Surfing Through "Saturday Night Live"

Even with Steve Martin as host and Prince as musical guest, SNL was back to its old mediocre self. The endless cast list is a sure sign of trouble -- how do they even fit all those people on stage at the finale? Martin had a funny bit for the intro -- he strangled Alec Baldwin to death after realizing Baldwin had tied his record of # of times hosting the show. It was all downhill from there. An unfunny Oprah skit with her grilling a guest a la James Frey. (Why didn't they have Oprah grill Bush, the way everyone had fantasized all week?) Another skit was typical: a married couple drowning in debt is offered self-help book called "Don't Buy Anything You Can't Afford." A not-bad start, but that one joke was repeated over and over with no real attempt to build on it or take the skit anywhere unexpected. (And that was the funniest one of the night.) Even Prince seemed desultory, with one new song that pandered to the crowd (his guitar solos sounded like a satire of a rock star; maybe the backup singers writhing like whores didn't help) and another "gospel" number that bored. So reports of SNL's revivification have been greatly exaggerated.