SNL 50 unveils celebrity-filled cast list — but one missing star causes uproar
NBC 's long-running late-night sketch show will celebrate the impressive milestone on February 16 with a three-hour special beginning at 8 p.m. EST.
On Monday, the series released a list of former cast members who will once again take the famed 30 Rock stage — with one surprising omission.
In the clip, a car drives along the streets of New York City, passing by massive blue post-it notes bearing the names of the comedy legends who will be returning for the noteworthy occasion.
The cast includes a mix of original cast members such as Laraine Newman, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin and Garrett Morris to more recent alumni Jimmy Fallon, Amy Poehler, Eddie Murphy, Fred Armisen, Molly Shannon, Kristen Wiig, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Maya Rudolph, Pete Davison, Tracy Morgan, Tina Fey, Will Forte, Kate McKinnon, Andy Sandberg, Seth Meyers, Kenan Thompson, Jason Sudeikis and Chris Rock.
The special will also feature celebrities who have previously graced the stage as guest hosts: Adam Driver, Ayo Edebiri, Bad Bunny, Dave Chappelle, John Mulaney, Kim Kardashian, Martin Short, Miley Cyrus, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Pedro Pascal, Peyton Manning, Quinta Brunson, Robert De Niro, Sabrina Carpenter, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks and Woody Harrelson.
While many X/Twitter users reacted joyously to the list of returning stars, others couldn't help but notice a major name was missing from the roster.
'Where is Bill Hader? i want a stefon comeback,' one commented.
'Show us Bill Hader,' a second demanded, while a third added: 'i'm going to crash out if they don't announce bill hader soon.'
'GIVE ME BILL HADER OR GIVE ME DEATH,' another begged.
In the lead-up to the anniversary episode, on Friday, February 14, Peacock will livestream a segment titled SNL50: The Homecoming Concert. Presented by late-night host Fallon, the music special will see performances from Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Bad Bunny, Post Malone and more.
NBC has additionally released a four-part docuseries named SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night Live, which spotlights the audition process, writing, infamous sketches, and the pivotal 11th season.
Last month, the network also aired a documentary special from Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson and Oz Rodriguez called Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music.
SNL first premiered on October 11, 1975, and has aired nearly 1,000 episodes to date, making it one of America's longest-running broadcast network television shows ever.
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11 hours ago
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Graeme Le Saux: Chelsea had no duty of care – it was banter in the worst way
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'Chelsea was all about banter in the worst possible way' Le Saux is the last ex-pro likely to chastise the new generation. We wonder what life would have been like for him had social media existed in the 1980s and 1990s. A talented teenager from Jersey, he encountered a hostile group of senior players at Chelsea. There was so little thought given to young players' welfare that Le Saux was put in a rented room in Burnt Oak, north London, which required a commute to training of two trains and two buses. Le Saux looks back at it now with amused incredulity. There is no bitterness at being presented with a choice between conforming or fighting, and he is proud he chose the latter. When he was 13, his mother Daphne died, and the news had come out of nowhere for Le Saux, playing in a tournament in France when she passed away. He recalls being stupefied with grief when his father told him. Daphne had previously recovered from breast cancer, and Le Saux's parents had kept from him the news that she was now suffering again. 'I can comfortably say that the environment I went into at Chelsea was incredibly tough and very debilitating in many ways,' he says. 'If I hadn't been through what I went through as a youngster and my mum dying I may not have been able to survive. I always had that sporting anger and I was very competitive. That was in me. Stepping into Harlington [Chelsea's then training ground] there was no duty of care. It was all about banter in the worst possible way. They talked about 'resilience' which was an excuse to abuse people. They said: 'Oh, we are toughening you up.' 'To an extent, football was a hostile environment. The hooliganism, the abuse that was coming from the terraces. It was much more visceral back then. You could understand the logic and people didn't challenge it. I fought it and, luckily for me, I came through the other side but at a cost. I definitely played with fear when I was young. I found it much harder to really enjoy the game.' Fowler incident led to homophobic abuse He sensed some of his team-mates felt the same way but felt they had no option but to conform. One of them, Andy Townsend, once picked up the copy of The Guardian that Le Saux was reading and joked that 'there was no sport in it', prefacing more derision. 'I knew Andy was bright and clever,' Le Saux says, 'and was a very important person in the dressing room. I suppose I felt more disappointed because he was better than that, and he has proven that wasn't him then, but it was who he was in the dressing room.' Townsend's insight and easy-going style has made him a successful pundit and the two bump into each other occasionally. There are no issues and none with Robbie Fowler any more. It was his infamous goading of Le Saux on the pitch in 1999 that contributed to the intense homophobic abuse. 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His skill set of pace and technique allied with a distance runner's stamina would have been prized in the hard-pressing game of the current era. 'The nature of football now is to learn and develop,' he says. 'Overall, the culture of the game would have been better for me. It would have made me a better player.' He recalls that he was never properly coached. Indeed it was the detail that the late great Terry Venables went into when first Le Saux made the England squad that astonished him. At last, here was a manager who told him things that improved his game. He missed Euro 96 with injury but Venables, as with many players of Le Saux's era, made a huge impression. 'I'm proud I maintained who I was' His varied post-playing career has led him to establish Machine Football with Chris Perry, a tech entrepreneur who has a long experience of building tech companies. Machine Football uses AI to develop a bespoke analysis for the datasets of 2,000 teams' performances across the world. Among its many functions is the categorisation of players and clubs according to style and approach and ensuring the fit of one to the other is right. It is the new frontier of football and Le Saux is passionate about the benefits it will bring to clubs and also to young players, who can be developed to greater effect at loan clubs that better suit their style. Many of the game's mysteries are being broken down by the leaps forward in data analysis, but with Le Saux one gets a whole life perspective too. He was subjected to the kind of abuse that few have experienced and survived on his own terms, with a Premier League winner's medal at Blackburn Rovers, 36 England caps, and a balanced view on the game. Graeme Le Saux's lovely Brazil goal. To get you through Sunday night. — MUNDIAL (@MundialMag) December 3, 2017 'I am proud that I maintained who I was throughout,' Le Saux says. 'I had built up enough identity growing up that I managed to have that resilience to stand up for who I was. [Back in the 1980s] I said: 'I am not going to read The Sun like everyone else and you can carry on taking the p--- out of me for that.' I wasn't trying to build an image. Being true to myself was fundamental and I was able to keep my performances up for long enough to break through.' It would be wrong to say that it was all struggle, and there are many happy memories – especially from his second spell at Chelsea where he returned in 1997. Le Saux was man of the match in his final game for the club in May 2003, that critical defeat of Liverpool. It secured Champions League qualification, saved the club from financial oblivion and possibly even persuaded Roman Abramovich to buy Chelsea that summer. His memories are of the ramshackle Harlington facility of that Chelsea era and team-mates who could have a laugh without having to destroy one another. 'It was so bad [at Harlington] that we once got robbed while we were training. 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Daily Mail
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Trump calls for major TV network to have license revoked for being 'pawn' for Democratic Party
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Metro
a day ago
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Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro's TV Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we'll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you. In the follow-up film, a terrible stroke of bad luck puts golf's one-time bad boy back on the back foot and in desperate need of a comeback – which is offered to him by Maxi Energy Drink CEO Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie), who is sponsoring a new golfing league of which he wants Happy to be the star. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 'I hate to do this… but this was 0/10 stars. Of If I could've given 0, I would have. It was cameo central and cheap, no effort jokes. Don't meet your heroes,' wrote Sean M in his reaction on the review aggregator site. Stephen M agreed, calling it 'pointless' and 'awful', although it does currently hold a fresh 74% audience rating at the time of publication. 'Sandler is rinsing that Netflix money and producing tripe. No funny moments at all. Happy Gilmore was great, but this one is the worst movie I've watched,' he complained. 'The movie left a sour taste in my mouth [and] was a terrible waste of time,' added Austin C while Rog S moaned: 'This movie was a flaming pile of garbage.' Another fan echoed these thoughts, branding Happy Gilmore 2 'by far the worst Adam Sandler movie ever produced', despite calling the star 'one of my all-time faves'. 'I'm shocked that so many personalities read this script and attached their names to the film. This ruined my Friday night,' they added. Happy Gilmore 2 does boast an impressive cast, welcoming back the likes of Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald, original director Dennis Dugan and Ben Stiller in his previous role as Hal from both Happy Gilmore and Hubie Halloween. The movie also features pro-golfer John Daly as a fictionalised version of himself, and multiple members of Sandler's immediate family, including daughter Sunny, alongside Safdie, Bad Bunny and a swathe of cameos from the likes of Haley Joel Osment, Steve Buscemi, Post Malone, Kid Cudi, Eminem, Travis Kelce, Rob Schneider and Oliver Hudson – and a whole host of professional golf stars as themselves. Other viewers had more fun with the film though and urged people not to see it as high art, but purely entertainment. 'Is this going to win Oscars? No more than the first did… It was a ride of fan service with familiar faves and call backs in nearly every scene, and it works for what it is,' insisted Marcus J, while Bailey L added: 'It is just as it intended: Stupid, yet funny as hell. The cameos alone make this movie perfect. It's just fun to watch if you give in.' 'To see Adam come back and make a movie filled with cameo appearances and pay homage to those who passed away almost brings a tear to my eye. This movie is great had me laughing the entire time and it filled me with a sense of nostalgia I haven't felt in a while,' shared Johnny G. Original Happy Gilmore cast members who died in the intervening years included Carl Weathers, who played Happy's mentor, Frances Bay, who was Grandma Gilmore, Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty. Meanwhile Liana O described it as the 'best comedy I've seen in years' while Syah Izani K commented: 'I laughed from the beginning to the end of the movie.' 'This is just as good as the first one,' enthused Joshua C in his reaction. 'It brought back the golden age of comedy movies. I haven't even finished it, just got to Stephen Smith in it and couldn't even wait to write a review.' More Trending Which could explain the film's positive rating so far, alongside Sandler's passionate fans. Happy Gilmore 2 has received mixed to negative reactions from critics, with Empire saying it 'never ascends higher than 'hit-and-miss'' but has 'sheer goofy, golf-y geniality' in a three-star review. But The Daily Beast called it potentially 'the worst sequel of all time' and observed: 'Arguably the least inspired film in the actor's canon, if not all of movie history.' Happy Gilmore 2 is streaming exclusively on Netflix now. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: 'I lost both eyes and my guide dog in one year – then stand-up comedy saved me' MORE: 'That cliffhanger was evil!' 7 sensational shows fans vow were cancelled too early MORE: Adolescence star Ashley Walters was 'basically banned from US due to criminal record'
