With nearly 30 seasons to prepare for release to Netflix I imagine they went through and cut everything that even resembled copyrighted material.

Compare that with the year they had between almost all the DVD releases of the first five seasons individually (one year two seasons were released, I believe it was Season 3 that came out in the Spring) and you can see why they'd have to perform such a hatchet job. Clearing all the material is obviously ideal but tracking down some 80's one-hit-wonder for rights isn't always feasible either.

The concept of comparing these things with past television airings is fundamentally flawed as the concept of complete season sets on home video was unheard of when the original syndication/rerun packages were prepared just like the concept of unlimited streaming was unheard of back then too.

Season 13-20 should be up today according to Netflix RSS Feed. Will be interesting to see the cuts compared to the ones shown on Comedy Central/E. I'm guessing 21-30 will go live December 15th

Season 21-25 are up now. Seems I'm the only one that's still interested lol

A lot of things to discover in these! Cheri Oteri swearing on the David Schwimmer episode then having to put a dollar into the "swear jar" at the good nights. Chris Farley's last appearance on the show and as a host seems to largely be intact. Previously, the opening and monologue was cut in the syndication versions. Any sketches involving music though seem to be absent. At this point, I'm glad the music guests are cut cause it leaves more room for sketches.

Funny thing about bumping this thread; a couple nights ago my wife and I had a hard time falling asleep so we stayed up streaming old SNLs. God, it was horrible how butchered most of them were! Patrick Stewart was cut down to a scant 35 minutes, even excising "Love Boat: The Next Generation." At least it retained "Erotic Cakes," which was the real highlight of that episode. Anyway, at one point I tweeted, "Now watching: @MCHammer host @nbcsnl on @netflix from 1991. I'm not sure I ever saw this until now."

Yesterday, SNL's official Twitter account replied, "@TravisSMcClain Can't watch this (doo doo doo-doo doo)" It amused me.

Just for "fun" I checked the Kyle MacLachlan episode (Season 16, Episode 1). It was cut down to 30 minutes. I figured it would be the monologue, Twin Peaks and Sprockets. Nope, neither the Twin Peaks sketch nor Sprockets made the cut. Pathetic.

It feels like "next week" will never come.

I personally think NBC should start airing the reruns in full at like 2 or 3 in the morning like they used to. Now it's always poker or some other nonsense.

They put up the Stallone episode without the Orange Julius bit! At least the Rita one was in there.

The most complete and funniest one I've found is the David Alan Grier '97 episode with all the Maya Angelou commercial poetry bits: "Pennzoil is a registered trademark!!! Freedom."

Going to finish combing through these but it really sucks that they couldn't do all the skits.

Ugh, they cut the Goatboy skits, dang it.

They cut Jim Breuer's only worthwhile SNL contribution? In one episode or all of them?

Hulu+ has episodes from every season, I don't know if they have every episode but they have a bunch. I watched Farley hosting in Oct 97 last night, it was cut down to 40 minutes and even some of the sketches had weird cuts where they edited out lines. So stupid.

Unfortunately all of them. Another skit they cut, the Gabriel Byrnes "Cooking with Keith" Richards bit.

If these were DVD's, I'd be uber-pissed.

So basically, if any sketch uses music, talks about music, or features a musician or an impression of a musician and it's gone?

sounds like it.

Strangely enough, all the Weekend Updates where Jimmy Fallon parodies songs are intact (John Mayer, Usher, U2, etc.)

It seems to be an issue of whether the song is the original or it's a cover; the Keith Richards bit opened with Satisfaction and the Goatboy bits started with Relax from Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Hopefully they have these issues corrected if there are any physical dvd releases.

I think I'll never get to see the Pulp Fiction/Welcome Back Kotter skit again.

A friend of mine just got a Blu Ray player that included a free Netflix trial, so he signed up. We streamed some classic Hartman/Carvey/Miller era SNL episodes the other night. Yeah, the hacking of the episodes really sucks and isn't enticing enough to make me sign up for my own account. I was pleasantly surprised, though, that the Matthew Broderick episode included the "nude beach/penis song" sketch. I hadn't seen that since its first broadcast, as it only aired once, I think.

While the cuts suck, SNL on Netflix caused me to sign up for the streaming service at least. I hate that some stuff is missing, but there is just too much good stuff there for so little a month for me to complain about it too much.

I got pretty ticked when I noticed that the Farley Chippendale skit was cut, but then I noticed they actually had it uncut on the Best of Farely so that made it hurt a little less.

Anyway, I am loving this so far. Not only the SNL stuff but everything else. I'm a member for good already.

I'd be happier if NBC would just at least provide an official explanation for the cuts. We're left with speculation about music rights issues, and while that makes sense for a lot of the cuts it can't be the sole reason.

In any event, one thing I really appreciate about Netflix streaming is that I've found indie docs a nice fit for the middle of the night when my guts are aggravated and I can't sleep. I don't really own much in the way of these things, so it's nice to be able to stream one on a whim. A few nights ago, for instance, after checking out some SNL from '92 (three of the four main cast of Batman Returns hosted that year--Keaton, DeVito and Walken), I elected to stream Confessions of a Superhero and I absolutely loved it. I don't know that I would have bothered with it as one of my DVD selections, but I loved being able to stream it.

One other fun thing is being able to stream an SNL marathon built around the theme of your choice. For instance, I did the aforementioned Batman Returns trio (bonus: Jan Hooks made an appearance in the Walken episode, and she had a bit part in Returns). Yeah, they're incomplete, but after you put three cut episodes back-to-back-to-back, it's pretty fulfilling.

I was actually glad the Chippendale sketch was cut, it has been seen so many times elsewhere, so no big loss. There's still a lot of gems to be found. Check out Tina Fey in a 98 cold open...

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9669/tinasnl98.jpg

The rest of the seasons will probably go up December 31st or January 1st.

How long are these supposed to be on Netflix anyway?

EDIT:

Nevermind, on instantwatcher.com it says at least until 2013.

Some more clips I just caught: the Danny Aiello episode(Season 21) was full of great skits like Althea, Mama's Spaghetti Sauce, and the Time-Life collection of best relationship fights, the Locklear(Season 19 end of episode) racist informercial bit, the abbreviated words informercial with Jason Patric(season 19 middle of episode), the Superfans bit with Ackroyd reprising the shady toymaker(Season 20 John Goodman middle of episode), and the Ron Wood/Mike Myers Talkin' with Suel/Kattan bit(Season 22 John Goodman middle of episode).

Lots of funny stuff still to rediscover, even with a lot of the cuts.

When you guys post "Hey I just watched the ____ episode" can you mention what season it was so it's easier to find and see what you watched

No problem whotony, yeah that info would be pretty helpful, lol.