January 25, 1986 – Dudley Moore / Al Green (S11 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
monks break their vow of silence & discuss their yearly Super Bowl bet

— Funny hearing Dennis Miller using his typical delivery in this monk role.
— The Super Bowl twist is okay.
— I recall hearing that Damon is one of the monks in this (and it ends up being his only appearance of the whole night), but I can’t spot him. Must be a non-speaking role, which makes this yet ANOTHER example of this season wasting Damon’s talents. No wonder he was so miserable working at SNL.
— Overall, a pretty meh cold opening. Didn’t care too much for this as a whole.
STARS: **

MONOLOGUE
host plays classical variants of Bridge On The River Kwai theme on piano

— I like how he mentions that he previously hosted exactly 10 years ago on this exact Saturday (January 24, 1976), even though this leads into a variation of the obligatory “I did such a great job (insert large number here) years ago, they couldn’t wait to have me back” joke, as well as a joke that his next hosting stint will be 10 years later in 1996.
— Fun bit with the piano so far, and I like the different ways he keeps breaking into the march song from The Bridge On The River Kwai.
— I like how into it he’s getting.
— The camera showed an interesting low undershot of Dudley at the end, a rare type of camera angle that would be repeated in the monologue of the George Wendt/Francis Ford Coppola episode later this season.
— Overall, a pretty entertaining monologue.
STARS: ***½

MISS PREGNANT TEENAGE AMERICA
(JOC) & Cabrini Green compete in Miss Pregnant Teenage America Pageant

— Kind of a cringey joke having Roman Polanski as host of a pregnant teen pageant.
— The opening “Let’s Hear It For the Boy” dance number is kinda cute, but is going on WAY too long for something that doesn’t contain any jokes.
— Here’s our Terry Sweeney drag role of the week.
— Terry’s scene came off kinda awkward.
— An interesting, different way to use Danitra’s Cabrini Green.
— A technical error with the microphone not being on when Danitra first speaks into it.
— Robert’s scene was okay.
— Joan’s bad poem to her baby is making me laugh.
— Dudley seems to be making lots of little ad-libbed asides throughout the sketches tonight, and I’m not sure it’s working for me.
— I liked the bit about if the winner shall bring disgrace upon this pageant.
— Overall, for something that came off as a big production, this didn’t quite pay off for me. I didn’t laugh all that much throughout this, and it felt weird how it wasted Cabrini Green in a largely silent role.
— This sketch would later get removed from all reruns and be replaced with some repeated pre-taped segments and a cut dress rehearsal sketch titled Just Like Phoebe. I wonder why this was removed from reruns, especially considering how elaborate it was and how many extras were heavily involved.
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest sings “Going Away”

THE PAT STEVENS SHOW
poses that build self-esteem; Jackie Stewart (host)

— Pat Stevens’ demonstrated advice to strike a pose while reading Vogue Magazine is pretty funny.
— I like Pat’s bad ways of relating Dudley’s stories to something that happened to her.
— This ended abruptly. I recall getting more laughs from the dress rehearsal version that’s shown in reruns, where the sketch was longer and Dudley was given funnier dialogue.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE
Tommy Flanagan says he saw Ferdinand Marcos’ war heroics first-hand
a ten second gap of blank air, courtesy of SNL & Ronald Reagan

— Kinda chilling hearing a joke about Space Shuttle Challenger, as this is just a few days before the infamous Challenger disaster. For this reason, the first half of this Update would later be replaced in reruns with the dress version, where Dennis doesn’t do the Challenger joke.
— Dennis’ joke about Herb from Burger King’s “Where’s Herb?” campaign was hilarious, as was his ad-libbed aside afterwards.
— Interesting seeing Tommy Flanagan in an Update commentary.
— Flanagan’s line about flying Japanese sand tigers was really funny
— Some laughs from Flanagan’s obvious doctored photo.
— Flanagan’s overall commentary was pretty solid, with some fun lies as usual.
STARS: ***

THE LIMITS OF THE IMAGINATION
comic’s (host) audience is over-responsive

 

— The usual good laughs during Randy’s Floating Head intro, especially the part where he electrocutes an off-camera person and we hear them scream wildly.
— The debut of Jon’s Mephistopheles character, though his costume has some minor differences from the one he would later wear regularly.
— Seemed to be a miscue with one audience member in the club being heard starting to ask “How cold is it?” earlier than they were supposed to.
— This is hilarious with the over-responsive audience ruining Dudley’s jokes by asking him non-stop questions in unison after every little thing he says, which eventually drives Dudley mad.
— Overall, my favorite Limits Of The Imagination installment so far.
STARS: ****

NAME THAT TUNE
contestants (JOC) & (host) fail to identify simple songs

— Awkward silence at the beginning, where I’m assuming the “Name That Tune” theme music failed to play.
— The bidding part was really funny.
— Nice little detail of Joan picking lint off of her outfit while Jon is explaining the game rules to her.
— Overall, they managed to get a decent amount of humor out of a such a simple, one-note premise.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest sings “True Love”

MASTER THESPIAN
a rehearsal with rival actor Sir Roger Tewksberry (host)

— Tons of airtime for Jon Lovitz tonight. And in this episode alone, we’ve gotten the three recurring characters that Jon’s probably most remembered for nowadays (Tommy Flanagan, Mephistopheles, and Master Thespian).
— LOL at Don Pardo doing a dignified thespian accent during his opening voice-over. I don’t remember him doing that in the previous installment of this sketch earlier this season.
— Classic blooper where Dudley’s thrown shawl unintentionally lands on the chandelier behind him, resulting in Dudley giving “wink-wink”-type looks to the laughing audience while Jon ad-libs a great “Thank you for the lampshade!”
— Jon’s stretched-out delivery of “The gooooooaaaaaaatsssssssss” was pretty funny.
— Did I just hear Dudley call Jon by the name “Tewksberry”? Tewksberry is supposed to be the name of Dudley’s character, not Jon’s.
— A pretty good laugh from Dudley’s character coming to the realization that he’s “stabbing” Master Thespian with a feather.
STARS: ***½

DUDLEY MOORE AND THE SNL BAND: “I GOT YOU”
host & SNL Band mix Tchaikovsky with “I Got You”

— Loved Dudley’s facial reaction to the SNL Band unexpectedly breaking out into “I Feel Good”.
— I like how Dudley’s joining in on “I Feel Good” by playing classical piano notes in tune to the song.
— Nice touch with SNL Band member Leon Pendarvis constantly looking back at Dudley with amused expressions.
— Overall, another pretty entertaining piano number tonight.
STARS: ***

DIE FOREIGNER DIE!
— Rerun

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A decent episode with a nice flow that felt very consistent, even though there were a few subpar things in the first 25 minutes (cold opening, Miss Pregnant Teenage America). While the overall episode wasn’t as strong as the consecutive three-episode Herman/Lithgow/Hanks run, this will still probably end up standing out at the end of the season as one of the better 1985-86 episodes by default.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Harry Dean Stanton):
— a step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Ron Reagan