
Seth MacFarlane brought all his voices to hosting the season premiere of
Saturday Night Live. The
Family Guy creator came off as a genial fellow who gamely enjoyed being in a bunch of mostly unamusing
SNL sketches. MacFarlane’s opening segment was a series of voice performances of some of his best-known characters from
Family Guy, with a few other impersonations (Droopy Dog, Kermit the frog) thrown in, with a bit of the mildly accomplished Sinatra-style crooning that MacFarlane is fond of doing and he’s powerful enough to compel producers and audiences to submit to.
But the biggest attention-getter probably wasn’t the host. This was the night that Jay Pharoah officially took over the impersonation of President Obama from Fred Armisen. It proved a frustrating experience. In the past, we’ve all wanted to see more of Pharoah, who’s a terrific impersonator