November 14, 1981 – Bernadette Peters / The Go-Go’s, Billy Joel (S7 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
SNL sponsored by Texxon- “Where Life Is Second Only To Money”

— Now Texxon’s the name of the fictional gas company that “sponsors” the show?
— The taglines in these cold openings seem to get less and less funny with each passing one.
STARS: *½

TALENT ENTRANCE

JOHNNY KEEP YOUR GUN CLEAN
Betty Boop (host) warns against sex diseases

 

— The return of season 7’s musical sketches, after we got a break from them last week.
— The various V.D. innuendos are pretty funny.
— Overall, not bad for a season 7 musical sketch. Though knowing that Bernadette Peters has a lot of musical experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a second musical sketch later tonight.
STARS: ***

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK FILMS
Escape From Escape From New York & Escape From New York, New York on film

   

— Calling Adrienne Barbeau “Adrienne Bimbo”?
— Not too sure about the concept of this. “Escape From New York” seems like a strange movie to pick on.
— I kinda like the outdated 1950s stock footage of theatergoers being used to represent then-modern theatergoers.
STARS: **

I MARRIED A MONKEY
baby Ronnie frolics as Madge mulls a divorce offer

   

— The return of this promising sketch from the season 6 finale.
— LOL at Madge sympathetically putting her arms around Tim when Tim was pouring his heart out to her.
— I assume the “Can I scratch that for you?” bit was an ad-lib.
— Another good laugh from Madge “drinking” from the pill bottle.
— Once again, Tim is doing great playing off of all of the monkey’s unscripted actions.
— Haha, the baby chimp is again causing lots of wild unplanned antics.
— Great blooper with the baby chimp’s constant bouncing around the set unintentionally causing a painting to fall off the wall.
— Overall, this was a riot. I’m surprised by how much I’ve been liking these “I Married a Monkey” sketches so far, though I do expect to tire of them eventually.
STARS: ****

A MESSAGE TO YOUNG WHITE VIEWERS
EDM has a message for white kids about the importance of a good education

 

— I got a good laugh from Eddie’s mention of a “warm bucket of hamster vomit”.
— Funny premise with Eddie encouraging viewers to drop out of college.
— Him advising viewers to “play Space Invaders” serves as a nice time capsule of the arcade craze that was going on in those days.
— Good ending with the limo driver.
STARS: ***½

HIDDEN PHOTO
Allen Funt (JOP) gives diners dangerous forks & upsets kids

     

— The zoom-in to an audience member during the beginning came off awkward.
— They haven’t said who Joe’s playing, but I’m assuming it’s Allen Funt. Judging from the audience’s initial positive reaction to him, his impression seems to be dead-on.
— Ha, the sadistic prank with the hot fork is hilarious.
— Is that Christine or Bernadette playing the southern-accented waitress? I can’t tell.
— I’m liking how they’re doing more sadistic pranks. The idea of replacing a blind guy’s seeing-eye dog with a wild pig is cracking me up.
— Yet another hilarious prank sequence with telling kids they’re being put up for adoption.
— Why is that one little girl dressed like a French maid?
STARS: ****

BEDTIME STORY
(TOR) tells a bedtime story about camels that upholster furniture

— What’s with Robin’s voice? Is that a random British accent I’m hearing? It doesn’t seem to fit her character in this. Mary seems to be doing a weird accent as well.
— I’m starting to realize why Tony’s performances sometimes remind me of John Belushi: the way Tony’s voice sounds in some of his roles is very similar to the voice John would use in certain sketches like The Farbers and Knights of Columbus.
— What the hell? That’s the whole sketch??!? The bedtime story’s over already??? This was absolutely pointless.
STARS: *

BILLY JOEL PREVIEW
a teaser for Billy Joel’s upcoming musical performance

— Interesting random quick segment, showing Billy Joel rehearsing while announcer Mel Brandt tells us Joel’s performance is coming up later in the show.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
The Go-Go’s perform “Our Lips Are Sealed”

MAN RAY AND MIC
by William Wegman- a dog & a microphone

 

— Hmm, the return of Bill Wegman and his dog Man Ray, who made a few films together back in the original SNL era.
— Uh… what in the world??? This ended up being yet another very quick, pointless bit tonight, and reminded me of one of the earlier Wegman/Man Ray films that just showed the dog being awaken by an alarm clock. What is the point of these films of theirs??? I don’t understand these at all.
STARS: *

SKETCH IN THE DARK
after power failure, TOR & CHE’s skit is unacceptable to the censor (TIK)

   

— Interesting fourth wall-breaking premise.
— LOL at the lines about Tony’s “rod” and Christine’s “nice melons”.
— Loved Tim flipping out when Christine calls for Dick Ebersol by yelling “Dick! Dick! Get me dick!”
— Didn’t care for the “oh, this sketch IS about sex after all” ending; it was kinda corny.
STARS: ***½

COMING UP
EDM & JOP wrestle for the right to introduce Billy Joel later in the show

   

— Another miscellaneous segment hyping up Billy Joel’s upcoming performance.
— Joe to Eddie: “Murphy, give me a break, you do EVERYTHING on the show.” Heh, I bet that’s how ALL of Eddie’s castmates felt throughout Eddie’s SNL tenure.
— This is a great display of the fun chemistry Eddie and Joe have always had on SNL.
— Haha, I’m loving this heated-up fight between Eddie and Joe. Lots of great youthful energy from Eddie on display here as well.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)

MAKING LOVE ALONE
host sings a song about the virtues of making love alone

— My prediction of Bernadette doing a second musical sketch tonight was correct. Looks like she’s doing a serious, non-comedic musical number this time.
— “Making love alone?” Audience laughter? Wait, this is turning out to be a comedic song after all.
— Hmm, a pro-masturbation song by Bernadette Peters. Very interesting.
— Overall, this was a very solid number.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Billy Joel performs “Miami 2017”

42ND STREET
an innocent starlet (host) gets her chance in a sleazy club

     

— An old-timey burlesque backstage sketch seems perfect for Bernadette.
— The fire violation bribing bit was pretty funny.
— Interesting use of Brian Doyle-Murray in a rare non-Update appearance, as a drag queen of all things.
— Very good acting from Christine in her brief scene, almost TOO good for a sketch comedy show.
— LOL at the quick walk-on from a wild-looking Robin. Where has she been tonight anyway? Feels like we’ve barely seen her.
— Overall, this was a much longer sketch than usual this season, and wasn’t too great overall. Most of the performances were solid, though.
STARS: **

SNL NEWSBREAK
David Stockman’s (TIK) rosy economic scenario causes his nose to grow

    

— This is just NOW coming on? This seems to be on much later than usual tonight. I wonder if the fact that there’s so many musical performances tonight has something to do with that.
— Unlike last week, we get no shake-up with the “falling logo letters” opening gag. Just the same-old straightforward approach to it. You’d figure SNL would take a hint and stop doing the gag after seeing how much it always DIES with the audience.
— Speaking of dying with the audience, Brian’s first joke was met with total silence. Not a single laugh was heard from the audience. Man, it’s getting more and more depressing watching these dire SNL Newsbreaks this season.
— Geez, what was with Brian’s sloppy delivery of that Ayatollah joke?
— Tim playing a character named David Stockman? Uh, didn’t Gilbert Gottfried do an Update commentary as a character with that exact same name last season?
— LOL at the Pinocchio routine with Tim’s nose.
— Okay, Tim’s “increasingly bigger nose” bit is running out of steam.
— Wow, that’s the whole SNL Newsbreak??? This may be one of the shortest fake news installments I’ve ever seen on SNL. That, coupled with the fact that they buried this so late into the episode, almost makes me wonder if SNL is completely giving up on this dying segment.
STARS: *½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
The Go-Go’s perform “We Got The Beat”

NICK THE KNOCK
Nick the Knock (JOP) listens to a fairy’s (MAG) poem, then eats her spine

   

— Ohhho, yes! I’ve always been dying to see this bizarre sketch after everything I’ve heard about it over the years, especially the ending.
— Hey, Joe’s music box is playing the future “Pumping Up with Hanz and Frans” yodeling theme song!
— What is that moving behind Mary?
— Joe’s facial expressions during Mary’s poem are kinda funny.
— Just as I expected, this sketch is weird as HELL so far.
— Haha, and there it is, the part of this sketch I’ve always heard about: the insane sequence with Joe eating the fairy’s spine, resulting in green fluid shooting all over his face while the fairy screams in horror. I love it! The studio audience didn’t seem to know WHAT to make of that part, judging by their uncomfortable silence.
— Overall, this has got to be one of the weirdest, most fucked-up sketches SNL has ever aired. Like I said in the last review, I’m enjoying how Michael O’Donoghue’s being in charge behind the scenes has led to this season doing lots of weird, dark, unconventional things that you’d usually NEVER see being done in any other season. I’m starting to dread O’Donoghue’s upcoming mid-season firing, because I’m aware that it starts a turning point where the Ebersol era begins its reputation for being overly bland and too safe.
STARS: *** (probably too generous a rating, but I really admire the hell out of all the oddness and darkness this sketch was going for)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Billy Joel performs “She’s Got A Way”

ROCK ‘N ROLL HEAVEN INCORPORATED
Rock ‘n Roll Heaven Inc. specializes in dead musician merchandizing

     

— Even the way Tony looks in that wig and glasses kinda reminds me of how John Belushi looked in certain getups.
— I got a laugh from the Jim Morrison flasher doll.
— Loved the tasteless “Jim Croce’s crashing plane” toy.
— Wow, another sketch appearance from Brian Doyle-Murray tonight.
— The “Dr. Nick Medical Kit” was another strong tasteless bit.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS

  

— They seem to be trying to kill a lot of time before the ending credits start rolling. I liked how when Bernadette asked Tim how it feels to work with a monkey and Tim jokingly answers “I work with 6 of them all the time” (referring to his castmates), Eddie responds with a mock-offended “Hey, that ain’t funny, man!”

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A decent episode with a fairly fun vibe throughout. Even the two obligatory musical sketches of the week worked. There were still several weak pieces scattered throughout the show, and some experimentation that was very hit-and-miss, but nothing dragged this episode down TOO far for me.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Tim Curry