October 11, 1975 – George Carlin / Janis Ian, Billy Preston (S1 E1)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WOLVERINES
(JOB) mimics wolverine phrases & heart attack of English teacher (MOD)

— For some reason, I like the kinda-gritty feel of the beginning of this inaugural sketch.
— Ha, all that’s happened so far is John Belushi simply walking down the stairs with a bag of groceries, yet the audience is ALREADY chuckling.
— The disturbing phrases Michael is having John repeat is a hilarious out-of-nowhere reveal.
— It seems fitting that the first sketch Michael O’Donoghue appears in has him acting out an almost-too-realistic heart attack, which is so true to his style.
— A great little touch right before John imitates Michael’s heart attack is this funny puzzled eyebrow raise he does, which is a bit similar to the eyebrow raise that would later become his trademark.
— What better way for SNL to debut than with a bizarre, twisted sketch that let audiences know this wasn’t going to be another Carol Burnett or Laugh-In kind of show?
STARS: ****½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Ah, here we go…
— I, and I’m sure a lot of people, often forget that the show was called “NBC’s Saturday Night” in its early days.
— It’s funny how primitive the theme music sounds in this first episode; it almost sounds like it’s being played inside a cardboard box. Even in other early Season 1 episodes I remember seeing before, the sound quality is definitely better.
— Ah, Pardo’s famous “Not For Ready Prime-Time Players” flub. It sounds like he himself realized his mistake as soon as he said it.
— Another thing I often forget about these early episodes is that the cast members weren’t announced one-by-one accompanied with a picture/clip of them, but were announced collectively as just “The Not Ready For Prime-Time Players” accompanied by a quickly-shown list of their names. And in this first episode, the list of their names isn’t even in alphabetical order, either:

— And let’s not forget that George Coe and Michael O’Donoghue were actually part of the cast early on. Those two only last for a very small handful of episodes (not sure how many exactly) before being taken out of the cast and making non-credited appearances. The fact that they’re the bottom two credited in this episode’s cast list makes me wonder if it was ALREADY planned for their stay in the cast to be short-lived.

MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about football & baseball terminology differences
 
— So unusual to see the host making their entrance through the audience instead of through the ‘basement’ set that would soon become the familiar homebase stage of the early seasons.
— I like his little comments at the beginning about the novelty of this being a live TV show.
— This football/baseball routine is different from the type of stand-up I’m used to seeing from him, but I still like it (especially considering I’ve always liked football and hated baseball). His delivery is helping sell this routine.
— Oddly, at the very end, as the audience is applauding, the band replays the opening theme music for a bit before we go to the next segment.
STARS: ***½

NEW DAD INSURANCE
New Dad insurance covers all your family’s needs, not just financial ones
 
— Hard for me to believe that Dan Aykroyd was only 23 at this time. I think what makes him seem older is the combo of the mustache and his mature demeanor.
— Oh, that’s right, SNL didn’t mix in the audience reactions during the pre-taped segments in these early episodes. It feels so unusual hearing silence during the parts of this commercial that you’d expect to get a laugh.
— A pretty funny premise, and the execution was okay.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (BILLY PRESTON)

THE COURTROOM
sleeping juror (GIR) interprets a piece of evidence as a pick-up line


— Garrett’s accent is pretty funny.
— Gilda’s reaction to the note was great.
— And hey, they ended the sketch right there. I love the simple “set-up/punchline” quick structure of this.
STARS: ****

ANDY KAUFMAN
Andy Kaufman [real] lip-syncs the Mighty Mouse theme song
 
— Oh, yes. As a huge Andy Kaufman fan, this classic Mighty Mouse routine has always been one of my all-time favorite things on SNL ever, and also my #1 favorite thing Kaufman ever did anywhere.
— In addition to the main joke of him only lipsyncing to that one key lyric, there’s a lot of little things he does that helps makes this so great, such as 1) the awkward beginning where there’s just dead air as he nervously stands there for a while before turning the record player on, 2) the brief close-up of him about to lipsync to the wrong part before realizing his mistake and then looking down in shame, and 3) the way you can see him visibly getting prepared to raise his arm & lipsync every time the key lyric is about to come up.
— The water-drinking bit during the song’s long instrumental break is another classic part.
STARS: *****

(SIDE NOTE: The post-commercial bumper pictures in this episode just show still shots of NYC nightlife, instead of a picture of the host like we’re used to seeing)

GEORGE CARLIN STAND-UP #2
host does observational stand-up about many different topics

— Love the line about looking at the crowds in old movies and wondering if they’re dead yet.
— I’m really enjoying the loose structure of this, jumping from one quick random topic to another, which is my favorite type of stand-up comedy.
— The ‘there’s a moment coming, it’s on the way, here it i— aw, it’s gone’ bit was fantastic.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JANIS IAN)

VICTIMS OF SHARK BITE
(JOB) falsely claims to have had limbs bitten off
 
— Hmm, an opening graphic of a shark. Are we getting our very first Landshark ske– oh, wait, I see from the title that just showed up that this is something different.
— Jane plays her first of what I remember being MANY talk show hosts over the next few seasons.
— Wow, another quick sketch. This was a nice, simple bit that got out before anything could get too one-note.
STARS: ***

JAMITOL
CHC describes how Jamitol allows his wife MOD to be productive

— Ohh, boy. This hasn’t aged very well, as the idea of a commercial testimonial featuring a same-sex couple isn’t as unusual or funny nowadays as it was in the 70s.
— It still is fairly amusing to see Michael O’Donoghue of all people saying sensitive woman lines that the wives in these commercial testimonials usually gets.
STARS: **

NEXT WEEK PROMO
Paul Simon [real] announces he’ll be hosting SNL next week

— Not gonna rate this, obviously, but it is interesting to see the “next week promo” being done with an appearance by that episode’s host instead of it just being a bumper stating the upcoming host and musical guest’s names.

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
LAN reports from the Blaine Hotel on its latest murder victim
   
— Wow, right from the very first episode, we get Chevy’s trademark “phone conversation” opening gag, which I wasn’t expecting so soon.
— Hmm, no “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” intro, which I WAS expecting.
— Did Chevy look into the wrong camera during that one news story just now?
— I was right, he did it again in the next news story… or are the camera people the ones that messed up?
— Ah, and now he acknowledged the camera screw-ups by jokingly looking back-and-forth between both cameras quickly.
— Oh, the famous prostitution stamp joke was in THIS episode? For some reason, I always thought it was a little later this season. Anyway, we can pinpoint this as the very first time an Update joke ever got a HUGE audience reaction.
— Hey, it’s Laraine. I believe this is the first time all night we’ve seen her, which is strange since the show’s halfway over and all the other cast members already made their first appearance much earlier.
— A “still to come” news bit? I guess this is one of those early Updates that has a break in the middle for a fake ad.

TRIOPENIN
a child-proof safety cap makes Triopenin arthritis medicine unobtainable

— I was right.
— The ‘hand acting’ from the unseen actor was good. The frustrated attempts to open the bottle was nice and subtle.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
 
— The ‘guests stay at the Blaine Hotel’ ad was a hilarious callback to earlier.
— The baby sandpiper story had a great dark ending after such a long set-up.
— Strong way to end the first Weekend Update.
STARS: ***

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Ploobis (Jim Henson) & Scred (Jerry Nelson) visit Mighty Favog (Frank Oz)
 
— Oh, boy, here we are, the infamous Muppets from Season 1.
— I surprisingly kinda like the voices of these puppets, especially the one for Ploobis’ wife.
— What hideous puppets, though. All of them.
— Some of these lines are actually kinda making me laugh, especially the “massage your moogies” line from Scred.
— Was it intentional for the food deliverer puppet to have trouble letting go of Ploobis’ meal, or was that a real blooper?
— Some of these jokes are pretty corny.
— Wow, that “cheer up, things could be worse” punchline was awful.
— And that’s the joke they end this sketch with? Oh, man. I was actually kinda enjoying some of the humor of this sketch early on, but the last two minutes was pretty bad and made me start to kinda understand why these Muppets segments would go on to be so hated.
STARS: **

GEORGE CARLIN STAND-UP #3
host does stand-up about blue food, vitamins, oxymorons

— This is when you start to realize that he hasn’t appeared in any actual sketches at all tonight; just these solo stand-up pieces on the homebase stage. This is just one of the many unusual aspects of this first episode.
— Love his “Have I done these jokes before tonight?” ad-lib after the jokes started getting a tepid reaction.
— The “why is there no blue food” bit is both very funny and a great point.
— This is another ‘one quick random topic after another’ stand-up bit, which once again is something I always enjoy.
STARS: ****½

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
“The Impossible Truth”- newsreel reports unlikely items
 
— The blind cab driver looks familiar for some reason. Maybe he just reminds me of someone.
— I haven’t been laughing much yet, but I do always like ‘alternate universe’-type premises like this.
— The “I can’t read yet” line from the little girl in the ‘age of consent lowered to age 7’ scene was pretty funny, though aren’t most kids able to read by that age?
— Overall, not bad.
STARS: ***

BEE HOSPITAL
new fathers find out where their offspring rank in the hive
 
— Well, we may not have gotten a Landshark debut in this episode like I falsely thought earlier, but we DO get the debut of another staple of 70s SNL: the bees.
— Feels odd seeing Coe and O’Donoghue paired with the rest of the male cast.
— Eh, not really liking the humor here much. Cheesy jokes like this can sometimes work, but I think I had my fill of that type of humor after sitting through the Muppets earlier.
— This didn’t overstay its welcome, though. This was yet another short sketch tonight. I don’t think there’s been a sketch with the cast that was over two minutes long so far.
STARS: **

ACADEMY OF BETTER CAREERS
call Academy of Better Careers now to become a stand-by operator
 
— Wow, yet another pre-taped fake ad tonight.
— There’s the wife from the New Dad commercial again. I think I remember hearing she was Chevy’s girlfriend at the time.
— I like the “not affiliated with the American Broadcast Company” disclaimer that comes up every time ABC is mentioned.
— Overall, this was just okay.
STARS: ***

VALRI BROMFIELD
Valri Bromfield [real] portrays teacher, high school volleyball player

— Well, this feels strange to see on SNL.
— Not caring much for this teacher routine, though some people in the audience are absolutely loving it.
— She sure has energy, though.
— And now she’s suddenly doing ANOTHER character? Ehhh…….
STARS: **

SHOW US YOUR GUNS
SNL goes to the streets to view citizens’ firearms
 
— Unlike some of the other pre-taped segments in this episode, this is a bit that still holds up surprisingly well. SNL even did a fake ad recently in 2015 that can be considered the spiritual successor to this.
— This has some really good little gags thrown in, like the angry store clerk who’s about to shoot at two robbers but then stops to happily wave at the camera, and the traffic cop finding out his gun’s missing and then just shrugging it off.
STARS: ****

GEORGE CARLIN STAND-UP #4
host does stand-up about the relationship between God, man, religion

— While I was really digging the ‘random quick topics’ format of his last two stand-up pieces tonight, THIS is more the George Carlin stand-up that I’m used to seeing.
— Just now, you could see the musical guest stage for Billy Preston light up in the background behind Carlin, before dimming back down again. I’m guessing we weren’t supposed to notice that. Heh, for some reason, I’m getting a kick out of seeing little errors like that in this first episode; it adds to the charm of these early, primitive SNLs.
— I’m loving this whole religion routine.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (BILLY PRESTON)

TROJAN HORSE HOME SECURITY
(DAA) breaks into house of (JOB) & (GIR) to show need for home security
 
— Wow, I love the concept of this sketch.
— Dan is absolutely PERFECT here. Our first glimpse of his knack for playing pitchmen/salesmen.
— While it was just a throwaway joke, I love the concept of a “toilet bowl piranha” to scare away burglars. That sounds like something that could be a fake SNL ad in itself.
— It feels strange seeing an actual normal-length, fleshed-out sketch tonight, after having so many quick “blackout gag”-type sketches earlier.
— Great bit with John suddenly getting shot at from the back and he reacts in absolute horror, only for it to be revealed the gun was shooting blanks.
— Excellent ending.
STARS: ****

TRIPLE-TRAC
gullible people will appreciate the Triple-Trac shaver’s tricky bladework
 
— I mentioned that the Jamitol commercial earlier hasn’t aged very well, but THIS takes the cake. The then-ridiculous idea of a three-blade razor would later become a case of “life imitates art”, and it’s now considered so normal to use that type of razor that it can be hard to understand what the intended humor of this ad was. If you showed this fake ad to someone without telling them it’s from SNL, they’d most likely think it was a real commercial (which would also be supported by the fact that, again, there were no audience sounds mixed in these early pre-taped segments).
— I did get a laugh from the “Because you’ll believe anything” tagline at the end, which is funny nowadays in an ironic way.
STARS: N/A, because I don’t feel I can fairly rate this nowadays

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JANIS IAN)

GOODNIGHTS
 
— Adding to the already-long list of unusual things about this episode is that Carlin is by himself on stage during these goodnights, with no cast members, musical guests, special guests, or anyone else.
— Ah, the familiar goodnights music – one of the things about SNL that hasn’t changed after all these decades (aside from Season 6). In a way, hearing that music in this episode really makes me appreciate the history of the show.
— Every name in the ending credits scroll has the nickname “Bud”. Inside joke? Or was that intended to be the start of a weekly tradition where the ending credits scroll would always have a different gag each time? If so, it’s too bad it never took off.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Wow! Well, there it was, the very first SNL ever.
— This was such a fascination to watch, not just because we now know the still-active institution it would become, but also in how primitive everything about the show felt, in how unusual a lot of things about the show were compared to what we’re used to today, and how probably nobody we saw performing in the show knew what an important part of TV history this episode would later be looked back as. Who would’ve guessed back then that this was a program that would still be running 43 years later?
— To me, the most unusual, uncharacteristic aspect of this episode was the “variety show” feel it had. Instead of focusing mainly on sketches like we’re used to seeing from SNL, this episode was jam-packed with everything from sketches, many musical performances, many stand-up performances, many pre-taped segments, and even a puppetry segment. I’m not used to having to review so many segments in a single episode. It’s been said some places that this episode has the highest number of pieces an SNL episode has ever had. From what I saw, that very well may be true, though I know it was common for the early seasons in general to have a lot of pieces per episode.
— The short length of most of the live sketches was refreshingly surprising, which is something I wish became a long-standing SNL tradition that continued to this day. I wonder at what point in the show’s history did they start to gain their bad reputation for doing overlong one-joke sketches. I guess we’ll see as we go along.
— Excluding George Coe (who ALREADY seems like an outsider among the cast), most of the cast seemed to get a fairly equal amount of airtime for the most part, though I can’t help but feel Laraine kinda got the short end of the stick. Unsurprisingly, Chevy had the most prominent presence.

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
— (sigh) If you know your SNL history, you’ll know that the next episode is going to be a very weird one to review, as it consists almost entirely of nothing but musical performances, with very few comedy pieces. Since I don’t review musical performances, that will possibly end up being my shortest episode review ever in this ‘One SNL a Day’ project.