February 19, 1983 – Howard Hesseman / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S8 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DISCLAIMER
DOP relays host’s request that home viewers have a camera ready

— Heh, this is ALREADY making me laugh.

COLD OPENING
cast tries to talk host out of doing controversial anti-Reagan monologue

 

— Good premise with the cast begging Howard not to go through with the controversial monologue he has planned.
— Eddie complaining about Howard’s piece being too hostile towards the president gave me an unintentional laugh, given the fact that, just a few episodes earlier, Eddie did an anti-Reagan commentary on Saturday Night News, calling the president a sleazeball and encouraging viewers to write a letter protesting his refusal to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday.
— Heh, and now Howard himself pointed out the irony of Eddie’s complaint about Howard’s hostility towards the president, by responding “Oh, great, advice from Mr. ‘Kill the White Man’.”
— This is doing a good job of hyping up the monologue and keeping the audience in suspense, even though I personally am already aware of what the monologue’s big reveal is going to be.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
host says “Join me- take photo of yourself mooning Reagan, send it in”

   

— Here we go, Howard’s heavily-hyped monologue…
— Funny unscripted moment with a woman in the audience being heard yelling “Hey, Johnny Fever!” (or was it “Play Johnny Fever!”?).
— Haha, Howard’s big reveal is that his monologue is going to be him “dropping trou and mooning the president of the United States”.
— A brief callback to his “dead Belushi” jokes from the monologue he did earlier this season.
— He invites viewers at home to join in on the “media moon-in of President Reagan”, by taking a picture of themselves mooning the TV set when a Reagan picture will show up onscreen, and then mailing their mooning photo to SNL so they can announce the results. LOL, this is great. I can’t believe SNL is doing something like this.
— The audience is going fucking WILD now that Howard’s about to start his mooning.
— We can’t see Howard doing the actual mooning while the camera is showing a close-up of a Reagan picture, but the audience reaction seems to indicate that Howard is indeed exposing himself right before their eyes.
— The ending of this monologue appears to have been abruptly cut off in the copy of the episode I’m watching (an old recording of a Comedy Network rerun from Canada).
— Overall, a terrific and uproarious monologue. In the three episodes he’s hosted, Howard has shown a true knack for doing fantastic monologues that know how to get the audience really into it.
STARS: ****½

SLEEPY BOY 2000
— I already covered this in my review of the Robert Blake episode. This was actually originally aired in tonight’s episode and was later added to the Blake episode in reruns.

GAS STATION
near Graceland, (EDM) receives Elvis’ soul after being hit by a car

   

— Robin’s exaggerated overbite is a funny little detail.
— Eddie thinking he’s Elvis is a pretty funny premise.
— I’m liking Eddie’s Elvis-esque singing of “Jailhouse Rock” while the other performers wildly dance.
— Felt like this overall sketch could’ve gone more places that it didn’t.
STARS: **½

MAD MAGAZINE THEATRE
Windbags Of War characters bash own TV-movie

     

— Oh my god, is that Joe under all the heavy make-up as Alfred E. Neuman?
— Haha, not only is it INDEED Joe, but he appears to be playing Neuman as Tom Snyder, which is really cracking me up.
— This whole scene with Joe is absolutely hilarious so far.
— Who is Gary doing an impression of? His portrayal seems so specific.
— LOL at Eddie randomly entering the scene as Kunta Kinte.
— Feels weird seeing Brad playing a character like this. This has to be the most deep I’ve seen him go into character.
— Very fast costume change for Eddie, playing two different roles in one live sketch.
— An overall fun silly sketch, and an accurate parody of Mad Magazine’s style.
STARS: ****

WEST HEAVEN
by Judith Jacklin Belushi- a musical farewell to JOB

       

— A film from John Belushi’s widow, Judy, as a tribute to the recently-deceased SNL legend.
— Did I just see John’s brother Jim (who we’ll soon be seeing joining the SNL cast next season) standing next to John in one picture? (fifth screencap above)
— Very nice background music throughout this.
— Overall, this was beautifully done, presenting a touching montage of personal pictures that show a softer side of John that audiences rarely got to see. Considering the strong affinity I’ve recently developed for the original cast when covering their era in my SNL project, this film really got to me personally.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)

THE A-TEAM
Mr. T (EDM) says “watch the A-Team” but Rex Reed (JOP) says it’s no good

— An interesting snapshot of a time when The A-Team was a brand-new series.
— Another entertaining display of Eddie and Joe’s always-fun chemistry.
— Funny line from Joe’s Reed saying Mr. T looks like Tina Turner on steroids.
STARS: ***

SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
John Hinckley’s affinity for presidents is documented back to Ike
Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer ponders more mysteries of the universe
Seymore P. Higgins (TIK) clears up misconceptions about George Washington

       

— The montage of John Hinckley in the background of various presidential pictures from over the years was veering dangerously close to coming off like one of Brian Doyle-Murray’s dreaded “long photo montage” bits from last season’s SNL Newsbreaks, but this one ended up having a decent payoff with Hinckley supposedly being conceived in a hotel in the background of an Eisenhower picture.
— Another overall good Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer commentary, especially his “What does a snake use for genitalia?” question.
— Brad’s humorous description of Jerry Lewis was funnier than the actual punchline of the joke.
— I feel dumb for saying this, but I didn’t get Brad’s joke about a Chinese-children-having Mayor Ed Koch getting married again an hour after his wedding. Are frequent marriages a Chinese stereotype?
— What the–? Tim in ANOTHER commentary tonight, as a different character this time? Wow, I know Tim has been a Saturday Night News staple this season, but it’s a VERY rare case to see someone doing two separate commentaries as two different characters in THE SAME edition of SNL’s news segment. The only other instance I can recall of this is Chris Kattan during the Weekend Update in a Jeff Gordon-hosted episode from season 28.
— At the beginning of this commentary, Tim is still seen wearing his mustache from his earlier Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer appearance, then he quickly pulls off the mustache in a hurry. I can’t tell if that was a genuine blooper or an intentional joke. I’m leaning towards the latter, judging from the exaggerated way Tim removed the mustache.
— Brad’s hand can be seen reaching from off-camera to fix Tim’s tipping-over hat while Tim’s in the middle of speaking to us.
— Haha, Brad adjusts Tim’s hat once again. Is this an intentional meta bit or an ad-lib?
— After a while, Tim finally just throws his unstable hat aside.
— Boy, Tim’s commentary seems to have gone completely off the rails. Everything in this is hilarious, though, from the bloopers to the ad-libs to Tim’s humorous scripted dialogue about George Washington.
— Ha, now this has gotten even funnier with Tim flat-out throwing off his entire wig and revealing his Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer bald cap to the camera.
— Tim’s overall commentary was a riot. I love how much he and Brad were having fun with it. One of the biggest highlights of any Saturday Night News this season.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Change of Heart”

HOLIDAY INN
room service theatrically serves Marvin & Celeste a Fiesta Cheese Platter

   

— This is the second time they’ve done a Holiday Inn sketch in a Howard Hesseman-hosted episode, after that funny Holiday Inn horror movie trailer sketch from his season 5 episode.
— Another return of Tim and Mary’s mousy couple Marvin and Celeste.
— I like Julia’s squeaky-voiced “Arriba!”
— Brad seems to be stretching his acting chops throughout tonight’s episode, playing the type of roles that we usually never see him in.
— Heh, this sketch is getting pretty crazy.
— The pairing of Brad, Julia, and Gary makes me wonder if this is another Practical Theatre Company piece, with Howard Hesseman playing Paul Barrosse’s role. Probably not, though. After all, who would’ve played Tim and Mary’s roles in the stage version of the sketch?
— Funny throwaway line from Hesseman about Tito Puente.
STARS: ***

MY DATE WITH DION
in the salon, Dion Dion & (MAG) tell each other about their nightmares

— Interesting voice on Mary. I’ve never heard her sound like that before.
— The return of Eddie’s Dion Dion character, this time showing him working at a salon, a setting that would soon become regular part of his sketches. Is this going to be the introduction of Joe as Blair, Dion Dion’s equally-flamboyant co-worker?
— Eddie’s naked Rastafarians line was pretty funny.
— Hmm, I guess Joe isn’t going to be in this sketch after all. When in the world does his Blair character make his debut? After being fairly familiar with the Dion Dion/Blair sketches from my past viewings of this era years ago, it feels weird seeing Dion without Blair.
— Decent sketch overall.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Waiting”

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— While a step down from Howard Hesseman’s terrific episode from earlier this season, this was still a pretty solid show. Most of the material was good, there were fun moments to be had, and the show never really bottomed-out. Even Saturday Night News was passable. There was also a great energy to the first quarter of the episode that put me in a really good mood.
— It’s a shame that this ends up being Howard Hesseman’s final hosting stint. Judging from the two episodes he’s hosted this season, it seemed like he was on his way to becoming the Buck Henry/Steve Martin/Elliott Gould of the Ebersol era. Why’d they stop getting him after this season?
— My version of this episode ran for only 1 hour and 3 minutes, which is a few minutes shorter than a typical episode from this era. Something must’ve been removed from my copy, but I don’t know what. [ADDENDUM: Looking at the episode guides, my copy of this episode is missing a sketch called “The Laughing Buddha” and a rerun of the “The Khaddaffi Look” commercial from season 7. Strange that they would re-air the latter THIS season; after all, isn’t the jingle in it sung by the recently-fired Christine Ebersole?]

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sid Caesar):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Beau and Jeff Bridges