April 11, 1981 – (no host) / Jr. Walker & The All Stars (S6 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
amongst old SNL props, CHC & Mr. Bill reminisce about the good old days

   

— A hearty amount of immediate audience applause for Chevy’s backstage walk-on.
— Love seeing some of the costumes and props from the original SNL era, such as Bees costumes, the Coneheads prosthetics, and the (now cobweb-covered) Landshark head.
— The audience recognized Mr. Bill’s off-camera muffled yelling long before I did.
— Weird seeing a live Mr. Bill sketch.
— Nice subtle touch with having the prop sword Chevy uses on Mr. Bill be the familiar sword from the Samurai sketches.
— Overall, an enjoyable nostalgia trip, and a decent way to start the retooled version of SNL.
STARS: ***

OPENING MONTAGE

       

— I’ve always been curious to see this episode’s opening montage, because it ended up only being used this once, never appearing in any other episodes.
— Hey, they’re using the original SNL theme music from the first four seasons! Feels strange hearing that theme again.
— Maybe it’s just me, but I’m hearing some of season 5’s theme music in there as well. This sounds like a hybrid of both the original theme and the season 5 theme.
— Boy, are these credits low budget-looking as hell. Very short, too. Then again, I suppose it was known that this montage would only be used temporarily, so they probably figured “Why spend so much money on a new set of opening credits that might not last beyond this week?” Either that, or maybe they just simply didn’t have enough time to film a more elaborate set of credits. After all, Dick Ebersol was only given five weeks to retool the show, hire some new cast members, hire some new writers, etc.
— The new cast members making their debut tonight are repertory players Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky, and Tony Rosato, and featured players Laurie Metcalf and Emily Prager.

DRIVE FOR AMERICA
jingoistic Frank Sinatra (JOP) bashes Japan & promotes American cars

     

— In place of the monologue, we seem to be getting some kind of musical bit with Joe’s Frank Sinatra impression.
— Tony Rosato gets the honors of being the first of tonight’s newbies to make their first appearance.
— Joe as Sinatra: “We’re talkin’ Japs, ladies and gentlemen”. Oh, and I assumed season 6’s reliance on bad racial humor was something that went out the door with Doumanian. Then again, this IS Sinatra we’re talking about. He WOULD make a remark like that.
— So Yvonne Hudson is still hanging around, even despite no longer being credited as a featured player?
— Overall, not much to say about this and this wasn’t exactly the most exciting sketch premise to lead off “the new SNL” with. The sketch itself wasn’t too bad, though, and Tim Kazurinsky walked away with the best moments of the sketch.
STARS: **½

LITE BEER
in a bar, Bill Cosby (EDM) tries to sell a group of kids on Lite Beer

 

— The first real debut of Eddie’s Bill Cosby impression.
— It won’t be easy, but I’ll do my best to refrain from relating this sketch to the modern-day viewpoint of Cosby.
— The concept of a lite beer for children is fairly funny.
— I feel bad for Denny being a glorified extra in this, playing a silent waitress. Maybe I just feel bad about that because I know what lies ahead for her SNL future.
— The writing itself was pretty flimsy and felt like they ran out of funny lines for Eddie halfway through, but Eddie did his usual good job wringing laughs out of the whole thing.
STARS: ***

I MARRIED A MONKEY
(TIK) accuses his wife Madge of having an affair

   

— Starting a sketch with two of the new cast members. I’m already excited for this sketch.
— The name Madge? The use of soap opera music stings? Oh, I know where this is going…
— Yep, there’s the monkey. It’s the debut of “I Married a Monkey”!
— I like how the monkey is just casually stuffing its face full of bananas as Tim is delivering a dramatic rant to it.
— Hilarious part with the monkey actually drinking from the sugar bowl.
— Is Tim laughing right now, or just crying in character? Hard to tell.
— LOL, the blooper with the baby monkey refusing to let go of its off-camera handler while screeching like mad is a riot! Tim’s reactions to this unplanned madness are also great.
— That reminds me, I remember reading that Tim came up with the idea to do a sketch with live monkeys because he wanted to disprove a friend of his who didn’t believe that SNL is really a live show.
— Overall, I surprisingly enjoyed this quite a lot. I’m not sure I’m going to be crazy about them eventually making this into a recurring sketch, but I sure enjoyed this first installment, for Tim’s commitment, for all the unplanned antics from the monkeys, and for the daring idea of doing this sketch in the first place. It’s making me look forward to Tim’s tenure on the show.
STARS: ****

DISCLAIMER
stay tuned after SNL for Johnny Cash At Spandau Prison

— Odd placement for a disclaimer gag, showing it in the middle of an episode after a commercial break, instead of placing it at the very beginning of the show like they used to do in the original era.

MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
ROD introduces musical guest & credits him with inspiring SNL theme music

— Robin Duke makes her very first appearance.
— Robin acknowledges she hasn’t done much tonight but explains “You’ll be seeing more of me next week.” Kinda sad hearing that in hindsight, because thanks to a writers strike, we would end up having to wait until the fall to see more of her.
— Man, she’s coming off really stumbly with her lines all throughout this. First night jitters, I take it?
— Interesting tidbit about the original SNL theme music being influenced by tonight’s musical guest. That makes me look at that theme music differently now.
— I think I remember hearing that this ends up being the only thing Robin appears in all night.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Roadrunner”
musical guest performs “Shotgun”

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
Smitt-Burney makes money the old-fashioned way, they steal it
Raheem Abdul Muhammed saw Altered States but thought it was Stir Crazy
LAM asks pedestrians “Would you take a bullet for our president?”

         

— What’s with the weird intro voice-over doing the opening Smitt-Burney “We steal it” sponsorship promo?
— Hey, it’s Chevy at the original Update set! And doing his trademark “raunchy phone conversation” opening gag! Seeing all of this is flashing me back to when I was doing reviews of season 1 several months ago.
— Chevy’s opening “I’m Chevy Chase… and you still aren’t” line didn’t get anywhere near as big an audience reaction as you’d expect.
— Holy shit, a joke in 1981 about Mackenzie and John Phillips setting their wedding plans. WTF? Were these writers psychic?
— What’s with Chevy’s timing so far in tonight’s Update? He seems fairly awkward and “off”. Not quite as “off” as he was throughout his infamous season 5 hosting stint that I recently reviewed, but still a far cry from how good he was during his cast member days.
— It’s also not helping that the jokes themselves aren’t very good. However, it’s still a little better than the mind-numbingly unfunny dreck we were hearing from Rocket and Matthius all season.
— Ha, I like how when Chevy had trouble saying “This just in”, he ad-libbed some fast-paced Spanish gibberish, which is an old improv bit he used to fall back on during his days as a cast member whenever he would trip over an Update joke. Though I kinda wish he instead said “toyboat”, which used to be his other go-to improv bit when stumbling over a joke.
— Here comes an Eddie commentary as Raheem Abdul Muhammed. Weird seeing a (then) modern-day cast member at Chevy’s original season 1 Update set.
— Eddie’s overall commentary was okay, if nothing special. I liked the ending with him asking Chevy if he wants to buy some reefer. This also made me realize that this may have been the only time in SNL history we’ve seen Eddie and Chevy interacting with each other in person, unless I’m forgetting something.
— We finally get the debut of Laurie “She used to be on SNL?!?!” Metcalf, doing a pre-taped man-on-the-street segment where she asks pedestrians “Would you take a bullet for the president?” I take it this was right after the infamous President Reagan assassination attempt.
— Wait, we can’t even see Laurie Metcalf in this while pedestrians are answering her question.
— Oh, now we can see Laurie. Boy, does it feel weird seeing a young version of her on SNL.
— I recall hearing this is the only thing Laurie appears in tonight, meaning she made no live appearances for her first (and what would go on to be ONLY) episode. But hey, that’s still more than what her fellow featured player Emily Prager supposedly gets to do tonight, from what I’ve heard.
— Boy, these pedestrians’ answers to Laurie’s question are not funny at all. What’s the point of this whole segment?
— After Laurie’s segment ends, we just cut to a commercial break, with no cut back to Chevy at the Update desk. So, this is how tonight’s Update ends? Uh… okay.
STARS: **– oh, wait…

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
ALF explains what happened to the show & wants to “Put SNL To Sleep”

     

— Oh, after the commercial break, we’re back with a continuation of Update. Wow, this may be the only time in SNL history where a Weekend Update had an actual commercial break in the middle of it. Weird. There are some old Comedy Central reruns that used to add a commercial break into the middle of somewhat lengthy Dennis Miller Updates (there were at least two instances of this: the Rob Lowe episode from season 15, and the Kyle MacLachlan episode from season 16), but I don’t count those because those were only added for syndication.
— We get a Don Pardo voice-over intro at the beginning of this half of Update, unlike the first half.
— A callback to the traditional Generalissimo Francisco Franco joke.
— Just now when a joke received tepid audience reaction, Chevy ad-libbed a “The writers strike continues” remark.
— Man, these jokes are just plain weak. Chevy keeps trying to save them by constantly making little ad-libs after every joke, but the problem is, the ad-libs ain’t funny either. That shows how much Chevy’s off his game tonight, because season 1 Chevy would’ve been more successful in his attempts to save bad jokes.
— Al Franken!!!
— A continuation of the gag with Franken’s name being displayed on the bottom of the screen every time he says “me – Al Franken”.
— The audience automatically applauds Al for simply saying he’s not part of the new SNL.
— This has turned into a very meta commentary, with Al doing a quick recap of SNL’s history and addressing the problems of this troubled season.
— Ha, loved Al’s harsh comment about how SNL got even better after Chevy left the cast.
— Al: “After four seasons, Danny and John left. Now THEM, we missed.”
— Classic line from Al about how Dick Ebersol “doesn’t know dick”.
— Al: “The show is going to be a little better. No English-speaking person can do a worse job than Jean [Doumanian].“
— Very funny conclusion to Al’s commentary, with him announcing a “Put SNL To Sleep” campaign to put the show out of its misery.
— They shoehorn in a mention that Al and Tom Davis will be hosting next week’s SNL with musical guest The Grateful Dead… which we, of course, never ended up getting to see.
— Overall, a fantastic commentary from Al, and I love how rebellious and frank it felt, reminding me of the ballsy anti-Fred Silverman commentary he did the previous season.
— Awkward ending to tonight’s Update with the camera still staying on Chevy long after he signed off, which he tries to ad-lib his way out of by drinking from a glass of water.
STARS: (FOR BOTH UPDATE HALVES ALTOGETHER) **½

SAME
“Same” is how Irene Cara (GLM) musically describes her performances

  

— I got a good laugh from Gail’s lyric about getting yeast infections from wearing those jeans all the time.
— A catchy parody of “Fame” so far, and a fun performance from Gail. I can already tell this song is going to be stuck in my head for a while.
— I liked the fourth wall-breaking extended ending, showing Gail and the back-up dancers dancing their way out of the studio. In hindsight, that has kind of a bittersweet feel to it, knowing what unfortunately lies ahead for Gail’s SNL future.
— Overall, while I’m sure I would’ve found this sketch even funnier if I had been around for the apparent over-saturation of “Fame” back in those days, I still found this to be a fun and enjoyable piece.
STARS: ***½

THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS
holier-than-thou characters populate a new NBC series

   

— Oh, so Robin Duke IS in a sketch tonight.
— This sketch beginning with Robin and Tony as the only performers onscreen makes me feel like I’m watching something from the later years of SCTV. Part of that feeling could also be due to the fact that the copy of the episode I’m watching (which is a recording of the original live broadcast) actually includes an SCTV rerun that aired right after this episode.
— So far, this is a pretty funny parody of the “overdramatic, self-important line deliveries” trope of hospital TV dramas.
— LOL at Eddie as a patient coming out of the operating room mid-surgery to join in on the doctors’ argument.
STARS: ***

WEDDING DAY
an Italian father (TOR) gives son Frank (TIK) advice on his wedding day

   

— Right out of the gate in his first episode, we get an over-the-top Italian-accented character from Tony Rosato. From what I’ve heard about the upcoming season 7, I’m in for quite a number of Italian stereotype characters from Tony throughout that season.
— Some good fast-paced delivery from Tony throughout this.
— Funny line from Tim about Tony strangling chickens in front of his fiancee.
— Liked the part with Tony slapping Tim for calling him a “wop”.
— A very realistic slice-of-life scene so far, but is there going to be an end to this lengthy sketch?
— A good laugh from the way Tony screamed “Mariaaaa!!!” when yelling out the door for more wine.
— Ha, during Tim and Tony’s various rapid-fire fighting gestures during their argument just now, Tim did a Curly-from-the-Three-Stooges gesture with his hand on top of his head.
— Very funny part with Tim and Tony showing the mother their crude crotch-thrusting gesture.
— Overall, this had its highlights, was a good showcase for the new guys, and I appreciate what this was going for, but MAN, what an overlong sketch. There were at least three times where I thought it would end, only for it to continue.
STARS: **½

THE FAMOUS BROADCASTERS SCHOOL OF CUE CARD READING
(JOP) is a product of the Famous Broadcasters School of Cue Card Reading

  

— Feels like the first time in a while we’ve seen Joe as a commercial pitchman. Charles Rocket seemed to slowly take that role away from him as this season progressed.
— Oh, he’s doing an ad for a school of cue card reading. I had been wondering why he kept diverting his eyes back-and-forth from the camera to the side of the camera.
— The part with his delays at keeping up with the back-and-forth camera switching is pretty funny.
— Good part with Tim.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
CHC says SNL is OK but Christopher Reeve & Robin Williams [real] disagree

 

— Random Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve cameo.
— Decent bit with with Chevy saying SNL’s had its ups-and-downs and is currently “on its way back up” only for Williams and Reeve to refuse to back him up on that.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “How Sweet It Is”
musical guest performs “What Does It Take”

WILD COUNTRY GUN CARDS
Wild Country Gun Cards’ firearm facts promote family togetherness

   

— Feels weird seeing Denny being paired with some of the new cast members.
— An okay concept with the family jovially reading off graphic gun descriptions.
— Denny’s delivery of “It’s a ladies gun!” made me laugh.
— Strange bit role for Eddie at the end.
STARS: **½

BAG LADY
critics decry bag lady’s (DED) adherence to stereotypes of homeless genre

   

— I’ve always been kinda curious to see this. I think I remember hearing that this is a very strange, unconventional film with a negative reputation.
— What’s with the off-camera voices gossiping about Denny’s character? And what’s with that stuff they’re saying about Denny’s character just being an actress. I have no idea what they’re going for here.
— And that’s it? What the…?
— Overall, wow, I was pretty much lost during this. If they were trying to go for some kind of “deep” dramatic piece, I can’t help but feel they missed the mark. Maybe this whole film just went over my head.
STARS: *½

GOODNIGHTS
Irene Cara (GLM) reprises “Same”

     

— The usual season 6 home base stage looks so out-of-place in tonight’s episode; I guess because of how drastically different this episode feels from the prior episodes of this season.
— We get a continuation of Gail’s “Same” number as Chevy carries her in his arms.
— Gail ad-libs an out-of-character “You gotta put me down now, Chevy” right before the goodnights get cut off in the live version I’m watching. I want to see how the rest of these unique goodnights go, so I’m quickly gonna pull up the rerun version of this episode with the full goodnights.
— (Two minutes later…) Okay, here it is. Picking up where I left off in the live version, Gail continues to sing while dancing her way off the home base stage and going around the studio. Everyone else on stage follow her one-by-one in a line. Fun way to do the goodnights; kinda reminds me of the “conga line” goodnights in the Desi Arnaz episode from season 1.
— Strange seeing the scrolling ending credits being displayed in a different font from the one they typically used in the first 6 seasons. Tonight’s font would never be used for the goodnights again after this, as far as I know.

---

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Wow. Well, I went into this expecting a unique, strange-feeling episode, and that’s certainly what I got. This episode had a definite rebuilding/transitional vibe to it. At the same time, it had kind of an underlying sense of “What if this ends up being the final SNL episode ever?”, which is kinda sad and eerie when I think about it. Yet another interesting thing about this episode is that parts of it felt like I was watching a season premiere, which I guess is due to the fact that we had so many new cast members making their debut.
— This overall episode was okay. A little rough around the edges and was not anything I’d call great, nor was it the massive instant improvement over the Doumanian era that people may have been expecting. However, you can definitely see the promise and potential there.
— This would end up being the final episode of the season due to the aforementioned writers strike. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Dick Ebersol, as he now had much more time to do a more complete retooling of SNL than the measly five weeks he had been given between the preceding Bill Murray episode and tonight’s episode.
— This turned out to be the final episode for “veterans” (relatively speaking) Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius, as well as the two new featured players who got their “start” tonight: Laurie Metcalf and the unseen Emily Prager (which gives the former a strange, unique place in SNL history as the only cast member ever to only appear in pre-taped form for their entire tenure, while the latter is the only cast member ever to make ZERO appearances for their entire tenure). All four of these women would be casualties of Ebersol’s summer retooling of the show. I’m not too sad to see Denny go, though I didn’t have much of a problem with her throughout this season and she provided some laughs for me here and there. I just can’t help but view her as kinda expendable, though. Gail, on the other hand, did not deserve to get fired. She had some really positive qualities as a performer and seems like she would’ve fit really well into some of the better eras of the show. There were some rough moments with her, however: any potential she may have had as an Update anchor was ruined by her consistently being given some of the absolute worst Update jokes in SNL history, and I was a little put off by her suddenly starting to occasionally rely on overly-cartoonish antics during some of the sketches in the second half of the season. However, I blame the latter on the decreased confidence and increased sense of panic that most of the cast seemed to develop in the back half of the season. If Gail was kept on the show after this season and was given better writing than she got this year, who knows what greatness she could have achieved?
— So, what to say about the infamous Season 6 as a whole? When I started my reviews of this season, I predicted I would come out of the season feeling it was bad, but not quite as horrible as legend has it. That prediction turned out to be 100% correct. The first half of the season was undoubtedly rough, but had enough silver linings and occasional good episodes to keep me somewhat optimistic. However, during the second half of the season, immediately after the surprisingly strong Karen Black episode, this season hit the wall HARD. The great Karen Black episode was followed by a long consecutive string of dire and dreary episodes, where it felt like the show had suddenly given up and let all the bad press they were receiving get in their heads. Thankfully, they eventually got out of that slump, with Bill Murray injecting the cast and writers with tons of spirit and inspiration in the second-to-last episode and new producer Dick Ebersol transitioning the show to a promising new era in the last episode.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bill Murray):
— a step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Season 7 begins. The show returns from writers strike and summer break with a more complete retooling, and we get introduced to MORE new faces in the cast. This will also be our second consecutive host-less episode.