Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
hospitalized CHC phones SNL to confront his impostor (Richard Belzer)
— Who the heck is this guy? Neil Levy?
— Ha, I couldn’t help but laugh at how the audience had no absolutely reaction to him saying the opening “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” line.
— The return of “the voice of Chevy Chase”.
— I got a great laugh from Chevy’s deadpan “This is Chevy Chase; who the hell are YOU?”
— It seemed like Chevy missed his cue to say LFNY and it sounds like right as he finally said it, you could hear someone prompt him.
— Overall, a good opening.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— There seemed to be some slight differences at the beginning of this.
MONOLOGUE
host plays guitar & yells “Here Comes The Sun” until JAC interrupts him
— Strangely, this begins with Eric already sitting on a stool onstage when Pardo announces him. Reminds me of some of the early monologues from last season, before it became a regular thing for hosts to make an entrance when Pardo announces them.
— This yelled-out song is pretty funny.
— Interesting how this is now segueing into stagehands getting Eric dressed into costume and moving him over to the set of the next sketch.
STARS: ***½
GENETIC COUNSELOR
(DAA) & (GIR) choose their future baby’s traits with doctor’s (host) help
— Eric’s delivery is fantastic here, and this has the type of absurd British humor that he always excels at.
— I’m loving all the crazy questions and little details.
STARS: ****
AM-FM
KLOG deejay (DAA) switches personas to match station’s AM & FM formats
— I had always heard great things about this sketch.
— LOL at the sudden change into Dan’s mellow FM voice.
— Unsurprisingly, Dan’s doing a fantastic job here.
— Antler Dance reference!
— Overall, another quintessential Dan Aykroyd sketch.
STARS: ****½
THE KILLER BEES
host’s British words blow sketch about Killer Bees & swine flu center
— I like the way the preceding sketch segued into this.
— Eric getting called out for his out-of-place British accent is pretty funny.
— Another fourth-wall break in a Killer Bees sketch. This one is good, though not as funny as the Elliott Gould one.
STARS: ***½
ERIC’S SONG
host continues to butcher “Here Comes The Sun” until JAC stops him
— Another interruption from Jane.
— I like how they’re doing this as a running premise tonight, assuming this will be concluded at the end of the show.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JOE COCKER)
FAREWELL
Baba Wawa uses her last moments on NBC to explain why she’s leaving
— A simple but still pretty funny joke with her “w”s diminishing the seriousness of her message.
STARS: ***
WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
amateurish TOS drawings summarize the Norton-Ali boxing match
in a GAM interview, rabbi (ALZ) OKs Michelangelo’s David’s circumcision
— Jane’s delivery seems even better this week than it did in her debut.
— The return of the childlike “artist’s rendering” drawings.
— I like how the Ali joke was a callback to the Ford joke earlier.
— Garrett’s segment was pretty funny.
EPIFIX
druggist (DAA) touts syringe-based Epifix for super-fast headache relief
— I can already tell this will be yet another great Dan Aykroyd commercial.
— Him demonstrating how to use the medicine was absolutely hilarious and gave me the biggest laugh I’ve had in this episode so far.
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
alleged Carson clip shows Ed Ames (JOB) attacking silhouette with an ax
— This Belushi/Tonight Show bit looks interesting.
— The blatantly-fake old-timey audience laughter during John’s bit is pretty funny.
— Loved John going insane on the crotch of the body outline while yelling in a Futaba-esque manner. I remember hearing about the real Tonight Show clip that this bit is spoofing.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***½
THE RUTLES
LOM recounts how host duped him into giving him the Beatles’ money
British rock group’s music & history mirrors the Beatles’
— Another Beatles Offer sequel.
— Oh, is this going to be the well-known Rutles sketch that I’ve never seen for myself?
— It is!
— This Beatles-esque music video is fun to watch.
— The “last a lunchtime” line was very funny.
— I love Eric as the reporter frantically running to keep up with the increasingly-faster-moving camera.
— Overall, a great and very well-done Beatles parody.
STARS: ****½
BEHIND THE LINES
Allied spies (host) & (DAA) make plans at a Nazi hangout during WWII
— The homebase stage looks interesting set up like that.
— I’m liking how Dan and Eric are seamlessly going back-and-forth between accents.
— I didn’t get the ending with John.
STARS: ***
ERIC’S SONG
host ruins an Australian song until GAM interrupts him
— Ha, what in the world is that hanging off Eric’s hat? Marshmallows?
— Yet another funny continuation of tonight’s running premise.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JOE COCKER)
— Ah, it’s the famous Joe Cocker performance with him being accompanied halfway through by John’s impression, which Cocker himself genuinely wasn’t expecting, from what I remember hearing.
— John’s impression comes off even more dead-on when seeing it right next to the real thing.
— If it’s true that Cocker didn’t expect this, he’s being a great sport about it.
DRAGNET
(host) & Joe Friday (DAA) investigate crimes in women’s clothing
JOB interrupts skit by telling host that drag is not funny to Americans
— IIRC, Dan would actually later co-star in a movie version of Dragnet.
— Dan’s narration is cracking me up.
— I like the random absurdity of Dan having a phone conversation, when it was Eric instead of Dan who was holding the receiver to his ear.
— This is hilarious so far.
— There’s the familiar Landshark living room set.
— Very interesting fourth-wall break, regarding telling Eric that drag doesn’t work as well in America.
— Couldn’t help but laugh at John’s “If you do it once…” warning when Dan was going to “accompany” Eric in his dressing room.
STARS: ****½
DRAG RACING TODAY
crossdressed DAA & host sprint against each other
— What the–?
— Haha, a nice continuation of the drag premise of the preceding sketch.
— I liked the “How do you know [the audience is] laughing? We’re on film.” line.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (STUFF)
THE UNDERSEA WORLD OF JACQUES COUSTEAU
a toy sub explores an aquarium
(host) shows how to feed people food to goldfish
— LOL at the “submarine” just being a cheap-looking toy model. I always get a kick out of whenever they do stuff like that on SNL.
— Unexpected turn this took, with this sketch now being a show called “Pets and Petting”.
— Eric is fantastic with his rapid-fire additions of inappropriate food to the fish tank.
STARS: ****
TALENT SPOT
Ken Norton (GAM) claims that he is more talented than Muhammad Ali
— Where is this going?
— Garrett singing in an operatic voice again…
— Overall, this came off as kinda-pointless filler.
STARS: **
CUFFLINKS OF THE GODS?
(LAN) displays evidence of alien comic existence
— Lots of TV show sketches tonight, it feels like.
— The native chanting on the tape player was pretty funny
— Overall… ehh, not horrible, but I was kinda bored by this.
STARS: **
PONG
Pong-playing college students discuss myriad ways to use a barometer
— Aw, man, I’m not crazy about seeing this return after a long hiatus. I believe this is the first time they’ve done this since last season’s Christmas episode.
— This is slowly starting to get better, with some funny lines from Davis.
STARS: **½
GOODNIGHTS
host & cast shout a rendition of “Here Comes The Sun”
— Pretty funny conclusion to tonight’s running premise of Eric’s song.
— Don Pardo: “Also appearing in tonight’s cast: Richard Belzer”. Where was he? Don’t tell me that was him playing Chevy’s replacement in the cold opening. If so, I’m ashamed of myself for not recognizing him. I guess I’m not used to seeing him that young and without glasses.
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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very strong and fun episode; probably one of the best I’ve reviewed so far in this project. This is no surprise, considering who was hosting; Eric fit this show perfectly and his comedic presence definitely added to the proceedings. I’m looking forward to the other episodes he hosted later in this era.
— There was an unfortunate drop-off of quality at the end with the last three segments, but aside from that, tonight had a consistent run of very entertaining sketches, and a good number of all-time well-known SNL moments came from this episode (Dan’s AM-FM sketch, The Rutles, Joe Cocker Meets Joe Cocker).
— This episode also had a lot of fun with the format, doing interesting things like the way they segued from the monologue to the doctor sketch, several instances of sketches overlapping with each other, and the running premise with Eric trying to perform a song.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Norman Lear):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Karen Black