Saturday Night Live

Live from Bluewater, it's Saturday Night! That's right, Saturday Night Live, television's longest-running, highest-rated, most-awarded sketch comedy show is the latest subject of COMICS. From the Not Ready For Prime Time Players to the cultural relevance of modern day America, COMICS: SNL takes you on a four decade-long journey through television history.

This is S41E19 of the NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live and honors the music and life of Prince. This shows the appearances of Prince on SNL throughout the years and comedy sketches in relation to Prince, along with previously unseen concert footage at an after party. This aired on 23 April, 2016, two days after Prince's death.

Since its debut in October 1975, Saturday Night Live has always prominently featured musical acts and during its lengthy history, there have been a number of remarkable performances – so many, as a matter of fact, that it's hard to believe that a collection of musical highlights wasn't released until the fall of 1999. Two volumes of musical performances containing 15 tracks apiece, were released simultaneously that year, purportedly to celebrate SNL's 25th anniversary (yes, it actually coincided with their 24th birthday, but jumping the gun is part of the show's history – they celebrated their 20th anniversary on their 19th). Given that so much music has aired on the show, it's inevitable that some favorites are missing – whether it's the Replacements' legendary drunken appearance or Simon & Garfunkel's reunion. Still, most of the featured tracks on Saturday Night Live: 25 Years, Vol. 1 are pretty great. The most notorious of all is Elvis Costello's "Radio Radio," which he performed after being warned by the network not to sing it, but it's not the only highlight here – Paul Simon's "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes," Sting's "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You," Jewel's "Who Will Save Your Soul," Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way," Tom Petty's "Honey Bee," the Grateful Dead's "Casey Jones," Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young," David Bowie's "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)," and Randy Newman's "I Love LA" are all worth the price of admission. It is true that the collection leans a little too heavily on '90s material (which makes sense, since it was released in the '90s), but as the start of a (hopefully) long-running series of compilations, it's very good indeed.

Paul McCartney with his band performs "Maybe I'm Amazed" at Saturday Night Live, 40th Anniversary Special live air. The video also features duo with Paul Simon in a funny acoustic version of "I've Just Seen A Face".