Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
OPENING MONTAGE
— There’s no cold opening in my version of the episode; this just abruptly starts with the opening montage. I’m not sure if that’s how this episode originally aired, or if the cold opening is just missing from my copy. [ADDENDUM: Turns out there IS a cold opening missing from my copy: a promo for a fake miniseries titled “V.D.”] I do know that the following week’s episode also starts with no cold opening, though in that particular case, that’s how the episode originally aired (if I’m not mistaken).
— Tonight’s theme music sounds canned. In fact, I think it’s the same canned theme they used in the two late-October episodes earlier this season that were performed in Studio 3A (Howard Hesseman and Michael Keaton). Considering tonight’s episode is in the usual Studio 8H, I wonder why the theme music isn’t being performed live.
MONOLOGUE / MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Fingertips”
— Loved Pardo doing a unique intro to Stevie instead of just saying the usual “Ladies and gentlemen, (insert host name here)”.
— Already starting off with a musical performance, right at the beginning of this monologue. Maybe this explains why they used canned theme music in the opening montage.
— Funny how they’re randomly using a high-pitched vocal modifier on Stevie (I guess because Pardo introduced him as “the 12-year-old genius”).
KANNON AE-1
a camera so simple, even host can use it
— I remember the first time I ever saw this was in an “SNL Goes Commercial” special (a “best of” compilation of memorable SNL fake ads), way back when I was just starting to get into SNL. Not knowing at the time that this commercial came from a Stevie Wonder-hosted episode, I remember being shocked when I saw Stevie participating in this. I asked myself “How in the WORLD did they get the real Stevie Wonder to make a cameo appearance for a silly little fake commercial like this??? And how’d he agree to participate in something poking fun at his blindness???” I actually started wondering if it was just a really convincing lookalike playing Stevie. It wasn’t until years later that I found out Stevie had hosted the show once in the early 80s and then I realized “Oh, that must be where that camera commercial came from”.
— Love the hilarious concept of a camera that’s “so simple, even Stevie Wonder can use it”.
— Stevie’s bad photography and bad tennis-playing are very funny. He’s one hell of a good sport for doing this commercial.
— His gleeful delivery of the tagline “So simple, ANYONE can use it!” never fails to crack me up.
— A classic commercial overall.
STARS: *****
STEVIE EXPERIENCE
Stevie Wonder impersonator (host) applies for a job, (EDM) gives him tips
— Stevie’s nerdy voice is funny as hell.
— I’m enjoying the premise of Stevie badly singing his own songs.
— Ha, Eddie’s having another one of his famous corpsing moments in response to Stevie saying something to him.
— Here’s Eddie busting out his famous Stevie imitation, to show Stevie’s character how to do the impression.
— Great audience eruption in response to Stevie singing “My Cherie Amour” the right way.
— Tonight’s episode in general has really been starting hot so far.
STARS: ****½
COTTON LAND
an opportunity to work off your white guilt
— Yet another sketch where I’m liking Stevie’s voice and delivery.
— Pretty funny concept.
— Mary’s testimonial is solid.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Overjoyed”
— At the end of this performance, while still sitting at the piano, Stevie sets up the following sketch as a segue. This is very reminiscent of the way they segued from musical performances to sketches in the episode that Ray Charles hosted back in season 3.
THE STORY OF STEVIE
scenes from host’s life reveal he was influenced by white musicians
— As I mentioned in a recent review, this sketch has yet another instance of Mary Gross in light blackface playing a black role.
— LOL at the little boy in a braided wig and sunglasses playing young Stevie.
— Pretty funny Ed Sullivan impression from Joe.
— Nice to see Michael Davis actually appearing in a sketch as a character while still displaying his juggling skills.
— Another good use of Eddie’s Stevie impression tonight.
— Funny part with Stevie singing a Spike Jones-inspired version of “Superstitious”.
— Ha, Stevie’s now doing a comical English accent, which he reveals as his “real” voice. Man, tonight’s episode is fun.
STARS: ***½
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists varieties of impotence
nude, snake-laden Nastassia Kinski (JLD) explains why she’s a star
music critic Roderick Rhythm (host) dislikes songs with a social message
— Right off the bat, when flubbing his opening joke, Brad once again relies on his go-to “spouting a stream of exaggerated gibberish” ad-lib to save himself. Like I said recently, that go-to ad-lib was something Chevy did much better and smoother back in the original era. Brad is too over-the-top with it and it never lands with the audience.
— Brad’s random Lee Iaccocca bit was… interesting, I guess.
— Here’s Saturday Night News’s obligatory Tim Kazurinsky appearance of the week. Keeping his record-breaking streak alive, I see.
— Good to see another Dr. Jack Badofsky commentary, since I’ve recently begun appreciating this character.
— Great ad-lib from Tim, after his addendum to the “Chimp-otence” pun received a negative audience reaction.
— Not sure if I should be ashamed to admit I got a good laugh from Tim’s “Skim-potence” pun being for when you make love to a Chinese girl named Lo Fat.
— Another Badofsky commentary with a meta ending where he asks women to contact Tim Kazurinsky for sex.
— Whoa at Julia’s sexy look…
— Julia’s overall commentary was okay, I guess. The audience kinda didn’t seem to know what to make of it, and honestly, I’m not quite sure I do, either.
— Interesting seeing Stevie doing a Saturday Night News commentary.
— Stevie’s still doing the English accent from the end of the preceding sketch.
— Stevie’s overall commentary was pretty solid.
STARS: **½
DION’S
Dion Dion & Blaire (JOP) get very excited when host visits their salon
— Ah, we finally get the debut of Joe’s Blair character, the co-worker of Eddie’s recurring Dion Dion character.
— As expected, this is a great display of the fun chemistry that Eddie and Joe always have whenever they’re teamed together.
— Eddie’s over-the-top reaction to seeing Stevie in the store is hilarious.
— I liked Eddie telling Stevie that the peaceful lecture that Stevie’s giving him is “just like one of your Grammy speeches”.
— Funny ending
STARS: ***
BUSBOY
a Quasimodo-like busboy (JOP) gives poor service to (JLD) & (TIK)
— Oh… my… god at Joe’s entrance in that insane ogre-ish make-up.
— Joe’s character and actions are pretty funny.
— Is Julia trying to hide her laughing right now? She’s noticeably bowing her head for no apparent reason.
— Funny ending with Tim frantically trying to prevent Joe from retrieving his and Julia’s car.
STARS: ***
HITLER: THE SECRET DIARIES
Hitler (TIK) enters his first meeting with Eva Braun (ROD) into his diary
— A fairly funny concept with Tim-as-Hitler’s teenager-esque diary entries.
— Oh, we’re getting a flashback?
— I laughed out loud at the casual, friendly “Hi, Hitler!” greetings and salutes from everyone in the diner when Hitler enters.
— Robin’s accent is funny.
— The overall sketch wasn’t too great as a whole, but it had its moments.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Go Home”
MICHAEL DAVIS
Michael Davis & Greg Dean [real] do some slapstick with a broom & a chair
— Very interesting, unique intro from Stevie and Brad.
— Good to finally see Michael Davis again, after a year-long absence.
— Funny reveal that the blindfold Michael’s wearing had a secret eye hole in it the whole time.
— Good visual of him stuffing his mouth entirely full of grapes.
— Ha, he’s now trying to chew all the grapes as grape juice pours out of his mouth.
— Hmm, strange turn this has taken with a partner randomly joining Michael.
— I’m really liking the old-timey Vaudeville-esque comedy act between Michael and the aforementioned partner, and it appeals to me as a fan of classic slapstick comedy teams of this nature (The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, etc.). It’s a big deviation from Michael’s usual stuff on the show, but it’s working well.
— Overall, this was another great Michael Davis piece and it was nice to see him change his normal routine up a bit. Does this end up being his final SNL appearance?
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— As I was expecting with Stevie Wonder as a host, this ended up being a fun episode, much like the enjoyable one that Ray Charles hosted. And much like Ray Charles in that episode, Stevie Wonder displayed a great sense of humor tonight and helped give the episode a consistently likable atmosphere with his sketch work and musical performances. He also seemed to appear in almost EVERYTHING tonight (even the pre-taped fake ad and Saturday Night News), which is noteworthy because most hosts in this era don’t appear all that much compared to later eras where it’s pretty much an unwritten rule to put the host in everything except the cold opening, Weekend Update, and some of the pre-taped segments.
— Lately, I’ve been noticing a pattern where a fun, above-average episode is immediately followed by a lesser episode, and then the cycle repeats all over again. The fun Howard Hesseman episode (the one from February) was followed by the fairly mediocre Beau & Jeff Bridges episode, which was followed by the fun Bruce Dern episode, followed by the average Robert Guillaume episode, followed by the VERY fun Joan Rivers episode, followed by the forgettable Susan Saint James episode, followed by tonight’s fun episode. Hope that doesn’t bode badly for the next episode, especially considering it’s the season finale.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Susan Saint James):
— a fairly big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Season 8 comes to an end, with host Mayor Ed Koch
Loved Michael Davis’ impersonation of Stan Laurel! Oh, and the rest of the show was great too especially Stevie Experience and Bus Boy!
I always loved Bus Boy; in any reviews/discussion of the show, it always seems to be either rated badly or at best mediocre. I didn’t find out that was Piscopo under all that makeup until relatively recently.
I knew it was Piscopo the whole time!
Here’s my review of the musical performances
Fingertips
— About damn time SNL got this utter genius to perform. It’s absurd that it took them this long to book Stevie and even more absurd that he hasn’t been a musical guest since.
— Super high pitched vocals — is he using some kind of effect or is this his real falsetto?
— Awww yeah here comes the harmonica. Absolute brilliance here as usual.
— Haha, Stevie Wonder is exuberantly hopping all over the stage with an aide helping him out, and the enthusiasm is infectious.
— LOL at the low pitched “we’ll be RIGHT BACK”
— This was a great way to do the monologue. The song wasn’t very long but it’s a fine warm up for what’s to come.
STARS: ****
BONUS commentary on the Stevie Wonder impersonator sketch:
— LOL, he still sounds KIND OF good even in the skit where he’s playing a bad Stevie Wonder impersonator
— The chemistry between these two absolute LEGENDS is off the charts. I hope NBC puts this episode in a time capsule
Overjoyed
— Awww, such a class move to dedicate his song to the cast and crew of SNL.
— Just Stevie and his piano — love it!
— His voice is superb, with tremendous vibrato
— Piano playing is great too
— Great choice by the crew to use a split screen with one half showing him playing the piano and the other a closeup of his face
— Not many artists can be this compelling just by themselves at a piano.
STARS: *****
Go Home
— Nice jaunty pace to this funky one.
— Typically great vocals from Stevie. Boy is this he spoiling me in this episode.
— Great job by the band to keep the beat and add a lot of energy to the tune.
— Interesting that Stevie performed two songs from an album that he wouldn’t release for another couple of years (1985’s In Square Circle), instead of anything off his most “recent” album, 1980’s Hotter than July. This is an odd time in Stevie’s career in the middle of a long gap between albums. Probably a good time to be on SNL to keep him in the public eye.
STARS: ****
This episode has gotta be in my top 5, might at least be my favorite of this era. I’m on the “love” side of Bus Boy; it’s so one note, but the rhythm and the performances are great. One of Joe’s best, and I’m not a huge fan of his. Stevie’s a lot of fun throughout, and the performances here of “Overjoyed” and “Go Home” kick the later studio version’s asses, IMHO.
My mother laughed her ass off during the Busboy sketch. That was always one of her favorites.
I’m not sure where I read it (maybe the Hill/Weingrad), but Lorne wanted Stevie and Carole King as the musical guests for episode one… Preston and Ian were described as “close as he could get to his original targets” in the book. So they had tried before and I’m assuming that he was so busy recording “Songs in the Key of Life” that he didn’t have time in ‘75
…And Carole only performed (“I Feel the Earth Move”) during a part of the show in the early ’90s when it was going to commercial…
The busboy sketch was funny for the obvious physical humor, but I also got a kick out of Julia and Tim’s interactions where Tim is hesitant to bring up what’s going wrong. As an introvert, that was very relatable to me.
Also, I only know like 3 Stevie Wonders songs, but I would have liked to hear him sing his hits in the musical segments rather than as jokes in sketches.
Stevie Wonder is my favorite musician of all time, so I was so psyched to see this episode and I’m so glad it lived up to the hype! Stevie was a great host- very game, very likeable, with infectious energy. I also want to give him props for being in so many sketches and remembering all his lines without being able to use the cue cards!
All of his musical performances were of course also fantastic; it was great to see him really in his element, especially having so much fun in Fingertips. I don’t mean to overhype, but if anything this episode just made me love him more!
Personally I wasn’t a huge fan of the busboy sketch; I thought it was kind of one-note (and I’m probably also particularly sensitive to it bc I work with a lot of adults with disabilities that include deformations and hygiene issues and such). The Hitler sketch also didn’t really hit for me.
But I loved the first few sketches and I was thrilled to see such a change up from Michael Davis, who’s one of my favorite guest performers on SNL! I had no idea he could do those kinds of gymnastic slapstick, but it was fun to see.
Overall, I really enjoyed this episode and it’s probably one of my favorites- especially from this era, which I generally find to be fairly underwhelming.