Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING (I guess???)
NBC says “Our Age Is Showing”
— Just a quick disclaimer-type gag, reminiscent of the brief “NBC: Smart as a Peacock” bit that preceded the cold opening of season 5’s premiere episode.
— After this, they just go right into the SNL opening montage, as if this was the actual cold opening. I know this is going to be fairly common this season, as well as the lack of a LFNY. LFNY has been completely done away with this season.
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— New opening montage.
— Noticeable right off the bat is the fact that we have a new announcer this season. Mel Brandt takes over Don Pardo’s duties.
— A pretty interesting opening montage. The black-and-white look and gritty vibe accurately represents how crime-ridden New York was in the early 80s. Adding to that is the fact that Mel Brandt precedes saying “It’s Saturday Night Live” with “from New York, the most dangerous city in America”. Speaking of which, something about Brandt’s voice actually fits this gritty montage well.
— Nice theme music, though from what I remember, it would go on to sound better the longer they used it over the next few seasons it (I especially love how it sounds in season 9). It sounds like it’s in a lower key tonight than how it would sound a few seasons later.
— Christine Ebersole, Mary Gross, and (making his return a year after his season 5 featured player stint) Brian Doyle-Murray are the new cast members joining the show tonight.
TALENT ENTRANCE
— There’s no monologue; just the cast gathering on the (new) home base stage, posing in a group shot, and then scattering off into various directions as the next sketch starts. This is yet another big format change that we’ll be seeing quite a lot throughout this season.
THE LITTLE RICHARD SIMMONS SHOW
Little Richard Simmons (EDM) does exercise & rock-n-roll with audience
— We’re ALREADY in the lead-off sketch tonight? This episode has been very fast-moving.
— Very funny concept, combining Little Richard and Richard Simmons.
— The ubiquitous Yvonne Hudson sneaks into yet another season of SNL.
— Loved Eddie’s “You girls have let yourselves go!” comment to the overweight male cameramen.
— Very fun with Eddie going into SNL’s studio audience and actually physically making them stand up.
— Eddie as Simmons: “I’ve been getting MY protein; have you girls? (*suggestive eyebrow raise*)”
— Great Little Richard-esque musical number from Eddie.
— It’s no surprise, but Eddie is so damn good throughout this sketch.
— Overall, one of Eddie’s greatest sketches. Right out of the gate this season, he’s proving his worth as the new leader of this retooled cast.
STARS: ****½
THE CLAMS
Brian DePalma’s latest movie plagarization project
— Even before the big reveal, I can tell this is a parody of The Birds. They’re doing a dead-on recreation of the famous playground scene from that movie.
— Excellent line from the announcer: “Once a year, Brian DePalma picks the bones of a dead director and gives his wife a job.”
— Overall, a pretty funny Birds parody.
STARS: ***½
NUNS
at the beach, (ROD) finds that fellow nun (MAG) has shoddy qualifications
— The reveal of Mary Gross becoming a nun by mail is fairly funny.
— The message from the voice of God isn’t quite as funny as I thought it would be.
— Overall, pretty dull for a sketch placed this early in the show. Not too great of a debut for Mary Gross, either.
— Interesting screen effect as the sketch ended, where the screen spun around and shrunk down into a black screen with the SNL logo. (screencap below) I guess that’s going to be a thing this season.
STARS: **
A FEW MINUTES WITH ANDY ROONEY
shoes & assorted other topics
— I’m already getting laughs at the start of this, just from Joe’s Andy Rooney voice.
— Loved the random “Ever notice there were never any Nazis named Steve?” line.
— Funny comment calling Mike Wallace a jackass.
— I liked him pointing out the rouge on his cheeks at the end of this.
STARS: ***
PROSE AND CONS
barred bards, like Tyrone Green (EDM); Swifty Lazar cameo
— I’m liking the music being played during the opening montage of prisoners.
— An enjoyable and well-done short so far, and we haven’t even gotten to the famous part yet. I remember being very bored by most of this film when seeing it years ago (“Eddie Murphy’s the only funny part of this whole thing!” I remember complaining back then, and I’m sure there are others who have that same opinion), but I can enjoy the low-key humor in it more nowadays.
— Ah, here’s the classic part with Eddie.
— Eddie’s whole insane, intense poem-reading is absolutely fucking fantastic, especially the immortal “C-I-L-L” part. The latter got such a loud audience reaction that you couldn’t hear the end of Eddie’s poem (which appeared to just be the word “death”).
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Dance With Me”
musical guest & Tina Turner [real] perform “Hot Legs”
SNL NEWSBREAK
Tom Snyder (JOP) does the Tomorrow Show in Spanish for ratings purposes
Raheem Abdul Muhammed complains about the lack of black people in movies
— “Weekend Update” is now known as “SNL Newsbreak”. I can’t wait to see how many times I’ll mistakenly refer to it as “Update” in my reviews this season.
— I liked the opening bit with the letters in the superimposed “SNL Newsbreak” graphic being struck by lightning and then falling onto Brian Doyle-Murray. If that’s something they’re going to be doing every week, however, I just know I’m going to get sick of it fast.
— Brian Doyle-Murray and Mary Gross are the new anchors of Upda– uh, I mean SNL Newsbreak (see, I did it already!). I’m surprised to see Mary there; I don’t remember her ever being an anchorperson. I thought I remembered Brian starting out the season as a solo anchor and then eventually being joined by Christine Ebersole as his co-anchor later in the season. Looks like I’m in for another season of the news segment going through lots of retooling over the course of the year.
— Weak introduction bit with Brian and Mary. I’m already becoming wary of this new Update team.
— Pretty tepid jokes so far, especially Mary’s 10 year old/bomb quote.
— The C. Everett Koop joke was pretty good.
— LOL, oh my god at the cutaway to Joe’s fast-talking Spanish Tom Snyder. Funny as hell!
— Mary’s delivery doesn’t seem right for Update.
— A Raheem Abdul Muhammad commentary. Hope this’ll be our third classic Eddie performance of the night.
— Loved Eddie briefly working his Jerry Lewis impression into this commentary.
— Eddie has begun cracking up after saying Isaac Hayes was great in “Truck Turner”.
— Eddie cracks up again at the end of the commentary. I guess this is where his penchant for occasionally breaking during sketches officially begins.
— Eddie’s overall commentary wasn’t as great as I thought it would be, but he had some good lines here and there, and his delivery as this character is always funny.
— Overall, SNL Newsbreak did not have an encouraging start at all tonight. I’m aware that this is going to be a very bad season for SNL’s news segment and, much like season 6’s Weekend Updates, probably goes further and further downhill as the year progresses.
STARS: **
THE KHADDAFFI LOOK
terrorize in style with the Libyan leader’s fashions
— Very catchy jingle.
— I like the early 80s look and feel to everything in this.
— Overall, a decent concept and was executed fairly well, even if I didn’t laugh all that much.
STARS: ***
STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT
annoying one-night stand Rod (TIK) irks Ruth (ROD) after her father dies
— Tim’s green smiley-face shirt is pretty funny.
— A lot of funny details with Tim’s weird character.
— Robin’s really selling her character’s various emotions.
— Heh, whoa at Tim slapping Robin out of nowhere.
— Ha at Tim bursting back into the apartment just to say “Aw… geez” again, which he kept repeating earlier in the sketch in reaction to the news of Robin’s father.
— Good ending (though I’m aware there’s more after the commercial break) with Robin panickedly barricading the door after Tim’s second exit.
— Overall, a very strong slice-of-life sketch.
STARS: ****
STRANGERS AT THE FUNERAL PARLOR
at her father’s funeral, Ruth puts up with obnoxious relatives & Rod
— A very unique instance of a sketch continuing with a “part 2” after a commercial break, going a step beyond the usual slice-of-life sketches the show did during the original years.
— I’m getting unintentional laughs from seeing Tony in the background during Robin and Mary’s conversation. Just something about Tony’s funny mannerisms while holding a conversation in the background makes me look forward to seeing this character front-and-center later in the sketch.
— Now that we’re seeing Tony’s character front-and-center, his performance is reminding me of John Belushi for some reason. Maybe I’m reminded of the way Belushi played certain roles like Larry Farber. I actually remember hearing that Tony was originally hired to be a Belushi-type for the cast, though I’m not sure that ends up panning out for the most part.
— Christine Ebersole finally makes her very first appearance. Kinda late in the episode for a repertory player to be making their debut.
— I like Robin freaking out over Tim calling himself Robin’s lover.
— Funny subtle joke with Tony being seen holding the dead father’s shoes.
STARS: ***½
ANDY WARHOL’S TV
Andy Warhol [real] talks about appearing on SNL & tells a joke
— Oh, it’s the debut of these bizarre Andy Warhol shorts that I’m aware appear somewhat regularly in the first half of the season (or is it the WHOLE season?). From what I’ve heard about these, they don’t seem like something I’d enjoy at all.
— A strange, creepy atmosphere to this.
— What… the… fuck??? That’s the whole thing??!! I usually like weirdness on SNL, but THIS? No.
STARS: *½
MICHAEL DAVIS
Michael Davis [real] juggles a machete, an axe, a cleaver
— Okay, here’s the debut of another season 7 staple, only this is one I’m actually looking forward to. I’m not usually into comedy magician acts, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about this guy.
— He’s ALREADY coming off funny so far, and he’s just started.
— “People don’t take you seriously if you only have one ball.”
— Nice fake-out with him seeming like he’s going to juggle the machete, only to reveal he’s simply going to juggle the machete case instead of the machete itself.
— Oh, a double fake-out; turns out he really IS going to juggle the machete itself.
— I like the “make sure that doesn’t fly off again” part.
— Gotta love the daringness of juggling three razor-sharp tools on live TV.
— “Don’t be afraid. I’ve done this… twice.”
— Funny reaction from the audience when he tells them he has to kick the axe up in the air in order to start juggling it.
— Wow, he’s actually doing a great job juggling the three tools successfully.
— A good laugh from the part with him juggling with his eyes “closed”.
— Overall, wow, I loved this whole thing. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more appearances from this guy throughout this season.
STARS: ****½
HOME MOVIES
CHE invites viewers to send in their home movies
— Christine Ebersole on the home base stage while piano music starts in the background? Am I in for the first of what will be many musical numbers from Christine this season? (which is something about this season I can’t say I’m looking forward to, honestly)
— Oh, it turns out this is a straightforward message urging viewers to send in funny short films and home movies that can be aired on the show. Christine appears to be delivering this in a mock-donation Public Service Announcement style (which I guess explains the background piano music).
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)
A FILM BY YOKO ONO
“Season Of Glass”- thoughts on life after John Lennon’s death
— From what I remember reading about this dead-serious film, I’m sure I won’t be able to come up with any comments while watching this.
— Overall, yep, as I predicted, I couldn’t find anything to say about this while watching it. It was a pretty well-done, emotional film overall, but felt out-of-place on SNL. I don’t even feel comfortable giving this a rating.
STARS: N/A
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Young Turks”
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A decent debut for a very different-feeling SNL. While not what I would call a VAST improvement over season 6, I can see the show is definitely making good progress, and things like doing a two-part slice-of-life sketch (the Ruth/Rod sketch with Robin and Tim) shows a willingness to take more chances than season 6 did. Strange, though, how the last 15-20 minutes of tonight’s show consisted entirely of segments that weren’t even sketches (Warhol film, Michael Davis juggling act, Christine Ebersole message, Yoko Ono film, musical performance).
— Eddie had a fantastic night, with the two segments he appeared in in the first 20 minutes being among his best and most well-remembered SNL work (Little Richard Simmons, Prose and Cons). With tonight’s episode, I definitely feel like I’ve fully arrived at the era of Eddie’s dominance.
— Not a very promising debut for the three newbies. Christine didn’t get anything funny to do, Brian and Mary co-anchored a tepid first installment of SNL Newsbreak, and Mary also co-starred in a pretty dull nuns sketch.
— There’s a lot of changes I’m going to have to get used to this season. It’s going to feel weird not hearing a LFNY, not hearing Don Pardo’s voice, not seeing a monologue, and calling Weekend Update by a different name.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1980-81):
— a moderately big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Susan Saint James
Considering I’m a NY based actor who loves the theatre, I love whenever the show gets theatrical. Christine Ebersole did have some great moments on this season and she sells a lot of the songs she performs quite well. The sad thing is that she is such a good actress but often doesn’t get as many chances to shine.
Mary Gross is definitely an interesting case because this first year is a lot tougher for her (she does have an interesting showcase in the George Kennedy episode though) than Ebersole and even Duke. If anything, Duke actually starts off strong but then her confidence and screentime begin to falter.
It’s definitely the most bizarre season, that’s for sure.
This is probably common knowledge to many, but the “Khaddafi” commercial uses the same melody as the classic “Jordache” jingle from around this time…
And, of course, “Jewess Jeans.” Funny that SNL went to the same parody target twice!
Notice Rod Stewart says “why the fuck is she ignoring me?” Just two episodes after Charlie Rocket’s slip-up. (Yet, verbally mutes the word “hard-on”!)
It’s interesting to note that Pardo was only fired from the job as SNL announcer this season – he was not fired from NBC (IIRC, he was one of the very few NBC on-air employees from this era that had a “lifetime contract” with the network – I believe Willard Scott was one of the other ones.) . This made it easy to bring Pardo back in Season 8, once O’Donoghue (who pushed for Pardo’s removal in the first place) had left the show.
Believe Bill Wendell had one too- which he gave up to go to CBS with David Letterman in 1993 and was off “Late Show” within a couple years on what seemed like a forced “retirement”- Pardo was still on WNBC’s “Live At Five” during his time off “SNL”
OMG at Eddie-as-Little Richard Simmons touching the beer guts of a couple of crew members!
OMG at Eddie-as-Little Richard Simmons touching a couple of crew members’ beer guts!
Rest in peace, Little Richard. He was never on the show but I thought of this sketch when I heard the news.
I can’t believe they never got him to host. And now, they never will. ☹️
Little Richard would have made a great musical guest in s11, around the time of his most famous acting role (Down and Out in Beverly Hills, which he was quite good in.)
Who remembers Mary Gross in the late 80s comedy movies Feds and Casual Sex? And her 1995 appearance on The Larry Sanders Show? After JLD, she was the most successful of the non-Eddie Murphy castmembers during those years, even more than the star-groomed Piscopo. It’s a shame she’s mostly out of showbiz nowadays, reportedly because of hearing problems.
Pre-Seinfeld, I’d say Mary was getting more high profile work than JLD by that point whose biggest post-SNL projects were Troll and Soul Man!
FEDS is one of those movies I remember watching a lot on Comedy Central back in the days they played all the 80s comedies no other networks wanted. The Couch Trip (starring Dan Aykroyd and Charles Grodin) was another one I recall seeing on CC a lot which had Mary in a supporting role along with Victoria Jackson.
JLD was also in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and the TV sitcom Day By Day just before hitting it big with Seinfeld.
James, I first saw Mary in Troop Beverly Hills, years before I’d known she was on SNL (if rumors are to be believed Shelley Long nearly hosted during Mary’s run in the cast). She was terrific in that movie and one of the reasons it works as well as it does. I’ve seen her in things before and since (I think the last I saw her on was as a teacher on Sabrina the Teenage Witch) but never felt she got the credit she deserved. And her SNL work is surprisingly dense, especially compared to the other women in her 4 seasons.
I’m not 100 percent sure, but Shelley and Mary may have briefly been Second City Chicago cast members at the same time. Troop Beverly Hills was *always* on TBS or The Disney Channel when I was a boy, so I have a lot of fondness for it. Years later, the two played villains on Lois & Clark (Shelley as the leader, Mary as the sidekick).
Interesting fact about Troop Beverly Hills: It was written by Pamela Morris and Margaret Greco Oberman both of whom were “SNL” staff writers during Mary’s tenure.
With 77 episodes, Mary has the most appearances of any Ebersol/Doumanian era cast member.
I always liked Mary but wasn’t sure why she suddenly disappeared from showbiz around 1990. Too bad about the hearing issues.
Between her, Kazurinsky, Betty Thomas, George Wendt, Shelley Long, and Jim Belushi, NBC was getting a lot of mileage out of SC Chicago in the early 80s. (Leading to the infamous story that they got so sick of NBC’s “poaching,” they sent Ebersol next door before season 7 to cast JLD, etc… though I thought she was in one of the touring companies at one point).
I had heard that Shelley was going to host in season 10, but her pregnancy put an end to that? Also, I believe she and Mary Gross were at SC at the same time, but not on main stage together — Shelley was there first. My memory is fuzzy so maybe someone can confirm all this.
Here’s a nice 2011 Trib article on Mary and her brother Michael (also very talented and under-rated, but still working): https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-xpm-2011-03-16-ct-live-0317-mary-gross-20110316-story,amp.html
Mary was always a compelling presence and has funny & memorable characters like Alfalpha & the Jackie Rogers game show contestant. Nice article.
Yeah just saw a few weeks ago that Long was supposed to host in 84-85. I thought the writers strike was the reason. Didn’t know it was her pregnancy
Obviously, if that had happened she would have been the first from “Cheers” to do so, preceding Ted Danson by three years..
Ooops, I forgot about Rhea Pearlman from two or so years previous…
I had both Mary Gross and Margaret Oberman on my podcast.
https://anchor.fm/ian-fermaglich
Not finding the Mary Gross podcast on your site.
This was the only episode of the Ebersol years where the SNL band plays music at the end of a sketch.
My wife bought the Peacock app for our TV. While surfing through the app, I found it has all SNL episodes available in heavily-hacked-up formats.
We just watched this very episode tonight and – spoiler – they removed The Little Richard Simmons sketch and left in that Andy Warhol tape.
I guess that’s better than nothing.
After editing the episode to my preference for future viewing I saved:
THE LITTLE RICHARD SIMMONS SHOW
Little Richard Simmons (EDM) does exercise & rock-n-roll with audience
A FEW MINUTES WITH ANDY ROONEY
Shoes & assorted other topics
STRANGERS AT THE FUNERAL PARLOR
At her father’s funeral, Ruth puts up with obnoxious relatives & Rod
ANDY WARHOL’S TV
Andy Warhol [real] talks about appearing on SNL & tells a joke
The video I was able to obtain for this episode has an additional sketch that was not in Stooge’s review about a family that eats only sugar for breakfast with Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy, among others. I did not save it. This version of the episode is also missing:
THE CLAMS
Brian DePalma’s latest movie plagarization project
NUNS
At the beach, (ROD) finds that fellow nun (MAG) has shoddy qualifications
A FILM BY YOKO ONO
“Season Of Glass”- thoughts on life after John Lennon’s death
Yeah thats the comedy central syndicated version I’m watching. It mixes up some sketches but its basically complete and accurate to the original airing. The sugar sketch is almost funny. But not really.
The Segment “THE CLAMS – Brian DePalma’s latest movie plagarization project” was rerun in S07E04 so I was able to view it after all. I would not have saved it for later viewing even if it was not cut from the version of episode S07E01 I obtained. In addition S07E04 is the source of the “SUGAR BREAKFAST
– a sugar-loving family enjoys the most important meal of the day” that was for some reason cut into said version. For the sake of completeness I watched the “NUNS – At the beach, (ROD) finds that fellow nun (MAG) has shoddy qualifications” on Youtube. I probably would have saved it for future viewing but it wasn’t good enough to download, reencode and recut it into the version of S07E01 I have.
Here it is DR
https://anchor.fm/ian-fermaglich/episodes/Mary-Gross-em5p4p
I just started listening to these Ian and they’re great. People’s memories aren’t good at times, Neil Levy, I think confuses Ray Charles with James Brown as a season 6 guest, for example.
Thank you, Chris W. Wait until you hear Mel green. he thinks Rocket cursed in the season premiere.
You’re welcome Ian , I actually heard that one.
RIP James Caan, who was supposedly intended to host this episode until he had to drop out for family health reasons.
https://twitter.com/James_Caan/status/1545090774517174272
It would be great to have these seasons on DVD. I was an original cast die hard and stopped watching after a couple of episodes of the horrendous Season 6. I came back with this new cast and eventually fell in love with them too. Continued watching through the “hired guns” ’84-85 season, and never really returned to the show despite some strong casts since (Dana Carvey, Will Ferrell, etc.). To me, this cast represented the end of the edgy factor that SNL originally had. Seemed that after ’84, they knew they could capitalize on the catchphrases and recurring characters, slowly phasing out the short films, unusual music guests, stand up comedy or performance (Michael Davis here) and slice-of-life sketches. Every time I tuned in over the years, it seemed slicker and more packaged (in other words, homogenized). Today, I find very little in SNL to relate to, and it’s not just because I’m older now; there’s just not much “reality” to it. Their comedy focuses on riffing on other pop culture, political wonkiness, and repetitive one-joke abstractions. And worst of all? They play it extremely safe these days….way too many cultural sacred cows that they are too timid to get anywhere near.
NBC finally started releasing whole seasons of complete episodes including the music acts. Its only on streaming and right now they only have the first two seasons. But its the original masters not home recorded TV crap. so thats nice.
This was the first of three appearances on the show the late Tina Turner made in her lifetime. R.i.P.
A “meh” beginning to the new season.
Christine Ebersole is gorgeous, and was shamefully underused in her one season.
The new opening montage shows NYC WAS the “most dangerous city in America,” and the B&W noir look adds to the vibe. (Other cities have supplanted NYC as dangerous, particularly Chicago. I walked around Manhattan 15 years ago without fear.)
I won’t debate what the most dangerous city is now, but a lot has changed in New York from 15 years ago and I wouldn’t call it safe.
I remember first watching the Little Richard Simmons sketch on YouTube. I think it got taken down or it’s not available in this country.
I’m pretty decent season premiere. At least compared to last season.
My biggest takeaway: ENERGY.
This episode felt positively fast-past and energetic, particularly compared to the absolute slogs of last season. And I think that’s what Ebersol and (especially) O’Donoghue were going for.
I recall reading that before the season started Mr. Mike told the cast that SNL was missing danger, and he went as far as spraypainting the word on the wall. And that attitude permeates the episode. Danger in changing up the format (eliminating Perso, LFNY, changing Update, opening with the cast on stage and then running into formation for the first sketch), danger with the juggling act, calling out NYC as America’s most dangerous city.
Its a little hackneyed, looking at it from a 2024 perspective, but in 1981 this is fresh and exciting. It kind of feels like the 1975 season when they were still putting it all together (though this cast is a poor comparison to the OG cast) and making something new.
I know Mr. Mike gets fired midway through the season, and I’m not looking forward to this era of SNL without that energy.
I like the cast. Tony Rosato and Robin Duke seem like fully developed performers with personality. I’ve always liked Mary Gross in other things, so its nice to see her here. Not too hot on Brian Doyle Murray or Mary on Update, though.
Of the old cast, I do wish they’d kept Denny Dillon, though. She had edge.
As has been mentioned, the news segment is awful this season and really until Dennis Miller. Bizarre that they brought BDM back after his role writing it the previous year.