Fans of Saturday Night Live‘s early seasons will soon have a new alternative to the show’s modern era in the form of a familiar (and most unfortunate) Play-Doh doll.
Nearly 50 years after debuting on the first season of Saturday Night Live, Mr. Bill remains one of the most recognizable recurring characters in the show’s history. Introduced as a no-budget home movie sent in by New Orleans native Walter Williams, the character quickly evolved to a fan favorite, spawning waves of merchandise (much of it unlicensed), and more than two dozen SNL shorts over five seasons.
Now, nearly five decades later, Williams is reviving his most famous creation with Mr. Bill’s Saturday Night Matinee, a new weekly variety show set to premiere on YouTube on October 4 at 11:30pm ET. Hosted by Mr. Bill’s from his “cozy apartment in the Hollywood Hills,” the series will feature restored public domain comedy clips (reimagined in “Billevision™”), vintage commercials, surprise guests—and, yes, the Mr. Bill classic SNL shorts that started it all.
“These are the shows that inspired Mr. Bill in the first place—The Three Stooges, Harold Lloyd, The Beverly Hillbillies—restored and reimagined for a new generation,” Williams said in the show’s official announcement. “But don’t worry—there’s still plenty of pain and destruction awaiting our host.”
Although the series is being framed as family-friendly nostalgia for old school SNL fans and their grandkids, its timing and positioning of its release are hard to miss. Saturday Night Matinee will premiere at the exact same moment SNL returns for its 51st season on NBC.
In recent months, Williams has taken to social media to challenge Lorne Michaels’ longstanding disregard of his character, most recently in response to a resurfaced quote published this year in Susan Morrison’s biography Lorne, in which Michaels stated that the Mr. Bill films carried “a certain kind of racial tension.” Williams called the allegation “hurtful and disappointing.”
“If Lorne had been concerned about racial tension,” Williams wrote, “he was the only human who could have stopped them. I made 25 Mr. Bill films over the first 5 years and Lorne seemed quite pleased with the success and kept ordering more.”
He also pointedly noted that neither he nor Mr. Bill were invited to SNL’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
Whether the new YouTube series is a rebuke or simply a revival, Williams says he’s in full creative control—producing and curating each of the show’s 32 episodes himself.
Mr. Bill’s Saturday Night Matinee is set to premiere on Mr. Bill’s YouTube Channel October 4. New episodes will drop weekly Saturday nights at 11:30pm ET.
So excited to see this!
Thanks for the story about my new show, though Lorne didn’t drop Mr. Bill because he was racist. He blackballed me because he tried to steal Mr. Bill and I wouldn’t let him. I challenge him or anyone to watch all 32 episodes and point out one racist moment. I’m pissed my son can Google Mr. Bill, Walter Williams and Lorne Michael and see his dad was fired by his former boss for being a racist. Someone should apologize.
Walter, I apologize. Didn’t mean to imply that you were fired; I can see how the word “dismissal” in the line below might be interpreted that way, so I’ve replaced it in the story with the word “disregard.”
Williams has taken to social media to challenge Lorne Michaels’ longstanding *dismissal* of his character, most recently in response to a resurfaced quote published this year in Susan Morrison’s biography Lorne, in which Michaels stated that the Mr. Bill films carried “a certain kind of racial tension.”
Thanks for your response Jed. I lnow you meant no harm. I wasn’t expecting an apology from you. Since you’ve changed it, maybe you can move it back up so people might see the revision.
Since I’m at it, Mr. Bill and I left SNL along with Lorne and the entire cast and crew at the end of the 5th season in 1980. At that point, Mr. Bill was at the height of his popularity and that show aired Mr. Bill Does Time, one of his 25 popular episodes. I was never let go. Lorne went back to SNL 5 or 6 years later after not doing much of anything else. I’ve done a lot in my career other than Mr. Bill or SNL and will continue until the day I die.