January 10, 1976 – Elliott Gould / Anne Murray (S1 E9)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
a chain reaction in The Dead String Quartet causes cellist (CHC) to fall
   
— The inactive, silent beginning of this with the dead quartet just sitting there is giving me a big laugh, and it’s also funny hearing the audience reaction during it.
— Oh, that was absolutely great just now, with the very slow chain reaction of each quartet member tipping to the side while “playing” a slight musical note, culminating in Chevy doing a particularly funny fall at the end.
— Overall, that was brilliant. My favorite cold opening of the season so far.
STARS: ****½

OPENING MONTAGE
— “New talent Franken and Davis”. It looks like this episode is when those two start doing their recurring comedy segment.

MONOLOGUE
host sings “Let Yourself Go” & “Crazy Rhythm” before tap-dancing
GIR tells host that she had a wonderful time with him last night
 
— Kind of a weird beginning to this, but he’s carrying himself well and showing interesting stage presence right out of the gate.
— I guess this counts as SNL’s very first instance of what’s usually my least favorite monologue trope: the host singing and dancing. Since it was a new thing for monologues back at this time, I’ll go easy on this.
— Despite the fact that this is a non-comedic performance, Elliott’s doing a great job and is actually making me get into this song. The studio audience is loving it too. Oh, and now he’s tap-dancing? Impressive.
— Gilda’s back-and-forth with Elliott about “last night” took this into a different direction, and was charming like most sketches with Gilda playing herself are. However, I kept expecting some kind of twist during their conversation, but then it just ended.
STARS: ***

TRY-HARD 1-11
— rerun

INTERIOR DEMOLITIONISTS
interior demolitionists (host) & (CHC) wreck the home of (JAC) & (DAA)
 
— I’m loving this random premise.
— This got even funnier just now with the handheld wrecking ball used to destroy the TV.
— Loved them cutting down the chandelier just to break the table under it.
— Strange when the couch barely moved when it “exploded”. Was there a special effects failure there?
— Dan coming downstairs and reacting angrily to all the mess is great.
— Was it intentional for the vase NOT to break when Jane threw it at the wall?
STARS: ****

GODFATHER THERAPY
support group members Vito Corleone (JOB) & Sherry discuss their troubles
 
— Oh, THIS, the “Vito, you’re blocking” sketch. I’m happy to finally get to see it, after hearing great things about it for years.
— Ah, now Laraine’s Sherry character has the familiar blonde wig that she was missing in her first appearance earlier this season.
— John is doing a fantastic Godfather impression, and his performance is cracking me up a lot. This is another sketch that’s proving to me that he had a lot more range than just the wild performances I remembered most from him.
— Great line just now with the ASPCA going after Vito for “this horse thing”.
— The non-verbal orange-peel-in-the-mouth enactment was insane and very funny.
— Laraine’s doing an excellent job with her whole long spiel.
— Overall, this sketch definitely lived up to all of the hype.
STARS: *****

NEW SHIMMER
new Shimmer can be used as both a floor wax & a dessert topping
 
— Ah, and here’s another well-known piece from this era that I’ve never seen for myself until now.
— This is already very funny, with Dan and Gilda’s bickering at the beginning.
— Interesting seeing Chevy play a commercial pitchman.
— All-in-all, a very funny and cute ad.
STARS: ****½

PLAY MISTY FOR ME
by Gary Weis- lounge pianists perform interpretations
 
— Another serious, non-comedic Gary Weis film. This isn’t having anywhere near the same effect on me that his touching “Homeward Bound” short had, but I like the structure of this one, with the back-and-forth cutaways to different performances of the same song.
STARS: ***

GILDA & ELLIOTT
GIR tells host that she meant everything she said to him last night

— Ah, a continuation of the storyline from the monologue. Now I see why the monologue ended so abruptly when I expected there to be a twist.
— This was too short to give a rating to, as it just segued into introducing the musical guest performance, but I always like when SNL does a running storyline throughout an episode.
STARS: N/A

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
CHC again reaches Angelo’s Pizza during attempt to reach Angola
LAN reports from Cape Canaveral on attempt to dump nerve gas into space
 
— “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” got absolutely no audience reaction just now.
— The Angola/Angelo’s Pizza bit from the last Update wasn’t really necessary to repeat a second time.
— The gradual explosion of the deadly gas-loaded rocket behind Laraine had a very slow but hilarious build-up.

JAMITOL

— Rerun. Weird that they would re-air this in the middle of Update, since this ad stars Chevy as a character.

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
CHC & wife MOD have a domestic squabble at the newsdesk
as a safety measure, CHC volunteers to test marijuana sent in by viewers
a look at some early designs of the new NBC network logo
as an aid to foreigners, CHC repeats the top story in a foreign language
 
— Ah, the Jamitol storyline is continuing into Update! Chevy and Michael’s argument at the Update desk was funny. Interesting how they played it off like they were actually playing themselves in the commercial.
— Yet another “toyboat” ad-lib when Chevy flubs a joke.
— Good bit with Chevy informing viewers to mail any “killer dope” to his home address.
— Hmm, him doing a “News for the Foreigners” bit. So I take it they finally realized how much they were overusing the “News for the Hard of Hearing” bit. Thank god, because MAN was I getting tired of seeing that in every Update.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

THE KILLER BEES
Killer Bees take (GIR) & (CHC) hostage in an attempt to get pollen
LOM finds reason for poor camera work- drunk director Dave Wilson [real]
GIR introduces host to her mother (Paula Kahn)
     
— The random Sandy Duncan ad on the radio gave me a good laugh.
— I’m liking this new variation of the Bees running gag.
— The right end of the “The Killer Bees” logo looked like it was cut off.
— Haha, this is great, with them dropping character and breaking the fourth wall regarding the camera staying on the wrong shot.
— Ah, we have Lorne Michaels’ very first on-camera appearance.
— As the camera’s following Lorne backstage while the cast is talking off-camera about Lorne losing his temper, I got an unintentional big laugh just now from whoever’s voice that was (I think Chevy) mistakenly saying “I’ve seen Elliott mad, but… uh, I mean, Lorne, not Elliott…”
— This is also, I believe, SNL’s very first instance of showing someone walking through the halls backstage.
— Lorne arriving in the control room and finding a drunk Dave Wilson is hilarious! Man, I’m loving this.
— I love John’s mock-dramatic “He’s in there… firing… his own father” speech.
— Right now, this segued back into the Gilda & Elliott storyline, which is pretty funny, though I feel it’s slowing down the great momentum of where this sketch had been going before then.
— I’m assuming that’s just an actress and not Gilda’s real mom.
— Man, this was one jam-packed sketch.
STARS: ****

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
(James L. Brooks) & other audience researchers study Albert Brooks [real]
   
— This is going to be his last SNL short, eh? I’ve actually enjoyed his work this season, aside from whatever that “Sick in Bed” short was supposed to be.
— The visual quality of this is noticeably a lot better than most of his other shorts.
— No big laughs so far, but I’m enjoying this.
— His frustration with the old couple viewing him via satellite is funny.
— Great part with that one guy vehemently going on to Albert about how he hates him.
— If this really was Albert’s last short, he left on a pretty good note. Overall, he added a unique voice to these early SNL episodes.
STARS: ***

GILDA & ELLIOTT
GIR asks host to consider the possibility of marriage

— The “Mr. Gilda Radner” line was pretty funny.
— Another charming continuation of the storyline.
STARS: ***

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
affair of Scred & Peuta is jeopardized when Ploobis becomes suspicious

— Neither this nor the preceding episode’s Muppets segment opened with the usual intro sequence. I wonder if it’s because Jim Henson and/or SNL have become aware that a lot of people have been hating these sketches.
— Yet ANOTHER bad ending punchline from The Mighty Favog.
— Overall, this installment wasn’t exactly horrible, but I still didn’t like it at all. I’ve gone easy on the first few Muppets sketches this season, but I knew it wouldn’t be long until I’d start understanding why everybody hated them. The Richard Pryor episode is when I officially reached that point. And to think, I still have the rest of the season to put up with this! Why does Albert Brooks have to leave mid-season, but not THESE guys?
STARS: *½

BIRTHRIGHT
doctors (DAA) & (host) explain their preferred birth methods
 
— Hmm, the set-up of this is going on so long, I can’t predict where this is headed.
— Okay, after Dan’s calm, conventional birthing technique, I can predict what the joke will be: Elliott’s technique will be chaotic and loud.
— Yep, I was right. Even though I saw it coming, it was still pretty funny.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

FRANKEN AND DAVIS
ALF & TOD present alternate society in which Indians stereotype whites
 
— Nice to see them actually appearing, and not doing another Pong voice-over bit again.
— The ‘alternate universe’ in which Indians won instead of the whites is an interesting concept.
— The racist white team names are all very funny.
— Overall, a good segment, and knowing that “the comedy team of Franken and Davis” goes on to become a recurring feature on SNL this era, this first appearance was a nice way to introduce them to viewers.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS
at closing, a priest (MOD) marries GIR & host
 
— Oh, wow, this sudden “wedding” came out of nowhere and is a funny way to end the show. I like that the Gilda/Elliott storyline built up to this.
— Dave Wilson’s name being crossed out during the scrolling credits is a great reference to his “firing” earlier.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very solid episode. The first half was especially strong, featuring some all-time well-remembered pieces like Godfather Therapy, Shimmer, and The Dead String Quartet. There was also a great post-WU Killer Bees sketch that had a fantastic meta turn midway through.
— The impressive long streak of solid shows since episode 4 stays alive.
— The sketches must’ve been longer than what we’ve usually been seeing this season, since there was noticeably a much smaller amount of segments tonight compared to the last few episodes.
— Elliott was a fun and loose host, and the bits with him and Gilda was a nice running storyline that escalated humorously. I can definitely see why he went on to become a frequent host of this era. I can’t recall when his next hosting stint is, but knowing how things were done on SNL back in these days, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s later this same season. As a side note, I wonder why getting someone to host multiple times in one season eventually fell by the wayside sometime in the 80s. It would be fun if they still continued that to this day.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Another future five-timer makes their hosting debut: Buck Henry