Tom Hanks hosts made-from-home SNL episode

(Image credit: Screenshot/NBC)

last updated 13 April 2020

NBC's Saturday Night Live returned to the airwaves Saturday night after a long absence due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The show's cast and several celebrity guests put together a made-from-home episode, in which everyone joined in via a Zoom video call from their respective quarantines. Tom Hanks, who has been recovering from the virus, delivered the opening monologue, joking that ever since he was diagnosed, he's been "more like America's dad than ever before" because "no one wants to be around me very long and I make people uncomfortable."

Later on, Larry David reprised his role as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Alec Baldwin phoned in during the "Weekend Update" segment as President Trump. The show also paid tribute to Hal Wilner, SNL's longtime music coordinator, who died this week from COVID-19 complications, with old cast members sharing some of their memories. Cast member Michael Che remembered his grandmother who also died earlier in the week from the virus. Read more at The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.