Month: January 2019

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December 11, 1982 – Eddie Murphy / Lionel Richie (S8 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
planned host Nick Nolte is ill, so EDM introduces “The Eddie Murphy Show”

— I like the opening shot of pictures of various Eddie Murphy sketches on the wall.
— Eddie gives a legitimate but funny explanation as to why scheduled host Nick Nolte had to drop out, and how we’re still going to see a “48 Hours” star host tonight because Eddie’s taking over Nolte’s duties.
— It speaks volumes on how huge of a star Eddie was at this point that he was allowed to fill in as a host (and in only his third season as a cast member!) and the episode would still be a big draw for audiences. I don’t think there’s ever been another cast member since Eddie who’s megastardom on the show was THAT much higher than that of their castmates. Some people might argue Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, or even current cast member Kate McKinnon, but nope, they weren’t on Eddie’s early 80s level of huge stardom (especially not by their respective third seasons).
— “Live from New York, it’s the Eddie Murphy Show!” I know the decision to have Eddie open the show with that line bothered some of his castmates, but in some ways, that line DOES sum up how this SNL era is often looked as, for better or worse.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Funnily enough, despite being credited and announced by Pardo as the host (with his head pasted over a picture of Nick Nolte), Eddie’s also still credited and announced as a cast member as usual.


MONOLOGUE
EDM does stand-up about black people & haunted houses, Stevie Wonder

    

— Feels great to see Eddie making the entrance that hosts usually do at this part of the show.  And wow, listen to those huge audience cheers for him.
— I like how this has started with him jokingly saying the cliched things hosts usually start their monologues with (“great to be here in New York”, “working with this cast has been great”, etc.) as if he’s never been to New York or worked with this cast before.
— Yet another great display of Eddie’s knack for doing a perfect “old Jew” voice.
— Lots of laughs from Eddie giving examples on why black characters can’t realistically be in horror films. Even if that’s a cliched stand-up topic by today’s standards, Eddie’s making some funny points here.
— Love how he’s now doing his “bad taste” Stevie Wonder impression.
— Great part with him miming a fight with Stevie.
— Overall, great stand-up monologue from Eddie as expected.
STARS: ****


RUBIK’S GRENADE
“Maybe the last puzzle you’ll never solve”

  

— Funny concept, and seems to be an improvement over that “Rubik’s Teeth” commercial from last season.
— I’m getting some good laughs from the very frantic, shaky movements of the hands panickedly trying to solve the Rubik’s Grenade.
— Good tagline.
STARS: ***½


I CAME, I SAW, I CAME AGAIN
(JOP) & (JLD) see the Kensington Dance Theater For The Blind in action

   

— Some pretty funny missed falls from the dancers.
— Good reveal that it’s not the dancers who are blind but rather the audience. I had been wondering why the audience members were all staring blankly ahead during Joe’s speech.
STARS: ***


MERRY CHRISTMAS, DAMMIT!
Frank Sinatra (JOP) sings on Gumby’s special

       

— Ah, here’s what’s considered the quintessential Gumby sketch, as well as a famous classic sketch in general. It used to be a yearly tradition for SNL to always include this in their annual Christmas compilation special.
— I got an unintentional chuckle at how cheap-looking the title graphic for this sketch comes off by today’s standards, with “Merry Christmas, Dammit!” being written in a very plain-looking font.
— Haha, I like Sammy Davis Jr.’s tree ornament being a glass eye.
— Classic moment with the song from Gary and Julia’s Donny and Marie gradually turning into a squicky brother/sister make-out session. That’s probably the most well-remembered part of this sketch.
— Good dark ending to Gumby’s Christmas story to the kids.
— Loved the part with Gumby throwing a little girl out into the snowy outdoors and making her walk to Andy Williams’ Christmas special.
— Is that Clint Smith as the shortest of the three singing Don Kings? I can’t tell.
— I’m loving Joe-as-Sinatra’s medley of cartoon character theme songs.
— The scrolling ending credits of nothing but Jewish names was probably overkill of a joke they already established earlier, but it still made me chuckle anyway.
— Nice touch at the end with the little girl who was kicked out earlier now being frozen while staring in through the window.
— Overall, this sketch is absolutely deserving of its classic status.
STARS: *****


HARRY ANDERSON
Harry Anderson [real] tries bottle-in-a-tube trick with audience member

    

— Harry’s different ways of trying to communicate with the male audience member, especially after finding out he’s from New Jersey, are pretty funny.
— Good comment from Harry regarding the audience volunteer’s baldness: “You brushed your hair, but you forgot to bring it, didn’t you?”
— Overall, Harry’s interactions with the volunteer were fun as expected, but this overall segment wasn’t quite up to Harry’s usual standards. This felt pretty average.
STARS: ***


HAIREM SCAREM
Dion Dion (EDM) denies knowledge of stealing hair for wigs

   

— The debut of Eddie’s Dion Dion character, who would later go on to be teamed with Joe as a pair of flamboyant hairstylists.
— The audience seems to be getting a real kick out of the mere fact that Eddie is queening it up in this. I guess the portrayal of stereotypical gay characters was more of a novelty back in those days.
— I kinda like how it’s now being hinted that Eddie is wearing Robin’s old hair.
— At the end during the sketch-ending applause, Eddie can be seen yanking off his wig and throwing it at Robin, which I’m assuming was an ad-lib.
— Fairly forgettable sketch overall.
STARS: **½


HERPES GONE BANANAS
a Herpes Simplex II virus (EDM) returns home from the front lines

  

— Pretty interesting, unusual set-up.
— Good character voice on Eddie here.
— Wow, this sketch is really “out there” so far. And the studio audience ain’t into this at all.
— Overall, I don’t know WHAT to think of this, but I think I feel confident enough to say this did not work, despite a somewhat creative concept and a very committed performance from Eddie.
STARS: *½


JOY OF CHRISTMAS
jaded children discuss Christmas
— What the–? It’s a rerun of an SNL Newsbreak pre-tape from last season’s Christmas episode, where Mary interviews little kids about “the meaning of Christmas”. I know it’s Christmas again, but is it really necessary to re-air this?
— At least it’s worth it just for the (now) novelty of seeing a young Seth Green again.


A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
Jesus’ birth, as told by April May June

— The return of this character from Julia’s very first episode.
— I like how Julia is getting increasingly worked up during her story. She always does a good job as this character.
STARS: ***


CLYSLER-PRYMOUTH
— 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.
— Comedy Central’s big-ol’ “The Eddie Murphy Experience” station bug on the lower corner of the screen (which I’m sure you’ve been noticing in some of my screencaps of this era’s episodes; “The Eddie Murphy Experience” was a big 1994 marathon of early 80s SNLs that Comedy Central showed to promote the release of Eddie’s “Beverly Hills Cop 3”) completely blocked the “Prymouth” part of the racially stereotypical “Clysler-Prymouth” name at the end, thus ruining the gag (not that it was funny anyway). (screencap below)

ORIGINAL RATING: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You Are”


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists some Christmas-related medical problems
May Bradley (ROD) has holiday advice for old people- drink smart egg nogs
a riled-up MAG offers some of her Christmas pet peeves

         

— Brad’s Tony Orlando Lookalike Contest joke was pretty funny.
— It took two minutes into tonight’s Dr. Jack Badofsky for me to finally get a laugh. It was the “Richard-Pryorrea” one that did it.
— Bah, aside from the aforementioned Richard Pryor bit, Badofsky’s overall commentary did absolutely NOTHING for me. I’ve officially been over this character for a while now.
— A lot of Brad’s jokes are bombing badly tonight.
— Here comes yet ANOTHER attempt from Robin at an SNL news character. None of her attempts in the past have worked at all. Will this?
— Eh, Robin’s overall commentary was marginally better than her previous SNL news attempts, though this one took a while to take off.
— Now Brad has been relying on an endless consecutive string of groanworthy picture gags.
— Tonight’s “Spittin’ Mad Mary Gross” commentary had a slow start, but after a while, we’re now getting her usual strong delivery and lines. She’s saving this whole Saturday Night News for me tonight.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Truly”


GOODNIGHTS
Steve Martin [real] is hurt because he wasn’t called upon to do the show

  

— Another mention from Eddie of tonight being “The Eddie Murphy Show”.
— Steve Martin! We haven’t seen him on the show since the original era. Having regularly reviewed his many prior episodes during my coverage of the first five seasons, it feels very refreshing seeing him again after a two-season absence, even if this is just a cameo. I still have to wait until we reach 1986 in my SNL project before I can go back to regularly reviewing his episodes again. I wonder if the reason for his long hosting gap between 1980-1986 is because for a while, he possibly stuck to doing what fellow original-era frequent host Buck Henry did: stay loyal to the original cast by never hosting in subsequent eras.
— Steve’s whole angry rant over not being asked to host is fantastic.
— His obligatory “Excuuuse meee!” at the end was delivered very differently and less exaggeratedly from how we’re used to hearing it, which may go to show that his style was already beginning to shift by this point in 1982. By the time he starts regularly hosting SNL again a few years later in 1986, his manic style from the 70s has completely changed to a more low-key style.
— I love Eddie’s frozen, deadpan reaction after Steve’s whole rant is finished.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A decent but surprisingly average episode. I had always been under the impression that this episode was generally considered to be a bit of a classic, so I was kinda disappointed to see it just turned out to be a normal episode. I think the whole “Eddie Murphy hosting the show while still in the cast” novelty might make this episode seem better in some people’s minds than it really is. Well, that and the often-aired Gumby Christmas sketch. Looking past those two aspects, there was still a decent amount of fun highlights, but not more so than usual.
— Eddie handled the job of a host perfectly, even managing to be funny in his musical guest intros (“Ever say to yourself, wow, the musical guest really sucked?” and then later “Ever say to yourself, wow, that last sketch really sucked?”, the latter referring to tonight’s Herpes sketch). It can’t be said enough how amazing it is that an SNL episode was actually hosted by someone who’s still in the cast. Needless to say, this milestone would turn out to be a turning point for Eddie, and it’s no surprise that even as early as the beginning of next season, he already has one foot out the door.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (The Smothers Brothers):
— a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
We enter 1983, with host Lily Tomlin

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December 4, 1982 – The Smothers Brothers / Laura Branigan (S8 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Dick criticizes Tom’s Johnny Carson impression during a Tonight Show skit

   

— LOL at Joe’s make-up as Ed McMahon.
— Joe’s doing a good imitation of the trademark McMahon laugh. By the way, this makes YET ANOTHER impression that he and Phil Hartman share.
— Sounds like Tom Smothers is not even trying to imitate Johnny Carson’s voice. Was he only cast in the role because of his strong physical resemblance to Carson?
— Eddie-as-Cosby’s rambling about ankles is very funny.
— Ah, they’ve broken the fourth wall, with Dick Smothers actually calling attention to how bad Tom’s Carson impression is. Nice twist here.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Tom’s Nixon-esque delivery of “Then I didn’t do it!”
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
hosts sing “Impossible Dream” & say how it applies to Moses & Joan of Arc

  

— We get a traditional Smothers Brothers song right off the bat here.
— This appears to be a serious song so far.
— I like Tom panickedly blanking when he’s asked what the song means to him. Nice to see this song is now starting to get comedic.
— Tom’s whole Joan of Arc story is really funny.
— Overall, a pretty solid Smothers Brothers act.
STARS: ***½


THANK YOU, RON REAGAN.
— Rerun.
— Hmm, I don’t remember seeing that shot of a man carrying a whole bunch of boxes for a wealthy old lady the first time this commercial aired. Is that shot a new addition to this commercial?


LEDGE
(EDM)’s wife, boss, clergyman jump after trying to talk him off ledge

       

— Eddie’s fast-paced listing-off of racist things his wife (Mary Gross) does to him is really funny. I especially liked the one about how Mary makes love to him while whistling the theme song from “Mandigo”.
— Eddie, when looking down at his wife’s body on the pavement after she jumped off the ledge: “I never seen her in THAT position.”
— Hey, it’s Joe’s musical director character from the Oklahoma sketch in the last episode.
— Haha, the brief “Oh, is this ledge taken?” bit with Tom was hilarious.
— Pretty funny ending with Eddie realizing “I don’t feel that bad no more” after his wife, boss, and clergyman offed themselves before him.
STARS: ***½


IF YOU WERE A HOMOSEXUAL, WHO WOULD YOU FIND ATTRACTIVE?
responses to, “If you were a homosexual, who would you find attractive?”

   

— Uh… wow, what a topic.
— I recognize some of these interviewees as people who were interviewed in a previous man-on-the-street segment from earlier this season. It even looks like they’re wearing the same clothes they wore in that one. I’m guessing all of this season’s man-on-the-street segments were filmed at the same time.
— Is it just me, or does the British guy who was interviewed at the end (last screencap above) kinda resemble 80s-era Martin Short in a balding wig and fake British teeth? Martin actually wears similar-looking fake British teeth in that Beatles Auction cold opening from season 10’s Ringo Starr-hosted episode.
— As usual, some funny answers here, especially the guy who’s only reason for picking Elvis is “because he’s dead”.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


TRUCK DRIVING WOMEN
(JLD), (MAG), (ROD) star in a musical set in a diner

  

— Ugh, they’re breaking out into song.
— No idea what to think of this sketch so far.
— I want to say it’s nice to see this female cast doing an ensemble sketch, but I don’t like where this particular sketch has been going.
— Okay, now that the sketch is over, I can say I pretty much HATED this. Felt like a leftover sketch from the first half of season 7, back when they annoyingly did corny musical sketches all the time (thank god that habit went out the door with Michael O’Donoghue).
STARS: *


RUBBERS
Dick uses Tom as an example of why it’s important to use contraception

  

— The electronic speaking toy’s increasingly unprofessional responses to Tom are pretty funny.
— Great twist with Dick as a “Rubbers” spokesperson using Tom’s idiot behavior as an example of why families should have only one child.
STARS: ****


HANDSOME MEN WITH BIG NOSES
BRH & GAK trade backhanded compliments

   

— Interesting how Brad and Gary are introduced as playing themselves in this talk show sketch.
— Heh, I’m liking this odd premise.
— Gary’s slowburn when Brad is breaking down his features is pretty funny.
— Good delivery from a now-angry Gary, especially him particularly taking offense to Brad’s criticism of his cleft chin.
— Judging from the polished, smooth pacing of this sketch and the way Brad and Gary are playing off of each other so perfectly, I wonder if this is another sketch they brought with them from their improv days together at the Practical Theatre Company.
STARS: ***


TV
a family’s problems rise to the surface when the television goes out

     

— This is REALLY slow-paced so far. I can’t tell what they’re going for here.
— Hmm, I don’t know about this premise. Maybe the idea of a family being lost on what to do after their TV has broken down is a promising concept and interesting social commentary, but the execution of it hasn’t been doing anything for me so far.
— I had been wondering what was up with Julia’s random… uh, bust size in this, but it ended up being part of the sketch, with Mary eventually calling out Julia for wearing an overly tight sweater and asking her “Who do you think you are, Suzanne Sommers?”
— Nice ad-lib from Julia after Mary flubs her “sweater” line.
— Overall, I didn’t care for most of this at all.
STARS: *½


PUDGE & SOLOMON
recently-unemployed Solomon refuses to accept charity from Pudge

 

— Nice to see these characters now receiving recognition applause from the audience.
— Lots of funny back-and-forths between Eddie and Joe here, even moreso than usual.
— Very touching, sweet ending with Joe helping out a newly-unemployed Eddie by sneaking him money while he’s not looking.
STARS: ****


MAGIC ACT
Tom scoffs at Dick’s magic act, they sing “It Just Doesn’t Matter To Me”

   

— Another nice Smothers Brothers routine. Can’t find anything else to say besides that.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Gloria”


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Ted Kennedy (GAK) announces he won’t run for president in 1984
PBS president Lawrence K. Grossman [real] refutes lack of stuffiness
Officer Merman (ROD) offers crime prevention tips for the holiday season
Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer (TIK) ponders great unanswered questions

        

— Eh, not too sure about Brad’s jokes so far tonight.
— Interesting seeing Gary as Ted Kennedy, especially after I got so used to reviewing Bill Murray’s frequent impression of him in the original SNL era.
— Does Gary have something in his mouth? It kinda sounds like it, but I can’t tell.
— Gary’s overall Kennedy commentary was okay, especially the various Chappaquiddick references.
— Brad refers to a PBS fake ad that SNL did a few episodes ago, and they replay an excerpt. What’s the point of this?
— Ah, I see, it’s setting up a guest appearance from PBS president Lawrence K. Grossman, here to protest the commercial.
— Ha, looks like Grossman’s bit is going to be the classic “humorous disclaimers show up onscreen below a person while they’re speaking or singing” gag that the original SNL era often did (usually with Buck Henry or Garrett Morris).
— Oh, never mind, this Grossman bit has been going in a completely different direction after the one disclaimer (“No kidding, this really IS the president of PBS”) was shown.
— Here’s Robin Duke trying out a new character.
— Decent performance from Robin, but her commentary itself ended up being nothing special. I did kinda get a laugh, though, from her final tip encouraging us to shoot “a bearded man in boots” when he comes down your chimney this Christmas.
— The bit with Brad doing a Mr. Ed voice was kinda cringeworthy.
— The debut of Tim’s Havnagootime Vishnueerhere (and I’m sure I butchered the spelling) character, which would go on to become one of Tim’s signature bits.
— I really like this format with Tim’s character listing off various random unanswered questions. Fun premise.
— Tim’s overall commentary was solid and had some really funny lines, particularly “(regarding if the light in the refrigerator really turns off when it’s closed) How would we know? We eat the only witnesses” and the line regarding cat skeletons in trees. I’ll definitely take more of this character over Tim’s other Saturday Night News signature character, Dr. Jack Badofsky.
STARS: **


THE INSIDE STORY
(ROD) dislikes the TV movie about her killer boyfriend

— What??? That’s the whole sketch?!?! Uh, did I miss something? What in the WORLD was the point of this whole thing???
— I’m all for the underused Robin Duke getting more airtime, but not in fucking terrible sketches like this.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Living a Lie”


GOODNIGHTS
hosts & castmembers jump from ledge set onto mattress

   

— A unique and fun way to do the goodnights, with everybody taking turns jumping off the “ledge” from an earlier sketch.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Very hit-and-miss quality tonight, which balances out to an overall average episode. There were some good highlights, but man, the lowlights weren’t just weak; they were stuff I really hated (Truck Driving Women, The Inside Story, Broken TV). A pretty mixed bag overall, but the highlights were enjoyable enough to make the episode still worth watching.
— The Smothers Brothers had a pretty fun presence as they usually do, though it felt like they barely appeared with the cast. I hope to see them in more sketches alongside this cast in their next hosting stint, which interestingly is an exact year from this episode’s airdate (first Saturday in December).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Drew Barrymore):
— a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
History is made, as for the first and (so far) only time in SNL’s ongoing 44 years on the air, an episode is hosted by someone who’s still in the cast. SNL superstar Eddie Murphy fills in for scheduled host and “48 Hours” co-star Nick Nolte.

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November 20, 1982 – Drew Barrymore / Squeeze (S8 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
in host’s dressing room, the cast is upset she was selected to do SNL

    

— A decent laugh from the look of Drew’s dressing room.
— LOL at Eddie’s slam at Tim for working with monkeys and kids.
— Tim, in response to Eddie’s aforementioned slam regarding monkeys and kids: “Be nice to ’em; who do you think is buying your album?”
— What’s this? Robin Duke with actual lines? Wow, I almost forgot what that’s like, given her non-existent presence these last few episodes.
— A reference to Dick Ebersol’s on-camera appearance the previous week where he supposedly trashed Andy Kaufman. As I mentioned in my last review, that Ebersol/Kaufman segment (among other things) is missing from the rerun version I reviewed of that episode. It’s notoriously difficult for anyone to find a copy of the live broadcast of that episode.
— Loved the part where it’s said that a Frontier Gynecologist sketch has been cut, which a disappointed Gary responds to by angrily yanking off the doctor gloves on the cowboy outfit he’s wearing. I like how it’s become a running gag in these backstage sketches for hapless Gary Kroeger to be told a sketch of his has been cut.
— Here’s the arrival of SNL’s youngest host ever.
— Drew Barrymore’s delivery is what you would expect from a 7-year-old on a live TV show. However, it hasn’t been TOO cringeworthy so far.
— Hmm, maybe I spoke too soon. Drew completely blanked at the end when she was supposed to say “Live from New York”, and during that long awkward pause, the theme music abruptly began, THEN Drew finally said her “Live from New York” while the screen did an unusually very slow crossfade into the opening montage. Awkward ending to this cold opening.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
TIK helps host answer some questions from the audience

   

— Interesting how Drew is making her entrance with Tim alongside her. Between the cold opening and this, they seem to have established Tim as Drew’s chaperone for the night. Did they pick him because he’s the shortest member of this cast (I think even tiny little Julia Louis-Dreyfus is slightly taller than him, judging from sketches where they stood next to each other)?
— Very nice interplay and chemistry between Drew and Tim throughout this monologue.
— The bit with the monkey was a fairly decent ending.
STARS: ***


THE WEB
stops the burglar before he can leave his own house

   

— An okay punchline with stopping a burglar before he gets out of his own house, after the setup of this commercial made it seem like he was robbing someone else’s house. Kinda reminds me of that Sleepy Boy 2000 ad I reviewed in the last episode, only that one was funnier.
— This commercial originally aired in the season premiere, but it wasn’t in my copy of that episode, so this is the first time I’m seeing it.
STARS: ***


E.T.
after Gertie (host) kills E.T., Mr. T (EDM) comes looking for his boy

   

— Here’s our obligatory E.T. sketch of the night (or the “host sketch”, as Susan Saint James worded it in her season 7 monologue).
— Tim as Elliott is perfect casting.
— In that blonde wig, I initially mistook Gary for Brad Hall.
— Drew’s cruel comments about the dead E.T. are pretty funny, especially her suggesting “Stuff him” when the boys are wondering what they should do with E.T.’s body.
— Great inclusion of Eddie as Mr. T, here to fetch his boy “E”. You gotta love the 80s pop culture explosion here, with Mr. T being in an E.T. sketch.
— In response to Drew finally saying one of her lines after awkwardly pausing, Eddie says to her “Very good” in his normal voice, then he and others in the scene start cracking up.
— Eddie to E.T.: “Atari’s coming out with a game about you!” Heh, funny hearing that in hindsight, if you’re aware that that game would infamously end up being SUCH a disastrous flop that a frustrated Atari buried thousands of unsold copies in a landfill. (read about it here)
— Overall, despite some awkward timing issues throughout, I found this to be a pretty fun sketch.
STARS: ***½


VOTE FOR ANDY
GAK announces phone-in contest to decide Andy Kaufman’s SNL fate

 

— Gary receives a strong amount of audience applause when introducing himself at the beginning of this, which is kinda surprising considering how new he is at this point.
— Gary sets up tonight’s contest where viewers will decide if Andy Kaufman will appear on the show again.
— Strange how they picked THIS of all episodes to do this vote-in contest. Now we have TWO unconventional gimmicks on the same night.
— Gary managed to get some laughs here overall.
— I had this same thought when watching the Larry the Lobster vote-in episode last season, but I wonder how they did this in dress rehearsal.  Since they obviously couldn’t have gotten calls from viewers yet during dress rehearsal, what did SNL do for these vote-in segments?  Did they just not include these in dress?
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


WHINERS
Doug & Wendy Whiner decide always-complaining (host) is the kid to adopt

   

— Mary Gross plays yet ANOTHER nun.
— Funny blooper when Mary accidentally gets her nun habit caught in the door and ad-libs her way out of it.
— Oh, lord, here comes the Whiners…
— It IS kinda interesting, though, how this seems to be picking up where the last Whiners sketch left off, where Ron Howard as a doctor tried convincing the Whiners to adopt a child. It’s kinda rare to see a story arc in a recurring SNL sketch.
— I got a laugh from a fed-up Mary quickly paying the Whiners to take Drew home as soon as possible.
— The sketch is over already. Overall, this was one of the more tolerable Whiners sketches by default, only because we barely saw them in this.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Annie Get Your Gun”


SHOULD ANDY KAUFMAN BE ALLOWED ON SNL?
answers to “Do you think Andy Kaufman should be on SNL?”; Ed Asner cameo

   

— Funny to see how polarizing Andy Kaufman is among the general public.
— Wait, was that a mustached Ed Asner I just saw as one of the people being interviewed? (second screencap above) [ADDENDUM: It is indeed Asner. How random.]
— LOL at one guy’s answer to the question being “I think he’s really hot”.
— Overall, some funny answers from some of the interviewees here.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


VOTING SO FAR
preliminary voting says “dump Andy,” EDM says viewers should reconsider

— For the second episode in a row, Eddie oddly wears an open leather jacket with no shirt underneath. Was that a thing back then in the early 80s, or was Eddie trying to make it a thing?
— I like how Eddie made a reference to the famous Larry the Lobster vote-in.
— Yikes, Andy’s ALREADY losing by a wide margin.
— After the audience’s positive reaction to “Dump Andy” being ahead in the votes, I liked the comically taken-aback look Eddie gave the audience before saying “You people are sick”.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
TIK warns Boston Herald-American readers by showing more Post headlines
BRH looks at real-life celebrity couples who could play the Reagans
JOP is sad the NFL strike is over- he liked coverage of alternate sports

         

— For the first time this season, Brad starts a Saturday Night News without wearing glasses. Hopefully, he’s gotten rid of them for good, because I really can’t understand his habit of wearing glasses at the beginning of each SNN, only for him to take them off after a few jokes, and then randomly put them back on after a guest commentary.
— Brad’s long bit about widowed public figures isn’t that great, and reeks too much of the type of dreadful “long photo montage” bits that Brian Doyle-Murray regularly did on SNL Newsbreak last season.
— Awkward moment during Tim’s “Salute to Journalism” commentary, where he mistakenly got mixed up with two of the papers at one point and had to backtrack. Unlike a blooper he made in a Dr. Jack Badofsky commentary earlier this season, this one wasn’t funny and it’s kinda thrown the segment off.
— Tim’s overall journalism commentary tonight was nowhere near as good as his previous one. Some of the supposedly “ridiculous” newspaper headlines he displayed were reaching, and the whole thing seemed to REALLY die down towards the end. The aforementioned blooper didn’t help, either. Also, between this recurring segment and the Badofsky bits, I’m starting to wonder why Tim seems to have a thing for doing Saturday Night News bits where he shows a series of titles to the camera one-by-one.
— Brad’s bit about which famous married couple will play the Reagans in a biopic had some laughs, and a good payoff with the chosen “married couple” turning out to be Jim Nabors and Rock Hudson.
— Joe’s rundown of what temporary televised sporting events we’ll miss now that football is back is funny due to the random clips shown as examples of replacement sports. Rubik’s Cube competitions were really a televised event back then?!?! Ah, the 80s…
STARS: **


BRAIN SURGERY
(JLD) gets the interesting date she wanted by helping with brain surgery

   

— There’s Julia wearing Ana Gasteyer’s future Bobbi Mohan-Culp dress once again.
— Ha, the sudden brain surgery twist came out of nowhere and is quite funny.
— I like Eddie’s various “He’ll never (insert random function here) again, you idiot!” to Julia.
— Wow, the audience is absolutely dead during this sketch so far. I’m personally liking this sketch just fine. Is it too fast-moving for the audience?
— Tim’s meek “I suppose I better be taking you home now” to Julia after the chaotic surgery scene has ended was pretty funny.
— Overall, a decent sketch. Something about this had a quintessential Ebersol-era feel to it. Maybe it was the frantic pacing of the whole thing. I can’t picture this sketch appearing in any other SNL era.
STARS: ***


VOTING SO FAR
MAG tries to help Andy Kaufman’s chances by showing a montage of his bits

     

— Mary rapidly reading off the “Dump Andy” number after carefully reading off the “Keep Andy” number was a gag that Eddie did during the Larry the Lobster vote-in.
— A fairly interesting Mary Gross-narrated montage of Andy’s previous appearances from SNL’s first seven seasons. Considering I reviewed all of those episodes during this SNL project of mine, I’m getting a nice nostalgic feel from this montage.
— Funny part where a section of pictures of Andy successfully defeating women in wrestling matches was followed by Mary saying “Then he wrestled a man” as we just see a picture of a humbled Andy in a neckbrace.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


OKLAHOMA
effeminate Mr. Blunt (JOP) unhappy with high school Oklahoma production

    

— Joe is spot-on in his portrayal of your typical drama queen-esque overbearing musical director.
— I liked Joe telling Gary “You’re an actor; now hold me like you mean it, dammit!”
— This was really missing a good ending. This had a very awkward, underwritten “conclusion”.
STARS: **½


DRESSING ROOM
babysitter TIK lets host dress him in women’s clothes a la E.T.

  

— First time we’ve seen Drew in a while. The last appearance she made was way back in the pre-Saturday Night News half of the show.
— Interesting Mommie Dearest “No more wire hangers” reference.
— That’s it? Wow, this was VERY short and felt kinda pointless. Tim and Drew do continue to have charming chemistry, however.
STARS: **


VOTE FOR ANDY
JOP reminds home viewers that there are only two minutes left to vote

— An incredibly short segment with Joe just telling us they’re running short on time and viewers have only two minutes left to decide Andy’s fate.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


MY FRIEND ZEUS
loser high school student (GAK) gains a powerful buddy

     

— Zeus making Gary say ridiculous things to his crush (Julia) is pretty funny, and the first laugh I’m getting from this whole sketch so far.
— Zeus to Gary: “Let’s go find a real woman, or maybe a goat or something.”
— A forgettable sketch overall, despite a few laughs.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pulling Mussels From A Shell”


SINGLE
career woman ROD says host makes her biological clock tick louder

 

— Good to see Robin getting a big showcase as herself, given how extremely underused she had been these last few episodes.
— Nice slice-of-life quality to Robin’s whole spiel.
— Drew responding to Robin’s idea of watching her own SNL appearances with “I’d rather watch Eddie” was a funny line on paper, but Drew awkwardly stopped in the middle of the line, before pausing and then repeating the whole line, which killed the joke and received awkward silence from the audience.
— Overall, I wanted to like this piece more than I did, but it was still nice to see Robin front-and-center as herself.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS
by a count of 195,544 to 169,186, Andy Kaufman has been dumped from SNL

  

— Gary reads the final tally, aaaannnndd…. “Dump Andy” has received the most amount of votes, and thus, Andy Kaufman is officially voted off of SNL. In response, a lot of people in the audience happily cheer while some of the cast members are seen making exaggeratedly(?) unhappy faces.
— As a huge Andy Kaufman fan, I feel like I should be pissed off by the voting results, but it doesn’t bother me too much, especially since I’m aware he was actually the one who came up with the whole idea of this “Keep or Dump Andy” contest in the first place.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An interesting show as a novelty considering the age of the host, but the quality of the episode itself wasn’t all that great. There were still several highlights, of course, but nothing stood out as particularly strong, and the limitations in the type of humor they could do tonight was very apparent. Despite some flubs, Drew certainly did the best that a 7-year-old could be expected to do in a live sketch comedy show, and there were some fun moments here and there with her. This overall episode was nice as a little one-time experiment, but it’s probably wise that the show never went this young for a host ever again.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robert Blake):
— a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
The Smothers Brothers

Posted on

November 13, 1982 – Robert Blake / Kenny Loggins (S8 E6)

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.

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October 30, 1982 – Michael Keaton / The New Joe Jackson Band (S8 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host finds out there won’t be any cue cards tonight; Michael Palin cameo

   

— Like the last episode, this is another one that’s being performed from two different studios on two separate floors, due to Studio 8H being used for mid-term election coverage. I still find it amazing that SNL was able to pull off live shows with that awkward set-up.
— Funny bit with Joe Dicso breaking the news that there will be no cue cards tonight.
— Eddie’s random native bodysuit is funny.
— Michael Palin!
— It’s pretty well-documented that in a panicked move earlier that week, Dick Ebersol brought in Michael Palin as an emergency special guest/stealth backup host after seeing how poorly Michael Keaton performed during that week’s readthrough.
— Keaton’s “We got no cue cards!!!” outburst made me laugh.
— Ha, now they’re being told by Dicso that they won’t be able to use the elevators they need to get from studio-to-studio.
— I’m loving Palin’s complicated Monty Python-esque explanation to Keaton of how to get to Studio 3A.
— Gary appears in the same musketeers outfit he wore in the backstage cold opening from the last episode.
— I like the part with Gary listing off the titles of (fake) sketches that were cut tonight (“Wiener Water”, “Bess Truman in Hell”, and “I Was a G-Spot For the FBI” ).
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about his childhood trick-or-treat experiences

  

— We’re already off to a rocky start, as Keaton came off really awkward with that weird opening “Nice to be back hosting again… wait, have I hosted before?” bit.
— I know Keaton got his start as a stand-up comedian,  but it’s very hard for me to picture that man in a stand-up comedy club telling jokes into a mic.
— Trick-or-treating isn’t a particularly interesting stand-up comedy topic, and his material is pretty mundane so far.
— Okay, I did like the bit about his trick-or-treating brother requesting a sandwich from people handing out candy.
— This overall stand-up routine was weak, and man, Keaton’s uncomfortable demeanor here definitely helps me see why Ebersol panicked during readthroughs that week.
STARS: *½


THE INTERESTING FOUR
on Halloween night, The Interesting Four is looking for Espresso (MAG)

         

— I liked Mary’s delivery of “Drink your little Hawaiian Punch, you little snot-nosed brats!”
— It’s too soon to bring back the subpar Interesting Four sketch, and why is it placed as the lead-off sketch tonight? The first time they did this sketch, it was buried near the end of the episode (and rightfully so).
— At least this is a very different setting for them.
— Funny part with Brad as the Human Stapler being heard loudly yelling from the bathroom, then emerging with his hand stuck to his groin.
— Boy, that scene with the second group of kids was awkward as hell.
— I love the “time reversal” part with the performers talking and moving like the scene is being rewound. As I mentioned sometime before (when reviewing a Hercules sketch from a season 3 episode), I always get a kick out of whenever performers have to act out a scene being rewound, fast-forwarded, or played in slow-mo.
— Hmm, they’re doing the exact same backwards scene again.
— Okay, what the hell? Why do they keep repeating the same backwards scene over and over and over?
— Overall, this was a marginal improvement over the first Interesting Four installment, but I still had some issues with this one.
STARS: **½


A SENSE OF FEAR
events in (Michael Palin)’s scary story happen as he reads them

   

— Palin’s performance is really cracking me up so far.
— The scary story increasingly appearing to be about Palin himself feels like a kinda cliched premise.
— I liked Palin’s screaming and falling out of his chair.
— What was the point of that sponsor bit at the end?
— Overall, this featured a fine Palin performance, but the material itself wasn’t the best.
STARS: **½


THANK YOU, RON REAGAN.
privileged citizens say “Thank You, Ron Reagan” while others suffer

     

— Pretty biting satire of President Reagan’s economic policies. I’ve always heard that the Ebersol era supposedly often shied away from doing political stuff, but so far, I’ve been seeing quite a lot of unabashed anti-Reagan sentiment in these episodes.
STARS: ***½


SNOOKIE
after a first date, (TIK) gets mixed signals from (JLD) & her teddy bear

 

— Julia’s wearing the same dress that we’d later see Ana Gasteyer regularly wearing in her and Will Ferrell’s recurring Culps sketches. That same dress is also worn by someone (Nora Dunn, I think) in a 1988 cold opening where Jan Hooks as Oprah Winfrey (yes, you read right) hallucinates her talk show guests having food for heads. Speaking of Jan, I think she herself wears that dress in the famous “Jew or Not a Jew” sketch, but I’m not sure.
— Julia suddenly slapping Tim after asking him to sleep with her was really funny.
— Heh, a teddy bear with earrings.
— A lot of laughs from Julia’s odd way of relaying thoughts through the teddy bear.
— The bear has been referred to as both a “he” and a “she” all throughout this sketch.
— Great touch with Tim dismissively throwing the bear aside when finally getting Julia in bed.
— Overall, a strong sketch that was well-written and performed. Julia did a really good job as this strange character, and Tim was a solid straight man.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Steppin’ Out”


BILL SMITH CARES
a behind-the-scenes look at what really goes on in a political campaign

     

— Wow, Keaton is JUST NOW making his first actual sketch appearance of the night, and it looks like it’s not even a particularly big role. [ADDENDUM: Looking at a list of the original running order of this episode’s sketches, this sketch originally aired even later in the night, meaning Keaton didn’t make ANY sketch appearances in the entire pre-Saturday Night News half of the show. Wow.]
— Eddie and Clint Smith’s performance as “The Love Brothers” is kinda funny, but seems really out of place for the tone of this sketch. It IS nice to see Clint with a lot of lines, though.
— I like Mary as the bitter wife.
— What’s with Eddie and Clint’s singing of THE ENTIRE Jeffersons theme song? At first, I thought it would just be a truncated version of the song, but they ended up performing THE WHOLE THING. Geez.
— Interesting structure to this sketch, having various scenes that go back-and-forth from the campaign headquarters to Joe’s hotel room. That’s making this sketch feel very long, however.
— Heh, Tim’s been getting a lot of “action” in this episode. This is the second sketch of the night that ended with him sleeping in bed with a female cast member (first Julia, now Mary).
— Overall, for a sketch that was so long, this didn’t feature much that was noteworthy, and the overall thing fell kinda flat.
STARS: **


TOPOL THE IDIOT
Topol the Idiot (Michael Palin) wasn’t originally written in English

   

— The idea of Michael Palin playing an idiot character like this is already making me laugh.
— I almost didn’t recognize Keaton in this. He’s also doing an interesting character voice.
— The bad foreign language translation seems to be the main joke, though I’m not sure that it’s coming off all that well. I did, however, like the “May your house be full of Belgians” line.
— I didn’t get the bit with Palin showing a stained napkin to the camera, though it made me laugh anyway just because Palin is so goddamn funny.
— Overall, some things about this sketch kept tickling me (mainly Palin’s performance), but the thing as a whole didn’t work all that well.
STARS: **½


NUTTY PRESIDENT
Ronald Reagan (JOP) transforms a la The Nutty Professor during a speech

   

— Heh, WTF at Joe-as-Reagan’s sudden Jerry Lewis-esque loud wacky voice when saying how high unemployment shot up?
— Haha, he seems to be going through a full Jerry Lewis transformation.
— Yep, now the camera has cut back to him in a Lewis-esque wig.
— And there’s the buck teeth.
— An overall pretty funny idea and decent execution from Joe, even if there wasn’t much to this besides a simple transformation.
STARS: ***


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
BRH makes endorsements in political races based on celebrity support
an upset MAG lists federal budget cuts she feels should be made
Raheem Abdul Muhammed refuses to believe that Liberace is a homosexual

     

— Second episode in a row with Saturday Night News making an unusually late appearance. In the last episode, it turns out SNN aired much earlier in the original live broadcast and was only bumped to a late timeslot in the rerun version I was watching, so I’m assuming that’s the same case for tonight’s SNN.  Boy, do I hate the odd re-shuffling of the running order in some of these old Comedy Central reruns (back in Comedy Central’s early days when they aired full 90-minute SNLs instead of shortened 60-minute ones).
— Interesting bit with Brad breaking down which celebrities are endorsing which candidates in the mid-term elections, though this seems to be kind of a time-killer that’s going on a little too long.
— Nice to see the return of “Spittin’-Mad Mary Gross”.
— Mary’s heated rapid-fire rant on budget cuts that should be made has some really good lines, especially “We pay, they pee” and (in regards to the Secret Service) “Thanks to you, only two of our last six presidents have been shot”.
— Some good ad-libs from Mary in response to some occasional flubs of hers during her fast-paced rant.
— I’ve been noticing these last few episodes that whenever the camera goes back to Brad after a guest commentary, Brad always says to the camera “More news” in a way that’s supposed to be funny, but it doesn’t work and just seems unnecessary.
— Eddie’s denial over Liberace being a homosexual is pretty funny, especially the incredibly flamboyant Liberace pictures he uses as proof of Liberace’s “masculinity”.
— Wow, that was a short Saturday Night News overall. Probably for the best, though.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Another World”


PUMPKIN
— A repeat of the gory pumpkin-carving short from last season’s Donald Pleasence-hosted Halloween episode.


GOODNIGHTS

 

— Keaton mentions that they had to cut tonight’s special guest Andy Kaufman. I think this is what would end up famously leading to the Larry the Lobster-esque “Keep or Dump Andy” vote-in that we’ll see a few episodes from now.
— Whoa, I just realized, where the heck was Robin Duke in tonight’s episode??? She didn’t appear in ANY sketches, and I’m not even seeing her onstage in these goodnights. Was she out sick this week?
— Gary Kroeger was also almost non-existent in tonight’s episode, but at least he was still in the show.
— It looked like Keaton walked off right in the middle of these goodnights. If so, I wonder if it’s because of Ebersol’s infamous treatment of him.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Not a very good episode. Despite a few good things, there was kind of a ho-hum, forgettable quality to the night as a whole, and there were too many overlong sketches. This episode also had a very weird feeling to it, which may have been due to the non-Studio 8H aspect, though that didn’t make the Howard Hesseman episode feel too weird (maybe because that episode had enough strong material to mask the weird atmosphere from being performed in two different studios). All I have to say is, thank God they’ll be back in Studio 8H by the next episode.
— The whole situation with Michael Palin being brought in as emergency backup makes me feel kinda bad for Michael Keaton, but Keaton truly didn’t seem too up to the task of handling the show, judging from his awkwardness tonight. I can understand why they barely put him in any sketches. He would later do a much better job in his 1992 and (especially) 2015 hosting stints.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Howard Hesseman):
— a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Robert Blake

Posted on

October 23, 1982 – Howard Hesseman / Men At Work (S8 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
ROD stalls for time because host hasn’t arrived; Susan Saint James cameo

       

— Lots of interesting sights in the chaotic background behind Robin.
— Robin explains to us that SNL’s regular studio is currently being used by NBC news for election coverage, which forces SNL to do this episode from two separate studios, each on different floors. She also explains that the show only has half the usual number of studio audience members tonight. Pretty fascinating backstory from Robin here.
— I like Eddie randomly portraying himself as his Gumby character.
— Heh, after Robin walks away from Tim and his “real-life” family members (the two monkeys from “I Married a Monkey”), one of the monkeys can be seen going wild in the background. A female staff member pops into that background shot amusedly staring at the monkey’s hijinks with her mouth wide open in shock.
— Great visual of a drunk Howard Hesseman making his late arrival through the elevator doors while on the back of a motorcycle.
— Very creative, unique way of doing “Live From New York…”. Kinda reminds me of how they did it in that Irish Potato Torture cold opening with Bill Murray and Eric Idle back in season 2.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host tells dead-Belushi jokes, says “don’t worry about offending people”

   

— A very different and more simplistic home base stage for tonight’s non-Studio 8H episode.
— I like how this started as a continuation of the cold opening, by having a still-drunk Howard getting pushed out onto the home base stage.
— Howard mentions that he’s the first host from the original SNL era to do “the new SNL”. I guess by “new SNL” he’s only referring to the then-current Ebersol era, because the Jean Doumanian season did have some original-era hosts.
— Howard, on his agent and P.R. man warning him not to host in the new SNL era: “They said it would look like my career was on the skids; like I needed the work.” Heh, like a lot of the hosts from season 7.
— Howard: “Okay, so I’m a whore.”
— Howard brings up the recently-deceased John Belushi and says some very interesting things about him.
— He makes a fascinating complaint about how “the new SNL” lacks the type of personal references and “autobiographical sketches” that the original cast frequently did, where they starred in sketches as themselves. That complaint comes off a little strange in hindsight, because this early 80s era actually does quite a bit of “autobiographical sketches” compared to later decades, where there truly IS a huge void of cast members playing themselves in sketches. The show has actually gotten a little better about doing that in more recent years, with stuff like some of the short films that star the cast as themselves (e.g. the Leslie Jones/Kyle Mooney relationship story arc) or Pete Davidson and Leslie Jones’s constant Weekend Update appearances using their private lives as comedic material (hell, if anything, I’d argue we’ve gotten to know WAY TOO MUCH about Pete’s private life).
— Howard: “When is Eddie Murphy going to start doing scenes in drag?! Garrett did!”
— Fun part with Howard telling some dead Belushi jokes. I actually wanted that part to go on longer.
— I like how he’s getting more and more worked-up, now comically railing against President Reagan’s policies.
— Ah, now I see what he’s doing; he’s imitating the Weekend Update rants that used to always end with Belushi flinging himself onto the floor.
— An actually fairly touching ending with Howard looking skywards and delivering a short sincere message to Belushi.
— Overall, wow, what a fantastic monologue. Howard was incredible here.
STARS: ****½


THE GIRLS OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
Playboy profiles The Girls of Saturday Night Live- ROD, MAG, JLD

       

— Uh… WOW, to say the least!
— Oh, there’s some jokes in here too, but who’s paying attention to THAT aspect of this commercial?
— Overall, while I’m not exactly sure what the comedic aspect of this was supposed to be, I certainly can’t complain about the excuse to see all that eye candy.
STARS: ***½


DELOREAN HOME
John Delorean (BRH) packs his suitcase with “Bisquick” & “sugar”

   

— Strange topical John Delorean sketch so far. I get what all the “flour”, “sugar” and “Bisquick” really are, but other than that, I feel like this whole thing played better to 1982 audiences than to me today.
— I did get a laugh just now from the big bag of sugar that Brad emptied out into a huge pile inside the suitcase.
STARS: **½


BILL IRWIN
2 years later, dancing man (Bill Irwin) is still shaking his groove thing

   

— Always nice to see this guy, and I liked the Dancing Man short he did back in season 6.
— He’s dancing to the same song from the aforementioned short.
— Oh, this whole segment appears to be some kind of continuation or variation of the Dancing Man short. Wonder why he has such a different look this time, though the wig and oversized clothes do work well in making his rubbery physical movements look even funnier.
— Great “walking down a staircase inside the suitcase” miming at the end, a trick I also saw him do on another show.
— Overall, wow, that whole thing was great, and it was more impressive seeing him perform this in a live segment than in a pre-taped short.
STARS: ****


CARIBBEAN VACATION
Caribbean intrigue for nerdy couple Celeste (MAG) & “Iguana” Marvin (TIK)

     

— This appears to be the return of Tim and Mary’s meek couple from that Couples Therapy sketch earlier this season with Louis Gossett Jr.
— Tonight’s general episode has really been getting a lot of mileage out of Julia’s sex appeal.
— Tim and Julia’s dance is cracking me up with how they’re doing occasional throw-head-back moves in unison.
— Pretty funny part with Tim calm-and-collectedly sipping his drink while effortlessly holding back Howard from stabbing him with a knife.
— This overall sketch went a little too long for my likes, but the craziness of the whole thing was pretty funny, and I really appreciate how well-performed and fully-committed the whole thing came off. Something about this sketch had quite a different feel for this era of SNL.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Who Can It Be Now”


GOOD MORNING AMERICA
clip of David Hartman (JOP) film is Bullwinkle-like

   

— Haha, oh my god at Joe’s look in this. At first glance, I almost thought that was Gilbert Gottfried I was looking at. It’s something about the way Joe’s eyes look in this.
— Another oh my god at Joe’s dopey-sounding Bullwinkle-esque voice.
— Hilarious random gag with Joan Lunden being portrayed by a mannequin.
— The redundant interview with Gary is giving me some good laughs.
— Ha, they actually acknowledged the Bullwinkle similarities in Joe’s voice by showing an actual Bullwinkle clip being used to represent Joe.
— Overall, some pretty big laughs in this short silly sketch.
STARS: ***½


CONFESSION
(GAK) returns home from college & tells his father (host) he’s straight

 

— LOL at Gary’s dramatic reveal being “I’m straight!” after that long buildup where you think he’s going to come out as gay.
— I like the bizarro universe feel of this premise, where being straight is looked down on while being gay is accepted.
— Howard’s crying outburst is cracking me up.
— Funny ending with Howard arranging to watch “Magnum P.I.” with his apparent boyfriend.
STARS: ***


NAKED WAKE
as per the deceased’s wishes, his open casket features a naked corpse

     

— Tim, when initially looking into the casket: “He’s naked.” LOL!
— Loved Julia’s comment while staring at a certain part of the nude corpse: “His wife is REALLY gonna miss him.”
— I remember hearing Del Close has something to do with this sketch, but I can’t remember what exactly.
— Great delivery of Mary’s “This surprises me!” line immediately after she confidently claims that nothing would surprise her. I also loved her “What a NUT!” line right afterwards.
— I’m already laughing at Eddie’s mere walk-on. I can tell his bit is gonna be hilarious.
— I was right. Eddie’s “This dude is butt-naked, man!” killed me.
— Another huge laugh, this time from Eddie saying a threatening “You a DEAD MAN!!” to the corpse.
— Oh, now I remember what Del Close has to do with this sketch. Howard’s funny hippie-type character here is based on Close. I noticed that Howard was addressed as “Del” just now.
— Haha, now here comes Robin’s funny Italian mama character that we saw several times last season.
— Overall, this sketch was an absolute riot. One of the hardest I’ve laughed this season so far.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Down Under”

— Wow, we’re getting the second musical performance when Saturday Night News STILL hasn’t aired yet? What the heck is going on? I’m starting to question if they’re even going to DO a Saturday Night News tonight.
— WTF? Why did this musical performance abruptly fade to black and go to commercial while the song was still being performed? I doubt they ran out of time, considering we’re not at the end of the show yet.


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
TIK’s salute to journalism deals with the New York Post
JLD announces the Save The World Contest- prizes for solutions to crises
JOP says the Brewers are World Series losers because they are slobs

         

— Can’t believe this is just NOW coming on, when there’s only about 18 minutes left in the show. That’s insane! I don’t think I’ve EVER seen any other SNL episode that had the news segment buried this late in the show’s line-up. I *think* the Flip Wilson episode from season 9 may also have an insanely-late appearance of Saturday Night News, but I’m not sure.
— Knowing that the order of sketches is often shuffled around in the rerun versions of this era’s episodes, I wonder if tonight’s Saturday Night News originally aired in a much earlier spot and only got moved to this late spot in the rerun version I’m watching.
— (*after seeing a joke that Brad has just done about John Delorean getting busted for cocaine*) Oh, NOW I fully understand that Delorean sketch from earlier tonight!
— The debut of Tim’s “Salute to Journalism” segment, which would go on to become a recurring bit.
— Lots of good, smart, sarcastic, biting comments from Tim here (I especially liked “Wow, three days of dead gays”).
— Between this and some of the SNL Newsbreak commentaries he did as himself last season, I’m noticing that Tim seems to have a good sardonic, snarky quality about himself. Amazing that this is the same man who also seems to like doing corny pun-based shtick like the Dr. Jack Badofsky bits.
— Julia makes her very first visit to the news desk, doing a commentary as herself.
— Julia announces a tongue-in-cheek contest for viewers to solve the Middle-East crisis. Pretty funny concept.
— Good use of Don Pardo’s voice-over in Julia’s commentary.
— Joe’s SNL Sports commentary about the Brewers acting like classless slobs at the recent World Series ended up being very brief. I kinda liked the clips shown, but there wasn’t much to this overall commentary.
— An off-camera Joe reaching his hand into the camera view to offer Brad a chewed-up ball of tobacco while Brad is in the middle of delivering his sign-off to the camera reminds me of how Joe often used to troll Charles Rocket with props after finishing his Update commentaries.
— Overall, not a particularly good edition of Saturday Night News, but not any worse than usual. I still can’t understand why they would bury this so unusually late in the show, as if they were ashamed of it.
STARS: **½


UNCLE TEDDY’S LITTLE THEATRE
family members criticize young (GAK)

    

— There’s that same living room set again tonight.
— Great kid voice from Gary.
— Tim’s bluntly negative comments to Gary are really funny.
— Strange that both sketches using this living room set tonight deal with Gary as a son and the topic of homosexuality.
— Wow, dark turn this has taken with Howard hinting at Gary to shoot himself.
— I’ve been enjoying this sketch so far, though the idea of this sketch mining humor out of a young boy being viciously belittled by family members for being “effeminate” probably won’t hold up well with a lot of people nowadays.
— Great twist with Gary turning the gun on Howard.
— Joe’s creepy host character is quite funny, and I now see what they’re going for with him, basically hinting that he’s a child predator.
STARS: ***


THE AMAZING RONCO ANSWER BOOK
The Amazing Ronco Answer Book has responses to ads’ rhetorical questions

— Joe plays the lead of yet another sketch tonight.
— Fairly funny premise, and the usual strong fast-paced pitchman delivery from Joe.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Very strong episode. Lots of really solid stuff all throughout the show, and nothing fell too flat; even the weakest segments of the night were still somewhat watchable. I got so much enjoyment from watching this episode.
— And what a great hosting performance from Howard Hesseman, who was an even better fit here than he was in his prior hosting stint in season 5. I can definitely see why they bring him back to host again just a few months later in this same season.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ron Howard):
— a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Michael Keaton

Posted on

October 9, 1982 – Ron Howard / The Clash (S8 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Bureau of Weights & Measures requests viewers watch SNL with TV on lap

— Oh, so we’re back to doing those brief “disclaimer gag” cold openings that were rampant in the first half of season 7?
— What the hell? THAT’S the joke? Placing your TV set on your lap??? Man, even the season 7 disclaimer openings were funnier than this.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
being on SNL makes host feel liberated- he says bad words & drinks a Bud

   

— Knowing that it would soon become a regular thing in this era for hosts to make their monologue entrance through the door on the right side of this home base stage, it feels weird seeing Ron Howard randomly make his entrance through the left side, which doesn’t even have a door or anything.
— Love this premise with Ron eager to say and do things he was never allowed to do in prime-time.
— His choice of “bad words” are pretty funny.
— Wow, huge audience reaction to him drinking a beer. Judging from the shot of the crowd during that part, it looks like they were even about to give him a standing ovation before the camera cut away from them. (last screencap above)
— Fun monologue overall.
STARS: ***½


OPIE’S BACK
adult Opie Taylor (host) returns to seedy Mayberry; Andy Griffith cameo

         

— I like the details on the trashy current state of Mayberry 1982.
— Ha, Eddie does yet another impression of a white celebrity/character.
— Hmm, turns out Eddie’s Floyd isn’t quite as good as other “white impressions” that he has nailed, but I’m still liking his performance here.
— Great “Opie’s Back” twist.  I’m loving this whole premise.
— The cast is doing fun impressions of the Andy Griffith Show characters; I especially like Brad’s Gomer voice.
— Nice pre-taped guest appearance from Andy Griffith.
— Funny blooper with Ron mistakenly referring to Eddie’s Floyd as “Otis”, and then after being corrected, he saves himself with a great ad-lib (“I told ya I couldn’t recognize ya!”).
— Overall, I really enjoyed this Andy Griffith Show take-off.
STARS: ****


VELVET JONES ROMANCE NOVELS
Velvet Jones romance novels, including Kicked In The Butt By Love

— So much for Velvet Jones’ “retirement”, which he and fellow “overexposed” recurring character Paulie Herman announced in the Robert Conrad episode last season.
— Eh, I’m tired of these “Velvet Jones advertises a new book of his” sketches; they peaked too early with the classic first installment (“I Wanna Be a Ho”) and none of the subsequent installments have measured up. Tonight’s sketch is doing nothing for me.
— What the–? Is that season 7 SNL announcer Mel Brandt doing the voice-over at the end? I also couldn’t tell earlier if that was him or not as the voice-over in tonight’s cold opening disclaimer gag. If this IS indeed Mel Brandt, what’s up with that? I thought he was no longer employed with the show this season. Is tonight’s episode using leftover cut bits from season 7?
STARS: **


WHINERS
Doug & Wendy Whiner visit a doctor (host) to see about having a baby

  

— Ohh, god, here comes this season’s first appearance of the Whiners, easily my least favorite recurring sketch of this whole era (so far).
— I’m now a minute into this sketch and nothing in it has made me laugh at all so far.
— Okay, just now, I did like Ron’s “Alright, alright, just SHUT UP!” outburst.
— Another funny comment from Ron saying “They don’t allow babies in Puerto Rico”.
— Weak ending.
— Overall, this pales badly in comparison to the last Whiners sketch from the Danny DeVito episode, which at least had enough funny stuff from the various non-Whiners characters in the sketch to make it more tolerable than usual. Tonight’s Whiners sketch, on the other hand, had too little to work with.
STARS: *½


HARRY ANDERSON
Harry Anderson [real] shoves a hat pin through his forearm

    

— Nice opening trick with him turning a paper into a cigarette in a quick flash.
— Hmm, judging from Harry’s definition of “geek” (a circus freak who bites heads off of animals), that word had a VERY different meaning back then than it would later on. Now I finally understand that “the geek’s mouthwash” tagline from that sketch last season where Tim played Ozzy Osbourne advertising a mouthwash for fellow bat head-biters like himself.
— I like the audience gasping and screaming when Harry shows the needle stuck through his arm.
— OH MY GOD, that part with him moving the needle through his arm back and forth while blood oozes out… Jesus Christ, that looks WAY too realistic to be faked. Now I’m on the same page as the screaming and gasping audience members.
— Harry: “If your cat has kittens in the oven, you don’t call them biscuits, do ya?”
— Very funny ending with his “rabbit trick” just being him simply impaling a stuffed rabbit with a giant needle.
— Overall, even if some of the more gory aspects made me wince like crazy, this was another great Harry Anderson segment. In fact, I’d say that the gory aspects actually made this even better than his usual SNL appearances.
STARS: ****½


IN QUEST OF
Leonard Nimoy (JOP) In Search of Francis The Talking Mule; Rex Reed cameo

    

— Huge amount of make-up and prosthetics on Joe’s Leonard Nimoy impression. Joe looks completely unrecognizable.
— Interesting-looking pre-taped segment.
— I like the subtle gag with Joe’s Nimoy’s ears getting increasingly bigger and more Spock-like every time the camera cuts back to him.
— Overall, a pretty well-done film and a decent display of dry humor. Felt kinda like an early version of the type of brilliant pre-taped shorts the show would regularly do later this era in season 10; I can easily picture Harry Shearer in Joe’s role here.
STARS: ***


FOCUS ON FILM
Raheem Abdul Muhammed prefers “Opie Cunningham” to host

 

— I like Eddie referring to Ron as “Opie Cunningham”.
— I’m assuming the baby daughter that Ron mentioned here is the now-famous Bryce Dallas Howard.
— Eddie’s disbelief over Ron having sex is very funny.
— Fun part with Eddie leading the audience in a chant of “Opie Cunningham” so Ron will shave his mustache.
— Even though I kinda saw it coming, I got a decent laugh from Ron angrily telling Eddie “Sit on it, bucko!” before walking off, as well as Eddie’s frozen reaction to that.
— Loved Eddie’s “WHAT?!? Imma kill ‘im!” outburst after being told what “bucko” means.
STARS: ***½


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
angry MAG lists people who deserve to be out of work but aren’t
some before & after photos of celebrities’ plastic surgery
BRH apologizes for the incident in which he called James Watt a “slime”
Andy Rooney (JOP) gives his thoughts on the Middle East

        

— Wow, only 20 seconds into this Saturday Night News, and we’re ALREADY getting a guest commentary. Is this the record for earliest appearance of a guest commentary ever?
— Ah, the debut of the “Spitting-Mad Mary Gross” persona, which would go on to become a Saturday Night News recurring bit. Nice change of pace seeing Mary playing against type from her usual soft-spoken, kind demeanor.
— Very good delivery from Mary here, with her endless, rapid-fire listing-off of things that irk her.
— Brad’s Vietnam children/Bob Hope joke was really good.
— Hmm, Brad has begun a listing-off of celebrities that had cosmetic surgery. Uh-oh, is this a leftover Brian Doyle-Murray “long photo montage” segment from last season’s SNL Newsbreaks?
— Eh, I guess you can say this cosmetic surgery photo montage is different enough from the montages that Doyle-Murray used to do, and I did get a laugh from the “before” picture of both Barbra Streisand and David Letterman.
— Brad gives a sincere-seeming apology for yelling at James Watt on the phone back in the season premiere, then suddenly loses his temper and angrily punches a hole through the picture of Watt displayed on the news screen. Wow, can’t say I’ve ever seen an SNL anchorperson punch a hole through the news screen any other time. Can’t say this one made me laugh, though.
— After the overuse of Joe’s Andy Rooney impression last season, I’m not too excited to see him back tonight, though this IS his first time appearing on SNL’s news segment.
— Tonight’s overall Andy Rooney commentary didn’t end up being anything special. I feel like they’ve already done everything they can with this impression of Joe’s.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Straight to Hell”


HAIL TO THE CHIEF
Jimmy Carter (JOP) recalls Ronald Reagan’s uninterested White House visit

     

— First time we’ve seen Joe’s Jimmy Carter impression since the infamous season 6.
— Joe’s Carter impression now sounds even better than it used to. There’s more details in the vocal tics this time. I’d argue that his Carter voice now sounds almost as dead-on as Dan Aykroyd’s classic version.
— Hmm? Another “Hail to the Chief” sketch showing Reagan’s perspective? I thought I remembered hearing they only did these sketches in season 7. This won’t be the same without Tony Rosato there anymore to carry the sketch as Ed Meese.
— Kinda surprised this is Julia’s first appearance of the whole night. I had been wondering where she was tonight.
— Feels weird seeing a “meeting” of two presidential Joe Piscopo impressions.
— Joe’s Reagan’s method of “sounding presidential” is to simply say “Shut up!” That may have been unheard of for a president in 1982, but oddly enough, it would feel commonplace nowadays, considering who’s currently in the White House (as of 2019).
— The sketch is over already? Boy, this overall installment was pretty weak and paled badly in comparison to the season 7 “Hail to the Chief” installments.
STARS: **


COME ON OUT AMERICA
— A rerun from last season


SYLVESTER SCHOOL
an IRS agent (TIK) visits the Sylvester School of Speech Therapy

   

— Wow, even stranger than Julia making her first appearance fairly late in tonight’s episode is the fact that this sketch is the first time we’ve seen Kazurinsky all night. Very unusual for him.
— Gary’s doing a good Sylvester the Cat vocal imitation.
— Oh, turns out they’re ALL speaking like Sylvester.
— Heh, poor Tim, having to get repeatedly spit on throughout this sketch with everyone exaggeratedly lisping into his face. Even I’m starting to cringe for Tim.
— Haha, another instance of Eddie breaking character and laughing during a sketch. (last screencap above)
— This overall sketch probably didn’t look too funny on paper, but the performances made it a decent sketch.
STARS: ***


WHY
(host) asks a prostitute (ROD) why she hooks & gets plenty of reasons

   

— I almost thought this was going to be a quiet, semi-dramatic, Marilyn Suzanne Miller-esque slice-of-life sketch, especially after Robin’s “molested as a child” reveal (that line was quite dark for an SNL sketch). However, this now seems to be going in a more comedic, broad direction.
— LOL at Tim Kazurinsky, of all people, playing a pimp.
— What’s with Joe’s very fake-looking mustache? It looks almost as if it’s ready to fall off.
— Very weak punchline at the end.
— Overall, I didn’t care for this sketch at all.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Should I Stay or Should I Go”


NUKES ARE FOR KOOKS
in a small town, deterrence power of personal nuclear warheads fails

    

— Apparently, this is another sketch from the Practical Theatre Company that this season’s three new cast members (Brad, Julia, and Gary) brought with them to SNL.
— I assume that in the original PTC stage version of this sketch, Joe’s part was played by Paul Barrosse, who was Brad, Julia, and Gary’s PTC partner and also an SNL writer during this season.
— I like the odd concept of this sketch so far, casually carrying around huge nuclear warheads as a weapon.
— Interesting fourth wall-breaking PSA-type ending.
— Overall, a pretty decent closing sketch with some nice offbeat humor.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— This is the first episode of the season that I wasn’t all that impressed by, though it certainly wasn’t terrible or anything. This episode started pretty strong with the strangely charming monologue and the epic “Opie’s Back”, but the show hit a brief rough patch immediately afterwards with a weak Velvet Jones followed by a damn Whiners sketch. The rest of the show afterwards was very hit-and-miss.
— Considering this was the third consecutive live episode, I can cut them a little slack, and I hope the next episode brings back the quality that I had been enjoying from season 8 before tonight’s episode.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Louis Gossett Jr.):
— a somewhat big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Howard Hesseman

Posted on

October 2, 1982 – Louis Gossett Jr. / George Thorogood & The Destroyers (S8 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
NBC is so desperate for viewers they’re willing to disrobe

   

— I like spokesperson Joe’s line about the realization the network came to after taking a long hard look at their new fall line-up.
— The idea of this is fairly funny, the jingle is catchy, and Mary’s giving a good performance. However, this pales in comparison to better shots SNL has taken at NBC’s ratings woes in earlier seasons.
— No “Live From New York” at the end of this. In my review of the season premiere, I made a big deal about them bringing back LFNY this season, but I forgot that there’s still some occasional LFNY-less episodes within these next few seasons. Hell, there are some episodes these next few seasons that don’t even have a cold opening!
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host puts cast through comedy boot camp

     

— This unexpectedly begins with Louis Gossett Jr. already onstage right in front of the camera, instead of making an entrance like most hosts do in their monologues.
— Really good premise to this monologue, and a nice use of the whole cast.
— Haha, I’m loving Eddie and Joe’s exaggeratedly cocky, laid-back personas as the two veterans of this cast.
— If you know me, you know I personally got a kick out of seeing Eddie and Joe imitating Curly from The Three Stooges.
— Gary’s panicked facial expression when he doesn’t know the punchline to Brad’s joke is really funny.
— Lots of great rapid-fire pratfalls-on-command from Gary. I’m aware that doing falls on the show would go on to be one of Gary’s strengths as a cast member; I recall seeing some really good falls from him in my past viewings of this era.
— Overall, I found this to be a very fun, unique monologue.
STARS: ****


DON’T HITCH-HIKE
(TIK) learns his lesson the hard way- “Don’t hitch-hike”

       

— A very slow but interesting buildup so far.
— Ha, holy hell at the sudden drive off the cliff (represented by now-familiar stock footage that would later go on to be regularly used in the Toonces the Driving Cat sketches) and this turning out to be a “Don’t Hitchhike” PSA. A really good twist.
STARS: ***½


MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
Mr. T [real] objects to drum noise

    

— The glitter shoes are hilarious.
— Interesting change of pace for the “word of the day” segment.
— Nice drumming from Eddie.
— Ha, Mr. T!
— Mr. T: “The new word for today is PAIN.”
— An overall very memorable installment of this recurring sketch.
STARS: ****½


SEX THERAPY
a sex therapist (host) enjoys putting his patients through play therapy

     

— Boy, Brad is really overacting in this. When I started doing reviews of this season, this is exactly the type of performance I was worried I would see from Brad, based on my past viewings of this era.
— What’s with Louis’ constant drawn-out “Ah ha” laughter throughout this sketch?
— Tim and Mary’s husband/wife characters are funny.
— LOL at the whole bit with Tim prematurely “climaxing” with his gun. That was great.
— Good ending with Louis’ gun going off multiple times after Mary kisses him on the cheek.
STARS: ***½


MR. & MRS. T BLOODY MARY MIX
Mr. [real] & Mrs. (ROD) T Bloody Mary Mix- drink it or be pitied

 

— Oh my god at Robin in this. She is hilarious here.
— Loved Robin’s “Dat’s mean!” after drinking the mix.
— Wow, this overall sketch was quick and incredibly fast-paced. Flawless execution of a really funny idea, and featured a very different side of Robin that we’ve never seen prior to this.
STARS: ****½


WHAT’S THE WORST THING YOU’VE EVER DONE?
people on the street are asked “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

   

— The one guy’s ashamed “I stole money… from a nun” confession after tip-toeing around saying it was really funny.
— Love the bluntness of one guy’s answer being he slept with his best friend’s wife… multiple times.
— What’s with this part with the hard-of-hearing old guy?
— Ha, the hard-of-hearing old guy’s answer to the “worst thing you’ve ever done” question being a simple “I got married” was a great way to end this.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


SINGING IN THE STALL
a quartet of bathroom-goers sing “Under The Boardwalk” from their stalls

   

— I like the camera slowly panning over to reveal the other stall occupants have begun to sing along with Joe.
— I absolutely loved the part with Tim looking for an empty stall while quietly singing Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” (“Don’t…push…me…cuz…I’m…close…to…the…eeeeedge”, etc). It’s also hilarious because Tim’s one of the last people you’d expect to see casually singing that song to himself.
— This was an overall very well-done and enjoyable sketch. Tonight’s episode in general has been on fire so far.
STARS: ****


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
BRH delivers bad news with a song & a guitar in order to soften the blow
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists names for advanced stages of medical conditions
Shelley Winters (ROD) talks about the death of her friend Marilyn Monroe
JOP interviews Canadian Football League player Bubba St. Jacque (EDM)

           

— Brad’s still wearing the glasses from last week.
— Hmm, interesting-seeming bit with Brad busting out a guitar to announce the bad news of the week in a “pleasant” way with a folk song.
— Decent audience participation bit with having them sing along to Brad’s guitar song.
— Whoa at Brad’s angry outburst and subsequent guitar-smashing at the end of the song. A fairly funny ending.
— Brad really seems to be trying to leave his mark as an anchorperson so far this season, by doing several unique side segments that I can NEVER picture Brian Doyle-Murray doing the previous season.
— Here comes this season’s first appearance of Dr. Jack Badofsky.
— Funny opening line from Badofsky.
— Maybe it’s because tonight’s episode has put me in a really good mood, but I’m finding myself enjoying tonight’s Badofsky puns more than I usually do.
— Whoops, a blooper. Tim has shown the wrong card for his “Tomorrow-The-World-Measels” pun, which has resulted in confused silence from the audience.
— Tim, in an ad-libbed response to his aforementioned blooper: “(deadpanly) I knew that’d happen someday.” Ha, he’s making a great recovery from his blooper.
— Some more very funny ad-libs from Tim in response to the aforementioned blooper. The audience is LOVING this.
— Badofsky’s “you have to wear a Hefty bag on your side” addendum to his “colossal colostomy” bit gave me a good laugh.
— This overall Badofsky commentary has definitely been one of his better appearances so far, with the blooper elevating this to a more noteworthy level.
— Nice to see the return of Robin’s Shelley Winters. She was hilarious in her appearance last season.
— Uh, wow. Robin’s portrayal of Winters is a lot more over-the-top tonight, especially the extremely drawn-out syllables. Not sure whether to find that funny or annoying. Sadly, I think I might have to pick the latter. Her performance here is a bit too much for my likes; her Winters impression was a lot funnier last season where it was more reigned-in while still being the right amount of loopy.
— Robin’s overall commentary was kind of a letdown, despite a few okay lines here and there.
— Brad’s whole “Our Gang-style killings” joke was great.
— Hmm, a Chevy Chase joke, a mere week after he hosted the show.
— Brad mentions that Chevy is going to be a father. The “he can feel the baby stumble” punchline was a bit of a groaner, but I found it okay just because I appreciate the callback to Chevy’s pratfall routine from the original SNL era.
— As usual, Eddie and Joe are doing great playing off of each other. It can’t be said enough how much I always love their chemistry whenever they’re paired together.
— Haha, I loved the extended ending of Joe and Eddie’s commentary, with Eddie ad-libbing a whole bunch of angry foreign gibberish to Brad.
STARS: *** (the highest rating I’ve given to SNL’s news segment in quite a long time)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bad to the Bone”


SATURDAY NIGHT EDITORIAL
MAG tells jokes about Jerry Lewis to prove SNL has nothing against him

— I like how Mary is all too eager to read off un-airable tasteless SNL jokes about Jerry Lewis.
— Very awkward ending with Mary suddenly apologizing.
— I didn’t enjoy this overall segment nearly as much as the set-up to it had me expecting to.
STARS: **


DON’S BACK
DOP describes his year away from SNL

   

— Joe brings up the fact that there’s several new things about SNL this season and how the return of SNL announcer Don Pardo isn’t exactly new.
— This sketch was actually supposed to air in the season premiere (which would’ve been more fitting, as that was Pardo’s actual first episode back), but due to the show running long, it was replaced with a brief “killing time” segment with Joe telling us that a great bit planned for that episode will be airing next week instead. I didn’t get to see that brief Joe segment, as it was removed from my copy of the season premiere.
— Nice way to re-introduce Pardo back to SNL, by having him detailing in a gameshow-style manner what he did over the past year after being fired from SNL. The general joke of Pardo saying casual things in an out-of-place gameshow-style manner has already been done by him multiple times back in the original SNL era (Jill Clayburgh’s season 1 monologue, the “Waiting For Pardo” sketch, etc.), but it’s still nice to see again.
— The oven part was pretty funny.
— Joe’s ending sign-off seemed really rushed and abrupt. Was something removed from my copy of this sketch?
STARS: ***


DONAHUE
Phil (JOP) discusses conflict with Begin (TIK) & Arafat (GAK)

    

— It feels weird to see a Phil Donahue impression from Joe. While doing reviews of this SNL era, I’ve been noticing that Joe seems to do A LOT of impressions that either Phil Hartman or Darrell Hammond would later do more famously (Frank Sinatra, Ted Koppel, Dan Rather, etc.), and in the case of Donahue, both Hartman AND Hammond would play him (come to think of it, there’s quite a number of impressions that Hartman and Hammond share with each other).
— At first glance, I seriously thought for a second that that was Tony Rosato as Yasser Arafat sitting next to Tim’s Menachim Begin (after all, Tony DID once play Arafat alongside Tim as Begin in an SNL Newsbreak last season), until I remembered Tony’s not on the show anymore. I guess after reviewing the entirety of season 7 in such a short amount of time these past few weeks and becoming so attached to that season’s cast, I haven’t gotten used to not seeing Tony and Christine Ebersole anymore this season. I guess that’s to be expected with the nature of this SNL project of mine; after all, when I started reviewing season 6, there were a few times where I initially mistook some of the uncredited bit players for certain members of the original cast, because I had been so used to reviewing the original SNL era.
— Ah, turns out that’s Gary Kroeger playing Arafat. Good make-up job on him in this.
— Joe is nailing the trademark Phil Donahue gestures and mannerisms, but the voice is leaving a lot to be desired.
— Really funny bit with Joe’s Donahue suddenly diving onto an audience member’s lap to take Mary’s question.
— An overall decent sketch, if nothing special.
STARS: ***


FATHER AND SON
EDM & host quit a sketch that stereotypes blacks; cameo by EDM’s father

     

— Heh, there’s the Mister Robinson’s apartment set again tonight.
— It’ll be funny to see where this overly-dramatic sketch will go.
— Ha, Eddie drops character to say to the camera “This scene bites!”
— I’m liking where this is going. I usually always enjoy this type of meta sketch where the performers drop character midway through and break the fourth wall.
— Hilarious random bit with Eddie suddenly stopping mid-sentence and opening a closet door to yell a deep-voiced “SHUT UP!” to the band inside that’s been playing the dramatic background music for this sketch.  I recall reading that Eddie reprises that gag in another sketch later this season.
— I like the reveal of this black sketch turning out to be written by a very whitebread Jewish-looking guy, which kinda reminds me of a joke they would later do in a season 11 “That Black Girl” sketch with Danitra Vance.
— Is that really Eddie Murphy’s father standing up in the audience? I’m not seeing any facial resemblance between him and Eddie at all.
STARS: ***


THE INTERESTING FOUR
the superhero team of last resort is summoned

     

— A fairly funny pre-taped intro, giving us a rundown of the unimpressive superpowers each member of this superhero team has.
— Heh, Don Pardo as the voice of Hawkman on his answering machine.
— I like the randomness of Louis’s agent character using a Snoopy phone to make his important phone call.
— Joe is perfectly cast in the role of a schmaltzy stand-up comedian/lounge performer.
— Not too many laughs in this sketch so far. It feels like after the long pre-taped intro setting us up on the individual superpowers of each team member, there aren’t many places left for this sketch to go. Maybe they should’ve done away with the intro and let the reveal of each member’s superpower display itself over the course of the sketch.
— Boy, between the monologue and this sketch, they sure seem to be letting Julia Louis-Dreyfus mug the camera quite a lot tonight.
— I like the idea of a villain being named “Dr. Inconsiderate”.
— I’ve been noticing throughout tonight’s episode that Louis seems to be playing a lot of his roles in a VERY over-the-top manner, which I’m not crazy about. It’s especially hurting this particular sketch.
— This overall sketch fell flat. I’m aware that this somehow ends up becoming a recurring sketch later this season, which I’m definitely not looking forward to seeing.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Back in Wentzville”

— The show abruptly goes to commercial while this musical performance is still in progress. I guess the show is running long.


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An overall solid episode, particularly the first half, which (aside from a somewhat “meh” cold opening) contained a consecutive long string of strong pieces and a general good vibe that I found infectious (I mentioned earlier during my review of Saturday Night News that tonight’s episode has put me in a really good mood). Even Saturday Night News was fairly decent. Despite a drop-off in quality in the second half of the episode, things were still pretty good until the show bottomed-out with that weak superheroes sketch.
— Louis Gossett Jr. was a letdown as a host. A lot of overacting and over-the-top performances from him tonight. He was a little TOO animated for his own good, which is a shame because I usually find him to be really funny in other things I’ve seen him in.
— I’m surprised at how much I’ve really been liking the way this season has been going so far. We’re off to a promising start.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chevy Chase):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Ron Howard

Posted on

September 25, 1982 – Chevy Chase / Queen (S8 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
CHC explains why he’ll do the show via satellite from Burbank

   

— I like how this opened on Chevy doing his trademark “raunchy phone conversation” opening gag, though I swear the “beads” conversation he’s doing in this sketch was already used in a Weekend Update of his from the first two seasons.
— I’m surprised we just got a simple “I”m Chevy Chase” introduction, with no “and you’re not” added after it.
— Interesting slow reveal that Chevy is actually being displayed on a TV monitor on SNL’s (new) home base stage.
— Chevy eventually explains that, due to a missed flight, he’s not in New York but in Burbank, as SNL’s first bi-coastal video host.
— Has it ever been confirmed whether this whole “missed flight” thing was genuine or just a gimmick? My theory is it’s a gimmick. I doubt they would’ve been able to get this whole “via satellite” thing prepared on time if it were done on such short notice like we’re led to believe. And besides, SNL was known for doing unconventional gimmicks throughout the Ebersol era.
— Nice ending with the crew members inducing a trademark Chevy pratfall by tipping his TV monitor over.
— We get the return of “Live from New York…” for the first time since season 6! Very nice to hear it again. And who better to deliver the re-introduction of LFNY than the guy who delivered it in SNL’s first episode ever?
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— It’s the same opening montage from the previous season, but right off the bat, there’s a noticeable difference, as the opening shot of a woman lighting her cigarette with a conventional lighter has been replaced with an awesome-looking shot of a construction worker lighting his cigarette with a torch.

— After being replaced in season 7, beloved original announcer Don Pardo is back! It feels so refreshing hearing his voice again after I’ve gotten so used to Mel Brandt’s season 7 announcing.
— The SNL logo looks to be in a more orange-red color compared to season 7’s plain-red logo. Something about the sizing or the letter spacing of the logo looks a bit different tonight too.
— The cast shots have all been changed. I really like the idea of that, as I’ve always said that whenever a new SNL season uses the same opening montage from the preceding season, they should at least update the cast shots, just to keep things somewhat fresh. Aside from this season, the only other time SNL would go on to do that would be in season 22.
— The new cast members joining the show tonight are Brad Hall, Gary Kroeger, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

  

 

MISCELLANEOUS
(no synopsis available)

— Just a very brief post-opening montage continuation of the cold opening, with Chevy still “on the floor” and announcing that he’ll be back. Much like in season 7, I see SNL is still toying with the idea of whether to do a monologue or not. However, I believe monologues officially go back to being a regular weekly thing after tonight’s episode.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


ART OPENING
Tyrone Green is the darling of the New York art scene

     

— The return of Eddie’s famous “Cill my landlord” character Tyrone Green.
— As if the wild cheers Eddie received in tonight’s opening montage wasn’t enough of a sign that he had become a huge star by this point, the energetic audience applause that his entrance receives in this sketch certainly shows you. This really sets the tone for this season, as IIRC, this is the season where Eddie reaches his absolute peak as a cast member.
— LOL at Eddie’s casual “Okay, bitch” line to Robin.
— Gary Kroeger and Brad Hall make their debut playing an effeminate gay art couple.
— I like the one collage that Eddie titled “Smart-Ass White Boy Blues”.
— For some reason, Eddie randomly starts breaking in response to Mary asking him a question. (second-to-last screencap above)
— I like Eddie angrily turning down a request to recite the “Cill My Landlord” poem. Probably a good thing, as we’ve already seen him repeat that poem in a sketch with Mary last season.
— Eddie’s “I Hate White People” poem is pretty funny. I know him spelling out “white” as “W-I-T-E” is just a knock-off of his funnier “C-I-L-L” from the original Prose and Cons short, but this still managed to crack me up a lot. It was something about the intense squinty-eyed look he gave the camera during his extreme close-up while spelling out “W-I-T-E” that slayed me.
STARS: ***


JOE TAKES A BRIDE
JOP announces that he’s fallen in love with Rose Kennedy & wants nuptials

   

— As proof that he’s become the #2 most popular member of this cast, Joe’s “I’m Joe Piscopo” intro at the beginning of this sketch gets a very big reaction from the audience.
— An amusing premise with Joe announcing that over the summer, he’s fallen in love with Rose Kennedy.
— Decent pre-taped video of Joe going for a romantic walk on the beach with Kennedy.
— The football-throwing bit was pretty funny.
STARS: ***


JOHN HINCKLEY FOR PRESIDENT
John Hinckley (BRH) announces he’s a candidate for president

 

— Funny reveal that Brad is playing John Hinckley.
— A good sketch so far, and Brad’s doing fine playing an unabashedly crazy Hinckley.
— Good subtle bit at the very end, where he slowly puts the pillow into his mouth right before the camera fades to black.
STARS: ***½


MYSTERY THEATRE
Zacherley (John Zacherle) & a video Land Shark

   

— I’m afraid I have no familiarity with this horror show host making a cameo.
— He is coming off pretty funny in this, though.
— Ha, the familiar Jaws/Landshark music sting is heard as Julia Louis-Dreyfus is heading to the door.
— Okay, tonight’s whole “Chevy missed his flight to New York” thing DEFINITELY has to be a gimmick, because how else would Chevy have his Landshark costume available in Burbank? Am I supposed to believe he always randomly carries that costume in his luggage?
— There’s the famous and always-funny “Candygram” routine.
— Landshark being displayed on a TV screen was kinda fun, I guess, but it’s disappointing not to see him attacking a woman who answers the door like he usually does. Made this feel anticlimactic.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
Danny DeVito [real] introduces musical guest

 

— Danny DeVito on SNL again!
— Nice to see Danny shutting off Chevy’s typical self-indulgent bragging.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
JOP’s football strike resolution proposal appeals to players’ drug habits
during a phone call to James Watt, BRH gives him a piece of his mind
Father Andrew B. Titus (TIK) dislikes Reader’s Digest’s condensed Bible
Tonight Show set in Burbank doubles for Tel Aviv during CHC’s report

           

— The debut of a revamped version of SNL’s news segment, featuring a new title, a new anchorperson, and a new set.
— Speaking of the new set, I like it a lot, especially the NYC nighttime skyline background.
— Hmm, Brad is wearing glasses in this. IIRC, that doesn’t go on to be a regular thing during his tenure as anchorperson.
— His very first joke is already self-referential, naming himself as one of America’s most trusted newsmen. Not sure how to react to that.
— He’s taken off the glasses already.
— His delivery isn’t too bad so far. However, I wonder if he eventually gets worse over time, because my past memories of watching reruns of this era seem to recall Brad having an annoyingly cheesy, exaggerated, unnatural delivery. I wonder if maybe he actually IS using that same cheesy delivery tonight and I’m not noticing it because suffering through a whole season of Brian Doyle-Murray makes Brad’s delivery sound less awful to me by comparison.
— Good to see a Joe Piscopo SNL Sports appearance as the very first guest commentary of the revamped Saturday Night News.
— Joe’s cocaine bit was very funny.
— Interesting-seeming bit with Brad calling up Secretary of the Interior James Watt.
— Brad’s sudden screaming outburst to Watt over the phone actually gave me a big laugh, even if it was a bit too heavy-handed in its politics (which would make it fit perfectly on modern-day SNL).
— A new character from Tim.
— A lot of funny complaints from Tim about the ridiculous changes made to the condensed bible.
— Weak punchline at the end of Tim’s commentary.
— Brad has randomly put his glasses back on after Tim’s commentary. Why doesn’t he make up his mind?
— Chevy’s remote segment is serving as a nice view of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show set. Unfortunately, that’s just about the only worthwhile thing about this whole segment.
— Overall, tonight’s Saturday Night News debut was a small step up from the dreary SNL Newsbreaks of season 7, but they still have a LONG way to go.
STARS: **½


VIDEO VICTIMS
by Claude Kerven- children addicted to video games

       

— Good premise for a mockumentary.
— I love the way this really captures the arcade craze from this time period in the early 80s. It’s also fun to see so many of the (now) old-school video games from the time.
— The drug addiction-esque downfall of the kids is very funny.
— Hilariously shocking part with the little girl prostitute who has to earn her money “the hard way”.
— The old foreign-accented guy as “11 year old Timmy” was funny as hell.
— Overall, wow, this film was excellent and incredibly well-done.
STARS: *****


REVIEW
Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert [real] review the show & criticize CHC

   

— Adding to the exciting feel of tonight’s episode is a Siskel and Ebert cameo where they give “history’s first live review of a TV show still in progress”. Fun idea.
— Hmm, they’re reviewing a “PTC” sketch that hasn’t even aired yet in the copy of the episode I’m watching. The sketch order must’ve been shuffled around in my version.
— Them naming Chevy as the “dog of the week” is pretty funny.
— Heh, the “picture” of Chevy in the background turns out to be live, as he suddenly starts doing his famous “making faces behind someone’s back” bit, which is a pretty nice blast-from-the-past, but it’s never been my favorite recurring Chevy routine.
— Funny line about “one of the great acting hand jobs of all time”.
— Assuming Siskel and Ebert’s sketch reviews are their genuine opinions and aren’t scripted lines, I’m finding their comments about the sketches to be quite interesting.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


POPIEL GALACTIC PROPHYLACTIC
Popiel Galactic Prophylactic & Dura-phram- EDM touts the tough devices

   

— Wow, Eddie’s doing a great pitchman voice.
— Hilarious concept.
— After Eddie fires the gun at the prophylactic, somebody (I think one of the two extras playing the wrestlers) mistakenly runs past the camera, temporarily blocking Eddie.
— Haha, lots of funny fast-paced craziness in this sketch.
STARS: ****


LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN
Gumby & a Bob the Dog film

    

— Joe is absolutely dead-on as Letterman; even the look is scarily accurate.
— Hmm, Gary Kroeger appearing as Paul Shaffer (a dead-ringer, by the way). Is this the first time in SNL history where a former cast member was impersonated by someone?
— Joe’s even nailing Letterman’s trademark laugh.
— Haha, Tim as Larry “Bud” Melman.
— Joe throwing two pencils behind him and breaking the window made me howl.
— A welcome return of Eddie’s Gumby.
— Ah, Eddie’s Gumby now has the angry delivery I’ve always been familiar with, unlike the low-key delivery he used in his debut last season.
— Great stories from Eddie’s Gumby, especially the “someone eat my buns” story about Poppin’ Fresh (the Pillsbury Doughboy).
— Overall, this was a riot. I got lots of laughs throughout this whole sketch, and it was also a solid parody of Letterman’s “Late Night”.
STARS: ****


PTC CLUB
April May June (JLD) preaches, (GAK) heals audience members

     

— Ah, here’s the aforementioned PTC sketch.
— Nice to see a showcase for Julia on her first episode.
— Very good character work from Julia here.
— Brad’s “soft rock” bit was pretty funny.
— Oh my god, Julia’s increasingly psychotic detailing of fighting Satan was insane and hilarious.
— Gary’s whole audience interaction bit is FANTASTIC so far. He’s giving an excellent performance here, and is handling his interactions with various audience members with so much ease that you can’t even tell this is his first night as a cast member.
— LOL at the unscripted part with a male audience member volunteering to be the person who puts his hand on the female audience member’s breast.
— Overall, this was a pretty strong showcase for the three new cast members. I’m aware that this is reportedly a sketch that they had done together in their improv days at the Practical Theatre Company (which I guess is where they got the “PTC” abbreviation for this sketch), which explains why this had such a polished feel.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Under Pressure”


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A good way to kick off the new season. The feel of this episode was quite different from the previous season, and there was a nice quality to tonight’s show, especially in the second half where there was a consistent run of very solid material. Some of the season’s big changes and the various guest appearances throughout the night also added to the exciting feel of the episode. The fact that the “Chevy hosting via satellite” gimmick is a complete afterthought in my mind right now shows how good the rest of the show was.
— The three new cast members got some good showcases tonight, especially with the PTC Club sketch. Due to my past viewings of a handful of episodes from this era, I’m already somewhat familiar with how the three newbies’ respective SNL tenures end up turning out, but based on just tonight’s episode, I would say Gary is the newbie I’m looking most forward to seeing more of, especially after his great work in PTC Club.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1981-82):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Louis Gossett Jr.

Posted on

May 22, 1982 – Olivia Newton-John (S7 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Paulette Clooney meets her idol host by chance in the ladies’ restroom

 

— Nice to see another appearance from Robin’s “She’s a pig” character, Paulette Clooney. Does this character appear beyond this season, or does this end up being her final appearance?
— A good laugh from Robin’s line “Olivia Newton-John in the john!”
— Pretty funny lipstick job Robin did on herself.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Announcer Mel Brandt (who we’ll be hearing on SNL for the last time tonight) mistakenly announces Michael Davis as a “special host” instead of “special guest”.


TALENT ENTRANCE

— Uh, where’s the cast? For this Talent Entrance, Brandt announces “Olivia Newton-John and the cast of Saturday Night Live!”, but only Olivia makes an entrance. Strange. This would’ve been the cast’s last chance to do a Talent Entrance, as that segment gets dropped after this season.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Physical”


TRANSEASTERN
— Rerun


EBONY & IVORY
Frank Sinatra (JOP) & Stevie Wonder (EDM) sing “Ebony & Ivory” variant

 

— Oh, this is a very well-known classic sketch.
— Eddie’s solo singing of “Ebony and Ivory” actually sounds genuinely nice.
— Joe’s Sinatra: “When I think of Ebony, I think of a magazine that most people do not buy.”
— I always get a kick out of Sinatra’s lyric “You are blind as a bat and I have sight”.
— Overall, a perfect and very well-done sketch, and is one of the quintessential displays of the great chemistry Eddie and Joe have always had.
STARS: *****


I MARRIED A MONKEY
Madge doesn’t want to give up her new life as a nun

   

— Ha, they fooled me with the long opening set-up with the nuns before the monkey showed up. I had no idea this would turn into another “I Married a Monkey”.
— Funny part with Tim responding to Madge’s lack of a verbal response to his question by saying “You’ve taken a vow of silence”.
— Overall, ehh, I found myself laughing very little during this. After a strong first two installments, I definitely seem to be slowly getting tired of this recurring sketch. These last two installments didn’t do much for me. I’m afraid to ask how many more times they’ll do this sketch over the next two seasons.
STARS: **


HITLER IN HEAVEN
Colonel (Graham Chapman) halts sketch about Hitler (TIK) at pearly gates

   

— Ha, is that a Hitler mustache I’m seeing on Tim under his “Mother Theresa” cloak?
— Yep, he IS playing Hitler.
— Tony’s “Go to hell” to Hitler was funny.
— Graham Chapman!
— Good audience applause in response to Chapman’s appearance. I thought I remember reading somewhere before that Chapman’s cameo in this episode disappointingly got no reaction from the audience.
— Nice breaking of the fourth wall with Chapman pointing out the general idea of this sketch was “stolen” from Monty Python.
— Another Twilight Zone twist with Brian showing up as Rod Serling. That’s making this feel reminiscent of a sketch they did before. I might be thinking of that sketch from the Chevy Chase-hosted episode in season 3 where characters in a scene tried various ways to end the sketch they’re in. Did Dan Aykroyd’s Rod Serling impression appear in that? I can’t remember.
— Overall, this didn’t work quite as well as it should have, especially for something involving a Graham Chapman appearance. This paled in comparison to that aforementioned season 3 sketch.
STARS: **½


NOT A RECORD AD
an unspecified product is very beneficial, but it’s not a record

   

— I’m enjoying the rapid-fire shots of random stock photos and clips.
— Wow, what the—? This overall ad went by so fast and was so strange, I couldn’t even fully process it. From what I could make of it, I did enjoy its weirdness.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Make a Move on Me”


SNL NEWSBREAK
ersatz Arnold Schwarzenegger (Leo Yoshimura) impresses MAG with his body
a banned advertisment for “The Secret Policemen’s Other Ball”
Graham Chapman [real] apologizes for any offensive material in the ad
TIK dislikes the popularity of self-help books
stills of Sophia Loren’s movie roles document her prison stay
host summarizes what James Watt has done during his time in office
JOP predicts how the trend of athlete endorsements will continue
EDM’s warning to fathers- “everybody gets it on prom night”

               

— A continuation of the running gag with Mary interviewing Akira Yoshimura as the wrong person, this time as “Arnold Schwarzenegger”. The image of a monotone Yoshimura in that Conan the Barbarian outfit is cracking me up.
— I liked Mary’s “Any lower and I’d be having your children!” line when Yoshimura lifted her in his arms.
— Graham Chapman again!
— The ending of Graham’s commentary was very predictable, though it was kinda funny seeing Brian dressed like that.
— Why’d the camera randomly move to the side strangely in the middle of Tim’s commentary?
— Tim’s overall commentary was okay and displayed some decent snarkiness and sarcasm from him.
— Oh, no, here comes SNL Newsbreak’s dreaded weekly “long photo montage”, this time showing Sofia Loren “in prison”.
— Odd seeing an Olivia Newton-John commentary. Hosts rarely do their own Update commentaries, especially back in this era.
— Uh, wow. What the heck was the point of Olivia’s overall commentary??? To deliver a straight, non-comedic speech railing against then-Secretary of the Interior James Watt? If I wanted to see out-of-place preachiness and politically-charged clapter on SNL, I’d tune into a modern-day episode.
— Man, most of Christine’s jokes are absolutely BOMBING tonight, even worse than they usually do.
— Joe’s SNL Sports commentary tonight is pretty funny with the increasingly silly fake athlete-endorsed products he’s displaying. I especially like the Secretariat ballpark franks.
— Funny ending to Joe’s commentary, with him repeatedly shoving the pull-string doll of himself into Brian’s face while Brian’s trying to speak. Seems like something Joe would’ve done to Charles Rocket the previous season, back when Joe would sometimes follow up his SNL Sports commentaries by trolling Rocket with a prop while Rocket was in the middle of a news joke.
— Is tonight’s SNL Newsbreak ever going to end?
— Great commentary from Eddie about sex on prom night, especially his line about “giving her the ol’ heave-ho like a champ” and him declaring that “EVERYONE gets it on prom night”.
— And so ends the final edition of SNL Newsbreak. And with that, I breathe a sigh of relief and thank God I no longer have to review this segment. My goodness, what a dreadful year for SNL’s news segment this was. You KNOW it was terrible when it has me welcoming the upcoming freakin’ Brad Hall era of the news with (somewhat) open arms.
STARS: **


MICHAEL DAVIS
Michael Davis [real] orally juggles ping-pong balls & hard-boiled eggs

     

— LOL at the audience gasping at Michael quickly inhaling a ping-pong ball into his mouth.
— Michael, on the dangers of swallowing a ping-pong ball: “It would hurt… twice.” Haha, I like how it took a few seconds for both me and the audience to get that joke.
— Man, some of Michael’s tricks never fail to make me wince, but I love it.
— Funny mock-disgusted sounds from Michael when he spits the ball into the audience.
— Very funny part with the audience going “ohh” when Michael actually messed up and didn’t catch the ball in his mouth like he was supposed to, only for him to quickly put the ball into his mouth by hand and then sternly ask the audience “What do you mean ‘ohh’?”
— Very impressive work, orally juggling two ping-pong balls at the same time.
— I love the cruel pleasure he always takes in making the audience wonder if he’s really going to do a stunt he announces.
— Overall, fantastic work from Michael as usual. Does this end up being his final SNL appearance, or does he appear beyond this season? If this is indeed his final appearance, it’s a shame he didn’t continue to appear after this season. He was definitely a consistent big highlight of the year.
STARS: ****½


BUZZ WORDS
(EDM) can’t comprehend other businessmen’s metaphors for “you’re fired”

— LOL at Eddie’s “white guy businessman” voice.
— What’s with all the abbreviation talk?
— Tim’s “What’s all this BS?” amid all the professional abbreviation talk kinda made me laugh, though it got no audience reaction.
— Very good flawless fast-paced delivery from Tim and Joe, even if it’s not making me laugh much.
— I do like Eddie suddenly dropping his “white” voice and going all loud, deep-voiced, and ghetto on Tim and Joe after they fire him, though it’s not enough to save the sketch.
STARS: **


SANDY’S CURSE
unpopular girls (MAG) & (ROD) try to impress bad girls (host) & (CHE)

   

— Our obligatory Grease-related sketch of the night.
— Why do they keep trying to pass Brian Doyle-Murray off as a teenager this season? Who are they fooling?
— Yet another sketch tonight making mention of Robin’s alleged small chest size.
— Christine is dead-on as Rizzo.
— An overall decent sketch, though it kinda dragged a bit in some spots.
STARS: ***


SPORTS ORGAN CLASSICS
bring ballpark excitement home with this songbook

  

— Not too great of a concept, but still kind of a fun idea.
— An overall pretty forgettable sketch. I’m assuming this ends up being Tony’s final big role on the show, which is an underwhelming way for him to go out, though he certainly did what he could with the material in this.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Landslide”


THE CLAMS
— Aw, man, THIS is our final segment of the season? A repeated commercial??? Really, SNL?
— In a way, this is an accurate representation of the unusually high amount of repeated commercials we’ve seen over the course of this season. Sure hope there’s a lot less repeats in store for me in season 8.


GOODNIGHTS

       

— Is Joe drunk? He looks a bit smashed and his speech sounds unusually slurred.
— Joe announces that Eddie “is doing a movie this summer with Nick Nolte”. Of course, we now know what movie that would be.
— Oh, wow, very interesting how they’re now showing a still-photo montage of various sketches from this season while the ending credits are rolling.
— One of the pictures is of Danny DeVito dressed as a king while sitting on a throne. (fifth screencap above) Where did that come from? DeVito was never dressed like that anywhere in my copy of his episode, and as far as I know, there weren’t any sketches missing from my copy. Was that picture from a cut dress rehearsal sketch?
— The picture of Bill Murray and the cast singing with the Yale Whiffenpoofs in the Christmas episode noticeably has Father Guido Sarducci singing with them. That picture DEFINITELY has to be from dress rehearsal, because Sarducci was nowhere to be seen during that Whiffenpoofs performance in the live show.
— Overall, that montage was very fun. And something about it combined with the usual touching goodnights music playing in the background and the fact that this is the end of the season actually made me feel a little emotional.
— As far as I know, this ends up being the only season finale in SNL history that does this type of year-end “season montage”. It should’ve gone on to become a tradition for the end of every season; it’s a fun way to look back on the year as a whole.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An underwhelming, forgettable episode, which is pretty disappointing for a season finale. Kind of a microcosm of the quality of the second half of this season in general. Even Graham Chapman’s cameos tonight ended up being kinda disappointing. And ending a season finale with a repeated fake ad wasn’t the best idea, either (though maybe the show ran long and had to put that repeated ad in place of a planned live sketch). The only two things that stood out as strong were the classic Ebony & Ivory sketch and the Michael Davis spot.

— This would end up being the final episode for Tony Rosato, Christine Ebersole, and Brian Doyle-Murray. I know Tony and Christine were fired, but I’m not sure if Brian’s departure was his own decision or not. I was pretty surprised at how Tony and Christine turned out to be better cast members than I had been expecting. I already mentioned recently how reliable and solid Tony could often be in his performances. I’ve also noticed that he had a bit of a “Low-Key John Belushi” quality to him at times, and also had some of the likability that Belushi brought to his “everyman”-type of roles back in the day. Christine was a good performer in her own right and displayed solid performance skills in various roles. I said at one point early this season that I’m not looking forward to a whole season of constant Christine Ebersole musical sketches, but after now having gone through the entire season, I take that comment back. I actually ended up finding her musical sketches to be pretty enjoyable, and there weren’t anywhere near as many of them as I had been worried. In fact, the second half of the season barely had any. That may be a bad thing, actually, as Christine’s airtime in general also seemed to somewhat diminish in the second half of the season. Giving her the co-anchor spot on SNL Newsbreak in the last quarter of the season wasn’t a good decision, either, as she came off too bland and overly-straight for the role. Speaking of Newsbreak, I certainly have no problem with Brian’s departure. He helmed what is possibly the all-time worst era of SNL’s news segment, and his nothing-special delivery of the jokes didn’t help at all. As a sketch performer, he was serviceable at best, but nothing noteworthy. His presence on the show will not be missed at all.

— Season 7 as a whole was a very unusual one. It’s basically a tale of two halves: the first half with Michael O’Donoghue in charge saw lots of experimentation, weirdness, darkness, and a daring sense of danger (particularly the Donald Pleasence episode on Halloween), more than any other SNL era has ever had. O’Donoghue’s sense of experimentation, weirdness, etc. may not have always worked in this season’s first half, but I admired it and found myself enjoying most of the episodes in that half of the season. The second half of the season after O’Donoghue’s mid-season firing saw the show having a VERY different feel from the first half. Gone was the experimentation, weirdness, and danger, and in its place was a lot more safeness, blandness, and a generally overly-average feeling. Also adding to the unexciting vibe was the roster of hosts, as aside from Danny DeVito, the entire second half of the season had an endless string of bland or non-comedic celebrities hosting, with only Johnny Cash defying expectations and giving a strong hosting performance. While the second half of the season was a definite step down from the first, the season as a whole was still a step in the right direction after the chaos of season 6.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Season 8 begins, hosted by Chevy Chase via satellite. We get a few new cast members, a revamped news segment, and the return of several SNL traditions that season 7 did away with.