November 4, 1978 – Steve Martin / Van Morrison (S4 E4)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Jimmy Carter (DAA) tries to convince us that “inflation is our friend”

— Dan: “Our economic system is screwed, blewed, and tattooed.”
— I liked Dan’s casual order over the phone to “roll off some of them 20s”.
— Yet another good line from Dan: “I believe the watchwords for the 80s should be: ‘let’s party’.”
— Overall, a pretty solid presidential address opening.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host gives trained animal BIM crackers for performing various stunts

     

— Haha at Steve making his entrance with his head in a vice.
— Heh, he’s not even aware of his head being in a vice, and wonders why he has a headache.
— Loved his bit about how he doesn’t smoke marijuana at dusk because that’s when “the little fat man would come”.
— Pretty funny with Steve treating Bill like a trained dog.
— Wow at the part with Bill successfully jumping through the fiery hoop. How’d he learn how to do that?
— After this and Steve’s last monologue with the magician routine, Steve and Bill have developed into nice little comedy team. And it’s a testament to Bill’s talents that he’s able to hold his own in a Steve Martin monologue back when Steve was in his prime.
STARS: ****

ELVIS PRESLEY’S COAT
live in concert, Elvis Presley’s Coat sings his greatest hits

   

— Ah, I’ve always heard about this fake ad.
— A pretty funny concept and good execution.
STARS: ***½

WHAT IF?
impact on WWII of flying Eleanor Roosevelt (JAC) is considered

   

— Hmm, Jane’s not the host this time like she was in the previous “What If” sketch.
— Some technical issues at the beginning: Steve’s microphone sounded muffled for a while, then there was a weird abrupt jump cut to Laraine when she wasn’t even saying or doing anything. It kinda looked like something was edited out there. (I’m watching the DVD version of this episode)
— The dramatization scene is okay so far; an improvement over the weak Napoleon/B-52 one from the first “What If” sketch.
— Eleanor Roosevelt flying while being bombed was a funny visual.
— Another technical error, with the camera randomly cutting to a shot of mail letters while Garrett was in the middle of speaking. I’m guessing that mail shot was supposed to be used later in the sketch for a mailbag segment, like the first “What If” sketch had.
— Yep, there’s the mailbag segment.
STARS: ***

THEODORIC OF YORK, MEDIEVAL JUDGE
medieval judge Theodoric of York tries (LAN) on devil-consortion charges

     

— Ah, I can already tell from the set and costumes that this will be our Theodoric of York sequel.
— Love Gilda’s performance as “Brungilda”.
— Boy, is Bill’s pig loud.
— Bill’s sudden scream when walking on hot coals made me laugh out loud.
— The audience applauds Belushi’s entrance.
— Very funny part regarding which body part of John’s will be cut off for committing adultery.
— This is the second time Theodoric of York has killed Jane’s daughter Laraine.
— Overall, not as classic as the original installment of this sketch, but this was still very enjoyable.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE PREVIEW

WEEKEND UPDATE
Diana Ross (GAM) sings “Over The Rainbow” during an interview with BIM
BIM dons a “Stop The Shah!” mask & goes on about fascist knuckleheads
on-screen “Kill The Illiterates” text scroll contradicts JAC’s commentary
JOB’s comments about voter apathy grow into a rant about drug use

         

— A memorable “sponsored by” bit at the beginning with “Colonel Lingus; the southern fried chicken that takes a lickin’”.
— Not even a full minute into Update, and we’re ALREADY launching into another edition of Bill Murray’s Celebrity Corner.
— Oh my god at Garrett as Diana Ross.
— The Diana Ross segment was pretty funny, helped by Bill’s amusing interviewing skills.
— Bill’s “Stop the Shah!” mask bit was funny in how random and ridiculous it was.
— Loved the scrolling anti-illiteracy disclaimer during Jane’s rant defending illiterates.
— Strangely, a “coming up next” caption gag accidentally shows up onscreen when John begins his commentary. (screencap below) There seems to be quite a lot of technical errors in tonight’s episode.

— John makes another reference to his friend Steve Beshakis.
— And there’s the “but nooooo!”
— John’s rant has especially gotten funny when it turned to the topic of Mongolian hash.
— Overall, a solid Update; much better than the subpar one from the last episode.
STARS: ***½

FESTRUNK BROTHERS
while cruising in a bar, the Festrunks hit on (GIR), (LAN), (JAC)

    

— Oh, the Festrunk Brothers! Haha, they showed up out of nowhere, after the first minute of this sketch made me think it was going to be centered around Jane, Laraine, and Gilda as single ladies. Nice fake-out there.
— LOL at the Festrunks’ vibrating sex toy machine (a drill with a feather duster attached to the bit).
— Loved Steve’s comment about his and Dan’s “crispy” chest hair.
— Overall, another great Festrunk Brothers sketch.
STARS: ****

NERDS / HOSPITAL
Charles Knerlman & Todd fight over Lisa while visiting her in hospital

      

— The sketch begins with Garrett looking like he’s playing his character from the Nerds Science Fair sketch.
— Yep, it’s a Nerds sketch. Interesting setting for them tonight, in a hospital room.
— Mrs. Loopner: “Introduce me to your nice young negro friend.”
— Good to see the return of Steve as “Chaz the Spazz”.
— Funny fight between Todd and Chaz.
— Garrett in drag TWICE tonight??? Good lord, SNL writers…
— Hey, wait a minute! We saw Garrett earlier in this same sketch playing a male character! How’d he get changed so fast into a woman?
— Sweet ending with Gilda’s Lisa bringing out her teddy bear for comfort.
STARS: ***½

LOOKS AT BOOKS
author of Mauled (DAA) gives common-sense bear advice

   

— Hmm, I wonder if Jane playing the host in this sketch is the reason Steve took over her place as the host of tonight’s earlier “What If” sketch. They probably realized it would’ve been too redundant to have Jane play two talk show hosts in the same night… yet somehow, we’re NOT supposed to think it’s too redundant to see Garrett in drag twice in the same night???
— Haha, oh my god at Dan’s mauled face.
— That’s the whole sketch? Wow, that was literally only one minute long. Reminds me of very early season 1, back when the show regularly did quick little sketches (e.g. “Victims of Shark Bite” from SNL’s very first episode ever).
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

RESTAURANT
waiter (DAA) annoys host & GIR with his impressions of them

 

— I like Dan quoting & referencing Steve and Gilda’s various catchphrases and characters.
— Whoa, the sketch abruptly gets cut off right when Steve’s in the middle of angrily telling off Dan’s character. The show must’ve run out of time. The preceding musical performance from Van Morrison also awkwardly ended while his song was still in progress.
STARS: N/A (incomplete sketch)

GOODNIGHTS

  

— Steve, while still on the set of the last sketch, announces that “we’ll finish this sketch on the next show I’m on in February; we had a technical problem tonight.” What was the technical problem? I did mention earlier that there seemed to be an unusual amount of technical errors popping up throughout the show.
— Also, IIRC, Steve never did end up hosting in February of this season. In fact, I believe the next time he hosted was the premiere of season 5, when Dan was no longer in the cast, which means they never got a chance to finish the cut-off sketch. Also, it’s kinda sad to come to the realization that tonight’s episode was the last time Steve would host during the Aykroyd/Belushi era. I had no idea earlier tonight that I was watching what would end up being the final Festrunk Brothers sketch (not counting their later cameos in recent decades).

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A consistently good episode, despite what happened to the last sketch. While it goes without saying that tonight couldn’t hold a candle to Steve’s legendary preceding episode with The Blues Brothers, this was still an enjoyable show in its own right. I wouldn’t call anything in this episode a classic, but every sketch worked and nothing got a rating below three stars. I also like how the recurring sketches that were used tonight placed the characters in brand-new settings (Theodoric of York as a judge, Festrunks at a bar, Nerds in a hospital room).

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Frank Zappa):
— a huge step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Our second consecutive episode hosted by an SNL favorite; this time, it’s Buck Henry