March 17, 1979 – Margot Kidder / The Chieftans (S4 E15)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DISCLAIMER
Little Women & Big Basketball Players will not be seen tonight

COLD OPENING
on St. Patrick’s Day, Jimmy Hoffa (JOB) subs for Mayor Daley’s ghost

   

— The return of Bill’s radio show deejay character, Dick Lanky.
— A continuation of the Richard Daley’s Ghost sketch they did a year earlier.
— Good fake-out with Daley’s entrance turning out to be Jimmy Hoffa.
— This is now the fifth LFNY in a row for John. Are they attempting to make him the new Chevy? Or is it because they know John’s on his way out and is leaving soon? I guess they didn’t know yet that Dan too was eyeing SNL’s exit door; otherwise I’m sure they’d be throwing him some LFNYs as well.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
bad camera work is traced to control room’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration

       

— The camera slumping down during Margot’s speech due to drunk crew members is a premise that would later be re-used in a St. Patrick’s Day-themed Stuart Smalley sketch from season 20, with Chris Farley as a drunk cameraman. I wonder if that means Franken wrote this monologue.
— Gilda, sternly to an audience member (played by Jim Downey): “The audience is not supposed to ask questions of the host.” Oh, if only SNL always stood by that rule in later eras…
— Funny seeing the entire control room’s drunken St. Patrick’s Day celebration.
— Heh, why is Lorne always in the middle of doing an interview during backstage monologues in this era? And it’s always Tom Schiller playing the interviewer, too.
— I liked Dave Wilson drunkenly saying LFNY after being brought back to consciousness.
STARS: ****

THE NAVY
grunt work while docked in Bayonne shows the truth of The Navy Adventure

   

— Wait, what’s this? The last part of the monologue made it seem like the control room was going to cut back to SNL’s opening montage and have Margot re-start her monologue all over again, but instead, this pre-taped Navy segment got cued up. Or is this an intentional joke that the control room crew were so drunk, they cued up the wrong tape?
— Despite my bafflement over this commercial appearing instead of a continuation of the monologue, this was a decent segment. Nothing special.
STARS: ***

FRED GARVIN: MALE PROSTITUTE
(host) is visited by unsexy Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute (DAA)

     

— Oh, this is a classic Dan Aykroyd piece.
— So far, the concept alone is already great.
— Dan’s “animal gratification” line was very funny.
— I love how they keep displaying the “Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute” graphic whenever Dan looks at the camera as he states his name and title.
— The “seductive poses” part is classic, and it’s the portion of this sketch I’ve always remembered the most.
— Funny how he still keeps his shirt and glasses on in bed, as part of his working condition.
— LOL at Garrett’s entrance as the pimp.
— Overall, definitely one of Dan’s greatest sketches ever. It’s probably a good thing this sketch ended up staying a one-off despite the fact that everything about it screamed “future recurring sketch”. Then again, Dan leaves the show just two months later. If he were still in the cast in season 5, who knows if they would have been able to resist bringing this sketch back, especially knowing how creatively burned-out the writers were that season. They actually were going to bring this back decades later when Dan hosted in 2003, but it got cut after dress.  That was probably for the best; I doubt a sequel with an aged Aykroyd would have done the original justice.
STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “If I Had Maggie in the Wood”

ST. MICKEY’S KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
(host) solicits money for Irish poor at St. Mickey’s Knights of Columbus

   

— This sketch is growing on me the more they do it. I’m starting to enjoy the low-key humor more and more, and these sketches have such a likable vibe.
— I’ve once again spotted that 1985-86 Robert Downey Jr.-looking extra that I pointed out in the last Knights of Columbus sketch, and he’s sitting in the same spot tonight, too.
— Heh, a nun is their boxing team’s coach? Well, no wonder their team is doing so poorly.
— I’ve noticed one of the club members appears to be the same long-gray-haired lady with glasses who was sitting next to Bill in that “Honker in the SNL Audience” cold opening from earlier this season. In my review of that cold opening, I pointed out how uncomfortable she looked in that, as I assumed she was a real audience member. But now I see she must’ve just been a plant.

 

— Funny how much Margot’s overdramatic, depressing speech killed the whole mood of the meeting.
— It probably wasn’t necessary to repeat the “only one club member knows the lyrics during the sing-a-long” bit from last time, but it still was fairly funny.
— Overall, a strong installment, and I’m glad to have come around on these sketches. I’m probably too late on that, though, as this most likely ended up being the final installment, considering John and Dan’s nearby departure.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE PREVIEW

WEEKEND UPDATE
Father Guido Sarducci gives examples of canonization politics
BIM sings “Happy Birthday” to a bust of Albert Einstein
JAC & DAA do a Point-Counterpoint about Lee Marvin’s divorce settlement

    

— A funny continuation of the “you left this at my place last night” bit from the last Update.
— Yet another Father Guido Sarducci commentary. I normally don’t mind this character, but MAN, am I getting tired of this season’s narrow cycle of recurring Update guests. Every week, we seem to get either Sarducci, Rosanne Rosannadanna, or Chico Escuela. Well, we don’t have to worry about that third one for a while, since Chico’s “retired” at this point (he comes back eventually, though, I’m pretty sure).
— Funny part with Sarducci complaining about how the nun he’s talking about performed only three miracles instead of four, two of them being card tricks.
— Bill’s smarmy singing of “Happy Birthday” to an Einstein bust is a more fleshed-out version of something he did earlier this season with Beethoven, but this is even better. Classic Bill Murray.
— A Point/Counterpoint segment.
— Oh, this is the famous edition of Point/Counterpoint that I asked about recently: the one with Dan’s “dried-up slunk meat like you” insult. This has been shown in many SNL highlight reels over the years. So much so, that I used to think that was the ONLY Point/Counterpoint Jane and Dan ever did. Doing these reviews lately, I’ve been surprised to see just how often Jane and Dan did Point/Counterpoints.
— This is my first time seeing tonight’s Point/Counterpoint in its full context instead of as a highlight clip. Funny, I had no idea until now that the debate was on the subject of Lee Marvin.
— This is one of Dan’s absolute best rebuttals in a Point/Counterpoint, with him doing a particularly hilarious acid-tongued rant with some great biting insults, being delivered in his usual rapid-fire way.
STARS: ****

LOIS LANE
superheroes attend a party thrown by Superman (BIM) & Lois Lane (host)

      

— Oh, this is yet another famous segment tonight.
— LOL at John’s entrance as Hulk.
— This sketch is a lot of fun so far. SNL usually always does a great job with sketches rounding up famous superheroes at some kind of gathering, like the later equally-classic Superman’s Funeral sketch.
— Funny reason for Hulk’s wife being in bandages and crutches.
— I love the part with the other superheroes being unimpressed by Ant Man’s superpowers.
— Great gag with John’s Hulk not knowing the Invisible Woman was “using the can”.
— Good angry outburst from Bill’s Clark Kent at the end as he’s throwing everyone out.
STARS: *****

THE FRANKEN AND DAVIS SHOW
ALF plans to sue General Mills for using his image on Frankenberry cereal
Pity Thy Neighbor- down-on-his-luck (TOD) fails to get any support

    

— I like Al pointing out the similarities between himself and the Franken Berry cereal mascot. I’ve always noticed the similarity myself whenever I see a box of that cereal.
— This “Pity Thy Neighbor” segment looks interesting.
— Heh, good lord at Tom’s entrance looking like that.
— Funny line from Tom about how he only eats popcorn and pigeons.
— Overall, this was decent, but not as great as it could’ve been.
STARS: ***

MEN’S PROBLEMS
women discuss their perspectives on guys’ troubles

   

— Ah, an opposite-gendered sequel to the previous week’s Women’s Problems sketch, I see. I love the idea of this.
— Funny story from Jane about her husband’s sex routine.
— Margot’s pretty funny in this.
— Audience member: “What about lesbianism?” Jane as host: “What about it? Next question.”
— Overall, while I felt the previous week’s Women’s Problems sketch had better writing, I still liked this one a lot and got some good enjoyment.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Morning Dew”

MR. BILL IS HIDING
by Walter Williams- in a closet, away from Mr. Hands

   

— Oh, man, yet ANOTHER Mr. Bill this season? I’ve said it before, but they’re really going heavy on him this season.
— At least there’s a change to the premise, with Mr. Bill acknowledging how Mr. Hands abuses both him & Spot and is friends with Sluggo.
— Wow, that was short, overall. Not all that funny, though. This character has gone from being always funny to being really hit-and-miss.
STARS: **½

GOODNIGHTS

 

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A great episode. Three all-time classic segments came from just this one episode (Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute, Lois Lane, and tonight’s Point/Counterpoint). A lot of the other sketches were strong, too, and there wasn’t really anything that fell too flat.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gary Busey):
— a slight step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Richard Benjamin