Saturday Night Live: Bobby Moynihan talks craziness of final year

Donald Trump. Sean Spicer. Hillary Clinton. These were just three key political figures on Saturday Night Live that got plenty of attention. Even though the show had one of its best years in a really long time, it also had a lot more scrutiny and pressure. When you’re working in a news cycle that is so frenetic, it can lead to an exhausting experience of making new episodes up against the wire.

So what was it like trying to stay afloat in this environment? This is something that the recently-departed series star Bobby Moynihan addressed (per Entertainment Weekly) while promoting his new comedy Me, Myself & I during the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour this week:

“I felt like I was on one show for eight years and another show for one year … It was a completely different machine last year. … There were times where they were rewriting cold opens or brand new cold opens on Saturday morning. We’d come in, and [Donald Trump] had done something the night before or that, you know, it was a whole new ballgame. But I’m so thankful that I was there for that year.”

Obviously Alec Baldwin as Trump was one of the biggest reasons for the show’s success, but the writers and the rest of the cast did just as good of a job when it comes to coming up with interesting, timely sketches. Moynihan was great at being quick on his feet, so we do like to picture him chiming in with all sorts of ideas throughout the year — he does also do a mean Chris Christie impression to go along with.

Before Trump, we imagine that SNL was a little more structured. After all, there weren’t headlines breaking at every odd moment about Russia and all sorts of other Trump-related matters.

Will Moynihan return someday?

We certainly hope so, mostly because of the fact that he was an excellent jack-of-all-trades on the show. Even when he wasn’t at the forefront of a sketch, he could come in and with a line or a brilliant bit of physical comedy shine. He would make everyone else around him better, and bringing him back would be great just from the vantage point of turning the show into even more of a family environment. He wouldn’t command the spotlight, and as a result of that, the show could end up feeling more complete as a result of it.

Want to get some other news on Saturday Night Live?

Then be sure to head over to the link here right now! New episodes of the show are coming up this fall, but there will also be Weekend Update installments coming throughout this month. Consider that something very much worth looking forward to.

Are you planning to watch Moynihan’s new show, and do you miss him on SNL already? Be sure to share some more of your thoughts on that subject in the comments! (Photo: NBC.)