Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
host performs “Still Crazy After All These Years”; CHC falls
— Our first of what I know is going to be MANY musical performances tonight……
— Ha, Chevy out of nowhere doing a pratfall after the song ended. That was so random, but certainly funny. It’s also noteworthy in that it was the birth of Chevy’s traditional SNL pratfalls. And after this and the previous week’s episode, this opening also pretty much solidified a tradition of Chevy being the one who says “Live from New York…” every week.
OPENING MONTAGE
— The audio quality of the theme music is noticeably A LOT better than the muffled/cardboard box sound it had in the first episode.
— Wow, are George Coe and Michael O’Donoghue gone from the cast ALREADY? The cast list in this episode’s montage just lists the seven Not Ready For Prime-Time Players that everyone’s familiar with nowadays. And unlike last week, they’re listed alphabetically this time, too:
MONOLOGUE
host & Jesse Dixon Singers perform “Loves Me Like A Rock”
— Hmm, Paul is already standing on stage (along with the Jesse Dixon Singers) after the opening montage ends, instead of making the usual entrance that hosts make after Don Pardo announces “Ladies and gentlemen, (insert host name here)”.
— Ah, our first real sighting of the “basement” homebase stage that I remember from this era. Technically, it was used in the previous episode for Janis Ian’s musical performances, but this is the first time it’s being used for the monologue/goodnights stage.
THE BERKELEY COLLECTION
Jerry Rubin [real] pitches the Berkeley Collection of graffiti wallpaper
— Like in last week’s pre-taped segments, there doesn’t seem to be any audience sounds mixed into this.
— Uh… I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be laughing at this commercial or not. But I am finding it strangely enjoyable and this has a nice charm to it. This is serving as a nice little time capsule into the late 60s hippie era.
— This actually seems like this could be a real advertised product.
STARS: ***
We get our very first audience caption, a gag that would go on to become one of the staples of 70s SNL.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Paul Simon)
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Randy Newman)
BEES
host informs The Bees that their number has been cut from the show
— Hi, cast members!
— Hmm, Chevy isn’t there. But there appears to be a guy in his place who I don’t recognize. (He’s the one standing next to Belushi in the above screencap) I’m guessing he’s one of the writers.
— Paul’s line about how the Bees bit “didn’t work last week” is referring to how poorly-received the previous episode’s Bee Hospital sketch was. I read someplace that the higher-ups at NBC ordered Lorne not to ever bring the Bees back after how badly that sketch bombed.
— Bye, cast members!
— Overall, I can’t rate this segment because it was so short, but it was a pretty funny bit. Unfortunately, I know it’s the last we see of these cast members for the rest of the night…..
WEEKEND UPDATE
host goes one-on-one with Connie Hawkins [real]; Marv Albert cameo
— The string of President Ford jokes are all pretty funny so far.
— Hmm, I’m starting to notice a Chevy Chase trademark I never caught before: him pounding his fist on the desk whenever an Update joke gets a big reaction from the audience. He did it last week after the famous prostitution stamp joke, and now he did it this week after a joke.
— Well, this sudden Connie Hawkins/Paul Simon pre-tape certainly seems strange.
— Did I just hear audience laughter? I thought audio of the audience wasn’t mixed into the early pre-tapes.
— Hey, this Simon/Hawkins match is actually really fun. I’m loving this.
— I got a good laugh from the “he’s not hurt” caption after Paul got up from the floor.
— Loved the slow-motion part with Paul ducking under Hawkins’ jump, then successfully making a shot.
— That’s the end of Update? Kinda surprised they never cut back to Chevy. That long pre-tape almost made you forget it was even part of Update.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Simon & Garfunkel, #1)
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Simon & Garfunkel, #2)
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Art Garfunkel)
JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Ploobis & Scred seek The Mighty Favog’s help during a financial crisis
— Well, I surprisingly didn’t groan when this popped up, but I’m sure that’s just because after so many consecutive musical performances, I’m desperate for ANY comedy on the show, even this.
— Not too bad so far. It feels weird to actually be laughing during this episode.
— The close-up of Scred’s facial reaction to Favog saying he’ll “take” him was great.
STARS: **½
A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
traumatic home movies & failed Candid Camera stunts
— The interplay between Albert and his little daughter is pretty funny.
— Hey, I’m actually laughing a lot during this film. Again, however, I’m sure part of that is because of how comedy-deprived I’ve been after sitting through musical performance after musical performance all night.
— Man, Albert’s dad ages fast.
— Overall, Albert Brooks gave me some good much-needed laughs in this film.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Phoebe Snow)
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Phoebe Snow, Paul Simon, Jesse Dixon Singers)
TRY-HARD 1-11
the battery is strong enough to run a pacemaker all night
— Uh… okaaayyyy…
— I have no idea what to say about this overall, other than I feel like I missed why this was supposed to be funny. Man, some of these early SNL fake ads are strange.
STARS: *
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Paul Simon)
GOODNIGHTS
Bill Bradley [real] presents host with a basketball trophy
— The visual of Paul struggling to carry that huge trophy is pretty funny.
— Paul continues to get laughs, with him now challenging Kareem Abdul Jabbar to a one-on-one match.
— Interestingly, when thanking tonight’s guests, one of the “guests” Paul mentions is Chevy Chase, which is strange considering Chevy’s in the cast. But then again, in the previous episode’s goodnights, George Carlin also mentioned the cast (or, as he called them, “The Not Quite Ready For Prime-Time Players”) among the rest of that episode’s guests. I think this, among other things, shows that in these early episodes, the cast wasn’t quite as ingrained into the show as they would soon be.
— Like how last week’s goodnights just had Carlin on stage by himself, this episode’s goodnights just have Paul and Bill Bradley by themselves. To modern eyes, the stage looks so odd not having the cast & musical guest there as the credits are rolling.
_______________________________
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Well… what is there to say about SNL: The Concert, besides “wow, what a weird episode” or “this did not feel like SNL”?
— Honestly, I actually enjoyed the musical performances in this episode, but man, the live sketches’ presence was VERY missed, as was the Not Ready For Prime-Time Players’ presence. Chevy was the only cast member who got any real screen time, and even THAT isn’t saying much, as he just made a walk-on (or “fall-on”, rather) at the end of the cold opening and didn’t do many jokes on Weekend Update before throwing to the Connie Hawkins/Paul Simon basketball pre-tape (which was easily the best segment of the night).
— This being such an early episode and the format not being set in stone yet, it’s understandable that SNL was trying different things – that’s part of what makes these early episodes so fascinating. But let’s just be happy this episode’s ‘all music, no sketches’ format isn’t what SNL ended up sticking with in the long run, though I don’t think that was ever the plan anyway; from what I remember hearing, this episode was basically created as an excuse for the cast and staff to take a breather after all the hard work it took putting together the first episode.
— Despite mostly just focusing on music, Paul Simon was a likable and charming guest host and you can see why he became a frequent repeat guest in the future.
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
— Rob Reiner
I don’t think I’ve watched this episode since the early full season DVDs were released, but I have a recollection of one woman sitting next to the apron of the stage who looked like she was desperately hanging on for some kind of comedy sketch to appear that night! They should have given her an audience caption: NOT HER NIGHT.
I think the joke in the Jerry Rubin thing is another one that’s hard to understand from a modern perspective–that you had this hippie radical shilling crap and cashing in on his radicalism–except Jerry Rubin himself basically did this in the 1980s and the advent of 1960s nostalgia, as you point out, means this product isn’t that far-fetched.
The actress playing the airline ticket attendant is Elayne Heilveil, who had co-starred in Payday and many TV movies in the early ’70s. She also played the original role of Nancy Lawrence in Family, before being replaced in the second season by Meredith Baxter.
“Yippie! Jerry Rubin died this week…oh, I’m sorry, that should’ve read ‘Yippie’ Jerry Rubin died this week”
Norm MacDonald, 1994—
Per SNL Archives, Neil Levy is the other bee.
I was lucky enough to be able to watch this with the original commercials recently, and it was a very beneficial experience – the musical performances really need the commercial breaks to stop them from bleeding together, and beyond that, you also get a glimpse of how much the pacemaker ad was true to that era of filming (indeed, one of the real commercials looked like it was even made in the same field).
I wonder if something went wrong with Chevy’s fall in terms of blocking or if they just came up with the idea at the last minute. Something seems off. You get nearly as much of his ass as you get of him saying LFNY. To be fair, that’s still better than several of his future hosting appearances…
I am trying to remember what the half-hour edit of this one had – likely the basketball pre-tape (which for some time I thought was in his season 2 hosting gig) and the Albert Brooks film. The latter I had not seen in many years, yet so much of it very quickly came back to me – there’s something that sticks with you about the image of his crazed, disturbed father, and also about his exchange with his daughter. Albert was such a strong presence in these early days you have to wonder what might have been if he and Lorne had managed to work things out. In the long run it was probably for the best, for both SNL and for Albert, but these are still fascinating to watch 45 years later.
This may be Paul Simon’s strongest appearance. He is funny, quick, and manages to make some extremely questionable choices (like framing so much of his reunion with Art Garfunkel through banter and inside commentary) flow. This is a pretty historic episode (probably even more so now, as this stuff, maybe aside from Jerry Rubin’s cameo, might have felt more typical in the variety-heavy ’70s) and Paul anchors it in just the right way to allow us to enjoy everything for ourselves.
@John good points about everything… I think the reruns on NBC (and definitely the one from 1991 or so on NBC) of the season 2 episode add the basketball film in place of some of George Harrison’s music videos. For that reason, like you, I thought the film originally aired in the season 2 show.
Oh that explains it. Thank you.
To tag on what @Kyle J. McElravy mentioned on the Albert Brooks film, I believe the African-American guy in the laundromat looks to me like Wally Amos of ‘Famous Amos’ cookies fame. (so much so I had to share this… haven’t gotten (non-)confirmation yet….)
I think @rssk is right about Wally Amos. Not only does the man in the film look like him, but the voice matches what I remember when he had a cameo on Taxi in 1981. At this time, he had just opened his first cookie shop. Prior to that (and maybe concurrently), he was an agent with the William Morris Agency and handled a lot of big acts including Simon and Garfunkel. So it would make sense that Albert would know him.
Oddly enough, Anne Beatts said Amos left cookies in an effort to get on the show.
I think the Try Hard commercial is a take-off of the Sears Die Hard car battery commercials, like this one:
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I love that little end tag on those old Sears commercials.
This was a rougher one to watch than episode 1, which is possibly why my mission to watch the first season of SNL took a several months long break after viewing it. I like Paul Simon’s music — at least I think I do — but yeah, some more comedy would’ve been nice. At least Paul Simon’s basketball segment was legitimately very funny.
But discovering this site has inspired me to get back to it. I will hopefully watch episode 3 very soon and will be back to read your review.
Rewatched this ep last night, can’t believe I spotted another possibly recognizable actor in the Brooks film; I believe Mike the police guard who takes Albert’s daughter away is actor Don Chastain (seen in several 60s-70s TV cop shows, recurring role on Rhoda, no relation to Jessica….)
The live take of Still Crazy After All These Years that opens this episode is actually stronger than the original album version – sounds like a mix of the SNL band and Paul’s regular group from this era.
No surprise this was such a music-dominated episode. The reunion of Simon & Garfunkel was a big deal at this time after five years of acrimony. As I recall, this got a lot of press and helped put SNL on the map.