January 30, 1982 – John Madden / Jennifer Holliday (S7 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host gives postgame report from Super Bowl XVI loser Bengals’ locker room

   

— I’m loving Eddie’s angry rant.
— Tony’s pretty funny as the foreign kicker.
— Good bit with Tim as an angry coach having Tony deported.
— The reveal of one of the players having hanged himself in the background was pulled off well.
— An overall good opening with a funny dark vibe to it.
STARS: ***½

TALENT ENTRANCE / MONOLOGUE / ??????
host bursts though opening credits a la Lite Beer commercial

— Not sure what to call this segment (as you can tell by my confusing title), but this was a fun brief bit with Madden busting through the screen to hype up the show in a football game-esque manner.

JOHNNY CARSON SCHOOL OF ACTING
Art Fern (JOP) on how to succeed the Johnny Carson way- steal characters

  

— Is this a sister commercial to “The Ed McMahon School of Laughing”?
— Not liking Joe’s Art Fern impression.
— Strange sketch so far. Very mean-spirited towards Johnny Carson too. I said this in an earlier review from the original era, but every time these early-era SNL episodes bash Johnny Carson as a Tonight Show host, I always find myself saying “They thought The Tonight Show was lousy THEN? Those are considered legendary years now.  Wait’ll they see how bad that show later gets under a certain big-chinned successor of Carson’s.”  Also, the whole “Carson’s Tonight Show was bashed by SNL back then, but is now universally considered a classic era” thing reminds me of how SNL itself is looked as: some of the SNL eras that are now well-loved and highly regarded were bashed fairly heavily back when they originally aired.
— Overall, I didn’t care much for this sketch.
STARS: **

JOGGER MOTEL
— Rerun

BETTY BEER
the Bitches’ Brew gives women confidence to act dumb like men

   

— Decent premise of a “beer for broads”.
— The scene between Christine and Madden was pretty funny.
— Some parts reminds me a little of the original SNL era’s Mommy Beer commercial, only not as good.
STARS: **½

POETRY CORNER
host’s poems carry the mark of a former football coach

— I’m already liking the concept of John Madden poems.
— Announcer: “Next week, James Coburn reads selections from his wallet.” Hey, doesn’t Coburn actually host the next episode of SNL?
— Overall, this was okay, but nothing special.
STARS: **½

THE LOU GRANT SHOW
Mary Richards (MAG) & Ted Baxter (JOP) ask Lou Grant (TOR) to come back

 

— Tony’s Ed Asner impression is passable, but not anything impressive.
— The debut of Mary’s great impression of Mary Tyler Moore. Right off the bat, her impression is coming off fantastic.
— Yikes, Joe’s Ted Knight impression is rough. That’s two bad impressions from him tonight so far.
— The group hug ending was okay.
— Overall, while I liked some of the dialogue, this ended up being another sketch tonight that was nothing special.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”

SNL NEWSBREAK
Italian secret police captain (TOR) describes rescue of General Dozier
MAG shows inhumane devices used to rile rodeo animals
a list of federal programs Ronald Reagan wants to leave to the states

     

— They thankfully seemed to have officially stopped doing the opening “falling logo letters” gag.
— Tony playing another Italian stereotype character…
— Tony’s overall commentary was completely forgettable.
— On-again off-again Newsbreak co-anchor Mary Gross appearing in a short segment…
— I liked Mary’s “Yee-haw!” while in the middle of detailing of how cattle are tamed.
— Mary’s overall commentary was decent, and this actually made good use of her usually cheesy delivery.
— A list of federal programs? Oh, no, looks like we’re getting the SNL Newsbreak “long screen crawl gag” bit.
— Yep, I was right. And this gag isn’t funny at all so far.
— God, this screen crawl is STILL going?!?
— Brian, regarding the screen crawl: “These rolled a lot faster in dress rehearsal.” Funny ad-lib, but it still doesn’t make up for this overly tedious bit.
— Are you kidding me?! The screen crawl STILL hasn’t ended?! At this point, I don’t even remember what its topic is.
— Mercifully, the screen crawl is finally over, and so is SNL Newsbreak.
STARS: *½

THE UNCLE TOM SHOW
Buckwheat & Captain Kangaroo (TOR) visit Tom Snyder’s (JOP) kiddie show

  

— Very funny use of Joe’s Tom Snyder impression.
— Loved Joe’s line about doing a segment telling little girls about “Mr. Period”.
— Of course, Tony’s mention of “smoking dope” receives a loud cheer from the audience.
— The dark story from Tony as Captain Kangaroo was really good.
— Joe’s reference to Gumby and Pokey made me think of Eddie’s Gumby impression, which has yet to debut on the show at this point (I think we’ll first see it at the beginning of season 8).
— Speaking of Eddie, we get an appearance from Buckwheat. This has made me realize that we surprisingly have barely seen Eddie tonight. This is his first appearance since the cold opening.
— I’m really liking these Buckwheat-ized versions of nursery rhymes.
— Overall, a solid sketch.
STARS: ***½

INSIDE STORY
host tells a Raiders’ locker room story involving Ted Hendricks

 

— Haha, Madden’s Ted Hendricks “money in the toilet” story had a great punchline.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “One Night Only”

MAFIA NAME GIVER
mobster (TOR) goes to (EDM) to be assigned a nickname

   

— Tony playing yet ANOTHER Italian character.
— Good meta-joke with Don Novello as Father Guido Sarducci being among the pictures of famous Dons on the wall.
— The “Hey, where’s Don Pardo?” “He’s not with us anymore” exchange was another good meta-bit, referring to how he was replaced as an announcer this season.
— Robin appears to be playing the same Italian mama from the Frank & Papa sketch a few episodes ago.
— Tim’s character is pretty one-note.
— Awkward long pause before Robin’s “The wedding’s off!” line. During that long pause, you could actually see Mary cueing Robin by elbowing her, and when Robin finally said the line, it looked like she was trying not to laugh.
— As always, Eddie does a fantastic “old Jewish guy” voice.
— The bit with Eddie’s unflattering mob nicknames for Tony is going on way too long.
— I haven’t been liking the direction this sketch has been going in.
— Eddie’s nickname bit is STILL going on? Ugh, what is this, another SNL Newsbreak “long screen crawl” gag?
— Overall, a very weak sketch.
STARS: *½

ANDY KAUFMAN
as Elvis, Andy Kaufman [real] sings, clucks, chooses girls, apologizes

    

— First time Andy has appeared on the show in a long time. Last time I reviewed an Andy Kaufman segment, he was wrestling women in season 5, back when the original cast was still on.
— So far, this just seems to be a straightforward Elvis number.
— LOL, what the hell has happened now? He’s now oddly lip-syncing musical chicken clucks.
— Whoa, now this sketch has taken an even stranger turn with Elvis Andy sleazily bringing two female audience members to his backstage room.
— Wait, I think I remember reading about this. Doesn’t Andy drop character during this backstage scene and do something weird?
— Yep, there it is; Andy has now taken off his wig and is addressing the camera as himself to disapprove of an inaccurate Elvis biography that this sketch was apparently based on.
— What the hell? That’s how this whole segment ends???
— I usually love Andy’s SNL bits, but I have no absolutely idea what to make of this one.
STARS: ??????? (undecided)

SUPER BOWL TO SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
host takes a train to NYC with Brent Musberger [real]

   

— So far, this feels exactly like a film Gary Weis would’ve done in the original era. That’s not a good thing, by the way.
— I do like some of the scenic camera angles.
STARS: **

PUDGE & SOLOMON
Solomon (EDM) remembers his wife & complains to Pudge (JOP) about bunions

— The debut of Eddie and Joe’s Solomon and Pudge characters, a recurring sketch that’s known for being a strong showcase of both slice-of-life humor and the great chemistry that Eddie and Joe always have.
— Eddie’s Hitler story is funny.
— Great character work from Eddie and Joe.
— Really nice sentimental turn this has suddenly taken with Eddie getting sad over his late wife. Very touching way to end this sketch.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS
Marv Throneberry [real] says “I don’t know why I’m here”

 

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— The post-Michael O’Donoghue slump continues, as we get our second underwhelming episode in a row tonight. Unlike the preceding episode, this at least didn’t suffer from overlong sketches. However, I found myself describing a lot of tonight’s material as “nothing special”. Aside from a couple of highlights, a majority of the show was “meh”, some was just plain bad (SNL Newsbreak, Mafia Name Giver), and one was just baffling (the Andy Kaufman “Elvis backstage” bit).

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robert Conrad):
— about the same

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
James Coburn