Dan Aykroyd Takes ‘SNL’ Crew Bar-Hopping to Fox Nation
10.01.2024 - 19:13
/ variety.com
Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor If anyone should be able to engineer a reunion of “Saturday Night Live” alumni, it should be Dan Aykroyd. A member of the show’s first cast of “Not Ready for Prime-Time Players,” Aykroyd was also among the first to jump from “SNL” to Hollywood and continues to tour with a band based on The Blues Brothers group he and John Belushi originated on the NBC mainstay.
But Aykroyd’s new project takes “SNL” formers to decidedly new terrain. Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon and “Cheers” alumni George Wendt (who made a name on “SNL” as the character Bob Swerski of the Chicago Superfans), have teamed up to lead subscribers of the streaming outlet Fox Nation through a history of drinking.
In “A History of the World in Six Glasses,”which debuted this week, the comic sextuplet examines some of the political and cultural ramifications in the rise of beer, wine, coffee, tea, soda and spirits. Tea, says Aykroyd, affected relations between England and China, while the business of soda “massively impacted the world.” There’s so much to discuss that “we rammed the facts in there,” says Aykroyd, who praises all his colleagues, including Lovitz (“great personal charm”), Belushi (“an eager puppy dog”) and Nealon (“hilarity and brilliant intelligence”) .
The comedians are just the latest in a growing line of prominent entertainment personalities to turn up — unexpectedly perhaps — on Fox Nation. The subscription-based service aims for the politically conservative viewers who flock to Fox News Channel, but has increasingly worked to serve them with lifestyle fare, while continuing to make available the red-meat programs that Fox News aficionados crave.