Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Frank Reynolds (HAS) presents presidential consolation debate highlights
— Lot of great lines from Harry during his intro.
— I’m still not quite sure what to make of Jim Downey’s George Bush impression.
— That being said, Jim’s Bush speech had a whole bunch of funny lines.
— Bill’s speech was okay, but not as amusing as Jim’s.
— Paul smushing actual slices of a pie onto the pie chart is hilarious.
— Harry gets the final LFNY of the original SNL era??? That’s surprising. While it’s hard to complain about Harry Shearer getting ANY airtime on the show, it really feels like one of the original cast members should’ve gotten the final LFNY.
— Very solid cold opening overall.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
host introduces (DOP) & other supposed castmembers of SNL’s sixth season
— Buck mentions this is SNL’s 106th episode and the 103rd time he’s hosted. I really liked that line.
— He addresses rumors that tonight’s episode might be the last SNL ever, and announces SNL will be back again next season!…but NOT with the same cast. There will be a new replacement cast, who he’s about to introduce.
— The audience laughs at Buck referring to the show’s “former producer”, as if that were a joke. I guess they’re not aware that Lorne really IS leaving.
— Buck says he’s looking forward to working with SNL’s new producer in the years ahead. Unfortunately, that never ended up happening, as tonight’s episode turns out to be Buck’s final time hosting. I recall hearing he declined any future hosting offers out of respect to the original cast. He’s never even made so much as a cameo in any future episodes, not counting specials like SNL’s 15th anniversary show (where he does a segment with Steve Martin).
— Hey, it’s the creator of the Mr. Bill shorts, Walter Williams. (third screencap above)
— I recall hearing that the black woman in this is Yvonne Hudson. Now that I’m watching this monologue for myself, that’s definitely NOT her. It would’ve been hilarious if it were her, though, considering she DOES actually end up joining the cast next season.
— Unless I’m mistaken, this is Don Pardo’s very first onscreen appearance on SNL. I love how his fake name in this is “Ron Waldo”, and how he introduces himself by doing a Don Pardo imitation. Since audiences at the time probably had no idea what Don looked like, I wonder if they even realized he’s the real Don Pardo or if they just assumed he’s someone who can do a really good impression of Pardo’s voice.
— Overall, I loved this monologue and found it very fun being introduced to the fake new cast.
STARS: ****
ROYAL PARTY
eponymous noblemen mingle at a party thrown by Lord Salisbury (HAS)
— Ah, here’s a legendary sketch from this era.
— All the nobles’ last names and how they allude to various now-famous inventions is very well-written.
— Funny with Bill as the Earl of Sandwich lamenting that “nothing’s been named after my family”.
— Garrett’s delivery of “Lord and Lady Douchebag” KILLED me.
— Harry’s “Where the devil are those Douchebags?” line was great.
— Very funny hearing “douchebag” constantly being casually delivered in such dignified 18th century voices.
— Ha, Gilda as Lady Douchebag requesting vinegar and water as food dressing.
— Loved Bill delivery of “Douchebaaaaag, how are ya!” From my past viewings of clips from this sketch, I had remembered Bill giving Buck a noogie after saying that line, but now I see that never actually happened. It DOES seem like a very Bill Murray thing to do, though.
— Bill: “Lord Douchebag, just what kind of invention are you sitting on?”
— And already, we’re out. That sketch was the perfect length, and is just one of many reasons why this is such a fantastic classic sketch.
STARS: *****
COW MINDER’S DAUGHTER
rise & fall of Indian singer Govinda Lynn (LAN)
— Laraine playing a character who turns down being a model because models starve themselves. I can’t help but notice a whole bunch of irony there.
— The initial shot of Gilda cracked me up.
— Not really sure what the point of this sketch is so far.
— Yeah, I’m coming to the realization that this sketch ain’t goin’ anywhere that I’m gonna like.
— Did something go wrong? All of a sudden, there’s a lot of awkwardness and stretched-out pauses between Bill and Laraine after Bill called for the cows, and Bill looks like he’s trying not to laugh. (last screencap above) What’s that all about?
— Overall, wow, I did not care for this sketch at all. Maybe it would’ve helped if I had ever seen “Coal Miner’s Daughter”, the movie that this was spoofing.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Andrew Gold performs “Kiss This One Goodbye”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Jack Perkins (HAS), (Richard Belzer), others on Walter Keane art exhibit
Chico Escuela gives himself credit for baseball strike resolution
Roseanne Roseannadanna travels from volcanoes to Gloria Vanderbilt’s itch
— Here we go, the final Curtin/Murray Weekend Update.
— *sigh* I’m gonna miss hearing Jane saying her “I’m Jane Curtin and here now the news” intro. I’ve gotten so used to hearing that in every Update these last four seasons.
— Loved Bill’s random “Anita Bryant…… is available” bit. I also like how a few people in the audience audibly booed as soon as her picture showed up on the news screen.
— The bit with Bill snapping a Polaroid directly at the camera facing him was just plain strange, and got very little reaction from the audience. I also didn’t get what he meant with his “So I won a bet, big deal” ad-lib afterwards.
— What the–? Now Bill’s aforementioned photo-snapping bit has screwed up the screen. The flash from his Polaroid seems to have left an awful yellow-brownish spot onto the middle of the screen. (you can see it the the fourth and fifth screencaps above) Yikes. I’m guessing Bill forgot to turn off the flash on the camera before snapping the picture.
— And now, we go straight from that Bill/camera bit to a Harry Shearer commentary that strangely begins with NO applause from the audience. Wow. Maybe the audience was just thrown off by whatever the hell that Bill/camera thing was supposed to be.
— Uh-oh, now the aforementioned yellow-brownish spot on the middle of the screen is making poor Harry look like he has a yellow mouth. Geez.
— Richard Belzer!
— Belzer has the distinction of appearing in the first and last episode of the original SNL era. In the first episode, he was one of the jurors in the courtroom sketch that ended with Gilda receiving a note and thinking that John Belushi was making a pass at her, and now here he is in the last episode. A nice unintentional bookend to the era.
— Harry’s Jack Perkins commentary is a bit unusual with the heavy reliance on a pre-taped remote segment, but there’s a lot of good laughs here, especially from the ridiculous visual of presidential paintings with Keane eyes.
— Garrett’s Chico Escuela delivery is much better than the bizarre delivery he used last time Chico appeared.
— Normally I’d groan at the sight of Roseanne Rosannadanna appearing once again, but knowing this is the last time we’ll ever see her, I can’t complain. I’ve never disliked the character herself, just how much they overrelied on her shtick these last two seasons.
— Hmm, Richard Feder has written to Rosannadanna from Washington instead of his usual Fort Lee, New Jersey residence.
— Oh, it turns out Feder moved to get away from the hellhole that is New Jersey.
— Loved Rosannadanna’s complaint about Gloria Vanderbilt putting her good name “on every ass in America”.
— Rosannadanna’s story about Gloria Vanderbilt repeatedly scratching her crotch area in a movie theater is a riot! A lot of big laughs there. This is reminding me why I used to like Rosannadanna so much before they started overusing her.
— Tonight’s overall Update was a pretty solid way to end the Curtin/Murray era. I’m gonna miss this Update era, especially when I know how unstable this portion of the show is going to be the next few seasons during the non-Lorne years.
STARS: ***½
UNCLE ROY
mom (JAC) remains blind to the true nature of pedophilic “Uncle” Roy
— I can already tell from the set that we’re getting our obligatory Uncle Roy sketch. Actually, I shouldn’t say “obligatory”, since they surprisingly refrained from doing this character in Buck’s episode from earlier this season.
— For the first time ever, Uncle Roy’s entrance receive audience applause.
— They explain the absence of Dan Aykroyd’s character (Jane’s husband) by saying he’s in Cleveland at a convention.
— Uncle Roy and Jane point out a new glass coffee table in the living room. Ha, I just KNOW Ol’ Roy is gonna get mileage out of that table later in the sketch with the girls.
— I like the line about how Roy had the girls play “bobbing for bananas” last time he visited them.
— I also like the mention of Roy pretending to be a dog during his last visit and how he almost “buried [his] bone in [the girls’] backyard.” Nice double-entendre.
— Hilarious bit where Roy is able to tell which pair of panties belongs to which girl just by the smell.
— Ah, there’s Uncle Roy making use of the glass coffee table, by having the girls pretend to “ride on a glass-bottom boat” as he eagerly snaps pictures underneath the table.
— LOL at Buck’s panicked “I can explain everything!” when Jane returns unexpectedly early and sees what Roy is up to.
— Interesting turn this sketch has taken with Jane talking about a possible divorce between her and her husband, and Roy trying to save their marriage just so she won’t move away with the girls.
— After Jane says she wishes more families would have an uncle like Roy, the camera does a slow zoom-in on Buck telling Jane, while looking at the camera with a subtle grin, “Oh, there’s more of me than you might suspect…” (last screencap above), which is how the sketch ends. Heh, creepy and unsettling as fuck, but at the same time, I found it the perfect way to end the final Uncle Roy sketch.
STARS: ****
TRADER NICK’S
Hawaiian-themed bar of Nick “Lava” has music & waitress Iris de Flaminio
— Our final Nick the Lounger Singer sketch during Bill’s years as a cast member. He would later bring this character back a few times in some of his future hosting stints.
— I think I see Jane as Iris De Flaminio in the background. If so, they’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of this character these last handful of episodes, which is good since Jane debuted the character so late in her tenure.
— Akira Yoshimura! He’s been getting quite a lot of face time recently.
— Yep, Jane IS playing Iris. Interesting use of her in this sketch, as a waitress.
— Looks like we DO get an Yvonne Hudson appearance tonight after all! And she’s playing a character with her own name, too! “I’m Yvonne Hudson and this is my lovejones (points to Garrett).”
— Gilda’s sarcastic deadpan remarks to Bill were very funny.
— I absolutely love Bill’s singing of “Stairway to Heaven”.
— Overall, a very fine temporary final outing for this character.
STARS: ***½
WEEK IN REVIEW
tabloid journalists’ notions of newsworthiness vex (host)
— I like Bill’s almost-whispery speaking voice as the host, which is a dead-on imitation of some of the political panel shows like this.
— Buck is fairly funny as the only reasonable person at the table.
— Overall, for once tonight, I didn’t have much to say about a sketch. I didn’t find this sketch to be very good, and I got fairly bored with it after a while.
STARS: **
MOMMY BEER
hunters musically express their fondness for baby-bottles of Mommy Beer
— I cracked up at Tom Davis’ burly-voiced delivery of “You’ve been holdin’ out on us, ya rascal!”
— The nipple-topped beer bottle is a pretty funny visual.
— Haha, I like the blatantly obvious lip-synced harmonizing between the men, and their hammy gestures throughout the song.
— Very catchy commercial jingle.
— Funny part with a beer-less Bill whining “I want MY Mommy” and then babyish-ly sucking on the bottle when he finally gets one.
— Oddly enough, that sounds like Harry Shearer’s voice during the baritone parts of the lip-synced jingle.
— Great tagline from Buck: “She’s a bitch…. of a brew!”
— Fun sketch overall.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Andrae Crouch & Voices of Unity perform “Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus”
GOODNIGHTS
Studio 8H empties as the “On Air” sign goes out
— Buck gives a simple but very poignant “Goodnight……and goodbye.”
— *sigh* The final gathering of this cast. I have to admit, I’m starting to feel emotional. After watching and reviewing these first five seasons on a daily basis in chronological order the last few months, I’ve grown REALLY attached to this cast. It’s not easy for me to see them go.
— Ah, there goes the famous part of these goodnights, where Buck leads the cast and guests offstage and then we cut to their arrival backstage where they’re all shown walking past the camera. After a while, the camera slowly zooms in on the flashing “ON AIR” sign, then the flashing sign eventually turns off, which is the very last thing we see before the goodnights end. Beautiful. I’m honestly getting a little misty-eyed right now.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— The original SNL era ends with a surprisingly strong episode for this season. There were a lot of great sketches, a minimal amount of flops, and we got an all-time classic as the perfect centerpiece of the night (Lord and Lady Douchebag).
— Not only am I going to miss the hell out of this cast, but I’m also going to miss reviewing Buck Henry-hosted episodes. It’s amazing to think that over just the past few months, I’ve reviewed TEN Buck Henry episodes. Nobody else has ever hosted SNL with the frequency that he has in such a short amount of time. He was such a perfect host for this era of SNL, and always had such a likable and warm presence, no matter what role he was playing.
— Season 5 as a whole was a fairly bumpy road like I was prepared to see, but not quite in the way I was expecting. Despite a shaky first three episodes, which instantly had me worried, the remainder of the first half of the season was pretty smooth-sailing for the most part. When I reached the second half of the season, THAT’S when the trouble fully kicked in. The long string of episodes from Teri Garr to Rodney Dangerfield all ranged from forgettable to pretty awful, and the burnout from the writing staff was on full display. We started to finally get some good episodes after that, including one that pleasantly surprised me with how inspired it was (Strother Martin), but a somewhat frequent amount of underwhelming or iffy episodes still kept popping up. At least the season ended on a high note with a strong season finale.
— Well, I can now proudly say I’ve seen and reviewed every single episode from the original SNL era! It feels so great to accomplish that, considering I came into this SNL project of mine being nowhere near as familiar with the original era as a diehard SNL fan like me should be. I mean, I had seen a handful of episodes from each of the first five seasons, as well as lots of clips in highlight reels and “Best Of” compilations, but considering how well-versed I am in every SNL era from 1985-present, I had always been kinda ashamed that I hadn’t seen all that much from the legendary original years. Well, now I can officially say that I know this era VERY well after doing these daily reviews.
— And man, did I enjoy covering these first five seasons, familiarizing myself more with this wonderful cast, discovering this cast is even more talented and well-rounded than I had ever thought, witnessing the evolution of the era, tackling the more infamous episodes (Louise Lasser, Milton Berle, etc.), revisiting classic sketches, and discovering lesser-known gems. I came away from this era having much more love and respect for it than I’ve ever had. Before doing these reviews, I used to always argue that the original SNL was overrated whenever anyone would call it the best era ever, because I was of the opinion that despite how groundbreaking the original SNL was, that era was so inconsistent and VERY hit-and-miss due to how wildly experimental the show’s format was back then. I had felt that, in order to call an SNL era the best ever, it needs to be one that’s a little more consistent in how strong it was, which for me has always been the late 80s era. Well, after now reviewing the whole original era, I’ve seen that it was nowhere near as inconsistent or hit-and-miss as I had thought. Once the show found it’s footing sometime in 1976, the era was pretty smooth-sailing for a few years, particularly in seasons 3 and 4, which are two of the strongest SNL seasons of all-time and contain a surprisingly good number of flawless episodes that have no bad sketches. The era unfortunately ended on a fairly rough note with the disappointing season 5, but looking at this era as a whole, I would now say that it’s a close second to the late 80s as the best SNL era.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Martin):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Well, folks, for the very first time in my SNL project, after going through five seasons of having the comfort of the original cast, I enter brand new territory…. and dangerous territory at that, because it’s the notorious season 6. Elliott Gould hosts the first episode.