January 17, 1976 – Buck Henry / Bill Withers, Toni Basil (S1 E10)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
suicide hotline worker (CHC) takes a fall while trying to field a call
 
— Wow, we’re getting our trademark Chevy fall right out of the gate at the beginning of this cold opening.
— Haha, the gunshot heard from the other end of the call is dark, but funny.
— Wow, that’s it? That’s gotta be one of the shortest cold openings in the show’s history. The brevity definitely worked here, as a very quick ‘set-up & punchline’ funny gag.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
on-screen super lists people the producers called before settling on host
 
— For some reason, I thought this episode had that great monologue where Buck fails to show up on stage because he’s stuck downstairs arguing with NBC pages who won’t let him into the show, and Lorne has to come downstairs to rescue him. I guess that’s from the episode Buck hosted later this season.
— SNL’s very first of what would be quite a number of “screen captions” monologues over the years, where the host’s speech is overshadowed by disclaimers on the bottom of the screen.
— The long list of potential hosts SNL called before Buck is very funny, even if I’m not familiar with 70% of these names.
— I wonder why they listed “The Two Stooges”. Who would that have been? All of the main Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp) were dead by this point. I guess SNL’s referring to lesser-known Stooges Joe Besser and “Curly Joe” DeRita.
— Haha, Generalissimo Francisco Franco was on the list just now.
— It looks like an extra name got cut off right when the screen crawl went away.
— The “We? Buck’s a little out of line here” caption gave me a big laugh.
— The “Buck’s favorite charities/favorite activities” lists were also very funny, especially how the latter just repeated the same list as the former.
— Wow, this list of “people we are calling now” has even MORE celebrities I’ve never heard of. It’s still giving me a laugh, though.
STARS: ***½

SAMURAI DELICATESSEN
Futaba makes a sandwich for Mr. Dantley (host)
 
— Probably the most famous installment of John’s Samurai sketches.
— Interesting how he’s already getting a good amount of recognition applause from the audience, despite this only being his second sketch.
— Loved him using his forehead to split open the hero bread in half.
— Great part with him about to use his sword to commit seppuku after he messed up Buck’s order.
— Interesting to see that right from the start, Buck was always excellent at playing off of Futaba.
— Nice fake-out with Futaba violently taking out his sword only to end up just gently cutting the sandwich in half.
— Overall, I’d say of all the Samurai sketches I’ve ever viewed, this one is definitely the quintessential installment.
STARS: ****½

PRESIDENTIAL FOREPLAY
affair claimant (GIR) mixes up Richard Nixon & JFK

— A very different role for Gilda. I’m not used to seeing her play sultry characters.
— The twist at the end where it turns out she was actually talking about Nixon instead of JFK was decent, but overall, I wasn’t all that crazy about this sketch.
STARS: **½

AN OVAL OFFICE
Ron Nessen (host) & Gerald Ford (CHC) launch Operation Stumblebum
   
— I don’t know why, but I’m already laughing just from the quiet beginning where the “An Oval Office” title graphic showed up on screen.
— Hilarious how after Chevy says to the already-sitting Buck “Come on in and sit down”, Buck actually gets up, leaves the room, re-enters, and sits down.
— The little things Chevy keeps doing during the briefing are pretty funny.
— The stuffed dog tipping over when Chevy says “Lie down, Liberty” is a memorable gag.
— Some of the odd-looking NBC logos on the press conference microphones Buck’s speaking into seem to be a reference to an Update joke in the preceding episode, where they displayed a series of (fake) unused NBC logos.
— This is great with Buck, Garrett, and John imitating Chevy’s constant blunders.
— Ah, I recognize Lorne’s voice as one of the off-camera press people asking the president a question.
— Haha, the imitations of Chevy’s blunders is now getting insane and is killing me.
— All-in-all, a hilarious sketch.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (BILL WITHERS)

THE EVELYN WOODSKI SCHOOL OF SPEED READING
poor reader Evelyn Woodski (LAN) advertises her speed reading school
 
— Wow. Much like the cold opening, here’s another sketch that surprised me with how extremely brief it was. I thought what I was watching here was just the set-up to the main premise, but it ended up being the entire sketch.
— Again, the brevity definitely worked here, and was much funnier than if they had tried to stretch this joke out into a normal-length sketch, where it could’ve risked getting old.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
CHC’s midnight call to Angola reaches janitor (GAM) at 6am
 
— Hmm, instead of the usual “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not”, we instead get “I’m Chevy Chase and I love you all very deeply”.
— Considering the sketch that preceded this, it’s funny seeing Chevy have a hard time reading off the word “Presbyterian”.
— I’m glad the Angola phone call bit didn’t just end up being yet another “Angelo’s Pizza” mix-up. Garrett as the janitor was pretty funny with his confused reactions.
— Got a good laugh from the “killer dope / squirrel playing with his nuts” joke.
— Chevy’s coming off pretty stumbly with his delivery tonight. Toyboat.

GERMASOL
roll-on Germasol air freshener removes foul odors without aerosol
 
— Why does Gilda look so much taller than usual in this?
— While the initial sight gag with the giant deodorant stick was funny at first, it wasn’t enough to carry this whole commercial. The joke fell kinda flat after a while.
STARS: **½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
CHC mocks Henry Zuckerman (host) during his anti-masturbation editorial
dead ALZ helps CHC repeat the top story for deceased viewers
 
— Ohh, here comes the ‘Chevy makes goofy faces behind a correspondent’ routine again.
— Geez, the ‘goofy faces’ routine felt half-assed this time. Chevy didn’t get anywhere near as into it as he usually does. Hell, I got more laughs from Buck’s actual speech than from the faces Chevy was making during it.
— Like how the preceding episode’s Update substituted the overused “News for the Hard of Hearing” bit with a new segment called “News for the Foreigners”, tonight’s Update has a very funny new variation called “News for the Dead” featuring Alan Zweibel as an unresponsive dead body.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

CITIZEN KANE II
a search for meaning of his post-“Rosebud” words
   
— Wow, this is the first time we’ve seen Dan all night, which is odd since the episode’s halfway over.
— Quite a fast mid-sketch costume change for Chevy.
— Dan is fantastic in this.
— LOL at Chevy’s crooked mustache after he had to quickly re-change back into the elderly version of his character.
— Haha, and now Chevy has started cracking up. It looked like Laraine began smirking a bit before him, too. I wonder what happened to make them lose it like that. Was it Chevy’s sloppily-applied fake mustache? BTW, I guess this counts as SNL’s very first major instance of performers breaking during a sketch.
— The “roast beef on rye with mustard” ending was pretty funny.
— Overall, this was an interesting and pretty entertaining Citizen Kane parody.
— Oh, wait, we’re not done yet. Now there’s an “Introducing the Cast” bit that I thought at first glance was the beginning of a separate sketch, but appears to be part of this Citizen Kane sketch.
— Ha, Chevy’s still laughing a bit.
— This “Introducing the Cast” bit is kinda funny with all the awkward pauses, though I’m not sure if that’s intended to get a laugh or not.
— At times, Tom Schiller reminds me so much of future cast member Fred Armisen. There’s something similar about their facial features & expressions.
STARS: ***½

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Scred & Peuta try to figure out how their new Japanese sex device works

— (groan)
— Hmm, they’re back to doing the usual intro sequence, after not using it in the last two Muppets sketches.
— Scred thumping Peuta on the head twice and asking “Feel anything now?” was kinda funny, at least.
— Oh, man. Seeing/hearing these Muppets acting out sex is just plain disturbing.
— One positive thing to this installment is that it was surprisingly much shorter than the usual Muppets sketches. Doesn’t make it any better, though. That unnecessary ‘puppet sex’ sequence killed any redeeming factors this may have potentially had.
— Oddly, Ploobis was nowhere to be seen in this one, despite the fact that he’s, you know, THE MAIN CHARACTER.
STARS: *½

TRIPLE-TRAC
— rerun

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (TONI BASIL)

MECHANICS BEDTIME STORY
auto mechanic (DAA) tells his daughter (GIR) bedtime car repair stories

— Gilda’s always very convincing playing little girls.
— The ‘Bambi getting run over’ part of the story was pretty funny.
— Overall, this was decent.
STARS: ***

WHY CALL IT DOPE?
drug user (CHC) misuses a joint- “Why do you think they call it ‘dope’?”
 
— I almost thought at first that this was going to turn into the recurring(?) “A President’s View on Marijuana” bit they did in this era, where the camera shows “the president”’s hands unsuccessfully attempting to roll a joint.
— It’s very funny when you come to the realization of what Chevy’s going to try to do with the joint.
— Hilarious punchline with the “Why do you think they call it ‘dope’” ending title card.
STARS: ****

WHO’S FUNNY?
by Gary Weis- host looks for the funniest person in Irvington, New York
 
— Why was the studio audience already laughing at the beginning of Buck’s intro?
— Uh, and that’s the end? Huh? I thought the lady calling herself the funniest person would, you know, actually SHOW us how she’s the funniest person, but then this film ended before anything even happened there. Maybe I didn’t “get” what this was going for.
STARS: ehh, I don’t know…

THE BLUES BROTHERS
Blues Brothers Jake (JOB) & Elwood (DAA) perform “King Bee” with SNL Band
 
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Interesting how these two wore Bee costumes in their debut, which is something that eventually got dropped in their later appearances.
— Another unusual thing about this is that Dan’s not singing along with John; he’s only playing harmonica in the background the whole time.
— John’s cartwheels and flips are fun and impressive.
— Overall, this was absolutely great.
STARS: ****½

IMPRESSIONIST MICHAEL O’DONOGHUE
MOD does impression of Mike Douglas having long needles plunged into eyes
 
— Ha, I can tell just from Buck’s intro that this is gonna be the famous “celebrities’ eyes plunged with needles” bit making its first appearance. Of Michael O’Donoghue’s many disturbing, weird ideas that would appear on the show over the years, this bit has always been one of my favorites.
— After the kind-hearted set-up where O’Donoghue gives all this praise to Mike Douglas, it’s funny to hear the audience reaction when O’Donoghue slowly reveals what his “impression” is going to be.
— O’Donoghue writhing all around the stage while screaming is as hilarious as I’ve always found it.
STARS: ****

AMERICAN CONSTIPATION SOCIETY
neighbors’ euphemisms about (host)’s constipation make him uncomfortable
 
— I’m liking how all the constipation euphemisms & cliches are getting more and more out of hand.
— Buck’s facial reaction is great, too.
— Ha, and now this is getting even funnier with more and more people randomly coming in to join in on the euphemisms.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS
at closing, host announces that the entire SNL cast & crew is gay

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yet another solid episode, keeping alive the long streak of good shows since episode 4. I’m so impressed with how consistently well SNL has surprisingly been doing this early into its run.
— You’d have never guessed that this was Buck’s first hosting stint. Right out of the gate, he came off as a total pro who’s already been doing this for years, navigating his way through the sketches with total ease & perfection. His interplay with the cast was also fun and seemed so natural. There’s a reason it became a tradition for him to host multiple times per season during this era (IIRC, he becomes a 10-time host over the course of just five seasons).

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Elliott Gould):
— about the same

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore