November 17, 1984 – Ed Asner / The Kinks (S10 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Lou Grant (host) tries to rescue Mary Richards (MAG) from syndication

 

— Oh, this is a well-known and memorable cold opening.
— Nice reveal of the soldiers’ “objective” being Mary Richards.
— Fantastic premise of the soldiers on a mission to get Mary Richards out of syndication.
— I like the soldiers quoting lyrics to the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song in the form of a question.
— Pamela looks like she’s wearing the same dress that Melanie Hutsell would later wear whenever she played Jan Brady.
— Always fun to see Mary’s dead-on Mary Tyler Moore impression.
— The other cast members’ impressions of supporting characters from The Mary Tyler Moore Show are absolutely great as well. I especially like Billy’s Ted Knight.
— Lots of great lines throughout this.
— Billy-as-Ted’s outburst “Take me with you, Lou!!” was very funny.
— A magnificent cold opening overall.
STARS: ****½

MONOLOGUE
host shows pictures of “father figure” characters he’s played

— After being displaced from Studio 8H in the first five episodes of this season due to election coverage, SNL is back in their regular studio this week and we get the return of the season 8-9 home base stage. While there are some minor alterations to the home base tonight (mainly some portions of it being painted blue), I prefer the temporary subway newsstand set they were using as the home base stage in the non-Studio 8H episodes.
— Very strong audience reaction to Ed’s entrance.
— This is the first of what will be quite a number of “career photo montage” monologues this season, where the host shows pictures of some of their movie roles. These monologues are never exciting and feel kinda lazy.
— Wow, Ed Asner was in “Roots”? I’m surprised I didn’t already know that.
— Interesting seeing a clip of his very first movie role.
STARS: **½

WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT
by John Fox- (RIH) makes special shoes for mean boss (JIB)

— Oh, I’ve always loved this film.
— Jim’s great as an unlikable, mean boss.
— A good laugh from a customer walking face-first into the un-opening door after Rich removes its automatic door-opening mat.
— I love where this is going, with Rich getting a sly idea and gluing a cutout of the mat onto the bottom of each of his shoes.
— Very fun and well-done montage of Rich walking through the streets in his altered shoes, which opens various things he passes.
— Clever turn with Rich getting revenge on his boss by giving him the shoes.
— Excellent ending with the elevator shaft.
— I think I recall hearing this film was written by Andy Breckman and Rich Hall. No wonder I’ve always loved this film so much, if it was a collaboration between one of my favorite quirky writers and one of my favorite quirky performers.
STARS: *****

THANKSGIVING
Ed Grimley’s dad (CHG) saves him from a Rear Window-like Thanksgiving Day

— The great vibes of tonight’s episode continues, with the audience’s HUGE reaction to the initial sight of Ed Grimley at the beginning of this.
— LOL at Asner’s sinister look as he sights Grimley witnessing him murdering his wife.
— I love Grimley’s panicked running around the room and monologue-ing to himself after seeing the murder.
— Nice touch with a Pat Sajak picture being seen on Grimley’s wall.
— For some reason, I got a kick out of Grimley saying “Oh, give me a break!” when Asner’s about to strangle him with a tie.
— Ha, Christopher enters as a very Ed Grimley-esque relative (his brother, maybe?) and is doing a great job imitating his voice.
— Oh, turns out Christopher’s playing Grimley’s dad. Doesn’t Howard Cosell also end up playing that same role later this season?
— Very good sketch overall.
STARS: ****

60 MINUTES
Mike Wallace (HAS) exposes defective foreign novelty items

— I always like seeing Billy and Christopher paired together, as they always make a good team. This time, they debut their Minkman Brothers characters.
— The frequent pranks they’re playing on Harry’s Mike Wallace are pretty funny.
— Amusing visual of Asian sweatshop workers making novelty toys.
— Yes! The debut of Martin’s Nathan Thurm!
— Martin’s nervous, overly defensive characterization here is freakin’ hilarious, and the extreme close-ups of him also add to the humor.
— Martin: “(to the camera) Is it me? It’s him, right?”
— Overall, yet another in a long line of strong short films from season 10, even if this one wasn’t QUITE as fantastic as I had remembered it being.
STARS: ****

ME AND JULIO
Julio Iglesias (GAK) duets with more performers, including Alfalfa

— Another Jim-as-Willie-Nelson duet sketch?
— Oh, this is focused on Gary’s Julio Iglesias dueting with various other famous singers.
— Julia Louis-Dreyfus gets the “honors” of being the first of several white SNL performers over the years to play Diana Ross in blackface.
— Gary’s Iglesias-ized lyrics of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun are particularly funny.
— Fun seeing Gary rapidly going back-and-forth between all duet partners.
— LOL at the casting of Martin as Mick Jagger, which is perfect.
— Nice inclusion of Mary’s Alfalfa.
— An appearance from writer Kevin Kelton, playing Senor Wences.
STARS: ***½

BOWLING ALLEY
at the bowling alley, Ricky (BIC) opines & makes a 7-10 spare

— Oh, no. The fun streak of tonight’s episode comes to a screeching halt with the arrival of a Billy Crystal one-man-show character piece, a format that Billy will be using again later this season and is something that I’ve never liked from him.
— Okay, I admit the beginning of this is actually making me laugh, with Billy’s voice and the way he says “unbelievable”. However, I know this is going to get old FAST.
— Yep, I was right. I haven’t been laughing since the beginning of the sketch, and predictably, he’s completely running his “unbelievable” catchphrase into the ground.
— One of the things I’ve always disliked about Billy’s one-man-show pieces is they feel too self-indulgent, and also made it evident that Ebersol was giving Billy a little too much free rein this season.
— Okay, there’s a kinda-funny running gag where everyone he asks a friend about turns out to be dead.
STARS: **

SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Paul Harvey (RIH) promotes fun weaponry as a Star Wars alternative
PLS apologizes for her out-of-control breasts & explains why it happened

— We get another instance of a corny, predictable, photo-based news joke.
— Rich’s portrayal of Paul Harvey is pretty funny. I have no familiarity with the real Paul Harvey, but I notice Rich is doing the same long mid-sentence pauses that Joe Piscopo did when playing Paul Harvey in a season 7 sketch.
— Funny visual of a “Wiffle Rocket”.
— I liked Rich-as-Harvey doing his version of the “war (huh!) good god ya’ll” song.
— A follow-up to Pamela’s memorable breast commentary from the last episode.
— Some pretty funny doctored newswomen pictures being displayed by Pamela.
— Good ending to Pamela’s commentary, with her left breast “apologizing” by moving up and down.
— Wow, tonight’s Saturday Night News is over already? Felt very short.
— I believe this thankfully ends up being the end of the dreaded “guest anchor” era of Saturday Night News. IIRC, starting in the next episode, a certain cast member becomes the regular anchorperson for the remainder of the season.
STARS: **½

TIPPI TURTLE
by Jack Zander- Tippi Turtle gets an innocent man arrested at the bank

— Tippi’s pranks continue to get crueler and funnier, with him now framing an innocent man with a “This is a stickup!!” note.
— Overall, shorter than usual but very funny.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Do It Again”

OLD PETER PAN
much older Peter Pan (host) catches up with Wendy (MAG) after dark

— Pretty funny initial visual of Ed dressed as an older and heavier Peter Pan.
— I liked Ed’s delivery of an overly-amorous “I want you, Wendy!” and then forcibly starting to kiss her.
— Peter Pan to Wendy, in the middle of an earnest discussion: “Can’t we at least get it on once???”
— This overall sketch was a nice, softer piece that had heart to it (which is something we rarely see in this Ebersol era). Felt like something that would normally be placed as the final sketch of the night, and I believe this originally DID air in that timeslot but was moved up to an earlier spot in the rerun version I’m reviewing.
STARS: ***½

YOU CAN’T PUT TOO MUCH
nuclear technicians puzzle what retiree (host) meant with his parting tip

— Looks like the same science lab set they previously used in the epic Turkey Lady sketch from last season’s Barry Bostwick episode. (side-by-side comparison below)

— Love the confusion over whether Ed’s “You can’t put too much water in the reactor” meant you should put in a lot of water or none at all. Great long simultaneous pause from the scientists during that confusion as well.
— Gary chiming in with his idiotic theory was funny, as was Julia’s response to him being “God, you’re useless.”
— I like the way this is escalating, with a whole bunch of other scientists now getting involved.
— Good ending with the off-camera explosion of the nuclear plant.
— Overall, this was a very solid sketch with a smartness that feels atypical of this era. This sketch would’ve felt right at home later this decade during the Phil Hartman/Jon Lovitz era.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Word Of Mouth”

NATIONAL ADOPT A NON-SMOKER DAY
get more kids to light up by supporting National Adopt A Non-Smoker Day

— Pretty funny idea with an un-adopted Jim bitterly countering the Great American Smokeout holiday by creating his own national holiday where you adopt someone and make them develop a smoking habit.
— An overall decent closing sketch, though felt like a bit of a step below the high quality of the rest of the show.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yet another strong episode. This season has been on a really hot streak lately, with tonight being the fourth consecutive episode that I felt very highly about.
— In addition to most of tonight’s sketches being very good, I also like how some of them successfully attempted things that are atypical of this era (the heartfelt Peter Pan sketch and the smart You Can’t Put Too Much) and felt like sketches from an earlier or later era.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Ed Begley Jr.