December 16, 1978 – Elliott Gould / Peter Tosh (S4 E9)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DISCLAIMER
the 28th Annual U.S.-Taiwan Table Tennis Open will not be seen tonight

— First time we’ve seen a show-opening disclaimer gag all season.

COLD OPENING
to conserve energy, Jimmy Carter (DAA) darkens White House Christmas tree

  

— Energetic audience reaction to the opening shot of Dan.
— Overall, the tree un-lighting premise was decent and this opening worked pretty well.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
host & GAM dance & sing “Christmas Night In Harlem”

   

— Yet another Elliott Gould monologue that launches right into a song. I guess he was the Christopher Walken of the original SNL era.
— Ha at Garrett interrupting the song.
— I’m liking Garrett’s dancing.
— Overall, a fun number, and it was good to see a cast member get involved in a musical Elliott monologue for a change.
STARS: ***½

BABY NORWAY ALL-FLAMMABLE CHRISTMAS TREE
the Rovco All-Flammable Christmas Tree eliminates the need for cleanup

     

— Looks like we’re getting our usual absurd-premised Dan Aykroyd commercial.
— Not a hilarious concept, but still pretty funny and silly.
— I weirdly liked the extended ending showing the stagehands putting out the fires.
STARS: ***

THE WIDETTES
the big-butt Widette family (DAA), (JAC), (GIR), (JOB) makes buns puns

     

— The debut of this recurring sketch that I’ve always heard about. I’ve never seen these, but I’m dreading it based on my recently-mentioned dislike of “every member of a family has the same weird trait/big body part” sketches.
— John and Gilda pigging out on the fudge present they were given was pretty funny.
— The toilet paper gag ending was okay.
— Overall, not quite as bad as I was expecting, but I still wasn’t crazy about this.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

MOMMIE DEAREST
in a flashback, Christina Crawford (GIR) recalls her Mommie Dearest (JAC)

       

— Interesting use of Gilda’s catatonic Colleen character.
— I’m getting some good laughs from Jane’s violent outbursts to Gilda, and Gilda responding by hitting her own doll.
— I don’t know whether to laugh or cringe at Yvonne Hudson playing her maid role in such a ridiculously stereotypical, old-timey, over-the-top manner.
— LOL at Gilda’s Christmas present being the previous night’s dinner she reportedly gagged on.
— The return of Bill and Laraine’s Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn impressions, and the debut of a funny Clark Cable impression from Dan.
— Dan’s Gable to Jane’s Crawford: “Frankly, my dear, I could never make love to someone who’s shoulders are bigger than mine.”
— Gilda’s delivery of “Thank you!” was hilarious.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE PREVIEW

WEEKEND UPDATE
during a LAN interview, Steve Rubell (JOB) disavows cocaine at Studio 54
BIM sings Fifth Symphony-inspired “Happy Birthday” to Beethoven
JAC & DAA do a Point-Counterpoint about USA-China diplomatic relations
Roseanne Roseannadanna touches on holiday depression, gives JAC fruitcake

       

— A hot crowd tonight. They’re howling at everything.
— Funny sight gag with John’s cocaine mustache.
— John, about use of cocaine at the club: “Apparently, this is going on right under my nose.”
— Ha, nice twist at the end with John eating a powdered donut.
— Bill’s smarmy singing of “Happy Birthday” to Beethoven was brief but classic Bill Murray.
— That Clark Kent suit joke bombed completely.
— We’re getting another Point/Counterpoint.
— Heh, during Jane’s rant in Point/Counterpoint, you can tell a Roseanne Rosannadanna commentary is coming up because on the left side of the screen, you can see a part of Gilda’s unmistakable Rosannadanna wig.
— Dan’s rebuttal was freakin’ great, especially his remark about Jane’s “dried-out scuzz”.
— I must’ve seen this Rosannadanna commentary in an SNL highlight reel or “Best Of” special, because her whole funny spiel about spaghetti sauce stains in teeth sounds seems so familiar, and used to always be the first thing that came to my mind whenever I thought of this character.
— Rosannadanna’s commentary is now making the audience howl like crazy again, much like they were doing earlier this Update.
— HA at the nasty fruitcake Rosannadanna gave Jane.
STARS: ***½

ALCOHOLIC’S CHRISTMAS
to wino (host), liquor brand mascots are the true spirits of Christmas

 

— Interesting premise with the cast playing embodied versions of various liquors.
— Uh-oh, a musical number has suddenly broken out. Ugh.
— Overall, despite my perpetual dislike of unnecessary musical numbers in the middle of SNL sketches, this was a charming little holiday sketch, though I wanted to like this a little more than I did.
STARS: ***

BOB & RAY
Bob & Ray [real] simulate interview featuring a hard-luck holiday story

 

— This is my first time seeing Bob & Ray’s comedy act.
— Funny seeing Bob Elliott on SNL, knowing that a son (Chris) and granddaughter (Abby) of his would later go on to become cast members on the show.
— The comment about the Rockefeller tree was my only real laugh so far, and even that was more of a chuckle.
— Overall, I’m disappointed to say I found this only mildly funny at best. This started very slow, but got a little better as it went along. Considering the good things I’ve always heard about this comedy team, I feel bad for not liking this segment more. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that their material is usually better than this.
STARS: **½

ST. MICKEY’S KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
St. Mickey’s Knights of Columbus has its Christmas banquet

     

— Last time they did this sketch with Buck Henry, I mentioned that when I was much younger, I saw a version of this sketch with Elliott Gould in an old SNL Christmas compilation special. Something I’ll always remember about my initial viewing of this Gould version of the sketch is that for the first minute of it, I mistakenly thought that was future cast member Randy Quaid in John Belushi’s role. I remember confusedly going “Wait, what season does this sketch come from??? How can 1985-86 season cast member Randy Quaid be appearing in a sketch with Dan, Garrett, Bill, etc.?”, before realizing that was John Belushi I was looking at. I know that mix-up sounds very odd considering Quaid and Belushi normally look nothing alike, but in this sketch, there was something about John’s glasses and the certain way he was moving his mouth while speaking that reminded younger me of how Quaid looked in certain bespectacled roles on SNL. For what it’s worth, I don’t see the resemblance at all anymore.
— So far, the same problem I had with the first Knights of Columbus sketch is applying to this second installment: the parody of lodge meetings is a little TOO realistic and feels too long.
— I like Jane and Gilda as the two cooks, even without having any lines.
— Hey, I’m actually liking this part with the club members not knowing words to various Christmas carols, except Elliott being the only one who knows the “Good King Wenceslas” lyrics.
— Funny how I mentioned a season 11 cast member (Randy Quaid) earlier in this sketch review, because now I’ve noticed whenever this sketch shows a wide shot of the club, there’s a bespectacled club member on the bottom of the screen that strongly resembles season 11-era Robert Downey Jr. (circled in the screencap below) It obviously can’t be him, though; he would’ve only been about 13 years old at this time.

— Overall, this sketch started out kinda dull as usual, but surprisingly gained some good momentum towards the end and got me to like it. Definitely an improvement over the first installment.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

DUBS TREES
Honker assumes control of a Christmas tree lot & makes a sale

     

— LOL at Bill getting caught peeing near the trees.
— Oh, is this another appearance from Bill’s Honker character?
— Wow, interesting role-reversal with Gilda playing a mom and Jane playing her child for once. It’s funny, because I was just thinking a few days ago how I would like to see a sketch where always-great-at-playing-moms Jane and always-great-at-playing-kids Gilda would switch roles.
— Yeah, this IS Honker. I always like this weird character.
— Jane’s actually pretty adorable in her portrayal of a child. Too bad it doesn’t seem she got cast in roles like this more often.
— Overall, good sketch.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS

 

---

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Overall, a pretty decent Christmas episode. Nothing outstanding, and most of the sketches stayed in just the 3 to 3½-star range, but the overall show had an nice, enjoyable Christmas-y feel to it that I liked, no doubt partly helped by Elliott Gould’s always-warm presence. A welcome contrast to how the previous season’s Christmas episode (Miskel Spillman) strangely had almost NO Christmas-themed material.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Eric Idle):
— a step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
We enter 1979, with Michael Palin, our second Monty Python alum host in three episodes