October 17, 1981 – George Kennedy / Miles Davis (S7 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host takes command of control room; Ron Howard & Regis Philbin cameos

    

— Hey, we’re getting an actual cold opening tonight, and not just a “disclaimer gag”.
— Young Regis!
— We’ll be seeing Ron Howard and his mustache hosting next season.
— The “technical difficulties” with the cameras are cracking me up.
— Why does Ron Howard keep pausing so long every time he’s about to introduce himself?
— Funny visual of everybody being passed out in the control room.
— A good panicky performance from Christine.
— Great segue to the opening credits, serving as a nice LFNY substitute.
— A solid cold opening overall, and a very good performance from George.
STARS: ***½

TALENT ENTRANCE

— No monologue tonight, just another Talent Entrance. I loved George’s brief message during this, though.

MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
eviction notice from Mr. Landlord (TIK)

     

— A very welcome return.
— Loved Eddie’s cheerful “I’m so glad the bitch is gone” line about his ex-wife.
— LOL at “scumbucket” being the word of the day.
— Very interesting change of pace with the “visit to the president” involving Eddie using hand puppets.
— Nice use of the “middle finger”, though I’m guessing Eddie’s secretly using one of his other fingers.
STARS: ****

53 AT STUDIO 54
host sings- “It’s no fun to be 53 at Studio 54”

   

— Ha, George suddenly breaking out into a disco dance…
— Oh, turns out this is yet another season 7 musical sketch.
— Boy, this is just plain weird so far.
— Okay, this is growing on me more and more. The music is catchy, it’s amusing seeing George Kennedy attempting to sing a song like this, and I’m loving his “dancing”. Some of the lyrics are funny, too.
STARS: ***½

A FEW MINUTES WITH ANDY ROONEY
chocolate & Mrs. Rooney (CHE)

 

— Another Andy Rooney sketch already?
— Interesting addition with Christine as Rooney’s wife.
— Christine’s “Did you ever fake an orgasm?” line cracked me up.
— Another funny line with Joe’s line about “closing your eyes and pretending your wife was Jessica Savitch”.
STARS: ***

VELVET JONES SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY
career help via I Wanna Be A Ho

 

— The debut of Velvet Jones!
— Oh, it’s the classic “I Wanna Be a Ho”, this character’s most famous sketch.
— Good “wooden TV pitchman” voice from Eddie.
— Hilarious concept and Eddie’s delivery of the material is great.
— Funny testimonial from Robin.
— Eddie’s ending line: “Be somebody. Be a ho!”
— Like I said in the last review, Eddie has been knocking it out of the park on a weekly basis this season. Every episode so far this season has had at least one Eddie Murphy sketch that’s remembered today as one of his all-time classics: Little Richard Simmons, Prose and Cons, Buh-Weet Sings, Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood, and I Wanna Be a Ho. Amazing that he’s had such an impressive number of classic sketches over the span of just THREE EPISODES this season.
STARS: ****

MR. BILL GOES TO L.A.
by Walter Williams- cocaine causes loss of his home

     

— What the–??? I never knew they did a Mr. Bill short in the Ebersol era. (His cold opening with Chevy last season doesn’t count, as that was just a backstage sketch and not a Mr. Bill short)
— I like the giant bag labeled “Ton O Coke”.
— Decent earthquake ending.
— Overall, nothing much else to say about this, but this was okay for what it was. I wonder if this ends up being the final Mr. Bill short.
STARS: ***

SPRAY-ON LAETRIL
alleviates (MAG)’s lung cancer & comes in “the pump”

   

— Haha, I’m loving the shots of cigarette-smoking doctors Tim, Tony, and Eddie spraying the laetril in each other’s faces while singing “the pump” over and over.
— Very funny and daring concept to this sketch.
— I got a laugh from Christine’s throwaway line about how her lungs looked like moldy spinach.
— LOL, Eddie, Tony, and Tim have now begun cracking up while spraying laetril in each other’s faces. They seems to be having a lot of fun in this sketch.
— Funny ending with Mary’s syphilis revelation and Joe’s reaction to that.
STARS: ****

HARRY ANDERSON
Harry Anderson [real] does tricks with a $5 bill then reveals his secrets

       

— Hmm, I always thought Michael Davis was this season’s resident comedy magician and Harry Anderson didn’t start appearing until season 8. I see I was wrong.
— Being familiar with some of the magic acts Harry Anderson would do on the show in some of the later seasons, I know this is gonna be good.
— Funny bit with him tearing the dollar right after the audience volunteer gave it to him.
— Wow, how the hell did he do that trick, magically making a torn-to-bits dollar bill appear whole again?
— I like the naughty “digging in the pocket” bit.
— Harry to the audience volunteer: “Hope your kids have buck teeth.”
— Oh, he’s explaining how he did the torn-to-bits dollar bill trick. Cool reveal.
STARS: ****

SNL NEWSBREAK
footage shows Big Bird being assassinated by a nine year-old
EDM declares- “No person is too ugly to have sex with”
Wetback Weather Watch- Juan Gavino (John Candy) gives Rio Grande report

         

— They’re STILL doing the “SNL Newsbreak logo letters fall on Brian” opening gag.
— I actually laughed out loud at the “Idi Amin disguising himself as Hattie McDaniel” joke.
— The “Big Bird assassination” bit was okay.
— Ugh at that joke about Jimmy Carter moving in with a young man after Rosalynn Carter did the same. They seem to be relying an awful lot on lazy gay jokes on Update this season.
— What’s with the audience’s lack of applause for some of the guest commentators this season? Maybe the audience is just always lulled to sleep by Brian and Mary’s weak jokes.
— Eddie has done a commentary in every Update so far this season. I wonder if they’re relying on him so much due to how much SNL Newsbreak has been struggling on a weekly basis.
— Eddie’s whole “sex faces” bit is a riot.
— Brian’s Wayne Newton “sold out” joke was met with complete silence. I do like how Brian acknowledged that by responding “Ouch”.
— Hey, it’s John Candy!!!
— Candy’s overall bit ended up being just okay; not as funny as I expected it to be. Good performance from him as always, though.
STARS: **½

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES ’81
Renato (TIK) & Albin (host) return for a sequel

 

— The idea of George Kennedy in a “La Cage Aux Folles” parody is already making me laugh.
— Oh my god at George in that outfit and earrings.
— LOL, that hard slap came out of nowhere.
— Loved the ending with George dropping his accent and bluntly saying in his normal voice “Aw, cut the crap, let’s redline this sucker.”
STARS: ***½

UP AND AT ‘EM
by Doug Wendt- a dog eats peanut butter

— Strange film so far. It’s just a dog repeatedly licking its lips.
— Wait, are the dog’s licks supposed to be in time to the music that’s playing? If so, it’s not looking like it’s in sync AT ALL.
— What the–? That’s the whole thing? Are they kidding me with this?!!??
STARS: *

RUBIK’S TEETH
JOP demonstrates the dental puzzle

 

— This is SNL’s very first acknowledgment of the Rubik’s Cube craze from the early 80s.
— Ha, funny visual.
— Okay, that ended fast. This commercial was nothing more than a quick sight gag that was only good for one chuckle.
STARS: **

AN EDITORIAL REPLY
Marilyn Monroe (MAG) sings “Downers are a Girl’s Best Friend”

   

— Yet ANOTHER season 7 musical sketch. If they have to do these, can’t they at least keep it down to just one an episode?
— The audience is absolutely silent so far.
— Not sure how to feel about this song at all so far, though Mary’s performance is solid. The humor’s not really working for me, though.
— Overall, I didn’t care much for this. Though, unlike some other musical SNL sketches, this at least wasn’t as much of a chore for me to watch, thanks to Mary’s great performance and the fact that she looked really good in that Marilyn Monroe getup.
STARS: **½

HIRED HAND
Jake the Hired Hand (TOR) takes (ROD)’s land despite sexual tension

   

— Another Tony Rosato performance that’s reminding me of John Belushi.
— I liked Tony’s simple “I cut myself shaving” scar explanation after his unnecessary “raised by animals” story.
— This is a strange sketch so far, and again, I’m not sure what to make of it. I worry that tonight’s episode has been losing me with the string of disappointing segments that’s followed the La Cage Aux Folles sketch.
— The (intentional) music sting delay was kinda funny.
— Ha, great turn with George and Tony shooting Robin after her whining.
— A good unintentional laugh from Tony having trouble delivering that one line just now.
— LOL at Robin coming back to life briefly, only to get shot to death again.
— This sketch is finally getting funnier and funnier.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Jean Pierre”

TUNA MELTS & TYPING
a secretary (CHE) & a janitor (host) talk about what’s important to them

 

— Looks like I’m in for a quieter, low-key, slice-of-life sketch.
— Overall, despite the fact that I had pretty much nothing to say about this sketch as I was watching it, I found this sketch to be very nice and enjoyable. The writing was strong, and George and Christine played off of each other so well. This whole thing was actually fairly touching, especially the ending.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS

 

— “Special material by Marilyn Suzanne Miller”. I don’t need to ask which sketch she wrote.

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A solid episode, and the best of the season so far. We got strong material throughout pretty much the whole show, though the show did hit a bit of a snag for me at one point during the back half, with the segments that aired between La Cage Aux Folles and Hired Hand. Still an overall very enjoyable episode as a whole, though, and the number of weaker pieces were kept to a minimum. George Kennedy also helped the episode by being a fun host and giving a lot of great performances.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Susan Saint James):
— a pretty big step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Donald Pleasence, a.k.a. the infamous Fear episode