Traditionally, retail home video releases of Saturday Night Live material have consisted of "Best Of" compilations, comprising select performances (typically sketches) of past cast members, and notable guest hosts. Beginning in 1999, DVD releases were distributed by Lionsgate Home Entertainment under license from NBC, predating the network's merger with Universal. Following the establishment of NBCUniversal in 2004, Universal Studios, owners of NBC, Saturday Night Live's broadcast home, ceased the existing arrangement of outside distribution of SNL material. [1] [2] While Lionsgate is no longer able to acquire new SNL-related content, they have retained reissuing rights to their existing SNL content library. [3]
On December 5, 2006, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released on DVD "Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season," comprising complete episodes. [4] Upon the set’s release, some criticism of its authenticity as complete and uncut episodes arose from reviewers and fans. [5] This was due to the existence of original live copies, which in comparison to the "complete" episodes reveal edits and omissions, which are common among the rerun versions of the shows in the set. [5] Following the successful sales of the first season, the next four seasons have been released. No subsequent releases are planned for the near future, due to prohibitive music licensing costs and the rise of streaming video. [6]
DVD Name | Release dates | Additional Information | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||
SNL: The Complete First Season 2, 3 | December 5, 2006 | July 16, 2007 | ||
SNL: The Complete Second Season 2, 3 | December 4, 2007 | |||
SNL: The Complete Third Season 2, 3 | May 13, 2008 | |||
SNL: The Complete Fourth Season 2, 3 | December 2, 2008 | |||
SNL: The Complete Fifth Season 2, 3 | December 1, 2009 |
DVD Name | Release dates | Additional Information | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||
SNL: 25th Anniversary 1, 3 | February 24, 2004 | |||
SNL: 25 Years of Music 1, 3 | August 12, 2003 | |||
SNL: Bad Boys 3, 6 | January 1, 1998 | |||
SNL: The Best of 06/07 2, 4 | March 4, 2008 | |||
SNL: The Best of 09/10 2, 4 | March 13, 2011 | |||
SNL: The Best of Adam Sandler 1, 3 | November 9, 1999 | |||
SNL: The Best of Alec Baldwin 2, 3 | January 24, 2006 | |||
SNL: The Best of Amy Poehler 2, 4 | October 20, 2009 | |||
SNL: The Best of Cheri Oteri 2, 3 | May 23, 2006 | |||
SNL: The Best of Chris Farley 1, 3 | April 25, 2000 | |||
SNL: The Best of Chris Kattan 1, 3 | September 7, 2004 | |||
SNL: The Best of Chris Rock 1, 3 | February 24, 2004 | |||
SNL: The Best of Christopher Walken 1, 3 | September 7, 2004 | |||
SNL: The Best of Commercial Parodies 2, 3 | May 23, 2006 | |||
SNL: The Best of Dan Aykroyd 1, 3 | September 6, 2005 | |||
SNL: The Best of Dana Carvey 1, 3 | February 15, 2000 | |||
SNL: The Best of David Spade 2, 3 | January 24, 2006 | |||
SNL: The Best of Eddie Murphy 1, 3 | February 24, 2004 | |||
SNL: The Best of Gilda Radner 1, 3 | September 6, 2005 | |||
SNL: The Best of Jimmy Fallon 2, 3 | January 25, 2005 | |||
SNL: The Best of John Belushi 1, 3 | September 6, 2005 | |||
SNL: The Best of Jon Lovitz 1, 3 | June 7, 2005 | |||
SNL: The Best of Mike Myers 1, 3 | February 24, 2004 | |||
SNL: The Best of Molly Shannon 1, 3 | August 12, 2003 | |||
SNL: The Best of Phil Hartman 1, 3 | February 24, 2004 | |||
SNL: The Best of Saturday TV Funhouse 2, 3 | October 24, 2006 | |||
SNL: The Best of Steve Martin 1, 3 | April 25, 2000 | |||
SNL: The Best of Tom Hanks 1, 3 | June 7, 2005 | |||
SNL: The Best of Tracy Morgan 1, 3 | September 7, 2004 | |||
SNL: The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 1 1, 3 | August 12, 2003 | |||
SNL: The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 2 1, 3 | September 7, 2004 | |||
SNL: The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 3 4, 5 | August 3, 2010 | |||
SNL: Christmas 1, 3 | October 28, 2003 | |||
SNL: Halloween 1, 3 | October 28, 2003 | |||
SNL in the 80's: Lost and Found 2, 3 | March 4, 2008 | |||
Saturday Night Live - OHH NOOO MR BILLS CLASSICS 3 | January 1, 2000 | |||
SNL - The First 5 Years 1, 3 | September 6, 2005 |
1 Distributed by Lionsgate Home Entertainment
2 Distributed by Universal Studios Home Entertainment
3 Aspect ratio: 4:3 (fullscreen)
4 Aspect ratio: 16:9 (widescreen)
5 Released in Canada only
6 Distributed by Trimark Home Video
Following the creation of Hulu by NBC, among others, in March 2007, NBC owned content, including Saturday Night Live material, was removed from video sharing sites, notably YouTube, to the exclusion of NBC.com and the aforementioned Hulu. [7] A notable exception to this are SNL Digital Shorts, created in conjunction by SNL Studios and The Lonely Island. Additionally, full seasons and specials have been released for sale on paid-content online media portals, including iTunes and Amazon.com. Free, ad-supported streaming of new Saturday Night Live episodes on NBC.com was announced on October 16, 2009. [8]
Due to the region-specific nature of Hulu, the content is not accessible outside of the United States. In mid-2009 Broadway Video Enterprises formed a partnership with Sevenload to distribute Saturday Night Live digital content to online-viewers in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. [9]
Fridays was a late-night live comedy show that aired on ABC on Friday nights from April 11, 1980, to April 23, 1982.
Power Rangers is an entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live-action superhero television series, based on the Japanese tokusatsu franchise Super Sentai. Produced first by Saban Entertainment, second by BVS Entertainment, later by Saban Brands, and today by SCG Power Rangers LLC and its parent company, Hasbro, the Power Rangers television series takes much of its footage from the Super Sentai television series, produced by Toei Company. The first Power Rangers entry, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, debuted on August 28, 1993, and helped launch the Fox Kids programming block of the 1990s, during which it catapulted into popular culture along with a line of action figures and other toys by Bandai. By 2001, the media franchise had generated over $6 billion in toy sales.
The Facts of Life is an American television sitcom created by Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon and a spin-off of Diff'rent Strokes that originally aired on NBC from August 24, 1979, to May 7, 1988, making it one of the longest-running sitcoms of the 1980s. The series focuses on Edna Garrett, as she becomes a housemother at the fictional Eastland School, an all-girls boarding school in Peekskill, New York.
Broadway Video is an American multimedia entertainment studio founded by Lorne Michaels, creator of the sketch comedy TV series Saturday Night Live and producer of other television programs and movies. Broadway Video also held the rights to much of the pre-1974 Rankin-Bass library and Lassie from 1988 to 1996 before they sold the rights to Golden Books Family Entertainment.
Doogie Howser, M.D. is an American medical sitcom that ran for four seasons on ABC from September 19, 1989, to March 24, 1993, totaling 97 episodes. Created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, the show stars Neil Patrick Harris in the title role as a teenage physician who balances the challenge of practicing medicine with the everyday problems of teenage life.
Saturday Night Live is an American late-night live television sketch comedy, political satire, and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and streams on Peacock. Michaels currently serves as the program's showrunner. The show's premiere was hosted by George Carlin on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night. The show's comedy sketches, which often parody contemporary American culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers the opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast, with featured performances by a musical guest. An episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that was usually based on political events and ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", properly beginning the show.
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Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American global mass media and entertainment company. Originally a Canadian company, it was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California. In addition to its flagship Lionsgate Films division, its other divisions include Lionsgate Television and Lionsgate Interactive. It owns a variety of subsidiaries such as Summit Entertainment, Debmar-Mercury, and Starz Inc.
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Charles in Charge is an American sitcom television series that premiered on October 3, 1984, on CBS. The series was a production of Al Burton Productions and Scholastic Productions in association with Universal Television and starred Scott Baio, who had previously starred in Happy Days, in the title role. Willie Aames, who had previously been a cast member on Eight Is Enough, also starred as Charles’ best friend Buddy Lembeck.
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An SNL Digital Short is one in a series of comedic and often musical video shorts created for NBC's Saturday Night Live. The origin of the Digital Short brand is credited to staff writer Adam McKay, who created content for the show in collaboration with SNL hosts, writers, and cast members. The popularity of these segments exploded following the addition of The Lonely Island to the show, and it is to them that credit is given for ushering SNL "into the age of digital online content in a time when it needed to tap into that relevance more than ever." The Lonely Island's digital shorts were originally recorded with consumer grade digital video cameras and edited on personal computers. It is typical for the show's hosts and musical guests to take part in that week's Digital Short, and several shorts have included appearances by celebrities who were not scheduled to appear in any of that episode's live sketches.
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Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a late-night sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels. It premiered on the NBC Television Network on October 11, 1975, under the title NBC's Saturday Night. The show often satirizes contemporary American popular culture and politics. Saturday Night Live features a two-tiered cast: the repertory members, also known as the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players," and newer cast members, known as "Featured Players." Each week, the show features a host, often a well-known celebrity, who delivers an opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast. A musical guest is also invited to perform several sets. Every so often a host or musical guest fills both roles. With the exception of season 7 and several other rare cases, the show begins with a cold open that ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"