Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Don Kirshner’s (PAS) Rock Concert- musical guest performs “Hey Bartender”
— The true official debut of the Blues Brothers. A version of them appeared earlier in a season 1 episode while dressed as Bees, but I’ve come to realize that was more of a Blues Brothers prototype rather than the real thing.
— I mentioned in my review of the aforementioned season 1 sketch that it’s unusual how Dan isn’t singing with John, because I had remembered the later Blues Brothers appearances having Dan and John both singing. However, Dan’s silent in tonight’s number too. I guess my memory of it being a regular feature for him to join John in singing was wrong.
— Overall, a very fun and classic opening number.
— The fact that the musical guests tonight are two of the cast members’ side act shows how much variety the early seasons had and how unpredictable the show could be back then.
STARS: N/A
MONOLOGUE
host removes watches, wallets, clothing from audience member (BIM)
— “Oh, did I assassinate your penguin?”
— Loved him mistakenly reading the “apply to infested area” note.
— Bill playing an “audience member”. Odd that they’re not using a writer or extra.
— Steve’s “magic tricks” on Bill are very funny.
— I was surprised at the reveal that Bill’s wearing a fake mustache.
— Love how increasingly maniacal Steve’s removal of Bill’s personal items are getting. Hilarious!
STARS: ****½
HEY YOU!
— Rerun
FESTRUNK BROTHERS
the Festrunks wait for a pair of foxes to arrive at their bachelor pad
— The Festrunk Brothers! The audience went wild at their entrance.
— LOL at the gigantic vacuum.
— I love the way Dan’s voice sounded when he and Steve exclaimed “Foxes!!!!” in unison.
— I like Garrett as their “black soul man” friend.
— The Festrunk’s foreign language conversation with each other is very funny.
— Garrett seemed genuinely amused by the foreign conversation too, judging by how he seems to be trying to hide his laughing from the camera. (screencap below)
— The Festrunk’s depressed version of their usual strut when going to answer the door is great.
— I got a kick out of seeing all the performers quickly dash off the set after the sketch ended.
— Overall, despite the fact that this was a pretty straightforward Festrunk Brothers installment, it’s still generally well-remembered and is one of my personal favorites of their appearances.
STARS: ****½
THEODORIC OF YORK, MEDIEVAL BARBER
medieval barber Theodoric of York’s (host) patients endure his remedies
— One of the most well-remembered SNL sketches Steve Martin would ever do.
— Funny seeing Dan and Steve speaking to each other in normal voices at the start of this, immediately after I had just watched them talk to each other in crazy accents throughout the preceding Festrunk Brothers sketch.
— The detail of “boiled sheep’s urine” being part of the remedy is absolutely priceless to me.
— Funny line from Steve about Laraine’s illness being caused by a small dwarf living in her stomach.
— John looks hilarious as the hunchback.
— I believe this is the first time on SNL where Bill is doing the “talking out the corner of the mouth” mannerism that he would go on to famously use for some of his characters.
— Bill’s pained screaming when being taken out of his wheelchair and getting hanged upside down by his legs kills me every time I see this sketch. It’s the portion of this sketch that I’ve always remembered the most.
— I liked how they reprised Steve’s “Maybe she’s right… (*goes into a deep , thoughtful speech*) Nah!” thing from the ending of his Mike McMack Defense Lawyer sketch earlier this season.
STARS: *****
DANCING IN THE DARK
time stands still while (host) & (GIR) go “Dancing In The Dark”
— Ah, here comes another all-time legendary SNL classic. This episode is on fucking FIRE.
— Man, Steve and Gilda’s chemistry is so fun, and it’s enthralling to watch these two comedy greats dancing around the SNL studio.
— I always appreciate any extensive sketch that doesn’t use any dialogue.
— Beautiful how this sketch ended the exact same way it began.
— When Steve later hosted in 1989, this sketch was re-aired during his monologue as a tribute to Gilda, who passed away just hours earlier that same day. Ever since that special encore presentation, this sketch has taken on a new, poignant meaning.
STARS: *****
WEEKEND UPDATE PREVIEW
WEEKEND UPDATE
DAA complains that GAM didn’t get enough marijuana to “test for paraquat”
JAC & DAA do a Point-Counterpoint about federal aid for abortions
— Good laugh from Garrett showing up and discreetly giving Dan “the stuff” (marijuana). This feels like something Tracy Morgan would’ve done on Update in later seasons.
— Dan: “It’s just that a survey shows that 97% of our viewers smoke [marijuana] daily.”
— Another instance of an awkward pause while we have to wait for Dan to find the next news story among his desk papers. I lost count of the number of times this has happened with him this season.
— Yet another point/counterpoint.
— Dan: “Jane, you ignorant misguided slut”
— Dan’s pro-abortion rebuttal was very funny, especially the harsh comment about how if he could, he would’ve performed an abortion on Jane’s mother to prevent Jane from being born.
— The “This just in, Garrett Morris is dead” bulletin was a funny follow-up to the earlier marijuana commentary.
— That’s it? Shortest Update in a long time.
STARS: ***½
KING TUT
host & SNL Band perform “King Tut” to honor the ancient Egyptian ruler
— The hits just keep on comin’ tonight.
— Funny concept with Steve following his complaint about the commercialization of King Tut with a big commercialized, contemporary musical number.
— Such a catchy song, and Steve’s famous dance always kills me in this.
— “He’s my favorite honky” has always been the lyric I liked the most.
— A part that helps propel this into epic territory is the saxophonist popping out of a sarcophagus to do a solo.
— Overall, oh my god, that was perfect and was the right length without going on too long.
STARS: *****
LOVE STORY
admitting extramarital affairs is foreplay for a couple (JAC) & (JOB)
— For the first time all night, here’s a sketch I don’t recognize.
— I like the character voice Jane’s using.
— Loved Jane’s innuendo about the pharmacist “filling her prescription”.
— Great unexpected twist with Jane’s sudden “I’m ready, how about you?” line when she and John were detailing their affairs.
— Overall, a very strong lesser-known sketch.
STARS: ****½
SWAN LAKE BALLET
by Gary Weis- ballerinas & hip-hop dancers perform Swan Lake together
— Is this the return of The Lockers, who previously appeared in SNL’s third episode ever?
— I guess so.
— Overall, this was surprisingly a fairly entertaining Gary Weis short, but maybe I’m biased because I really enjoyed The Lockers’ previous appearance on the show.
— Speaking of Weis, I heard he didn’t do any more SNL shorts after this season, which means we’re now in the homestretch of his SNL tenure. I wonder if this ended up being the last SNL short he did.
STARS: ***
TROFF ‘N’ BREW
on their lunch break, businessmen eat like pigs at Troff ‘n’ Brew
— Haha, WTF at the opening shot in the restaurant showing patrons eating in an odd manner.
— Man, that chili looks nasty. Then again, I never was a big fan of chili.
— A fairly funny premise, though this is coming off a little disappointing by the high standard set for this episode. Then again, the original cast had a knack for adding a goofy charm to sketches with this type of premise.
STARS: ***
NERDS SCIENCE FAIR
at the science fair, Todd & Lisa compete with Charles Knerlman (host)
— Steve is funny as a cocky nerd.
— I always like the Nerds’ unwarranted pride in saying tired cliches as if they’re witty comebacks (e.g. “So funny, I forgot to laugh”).
— The “human sandwich” ending was pretty good.
— Overall, a decent Nerds sketch, but again, not quite up to the standards of most of this episode. I was expecting more from this.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
NEXT WEEK IN REVIEW
psychics (JAC), (host), (DAA) predict the news
— I like this premise of a panel show with psychics predicting what will happen in the next week.
— Jane and Steve’s facial expression during their respective intro shot was great.
— Heh at “Send More Chuck Berry”.
— I like the psychics predicting that Laraine won’t be there next week.
— Overall, this starting losing me around the middle, but kinda won me back at the end. I still feel that the overall result didn’t quite live up to the premise’s potential.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— So, did this live up to its status as the all-time best SNL episode ever? Well, that pre-Update half was certainly hard to beat, with an amazing string of legendary segments, and even after that, the night’s winning streak continued with the first two post-Update sketches, one of which is a forgotten gem (Love Story). However, the episode’s quality unfortunately died down after that, as the remainder of the show was just a string of average pieces (not counting the Blues Brothers’ second musical performance). So, would I agree that this is the greatest SNL episode ever: probably not. I mean, if you’re judging the episode just by the number of classics it produced, I can certainly see why it’s widely considered the best SNL ever, but as we continue to chronologically go along SNL’s timeline, there will probably be a few episodes I find to be more consistently strong from beginning to end, especially once we reach the late 80s/early 90s era. That being said, tonight’s episode may just be the original era at its absolute best. I can’t say for certain yet, as I still have two more years of the era left to cover.
— All of my talk in the above paragraph has put an interesting question into my mind: what is generally considered the most defining, representative episode of each SNL era? It doesn’t necessarily have to be the era’s best episode, just the most representative.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Michael Sarrazin):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Richard Dreyfuss
I would agree the last third or so of this episode is just so-so; I remember when I watched the episode in full for the first time, noting how unfamiliar that third was as the rest is justifiably played a lot in “best of” collections.
If you had to put a gun to my head, my pick for best episode is probably the 1990 Tom Hanks episode, but I just love that era so much.
Hanks hosted twice in 1990. Are you referring to the February ’90 episode or the December ’90 one? I’m guessing the latter.
Stooge! I was somewhat devastated when the old SNL forum went down and I couldn’t access your treasure trove of reviews (particularly Seasons 16-19). So good to discover you are still out there writing new reviews and that you’ve archived your reviews of new episodes from 2000-14.
I bought a VHS tape circa 1993 called “The Best of Steve Martin” that had edited versions of this episode (the first three segments after Update were cut) and a Season 5 episode (it had “Vandals”) on the same tape together. I used to watch it over and over. I was 15 or so at the time. But as a direct result of that, “Nerd Science Fair” and “Next Week in Review” have the same classic status to me as “Theodoric,” “King Tut” and “Dancing in the Dark.” When Chuck Berry died a couple years back, I was telling everyone about the Time magazine cover with the aliens instructing us to “Send More Chuck Berry. “
Hey, good to see you again, Andrew.
Steve Martin, to me, is/was the perfect host for SNL….really he becomes just another really strong cast member. Though my favorite skit with him (the hominids) comes later.
The 15th anniversary special in 1990 used several clips from this episode, including “Theodoric of York,” “King Tut” and this installment of the Festrunk Brothers. And for good reason: it’s a solid episode with a great host who *got* what “SNL” was about, it had some well-remembered moments, the program’s firing on all cylinders, and there’s a real feeling of fun throughout the show. It’s not a perfect show, but it’s hard to beat.
Ever since “Dancing in the Dark” was shown as a tribute to Gilda that night in May 1989, my heart aches a little when I see that sketch. It’s a sweet moment, so goofily beautiful, and so poignant.
Big discovery! This felt like an appropriate place to post this, It turns out there a whole collection available for public use containing over 30 years of SNL. The complete episodes are here split into two parts for anyone to watch. The videos are flipped (which shouldn’t be a real issue unless text appears) and they are slowed down (but that can be fixed by switching the speed to 1.25) Otherwise, its nearly* all here!
Seasons 1-5
https://www.dailymotion.com/hofmanendly/videos
Seasons 6-11
https://www.dailymotion.com/brianloopee/videos
Seasons 12-18
https://www.dailymotion.com/mordaklian/videos
Seasons 19-25
https://www.dailymotion.com/khaleddimper/videos
Seasons 26-31
https://www.dailymotion.com/saramichella/videos
*I double checked through every account to see if there were any missing. Below are three lists that explain which shows are missing the last “20 minutes”, where only the last “20 minutes” are available and which episodes are not present on here.
Part 2 missing
Dick Cavett (Season 2)
Shelley Duvall (Season 2)
Elliott Gould (Season 5)
Rick Moranis + Dave Thomas (Season 8)
Sid Caesar (Season 8)
Howard Hesseman 2 (Season 8)
Tom Hanks (Season 14)
Matthew Broderick (Season 14)
Wayne Gretzky (Season 14)
Linda Hamilton (Season 17)
Mary Stuart Masterson (Season 17)
Tom Arnold (Season 18)
Courtney Cox (Season 20)
Christopher Walken (Season 21)
Elle MacPherson (Season 21)
Dana Carvey (Season 22)
Scott Wolf (Season 23)
Ray Romano (Season 24)
The Rock (Season 25)
Jonny Moseley (Season 27)
Jeff Gordon (Season 28)
Christina Aguilera (Season 29)
Jason Bateman (Season 30)
Part 1 missing
Lauren Hutton (Season 7)
Beau + Jeff Bridges (Season 8)
Justine Bateman (Season 13)
Bruce Willis (Season 15)
Danny DeVito (Season 18)
Kevin Kline (Season 18)
Deion Sanders (Season 20)
Chevy Chase (Season 21)
David Schwimmer (Season 21)
Robert Downey Jr. (Season 22)
Nathan Lane (Season 23)
Julianne Moore (Season 23)
Ben Stiller (Season 24)
Alec Baldwin (Season 26)
Matthew McConaughey (Season 28)
Full Episode missing
Bruce Dern (Season 7)
Barry Bostwick (Season 9)
Steve Guttenberg (Season 12)
Bill Murray (Season 12)
Charlton Heston (Season 12)
John Larroquette (Season 12)
Mark Harmon (Season 12)
Robert Mitchum (Season 13)
Paul Simon (Season 13)
Judge Reinhold (Season 13)
Demi Moore (Season 14)
John Lithgow (Season 14)
Melanie Griffith (Season 14)
Leslie Nielsen (Season 14)
Geena Davis (Season 14)
Steve Martin (Season 14)
Kathleen Turner (Season 15)
Ed O’Neill (Season 15) Actually Quincy Jones
Alec Baldwin (Season 15)
Andrew Dice Clay (Season 15)
Susan Lucci (Season 16)
Jimmy Smits (Season 16)
Joe Mantegna (Season 16)
Roseanne Barr (Season 16)
Steven Seagal (Season 16)
George Wendt (Season 16)
Roseanne + Tom Arnold (Season 17)
Jerry Seinfeld (Season 17)
Tom Hanks (Season 17)
Woody Harrelson (Season 17)
Joe Pesci (Season 18)
Michael Keaton (Season 18)
John Goodman (Season 18)
Sally Field (Season 19)
Patrick Stewart (Season 19)
John Travolta (Season 20)
Roseanne (Season 20)
Quentin Tarantino (Season 21)
Teri Hatcher (Season 21)
Lisa Kudrow (Season 22)
Chris Rock (Season 22)
Rosie O’ Donnell (Season 22)
Kevin Spacey (Season 22)
Neve Campbell (Season 22)
Sylvester Stallone (Season 23)
Bill Murray (Season 24)
Norm Macdonald (Season 25)
Dana Carvey (Season 26)
Christopher Walken (Season 26)
The Olsen Twins (Season 29)
Topher Grace (Season 30)
Ashton Kutcher (Season 30)
Thanks, Vax! I’ve been enjoying these immensely over the past few days.
Today I found links that give you the episodes in each section in chronological order. Here they are:
Seasons 1-5: https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x67g4z
Seasons 6-11: https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x67g56
Seasons 12-18: https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x6878k
Seasons 19-25: https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x6878u
Seasons 26-31: https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x67g57
Let’s try again…
Seasons 12-18: https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x6878k
Seasons 19-25: https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x6878u
Belated thank you for this.
I think some were taken down, including part 1’s from Christopher Walken in season 18 and John Malkovich in season 19. Hopefully the NBC streaming service has every one, I’ll miss Stalk Talk and Ruining It For Everybody.
Found another list.
Seasons 32-37: https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x67g58
Some of the links above do not work, but you can copy and paste the URL instead.
Well that last collection turned out to be a bust, so here’s another one:
(https://archive.org/details/@snlfan?&sort=titleSorter&page=6)
Belated thanks for this, Vax.
This ep probably boosted Steve Martin’s song “King Tut”s popularity since during the summer, it was moving up on the charts on Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40” radio program!
After decades of wondering, I found the disco tune played during the open and close of “Dancing in the Dark”: Thunder Thumbs and Lightnin’ Licks, by The Brothers Johnson — obviously a choice by either Paul Shaffer or Blue Lou: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0ye2EC4pVA
The other music is apparently from a Jackie Gleason album; not sure which.
Thanks for finding that info. The music choices in that sketch are key to it being so perfect.
Imagine anyone back when they were making that sketch knowing how special it would go on to be.
I’m thinking the movie The Band Wagon in which Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse are dancing to that very tune…
I concur with avmon that it was more inspired by “The Band Wagon”; if not for the song, then for the fact that Steve & Gilda’s wardrobe in the sketch look similar to what Astaire & Charise wore…
Hello Stooge. I don’t know IF I watched Michael Sarrazin, But I Think You Should have Said This Episode with Steve Martin was A BIG STEP UP ! In My Opinion, There is NO Way that Michael Sarrazin was anywhere Close To Steve Martin Like Steve And Gilda Dancing OR King Tut OR Even The Medieval Barber !
Anyone know why on the news they call themselves “Dave” Aykroyd and “Jean” Curtin?
Because the original SNL, at its heart, was absurd?
True, but usually the jokes are a reference.
Absurdity has no reference. That’s nearly the definition of “absurd”.
Do you know of any examples of jokes that have no meaning from the show?
The opening sketch in 1975 is a pretty darn good example.
IF you can even call them jokes.
I’m not sure there’s a funny line in the whole thing. But Belushi made it funny… O’ Donoghue would probably have told you it wasn’t SUPPOSED to be funny…that’s why it was funny.
Not really the same thing, as in this the incorrect names in update could be a reference to someone else . IMO and the whole joke of Wolverine that is Belushi is mimicking everything he says and does.
Could be. But if it’s not particularly obvious to even a small part of your audience (including huge SNL fans like us…), then it’s not much of a “joke”…and doesn’t have a very good “reference”. Inside jokes are great…but somebody has to get them.
Maybe somebody else out there knows why “Dave” and “Jean” were slipped in there…or WHY they were supposed to be funny…IF they were. The director of SNL at the time was Dave Wilson (but that’s a pretty common name to make a “joke” out of…) and Jean Doumanian (Ugh!) was an AP on the show in those years.
Yes, Belushi does simply repeat everything O-Donoghue says. But that doesn’t make the concept “funny”.
It’s as absurd as they’ve ever done. I’d have to think long and hard to come up with others. Perhaps I will…
Also, the reason I thought it might be a reference to some one else, is they did one this season in which Jane said she was “Laverne” Curtin and Dan said he was “Shirley” Aykroyd.
My point was that since it was over 4o years ago, maybe it was so dated that someone like me, who’s 34 wouldn’t get it and that it could be a “reference” to someone known like Laverne and Shirley and not an inside joke. Also there’s a difference between throwing out 2 random names for no reason and 2 actual people, regardless of whether or not the audience knows them.
Funny or not, it is to me the joke is that someone would take a language teacher so literally.
I’ll butt in and say I think the least likely scenario is they were using names that no one had heard of.
I wonder if anyone in this post-Roe v. Wade overturn would still laugh at Dan Aykroyd’s final words in his “Point/Counterpoint” to Jane Curtin?
Anybody with a sense of humor…who understands parody, satire, sarcasm, sardonism…would.
Oh, and acting.
Incredible how huge “King Tut” and Martin, generally, was at the time. I’m pretty sure I was able to recite entire passages of “Wild & Crazy Guy” as I had it on heavy rotation on my 8-track! For those too young to have been around then, it may be hard to imagine that Martin’s standup was so popular that he was able to sell out the brand new Apline Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin that summer, which is an outdoor venue that holds 37,000 people! I believe the Blues Brothers opened that show, but I may be wrong about that.
Now that each episode in its entirety is in Peacock, I decided to watch every episode in order, myself.
As far as ‘Dave’ and ‘Jean’, I don’t think it was a reference to anything specific: early on when Dan first joined Update, either he or Don Pardo boffed on (I believe it was) Jane’s name.
For a few episodes after, it became a running joke, and this is what I believe the reference is. Dave and Jean are so close to Dan and Jane to be confused with the early boffs.
Stooge, thank you so much for this project! I can’t tell you how invaluable your insight, as well as those of the commenters, has been to me, someone relatively new to SNL!
LOL…what is a “boff”??? Does it mean mistake? Or a goof?
Sounds like it might be a “British” English thing??
I know of only one American slang use for “boff”.
And I don’t think Dan ever boffed Jane…at least not on air…🙄🙄
Lol yeah, it means a mistake. Now that you mention it, I’m not sure where I picked up the word ‘boff’, but I’ve just been using it😅. You’re probably right, and I just mistook the meaning when I was younger
I looked it up….I’m surpsised I’d never heard it used as “mistake”…only “boffed” as in….sex!
Maybe it’s a regional dialect thing?? Where did you grow up?
I have heard, and used, the word “biff” to connote a mistake. Which does NOT appareantly mean “make a mistake”.,…but DOES also mean “HIT”….just like BOFF!!
Sheesh. English! LOL