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

 

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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