Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
DISCLAIMER
101 Dalmations Get Run Over By 101 Moving Vans will not be seen tonight
COLD OPENING
NBC wants new Grizzly Adams star JOB to change his name to Kevin Scott
— Oh, so this is the “Belushi changes his name to Kevin Scott” premise I’ve always heard about. Gotta love how 70s SNL often did random backstage storylines like this.
— Good premise, and I like the way John is performing this.
— A somewhat funny bit at the end with John butchering LFNY by pronouncing “live” as “liv”, and then awkwardly correcting himself. I’m not sure what the point of that was, though. I sure hope that wasn’t a genuine flub from John. I mean, the guy’s been on the show for three years at this point; I can’t see him genuinely botching the traditional opening line like that.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— Yet ANOTHER modification to this season’s montage: Gilda has a new shot where, instead of doing her traditional apple-bite while in front of a jumbotron displaying her name, she’s shown in a random place in the city blowing a gum bubble.
— The “Kevin Scott” bit carries over into this montage, as John is removed from his usual spot in the credits and is put at the end after Gilda while being announced as Kevin Scott. That probably explains why Gilda’s shot was changed tonight; I guess it’s just a temporary thing.
MONOLOGUE
host doesn’t take part in horror films that aren’t up to his standards
The Island of Lost Luggage- traveller’s (LAN) bags missing in horror film
The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave- horror film about awful party guest (JOB)
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Rogers- Vincent Price (DAA) has dual role in horror film
— I’m already liking Christopher’s dry, deadpan Brit delivery. He’s going to be an interesting host.
— A series of horror trailers are going to be shown. I guess this is going to be like that one sketch from the Anthony Perkins episode where he starred in several bad horror movie trailers.
— Gilda’s very funny as the Igor-like character.
— LOL at the mention of a “horrifying tote-bag sequence”.
— They should’ve gotten Dan to play the trailer announcer again, like he did in the Perkins sketch. His announcing in that one was hilarious.
— Whoa, the famous “The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave” was part of THIS? I always thought it was a standalone sketch, probably because I first saw it in an SNL Halloween compilation special. I was also under the misconception that this sketch was from season 4.
— I remember when I first saw “The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave” in the aforementioned Halloween special, I was eager because it was one of the first things I ever saw John Belushi in after hearing so much about what a legend he is.
— Dan is absolutely brilliant in his portrayal of Vincent Price as Mr. Rogers.
— Weird how they came back to Christopher on home base just for him to say (after waiting a long time for the audience applause to stop) “See what I mean?”, and then the monologue immediately ends. No “We’ll be right back” or anything. Amusing, though.
— Overall, this was great. The trailers had a lot of the same type of humor that I loved about the aforementioned Anthony Perkins sketch. The Vincent Price/Mr. Rogers portion put this over the top as an even better sketch.
STARS: ****½
SPEECH THERAPY
Baba Wawa & speech therapist Henry Higgins (host) in My Fair Lady redux
— Nice fake-out with the musical number getting cut off before anyone even started singing. If only SNL always had that restraint from doing musical sketches…
— The first time we’ve seen Baba Wawa in a while.
— What movie is this reminding me of? The title’s on the tip of my tongue.
— Another musical number fake-out.
— Ah, the movie title I’m thinking of is “My Fair Lady”, which this sketch is now clearly a parody of.
— I like the creepy-looking clock in that transition shot just now.
— You could see a stagehand running in the background at beginning of the scene that just started.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
— Funny intro from Christopher.
WEEKEND UPDATE PREVIEW
— Hmm, Jane’s wearing a much-brighter-than-usual Update suit tonight.
WEEKEND UPDATE
JOB makes a mess while using a toy supertanker to illustrate oil spills
for kids, JAC & DAA sound out terminology of Sesame Street writer strike
through a process of elimination, BIM makes his Oscar picks
JAC & DAA debate whether to do a Point-Counterpoint during Weekend Update
— Jane: “I’m Jane Curtin and I’m wearing a new suit.”
— They’re still keeping the “Kevin Scott” premise going, with “Kevin” refusing to answer Dan until Dan addressed him as John.
— John’s commentary didn’t amount to much and felt kinda pointless, but his performance was fun.
— The Sesame Street bit was another pointless segment.
— Bill’s very first time doing an Oscars predictions segment, which would go on to become a tradition for him.
— Bill bitterly mentions that John Travolta was supposed to host SNL but backed out at the last minute. It’s weird picturing him hosting in this era, considering when he did finally host, it was decades later in a very different era.
— Bill’s whole commentary ended up being fantastic, especially him completely dismissing the whole “best supporting actors/actresses” segment.
— And now we have another important debut: point/counterpoint.
— Jane’s rant is great in itself, even when I know what legendary line Dan is going to respond with.
— And there it is: “Jane, you ignorant slut!”
— Overall, Dan was really in his element during his entire hilarious rebuttal to Jane, which is refreshing after how poorly he’s been doing on Update lately.
— The point/counterpoint segment was a great way to end Update.
STARS: ***½
MR. DEATH
grim reaper Mr. Death (host) explains his role to little girl (LAN)
— Haha at Christopher entering as Grim Reaper, the role he was born to play.
— Laraine is very cute in her performance. And it’s a change of pace not seeing this type of role being played by Gilda for once.
— The Richard Harris/Nick Nolte comment was great.
— Loved Christopher’s eerie comment about Laraine’s 15th birthday.
— Overall, a very strong sketch with fantastic writing and performances.
STARS: ****½
SUGGESTIONS FOR SADAT
Anwar Sadat (GAM) asks viewers what he should do following a raid
— Is this Garrett’s first appearance of the whole night? (ADDENDUM: he was in one of the horror movie trailers during the monologue)
— Not sure where this is headed; Garrett’s just going on and on while the audience isn’t laughing at all. His usual weird delivery is making me laugh, though, even though the lines themselves aren’t too funny.
— The twist with him desperately asking viewers to send in suggestions made me chuckle.
STARS: ***
COLD AS ICE
by Gary Weis- a woman injures & tortures (Stacy Keach)
— Oh, a serious Gary Weis music video. Ugh, I thought that type of Weis film was long behind us.
— If anything, this at least shows how much I had been enjoying this episode until this point, as this film is the first time in the whole episode where I was truly bored.
STARS: *½
DEL STATOR’S RABBIT HUT
enjoy a roto-broiled lagomorph meal at Dell Stator’s (DAA) Rabbit Hut
— “Del Stator” is the same name used for that toad restaurant commercial that Dan did in a season 1 Buck Henry episode.
— Overall, not much to say about this, but it was decent and had the usual type of insane Aykroyd commercial premise that I always like. I kinda wanted this to be a little funnier, though.
STARS: ***
VAMPIRE / NIXON
vampire hunters (host) & (JOB) try to kill Richard Nixon’s (DAA) memoirs
— I’m liking how so many of tonight’s sketches have a horror-themed setting, which is so perfect for Christopher Lee.
— Ha, even though he’s only been shown from the back so far, I can tell we’re looking at Dan as Nixon!
— LOL at the music Dan’s playing on the stereo to set the mood.
— Very clever premise.
— Dan’s exaggerated death is hilarious.
— Great drawn-out ending at the typewriter.
STARS: ****½
RICHARD BELZER
Richard Belzer [real] does impressions of Mick Jagger & Bob Dylan
— In this, Belzer looks more like how I’ve always known him to look, compared to how he looked in that season 2 “Chevy’s replacement” cold opening where I shamefully didn’t recognize him (“Is that Neil Levy?” I foolishly asked in my review).
— Strange seeing musical stand-up.
— The bit with Rolling Stones songs being performed in a wedding singer manner is fairly funny.
— Haha, oh my god at his Mick Jagger impression.
— His impression of what then-young Bob Dylan would be like at 86 years old is kinda interesting to watch nowadays, considering Dylan’s much closer to that age now than he was back then.
— Overall, very hit-and-miss stand-up comedy. I got a few good laughs from this, while other moments fell flat. I would’ve preferred to see him just do straight stand-up without all the musical stuff.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
MR. BILL’S CIRCUS
by Walter Williams- 3-ring dismemberment
— Very funny part with Sluggo feeding the dog poison.
— Loved the brief juggling bit.
— Overall, this whole thing was hilarious as usual.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very good episode with a lot of really strong sketches. Christopher Lee did an excellent job as host and he brought a delightfully macabre, creepy atmosphere, which the writers accommodated by giving him lots of well-written horror-themed sketches.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jill Clayburgh):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Michael Palin
I agree with you that it’s a bit odd not to see Gilda as the little girl in the ‘Mr. Death’ sketch. According to the Shales/Miller book, Gilda was originally cast in this sketch, and co-wrote it, but Laraine lobbied endlessly for the role, as she was a huge horror fan, and wanted to be in a sketch with Christopher Lee. The sketch is fantastic as is, but I often wonder how it would have gone with Gilda.
Whenever the rerun came on, apparently Gilda would call up Zweibel to complain that he didn’t lobby hard enough to get her in the death sketch.
I’m going to strongly disagree about about Cold as Ice film. That might be the best one Weis did during his time on the show. Plus I love the Foreigner song itself. Whenever I hear that song now, I immediately think of Stacey Keach being repeatedly shot by that random woman.
“Cold as Ice” was indeed quite interesting — “music videos” didn’t yet exist in 1978 (at least not in America, tho’ “promo films” were made for European consumption all the time) and you really have to look at it thru that lens — as something ahead of its time. It would be 3-1/2 years before MTV would have Americans watching those little clips ’round-the-clock.
I loved Saturday night live hosted by Christopher lee, i also love all his films and his singing is awesome it would of been nice he sang instead of meat loaf, i have been a serious follower of Christopher since 1958, i miss him dearly he is simply the best. R I P Christopher until we meet again.
I was reading an old Scarlet Street magazine, from 2002, with a Christopher Lee interview. They said he considered his SNL hosting stint one of the most important of his later career. In the interview he mentioned the sketch where he put a stake through Nixon’s autobiography, and that he was told 35 million people watched the episode. He also said that he thought hosting the show got him a job in 1941, as Spielberg was in the audience that night.
Lee’s line in the monologue about “Dr Terror’s House of Pancakes”, while a parody of the title of a film he was actually in (“Dr Terror’s House of Horrors”) it immediately made me think of “Dr Tongue’s Evil House of Pancakes” from SCTV a few years later.
If Bill Murray was doing Oscar predictions on “SNL” now, he’d probably throw all the names and titles away making it a very quick segment!
RIP Loaf………….
Oh, sorry, I meant Meat Loaf (Probably one of my favorite “Funny” MG Intros ever)
Late here in finding out Richard Belzer died. (I was in The Philippines at the time.) I think I first saw him on The Groove Tube, the film consisting of Channel One sketches with Chevy Chase. Among the sketches Belzer did was one in which he played a Black female prostitute about to service a White man in a news segment. Definitely wouldn’t pass muster today! R.I.P.