February 7, 1981 – Sally Kellerman / Jimmy Cliff (S6 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DISCLAIMER
Battle Of The World Superpowers will be delayed

COLD OPENING
Ronald Reagan (CHR) describes economy with charts, celebrates birthday

   

— Charles’ Reagan impression is still terrible, and I’m very wary about him anchoring his own sketch this time.
— The various chart drawings have a few chuckleworthy parts, but nothing great.
— What was with the weird pause before the other performers entered?
— Hey, it’s then-writer & future-castmember Terry Sweeney! (the guy holding the birthday cake in the second-to-last screencap above)
— I did like the LFNY.
STARS: **

OPENING MONTAGE
— Eddie is now credited as part of the main cast.

MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— The director’s interrupting of Sally was pulled off very awkwardly.
— That’s it??!???! Kellerman braggingly lists off some of her many movies, the (barely-audible) director tries to cut her off, Kellerman continues listing off a few more movies, then she concludes the monologue? This has to be one of the most pointless, underwritten monologues I’ve ever seen.
STARS: *

ROCKET REPORT
CHR covers parade welcoming Iranian hostages’ return

   

— A Rocket Report THIS early tonight? Hope this one is better than the last episode’s disappointing Rocket Report.
— Charles overglorifying the exhibition sanitation team is fairly funny.
— Overall, this unfortunately was NOT an improvement over the last Rocket Report, and ended up being another ineffective one that I had almost nothing to say about. What’s happened to these Rocket Reports? They used to always be a reliable, fun segment, but it’s been in a bad slump lately.
STARS: **

ITALIAN STAND-UP
talent scout (host) sees Italian stand-up (GIG) perform for his relatives

   

— Hilarious beginning with Joe angrily throwing his TV out the window.
— Ha, oh my god at Gilbert’s entrance, looking like that.
— Denny’s funny as the mother.
— Good to see Gilbert in what seems to be a lead role, which has become a rarity for him in the last stretch of episodes I’ve covered.
— Okay, they’re now overdoing Denny’s bit.
— Love this role for Gilbert. His Italian goombah stand-up routine is giving me good laughs, and his performance is great.  Also nice to see him showing actual energy and enthusiasm for the first time in what feels like quite a while.
STARS: ***½

NAME THAT SIN
contestants (ANR) & (EDM) identify taboos via aural clues

— What’s with the dog-sounding audio clues? And why do I get the feeling that’s Gail doing those voices off-camera? If it is, that reminds me of how Laraine Newman would provide off-camera baby/ puppy sound effects for certain sketches back in the original era.
— Eddie’s “worshiping false buttocks” answer was random enough to make me laugh.
— WTF at this sketch so far.
— The “birth of Art Linklater” part was funny.
— Overall, I’m not quite sure how I feel about this strange, fast-paced sketch as a whole, though I appreciate the oddball premise and there were a few parts that did make me laugh.
STARS: **½

EYE, EAR NOSE & THROAT
body part close-ups accompany nasal piano solo

   

— Creative-looking film so far.
— Uh, wow was that fast. Also: uhhhh, I have no clue what to say about this overall film.
STARS: ????? (undecided)

WAS I EVER RED
snooty women relate breaches of mealtime etiquette

   

— I’m already not liking Ann’s delivery as the host of this sketch. It’s bringing back bad memories of her performance as the host in Dying to Be Heard.
— A fictional character named Jennifer Holliday??? Then again, I suppose the real Jennifer Holliday wasn’t famous at this time yet.
— Very cartoonish performance from Gail. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
— The rich snob premise seems perfect for Sally Kellerman, judging from the impression I’ve been getting from her in this episode.
— Boy, is this sketch a chore to watch so far. We’re two minutes into this, and not a single laugh from me yet.
— All the talk about a dog being served for dinner, vomiting, etc. just seem like desperate attempt for laughs. It’s still not working.
— Jesus, where is this GOING?
— The “cold soup” twist was just plain weak.
STARS: *

IRANIAN JOKE BOOK
stage fake executions & other wacky stunts with the Iranian Joke Book

 

— Who are these people on my screen right now during this prisoner execution scene? I don’t recognize a single one of these performers.
— The streak of Joe and/or Charles playing a commercial pitchman in every episode continues…
— The Iranian Joke Book twist seems kinda funny so far.
— I know I’m saying this a lot tonight but: that’s it??? That’s the whole thing? This one did not work for me as a whole.
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Am The Living”

WEEKEND UPDATE
EDM says Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t signed, so get yourself a Negro
JOP interviews boxing hand puppet Rocko Weineretto (Marc Weiner)

     

— Charles’ manic, over-the-top delivery of his very first joke (Reagan slashing) just came off DESPERATE. I couldn’t help but cringe. And it’s way too early in tonight’s Update for that kind of over-the-top joke delivery; you can’t do that right out of the gate.  I’ve always heard that Charles starts resorting to frantic, overly hammy delivery in this season’s later Updates; this must be the beginning of that.  Oh, god.
— Yikes at Gail’s bad “Iran/toasters” joke. The audience reaction said it all.
— Yes, an Eddie Murphy commentary!
— Loved Eddie scolding the audience for laughing at his reveal that Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t signed.
— Eddie urging the audience to take a black person home as a slave is a riot!
— Eddie: “The password will be: ‘Hey, you black Alabama porch monkey, come with me, I’m your master.’”
— Eddie does his now-trademark “Heh heh heh!” laugh at the end of his commentary. This is the first time I recall seeing him do that laugh on SNL.
— Charles’ “Alexander Haig for gym class” joke was another groaner tonight. I got more laughs from Charles’ off-put facial reaction to how badly that joke bombed.
— Geez, Charles’ last few jokes were all met with silence.
— Here’s our weekly Joe Piscopo SNL Sports commentary.
— “Rocko Weineretto”. Oh, I had forgotten that puppeteer Marc Weiner does some bits in the second half of this season.
— This Rocko Weineretto segment is bringing back nice memories of watching Marc Weiner’s Nickelodeon show “Weinerville” back when I was a kid.
— Funny and impressive work from Weiner here. Also, how’s he making the “mouth” move?
— Overall, yet ANOTHER Update this season where the commentaries are the only thing worth a damn, while the actual Update anchors deliver one bomb after another.
STARS: **

PARENT & CHILD
(JOP) & (ANR) explain their kinky foreplay to son (GIG)

   

— I really hate to admit it, but seeing Ann Risley in that S&M outfit is awfully pleasing to my eyes…
— Funny visual of a tied-up Joe hopping around to get his suburban dad-esque glasses and smoking pipe.
— Overall, this ended up dying off after the aforementioned glasses/pipe bit, and the remainder of the sketch just came and went without anything really funny happening.
STARS: **

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A HOSTAGE
public attention holds returnee captive

   

— Another interesting-looking film tonight.
— I often enjoy any use of a “first-person perspective” P.O.V. camera angle technique.
— Some good laughs from the cleaners guy getting excited over meeting the hostage, and the cleaner guy’s wife coming out to snap pictures of the hostage.
— Clever ending with the evil Uncle Sam.
STARS: ***

LEAN ACRES
trainer (host) gets tough on Lean Acres fat farm attendees (DED) & (ANR)
audience member interrupts skit to protest portrayal of the overweight

     

— Boy, those are some fake-looking slaps.
— So far, this has been yet another tedious sketch with pretty much no laughs.
— Whoa, strange turn this has suddenly taken, with a fake audience member from above interrupting the sketch to complain about the fat-shaming premise.
— Ha, now this has turned into the audience member doing stand-up comedy-style “you’re so fat” jokes to the heavyset female writer, complete with a rimshot. All these sudden turns are really saving this sketch. The second half of this sketch feels so atypical of this season.
STARS: *** (just for the second half)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Gone Clear”

IRANIAN STUDENT COUNCIL
Teheran University student council mulls its post-kidnapping activities

 

— For some reason, I kinda liked the throwaway line about Baghdad Tech having a goat mascot.
— Good performances in this, even though the material isn’t anything to write home about.
STARS: **½

NEW YORK
by C.F. Bressler- claymation street scenes pay homage to NYC

   

— Yet ANOTHER interesting-looking short film tonight. I’m liking the claymation format of this.
— Overall, wow, this was very well-done and interesting to watch.
STARS: ***½

PILLOW PETS
(GIG) pays more attention to his pillow “pets” than to his wife (ANR)

 

— Another bedroom sketch tonight with Ann and Gilbert. Looks like the same bedroom set too. Unfortunately, Ann’s not wearing the S&M outfit again…
— Also, what’s with all the airtime Ann’s getting tonight, anyway? Feels like she’s been in every single sketch.
— We get the return of Gilbert’s sullen, mopey delivery, though it seems to fit the character he’s playing in this.
— I liked Gilbert’s blunt “Oh, you were wrong” response to Ann saying she thought he’d have a lot of love to give her.
— I’m liking how overly passionate Gilbert’s character is about treating his pillow pets as real pets.
— Overall, short sketch, but a good showcase for Gilbert.
STARS: ***½

TELEVISED TRIAL
televised trial takes on the format of a talk show; Jim Fowler cameo

   

— The plaintiff is named Jose Gomez? I can already tell this will be a Gilbert Gottfried character.
— Yep, it IS. Looks like yet another big role for Gilbert in this episode. Wow, what a night for him. Looks like the writers finally remembered he’s in the cast.
— A hand puppet?
— What’s with the TV screen framing being used for the ENTIRE sketch? I thought it was only going to be used for the beginning of this, which would’ve been enough.
— Wild Kingdom’s Jim Fowler appearing with an alligator. I feel like this is the first cameo appearance of the whole season. I didn’t even realize until now the complete lack of cameos this season. Given the season’s quality and how much bad press the show was receiving, did SNL have a hard time getting celebrities to make cameos?
— Overall, I wasn’t crazy about this sketch, but I guess it wasn’t too bad in itself and it at least had a fun vibe to it.
STARS: **

SALLY KELLERMAN: “STARTING OVER AGAIN”
host performs “Starting Over Again”

— At this point, I had almost forgotten that tonight’s episode even has a host, considering how little she’s appeared in the post-Update half.

GOODNIGHTS

 

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Another weak episode, though this one didn’t frustrate me as much as the preceding Robert Hays one did. Maybe because unlike that one, there were some watchable pieces scattered throughout this episode, which kept me from completely losing interest, whereas the Hays episode’s only watchable pieces were all in the pre-Update half, leaving the post-Update half to be an unbearable endless string of duds. However, tonight’s episode was still a disappointment, the trademark weak season 6 writing kept rearing its ugly head, Weekend Update continues to be dire, and there weren’t any sketches that stood out as particularly great or memorable; nothing in this episode received a rating over three-and-a-half stars. And the less said about Sally Kellerman’s performance as host, the better.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robert Hays):
— a very slight step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Deborah Harry