I’ve been enjoying a YouTube show about the history of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.
It seems to be made by two 2 very knowledgeable SNL superfans. There doesn’t seem to be ANYTHING these don’t know about their favorite show.

Everything You NEED to Know About SNL 

We’ve all met the type. There isn’t much superfans of something can’t tell you from memory about shows like STAR TREK or whatever else…

Its interesting and engaging and VERY well put together.

SO well put together that it has sparked a benign low level conspiracy theory in my head.

The show is so well produced, has high quality 4K footage from SNL’s earliest days. At first I thought that they were such devoted fans that they had every episode on VHS or DVD and that they “ripped” the source material and edited into their show.
And that may be the truth. BUT, they seem to have footage from episodes ( that I don’t think) was ever released on home video. And you can’t “rip” material from a professional streaming service, can you? I can’t think of how somebody could “rip” materal off of something like PEACOCK. But where there’s a will there might be a way…
And if that was the case, wouldn’t PEACOCK send them a cease and desist?

Using copyrighted material on YouTube is a confusing, slippery slope. If I owned the rights to SNL’s reruns and found out somebody had made an elaborate love letter to my property, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. But that’s me, we’ve all heard of copyright attorneys coming after content creators with a hammer. Maybe because they HAVE to? If they let something slip past, it weakens their claim to ownership? (“Why are you coming after ME when you didn’t go after them??”).

Every episode of this YouTube show ends with saying “SNL’s reruns are viewable on Peacock.”

I didn’t know that. I have PEACOCK and didn.t know they were streaming the earliest SNL episodes. So I clicked on Peacock and started perusing the crude ( in every sense of the word) early episodes. Some of it was better than I remember, some it has not aged well.

I spend more time on YouTube these days than regular TV or even streaming. I assume a lot of us do. I wouldn’t have known to click on PEACOCK to see SNL re-runs if not for this YouTube show made by these superfans.

BUT! a lightbulb went off over my head!

Have I been tricked? Was that YouTube show made by Superfans a ruse? A hidden commercial made BY Peacock itself???

How else would those guys get such extremely high quality footage from episodes that ( I don’t think) were ever released on home video?

The camera and sound quality are both top notch. As good as anything on regular professional TV- let alone YouTube. Their opening and closing graphics were also of professional caliber. Not that some YouTubers don’t put their heart and soul into making pro grade content, many do. But this is a cut above.

Does anyone know if “Everything You NEED to Know About SNL” is being produced by PEACOCK itself or if it really is made by fans who happen to be damn good at what they do?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRqyVjTQ_fE

“An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live” : Author interview (2003)