"Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" logged a solid debut on Oct. 9, even without ace Tina Fey.

There was no spoof of Gov. Sarah Palin and no cameo by Palin herself (still rooting for that). Instead, the first of three Thursday half-hour SNLs started with a spoof of Tuesday's town-hall style presidential debate at Belmont University and ended with a classic Weekend Update.

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Somewhere in the middle was a cameo by beleaguered Cubs fan "William Murray," aka our old SNL pal Bill.