SNL REWIND: 2015-1975
VH1 Classic, 7:00 p.m. ET
Last year, the little-viewed, seldom-visited FXX network got millions of viewers to sample it for the first time by scheduling an enticing – in fact, a positively brilliant – programming gimmick. It presented every episode of The Simpsons in a massive mega-marathon that covered 25 years of TV history and included many hundreds of animated half-hour shows. What could be bigger? Potentially, this: Beginning tonight at 7 p.m. ET, VH1 Classic – another cable network sorely in need of first-time visitors – presents, in reverse seasonal chronological order, every episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, beginning with last season’s installment marking the return of former cast member Tina Fey. Even though most shows are condensed to an edited one-hour format, that’s still so much TV – 40 years – that it leaves The Simpsons mega-marathon in the dust. It’ll take until Feb. 15 to show them all, and the final tally looks like this: 433 hours of SNL episodes from Seasons 1 through 39, and, in addition (just to sweeten the pot), occasional theme blocks of shows – the ones hosted by Justin Timberlake, for example. And, every night, a different movie starring a Saturday Night Live cast member – though, to be honest, there are many more misses there than hits.