Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
after hearing that host is sick, Buck Henry [real] begs to replace him
— A bearded Buck Henry cameo! For the second consecutive week! Heh, did he not even leave Studio 8H since last week?
— We get the debut of SNL’s traditional backstage llama!
— Funny with Buck’s repeatedly ignored insistence that he’ll go on in place of an ill Eric Idle. A good continuation of the traditional gag that Buck gets no respect at the show.
— Interesting LFNY format break.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— For some reason, the theme music and audience applause stops almost immediately after it starts, then after a weird pause, the music and applause continues. What the heck was that all about?
— After being uncredited in his debut last week, Harry Shearer is finally in the opening montage tonight.
However, instead of being announced under the title “featuring”, he’s announced as “And a little of Harry Shearer!” Considering this was the very first time a featured player was ever credited on SNL, I guess the show hadn’t yet figured out what title to put that type of cast member under.
MONOLOGUE
under-the-weather host does impressions while strapped to a stretcher
— Haha, oh my god at Eric being carried out onstage in a stretcher. Great entrance.
— Beards must’ve been really popular at the time, as we’ve been seeing a lot of them this season between Garrett’s thick graying beard last week, Buck in his two cameos, and now Eric Idle.
— His “stretcher impersonations” are really fun, especially Superman and Gary Gilmore.
STARS: ****
HOTEL-MOTEL ART FAIR
pitchman Tom Clay (HAS) advertises the upcoming Hotel-Motel Art Fair
— Our very first Harry Shearer pitchman commercial!
— His pitchman voice is great and he’s doing a fantastic job at the fast-talking spiel, picking up the slack Aykroyd left when it comes to commercials of this nature.
— Overall, funny concept and an absolutely great performance from Harry.
STARS: ****
SHOE STORE
shoe salesman (host) frustrates customer’s (BIM) quest for footwear
— When Bill was first shown outside the store window, I thought that was Dan Aykroyd for a second, before I remembered he’s not on the show anymore.
— I’m loving the absurdity of this sketch, and this material is perfect for Eric’s comedic style and Brit delivery.
— I’m cracking up endlessly at Eric incredulously asking why Bill would want to buy two shoes.
— Another great part with Eric rapidly shooting down each of Bill’s scenarios.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Gotta Serve Somebody”
PRINCE CHARLES TELLS YOU HOW TO PICK UP GIRLS!
Prince Charles’ (host) book tells you how to use royal ties to get girls
— The audience is liking the concept more than I am so far, but Eric is funny in this.
— Garrett still has his beard from the last episode.
— Bill’s pick-up line being “My great uncle was just blown up by Irish terrorists” was hilarious.
— Laraine’s “hot monkey love” line was really funny.
— Eric’s “choking the chicken” remark was yet another hilarious line.
— LOL at Eric stiffly passing out as the camera started fading to black.
— Overall, that was really good; much better than I was expecting.
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE
Gerald Hacker (HAS) reports on an American straw vote held in Britain
BIM lets Princess Margaret’s anti-Irish comments slide- she was ‘faced
Roseanne Roseannadanna meanders from home-buying to Yves St. Laurent
— Interesting change of pace with Harry Shearer as a Weekend Update London correspondent at his own Update set, showing pre-taped interviews with various people.
— Bill’s Princess Margaret/Irish pigs commentary was really funny, especially the “slut, tramp, slimebucket” comments.
— The first appearance of the season for Rosanne Roseannadanna, a character I’ve slowly been getting tired of lately.
— Overall, Rosannadanna’s commentary was standard stuff, but she did have some funny disgusting lines when she was going on about roughage.
— Why was Bill missing from the desk at the end during Jane’s sign-off? Did our utility player of the season leave the desk early tonight to get in costume for the next sketch?
STARS: ***
HARDCORE II
(LAN) discovers her father (BIM) is a transvestite stripper
— Looks like Bill DID have to duck out of Update early to get ready for the next sketch. Maybe it took a while to apply that prosthetic nose he’s wearing in this.
— Bill’s husky, raspy voice is cracking me up.
— What? The sketch is over already? That’s it?
— Man, this sketch was terrible, and felt pretty pointless. Almost had an 80-81 season feel. (NOTE TO SELF: Get ready for that notorious season, me. It’s comin’ closer and closer.) Bill’s voice was the only thing I even laughed at.
— Maybe I need to be familiar with the movie this is parodying in order to appreciate it.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Believe In You”
ANDY KAUFMAN
Andy Kaufman [real] challenges a female audience member to wrestle him
— The first SNL appearance of Andy’s well-known female wrestling gimmick.
— HAHA at the audience lightly booing and hissing during Andy’s unintentionally sexist statements about women.
— A Bob Zmuda appearance.
— A pregnant woman among the group of volunteers?!?!?
— Oh, I see where this is going. The pregnant woman is going to be chosen just because she seems like the least likely option.
— Heh, Andy panics and ends up switching the pregnant woman out for another woman.
— Boy, this wrestling match is weird to watch on SNL, but it’s pretty funny and strangely fascinating.
— Very funny part with the volunteer suddenly pulling Andy down from behind when Andy was in the middle of yelling “Shut up!” to the booing audience.
— Andy’s doing a great job playing the villain and making the audience genuinely hate him.
— Speaking to the camera, Andy challenges swimmer Diana Nyad to a future match, and says he’ll shave his own head in front of the audience if loses. As far as I know, nothing ended up becoming of that challenge, but it was a funny idea.
STARS: ****
HEAVY SARCASM
Joan Face (JAC) & guests (host) & (BIM) feign emotions
— A kinda-funny concept, but I worry this will be one of those one-note sketches where the humor fizzles out fast after the premise is immediately revealed right at the top of the sketch.
— Yeah, I’m not crazy about this so far.
— Overall, despite a very good performance from Jane, this was just weak.
STARS: **
ASK ELVIS
psychic (LAN) relays answers to your questions
— Strange concept. Again, the audience is liking this more than I am.
— Ha, I’m pretty sure that’s Andy doing the Elvis voice-over.
— I guess the absurdity of showing a rotating Elvis bust while his voice-over answers questions is kinda funny, but this is yet another sketch I’m just not crazy about.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “When You Gonna Wake Up”
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A tale of two halves. The first half of this episode featured lots of great stuff that I loved, but man was I bored during the entire second half, except for the Andy Kaufman segment and Bob Dylan’s last performance, and those were just guest segments. All of the actual SNL-written material in that second half of the show fell really flat with me.
— Eric Idle’s talents felt a little wasted. He had some strong moments early on in the night, especially the Shoe Store sketch, but the weak post-Update half of the show kinda misused his talents. Tonight’s episode just couldn’t measure up to Eric’s fantastic previous hosting stints; and unfortunately, this ends up being the last time he ever hosted.
— Compared to last week, there didn’t seem to be as many writers making tons of on-screen appearances tonight. Probably because a lot of this episode’s sketches didn’t involve many performers. Nice to see lots of Harry Shearer, though, who’s already showing loads of potential.
— Not a great start to the season so far with these first two episodes. I’m noticing a higher average of weak sketches than the last few seasons had.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Martin):
— a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Bill Russell
Apparently Eric really did have a fever of 104 and Buck Henry was on standby in case he couldn’t preform. Whether or not that affected the quality of the show, it’s really a shame he never hosted again after this. His episodes were the best
Yeah, they said he was really was sick. Considering that he really did one heck of a job. He is better sick that Milton Berle was healthy sadly.
Idle, apparently, was genuinely very sick that week, which may account for his relative lack of presence in the program. Great example of the show using backstage reality for comedic purposes, though – some of what Shearer’s doctor character says in the opening echoes what Belushi’s doctor claimed the night of the Kate Jackson show.
And I’ve seen “Hardcore,” and believe me when I tell you that doesn’t make “Hardcore II” any funnier. They do much better with their movie parodies as the season goes on.
I wonder if this season is what taught Lorne the importance of better managing cast turnover and having people rise up through featured player status.
The sketches I liked best from this season have what I call a more conceptual feel to them–they’re not big on super laughs and they’re not necessarily topical, but they have a pleasant, enjoyable premise to them (I think the SNL history book calls this “gentler, more whimsical humor”), like the Dave’s Variety Store sketch in the Newhart episode, the Strother Martin episode involving the bilingual Cool Hand Luke parody, and the sketch where people want to be peppers (as in Dr. Pepper fans).
Seeing Andy Kaufman wrestling women was perhaps the most uncomfy of his performances I’ve seen him do on the show. And when he transitioned to doing that to male pro-wrestlers and eventually made a promise to not do that again in a subsequent ep before basically breaking that promise on David Letterman, it’s no wonder most votes went to “Dump Andy” during the Dick Ebersol era…
I love Andy Kaufman. Like Robin Williams he was a comic genius. However when he started the whole wrestling thing I thing he lost it. Not just not being funny but I thing he became borderline insane.
This was all only five years before he died from lung cancer, and I have often wondered having seen how lung cancer can affect a person (people don’t really talk about how it affects the brain but I have seen it first hand with my mom) if that played a part in how he started to go over the edge with the wrestling from comedy to insanity. Just a thought.
Based on a biography I read, at least part of his motivation was to grope women.
If I remember correctly, the woman who wrestled Andy Kaufman was named Mimi Lambert and she was dating Andy Kaufman.
Mitchell Lawrence (Matthew’s twin and the assistant director of seasons 4 & 5) told me that while he and Peter Aykroyd were holding Eric Idle in the monologue all they thought was, “Don’t drop Eric”