[Ads-l] (not) ready for prime time

[Rich Lowenthal]

"The Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players" refers to the cast of NBC's show 
"Saturday Night," which airs at 11:30 Saturday night and is not a 
prime-time television show.  The confusion comes from the fact that ABC 
had a show called "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell," which aired 
briefly beginning in 1975 (the same year the NBC show began). The NBC 
show did not use the "Saturday Night Live" name until after the ABC 
version had been canceled.

The ABC show featured Bill Murray and others, who were dubbed the "Prime 
Time Players." The NBC show used the "Not-Ready..." name in response.


------ Original Message ------
>From "ADSGarson O'Toole" 
<00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
To ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Date 7/4/2025 14:57:31
Subject Re: (not) ready for prime time

>OED has an entry for the U.S. colloquial phrase: not ready for prime time.
>As Jesse states, the entry mentions a 1975 date for The Not Ready For
>Prime Time Players comedy troupe who performed on Saturday Night Live.
>
>Saturday Night Live was a prime-time TV show; hence, this use of "Not
>Ready For Prime Time" was arguably literal and not figurative although
>it was intended to be comical.
>
>Here is a literal use of the phrase "not ready for prime-time
>television" in 1974.
>
>Date: 1974
>Book Title: Like it is
>Author: Howard Cosell
>Publisher: Playboy Press, Chicago, Illinois
>Quote Page 19
>Database: Internet Archive
>
>[Begin excerpt]
>When he left, Roone and I agreed that visually, Butkus, with his
>battle-scarred appearance and his gargantuan body, would bring a
>special flavor to the show, but that it would stop there. Verbally, we
>agreed, he was not ready for prime-time television.
>[End excerpt]
>
>Here is a literal negative use of "ready for prime time" in October
>1974. It fits the OED sense of "not quite having the qualities to be a
>success" because the audience is too small.
>
>Date: October 10, 1974
>Periodical: Rolling Stone
>Article: Rock on TV: The More Things Change
>Author: Ben Fong-Torres
>Publisher: Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California
>Quote Page 21 and 22
>Database: Internet Archive
>
>[Begin excerpt]
>Said Sugarman, who's done prime-time TV (including the 1971 and 1972
>Grammy Awards shows), "I don't believe rock is ready for prime time.
>Fourteen million viewers are needed to keep a show. And young people
>are not available in those numbers.
>[End excerpt]
>
>Garson
>
>On Thu, Jul 3, 2025 at 12:47 PM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
>>
>>  Sorry, I should have actually looked at the OED entry, which acknowledges this in the etymology at sense level.
>>
>>  Jesse Sheidlower
>>
>>  On Thu, Jul 03, 2025 at 12:44:59PM -0400, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>>  > The first episode of Saturday Night Live, on 11 October 1975, credited the cast onscreen as "The Not for Ready Prime-Time Players!".
>>  >
>>  > It doesn't look like there's a (free) clip of this online, but there's a full transcript here:
>>  >
>>  > https://snl.fandom.com/wiki/October_11,_1975/Transcript
>>  >
>>  > Jesse Sheidlower
>>  >
>>  > On Thu, Jul 03, 2025 at 12:32:17PM -0400, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>  > > OED: 1977
>>  > >
>>  > > 1976 _Los Angeles Herald-Examiner_ (Apr. 24) A-3 [GenealogyBank]: READY FOR
>>  > > PRIME TIME Super Marathoners...warm up...prior to cross-country run.
>>  > >
>>  > > 1976 _Columbus [O.] Dispatch_ (Sept. 19) D-9 [GenealogyBank]: NOT READY FOR
>>  > > PRIME TIME...One citizen in the audience...urged the council to ask for a
>>  > > portable color television camera for a community access channel. But
>>  > > Council Chairman John Coleman was unimpressed.
>>  > >
>>  > > JL
>>  > >
>>  > > --
>>  > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>  > >
>>  > > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>  >
>>  > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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