December 10, 1983 – Flip Wilson / Stevie Nicks (S9 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Blaire’s amused when Dion Dion’s mother Geraldine (host) visits the salon

   

— Nice to see Dion Dion and Blair in the cold opening slot.
— Perfect casting of Flip Wilson’s famous Geraldine character in the role of Dion Dion’s mother.
— Ha, I like how we find out Dion Dion’s real name is Harold. I also like seeing Joe’s Blair being amused by that.
— When Flip incredulously asks “Quasi-what?!?” repeatedly to Eddie, Eddie’s clearly trying not to laugh.
— Something got bleeped out in my version when Flip’s Geraldine says “I had big (bleep) back then”. I’m guessing it was a euphemism for the word “breasts”.
— Eddie again cracks up when Flip keeps loudly repeating “I’m sorry” to him.
— Loved Eddie and Flip both saying “Shut up, bitch!” to Joe in unison.
— Very fun cold opening overall.
STARS: ****

OPENING MONTAGE
— For some reason, when the montage ends, they don’t show the SNL Band playing on the home base stage’s rooftop like they usually do this season.

MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Oh, no. My copy of this monologue is unfortunately the edited version. See, there’s two different versions of this monologue: one where Flip tells a joke, and another version where the aforementioned joke portion is removed, leaving his monologue to be a pointless brief segment where he just comes out on stage, says his greetings, then suddenly says “We’ll be right back!” and the monologue ends. Unfortunately, the latter version is the one in my copy (which is an NBC “Classic SNL” airing from sometime around December 2004). I remember once seeing the unedited version of this monologue on Comedy Central ages ago.
— I can’t remember what exactly Flip’s joke is in the unedited version of the monologue, but I do remember Flip preceding it by asking someone off-camera if the censors have allowed him to go ahead with it. I guess the joke he did was so off-color that some of the rerun versions of this episode censor it.
STARS: N/A

UNREQUITED SEX
sleazy couple (ROD) & (JOP) exchange Christmas presents & cheap jokes

  

— I’m trying to figure out which celebrity Joe is playing. They haven’t said his name yet.
— Never mind, I guess Joe’s just playing a random character. I wonder why they gave him such a specific, detailed look, though. It made me think he was playing someone famous.
— I loved Joe’s suggestive “Remind you of anything?” ad-lib(?) to Robin when some eggnog accidentally(?) spills on his lap.
— Some laughs so far, but I’m not sure what the main joke of this sketch is supposed to be.
— Joe’s smooth-voiced delivery of “Baby, you KNOW what I like!” cracked me up.
— And the sketch is over??? The punchline that neither of them wants to go through with the sex didn’t quite work for me. I was hoping that the long set-up of this sketch was leading up to a funnier punchline than that.
STARS: **

AIRPLANE WASHROOM
(host) is an attendant in a cramped airline restroom

  

— Pretty funny concept of a small, cramped airplane lavatory having a bathroom attendant.
— I like how the addition of Gary is making the already-cramped space even more chaotic.
— Again, I ask, the sketch is over ALREADY??? The ending of this was terrible, with Brad’s “Nah, get out of here!” after he acted like he was about to pay Flip a tip.
— This overall sketch didn’t come off quite as funny as it could’ve.
STARS: **½

CRAZY WEINSTEIN
Crazy Weinstein (JIB) isn’t selling anything- he’s just insane

— Great twist on the usual “Crazy Eddie” commercial spoofs, by having the “crazy” pitchman this time turn out to be a random, legitimately-crazy man who’s not even selling anything.
— Jim is hilarious in this with all his random psychotic revelations about himself. I especially like the various “Don’t touch my hat!” warnings he keeps repeating throughout this.
STARS: ****

PUDGE & SOLOMON
at Christmastime, Solomon & Pudge discuss shoes & feet

  

— I like how Eddie’s trying to make Joe crack up with his shoeless foot.
— Eddie’s whole “cold feet, warm news, etc.” philosophy is hilarious. Again, you can tell Eddie and Joe are having fun with each other during this.
— As usual in these Pudge & Solomon sketches, this takes a touching turn, this time by having Pudge’s Christmas gift to Solomon be a much-needed new pair of shoes.
— I wonder why they didn’t put Flip Wilson in this sketch. He actually would’ve fit really well into this.
— There’s an infamous backstory that right after this sketch ended, Joe had a HUGE blow-up backstage when Dick Ebersol congratulated Eddie on his performance in the sketch and then walked off with his arm around Eddie while completely ignoring Joe. This infuriated Joe and he WENT OFF on both Dick and Eddie. I wonder if this could be considered the official beginning of the end of Eddie and Joe’s friendship.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stand Back”

REVEREND LEROY
a reverend’s (host) parishioners agree with him until he asks for money

— I’m liking Flip’s energy here.
— Yet another sketch tonight with a weak, abrupt punchline that just leaves me going “THAT’S the ending? The sketch is over ALREADY???”
STARS: **

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE
Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer on more Unanswered Questions of the Universe

— I take it this is going to be a follow-up to Havnagootiim’s last appearance where he asked viewers to mail in mysterious questions that he will answer in his next appearance.
— I was right.
— I liked the answer to the question “What makes Ed McMahon laugh so much?” (2.5 million dollars).
— One of the mailed-in letters comes from someone named Louis Klein. I’m assuming that’s the same Louis Klein who’s a long-time SNL viewer and is well-known for attending SNL every single week.
— Another funny answer from Havnagootiim, this time in response to the question “Why do we always look in the toilet after we’ve gone to the bathroom?” (We want to know how fast corn travels through our body).
STARS: ***

HELLO, TRUDY!
call-in show’s sole viewer (JLD) asks (JOP) dumb questions

— I liked the bizarre thumb/roller coaster question that Trudy asks Joe.
— Funny reveal that Trudy is always the show’s only caller and how the show’s original name eventually had to be changed to reflect that.
— Solid sketch overall. I think this sketch goes on to eventually become recurring. I worry that it’ll suffer diminishing returns, as I’m not sure that the joke will work with repetition.
STARS: ***½

JOEL HODGSON
Joel Hodgson [real] shows the devices that enable him to become Agent J

     

— Interesting backstory from Flip during his intro, addressing how after Joel Hodgson’s previous appearance on the show in which he displayed a prop bomb, Hodgson later got in trouble with the law for leaving that prop bomb in his hotel room wastebasket, which got mistaken by the hotel staff for a REAL bomb.
— Good to see Hodgson on SNL again.
— All his stealth gun props are getting increasingly funny.
— Love the random part with him displaying some kind of weird pig thing he built when he was bored.
— Overall, this was a slight step down from Joel’s previous appearance on the show, but this was still consistently funny with me receiving one laugh after another all throughout this.
STARS: ***½

SHOE TIER
Walter (GAK) insists he can make a living by only tying host’s shoelaces

  

— The debut of Gary’s old man character, Walter.
— I’m enjoying the bizarre concept of a professional shoe-tier.
— Gary’s bitter “Scum!” remark to Tim as Tim’s walking off was a little thing that gave me a surprisingly big laugh.
— Nice subtle touch with all the pictures on Gary’s wall being of Flip Wilson.
— Overall, the usual good Gary Kroeger-starring sketch, and a great character piece for him.
STARS: ***½

WHAT FAMOUS PERSON DO YOU LOOK LIKE?
— A rerun of a Man on the Street segment that originally aired just two episodes ago. Did they just add this to the reruns to fill in the extra time left over from the edit they made to Flip’s monologue? [ADDENDUM: In addition to the cut portion of the monologue, this Man on the Street rerun also replaces a sketch removed from rebroadcasts, titled “Older Sisters Of The Young” starring Mary Gross as Mary Tyler Moore.]

SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Dr. Ruth Westheimer (MAG) points out holiday season sexual imagery
TIK extends the “Truly Tasteless Jokes” idea to other literary genres
BRH offers sample dishes from the Cabbage Patch Cookbook

      

— Okay, two things to immediately address here. One, this ends up being Brad’s final night anchoring Saturday Night News. Dick Ebersol would abruptly fire him from his anchorman role sometime between this and the next episode. The second thing to address here is how INSANELY FUCKING LATE tonight’s Saturday Night News is airing. There’s only about 20 minutes of the show left and Saturday Night News is JUST NOW starting. Now, I know some of the earlier Comedy Central reruns I’ve reviewed of this era also have Saturday Night News appearing unusually late in the show, but that’s a different case: those are just the result of the episodes’ original running order being rearranged in those Comedy Central reruns. In tonight’s case, however, Saturday Night News REALLY DID air this late in the original airing. This is NOT an edit. And I’m honestly stunned by this. After all, it’s absolutely unheard of for SNL to schedule the show in this bizarre manner, burying their news segment into the 12:40 timeslot, just 20 minutes before the show ends. The writing is CLEARLY on the wall for Brad by this point. Placing tonight’s Saturday Night News in such a ridiculously late timeslot must’ve been Ebersol’s way of letting Brad know that his days are numbered. I have a lot more to say about Brad’s firing, but I’ll save it for the end of this edition of Saturday Night News.
— Mary’s overall Dr. Ruth commentary was okay. No particular lines stood out, though, and I’m not happy that they revived her tired old habit of always doing the “finger-in-hole” sexual gesture at the end of her commentaries.
— I got a good laugh from Brad’s joke about Gary Coleman being Sammy Davis Jr.’s black Cabbage Patch Doll.
— Tim’s suggestions for bad book ideas has some pretty good laughs, especially “Nancy Drew’s Unbearable Cramps”.
— Ehh, not to sure about this bit with Brad displaying samples from a “Cabbage Patch Cookbook”. It’s not really working for me.
— And so ends Brad Hall’s final Saturday Night News ever. I have mixed feelings over Ebersol’s firing of him. On one hand, I never really warmed up to Brad too much as an anchorperson. I did initially find him to be a mild breath of fresh air from the dreadful Brian Doyle-Murray “SNL Newsbreak” era that preceded him, but those somewhat-amiable feelings towards Brad soon faded once I started realizing I don’t care for his hokey delivery nor his tendency to try too hard when doing some of the sillier bits & ad-libs. The weak jokes he was often handed didn’t help, either. He still occasionally had some okay moments, but overall, I can’t say I’m going to miss him as an anchorperson at all. On the other hand, I still can’t help but feel bad for him getting fired from the news desk right in the middle of the damn season. Couldn’t Ebersol have at least had the decency to pull this move over the summer, when the season is over? Yanking Brad from the news desk mid-season would at least be slightly understandable if Ebersol had someone else in the cast prepared to take over his spot. But here’s the thing: HE DIDN’T! Instead, he ends up resorting to getting the freakin’ guest hosts to anchor each Saturday Night News, turning the segment into a ridiculous revolving door of out-of-place anchormen. Boy, am I dreading that era of the news segment.
— Oh, and this isn’t the only time in my SNL project where I’ll have to cover an SNL news anchor getting fired mid-season. 14 seasons later, the same thing that happened to Brad happens to a certain other anchorperson, but considering how I’m MUCH more of a fan of said anchorperson than I am of Brad Hall, you can bet that I’m going to have things to say regarding his firing when we reach that point in SNL’s timeline.
STARS: **½

SUBTERRANEANS
classical station ad is (TIK)’s solace from clashing subway radio mimics

   

— An interesting piece so far. I’m eager to see where it’s going.
— Good turn with Tim, fed up with the other passengers obnoxiously singing along to the various contemporary songs playing on their respective walkmen, making them each tune into the same classical radio station, which they all beautifully sing along to in unison.
— Overall, this clearly wasn’t intended as a laugh-out-loud sketch, but it was a well-written and very nice piece, especially for this late in the show.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nightbird”

GOODNIGHTS

   

---

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty good episode overall, though there were a few fairly rough things early on after the monologue, and there was an unusual amount of quick sketches that had weak punchlines. Flip Wilson seemed a little too underutilized as a host, especially considering his background.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
We enter 1984 (my birth year!), with host Father Guido Sarducci