October 3, 1981 – (no host) / Rod Stewart (S7 E1)

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

  

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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