Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
DAA gives a sub (Marvin Goldhar) tips on how to do absent JOB’s bits
— They reveal that John Belushi’s out this week because he has an ear infection. I had forgotten that I always heard there was an episode John was absent in towards the end of his final season. An ear infection’s not REALLY the reason for his absence, is it? Was he out filming scenes for a movie (“1941”, perhaps)?
— John’s substitute actor is pretty funny.
— Dan does a pretty good impression of John’s Samurai gibberish.
— That may have been one of the corniest segues to LFNY I’ve ever seen, but at least the soon-to-depart Dan gets a LFNY after all the LFNYs they’ve been throwing at the also-soon-to-depart John’s way lately. John got five consecutive LFNYs in the last five episodes, which I just realized may be an all-time record for a cast member not named Chevy Chase.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo announces Belushi as “John Belushi… absent!”
MONOLOGUE
away from wife Paula Prentiss, host kept company in NYC with GIR
— Richard has a likable presence, and his story about his night out with his new girl is pretty funny.
— I had a feeling it would be revealed that the girl he’s talking about is Gilda.
— Gilda’s angry reaction is good.
STARS: ***
THE PEPSI SYNDROME
Jimmy Carter (DAA) is nuked; Rodney Dangerfield cameo
— Ah, yes, this is an epic sketch that I’ve always heard about and I’ve always wanted to see. Supposedly, it’s one of SNL’s longest sketches of all-time.
— I love the set-up of this premise, with Bill’s coca-cola spill accident.
— Richard’s analogies to what being exposed to the radiation is like are pretty funny.
— I really like this part with Franken and Davis as the Two-Mile Players mime troupe, especially them getting called out on their un-mime-like talking.
— Exciting sketch so far, and I love how extensive this all is.
— This part with them discussing Amy Carter reminds me, I remember hearing that when this sketch aired in SNL’s Presidential Bash special from 1992, they LITERALLY fast-forwarded through the Amy Carter discussion portion of this sketch while Dana Carvey popped up on-screen as Ross Perot (who Carvey was co-hosting that Presidential Bash special as) to explain that he only wanted to show the best parts of the sketch. I love Carvey’s Perot impression, but man, that sounds annoying as hell having him “pop up” on screen to interrupt a classic SNL sketch like this.
— Garrett in drag once again.
— Funny with Bill cruelly tricking Garrett’s janitor character into mopping the nuclear core room.
— HAHA, this part is excellent with Rodney Dangerfield randomly being brought in to explain in a stand-up comedy-esque way how big President Carter is now. Hilarious!
— Now this epic sketch has included Gilda’s Baba Wawa, who we’re seeing for the first in a fairly long time.
— Great surprise with Garrett as a now-giant janitor being Giant President Carter’s new First Lady.
— Overall, that sketch was absolutely fantastic. Fully-deserving of its classic status. I enjoyed this so much, I didn’t even notice how long it was.
STARS: *****
NERDS & MILT
Todd hopes to score with Lisa at his brother Milt’s (host) apartment
— Interesting setting for Todd.
— Richard’s funny as a germaphobe nerd.
— Todd’s attempt at trying to act all suave and romantic to Lisa are hilarious.
— Bill’s genuinely making Gilda crack up by making her sip her drink so fast, which is obviously an ad-lib.
— Oh, there’s the famous “I can see your nose hair!” part, which is often shown as a clip in highlight reels representing 70s SNL. That clip used to be what always immediately came to my mind whenever I would hear about these Nerds characters.
— Love how Todd is removing each cushion on the couch one-by-one while still locking lips with Lisa.
— Jane’s sex/hard-boiled egg analogy was really funny.
— Overall, a great sketch, and probably my favorite of all the Nerds installments so far.
STARS: ****½
WEEKEND UPDATE
BIM reports on Chico Escuela’s attempt to rejoin the Mets
BIM makes his Oscar picks in his usual cavalier fashion
Roseanne Roseanndanna travels from rising beef prices to gross seafood
— Oh, this is the pre-taped Chico Escuela commentary I mentioned in a recent review, where he interacts at a baseball stadium with Mets players.
— The interview portion between Chico and Bill is pretty funny.
— I like how Chico’s tell-all book about the Mets is simply titled “Bad Stuff ‘Bout the Mets”.
— We get yet another follow-up to the “you left this at my apartment last night” bit between Bill and Jane, which has become a running gag.
— Hey, an Update joke about John Belushi.
— The second annual edition of Bill’s Oscars Predictions, which is a segment I always love.
— I liked Bill’s shame in admitting he didn’t see friend-of-the-show Buck Henry’s movie “Heaven Can Wait”.
— Overall, another good Oscars Predictions segment from Bill.
— Oh, man, here’s Roseanne Roseannadanna ONCE AGAIN. I am SO tired of how this season’s Weekend Updates have gotten so predictable in which recurring guests are going to appear. As I pointed out in my last review, there’s a narrow cycle of Father Guido Sarducci, Rosanne Rosannadanna, and Chico Escuela.
— Rosannadanna’s almost starting to reach Emily Litella levels of tediousness for me, and you guys probably remember how sick I got of THAT character (Litella). Rosannadanna’s a funny character, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I’d eventually tire of her with how frequently they’ve been using her and how formulaic all her appearances are.
— I admit, the ending of Roseannadanna’s commentary with her reciting a poem written by her grandmother gave me a few chuckles.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chuck E’s In Love”
A BIRD FOR ALL SEASONS
by Aviva Slesin- fancy feathered-friend fashions
— Bill doing another short that features cutaways to animals doing human things. Is this film made by the same person who made that singing dogs short earlier this season?
— The movie trailer part is cracking me up a lot.
— This is getting funnier and funnier.
— I assume this short’s a dig at NBC’s troubles at the time with Fred Silverman’s questionable programming decisions.
— I like the pizza sitcom trailer with Italian-accented birds.
— “Produced & Directed by Aviva Slesin”. Ah, so this IS by the filmmaker who made the singing dogs short. Wonder why her(?) films always star Bill. He IS great in these, though.
— Overall, a very silly short that I enjoyed a lot. Quite an improvement over the singing dogs short.
STARS: ****
SCOTTISH RESTAURANT
Scottish restaurant charges (host) & (LAN) extra for basic amenities
— Funny how Dan’s using a torn-in-half paper bag as two tablecloths because he’s wearing the actual tablecloth as a kilt.
— HA at the nasty-sounding Scottish food. It’s funny cuz it’s true.
— LOL at Richard and Laraine having to pay for every little thing at the restaurant, even for being handed the bill itself. No wonder the restaurant was empty when they arrived at the beginning of the sketch.
STARS: ***½
LITTLE CHOCOLATE DONUTS
— A rerun from last season. Obviously, they’re only airing this to make up for John’s absence.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Coolsville”
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Another very good episode. Of course, the epic, brilliant Pepsi Syndrome sketch is the centerpiece of the show, but the rest of the episode was strong, too, especially the Nerds sketch. SNL has been on a streak of great episodes since Gary Busey.
— They did surprisingly well for an episode without Belushi. Until the Little Chocolate Donuts rerun, I had completely forgotten about his absence tonight. I’m still dreading his (and Dan’s) upcoming departure, though.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Margot Kidder):
— a very slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Well, the streak of great episodes we’ve been having lately was nice while it lasted, as our next episode just so happens to be…. (*cue suspenseful music*) the infamous Milton Berle
I have the Presidential Bash ’92 special and yes, Perot did pop up to interrupt, but in fairness, you did need to skip through some of this because this sketch is super long (I’m also pretty sure that even in the Best of 79 comp tape, they cut some parts out).
I was actually expecting the Belushi impersonator to at least do some half-assed Belushi impersonation later on.
Did Dana Carvey potentially have a long LFNY streak when he was seemingly doing George Bush every week?
This was Rickie Lee Jones’ debut – it was huge! 40 years later no one here remembers that was the best part of this fairly dull episode? Why does SNL not mention Chuck E’s in Love – performed before Coolsville.
I love Rickie Lee Jones as much as anyone, but the best part of a fairly dull episode? No way. This is a top 10 episode of the era with my Nos. 1 and 2 favorite sketches of the era.
Agree — this episode is a classic, and having a hip, somewhat underground MG like Rickie Lee Jones is just the icing on the cake
Belushi filmed something for this show, directed by Steven Spielberg, but obviously it wasn’t used.
The show definitely must have been running long post-Pepsi Syndrome, as both musical guest performances were after Update. IIRC, the only other time(s) that happened were in the late 90s, when NBC’s research arm let Lorne know about the trend towards tuning-out during the MG’s performances.
It’s too bad that the late Rodney Dangerfield’s only “SNL” appearances were in this ep and one the following season that he hosted…
He also appeared on Weekend Update during Phil Hartman’s second hosting stint (Nov 1996).
And also too bad that Rodney never got to do a sketch with Belushi. The pairing of those two would’ve been off the chart.
Promo for this episode.
In the ‘92 Presidential Bash, I’m pretty sure they also cut the mime bit with Franken & Davis (since the fast-forwarding/Perot “explanation” was only during the scenes inside the reactor). The epic feel of this and things like Toad Island make me think Lorne and the writers started channeling the Sid Caesar/Jackie Gleason shows, which would sometimes just have a totally different half-hour sketch every week (e.g. The Honeymooners). I guess they kind of did that later with the live episodes of 30 Rock, too. Would be interesting to see them do more of that. Although the 15-minute political cold opens/cameo fests kind of function in that way, too
The Presidential Bash edit starts with Day 4, beginning with the Carters’ visit to Two Mile Island.
You can see the film Belushi made for this show in lieu of his presence in the “Belushi” documentary (RJ Cutler, 2020) currently (as of this writing) on Showtime.
Can I call the premise (I think) of the cold open (sorry to be this d*ck; apologies if “duh!”) as an ‘eff you!’ to Belushi for phoning in with a lame ear infection excuse and sending a self involved film to show instead, saying they can get any garden variety utility NBC player to cover Belushi’s current strengths on the show.
That was Canadian actor Marvin Goldhar, who nine years earlier was a regular on Lorne Michael’s variety show with then-comedy partner Hart Pomerantz, who played Belushi’s sub.
I bought the Warner Brothers VHS (OOP) of this back in 1988. This version did not include the Aviva Slesin birds film. I never saw this film until the season 4 DVD boxset was released in 2008.
@rssk Thanks for the tip — I’ve always wondered if the film even existed anymore, and was surprised they didn’t include it on the DVDs as an extra. I had assumed the cold open was more of a “we miss you, John, and you can never be replaced,” but saying it in an ironic 70s fashion.
Here’s my review of the musical performances.
Chuck E.’s in Love
— Here we go, one of my favorite lady singers doing one of her best tunes
— LOL at the flaming trash cans and streetlight props in front of Rickie and her band. I get it, she’s a bohemian chick. As if it weren’t already obvious from her beret.
— And they’re really going all out with setting the stage for these musicians in these past couple shows, aren’t they? The prop department must have been working overtime during this stretch of episodes.
— Huge band she’s got here.
— Perfectly executed opening riff.
— Her voice sounds GREAT! A little clearer than on the album actually, and quite crisp.
— “S-s-s-stutter” – haha, great execution of that line that tops the studio version.
— Love the background singers clapping on the second and fourth down beats during the chorus. Nice touch.
— Always love how this song screeches to a halt for the bluesy bridge, and then segues right back up into another verse. Perfectly executed here just like in the studio version.
— Love Rickie’s gesturing along with the lyrics.
— Nice extra vocal flourishes in the final go-round of the chorus.
— WOW, great job by Rickie and her band. Everyone was completely on point.
STARS: *****
Coolsville
— Love Rickie’s black dress. She looks very classy and stylish.
— Her gesturing and non-verbal emoting really brings out the poetry and drama of the lyrics.
— The band is perfectly handling the shifting dynamics of this song’s instrumentation.
— A bit of an abrupt ending, I think they edited this song to be about a minute shorter than the album version. Oh well, great performance anyway.
— Rickie and her band handled this song’s subtlety well live. I felt an “ebb and flow” effect as the band would swell up and then draw back cyclically. And Rickie nailed the shifting vocals perfectly. Ambitious choice for SNL but well performed. She could have gone with a more straightforward or more upbeat song but I like that she chose one of her more difficult numbers to close the show.
STARS: ****1/2
I seem to be tailing you in these reviews… well, I am watching the season in order, anyway. Rickie Lee Jones was amazing- definitely belongs in “Coolsville.” I need to check out her recorded work.
This was a good episode, to make up for the last couple which I thought were just okay. The Pepsi Syndrome and The Nerds were both fantastic, and as much as I keep thinking I’ll get sick of Roseanne Roseannadanna, it never happens. Always love seeing my two favorite Gilda characters in one episode.
Now, I’m prepared to have all these good vibes destroyed once I get to the next episode.
For “A Bird for All Seasons” film short, I mainly remember the way “Macho Man” by The Village People was being used as cuts were made of various birds supposedly swaying to that particular song…