Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
the cast is unhappy that host’s success has gone to his head
— When Gilda and Steve started talking to each other at the beginning, what was with the very brief cutaway to some of the male cast members just standing around? Technical error?
— They mistakenly cut off Gilda’s mic before she said her final line.
— Bill to Steve: “I wasn’t here last time you did the show, but from what I hear, I don’t think I like you too much.” Heh, that reminds me of how Bill would feel in real life a year later when Chevy Chase came back to host the show. Up until that week, the rest of the cast had told Bill so many negative stories about working with Chevy, which painted a really bad picture of him in Bill’s mind and caused lots of tension between the two of them the whole week Chevy hosted. And we know what infamous incident that ended up leading to…
— Hilarious when an angry Belushi had to be held back from attacking Steve after Steve did his “Excuuuuuse meeeee!” catchphrase.
— Overall, an enjoyable backstage cold opening with a good premise.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— Lily Tomlin is credited as a special guest.
MONOLOGUE
host gets happy feet, sings Indian folk song, describes “getting small”
— I liked him randomly snapping a photo of himself at the beginning.
— Another Steve Martin monologue that begins with him doing about 20 different things within the first minute.
— His exaggerated Indian chanting is cracking me up.
— Steve: “I hate people who are still into [drugs].” You mean, like, say, practically everyone you worked with on SNL that week?
— The whole “getting small” routine is hilarious.
STARS: ****
THE CONEHEADS AT HOME
IRS agent (host) asks Coneheads some questions about their tax returns
— Only the Coneheads’ second appearance, and the audience is already applauding their entrance.
— It’s pretty fun watching Steve playing a straight man to them.
— Their answers to Steve’s questionnaire are pretty funny.
— A fine installment, overall, though I liked their first one better.
STARS: ***½
GARRETT MORRIS: “NUR WER DIE SEHNSUCHT”
GAM performs “Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt” during explanatory scroll
— Garrett’s wearing the same festive conga-type outfit that he and some of the other male cast members wore at the preceding episode’s goodnights.
— Another operatic performance from Garrett.
— And another scrolling disclaimer during an operatic Garrett Morris performance.
— A few really funny lines in tonight’s disclaimer, especially the Harry Belafonte one.
STARS: ***½
CELEBRITY WEIGHTLIFTING
Russian (JOB) defeats Jackie Onassis (GIR)
— I remember seeing this sketch before, but I’m not sure where, as this is my first time seeing the rest of this episode. If this sketch is in Gilda’s Best Of, then I’m guessing that’s where I saw it before.
— Just the idea of putting Jackie Onassis in a competition like this is already very funny.
— Whenever I think of how great Gilda could be at doing physical comedy, this is usually one of the first sketches that immediately come to mind. She’s mining lots of laughs out of her strained, drawn-out attempts to lift the weights.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
— Haha, Jane dryly addresses her famous bra-flash moment from her last Update, then says “Not tonight, I have a headache.”
— After stumbling through the set-up of the Adolf Hitler/Rudolph Hess joke, Jane stops, and then slowly repeats the entire joke from the beginning. Yikes. Not sure whether to laugh or feel embarrassed for her.
DR. BREADLOAF’S QUICK-LOSS DIET BOOK
the pages of Dr. Breadloaf’s (GIR) Quickloss Diet Book are the meals
— I already like the name of Gilda’s character, Ruth Breadloaf.
— What the hell? Eating pages?
— Overall, I didn’t care for the premise, but Gilda did what she could with this.
STARS: **
WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
LAN reports from an expensive & dangerous military aircraft
— Dan’s reaction to Laraine’s question is pretty funny.
— Jane is quite stumbly with her delivery tonight.
— Jane’s accent at the end of the airline joke was good.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***
BROADWAY BABY
on a diner set, Lily Tomlin [real], GIR, LAN, JAC perform “Broadway Baby”
— I had been wondering what Lily Tomlin was going to do tonight.
— Oh, I don’t like where this is going.
— Man, this musical performance from Lily and the girls is just plain boring to me. It can’t be said enough in my reviews how much I dislike watching straightforward singing of a non-comedic song in sketches, and how much I dislike sitting through Broadway-type showtunes.
STARS: **
PLUG
doctor (host) tries to “accidentally” pull the plug on comatose boy (JOB)
— Steve’s inappropriate “moss” joke was hilarious.
— Another very funny inappropriate joke with Bill informing Steve to pull the plug after hearing how much it costs to keep his son alive.
— I’m liking Steve’s failed attempts to “accidentally” pull the plug.
— John’s performance and delivery is weird.
— Overall, I wasn’t too crazy about the strange turn this took after John came out of his coma, which is a shame because I was loving where the sketch had been going before then.
STARS: ***½
NEW ORLEANS SOUL FOOD RESTAURANT
by Gary Weis- Buster Holmes [real] shows off his New Orleans restaurant
— Is this film a leftover from the previous week’s Mardi Gras special?
— I’m running out of different ways to say “a typical dull Gary Weis film” in every episode review. I feel kinda bad for being so down on his films, because they seem well-meaning and are not awful in themselves; they’re just on the wrong show.
— All this particular film is succeeding in doing to me is making me very hungry.
STARS: *½
HOLLYWOOD BINGO
(host) consumes game show with celebrity introductions
— Steve was very funny unintelligibly explaining the rules in a rapid-fire manner.
— The return of Garrett’s so-bad-it’s-good Sammy Davis Jr. impression!
— This is fun so far, with the fast-paced endless parade of impressions.
— I know I said before that 70s-era Tom Schiller sometimes resembles Fred Armisen, but he ESPECIALLY reminded me of him in this sketch.
— The punchline with the show running out of time before the game could even be played reminds me of a gripe I have with SNL’s current Celebrity Family Feud sketches: they always take up so much damn time having Kenan Thompson’s Steve Harvey introduce each celebrity impression that by the time they get to actually playing the game, it just ends up being a minor part of the sketch.
STARS: ****
FROM THE BIG ORANGE TO THE BIG APPLE
Lily Tomlin characters go to NYC
— Hey, it’s Ernestine!
— Oh, Lily seems to be playing every part in this film.
— It feels like Lily is basically co-hosting tonight’s SNL with Steve.
— Overall, a pretty funny film.
STARS: ***½
ROOTS II
more oppressed ancestors of Alex Haley (GAM)
— The concept of doing a rushed sequel to Roots sounds quite funny and promising, though I’m wondering how they’re going to pull it off with this particular cast.
— Haha, I’m strangely liking seeing John and Bill playing black roles and wearing half-assed dark grease that’s smeared over a few spots of their faces and bodies.
— John’s character being named Bop-Shoo-Wop is hilarious.
— Hmm, Bill is actually very good at sounding black. Part of me isn’t surprised by that.
— This sketch is hilarious so far.
— Another big laugh from Steve as the slave owner telling John his name is now Peggy Fleming, during the parody of the famous Roots whipping scene.
— This died down towards the end, unfortunately; kinda like the hospital room sketch earlier tonight.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
LOVERS
in a singles’ bar, (host) & (GIR) discover they have plenty in common
— As no surprise, Steve and Gilda are having very charming chemistry with each other.
— Some parts of their conversation, when talking about their favorite kinds of pain and talking about what they hate kinda reminds me of the Willie & Frankie sketches (a.k.a. the “I hate when that happens” guys) that Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest would later do in season 10.
— Overall, a very nice little scene to end the night with.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Another consistently solid Steve Martin episode from this season, though I felt his first episode had more memorable sketches than this one. This was still enjoyable, Steve has developed into a reliable recurring host, and special guest Lily Tomlin’s presence added to the fun vibe of the night (even if I didn’t like that musical Broadway sketch of hers).
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Fran Tarkenton):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Sissy Spacek
The Kinks medley is the ideal musical performance
I always thought the Hollywood Squares type parody seemed like something the show would do in the seasons that had larger casts.
I generally agree with your thoughts on the Gary Weis films, but I thought they worked as what I’d call a palate cleanser, in that I appreciated that the show tried various “different” things. That said, a lot of them (to me) were pointless or overly similar. I liked Albert Brooks’ (and later Tom Schiller’s) style more.
This show was a week after the Mardi Gras special. Will you be reviewing that at some point? Also interested in your take on Steve Martin’s Best Show Ever, and the Bob & Ray special (both essentially SNL episodes in disguise)
I’m afraid not. I’ll only be reviewing regular episodes in my SNL project.
Just finished watching this one. Any idea who walked on stage at the very end of the Broadway sketch.? Looked a little awkward.
R.I.P. Cindy Williams who had appeared in the Mardi Gras special with her “Laverne & Shirley” co-star Penny Marshall the previous week. I think Ms. Williams was the one who was delayed in doing a segment with Ms. Marshall concerning a ball sequence.
Because of the references to the Mardi Gras special in this episode, I backtracked and watched that (I’ve been watching eps. in order as well). You really should consider reviewing it, although at this point, that ship may have sailed. The special is pretty much akin to a regular episode, although it aired on a Sunday. The story behind it and how it went down is rather interesting in itself. Significantly, it also features the debut of Murray’s “Honker” character in a Tom Snyder bit that imo is the only one that really works. I’m also curious about the Goodnights, which seems to show the cast ready to perform the Roots II sketch, which was featured in this following episode. The largely college-aged crowd are going bananas the entire show; this is on full display during the return of Mr. Mike’s Antler Dance.