Amy Poehler To Host Season's First 'SNL'

(AP)  NBC says "Saturday Night Live" will launch its 36th season on Sept. 25 with host Amy Poehler and musical guest Katy Perry.

Poehler is a former "SNL" cast member who will return to make her hosting debut. Perry's No. 1 smash "California Gurls" has become the song of the summer.

NBC says "SNL" will welcome four new cast members this season. They include Vanessa Bayer, Paul Brittain, Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah.

Cast member Will Forte recently left the show after eight seasons and Jenny Slate left after one season.

[dwdiamond]

With all the hype and hooey generated from a recent SNL episode where the host was selected as a result of public support, regardless of the personality involved, wouldn?t the buzz have been built more based on a feeling that viewers had made their voices heard?

Even if the writers had tried to screw it up, which at times can be hard to tell the difference, wasn?t this pretty much a can?t miss scenario? While factors in the host selection process can lead to endless speculation, wouldn?t the more divergent path taken to get there tend to thicken the intrigue? Could this be the start of a trend, expanding the interactive so that people could have more of a say, or will it be back to business as usual?

Years ago I was part of something along the same lines, runner-up in the Anyone Can Host contest. Following up on this more recently, I got back in touch with Lorne Michaels through a series of letters. As the process evolved, a few were addressed to certain individuals inquiring as to whether they would consider being host.
Here are links, in reverse chronological order, to those letters:

Andy Rooney Tiger Woods Susan Boyle Woody Allen Howard Stern
Clint Eastwood Mel Brooks Buck Henry David Bowie Nicholas Sarkozy

(Since the links won't transfer, please go to: http://dwdiamond.com/L2L.html )

With possibly little to gain by following up on this, it may be awhile before any of them ever do, yet isn?t that just the point? How much would it raise the bar if they did? Is SNL more about taking chances or playing it safe? Easy enough to ask such a question from the outside, perhaps the only ones who could find a credible response are too busy to ponder such things.

Whoever the host might be, it?s just one show, one week, temporary impact. But what if a similar campaign were to add someone new to the writing staff? How much fun could that be? Not just anyone, a raving lunatic. Maybe not fresh out of the nut house, but somebody crazy enough to imagine there could be a chance in hell it would ever happen. Has the world gone crazy? Is there enough craziness out there to make a difference? Am I the only crazy one?

So if you ever thought SNL was becoming more of a lullaby than wake up call, all it would take is a little follow up to start tipping the scales away from complacency, towards chaos...

Better crazy than lazy,



DWLewis
http:www.dwdiamond.com/