Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Ronald Reagan (JOP) says “vote for me, Ronco’s TV President”
— A fairly funny concept with Joe’s Reagan doing his presidential campaign in the style of an infomercial.
— An overall simple, short cold opening, but a decent one.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
host insults audience, including John Madden & Brandon Tartikoff [real]
— Unsurprisingly, Don Rickles is immediately coming off hilarious here and is doing great at working the crowd.
— Lots of great snappy ad-libs in response to various sounds from the audience.
— Haha, loved his “I don’t care what you are, you’re fat” comment to the racially-ambiguous audience member.
— This is like an actual funny version of Milton “I usually bow for 20!” Berle’s infamous season 4 monologue.
— I like how Don is actually going into the audience now.
— I loved his initial reaction to the punk-dressed female audience member.
— Former one-time SNL host John Madden is in tonight’s audience.
— Another former SNL host, Brandon Tartikoff, is also in the crowd. I thought I recognized him during an earlier shot of the audience, but I wasn’t sure.
— Great responses from Don towards director Dave Wilson when he cuts Don’s monologue off.
— Absolutely fantastic monologue overall.
STARS: *****
KANNON AE-1
— Rerun. Why are they re-airing this Stevie Wonder-starring commercial in someone else’s episode?
WITNESS RELOCATION
(host) doubts the FBI’s witness relocation program will work for him
— I like the randomness of Don’s character’s last name being Booty.
— Hilarious how Tim’s “disguise” for Don is just a simple cowboy hat.
— I absolutely LOVED how after Joe ad-libbed a funny comment to Don, Don ad-libbed right back to him “I’ll do the funny stuff; you just do the regular lines!”
— Don and Joe are having a lot of fun with each other in general here, with ad-libs galore between them.
— And now, a priceless improvised slap-match between Don and Joe keeps surfacing.
— Don’s stone-faced silent reaction to Joe managing to get in a whole bunch of consecutive slaps to Don’s face while delivering a lengthy line to him is great, as well as how Don “passed out” afterwards.
— This whole thing is fun as HELL. All the constant ad-libs are so funny that the scripted ending with the off-camera explosion almost didn’t even register at first.
STARS: *****
FASCINATING PEOPLE AND THEIR FRIENDS
(EDM) uses dynamite to get women, Dr. Joyce Brothers [real] disapproves
— A Dr. Joyce Brothers appearance. Heh, this almost makes me feel like I’m watching an “All That” sketch, as I recall it being a running gag for her to make random cameos on that show.
— Also, Joyce Brothers’ appearance in this sketch makes it obvious that they must’ve filmed this during the Eddie Murphy “preview show” taping, as the famous James Brown Celebrity Hot Tub Party sketch that was also filmed at that “preview show” ends with a photo of Eddie in the hot tub with Dr. Joyce.
— Dr. Joyce is already coming off funny here, especially the bit with her saying an unintentionally dirty-sounding “not afraid to stand up and show his we-ness”.
— Pretty funny concept with Eddie’s method of using dynamite to get women.
— The stock footage montage of Eddie’s explosions cracked me up, even if it got predictable fast. For some reason, I usually always like when SNL does this type of “explosion montage” (e.g. Linda Hamilton’s monologue from season 17).
— I also like how after the clip of an entire building exploding, Eddie says “Boy, I couldn’t walk for a week after that one.”
STARS: ***½
SAINT DON OF VERONA
during Romeo & Juliet sketch, host breaks character to spew venom at JOP
— Oh, ALREADY this is perfect with Don playing a very Don Rickles-esque character in a Shakespeare-type setting.
— This has REALLY started to take off with another display of loose back-and-forth improv between Don and Joe.
— An epic breaking-the-fourth-wall ad-lib with Don telling Joe “I didn’t forget in the other sketch when you slapped me around for a half an hour” as well as “Even though we’re eight centuries behind, I’m fed up with you!”
— Just when I thought all the improv between Don and Joe couldn’t get any funnier, now Don utters an absolutely classic “I hope Eddie Murphy robs your house!”
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “White Wedding”
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
host comments on various politicians & celebrities in the news
NBC censor Worthington Clotman (TIK) dislikes insult comedians
— And so begins the dreaded era of guest hosts anchoring Saturday Night News (though there will be some occasional episodes where a cast member or special guest fills in as anchorperson, such as Piscopo in the upcoming Jamie Lee Curtis episode).
— Don’s usual style is coming off kinda awkward in this “Faces in the News” format (a format that works better for someone like, say, David Spade in the “Hollywood Minute” commentaries he would later do on Weekend Update), though he still got some laughs from me with his comments about John Glenn, Dean Martin, Mussolini, and Prince Charles & Princess Diana.
— A new character for Saturday Night News staple Tim Kazurinsky. This particular character, Worthington Clotman, is based on then-current NBC censor William Clotworthy.
— Don’s silent facial reactions to Tim’s decry of insult comedians are quite funny.
— I liked Tim namelessly referring to Don as “a certain fat little bald Jew from Las Vegas who should wear a truss over his head”.
— Though predictable, I got a laugh from Don physically attacking Tim’s character at the end of the commentary.
— Overall, not a great edition of Saturday Night News. The fact that not even Don freakin’ Rickles could make this work all that well just shows how Ebersol’s idea of having guest hosts anchor the news was ill-fated as hell.
STARS: **½
EL DORKO
(MAG) & (JLD) fight for the right to kiss loser El Dorko (GAK)
— Looks like this will be another good character piece for Gary.
— Funny turn with Mary’s waitress character bizarrely falling in love with Gary.
— Good delivery from Mary of the line “He’s mine, you tramp!”
— Wow at the wild bit with Mary and Julia fighting over Gary by taking turns aggressively making out with him.
STARS: ***
THIS IS YOUR AFTERLIFE
(GAK) makes suicidal comedian (host) want to live
— Boy, this era sure does a lot of sketches with a suicidal character preparing to jump off a ledge. The exact same set is always used in these sketches too.
— Nice “This is Your Afterlife” twist.
— Ha, Tim sneaks in an unscripted slap to Don during their talk, which Don responds to by saying “Another slapper I got!”
— I like Mary’s interesting delivery of the word “alimony” while talking in that high-pitched, old-timey, Betty Boop-esque voice.
— Don’s ad-libbed “Get my alpine shoes!” had me howling.
— LOL at how during Don and Joe’s improvised(?) impression-off, Don tried to stretch his Humphrey Bogart impression when Joe was ready to move on with the sketch.
— The Rickles/Piscopo slap-match resurfaces once again!
— A huge laugh from Joe realizing that at one point during his ad-libbing, he accidentally called Don by his actual first name instead of by his character’s name. After amusedly correcting himself on that flub, Joe adds in a great “This sketch is going in the toilet anyway” remark.
— Haha, now Don breaks the fourth wall in an epic manner, by pointing out that Joe (who’s ghost character has just “dissolved” into thin air via special effects) is actually making his exit on an off-camera ladder, then Don runs over to yell at Joe on the ladder, as the camera follows all this unscripted action and actually shows the off-stage portion of this sketch’s set. You usually NEVER see anything like this happening in an SNL sketch.
— I really liked Don’s “I don’t know who you are, but I’m gonna see you’re on the show every week” ad-lib to the underused and underappreciated Gary Kroeger.
STARS: ****½
I MARRIED A MONKEY
Madge is having an affair with (host)
— They really fooled me at the beginning. I did not foresee this turning into another “I Married a Monkey” sketch at all.
— This is the first time they’ve done this sketch in almost an entire year. I can definitely see why they brought this sketch out of the mothballs tonight, as the perpetual loose, ad-lib-heavy nature of it is absolutely PERFECT for Don Rickles.
— LOL at the baby monkey unexpectedly imitating Don’s monkey-esque “Ooh ooh ooh” sounds, which makes Don actually crack up after a while.
— Overall, this was the funniest “I Married a Monkey” sketch in a while. The quality of these had slowly been going downhill during the last 2 or 3 installments, but Don’s presence in tonight’s version immensely helped bring up the quality.
— I think this ends up being the final “I Married a Monkey” installment. (Tim’s leaving SNL a few months from now anyway) I wonder if tonight’s sketch was before or after Tim found out about that life insurance that Ebersol secretly took out on him…
STARS: ***½
THE HAMLISCH MANEUVER
Marvin Hamlisch’s (JOP) nauseating songs stop choking
— Meh, kind of a corny concept of Marvin Hamlisch’s version of the Heimlich maneuver being him singing to choking victims, which causes them to throw up the food stuck in their throat.
— I think this has been the first time all night that I wasn’t crazy about a segment. [ADDENDUM: Oh, I forgot about Saturday Night News]
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rebel Yell”
GOODNIGHTS
— For some reason, Mary is dressed as Pee Wee Herman. I’m guessing a sketch got cut for time, which doesn’t surprise me, as I figured all the constant ad-libs we saw throughout the night would cause the show to run long (much like what happened with the Jerry Lewis episode earlier this season).
— Now Rickles has pointed out someone onstage who’s randomly dressed in an old-timey Native American outfit. I think that’s Brad, but I can’t tell.
— Now I’ve noticed Joe dressed as David Letterman. Wow, what in the world kind of sketch was cut that involved Pee Wee Herman, an old-timey Native American, and David Letterman? [ADDENDUM: Turns out Mary’s Pee Wee and Joe’s Letterman appeared together in a fake “Late Night with David Letterman 2nd anniversary special” promo that actually made it on the air but was removed from reruns. Not sure about Brad’s Native American character, though.]
— What’s with the unseen audience member who can be heard constantly making indecipherable shout-outs in a loud, growly, punk-ish voice while the goodnights music is playing? Billy Idol fan, I take it?
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— I had thought the earlier Jerry Lewis episode was insanely fun with a loose, ad-lib-heavy nature, but THIS takes the cake. I absolutely LOVE this episode, so much so that I can officially dub it one of my all-time favorite SNLs ever. Don Rickles made everything a blast, the sketches he was put in were great and fit him PERFECTLY, the cast – particularly Joe – played well off of him (it’s too bad Eddie couldn’t be there, though; imagine seeing him and Rickles playing off of each other), and the show was wise to loosely format the show to allow for Don to run wild with plentiful ad-libs. This episode is probably the closest we’ll ever come to seeing what an entirely-improvised episode of SNL is like.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Michael Palin and his mother):
— a huge step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
SNL keeps the fun, ad-lib-prone comedians coming, as Robin Williams hosts our next episode
Yeah this was a spectacular episode. No complaints.
Season 9 truly had a great string of back-to-back hosts from COMEDY backgrounds – something I wish the show would book more often than they do these days. Then again, some of the later Season 9 hosts from political (George McGovern) and dramatic (Barry Bostwick, Michael Douglas) backgrounds have their moments as well.
This was Rickles at his ad-libing, politically incorrect best!
I just watched the full 90 minutes of this episode for the first time on Dailymotion. Definitely one of the top 5 funniest shows with this cast. The “slapping” joke throughout the show was hilarious, the debut of El Dorko was great, as well as the final “I Married A Monkey” with Madge kissing Don and the kid clapping and making those odd sounds. I thought the “This Is Your Afterlife” sketch was really clever too.
My copy of this was missing the end credits, which I finally saw tonight. I couldn’t make out what the growling audience member was saying except I clearly heard the words “Rebel Yell” — the name of Idol’s then-current album. So I think you’re right, Stooge, about why he was yelling. One other thing I realized: after Rickles’ heartfelt speech, when the music swells, they cut to that weird side angle and start the credit roll. Why did Ebersol do that?! It seems to only be a season 8-10 (and sometimes 7) thing? Very irritating.
Would prefer to see the cast interacting. At least we got to see Rickles give a huge bear hug to Billy Idol, once they cut back to the other camera.
Seems like this is the perfect place to post this (Worthington Clotman/Bill Clotworthy)… https://deadline.com/2021/08/bill-clotworthy-dead-tv-exec-snl-dr-no-was-95-1234820713/
A truly amazing episode, one for the books. Pryor and The Don were the greatest one and done hosts in SNL’s history.
Wow maybe I am the only one who wasn’t very high on this one. I kept cringing at Don’s constant ad-libs, partly because he was throwing the sketch off-track, partly because he was often talking over others’ lines, and partly because some of the ad-libbing felt like a desperate reach for laughs when he felt like a sketch was bombing. Definitely not a terrible episode, but still felt cringey to me.
It was very reminiscent of Milton Berle’s episode, although a lot better. Even still, maybe insult comics just aren’t my cup of tea. Also had some Rodney Dangerfield vibes, who I think I preferred over Rickles tonight.
Also, I loved that Gary had some spotlight moments! I’ve been waiting for him to get some more screen time! This might have been his best episode.
Francis makes good points but none of that bothers me. I saw a podcast listed recently (didn’t actually get to listen) which referred to this episode as a disaster. Speaking to that (not attack you, Francis; you have excellent comments here!): I feel he doesn’t derail the sketches; he enhances them. Something like witness protection, I wonder if they purposely underwrote it and left space for Don to be Don. (Kind of like what Mork & Mindy writers reportedly did at times to allow Robin Williams to do his thing). This is one of the best examples of an episode that showcases the host but also gives the cast time to shine. (Garry Shandling and Charles Grodin also come to mind). The comparisons to Berle, Rodney and Jerry Lewis seem a bit off to me. Jerry did limited ad libs, all of them good… this was the mature post-heart attack, post-divorce “comeback” Jerry who was witty and engaged and sharp and basking in “King of Comedy” reviews. He went back to his old self by the late 80s, so I’m glad SNL got him at this point. But his episode felt a bit tired, coming near Thanksgiving. Rodney’s monologue was amazing but the rest, again, had the season 5-burnout feel. Berle was weak… that episode is what it would have been like if Jerry Lewis had hosted in the mid 70s.
Back to Rickles’ other sketches: Romeo & Juliet also seems tailored to Don; This is Your Afterlife was decent and a nod to his being an older host… it only takes off because he does what he always does: pierces artifice. I Married a Monkey is the only time I sense he’s doing bits just to save a weak sketch. So when people get annoyed that he has perverted then sacred Second City-esque ethos of SNL, I don’t think it’s a problem. its probably fine to do that once a decade when you have a comedy genius in the house.
Kubelsky, I appreciate your perspective. This reminds me of the issue some people had with the recent Ryan Gosling episode and how they criticized the constant breaking, whereas for me, the breaking didn’t bother me because I liked the host and it felt like everyone was having fun. I guess I just happen to be on the reverse side of that for this Don Rickles episode, but it helps me see how others would love it (and it did seem like the cast was having a lot of fun).
In memory of the late Bob Newhart, I remember his close friend Don Rickles making some humorous comment about him on his stint on “Saturday Night News”. If someone can remember what it was, I’d like to read it here…
My friend Bob Newhart. He’s a marvelous star, you ask him.
The best episodes generally let the host work within his strengths, and this one proves it. Would have been perfect except for pre-taped Eddie Murphy. They even let the less popular stars like Gary and Robin get in some good work.
I just finished watching this episode, and I have mixed feelings about it too. On one hand, the ad-libbing made the show feel a lot more loose and spontaneous, and a lot of it was funny, but there were also times when it felt like the sketches themselves were getting derailed and turning into ad-lib-fests. And the fact that the ad-libs usually involved Rickles stepping out of character to indulge himself made the scenes themselves less impactful and more like showcases for his quick wit.
In Witness Relocation, for example, I only barely caught the fact that the joke of the sketch was supposed to be the officers’ incompetence making him nervous for his own safety. And Romeo and Juliet seemed like it might have been written so that Rickles could insert whatever ending he wanted, since the only clear thing they established was that the friar was a respected figure whose counsel they all trusted. It entertained me, but the lack of a true resolution left me unsatisfied at the same time.
I think the best sketch of the night was This is Your Afterlife, since it had a clear arc and the ad-libbing didn’t bog things down too much. And even though Rickles didn’t appear in it, I really liked the El Dorko sketch too.
Overall, it was a fun episode, but I wouldn’t want every episode to be like this one. It was too much like standup being done in a sketch setting. Rickles’ style made for a terrific monologue, but when he’s doing sketches, I’d prefer to see him being funny by committing to his role.