Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Ronald Reagan’s aide (HAS) outlines candidate’s nap-filled schedule
— Who in the world is this guy in the make-up chair and who is he playing? He was addressed as “governor”, but I didn’t hear clearly when Laraine said his name.
— Haha, I get it now – the joke is it’s then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan being played by an elderly extra, as a comical exaggeration of Reagan’s age.
— Shearer’s perfect in this as the aide, detailing Reagan’s extensive schedule in his usual impeccable delivery.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— Love the way the theme music sounds tonight.
— Ah, not only is Harry Shearer finally back in the credits, but Tom Davis and Paul Shaffer receive their very first featured player credit, beginning a season-long trend of then-current writers being billed as featured players whenever they have a noteworthy role in the show.
— This is also the very first time in SNL history where featured players are actually announced under the title “Featuring…” instead of “And a little of…”
MONOLOGUE
after host sings “Let Me Love You,” pianist PAS passionately kisses her
— We get a serious musical number.
— Ha, great ending with Shaffer suddenly throwing Bea over the piano and making out with her. He did something kinda like that at the end of Dyan Cannon’s monologue, too, back in season 1.
STARS: ***
SPUD BEER
boat people lift their spirits with the potato-based brew
— Hey, a sudden Spud Beer callback!
— I always love hearing the jingle, and it’s interesting how they updated the lyrics in this one.
— Can’t think of many other times in SNL history where they actually did a sequel to an earlier fake ad.
STARS: ***½
FIRST HE CRIES
(BIM) tries to cope with his wife’s (GIR) mastectomy
— Okay, I’ve always been curious about this sketch. From all the things I’ve heard about it over the years, it sounds like a semi-dramatic sketch that seems really heavy for SNL, dealing with such a serious, depressing subject matter.
— I recently learned they originally wanted to do this sketch the previous week with Buck Henry, but he declined due to the subject matter (which is an interesting turning-of-the-tables, as Buck’s usually the host who willingly does sketches that were turned down by other hosts). Which role would Buck have played, the husband? The doctor?
— Loved Bill’s comically overdramatic “Why me??!!” while looking skyward.
— The screen crawl is making me realize that this sketch is going to be more comedic than I had thought; I especially liked the part of the crawl that mentioned the “anguish of living with half a woman”.
— Bea snapping at Gilda is a funny turn, especially the line “You took away something very important to him.”
— Liked Bill dismissively referring to Gilda as “Miss Uniboob”.
— Good scene between Bill and Laraine.
— Great ending freeze frame with Bill grabbing Gilda’s butt.
— Ha, we get yet another variation of the “Mercy Killers” theme song, with Bill singing this sketch’s ending theme in the same melody as “Mercy Killers” and “The Black Shadow”. It’s gotten to the point where I instantly crack up as soon as I hear that melody at the end of a sketch. I’ve been told we get at least one more theme song in that style, in the Micro-Dentists sketch from later this season. I recall seeing that sketch before, but have no memory of a theme song in it.
— Overall, I’m surprised by how much I liked this. I got some good laughs all throughout, this was nowhere near as semi-depressing as earlier hearsay had me expecting it to be, I loved Bill’s performance, and I always enjoy the epic, mini-movie-type sketches this era does.
STARS: ****
DROP OUT
(TOD) not wanting to go to school leads to a Soviet takeover of the USA
— What in the world was that VERY loud, long mechanical squeaking sound at the beginning? Bill and Jane appeared to be trying to play it off like it was part of the sketch, but judging from the way the sketch has been going after the sound stopped, the sound seems too random to have been part of the sketch.
— Bill’s funny as the dad, but where is this going?
— Tom Davis’ frequent “fine with me”s are pretty funny.
— Haha, I now like where this is going. Looks like this is going to be another extensive sketch with multiple scenes and sets, much like the preceding sketch.
— The Russian invasion kitchen scene kinda started abruptly, almost as if something was edited out. (I’m reviewing the DVD version of the episode, as usual)
— Funny little bit at the end with one Russian soldier (was that Franken?) staying behind to eat the son’s waffle.
— Overall, this was a lot shorter than I had assumed it was going to be, but I enjoyed this sketch a lot.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bobby’s Song”
WEEKEND UPDATE
shattered backboard footage documents fate of unused DC-10 windshields
in the name of science, ALF uses various methods to torture live roaches
Hindenberg footage chronicles end of Thanksgiving parade Snoopy balloon
— I liked how a clip of the famous Darryl Dawkins backboard-shattering dunk was used to represent the DC-10 windshield. The joke isn’t terribly funny in itself, but I guess I just enjoy any excuse to see that Dawkins dunk clip.
— Ha, I just noticed that one of the international clocks on the wall behind Bill is simply labeled “A Clock” instead of the name of a state or country.
— Another Franken commentary. I believe this is going to be the infamous roach-killing bit I mentioned in the last review.
— Ah, it is.
— Was the idea for this Franken commentary inspired by the name of tonight’s musical guest, or is it just a coincidence?
— In a weird way, it’s ballsy to do a segment slowly killing live cockroaches on live TV.
— In the middle of Franken’s commentary, I now just noticed the two international clocks on the wall behind Jane are simply labeled, respectively, “A Clock” and “A Watch”. Heh, from now on, I’m going to watch out for the clocks in the rest of this season’s Updates to see if there are other hidden gags like this.
— Ha, I kinda like how Franken’s roach experiments are getting increasingly more ridiculous and sadistic.
— Overall, I’m not too sure how to feel about Franken’s commentary as a whole, but I didn’t completely hate it like a lot of SNL fans seem to.
— Geez, that Snoopy balloon/Hindenburg bit was awful, and deservedly got a tepid audience reaction. And unfortunately, THAT’S what they end tonight’s Update with.
STARS: **½
THANKSGIVING DINNER
eating Thanksgiving dinner in aunt’s (host) basement makes adults regress
— A pretty predictable direction this sketch is headed in, with the adults slowly acting like kids.
— Overall, while I initially wasn’t crazy about this premise, the performances gradually won me over and this ended up being an overall pretty fun sketch.
STARS: ***
WOMAN TO WOMAN
Connie Carson seeks downside to (host)’s ideal motherhood
— I’ve never been too crazy about this series of sketches.
— I liked Gilda’s stern delivery of “You heard me.”
— Okay, this sketch has started getting a little funnier with the drug story about Bea’s kids.
— Overall, there were a few decent moments, but as a whole, this was yet another “Woman To Woman” installment I wasn’t too crazy about. I hope this ends up being the final appearance of this sketch.
STARS: **½
SAVECO
Tom Clay tells why Saveco’s prices are low- they resell recalled products
— The return of Harry’s Tom Clay pitchman character from the Hotel-Motel Art Fair sketch earlier this season.
— Harry’s doing another great job as an insanely-fast-talking spokesperson, and I like the premise of this a lot.
STARS: ****
BACKER’S AUDITION
(PAS) & (HAS) preview their rock opera about Charles Manson & Jay Sebring
— There’s the same set from the party scene in First He Cries.
— Wow, tons of airtime for Paul Shaffer tonight.
— Interesting set-up to the song.
— Harry and Paul are making an interesting team.
— Strange sketch so far.
— Bill’s song and his overly intense singing style was hilarious.
— I don’t know what to think of this sketch anymore…
— Garrett’s psychotic “9” song is cracking me the hell up.
— MAN, this is one long sketch…
— Funny how into it Harry is in the background during Gilda and Bill’s duet.
— Overall, wow, I had a roller coaster of emotions watching this, constantly shifting from laughing-out-loud mode to either “What IS this?” or “This sketch is STILL going on?” But now that the sketch is over, I can recognize that it was actually very good and intriguingly weird. My occasional impatience with the length is probably just due to my natural dislike for Broadway-type musical sketches, but looking back on this sketch as a whole, I can put my anti-Broadway bias aside for now and admit that this was a strongly-written and strongly-performed sketch.
STARS: ****
MR. BILL BUILDS A HOUSE
by Walter Williams- Mr. Hands aids construction
— *groan*
— Okay, Mr. Bill and his trailer home being dragged by the car made me chuckle, I admit.
— Ugh, the rest of this just ended up being the usual “Mr. Bill gets dismembered over and over” stuff that does nothing for me anymore.
— I’ve been noticing that they haven’t been using the “The Mr. Bill Show” title screen in his shorts this season. Does that have anything to do with the then-ongoing legal battle over Mr. Bill’s ownership?
STARS: *½
CUBAN BEATLES
revival band Los Beatolos Cubanos performs Latin takes of Fab Four hits
— A pretty damn funny idea. I’m already liking this.
— Wow, I don’t recognize ANY of the performers playing the band.
— Okay, I’m starting to recognize some of them. There’s Paul Shaffer once again (wow, tonight’s really his night), I think that’s Tom Schiller as the lead singer, and MAYBE that’s Garrett as the drummer in the back? Who’s the tall one on the far right end of the screen? The mysterious Peter Aykroyd, perhaps? Alan Zweibel?
— Liked Bill’s testimonial.
— The scrolling list of song titles are really funny.
— Overall, a very solid short little sketch.
STARS: ****
ANDY KAUFMAN
Andy Kaufman [real] taunts female viewers & invites them to wrestle
— Well, this appearance came out of nowhere. Why wasn’t Andy credited in tonight’s opening montage like he always is whenever he’s making a guest appearance in an episode?
— His taunting rant about how he’ll be seen wrestling on every single show we watch is really funny.
— Boy, he is in full-on villain mode in this one. You can tell he is just ITCHING for viewers to hate him.
— Ha, there he goes once again intentionally riling up the studio audience with his sexist statements about women.
— Oh, it turns out this is just setting up an invitation for any female viewers to send in a letter accepting a challenge to wrestle Andy live on SNL’s upcoming Christmas episode. IIRC, SNL actually does end up following through on that.
— Bea’s deadpan post-Kaufman message was great.
— I like how this era has so much fan participation-type contests; stuff like Anyone Can Host, Find the Popes in the Pizza, Kill Morris the Cat, home movies, etc. Whatever happened to those days? I know it carries over into the early 80s a bit, where they would even go one step further by doing interesting live “call-in poll” gimmicks like the Larry the Lobster thing. But it’s too bad that fan participation events like that eventually goes away by the mid-80s.
STARS: N/A (not really a rateable segment)
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hallelujah Chorus”
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A strong episode. There was some really solid writing and several great segments. I also like how this episode took a lot of risks with more ambitious, daring pieces, such as First He Cries, Backer’s Audition, and even Franken’s roach-torturing bit.
— Bea Arthur was a surprisingly forgettable host, carrying very little of the show and not being the comedic focus of anything. That’s pretty disappointing, considering I’ve always found her funny on shows like “Maude”; I came into this episode expecting her to be a good host.
— Very good night for featured players Harry Shearer and Paul Shaffer, both of who received tons of airtime for newbie standards and had a lot of really good performances. Shearer has been adding a breath of fresh air to the cast this season in general.
— After a shaky first three episodes of the season, tonight’s episode and the solid preceding episode with Buck Henry almost have me wondering if we’re experiencing a return to the greatness from seasons 3 & 4, but I’m aware that’s not how the remainder of this season plays out.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Buck Henry):
— a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Howard Hesseman
Harry Shearer and Paul Schaffer wrote Backer’s Audition. Also, First He Cries like X police, Mercy Killers, Black Shadow, upcoming Micro Dentists is written by Franken & Davis.
Shearer is a great performer; I think the SNL history book also notes he had a knack for doing impressions “you wouldn’t really expect” or something like that, like his take on Mr. Blackwell. He seemed to lack a baseline comic persona, though, something that all cast members of this era had, and he also seems to be something of a difficult curmudgeon, so I assume that’s why both of his tenures were brief.
This was the episode SNL submitted for Emmy consideration (for writing) that year – it lost to a Shirley MacLaine special, of all things!
Another sparkling review!
-The Spud sequel actually was conceived as a runner with the original ad in ‘75(?). But with boat people just showing up, the decision was made to wait.
-First, He Cries and Franken/roaches both got loads of hate mail. Since it was difficult to decide which one Franken should apologize for, the decision was made not to apologize for either one. And yes, the roaches sprang from the realization that the week’s musical guest was named The Roches. And they were not the first choice for that week. Graham Parker is somehow coming to mind. Maybe it was Graham Nash.
-Shearer would have just been giving a 5-minute slot in every show had everyone stayed for season 6. Then he wouldn’t complain, but also his weird genius could have flowered as Aykroyd’s did. His lip-syncing in the rock opera got a much bigger response at dress.
-Kaufman made it back for Thanksgiving with his family later than expected (something with Taxi’s holiday break?), hence the short appearance. Otherwise it would have just been announced by Don Pardo or a cast member
This article says “First He Cries” hasn’t aged well because the idea of the man being the one hurt by a mastectomy objectifies women: https://screenrant.com/snl-skits-aged-poorly/
And I guess the bit with roaches would not please PETA, though I don’t know if it was connected to the musical guest. Speaking of whom, they once appeared on Tiny Toons as…a trio of singing roaches.
If I’m not mistaken “First, He Cries” was based on an Actual movie; “First, You Cry” starring Mary Tyler Moore & Anthony “Norman” Perkins–same basic subject matter, but a Drama (obviously).
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077555/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1
Ugh this is one of those terrible listicle articles. I mean, to an extent, edgy “out of bounds” sketches of yesteryear would not play on today’s kinder, gentler, heavily sponsored SNL, but it’s not like the writers of First He Cries were unaware that the sketch was “wrong.”
One jarring note for me on “The Backer’s Audition” was every time Bill Murray snubbed Harry Shearer’s handshake. It would surprise me when I found out Murray and Shearer would get along with each other, even go to hockey games together.
The Weekend Update clock shenanigans started a while before this, sometime back in season 4. At one point Bill mentioned in the newscast that someone wrote in about Philadelphia being misspelled on a clock. They played with misspellings and then did other things such has having all clocks with place names starting with “New.” In the episode after this one (Hesseman) the clock place names all start with “San” (San Clemente, San Antonio, San Juan etc). It’s often hard to catch when the top clocks are only visible in the distance briefly at the beginning and end of the segment.
Don’t know how I managed to never see this episode before, but I thought “Backer’s Audition” was pretty amazing
Accidentally hit random review and it took me to this episode, my favorite of this fascinating, frustrating season. For any of you who haven’t seen Backer’s Audition, it really is emblematic of what is so unique and cool about the 79-80 season. A great combination of comedic voices, combining Shearer’s deadpan brilliance and Murray’s over-the-top charisma. It’s a masterpiece.
I know the concept isn’t the most original but I love the execution of the Thanksgiving kids table sketch. That expression Jane uses of half Cheshire cat grin and half grimace of utter disgust is comedy gold (and she would deploy it many other places of course). Four stars in my book — maybe not a stone cold classic but very well done.
Bea said of her SNL hosting stint as one of her career regrets due to the writers not knowing how to write for her, calling it an “embarrassment”. I did find this episode very solid with strong, creative concepts, but Bea was very invisible sadly. I could’ve seen her shine more had she hosted two or three seasons earlier.
Here she talks briefly about it (go to shows, choose SNL and return the timestamp by a minute so you can listen to her talk about it briefly).
https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/beatrice-arthur?clip=20036#interview-clips
Harry’s character Tom Clay is actually a spot-on impression of California pitchman Tom Campbell, who did commercials for stereo and waterbed stores around this time. Not only does he have the voice down, but he also completely nails the cadence from his commercials, too. As Michael Cheyne wrote above, he really had a knack for these kinds of impressions.