October 30, 1976 – Buck Henry / The Band (S2 E6)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
trick-or-treating Land Shark gets (GIR) on Halloween
  
— Landshark! Interesting choice to open Chevy’s final show.
— Well, that was short and straightforward, but still funny. This is also the Landshark installment that I was first exposed to when I was younger, as SNL often used to open their older Halloween compilation specials with this one.
— This is the second cold opening in a row that didn’t end with a Chevy fall. Was it doctor’s orders for Chevy to ease up on the falls after his injury earlier this season? Or is this SNL’s way of getting viewers used to cold openings that don’t end with falls, since Chevy was on his way out?
— After getting so used to seeing Chevy say LFNY in every episode (except two) I’ve reviewed so far, it’s going to temporarily feel weird and interesting seeing other people saying LFNY after this episode.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host unconvincingly argues that the SNL cast is made up of normal folks

— I’m loving these stories about the cast’s personalities.
— Buck talking about how weird Aykroyd is probably has some truth to it.
— Some of the audience knowingly applauded when Buck mentioned how sweet Gilda is.
— Love the bit about Garrett’s talent being cannibalism.
— An on-air mention of this being Chevy’s last show.
STARS: ****

SAMURAI STOCKBROKER
Mr. Dantley is worried about his investments
     
— Buck actually said Futaba’s last name just now, though I couldn’t make out what exactly it was.
— I got a good laugh from Futaba’s method of “splitting” the stock.
— I liked the card coming out of the slot in the databank.
— Here we are – the notorious part with Buck getting unintentionally cut in the forehead by John’s sword while John was wildly using it to make a “window” into the wall.
— Immediately after getting hit, Buck actually turned around and looked like he was about to walk off the set in a panic (fourth screencap above), before immediately turning back and continuing with the sketch. Very interesting to see that brief flash of genuine panic during a live sketch.
— As if Buck getting cut in the forehead wasn’t unfortunate enough, as he was crawling out the “window”, the wood he was leaning on broke unintentionally and caused him to clumsily fall “out the window” sooner than he was supposed to. The audience got a big kick out of that.
— I don’t understand the ending with John adding a tiny stick-on body figure to a drawing of a plane that has other stick-on body figures in it.
— Heh, the sketch ends on a shot of John happily drumming onto a table, not even being aware of what he had unintentionally just done to Buck a minute earlier.
STARS: **** (the rating was boosted a bit by the notoriety of the sword/forehead incident)

NOT FOR FIRST LADIES ONLY
Betty Ford (JAC) & Rosalynn Carter (LAN)

— Loved the “I’m the kind of person that you can’t picture going to the bathroom” line from Jane as Betty Ford.
— The whole conversation between Jane and Laraine is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

ROOTS
GAM’s family history research uncovers some famous Morris relatives
   
— Yet another solo Garrett Morris sketch. He seems to do sketches by himself more often than anyone else in this cast does.
— Despite Garrett’s good storytelling skills, I’m wondering when exactly the big joke of this is coming.
— WTF at the sudden Hollywood Squares twist. That came out of nowhere.
STARS: **½

SIDE NOTE: A fake “Coming Up Next” teaser caption (which the show often does in this era before going to commercial) mentions something titled “Buck Henry Gets Even”. Is that a last-minute reference to the sword/forehead incident, or just a coincidence?

DEBATE ’76
Jimmy Carter (DAA) & Gerald Ford (CHC) vie in beauty pageant
     
— In his first appearance since the Samurai incident, Buck is now seen wearing a bandage on his forehead.
— I’m pretty sure they said in the preceding debate sketch from the Karen Black episode that THAT was the third and last debate. Yet they’re claiming that same thing about tonight’s debate sketch. Strange.
— Good creative premise having the presidential debate being done as a beauty pageant.
— Chevy has now shown up wearing a band-aid on his forehead, too, in what will end up being a running gag for the rest of the night with various cast members randomly having a band-aid on their head, in an attempt to make Buck feel less self-conscious about his own bandage.
— I cracked up at Garrett’s pained moan and facial expression after Dan poked around inside his mouth with dental tools.
— Chevy’s “There’s no paper in here” when inside the voting booth was hilarious.
— Was that padding I saw on the floor when Chevy did his pratfall out of the voting booth? Now I’m definitely sure that Chevy must’ve received doctor’s orders to go easy on the falls, because SNL never used any visible padding in any of Chevy’s earlier pratfalls.
— Loved Buck’s quick “We’ll be right back… we’re back” when he acted like the show was going to cut to commercial.
— Clearly an ad-lib when Chevy said to Buck “I cut myself shaving here this evening too”.
— Buck’s long-winded scenario about Ford having a string of disastrous accidents at a Moscow state dinner is great.
— And just now, Chevy’s unrelated answer to Buck’s scenario is equally as funny.
— They again repeated the same gag ending credits from the first debate sketch.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
unreleased Gerald Ford ad features Jimmy Carter’s admission of heart lust
unreleased Jimmy Carter ad features Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon
     
— Chevy has kept on the band-aid from the preceding sketch.
— Haha, the top story Chevy reads tonight is of Buck Henry getting cut in the forehead by a “drugged-out John Belushi” during the Samurai sketch. As I recall hearing, when NBC aired this episode on “SNL Vintage” a few years ago (back in the days when they aired actual VINTAGE episodes instead of episodes from just 1-3 years ago), they accompanied Chevy’s joke with an actual slow-mo clip of the Samurai incident.
— The jokes are very funny so far tonight.
— Hmm, I like this idea of airing fake Ford/Carter attack ads during Update.
— The unexpected twist at the end of the Carter ad was very good.
— I almost thought the footage of President Ford announcing a pardon of Richard Nixon was a comedic bit he (somehow) filmed for SNL, before I just now came to the horrible realization that this is real footage from an actual presidential address. Geez, no wonder Ford didn’t get re-elected.

BAT-O-MATIC
the Super Bat-O-Matic ’77 is the witch’s aid for blending magic potions
   
— The premise is a funny twist on Bass-O-Matic, though I know this won’t be able to hold a candle to the original.
— Dan’s insane rapid-fire delivery is still top-notch and continues to crack me the hell up.
— I don’t know why, but the little detail of one of the ingredients he added into the blender being “the eye of a rat” has me dying with laughter right now.
— Is that a real dead bat or just a fake prop?
— Overall, while I was right that this didn’t quite measure up to the original Bass-O-Matic, it was better than I thought it would be and still provided some of my biggest laughs of the episode so far.
STARS: ****½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
JAC reads faux story about CHC replacing Johnny Carson on Tonight Show
CHC receives a phone call from the late Generalissimo Francisco Franco
picture of Gerald Ford with “evil” mustache belies CHC’s impartiality
     
— BAND-AID WATCH: Jane Curtin is now the latest cast member to show up with one.
— Jane’s Sammy Davis Jr. story was really funny.
— Chevy replacing Johnny Carson? Wait, what?
— Never mind, the Chevy/Carson thing is clearly just a “bit”.
— Jane’s commentary was an interesting subtle passing-of-the-torch from Chevy to his Update successor.
— I liked the random “Game of the Week” segment with Chevy flawlessly doing the ‘rapidly jabbing a pen in the empty spaces between the fingers’ trick.
— The Update phone is now ringing. Oh, god, let me guess: it’ll be Emily Litella calling to say her goodbyes to “Cheddar Cheese”.
— Oh, the phone call is actually from Chevy’s favorite punchline:  Generalissimo Francisco Franco! This is a nice surprise.
— Overall, a very good Update to end Chevy’s tenure with.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

THE OintMENt
a search for the real parents of devil child Damian (JOB)
     
— BAND-AID WATCH: the teddy-bear that John’s holding.
— Buck: “I hate it when nanny hangs herself.”
— The “OintMENt” title always makes me laugh, even though I never understood why they titled it that. I know the letters for “omen” are within that word (as this sketch is a spoof of the movie The Omen), but what does the sketch itself have to do with ointments?
— LOL at “dildo sharpener” being one of the ‘d’ words that Buck guessed Dan was trying to say.
— Love the close-ups of John’s creepy facial expressions into the camera.
— The cemetery scene is very funny.
— Yet another great line: Chevy’s “It’s a bit dark in here, let’s turn on the priest”, which Chevy himself seems amused by, as he’s trying not to laugh right now.
— Hilarious bit when Buck read the ‘666’ on John’s forehead upside-down and assumed they were three 9s.
— Oh, so THERE’S the connection this sketch has to ointments.
STARS: ****

IT’S HALLOWEEN TONIGHT
by Gary Weis- host is made up to look female
   
— There’s a surreal tone to this film that I’ve always found interesting.
— A nice original song (written and sung by Howard Shore) to accompany the montage of Buck getting made up as a woman.
— The end result of Buck’s makeover is fascinating; almost creepy in a way.
STARS: ***½

HOUDINI’S GRAVE, PART 1
GAM reports from Houdini’s grave on the 50th anniversary of his death
 
— Garrett’s nervous demeanor during his report is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

MR. MIKE’S LEAST-LOVED BEDTIME TALES
MOD tells a Least-Loved Bedtime Tale- “The Enchanted Thermos”

— The birth of a recurring segment.
— Mr. Mike is stumbling over some words a bit throughout his story.
— Funny story overall, though I expected it to be more hilariously disturbing; it felt a little tame for Mr. Mike standards. Maybe the stories get darker in later installments of this sketch.
— I liked the random little addendum about fingernails continuing to grow after death.
STARS: ***

HOUDINI’S GRAVE, PART 2
GAM is rendered speechless after having seen Houdini’s ghost
 
— Haha, the combination of the sight gag of Garrett’s standing-on-end hair, his hilarious terrified facial expression, and his speechless mumbling is making me laugh a lot.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
   
— BAND-AID WATCH: the entire cast. John in particular has the entire top half of his head wrapped up.
— I love how John is acting as a reporter asking Buck questions, presumably about the Samurai incident. (we can’t hear their conversation, since the goodnights music is playing)
— Right now, everyone onstage has all randomly begun laying down on the floor, one-by-one.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yet another absolutely solid Season 2 episode, and yet another solid Buck Henry episode. Aside from the Roots sketch, I got enjoyment out of every single segment (even a Gary Weis film), and charming little spontaneous things like the impromptu additions of band-aids to cast members’ (and teddy bears’) foreheads throughout the night just added to the fun feeling of the episode.
— Farewell, Chevy. While doing reviews for these Season 1-2 episodes, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see that I’ve been enjoying Chevy as a cast member. Not that I had been expecting him to be bad, but I guess when I first went into this era when starting my ‘One SNL a Day’ project, I wasn’t looking all that forward to seeing him doing pratfalls week-after-week and hogging up the airtime at the expense of the rest of the cast. Not to mention, I was worried that all the famous negative behind-the-scenes stories about him would cloud my judgment. But as it turned out, I ended up finding him funny for the most part, I liked him a lot as Update anchor, and even the weekly pratfalls usually always amused me. All that being said, I am looking forward to seeing the remaining cast now finally get their chance in the spotlight, am looking forward to them finally becoming a strong ensemble, and am looking forward to the upcoming addition of a certain new cast member who joins the show several episodes from now.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Dick Cavett