Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
outside Richard Nixon’s brownstone, Father Guido Sarducci waits for him
— Another season 5 episode that unexpectedly starts with a Weekend Update segment.
— Oh, it’s a follow-up to Father Guido Sarducci’s Japan arrest.
— I wonder who in the cast, if anyone, will play Nixon in this, now that we don’t have Aykroyd anymore.
— Don Novello’s voice sounds a little hoarse tonight.
— At first, I assumed Sarducci was in front of a chroma-key screen, but it appears that he actually IS outdoors.
— Overall, nothing special, despite a few okay lines here and there. I guess this was just here to set up a segment we’ll be coming back to later tonight.
STARS: **
MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)
— Gotta love how laid-back Elliott always is as an SNL host. He casually begins eating a licorice stick as soon as he makes his entrance in this monologue.
— Oh, it’s a carrot he’s eating.
— Liked his “It’s got balls” comment about why he loves SNL.
— It’s over ALREADY??? Geez, this was almost as short and pointless a monologue as Teri Garr’s from two episodes ago.
— Hey, I just realized, there was no musical tap-dancing number. Isn’t that supposed to be Elliott’s regular thing in the monologue every time he hosts?
STARS: ??? (undecided)
JEWESS JEANS
Rhonda Weiss models the kosher designer denim
— A Gilda Radner classic that I’ve always loved. Easily the best use of her Rhonda Weiss character.
— I really like the late 70s-sounding commercial jingle.
— Great ending with the announcer’s “You don’t have to be Jewish…” being followed by Gilda’s “…but it wouldn’t hurt.”
STARS: *****
KENNEDY-POWELL DEBATE
Jody Powell (BDM) subs for Jimmy Carter during Ted Kennedy (BIM) debate
— Always good to see Bill’s Ted Kennedy impression.
— I almost thought the person sitting opposite of Bill’s Kennedy was Harry Shearer as President Carter, but it turns out to be Brian Doyle-Murray as Carter’s press secretary, who’s sitting in for the president tonight. Bah, poor excuse to not have anyone do a Carter impression, if you ask me. I don’t understand; did SNL feel Dan Aykroyd’s Carter impression was so untouchable that there was no need to even bother having anyone take over that role this season? I still say Shearer could’ve possibly done a half-decent Carter voice.
— As I said sometime recently, I always like seeing Murray brothers Bill and Brian interacting with each other in a sketch. Is this is the only season in SNL history where two relatives were in the cast at the same time?
— Good Chappaquiddick comment from Brian.
— Overall, a pretty good debate sketch.
STARS: ***½
BECAUSE THE WINE REMEMBERS
Everett & Giorgio Gallo wine is made & shipped with care for winos
— Eh, didn’t care much for this. This came off as just quick, forgettable filler.
STARS: **
THE INCREDIBLE MAN
yellow snow leads to the Canadian Wizard of Oz
— Interesting idea for a Wizard of Oz knockoff.
— The altered “Over the Rainbow” lyrics started out pretty funny, though the humor in the song died down after a while.
— Gilda making her Catatonic Colleen face after knocking herself dizzy on her bed’s backboard.
— Jane playing a character named Gilda. Heh.
— Good voice on Jane.
— The knockoff version of the yellow brick road being “the yellow line in the snow” is hilarious.
— At first glance, I almost thought that was Dan Aykroyd as the frozen hockey player. Must be his brother Peter. I still have a hard time recognizing him in sketches.
— Seeing as how this IS a sketch about Canadians, I guess Peter’s a natural for this. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he’s the one who wrote this.
— Garrett’s role as a flying monkey has often been said to be the most demeaning role he has EVER gotten on the show, and is also said to be a perfect example of how poorly used he was this season.
— I liked Laraine’s “I didn’t even get out of the castle and I’m melting!!” line.
— Funny how the Incredible Man’s headquarters are a cheap mobile home.
— I just spotted a stagehand accidentally entering the shot.
— Incredible Man knocking Gilda out with a board while Gilda’s in the middle of doing the “no place like home” knockoff was pretty funny.
— Another blooper, where during the dream-ending screen transition, they mistakenly cut back to the snowy forest set briefly and you can see Peter Aykroyd getting out of character.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Cars”
— Adding to what I said earlier about how lovably laid-back Elliott Gould always is as a host, he pulls out a cigarette and starts smoking right in the middle of his intro to this musical performance.
WEEKEND UPDATE
Father Guido Sarducci believes the Nixons are late because of long movie
JAC sends a message to retiring Walter Cronkite by unbuttoning her blouse
— We get a continuation of the Sarducci/Nixon remote from earlier.
— This Sarducci piece is starting to kinda remind me a remote segment he would do a decade later (during a special guest appearance) about finding the Pope’s missing wallet, and I remember not even being crazy about that one.
— Bill seems visibly unsure of how to pronounce “Entenmann’s”.
— Bill’s “big fat slob” report was great; felt like a bit of a callback to his rant about fat people a few episodes ago.
— Jane’s sultry message towards Walter Cronkite is yet another good continuation of the “Jane has a love jones for Cronkite” running joke this season.
— Not a great Update tonight, overall.
STARS: **
PRISON RECRUITING
college basketball coach (host) heavily recruits jailed murderer (GAM)
— The increasing number of all these people entering Garrett’s cell to try to recruit him seems like a fairly promising premise.
— Yvonne Hudson playing a character with her own first name.
— Laraine’s seems like she’s almost playing a variation of her child psychologist/baby mogul character.
— Okay, this sketch ain’t turning out as funny as I thought it would be.
— Garrett’s frozen facial reaction at the end was kinda funny, but overall, I didn’t care for this sketch.
STARS: **
ALL TIME RADIO
all-time radio station deejay (HAS) keeps listeners chronologically aware
— Oh, here’s the Shearer radio sketch from this episode that I’ve heard is REALLY good.
— I liked Harry’s “I almost asked your question for you” ad-lib after he accidentally greeted a caller with “What time is it?” when the caller was supposed to ask him that.
— The clock has said 4:15 for much longer than a minute.
— The angry caller complaining about getting fired sounds an awful lot like John Belushi. I know he’s off the show, but seriously, the caller sounds way too much like Belushi to NOT be him. Is he making some strange kind of uncredited voice cameo or something?
— Oh, now they addressed exactly what I pointed out earlier about the clock being on 4:15 for way too long. Turns out the clock is broken.
— I think I just heard Yvonne Hudson’s voice as one of the callers.
— Hmm, Harry keeps making more occasional line flubs, but he’s so damn good at recovering from them with natural little ad-libs without missing a beat in his great rapid-fire delivery.
— Overall, a very good sketch, though I wouldn’t say this is better than Harry’s earlier radio show sketch from the Howard Hesseman episode. Either way, Harry continues to add a much-needed breath of fresh air to this increasingly shaky season, carving out a niche for himself with his creative sketch premises and great delivery.
STARS: ****
THE SUBWAY GENIE
a subway genie (host) takes (GIR) on an underground tour of NYC
— For anyone keeping count, this is now the FOURTH sketch Yvonne Hudson has been in tonight, and she isn’t even in the cast yet!
— I liked Yvonne’s “Get a job, turkey!” line to Garrett.
— Is this sketch supposed to be a character piece for Garrett?
— What the hell? This sketch has been going on for minutes, and I can’t find anything to say, as practically nothing has been entertaining or interesting ever since the direction this took with the genie appearing.
— Hmm, a fourth-wall breaking ending.
— Yeah, the fourth-wall break did NOTHING to save this sketch.
— Overall, this seemed to have good intentions, but the resulting sketch didn’t work for me at all.
STARS: *½
NIXON IN NEW YORK
Father Guido Sarducci talks to one of Richard Nixon’s new neighbors
— Another continuation of tonight’s Sarducci runner.
— Don Novello’s sorta-hoarse voice from earlier tonight is sounding even worse now.
— I like Sarducci’s “candid” complaints about SNL making him stand out in the cold all night, when he thinks he’s not on the air. “If I get pneumonia, I’m gonna sue ’em.”
— A mention of “The Rocky Horror Show”, which gets instant enthusiastic applause from the studio audience.
— The reveal that the question Sarducci wants to ask Nixon is “If you could be an animal, what would it be?” wasn’t all that funny. Tonight’s Sarducci remote hasn’t really been taking off.
STARS: **
KRAMER VS. GODZILLA
movie has custody battle pitting man against monster
— “From Yoshimura Studios in Japan”. Heh, nice reference to a certain SNL staffer and frequent on-camera extra.
— I love the concept of this “Kramer vs. Kramer” parody. I remember hearing about this sketch before.
— Harry seems to be trying with his Dustin Hoffman impression, but I’m not sure that he’s nailing the voice.
— Ah, there’s Akira Yoshimura himself.
— Haha, Akira doing the badly-dubbed Japanese movie lip-syncing is funny.
— Overall, short but decent. I was expecting this to be a little better, though.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Praying to the Aliens”
— Haha, Elliott does an even more unique musical guest intro this time, by just silently holding up a cue card which has his line on it.
GOODNIGHTS
the Nixons’ limousine arrives just as the show ends
— Maybe it’s just me, but Elliott’s sounding a little too somber during his goodnights speech.
— Don Pardo announces that next week’s host will be “Kirk Douglas, with musical guest James Brown”. Brown must’ve ended up having to cancel, because Sam & Dave turn out to be the musical guest in that episode. Brown would later appear the following season, as one of the many great musical guests of the 80-81 season.
— After the scrolling ending credits are done, we get a sudden cutaway back to Guido Sarducci and his barely-there-anymore hoarse voice, who catches up to Nixon (played by an extra) and bombards him with the question “What animal would you be?” over and over. This is one of the rare times SNL has done a post-goodnights scene. In fact, I think the only other one in SNL history may be in Bob Newhart’s episode from 1995.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty “meh” episode. There were some good things, but there were too many weak, dull segments, especially in the post-Update half. The Father Guido Sarducci segments also weren’t the best thing to have as a running thread throughout the show. This season has not been doing well ever since they came back from Christmas break; there has yet to be a good episode in the 1980 half of the season. The burnout from the writers is starting to becoming evident.
— Elliott Gould did his usual laid-back approach to hosting, though I think I got more laughs just from his interesting musical guest intros than from anything he did in tonight’s actual sketches. Not even his monologue featured anything noteworthy. This would end up being his final time hosting in the original era, which is a little bittersweet, especially when you know what unfortunately lies ahead in his next (and final) SNL stint the following season, hosting the inaugural episode of a doomed new cast.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chevy Chase):
— a very slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Kirk Douglas