for all the newbies, snl is not a priority show around these parts. in any case,
it rarely shows up on sunday; i've seen it take as long as wednesday or thursday
before it shows up. nothing you can do but sit back and wait. it will probably
be up sometime later tonight.
as for madtv, i don't see how they can have so many "best-of" specials. from
what i've seen of the show, one would be too long for all their best stuff. for
me, it's not even worth watching for the 30 minutes before snl; i watch scrubs
reruns instead.
madtv's come up with a solid hour of classic comedy over the years: the early
stuarts, miss swann, etc. (i can actually think of half a dozen good,
hilarious characters. but, durn it, i can't remember their names!) but it's
kind of followed snl's path here, too. after the first few seasons' casts,
it's been an effort to watch.
one "best of" skit, though, will always be a treasure that belongs in tv's hall
of fame: on nov. 17, 2001 leona campbell (stephanie weir) calls miss cleo
(debra wilson) & asks, "was you workin' on september the 10th?" i literally
laughed till i cried (which wasn't hard to get me to do - i was pretty much
still crying, anyway). and it was one of my first steps out of the fog.
concurrently, i have to give a nod to snl & robert smigel for "the narrator
that ruined christmas," the clay-animation parody of the "rudolph" special;
where the burl ives snowman narrator goes off-script because "none of it
matters after 9/11" and santa has to verbally smack him around & remind
him "it's not about you!" - a very funny commentary on some of the celeb visits
to the wtc site. it aired dec. 15th, and can still be googled.