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
Ellen Burstyn’s is a lot better. (Jamie Lee Curtis is a mixed bag – some great material, some truly awful like the cold opening.)
Gottfried did Dr Murray Abramowitz to better effect on his 1987 Showtime special:
https://youtu.be/35dh95frnzM
https://youtu.be/Y38Os1AF6pI
https://youtu.be/gCcAzTuJGdc
Read an interview online where Malcolm Mcdowell called his SNL a horrible experience, so much so that he told this to his “protégé” Gary Oldman when he was scheduled to host in Dec 1992 and talked him into cancelling at the last minute. I remember Pardo announcing his appearance back in ’92, then seeing Tom Arnold take his place (which wasn’t a bad ep….)
I don’t think this cast ever recovered from this episode. Doomed the entire season.
On the other hand, this is exemplary of the music director’s bold choices. Beefheart wasn’t exactly in fashion then either, from my understanding.
Hal Willner talked a few years ago about being the one to get Beefheart on the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RudKvxUoZs
He passed away today. So many moving tributes all over Twitter.
https://variety.com/2020/music/obituaries-people-news/hal-willner-dead-dies-music-producer-saturday-night-live-1234573202/
Yes, someone yelled “shit” at the end of “Ashtray Heart” – oddly, that person was Radames Pera, best known for playing the young Caine on KUNG FU in the seventies; of course, the guy who played grown-up Caine hosts in just a few episodes. Can’t wait ’til you get to that one – it’s… interesting, for sure. (It also happens to include my favorite sketch of the whole Doumanian run.)
Apparently, Pera changed his tune vis a vis Beefheart in near-record time, as related here:
http://www.beefheart.com/saturday-night-live/
I recently found Season 6 on archives.org and finally was able to watch through this episode in its entirety.
…
…Wow, it is really dismal. As bad as the Commie Hunting skit is (and it is terrible), the “Jack the Stripper” sketch is…*almost* worse. The copious amounts of fog so everything is really dark and blurry, an entire sketch based on stupid pun, well, not even really a pun just the fact that the words rhyme (Stripper instead of Ripper? Hilarious!…seriously, did a 13 year old write this?…absolute bush-league attempts at humor), Piscopo’s character with the cartoonish Swedish accent totally flopped and was so unprofessional, a freakin’ Boy Scout doing a skit by the campfire probably could have done a better performance.
Ay, ay, ay…what a terrible sketch. Weather Leather Report (another skit premised on the fact that words rhyme) was downright awful. First of all, why isn’t Gail playing the dominatrix? Honestly. Serf City (yet another pun based sketch) was terrible and all of it culminated with the god awful Commie Hunting sketch (these writers could barely do corny humor correctly, there’s no way they could pull off this kind of satire, and sure enough they completely failed)
Man, this show was a disaster. Any bright moments (Gilbert as the Tobacco spokesman, and the bookstore sketch) were completely overshadowed by all the dreck surrounding it. Just plain bad. And the show’s groomed star (Charles Rocket) was in nearly every single sketch.
I’m glad I finally got to watch this trainwreck, but no wonder this season was a disaster. Although the following episode was an improvement (anything would have been), in the long run there was no way they could recover from this episode.
Malcolm recently spoke about this episode with Gilbert on Gilbert’s podcast.
https://twitter.com/RealGilbertACP/status/1305508097381687300
He does not look fondly on this. He said it bothered him for a long time that he played John Lennon and then not long after that was his murder. Although he found out 20 years later that John actually liked it.
The Bookstore Sketch definitely had a Monty Python feel to me. Especially the ending. I also like the Wine Sketch, and the Leather Weather Report can be improved on. But the Stripper and Commie Hunting? Throw that away, they werent funny at all.
After hearing Don Pardo over the goodnights announcing something called “Roadshow with host John Candy and musical guest Tom Waits” I was curious about what that was and gave it a google.
Looks like it was some kind of new sketch/variety pilot they were testing because after 2 episodes the new SNL was already getting panned left and right. First I’m hearing of this show/pilot, anyone seen it before? No idea if it’s ever made its way onto the internet.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1980/11/29/television/799b637c-8637-4763-8556-906741832c9f/
Link to article I found for anyone interested. Some funny in hindsight quotes all throughout about the current reception to the new generation of SNL.
Some choice quotes throughout, a few samples:
“Roadshow, the series pilot to be aired by NBC in the Saturday Night Live” time slot at 11:30 tonight on Channel 4, was rushed onto the air partly because the new cast and staff of “Saturday Night Live” have turned out to be, to judge from their work, a witless tribe of philistines. They dropped a bomb in the 12-megaton range, and insiders say that network ad salesmen are having a hard time getting sponsors to place commercials on the program, which used to sell out months in advance.”
“Guest host John Candy is a decided, felicitous asset, however, and at least the cast of zanies is an improvement over the snide, smug little rich kids on the new SNL.”
So is Commie Hunting Season the worst sketch in the show’s history? The only 2 I’ve seen that come close to that bad (where they aren’t only laugh free but actively contemptible) are the Chris Elliott Babysitter sketch from season 20 and the Donald Trump 2018 sketch from season 41. I think that last one might take the cake, just because of how insanely poorly its aged in only a couple of years.
I’d say it’s very close – I have wondered why sketches like Jack the Stripper or Leather Weather got more mention, and notoriety, in the SNL lore (like the Weingrad/Hill book). I wonder if this was just too repulsive to even be acknowledged.
For other sketches that are just outright unpleasant, with no real humor (or humor that has aged horribly), I’d have to throw in the cold open from the episode Chris Farley hosted, that really weird and gross version of Will Ferrell’s nude model character from Drew Barrymore’s ’99 episode, the aliens-love-to-rape sketch from Johnny Knoxville’s episode, and a big lump of the ha-ha-rape pieces from 93-95. And a bunch of stuff I’m probably forgetting.
Oh man that Knoxville sketch is repulsive. One of the lamest endings of any sketch I can think of. That also reminded me of the alien corn sketch from season 44 Carrell episode, which is up there.
Here’s my commentary and rating of the musical performances.
Hot Head
— Beefheart looks a little like Tom Baker in Doctor Who, with his hat and red scarf.
— Band is so locked-in here, and this song’s got a great groove. I know a lot of folks consider Beefheart “avant garde” and “weird,” but man this is a hell of a catchy song. Great guitar riff.
— I’ve tried a few times to stream Trout Mask Replica (Beefheart’s most critically lauded album) and couldn’t get into it, but this song (and the next) are right down my alley.
Stars: ****
Ashtray Heart
— Wow this is even wilder than the first song. But again the band isn’t missing a beat and is being extremely disciplined amidst the chaos.
— I like this version even better than the studio version of the song. More energy.
— What the heck’s a Mellotron doing in this song? This is bonkers but I love it!
— Love how the drummer is beating the snot out of his toms with a fierce look on his face during the “bridge”.
— Beefheart’s vocals are awesome and I love the central lyrical metaphor of this song. So raw and gritty.
— Yes! He pulls out a soprano sax, almost gets it tangled in his scarf (LOL), and plays a WILD free jazz solo to end the tune.
— That was amazing. I’m sure Captain Beefheart isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but man oh man I could watch this every day. Sucks the rest of the episode doesn’t come close to the quality of these performances.
Stars: *****
Hey Frederick, these are great! A valuable addition to Stooge’s write-ups. I think the music is a key part of the show so a similar kind of review is a great idea. Agree completely about Beefheart. Trout Mask Replica is conceptually interesting, but the actually great albums all show up toward the end of Beefheart’s run.
Thank you so much, Carson! Your comments on this site have also been an outstanding enhancement, so I’m honored to receive your praise. I don’t think I’ll be able to provide commentary at the same pace as Stooge, and I’m going to cherry pick the performances I’m most familiar with. If anyone else wants to pick up the slack, please do so by all means. Happy for this to be a crowdsourced project.
There’s a very specific reason the opening Update joke bombed so hard. One day earlier, 85 people died in a Vegas hotel fire, many of them attempting to save themself with improvised bedsheet ropes. The joke was an insane misstep even by the lowered standards for this problematic season, and a solid reason why this episode is ranked with the worst.
I never made that connection but you’re probably right, @Tim! Two others things which I feel probably would have hurt the piece even without the MGM Fire… 1) it was not performed on home base. I know there are plenty of pieces performed away from home base, but this piece would have been too subtle already. 2) IT’S NOT A GOOD JOKE. The level of humor here reminds me of all those terrible, middle-aged midnight movie hosts you still see to this day on cable access, trying to re-capture some of the buzz from Zacherley, Graves Ghastly, Chilly Billy, Svengoolie, Ghoulardi, etc., from 40+ years ago. Gilbert always cites his appearance as a corpse as a low point in his SNL career. I really think it might be this.
I guess I wasn’t clear that the Update joke is clearly ABOUT the MGM fire a day earlier. I assume that the photo shown is of desperate hotel clients trying to save themselves. That’s how tone-deaf the whole thing is- an order of magnitude off from O’Donoghue’s often cruel, but expressing some kind of point, gallows humor. It’s like someone programmed AI to write topical humor but forgot the subroutine to avoid tragedy.
Now I feel ridiculous: I thought you meant the cold open, and it’s death-centric “humor.” Now I see you meant the WU opener, which was much more direct. My mistake— and still an excellent point about why it bombed.
Who’d a thunk it? Dept.-Eddie Murphy has now been inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame! Congratulations! And to think, it all started with this blink-and-miss-it role on “SNL” during the “In Search of the Negro Republican” sketch…
I noticed that two staff writers were apparently fired after this episode; Sean Kelly and Nancy Dowd. Sean is from the National Lampoon crowd and founding editor of “Heavy Metal.” And Nancy wrote “Slap Shot” the Paul Newman hockey movie released in 1977. Yep, a girl wrote Slap Shot. She also wrote “Coming Home” with Jon Voight and Bruce Dern released in 1978. I don’t know how she wound up on SNL two years after that but her and Sean only lasted two episodes as SNL writers.
After editing the episode to my preference for future viewing I saved:
MUTUALLY OMAHA’S WILD KINGDOM
Jim Fowler (JOP) goes In Search of the Negro Republican
WEEKEND UPDATE
CHR interviews Yoko Ono (DED) & house husband John Lennon (host)
The Rocket Report
I feel like until the dreary end stretch of leather weather/commie hunting/jack the stripper this would be remembered as a ho hum, maybe even an okay episode. There’s some amusing stuff beyond that stuff. Leather Weather is just a dumb, bad sketch–I don’t know why it gets hated on so much. The other two are more offensive and unfunny on paper.
I think the grim cold open and the lame pun-filled Serf City sketch also add to the narrative of this supposedly being the worst episode of SNL.
Streaming SNL on Peacock. Beginning with season 6, streaming episodes are seriously cut.
NOT INCLUDED in this episode:
MUTUALLY OMAHA’S WILD KINGDOM
SHOWDOWN
AMERICAN MILK ASSOCIATION
GOTHIC NOVEL SHOP
Also: no CAPT BEEFHEART
Every episode after season 5 is described as “selections include [XYZ]” with ZERO musical performances included until season 40.
I subscribed to Peacock just to watch SNL, so its disappointing, especially the lack of music.
Looks like they didn’t want to pay for music rights during 34 consecutive seasons?
I wonder if any DVD collections from these three + decades are complete.
archive dot org is great for complete episodes- ripped from VHS rather than digital quality, but they seem pretty complete.
For the McDowell episode:
https://archive.org/details/saturday-night-live-s-06-e-02-malcolm-mc-dowell-captain-beefheart-and-his-magic-band
To Charles Rocket’s credit, you can see him turn his face away right after saying that horrible line. As if he’s cringing/rolling his eyes, like he knew how terrible it was … but he still had to follow the script.
I’m kind of surprised Commie Hunting Season is on the official Youtube page. It’s like Lorne wants to remind his critics what happened when he was not there.
Commie Hunting is the worst sketch I have seen the eeriness of the audience not laughing adds to it.
I was a junior in high school during this season of SNL. I watched every episode, as I did the ABC late-night show Fridays.
Fridays had a cool L.A.-vibe, accentuated by a laid-back appearance (the drug jokes probably helped). Not everything on Fridays worked – but the cast and crew were inventive and creative enough to come up with some occasional gems and good satire (the “Moral Majority Comedy-Variety Hour” sketch is a good example).
One thing lacking in SNL 80 compared to Fridays – and especially to the previous five years of SNL – was joy. Looking back, I see no joy in SNL 80. The cast seem to realize their fate in being compared to the original players and do very little to rise above that. Much of the SNL 80 humor was heartless, pointless, and just plain bad. The Malcolm McDowell episode is a perfect microcosm of this.
Ye Gods. What a mirthless episode. I must have watched this when it originally aired, but I don’t recall.
From the cold open to the very end, this is the dregs of SNL. Only the Rocket Report and the Amy Carter sketch were of minimum value. McDowell was a decent host, but deserved better.
An execution; exploitation of serfs; masochism; racism; anti-Semitism. Wow. These were supposed to be comedy sketches? And to open Weekend Update with a crack about the tragic Las Vegas casino fire. Incredible.
The mind boggles at how a fair-to-middling season premiere could descend into this dreck in the span of one week.
In the Hill/Weingrad book, it says that Jean opened the first production meeting for this episode by reading a negative review of the previous episode… then running a tape and saying something like “I hope you hate this, because you wrote it.” Hard to be funny after that. No wonder the sketches have such a negative vibe. Instead of building on what worked in the season premiere and trying to move forward, she wasted an hour trashing and demoralizing her own staff. As Al Franken said, no English-speaking person could’ve done a worse job as producer.
The commie hunting sketch was so bizarre.
It’s odd that they went out and got the costumes and props and even did the sketch.
I can’t imagine what the joke was? Just a one-liner with (N) and Jew?
Just bizarre more than anything.
“Commie Hunting Season” was based on an incident in North Carolina where five members of the Communist Party were shot dead by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis. The killers later avoided jail time, because it was ruled they acted in self-defense, an obviously controversial verdict. The intended joke of the sketch was that it’s legal to kill Communists in North Carolina, so they were portraying it as an officially sanctioned activity that everyone eagerly engages in. It would be like trying to build an entire sketch around the premise of Norm MacDonald’s “murder is now legal in the state of California” joke.
Really, it’s a perfect example of how the Season 6 writers often had trouble distinguishing between contempt and satire. They frequently just vilified their targets rather than finding a humorous angle that revealed the absurdity. Frankly, I don’t know how they could’ve found a humorous angle for that incident. They would’ve been better off not touching it.