Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
DOP puts the kibosh on JOP’s plans to be both castmember & SNL announcer
— They seem to be attempting the type of “backstage locker room” cold openings the original SNL era often did.
— Joe practicing a Pardo impression would later get put to good use in reality during the season 9 episode that Jamie Lee Curtis hosted, where Joe had to fill in for a laryngitis-stricken Pardo.
— I loved Pardo’s “I’m everywhere” line.
— Abrupt segue to LFNY, if it can even be called a segue. Joe just randomly said it with no set-up. This season’s writers seem to be struggling to come up with good LFNY segues.
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— Yvonne Hudson receives her first credit as a featured player, becoming SNL’s very first black female cast member.
MONOLOGUE
host shuffles a soft-shoe while singing “I Wanna Be A Dancin’ Man”
— I remember hearing a rumor that Carradine pulled a Kris Kristofferson and got drunk shortly before airtime. However, he seems fine in this monologue.
— He made a pretty funny “That didn’t work” ad-lib when his line about his father forbidding him from using his feet got a tepid reaction.
— Another ad-lib with him saying “Just reading the cards, that’s all”. Who is he with that ad-lib, Frank Zappa?
— A song-and-dance number. Wouldn’t have expected that from him.
— There’s no joke to this musical number, but it has a charm to it and is fairly fun.
— I liked Charles’ “This is supposed to be a comedy show” acknowledgment.
— Very funny part with David kicking Charles off the stage.
STARS: ***
GUN CITY
(JOP) makes a Crazy Eddie-style pitch for Christmas firearms
— Joe’s doing great at channeling his inner Aykroyd, with his fast-talking manic pitchman delivery.
— Insane premise, and feels a little weird to watch nowadays with our controversial gun control debate, but the concept is coming off great with Joe’s performance and all the various guns he’s rapidly advertising. I’m getting a lot of laughs from this.
STARS: ****
MENSWEAR STORE
Caine (host) gets fashion advice from owner of black menswear shop (EDM)
— Judging from Eddie’s wig, is this the debut of his Velvet Jones character?
— Nah, it doesn’t seem to be, as Eddie’s using a different voice. I’m loving his voice in this sketch, though.
— Eddie’s smooth delivery and ease as a performer in this is leaps and bounds above most of the rest of this season’s cast.
— Eddie’s “You a tacky-lookin’ white dude, let me tell you that” comment had me laughing out loud.
— Oh my god, is that Gilbert with fake Asian eyes and insane make-up?
— What the hell was with David’s unsure delivery of that one line just now, where even he gave a puzzled look towards the camera afterwards?
— What’s with the sudden loud music sting? Are they playing that at the wrong time?
— Geez, David’s timing has gotten really off all of a sudden. What was with that long, long awkward pause of his? Man, this sketch in general seems to have gone off the rails.
— The ending with David destroying the store was kinda funny, but it wasn’t enough to save all the bad flubs, timing issues, and miscues this sketch suffered from towards the end. I think I’m now starting to believe that aforementioned rumor about David being drunk.
STARS: **
CEDAR MALL
Vickie & Debbie hang out at the mall & talk with cool boys (JOP) & (CHR)
— Good to see these characters back, and this is an interesting setting for them.
— I liked Gail’s vague recapping of an earlier conversation she had, by saying “and Steve goes… and I go… and he goes…”
— Ha, Charles as an overconfident jock, the role he was born to play.
— Overall, another good Valley Girl sketch.
STARS: ***
ROCKET REPORT
derelict Santa Claus (CHR) wanders the streets of NYC
— They seem to keep re-designing the “Rocket Report” title screen every time this segment appears.
— Is that Charles himself as the hobo Santa in the cutaways? Hard to tell with the big Santa beard obscuring his face, but that looks like Charles’ nose.
— I can’t help but feel this Hobo Santa bit seems like a role Bill Murray would’ve been great for.
— The juxtapositions between Charles’ (as himself) glowing statements about Santa and the bad stuff we see “Santa” actually doing are pretty funny.
— Overall, this was very different from the usual Rocket Reports, and didn’t work as well as the usual formula does. Still had a decent amount of laughs, though.
STARS: ***
DYLAN & GUTHRIE
Bob Dylan (PAW) & ailing Woody Guthrie (host) converse via song lyrics
— This is a famous sketch from this season and, from what I hear, is Patrick Weathers’ only claim to fame during his short-lived SNL tenure.
— I can’t judge the accuracy of David’s Woody Guthrie impression, as I have no familiarity with Guthrie. David seems to be going for an accurate impression, though.
— Patrick’s doing a great Dylan impression.
— I like Patrick’s Dylan stealing potential lyrics by writing down the stuff David’s Guthrie is saying during the conversation.
— Daylight Savings Time? In December???
— I’m surprised by how short this ended up being. This overall sketch wasn’t quite the classic I had been expecting from comments I read over the years, but this was still a very good sketch.
STARS: ****
THE HOME VERSION OF DALLAS
turn domestic turmoil into TV drama with The Home Version of Dallas
— Wow at the wild beginning, with a drunk Gail fighting with Joe, yelling something to him about a “two-bit slut”, and then slapping her daughter (Denny). I’m not used to seeing that much craziness so early in a sketch.
— Another sketch tonight with a cast member playing a pitchman. This time, it’s Charles.
— The “Dallas” twist is funny.
— Haha, Denny looks hilarious in the Charlene Tilton wig.
— Overall, a pretty solid sketch and a good sendup of the Dallas craze going on at the time.
STARS: ***½
MR. BILL’S CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
by Walter Williams- painful yule memories
— Weird seeing a Mr. Bill short in this era. There’s actually a bit of a backstory behind this, where this was supposed to air in the previous season’s Christmas episode (Ted Knight), but got cut for time at the last minute. As compensation, SNL’s airing it a year later in tonight’s Christmas episode.
— Some of the scenes from this (toy train running over Mr. Bill’s mom, Sluggo in a Box, a flattened Spot being used as the star on a Christmas tree) were actually shown as a flashback clip in a Mr. Bill short from the second half of last season.
— And now, this sled part is yet another scene that was shown in the aforementioned Mr. Bill short from last season. This makes me feel too much like I’m just watching a repeat of that short.
— Overall, I didn’t enjoy this all that much, due to already seeing many parts of it in the aforementioned short.
STARS: **
KUNG FU CHRISTMAS
a movie starring Caine & Bruce Lee (EDM)
— “Bruce Lee is back, but this time he’s black!” (*Eddie jumps into the scene as Bruce Lee*) Hilarious.
— Gilbert as the fake-Asian-eyed sensai again?
— This ended earlier than I wanted. It looked like it was just starting to take off.
STARS: **½
WEEKEND UPDATE
ANR’s holiday suggestions revolve around lard wrapped in plastic bags
JOP opines regarding NBC’s announcerless, statistics-only NFL broadcast
— Okay, I’m starting to notice this season’s Updates are relying A LOT on “picture gags”, where they show a news picture and jokingly misinterpret it to make it seem like it’s a picture of something weird. It’s a very lazy resort that a lot of Update eras are guilty of sometimes relying on (even strong Update anchors like Jane Curtin and Dennis Miller), but I swear it seems almost like that’s the ONLY kind of joke that Charles Rocket does in his Updates. Ugh.
— What is with all the racial humor this season?
— Ann Risley with her own Update commentary? Uh-oh…
— A constant mentioning of lard wrapped in a plastic bag. Is that the ONLY joke in Ann’s commentary?
— Overall, Ann’s commentary fell completely flat. Man, am I gonna get ANY good Ann Risley performances out of this season? I haven’t been liking ANYTHING she’s done so far and her delivery is always so damn stiff and bland.
— Charles’ mere mention of quaaludes automatically receives cheap audience applause. Much like the overreliance on racial jokes, all the forced drug humor is another season 6 staple that I’m getting increasingly sick of.
— I guess Joe’s SNL Sports commentaries really ARE a weekly thing. This is the fourth Update in a row now.
— Ha, Joe makes a passing mention of NBC’s Don Ohlmeyer, a name that would later gain infamy with Norm Macdonald fans.
— Joe silently displaying stats on the screen about himself and his salary is really funny.
— Overall, Charles has had worse weeks before, but I’m still not liking his Update jokes nor his tendency to give cocky looks to the camera after certain punchlines. He barely had any jokes that I laughed at tonight.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs a medley of songs from The Pirates of Penzance
HEROIN IN HARLEM
rich white drug users visit Harlem for an authentic heroin experience
— Interesting premise with snobby whites visiting Harlem for heroin.
— “You’re probably the kind of guy who worries about dirty needles.” Hoo boy. That may have been an innocent joke in 1980, but little did they know about the then-upcoming AIDS epidemic that would have everyone panicking.
— I really like the part with Charles eagerly taking a picture of Eddie threateningly holding a knife to Gail’s throat.
— Nice unexpected twist with Eddie turning out to be an undercover cop.
— Eddie: “(in a whitebread voice) I am sick and tired of you junkies coming up and giving Harlem a bad name! You should have stayed on Park Avenue where you belong!”
STARS: ***½
VIRGIN SEARCH
NBC exec’s (MAL) worldwide search for a virgin eventually leads to GLM
— Gail as a different girl in every scene? Stuff like this seems to be happening a lot tonight, like the earlier Rocket Report where Charles played dual roles.
— Whoa at that Roman Polanski comment from Gail’s young French character.
— Didn’t Gail already play a nun earlier tonight?
— Gail as a nun implying she lost her virginity to Father Guido Sarducci was hilarious.
— Exec: “No virgin anywhere… except my mother.”
— Gail is funny as a crazy early 80s punk girl. “I’m saving myself for Carl Sagan!”
— Gail’s using her real name. It looks like the twist of this film will be that this is how Gail got hired by SNL.
— Overall, a pretty funny film and a really nice showcase for Gail.
STARS: ***
DOPENHAGEN & HAPPY DAZE
(host) goes smokeless with Dopenhagen & Happy Daze instead of lighting up
— More country singing from David tonight?
— David keeps messing up, calling “Dopenhagen” by the wrong name.
— Overall, the humor didn’t work and this felt like pure filler. David’s weak performance didn’t help.
STARS: *½
KFC LOVERS
(host), (DED), (EDM) mourn Colonel Sanders while eating fried chicken
— There’s that same mall set again tonight.
— What’s with all the Carl Sagan references tonight?
— I chuckled at the part with David responding to Eddie’s “Gimme some skin!” greeting by literally giving him a piece of fried chicken skin.
— Whether intentional or not, this sketch is making me hungry for some KFC right now.
— Eddie’s story about how fried chicken was discovered was pretty funny.
— The “thigh bone connected to the rib bone, etc.” part felt unnecessary.
— Overall, a decent sketch, if nothing special.
STARS: ***
THE DANCING MAN
by Mitchell Kriegman- (Bill Irwin) can’t resist disco
— I remember seeing this Bill Irwin guy on another TV show. He’s really good at doing rubbery physical comedy.
— His uncontrollable spastic dancing is pretty funny.
— LOL at the boombox-carrying black delivery guy shaking his head in response to Irwin’s dancing.
— Good ending with him dancing out onto the street.
STARS: ***½
WELFARE COUNSELING
welfare recipients (YVH) & Caine are told to take up prostitution
— Yet ANOTHER sketch with David playing his Kung Fu character?
— I sure am getting tired of that “I seek water” line that David’s character keeps saying tonight.
— Very awkward moment with David’s long pause and then Yvonne seemingly jumping ahead of the script. Or maybe Yvonne was just trying to ad-lib her way out of David’s weird pause. Denny did a good job trying to keep the sketch going at that part. But, man, the drunk rumors about David HAVE to be true.
— We get an accidental close-up of a door very briefly.
— Overall, this sketch didn’t do much for me. The bloopers were more noteworthy to me than the material itself. At least we didn’t get Gilbert in that ridiculous Asian make-up once again. Speaking of which, is that ALL Gilbert has gotten to do tonight?
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs a medley of Christmas carols
GOODNIGHTS
— Wow, what a jam-packed stage.
— Gilbert doesn’t look very happy. He’s probably upset that he had to spend the entire episode just playing the same role, which was a waste of his talents. I had always heard that he increasingly looks more and more depressed as this season goes on.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Pretty decent for a season 6 episode. While it was far from being without its faults, there was a fairly high number of good sketches throughout the show, and there wasn’t too much stuff that I hated. Overall, an okay Christmas episode.
— After a positive start with a fun performance in the monologue, David Carradine ended up being a disappointment. It felt like he played nothing but his Kung Fu character and country singers all night, and his alleged drunkenness led to quite a number of awkward moments from him that threw off the material.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jamie Lee Curtis):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
We enter 1981, with host Ray Sharkey