Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
arguing JOB & CHC attempt to make up by shaking hands, but a fall ensues
— A pretty good laugh from John walking on in those Hollywood movie star clothes.
— Great punch & fall at the end after John and Chevy’s extended handshake.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
host locks herself in dressing room after a disastrous on-stage ramble
— (sigh) Here we go…
— Well, her response to the audience’s huge applause at the beginning was kinda funny, I guess.
— “On my show (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman), I’m having a nervous breakdown.” How appropriate that gets brought up tonight……
— Oh, boy, this is slowly starting to come off increasingly awkward and uncomfortable.
— What in the world was the point of the cue cards bit?
— Oh, God, this is getting painful. What’s going on?
— You’d almost think this is going for an Andy Kaufman-style intentional awkwardness, but if it is, they’re failing miserably.
— Aaaaaaaaand there’s her infamous walk-off. I know it’s part of the script, but the way the monologue had been going, I’m sure some people were confused over whether the walk-off was scripted or genuine.
— Gilda’s cramps comment is the first genuine laugh of the whole monologue.
— Dan pretending to be a probation officer is pretty funny.
— Landshark!
— Overall, thank god for the cast doing their best to redeem this, but it still couldn’t make up for that dreadful first half.
STARS: *½
VENEREAL DISEASE: NOTHING TO CLAP ABOUT
General Idi “V.D.” Amin (GAM) gives the warning signs of his syphilis
— LOL at the nickname “V.D. Amin”.
— Very funny opening line about venereal disease not just striking Jews.
— Hilarious visual with the Swiss cheese representing his brain.
— The “Venereal Disease: nothing to clap about” graphic was a great way to end this.
STARS: ****
SWEDISH MOVIE
Sven (CHC) & Inger (host) fool Death (TOS) in a Bergman-like scene
— The Swedish voice-over is kinda funny (why do I get the feeling that’s Tom Schiller?).
— What the hell IS this?
— Ah, so it IS Schiller.
— I usually like this kind of weirdness, but something as confusing and baffling as this sketch was probably not the best thing to put on so close to the monologue.
— The pizza line was pretty funny.
— I did like the ending twist where they fooled Death.
STARS: **
HUMAN HAIR POTHOLDERS
Sandra Goode (JAC) & Squeaky Fromme (LAN) pitch human-hair potholders
— Laraine’s almost TOO good at playing a scary psycho in this.
— Ha, this is insane.
— Was Laraine pinching her own nipples just now?
— This overall sketch was disturbing in a funny way. I’m gonna guess this was an O’Donoghue-written piece.
STARS: ***½
LOUISE & DOG
(host)’s relationship talk with her dog is more befitting a human partner
— This is the one sketch from this episode I remember seeing before, in an edited 60-minute version shown in syndication.
— Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh……
— Boy, is that dog’s panting loud.
— And now, Louise actually mentioned (ad-lib?) how the dog’s breathing is getting heavier.
— The close-up of the dog just panting at the camera was kinda charming, at least.
— Overall, what in the world did I just watch?
STARS: *
CATHODE RAY
LAN, JAC & GIR perform a musical ode to television
— Oh, is this gonna be our weird Dan Aykroyd sketch of the week? You know I enjoy those.
— What’s with the off-camera voices while Dan’s speaking?
— Hmm, this has turned into a song from the female cast members.
— The disclaimer that showed up on the screen just now is pretty funny.
— I like how the chroma-key background has now turned into a shot of SNL’s control room.
— Nice song overall. The lyrics weren’t humorous, but the girls did a good job and there were interesting visuals. I also like how everything felt so 70s.
STARS: ***
WEEKEND UPDATE
Olga Korbut (GIR) is bitter about Nadia Comaneci’s Olympic success
the Viking I spacecraft accidentally crushes a Martian welcoming party
— The extended intro from Pardo was a little weird. Chevy almost seemed kinda thrown off by it, though I guess he was just acting.
— The Jimmy Carter oranges joke was hilarious.
— LOL at John doing an accent despite the fact that he’s supposed to be playing himself.
— Gilda’s angry comment about Nadia Comaneci was very good.
— Whoa, Update’s over? No mid-WU fake commercial break? This change is very refreshing. As I mentioned sometime before, I prefer when Update is one continuous segment instead of breaking in the middle for a fake ad.
STARS: ***
GIRL TALK
teens (JAC) & (GIR) talk about issues related to boys & making out
— The cemetery revelation cracked me up.
— This is reminding me of the slumber party sketch from this season’s Madeline Kahn episode. I’d like to think Gilda and Jane are playing older versions of their characters from that one.
— Wasn’t too crazy abut Gilda’s ending line.
STARS: ***½
DINER FILM
by host- in a diner, unsure players are fed lines
— Oh, man. I had been enjoying the nice long break we’ve had from Lasser the last few segments.
— Oh, goody, more bizarre aimless rambling from Lasser.
— The dialogue being constantly drowned out by other sounds in the diner isn’t helping this.
— I ask once again tonight: what am I watching???
— What’s with the fourth wall break?
— Man, this fourth wall break is not working.
— I was hoping Lorne’s walk-on would save this, as I’ve been really enjoying his on-camera appearances this season, but he did nothing funny here.
— “A film by Louise Lasser” – ha, that explains EVERYTHING.
— Overall, man, was this abysmal. I think I’d happily take even the dullest Gary Weis film over this.
STARS: *
JOHN BELUSHI WARDROBE
cash-strapped JOB’s line of clothing consists of his actual garments
— Pretty funny revelation.
— John’s increasing desperation is being played well.
STARS: ***
JIMMY CARTER
Jimmy Carter (DAA) tells what to look for in his upcoming campaign
— The debut of Dan’s Jimmy Carter impression!
— The voice is slightly different from what it would later sound like.
— Dan’s Carter is remembered for famously having a mustache when the real Carter didn’t have one. But, hell, in this sketch, Dan’s Carter doesn’t even have gray hair! I believe in all of the subsequent Carter sketches, they’d dye Dan’s hair gray.
— This is pretty funny so far.
— Good ending with the Bob Dylan quote.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
— By this point, I forgot this episode even had a musical guest. Very unusual for a musical guest’s first performance to be buried this late into the show.
LOUISE LASSER RAMBLING PIECE #309,454
host sits on the apron of the stage & rambles about her year
— What’s with her again making an entrance down the homebase stage’s stairs, as if this is the beginning of the monologue again?
— Oh, I can already tell this is gonna be YET ANOTHER weird, awkward, rambly piece.
— How in the world has this story suddenly shifted from “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” to buying a dollhouse?
— Oh, please let this finally end. This mess has been going on for what feels like 10 minutes.
STARS: *
GOODNIGHTS
— Louise giving credit to the cast made me realize that she didn’t appear on camera with ANY of them in tonight’s sketches, except for Chevy. I think I remember reading somewhere that was actually a request from her. I’m sure the rest of the cast was just FLATTERED that Louise would openly rather work alongside Chevy and a dog than with any of them.
— I like how John’s still silently advertising his wardrobe.
_______________________________
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…………
— Yeah, this one definitely lived up to the bad reputation. Sure, there were some good host-less sketches, but the stuff centered around Lasser was SO awful, SO uncomfortable, SO drawn-out & overlong, that it’s unfortunately what you come out of the episode remembering the most. The good sketches weren’t enough to make up for that. Bad idea for SNL to let Lasser do so many segments where she was allowed to ramble about whatever she wanted. The only thing I found her remotely tolerable in was the Swedish Movie sketch, and that’s only because she didn’t have to do any heavy lifting in it.
— I guess I was overdue to review a bad episode, as ever since I started this ‘One SNL a Day’ project, I had yet to come across a truly bad episode until now. Every Season 1 episode prior to this one had enough redeeming values; yes, even the musical performance-dominated Paul Simon episode (while I disliked the format, at least the music in it was good).
— Well, at least I can say I got through this. When I started reviewing this season, this was an episode that I was both fearfully dreading and morbidly anticipating, simultaneously. I’m happy it’s now over with, though I know this is FAR from the last disastrous episode I’ll have to cover in my project.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Elliott Gould):
— a huge step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Season 1 comes to an end, with host Kris Kristofferson
http://the-toast.net/2013/12/20/an-interview-with-louise-lasser-tv-depression-snl-and-woody/
Thanks. I’d never seen her talk about SNL.
Her ending ramble is literally eight minutes. EIGHT…. FRIGGING…. MARY MINUTES.
If you take out the long Lasser monologue at the end (replacing it with a sketch cut from a previous episode), replace the diner film with the film Lasser and Chevy shot on the floor of the Democratic Convention, and cut the Lasser/dog bit down to maybe 30-45 seconds tops, you would have a pretty decent episode, albeit one very light on the host. Then again, this particular group of cast and writers was always good at covering for mediocre/bad hosts in a way subsequent casts/writing staffs weren’t …
All good points. Does anyone know what happened to the Democratic convention film? It would be a fascinating time capsule if it still exists. Has it ever aired anywhere?
I strongly suggest rewatching Lasser’s end of show ramble again, recognizing that she’d been arrested & scandalized for cocaine possession a couple of months earlier. Even though she does take her time getting around to it – she talks about how it feels to be publicly scandalized in an unusually unguarded way. It’s quite affecting.
Here’s something that was found. A cut promo written by Mr. Mike himself.
https://twitter.com/DennisThePerrin/status/1417176818042482689/photo/1
Does anyone happen to know what type of shoes that Laraine is wearing in the Cathode sketch? They appear to be either Mary Janes or ankle boots. Either way, she’s wearing a lovely looking dress, which blends well with her white tights! I love reading your reviews!
Yes, this whole episode comes off today as weird and dull. One must, however, take a few things into context. “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” was a really bizarre show and the public was quite taken at the time with Lasser’s odd demeanor. There is also her association with Woody Allen which well predated that. Also, this episode references her brush with the law quite a bit in everything from Aykroyd’s probation officer to the end monologue, and you can tell the audience is anticipating her response to that (she was trying to buy a dollhouse with bad credit and got busted for coke in the process). So, Lorne didn’t want her back because he didn’t like the result, but he let her do all this crazy stuff.
By the way, is Schiller really speaking Swedish in that sketch? It sounds authentic to me, anyway.
An allusion to Lasser’s “dollhouse” incident was actually written into Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (aired about three weeks before this SNL episode, on 7/1/76:)
My oh my what a train-wreck of an episode. Charles Grodon got so much flack for his SNL stint, but I thought he was quite memorable and found him to be endearing, yet that is often mentioned as him as libbing and so on, but this episode is dreadful.
Every solo piece of hers, seemed worse after the next. The one w the dog was so freaking awful. They should have been a 30-45 sec sketch at most, still making it a crappy piece.
Can’t believe she got what felt like the longest monologue in SNL history, I’m sure I’m wrong but my goodness, that was painful.
How on earth did she make it there, and why on earth would Lorne allow such Steven Seigal like behavior to occur?
This makes me think there definitely has to be strings attached, someone had to be sleeping w someone for her to be such a god awful host, or someone owed a favor, I can’t imagine why else they’d have her on or keep her when she was being such a Prima Donna.
Jesus, this episode is just about to end, I read all the comments and review, but I feel like I hardly saw the cast due to her unlimited time consuming solo pieces. Why does it have to end with her babbling again? She has pretty hair, I’ll give her that, but this episode is putting me to sleep.
I am not a drinker but this would be a great episode to take a shot any time she says “Beverly Hills” or Mary Hartman (if you just used Mary, you’d get alcohol poisoning).
From that article that’s posted at the beginning of the reviews, it’s really hard to believe that she put down the cast in such a vial way and how they were all doing drugs, and that’s not her scene and how she could never do the sketch with guilda about sex etc, because her parents would be watching. To me I rather that then my parents think I belong In a looney bin which is what she’s coming across in every moment she appears solo. She seems like she’s on some bad Coke..
This is seriously nails on chalkboard. And I can’t even use the musical act as a crutch as it just sounded like the SNL band. And even though the sketches without her were relatively funny, and props to the cast for such a great job, they really are forgettable due to how much screen time she seems to dominate and turn it into such a segregated episode. .
I could not disagree more with the opinions on this page. I absolutely LOVE Louise Lasser’s neurotic character. She’s like a female Woody Allen, and actually worthy of the comparison. She’s doing her Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman persona to a tee, and that was indeed a wonderful show too. I only ever saw this episode as a Best Of show in the ’80s on Nick at Nite (it was NOT banned from reruns, contrary to some rumors). I’m just watching clips online now to refresh my memory. Haven’t seen it since that day, but I still remember some sketches I haven’t found online yet like the Fred Garvin one with her. The SNL writers made PERFECT use of her established TV persona, and she rose to the occasion to the fullest extent in playing it.
I get the impression that rumors spread for years that she had ACTUALLY had a nervous breakdown and walked off set. That’s tragic. But we know how media illiterate most of the public still is, and was back then to an even greater extent. And there was absolutely no way to look up the sketch anywhere and watch it for yourself. The fact that she convinced some people the walk-off was real just underlines how BRILLIANT an actress she is. Her extemporaneous dialogue in the dog sketch also underscores just how good she is. I understand that some Mary Hartman episodes were similarly filmed without full scripts, so the SNL people probably knew she was capable of doing a spontaneous scene like that.
And, before you correct me, I now see there was no Fred Garvin skit in the episode. I’m probably thinking of Margot Kidder. I do agree with the assessment that the remote diner film was not good (and the bad audio is disastrous). But the monologue and dog sketches are miles beyond that one in concept and execution.
When I was first using the Saturday Net episode guide, Frank Serpas’ summaries from seasons 1-5 were mostly from the 30 minute Best Of SNL airings, with a few Warner Home Videos sprinkled throughout. He had a summary for Lasser (which was in the package), but nothing for Dick Cavett / Jimmy Cliff, Dyan Cannon, Kris Kristofferson or Milton Berle; those four were also omitted from the original Filmways 60-minute package, though some segments were added into other shows. Berle’s omission is understandable, but the other three’s exclusion always puzzled me.
Lasser and Berle didn’t get network reruns (neither did Cannon for that matter, aside from NBC All Night), but Cavett and Kristofferson did re-air in 1980. The Cavett rerun took out the H&L Brock sketches, Our Town, and one of the Dick Cavett school ads, and added in Bee History and the goodnights from his November show (which had already reran in December 1979).
Thanks Bronwyn, were the Filmways packages video cassettes or aired on tv?
They made the original TV syndication package of the show that debuted in 1981. Some of the season 1 DVD set bumpers come from that package, which took the NBC mention out of the show title.
The initial syndication package of the first five (original cast) years was sold to local stations under the title “Saturday Night”, and began airing in the fall of 1981. The post-1980 episodes belonged to a separate syndication package, and began airing on the HA! cable network (the predecessor to Comedy Central) beginning in the spring of 1990. The syndication packages were not united until E! started airing the reruns around 2002-2003.
I’ve never seen Mary Hartman Mary Hartman, but highly recommend its companion show Fernwood 2Night with Martin Mull and Fred Willard
Since he was her co-star on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”, I thought I’d note this: Martin Mull, R.I.P.
Think she had done cocaine before the show.
Claudia Lamb, who at age twelve played Lasser’s daughter on MHMH, X-formerly-tweeted today on the 49th Anniversary of this SNL episode (and spared no delay in expressing her opinion on it…)
https://x.com/ClaudiaLamb/status/1817974245424857205
Here’s an extensive article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on “hometown boys” Franken & Davis during production week of the Lasser episode (published a couple of weeks after it aired), great tidbits on F&D and the episode, including a nice one about Jane Curtin and the Girl Talk sketch:
https://imgur.com/a/xPjLNXT
Thanks for the article. Interesting to me that they put the part in about the photographer who was also the show’s “dope connection”.