November 15, 1975 – Robert Klein / Abba, Loudon Wainwright III (S1 E5)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
beauty pageant winner Sherry (LAN) refuses to accept her crown
 
— Hmm, Chevy called Laraine’s character “Sherry” just now. Is this the same Sherry character with the California accent that Laraine would later play?
— Yep, she’s speaking with the accent, so I guess this counts as that character’s debut. Odd how she’s not wearing the blonde wig she later wore in some other sketches I remember seeing her in, but as I pointed out in the last episode, I don’t think any of the cast members have worn a wig yet in any of these early episodes I’ve covered so far. Did SNL not have a budget for wigs yet back then or something?
— Interesting that they’re letting someone else get laughs in the cold opening besides Chevy for once.
— I especially like this part with Laraine angrily stripping down from her fancy pageant dress to just a plain shirt and (very 70s-looking) jeans.
— How are they going to work the traditional Chevy fall into THIS opening?
— Oh, he’s now walking towards the edge of the stage…
— Yep, and there’s the traditional fall. Good for a laugh as always, though.
— I liked the visual of him having Laraine’s crown crookedly on his head while saying LFNY.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Ha, instead of announcing “A Film By Albert Brooks” like Pardo’s been doing every week so far, they actually had Pardo announce “No Film By Albert Brooks” this time, which is pretty funny.
— Well, since it seems to have become a tradition for me to chronicle the different ways the cast has been listed in each episode’s credits so far this season, here’s tonight’s update: unlike in the last episode, the WHOLE cast is listed this time… well, everyone except Coe and O’Donoghue. However, the cast list is divided into two separate screens this time.
 
— I think I now understand the bizarre error in the preceding episode’s opening credits, where only four cast members were listed (Garrett, Laraine, Gilda, and Michael): the cast list was probably divided into two screens, but for some reason, one of those screens must’ve failed to display, and thus we only saw the screen crediting the aforementioned four cast members.

MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about the dangers of animal stereotypes & movie issues

— Like in the preceding episode, after the opening montage ends, the host is already present, sitting on a stool on stage as Pardo announces their name. I can see why SNL later decided to have it be a tradition for hosts to actually make an entrance after Pardo announces them: it’s more exciting for the studio audience to see that. In this episode, it looked kinda silly for the audience to start applauding Robert Klein after Pardo announced him, considering he was already there in front of them the whole time.
— Ah, a stand-up monologue, I see. I’m not familiar with Robert Klein’s stand-up, but I usually always enjoy seeing any hosts do this in their monologue.
— This is pretty good so far. I’m liking his delivery, and he comes off so natural in front of the audience.
— The “HE’S EATING MY BABY!!!” part was very funny.
— Another part I really liked just now is the bit about going “ooooooooWOOOOOooooooo” when you’re about to be murdered.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ABBA)
— Very interesting having the musical guest being introduced by Robert as a captain on the set of a ship, and their performance playing out as if they’re entertainment for the ship’s “passengers”.
— I’m liking the amusing cutaways to Robert as the captain struggling with a leak on the ship.

PONG
Pong-playing college students discuss their history midterm

— Surprised to see them bringing this unique segment back already after just one episode. And as the first sketch of the night this time, when in the last episode, it was in the 10-to-1 slot.
— I got a good laugh from Franken’s realization that he mistook Aaron Burr for Alexander Hamilton during the midterm.
— Overall, another pretty nice edition of this sketch. The conversation between Franken & Davis was actually a little funnier than the last one.
STARS: ***

MINUTE MYSTERY
Mike Mendoza (DAA) challenges viewers to solve a crime

— Heh, Laraine’s supposed to be a dead body, yet the sketch began with a tight close-up of her clearly turning her head. I wonder if that was an intentional joke.
— Dan is very funny acting like a Hollywood-type photographer while taking pictures of the dead body.
— John’s old-timey delivery is surprisingly great. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play this type of role before.
— The close-ups of increasingly-strange objects around the room while the ‘quiz music’ is playing is pretty funny.
— Good ending.
STARS: ***½

BEE CENTENNIAL MINUTE
(GAM) describes an insect’s brush with history

— Ah, the Bees running gag continues…
— Quite a long set-up, but I do like the way it built to the ending line. I was hoping for a funnier punchline, though.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III)
— Wait, is this supposed to be a comedy performance instead of a musical guest performance? I went through the whole first minute of this assuming it was just standard musical guest fare, but now his utterly-bizarre facial expressions and increasingly-goofy singing style have me re-thinking that.
— And now I can hear some of the audience members actually laughing in response to some of his lyrics. Hmm. I’m still very confused over whether this is supposed to be a legit musical performance or just a comedy bit.
— There are some points where he bares quite a resemblance to future cast member Will Ferrell, especially with some of the over-the-top facial expressions he’s making.

GREG ALLMAN, HOW’S YOUR LOVE LIFE?
Gregg Allman (CHC) eventually answers “How’s your love-life?” truthfully
 
— Ha, Chevy in that ridiculous wig, goatee, and sunglasses…….
— Hey, speaking of which, I guess this is SNL’s very first instance of a cast member wearing a wig on the show.
— The structure of this seems so random. I wonder if this is making fun of a real ad that Greg Allman starred in at the time.
— The punchline with him just saying “toilet” (in response to being asked how his love life’s going) and then doing a depressed face-plant into the piano keys actually made me laugh out loud.
STARS: ***½

TOUGH DIRECTOR
Sam Peckinpah (JOB) treats actress (GIR) roughly while directing a comedy

— Isn’t this the exact same living room set we just saw minutes ago?
— Whoa at John slapping Gilda out of nowhere. Should I laugh? I think I’d feel bad if I did, partly because of all the stuff I heard about John supposedly being misogynistic in real life.
— And now he kicked Gilda in the shin. Okay, I see where this is going, where his abuse to Gilda will increase each time he stops the filming of the movie.
— This is kinda like a violent version of that Sexist Director sketch Michael McKean would later do in 1994.
— I have to say, Gilda is doing a great job selling John’s hits, especially the way she fell all over the place just now.
— Very funny ending with Robert turning the tables on John.
STARS: **½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1

— That Sammy Davis Jr. Judaism conversion joke was fantastic
— I liked how during the audience’s huge reaction to the David & Julie Eisenhower execution joke, Chevy briefly picked up the phone on his desk and pretended to start dialing while he was waiting for the audience’s reaction to die down. I always like whenever Chevy ad-libs quick little things like that.
— LOL at the tasteless George Wallace wheelchair joke. That’s a joke I can easily picture Michael Che or Colin Jost doing nowadays.
— Wow, that Muhammad Ali/Joe Fraser joke bombed hard.

JAMITOL
(GEC) tells how Jamitol lets his wife (JAC) keep very busy

— George Coe sighting!
— Jane’s delivery is very funny here.
— She also got me laughing just now with the way she slowly passed out.
— Oh, wow, Coe actually made me laugh for once, with his delivery of the “I think I’ll stuff her” line at the end.
— Overall, this was a lot better than the earlier Jamitol ad this season (the one with Chevy and O’Donoghue playing a couple).
— I guess it’s safe to say that by this point in the show’s history, they won’t be putting Coe back into the opening credits, considering how many episodes we’ve been through since the last time he was credited, which was the very first episode. So technically, even though he’s continuing to make appearances on the show, this puts him right down there with future short-lived SNL players Laurie Metcalf and Emily Prager as people who only lasted one episode as a cast member. I’m just a bit surprised, since there have been some SNL sites that have stated Coe’s stint as a cast member lasted SEVERAL episodes, not just one. There seems to be a similar confusion over just how long Michael O’Donoghue was a credited cast member.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Frank Telinka (DAA) warns of the coming energy crisis while CHC mocks him
with GAM’s help, CHC repeats the top story for the hard-of-hearing
 
— They’re not going to be doing the ‘Chevy makes goofy faces behind a correspondent’s back’ bit EVERY week now, are they? I mean, the “news for the hard-of-hearing” bit has already seemingly become a weekly recurring Update segment, and if that & the ‘goofy faces’ bit are BOTH going to be weekly features, I fear that it’s soon going to feel like I’m watching the same Weekend Update day after day. That reminds me of the complains the two hosts at the That Week in SNL podcast had about how Norm Macdonald’s Season 21 Weekend Updates always relied on the same cycle of punchlines week-after-week (as a Norm fan, I’m sure I’ll feel differently about that when I reach that season in my reviews).
— Hmm, strange – Chevy actually doing a news story about the birthday of his then-girlfriend-and-occasional-SNL-extra Jacqueline Carlin.
— And now he’s acknowledged Lorne Michaels’ birthday as well. I believe this is the very first on-air mention of Lorne in an SNL episode.
— Looks like I was right about the “news for the hard-of-hearing” bit having become a weekly segment.
— Something new I’m starting to find funny in these hard-of-hearing bits is the mock-serious look on Garrett’s face when the circle of him first appears on-screen. His mock-serious look tonight especially made me laugh.
— You could see Chevy trying not to laugh just now during the hard-of-hearing-news bit.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

EXTERMINATORS
(host) tries to convince fellow exterminator (JOB) not to kill roaches
 
— Just now as John made his entrance, I couldn’t help but notice at first glance how much he resembled his brother Jim Belushi for a quick second. Maybe it’s the oil/grease on John’s face in this sketch that made the resemblance stand out more. Or maybe it’s because of the army clothes he’s wearing; I remember Jim often being cast as army-type guys during his SNL years.
— Speaking of first glance, I didn’t even recognize Robert Klein the first few seconds he showed up here. The glasses and hat make him look a lot different.
— I like the premise of this so far, with army-like exterminators treating their roach-killing job as if they’re soldiers at war.
— John’s accent & the look on his face are both fantastic. This is yet another sketch tonight where he’s surprised me by doing a voice I didn’t know he could pull off. Going through these early episodes one-by-one, I’m slowly starting to see that John was more versatile than I had thought.
— Weird segue to the “The Eternal Crawl”sequence. I almost thought they had cut to a separate sketch at first until I realized it’s still part of the same sketch.
— The little joke at the end with John subtly continuing to kill bugs behind Robert’s back was pretty funny.
STARS: ***

FIREMAN
fireman GIR talks about her job & gives some fire prevention tips

— Well, this seems random, but like I said recently, I like how these early episodes have been doing random little segments like this.
— Overall, there was nothing really noteworthy in this, but maybe it was intended to be more cute than funny. Either way, it was fine for what it was and Gilda’s performance was good as usual. But considering this starred her as herself, I kinda wanted to like this a little more.
STARS: ***

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Scred tries to come up with ways to remedy Ploobis’ migraine headache

— I liked the part with Ploobis stuffing the ice pack into his wife’s mouth; that felt like something you’d see on The Muppet Show.
— Okay, this is finally starting to actually get really funny, with the acupuncture needles sequence.
— Ploobis’ screaming when Scred jammed in that one needle was hilarious.
— Overall, this is easily the most I’ve ever laughed at these Muppet segments so far.
STARS: ***

ROBERT KLEIN STAND-UP #2
host does stand-up about college life, abnormal psychology, pot & monkeys
 
— I like how he’s getting multiple stand-up segments throughout the show, kinda like George Carlin in the first episode and Richard Pryor a few episodes from now.
— He’s pretty fun to watch as he’s going on about different topics.
— Pretty solid material overall.
STARS: ***½

K-PUT PRICE-IS-RITE STAMP GUN
save lots of money on groceries with K-Put’s Price-Is-Rite stamp gun

— Really good concept for a fake ad.
— Overall, I liked this a lot. I had recently been trying to find an opportunity in these reviews to voice how underwhelmed I’ve been by all the fake ads that SNL has aired in the handful of early episodes I’ve covered so far, but they won me over with this Stamp Gun commercial. So far, this is easily the most I’ve liked a fake ad at this point in the show’s early timeline.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III)
 
— Heh, now his facial expressions during this second performance are MORE crazy & Will Ferrell-esque than ever.
— There goes the audience laughing again, too.
— Okay, more and more, it’s becoming undeniably obvious that, yes, his two performances are indeed intentional comedic musical numbers, and now I feel dumb for thinking they were supposed to be serious performances. I guess I’m just not used to seeing comedic acts as SNL musical guests.

LOOKS AT BOOKS
JAC questions Little Kingdom author Emily Litella (GIR)

— Whoa, our very first Emily Litella sighting. I certainly wasn’t expecting to see her debut happen in a SKETCH; I wasn’t aware she had ever made any appearances outside of Update.
— Something looks a bit different about her in this first appearance.
— I’m liking Jane’s giddy facial expression whenever she fills in the end of Gilda’s sentences.
— The studio audience doesn’t sound like they’re into this sketch at all.
— Okay, the “teeeeeeny tiiiiiiiny…” phrase Gilda kept saying was kinda funny. But overall, ehh…. I wasn’t crazy about this sketch. It’s strange to see that Emily Litella, who would go on to become one of Gilda’s most beloved recurring characters, actually kinda bombed in her first appearance.
STARS: **

AMBASSADOR TRAINING INSTITUTE
— rerun

I CAN’T STOP MY LEG
host plays harmonica with SNL Band & sings “I Can’t Stop My Leg”

— Hmm, Robert’s about to perform what looks to be a comedic number. Is this going to be the “I Can’t Stop My Leg” bit that I’ve always heard about?
— Man, his facial expressions are cracking me up so far.
— Ah, it IS “I Can’t Stop My Leg”! Glad to finally get to see this.
— Wow, this is great. I’m absolutely loving this.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ABBA)
   
— Whoa, these sudden disclaimers on the bottom of the screen….. Oh, that’s right! I remember reading about this before. I think I remember hearing this was Michael O’Donoghue’s idea. He’s actually one of the “passengers” on the ship set during both of these musical performances.
— I do like how they’re continuing the side-act with Robert as the hapless ship captain.
— What’s with all the white spots on the screen suddenly? Is this a technical error?
— Holy hell, that was great just now with the dining tables, waiters, and passengers all crashing into each other due to the ship slanting sideways. I love that.
— Why didn’t it ever become a semi-regular thing for SNL to do fun little things like this during musical guests’ performances?
— Hmm, this ended while Abba was still “singing”. Did the show run long and they had to cut to commercials before the band was done, or was it intentional for their performance to end like that?

GOODNIGHTS
 
— I guess they’re still experimenting with how the goodnights are done. While in the previous episode’s goodnights, they introduced the now-traditional aspect of having the cast on stage with the host, this episode has gone back to what we saw in the first two episode’s goodnights where the host is on stage alone.
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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Pretty good episode. Didn’t have quite as much of a fun vibe as or as many fun quick random sketches as the preceding episode with Candice Bergen, but this was still an overall pretty solid show with not much to complain about. Even the performances from the two musical guests were funny, which is almost unheard of for SNL.
— Going into the episode not being all that familiar with Robert Klein, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from him, though I figured beforehand that he MUST’VE done a good job since I know they bring him back a few more times throughout this era. Watching this episode, I ended up being impressed by him: he was a fun host, I enjoyed his stand-up, he got some laughs in the sketches, I loved his “I Can’t Stop My Leg” number, and he even got involved in Abba’s musical performances where he helped make it watchable with his funny acting & facial expressions.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Lily Tomlin