TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. As part of "Saturday Night Live's" 50th anniversary celebration this year, tonight NBC will premiere a documentary highlighting the music guests and music comedy sketches that the show has featured over the decades. It's called "Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years Of SNL Music." It was codirected by my guest, Grammy-winning musician and Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Ahmir Questlove Thompson. He's the co-founder, leader and drummer of the hip-hop band the Roots. It's the house band for another late night show, "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon. Before Questlove talks about the movie and how "SNL" has influenced him as a musician and late night band leader, our TV critic David Bianculli is going to review the film, along with a documentary series that's also part of the 50th anniversary celebration. That series is streaming on Peacock.
DAVID BIANCULLI, BYLINE: The two new "Saturday Night Live" documentaries come from filmmakers who bring their own interests and perspectives. NBC's "Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years Of SNL Music" comes from Ahmir Questlove Thompson, who's both a musician and a music historian. The four-part "SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night," now streaming on Peacock, comes from Morgan Neville, who's as interested in the creative process as he is in letting people tell their own stories. Questlove, in his movie-length study, mines the archive of a half-century of musical performances as well as the emergence of hip-hop and other genres into the show and the culture. Some classic performances are run full-length. Others are sampled in cleverly compiled montages and mashups. It's such a solid, well-selected overview that I can think of only one "SNL" music performance I really wish had been included. Paul Simon, backed by Ladysmith Black Mambazo on their thrilling 1986 rendition of "Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes."
But Questlove covers a lot, not only infamous appearances by Elvis Costello, Sinead O'Connor, Ashlee Simpson and Kanye, but even comedy sketches and videos built around music. The infamous "[Expletive] In A Box" Christmas song with Justin Timberlake and "SNL" cast member Andy Samberg is deconstructed, so is another classic "SNL" musical moment featuring guest host Paul Rudd and musical guest Beyonce. Timberlake tells how that got on the air, with Timberlake, Samberg and cast member Bobby Moynihan as her music video backup dancers. Part way through Timberlake's account, we hear the start of the actual "Single Ladies" sketch.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "LADIES & GENTLEMEN... 50 YEARS OF SNL MUSIC")
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE: Andy texted me. And he said, hey, are you in town? I said, yeah, I'm in the city. He said Bobby Moynihan has this great idea for a sketch about you, me and him being Beyonce's background dancers for "Single Ladies" that never made the cut. She's going to be the musical guest this week. I was like, full, like, leotard? And he's like yeah. And I was like, oh, this is too funny. Like, we have to do this. She was very polite about it, but she was very hesitant. And when I say hesitant, I mean like she was not having it.
PAUL RUDD: Beyonce. Oh, my gosh. I'm so psyched to do this new video with you.
BEYONCE: Me, too. But, you know, there's this one thing. I haven't met the other dancers. Are we going to have time to rehearse?
RUDD: Oh, look, don't worry about the other dancers, B Town. I handpicked them myself. These guys are pros.
BEYONCE: These guys?
TIMBERLAKE: I'm like, does she know how funny this is going to be, like, how beloved this whole moment will be? So I said bring me the leotard. So I put the leotard and the heels and the hose on and everything. And I put a robe on, and I walked and I knocked on her door. I walked in, and I threw the robe down, and I put my hands on my hips. And she was like, no you didn't.
BIANCULLI: Morgan Neville's "SNL" documentary series is broken into four episodes, each one looking at a different aspect of the show and its history. The first one looks at the original audition tapes by many of the people who tried out for "SNL" with those same people watching and reacting to their younger selves. Some scream, some cringe, some cry. Some, like Pete Davidson, laugh.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SNL50: BEYOND SATURDAY NIGHT")
PETE DAVIDSON: But I'm not good at sex, you know, because, you know, I wasn't raised in a brothel. I'm 20. Like, I don't - I'm not good at it. I don't understand why my girlfriend gets mad. She's like, that's it? I'm like yeah, like, what did you expect? Like, you know any good guitar players that have been playing guitar for a year? (Laughter).
BIANCULLI: Another episode spends a week observing how an installment of "SNL" is created by following the process from start to finish, mostly from the point of view of the writers. A third episode gets even more laser focused, spending an hour on a single sketch. And it's a brilliant choice, coming from the midway point of the show's 50-year run. It's the sketch recording session featuring guest star Christopher Walken and cast members Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Parnell and others. You may know it better by the name most associated with it, "More Cowbell." It's a sketch Walken and Ferrell elevated after the dress rehearsal by going all out in character. The sketch was set during the recording session for Blue Oyster Cult's 1970s hit "(Don't Fear) The Reaper." Ferrell plays a very loud cowbell, and Walken portrays the track's very enthusiastic music producer. Jimmy Fallon remembers.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SNL50: BEYOND SATURDAY NIGHT")
JIMMY FALLON: Christopher Walken, for air, upped his game. He was almost doing an impersonation of Christopher Walken. (Impersonating Christopher Walken) He was talking like no other human being would talk ever.
CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: All right. Here we go. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," Take 1. Rolling.
WILL FERRELL: All right. One, two, three, four.
(SOUNDBITE OF BLUE OYSTER CULT SONG, "(DON'T FEAR) THE REAPER")
BIANCULLI: Once the sketch began on the live show, Ferrell, who had written it, knew they had connected big time with the studio audience.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SNL50: BEYOND SATURDAY NIGHT")
FERRELL: Are you sure that was sounding OK?
WALKEN: I'll be honest, fellas. It was sounding great, but I could've used a little more cowbell.
(LAUGHTER)
FERRELL: As soon as he delivers that first line - I could use a little more cowbell - and that gets a huge laugh, I'm like, oh, they're in, they're in. Oh, goody, there's more coming.
BIANCULLI: In this new recounting, we do not hear from Christopher Walken himself, which Dana Carvey says is right in character for him. Carvey even slips into character as Walken to make his point.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SNL50: BEYOND SATURDAY NIGHT")
DANA CARVEY: That keeps his cool factor here, yeah, that he's (impersonating Christopher Walken) not going to go down memory lane. Let the work speak for itself.
BIANCULLI: The final episode of Neville's documentary series homes in on one seemingly random but ultimately seminal year, the 1985-86 season when executive producer Lorne Michaels, who had left the show after its first successful five-year cycle with the original cast, was asked back by NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff. "SNL" was in freefall. And the common wisdom was that Lorne never would return to a sinking ship, but he did.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SNL50: BEYOND SATURDAY NIGHT")
LORNE MICHAELS: When Brandon was trying to get me to come back in 1985...
BRANDON TARTIKOFF: Hello. I'm Brandon Tartikoff, president of NBC Entertainment.
(APPLAUSE)
MICHAELS: Someone said, you know, you've already done "Saturday Night Live." Somebody who wants to be you does "Saturday Night Live." And I sought, oh, right. Well, I kind of enjoyed being me.
BIANCULLI: It's one of the few times in either documentary we hear from Michaels. Clearly, he prefers to let the cast and crew and the shows speak for themselves, and they do. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, among others, tell some really great stories. There may not be enough screen time given to some "SNL" veterans and their stories - from Bill Murray to Kate McKinnon and Sarah Sherman - but there are an awful lot of laughs and memories and music and insights, and just the right amount of cowbell.
GROSS: David Bianculli is professor of television studies at Rowan University in New Jersey. The Morgan Neville documentary series "SNL50" is streaming on Peacock. The documentary "Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years Of SNL Music" will be broadcast tonight on NBC and will start streaming on Peacock tomorrow. This is FRESH AIR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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