December 11, 1976 – Candice Bergen / Frank Zappa (S2 E10)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
home from prison, Patty Hearst (GIR) spends the evening with her family
   
— This opening is almost TOO topical. I remember when I first saw this episode years ago, I had absolutely NO context for what this opening was about, which made me feel pretty lost. Thankfully, due to me watching SNL episodes in chronological order for my ‘One SNL a Day’ project, I now know a lot more about Patty Hearst, simply because SNL has been making A LOT of references and Update jokes about her in these first two seasons. That’s one of the things that’s going to be fascinating about going through SNL’s timeline for my project: it will almost be like a history lesson, due to how many topical references the show has made over the decades. These first two seasons have taught me some things I didn’t know about Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, etc.
— Everything on TV having some kind of relevance to Patty Hearst’s unfortunate situation is pretty funny.
— Nice meta ending.
— So far, the only cast member in the post-Chevy Chase era to say LFNY has been Gilda, in three out of four episodes (the one non-Gilda LFNY in those four episodes was from musical guest George Harrison). I wonder if the plan at the time was for Chevy’s LFNY tradition to be passed on to Gilda, but somewhere along the line, they decided it would be better to have a different person say it each week.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
JOB’s Humphrey Bogart impression gets reluctant host out of dressing room
     
— There’s no entrance from Candice Bergen after Pardo has announced her name, which is reminding me of Buck Henry’s second monologue from last season, where he went missing.
— And now, the bit with Candice refusing to come out of her dressing room is reminding me of Louise Lasser’s monologue, only without the infamy and without the real-life uncomfortable subtext.
— Jane: “He’s not worth it; no man is, especially John Belushi.”
— Lorne is cracking me up with his seriously questioning how Belushi has so much power over women.
— Jane: “[John]’s had his way with every single woman on this network; why do you think Barbara Walters left?”
— This has turned into an interesting Casablanca parody.
— For some reason, I liked Candice’s line to John about how she’s only attracted to “swill”.
— Yet another funny line: “We’ll still have Paris… and the Muppets.”
— Overall, a very good monologue.
STARS: ****

JIMMY CARTER
Jimmy Carter (DAA) announces he won’t be able to keep all his promises

— Funny premise with Dan’s Carter going back on his campaign promises from the election.
— Another Bob Dylan quote from him. Was the real Jimmy Carter known for pandering to Dylan fans during the election?
— Dan’s Carter: “Don’t expect things to start improving until the beginning of my second term.” Uh, I have bad news for you, Jimmy…
STARS: ***

SANTI-WRAP
DAA touts Santi-Wrap as protection from unhygienic Santas, like (JOB)
 
— A very memorable fake ad that’s been played in a lot of compilation specials.
— Love the close-up of John drunkenly going “ho ho ho” after taking a swig from his bottle.
— Overall, a very funny concept that was executed perfectly.
STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
   
— An incredible and legendary performance of “I’m The Slime”, especially Don Pardo’s participation and the special effect of the slime oozing out of the TV monitor.

CONSUMER PROBE
Irwin Mainway (DAA) defends some unsafe children’s toys
   
— The debut of Irwin Mainway, one of my all-time favorite Dan Aykroyd characters. And this debut sketch is probably Mainway’s most well-remembered appearance.
— The ‘Teddy Chainsaw Bear’ is particularly hilarious.
— I love this part with him trying to prove how normal, safe toys are supposedly “dangerous”.
— Loved him throwing himself backwards out of his chair when strangling himself with the phone wire.
STARS: *****

K-PUT PRICE-IS-RITE STAMP GUN
— Rerun from last season

RIGHT TO EXTREME STUPIDITY LEAGUE
Fern’s (host) friend Lisa (GIR) supports the right to extreme stupidity
   
— Yet another very memorable sketch.
— Gilda is very funny playing a character like this.
— Here’s the legendary blooper, where Candice mistakenly calls Gilda “Fern”, which is her own character’s name, then says “I mean… whatever your name was” and starts cracking up.
— Topping that is Gilda’s classic subsequent “We all can’t be brainy like Fern here!” line.
— Haha, Candice cannot stop laughing; she’s not even trying to hide it.
STARS: *****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
(TOS) begs his wife JAC to come home, then hides beneath the newsdesk
Ray Basalt (DAA) gives the holiday radioactive fallout report
     
— Interesting opening, with Jane arguing with her “husband” Tom Schiller.
— After the Nixon joke bombed, Jane crumbled the paper she read the joke off of and gave it to a hand that reached out from under the desk. What the…? Was that planned?
— Another gag with the hand.  Okay, it seems to be an intentional running gag in tonight’s Update. And I just now remembered that Schiller ducked under the desk at the end of the opening “arguing with Jane” bit, so that must be his hand we’re seeing.
— Dan doing a “Fallout Report”… I can tell I’m gonna like this.
— This “Fallout Report” segment is featuring the usual masterful fast-paced Aykroyd performance.

FX-70 CHEESE SLICER
the new FX-70 cheese slicer resembles a Polaroid camera
   
— Are we in for another non-joke sponsored Polaroid ad?
— Oh, the “cheese slice coming out of the camera’s photo dispenser” gag. I remember seeing this commercial before.  I’m glad this isn’t another plug for Polaroid.
— Cute commercial.
— Candice again started cracking up at the end; I’m not sure why this time.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella is bothered by the notion of collecting for “Unisex”
   
— This is Emily Litella’s first appearance in quite a long time. My main complaint about her in the past was how overused she was, appearing in long stretches of consecutive episodes, which is way too much for a character with a thin premise like her.
— This is also the first time she’s appearing with Jane as the anchorperson instead of Chevy.
— Heh, and now they actually mentioned that, by having Litella say to Jane “Ever since you’ve been doing Update, I haven’t been on the show too much; I used to be on quite often.”
— Loved Litella’s “bitch” remark to Jane. Unfortunately, IIRC, they eventually run that into the ground in Litella’s subsequent appearances.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
— Belushi! Futaba! He came out of nowhere!
— Haha, that whole thing was amazing, with Futaba’s crazy scatting in fake Japanese, him having the band imitate everything he does, and his bizarre ways of playing the saxophone.
   

THE KILLER TREES
(DAA) & (JOB) search for the bloodthirsty arbor
     
— Oh, I always love watching this sketch.
— Yet another display of wonderful operatic singing from Garrett.
— Garrett suddenly getting impaled by the tree while in the middle of singing was timed so well.
— Funny little touch with Gilda giddily singing “La Cucaracha” while dialing the phone.
— LOL at the “tree branch sticking through the chest” effect unintentionally being delayed when Gilda tried to trigger the mechanism on herself.
— Love the 70s-sounding action music sting that plays after someone gets killed by a tree.
— Hilarious seeing Frank Zappa randomly being among the tree suspects in the police line-up.
— “Lieutenant Bushakis”. So I guess this counts as another appearance from John’s Steve Bushakis character who appears in different random sketches each time.
— The tree’s high-pitched raspy singing of “O Tannenbaum” always cracks me up.
— John asking about the guy behind the tree and Dan pointing out it’s just a stagehand is something I used to think wasn’t part of the script, but is obvious to me now that it definitely IS.
— Overall, I don’t know if this sketch is widely considered a classic, but it’s always been one of my personal favorite sketches of this whole era.
STARS: *****

DIANA NYAD
by Gary Weis- Diana Nyad’s [real] students talk about her as she trains

— As the camera fades to black at the end of Candice’s intro, you can see Candice busting out laughing due to her intro sounding awkward.
— Another Gary Weis film I have no idea what to say about. This is a well-meaning mini-documentary about this swimmer, but as with a lot of Weis films, it’s just not entertaining or interesting me AT ALL. It’s also killing the momentum this episode had going until this point.
STARS: *½

ADOPT BELUSHI FOR CHRISTMAS
host announces the Adopt JOB For Christmas Contest- he has nowhere to go
 
— Candice, when talking about the cast’s vacation plans for the holidays: “I guess Garrett will be going back to Africa…”
— I love the premise of this, and it’s being executed very well.
— Random Chevy Chase mention.
STARS: ****

GARY GILMORE
cast performs “Let’s Kill Gary Gilmore For Christmas”
 
— Third segment in a row with Candice doing an intro from the homebase stage, and in the exact same outfit too.
— Such a grim intro to this by Candice, but I’m glad she’s going into detail about Gary Gilmore’s crimes, because I otherwise would’ve had no context for him.
— Very funny reveal of the song’s main message about killing Gilmore. It’s hilarious hearing such dark, sadistic lyrics being sung in a cheery Christmas tone.
— At first, I almost thought some of the cast members were missing from this, due to how incredibly small the cast group in this sketch looks. But then I remembered that the entire cast size really is this small with Chevy gone. There are only SIX members of the cast at this point, though that doesn’t last much longer.
— Overall, a classic performance.
STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
host & castmembers close the show from Rockefeller Center skating rink
     
— SNL’s very first instance of the goodnights taking place at the Rockefeller Center skating rink.
— The show must be running short, since Candice is obviously being forced to keep talking to the camera. Haha, she’s not even trying to hide her embarrassment over not knowing what to say.
— And now, she just made a very funny deadpan remark: “This is such an unfair thing to do to me”.
— Now Candice and the cast have begun skating.
— Funny seeing a shaky Michael O’Donoghue skating with both of his hands being held by someone.
— I’m impressed by Candice’s ability to skate backwards.
— The return of the Killler Tree’s high-pitched raspy singing of “O Tannenbaum”.
— Wow, I have no idea why, but I’m now actually starting to feel kinda emotional and a bit teary-eyed watching this.
— I think this episode holds the all-time record for longest the goodnights music has ever been played in an SNL episode. Not only did the complete song play, but it actually started up again afterwards until the show eventually faded to black. I think the only other episode that comes close to having goodnights music as complete as this is actually the most recent Christmas episode from 2017 with Kevin Hart (which, just like tonight’s episode, also had ice-skating goodnights).

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Wow, what a great episode! Definitely one of the best I’ve reviewed so far in this project; in fact, I’d say of all the episodes I’ve covered, this one is probably my second favorite, after the Richard Pryor episode from season 1.
— Literally every single one of the actual sketches tonight worked, with so many of them being strong, memorable, and highly-regarded, and several of them flat-out being all-time classics. The captivating musical performances from Frank Zappa and the special extended skating goodnights also added to the overall epic vibe. If it wasn’t for the Gary Weis film, this would’ve been a 100% flawless episode.
— Of the cast, Belushi seemed to have a particularly great night, giving a lot of memorable, stand-out performances.
— Once again, Candice Bergen was a solid host, had a comforting presence, and worked so well with this cast. With this being the second consecutive Christmas episode she hosted, it should’ve remained a tradition for her to host every Christmas show in this era (much like how it would soon become a tradition for Buck Henry to always host the season finales in this era), but unfortunately, this episode would end up being the last time she ever hosted with this cast. In fact, she doesn’t make her return until 11 years later, during the late 80s Phil Hartman/Jon Lovitz era.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jodie Foster):
— a big step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
We enter 1977, with Ralph Nader hosting, and a certain new cast member joining the show!