LATE BREAKING "SNL" NEWS

'SNL' Kills Cartoon Spoof

By Eric Mink

Alert viewers will notice something missing from this weekend's "Saturday Night Live," a repeat of a March broadcast hosted by actress Julianne Moore: the "TV Funhouse" animated segment that aired in the original show.

The slyly lighthearted piece - titled "Conspiracy Theory Rock" and produced in the style of PBS' "Schoolhouse Rock" kids' show - actually was a sophisticated satire of the increasing concentration of media ownership in a small number of huge multi-national corporations. It included references to Disney/ABC, CBS and NBC and its parent company, General Electric.

"SNL" executive producer Lorne Michaels said he decided to pull the segment because "I didn't think it worked comedically."

Michaels said he was not concerned at all about the references to NBC and General Electric, or to a passing dig at NBC West Coast executive Don Ohlmeyer for firing former "SNL" cast member Norm MacDonald.

"The test was putting it on live," Michaels said. "If we hadn't aired it originally, we would have been accused of bowing to corporate pressure and censorship and all that. I wanted to support [writer/producer] Robert [Smigel] in what he wanted to do creatively, so I put it on the air."

Michaels said that editing elements out of shows before they're rerun isn't common but is certainly not unprecedented. He also said that he never received any comments from senior NBC or G.E. executives about the animated segment.

[Editor's Note: It's unlikely Lorne never "received any comments from senior NBC or G.E. executives about the animated segment." I'm willing to bet someone like that pin-head Ohlmeyer is really responsible for this.]

Source: New York Daily News

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