Today in TV History: ‘SNL’ Gave the Definitive Take on Stevie Nicks (and Fajitas)

Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone. 

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: October 18, 1998*

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Saturday Night Live, “Lucy Lawless” (Season 24, Episode 3)

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: There are like six miracles happening all at once when you watch the “Stevie Nicks’ Fajita Roundup,” and only one of them is that they found that many Fleetwood Mac songs that so readily accommodated tex-mex lyrics. Who knew Lucy Lawless had this in her? Particularly at that time, when Xena was basically her only credit. It’s not like Lawless does this flawless mimicry of the woman who Grace Slick called the “magic witch,” though the bleat in her voice when she sings is rather uncanny. But what she did was unlock a specific comedic version of Nicks, all wind-blown intensity and mystically vague, but clearly hoping she can sell you that $3.95 burrito dreams special.

It’s also something of a miracle that this sketch has survived from the pre-YouTube era and the verboten-due-to-music-rights restrictions to stay online. Not every classic SNL sketch has. (Pouring one out for Shannen Doherty in the Salem Bitch Trials) Long may it remain.

*For clarity’s sake, I should mention that the Lucy Lawless-hosted SNL aired on October 17th, but the Stevie Nicks’ Fajita Roundup sketch aired well after midnight local time, because obviously it did.

Bonus: exactly ten years later, SNL would air this similarly underrated, similarly just-hanging-on-to-the-edge-of-the-internet sketch:

Bless you, Amy Poehler.

Joe Reid (@joereid) is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. You can find him leaving flowers for Mrs. Landingham at the corner of 18th and Potomac.

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