Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Telepsychic Ray (DAA) makes up callers’ fortunes as he goes
— I’ve always liked these sketches when I saw them years ago.
— Funny part with Dan hastily cutting off the call from Tom Davis(?) that starts with him saying “My sister wants to take some butter–”.
— An even better part with the “sick friend” prank call from Jane, and then Dan, after realizing he’s been tricked, predicts that Jane will be the one to get sick.
— Nice meta segue into LFNY.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host goes backstage when the writers fail to deliver a monologue on time
— Some funny awkward stalling from Eric while waiting to be given the monologue.
— I’m liking what I always call “the unintentional backstage tour”, whenever a host is shown going all around backstage.
— Are those showgirls I’m seeing in the background? I wonder if this is what started the traditional gag of backstage sketches always having a llama, showgirls, and an Abraham Lincoln.
— The writers room being a smoke-filled drug den is a priceless gag, especially knowing all the real-life backstage drug stories we’ve heard about the original SNL era.
— Ah, there’s the background Lincoln. Still haven’t seen a llama, though. Does the random horse from earlier count?
— Speaking of horse (*TERRIBLE SEGUE ALERT*), Gilda’s voice sounds quite hoarse in this.
— A good laugh from Eric apathetically breaking the Tunisian jar after talking about how valuable it is.
— Eric’s foreign chanting is hilarious.
— Eric: “She says she cannot marry him as she has boils.”
STARS: ****½
THE FRENCH CHEF
Julia Child (DAA) bleeds profusely after cutting herself
— Oh, its the famous Julia Child sketch!
— Dan’s way of saying “saltine” was a very funny little touch.
— “I’ve cut the dickens out of my finger.”
— SNL’s very first instance of an “excessive bleeding sketch”, and boy is this one a riot.
— The audience is getting a huge kick out of this.
— Liked him pointing out that the phone he tried to call 911 on is just a prop.
— Great ending with him passing out.
— Overall, a true classic, and possibly my favorite of SNL’s excessive bleeding sketches.
STARS: *****
MADRIGAL
host, LAN, JAC, BIM sing a madrigal about a ship put to sea in May
— Never realized until now that Laraine and Eric have the exact same hairstyle.
— Judging from Garrett’s set-up and the way the song is going so far, is this going to be another serious performance like Garrett’s operatic performance in the last episode? Then again, it’s hard to take this song seriously when Eric has that hilarious facial expression.
— Hey, this song’s structure and lyrics are actually subtly comedic, especially with they way it’s amusingly being delivered in such a straight manner.
— The sudden “sank” part was a perfect ending.
STARS: ***½
THE WOMAN HE LOVED
Prince Charles (host) & hick teen love (LAN) bicker
— Dan is great as the cop.
— I liked John genially saying, while carrying a shotgun, “I’m gonna go down there and blow their heads off.”
— The abruptly shifting music during the back-and-forth cutaways from the plane footage to the England footage is a funny contrast.
— Pretty funny when Eric came back to the trailer after his long trip just to deliver a brief message to Laraine before leaving again.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
WHAT DO YOU
the game’s sound effect rules take entire show to explain
— LOL at the name “Lord Lupus”.
— This is absolutely hilarious with Eric explaining the convoluted game show rules with all the various sound effects.
— Overall, this was a fantastic little sketch. I loved the silliness, fast pacing, and Monty Python-esque vibe, and this was performed wonderfully with Eric’s flawless, rapid-fire Brit delivery.
STARS: ****½
WEEKEND UPDATE PREVIEW
WEEKEND UPDATE
during a BIM interview, Valerie Harper (GIR) finds out she’s not Jewish
Chico Escuela gives a baseball-centric sports report
BIM & JAC debate prospect of oral sex moratorium pending ERA ratification
Father Guido Sarducci explains what his trip to 42nd Street was like
— Yeah, Gilda’s voice is DEFINITELY shot tonight.
— Great reaction from Gilda’s Valerie Harper when being told she’s not Jewish.
— Chico Escuela making his Update debut.
— Chico’s lack of knowledge over the sports he’s covering is making me laugh.
— It’s good to see Garrett finally having a hit character, after four years on the show.
— Very funny Women Rights segment with Jane calling a moratorium on performing oral sex on males.
— Haha at Bill’s objection to Jane’s moratorium.
— Bill’s “hoardes of rats” news story was great.
— The whole nude wrestling story part of Father Guido Sarducci’s commentary is really good.
— Overall, a strong Update.
STARS: ****
CANDY SLICE
burned-out punk singer Candy Slice (GIR) shows up at the studio wasted
— Judging from the recording studio set, I think we’re getting our debut of Gilda’s famous Candy Slice character.
— Yep, it is! This is gonna be great.
— Why does the name of Bill’s character, Jerry Aldini, sound familiar? I’m pretty sure he played a character with that name sometime prior to this, but I can’t remember which sketch.
— I wonder if rehearsing this sketch all week explains why Gilda’s voice has been so hoarse throughout tonight’s episode. She probably blew her voice out from scream-singing during all the rehearsals.
— LOL at Gilda brushing her armpit hair.
— John and (especially) Gilda are both fighting to keep a straight face (fourth screencap above) after Gilda failed at her attempt to spit booze in John’s face.
— “If You Look Close, You Can See My Tits”. Surprised to hear that in a 70s episode.
— Gilda’s punk rock-style singing and dancing during her performance are great, and her real-life temporary hoarseness actually kinda fits the song’s style well.
STARS: ****
CONSUMER PROBE
Irwin Mainway’s endangered species fashions displayed
— Always nice to see Irwin Mainway, though I can’t help but notice the similarities to Dan’s Telepsychic character we saw just earlier tonight. Both characters have basically the same voice, are sleazy, and wear sunglasses. The same can also be said for Dan’s E. Buzz Miller character.
— The “trumpeter swan slippers” are really funny.
— I like the vest made of human skin with human teeth for buttons.
— Jane’s indignant reactions throughout this are all great.
STARS: ****
THE CANINE CHORUS
by Aviva Slesin- (BIM) is the agent for a band of singing dogs
— Hmm, a new SNL filmmaker. As long as it ain’t Gary Weis, I don’t mind. I was nervous for a second when Eric mentioned Gary Weis’ name during the intro to this film.
— The back-and-forth cutaways between Bill’s phone conversation and the barking dogs are fairly funny.
— Did this get cut off too early? This “ended” right when the camera cut back to a shot of Bill as if he was going to continue speaking.
STARS: ***
COCHISE AT OXFORD
the Apache Indian (BIM) joins (host)’s rhetoric class
— This has some importance to me, as it’s one of the first sketches from this era that I can remember ever seeing, in a rerun back in my early days as an SNL fan. I had a special liking for both the strange concept and Bill’s performance, despite the fact that this isn’t a terribly hilarious or particularly memorable sketch from what I recall.
— LOL at Bill’s entrance as Cochise.
— The class, asking what kind of Indian Cochise is: “A woo-woo Indian or an Indian-Indian?”
— The class hypothesizing how ducks “take a leak” is really funny.
— For some reason, the part of this sketch that stuck in my memory the most from my first viewing is when Bill throws a tomahawk off-camera at Eric, then the camera pans over to Eric hilariously staring fearfully at a tomahawk planted into the chalkboard next to his face, then he naively asks the class “Who threw that?”
— Overall, this sketch was very different from what I had remembered from my first viewing. I had no recollection of all the long discussions between Eric and the class, and I was surprised to see that this sketch was mostly focused on that. Despite being the title character, Bill as Cochise was barely a factor in this and didn’t even show up until halfway through the sketch. I’m kinda disappointed by that, because I had remembered really liking Bill’s Cochise performance.
— Overall, I still liked the sketch, though. The discussions between Eric and the class had some good moments.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
GOODNIGHTS
— What’s with the paper Eric’s holding? At first, I thought this was going to be a comedic bit where he finally received the monologue the writers were supposed to give him earlier. Perhaps that WAS the intention, but maybe the show ran long and thus, Eric didn’t have enough time to do the bit. Just a theory of mine. These goodnights were kinda sloppy in general (it opens with Eric and the cast in the process of making their arrival onstage, as seen in the first screencap above).
— When announcing next week’s guests, Don Pardo says that Mr. Mike will be a special guest. Did Mr. Mike end up canceling or getting bumped, because I was told that his only two cameos after leaving SNL were in this season’s Buck Henry season finale, and next season’s 100th episode.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yet another very strong Eric Idle episode. He’s 3-for-3 in great episodes so far. Tonight had an impressive number of sketches that received a high rating from me, and there were no sketches I disliked. And just like in his first two episodes, the writers did a great job catering to Eric’s specific comedic style.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Walter Matthau):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Our Christmas episode of the season, hosted by Elliott Gould
The French Chef was originally performed at the Walter Matthau dress rehearsal. I think Walter played Julia Child.
The name “Jerry Aldini” (or “Eldini”) made two appearances before this:
http://snlarchives.net/Characters/?63
Brian McConnachie wrote Cochise At Oxford.
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-lists/my-favorite-saturday-night-live-sketch-119386/julia-child-125292/
I think it’s interesting this was the first episode with the big bleeding, when there were Monty Python skits that featured the same type of thing…
Such a good Python-esque feel through this episode. “Madrigal” made me think of the musical entry in the All-England Summarize Proust Competition, and “What Do You” would have been right at home on a Python episode (Gilda as “the Duchess of Detroit” is a cool touch, too). And as Todd pointed out above, there were Python sketches that employed the kind of bleeding seen in “The French Chef” (“Sam Peckinpah’s Salad Days,” anyone?).
Gilda’s Valerie Harper in “Update” is uncanny, which makes a funny bit work even better.
I’d seen the obvious highlights from “The French Chef” a hundred times, but never had seen it all the way through. Dan captures Julia’s unusual style very well, and the eccentric pronunciations are a hoot.
Any time they do the “unintentional backstage tour” is fun, and over the years you can see the evolution of 8H and surroundings. Something neat about SNL (and when Letterman was at NBC) was/is how 30 Rock, and the people therein, become part of the show and characters in themselves. It’s interesting over time to see what changes and what doesn’t.
I’m pretty sure “What Do You” is from a Monty Python album, in fact.
Yes, it’s on MONTY PYTHON’S PREVIOUS RECORD (1972). But Idle originally wrote it for the great BBC radio show I’M SORRY, I’LL READ THAT AGAIN pre-Python.
Is the guitarist in Candy Slice the same one who backed Boz Scaggs in season 2?
Appears so: http://snlarchives.net/Crew/?ElRa
Thank you, Jesse! I didn’t know that was listed on the archives, and also didn’t know that the man in question was studio legend Elliot Randall.
This was the only time Kate Bush ever performed on U.S. television.
This was my first exposure to Kate Bush performing live- I’d heard some of her recorded songs before but never actually seen her singing them- and I was blown away.
Musical Performance #1: “The Man With the Child in His Eyes”
-Kate’s hair is fantastic.
-Nice reveal that she’s sitting on the piano.
-I’m finding myself more entranced by the visuals (aka, Kate’s balletic movements) than the song itself, though I like the soft horn in the background.
-Strong chorus.
-I’m really liking how completely comfortable and in her element Kate appears. Her facial expressions give this performance a theatrical air.
-The high note at the end was lovely, and I’m impressed with how easily she was able to hit it in her seated position.
-Shorter song than I wanted it to be.
Stars: ****1/2
Musical Performance #2: “Them Heavy People”
-A catchy chorus has immediately presented itself.
-Once again, Kate is proving herself to be a self-assured performer, with a notable sense of theatricality.
-The lack of visible backup singers almost makes me wonder if those vocals were pre-recorded, though I highly doubt it. Wish we could see them singing live.
-Love the sprightly piano part.
Stars: ****
Looking up Kate Bush now, I’m impressed by her obvious self-confidence and command of the stage at such a young age. I don’t know whether to be intensely jealous or to fall absolutely in love with her.
Anyway, on to the funny parts- nice to see two famous sketches I’ve heard a lot about, the Julia Child one and the Candy Slice one. Given my inability to stomach large amounts of blood (even fake blood), I didn’t expect to enjoy the Julia Child sketch nearly as much as I did. The contrast between the escalating situation and “Julia’s” attempts to keep it under control was hilarious, and I loved the meta touch of revealing the phone was a prop. As for Candy Slice… I love Gilda, and I love rock music (even parodies of rock music), so I SHOULD have loved this, but it didn’t do all that much for me. I will say her performance was excellent, but that’s not exactly a sweeping statement when it comes to Gilda (imo).
A lesser-known part I liked was the madrigal. A nice silly follow-up to Garrett’s stunning performance from the previous episode. And although it’s not a sketch and doesn’t deserve a rating, I loved seeing Bill & Gilda and Dan & John dancing during the goodnights. I always get frustrated at Hulu asking me to skip the credits, because then I’d miss fun little things like that.
Kate Bush is one of the GOATs. Love this performance by her and love the album these songs came from (The Kick Inside is my second favorite Kate Bush album behind The Dreaming, though I run counter to consensus on her work).
Agreed about Candy Slice. It was always fine, but I never loved the sketches the way I felt I was told to. I think they were a little of their era and it’s hard to see it the same way 40 years later.
Great review Blue. Kate is one of my favorites and you beat me to the punch on this one, but I couldn’t have said it better than you did.
Good job picking up on her very precise and distinctive visual movements along with the songs. Kate was training with some very well regarded choreographers in this period, which makes it all the more ironic that she would stop touring a year or two after this.
Her most recent album 50 words for snow is pretty good. Very trad jazz influenced. Completely different from what she was doing here but still top notch imo.
On second thought, I’m probably going to give “The Man With the Child In His Eyes” a full five stars. Can’t stop thinking about it a week later.
I was so surprised when I read that she only did one tour in her life. She seems such a confident live performer.
I definitely am interested in that recent album… trad jazz you say, that’s something I love, so I feel like it might be up my alley.
I feel like I’ve already left too many comments on this review, but seeing as I just discovered something relevant to this episode, though I might leave it here.
@Steven and @William Ham mentioned that the sketch “What Do You” was previously performed not only on a Monty Python album, but on a radio program as well. I happened to find a third instance of this sketch being performed pre-SNL, on the show Do Not Adjust Your Set. 3:58 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa_jjiJ3HTI
Before seeing this, I thought the “Duchess of Detroit” line was written for Gilda, seeing as she was from Detroit, but now I see it’s simply a happy coincidence.
I can’t bring myself to watch all these older episodes, I am picking and choosing, and had to watch this cause I am a fan of Kate Bushes “running up that hill.”
Because I’m not watching every episode from these early seasons (I have my reasons, mostly due to the fact that I find them to drag and can’t stand a lot of the reoccurring characters that were so popular, bees I’m looking at you…).
I mentioned when Chevy Chase left, I thought that Jane Curtain did a flawless job in taking his place, obviously she’s a much more serious person but she did a stellar job solo. It makes little sense to me why Akroyd would join her as co anchor, but in this episode, it’s Murray and from the other episodes I did see after this I noticed that will remain. Jane looks annoyed when she does the news, I’m not sure if that’s her being her, or part of her act in being a bit of a tight ass. But I don’t really like it, wish she was a bit more loose with a smile and such, a warmer Jane. But now as I’m watching this Bills commentary is adding to her harsher side. I guess I just feel like she could have thrived without this, and been happier delivering the news.
Loved How much Confidence Kate Bush exuded in her first performance, im particularly speaking of her skin tight gold Lurex unitard. That takes balls, but she had the body to make it work and loved how she performed on the piano. Very unusual and cool.
This is my first eric idle episode, I was gonna watch one before this when Chevy was still around but he was at home nursing an injury. Was interested in Belushis Joe Cocker impression but I’ll get around to it.
The only Monty Python thing I ever saw was something on broadway about 15-20 years ago. I think I didn’t mind it cause it wasn’t so long, I have the shortest attention span.
Watching the GR Candy Slice piece. I remember seeing her do this maybe when I tried watching the older episodes a few years back. I think she does a great job but It would have been interesting to see a Candy slice rival with Loraine..
Loving eric idle putting gum in her mouth as she mumbles gum, got a kick out of that. I know she’s dressed similar to what Patti Smith would wear (with a blouse instead of camisole perhaps), but don’t see her being an imitation of that, if anything Janis…this has a feel to “one night stand.” It’s prolly the only sketch I will remember from this episode.
Second Kate Bush song comes on and she’s very charismatic. Both songs were very well done but felt short!
All and all a solid episode but weird way to end, Eric Idle looks puzzled or annoyed or just out of place..as if it was his first time on stage in the closing credits.