Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
GAM, JOB, BIM, DAA re-create the Texaco Star Theater opening
— I’m liking how authentic this old-timey Texaco parody feels.
— Garrett’s solo was very stereotypical but hilarious.
— Short cold opening, but a fun one.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host’s politically-incorrect stand-up is ended after only five minutes
— For some reason, the stairway to the door the hosts make their entrance through is on the opposite side tonight.
— A super-extended applause break for the TV legend after he makes his entrance.
— He’s launched right into a string of groaners, none of them funny so far.
— Now we’re getting bad Puerto-Rican jokes…
— My god, he can’t stop making little ad-libs to the crowd every two seconds. I wouldn’t mind that if the ad-libs were actually FUNNY.
— Man, all these jokes are fucking TERRIBLE so far. That Jehovah Witness one in particularly was embarrassing.
— Ha, a loud pipe-dropping sound could suddenly be heard off-camera, and after a confused reaction, Berle ad-libs “NBC just dropped another show.” I admit, that made me laugh, especially knowing the poor state NBC was in at the time during Fred Silverman’s reign of terror.
— There’s a backstory to that pipe-dropping incident, by the way. IIRC, it was actually Bill Murray who intentionally dropped the pipe off-camera. Bill, as one of many SNL people who Berle pissed off throughout that week, did that as a way to throw Berle off during this hacky-joke-ologue of his.
— Oh, here’s the infamous part where Berle is told to cut his monologue short, after going on for just five minutes. Berle’s visibly upset by this, and at first, he jokingly responds “Only five minutes? I usually bow for 20!” (which is a really old joke he had been using for decades), then he very awkwardly wraps up the monologue with a hesitant, half-hearted “We’ll be right back”. And then, here’s the infamous part: as the camera’s about to fade to black, Berle apparently thinks the show has gone off-the-air and he angrily begins chewing out SNL for only giving him a five-minute monologue. LMAO! I was told by someone years ago that during Berle’s tantrum, he can be heard incredulously asking “Five minutes??? For a STAR??!?!?” However, I couldn’t make out what Berle was saying during his tantrum. It sounds as if they panickedly cut off his mic right after he started his angry rant.
STARS: *½ (the ½ is only for the “NBC just dropped another show” ad-lib)
THE WIDETTES
the Widettes’ Uncle Wayne (host) visits the family at Easter
— Oh, geez, not these guys again. As if the monologue wasn’t bad enough…
— The so-called “funny” part with Milton and Dan’s big bottoms constantly bumping into each other while they’re hiding Easter eggs – ugh. Between this sketch and the preceding monologue, I have yet to stop groaning tonight.
— Oh, I heard about this part, where the Widettes use Milton’s big bottom as a screen projector. Bah. Maybe I’d find that funny as a standalone gag if it weren’t in a sketch already filled to the brim with hacky big-butt jokes.
STARS: *
ROCK CONCERT
The Village Persons perform “Bend Over, Chuck Berry”
— Gilda’s doing a pretty dead-on imitation of Shaffer’s Don Kirshner impression, but it ain’t all that funny. Maybe because that insufferable “Night on Freak Mountain” sketch earlier this season (with Frank Zappa, another nightmare host from this era) permanently burned me out on Shaffer’s whole Kirshner shtick.
— “Bend Over, Chuck Berry.” Haha, oh my god…
— LOL at the opening shot of John rocking out to the music in that Indian outfit.
— Very fancy stage setting.
— This is an unusually fairly big production number for a live SNL sketch.
— Could Garrett’s lyrics be any more indecipherable? I can barely understand what the hell he’s singing.
— Now Garrett has gotten completely out-of-sync with the music.
— I remember reading about this sketch on an online SNL board, and someone had a theory that Garrett was coked out of his mind while he was performing this sketch. I absolutely do not have a hard time believing that right now. It would certainly explain a lot.
— Overall, I have no idea WHAT to make of this performance, but I did laugh throughout (even if it was “WTF?”-type of laughter) and the song was strangely very catchy.
STARS: ***
WEEKEND UPDATE PREVIEW
WEEKEND UPDATE
Chico Escuela has success in exhibition game with Mets; Willie Mays cameo
BIM discloses ex-lover Anita Bryant’s dirty secret- she drank apple juice
rock critic Z Jones (LAN) accuses Elvis Costello of being derivative
BIM sends off the King Tut exhibit with “Toot, Toot, Tootsie” variant
— We get Part 2 of the previous week’s Chico Escuela baseball pre-tape.
— Overall, a good Chico Escuela segment, even if it wasn’t trying to be all that funny.
— Bill’s reveal about Anita Bryant from his days of “dating” her was pretty funny.
— Ah, the debut of a new Update character (Z Jones). An actual new Update character is something I’m not used to seeing this season. I had thought they were hellbent on endlessly running Roseanne Rosannadanna and Father Guido Sarducci into the friggin ground this season.
— Laraine: “I hope I get this out before those ludes kick in.” Laraine already used that same line in that Roy Orbison sketch from season 3. She’s re-using the same voice from that sketch, too.
— Laraine’s overall commentary didn’t work for me. A shame, because I liked the idea behind her character and felt it had potential. Does this character eventually come back, or did it end up a forgotten one-time experiment? I wish the character worked, since this season is in desperate need of new Update characters. There’s only so much more of Roseannadanna and Sarduccci I can take.
— Bill singing a goodbye song to a King Tut statue and sleazily kissing it is a funny variation of something he had recently done with a Einstein bust. Doesn’t Bill later do something similar to an Ayatollah statue during a season 5 Update?
STARS: ***
THE LAUNCHING PAD
club owner Buddy Pine (host) can’t find talent good enough to showcase
— Bill’s brief vocal impression of Jimmy Stewart sounded more like Mr. Ed.
— This sketch is pretty dead so far.
— Garrett’s hacky routine on the differences between blacks and whites started out like it was going to be amusingly bad, but ended up not going anywhere.
— What the heck is that thing Dan keeps doing with his hand, where he does the turkey-hand gesture against his forehead? Why is he doing that?
— Man, I am getting ZERO enjoyment out of this sketch.
— John’s the final cast member being auditioned. Looks like he could potentially save this sketch.
— Nope, John’s scene didn’t end up being funny either. Damn.
— Well, at least the sketch is finally over. This whole thing seemed pretty pointless. I thought all the bad comedy acts would lead to some kind of unexpected twist at the end, but it never happened. If the humor was supposed to come from how bad the comedians are, the writers should’ve made it more hilariously bad, instead of just boringly bad.
STARS: *
ON THE SPOT
Irwin Mainway’s unsafe Kiddie Funworld ires Joan Face (JAC)
— Irvin Mainway comes to save this episode!
— This is possibly this character’s final appearance before Dan leaves.
— Loved the description of Mainway’s “Crack the Whip” ride, where children are stuffed into a burlap bag and are spun around and around until being flung into space.
— And now, we get an even funnier ride description, with Mainway’s “Ice Palace” being a collection of abandoned refrigerators.
— Surprising moment with Jane’s character finally snapping and strangling the hell out of Mainway as the sketch ended. A fitting way to end what (I assume) ended up being Mainway’s final appearance during Dan’s tenure in the cast.
STARS: ****
FARBERS RETIREMENT HOME
Bobbi Farber & sister Sylvia (LAN) gab as they feed elderly father (host)
— Always good to see Gilda’s Farbers character.
— Oh, god, this is the infamous “Did you make?” sketch I’ve always heard bad things about.
— A super-hacky spittake from Berle.
— Boy, this was yet ANOTHER awful sketch tonight. Gilda’s Farbers character is usually always enjoyable; why’d they have to drag her down into the awfulness of tonight’s episode?
— This was the second Farbers sketch in a row that didn’t include John’s character. Wonder why they stopped using him.
STARS: *
MILTON’S WRITERS
host’s six Japanese “writers” get an on-air introduction
— Now we get MORE unfunny racial humor from Berle, with him introducing his all-Asian team of writers, and him speaking to them in fake Japanese. Leave the fake Japanese gibberish to Belushi, Milty.
— Oh, this just ended up being an intro to the musical guest. Why’s the musical performance on so late in the episode, by the way?
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Times Square”
SEPTEMBER SONG
host sings “September Song” & reflects on his life in show business
— Oh, no, here’s yet another infamous part of the episode I’ve always heard about: Berle’s “September Song” segment.
— He stops mid-song (yay!) to do even more hacky jokes (boo!) during an overly sappy, maudlin reflection of his career (ugh!).
— I can just picture Lorne, the cast, and the crew gagging and dry-heaving during this whole segment.
— Oh, here’s the phony standing ovation I heard about. Legend has it that Berle had a friend planted in the audience for the purpose of leading a standing ovation, so it would look like the ovation was spontaneous. Ugh.
STARS: *
GOODNIGHTS
— I’m noticing how reluctant the cast is to interact with Berle. John and Garrett are the only ones I saw immediately shaking hands with him. John’s reportedly the only cast member who still had any respect left for Berle by the end of the week. Berle’s well-documented obnoxious backstage behavior that week caused him to alienate just about every non-Belushi person who works on the show.
— It does look like Milton has started slow-dancing with Gilda, which, if anything, is a testament to Gilda’s perpetual sweetness.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Oh, thank god it’s finally over. Out of the episodes with the three most notorious hosts of the original SNL era (Louise Lasser, Frank Zappa, and Milton Berle), I’d probably say this is tied with Lasser as the worst. I got very little enjoyment out of watching this. I wish I counted the number of times I groaned during this episode, because I’m sure it’s way into the double-digits (the monologue ALONE probably got at least 20 groans from me). I absolutely hated most of the segments tonight; in fact, the only things I liked (cold opening, Bend Over Chuck Berry, Update, and Irvin Mainway) happens to be the only parts of the show that Berle had no involvement in. Definitely not a coincidence.
— I normally find Milton Berle to be funny in many venues, but I can’t deny how horribly he did in SNL’s format. To say nothing of that tantrum he threw at the very end of the monologue after they told him to wrap it up. The only thing he was tolerable in all night was the Launching Pad sketch, and that’s only because he played the role straight with none of his usual upstaging business.
— Overall, no wonder Lorne supposedly wanted to bury this episode by permanently excluding it from reruns (until the 2000s, I believe).
— At least I can now proudly say I’ve reviewed all of “The Notorious 3 of 70s SNL” (Lasser, Zappa, Berle).
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Richard Benjamin):
— a colossal step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Michael Palin
You deserve battle pay for this one.
As for the pipe dropping incident, it’s not quite as you say – Bill Murray himself (during an interview on Bob Costas’ old LATER show) says that Berle actually planned for someone to drop the pipe offstage, so that “NBC just dropped another show” would SOUND like a clever ad-lib. So you can probably drop that extra half-star for the monologue.
Isn’t that the version Lorne told in the Shales/Miller book, too?
Yeah, Berle LOVED to plan bits for adlibbing.
He did a similar one at the Tony Awards a couple of years later while presenting. There was a crash backstage and then he referenced the then-current controversy of the city tearing down 5 Broadway theatres: “Don’t tell me they’re tearing this one down too!”. The audience erupted and I thought it was funny…until I found out he staged these.
The Launching Pad sounds a lot like a trope SNL does a lot nowadays but they didn’t seem to do much back then, in which most of the cast plays odd folks that just cycle through the sketch.
I wonder if they could have done a Charles Grodin-esque runner where Berle hates being on SNL and is trying to take over the show, but that might have gone over his head.
Dan in particular looks absolutely pissed during the good nights… He kept his hands in his pants until Berle forced a handshake out of him and then ran off stage with a good thirty to forty seconds to go.
Can’t blame him whatsoever.
This has to be one of the most painful SNL episodes I’ve ever watched. It was a total cluster of fail from the opening skit on. Berle was a nice pick due to history but damn if he wasn’t a loon during this. Makes me wonder if he was going senile then or had a drinking problem or something because he acts like a loony toon here. His monologue’s one of the oddest I’ve ever seen, his jokes are hilarious in the bad way, then he had that tantrum.
Only real saving grace is the Village People skit but I agree it was hard to hear what Garrett was singing. That being said they nailed the instrumental perfect.
The goodnights were hilarioious though. You can cut the tension with a knife. Dan’s beyond pissed at Miltie; he probably coulda smacked him if he had wanted to. Murray’s pissed too, he was acting like he did with Chevy. The girls were trying to hold toghether as was Garrett but you could tell he was mad. Then you had Belushi kissing his butt. Odd combo.
Very surprising booking of Ornette Coleman for this episode, even though his piece is fairly
accessible compared to most of his output (he was exploring “harmolodic funk” at the time.)
I finally watched this episode all the way through for the first time last night. While it wasn’t as bad as I expected, it was still a painful experience. Ornette Coleman was great, the final Mainway was good, Bend Over Chuck Berry was a mountain of cocaine, and the Launching Pad was fun even if it was way too slow-paced and didn’t build to anything. The “painful” part is obviously all because of Milton being a massive cock. Other than Trump, he’s probably the host who’s cratered an episode the most just off of sheer unlikability. Milton’s horrendous monologue and then The Widettes is one of the most aggresively awful one-two punches in SNL history. The planned ad-lib, the planned standing ovation, the hackkkkkk jokes, the yelling at the crew, all the mugging and spit-takes (which weren’t really in the episode, but Lorne told him to cut out during rehearsals) and that ENDLESS September Song career reflection nonsense made this episode so annoying and tiresome. September Song in particular is so, so goddamn bad. One of the worst things I’ve ever seen on SNL. It’s such a contrast from Don Rickles’ terrific and fun hosting performance.
S1-S5 aren’t perfect, but this is the only episode from the ‘70s that full on irritated me with its awfulness. Zappa was more disappointing than irritating, imo.
I didn’t remember seeing the whole thing originally, but I remember the Irwin Mainway sketch. “No it isn’t…it’s a collection of abandoned refrigerators.”
Something odd happens at the end of the Launching Pad sketch – Jane supposedly calls all performers back in, but Bill and Dan are not among them. Then there’s an awkward moment when Milton says he has five spots in his comedy school and there are five people present— it’s as if Jane had to help him count how many people were there before he said how many spots he had. Did Bill and Dan deliberately sabotage the end of this sketch?
@KH — good eye. I never noticed Bill and Dan’s absence. When Bill was on Later with Bob Costas, he talked a bit about this episode and mentioned something happening in the monologue… but if memory serves, he was actually referring to this sketch? I haven’t seen the interview in 28 years, but looks like most of it starts in the link below, and is in two parts. Maybe he explains. I will say I assumed Jane’s showing him the count was part of her character being “complicit” in his hack comedy school. But maybe you’re onto something that it was an ad-lib due to Bill/Dan being absent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNKIjCwOQf0
Thanks for the link. I’d never seen it. Bill seems less somber and tense than he often does, so that was nice. Sadly there is a cut in the tape so he can’t describe the sketch in full, but it sounds like something that wasn’t in the episode – a dress piece, maybe? He mentions it was written by Rosie Shuster and Anne Beatts.
@John I watched this Bob Costas with Murray back when. The sketch which seemed like it only made dress Bill called a “benefit for yeast infection” (so running with the Candy Slice sketch in the Rick Nelson ep) The stuff I recall that was cut from the youtube video was him saying Berle go closer to the camera (and Bill would demonstrate this) and be like “Hihowyadoing….” (recall that Thursday Night edition Obama/McCain debate sketch where Darrell and Fred would walk in front of the camera, that’s how close.) Also I believe Bill said he played Peter Lawford in the sketch, which makes me think this is a photo of said dress sketch from the book “Rolling Stone Visits Saturday Night Live” (Rolling Stone Press, 1979)
https://imgur.com/dHZybkw
I honestly just laughed at the widettes because of how the characters deliver their lines. I love the prime time players so much
This episode isn’t so bad as it is “trying to force two puzzle pieces together that clearly don’t fit”. The Texaco bit was very nice. They don’t do “touching” openings anymore. That “We Love NBC” one earlier in the season was ALL-TIME great. I wonder why it really hasn’t been a thing since. In the monologue, he’s just doing his bit. Imagine if you were forced to televise the “he just doesn’t have his fastball anymore” hour.
Wydettes was forgettable, but they only have a week to put the show together. The Village Persons bit was great and on point. It’s funny, just not in the laugh out loud type of funny. More like it’s funny because it’s actually a pretty good send up. Who knows. Maybe Weird Al was accelerated by this! By this point, he either was already sending tapes to Dr. Demento or was about to. Everyone does well. It’s humorous.
The Chico Escuela bit was great! I wonder if they actually let Garrett Morris take a legitimate at bat or actually run the bases (like in game). I always root for Garrett.
My Detroit Tigers let Tom Selleck have an actual at bat in the top of the 8th of a spring training game once.
Yeah, it’s awkward. But I would rank it under Sinead O Connor (even though she turned out to be right about the catholic church). Even the Jack Burns blowing the bit thing was worse so far.
(weekend update)
The bad jokes by bad comedian things is probably a “good idea in principle but not in practice” and something they just had to go with/had enough of Uncle Milty’s BS. Chuck that one in the trash. Jane Curtain does a good job at least. So does Lorraine. One must admit that the “being unfunny on purpose” is actually working to a point though. Yeah, a bad skit. BUT. Notice the “See You Next Tuesday” reference.
Someone more nuts than I should count the number of Joan Face appearances. Really should be a much more remembered name. I used to work at Michigan’s Adventure for six summers, so Mr. Mainway would hit me hard if this were serious haha. It is extra funny for that purpose. Overall a meh. It kinda brings down the Halloween Costumes one to find out they ran this one more than a couple times. Invisible Pedestrian and the GI Joe ripoff was hilarious. This is meh. Not bad. Funny. Ish. Better than the last one. Google Gene Mulvihill and Action Park if you want a real life Irvin J. Mainway.
I would assume John refused to be in such a crap Farber sketch. It’s not funny when you can tell his heart isn’t in it. Of course, leave it to the women to do the heavy lifting. I half expected the soup to be a Julia Child type thing. That probably would’ve been more funny. Gilda is really standing in the batters box here. We all have an aunt who really has that annoying tone of voice. The awkward applause tells you everything you need to know.
Jesus God. Well. It was funny back then. I guess? No wonder why they didn’t replay this show much. It’s alright. Every cast is owed a couple stinkers.
Polyphonic Jazz works a lot better here than it did for Sun Ra, at least Ornette Coleman and company are all actually very tuned into the whole thing. This is more about sound exploration than it is everything, and by 12:25 everyone’s either hammered, sleeping or ripped on weed/drugs at this point anyway. This is cool, yet I wouldn’t expect the average listener to understand. It’s “3D Music” but you have to be pretty deep down the “Jazz Rabbit Hole” to enjoy listening to it a lot.
Dear Milton Berle: Television is not a smoky night club. Why didn’t people support him? Clearly he’s collapsing under his own weight here. But he means well. If you think this is bad, try watching his workout video tape when those were all the rage. Makes this look like Masterpiece Theatre. Yeah. Milton Berle crashed a ship slowly knowing its fate. The
Peacock cut right to the good nights, oh and I can tell. Gilda being a great sport. She is a first ballot SNL hall of famer. They should name the Sketch Comedy hall of fame AFTER her. Agreed, it’s a terrible episode. But. It’s worth studying about how bad it is, unlike most of two years from here.
Ye Gods, this episode was painful to watch. It was an attempt to meld Berle’s old-style “Borscht Belt” schtick with the hip irreverent comedy of SNL, and it didn’t work.
In early 1951, NBC did the unthinkable: the network signed Berle to a lucrative 30-year contract. However, by the mid-50s, TV became more sophisticated and Berle’s comedy was old-hat; the contract became one of NBCs greatest debacles. Berle was off the air by 1956. NBC threw Berle a few contractual obligations: First, the network made Berle the MC of a TV version of “Kraft Music Hall,” which lasted one season (1958-59). Then in 1960, Berle became the host of a bowling show on NBC, another one-season blunder.
Some of the auspices of the contract must have been dropped; in 1966, Berle moved to ABC for a new variety show. Despite big-name guest stars, the show tanked – again proving Berle was beyond his TV shelf life. The ABC Berle show was canceled after a few months.
By the time of his SNL appearance, Berle’s difficult reputation was well known, as were his old jokes and outright deceptions (Berle claimed he appeared in the 1914 Charlie Chaplin film “Tillie’s Punctured Romance, but his claimed role was played by another child actor).
I can’t blame the SNL cast and crew for disliking this episode.
His contract was actually lifetime and was fulfilled by guest appearances on Chips, Gimme A Break, Diff’rent Strokes, Fame, Fresh Prince, etc.
RE: ‘Kiddie Funworld.’ I didn’t know that Irving Mainway designed the rides for Action Park in New Jersey.