Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
JOP is upset- they gave him Charlie Chan makeup for a Donahue sketch
— LOL, oh my god at Joe’s makeup. Who in the world is he playing?
— Ha, turns out he’s Phil Donahue. Why in the world does he look like that, though?
— Joe’s Donahue voice still leaves a lot to be desired.
— I’m loving how they’re now breaking the fourth wall with Joe storming backstage after realizing he was mistakenly given Charlie Chan make-up for his Donahue impression.
— This is hilarious, and Joe is really selling the hell out of his anger. I especially loved his loud outburst of “I’m supposed to be Phil Donahue! DOES THIS LOOK LIKE PHIL DONAHUE?!?!”
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
Michael’s mother interrupts his monologue with requests & advice
— This is unique, having someone host with their non-famous mother. And even funnier, Michael Palin’s mother was literally announced and billed as “his (Michael’s) mother”, which makes this probably the only time in SNL history where a host wasn’t billed under any name. I also wonder if she’s the second least-famous SNL host ever, after “Anyone Can Host” contest winner Miskel Spillman.
— This is pretty funny with Michael angrily making frequent trips backstage to accommodate his mother’s wishes.
— The fact that Michael’s mother isn’t even saying anything audible makes this even funnier, for some reason.
— Okay, she did speak aloud just now.
— The ridiculous hat Michael’s forced to wear is pretty hilarious.
STARS: ***½
BOY GEORGE BURNS: THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC
a strange TV special
— Nice hybrid of a Boy George and a George Burns impression.
— This overall sketch didn’t turn out to be anywhere near as funny as the setup had me thinking it would be. Jim did a pretty decent George Burns, though.
STARS: **
MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
the dognapper shows how to ransom a pooch
— Nice addition with the puppy.
— I liked Eddie’s line about kids asking him “You don’t have no job, do ya?”
— I love how Eddie named the dog Cujo.
— The phone call to the puppy’s owner has a lot of very funny parts.
— Great Mister Robinson sketch overall.
STARS: ****
MICK PITWHISTLE DOES IT ALL
Pitwhistle’s (Michael) singing is bad in many genres
— Another fake promo starring a singer tonight?
— I did get one laugh so far, from Pardo’s jovially-delivered line “Mick Pitwhistle is the number one recording artist NOWHERE!”
— Overall, a letdown. The writing of this was really weak and not even Michael could save it.
STARS: **
POWERFUL LIVING SNAPS
Lorne Greene (JOP) for Powerful Living dog snacks- nutrition & religion
— Another sketch involving someone with a dog? There seems to be a lot of running themes in tonight’s episode.
— The “Powerful Living” book turning out to be a box of dog food gave me a chuckle.
— Overall, this ended up being another disappointing sketch tonight. There just wasn’t much to laugh at here.
STARS: **
MAN ON A CHAIN
(Michael) tries to lease an apartment that contains a man-on-chain (JIB)
— Hilarious entrance from Jim as some random cave-living savage who comes with the apartment that Brad and Robin want to buy.
— Jim’s reminding me so much of his brother John in this. I can easily imagine John playing this character in the original era.
— Very funny part with Michael’s explanation of the vague “M.O.C.” (man on chain) description that was in the lease.
— Outrageous part with Jim dragging a screaming Robin into his cave.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Brad following the above-mentioned Robin-dragging incident by casually asking Michael “Would that include utilities?”
STARS: ***½
THAT’S OKAY
(BRH) is stuck when (JOP) wants him to perform his skill
— There goes Julia in Ana Gasteyer’s future Bobbi Mohan-Culp dress once again.
— Pretty funny gradual reveal that the show’s title (“No, That’s Okay”) is what the host, Joe, always says to the guests when they ask him if he wants to see their incredible talent that they’ve just described to him.
— Great twist with Joe telling the third guest, Brad, that he actually wants to see him perform his talent involving driving three nails into his head with a hammer, and Brad responding that he never intended to do that dangerous stunt because he thought Joe would tell him the usual “No, that’s okay”.
— Hilarious how Gary and Tim are forcibly holding Brad down and hammering the nails into his head.
— Haha, great callback to Joe’s “No, that’s okay” mantra by having him say it in response to Jim’s cry of “My god, somebody help him!”
— I wonder if this was another sketch written by my new favorite writer Andy Breckman. This sketch kinda had the feel of his usual writing style.
STARS: ****
SHOPLIFTER
(JIB) steals the contents of a convenience store from under (GAK)’s nose
— Ah, here’s the “Shoplifting” film that was supposed to air in the previous week’s episode but got cut for time.
— Jim’s cracking me up with his hastily grabbing things near him in the store.
— Haha, this is getting insane with Jim stuffing literally EVERYTHING into his jacket.
— Very funny visual with the end result of Jim’s whole shoplifting spree causing his jacket to be insanely huge and clunky, which Gary’s store clerk character is hilariously oblivious to.
— There was a weird abrupt cut to the ending shot of Gary and Tim surrounded by a completely empty store.
— Overall, a really good short film. This kinda felt like a precursor to the “The Bulge” short we’ll be seeing in the season 10 premiere (both films involve Jim stuffing a ridiculous amount of things into one part of his clothing that results in it looking like a huge, clunky mess). In fact, this feels like a precursor to the general high usage of clever short films we’ll be seeing in season 10.
STARS: ****
WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT?
(Michael)’s high-tech game show has problems
more technical difficulties during second attempt
— Very interesting setting.
— Wow, holy hell at the immediate explosion at the beginning of the show, just as Michael’s character was talking about how technologically advanced his show is.
— Heh, after the sudden explosion, the show has restarted with a now-bandaged Michael.
— Michael’s name randomly being Sally Benjamin cracked me up.
— Ehh, this overall sketch ended up fizzling out after a while and didn’t live up to its potential.
STARS: **
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
JOP analyzes upcoming Super Bowl XVIII by using the telestrator
— This is the first time we’re seeing Saturday Night News after Brad’s firing as anchorperson.
— Hmm, interestingly, Don Pardo introduces this as “A special sports edition of Saturday Night News”, and we then see Joe in the anchorman chair, doing his SNL Sports routine.
— Joe’s commentary about the following day’s Super Bowl (between the Redskins and the Raiders) has some pretty good laughs.
— Ha, the audience boos loudly when Joe predicts the Redskins will win, so he “changes” his prediction to the Raiders.
— That’s it? That’s the whole “Saturday Night News”? Wow, they didn’t even TRY to make this come off as a fake news segment. From Pardo’s intro to this, I assumed this would turn out to be Joe doing sports-related news stories, but instead, it was just the usual type of SNL Sports commentary that Joe typically does as a guest correspondent.
STARS: ***
WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT?
first question is 17-2=?, “fedora” is accepted
— Yet another follow up to this sketch.
— I like the random cartoonish sound whenever a paper gets printed out of the futuristic machine.
— A good laugh from the participant choosing “fedora” as the answer to the math question 17 minus 2.
— The bungling-up of the transportation gimmick is another part I like.
STARS: ***
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Dr. Jack Badofsky goes over the types of menopause
— Oh, so it’s going to be a recurring thing tonight for regular guest commentators to “anchor” Saturday Night News. Yeah, I’m not crazy about this idea AT ALL. Ebersol clearly has no idea what to do with Saturday Night News anymore ever since he fired Brad.
— Tim’s portrayal of Dr. Jack Badofsky seems even more twitchy than usual tonight.
— The audience boos hard after Badofsky’s “Gentle-Ben-opause” pun. Between this and the audience’s constant booing and hissing during Badofsy’s previous appearance, they seem to officially have had enough of this character.
— Heh, I love how after the audience had a PARTICULARLY negative reaction to the “Tutankhamen-opause” pun, Tim added a “I guess that joke ‘sphinx’” and then smiled self-satisfyingly.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Suddenly Last Summer”
SAVE LOTS OF PLANKTON
(Michael) says “don’t worry about the whales, save all those poor plankton”
— This silly, ridiculous concept seems like a perfect sketch for Michael.
— The acronym for the S.L.O.P. organization was kinda funny.
— Overall, there were a few decent parts, but this kinda ended up being yet another underwhelming use of Michael’s talents tonight.
STARS: **½
HOUSE OF MUTTON
(Michael) is the owner of the House of Mutton sheep-themed restaurant
— A Clint Smith sighting. His speaking role in this sketch makes it obvious that this is yet another episode where Eddie’s not there live in the studio.
— I haven’t been liking where this sketch is going. Not even the “black sheep” joke with Clint could make me laugh much.
— What was with Michael randomly getting water thrown into his face when speaking to off-camera waiters in the kitchen? Michael’s strange reaction to that makes me wonder if that part wasn’t in the script.
— An all-around bad sketch overall, and I’m running out of different ways to say Michael’s talents were wasted.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Remember the Nights”
BOY’S LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
riverboat captain (Michael) is mentor for (GAK)
— LOL at Michael quickly writing down the answers that Gary gives to Michael’s boat questions.
— During Michael’s brief song, I can see where they dubbed over his “Oh, you big wet bastard” lyric, which I guess was deemed too offensive to re-air.
— I like the bit where we find out Gary’s brother was run over by the ship.
— This overall funny sketch played well to Michael’s strengths, which is more than I can say for some of the other material he was given tonight.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very hit-and-miss episode. About half the episode was well-written, solid pieces, like That’s Okay and Boy’s Life On The Mississippi, while the other half was mediocre, thinly-written stuff that Michel Palin couldn’t save, like House of Mutton and Mick Pitwhistle Does It All.
— In hindsight, it seems pointless for them to have credited Michael’s mother as a co-host when she only ended up appearing in the monologue and musical guest intros. Couldn’t they have found a way to use her in a sketch or two?
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Father Guido Sarducci):
— about the same
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Don Rickles
Dunno about “That’s Okay,” but I do believe Breckman wrote “Man on a Chain.”
Come to think of it, I think he also wrote “The Bulge,” which makes me wonder if he wrote “Shoplifting” as well.
According to Michael Palin’s diary book, they gave his mother Eddie Murphy’s dressing room.
Jim Belushi’s doing Boy George Burns was perhaps the highlight of this particular ep.
I’m going through all the 83-84 episodes on Internet Archive now. A lot of that season I had just seen 60 min Comedy Central versions 20 something years ago, so I’m curious to see the full 90 min versions. I almost skipped over this episode because I remember how bad the material was when I first saw it years ago, but decided to give it another chance. Still as bad as I thought it was, but I have to say “House Of Mutton” I thought was a highlight, especially with Clint as the “black sheep”. Otherwise, I consider this to be the worst episode from the 82-84 cast.
I’ve heard that Ebersol really did offer SNN to Kazurinsky, and Tim declined out of friendship. That’s noble, but I also think it could have been a really good fit. He’s a natural when it comes to this kind of material (based on things like his Salutes to Journalism), and he might have been able to reinvent the segment and make it consistently decent again for the first time since season 5. He might have been kept for season 10, too, if he was the anchor. I think Hall was going to be let go regardless, but maybe Tim could have given him a lot of field reporter pieces like Laraine and Mary Gross used to have (and which Brad did pretty well during the SNN election poll)
I think in another era Tim would have been fun as anchor, but Ebersol seemed to want very tight control of SNN and also seemed to dislike the format, period, so I think he would have ended up being tossed.
Promo for this episode (and The New Show):
Kevin Haney, the makeup artist, who appears in the cold opening in the dressing room, actually won an Academy Award for his work on Driving Miss Daisy.
I could be wrong, but I always felt like the booing during Dr. Jack’s bits was staged/intentional. I guess it could be genuine, but either way I think it adds to the humor.