May 29, 1976 – Elliott Gould / Leon Redbone, Harlan Collins and Joyce Everson (S1 E22)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
at a wax museum, boorish (CHC) is slapped by supposed wax figure (GIR)
   
— Are Jane and Neil Levy(?) dressed in the Lord and Lady Douchebag costumes from four years later? (first screencap above)
— No idea why Chevy blew a whistle while flashing the statues, but it made me laugh.
— I’m gonna guess this will end with Chevy getting slapped after groping one of the statues, which will lead into his traditional fall.
— Yep, I was right, though there were actually a few back-and-forth slaps before the slap that led to the pratfall.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
host sings “Anything Goes”
 
— A funny little touch with Elliott handing a banana to an audience member while making his entrance.
— Another Gould monologue that immediately goes into a song with no set-up. Are ALL his monologues like this?
— Why is his first name spelled with only one ‘t’ on his shirt? In the opening credits of both this and Gould’s preceding episode (not to mention everywhere else I’ve seen his name written), his first name is spelled with two ‘t’s.
— Despite my strong dislike for musical monologues, especially ones that are just straight songs with no comedic lyrics, there’s something about both of Elliott’s monologues this season that are likable; most likely due to his fun performance in them.
STARS: ***

ACADEMY OF BETTER CAREERS
— rerun

CARD GAME
fake European poker player (CHC) & translator (host) dupe gambler (DAA)
 
— Are Chevy and Elliott playing an old-timey version of their Interior Demolitionist characters?
— Wait, never mind.
— Pretty fun sketch so far.
— I like the contrast between Dan’s obliviousness and Garrett’s bewildered reactions, especially Garrett’s line to Dan just now: “He is busting your chops!”
— Funny ending with Chevy casually speaking English before leaving.
STARS: ***½

NATIONAL UVULA ASSOCIATION
doctor (CHC) tells Babs (GIR) that her uvula is on the fritz

— This is clearly in the same vein as the National Pancreas Association sketch, but I’m actually liking this one a lot more. I think it’s because “uvula” is an inherently funnier word than “pancreas”. Plus, there’s something about the combination of “uvula” and Gilda’s character being named Babs.
— This is also helped by a fun silly vibe in everyone’s performance, especially Chevy’s non-commitment in making a convincing doctor.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (LEON REDBONE)

THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE
NBC executive (host) boards the Enterprise to cancel the show
     
— I’ve always heard about this sketch. It’s widely considered a classic, so I’m eager to finally see it for myself.
— And so begins the long-running tradition of Akira Yoshimura playing Sulu in SNL’s Star Trek parodies.
— Interesting how John’s not really going for the usual stereotypical Captain Kirk impression (you know the one), but is doing his own take.
— Chevy’s facial reaction to his Spock ears being yanked off was great.
— Love how they’re taking the set apart while the Star Trek actors are desperately trying to stay in character and keep the show going.
— Hilarious sudden emotional outburst from Chevy.
— Overall, such a perfect, well-done sketch. Definitely deserving of it’s highly-regarded status.
STARS: *****

MUPPETS POSTCARD
GIR reads a postcard from the Muppets sent from England

— Eh……
STARS: N/A

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
   
— Chevy’s opening joke about Fidel Castro “pulling out of Angola” got a huge reaction from the audience just now.
— Whoa, wait, wait, wait… Was that woman’s nipple actually visible before Chevy quickly jumped out of his seat and censored it with his hand??? Heh, how in the world did NBC let SNL get away with showing that?
— Who were those two people in the picture that Chevy just said “Nobody really cares anymore” about? (third screencap above)
— A short first half of tonight’s Update.

VIBRAMATIC
the Vibramatic personal massager can also be used as a kitchen tool
 
— Very funny idea, and I love the fast-paced energy of this.
— There’s the Bass-o-Matic background behind Dan once again.
— I liked the little joke of Dan not being able to cut through the potato while he was touting how the knife is supposedly easy to cut with.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
old film footage documents athletes’ preparation for Montreal Olympics
(JAC) defends Bicentennial commercialism while CHC makes faces at her
Emily Litella prepares to help CHC repeat the “flop” story
   
— Chevy just named the fake reporter he’s doing the voice for as “correspondent Jacqueline Carlin”. Yeah, nice way to work your girlfriend’s name into the show, Chev.
— Heh, and now, the guest commentator Jane Curtin is playing is named Audrey Peart Dickman, which is the name of one of the staff members on the show. Lots of inside jokes with fictional names used for Update correspondents lately, between “Duncan Ebersol” in the preceding episode and the two aforementioned examples tonight.
— The return of the ‘Chevy makes goofy faces behind a correspondent’s back’ routine. Meh.
— I will say, though, that I kinda like how Chevy’s always able to quickly go back to a straight face briefly whenever the correspondent is about to look at him.
— Our newest variation of the running “News for (insert group here)” gag is “News for Fans of Emily Litella”.
— As sick as I’ve become of Emily Litella, this is actually pretty funny and is making good use of her routine.  It also helps that we haven’t seen her in a few episodes.
— I also like how Litella called Chevy “Cheddar”, as a callback to an earlier commentary she did where she thought Chevy’s full name was “Cheddar Cheese”.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

SHIRLEY TEMPLE
ambassador Shirley Temple Black (LAN) asks Ghanians to say “hi, neighbor”
 
— Is this supposed to be Shirley Temple or just a random old-timey little girl?
— Okay, she started singing just now. Yeah, this is Shirley Temple, alright.
— While this is a pretty dead-on take-off of Shirley Temple films, I’m not really enjoying this much.
— The part with them tap-dancing a code to the radio is pretty fun, at least.
STARS: **

UNCLE CHARLIE’S SCHOOL
by Gary Weis- host & kids are taught old acts
 
— Ugh, do we REALLY need another segment with singing, immediately after the preceding Shirley Temple sketch?
— Ugh, Broadway-style showtunes – always one of my least favorite things to sit through.
— Overall, a typical Gary Weis film that left me bored out of my mind.
— I was hoping at first that Elliott’s presence would save this, but he ended up virtually doing nothing here.
STARS: *

THE HONEYMOONERS
Bee Ralph (JOB) discovers Bee Alice (GIR) is pregnant
   
— Our second sketch of the night parodying a classic TV show. I can tell this one is going to be fun.
— The opening credits sequence is nice.
— John’s doing another great impression.
— John’s extended reaction to the knitting needles being stuck in his behind is pretty hilarious.
— Referring to bee babies as “drones”, “workers”, “queens” – that’s the same joke from the Bee Hospital sketch from the premiere. Not sure how I feel about them repeating that joke, considering I didn’t care for Bee Hospital.
— Funny twist with Alice revealing Norton’s the father of her baby.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (LEON REDBONE)

MIDDLE AMERICAN VAN LINES
— rerun

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (HARLAN COLLINS AND JOYCE EVERSON)

GOODNIGHTS
host & cast sing “Happy Trails” for the summer
 
— Elliott informs us that the show is going on a little hiatus before returning in July(!) with host… uh… um… well, she deserves a special mention at the end of my review.
— A nice little western-themed farewell song with the whole cast dressed as cowgirls.
— I thought the song would eventually lead into the regular goodnights music, but interestingly, it seems to have replaced the goodnights music tonight.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty good episode as a whole, though there was a big drop-off after Weekend Update, and I’m not crazy about how the last 10-15 minutes strangely consisted of just a musical guest performance, a repeat fake ad, and ANOTHER musical guest performance. Tonight’s sketches were also a little too heavy on the singing. However, this episode featured a good amount of fun material and two enjoyable parodies of classic TV shows (both of which were led by a strong John Belushi performance).
— I’m probably looking too much into it, but I wonder if the reason they padded out the homestretch of this episode with so much non-sketch content was because the cast and writers were possibly overworked from doing four straight weeks of live episodes. Isn’t this the episode that led to Lorne vowing never again to do four consecutive live shows (until eventually breaking that vow decades later in 2008), due to how exhausted it left everyone on the show?

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Buck Henry):
— a step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
(gulp!) LOUISE. LASSER.