George Bailey's Revenge

Friday A/V Club: The lost ending to It's a Wonderful Life

Seventy years ago this week, Frank Capra's Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life first appeared in theaters. Thirty years ago this week, Saturday Night Live broadcast what it claimed was the film's lost original ending:

Capra was well attuned to both the sunny and the angry sides of populism, but whichever SNL scribe wrote that sketch married the two with much more brutal efficiency.

(For past editions of the Friday A/V Club, go here.)

Comments

[Austrian Anarchy]

Shatner!

[Austrian Anarchy]

Nice casting of Joe Biden as old man Potter.

[Groovus Maximus]

Seeing how he was supposed to be wheelchair bound, and then suddenly stood up, makes the irony even more palpable.

[Austrian Anarchy]

Back when SNL was funny and predicted the future too.

[UnCivilServant]

SNL was never funny – it’s just that in the time since all of the missteps and unfunny moments have been dropped. It’s the old “good old days” phenomenon with any form of entertainment. The dreck gets left by the wayside and forgotten so that the perspective and memory of what once was is skewed towards that people chose to keep.

[Lee Genes]

Get those humbugs in before the holiday!

[Austrian Anarchy]

I saw it in the good old days when it was new and it was funny.

[VG Zaytsev]

It had some funny seasons along the way, but overall it’s always sucked.

[straffinrun]

That’s NOT the ticket.

[Rich]

Mein F?hrer!

[Stormy Dragon]

That’s not Joe Biden, it’s Morgan Fairchild’s husband!

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Phil Hartman!!!!

[Don Escaped Texas]

Where are we today?

[EDG reppin LBC]

Where I Am Today
https://youtu.be/9HOkXnJ16Qc

[Austrian Anarchy]

I am patiently waiting for a Reason scribe to discover that the Berlin truck terrorist suspect was found in Italy and shot dead for looking suspicious. This should be interesting.

[Sour Kraut]

Per the Daily Mail, the terrorist shot the cop when asked for his papers, and the cop’s rookie partner then shot and killed him.

And if you can’t trust the DM, what can you trust.

[Groovus Maximus]

Well, The Daily FAIL isn’t great on the trust-o-metre, either, but I’ll take Euro-landian smut rags over just about any US of A, FAKE! Nooze outlets and publications.

[Lee Genes]

I actually remember this.

The Shat is where it’s at.

[Swiss Servator]

Seeing the Shat intro that made it even better!

[Groovus Maximus]

Indeed. However, I can only view The Shat as only three roles and with their respective verbal tics:

1) Capt. ….James……T, KIrk. Of…..the Starship….Enterprise.

2) It’s the Mad Cow *points to hear*… It’s why I’m not wearing any pants….DENNY CRANE!

3) THERE’S A MAN OUT THERE!!!!!!!!

Honorable mentions: The Devil’s Rain, Kingdom of the Spiders

[Lee Genes]

No Hooker? HOW COULD YOU NOT INCLUDE HOOKER?

[Groovus Maximus]

Adrian Zmed’s acting destroyed my childhood psyche.

[Lee Genes]

I was just watching Locklear.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

What, what, what?? No Better Late Than Never?

[Lee Genes]

This is actually my favorite cast from SNL; Hooks, Carvey, Hartman, Miller and Lovitz. I always thought the writing was much better during this period as well as the performances.

[Robert]

Was that when Andy Breckman was writing it?

[Mike Laursen]

You must be under 40 or something. Greatest cast is not the one with John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Gilda Radner, and Bill Murray?

[Private Chipperbot]

Phil Hartman was a fucking national treasure.

[Lee Genes]

+1 Anal Retentive Chef

[Pompeius the Quant Retard]

+1 Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer

[Brian Saady]

…but there is one thing that I do know…

[Marshall Gill]

Those were good, but don’t forget Phil as Bill Clinton, taking a break from jogging to stop in at McDonalds!

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-ni…..0361?snl=1

[Groovus Maximus]

Sorry Marshall, but this one tops all….

[Chipper Morning Wood]

+1 Vicki

[Swiss Servator]

Amen!

[Suicidy]

+10,000,000 Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz, Attorney at Law.

[Swiss Servator]

I will just leave this SugarFree bait …right here…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..ffice.html

[Austrian Anarchy]

That Huma sure is a cutie in any setting.

[Groovus Maximus]

Only with a shovel. And a cast iron setar.

That said, with material like this, the Saccharin Man sweetened dittie just writes itself…

Abedin and pervert estranged husband Anthony Weiner are understood to still be sharing an apartment despite him being probed by FBI for underage sexts

Good on them for calling out what reprobate he is…. You’d never see NYT or WaPo refer to Carlos Danger as a, “Pervert.”

[Rich]

“Prevert”, then?

[Pompeius the Quant Retard]

Say what you will about Hilldawg, but the woman can sure wear window drapery well.

[Austrian Anarchy]

Always reminds me of Carol Burnett’s Gone With the Wind costume, without the care and style.

[Shirley Knott]

Or sense of humor or grace or self awareness. Or class or dignity.

[Austrian Anarchy]

You don’t have to stop there.

[Jerryskids]

You can’t discuss traditional Christmas stories without mentioning this.

[Kurmudgeonly Kristen]

One of my favorite SNL sketches!

[VG Zaytsev]

That should be Uncle Billy’s revenge.

[I can't even]

The link just goes to an NBC site with an endless loop of ads.

[Pompeius the Quant Retard]

I guess you can’t even.

[Robert]

Ever see the (IMO best) sequel to A Christmas Carol: TV’s God Bless Us, Every One?

[ReadyKilowatt]

There was a much better parody of IAWL they did after the S&L bailout. We see a congressional investigation into the failure. George Bailey appears before the committee. One of the congressmen asked him what happened to all the money. George, in recreating the similar scene at the building and loan, explains to the congressmen that “the money’s not here. It’s in your yacht, and your vacation home, and your reelection fund.”

[paris1]

What a waste of time!

[Mongo]

Sorry – I have never seen It’s A Wonderful Life.