Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
JLD & JOP discuss host’s phoniness as Merv Griffin [real] interviews him
— Funny comment from Merv Griffin about New York being “America’s G-Spot”.
— I like Joe and Julia’s cynical comments about Robert Blake. I wouldn’t be surprised if their cynicism towards him is genuine, given the negative things I’ve heard about Blake’s behind-the-scenes behavior throughout that week.
— Good slam from Merv telling Robert “You oughta know a lot about not working.”
— I liked Merv’s little “Whoa!” after saying LFNY at the end.
— An overall decent opening. Just about everything in it worked okay except for Robert Blake himself. I’m already dreading him as a host.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
reunion of host’s Little Rascals co-stars- Alfalfa (MAG), Buckwheat, more
— Nice idea for a “reunion” of the Little Rascals characters.
— We get the debut of Mary’s Alfalfa impression, which would go on to be one of her most memorable recurring roles on SNL. Right off the bat, her impression is coming off very funny here.
— Just now, Robert introduced Spanky as the oldest Little Rascal, yet earlier in the monologue, he also introduced Alfalfa as being the oldest.
— I expected Spanky to be played by a cast member in a fat suit, but instead, it’s an actual heavyset extra. He’s pretty funny with his immediate pigging out at the food table.
— Funny bit with Julia’s Darla revealing she’s wearing Petey the Dog over her shoulders as a fur.
— I said in a review last season that I was starting to get a little tired of Eddie’s Buckwheat, but it IS nice to see him in this monologue, and I’m getting some pretty good amusement from him singing a Buckwheat-ized version of the Baretta theme song.
— A pretty long monologue overall, but fun.
STARS: ***½
SPACE SHUTTLE
on a Shuttle mission, (EDM)’s admission of love makes (JOP) uneasy
— Eddie’s random “I love you” reveal to Joe is fairly funny, just because of Eddie’s deadpan, straitlaced delivery of it.
— Joe’s gravelly-voiced “Yes, that’s an order, now tell me you love me!” line was pretty funny.
— I wasn’t too crazy about the overall sketch, despite some decent interplay between Eddie and Joe. I dunno, just something about this didn’t work for me. Maybe this should’ve been placed later in the night instead of as the lead-off sketch.
STARS: **
PBS
PBS’ jazzed-up programming is evidence that “We’re not stuffy anymore”
— I like how the new version of Nova is “animals doing what they do best” (having sex).
— Overall, this was reminiscent of the shots this era took at NBC’s desperation, and like those, this kinda missed the mark and wasn’t as funny as it could’ve been.
STARS: **
TYRONE GOES REGGAE
Tyrone Green’s reggae band plays “Kill The White People” at a talent show
— Tyrone Green with dreads? And he’s part of a reggae band now? Haha, I wonder why they changed this character so much all of a sudden.
— Oh, I think I know what famous sketch this is going to be…
— Yep, it’s “Kill the White People”. I’ve always wanted to see this one.
— From everything that I had heard about this sketch before, I’ve always considered this to be somewhat of a spiritual successor to Garrett Morris’ classic “I’m Gonna Get Me a Shotgun and Kill All the Whiteys I See” musical number from the original era.
— The song is very catchy-sounding, and even besides the main “kill the white people” message, there are also other funny lyrics as well, like the ganja one.
— Loved Tim frantically telling everyone “I thought they were gonna do ‘Day-O’.”
— Clint! Funny ending with Clint Smith as the only guy in the crowd who sticks around enjoying the music when everyone else has angrily walked off.
STARS: ****
THE GIRLS OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
— Rerun
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
JOP shows how Sugar Ray Leonard’s eyesight can be tested- offer big bucks
an irate MAG lists people who should be retired against their will
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists types of orgasms
— Brad’s opening Leonid Brezhnev/Lana Turner eyebrows joke was surprisingly strong.
— What was with the delayed cut to Joe’s SNL Sports commentary?
— Oh, Joe’s at a different set, I see.
— Funny punchline to Joe’s quick bit. Very strange, though, how he then segued into Mary doing a commentary at the desk.
— Yet another “Spittin’ Mad Mary Gross” commentary. These have been great and everything, but man, the show has been leaning very heavily on it this season. I worry they’re on their way to quickly running these into the ground.
— Funny comment and subsequent gesture from Mary regarding athletes who “play with themselves on TV”.
— These “spittin’ mad” commentaries are always good at getting the audience worked up.
— Now we get Dr. Jack Badosky. They seem to be bringing out their most popular recurring news commentators tonight.
— Badofsky’s puns aren’t doing a thing for me so far tonight.
— A noticeable jump cut in the middle of the Linda Lovelace/Steven Spielberg “Jawgasms” bit. I recall hearing something was censored in the rerun version I’m reviewing.
— Decent ending to Badofsky’s commentary with him asking women who are incapable of having an orgasm to contact Tim Kazurinsky, and Brad then breaking the fourth wall by shaming Tim, all of which made me laugh more than any of the Badofsky puns did.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Heart to Heart”
MASTERFUL THEATRE
the characters of Airheads Revisited wax idiotic
— This is the first time Robin Duke has appeared on the show in what feels a like a long time, and I think I recall hearing this ends up being her only appearance of the night. And it’s not even a big role! Poor Robin; what’s going on with her this season? Her presence on the show has been disappearing right before my eyes.
— Speaking of firsts, this is Robert Blake’s first actual sketch appearance of the night. I had been wondering where he was tonight.
— What the heck is with Blake’s performance?
— Joe’s voice and delivery is making me laugh.
— Here’s more homoerotic humor tonight.
— Man, what the hell IS this sketch???
— What’s with tonight’s episode having two Marvin Hamlisch references from Mary? (the first was in her “spittin’ mad” commentary on Saturday Night News)
— I got a laugh from Julia softly biting Gary’s shoulder.
— Overall, boy, this sketch was dreadful. Seemed like a very poor attempt at “random humor”. After a while, I just wanted this whole thing to end.
STARS: *½
CLYSLER-PRYMOUTH
Lee Iacocca’s (JOP) proud to say “Clysler-Prymouth floormats made in USA”
— Another Joe Piscopo impression involving tons of makeup and prosthetics that render him unrecognizable.
— I’m not familiar with Lee Iacocca’s look or voice, but from what I recall of Phil Hartman’s later impression of him (which makes this yet ANOTHER celebrity impression that Piscopo and Hartman share), Hartman played him with a very similar voice and facial mannerisms that Joe is doing here, which I guess proves that Joe’s Iacocca is spot-on.
— Pretty funny joke with the floormats turning out to be the only thing in the car that was made in America.
— Don’t know whether to chuckle or cringe at the racially stereotypical “Clysler-Prymouth” ending joke. Yeah, I think I’m gonna go with the latter. Though I admit I probably would’ve laughed at it in 1982 (if I had been born yet).
STARS: **½
VIEWER LETTER
EDM dispels the myth that he doesn’t love white people
— Heh, is there any particular reason why Eddie is dressed like that?
— Some really strong laughs from Eddie’s questionable ways of defending white people.
— The Burl Ives bit is especially funny.
— Pretty good ending with Eddie’s girlfriend turning out to be white.
STARS: ****
SLEEPY BOY 2000
the auto alarm eradicator kit lets you sleep peacefully
— Very funny punchline with the satellite blowing up the alarm-blaring car, after such a long setup.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Gotta Try”
DTV
the all-death channel is endorsed by Leonid Brezhnev
— Funny idea for a take-off of the then-new network MTV.
— The cheap-looking moving mouth on the Leonid Brezhnev picture saying “I want my DTV!” cracked me up a lot.
— Oh, that’s it? Well, this sure was short. Honestly, I wanted to see more. The premise was probably good enough to do a typical full-length fake ad with.
STARS: **½
VIDEO VICTIMS
— Rerun
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Second episode in a row that underwhelmed me, though it’s really hard to fairly judge the show as a whole, considering that the rerun version I reviewed of this episode is infamously butchered, removing several pieces (one of which was a sketch titled “Best Little Whorehouse On The Prairie”, and another of which was a rare on-screen appearance from Dick Ebersol delivering a message which was a stealth set-up to the “Keep or Dump Andy Kaufman” vote-in that we’ll be seeing in the next episode). Plus, I’m pretty sure that half the pre-taped segments I reviewed tonight were originally aired in later episodes. So, yeah, a difficult episode to critique fairly. From the new material that I did see in tonight’s show, a lot of it wasn’t very good and, despite some highlights, the overall episode had a “filler” feel to it.
— I’m left wondering how much Robert Blake’s notorious behavior that week had to do with his lack of airtime tonight, because after the cold opening and monologue, he was practically non-existent, only appearing in ONE SKETCH all night, which aired fairly late in the show and had him in just a minor role. Yeesh, I think even the little-used Michael Keaton got more to do in the last episode. Then again, Blake was probably in some of the material that got removed from my copy.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Michael Keaton):
— about the same
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
A 7-year-old Drew Barrymore, the youngest host in SNL history. For years, this episode has been near the top of my “must see” list, as it’s hard for me to picture an SNL episode hosted by a 7-year-old.
Yeah – “The Best Little Whorehouse On The Prairie” and Dick’s Andy speech are, I believe, the only SNL segments that are completely out of circulation. (Another rarity, “Miss Pregnant Teen America”, has since been recovered.)
The Little Rascals connection is probably the only reason Blake was even considered as a host, because I don’t believe he was promoting anything (his last major project, ABC’s “Baretta”, had been off the air for FOUR and a HALF YEARS (!) and is probably remembered more for its Sammy Davis Jr theme song than for anything else.)
The censored bit from Jack Badofsky – after the Jaws joke, he reacted to the large audience response with the improvised quip “That’s a mouthful!” which obviously caused mass uproar of laughter.
Funny that bit got censored when the whole thing was a series of sex jokes. I guess it was a little too much?
Perhaps the funniest part of that Little Rascals Reunion sketch was Joe’s Froggy ad-libing “Don’t I sound like Wolfman Jack?” (He most certainly did!)
I was explaining Yacht Rock the other day and it reminded me of Kenny Loggins, which led me back to this review…
This episode has always fascinated me since it comes well into the VCR era, yet the original airing isn’t out there. So the only copy of this episode is buried in a Broadway Video or NBC vault somewhere. I thought at one time in the 90s, there was a bank of U-Matic (3/4”) copies of every show kept on the 17th floor as a reference for staff. Didn’t have to be high quality, just good enough so an intern could go back and figure out which episode had Kirsten Dunst as an extra or something.
I’m sure those were digitized and discarded long ago, but did no one think to grab them from a dumpster or something? Anyone know a recent SNL intern/staffer that they could ask? Maybe this episode sits digitized from a fuzzy dub on an NBC server.
As for the show itself… after the monologue, Blake has about 30 seconds of screen time in the terrible Airheads Revisited. Between that and the PBS film, someone had it out for public television that week. Possibly former WTTW (PBS Chicago) writer Elliot Wald? Or does he join later?
I realize his screen time is not counting the “Best Little Whorehouse,” which sounds like an IDEA right out of a 9th grade talent show. But the execution sounds passable if silly — there’s a description in the comments for this episode on Ben Douwsma’s excellent site. Do we know for sure if this was removed for being offensive, or for offending Michael Landon? His show was on its last legs anyway.
I seem to recall an edit during the Merv Griffin open, while he’s acknowledging the applause. So was this a pre-tape, or was the applause so extended that they had to edit for the rerun?
It’s odd that he wishes his fellow Little Rascals well at the end since most of them were dead… maybe that’s the “wherever you are” part.
Going back to the PBS film, I always thought the satire — that they’re trying to make as glitzy a promo as the Big Three networks — was totally ludicrous. And that’s the joke. I liked it a little better than Stooge, maybe since the execution comes off so dumb and yet so smart.
Isn’t there a brief clip of Ebersol’s speech in the “Lost and Found in the 80s” doc? Or maybe I’m thinking of an Andy Kaufman documentary.
Man, why do they butcher the reruns? Is it that hard to show the full originals…man maybe if we could get the tape traders on the phone…maybe later.
Stooge, hope you’re planning to watch the That Week In SNL Twitch tonight, because they’re running this episode in its entirety with the missing segments included. This tape comes from HA!’s (now Comedy Central’s) repeat of the show from 1990.
@Joseph Morgan, thanks.
I remember, at age 14, both “The Best Little House on the Prairie” and Dick Ebersol’s “Keep or Dump Andy Kaufman” spot as well as the in-show promo of the following week’s show with Brad Hall and Robin Duke dressed as characters from Blue Lagoon. I also remember being puzzled at Dick’s bashing of Kaufman at the time and wondering why Blake kept singing “Amazing Grace” then giving Mary Gross some money everytime she slept during that…
Did anyone get to see the “rediscovered” Twitch of this episode? Bronwyn Douwsma reviewed it on their site. The rebroadcast also reveals that there’s an edit (which I don’t think anyone was aware of) at the top of Tyrone Goes Reggae.
Apologies for my rambling comment above from a while back. Must have been speech-to-text or something.
I still think there has to be an edit in Merv’s part of the show. Maybe someone who saw the Twitch broadcast can comment.
Finally, the “Jawgasms” ad lib in WU is actually left intact in the version at NBC.com!
@Kubelsky, I did watch. I didn’t really notice an edit, or see anyone commenting on an edit, in Merv’s section, but hopefully @Bronwyn or someone else can help you as I wasn’t paying complete attention.
I watched the most publicly available version of this episode sometime last year, but that felt very hacked together, for obvious reasons. Fortunately, this more complete version was much better – just to make a base comparison rather than saying the two are identical, it’s sort of like Metropolis, a film I always thought highly of for the visuals, but could appreciate more with the near-complete version finally filling in the gaps. The Ebersol era is so hacked up I hope someday we can get complete, coherent original airings for each episode, easily available. I guess I should be amazed we have as much as we have.
Robert Blake remains a difficult presence to watch – the show noticeably lightens up ANY time he is not onscreen. Even if I didn’t know about the later murder trial, or the stories about him being a difficult host, I would say he is a pretty unpleasant viewing experience.
I know it’s not real, but even if I ignore the later arrest and trial, tonally the cold open with Robert “punching” Julia in the stomach is very offputting. I could say the material is not as one-sided as when Belushi would rough Gilda up, since Julia knees him in the balls at the end, but that part feels tacked on after so much more time devoted to her holding her stomach in pain and the weird negative energy throughout. It isn’t helped by how Julia had started on the show not long before (and would barely have an identity for most of her run anyway), so it’s more like just a random female cast member who is there to get a punch in the stomach for a weak gag.
The monologue gives me good nostalgic vibes, as I enjoyed Our Gang (ironically the main shorts I never bothered to watch a majority of were with Blake…); similar to SNL’s Muppets sketches in the late ’00s, I think they handle the Our Gang material better a season or two into their efforts. This one was fine, but it annoyed me a little that Spanky was just depicted as pigging out when that was never really his main character trait (that was more along the lines of Chubby).
I enjoyed the space and Masterful Theatre sketches more than you did . The former had no real ending (what else is new…) but was underplayed nicely by Eddie, and I liked that the gay aspect wasn’t made into something crude or cheap (considering his rep for ’80s anti-gay material, not a lot of it showed up during his run as a cast member). The latter was too long (what else is new…) but I enjoyed seeing this cast getting to indulge in the type of nonsense wordplay that has become a bigger part of the show in recent years.
SNN gives the episode a big jolt – as much as they overused some of these correspondents, they’re in strong form here, and along with a good night for Brad, I’d say this may be the best news broadcast of the Ebersol era. I especially love Brad’s ad-lib to the crowd cheering Brezhnev’s death (such a surreal moment) – “HE WAS MY FRIEND!”
Speaking on the “new” material, it helps better in terms of episode flow than quality, but the “next week” promo with Robin and Brad is a lot of fun. Good use of his talents – that type of anger which he could sometimes overdo, but is just right here. He and Robin are a solid team. It’s always nice to see Robin get SOME kind of scrap.
The whorehouse sketch is not overly memorable – Blake isn’t bad, but he’s not great either. Mary Gross doesn’t make much effort to impersonate Karen Grassle. The idea itself is the type of “shocking” material which is more suited for a comedy magazine of this era (and in the stream someone said Cracked or another magazine around this point did parody Little House). Not that funny on SNL because it doesn’t work as a fleshed out sketch. The best part is Joe’s subdued, appropriate performance as
Tyrone Green had just about reached a natural end as a character, but that’s a catchy song…speaking of which, Kenny Loggins, unfortunate leather pants aside, gives his own zest to the night. As @Bronwyn (I think) said, he would have been a better host.
That Week in SNL was kind enough to clip the famous moment with Dick Ebersol announcing the Dump Andy contest.
https://twitter.com/ThatWeekInSNL/status/1377698861918076928
Did anyone record the Whorehouse sketch? It’s clearly out there if it’s being watched on twitch. I believe it might be the only sketch I don’t have a copy of from the whole show.
Robert Blake has passed away.
https://deadline.com/2023/03/robert-blake-dead-actor-in-baretta-in-cold-blood-was-89-beat-real-life-murder-rap-1235284339/
Wasn’t he the famous Robert in the Kennedy family?
Paul Barrosse was on my SNL podcast this week and talks about this week and writing Best Little Whorehouse as Robert Blake’s request so he can do a scathing impression of Michael Landon
Sorry https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/DK4UPvL49yb
Just went through the Blake episode, I can confirm @Kubelsky’s thought of an edit in the Merv cold open; the cut from wide shot of Merv’s entrance to his above-the-waist shot does show a kink in the continuity. Guessing just a small trim in Merv’s reception from the audience to give room for the additions in the repeat.
I do ask for another confirmation: Are we sure of both the “Sleepy Boy 2000” and “Clysler-Prymouth” as added to repeats and not premiering on this live episode?
quick episode related story: My first attempt at a VHS recording of an SNL broadcast was “The Best of SNL”, a compilation of s8 and s9-so-far which aired March 24 1984. My mom passed by me watching and recording during the Dr Jack Badofsky SNN segment on “orgasms” and ordered me to stop recording the show. Unfamiliar with the term (yeah I was a slow learner at 13), I was confused at first but quickly realized it was something that offended her and was not allowed to be saved for posterity.
I rescind on the 2 commercials; the fact that both sketches appear in their “other” episodes on the Peacock/streaming versions gives me 90% confirmation they were added to the Blake repeat.
After some sleuthing on Bronwyn’s site and elsewhere, it seems this episode was rerun twice that season on NBC: 2/12/83 and 9/10/83. Both times, the deleted material was replaced with Girls of SNL (from 10/23/82, Howard Hesseman), Alan: A Video Junkie (9/25/82, Chevy Chase), and Clysler-Prymouth (from 12/11/82, Eddie Murphy — see note below).
For the 2/12/83 rerun, they added Jogger Motel (from season 7’s Donald Pleasance episode).
For the 9/10/83 airing, instead of Jogger Motel, they added Sleepy Boy 2000 (from 2/19/83, Howard Hesseman). Obviously, that sketch didn’t yet exist for the first rerun. I have the 9/10/83 airing w/commercials and can confirm it was in there and conforms to what Stooge originally reviewed (before the missing footage was rediscovered in 2021).
One other thing to note: when the Eddie Murphy Christmas episode was rerun, they removed Clysler-Prymouth… not sure if that’s because it was considered offensive, or if it was for time. Eddie’s episode reran FOUR times on NBC at 11:30: April 2, September 24, and December 31, 1983… and again during season 11(!) on December 28, 1985.
Apparently Blake was a bit of a jerk. He crumpled up a script Gary handed to him and threw it in his face at one point. That might be why he had less scenes.
As for Eddie Murphy’s look in the “I Love White People” scene there. He was inspired by Elvis’ outfit in his 1968 Comeback Special which he had recently scene. And starting with this episode when he appears as himself always wears the black leather jacket unbuttoned like that.