Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Frank Sinatra (JOP) sings a medley to honor Ronald Reagan’s 71st birthday
— Decent use of Joe’s Sinatra.
— I liked Sinatra’s lyric “When I was 17, Ron, you were 63”
— At the end, the SNL theme music strangely starts long before they cut to the opening montage.
STARS: ***
TALENT ENTRANCE
MONOLOGUE
host counsels EDM regarding how to avoid being carded
— I often forget that at this time, Eddie still wasn’t old enough to legally drink yet.
— I’m liking Eddie’s various different “Thunderbird Light” deliveries.
STARS: ***
REACH OUT
parents “reach out & touch” elderly couple to talk with kidnapped son
— I already covered this in my review of the Tim Curry episode. This was actually originally aired in tonight’s episode.
ORIGINAL RATING: ****
I MARRIED A MONKEY
while on vacation, Madge fools around with (host)
— A fairly nice shake-up to the format, showing Madge having an affair.
— I really liked Tim’s “Don’t touch him in my presence” ad-lib.
— Some laughs from Madge bouncing in bed when Tim’s trying to deliver a dramatic speech to her.
— An overall lesser installment of this sketch. There weren’t as many laughs as this sketch has had in the past, and this seemed to really die down during the last minute or so. I fear I may ALREADY be getting tired of this recurring sketch.
STARS: **½
MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
Mr. Landlord cuts off the heat
— Another popular recurring sketch tonight.
— I like how this one is taking place in a different setting than Robinson’s apartment.
— “Mutha” being the word of the day is hilarious.
— Overall, while I didn’t laugh at this one quite as much as usual, it was still a solid installment.
STARS: ***½
JESUS IN BLUE JEANS
Jerry Falwell’s (BDM) Christianized rock classics
— I think this is Brian’s first lead role in a sketch this season.
— The audio samples of Christian-ized rock songs are all pretty funny, as is the scrolled list of song titles.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bwana”
CRAZY MARY, GAY JIM
MAG points out the signals that show that host is a homosexual
— Kind of a weird premise, not to mention outdated by today’s standards, but there’s some laughs here from Mary’s performance and her flimsy “evidence” of James being gay.
— I’m getting some unintended(?) laughs from the different types of split screen effects they use each time Mary “pops up” on the screen.
— Nice twist ending with Mary and Christine turning out to be a couple.
STARS: ***
SNL NEWSBREAK
free association determines the order of succession to the presidency
Raheem Abdul Muhammed complains about the lack of black people on TV
BDM gets excited when MAG removes her glasses during a book review
— Ohh, geez, here’s ANOTHER “long screen crawl” gag.
— Ugh, this “screen crawl” gag is just as unfunny and tedious as the last one.
— Random joke about Bert and Ernie coming out the closet. I guess it was funny, but it comes off as a bit too much right after that “Crazy Mary, Gay Jim” sketch.
— Raheem Abdul Muhammed complaining about the lack of black people on TV. Didn’t he already do a commentary on pretty much this same topic before?
— A lot of good laughs from Raheem’s rant about finding out that Gary Coleman is a “little short Jewish man named Stu”.
— I liked Raheem’s post-commentary message bashing Brian Doyle-Murray, SNL, and Eddie Murphy for “not being funny”.
— The sudden make-out session between Mary and Brian isn’t all that funny and feels kinda like a desperate attempt to spice up the dying SNL Newsbreak.
STARS: **
VICTIMS OF 60 MINUTES
Dan Rather (JOP) wants to stamp out 60 Minutes on behalf of its victims
— I’m liking this “victims of 60 Minutes” premise.
— I’m surprised this is over already. I guess this was just intended to be a quick fake ad, but I feel the premise had enough potential to be stretched into a pretty funny normal-length sketch.
STARS: ***
MAGNIFICENT ANALYST
Ronald Reagan thinks host’s past movie roles make him a qualified advisor
— Nice overlapping with the cold opening, with having Reagan watching a video of Joe’s Sinatra singing the Reagan birthday song from earlier in tonight’s show.
— Funny reveal with the gun that Reagan pulls out turning out to be Nancy’s.
— Tony’s Ed Meese to Reagan: “We’re not paying you to think.”
— A good laugh from Tony angrily yanking off Reagan’s birthday hat. After a slow beginning, this sketch in general seems to have really picked up once Tony entered.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Trouble”
THE KHADDAFFI LOOK
— Rerun
UNIQUE PERSPECTIVES
survivalists (TIK) & (TOR) see shelter as babemagnet
— Wow, is this Robin’s first appearance of the WHOLE NIGHT? Geez.
— Tim’s simple “It’s gonna be bitchin’” comment was pretty funny.
— Overall, while Tony and Tim gave fairly amusing performances, the writing itself was really weak and the resulting sketch didn’t work.
STARS: *½
THOSE CRAZY TABOOSTERS
inbred family doesn’t mind breaking social mores
— Oh, I’ve always been curious to see this one.
— Great slow reveal of the family being incestuous and inbred.
— Very funny line from Joe, equating being a “family man” with being a “leg man”, “breast man”, etc.
— Eddie’s various straight man comments are pretty funny.
— I like how this sketch is getting even more disturbing with the cannibalism reveal.
— Hilarious reaction from the normal family after finding out they’ve been eating “Grammy broth”.
STARS: ****
DON’T LET IT SHOW
CHE sings “Don’t Let It Show” to protest degrading roles for SNL women
— A song from Christine about women being forced to play degrading roles on SNL. Supposedly, Christine’s constant behind-the-scenes complaints about the poor usage of her and the other female cast members are what would end up getting her fired after this season.
— Pretty funny bit with the voice of Dick Ebersol cutting off Christine’s pre-song speech to say “Chris, shut up and sing the song.” Is this the closest to an appearance Dick Ebersol makes on the show during his entire tenure?
— Christine’s song being accompanied by pictures of the female cast members playing unflattering roles is a nice touch.
— Okay, now the pictures just seem to be random. I thought these were supposed to be degrading roles. Some of the last few pics are just of the women playing slightly silly but completely harmless roles. What’s so “degrading” about Christine’s characters in “Last Night I Killed My Husband” (one of Christine’s best sketches) or “At Home with the Psychos”?
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)
CAPTAIN MARC WEINER
Marc Weiner’s [real] stand-up routine has a nautical theme
— An actual appearance from Marc Weiner, after only doing hand-puppet bits in season 6. Why wasn’t he credited as a special guest in tonight’s opening montage like stand-up comedian guests usually are in this era?
— So far, this isn’t as funny as I thought it would be, but there are some laughs from his interactions with the two audience volunteers.
— Overall, I didn’t like this as much as I wanted to. Weiner’s delivery kinda came off corny & a bit much.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A decent episode, and an improvement over the two underwhelming episodes that started off the 1982 half of the season. While most of tonight’s sketches were average and there was a strangely quiet atmosphere during some of the earlier segments of the night, there were a few strong things tonight, particularly “Those Crazy Taboosters”.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Madden):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Bruce Dern
For those who find such things interesting, the network reruns of this show move “Crazy Mary, Gay Jim” to the cold opening, for some reason.
Ebersol certainly didn’t make the on-screen appearances that his main predecessor/successor did/will, but he turns up a few times: a mute one during the Jesse Jackson show in season 10, once announcing that Andy Kaufman has been banned from the show, and at least one other time (as part of some musical sketch I can’t quite recall). Fascinating, I know.
Not to break out the old internet saw of “Not to nitpick”- but NY’s drinking age was still 18 in early 1982- went to 19 at end of year
Yeah, Ebersol (and Susan Saint James, I believe) are visible during the “Merman Zone” sketch.
Don’t Let It Show is a cover of a song from the 1977 Alan Parsons LP I, Robot (also covered by Pat Benatar)
My favorite segment of this ep was Jesus in Blue Jeans!
Would anyone consider Don’t Let It Show to be similar to I Play The Maids in S11?
In that they’re both songs about a woman’s struggle, yes, but there’s much more historical significance to Danitra’s song (it was also a piece she performed before she was hired on SNL). Not to take away from Christine’s own song or her attempts at making SNL more equal.
I think the song was the final straw with Ebersole’s complaining about the degrading roles she played, this season. She and Tony Rosato (though his reasons were different) were fired after the season ended.
The Taboosters seems like a sketch that was written by Michael O’Donoghue. Wonder if someone was serving as a proxy on the writing staff for him?
Rosie Shuster wrote “Taboosters.” She talks about an amusing/mortifying meeting with the NBC censor regarding the sketch in the Shales/Miller book.
I was thinking the same thing. O’Donoghue loved going over-the-top to cross taboos for the sake of grossness/darkness. If he was still on the show at this point I would have been 120% convinced he wrote the Taboosters.
Rosie Shuster wrote it, that’s why the daughter’s name is Rosie Tabooster.
Coburn and Eddie had great chemistry from the start, one reason why he worked so well in the Nutty Professor 14 years later. Shame James only hosted once and so late, he woulda been fun in the 70’s with Akroyd and Chevy.
Best of the early 82 shows by far. The main theme sounded so different here compared to the later shows and next seasons, I wish they’d went with that sound more.