Tag: Eric Idle

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October 20, 1979 – Eric Idle / Bob Dylan (S5 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
after hearing that host is sick, Buck Henry [real] begs to replace him

   

— A bearded Buck Henry cameo!  For the second consecutive week! Heh, did he not even leave Studio 8H since last week?
— We get the debut of SNL’s traditional backstage llama!
— Funny with Buck’s repeatedly ignored insistence that he’ll go on in place of an ill Eric Idle. A good continuation of the traditional gag that Buck gets no respect at the show.
— Interesting LFNY format break.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— For some reason, the theme music and audience applause stops almost immediately after it starts, then after a weird pause, the music and applause continues. What the heck was that all about?
— After being uncredited in his debut last week, Harry Shearer is finally in the opening montage tonight.

However, instead of being announced under the title “featuring”, he’s announced as “And a little of Harry Shearer!” Considering this was the very first time a featured player was ever credited on SNL, I guess the show hadn’t yet figured out what title to put that type of cast member under.


MONOLOGUE
under-the-weather host does impressions while strapped to a stretcher

     

— Haha, oh my god at Eric being carried out onstage in a stretcher. Great entrance.
— Beards must’ve been really popular at the time, as we’ve been seeing a lot of them this season between Garrett’s thick graying beard last week, Buck in his two cameos, and now Eric Idle.
— His “stretcher impersonations” are really fun, especially Superman and Gary Gilmore.
STARS: ****


HOTEL-MOTEL ART FAIR
pitchman Tom Clay (HAS) advertises the upcoming Hotel-Motel Art Fair

  

— Our very first Harry Shearer pitchman commercial!
— His pitchman voice is great and he’s doing a fantastic job at the fast-talking spiel, picking up the slack Aykroyd left when it comes to commercials of this nature.
— Overall, funny concept and an absolutely great performance from Harry.
STARS: ****


SHOE STORE
shoe salesman (host) frustrates customer’s (BIM) quest for footwear

     

— When Bill was first shown outside the store window, I thought that was Dan Aykroyd for a second, before I remembered he’s not on the show anymore.
— I’m loving the absurdity of this sketch, and this material is perfect for Eric’s comedic style and Brit delivery.
— I’m cracking up endlessly at Eric incredulously asking why Bill would want to buy two shoes.
— Another great part with Eric rapidly shooting down each of Bill’s scenarios.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Gotta Serve Somebody”


PRINCE CHARLES TELLS YOU HOW TO PICK UP GIRLS!
Prince Charles’ (host) book tells you how to use royal ties to get girls

    

— The audience is liking the concept more than I am so far, but Eric is funny in this.
— Garrett still has his beard from the last episode.
— Bill’s pick-up line being “My great uncle was just blown up by Irish terrorists” was hilarious.
— Laraine’s “hot monkey love” line was really funny.
— Eric’s “choking the chicken” remark was yet another hilarious line.
— LOL at Eric stiffly passing out as the camera started fading to black.
— Overall, that was really good; much better than I was expecting.
STARS: ****


WEEKEND UPDATE
Gerald Hacker (HAS) reports on an American straw vote held in Britain
BIM lets Princess Margaret’s anti-Irish comments slide- she was ‘faced
Roseanne Roseannadanna meanders from home-buying to Yves St. Laurent

       

— Interesting change of pace with Harry Shearer as a Weekend Update London correspondent at his own Update set, showing pre-taped interviews with various people.
— Bill’s Princess Margaret/Irish pigs commentary was really funny, especially the “slut, tramp, slimebucket” comments.
— The first appearance of the season for Rosanne Roseannadanna, a character I’ve slowly been getting tired of lately.
— Overall, Rosannadanna’s commentary was standard stuff, but she did have some funny disgusting lines when she was going on about roughage.
— Why was Bill missing from the desk at the end during Jane’s sign-off?  Did our utility player of the season leave the desk early tonight to get in costume for the next sketch?
STARS: ***


HARDCORE II
(LAN) discovers her father (BIM) is a transvestite stripper

     

— Looks like Bill DID have to duck out of Update early to get ready for the next sketch.  Maybe it took a while to apply that prosthetic nose he’s wearing in this.
— Bill’s husky, raspy voice is cracking me up.
— What? The sketch is over already? That’s it?
— Man, this sketch was terrible, and felt pretty pointless. Almost had an 80-81 season feel. (NOTE TO SELF: Get ready for that notorious season, me.  It’s comin’ closer and closer.) Bill’s voice was the only thing I even laughed at.
— Maybe I need to be familiar with the movie this is parodying in order to appreciate it.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Believe In You”


ANDY KAUFMAN
Andy Kaufman [real] challenges a female audience member to wrestle him

       

— The first SNL appearance of Andy’s well-known female wrestling gimmick.
— HAHA at the audience lightly booing and hissing during Andy’s unintentionally sexist statements about women.
— A Bob Zmuda appearance.
— A pregnant woman among the group of volunteers?!?!?
— Oh, I see where this is going. The pregnant woman is going to be chosen just because she seems like the least likely option.
— Heh, Andy panics and ends up switching the pregnant woman out for another woman.
— Boy, this wrestling match is weird to watch on SNL, but it’s pretty funny and strangely fascinating.
— Very funny part with the volunteer suddenly pulling Andy down from behind when Andy was in the middle of yelling “Shut up!” to the booing audience.
— Andy’s doing a great job playing the villain and making the audience genuinely hate him.
— Speaking to the camera, Andy challenges swimmer Diana Nyad to a future match, and says he’ll shave his own head in front of the audience if loses. As far as I know, nothing ended up becoming of that challenge, but it was a funny idea.
STARS: ****


HEAVY SARCASM
Joan Face (JAC) & guests (host) & (BIM) feign emotions

— A kinda-funny concept, but I worry this will be one of those one-note sketches where the humor fizzles out fast after the premise is immediately revealed right at the top of the sketch.
— Yeah, I’m not crazy about this so far.
— Overall, despite a very good performance from Jane, this was just weak.
STARS: **


ASK ELVIS
psychic (LAN) relays answers to your questions

 

— Strange concept. Again, the audience is liking this more than I am.
— Ha, I’m pretty sure that’s Andy doing the Elvis voice-over.
— I guess the absurdity of showing a rotating Elvis bust while his voice-over answers questions is kinda funny, but this is yet another sketch I’m just not crazy about.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “When You Gonna Wake Up”


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A tale of two halves. The first half of this episode featured lots of great stuff that I loved, but man was I bored during the entire second half, except for the Andy Kaufman segment and Bob Dylan’s last performance, and those were just guest segments. All of the actual SNL-written material in that second half of the show fell really flat with me.
— Eric Idle’s talents felt a little wasted. He had some strong moments early on in the night, especially the Shoe Store sketch, but the weak post-Update half of the show kinda misused his talents. Tonight’s episode just couldn’t measure up to Eric’s fantastic previous hosting stints; and unfortunately, this ends up being the last time he ever hosted.
— Compared to last week, there didn’t seem to be as many writers making tons of on-screen appearances tonight. Probably because a lot of this episode’s sketches didn’t involve many performers. Nice to see lots of Harry Shearer, though, who’s already showing loads of potential.
— Not a great start to the season so far with these first two episodes. I’m noticing a higher average of weak sketches than the last few seasons had.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Martin):
— a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Bill Russell

Posted on

December 9, 1978 – Eric Idle / Kate Bush (S4 E8)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Telepsychic Ray (DAA) makes up callers’ fortunes as he goes

— I’ve always liked these sketches when I saw them years ago.
— Funny part with Dan hastily cutting off the call from Tom Davis(?) that starts with him saying “My sister wants to take some butter–”.
— An even better part with the “sick friend” prank call from Jane, and then Dan, after realizing he’s been tricked, predicts that Jane will be the one to get sick.
— Nice meta segue into LFNY.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host goes backstage when the writers fail to deliver a monologue on time

         

— Some funny awkward stalling from Eric while waiting to be given the monologue.
— I’m liking what I always call “the unintentional backstage tour”, whenever a host is shown going all around backstage.
— Are those showgirls I’m seeing in the background? I wonder if this is what started the traditional gag of backstage sketches always having a llama, showgirls, and an Abraham Lincoln.
— The writers room being a smoke-filled drug den is a priceless gag, especially knowing all the real-life backstage drug stories we’ve heard about the original SNL era.
— Ah, there’s the background Lincoln. Still haven’t seen a llama, though.  Does the random horse from earlier count?
— Speaking of horse (*TERRIBLE SEGUE ALERT*), Gilda’s voice sounds quite hoarse in this.
— A good laugh from Eric apathetically breaking the Tunisian jar after talking about how valuable it is.
— Eric’s foreign chanting is hilarious.
— Eric: “She says she cannot marry him as she has boils.”
STARS: ****½


THE FRENCH CHEF
Julia Child (DAA) bleeds profusely after cutting herself

   

— Oh, its the famous Julia Child sketch!
— Dan’s way of saying “saltine” was a very funny little touch.
— “I’ve cut the dickens out of my finger.”
— SNL’s very first instance of an “excessive bleeding sketch”, and boy is this one a riot.
— The audience is getting a huge kick out of this.
— Liked him pointing out that the phone he tried to call 911 on is just a prop.
— Great ending with him passing out.
— Overall, a true classic, and possibly my favorite of SNL’s excessive bleeding sketches.
STARS: *****


MADRIGAL
host, LAN, JAC, BIM sing a madrigal about a ship put to sea in May

 

— Never realized until now that Laraine and Eric have the exact same hairstyle.
— Judging from Garrett’s set-up and the way the song is going so far, is this going to be another serious performance like Garrett’s operatic performance in the last episode? Then again, it’s hard to take this song seriously when Eric has that hilarious facial expression.
— Hey, this song’s structure and lyrics are actually subtly comedic, especially with they way it’s amusingly being delivered in such a straight manner.
— The sudden “sank” part was a perfect ending.
STARS: ***½


THE WOMAN HE LOVED
Prince Charles (host) & hick teen love (LAN) bicker

     

— Dan is great as the cop.
— I liked John genially saying, while carrying a shotgun, “I’m gonna go down there and blow their heads off.”
— The abruptly shifting music during the back-and-forth cutaways from the plane footage to the England footage is a funny contrast.
— Pretty funny when Eric came back to the trailer after his long trip just to deliver a brief message to Laraine before leaving again.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE


WHAT DO YOU
the game’s sound effect rules take entire show to explain

 

— LOL at the name “Lord Lupus”.
— This is absolutely hilarious with Eric explaining the convoluted game show rules with all the various sound effects.
— Overall, this was a fantastic little sketch. I loved the silliness, fast pacing, and Monty Python-esque vibe, and this was performed wonderfully with Eric’s flawless, rapid-fire Brit delivery.
STARS: ****½


WEEKEND UPDATE PREVIEW


WEEKEND UPDATE
during a BIM interview, Valerie Harper (GIR) finds out she’s not Jewish
Chico Escuela gives a baseball-centric sports report
BIM & JAC debate prospect of oral sex moratorium pending ERA ratification
Father Guido Sarducci explains what his trip to 42nd Street was like

       

— Yeah, Gilda’s voice is DEFINITELY shot tonight.
— Great reaction from Gilda’s Valerie Harper when being told she’s not Jewish.
— Chico Escuela making his Update debut.
— Chico’s lack of knowledge over the sports he’s covering is making me laugh.
— It’s good to see Garrett finally having a hit character, after four years on the show.
— Very funny Women Rights segment with Jane calling a moratorium on performing oral sex on males.
— Haha at Bill’s objection to Jane’s moratorium.
— Bill’s “hoardes of rats” news story was great.
— The whole nude wrestling story part of Father Guido Sarducci’s commentary is really good.
— Overall, a strong Update.
STARS: ****


CANDY SLICE
burned-out punk singer Candy Slice (GIR) shows up at the studio wasted

     

— Judging from the recording studio set, I think we’re getting our debut of Gilda’s famous Candy Slice character.
— Yep, it is! This is gonna be great.
— Why does the name of Bill’s character, Jerry Aldini, sound familiar? I’m pretty sure he played a character with that name sometime prior to this, but I can’t remember which sketch.
— I wonder if rehearsing this sketch all week explains why Gilda’s voice has been so hoarse throughout tonight’s episode. She probably blew her voice out from scream-singing during all the rehearsals.
— LOL at Gilda brushing her armpit hair.
— John and (especially) Gilda are both fighting to keep a straight face (fourth screencap above) after Gilda failed at her attempt to spit booze in John’s face.
— “If You Look Close, You Can See My Tits”. Surprised to hear that in a 70s episode.
— Gilda’s punk rock-style singing and dancing during her performance are great, and her real-life temporary hoarseness actually kinda fits the song’s style well.
STARS: ****


CONSUMER PROBE
Irwin Mainway’s endangered species fashions displayed

    

— Always nice to see Irwin Mainway, though I can’t help but notice the similarities to Dan’s Telepsychic character we saw just earlier tonight. Both characters have basically the same voice, are sleazy, and wear sunglasses. The same can also be said for Dan’s E. Buzz Miller character.
— The “trumpeter swan slippers” are really funny.
— I like the vest made of human skin with human teeth for buttons.
— Jane’s indignant reactions throughout this are all great.
STARS: ****


THE CANINE CHORUS
by Aviva Slesin- (BIM) is the agent for a band of singing dogs

 

— Hmm, a new SNL filmmaker.  As long as it ain’t Gary Weis, I don’t mind.  I was nervous for a second when Eric mentioned Gary Weis’ name during the intro to this film.
— The back-and-forth cutaways between Bill’s phone conversation and the barking dogs are fairly funny.
— Did this get cut off too early? This “ended” right when the camera cut back to a shot of Bill as if he was going to continue speaking.
STARS: ***


COCHISE AT OXFORD
the Apache Indian (BIM) joins (host)’s rhetoric class

     

— This has some importance to me, as it’s one of the first sketches from this era that I can remember ever seeing, in a rerun back in my early days as an SNL fan. I had a special liking for both the strange concept and Bill’s performance, despite the fact that this isn’t a terribly hilarious or particularly memorable sketch from what I recall.
— LOL at Bill’s entrance as Cochise.
— The class, asking what kind of Indian Cochise is: “A woo-woo Indian or an Indian-Indian?”
— The class hypothesizing how ducks “take a leak” is really funny.
— For some reason, the part of this sketch that stuck in my memory the most from my first viewing is when Bill throws a tomahawk off-camera at Eric, then the camera pans over to Eric hilariously staring fearfully at a tomahawk planted into the chalkboard next to his face, then he naively asks the class “Who threw that?”
— Overall, this sketch was very different from what I had remembered from my first viewing. I had no recollection of all the long discussions between Eric and the class, and I was surprised to see that this sketch was mostly focused on that. Despite being the title character, Bill as Cochise was barely a factor in this and didn’t even show up until halfway through the sketch. I’m kinda disappointed by that, because I had remembered really liking Bill’s Cochise performance.
— Overall, I still liked the sketch, though.  The discussions between Eric and the class had some good moments.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE


GOODNIGHTS

  

— What’s with the paper Eric’s holding? At first, I thought this was going to be a comedic bit where he finally received the monologue the writers were supposed to give him earlier. Perhaps that WAS the intention, but maybe the show ran long and thus, Eric didn’t have enough time to do the bit. Just a theory of mine. These goodnights were kinda sloppy in general (it opens with Eric and the cast in the process of making their arrival onstage, as seen in the first screencap above).
— When announcing next week’s guests, Don Pardo says that Mr. Mike will be a special guest. Did Mr. Mike end up canceling or getting bumped, because I was told that his only two cameos after leaving SNL were in this season’s Buck Henry season finale, and next season’s 100th episode.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yet another very strong Eric Idle episode. He’s 3-for-3 in great episodes so far. Tonight had an impressive number of sketches that received a high rating from me, and there were no sketches I disliked.  And just like in his first two episodes, the writers did a great job catering to Eric’s specific comedic style.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Walter Matthau):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Our Christmas episode of the season, hosted by Elliott Gould

Posted on

April 23, 1977 – Eric Idle / Alan Price, Neil Innes (S2 E20)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Irishman (BIM) talks when British soldier (host) threatens potato torture
 
— I like whenever this era of SNL would do this type of cold opening with a random premise; something that would sadly go on to become unheard of in SNL’s more recent decades.
— Pretty funny premise with Eric using potato torture to get Bill’s Irishman to confess.
— I love the clever way they segued into LFNY, with Bill answering “live”, “from New York”, and “it’s Saturday night” in response to three questions Eric has asked him .
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host & Queen Elizabeth II (Jeanette Charles) emcee Save Britain telethon
     
— Great entrance from Eric, frantically and sloppily rolling out a red carpet.
— I got a big laugh from him quickly throwing an audience member out of their chair so he can give the chair to the queen.
— Judging from what Eric has said, I’m assuming this fundraising event will be a running segment throughout the episode.
— Very funny part with the queen kicking Dan in the groin as part of a “kick a Canadian” contest.
STARS: ****

AMERICAN DOPE GROWERS UNION
support home-grown homegrown
 
— The title sounds familiar; I must’ve heard about this sketch on an SNL board.
— I’m assuming this is a parody of a real commercial from the time. Despite being unfamiliar with the source material, I found this bit funny enough.
STARS: ***

THE NIXON INTERVIEWS
David Frost (host) gets little good material
     
— Eric’s intro alone is hilarious.
— Gilda’s back to playing Julie Nixon. It’s still unclear to me why Laraine took over the impression in the Broderick Crawford episode.
— This “temporary audio problem” portion with the sound being censored during a crucial revelation from Nixon is very funny, especially the exaggerated gestures Dan and Eric are doing during it.
— I’m loving the gradually ridiculous tone of the sketch.
— Overall, a fantastic, well-done sketch.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ALAN PRICE)

BODY LANGUAGE
by Gary Weis- host narrates a primer on the subject
     
— Love the format of this.
— A very fun short so far.
— I especially like the part with Bill shooting the foreigner in the head just because of his confusing gestures.
— “An Idle-Weis production”? Wait, you mean to tell me a short as hilarious as this was somehow directed by GARY WEIS???
STARS: ****½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
bad childhood memories surface during BIM’s editorial on spanking
   
— They’re letting Bill do lots of Update commentaries lately.
— Bill’s personal childhood story is hilariously dark. His delivery is fantastic and the camera’s slow zoom-in on him is a great touch that’s adding to the grim vibe.
— And now, this has gotten even funnier and more disturbing with Bill’s overly-anxious, slow description of the spanking.
— Overall, this segment from Bill has got to be one of my favorite Update commentaries of this whole season.

OXXON
Oxxon blames rising oil prices on their own expensive commercials
 
— A decent fake ad. Can’t think of anything else to say besides that.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella sings “I Will Swallow Him” to show her love for Tom Snyder

— What was with the camera dissolve when Jane turned to the other camera to introduce the next commentator?
— Ohh, here comes yet another visit from Emily Litella…
— “Air ‘solution’”? THAT’S Litella’s “funny” mixed-up term of the night? Really?
— Ha, they actually made Litella self-aware of how incredibly lame the “Air ‘solution’” pun is, by having her stop in the middle of the bit and call it her worst one yet.
— And now, we find out who she was talking about a few cold openings ago where she revealed she’s in love with someone. Turns out it’s Tom Snyder.
— Overall, Litella’s commentary wasn’t quite as tiresome as usual. It was redeemed a bit by her actually calling out how bad that “Air ‘solution’” bit was, her “I Will Swallow Him” mix-up was fairly funny in a dirty way, and at least this commentary didn’t end with her usual “bitch” remark.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

HEAVY WIT CHAMPIONSHIP
in the ring, (host) & (JOB) try to get laughs
   
— What was with the weird quiet beginning before Dan started speaking? Were we supposed to hear an opening voice-over that failed to be heard?
— Surprisingly, this is Belushi’s first appearance of the whole night. I was wondering where he was.
— The premise is pretty creative.
— Eh, I’m not really liking the execution of this idea all that much so far.  The idea of punches being replaced by joke punchlines is actually coming off kinda lame.
— I am, however, getting some laughs from Eric’s bad jokes, but I think that’s mostly because of his usual funny Brit delivery.
— LOL at Eric completely missing Garrett with the pie. I don’t think that was intentional.
— Pretty funny ending.
STARS: **

RON NASTY: “CHEESE & ONIONS”
Rutle Ron Nasty (Neil Innes) performs “Cheese & Onions”

— Good to see the return of The Rutles.
— Overall, pretty funny lyrics. I especially laughed at the part with him spelling out “cheese and onions”.
STARS: ***½

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
low-budget British war film has simple flashbacks
   
— I liked the pointlessness of that ‘goodbye’ flashback.
— Oh, they’re doing another comically pointless flashback. Not as funny this second time.
— I like how you could see Gilda rushing from one part of the set to another during the screen ripple effect at the end of one of the flashbacks just now.
— Okay, these flashbacks are getting less and less funny.
— Funny touch with Gilda actually “reading” the bullet sound effects in the letter.
— Ha, I like how they’re now re-doing the exact same flashback that had just happened.
— Dan’s way of walking is very funny.
— Overall, a very up-and-down sketch. I loved the premise of low-budget flashbacks, but the flashbacks kept going back-and-forth from being funny to being tiresome, to funny again, to tiresome again, etc.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (NEIL INNES)

PLAIN TALK
(host) & (DAA) understand each other’s nonsense sentences
 
— Second sketch tonight with Eric interviewing Dan.
— LOL at Eric’s nonsense-filled intro.
— Oh, they’re both saying nonsense words throughout their conversation. This is cracking me the hell up.
— Overall, a very funny and silly short sketch, featuring excellent performances from Eric and Dan. And it’s so impressive how they both managed to speak all those nonsense sentences rapid-fire with total ease without messing up at all.
STARS: ****½

TRANS EASTERN AIRLINES
flight attendant Sherry accommodates demands of gun-toting passengers
   
— Interesting premise with the casual gun use from non-threatening passengers.
— LOL at John asking if he can “smoke a joint in the can”.
— Overall, a pretty solid sketch that was pulled off well.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ALAN PRICE)

SAVE GREAT BRITAIN TELETHON
BIM attempts to chug a bottle of grape juice after the $20 is withdrawn
 
— Pretty funny bit with Bill trying to chug a bottle of grape juice but giving up after drinking only 1/3rd of it. I also liked Eric’s angry shoving of Bill afterwards.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS
$35,000,000 has been raised by selling the Queen
  
— Good conclusion to the telethon running segment.
— Eric makes some funny complaints about Daylight Savings Time always being on Saturdays.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Another great Eric Idle episode, though I liked his first one from earlier this season a little better. This was still a strong, fun episode with very little to complain about.
— I like how both of the times Eric has hosted so far, the show seems to have a certain unique energy that you don’t see in other hosts’ episodes; the show has had an “SNL/Monty Python hybrid” vibe in Eric’s episodes so far.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Elliott Gould):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Shelley Duvall

Posted on

October 2, 1976 – Eric Idle / Joe Cocker, Stuff (S2 E3)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
hospitalized CHC phones SNL to confront his impostor (Richard Belzer)
   
— Who the heck is this guy? Neil Levy?
— Ha, I couldn’t help but laugh at how the audience had no absolutely reaction to him saying the opening “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” line.
— The return of “the voice of Chevy Chase”.
— I got a great laugh from Chevy’s deadpan “This is Chevy Chase; who the hell are YOU?”
— It seemed like Chevy missed his cue to say LFNY and it sounds like right as he finally said it, you could hear someone prompt him.
— Overall, a good opening.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— There seemed to be some slight differences at the beginning of this.

MONOLOGUE
host plays guitar & yells “Here Comes The Sun” until JAC interrupts him
   
— Strangely, this begins with Eric already sitting on a stool onstage when Pardo announces him. Reminds me of some of the early monologues from last season, before it became a regular thing for hosts to make an entrance when Pardo announces them.
— This yelled-out song is pretty funny.
— Interesting how this is now segueing into stagehands getting Eric dressed into costume and moving him over to the set of the next sketch.
STARS: ***½

GENETIC COUNSELOR
(DAA) & (GIR) choose their future baby’s traits with doctor’s (host) help
 
— Eric’s delivery is fantastic here, and this has the type of absurd British humor that he always excels at.
— I’m loving all the crazy questions and little details.
STARS: ****

AM-FM
KLOG deejay (DAA) switches personas to match station’s AM & FM formats
 
— I had always heard great things about this sketch.
— LOL at the sudden change into Dan’s mellow FM voice.
— Unsurprisingly, Dan’s doing a fantastic job here.
— Antler Dance reference!
— Overall, another quintessential Dan Aykroyd sketch.
STARS: ****½

THE KILLER BEES
host’s British words blow sketch about Killer Bees & swine flu center
 
— I like the way the preceding sketch segued into this.
— Eric getting called out for his out-of-place British accent is pretty funny.
— Another fourth-wall break in a Killer Bees sketch. This one is good, though not as funny as the Elliott Gould one.
STARS: ***½

ERIC’S SONG
host continues to butcher “Here Comes The Sun” until JAC stops him
 
— Another interruption from Jane.
— I like how they’re doing this as a running premise tonight, assuming this will be concluded at the end of the show.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JOE COCKER)

FAREWELL
Baba Wawa uses her last moments on NBC to explain why she’s leaving

— A simple but still pretty funny joke with her “w”s diminishing the seriousness of her message.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
amateurish TOS drawings summarize the Norton-Ali boxing match
in a GAM interview, rabbi (ALZ) OKs Michelangelo’s David’s circumcision
    
— Jane’s delivery seems even better this week than it did in her debut.
— The return of the childlike “artist’s rendering” drawings.
— I like how the Ali joke was a callback to the Ford joke earlier.
— Garrett’s segment was pretty funny.

EPIFIX
druggist (DAA) touts syringe-based Epifix for super-fast headache relief
 
— I can already tell this will be yet another great Dan Aykroyd commercial.
— Him demonstrating how to use the medicine was absolutely hilarious and gave me the biggest laugh I’ve had in this episode so far.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
alleged Carson clip shows Ed Ames (JOB) attacking silhouette with an ax
   
— This Belushi/Tonight Show bit looks interesting.
— The blatantly-fake old-timey audience laughter during John’s bit is pretty funny.
— Loved John going insane on the crotch of the body outline while yelling in a Futaba-esque manner. I remember hearing about the real Tonight Show clip that this bit is spoofing.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***½

THE RUTLES
LOM recounts how host duped him into giving him the Beatles’ money
British rock group’s music & history mirrors the Beatles’
     
— Another Beatles Offer sequel.
— Oh, is this going to be the well-known Rutles sketch that I’ve never seen for myself?
— It is!
— This Beatles-esque music video is fun to watch.
— The “last a lunchtime” line was very funny.
— I love Eric as the reporter frantically running to keep up with the increasingly-faster-moving camera.
— Overall, a great and very well-done Beatles parody.
STARS: ****½

BEHIND THE LINES
Allied spies (host) & (DAA) make plans at a Nazi hangout during WWII
 
— The homebase stage looks interesting set up like that.
— I’m liking how Dan and Eric are seamlessly going back-and-forth between accents.
— I didn’t get the ending with John.
STARS: ***

ERIC’S SONG
host ruins an Australian song until GAM interrupts him
 
— Ha, what in the world is that hanging off Eric’s hat?  Marshmallows?
— Yet another funny continuation of tonight’s running premise.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JOE COCKER)
  
— Ah, it’s the famous Joe Cocker performance with him being accompanied halfway through by John’s impression, which Cocker himself genuinely wasn’t expecting, from what I remember hearing.
— John’s impression comes off even more dead-on when seeing it right next to the real thing.
— If it’s true that Cocker didn’t expect this, he’s being a great sport about it.

DRAGNET
(host) & Joe Friday (DAA) investigate crimes in women’s clothing
JOB interrupts skit by telling host that drag is not funny to Americans
   
— IIRC, Dan would actually later co-star in a movie version of Dragnet.
— Dan’s narration is cracking me up.
— I like the random absurdity of Dan having a phone conversation, when it was Eric instead of Dan who was holding the receiver to his ear.
— This is hilarious so far.
— There’s the familiar Landshark living room set.
— Very interesting fourth-wall break, regarding telling Eric that drag doesn’t work as well in America.
— Couldn’t help but laugh at John’s “If you do it once…” warning when Dan was going to “accompany” Eric in his dressing room.
STARS: ****½

DRAG RACING TODAY
crossdressed DAA & host sprint against each other

— What the–?
— Haha, a nice continuation of the drag premise of the preceding sketch.
— I liked the “How do you know [the audience is] laughing? We’re on film.” line.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (STUFF)

THE UNDERSEA WORLD OF JACQUES COUSTEAU
a toy sub explores an aquarium
(host) shows how to feed people food to goldfish
   
— LOL at the “submarine” just being a cheap-looking toy model. I always get a kick out of whenever they do stuff like that on SNL.
— Unexpected turn this took, with this sketch now being a show called “Pets and Petting”.
— Eric is fantastic with his rapid-fire additions of inappropriate food to the fish tank.
STARS: ****

TALENT SPOT
Ken Norton (GAM) claims that he is more talented than Muhammad Ali
 
— Where is this going?
— Garrett singing in an operatic voice again…
— Overall, this came off as kinda-pointless filler.
STARS: **

CUFFLINKS OF THE GODS?
(LAN) displays evidence of alien comic existence
 
— Lots of TV show sketches tonight, it feels like.
— The native chanting on the tape player was pretty funny
— Overall… ehh, not horrible, but I was kinda bored by this.
STARS: **

PONG
Pong-playing college students discuss myriad ways to use a barometer

— Aw, man, I’m not crazy about seeing this return after a long hiatus. I believe this is the first time they’ve done this since last season’s Christmas episode.
— This is slowly starting to get better, with some funny lines from Davis.
STARS: **½

GOODNIGHTS
host & cast shout a rendition of “Here Comes The Sun”
 
— Pretty funny conclusion to tonight’s running premise of Eric’s song.
— Don Pardo: “Also appearing in tonight’s cast: Richard Belzer”. Where was he? Don’t tell me that was him playing Chevy’s replacement in the cold opening. If so, I’m ashamed of myself for not recognizing him. I guess I’m not used to seeing him that young and without glasses.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very strong and fun episode; probably one of the best I’ve reviewed so far in this project. This is no surprise, considering who was hosting; Eric fit this show perfectly and his comedic presence definitely added to the proceedings. I’m looking forward to the other episodes he hosted later in this era.
— There was an unfortunate drop-off of quality at the end with the last three segments, but aside from that, tonight had a consistent run of very entertaining sketches, and a good number of all-time well-known SNL moments came from this episode (Dan’s AM-FM sketch, The Rutles, Joe Cocker Meets Joe Cocker).
— This episode also had a lot of fun with the format, doing interesting things like the way they segued from the monologue to the doctor sketch, several instances of sketches overlapping with each other, and the running premise with Eric trying to perform a song.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Norman Lear):
— a step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Karen Black