March 11, 1978 – Art Garfunkel / Stephen Bishop (S3 E13)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DISCLAIMER
Jacques Cousteau Gets An Underwater Enema will not be seen tonight

COLD OPENING
Modern Crimes- (DAA) & (JOB) rob Charlie Chaplin’s (GIR) grave

     

— I’m enjoying how this is such a dead-on spoof of silent movies.
— A very interesting and unconventional idea for a cold opening.
— Haha, Gilda as Chaplin.
— I like how LFNY was “said” via silent movie subtitles.  This is the only time I can think of in SNL history where the LFNY was done silently.  I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if there was another occurrence that I’m forgetting right now.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
audio glitch in host’s perormance of “Wonderful World” provokes JOB rant

   

— Right off the bat, he’s launched into a musical performance with no setup.
— Hmm, the performance has suddenly stopped due to “technical difficulties”. Looks like this could be pretty funny, especially with John now walking onstage.
— Funny line about Garrett having to drive Jane Pauley to work every morning.
— I’m curious what John’s line about NBC putting “part 3 of Loose Change on before part 2” was referring to. Sounds like an amusing technical screw-up NBC made in their programming.
— I feel a “But nooooo” coming from John.
— Ah, there it is!
— John’s starting to sweat profusely for some reason. I notice that’s been happening a lot with him this season.
— I like John’s “Oh, by the way, nice hair, Artie” addendum after he walked offstage.
— This has gone back to a serious musical performance.
STARS: ***½ for the comedy portions

KROMEGA III

— Rerun

TOMORROW
Tom Snyder (DAA) reveals battered husband’s (host) identity

   

— Dan’s delivery as Snyder is hilarious as usual.
— Funny visual with Art as an identity-hidden shadowy figure.
— The whole “battered masturbating husband” premise is very funny.
— A lot of good laughs from Dan’s Snyder inadvertently giving away Art’s identity in various ways.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

MIRACLE IN CHICAGO
ghost of Mayor Daley (JOB) appears at an Irish pub

— The opening song that Bill is listening to on the jukebox is actually a tune that was often played by the SNL band in this era.
— Great entrance from John. And his look as Daley is really funny.
— John’s long speech isn’t all that funny and is deservedly getting a very tepid audience reaction.
— Overall, I didn’t enjoy this much. I feel like I didn’t get what this was going for.
STARS: **

KISS CONCERT
stage door guard (JOB) keeps musical guest & others out of a Kiss concert

     

— John’s exchange with Stephen Bishop before throwing him out was great.
— Dan looks absolutely hilarious in that KISS makeup.
— Overall, a pretty solid sketch with some funny bits and nice character work from the cast.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE PREVIEW

WEEKEND UPDATE
Mighty Mouse film documents wonderdrug Hemomycin’s anti-clot action
while reviewing Coming Home, BIM eats crow & says “Vietnam was a mistake”

       

— The news story of Charlie Chaplin’s body being stolen from his grave – oh, so THAT’S why they did that cold opening earlier tonight.
— Garrett’s delivery is even odder than usual, which is really saying something.
— The “Mighty Mouse” clip in Garrett’s commentary was kinda funny, but Garrett already did something like this on Update before.
— Yikes, Dan misses his cue to do the next news story, thinking it was Jane’s turn.  Then we have to wait for him to find the story as he awkwardly shuffles through his papers. This is, what, the second or third time this season he’s made that mistake?
— Oh, man – now Dan lost his place in the middle of the above news story. Good lord. Frequent blunders like this just goes to show you why he only lasted one season on Update.
— Bill scores with yet another solid review commentary.
— WTF at Dan’s socked feet visibly resting on the desk during Jane’s hippo joke. (right side of the below screencap)

STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ART GARFUNKEL)

LOOKS AT BOOKS
nerds Todd & Lisa talk about the fate of the class of ’77

  

— The Nerds! Weird how their first appearance had them doing a radio show interview, and now they’re doing a talk show interview. I wonder how long until we start getting Nerds sketches that followed the conventional format they’re now remembered for.
— Bill’s character has a different last name than the one that would go on to be used regularly for him.
— Overall, not much going on here premise-wise, but Bill and Gilda were funny with their anecdotes and mannerisms, and the studio audience was getting a big kick out of this.
STARS: ***

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER
by TOS- elderly JOB visits the SNL graveyard

     

— Oh, it’s “Don’t Look Back In Anger”, possibly the most well-known short film of the entire original SNL era.
— Excellent make-up job on John. I remember the first time I saw this, I had a hard time convincing myself that that’s John Belushi under all that make-up; he looked so unrecognizable, not to mention how well he changed his voice to sound “old”.
— For some reason, I hadn’t remembered the beginning with John on a train.
— In a strange way, the unintended irony of the premise with John outliving all of his fellow cast mates makes this film even more poignant.
— Can’t help but notice how chilling it is that Gilda’s the first cast member who’s death John talks about.
— Very interesting hearing the way each cast member died.
— I liked the dig at Bill’s on-again off-again mustache from this time period.
— A mention of Dan’s webbed toes.
— That close-up of John slowly looking up into the camera with sly, sinister eyes when he’s about to say the classic “cuz I’m a dancer” line (fourth screencap above) is a great touch that makes me smile every time I watch this.
— Fantastic ending with John happily dancing on his castmates’ graves.
— Overall, an indisputable well-done classic.
STARS: *****

ANDY KAUFMAN
audience doesn’t want to hear Andy Kaufman [real] read The Great Gatsby

   

— Haha at Andy’s dignified accent. I think I know what famous piece this is going to be…
— When talking about his earlier SNL appearances, it was impressive how he seamlessly went from his “normal” dignified voice to his earlier character voices and then back to his “normal” voice.
— Ah, my earlier hunch was right: this is the famous performance with him doing a reading of the Great Gatsby.
— Heh, what the hell is up with one of the audience member’s VERY loud coughing fit during Andy’s reading?
— It’s so funny hearing the audience’s audible slowburn as Andy continues droning on and on.
— This is fucking hilarious! I cannot stop laughing.
— HAHA, now the audience is angrily starting to boo.
— Andy: “Let’s keep it down, please, because we have a long way to go.”
— Loved the fake-out with him making the audience happy by walking off in anger, then he comes back, says he was just kidding, and then goes right back into the reading of Gatsby, much to the audience’s displeasure.
— Haha, this is KILLING me. My throat is hurting from laughing so much.
— Random Lorne walk-on.
— Another great fake-out with Andy finally answering the audience’s requests to play a record, only for the record to end up being ANOTHER continuation of him reading Gatsby.
— Overall, this is such a classic Kaufman bit, and is the quintessential representation of his knack for making the audience uncomfortable and testing their patience.
STARS: *****

THE LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR SLEEPYTIME PLAYSET
the Looking For Mr. Goodbar playset brings sex & violence to children

   

— LOL at Gilda’s way of making the doll “drink”.
— Gilda’s so realistic in how she’s playing with the dolls the exact way a real child would.
— The increasingly inappropriate nature of this is very funny.
— The second toy commercial this season that ends with a “from Mainway” tag.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ART GARFUNKEL)

GOODNIGHTS

— This was INSANELY short. The show must’ve ran long. Wonder if Kaufman was to blame.

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A really solid episode with very little to complain about. Things got especially great towards the end of the show, where we got two back-to-back all-time classic pieces (Don’t Look Back In Anger, The Great Gatsby) and a strong final sketch (Looking For Mr. Goodbar).
— Hard to say anything about Art Garfunkel’s performance as host, considering he barely even did anything in any of the sketches. And the very few sketches he did appear in were all in the first half of the show. His only appearances in the second half were just in musical performances. The only thing I can say about him as host is he did okay with what the writers gave him and didn’t come off too awkward.
— Belushi had an amazing night, having a dominant presence with a lead role in a majority of the sketches, and giving strong performances in all of them, one of which stands out as one of his best performances of all-time (Don’t Look Back In Anger).

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (O.J. Simpson):
— a slight step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Jill Clayburgh