What you can and cannot get away with saying on Saturday Night Live has been an evolving fight with the censors at NBC for more than fifty years. Most cast members have a story about some hilarious line or funny cut to shot that had to be scrapped over concerns about sponsors getting upset. Fortunately, the Not Ready For Primetime Players have figured out some clever schemes to get some otherwise objectionable content through.
During a conversation with current breakout SNL cast member Marcello Hernández on their Fly On The Wall podcast, Dana Carvey and David Spade talked about some of their censorship battles over the years, and not surprisingly, the infamous Il Cantore Restaurant came up. The outrageous sketch from the early 90s stars Kevin Nealon and Kirstie Alley as a couple going out to eat at an Italian restaurant. The staff, played by Carvey and others, lavish attention on Alley and the other women in the restaurant, becoming increasingly more forward with sexual innuendos as it goes on.
