and Buz (George Maharias), traveling along the open highway, but the stories and host would basically stand alone with them being the anchor characters.

The comic strip Mary Worth was similar in theme and set-up.

ROUTE SWEET SIXTEEN
Cracked #38, August 1964
a: John Severin

From Channel Fem-9

ROUTE SICKETY SICKS
Drag Cartoons #1, June-July 1963
a: Pete Millar

There was a pop song a few years earlier called “Get Your Kicks on Route 66”

Michael Anthony (Marvin Miller) was assistant to 'The Millionaire', who on that show of the same name, gave someone different a million-dollar check each week.

SCTV did a parody of the show.

QUEEZY

QUINCY, M. E.
1976-1983 NBC

♪His name is Quincy
He opens cadavers
He opens cadavers♫
♫All day long

QUEEZY
MAD #220, January 1980
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Angelo Torres

Quincy was a series that started out as one of the rotating NBC Mystery Movies and became its own series. It was about Dr. Quincy (Jack Klugman), a county coroner for the city of Los Angeles. His assistant was Sam (Robert Ito) and his boss was Dr. Robert Asten (John S. Ragin). The police detective was Lt. Monahan (Garry Wahlkberg). They frequently ate at a restaurant owned by Danny (Val Bosiglio)

1979-1981 was considered tan all-time low for NBC, with almost all their shows lasting a season or less.

QUEENCY
Crazy #60, March 1980
w: Rico Tallar (Paul Laikin)
a: Murad Gumen

Before this, Jack Klugman had been Oscar Madison on The Odd Couple with Tony Randall.

QUACKSY
Sick #125, February 1979
a: Jack Sparling

There was also this SCTV sketch.