National Lampoon's "Radio Dinner" (1972)

Here's an early album from National Lampoon: RADIO DINNER.

The cast and crew of National Lampoon was an amazing pool of talent in the early 1970s. When Lorne Michaels was building the show that would become Saturday Night Live, Lampoon was one of his two favored groups from which to poach (Second City was the other.) Chevy Chase, John Belushi and Gilda Radner were part of National Lampoon before SNL.

Appearing on this album are future SNL alumni Christopher Guest and Michael O'Donoghue (who, along with Michaels and Chevy Chase was one of the three real masterminds of SNL) and Tony Hendra (of Spitting Image and This is Spinal Tap.)

This is an album rip, complete with pops and occasional scratches.

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NBC's Saturday Night

Little known fact: Back when Saturday Night Live debuted in 1975 there was already a show on CBS calling itself Saturday Night Live. For the first few years SNL was referred to as "NBC's Saturday Night" but later assumed the name when its rival was canceled.

Here is a relic from the days before home video: an album of audio highlights from that legendary first season. In addition to the original cast are bits from hosts Lily Tomlin, Peter Boyle and Richard Pryor.
LP DOWNLOAD LINK

Inside the RAR file are two MP3 tracks ripped directly from the original vinyl release. The selections here were intended to mirror the early format of the show. I don't think this was ever re-released on compact disc, and all of these sketches are available on the DVD set of season one.

Here's another item from those early years of SNL: Marvel Team-Up #74, which teams Spider-Man with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players. This was produced after Chevy Chase had left the show and includes Bill Murray. Warning: it's corny as hell. What else do you expect, though, when Stan Lee is "hosting" SNL in the story?

MARVEL TEAM-UP DOWNLOAD LINK


(Note: this is a .cbr file. There are a few free programs your can download that "read" this files. HERE is a good place to start.)

The Coneheads: Animated

It took Saturday Night Live a long, lone time to become as refined as it has today. While it's a caricature of its former self, there was a time when it's raggedy, drug-addled humor was the best thing on American television.
Once the original cast found mainstream acceptance, though, they gradually lost their edge (and interest in writing) and became ... well, hacks. I hate to admit it because that original cast is like The Beatles to me (don't be surprised if you get a lengthy tirade from me one day about how Garrett Morris was a wasted talent.) But when they sold out, they sold out cheap.
I'm not sure where the following cartoon falls in this spectrum between "Nick the Lounge Singer" and"Vegas Vacation." It's a little odd to see characters that were birthed in a cloud of marijuana smoke being given the "holiday special" treatment. But, here it is in three parts: The Coneheads animated special.