Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Jimmy Carter (DAA) generates electricity to broadcast energy message
— Funny premise with Dan’s Carter powering his television address via his exercise bike.
— I love Gilda as the elderly Lillian Carter.
— Overall, a simple but funny cold opening.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host aims to perform a live on-stage sex act with an audience member
— Hmm, what’s all that stuff set up on the stage upon’s Buck’s entrance?
— Heh, a pornography challenge? Very intriguing. I remember hearing about this monologue before, where Buck supposedly showcases a live sex act.
— I like the random inclusion of a big barrel of cottage cheese being part of the sex act.
— LOL at the random nun in the audience when the camera was panning through the crowd.
— Funny fake-out with which audience member Buck would end up picking.
— Good ending.
STARS: ****
SAMURAI B.M.O.C.
Futaba’s bad grades jeopardize his graduation
— Gilda: “Dean Bynum will be with you in a moment; it’s just he’s performing a live sex act on stage.” Haha! That’s brilliant how the ending of the monologue carried over into this sketch.
— Buck, upon entering: “Sorry to keep you waiting. Just finishing my cottage cheese.”
— Man, Garrett’s even more stumbly with his lines than usual. He can’t get through a sentence in this sketch without tripping all over it.
— I have a weird feeling from Buck’s set-up that the mysterious “big man on campus” he keeps talking about is going to turn out to be Futaba.
— I was right!!!
— This is the first Samurai sketch that Buck is appearing in since the “stockbroker” installment where Buck infamously got cut in the forehead by John’s sword. The fact that even after that incident, Buck had no problem continuing the tradition of doing a Samurai sketch every time he hosts shows what a great sport he was.
— Clever how Futaba “carved” his fraternity’s symbol into the drapes.
— Overall, the usual great Buck Henry-involved Samurai sketch.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JENNIFER WARNES)
SHOWER MIKE
showering Richard Herkiman (BIM) interviews wife (GIR) & her lover (host)
— Right out of the gate, Bill’s doing fantastic in this so far. This sketch’s concept is perfect for him, and his performance is so much fun to watch.
— Bringing Buck on as a man who Gilda’s been cheating on Bill with, and him still having his suit on during the shower is making this sketch even funnier. Everybody’s cheerful attitudes about the affair is very funny, too.
— Overall, wow, this was great. I’d say this is one of Bill’s all-time best sketches from his entire SNL tenure. With how shaky his first few months have been on the show, I’m glad he was able to end this season with an assuring performance that hopefully gave a lot of iffy viewers more confidence in him.
STARS: ****½
RETURN OF THE CONEHEADS
Coneheads fly Chrysler Building to Remulak to meet with Kuldroth (JOB)
— Coneheads! I’m looking forward to seeing Buck interact with them.
— Laraine’s conehead prosthetic is pretty sloppily applied. You can very clearly see where her real skin ends and the prosthetic begins.
— Buck to the Coneheads: “I think I know exactly what you people are: you’re Ku Klux Klan!”
— I was just about to ask why Buck looks so sweaty in his close-up, before I just now realized he must still be damp from the shower sketch.
— Whoa, a cutaway to a filmed sequence with the Coneheads taking a drive. I’m really liking this.
— This whole filmed sequence is great. SNL’s pulling out all the stops for tonight’s Coneheads installment.
— Funny to watch the crowd of bystanders in the background when the Coneheads exit from their car.
— Wow, now we’re seeing the Coneheads on their home planet. I love seeing John as the leader.
— Nice continuity having Garrett reprise his role from the preceding Coneheads sketch.
— John’s voice is great.
— LOL at the fight sequence between Dan and John.
— Overall, an absolutely great Coneheads sketch, and I love how extensive the whole thing was.
STARS: ****½
WEEKEND UPDATE
on-horse microphone records Preakness ride of Seattle Slew & jockey (CHC)
Emily Litella says Bella Abzug [real] will throw her “cat” in the ring
in hopes of getting laid, host presents JAC with a phony journalism award
— This is Jane’s final Update as a solo anchorperson. A certain cast member becomes her new co-anchor the following season.
— Pretty funny with the horse in the horse race footage having a Mr. Ed voice, though this is the second time they used that joke. Last time they did that joke (in the Catherine the Great sketch from the Karen Black episode), Chevy was the one who did the Mr. Ed voice. Does this mean he’s there tonight (in yet ANOTHER cameo) doing the voice again?
— (sigh) Another Emily Litella appearance, though they’re using her as a reporter this time.
— Part of me appreciates that they’ve been trying a lot of different things with Litella these last few months, but this particular commentary still didn’t work for me. The jokes were tired and weak, Bella Abzug’s delivery was stiff, and hearing Abzug attempt to do Litella’s “Never mind” catchphrase was almost cringeworthy.
— Buck giving Jane an award for journalism? Wonder what the catch is going to be.
— Haha, Buck’s creepy stalker-ish pining for Jane is very funny.
— And now, it’s gotten even funnier with Buck’s comment about his personal “rather large trophy” that he want to give to Jane in private.
— Jane’s sign-off at the end was a little strange. I think she sold her post-Buck commentary weirded-out-ness a little TOO well here.
— No mid-WU break tonight. Hopefully in the semi-new era of Update that begins the following season, the mid-WU breaks will officially be gone.
STARS: ***½
RHONDA’S BRIDAL SHOWER
at her bridal shower, Rhonda Weiss loves the gifts she receives
— Jane’s voice sounds so different in this. I’ve never heard her talk like that any other time.
— What the heck is a “melonballer”?
— Never mind; I guess the joke there was melonballers don’t actually exist, judging by how the next gift Gilda received was an “egg-tweezer”.
— Not really sure I like this sketch so far. I’m finding myself bored and haven’t laughed a single time yet.
— Overall, yeah, not crazy at all about what I just watched. I think this was something that was aimed more towards female viewers who can relate to this type of humor.
STARS: *½
HOW YOUR CHILDREN GROW
(host) & punctuator patient (GIR) condition (JAC)
— LOL, what the heck is going on, with Gilda monotone-ly punctuating Buck’s sentences, Laraine ringing a bell, and Gilda handing Jane a cookie?
— I’m starting to really like the weirdness of this.
— Great twist revelation regarding Jane’s salivation.
— Overall, this was perfect execution of a unique sketch.
STARS: ****
DOG IN BED
by William Wegman- an alarm clock awakens weimaraner Man Ray
— The second episode in a row without a Gary Weis film. I can only hope this means they’re phasing him out.
— What in the world??? That’s the whole film??? A dog gets woken up by an alarm clock, sleepily looks around, and… The End?
STARS: ???
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (KENNY VANCE)
LUCKY LINDY
Charles Lindbergh (host) flies across the Atlantic & meets Land Shark
— I’m liking the format of this and Dan is fun as the narrator, though nothing really funny has happened yet.
— LOL at Buck placing the thermos below himself to relieve himself into.
— Buck pretending his hand is a stewardess puppet? Ha, he seems to slowly be going crazy.
— Him using the puppet hand to pleasure himself while looking at a “spicy” magazine is a riot.
— The masturbation sequence is made even funnier by the line from Dan as the narrator: “Turbulence suddenly jerked the plane off……. course.”
— Haha, Landshark! So I guess that answers my earlier question about if Chevy’s there tonight.
STARS: ***½
THE SATURDAY NIGHT BAND: “DEPARTURE LOUNGE”
Howard Shore [real] & SNL Band perform “Departure Lounge”
— We get a random musical performance from the SNL Band.
IMPRESSIONIST MICHAEL O’DONOGHUE
MOD, castmembers, others impersonate eye-gouged Mormon Tabernacle Choir
— Hmm, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is the subject of tonight’s O’Donoghue impression. Is he going to have a choir accompany him like how he had two ladies accompany his Tony Orlando and Dawn impression last time?
— Even though I always know what’s coming with these O’Donoghue impression segments, it never fails to crack me up whenever he suddenly starts saying “A funny thought occurred to me…” after heaping tons of praise on who he’s about to impersonate.
— Ah, the choir is being played by the entire cast and (what appears to be) entire writing staff!
— Overall, hilarious as always. And this being the final sketch of the season, having the entire cast and writing staff appearing in it is a nice way to end the year.
— So far, all of O’Donoghue’s impression sketches have only appeared in Buck Henry-hosted episodes. I didn’t realize until now that these sketches were exclusive to Buck’s episodes. I had always thought that O’Donoghue just did them whenever.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very good season finale, and yet another solid Buck Henry episode. I had a great time watching this. A majority of the sketches were both strong and fun, and a few of those sketches had a special extensive feeling that made it seem like SNL was intentionally going all out for their season finale, which is what I always like to see when an SNL season ends.
— This episode would begin a tradition of Buck hosting the season finales for the remainder of this era. It doesn’t need to be explained why, if you’re familiar with what a great host he always makes.
— We’re officially two seasons down in my ‘One SNL a Day’ project!
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Shelley Duvall):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Season 3 begins, with host Steve Martin. I’m very eager to go into this season because, IIRC, that and season 4 are both widely considered the zenith of 70s SNL.
Judy Belushi gave Murray a soap shower mike, which inspired him to write the sketch. This, and not the 1st lounge singer sketch was considered his break out moment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melon_ball
The censor was irate about the plane being jerked off line.
Weird how Chevy hung around at this point. He did say later he regretted leaving.
Speaking of SNL censors: this episode was two years before his tenure, but the longtime “Dr. No” has died at the age of 95
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/bill-clotworthy-dead-saturday-night-live-censor-1235001888/
I remember seeing in some ancillary SNL book that there was a sketch proposed during the then-current airing of “Jesus of Nazareth” called “Jesus of Nashville” which featured JC and the two other crucified fellows hanging on their crosses and and launching into a countrified lament. When Standards and Practices said nuh-uh (unsurprisingly) the script pages were crossed out with, well, a cross. That amused me.
Supposedly, on this or the Duvall episode he was gloating about his his NBC special which aired May 5th. Al Franken shot back, “That’s great but we do one once a week.”
Re-watching this one now, been on a season 2 kick. Damn if it this show isn’t solid. Easily one of the more fun season finales..
The Lindburg skit is still as funny now as it was when I first watched it. Great Samuri skit and that Coneheads skit is gold, first time watching it thru actually oddly. Loved the epic Mr Mike bit to end it.
The best part for me is that beautiful 70’s ish song the Band plays near the end.. I’m getting ready to re-watch it now actually.. Why didn’t the release it as a Single? It’s awesome!
Ah, they never released that song? Too bad. Loved the vast majority of the musical performances this season and that was another classic.
The band number was a highlight of the show, something the show should have done more often. The other flute player with Mauricio Smith in the opening may be Lew Del Gatto, possibly his first SNL appearance. Some incredible bari sax work by Howard Johnson, and doesn’t Cheryl Hardwick look cool hitting those chimes.
In syndication, this episode had horrible audio – I don’t know how to describe it – sounded like it was taped off a west coast feed sent over a telephone line… however, I saw that episode on Hulu and it sounded great.
Alright, here’s the tally of five star sketches from the 76-77 season:
Debate 76 (Lily Tomlin)
Chevy’s Girls (Norman Lear)
Monologue (Paul Simon)
Santi-Wrap (Candice Bergen)
Consumer Probe (Candice Bergen)
Right to Extreme Stupidity League (Candice Bergen)
The Killer Trees (Candice Bergen)
Gary Gilmore (Candice Bergen)
Andy Kaufman (Ralph Nader)
New Kid (Broderick Crawford)
That’s 10, with half coming from the Candice Bergen episode, suggesting that (a) 76-77 was a bit more of a transitional year and (b) the Candice Bergen episode might stand up as the most stacked episode of this era (note: I think it is).
Some additional opinions: I won’t say what sketches I don’t think belong on this list, but (a) Cronkite/Carter ought to qualify, (b) the Lucy A-bomb sketch needs a second opinion, and (c) the Eric Idle episode’s, especially the white hot first one, deserve to be represented on this list.
Totally agree on Idle. The KLOG-AM/FM sketch is one of my favorite performances from Dan
Yeah, that’s the big one for me.
I agree on all your additional opinions, Carson.
— Cronkite/Carter (Ask President Carter) and KLOG-AM/FM are two of many sketches this era that, looking back, I’m very surprised I didn’t give five stars, especially considering Aykroyd’s my personal favorite member of the original cast. I kinda wish your list would include sketches I rated four-and-a-half stars (which is what I gave the two aforementioned sketches), because there’s quite a number of them in these early seasons that I would now push to a five-star rating.
— Yep, I definitely underrated the Lucy A-bomb sketch, as well as that Broderick Crawford episode in general (glad to see New Kid make the list, though). I remember being in a weird bored mood the night I reviewed that episode, which probably clouded my judgment.
— I absolutely love Eric Idle’s first episode of this season (the second episode is strong too). At the end of my review of that first Idle episode, I called it one of the best episodes I had reviewed at that point in my project (and it still is, 17 seasons later). A bummer that nothing in that episode made the list, but hey, a few of my other all-time favorite episodes also have little-to-no five-star rated sketches (including the 1993 John Malkovich episode I recently reviewed). It’s more how I feel about the episode as a WHOLE that counts.
— I gave Chevy’s Girls five stars? Hmm. I definitely love that sketch, but I’d probably now give it four-and-a-half stars. I wonder if that’s one of the sketches you had in mind when stating “I won’t say what sketches I don’t think belong on this list”.
Stooge, I’d include the 4.5 star sketches, but I’m too lazy haha.
I love that you’re second guessing the Chevy’s Girls piece. A fun one, no doubt, but, yeah, if I were to cut one out of the five star club…
I’m glad you’ve come around in the Broderick Crawford episode. It’s not an elite episode, but it’s one of my favourites to return to.
Thanks for responding to these. It’s been a fun exercise to piggy back off of your fun exercise.
Whenever I find the time, I’ll compile a list myself of the four-and-a-half star sketches from each season and post them as a reply to your lists. I’ll call my four-and-a-half star lists Honorable Mentions in regards to your five-star lists.
This is probably asking for trouble, but I’ll say it anyway… Stooge/Carson/anyone: would you be interested in starting a separate list of episodes that were reviewed on here and considered among the best ever? Just off the top of my head, I think you really enjoyed Richard Pryor (season 1), Charles Grodin (season 3), Rickles (season 9), Tom Hanks (season 14 premiere), the aforementioned John Malkovich, and Alec Baldwin/McCartney, for starters. I know Ben uses average sketch ratings for each episode to get a score (out of 5)… but I don’t think anyone is up for doing over 300 episodes’ worth of number crunching. Just throwing it out there. Speaking of math, you should be caught up to the present day in early March, 2021. What a time to be alive…
Kubelsky, I’ve had something planned that’s similar to your request. When I officially arrive at the end of this project, I plan on doing a special final post in which, among other things, I’ll make two lists recapping the episodes I’ve had the most and least favorable reactions to, listed in chronological order. The episodes will be listed based on my gut feeling rather than by calculations (partly because math and I don’t mix well, partly because the calculations would take forever to do, and partly because there are some episodes I’ve absolutely loved that probably don’t rank as high as I want them to when you add up all the sketch ratings in them).
Thanks for calculating when I should be caught up to present day. I recently guesstimated that it would be somewhere in early 2021, though you also have to take into account that I occasionally go through a day without posting a review due to being too busy.
As a companion piece to Carson’s list, here’s an Honorable Mentions list compiled of all the sketches I rated four-and-a-half stars this season:
(Sketches with a + at the end indicates that I would now bump that sketch up to a five-star rating)
Monologue (Norman Lear)
AM-FM (Eric Idle) +
The Rutles (Eric Idle)+
Dragnet (Eric Idle)
Jeopardy 1999! (Steve Martin)
Bat-O-Matic (Buck Henry)
Quarry (Paul Simon)
Don Pardo: The First 50 Years (Jodie Foster)
Coneheads debut (Ralph Nader)
Crazy Frank (Ruth Gordon)
Ask President Carter (Sissy Spacek)+
Black Perspective (Julian Bond)+
The Castration Walk monologue (Elliott Gould)
The Nixon Interviews (Eric Idle)+
Body Language (Eric Idle)
Plain Talk (Eric Idle)
Shower Mike (Buck Henry)
The Coneheads on their home planet (Buck Henry)
That’s 18 sketches total, 8 more than the five-star sketches listed in Carson’s post.
Here are the average ratings for Season 2:
*May not represent review’s perception*
201: 6.5 (Lily Tomlin)
202: 7.2 (Norman Lear)
203: 6.8 (Eric Idle)
204: 5.7 (Karen Black)
205: 7.0 (Steve Martin)
206: 7.2 (Buck Henry)
207: 5.4 (Dick Cavett)
208: 7.3 (Paul Simon)
209: 6.2 (Jodie Foster)
210: 7.8 (Candice Bergen)
211: 7.5 (Ralph Nader)
212: 5.6 (Ruth Gordon)
213: 6.2 (Fran Tarkenton)
214: 6.4 (Steve Martin)
215: 5.8 (Sissy Spacek)
216: 5.9 (Broderick Crawford)
217: 5.6 (Jack Burns)
218: 6.1 (Julian Bond)
219: 7.0 (Elliott Gould)
220: 6.8 (Eric Idle)
221: 6.3 (Shelley Duvall)
222: 6.9 (Buck Henry)
Best Episode: 210 (Candice Bergen)-7.8
Worst Episode: 207 (Dick Cavett)- 5.4
Season Average: 6.5
Thanks for putting the hosts’ names next to the episode numbers this time, Vax. I’ll edit your Season 1 post to add the hosts’ names for each episode.
I’m curious what your list of average ratings would look like if it was ranked from best episode to worst, so I’ll do it below (I’ll go back and do the same for Season 1):
210: 7.8 (Candice Bergen)
211: 7.5 (Ralph Nader)
208: 7.3 (Paul Simon)
202: 7.2 (Norman Lear)
206: 7.2 (Buck Henry 1)
205: 7.0 (Steve Martin 1)
219: 7.0 (Elliott Gould)
222: 6.9 (Buck Henry 2)
203: 6.8 (Eric Idle 1)
220: 6.8 (Eric Idle 2)
201: 6.5 (Lily Tomlin)
214: 6.4 (Steve Martin 2)
221: 6.3 (Shelley Duvall)
209: 6.2 (Jodie Foster)
213: 6.2 (Fran Tarkenton)
218: 6.1 (Julian Bond)
216: 5.9 (Broderick Crawford)
215: 5.8 (Sissy Spacek)
204: 5.7 (Karen Black)
212: 5.6 (Ruth Gordon)
217: 5.6 (Jack Burns)
207: 5.4 (Dick Cavett)
I’m ashamed that the first Eric Idle episode isn’t much higher. I’m also surprised by how high the Norman Lear episode is.
In the bridal shower sketch, the voice Jane uses sounds like a precursor to Mrs. Loopner in the upcoming season.
I guess I’m surprised you gave “Chevy’s Girls” 5 stars while only giving “Video Vixens” 3 stars when it’s a much better and funnier song spotlight on the three female cast members, plus adding a very game Shelley Duvall.
I think I was under the belief that Murray’s soap a rope bit here was the precursor to his Nick the Lounge Singer. But I see Nick premiered on the April 16th Elliot Gould show from this season. Apparently, Murray developed the character at Second City. Either way, it’s a riot. Not sure what made soap-on-a-rope a thing in the 70s, but this was the decade of the Pet Rock, after all.
Great to see the Chevy cameo. I spotted his then-wife Jaqueline Carlin in at least one of the crowd shots (she appeared a little on the show and apparently was one the key reasons he left it; she passed away several years ago).
Who were the guys doing backup vocals on the musical numbers? They look very familiar. One of them looks a lot like Malcolm Young from AC/DC, although it certainly is not him. Jennifer Warnes’ “Right Time of the Night” is a terrific slice of 70s adult contemporary pop, by the way. One of those forgotten gems. Kenny Vance’s number is quite good (he was in Jay & the Americans), but he’s one of those oddball choices that were so prevalent (and interesting) in those days. I read that he became “musical director” for the show in the early 80s, so he must have been connected with the band.
Jane Curtin’s voice in the bridal shower bit is identical to the one she used in the Nerds sketches (Mrs. Loopner), which hadn’t been developed yet. Melon-ballers and egg tweezers do exist as well; I think the idea is that we receive a lot of useless crap at showers and weddings and the humor is in listening to the girls awkwardly express their gratitude in order to be polite.
The backing vocalists are Arnold McCuller and the late David Lasley.