Month: November 2018

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December 13, 1980 – Jamie Lee Curtis / James Brown, Ellen Shipley

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Mean Majority members intend to impose their morality on the rest of us

 

— The “Let’s Spit on the Flag” title is the closest I’ve come to even cracking a smile at this so far.
— What a terrible LFNY. The segue to it was weird and didn’t work, and the studio audience didn’t know what to make of it, judging from their VERY delayed applause.
— This season has had a lot of bad LFNYs in general so far, come to think of it.
— Overall, a very weak start to the show. What the heck WAS this?
STARS: *


OPENING MONTAGE
— We finally get the addition of this season’s featured players. Matthew Laurance, Eddie Murphy, and Patrick Weathers each receive their very first credit tonight.

  


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

 

— I got a laugh from Jamie doing what she feels she’s expected to do tonight: a loud, horror movie-ish scream.
— Quick monologue, which seems to have become par for the course this season. This one was fine for what it was.
STARS: ***


CLOVIN HIND JEANS
only brains come between Brooke Shields (GLM) & her Clovin Hind Jeans

 

— This accurately captures the look of the famous Brooke Shields Calvin Klein commercials from that time.
— Funny punchline, and this overall commercial was short and to the point.
STARS: ***½


THE ATTACK OF THE TERRIBLE SNAPPING CREATURES
(host) battles clothespins

     

— I see we’re getting our obligatory horror movie parody out of the way early tonight.
— “Laurie”? Is Jamie playing her character from “Halloween”?
— I’m iffy about the premise, though Jamie and Gail are giving it their all.
— Funny visual at the end with Jamie staggering back to the apartment while covered entirely with clothespins.
STARS: **½


CARD GAME
Paulie Herman plays three-card monty with (EDM) in a bus station

  

— Looks like we get an Eddie Murphy-starring sketch, and early in the episode too. I’m excited to see this.
— Jersey Guy is back ALREADY?
— The audience gives recognition applause at Joe’s “I’m from Jersey, are you from Jersey”, even though this is only the second time he’s appeared.
— We’re already seeing early evidence of Joe Piscopo’s Sinatra obsession, with him briefly singing “Start Spreading the News” after hearing that Eddie’s from New York.
— The reference to tonight’s musical guest James Brown felt kinda shoehorned in.
— Overall, I still don’t mind Joe’s character (I just KNOW I’m eventually gonna get tired of it, though), but this sketch wasn’t anything great. If anything, it was at least nice seeing the early stages of Eddie and Joe’s onscreen chemistry.
STARS: **


WHO IS GILBERT GOTTFRIED?
by Linda Lee- a recap of GIG’s path to SNL

       

— A segment with Gilbert as himself on the home base stage?
— Oh, he’s only there to throw to a short film starring himself.
— Strange joke with his parents living in a revolving door.
— Good gag with him selling “fresh-squeezed water” from a sponge.
— This film isn’t turning out too funny so far.
— Okay, this has gotten a little better with the part where he holds up a bank just so he can film an SNL audition tape on the bank camera.
STARS: **½


DYING TO BE HEARD
poetesses commit suicide, have their works read on TV

   

— Interesting concept and format.
— The whole scene with Jamie is really funny, especially her ridiculous method of killing herself.
— Hilarious part with Gail(?) having killed herself ahead of schedule.
— Still not caring for Ann Risley’s performances. She’s a little too monotone in this.
— Overall, a pretty strong sketch.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
James Brown performs “Rapp Payback”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Woodswoman (DED) says “not in my backyard” to Appalachian nuclear waste
JOP poetically summarizes some recent Major League Baseball transactions
consumer reporter EDM recommends that the poor start eating dog food

       

— The Weekend Update logo on the front of the desk is now gone.
— Ugh at Charles’ cocky laughing after the Breznev rocket joke.
— Charles’ delivery sounds different from the previous Updates, and he keeps doing this head-bobbing thing after some of the jokes.
— I had heard about this Woodswoman commentary years ago, but I thought I remember hearing Ann played this character. Instead, it’s actually Denny.
— Not caring for all the cheap clapter with Denny’s Reagan-bashing statements.
— “I been it, I seen it, I am Woodswoman!”
— Wow, Charles’ joke about only aborting female fetuses was met with boos from the audience. Another example of season 6 trying WAY too hard at shock humor, only for it to backfire on them.
— I kinda laughed at the Howdy Doody/“Heavy Doody” joke, even though it was a corny one.
— Joe’s SNL Sports commentaries seem to have become a weekly thing on Update, as this is the third episode in a row with one.
— I’m loving Joe’s fast-paced rhythmic recap of baseball trades.
— Surprised Joe’s commentary is over already, but I enjoyed it.
— Eddie in his very own Update commentary.
— Interesting voice Eddie’s using.
— Eddie eating from a can of dog food is getting a big reaction from the audience, though I find it only okay; not hilarious. An obvious step down from his fantastic Update commentary in the preceding episode.
— Tonight’s overall Update is hard for me to figure. Aside from the one joke that got booed, Charles’ jokes didn’t bomb nearly as badly as they have lately, and it felt weird hearing him consistently get laughs from the audience for once. However, just because THEY liked it doesn’t mean I automatically have to, as I was still “meh” on a majority of his jokes tonight. I’m also not too sure his new delivery is the right direction for Update.
STARS: **


POKER AND DRUGS DON’T MIX
examples of stoners’ misplayed hands prove that poker & drugs don’t mix

   

— The overhead camera angle is making Ann kinda resemble Jane Curtin.
— Strange but kinda funny part with a voice-over depicting the queen card having an affair with the jack card.
— Weird sketch so far.
— What? That’s the end? I thought this sketch was going somewhere interesting, but the result just came off kinda dumb.
STARS: **


CLOVIN HIND JEANS
if Brooke Shields’ (GLM) Clovin Hind Jeans could talk, she could act

 

— Gail as Brooke Shields: “If [the Clovin Jeans in her closet] could talk, I could act”. Funny.
STARS: ***


BADGER CONVENTION
at their convention, Badger Club members hassle a waitress (host)

   

— Corny concept and humor so far.
— Eddie’s voice is kinda making me laugh, though it’s reminiscent of the voice he just used earlier tonight on Update.
— Jamie’s performance seems unusually stiff. Who is she, Ann Risley all of a sudden?
— Gilbert’s voice is borderline sounding like his now-famous screech.
— Holy hell, the part with the Badger club members “badgering” the waitress – ugh, you’re killin’ me with your trademark corny humor, season 6.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
James Brown performs a medley of his hits

 


TORTU-MATIC
toughen yourself up with the Tortu-Matic physical pain endurance unit

 

— Seems like another typical season 6 concept, but this might have some promise.
— The visual of Charles using the torture device is not as funny as they probably thought it’d come off.
— Overall, this fell completely flat for me.
— The more I think of it, the concept itself wasn’t bad, as this seems like the type of insane fake product that Dan Aykroyd would’ve sold really well during the original era. Not sure why it didn’t work at all here… well, besides the obvious fact that Rocket ain’t no Aykroyd. Maybe they should’ve gotten Piscopo to perform this.
STARS: *½


HOT DOGS FOR GAUGUIN
by Martin Brest- (Danny DeVito) stages a disaster

       

— Danny DeVito!!!
— DeVito looks so young in this.
— I like the other guy’s off-camera “Oh my god” when hearing DeVito’s Statue of Liberty plan.
— Fascinating film so far.
— Great ending with DeVito missing the Statue of Liberty’s head blowing up.
— Overall, this felt like the first thing I’ve liked in the post-Update half of the show so far (aside from James Brown’s epic medley). This season has been having a lot of interesting short films.
STARS: ****


CUT ‘N’ CURL
Roweena (GLM) styles hair of Nadine (DED) & weirded-out daughter (host)

 

— Ha, Jamie coming in with that crazy early 80s trendy look…
— As a kid of the 90s, I recognize the voice Gail’s using as being the same voice she would later use as the mom on the early 90s animated series “Bobby’s World”. As a side note, whenever I saw the name Gail Matthius during that show’s ending credits as a kid, I remember assuming “Matthius” was pronounced “Matthews”.
— Heh, now Gail has just said “Don’cha know?”, which would become her “Bobby’s World” character’s catchphrase.
— Funny comment from Denny about Jamie looking like “a mermaid on drugs”.
— Overall, this was a decent realism scene with good character work from Gail and Denny.
STARS: ***


CLOVIN HIND JEANS
Brooke Shields (GLM) recites a limerick about her Clovin Hind Jeans poses

— Not as funny as the first two.
— At the end, the audience sounded unsure of when to applause.
STARS: **


OSSELOTS
Camille Black (ANR) & her cycle gang are committed to burying road kill

 

— Oh my god, is Ann coming off miscast AS HELL in this role.
— What the heck am I watching?
— Ann to Jamie: “Keep your hands off, bitch.” Sad that that line is the closest I’ve come to chuckling so far.
— Overall, this was AWFUL. Terrible writing, and, man, Ann Risley has yet to impress me so far with her performances this season.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Ellen Shipley performs “Fotogenic”


GOODNIGHTS
host reminds audience of the upcoming vigil for John Lennon

  

— During the scrolling credits, I noticed a credit for “Gillie’s film”. What was that? The Gilbert Gottfried film? Is “Gillie” his backstage nickname?

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— After the promising upswing in quality with the last episode, season 6’s struggles unfortunately return, as we got a weak episode tonight. The writing was bad and a lot of segments fell flat for me, especially in the post-Update half of the show. There weren’t many sketches I was crazy about, but the big highlights of the night for me were Dying To Be Heard and Hot Dogs For Gauguin.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ellen Burstyn):
— a pretty big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Our Christmas episode of the season, hosted by David Carradine

Posted on

December 6, 1980 – Ellen Burstyn / Aretha Franklin, Keith Sykes (S6 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


DISCLAIMER
Those Incredible TV Shows will not be seen tonight

— Oh, great, now this season is taking a stab at the original era’s opening disclaimer gags…


COLD OPENING
David Rockefeller (CHR)- “the USA is going co-op, prepare to be evicted”

   

— Funny premise with America “going co-op” and how the poor will receive a note evicting them from the country.
— Ugh, I HATED Charles’ LFNY delivery, and what the hell was with his goofy bug-eyed stiff head-bopping and frozen open-mouthed smile? (screencap below)

— Overall, a pretty good cold opening.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Well, this was short, but Ellen had great energy and came off likable, which provided a good start to the show.
STARS: **½


ED MCMAHON SCHOOL OF LAUGHING
yuk it up like the king of second bananas

 

— Joe’s very first commercial pitchman role, which he would go on to often play on the show.
— Pretty funny concept and an overall decent commercial.
STARS: ***


WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT
Pinky & Leo Waxman ask host about her movie roles

 

— The return of this promising sketch from the season premiere.
— So far, this one has the same premise as the first installment, where the host constantly gets cut off by Denny and Gilbert, but this one is going pretty well so far.
— Liked the line about how the audience at a dinner theater “put down their forks and wept” during a play.
— Gilbert randomly assuming Ellen is “probably a bisexual” was a really funny turn.
STARS: ***½


ROCKET REPORT
CHR exposes ferry passengers’ secret sexual behavior

   

— This segment now has a new, fancier title screen, after the simplistic, plain one that was used in the last episode.
— Funny idea with Charles thinking that everybody on the ferry has spent all day having sex.
— I got a good laugh from the “beaucoups of sex” line from the first guy being interviewed.
— Strangely, the studio audience hasn’t been laughing at all so far.
— I like Charles’ doubtful looks at the camera when people are telling him their occupation.
— Okay, I’m starting to hear audience laughter now.
— Overall, a pretty good Rocket Report, though it’s a few steps down from the last one.
STARS: ***


VIDEO DATE
Paulie Herman (JOP) records an interview tape for a video dating service

 

— I wonder why the camera’s hiding Joe’s face at the start of this. I guess we’re getting some kind of reveal.
— Okay, now that we see the goofy look on Joe’s face, this appears to be the debut of his Jersey Guy character.
— Yep, there it is: “I’m from Jersey! Are you from Jersey?”
— Joe’s voice is sounding almost Jay Leno-esque at times.
— Overall, a good debut for this character. However, I’m wary about approaching his future appearances, as this seems like a character that I’m going to get tired of pretty fast. Same reason I’m dreading having to eventually cover a certain other Joe Piscopo recurring character later on: The Whiners.
— Tonight’s episode in general has surprisingly been starting off well. Every single sketch has been good so far.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Aretha Franklin performs “United Together”


WEEKEND UPDATE
JOP remarks on Roberto Duran’s “no mas” performance vs. Sugar Ray Leonard
Raheem Abdul Muhammed (EDM) denounces quotas for white basketball players
Dr. Calvin Zukow (GIG) has first-hand proof that women don’t have orgasms

       

— A few changes have been made to the Update set. It certainly looks better.
— Charles’ first joke tonight, about Gerald Ford not knowing where Poland is, got a pretty tepid audience reaction, but at least SOME people laughed, which is more than I can say about any of Charles’ jokes from the last Update.
— Oh my god, that Reagan hand-farting joke was AWFUL. Are they kidding me with that?
— I admit to laughing at the Dolly Parton “Secretary of Milk” joke, even though it was kinda cheap.
— Some of Charles’ last few jokes have been met with complete silence, which is serving as a bad reminder of his disastrous last Update.
— The heavyset “photo” of Roberto Duran that Joe showed was pretty funny.
— Joe’s about to bring on a guy named Raheem Abdul Muhammad? Oh my god, that means…
— Yep, there’s he is: Eddie Murphy! In his very first speaking role! I’m surprised to see this, because he has yet to be credited as a featured player so far this season. I guess Doumanian’s plan is to work Eddie into the show very gradually, first giving him a non-speaking role as a background extra in the preceding episode, and now giving him an uncredited big speaking role in an Update piece.
— Wow, Eddie’s KILLING IT so far in this commentary. His delivery is great, his lines are funny, and he’s getting lots of laughs from the audience; more laughs, in fact, than almost any of the actual cast members have gotten so far this season. No wonder SNL eventually adds this kid to the cast.
— Loved Eddie’s comment about how white people’s next method of copying blacks will be to go on welfare.
— The ending with Eddie bringing out the boombox was great.
— Overall, what a fantastic debut for Eddie Murphy, and it feels great witnessing the very beginning of his emergence as SNL’s breakout star. The fact that it was a 19 year old kid performing this great Update commentary makes it all the more impressive.
— In a way, it’s fitting that Eddie’s first speaking role had him paired with Joe, as those two would go on to make a great team on the show.
— Now we’re right back to the usual Update awfulness, as Charles follows the great Eddie/Joe segment with a “This bulletin just handed to me” bit that received absolute SILENCE from the audience.
— Heh, Charles’ “touching Lilian Carter’s face” joke was actually pretty funny.
— Hmm, there seems to be a malfunction with the Update news screens, as the Weekend Update logo has been visible behind the news pictures during the last few jokes.
— Charles’ joke about Ed Koch kissing Bella Abzug was hilarious.
— Is Gilbert going to appear in EVERY Update this season? And strangely, I think each of his commentaries so far have been as a different doctor character.
— Gilbert’s female orgasms commentary didn’t really work for me, and I’m starting to get a little tired of seeing him on Update every single week. None of his bits have been all that great so far.
— Overall, a bit of an improvement over the disastrous last Update. Charles’ jokes were marginally better this time, though he still had a good number of weak jokes that completely bombed. He has a long way to go before his Updates can even be considered HALF-decent.
STARS: **


OUR FRONT DOOR
suburban family eagerly learns about junkie’s (CHR) life

   

— I like Joe’s performance as a cheesy suburban dad; he’s reminding me of the way Dan Aykroyd played these roles in the original era.
— The subtle joke of Charles putting the coffee spoon into his pocket got no reaction from the audience. (boy, how many times have I pointed that out about Charles tonight?)
— Charles’ line about his potholders being made by speed freaks was pretty funny.
— Is that soon-to-be-added-to-the-cast Patrick Weathers as the sniper guy? (last screencap above)
— Overall, I found the initial concept to be somewhat intriguing, but the resulting sketch did not work. In the end, I’m left wondering what was this sketch was even going for.
STARS: **


PEPE GONZALES
by Leon Ichaso- NYC’s only bullfighter (GIG) is profiled

     

— A short film starring Gilbert. This looks to be very interesting.
— Funny gag with Gilbert gulping down an entire bottle of Scope.
— A New York street bullfighter. Funny concept.
— The narration is adding an interesting, if not funny, touch.
— Overall, I was kinda let down by how this turned out. The idea was funnier than the execution. (again, I feel like I’m repeating myself tonight) I think I got more entertainment just from all the great outdoor shots and the general cinematography than from the material itself.
STARS: **½


PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Vickie & her friend Debbie (DED) visit (host) at Planned Parenthood

 

— This is the first Vickie valley girl sketch where she’s paired with her friend, played by Denny.
— The portion of the sketch asking about orgasms is particularly funny.
— Overall, a pretty good sketch, and this established Gail’s character much better than her underwhelming debut in the season premiere did.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Aretha Franklin performs “Can’t Turn You Loose”


LESSON
Mary Louise’s (DED) sock puppet Sam The Snake terrorizes tutor (host)

  

— I said this before about Denny when talking about her Amy Carter impression in the season premiere, but once again, she looks and acts very convincing as a little girl.
— There’s Ann. This almost feels like the first time we’ve seen her all night. In fact, she hasn’t been appearing much this season in general so far. Are the writers having a time figuring out what to do with her?
— Overall, this sketch was pretty weird, but I guess I liked it enough and got some laughs from Denny’s lines.
STARS: ***


THE TONI TENNILLE SHOW
Jean Harris’ (DED) innocence claims ignored

 

— Guess I spoke too soon about Ann being underutilized. Looks like she gets a lead role here. Maybe NOW I’ll finally be able to form an opinion of her.
— Ann’s speaking in a kinda flat, stilted delivery.  Eh, maybe that’s just a part of her Toni Tennille impression.
— Overall, this sketch wasn’t terrible, but I wasn’t crazy about it and I didn’t care for Ann’s performance; she was too bland and stiff for my likes. (though, again, there’s a slight chance that’s just her mimicking Tennille) I’ve been saying I’m trying to get some kind of impression of what Ann’s like as a performer, but the impression I got from this sketch was not good.
STARS: **


FISH HEADS
by Bill Paxton- a musical tribute to the seafood discards

       

— I’ve always heard great things about this Bill Paxton short.
— Haha, this is delightfully weird so far, and the song is very catchy.
— Overall, wow, I LOVED just about every single thing about this bizarre little music video, even the very 1980 feel to it. Looks like my list of personal favorite SNL short films has a new addition.
STARS: *****


BLAME THE KIDS
parents (CHR) & (ANR) blame divorce on kids (Mitchell Kriegman) & (GLM)

  

— I see Ann STILL has that stilted, flat delivery. So much for me giving her the benefit of the doubt by assuming that was just part of her Toni Tennille impression.
— Charles as the dad is coming off Bill Murray-esque in this (though nowhere near as good).
— Whoever the guy playing the son is strangely reminds me of modern-day SNL cast member Kyle Mooney.
— I like the cruelness of this sketch’s concept, and it’s being executed well.
— Why did the lighting suddenly get really dim just now?
— The ending should’ve had a little more to it.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Keith Sykes performs “B.I.G.T.I.M.E.”


LONELY OLD LADY
young girl (GLM) finds that old lady (host) is more lonely than scary

  

— A lot of sketches tonight with cast members playing children.
— Gail’s voice in this sketch sounds EXACTLY like how Laraine Newman sounded whenever she would play a little girl.
— Gail’s story about the rumor of what Ellen does with cats is really funny.
— The ending was great and had a sentimental feel that I really liked.
— Overall, a well-done attempt at the type of realistic, quiet, semi-dramatic, slice-of-life pieces the original SNL era was so good at doing. If this sketch aired in that era, I’d probably just give it a three-and-a-half star rating, but it comes off stronger in a questionable season like this, which bumps up the rating.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Wow, I’m surprised by how good this episode was. Most of the sketches worked, nothing was too terrible, and the show in general had a nice, positive vibe to it, which feels odd to see in a season 6 episode. Easily the best of the three episodes so far this season, and a complete turnaround from what we just saw in the episode right before this.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Malcolm McDowell):
— a huge step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Jamie Lee Curtis

Posted on

November 22, 1980 – Malcolm McDowell / Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band (S6 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
(DED) tells executee son (GIG) to sit up straight in the electric chair

 

— Such a somber beginning to this so far.
— That’s it? THAT’S the big punchline??? “Sit up straight!” Oof.
— I can see what they were attempting, much like some of the quick “blackout gag” cold openings Chevy sometimes performed in season 1, but boy was this particular attempt a swing and a HARD miss.
— This is probably the lowest rating I’ve given to a cold opening so far in my SNL project.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— There’s been no real jokes so far, just a straightforward story about him failing to renew his work permit. Fairly interesting story, though.
— The joke at the end about him only doing SNL to get a new permit was okay.
STARS: **½


MUTUALLY OMAHA’S WILD KINGDOM
Jim Fowler (JOP) goes In Search of the Negro Republican

   

— This is famous for being the very first sketch that the soon-to-be-added-to-the-cast Eddie Murphy appears in, as a background extra. It’ll be fun trying to spot him in this.
— In this sketch, Charles looks so much like future cast member Gary Kroeger. This makes me feel like I’m watching an episode from 1982-1985.
— “In Search of the Negro Republican.” Funny, promising concept.
— Ah, there’s Eddie! (on the lower right corner of the third screencap above) Man, it’s weird seeing him as a mere background extra, knowing the superstar he’d soon become.
— Charles narrating the sequence with Joe putting a sedative in the subject’s drink to immobilize him is pretty funny.
— Overall, despite a promising concept, the sketch ended up being just average. Not bad, though.
STARS: ***


TOBACCO GROWERS OF AMERICA
tobacco growers’ representative (GIG) says lungs are to blame for cancer

 

— I like how Gilbert’s delivery is slowly getting more and more worked up during this.
— Haha, you can now start to hear small hints of Gilbert’s now-famous screechy voice.
— Overall, a pretty solid sketch and a strong showcase for Gilbert. This felt like something that also could’ve been written for John Belushi during the original era. Wait, is THIS why Gilbert compared himself to Belushi in the season premiere’s cold opening?
STARS: ***½


SERF CITY
feudal surfing pioneers (host) & (CHR) oppress peasants

 

— Malcolm’s voice is pretty funny.
— What the hell at this premise??? This whole “using serfs for surfing” thing is exactly the type of corny humor I came into this season expecting. And the addition of the tickling aspect is just weird.
— Ugh, I’m not liking the bad way they’re using surfing puns, like the “Serf’s up” and “hang 10” groaners.
— Okay, I got a pretty good laugh just now from the serfs’ whining “Oh nooooo!” off-camera when hearing Malcolm’s idea of taking them out to be ridden in the water.
STARS: **


WHITE HOUSE
Amy Carter (DED) likes new parents Ronald (CHR) & Nancy (GLM) Reagan

   

— Hmm, interesting premise of an alternative future where the Reagans adopt Amy Carter after being inaugurated.
— WTF at Charles’ Ronald Reagan impression??? I mean, I guess I kinda see what he’s trying to go for with the voice, but man, he’s NOT EVEN CLOSE to nailing it. The voice sounds ridiculous. And what’s with the over-the-top facial expressions and head-bobbing? And why no attempt from the make-up people at making him look like Reagan? He’s not wearing a wig or anything. Reminds me of a gripe I’ve always had with the Reagan impression Randy Quaid would later do in season 11.
— I liked Denny’s line about grits.
— Denny’s constant paranoia is pretty funny, especially her hiding under the table.
— Overall, a decent sketch, with Denny getting some good laughs and Gail doing a nice job carrying the majority of the sketch in a straight role.
STARS: ***


SHOWDOWN
by Ken Friedman- romantic conflict causes Wild West shootout

     

— Strange cinematography format, with just one camera panning back-and-forth between the three characters whenever any of them speak.  What’s the point of that?
— The graphic, bloody gunshot hits are kinda making me chuckle.
— Heh, the sudden use of out-of-place weapons like a machine gun and a bomb are pretty funny.
— Weak ending with the girl not being worth fighting over.
— Strange film overall. I kinda liked some aspects, but the thing as a whole didn’t fully work for me and I’m not quite sure what it was going for.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hot Head”


WEEKEND UPDATE
CHR interviews Yoko Ono (DED) & house husband John Lennon (host)
JOP predicts Duran-Leonard rematch outcome with Rock-’em Sock-’em Robots
Dr. Murray Abromowitz (GIG) complains about last week’s episode of SNL

       

— Wow, that opening joke about a fire escape device bombed HARD. There was not a single laugh from the audience. Tonight’s Update is already starting on a bad note.
— Oh, great, now Charles has resorted to repeating a punchline (“He only shot an occasional birdie”) when it got no audience response the first time.
— Boy, is Update rough tonight so far. The jokes are even worse than last week, and that’s saying something!
— Feels strange seeing a John Lennon/Yoko Ono interview segment, knowing that this episode was a mere few weeks before Lennon’s murder.
— “Yoko is just loco about my cocoa.” (*groan*) Another display of corny season 6 humor.
— The cleaning/cooking bits with Lennon are okay.
— Charles’ nuclear reactor joke is yet ANOTHER Update joke that got absolutely no audience reaction. Man, he is dying out there in tonight’s Update.
— The debut of Joe’s SNL Sports Weekend Update commentaries. His delivery here is very low-key compared to the more manic style that would later become the trademark of his sports Update bits.
— Joe’s fast-talking Spanish impression of Roberto Duran made me laugh out loud.
— Joe breaking out the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots to demonstrate how he predicts the boxing match will go is great.
— Wow, Joe’s overall commentary was quick, but not only was it easily the best part of tonight’s Update so far, but it was also easily some of the biggest laughs I’ve gotten from this whole episode so far.
— Oh my god at Gilbert’s look and voice.
— A very meta commentary, with Gilbert’s character complaining about the offensive material from SNL’s season premiere the previous week.
— Gilbert calls out the season premiere for having too many homosexual and jew jokes, which is exactly some of the gripes I had with that episode.
— Charles said his “Goodnight and watch out” tagline differently this time. At least he didn’t look cocky like he did when saying it in the last episode.
— Overall, if it weren’t for the guest commentaries, I would’ve given this Update the lowest possible rating from my 1-5 star system. Charles’ delivery at least wasn’t quite as bad as it was in the season premiere, but the jokes themselves were DREADFUL tonight and I lost count of the number of jokes that received total silence from the audience. Seriously, his portions of tonight’s Update were fucking DIRE. Update has gotten off to a horrible start so far this season.
STARS: *½


AMERICAN MILK ASSOCIATION
American Milk Association spokesman Alex DeLarge (host) touts moloko

— A reprise of Malcolm’s character from A Clockwork Orange.
— That’s it? Wow, what was even the point of this?
STARS: *½


GOTHIC NOVEL SHOP
bookstore owner (host) meets customer’s (ANR) exacting romance novel need

   

— Looks like this could be a sketch where I’ll finally be able to form some kind of an opinion on Ann Risley, who left me with no impression after the season premiere.
— The overly-specific novel categories (heroes with a speech impediment, etc.) being shown are pretty funny.
— “A handsome bastard who stutters.”
— I’m really liking Malcolm’s delivery in this.
— Didn’t care for the ending with Malcolm coming out of the backroom as the specific character Ann was looking for.
— Despite the ending, this was a pretty solid and pretty well-written sketch.
— Ann was decent in this, but I’ve come away from this sketch STILL not having much of an impression of what she’s like as a performer. Of the new cast, she’s been the hardest to figure so far.
STARS: ***½


THE 100 YEARS WAR
university extension course gives minimalist summary

 

— For something where the brevity was supposed to be the comedy, this could’ve come off a little funnier.
STARS: **½


THE LEATHER WEATHER REPORT
dominatrix-meteorologist (DED) punishes (CHR)

   

— Here’s an infamous sketch that’s had a very negative reputation over the years. It’s often been cited as a prime example of how bad this season is.
— Charles’ stretched-out monotone “Ooooouuch.” kinda made me laugh.
— WTF at this so far?
— Denny’s unintentional malfunction with the whipped cream “snow” was a little funny.
— Overall, man, I did NOT care for this. I wish I could agree with some of the online SNL fans that have been defending this sketch in more recent years, but the premise and material of this sketch was iffy for me and the execution did nothing to help it, despite the fact that Denny was certainly trying. My only two aforementioned laughs were minor chuckles, one of which was just from a blooper.
— While I definitely don’t agree with this sketch’s reputation as one of the worst SNL sketches ever, I can kinda understand why it’s been so hated. But in my eyes, the sketch was merely bad, not worthy of being on any “Worst Ever” lists.
STARS: *½


COMMIE HUNTING SEASON
on commie hunting season’s opening day, rednecks are anxious to get going

 

— Ohhh, boy, we get two notorious sketches back-to-back tonight. From everything I’ve heard about this one, this supposedly IS deserving of its status as one of SNL’s worst sketches ever, unlike Leather Weather.
— Aaaaand there it is, the infamous “shoot yourself a jew or [n-word]” line. God, it’s just as bad as I’ve always heard, and wow at the absolutely DEAD, long, stretched-out silence from the studio audience after that line was uttered. Man, that was tense as hell. Did the performers pause so long after that line because they were actually EXPECTING it to get laughs?
— God, this material isn’t funny at all so far, and the sketch is going NOWHERE interesting.
— The sudden shooting of Malcolm from out of nowhere did nothing to help this.
— And it’s over. Overall, yeah, this was an EPICALLY bad sketch that’s fully deserving of it’s negative reputation. What the fuck was this sketch even going for??? And yeah, that infamous aforementioned “jew or [n-word]” line can’t be ignored, not only for the poor decision to put a line like that in the show, but also for how it seemed to suck all the life out of the entire studio audience at that moment. Seriously, that portion of the sketch received one of the most uncomfortable, tense, drawn-out silences I’ve EVER heard in an SNL episode.
STARS: *


THE ROCKET REPORT
CHR interviews pedestrians on 5th Avenue

     

— Well, hopefully this will lighten my mood after what the hell I’ve just sat through.
— Interesting how the Rocket Report segment from the previous week’s Update has gotten spun-off into its own separate spot in the show.
— I’m already liking the fun format of this one, with Charles interviewing random pedestrians on a busy New York street.
— Charles is really good in this.
— Amusing part with Charles thinking the young black guy was from India because of his hat, until noticing that guy’s hat is just a backwards cap.
— Ha, now he keeps randomly assuming normal-looking pedestrians are on drugs.
— All the asinine questions he’s asking the pedestrians are really funny.
— Overall, very solid; even better than the season premiere’s Rocket Report.
STARS: ****


ROYAL STRIPPERS
prudish (host) searches for Jack The Stripper, finds Prince Charles (CHR)

     

— What the—? Is that Gilbert in drag?
— Yeah, it’s definitely him. I can tell by the voice he’s using, which is basically a female version of his now-famous screechy voice.
— Now we get Malcolm in drag.
— The screen is pretty blurry with all the unnecessary street fog.
— We’re a minute-and-a-half into this sketch, and I have yet to laugh a single time.
— I can’t tell who’s playing Prince Charles, thanks to the screen blurriness. Is that Rocket?
— Overall, what in the world did I just watch? I got absolutely no laughs from this, the execution was really bad, and I spent most of the sketch just trying to make out who some of the performers were through that thick, blurry fog. This felt almost like a Monty Python sketch gone terribly wrong.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ashtray Heart”

— Did I just hear someone in the audience VERY loudly say “shit” at the end of the performance? It sure sounded like it. Haha, I find that hilarious for some reason. The version of this episode I’m watching is an old Comedy Central rerun, so it’s strange that they didn’t censor that part.


SOMEONE IS HIDING IN MY APARTMENT
by Mitchell Kriegman- eerie co-living

   

— Looks like an interesting film, just based on the title.
— Another Mitchell Kreigman-starring film, which I guess is going to be a regular thing this season. I liked his Heart To Heart short from the season premiere.
— Overall, I ended up being kinda disappointed in this. It wasn’t all that bad, I guess, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as his last film.
STARS: **½


THE WINE CELLAR
(DED) suggests American wines for American foods

 

— Funny part with Denny sampling wine while eating a Baby Ruth.
— Decent visual of the American wine being in a beer can.
— I liked Denny’s line referring to French wine as “sissy frog pittle”.
— Overall, a decent sketch and Denny pulled this off really well.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

 

— Okay, now that I’m hearing a more full version of this season’s new goodnights theme music, I’m not finding it too great. The music isn’t bad in itself, but it’s missing that great sentimental, semi-dramatic feel that the original goodnights music has.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Well, there went the episode that, for the longest time, used to be universally dubbed the official “worst SNL ever!” Do I agree with that? Definitely not. But, MAN, was this a rough episode. There was a small handful of good things scattered throughout the episode, particularly Rocket Report and Gothic Novel Shop. But weaker segments dominated the night, and the worst of the weaker segments were not just bad, they were REEAAALLLY bad. Dreadful. Two sketches in particular, Royal Strippers and (especially) Commie Hunting Season, were some of the most laughless dreck I’ve had to sit through so far in this SNL project of mine. The latter sketch has the added factor of being OFFENSIVELY bad. It also doesn’t help tonight’s episode that the Charles Rocket portions of Weekend Update were PAINFUL, with joke after joke receiving nothing but crickets from the audience.
— Malcolm McDowell was a pretty good host and I liked the enthusiasm he showed in his performances. The show certainly seemed to utilize him better than they did Elliott Gould the previous week.
— Feels like we barely saw some of the cast. I can hardly remember anything Gail and Ann were in tonight. Charles, on the other hand, seemed to be in practically EVERY SINGLE SKETCH.
— It’ll be interesting to see where this season goes from here. I felt that the season premiere was surprisingly somewhat okay and showed some promise in the post-Update half, while tonight’s episode was fairly awful. Will this be the episode that leads to the rest of the season being as horrible as I’ve always heard, or will the rest of the season play out more like the season premiere where, despite the bad aspects of the show, I can find a decent amount of silver linings that’ll make the season seem not so bad? We’ll see.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Elliott Gould):
— a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Ellen Burstyn

Posted on

November 15, 1980 – Elliott Gould / Kid Creole & The Coconuts (S6 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
the new castmembers learn about SNL’s glory days from bedfellow host

   

— Gail Matthius gets the honors of being the very first new cast member we see, as this sketch opens on a close-up of her waking up in bed.
— Gail calls herself a cross between Gilda and Jane.
— Charles Rocket calls himself a cross between Chevy and Bill, which is an obvious comparison as Jean Doumanian reportedly WANTED viewers to see him as the Chevy/Bill of the new cast.
— Ann Risley calls herself a cross between… Gilda and Laraine???  WTF?
— I’m iffy on the premise of Elliott telling the new cast drug stories about the original SNL and NBC in general, but there are a few okay lines in there, I guess.
— And now Gilbert Gottfried has called himself a cross between John Belushi and “that guy from last year, he did Rod Serling and nobody can remember his name”. Okay, two things: 1) Aww, poor Harry. 2) WHAAAAAT??!?!? How in the world is Gilbert freakin’ Gottfried a hybrid of Belushi and Shearer? I had thought the other newbies’ comparisons to the original cast were off, but THIS takes the cake.
— Denny Dillon gets the honors of delivering the very first LFNY of the new era.
— Overall, I’m not crazy about how this cold opening has started the new season off. Also, if you ask me, it was a bad decision to introduce the new cast by having them compare themselves to the old cast. Things were already automatically going to be tough for these guys, being the first new cast to come in since the beloved originals, so why make direct comparisons between the new and old cast? That’s just setting this cast up to look inferior in the audience’s eyes.
— It also didn’t help that the comparisons were so far off. If I HAD to pick which original cast member each newbie is most similar to, based on what (very) little I’ve seen of this season in the past and based on all the things I’ve read about this season over the years, I’d say: Denny Dillon = Gilda (cast member who specializes in playing the more silly/goofy female roles). Gilbert Gottfried = uhh… I dunno, this is a hard one. I guess Garrett by default, as they’re both kinda the cast’s odd man out. Gail Matthius = Laraine (I’m not sure why, to be honest; I’ve just always viewed them both as similar types). Joe Piscopo = Dan (utility player, great at doing fast-talking commercial pitchmen, a knack for celebrity impressions). Ann Risley = Jane (the straight-laced one of the group). And Charles Rocket = Chevy/Bill (okay, they got THIS one right).
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE

       

— A decent new opening montage. The animated shining lights in some of the still photos look great. The “painting-over” screen transition effect probably comes off cheesy nowadays, but I kinda like it. The montage in general has a slight New Wave vibe that’s very representative of the year 1980, which I find pretty cool.
— I definitely like the new theme music; probably one of the catchier themes the show’s ever had.
— Not crazy about the cast shots.


MONOLOGUE
host shows audience a few of his undergarments, trades for some of DED’s

     

— The new home base stage is okay, and I like the spiral staircase.
— What was up with Elliott’s entrance? As the elevator on the stage is coming down empty, he rushes down the spiral stairs and then jokingly(?) tries to pretend he’s exiting the elevator. Did something go wrong there? Was he supposed to be in the elevator when it came down, but wasn’t able to get in it in time?
— When listing off some of the crazy things he did on the show in the past, he mentions dressing up as a girl. Which sketch was that? I’ve just reviewed all of the first five seasons and can’t remember any sketches with him in drag.
— Oh, wait, I just remembered the goodnights of his May 1976 episode, where he and the rest of the cast were dressed as cowgirls. I guess that’s what he was referring to.
— Ugh, this underwear-sharing premise is not good.
— And now Denny has shown up to trade underwear with Elliott. It’s not making this monologue any funnier, unfortunately, but it’s noteworthy that between getting to say LFNY just a few minutes ago and now getting to perform alongside the host in the monologue, you’d think Denny is the cast member that Jean Doumanian is trying to push this season.
STARS: *½


THE PETROLEUM COUNCIL
Petroleum Council’s Burma Shave billboard books let you read as you drive

   

— Heh, I’m kinda liking this premise.
— Overall, a pretty nice and well-done commercial.
STARS: ***½


WHITE HOUSE
Rosalynn (ANR) convinces Jimmy (JOP) Carter to be glad he lost

   

— Boy, it feels weird seeing new people taking over the impressions of the Carter family, after I’ve gotten so used to seeing the original cast in these roles.
— I guess it wouldn’t have been possible for them to do this sketch in the original era anyway, considering Rosalynn and Amy Carter were both played by Laraine Newman.
— Them talking about Jimmy Carter’s then-recent loss in the 1980 election makes me realize that thanks to this season’s late start (mid-November, people!), we weren’t able to get any election sketches while the presidential race was still going on. That might be a good thing, though, because I’m not sure how these new writers would’ve handled a presidential debate sketch.
— I will say that Denny IS very convincing as a little girl.
— I’m not sure about Joe’s Jimmy Carter impression. I guess it’s not bad, but it’s so generic compared to Dan Aykroyd’s very detailed, spot-on impression.
— Good lord at the part with President Carter blaming the Jews for not voting for him…
— An overly horny Rosalynn Carter? I don’t think I like where this is going.
— WTF at the ending?
STARS: **


SIDE NOTE: Hmm, I see they’re continuing the traditional “Coming up next” caption gags from the previous era.


BILLY-GRAM
(CHR) delivers a singing Billy-Gram to cohabitating couple (host) & (ANR)

 

— The premise of a singing religious telegram doesn’t seem all that great.
— Man, Charles is pretty hammy in this with his over-the-top facial expressions and delivery.
— That’s the whole sketch??? Wow, this was short!
— I didn’t find this sketch all that great, but I guess it wasn’t too terrible and at least they kept it from running longer than it needed to.
STARS: **½


AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
(GLM) demonstrates breast cancer self-examination dos & don’ts

 

— Gail’s vague instructions while she’s being obscured by a black bar isn’t all that funny.
— And that’s it? Not much of anything here. Boy, I have NOT been crazy about tonight’s episode so far.
STARS: **


WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT
Pinky (DED) & Leo (GIG) Waxman interview host

 

— Gilbert’s heavy Jewish accent is great.
— I just realized that it feels weird seeing Elliott performing in sketches alongside people who AREN’T the original cast.
— Denny and Gilbert’s characters aren’t bad so far, and I’m seeing potential there.
— I never knew Elliott was once married to Barbra Streisand. It’s hard for me to picture them as a couple.
— Overall, a pretty good sketch with some decent laughs all throughout. This feels like the first live segment I really liked all night.
STARS: ***½


FOOT FETISH
by Randal Kleiser- two shoes have sex on the beach

     

— Elliott introduces this film by saying it’s the first in a series of “Short Shots”, which is apparently going to be this era’s name for the short film portions of the show.
— Hilarious seeing the stop-motion wild sex between the two shoes.
— Another very funny gag with the female shoe giving birth to a smaller shoe.
— Yet another inspired gag with a doctor cutting the newborn shoe’s shoelace as if it’s an umbilical cord.
— Overall, wow, that was great.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mister Softee”


WEEKEND UPDATE
GLM can’t bring herself to tell John Anderson (JOP) that he didn’t win
The Rocket Report- CHR tries to get the scoop on the new Lennon-Ono album
author (GIG) claims his book proves that Ronald Reagan is already dead

         

— Here we go…
— Something about the new Update atmosphere feels dead with the way tonight’s Update has begun. Feels like something’s missing (and no, I don’t mean Jane and Bill).
— Why are there two screens on the Update set?
— That Shirley Temple Black joke was just plain BAD.
— Man, we’re a few jokes in and I have yet to laugh at any of them so far.
— Hmm, Gail as an Update reporter in a remote segment. I knew she had similarities to Laraine!
— Haha, Joe is really funny as an out-of-it John B. Anderson. I can’t judge the accuracy of the impression, having no familiarity with the real John B. Anderson beyond his silent cameo in the previous season’s Teri Garr episode, but it does seem like Joe’s going for accuracy with the voice and mannerisms.
— Hmm, a joke about Chevy Chase. Seems that Chevy caused some controversy at the time by publicly calling Cary Grant a “homo”. Oh, Chevy’s up to his old tricks, I see…
— Boy, I am not liking Charles’ delivery of the Update jokes.
— Oh, man, the whole Saturn rings audio sample bit was AWFUL.
— Ah, the debut of “Rocket Report”. Supposedly, from all the things I’ve read about this season, the Rocket Report segments are where Charles is really in his element this season.
— Pretty funny with Charles trying to interview garbagemen about John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s garbage.
— Overall, the Rocket Report debut was a success, and Charles came off really well in it.
— And now we’re back to bad Update jokes, unfortunately. That Anita Bryant “homosexuals do it in a cage” joke was another dreadful one.
— Wow, that one joke got absolutely no audience response just now.
— We get our very first desk piece of the new Update era. Gilbert Gottfried gets the honors.
— Why the heck does Charles keep correcting people who call him “Charlie”? This is the second time he’s done it in tonight’s Update, and both times, it came off awkward and got no response from the audience.
— Gilbert’s performance was pretty funny overall, but the commentary itself was only okay.
— “Good night and… watch out.” I kinda like the idea of that as the new Update tagline, but Charles’ delivery of it was way too cocky for my likes.
— Overall, man, that was rough. If this is the new direction Update will be going in for the rest of the season, we are in big trouble. And one of the very few highlights, Rocket Report, soon gets spun-off into a standalone segment in the show, so there goes one of the only things the new Update has going for it.
STARS: **


AT ONE WITH…
sergeant (JOP) drills a member of the Gay Brigade (CHR)

 

— Another talk show sketch tonight?
— The “Gay Brigade”? Uh-oh…
— Joe and Charles are great with all their fast-paced back-and-forths. They’re giving me some really good laughs.
— Ugh, that line about Fort Dix being where the gay soldiers are stationed was a groanworthy joke.
— Overall, I’m not too sure about the material itself, but man, I absolutely LOVED Joe and Charles’ performances & delivery.
STARS: ****


HEART TO HEART
by Mitchell Kriegman- relationship-induced change seen

   

— When this started, I almost thought the girl in bed was Laraine Newman. I guess I still haven’t gotten used to not seeing the old cast.
— The subtlety of the girl being played by a slightly different-looking actress every time the camera cuts back to her is pretty funny and is being executed well.
— Ha, funny how the change in actresses has gradually become more and more obvious, culminating in a heavier woman being cast in the role during the final scene.
— An overall good film.
STARS: ***


SNL SPORTS
JOP does play-by-play for the nose wrestling bout between (host) & (CHR)

  

— Right off the bat in his first episode, we get the debut of Joe Piscopo’s SNL sportscaster persona. I wasn’t expecting to see that so early in his SNL tenure. His delivery here is a little more generic than it would later go on to be.
— Oh my god at this premise.
— Geez, we get yet ANOTHER unnecessary racial joke tonight, with the line about nose wrestling being dominated by Italians and Jews. (*groan*)
— Despite my initial iffiness towards the premise, this nose wrestling bit does have a bit of a strange charm to it.
STARS: ***


DATE
40 year-old (host) has an awkward dinner date with teenager Vickie (GLM)

— Elliott just called Gail “Vicky”. Is this gonna be the debut of Gail’s Valley Girl character?
— Okay, she said “grody” just now. Yep, this IS the Valley Girl character.
— I’m still seeing some of Laraine in Gail, as I can DEFINITELY picture Laraine doing a character like this.
— Some of the audience members are getting a kick out of Gail’s character. I have read that this character was considered somewhat groundbreaking for its time, as the valley girl craze hadn’t blown up just yet.
— What the heck kinda shirt is Gail wearing? I can’t tell what the picture on it is supposed to be.
— Funny line from Gail about her Marine boyfriend being “sort of black”.
— Overall, this seemed like this was going to be a nice character piece for Gail, but the sketch ended up being pretty flat. Nothing interesting really happened. I’m hoping this character’s future appearances are an improvement.
STARS: **


THE ACCORDION KILLER
(GLM) goes undercover to trap musical menace (CHR)

     

— I like the police station set-up with Elliott and Gilbert. This seems like it could be a good mini-movie mock-thriller sketch.
— This sketch is now starting to have a very Land Shark vibe to it.
— Gail playing a character with her own first name. Reminds me of when the original cast often did that back in season 1.
— Funny climax with the police officers coming in playing bagpipes, which causes Charles’ character to die.
— Overall, not bad, even if it was basically a poor man’s Land Shark.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “There But For The Grace of God Go I”


GIDGETTE GOES TO HELL
by Jonathan Demme- shark eats surfer chick

     

— This is introduced by Elliott as being our second “Short Shot” of the night.
— Very interesting format. Again, much like this season’s new opening montage, this short has kind of a 1980 New Wave music video feel that I’m liking.
— Overall, a weird short, but I enjoyed it and found it interesting to see where it was going.
— Strange that two of the three short films tonight have taken place on the beach.
STARS: ***


SPEED LISTENING
speed listener (DED) relaxes efficiently with accelerated music

 

— This speed-listening premise is pretty funny and is something I can picture the original cast doing.
— Denny’s “half-fast/half-assed way of listening to music” line was good.
— The short lengths of the songs listed in the screen crawl is worth a few good laughs.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS
host introduces cast & announces they’ll “be around forever”

 

— Elliott re-introduces each cast member by first name.
— There’s Elliott’s now-ironic “We’re gonna be around forever” statement about the new cast. IIRC, Steve Martin would later make a similar ironic statement during the goodnights when he hosted the premiere of the infamous season 20.
— Oh, wow, I forgot that the goodnights music this season is different. Man, it’s weird to see an SNL episode ending with anything that’s NOT the traditional goodnights music we’re all so familiar with.
— The live version of this episode, which I’m reviewing, cuts the goodnights off pretty early, so I can’t really give a critique yet on the quality of the new goodnights theme. I recall kinda liking it when seeing a few episodes from this season years ago.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Well, there it is. Man, I feel so weird after watching this episode, considering how I had gotten so used to reviewing the original SNL era.
— I surprisingly didn’t dislike this overall episode as much as I was expecting to. While the episode had a very rough start during the first 20 minutes or so, the show slowly got a little better as it went along. The post-Update half featured quite a lot of stuff that I found decent. Overall, while not great by any means, the new SNL era is showing at least a little promise so far. Right before I watched this episode, a very small part of me was worried I’d break down halfway through the episode, whining “I miss my old cast!!! It ain’t the same without them!!!” Instead, I ended up experiencing a feeling of excitement watching and reviewing a new SNL era after only reviewing the first five seasons.
— I am aware that the alleged awfulness of season 6 supposedly doesn’t start fully kicking in until a few episodes into the season, when all the bad press the season soon starts getting begins to negatively affect the mood of the show.
— A bad trend I noticed throughout the night that I’m worried will be a trend throughout the whole season is reliance on overly-corny humor and unnecessary racial jokes. Also, it looks like I’m gonna be in for one difficult season of Weekend Update.
— I was surprised at the large number of segments in this episode. So many quick sketches and various films stuffed into a 90-minute episode, which reminds me of how the early episodes from season 1 were so jam-packed with MANY segments and had so much variety. Feels kinda nice to see that again, after I had gotten so used to the longer sketch format from seasons 4 and 5.
— Elliott Gould was not utilized well AT ALL tonight. He seemed to be cast in nothing but dull straight roles all night, and he looked out of his element with this new cast. A shame we weren’t able to see the charm that he always had when hosting in the original era.
— Of the new cast, I’d say that Joe, Gilbert, and Denny seem to be the cast members who I’m looking most forward to seeing more of, just based on how they performed in this episode. I think I’m gonna like Gail as well, but it’s a shame that the two sketches that showcased her tonight (American Cancer Society and Date) weren’t good.  Charles already seems to be getting pushed as the “star” of the new cast, but I’m iffy on him; his mugging & cheesy delivery in Billy-Gram and his cockiness & weak delivery on Update were all off-putting to me. I see SOME potential in him, though, as I liked his performance in the Rocket Report segment and his delivery in Gay Brigade. As for the remaining cast member, Ann, I couldn’t form any kind of opinion on her at all. She’s the only one who left me with no impression.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1979-80):
— a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Malcolm McDowell. A very notorious episode, as, until more recent decades, it was widely considered to be the definitive “worst SNL ever”.

Posted on

May 24, 1980 – Buck Henry / Andrew Gold, Andrae Crouch and The Voices Of Unity (S5 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Frank Reynolds (HAS) presents presidential consolation debate highlights

   

— Lot of great lines from Harry during his intro.
— I’m still not quite sure what to make of Jim Downey’s George Bush impression.
— That being said, Jim’s Bush speech had a whole bunch of funny lines.
— Bill’s speech was okay, but not as amusing as Jim’s.
— Paul smushing actual slices of a pie onto the pie chart is hilarious.
— Harry gets the final LFNY of the original SNL era??? That’s surprising. While it’s hard to complain about Harry Shearer getting ANY airtime on the show, it really feels like one of the original cast members should’ve gotten the final LFNY.
— Very solid cold opening overall.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host introduces (DOP) & other supposed castmembers of SNL’s sixth season

        

— Buck mentions this is SNL’s 106th episode and the 103rd time he’s hosted. I really liked that line.
— He addresses rumors that tonight’s episode might be the last SNL ever, and announces SNL will be back again next season!…but NOT with the same cast. There will be a new replacement cast, who he’s about to introduce.
— The audience laughs at Buck referring to the show’s “former producer”, as if that were a joke. I guess they’re not aware that Lorne really IS leaving.
— Buck says he’s looking forward to working with SNL’s new producer in the years ahead. Unfortunately, that never ended up happening, as tonight’s episode turns out to be Buck’s final time hosting. I recall hearing he declined any future hosting offers out of respect to the original cast. He’s never even made so much as a cameo in any future episodes, not counting specials like SNL’s 15th anniversary show (where he does a segment with Steve Martin).
— Hey, it’s the creator of the Mr. Bill shorts, Walter Williams. (third screencap above)
— I recall hearing that the black woman in this is Yvonne Hudson. Now that I’m watching this monologue for myself, that’s definitely NOT her. It would’ve been hilarious if it were her, though, considering she DOES actually end up joining the cast next season.
— Unless I’m mistaken, this is Don Pardo’s very first onscreen appearance on SNL. I love how his fake name in this is “Ron Waldo”, and how he introduces himself by doing a Don Pardo imitation. Since audiences at the time probably had no idea what Don looked like, I wonder if they even realized he’s the real Don Pardo or if they just assumed he’s someone who can do a really good impression of Pardo’s voice.
— Overall, I loved this monologue and found it very fun being introduced to the fake new cast.
STARS: ****


ROYAL PARTY
eponymous noblemen mingle at a party thrown by Lord Salisbury (HAS)

   

— Ah, here’s a legendary sketch from this era.
— All the nobles’ last names and how they allude to various now-famous inventions is very well-written.
— Funny with Bill as the Earl of Sandwich lamenting that “nothing’s been named after my family”.
— Garrett’s delivery of “Lord and Lady Douchebag” KILLED me.
— Harry’s “Where the devil are those Douchebags?” line was great.
— Very funny hearing “douchebag” constantly being casually delivered in such dignified 18th century voices.
— Ha, Gilda as Lady Douchebag requesting vinegar and water as food dressing.
— Loved Bill delivery of “Douchebaaaaag, how are ya!” From my past viewings of clips from this sketch, I had remembered Bill giving Buck a noogie after saying that line, but now I see that never actually happened. It DOES seem like a very Bill Murray thing to do, though.
— Bill: “Lord Douchebag, just what kind of invention are you sitting on?”
— And already, we’re out. That sketch was the perfect length, and is just one of many reasons why this is such a fantastic classic sketch.
STARS: *****


COW MINDER’S DAUGHTER
rise & fall of Indian singer Govinda Lynn (LAN)

   

— Laraine playing a character who turns down being a model because models starve themselves.  I can’t help but notice a whole bunch of irony there.
— The initial shot of Gilda cracked me up.
— Not really sure what the point of this sketch is so far.
— Yeah, I’m coming to the realization that this sketch ain’t goin’ anywhere that I’m gonna like.
— Did something go wrong? All of a sudden, there’s a lot of awkwardness and stretched-out pauses between Bill and Laraine after Bill called for the cows, and Bill looks like he’s trying not to laugh. (last screencap above) What’s that all about?
— Overall, wow, I did not care for this sketch at all. Maybe it would’ve helped if I had ever seen “Coal Miner’s Daughter”, the movie that this was spoofing.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Andrew Gold performs “Kiss This One Goodbye”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jack Perkins (HAS), (Richard Belzer), others on Walter Keane art exhibit
Chico Escuela gives himself credit for baseball strike resolution
Roseanne Roseannadanna travels from volcanoes to Gloria Vanderbilt’s itch

           

— Here we go, the final Curtin/Murray Weekend Update.
— *sigh* I’m gonna miss hearing Jane saying her “I’m Jane Curtin and here now the news” intro. I’ve gotten so used to hearing that in every Update these last four seasons.
— Loved Bill’s random “Anita Bryant…… is available” bit. I also like how a few people in the audience audibly booed as soon as her picture showed up on the news screen.
— The bit with Bill snapping a Polaroid directly at the camera facing him was just plain strange, and got very little reaction from the audience. I also didn’t get what he meant with his “So I won a bet, big deal” ad-lib afterwards.
— What the–? Now Bill’s aforementioned photo-snapping bit has screwed up the screen. The flash from his Polaroid seems to have left an awful yellow-brownish spot onto the middle of the screen. (you can see it the the fourth and fifth screencaps above) Yikes. I’m guessing Bill forgot to turn off the flash on the camera before snapping the picture.
— And now, we go straight from that Bill/camera bit to a Harry Shearer commentary that strangely begins with NO applause from the audience. Wow. Maybe the audience was just thrown off by whatever the hell that Bill/camera thing was supposed to be.
— Uh-oh, now the aforementioned yellow-brownish spot on the middle of the screen is making poor Harry look like he has a yellow mouth. Geez.
— Richard Belzer!
— Belzer has the distinction of appearing in the first and last episode of the original SNL era. In the first episode, he was one of the jurors in the courtroom sketch that ended with Gilda receiving a note and thinking that John Belushi was making a pass at her, and now here he is in the last episode. A nice unintentional bookend to the era.
— Harry’s Jack Perkins commentary is a bit unusual with the heavy reliance on a pre-taped remote segment, but there’s a lot of good laughs here, especially from the ridiculous visual of presidential paintings with Keane eyes.
— Garrett’s Chico Escuela delivery is much better than the bizarre delivery he used last time Chico appeared.
— Normally I’d groan at the sight of Roseanne Rosannadanna appearing once again, but knowing this is the last time we’ll ever see her, I can’t complain. I’ve never disliked the character herself, just how much they overrelied on her shtick these last two seasons.
— Hmm, Richard Feder has written to Rosannadanna from Washington instead of his usual Fort Lee, New Jersey residence.
— Oh, it turns out Feder moved to get away from the hellhole that is New Jersey.
— Loved Rosannadanna’s complaint about Gloria Vanderbilt putting her good name “on every ass in America”.
— Rosannadanna’s story about Gloria Vanderbilt repeatedly scratching her crotch area in a movie theater is a riot! A lot of big laughs there. This is reminding me why I used to like Rosannadanna so much before they started overusing her.
— Tonight’s overall Update was a pretty solid way to end the Curtin/Murray era. I’m gonna miss this Update era, especially when I know how unstable this portion of the show is going to be the next few seasons during the non-Lorne years.
STARS: ***½


UNCLE ROY
mom (JAC) remains blind to the true nature of pedophilic “Uncle” Roy

       

— I can already tell from the set that we’re getting our obligatory Uncle Roy sketch. Actually, I shouldn’t say “obligatory”, since they surprisingly refrained from doing this character in Buck’s episode from earlier this season.
— For the first time ever, Uncle Roy’s entrance receive audience applause.
— They explain the absence of Dan Aykroyd’s character (Jane’s husband) by saying he’s in Cleveland at a convention.
— Uncle Roy and Jane point out a new glass coffee table in the living room. Ha, I just KNOW Ol’ Roy is gonna get mileage out of that table later in the sketch with the girls.
— I like the line about how Roy had the girls play “bobbing for bananas” last time he visited them.
— I also like the mention of Roy pretending to be a dog during his last visit and how he almost “buried [his] bone in [the girls’] backyard.” Nice double-entendre.
— Hilarious bit where Roy is able to tell which pair of panties belongs to which girl just by the smell.
— Ah, there’s Uncle Roy making use of the glass coffee table, by having the girls pretend to “ride on a glass-bottom boat” as he eagerly snaps pictures underneath the table.
— LOL at Buck’s panicked “I can explain everything!” when Jane returns unexpectedly early and sees what Roy is up to.
— Interesting turn this sketch has taken with Jane talking about a possible divorce between her and her husband, and Roy trying to save their marriage just so she won’t move away with the girls.
— After Jane says she wishes more families would have an uncle like Roy, the camera does a slow zoom-in on Buck telling Jane, while looking at the camera with a subtle grin, “Oh, there’s more of me than you might suspect…” (last screencap above), which is how the sketch ends. Heh, creepy and unsettling as fuck, but at the same time, I found it the perfect way to end the final Uncle Roy sketch.
STARS: ****


TRADER NICK’S
Hawaiian-themed bar of Nick “Lava” has music & waitress Iris de Flaminio

     

— Our final Nick the Lounger Singer sketch during Bill’s years as a cast member. He would later bring this character back a few times in some of his future hosting stints.
— I think I see Jane as Iris De Flaminio in the background. If so, they’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of this character these last handful of episodes, which is good since Jane debuted the character so late in her tenure.
— Akira Yoshimura! He’s been getting quite a lot of face time recently.
— Yep, Jane IS playing Iris. Interesting use of her in this sketch, as a waitress.
— Looks like we DO get an Yvonne Hudson appearance tonight after all! And she’s playing a character with her own name, too! “I’m Yvonne Hudson and this is my lovejones (points to Garrett).”
— Gilda’s sarcastic deadpan remarks to Bill were very funny.
— I absolutely love Bill’s singing of “Stairway to Heaven”.
— Overall, a very fine temporary final outing for this character.
STARS: ***½


WEEK IN REVIEW
tabloid journalists’ notions of newsworthiness vex (host)

    

— I like Bill’s almost-whispery speaking voice as the host, which is a dead-on imitation of some of the political panel shows like this.
— Buck is fairly funny as the only reasonable person at the table.
— Overall, for once tonight, I didn’t have much to say about a sketch. I didn’t find this sketch to be very good, and I got fairly bored with it after a while.
STARS: **


MOMMY BEER
hunters musically express their fondness for baby-bottles of Mommy Beer

   

— I cracked up at Tom Davis’ burly-voiced delivery of “You’ve been holdin’ out on us, ya rascal!”
— The nipple-topped beer bottle is a pretty funny visual.
— Haha, I like the blatantly obvious lip-synced harmonizing between the men, and their hammy gestures throughout the song.
— Very catchy commercial jingle.
— Funny part with a beer-less Bill whining “I want MY Mommy” and then babyish-ly sucking on the bottle when he finally gets one.
— Oddly enough, that sounds like Harry Shearer’s voice during the baritone parts of the lip-synced jingle.
— Great tagline from Buck: “She’s a bitch…. of a brew!”
— Fun sketch overall.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Andrae Crouch & Voices of Unity perform “Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus”


GOODNIGHTS
Studio 8H empties as the “On Air” sign goes out

     

— Buck gives a simple but very poignant “Goodnight……and goodbye.”
— *sigh* The final gathering of this cast. I have to admit, I’m starting to feel emotional. After watching and reviewing these first five seasons on a daily basis in chronological order the last few months, I’ve grown REALLY attached to this cast. It’s not easy for me to see them go.
— Ah, there goes the famous part of these goodnights, where Buck leads the cast and guests offstage and then we cut to their arrival backstage where they’re all shown walking past the camera. After a while, the camera slowly zooms in on the flashing “ON AIR” sign, then the flashing sign eventually turns off, which is the very last thing we see before the goodnights end. Beautiful. I’m honestly getting a little misty-eyed right now.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— The original SNL era ends with a surprisingly strong episode for this season. There were a lot of great sketches, a minimal amount of flops, and we got an all-time classic as the perfect centerpiece of the night (Lord and Lady Douchebag).
— Not only am I going to miss the hell out of this cast, but I’m also going to miss reviewing Buck Henry-hosted episodes. It’s amazing to think that over just the past few months, I’ve reviewed TEN Buck Henry episodes. Nobody else has ever hosted SNL with the frequency that he has in such a short amount of time. He was such a perfect host for this era of SNL, and always had such a likable and warm presence, no matter what role he was playing.
— Season 5 as a whole was a fairly bumpy road like I was prepared to see, but not quite in the way I was expecting. Despite a shaky first three episodes, which instantly had me worried, the remainder of the first half of the season was pretty smooth-sailing for the most part. When I reached the second half of the season, THAT’S when the trouble fully kicked in. The long string of episodes from Teri Garr to Rodney Dangerfield all ranged from forgettable to pretty awful, and the burnout from the writing staff was on full display. We started to finally get some good episodes after that, including one that pleasantly surprised me with how inspired it was (Strother Martin), but a somewhat frequent amount of underwhelming or iffy episodes still kept popping up. At least the season ended on a high note with a strong season finale.
— Well, I can now proudly say I’ve seen and reviewed every single episode from the original SNL era! It feels so great to accomplish that, considering I came into this SNL project of mine being nowhere near as familiar with the original era as a diehard SNL fan like me should be. I mean, I had seen a handful of episodes from each of the first five seasons, as well as lots of clips in highlight reels and “Best Of” compilations, but considering how well-versed I am in every SNL era from 1985-present, I had always been kinda ashamed that I hadn’t seen all that much from the legendary original years. Well, now I can officially say that I know this era VERY well after doing these daily reviews.
— And man, did I enjoy covering these first five seasons, familiarizing myself more with this wonderful cast, discovering this cast is even more talented and well-rounded than I had ever thought, witnessing the evolution of the era, tackling the more infamous episodes (Louise Lasser, Milton Berle, etc.), revisiting classic sketches, and discovering lesser-known gems. I came away from this era having much more love and respect for it than I’ve ever had. Before doing these reviews, I used to always argue that the original SNL was overrated whenever anyone would call it the best era ever, because I was of the opinion that despite how groundbreaking the original SNL was, that era was so inconsistent and VERY hit-and-miss due to how wildly experimental the show’s format was back then. I had felt that, in order to call an SNL era the best ever, it needs to be one that’s a little more consistent in how strong it was, which for me has always been the late 80s era. Well, after now reviewing the whole original era, I’ve seen that it was nowhere near as inconsistent or hit-and-miss as I had thought. Once the show found it’s footing sometime in 1976, the era was pretty smooth-sailing for a few years, particularly in seasons 3 and 4, which are two of the strongest SNL seasons of all-time and contain a surprisingly good number of flawless episodes that have no bad sketches. The era unfortunately ended on a fairly rough note with the disappointing season 5, but looking at this era as a whole, I would now say that it’s a close second to the late 80s as the best SNL era.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Martin):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Well, folks, for the very first time in my SNL project, after going through five seasons of having the comfort of the original cast, I enter brand new territory…. and dangerous territory at that, because it’s the notorious season 6. Elliott Gould hosts the first episode.

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May 17, 1980 – Steve Martin / Paul and Linda McCartney, 3-D (S5 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
via satellite, Father Guido Sarducci waits outside McCartneys’ London pad

   

— I liked Don Pardo’s opening “Day 122 of Paul McCartney without marijuana” announcement.
— Only Jane at the Update desk? Where’s Bill?
— From what I’ve heard about this episode, Father Guido Sarducci really IS being broadcast live from London for this episode.
— Ha, Sarducci rocking the 1980 Bo Derek braids and beads.
— Sarducci throwing stuff at Paul McCartney’s window to wake him up is fairly funny.
— Tonight’s LFNY is said by a random English milkman! One of the very few LFNYs in SNL history that was uttered by an unidentifiable person.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host talks about his ideals in the form of “What I Believe”

 

— Who were those two guys seen running off the home base stage right before Steve made his entrance? (screencap below)

— I loved Steve slow-strutting his way onto the monologue stage while the theme music was still playing.
— Is it just me, or is this the third monologue where he announces in a mock-serious voice that he’s “getting out of the comedy business”? I know he definitely said it in his monologue from earlier this season, and I think he said it in one of the previous seasons as well.
— Loved his random line about “Uncle Todd, who waves his penis”.
— His “What I Believe” speech is great and has so many hilarious random one-liners.
— Overall, one of the funniest monologues Steve has done so far.
STARS: ****½


REAL INCREDIBLE PEOPLE
not-very-exotic citizens are on display

     

— I’m assuming this is a take-off of the then-popular show “That’s Incredible!”.
— Very delayed entrance from Bill. He looks funny in that wig and mustache, though.
— Ha, all five of these people are the HOSTS?
— Hey, it’s Akira Yoshimura, playing a character with his real name.
— Humorous how the “incredible” things about the people on display are just mundane, everyday things like eating sushi and reading before bed.
— Lots of fantastic energy from the five hosts.
— LOL at the hosts’ amazement over a man having “very dark brown skin”.
— Good part with the fake audience members being interviewed.
STARS: ****


THUGS
(GIR) & (JAC) clean up the mess made by their sons during a home invasion

   

— The way Bill and Steve busted into the apartment at the beginning had shades of X-Police.
— Bill and Steve are hilarious as the goofy robbers.
— Funny turn with Gilda and Jane showing up as the robbers’ mothers to clean up the mess their sons made during their robbery.
— Jane’s sudden gunshot at Harry genuinely made me jump.
— I loved the part with Gilda and Jane forcing Laraine and Harry to lean forward….. so they can fluff the pillows behind them.
— Overall, a decent sketch, but it kinda dragged in the middle when Jane and Gilda were cleaning up the place.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
3-D performs “All-Night Television”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Father Guido Sarducci sings a Beatles medley to get McCartneys’ attention

   

— Funny bit from Bill at the beginning, with him randomly asleep on the desk during Pardo’s intro.
— I’m getting tired of this season’s running segments with Father Guido Sarducci waiting to interview someone. They already did this earlier this season with him trying to interview Nixon.
— Sarducci singing a medley of Beatles songs over the bullhorn is going on WAY too long.
— Oh, man, the Sarducci segment is how they end Update tonight?
— During Jane’s sign-off, Bill’s not there at the desk. Guess this is yet another Update this season where he had to duck out early to get in costume for the next sketch.
— Overall, a blah Update. An unusual amount of Bill and Jane’s jokes fell pretty flat, and the long Sarducci segment killed any remaining momentum.
STARS: **


THE HOMINIDS
caveman (BIM) feels threatened by more-evolved (host)

     

— Great caveman make-up job on the performers, especially Bill. I now see why Bill had to duck out of Update early, as it must’ve taken several minutes for the make-up people to give him that caveman look.
— Interesting voice on Gilda.  I’ve never heard her sound like that before.
— Bill’s loud scream after walking on the fire was hilarious.
— Laraine bluntly saying “You make me wet” to Steve was a riot. I’m surprised the censors would allow that in 1980.
— Fitting how Steve’s the only one talking in a normal non-caveman speech pattern.
— Pretty funny ending with Bill repeatedly slamming a boulder into a sleeping Steve.
STARS: ***½


LONDON REMOTE
Paul & Linda McCartney dodge Father Guido Sarducci’s marijuana questions

  

— Ugh, Father Guido Sarducci is STILL trying to wake McCartney up. I’m so over these segments.
— Hey, Paul McCartney has finally shown up!
— Double ugh at Sarducci asking Paul “If you could be any animal, what would it be?” It wasn’t funny when he asked that question to Nixon earlier this season, and it ain’t funny now.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Paul & Linda McCartney perform “Coming Up” in music video

   


REAGAN DINNER
Ronald (HAS) & Nancy (JAC) Reagan have dinner with some reporters

 

— Harry’s Reagan impression looks very different from the last time he played him, and he’s wearing a ton of make-up this time. I guess it’s true that Harry was really the very first SNL cast member to make a big deal about going out of his way to look like the celebrities he impersonates, something that upcoming cast member Joe Piscopo would take to even further extremes in the next SNL era. A huge contrast to the very early SNL days of putting little-to-no effort to make people like Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd look like the politicians and celebrities they play.
— Weird seeing Jane as Nancy Reagan. I never knew she played her.
— This sketch is very quiet so far.
— That’s it? The sketch is over? Wow, what was the point of this? This was very dull, fell really flat, and I got almost no laughs from it. A waste of Harry’s Reagan impresion.
STARS: *½


STRETCH MARKS
bitter loneliness in aging Patti Caldwell’s (GIR) album

   

— The “Stretch Marks” title is already making me like this sketch.
— Gilda’s lip-syncing is really obvious.
— Never mind, I guess the blatant lip-syncing is intentionally part of the joke, since Gilda now seems to be going out of her way to make some parts of her singing look very out-of-sync.
— The “F-U-L-L-F-I-L-L-M-E-N-T” song was hilarious.
— Overall, a very funny sketch and a great Gilda showcase, the latter of which feels almost rare at this late stage in Gilda’s SNL tenure. She’s surprisingly been fairly quiet this season, I guess due to spending so much time doing her one-woman stage show “Gilda Live!” throughout this season.
STARS: ****½


DEER CROSSING
buck (host) & doe (GIR) wait for traffic to let up at a deer crossing

   

— I like the idea of this.
— What the hell kind of animal is Garrett supposed to be dressed as?
— Oh, he’s a cow, I see.
— It’s over already? Well, that certainly went NOWHERE. The idea of the sketch was cute, but absolutely nothing interesting happened in it. I didn’t laugh a single time. It ended up being another sketch tonight that left me asking myself “That’s it? What was the point of that?”, much like the Reagan sketch.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS
crew breaks down location for London satellite shoot

   

— According to Steve, they have a lot of time to kill.
— Laraine doesn’t look very happy. I’ve noticed that about her in several goodnights this season, actually.
— For some reason, the scrolling ending credits are in a yellow font tonight instead of the usual white font.
— I love the cutaway to the SNL crew in London putting away their equipment.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very up-and-down, inconsistent episode. Some things were very strong, some things were terrible. Actually, come to think of it, the show started out really well, as most of the pre-Update material was good and featured some great energetic performances. The inconsistency of the night seemed to start halfway through the episode, where even Update was pretty flat. There were two solid sketches after Update (Stretch Marks and The Hominids), but some of the weaker sketches in that half were some of the most laughless flops the show has had in a while.  And it goes without saying that I could’ve done without so much Father Guido Sarducci throughout the show.
— This was Steve Martin’s final time hosting during the original SNL era. I’m gonna miss seeing him working with this cast, which to this day still remains the cast he had the best chemistry with.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bob Newhart):
— about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
(*sigh*) It’s the end of an era, folks. Buck Henry hosts the original cast’s final episode.

Posted on

May 10, 1980 – Bob Newhart / The Amazing Rhythm Aces, Bruce Cockburn (S5 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Marvin Hamlisch (PAS) & Pink Lady (LAN) & (GIR) & Carl Sagan (HAS) joke

   

— Unsurprisingly, Harry does a solid Carl Sagan impression.
— Interesting way to parody the legendarily disastrous “Pink Lady and Jeff” show.
— This doesn’t seem to be offering much other than a phony laugh track and bad jokes, though I suppose that’s accurate to the real show it’s parodying.
— Boy, I’m almost being blinded by the bright glare off of Laraine and Gilda’s shiny chest armor.
— Overall, I liked the initial idea of this, but kinda lost interest over the course of it.  Good idea behind this, though.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about a “seven lost cities of the Incas” travelogue

— His example of how bad travelogues are had a slow start, but is getting better.
— The “impossible to go” line was really funny.
— Overall, this ended up being pretty funny, but not one of the better stand-up pieces I’ve seen from Bob.
STARS: ***


THE DATING ZONE
(host) questions Iris de Flaminio & catatonic Colleen

     

— Nice to see the return of Jane’s Iris De Flaminio.
— Always hilarious to see Gilda’s catatonic Colleen character, and Bill’s intro to her was great.
— Great role for Bob as a befuddled contestant who was just thrown onto the show. I also like how he walked on carrying a bag of groceries.
— A “Twilight Zone” twist!
— Yet another great impression from Harry, this time doing a Rod Serling that’s as dead-on as Dan Aykroyd’s was.
— Great premise, doing a crossover between The Dating Game and The Twilight Zone.
— The bit with Gilda not answering Bob’s question was too predictable.
— Laraine’s line about tongue clamps cracked me up.
— Overall, not the classic I thought it would be, but still pretty enjoyable.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Amazing Rhythm Aces perform “Who Will The Next Fool Be”
Amazing Rhythm Aces & BIM perform “Third-Rate Romance”

 

— What the…..? Bill Murray has suddenly shown up mid-performance, playing the maracas with the band. Pretty cool.


WEEKEND UPDATE
ALF says he should have a limousine, not “lame-o” Fred Silverman

   

— Great joke from Jane about a “Death of a Jewish Princess” docudrama.
— A Three Stooges joke!
— Loved Bill casually referring to Jane as an anonymous “local hosebag” when talking about the picture of her and Walter Cronkite.
— When Jane avoids admitting she did anything sexual with Cronkite by saying she’s protected by the first amendment, Bill had a great response: “At least you used some protection”.
— Oh, I think Franken’s commentary is going to be his famous “Limo for a Lamo” bit.
— Al’s questioning of why even Garrett Morris receives limo service was harsh but funny. Speaking of whom, I just realized Garrett has yet to be seen tonight so far.
— Yep, this IS the “Limo for a Lamo” bit.
— Ha, this Franken commentary has a lot of balls, bashing the hell out of the NBC president. IIRC, Fred Silverman ended up being so offended by the commentary that it cost Al his potential spot as Lorne’s successor for next season, and thus, we would end up getting stuck with Jean Doumanian.
— I love Al showing the board of the top 10 rated then-current TV shows (second-to-last screencap above), and pointing out how there aren’t any NBC shows on there. Also, wow, did CBS really have that much dominance in the ratings in 1980, or is the info on Al’s board exaggerated a little?
— I wonder how many viewers ended up mailing in to the address Al is displaying on-screen. I’m guessing Silverman put the kibosh on that pretty quick.
— Al’s overall commentary was daring and fantastic, and a great way to conclude an overall strong Update.
STARS: ****


THE LETTER
Civil War officer (host) fails to write to dead soldier’s mother (GIR)

   

— Peter Aykroyd with a big speaking role? Why wasn’t he credited in tonight’s opening montage?
— Never mind, Peter ended up getting killed off early in this.
— It’ll be interesting to see where this goes. This looks like it could be a good use of Bob’s deadpan.
— Ha, it’s been almost a year and Bob’s character still hasn’t written the letter.
— A pretty good laugh when Bob made Gilda “promise not to get mad” when he’s going to reveal the news about her son.
— I like how Bill remained in “civil war soldier” mode even after the sketch ended while the other performers were seen dropping character.
— Overall, I found this sketch to be okay. On paper, it probably comes off as a tedious sketch that dragged on and on, but something about the execution of it tickled me. Bob’s performance probably really helped, since I can see this same sketch falling completely flat with almost any other host.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Bruce Cockburn performs “Wondering Where the Lions Are”


DAVE’S VARIETY STORE
store owner (host) fills customers’ orders of rare & unusual wares

     

— I’m liking how the store seemingly has everything.
— Ha, a pink balloon filled with pretzels.
— Hilarious how more outlandish the requests are becoming. Tom Davis requesting and receiving a “large medieval crossbow made out of chocolate” is especially great.
— Garrett’s just NOW making his first appearance of the night?
— Great visuals of the many odd items Garrett receives, especially the half-TV and the square basketballs.
— Overall, a very solid sketch.
STARS: ****


MR. BILL GOES TO JAIL
by Walter Williams- escape attempts backfire

       

— I like how this is a continuation of the ending of the last Mr. Bill short, where he got thrown in the slammer.
— Why does Mr. Hands sound like he’s voiced by a different actor than usual?
— Mr. Hands shooting a hole through Spot made me laugh out loud.
— Overall, one of the better Mr. Bills in a while. These shorts are so much more refreshing when they’re used more sparingly instead of the way they were used in season 4, where they seemed to appear every 2-3 episodes.
STARS: ***½


RESTAURANT
after proposing, (host) learns fiancee (JAC) used to weigh 260 pounds

 

— Jane saying she used to weigh 260 pounds wasn’t as funny of a reveal as the set-up to it had expecting.
— Bob’s reaction to seeing the heavyset picture of Jane was funny.
— Heh, a rare character break for Jane, with her trying not to crack up when she was talking with her mouth full of food. (second screencap above)
— The disturbing details about Jane’s diet, with her having her jaw wired shut, her intestines tied up, etc., are pretty funny.
— The sketch is over already? They ended this before it fully took off; it was beginning to look like it was going to be a great showcase for Jane. I wonder if the show started running long and they had to do some last-minute trimming to this sketch.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A decent episode. Nowhere near as strong as I’m sure a Bob Newhart-hosted episode would’ve been earlier this era (particularly seasons 3 and 4), but I still was satisfied with a lot of the show. Not much else to say besides that.
— As a side note, this may be tied with the season 4 Richard Benjamin episode as holding the record for having the least amount of sketches in an SNL episode.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Strother Martin):
— a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Only two episodes left in the original SNL era, folks. Steve Martin hosts the penultimate episode.

Posted on

April 19, 1980 – Strother Martin / The Specials (S5 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Rosalynn Carter (LAN) encourages illegal aliens to take part in census

   

— Another sketch that makes it really obvious they had nobody to play the president this season.  This address to the nation about the 1980 census feels like it should be delivered by President Carter, not his wife.
— The census questions for immigrants are pretty funny.
— Hilarious random part with Gilda as her Spanish maid recurring character interrupting Laraine’s message and angrily spitting on her before being dragged away by secret service men.
— Gilda delivers LFNY in Spanish! This is SNL’s very first instance of a non-English LFNY.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Writers Tom Schiller and Alan Zweibel receive their very first credit as featured players.

 

— Seems pretty late in the season to be making new cast additions. I recall hearing this ends up being the ONLY episode Zweibel was ever credited as a featured player in.


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— I’m kinda loving his rural, hillbilly-type voice.
— A pretty straightforward, nothing-special monologue, but Strother got some humor out of talking about passing himself off as Tennessee Williams.
STARS: **½


FRENCH CAMP
Cool Hand Luke (BIM) rebels against French language camp director (host)

       

— I liked Strother’s line about being a “mean sumbitch”.
— Garrett’s delivery is really awkward in this.
— I like how “the box” that disobedient campers are confined to has a cassette tape of French lessons that the camper is forced to listen to.
— Great subtle gag of the soldiers’ guard dogs being French poodles.
— I’m getting a lot of little laughs from Brian Doyle-Murray’s constant whacks to his brother Bill’s head with a tiny wooden stick whenever Bill refuses to say “It’s a little cat” in French.
— Nice variation of the famous “What we got here is a failure to communicate” line.
— Very good ending.
— Overall, what a great mini-movie-type sketch.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Gangsters”


WEEKEND UPDATE
G. Gordon Liddy (TOD) barbecues & eats his hand during a LAN interview
Chico Escuela has advice for Muhammad Ali & baseball players
amateurish TOS drawings ape NBC video captioning of tonight’s top story

       

— Boy, yet another Update that begins with Jane not knowing which camera to look at.
— I like how during the news story about Hitler’s birthday, Bill says we were mistaken if we thought he was going to do another one of his “Happy Birthday” songs (which I did almost think he was going to do).
— Very funny reveal that Tom Davis is barbequeing his own hand.
— The surprising ending with Tom eating his own fingers makes me wonder if he’s the writer behind that Jeffrey Dahmer sketch from the 1992 episode hosted by Chevy Chase, where Chevy as Dahmer randomly chewed off his own fingers as the climax of that sketch. Tom actually does a walk-on at the very end of that sketch, so my suspicions that he wrote it are probably correct.
— The return of Chico Escuela. It’s surprisingly been a pretty long time since his last appearance.
— What in the world? That Escuela commentary was just plain bizarre, and Garrett’s delivery was ROUGH. That’s the second time tonight where Garrett’s delivery has come off bad.
— We get the return of the “amateurish, childlike Tom Schiller drawings” gag, which was often done during the Chevy era of Update in season 1.
— Update ends with the camera being on just Jane. Bill must be backstage getting in costume for the next sketch.
STARS: ***


VIDEO WILL
(host)’s children view their departed dad’s variety show-style video will

         

— I like Jane’s flaky southern character.
— A good laugh from Bill dismissively calling Harry “Jew boy”.
— The overlong bedpan sequence was pretty funny.
— I love the jovial performance of the song “High Hopes”.
— Funny morbid part with the reveal that Strother’s hospital roommate has just died.
— Heh, Schiller and Shaffer as Mexican musicians. This is reminding me of their roles in the Cuban Beatles sketch from earlier this season. It feels like the only time Tom Schiller is on camera this season is when he’s doing a foreign accent.
— Did we just get a too-early shot of moving feet on the TV screen?
— Good touch with the spinning screen effect at the end of one of Strother’s scenes.
— This is turning out to be an increasingly fun sketch.
— Ha, the video will even has a full set of ending credits.
— A funny dig at NBC’s then-current ratings troubles with Bill’s line about how NBC will buy anything.
— Overall, a very solid sketch.
— I like how at the end when the camera was pulling back, you can see that the office set and hospital room set were right next to each other.
STARS: ****


CONDUCTOR’S CLUB
at the weekly meeting of the Conductor’s Club, it’s business-as-usual

   

— Strange premise.
— The sound the record made when it screeched to a halt gave me a laugh.
— I’m starting to really like this sketch now; it has an interesting, unusual concept that’s appealing to me.
— The interludes with the club members practicing their conducting moves are hilarious.
— Heh, Strother was so into his wild conducting moves, he dropped his conductor’s stick and Bill had to pick it up for him.
STARS: ****


INVASION OF THE BRAIN SNATCHERS
Reagan pods turn liberals conservative

       

— Don Pardo as the voice of a news anchor on the TV Laraine’s watching. They used to do that with Pardo more often back in season 1.
— Their prediction that the 1980 election will end up being between Carter and Reagan ended up being accurate.
— Great visual with the giant Reagan pods.
— “Invasion of the Brain Snatchers”. Interesting direction this has suddenly taken.
— Bill’s understated reaction to seeing the pods was very good.
— Hilarious with the zombie-esque brainwashed Reagan supporters.
— Is Paul Shaffer spoofing a real singer? His goatee and crazy cross-eyed facial expression seem too specific to just be a fictional character. He looks hilarious, by the way.
— I love the part with Bill running in the dark while transparent shots of brainwashed Reagan supporters are superimposed over him.
— Overall, a brilliant, very well-done sketch with clever political writing.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Too Much, Too Young”


ANY TOWN
nameless residents are prejudiced against new coach (BDM)

   

— Yet another sketch tonight with an unusual, interesting-seeming premise.
— I’m liking the lack of names for everyone and everything.
— Strother’s doing a good job leading this sketch and seamlessly pulling off the various scene transitions, which doesn’t look easy.
— Overall, this didn’t seem to be trying to be laugh-out-loud funny, but it was interesting to watch progress.
— This reminded me a little of that Our Town sketch from Dick Cavett’s season 1 episode. They both even have similar titles.  Are both sketches a parody of the same thing?
STARS: ***


FOOD
by Edie Baskin- photographic essay of various NYC eateries

     

— Hmm, this film has the exact same look and stop-motion style as SNL’s then-current opening montage. Must be made by the same company.
— It’s over already? I’m not sure what to say about this film, but it had a unique structure and a very nice visual look, at least.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

  

— The show must’ve ended early, as these goodnights went on for a long time before the credits even started scrolling. We’re also getting some lengthy shots of the SNL Band, which is rare for this era.
— Don Pardo: “Tonight’s food photo essay by Edie Baskin”. Ah, that explains that film’s visual similarities to SNL’s opening montage, which Edie Baskin is behind.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A kinda-unusual episode, but I liked this one a lot. A majority of the sketches had really odd, creative, well-thought-out premises, some of which tried less for laughs and more for telling an interesting story. In general, the writing tonight seemed more inspired than it’s usually been this season. A few of the sketches were particularly strong, such as French Camp and Invasion of the Brain Snatchers. Overall, not only was this easily one of the best episodes from the rough second half of this season, but was also one of the best episodes of this whole season in general.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Burt Reynolds):
— a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Bob Newhart

Posted on

April 12, 1980 – Burt Reynolds / Anne Murray (S5 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
host claims not to be upset over not being nominated for an Oscar

   

— Laraine to Burt: “You’re still number 1 in my box office.” Nice little double-entendre there.
— Garrett’s comment about Burt being “the [n-word] of Hollywood” was freakin’ hilarious.
— What is up with Burt always amusedly repeating the cast’s funny lines after they say it?
— I got a pretty good surprised laugh from Burt slamming Gilda’s head against the locker door and then stuffing her into the locker. Burt’s taking a page out of John Belushi’s playbook, I see.
— I like how Gilda delivered LFNY from inside the locker.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
during chat with audience member, host’s preferred topic is himself

 

— I like the home base stage’s latest addition of a graffiti-covered black wall with a red gate in front of it, which, IIRC, becomes the new spot where the hosts do their monologues in front of for the remainder of the season.
— Was Burt’s “no open nasal passages” line a cocaine-snorting joke? Also, he repeated that line in a louder tone after it failed to get a big audience reaction. Man, what’s with his bad habit of repeating punchlines tonight?
— Audience member: “Go Gators!” Burt: “I didn’t bring you up here to do any of that kind of crap.”
— Burt playing off of the audience member’s “slowness” has a few laughs, but Burt making every conversation topic about himself isn’t working for me and he’s not coming off very likable.
STARS: **


FAN
(BIM) & (JAC) allow young daughters (LAN) & (GIR) to sleep with host

  

— Gilda’s funny as the younger sister.
— I’m not sure about this sleazy premise. I suppose it’s fitting for Burt Reynolds, but didn’t we just HAVE a sketch dealing with a host being in a creepy sexual relationship with an underage girl? (the “Manhattan” parody with Rodney Dangerfield)
— Overall, I didn’t care for this sketch. Too easy a premise to do with Burt, and something about this sketch felt like it was made to stroke his ego.
STARS: **


ROMAN VOMITORIUM
in ancient Rome, (host) tries to pick up women in a vomitorium

     

— Oh, boy, here’s an infamous sketch that I’ve always been morbidly curious to see. I think it’s widely considered a prime example of how far the writing had fallen this season.
— Bill doing his reliable talking-out-the-corner-of-the-mouth routine.
— Man, is Burt going to be playing the same type of sleazy, skirt-chasing role in EVERY sketch tonight? Almost makes me feel like I’m watching a rerun of the season 3 Hugh Hefner episode, where a lot of sketches had a Playboy theme with Hef playing himself.
— Good lord at this sketch so far…..
— Laraine playing a character named Anorexia, a role she fits like a glove. I don’t know whether to find that funny or sad.
— Al Franken’s walk-on makes me wonder, is this a Franken and Davis-written sketch? Their writing IS said to have gone downhill this season, which would certainly explain this sketch.
— I admit, Harry’s off-camera froggy-sounding vomiting just now had me laughing out loud.
— Was Burt’s “Toga toga toga” line an Animal House reference? It received light applause from some audience members.
— Boy, that ending with Bill scooping up vomit from one of the tubs and putting it into a basket…..
— Overall, the only words I can find to say is: Jesus Christ. Also, this feels like something that would’ve aired in any of the three infamous “disaster seasons” of the show.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lucky Me”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Father Guido Sarducci dislikes animals’ lack of gratitude toward mankind
BIM selects Oscar winners in his trademark style

     

— Father Guido Sarducci’s pigeon/statue comment was fairly funny.
— I kinda like the idea behind Sarducci delivering a message to dogs at home.
— Overall, Sarducci’s commentary wasn’t TOO bad; I’ve seen worse from him this season. But man, they still need to cut back BIG-TIME on the number of his appearances.
— Yes, the return of Bill’s annual Oscar predictions! I always enjoy this segment, and judging from the instant audience applause when Bill brought out his board of predictions tonight, the audience does too. Considering Bill (and everyone else in the cast) is going to leave SNL a few episodes from now, this ends up being his final time doing this Oscars segment as a cast member. He would bring it back in a few of his future hosting stints, however.
— The Flying Nun comment about Sally Field was really funny.
— Bill continues his tradition of giving short-shrift to the supporting actors/actress categories.
— Overall, another great Oscar predictions segment from Bill.
STARS: ***


DELIVERANCE II
undercover cop (host) looks for homosexual hicks

       

— Now we get a gay camping sketch tonight? Geez, what’s with all the lowbrow sketch premises in this episode?
— Ha, the inclusion of Anita Bryant in a sketch like this is automatically funny.
— What was with the collapsing light that was being shone from off-camera?
— Jane’s outburst over Burt turning down a glass of orange juice is great.
— Jane as Anita Bryant: “I don’t know who I hate more: homosexuals or the scum who only think orange juice is for breakfast.”
— “Deliverance II”. Ah, I should’ve seen that twist coming, considering Burt’s involvement. I’m now more excited about this sketch’s premise, as Deliverance is usually always good parody material.
— Several technical errors in this sketch so far.
— Heh, that chroma-keyed boat-rowing effect looks incredibly fake.
— LOL at Paul Shaffer’s make-up as the inbred banjo player.
— Harry’s San Francisco comment was really funny.
— Eh, that ending with all the guys going in the tent together…
— Of course, we get a Village People song to close out the sketch.
— Overall, not too great as a whole, despite some individual laughworthy parts here and there.
STARS: **½


THE BURT BOOK
The Burt Book’s pics of host get women through those lonely nights

   

— Decent concept.
— Burt saying one of his turnoffs is people with large runny boils in their neck was really funny.
— Heh, Laraine being shown moving her hand under the bed covers while eagerly reading the Burt Book……
STARS: ***


STREET SCENE
by Andy Aaron- off-screen director coaches pedestrians

   

— Hmm, a non-Tom Schiller film.
— Ha, holy hell at the building actually collapsing.
— The aggressive director’s voice is making me laugh.
— Overall, a strange film, but kinda funny. Felt like something that would’ve appeared on the show in the early 80s. Maybe I feel that way because this reminds me of the later “Push Button to Explode Building” short with Tom Davis. That one WAS from the early 80s, right?
STARS: **½


PEPPERS
daughter (LAN) & other Peppers convince (BDM) & (JAC) to join the cult

     

— I’ve always heard good things about this sketch.
— Bill’s cheesy teenage delivery is funny.
— Loved the brief part with the teens’ rhythmic walking in unison (which I’m assuming is based on the choreography of a then-current Dr. Pepper ad).
— Good ending with everybody singing a Dr. Pepper commercial jingle together while dancing their way off the set.
— Overall, this was pretty strong. Feels like the first sketch I’ve felt highly about all night.
STARS: ****


ARGUMENT
party etiquette breach gives couple (host) & (GIR) a reason to argue

 

— Are we in for a slice-of-life couple sketch?
— I liked Gilda’s grammatical word-by-word breakdown of her sentence “It has nothing to do with you”.
— The heated “listen to me” back-and-forth between Burt and Gilda is weird as hell.
— Overall, this was stranger than the usual slice-of-life pieces from this era, but I guess I liked it enough, though they almost lost me at some parts.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Why Don’t You Stick Around”


BABA WAWA AT LARGE
Marlon Brando (host) pigs out during interview

— Surprised to see this. I had assumed the “Baba Wawa At Large” sketches were long retired by this point. I can’t even remember when the last time they did this sketch was.
— Oh my god at Burt as a huge, bed-ridden Marlon Brando.
— I like seeing Burt in a very un-Burt Reynolds-type role, but his Brando impression doesn’t hold a candle to Belushi’s.
— Someone in the audience can be heard loudly repeating Burt’s yelling of “Stellaaaa!”
— Overall, a forgettable sketch. I really wanted to like this more than I did.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— After a big upswing in quality with the last episode, we’re unfortunately back to the usual season 5 shakiness. Not a very good episode tonight, most of the sketches left me underwhelmed, and one of them was flat-out terrible (Vomitorium). The Dr. Pepper piece was pretty much the only sketch I was crazy about.
— Burt Reynolds had a rough start in the first few sketches, playing the same type of role and having an off-putting habit of repeating punchlines for no apparent reason. He got a little better as the night went on, but he still wasn’t anything great overall.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss):
— a pretty big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Strother Martin

Posted on

April 5, 1980 – Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss / The Grateful Dead (S5 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


DISCLAIMER
Police Boat will not be seen tonight


COLD OPENING
Carter Held Hostage- Frank Reynolds (HAS) covers presidential agoraphobia

   

— Hearing Harry’s Tom Snyder voice-over talking during a picture montage of President Carter really makes one yearn for Dan Aykroyd’s presence this season.
— “Carter Held Hostage”. A very funny concept. Though why does this make me think of the upcoming 80-81 season? Maybe I’m thinking of the “America Not Held Hostage Anymore” cold opening I remember seeing from that season.
— Oh, it turns out Harry’s not playing Tom Snyder; he’s Frank Reynolds. I sure don’t see any difference with the voice, though. As much as I enjoy Harry Shearer, quite a number of his celebrity impressions this season are vocally interchangeable with one another.
— Boy, the audience is pretty quiet during this sketch.
— It almost seemed like Paula Prentiss forgot one of her lines at one point. Maybe that was just an odd character choice.
— A passing reference to President Carter’s infamous rabbit attack.
— I believe this is Harry’s very first LFNY.
— Overall, despite the promising concept, this ended up being not too great and the interview portions dragged.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
Paula downplays Richard’s irritation over being cut from the cold opening

— Richard’s increasing bitterness over being cut from the cold opening is pretty funny.
— Decent ending with Richard finding out his Barry Manilow impression was cut as well.
STARS: ***


JESUS CRUSH
little girls (GIR) & (LAN) fantasize about their dream guy Jesus

   

— I liked Gilda’s line about Jesus not being a snob because he hangs out with lepers.
— Did I hear right? Gilda’s character is named Debbie Nimrod????
— Gilda telling Laraine “You can have Lazarus” was great.
— Cute sketch so far.
— Gilda’s character mentions Bill Murray’s name as one of the many celebrities she and Jesus are going to the roller disco with.
— The ending with Paula was VERY awkward. What was up with that? Something seemed to go wrong. Also, why did it sound like she spoke with an accent at times?
— Overall, despite the weak ending, this was a very good sketch. Felt like something they would’ve done in the first two seasons.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Alabama Getaway”


POST-COITAL TORTURE
married (Richard) experiences paranoid guilt after infidelity with (LAN)

   

— Two back-to-back bedroom sketches co-starring Laraine tonight.
— Richard’s breakdown, repeating “Why am I here?” while banging his head against the door, is very funny.
— Loved Richard’s silent long scream when someone knocks on the door.
— The whole part with Laraine fooling Richard into thinking his wife has come over is absolutely great. Garrett confused reaction also added to the humor.
— Garrett’s comments are funny.
— Good ending.
— Overall, another solid slice-of-life sketch tonight.
STARS: ****


WEEKEND UPDATE
Big Vic Ricker reports on women’s golf & the probable baseball strike
ALF asks viewers to send him their receipts so he can avoid income taxes
BIM sings “Happy Birthday” to the Three Mile Island accident

     

— The return of Big Vic Ricker. Good to see Harry get a recurring character.
— Liked the part with Harry’s “Let’s see that one more time” (*no clip plays*) “Okay, let’s don’t.”
— Another follow-up to the Al Franken Decade storyline.
— Hmm, Al talking about how impressive the amount of money he makes is. Wouldn’t he later do an Update commentary with that same premise, in the Jeff Daniels episode from 1991?
— Okay, Al’s commentary ended up going in a different direction, but overall, it was completely forgettable. His Update bits haven’t been doing too well lately.
— The bit between Bill and Jane about how much money Jane is worth had some pretty funny lines from Bill, and for historical purposes, I liked hearing him make a reference to NBC’s infamous then-current disastrous variety show “Pink Lady and Jeff”.
— Bill brings back his usual smarmy singing of “Happy Birthday”, this time to the Three Mile Island incident. This was worth it just for the visual of a birthday cake with a nuclear meltdown birthday candle.
— During her sign-off, Jane says “Feel better, Larry”. Who was that referring to?
STARS: ***


ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING
Iris de Flaminio (JAC), Bobbi Farber, Christy Christina get assertive

  

— The debut of Jane’s Iris De Flaminio character. This is a well-known character from this season, and I’m surprised to see Jane didn’t start playing her until the homestretch of the season. It’s rare for a cast member to debut one of their most popular characters right before they leave the show. The only other example that comes to mind is Vanessa Bayer’s gibberish-spouting weather lady.
— Hmm, Jane’s doing the same voice she used as a Dolly Parton impersonator in the preceding episode’s David Susskind Show sketch.
— Always nice to see Gilda’s Bobbi Farber.
— Jane is great in this.
— Laraine explaining that her compliment to herself in the mirror was “I want to be inside you” was very funny.
— Where have I heard Laraine do that high-pitched laugh before?
— Once again tonight, Paula’s timing and delivery is coming off a little awkward at times.
— Oh, now I think I know why Laraine’s character and laugh seems so familiar. Is this her character from the E. Buzz Miller sketches?
— Strange ending with Paula and Laraine.
— Overall, a very enjoyable ensemble sketch for the female cast members, with each of them doing solid character work.
STARS: ****


THE FRANKEN AND DAVIS SHOW
Khomeini the Magnificent (ALF) does Iranian version of Carnac bit

 

— Oh, they’re still doing the Franken and Davis Show? I had assumed they retired it this season.
— Funny concept with Al playing Ayatollah as Johnny Carson’s Carnac the Magnificent.
— The “Day-O” joke about the hostages in Iran was hilarious.
— Fun sketch so far.
— Al even managed to get laughs out of his line flub about a prayer rug.
— Tom’s good at doing the Ed McMahon laughing.
— The Shah/cat food joke was another hilarious one.
STARS: ***½


JOEY BISHOP FANS
Joey Bishop fans (BIM) & (GIR) find common ground with neighbors (hosts)

   

— The performers are doing a good job with the long, tense, stretched-out silences.
— A good laugh from Richard’s excitement when Joey Bishop first got mentioned.
— So much energy in this.
— Great sudden turn with Bill and Gilda’s mood turning sour when they disagree with Richard and Paula’s claim that Joey’s late show is better than his early show.
— Loved Bill’s angry yelling of “What people!!!” after slamming the door.
— Funny ending with Bill getting overemotional and asking for his pills, and relating that to Joey Bishop.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Saint of Circumstances”


MR. BILL STRIKES BACK
by Walter Williams- trip to the police backfires

     

— Wow, it’s actually been a good while since this character last appeared.
— “Sgt. O’Hanahan”. Heh, I see where going; O’Hanahan’s going to turn out to be Mr. Hands in disguise.
— Overall, not much to say, but this was pretty funny.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— This was easily the best episode from the second half of the season so far. While the prior episodes from this half of the season have been either disappointing or just average, tonight’s episode was very solid, with a lot of well-written and well-performed sketches. Aside from the cold opening, there weren’t any sketches that fell flat for me; pretty much everything in tonight’s show worked. I also like how we got several slice-of-life pieces, which has become more of a rarity at this late stage in the original SNL era; it made this feel more like an episode from the first three seasons.
— If there was any downside to this episode, it’s that I felt Paula Prentiss was kind of a weak co-host. She seemed to falter a bit in the sketches where she wasn’t working with Richard Benjamin. She did fine whenever she was alongside him, though.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Paul Simon and James Taylor):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Burt Reynolds