February 9, 1980 – Chevy Chase / Marianne Faithfull, Tom Scott (S5 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
while visiting Gerald Ford (CHC), Henry Kissinger (ALF) plays it safe

   

— It’s the same huge living room set from the Bel Airabs sketches.
— The return of Franken’s funny Henry Kissinger impression.
— Huge, and I mean HUGE audience applause for Chevy’s walk-on. The applause goes on for almost half a minute. At one point while waiting for the long applause to die down, Chevy jokingly pretends to walk off the set.
— Loved Franken’s monotone “Oh, yes” after the applause finally stopped.
— Man, the traditional cold opening-ending Chevy pratfall came off disappointing tonight. This pratfall looked tame compared to the great ones he did as a cast member.
— Overall, despite the disappointing ending, this was a decent opening with the usual standby Chevy-as-Ford humor that we haven’t seen in a long while.
STARS: ***

OPENING MONTAGE
— New opening montage!

       

— Wonder why they decided to randomly change the montage halfway through the season.
— Ah, there’s the famous “Lorne in a crowd” shot. (fourth screencap above)
— Man, I LOVE these opening credits. The cast shots look great, the stop-motion style is unique, the colors look cool, the spraypainted Saturday Night Live logo on the subway train door is very memorable, and the overall visual quality of the montage is simply fantastic. Easily one of the all-time best opening montages in SNL history.
— Harry Shearer has been promoted to the main cast! This is the first of only a few times in SNL history where someone goes from a featured player to a repertory player right in the middle of a season.

MONOLOGUE
once-feuding CHC & BIM musically dispel any bad vibes between them

  

— When the opening montage ends, Chevy (who is visibly VERY out-of-breath, by the way) is strangely already seen onstage before Pardo even announces him. Did Chevy make his entrance too early when the montage was still running?
— Chevy does the “jokingly pretend to walk off-stage during a long applause break” thing once again.
— Wow, he seems OUT OF IT, and his delivery is coming off very mumbly.
— He addresses rumors of him not getting along with the cast last time he hosted, and brings out Bill Murray onstage to prove a point. Hmm, I guess even back then, the public was aware of the backstage fistfight Chevy and Bill got into right before airtime when Chevy previously hosted.
— Bill’s entrance gets a very good audience response in its own right.
— I admit, it IS nice to see Chevy and Bill getting along so well in this.
— The song medley is pretty funny and is coming off Nick the Lounge Singer-esque.
— I really liked the “We Shot the Sheriff” part.
— Overall, thank god for Bill’s entrance and the song medley, because Chevy had been doing a very rough job out there by himself.
STARS: **½

PRE-CHEW CHARLIE’S
all the food at Pre-Chew Charlie’s (BIM) restaurant is easy to digest

     

— Wow, quick transition for Bill, with very little time in between his exit in the monologue and this sketch starting up. I’m always amazed at how quickly SNL cast members are able to go from sketch-to-sketch.
— Handlebar mustaches are always worth a laugh.
— Hilarious disgusting concept. A spiritual predecessor to that famous sketch from 2000 where Julianna Margulies played a dinner guest at a house where a family feeds each other pre-chewed food mouth-to-mouth.
— Great uproarious audience reaction.
— This feels like the kind of crazy restaurant commercial Dan Aykroyd would’ve played the spokesman of sometime during the first four seasons.
— LOL, during the sketch-ending applause, Brian Doyle-Murray keeps trying to hand his fork over to Chevy, but Chevy’s so out-of-it, he doesn’t even notice Brian’s fork (last screencap above) and it takes him FOREVER to finally realize. Boy, he has not been doing well tonight so far.
STARS: ****

THE BEL AIRABS
middle-eastern family entraps congressman (TOD) in Abscam

   

— This is the installment of this sketch I remember seeing years ago.
— Weird seeing that same huge living room set twice tonight.
— Chevy’s pistol-whipping line was pretty funny. But, man, he’s still coming off as a mess and is looking kinda lost.
— Someone in the audience can be heard going “ooooh” for some reason when Bill walks on.
— I can’t say enough how much Gilda cracks me up in these Bel Airabs sketches.
— The scene with Laraine and the goat came off awkward.
— Instead of using Kareem Abdul Jabbar as a gag name during the fake ending credits like they did last time, the gag name in tonight’s fake ending credits is Spiro T. Agnew.
— Overall, an interesting premise and a well-done sketch, though I didn’t laugh at this one as much as I did during the first Bel Airabs installment.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Marianne Faithfull performs “Broken English”

— Jesus Christ, is this a joke? Why does her voice keep cracking so horribly?

WEEKEND UPDATE
BIM says we should draft women- if we lose, the Russians look like jerks
BIM sings “Happy Birthday” to George Washington & Abraham Lincoln busts

     

— I liked Jane’s mid-joke “god bless you” ad-lib when Bill coughed off-camera.
— The Alan Zweibel picture gag continues. (second screencap above) Haha, I’m loving this running joke, and I hope it keeps going.
— Bill’s commentary on President Carter drafting women was hilarious. Classic Bill Murray.
— Great dirty comment from Jane about Walter Cronkite, as a reference to that “First Love” short she did earlier this season.
— Bill’s ridiculously-wordy birthday song to Washington and Lincoln busts was really funny.
— Hmm, no Chevy appearance on tonight’s Update. Surprising. Probably for the best, though, considering how badly his performances have been going so far tonight.
— Come to think of it, there were no guest commentaries at all tonight. Guess we didn’t need it, though, as this Update was a strong night for Bill and Jane.
STARS: ****

YOU CAN’T WIN!
contestants face impossible odds; Bert Convy cameo

         

— Chevy’s rough night continues, as right out of the gate in this sketch, we get lots of line flubs from him as he’s reading off the index cards in his hand.
— I really like this part with the cast members in the studio audience excitedly “coming on down” when their name is called.
— Holy hell, Chevy’s delivery is fucking TERRIBLE in this sketch so far. He cannot get a word out without stumbling over it, and he sounds very drugged-up and mush-mouthed. Drugs would certainly explain what the fuck is going on with him tonight, because he is definitely not himself. When I remember the smooth, calm-and-collected delivery he had during his years as a cast member, it’s sad to watch him in the state he’s in tonight.
— Geez, Garrett’s not making things any better by badly flubbing a joke himself, though in his case, that’s typical. He consistently stumbles over his lines on a weekly basis.
— I like the idea of the ridiculous “Pot Of Gold” challenge with Laraine.
— Chevy is noticeably starting to wipe sweat off his forehead. Come to think of it, he HAS been visibly sweating all throughout this episode.
— Man, do I hate Chevy’s delivery in this. What is going ON with him? He’s getting worse and worse, to the degree that he’s now started to develop a strange habit of occasionally mumbling unintelligible little things while nervously laughing. He also keeps jumping ahead of the script while stepping on others’ lines, and keeps making long awkward pauses while he tries to find his next line on the index cards he’s reading off of. I even hate the little bizarre ad-libbed things he keeps doing, like awkwardly tossing away some of the index cards for no apparent reason.
— Chevy to Bill: “I know you’re a wreck. Now, I want you to pick a number–” Bill to Chevy: “You’re a little jumpy yourself.” Haha, excellent ad-lib from Bill, who’s clearly seeing what a mess Chevy is in this.
— A Bert Convy cameo.
— Jesus Christ, Chevy did a particularly INTENSE forehead sweat wipe just now while greeting Convy.
— Oh my god, just when I thought Chevy’s disastrous performance in this sketch couldn’t get any worse, now he said “Sho does se” when he meant to say “So does she”. Normally, I would facepalm in reaction to such a bad line flub, but honestly, this particular flub was so bad that it has me absolutely DYING with laughter right now as I type. Haha, Chevy doesn’t even seem to be aware of his mistake. Bert Convy is certainly aware, though, and his facial reaction is PRICELESS. (screencap below)

— Yet another sketch tonight with fake ending credits, and in the same font and color as the one from Bel Airabs, too. Only this time, there’s no apparent jokes within the credits.
— Overall, geez louise, what a failure. This sketch actually had a promising idea and had potential to be pretty great, but boy should they have saved it for another host. If you’ve noticed above, I had A LOT to say about this sketch, and almost all of it was about how unbelievably bad Chevy was. He hurt this sketch so much and butchered practically every single line he had here, which is especially unfortunate, considering this was a VERY LONG gameshow sketch in which he played the host, and thus, he was required to do A LOT of talking during this. I bet whoever wrote this sketch regretted the decision to give Chevy so much dialogue while he/she was watching this sketch backstage.
STARS: *

SPEAKING OF FASHION …AND OTHER THINGS
Mr. Blackwell (HAS) discusses CHC’s line of clothes

     

— The debut of Harry’s Mr. Blackwell impression, which is one of the very few things from Harry’s stint this season that would carry over into his second SNL stint years later in the 84-85 season.
— Interesting format, with the low-budgeted public access black-and-white look and shaky camera.
— Ugh, Chevy AGAIN keeps stepping on others’ lines and jumping ahead of the script.
— WTF? Is Chevy’s clip-on mic mishap real?
— Okay, the mic mishap is probably part of the sketch, considering the “low-budget talk show” premise, but given the disastrous way Chevy’s performances have been going all night, it easily could pass for a real blooper.
— Heh, I admit Chevy briefly speaking loudly right into his clip-on mic gave me a good cheap laugh. Probably the first natural, intentional laugh I got from him all night.
— Oh, god, now Chevy’s mush-mouthed delivery from the You Can’t Win sketch has come back. Are we in for another hilarious “sho does se”-type line flub?
— Overall, this had a pretty intriguing format and featured the usual great dry Harry Shearer performance. But ultimately, this sadly ended up being yet another promising sketch that was overshadowed by a bizarre, terrible Chevy performance that dragged it down.
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Marianne Faithfull performs “Guilt”

LINDEN PALMER, HOLLYWOOD’S FORGOTTEN DIRECTOR
by TOS- career recalled

     

— Another display of Schiller’s love for doing black-and-white shorts. Come to think of it, almost every single one of his films so far been in black-and-white.
— Overall, not much to say here. This wasn’t one of Schiller’s better films, but this at least had a nice charm to it and was well-made.
STARS: **½

THE TALKING LETTER
Honduran’s poison darts cut short (JAC)’s audio tape to mother (LAN)

     

— Jane’s snobbish voice is pretty funny.
— Interesting transition to making Jane’s ongoing message now sound like it’s being played on tape by Laraine, despite the fact that Jane is actually still delivering the message live.
— It feels strange seeing a live sketch with so much absolute silence from the audience (which is something I’ll probably have to get used to for next season). Though I’m not even sure if this sketch is even attempting laughs, the way it’s been going so far. I get a feeling SOMETHING’S gonna happen, though.
— Interesting camera angles from the ceiling. That kind of camerawork is another thing that’s strange to see in a live sketch.
— Bill suddenly getting shot in the neck with a dart was hilarious. It came completely out of nowhere.
— Great Akira Yoshimura appearance at the end.
— Overall, wow, what a bizarre, very unconventional sketch. I didn’t know what the heck I was watching at first, but in the end, after the random surprise ending, I actually really like this overall sketch. An interesting little experiment. And, hey, there was no Chevy to ruin this, either!
STARS: ****

CHEVY CHASE AND TOM SCOTT: “16 TONS”
CHC, Tom Scott, SNL Band perform “16 Tons”

 

— Now we’re getting a Chevy Chase musical performance? Uh-oh.
— At first, in those sunglasses and the fact that he’s sitting behind a piano, I almost thought Chevy was reprising “Very White”, the Caucasian Barry White character he did in a sketch from season 1.
— Is this going to be a comedy bit, or is he actually going to attempt a legitimate song?
— Looks like it’s a legitimate song.
— This performance makes me wonder, is Chevy hosting tonight to promote that now-infamous 1980 album of his?

GOODNIGHTS

 

— Feels like there’s barely anybody onstage anymore.

---

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty rough show. Though thinking back on it, there were actually some good things in the first half. The second half, while a lot worse, at least had a weird experimental sketch that I was oddly fascinated by (The Talking Letter). However, there was a very unpleasant feeling to this overall episode that kills a lot of the goodwill. That unpleasant feeling is no doubt due to the host’s performance. Speaking of which…
— I don’t know WHAT was going on with Chevy tonight, whether it was too much cocaine or too much painkillers. The man was definitely on SOMETHING, because my god, what a disastrous overall performance from him tonight. He was an absolute MESS throughout this episode, coming off very out-of-it, mush-mouthing and stumbling his way through his lines, looking fidgety and jumpy (as Bill pointed out in a great ad-lib at one point), visibly flop-sweating his way through every sketch, and not even nailing his traditional cold opening-ending pratfall. He was particularly awful in You Can’t Win, where he couldn’t get one clear sentence out for the entire sketch, seemed to be sweating worse and worse as the sketch went on, and kept making bizarre, unfunny little ad-libs that were met with confused silence from the audience. That embarrassing “sho does se” line flub of his continues to crack me up every time I think about it. When people often mention Louise Lasser, Milton Berle, and Frank Zappa as the most infamous hosting performances from the original SNL era, they DEFINITELY should be including tonight’s Chevy stint in there as well.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Teri Garr):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Elliott Gould