As most know, it’s for the best that John McCain and Sarah Palin don’t win this election.
Non-Republicans justify that statement with rhetoric about the need to avoid “four more years,” and they are probably right. However, sometimes people forget to consider the effects of a candidate’s success on the entertainment industry.
Now, it’s absolutely apparent that there are bigger issues to deal with if McCain and Palin make it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and that the entertainment industry’s reaction to these two is fairly insignificant.
But to those of us who want good television, McCain and Palin – mostly the Alaskan governor – cannot win.
And that’s because we cannot have Tina Fey spending all this time perfecting her Palin routine on “Saturday Night Live” for four years.
Fey has been absolutely hilarious in her three appearances as Palin. She’s put the character alongside Amy Poehler’s Hillary Clinton, nailed the mocking of Palin’s recent interview with Katie Couric and shined in the Vice Presidential debate sketch with Jason Sudekis’ Joe Biden in last week’s episode.
There’s no question Fey’s portrayal has made Palin’s selection seem like a gift from the “SNL” gods. It’s hard to imagine that any other of McCain’s possible VP picks such as Tim Pawlenty or Charlie Crist would have resulted in great comedy.
She’s cemented her Palin character as one of the best politician impressions in the show’s history, falling short of only the greats: Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush, Darrell Hammond’s Bill Clinton, Norm McDonald’s Bob Dole and Dana Carvey’s Ross Perot.
Fey’s Palin is powering “Saturday Night Live” into levels of pop culture awareness that it hasn’t enjoyed since Will Ferrell left in 2002. The ratings are through the roof so far this season. It is up 49 percent over the period last season and last week’s episode was the second highest rated since Al Gore hosted six years ago.
But even with all that taken into consideration, Fey can’t play Palin every week. It is just not a good thing.
It may seem like a win all around now, but eventually Fey is going to have to let her old show go and focus on her new, better one: “30 Rock,” which is the funniest program on television and has the major Emmy hardware to back it up.
Fey is the main creative force behind “30 Rock” and she can’t let it suffer because her old boss Lorne Michaels keeps asking her back to sustain the relevancy of “SNL”. People might not realize it, but writing and running through sketches on “SNL” takes up a lot of time, precious time Fey could possibly be spending on “30 Rock”
Although she’s been complete money, Tina Fey can’t continue being Sarah Palin. “Saturday Night Live” should be able to survive without her – albeit with less success – but it’s unclear whether or not “30 Rock” will work with her absence.
As if we needed another reason to oppose the republicans winning in November.
