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.
The Sesame Street joke on Update is actually a reference to those silhouette bits on The Electric Company. MADtv later made a similar mistake in their awful Sesame Street parodies from the late 2000s.
This is a very enjoyable episode. Christopher Lee is such a stately, dignified, but comfortable presence that I had to look to see what kind of theatre experience he had (extensive, of course! I’m familiar with many of his films, but didn’t know his entire background). His timing, interplay, gravitas and reactions are all expert. I also forgot that he was in Airport ’77, which he references in his monologue (time to revisit!). Some observations:
1. The horror trailers are terrific – Larraine is a big horror genre fan, so it’s great to see her playing these out. The narrator is not Danny? Is it Schiller? Can’t place it. There are several mash-ups in this episode, such as the Mr. Rogers/Jekyll & Hyde here, which was such a staple of SCTV as well. Aykroyd could be one of the first Mr. Rogers imitators, although I seem to remember Carson doing it too; it’s not only perfection, but something that I, as a youngster then, was completely intrigued by. I not only recognized and responded to the reference, as I was watching Mr. Rogers then of course, but felt slightly frightened, in a fun way, by the twisted interpretation of something so familiar and comforting. The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave is classic Belushi. I’ve probably said here before that the recent film played him too brooding and childlike. To me, Belushi was all about this perfect blend of a not-giving-a-s**t and antiauthoritarianism ethic with lovability and relatability. Just try not to laugh at him here.
2. I’m pretty sure that’s Ernest Thomas (Raj from What’s Happening) in the first audience breakaway shot. Someone mentioned here that Spielberg was also there, but I didn’t spot him.
3. Meet Loaf….no, it’s Meat Loaf! – Bat Out of Hell just came out that fall and this appearance was a huge boost to his popularity. It’s too bad he didn’t perform Paradise by the Dashboard Light, which would have featured singer Karla DeVito much more (she always looked incredible). For as theatrical as he was, I always felt that Meat’s vocals were a bit shaky live, and apparently, this was something that he constantly struggled with.
4. Murray only got one Oscar prediction correct (Diane Keaton). It’s a good debut, but I feel like he developed this bit much more in the coming years (it may feel like he did it all the time, but there are only two more opportunities after all! Did he do it with other award shows?). He seems to speed through, which is used to good comedic effect (Supporting categories? “Who cares?”), but I would have liked more commentary on some of the films, such as the bizarre Equus with Richard Burton, whom Murray hilariously imitated several times. And man, Point/Counterpoint was always a fave of mine. It just injects a huge bolt of life into these Updates and was such a great example of them astutely poking fun at both sides of the political spectrum (Curtin as the liberal and Danny as the conservative). Great how they go after each other physically at the close.
5. Grim Reaper – It’s mentioned that Gilda had a hand in writing this and I could easily see her doing great in it. But Larraine was such a huge Lee fan and puts in what is likely an equally good performance. I just love how the old show would slow down a little and have sketches that were funny, but not entirely. There is sweetness and a little profundity here, and it’s certainly not bogged down by something like the impatience of a single-joke premise that came to predominate (as it does today); it’s simply a dialogue between two characters, Waiting for Godot style. While I am familiar with both Richard Harris and Nick Nolte, I’m not sure why they are singled out here by the Reaper.
6. Cold as Ice – Great Foreigner song, and an earlier reviewer provided some excellent context as to why this “video” would have been interesting at the time. The model looks great, but the effects are so cheesy, particularly the knife in the back where the enormous padding is so visible it looks like the actor is struggling to move under its bulk (was this supposed to be funny?). Weis earlier did a similar artistic treatment of Bob Seger’s Night Moves.
7. Richard Belzer – I’m more familiar with him as an actor than stand-up, but some of this material is pretty funny, particularly the Jagger bit and the Dylan Bar Mitzvah Tapes (a reference to the Basement Tapes). His rhythm at times seems very Steve Martin-esque. I think for music fans, this all probably holds more appeal.
8. Mr. Bill – not the first one, but early nonetheless, where the voices were all pitched up, giving it a very surreal quality that I get a kick out of. Love how Mr. Bill’s detached arm goes floating by on a balloon at the credits.
9. The final audience shot zooms in on a blonde-haired punk rock kid who seems to be doing his best Sid Vicious snarl. Is he someone from a punk band? I just assume anyone scoring SNL tickets is “somebody”, but maybe not always.
10. Goodnights – Laraine and Gilda immediately run up to Lee with flowers and hugs. Seems clear that everyone really enjoyed his hosting stint.
I think the punk rock guy is Cheetah Chrome from the Dead Boys. Belushi sat in on drums with them once when their drummer had been stabbed.