"oddly enough, sometimes musical guests doing double-duty as host worked extremely well"

I always remember the first one who did this being Rick Nelson.  Ironically, I missed most of his episode the first time around (I was out that night, came home late, turned the show on more than halfway thru and wasn't sure who I was watching).  But when I caught it on a rerun, it became my FAVORITE episode of the show-- EVER.

He did something no one had ever done before-- put the music at the START of the show (following a brief monologue), and played 3 songs back-to-back (then a 4th one in the usual spot near the end of the show).

They did a skit that paid tribute to several different old TV shows in one, and I found it amazing that both THE TWILIGHT ZONE and ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS were later revived for real.  SNL seems ot have a long track record of this-- predicting the revivals of old shows long before they happen.  Come to think of it, that also includes THE UNTOUCHABLES.  ("Okay, Paco, I'm gonna hang you out to dry!")

I had to shake my head in disgust when I learned, many years later, that Rick's record label totally screwed over his chances for a career revival by needlessly delaying the release of the single he promoted at the end of the show ("Dream Lover"), destroying any hope of momentum the show might have given him.  Customers who went looking for the record the next day couldn't find it, since it didn't reach stores until several week LATER, by which time, it was too late.

Last Edited By: profh0011 Mar 19 13 7:14 AM. Edited 1 times.