January 15, 1977 – Ralph Nader / George Benson (S2 E11)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
safety hazards at Studio 8H dampen host’s attempt to lighten his image
   
— LOL at Ralph’s suit.
— Hilarious part with Ralph informing Garrett that the hot dog he’s eating contains “rat excrement and rodent hairs”. Garrett’s reaction is funny as well.
— The airbag ending seemed to be botched by a special effects failure, but Nader was able to still make it funny.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Hey, where was Bill Murray’s credit??? This is his first episode, so I was anticipating seeing him credited among the cast in the montage. Disappointed not to see him in this. I guess since he was SNL’s very first new cast hire after the show’s debut, they wanted to break him in carefully so viewers wouldn’t have an instant negative reaction to SNL’s first newbie. Oh, well, this wouldn’t end up being the only time a new cast member was uncredited in their first episode; off the top of my head, the opening montage of the season 24 premiere strangely gave no credit to then-new cast hires Jimmy Fallon, Chris Parnell, and Horatio Sanz, despite the fact that they appeared in noteworthy roles throughout that episode.

MONOLOGUE
“technical errors” occur while host talks about RCA’s wrongdoing
  
— For some reason, after Pardo announced him, Nader just walked onstage from the front instead of making his entrance from down the stairs in the back of the stage like hosts usually do in this era.
— Pretty funny with the “Network Trouble Temporary” screen showing up when Ralph began revealing bad things about RCA.
— And now, the camera has begun slowly panning away from him as he’s continuing to go on, which kinda reminds me of some of Buck Henry’s monologues.
STARS: ***

LONG DISTANCE
(BIM) starts badmouthing his ingrate grandson while waiting for his call

— Our very first appearance of Bill Murray!!!
— With him not being credited in the opening montage earlier, I’m sure a lot of audience members and viewers back then must’ve been wondering who the heck this guy is and why he’s starring in his own sketch at the top of the show.
— Going through SNL’s timeline in chronological order on a daily basis, it feels so interesting for me to see a new cast member after I’ve gotten so used to the cast we’ve had since the show debuted.
— His slowburn with him gradually turning against his grandson is great, especially his line “I hope the kid dies”.
— And now, he had an even funnier line, bitterly mentioning how the watch he gave the grandson cost “800 friggin bucks”. I didn’t even know that saying “friggin” was a thing yet in the 70s. In a way, it’s very fitting that SNL’s first use of that word was uttered by Bill Murray.
— Overall, a great first sketch for Bill to make his debut in.
STARS: ****

T.V. EXECUTION
(BIM) directs the dress rehearsal for the televised execution of (TOS)
   
— I like this premise, doing a dress rehearsal for a prisoner’s execution.
— I’m getting some pretty good laughs from Dan’s comically stiff performance.
— Wow, Bill Murray in another big role already?
— Bill is absolutely fantastic in this! This feels like the type of performance I’d expect from him in his later seasons, when he was an established SNL pro.
— Bill’s reaction to the casting decision of having a black priest was very funny.
— Funny part with the “AARRGGGGHHHH!!” cue card being used prematurely.
STARS: ****

BABA WAWA TALKS TO HERSELF
Baba Wawa promotes her new special, in which she talks to herself
 
— Gilda’s delivery is great here, rapidly listing off the silly topics she’ll be covering in her next special. It must not be easy speaking that fast while flawlessly doing the ‘w’ talk that Gilda does as Baba.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

NADER / CARTER
host dreams of Jimmy Carter (DAA) planning a Confederate takeover
   
— Good gag with Ralph fastening a seat belt over himself and then sleeping in his office chair.
— Funny touch with Dan’s Carter having peanuts scattered on his desk.
— Ralph’s spastic gestures when he’s enthusiastically making his points to Dan’s Carter is giving me some laughs.
— I like the turn this took with Dan’s Carter going over his plans for a confederate-themed inauguration.
— Loved Dan’s crazy southern war yell.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE
hospitalized JOB calls in to ask JAC why no one has mentioned his injury
BIM’s report on Rosalynn Carter concerns the new First Lady’s looks
Texxon chairman (host) tells LAN the conditions of a solar energy deal
new correspondent Emily Litella is against making Puerto Rico a “steak”
       
— Jane’s hairstyle is a lot different tonight.
— Oh, I completely forgot that I had read somewhere about Belushi not appearing in this episode due to an injury. Surprisingly, I hadn’t even noticed his absence.
— What’s with cast members this season getting injured and having to take an episode off? First Chevy, now John.
— The picture shown of John “in happier times” during his phone call made me laugh.
— John: “Who’s that new kid that’s in the show? The one with the mustache. Murphy? What’s his name?”
— Love the bit with Jane gushing over the phone about what a great performer Bill Murray is while John gets jealous.
— Bill Murray with his own Update commentary!
— Interesting seeing Bill interacting with Jane, considering they would later become an Update team.
— Bill’s perverted details about Rosalyn Carter’s legs are very funny.
— Great ending with Bill saying “Next week, Miss Amy Carter”.
— Nader’s performance in the Laraine remote segment was funny, but why did it end with a very muted audience?
— Emily Litella’s commentary is introduced by Jane interestingly announcing her as a new addition to the Update team.
— Hmm, not sure why they went out of their way to have Jane give Litella that special introduction as if this Litella commentary was going to be a change of pace, considering this has ended up being same old shtick.
— I do like Jane’s cold reactions to Litella.
— Aaaaand there’s the return of Litella’s “bitch” line that was introduced in just the last episode. I see SNL has wasted no time in already starting to run that once-funny joke into the ground.
— No mid-Update break tonight.
STARS: ***

ANDY KAUFMAN
as Elvis, Andy Kaufman [real] sings “Love Me” & “Blue Suede Shoes”
   
— Our first time seeing Andy in quite a long time.
— He has a big suitcase with him? Oh, is this gonna be the classic bit where he becomes Elvis?
— Him as Foreign Man doing non-impressions is always funny to watch.
— It’s pretty fascinating watching his extended transformation into Elvis while he has his back to the camera.
— Haha, the audience is going nuts at him having now flawlessly become Elvis.
— Fantastic Elvis musical performance.
— I love the “somethin’ wrong with muh lip” part during the close-up of him doing the Elvis lip-twitch.
— This second Elvis musical performance is even more fun, especially the great dancing he’s doing during it.
— Perfect ending with him, sweaty and out-of-breath, going back to doing a Foreign Man-voiced “dank you veddy much” into the microphone.
STARS: *****

PARTY DOLLS
host “tests” party dolls during a magazine reporter’s (GAM) visit
   
— Pretty funny premise. I like Ralph trying to pass off his use of blow-up dolls as being for “experiments”.
— I’m enjoying Garrett’s straight man reactions in this, especially him constantly gulping down wine to help him get through the weirdness he’s witnessing.
— Ralph is great in this. He made me laugh a lot just now with his “Yvonne failed the Nail Test” line.
— Ralph’s “Not today, I have a yeast infection” line was a hilarious ending.
STARS: ****

GARBAGE
— Rerun of a Gary Weis film from last season

THE CONEHEADS AT HOME
aliens Beldar (DAA) & Prymaat (JAC) Conehead have adapted to Earth life
     
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— I’m getting a kick out of hearing the audience’s great reaction to the initial reveal of Dan’s cone-shaped head when he removes his winter cap.
— One of the cameras oddly has a mysterious red shade on the left end of the screen. (you can see it in the third and fifth screencaps above) Actually, I kinda noticed it earlier in the Party Dolls sketch, but it’s especially noticeable here.
— This is such a great example of how delightfully weird Dan Aykroyd sketches tend to be.
— The part with the Coneheads piggishly “consuming” potato chips and six-packs of beer is a riot. Bill Murray’s reaction is great, too, as well as him hesitantly trying to eat like them.
— Early-era Bill Murray’s voice sounds quite different, at least in this sketch. At some points in this, he actually sounds kinda like Belushi, funnily enough. Then again, I think Bill might just be doing a youthful voice in this sketch since he’s playing a teenager.
— The ring toss ending was very funny.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

YOUTH ASKS THE QUESTIONS
students give host lightweight questions
   
— Has Nader been wearing that exact same suit in every sketch tonight?
— Laraine’s Sherry character’s name is spelled with an ‘i’? Sites like SNL Archives have always spelled her name with a ‘y’.
— The debut of Gilda’s Jewish character, Rhonda Weiss. I’ve always found this character funny.
— The ridiculous questions and Ralph constantly getting cut off is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

AMBASSADOR TRAINING INSTITUTE
— Rerun of a commercial from last season

GOODNIGHTS
  
— Another host who mispronounces John Belushi’s last name as “Belucci” during the goodnights. It’s probably just me who finds that kinda funny.
— This is the first time in this era that I’m seeing a listing for James Downey in the writing credits. Was this his first episode as a writer, or was he already one and I just failed to notice his name in the goodnights of earlier episodes?
— Don Pardo: “Joining tonight’s cast was Bill Murray.”
— The cast has begun walking off the stage, one-by-one.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very good episode. The material was consistently solid, there weren’t any sketches I disliked, and we got an all-time classic Andy Kaufman performance & a great debut of one of the best recurring characters from this era (Coneheads).
— Ralph Nader was a better host than one might expect. Right from the beginning of the cold opening, he came off very game and eager to perform silly material. While he ended up playing himself in literally every sketch (unless I’m mistaken) and, as I pointed out earlier, seemed to wear the exact same suit in everything after the cold opening, he did a good job in every sketch, and was particularly funny in the Party Dolls sketch.
— I was very impressed by Bill Murray in his debut. It’s well-documented what a rough beginning he would have on the show his first few months, but you sure wouldn’t know that from watching this episode. I saw no signs of first-night jitters, no signs of someone who was going to initially have a hard time fitting into an already-established show. He performed like someone who’s already been in the cast for a while, and I especially loved his performance in the first two sketches (Long Distance and T.V. Execution) as well as his Update commentary. I’m very curious how he goes from a confident newbie in his first night to someone who’s struggling on the show so badly that he eventually had to address that in a meta sketch where he talks to us about how he doesn’t think he’s “making it on the show”.
— Belushi’s absence surprisingly didn’t hurt this episode (like I said earlier, I didn’t even notice he was missing until it was mentioned halfway through the episode on Update), but now that I’m thinking about it, I do miss his presence, especially considering what a fantastic night he had in the preceding Christmas episode. I’m looking forward to his return in the next episode.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Candice Bergen):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Ruth Gordon