Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
(BIM) undergoes a cheap & quick sex-change operation
— Is the childhood picture they showed of Bill’s character a real-life picture of Bill himself as a kid? (screencap below) Probably not, which is too bad, because I always like seeing what SNL cast members looked like as kids.
— In my recent season 4 finale review, I mentioned how the “Not For Transsexuals Only” sketch feels odd to watch in today’s transsexualism-sensitive climate. Well, that goes double for this cold opening.
— Pretty funny premise with Bill choosing the less-expensive sex-change procedure, which he then immediately goes through right on the spot.
— Jane’s accent is both very realistic and is increasingly making me laugh.
— Fairly decent pay-off with the reveal that all the surgeons did for Bill’s “sex-change operation” was simply put a wig and dress on him.
— A funny little touch with the look Bill gave the camera after saying LFNY.
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— Al Franken receives his first credit as a featured player, a title he’d be credited under for MANY years, on-and-off, until 1995.
MONOLOGUE
host solicits donations for Toys For Tarts- give gifts to needy hookers
— Martin, regarding tonight’s show: “We’re going to be doing some very funny business… at least they think it’s funny.”
— The “Toys For Tarts” campaign for prostitutes is a pretty funny bit.
STARS: ***
LE SHOE
Le Shoe is ugly footwear, but its French aura makes it fashionable
— Tom Schiller’s brief appearance made me laugh. For some reason, whenever he plays ethnic or foreign-accented characters, he reminds me so much of future cast member Fred Armisen.
— Overall, this was a pretty forgettable, nothing-special parody of French weirdness.
STARS: **
DARK SHADOWS
in her bedroom, little girl (GIR) cries wolf over nighttime spooks
— I remember this classic sketch well; I believe I saw this in an old SNL Halloween compilation special back when I first started becoming an SNL fan.
— Feels like we rarely see Gilda play little girls anymore at this late stage of SNL’s 70s era.
— LOL at Garrett slowly sneaking in Gilda’s dark room and lighting up a cigarette.
— I like the reveals of what the “monsters” actually are and how the parents are treating it like its normal, especially the family of gypsies randomly being under the bed.
— Holy hell, the brief glimpse of a bloodied grotesque monstrous creature in the closet was both very funny AND genuinely unsettling, and got a hilarious audience reaction. The close-up of Gilda’s silent reaction is fantastic, too.
— Great ending.
STARS: *****
TEACHER’S STRIKE
striking teachers debate whether to accept school board’s latest offer
— The opening close-up of a board of scheduled events noticeably lists, among other events, a Knights of Columbus meeting, which I take it is a reference to a certain recurring sketch from season 4.
— I got a good surprised laugh from Bill’s snarky “You got the hots for the black ones” comment to Jane.
— Bill is great in this sketch with his attitude and constant wisecracks.
— Gilda’s pretty funny as the nitpicky English teacher.
— Overall, despite some funny characterizations, I was not a fan of this sketch and found most of it dull.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Man Who Sold The World”
WEEKEND UPDATE
JAC solicits Christmas cards sent out of pity to “Poor Pahlevi”
BIM implicitly slams two former SNL castmembers while panning 1941
Father Guido Sarducci performs his duties as spokesman for Mr. Tea
— We’re getting more hidden background gags regarding the international clocks on the Update set. This time, I’ve noticed the clock behind Jane is labeled “Lunch Time”.
— Liked Bill’s delivery of “I ain’t givin’ this sucker back to nobody” when quoting a black guy carrying a stereo on his shoulder.
— Ah, now I’ve noticed the clock behind Bill is labeled “Good Time”.
— This segment with Bill giving his opinions on upcoming movies (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Jerk, 1941, etc.) looks like it’s going to be awesome.
— Was Bill really cut out of “The Jerk” like he says here?
— Bill’s discussion of “1941” is hilarious with him cruelly snubbing Belushi and Aykroyd while acting like other stars of that movie were the ones who recently left the SNL cast.
— Loved how Bill’s movie segment ended with him urging the audience to just “take your kids to see Meatballs again”.
— The audience is liking Father Guido Sarducci’s “Mr. Tea” demonstration a lot more than I am. I don’t get it; is “Mr. Tea” a real product?
— Sarducci’s “Big Christmas, Little Christmas” idea is kinda interesting, but not exactly funny.
— Overall, bah, Sarducci’s overall commentary did pretty much nothing for me. Boy, does this character get kinda tiring every now and then. And from what I’ve heard, I still have A LOT more appearances from him to put up with for the remainder of this season. *groan*
STARS: **½
APOCALYPSE NOW
(host) embarks on a mission to terminate production of Apocalypse Now
— Geez, that creepy long opening close-up of Martin’s upside-down face…….
— Oh, I see this is an Apocalypse Now take-off.
— I like how this sketch is about Apocalypse Now’s troubled production, as I’ve always been fascinated by all the horror stories of what a nightmare it was to film that movie.
— LOL at the foot-paddling boat scene with Garrett and Martin, while Garrett’s agitatedly ranting to Martin.
— I’m liking the many scene changes. I appear to be in the middle of yet another epic, mini-movie-type sketch that the show was really good at doing around this time.
— Hey, it’s Akira Yoshimura!
— Who’s the extra playing Marlon Brando? Man, I miss Belushi.
— The studio audience doesn’t seem into this anymore; they’ve been pretty dead for a while.
— Haha, I’m loving Bill as Francis Ford Coppola. His portrayal of him is very funny.
— Decent ending with the set explosion while “This Is the End” plays.
— Overall, a very long sketch, but I found it interesting and well-done, even if there weren’t that many laugh-out-loud parts throughout it. I may be biased due to my aforementioned fascination with Apocalypse Now’s backstory.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “TVC-15”
FIRST LOVE
by Aviva Slesin- BIM visits his old canine flame
— Another Aviva Slesin film.
— Oh, it’s another “First Love” film, like the Jane Curtin/Walter Cronkite one from the last episode.
— What’s with the random light applause from one audience member during the opening narration sequence?
— Ah, Bill’s the focus of the film this time.
— Judging from the descriptions Bill’s giving, I can already tell that the big reveal is that his first love, “Fanny”, will turn out to be either a horse or dog.
— I was right, it’s a dog.
— Eh, I’m not caring too much for this so far,
— And that’s it? It’s over. Overall, this was a letdown.
STARS: **
FOREVEREADY
(BIM) taunts Foreveready spokesman Robert Conrad (host) & dad (BDM)
— This feels so specific, that it must be a then-topical parody of a real Robert Conrad ad from the time.
— Bill easily punching out Martin gave me a laugh.
— Fairly funny how this is devolving into Sheen’s Conrad turning into a whining bullied child.
— There’s Brian Doyle Murray in what feels like his first on-camera appearance all season. I know he eventually begins receiving a featured player credit at some point later this season.
— Whoa at Bill’s line “You’re almost as big a dick as your son.” Heh, how in the world did SNL get away with saying that in freakin’ 1979?
— I always like anytime we get to see Murray brothers Bill and Brian interacting with each other in a sketch. Bill pushing and tripping Brian over a bent-down Tom Davis was quite a sight here.
STARS: ***
MURDER
criminals (host) & (GAM) kill any potential witnesses to their evil deeds
— Haha, I’m loving the escalation of this, with the ridiculous growing number of innocent bystanders Garrett and Martin have to shoot for “knowing too much”.
— Heh, now the phone is ringing. Lemme guess: they’re somehow gonna shoot the person over the phone for “knowing too much”?
— Nope, didn’t happen. Would’ve been funny, though.
— Overall, I loved this. This sketch felt atypical of this season, and came off more like something that would’ve appeared earlier in the show’s run, during the first two seasons.
STARS: ****
MINOTA AM3
Minota AM-3 camera- for special moments, like Bruce Jenner (host) divorce
— Another sketch with Martin playing a celebrity doing a commercial.
— I think Bill has appeared in literally every single sketch tonight so far.
— LOL, it just dawned on me how unintentionally hilarious it is in retrospect that the same episode that began with a sex-change operation cold opening also contains a Bruce Jenner sketch.
— Overall, I didn’t get this at all. This was incredibly short, the “taking a picture of your divorce proceedings” premise came off weak to me, and this commercial spoof seemed a little TOO topical to still hold up well today.
STARS: *½
REVISIONS OF FREUDIAN THEORY
TOD tells ALF about the nasal stage
— There seems to be a lot more sketches than usual tonight.
— Oh, is this a disguised “Franken and Davis Show” piece? Has “The Franken and Davis Show” officially been retired this season?
— Eh, not too funny so far.
— The “penis shame” bit at the end had some laughs and ALMOST saved the sketch.
— Yet another short sketch tonight.
STARS: **
MARTIN SHEEN HAIRSPRAY
host is JAC’s favorite styling aid
— A mock-commercial playing on Martin Sheen’s name. Is this what paved the way for future mock-commercials like “Jon Hamm’s John Ham”, “Peter Sarsgaard’s Sars Guards”, and the like?
— Haha, the Martin Sheen “hairspray” just being him deadpan-ly spitting into Jane’s hair is great.
— Overall, that was very silly but I found it hilarious.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Boys Keep Swinging”
— Wow, how in the world did they film this technique? Also, when Fred Armisen (man, I’m mentioning him quite a bit in this review) later did a Bowie tribute on SNL when Bowie passed in 2016, I think this is the performance he talked about being amazed by as a kid in ’79.
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— After three strong consecutive episodes, it looks like we’re back to the usual Season 5 shakiness. Not too great of an episode tonight; there were some good highlights, but the overall show was way too up-and-down, strangely feeling like it followed some kind of good-sketch-bad-sketch-good-sketch-bad-sketch pattern.
— This episode had the largest number of sketches in quite a while. I was surprised at how many quick little sketches they fit into the second half of the show. I had gotten so used to the “longer sketches, shorter number of overall segments” format the show’s regularly been using since the back half of season 4.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Howard Hesseman):
— a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
The 1970s come to an end. Ted Knight hosts the final episode of the decade.
Brian Doyle-Murray was gone for the first part of this season working on “Caddyshack.” He returned, I think, for the show before this (Hesseman). IIRC, he’s also one of the gypsies in the “Dark Shadows” sketch.
Isn’t that Alan Zweibel playing Brando?
Another sparkling review!
-Yes that’s a childhood pic of Billy
-That’s Zweibel as Brando
-Teacher Strike-Harry Shearer was aghast that the papers on the table in front of the other actors were their actual scripts
-Mr. Tea is a play on Mr. Coffee. At the time, Mr. T (the actor/boxer) was hosting a local show in Chicago, which Don Novello saw, and the idea sprang from there into “Mr. Tea.” In season 8 or 9, there’s a SNN joke about the actual actor (Mr. T) and the Mr. Coffee pitchman (Joe Garagiola) getting their own show, Mr. Coffee and Mr. T.
-Jenner divorce-Bruce Jenner used to do Minolta commercials at this time, as did many sports stars. Remember the one from a few years later with Stevie Wonder and “John Newcombe”? By then, NBC didn’t mind the use of a brand name
-Le Shoe-the idea came from a new pair of shoes that either Gammill or Pross was wearing
-Bowie wore a blue screen full body suit, but had the marionette on his chest, basically, and controlled it’s strings with his (blue) hands. The net effect was pretty amazing and very easy to pull off in the control room
The SNL Archives now have a guy named Doc Zorthian as Brando, though it used to say Zweibel.
Actually for the Wonder/”Newcombe” spot, the product was for “Kannon” not “Canon”! So actual brand names had to still change spellings 4 years later on SNL…
Bill’s cameo was cut out of the Jerk
Bowie seemed to get more attention during the good nights. Probably because he was the best part of the episode lol
Man apparently Bowie slipped an erection visual on his second performance. Shame I didn’t really listen to him until after his untimely passing.
Too bad SNL didn’t do a spoof of the TV “Dark Shadows” when they revived it in the 90s!
Here’s my review of the musical performances
The Man Who Sold the World
— Haha, Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias carrying Bowie to the front of the stage because he’s in that ENORMOUS suit is already a sight to behold.
— This is the definitive version of this song, in my book. Neither the studio version or the Nirvana cover hold a candle. Love the aggressive guitar and futuristic synthesizer parts, and the band is ultra-tight.
— Love the incredibly disciplined choreographed movements by Nomi and Arias in the background.
— Also their background vocals are haunting. Especially in the vocalized ending section.
— Very strong lead vocal performance by Bowie here too. Really like his delivery of the lines on this version of the song.
— Loved the electric bleeps and bloops to wrap up the tune.
STARS: *****
TVC-15
— Oh wow, this is even more of a spectacle than the first song. Bowie’s in a dress, and there’s some great choreographed interactions between Nomi and Arias in the background, with a frickin fake pink poodle with a TV in its mouth! Haha, it’s so delightfully bizarre but it works wonderfully.
— The band is once again knocking this one out of the park instrumentally.
— Then the camera cuts to the TV in the poodle’s mouth, which appears to be slightly delayed compared to the live action.
— Another excellent visual and auditory treat. This is the sort of artistic, avant-garde performance that SNL should be featuring regularly.
STARS: *****
Boys Keep Swinging
— Ok, visually this is just a bit too garish and gimmicky to me. Superimposing Bowie’s head on a puppet that’s also superimposed on the stage, and doing a goofy dance, is a step too far for me. But I do appreciate that they’re trying to do something different and innovative.
— Hardest rocking and most propulsive tune of the three, but not as much of an earworm as the first two songs.
— Bowie’s line “Other boys check you out” seems to have been censored (I’m watching this on Hulu). Weird of NBC or whoever to do that, unless Bowie ad libbed a bit of cursing in the live performance and it got caught by the 7 second delay?
STARS: ***
No 7 second delay. They knew the lyric in advance. Surprised you didn’t mention Bowie’s bulging dick at the end.
Loving these reviews, Frederick.
It would appear that “other boys will check you out” was muted live on-air (note that you can still hear the music behind him during that line), probably because the censors were a little scared of even the suggestion of homosexuality. Of course, “life is a pop of the cherry” – no problem. Also, Bowie pulls off a VERY risqué move with the puppet at one point, but you’ll almost have to watch it frame-by-frame to catch it.
Damn you, David.
I’m quick on the draw.
So I came here expecting to do another one of my “it’s late at night, I’ve fallen down a musical rabbit hole and I’m going to review an SNL performance on Stooge’s site” reviews, but I see Frederick has beaten me to it. Great job, Frederick- I fully agree with the 5 stars for “The Man Who Sold the World” and “TVC-15” (also, although I hadn’t heard this particular performance before, your comment about this being the definitive version of TMWSTW resonates with me, because I always found the studio version to be lacking something, and this is preferable to my ears). I personally would give an extra star to “Boys Keep Swinging,” if only because I was so impressed with the visual effects (thanks also to @BK for explaining how that worked, I was wondering what that would have looked like to the live audience). I also preferred hearing the song in this setting than on the album it’s from.
I’m ashamed to say this was also my first-ever exposure to Klaus Nomi (and Joey Arias, who I hadn’t even heard of before). He and Arias were so fun to watch throughout these performances, and they sang beautifully. I also loved their style, especially in “TVC-15” when their respective red and black uniforms matched with Bowie’s blue one.
Overall, all three performances were awesome and I might end up writing my own review on my own time because they gave me a lot to think about.
Oh man, I remember sitting on the shag carpeting in my parents’ bedroom watching this episode on a small Sony color tv. I was only 8 years old and that Bowie “Boys Keep Swinging” performance completely freaked me out! That was so bizarre to see then, let me tell you. It was also very strange seeing Klaus Nomi and the other men wearing tight dresses (let’s just say the outfits don’t hide the fact they’re men. LOL). All in all, this is a terrific episode with a big dose of the oddness that made SNL so edgy and fun back then. It’s also light on the wonky political stuff that I felt was starting to creep in a bit too much by then (was Shearer big on that?).
I think the Le Shoe commercial may have also been in reference to Renault’s Le Car, which was popular in the 70s.
Murray said ‘dink,’ not ‘dick.’
Here’s the Minolta spot with Caitlyn and Chrystie Jenner when they were still together and “play(ing) frisbee” (from an upload of commercial breaks that aired during the live broadcast of Maureen Stapleton’s s4 episode):
https://youtu.be/O774w6rK6Pc?si=KOtFrJUlSnFjGKJv&t=590
(As once an 8-9 yr old who saw this fun-loving couple snapping shots on TV, I found the parody sketch quick, cheap… maybe rough on delivery, but I enjoyed it….)
When I first watch this episode every single time I first see Martin Sheen I am like oh Charlie….no Martin Charlie wouldn’t be that age then. Man they sure alike at different decades.
re Le Shoe: at the time, French car company Renault was marketing a vehicle in America as “Le Car”, I assumed that was the reference
this was the first time I’d ever seen Bowie and this performance made me a fan for life. Other kids I knew had been dismissing him as “weird”, which of course intrigued me and wow did he deliver in weirdness!
Interesting the song choices, only one from the new album, and the other two deep cuts from much earlier in his discography.
Thanks BK for explaining how the puppet effect was filmed, I’ve been wondering that for 45 years!
Who else in in Bowie’s band here? He wasnt touring in 1979. Is Adrian Belew there? Belew was on the most recent studio album (Lodger) and had been part of the 1978 tour, but that lead guitar spot seemed to always be rotating while the rhythm section staid constant throughout the late 70s
for more SNL related Klaus Nomi content: he sings an opera type number in Mr Mikes Mondo Video