March 19, 1983 – Robert Guillaume / Duran Duran (S8 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Buckwheat killer John David Stutts (EDM) is profiled, shot Oswald-style

         

— I love how they’re keeping the previous episode’s epic “Buckwheat gets shot” saga going.
— Ha, continuing a repeated gag from last week, Joe’s Koppel still keeps overplaying the Buckwheat assassination clip at every opportunity.
— I like how even the moment of silence is “sponsored” by Mutual Life.
— Love the fictional assassin name John David Stutts.
— Great characterization from Eddie as Stutts, and I like the little detail of him having no eyebrows.
— Who’s that playing the doctor being interviewed right now? (sixth screencap above)
— Wow, this is quite long for a cold opening in this era.
— Great biography video on Stutts, especially the various yearbook pictures of him.
— I saw the Lee Harvey Oswald-esque shooting of Stutts coming, but it was still perfect, especially Eddie’s monotone “Oh, I’m shot”.
— Heh, now it’s the Stutts assassination clip that Joe’s Koppel is constantly overplaying.
— An overall excellent cold opening & companion piece to the previous week’s Buckwheat sketch.
STARS: *****

MONOLOGUE
host & audience recite the creed of moderation

   

— Nice energetic entrance from Robert.
— He’s displaying a very Howard Hesseman-esque way of getting the audience going.
— Come to think of it, this whole premise with Robert getting the audience to pledge about moderation is reminiscent of Hesseman’s “restraint” chant from his season 5 monologue.
— Loved his “Burn this mutha down” line.
— Solid monologue overall, despite the kinda-derivative feeling of the premise. Robert carried this well.
STARS: ***½

CLYSLER-PRYMOUTH
— Rerun

THE MRS. T BIRTHDAY SPECIAL
hubby’s not there & that means trouble

     

— Ha, I wasn’t aware that Robin’s Mrs. T ended up becoming recurring. This sketch seems like it will be a decent-enough showcase for her, even though I’ve always felt that the idea of SNL giving a celebrity impression their own variety show special is kinda lazy. Though at least it’s not as lazy as SNL’s crutch of giving celebrity impressions their own talk show. (ugh)
— I like how to match the glittery set & outfits, even Robin’s mohawk has glitter.
— Oh, here’s Mary’s light-blackface Lena Horne appearance I mentioned in a recent review.
— Mary’s impression is pretty funny.
— Great part with Robin wildly jumping on Joe and kissing him.
— Nice sudden appearance of Eddie’s Mr. T.
— Eddie-as-Mr.-T’s stiff, stern, joyless singing of “Happy Birthday” is really cracking me up.
— Good sketch overall, though nowhere near as strong as the Mrs. T sketch from earlier this season.
STARS: ***

HEIL HITS
Klaus Barbie (TIK) pitches Heil Hits, an album with examples of Nazi Gold

   

— Another sketch in the same vein as the two sketches from last season advertising a record of Christian-ized and hippie-ized hit songs, respectively. Those two sketches were fine, but I feel there’s more potential in this Hitler premise.
— An overall okay sketch, though unlike the Christian and hippie record sketches, no particular song stood out in this one.
STARS: ***

SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
TIK points out that current best-selling books have little literary merit
Patti Lynn Hunnsacker trashes Gone With the Wind & The Wizard of Oz
BRH promotes the Brad Hall Anchorman Doll & Accessory Kit

       

— Nice callback to the John David Stutts storyline.
— Here’s Saturday Night News’s obligatory Tim Kazurisnky appearance of the week.
— I like Tim’s slam on the homophobia of the book title “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche”.
— Good ending to Tim’s commentary with the appropriately soft-bound “Impotence” book.
— Not too excited to see the return of Julia’s teen character.
— Julia’s overall commentary ended up being marginally better than the character’s previous appearance. Her complaints about old movies had a few okay lines.
— Wow, Brad’s Liza Minelli/Sammy Davis Jr. joke completely bombed.
— I’ve been noticing this season that whenever Brad flubs a line on Saturday Night News, he ad-libs his way out of it by exaggeratedly saying a whole bunch of gibberish. He’s done it twice tonight alone. Seems like a poor man’s version of something Chevy Chase used to do funnier during his Weekend Update tenure, where he would save himself after a line flub by ad-libbing a casual stream of funny-sounding Spanish gibberish.
— Interesting-seeming bit with Brad showcasing a “Brad Hall Anchorman Doll”. This feels like the first time that Brad has done a side segment since the first few episodes of the season, back when Ebersol seemed to give Brad more freedom in doing stuff on Saturday Night News besides news jokes.
— A good laugh from Brad’s accidental crotch flash with the doll.
— I like the how the doll set comes with an Update desk and an NBC camera.
— Funny casual mention that Brad wears no pants behind the desk.
STARS: **½

MOTOWN UPON THE SWANEE RIVER
in Old South, Chicken Mel (EDM) thinks Cotton Joe (host) is an Uncle Tom

  

— Strangely, this is this the first actual sketch Robert Guillaume has been seen in all night.
— I haven’t been caring for this sketch so far, and both Robert and Eddie’s delivery is pretty sloppy.
— They repeated the gag from the Louis Gossett Jr. episode where Eddie opens a closet door and yells “Shut up!” to the band inside that’s been playing background music throughout the sketch.
— Eddie has another one of his corpsing moments, with him cracking up in response Robert’s “Tubway” line for some reason.
— I like Eddie breaking out into “My Boyfriend’s Back” as example of “colored music of the future”.
— Pretty weak sketch overall.
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hungry Like The Wolf”

I MARRIED A MONKEY
hospitalized Madge is suffering from amnesia

   

— Even right from the start with a solemn, bouquet of flowers-holding Tim outside a hospital room, I can already tell this going to be an I Married a Monkey sketch.
— I was right.
— This is the first time we’ve seen this sketch all season. I had felt that this sketch began growing stale during the last two installments, but since it’s been quite a long time since this sketch’s last appearance, I’m a little more optimistic.
— Some laughs from Tim’s anguish over the possibility of male orderlies lifting up Madge’s hospital gown and seeing what’s underneath.
— Pretty funny kiss between Tim and Madge, especially when something dropped out of one of their mouths.
— Fairly interesting twist ending with Brad as Madge’s “other” husband.
— Overall, this sketch wasn’t quite the return to form that I hoped it would be. Madge seemed unusually subdued in this version, which is a shame because the real selling point of these sketches has always been seeing Tim play off of the monkey’s unscripted actions. I’m guessing this is the installment where the (male) monkey playing Madge had to be sedated before the live show because of an infamous incident during that night’s dress rehearsal where the monkey went absolutely berserk mid-sketch, grabbed Tim into a painful tight headlock, then stood on the bed, removed its clothes and diaper, and… well, proceeded to do something to himself that I don’t feel like repeating here. Tim talks about the whole crazy incident in the “Live from New York” book. I believe during that same portion of the book, Tim also talks about how, IIRC, he eventually quit doing these I Married a Monkey sketches for good when he found out Dick Ebersol had secretly taken out life insurance on him in case he was ever seriously harmed by the monkey.
STARS: **

OIL IS US
Saudi Arabian, Iranian, Nigerian deny that OPEC is a cartel

   

— I like concept of Joe’s Arab character going through all the cliches of a “Crazy Eddie”-style pitchman.
— Funny voices from from Robert and especially Eddie.
— Poor Gary Kroeger, just NOW making his first (and maybe only) appearance of the night, and it’s just a small (albeit pretty funny) walk-on role. It wasn’t until the backstage cold opening he did in the last episode that I started realizing  how underused he really is.
— I like the casual reveal that the three guys’ names together are Manny, Moe, and Jack, the same names of the Pep Boys.
STARS: ***

PUDGE & SOLOMON
Solomon doesn’t want to go live with his gynecologist nephew (host)

 

— I liked Eddie’s “He lookin’ at crotches for a livin’” line regarding Robert’s gynecologist character.
— Eddie’s fake mustache is starting to look weird, like it’s almost about to fall off.
— Another solid Pudge and Solomon sketch overall.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Girls on Film”

WRONG NUMBER
(BRH) dials a wrong number & tells (JLD) he’s breaking up with her

— Julia’s increasingly disgusting descriptions of herself are really funny.
— Decent twist with Brad turning out to have called the wrong girl.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS

 

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty average episode. Most of the sketches were decent, the cold opening was terrific, and there wasn’t too much that fell flat, but I dunno, the overall show still kinda felt like it was lacking something, like maybe an exciting feel. While the episode as a whole was okay, I’ll probably barely remember anything from it after I’m finished with this season.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bruce Dern):
— a step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Joan Rivers