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.
Dave’s Variety Store is a favorite from this one.
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I couldn’t agree more…..such a GREAT example of how effortlessly funny, and original so many of the sketches were back then (though NO doubt, they too weren’t ‘perfect’, and also had some stinkers of their own)!
Though the show these days does occasionally have an interesting, and yes, sometimes even funny sketch, it’s amazing how far down the ‘hits’ to ‘misses’ (sketch) percentage has fallen for the overall quality of the show.
Let’s just hope it’s just in a ‘lull’ period, and will eventually return to the more consistently funny, AND entertaining sketch show that it once was!
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The Ratings chart Franken put up in his commentary is surprisingly accurate…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-rated_United_States_television_programs_of_1979%E2%80%9380
It’s a shame that Bob didn’t host during the 1986-1990 era, when “Newhart” was still going strong – he would have had great chemistry with the Carvey/Hartman/Lovitz cast.
Franken’s commentary almost didn’t make it on the show – it probably wouldn’t have if someone else had a decent Update desk piece that week. In that case, Lorne may have stayed for Season 6 after all (with Franken as producer!)
That “A Limo for a Lame-o” bit by Al Franken makes me wonder what if Al never did that? What if by the next season, Lorne did back out and was peacefully transferred his duties to both Franken and Tom Davis? Would there be a highly chances that they could hire Eddie Murphy, Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and Kate McKinnon, among other famous comedians launched by SNL from post-original era? Would Franken can still run later as a senator and win? And of course, would SNL is still airing until now? That is going to be a very different SNL (or if not, the whole entertainment industry) if their planning was stayed and became implemented.
*Just a little correction that what I meant about Lorne did back out and then transferred his duties to Franken and Davis is his producer role. Of course, Lorne may have been stayed on the show by the next season but as an executive producer only with both Franken and Davis served as the producers of the show, if that commentary never happened.
According to the book “Saturday Night: A Backstage history of Saturday Night Live”, NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff was in the audience after deciding not to watch a movie that night. When the “Limo for a Lamo” piece was being performed, a page found him in the rafters and said Fred Silverman was looking for him. “Tell him I’m not here” was the reply!