May 22, 1976 – Buck Henry / Gordon Lightfoot (S1 E21)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
injured CHC boasts of Emmy win & insults LAN as she preps to do the fall
 
— Interesting way to reference Chevy’s pratfall at the Emmys when accepting his award (which I remember seeing a clip of sometime before).
— I saw the ending coming with Laraine pushing Chevy, but it was still funny.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
JOB fills in while LOM helps insufficiently-famous host get past security
   
 
— Ah, yes. As I mentioned in my review of Buck’s preceding episode, I love this particular monologue.
— The awkward panicking when Buck doesn’t show up is very funny. I also really like John’s dismissive “What do you want ME to do?” when Joe Dicso tells him Buck’s not here.
— John bitterly ranting on stage is great, and I liked the shot he took at a certain castmate’s reliance on pratfalls.
— George Coe sighting!
— I love Lorne and Buck’s whole argument with the security guard.
— Buck being forced to cut his actual monologue short just when he was getting into it was the perfect ending.
— What I’ve always loved about this monologue, besides the humor, is how complex, extensive, and unique it is, having Lorne go all the way backstage as the camera follows him, having him actually go down through the elevator, having a whole scene down at the lobby, then having Lorne and Buck go up the elevator back to the studio where the camera follows them to the homebase stage, all done LIVE. You never see something like that on the show anymore these days, and even if they would try something like that nowadays, the more complex parts of it would probably be pretaped instead of live. The show was much more willing at taking chances back in the 70s. The closest thing to this complex monologue I can recall SNL doing in any recent decade without relying on pretape is Conan O’Brien’s monologue from 2001, where he and a group of people went down the stairs from SNL’s studio to Conan’s “Late Night” studio a few floors below.
STARS: ****½

PETER LEMON MOODRING
Peter Lemon Moodring (CHC) changes colors to reflect the songs he sings
 
— Pretty cool just for the visual effects of Chevy changing appropriate colors for each song. How are they pulling that off, anyway?
STARS: ***

SAMURAI TAILOR
Mr. Dantley needs a tuxedo for his wedding
 
— I like how even in Buck’s second hosting stint, it’s already become a tradition to do a Samurai sketch whenever he hosts.
— Loved the ending with Buck requesting a zipper for his pants.
— The usual great Buck Henry-involved Samurai sketch.
STARS: ****

TALK BACK
lack of calls leads (host) to increase topic controversy level
 
— Buck’s slowly growing frustration and desperation is very funny to watch.
— I’m loving how he’s resorting to combining together the increasingly controversial topics he’s made up.
STARS: ****

DELL STATOR’S 99¢ TOAD RANCH
(DAA) pitches frog meat
 
— A funny gross idea and Dan’s doing his usual perfect job as a pitchman. This sketch can be considered almost a distant relative of the similarly-gross Bass-O-Matic sketch.
— Love the visual of Buck having a toad limb hanging out of mouth during his testimonial.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

POLAROID
(no synopsis available)
 
— Yet another non-joke sponsored Polaroid ad.
— Like the last one, this again ended with no applause.
STARS: N/A

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— Not anything noteworthy so far, but this Update is going along decently.
— I liked Chevy doing the underwater voice during the shark joke.

GERMASOL
— rerun

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
old film of fruits documents psychiatric tests done on Patty Hearst
 
— “Correspondent Duncan Ebersol”. Was that name inspired by who I think it was?
— It’s always funny seeing what random silly stock footage they use to represent Patty Hearst.
— The audience seemed to kinda take offense to the joke about Ed Asner, Ted Knight, et al. being hasbeens.
— And that’s it. No Update guests tonight. I’m impressed they’ve now gone more than one episode without Emily Litella.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

CROWD
(host) & (CHC) audition a crowd for scenes in a movie
 
— I’m really liking the premise.
— It’s fun to watch Belushi during the crowd demonstrations here; his acting is standing out and making me laugh.
— The photo and “phone number” the crowd left for the producers was hilarious.
— Oh my god at the “lynching” part with Garrett……..
STARS: ***½

BEATLE OFFER
LOM sweetens his offer to the Beatles- $200 more & hotel accommodations
 
— I remember hearing before that they did a follow-up sketch to Lorne’s classic offer to the Beatles. My expectations are not high for this. I’m usually never a fan of whenever SNL tries to do a follow-up to a perfect, hard-to-top sketch that should’ve remained a one-off.
— So far, this follow-up is basically just repeating the humor of the first one.
— Okay, the hotel accommodations part is taking this into a different direction.
— Pardo’s excited “yeah yeah yeah!” gave me a big laugh.
STARS: ***

NOT FOR LADIES ONLY
Baba Wawa interviews director Lina Wertmuller (LAN)

— Laraine’s movie description is pretty funny.
— Yet another joke about Barbara Walters’ inability to pronounce “Harry Reasoner”.
STARS: ***

TOILET SEATS
by Gary Weis- host talks to shoppers in a store’s toilet seat department
 
— I can already tell I’m gonna like this, just from the funny beginning with Buck saying to the camera in a dry, deadpan voice “Let’s… talk… toilet seats”.
— LOL at the old lady’s comment about keeping her money warm in her behind.
— This is surprisingly funny for a Gary Weis film.
STARS: ***½

LOOKS AT BOOKS
sexologist (host) is evasive about subject of his book
 
— Not caring too much where this is going.
— Okay, sketch redeemed. The punchline with Buck doing the hand gesture for sex made this.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
— Whoa, an unexpected turn with Buck suddenly interrupting Lightfoot when he started doing a third number.
— Haha, great part just now with Futaba coming in and clipping Lightfoot’s guitar strings.
   

GARRETT MORRIS: “AN DIE MUSIK”
GAM sings Schubert’s “An Die Musik” as an explanation scrolls by
   
— I’m loving the disclaimer. A lot of funny lines there.
STARS: ****

IMPRESSIONIST MICHAEL O’DONOGHUE
MOD does impression of Tony Orlando having long needles plunged into eyes
 
— O’Donoghue walking on in that cheesy colorful outfit is already giving me a chuckle.
— I like the addition of two female assistants, though they’re nowhere near as good at doing the “writhing around while screaming” routine as O’Donoghue.
— It’s kinda funny seeing the reactions of the visible audience members in the floor seats.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS
   
— Pretty cool how the ending of the preceding O’Donoghue sketch is carrying over into these goodnights.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A consistently solid episode, which is no surprise considering who was hosting. Impressively, there were no sketches at all that I disliked; literally every segment got a good rating from me, even the Gary Weis film.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Elliott Gould