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.