March 21, 1987 – Bill Murray / Percy Sledge (S12 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
LOM & his lawyers convince BIM to fulfill missing show in his contract

— A good and clever premise with Lorne claiming Bill owes them one episode from his days as a cast member, which leads to tonight’s hosting gig.
— Some good laughs from Bill’s reaction to possibly having to do the show for 10 years.
— Bill seemed to make Lorne crack up just now. (second screencap above)
— This cold opening would later be cut from all reruns and be replaced with the dress rehearsal version of the first “Liberace in Heaven” cold opening from earlier this season (the one where Liberace’s by himself, not the one where he’s interviewed by Robin Leach).
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
BIM intends to help the USA regain its comedic supremacy

— Great energetic entrance from Bill.
— He mentions this is the 500th broadcast of SNL. Obviously, he’s counting reruns, because as far as just new episodes go, this episode is only somewhere in the two hundreds.
— Great comment about how the French “used to be funny, but all they have now is Jerry Lewis and the Smurfs.”
— Overall, a very solid monologue. Bill was excellent, and this featured him speaking in his usual Bill Murray-isms that never fail to crack me up.
STARS: ****

NEW YORK TELEPHONE
compulsive gambler (JOL) reaches out & touches his bookie

— Here’s something else that would also later be removed from reruns.
— Interesting camera angles throughout this.
— I love Phil’s sleazy voice on the other end of the phone.
— Good punchline with this seedy gambling ad unexpectedly turning out to be a New York Telephone promo.
STARS: ***

ONE-NIGHT STAND
obnoxious (BIM) won’t leave (JAH)’s apartment after a one-night stand

— Love Bill’s dancing and lip-syncing while he’s setting up the blaring stereo speakers.
— Bill is so perfect in this role, and I like how oblivious he is to Jan’s aggravation towards him.
— Dennis’ Def Leppard(?) shirt looks familiar (screencap below), but I’m not sure why. I think I remember seeing that same shirt being worn by someone in a sketch from the early 90s era.

— I liked this overall sketch a lot, and Bill and Jan were both strong in their performances.
STARS: ****

DONAHUE
monologue drifts away from & back to “The New Celibacy”

— Great to see this back.
— In the live version I’m watching of this episode, Nora reveals her horrible sole sexual experience was with Joe Piscopo, which is hilarious though mean (after all, this is only THREE YEARS after the man left SNL). However, in the reruns of this episode, they show the dress rehearsal version of this sketch, where Nora’s bad sexual experience is revealed to be with stand-up comedian Gallagher instead of Joe Piscopo.
— More evidence that they show a different version of this sketch in reruns: Victoria’s hair looks kinda different in both versions. (side-by-side comparison below)

— I like the title of Jan’s softcore porn films, especially “Debbie Hugs Dallas”.
— A lot of laughs from the part with Jon explaining his celibacy wasn’t a conscious choice, and how even prostitutes “wouldn’t go for it”.
— When asked about the risk of STDs, I loved Jon responding “I would take that chance in a SECOND! Be–lieve me!”
— I absolutely love how Phil, while delivering a very rambly rant, heads backstage, grabs a bite from the snack table, walks back to the Donahue set, and then suddenly throws to Victoria after he’s finished speaking. However, there was a technical error, where the camera fails to follow Phil when he first heads backstage, which hurt the gag a bit. I wonder if this is one of the reasons why this sketch is replaced with the dress version in reruns.
STARS: **** (the dress version shown in reruns gets ****½)

NICK SLAMMER
Nick “Slammer” & Marc Shaiman [real] entertain prisoners behind bars

— Yes! Nick the Lounge Singer!
— Good setting for him this time, in a prison.
— Yet another change that would later be made to this episode in reruns: Kevin’s hilarious “This is my bitch” line regarding Jon’s Ivan Boesky (a topical bit) would be bleeped out in reruns. I don’t know if it’s because of the context the word “bitch” was used in, or if it’s because maybe the real Ivan Boesky complained to the show.
— Kevin reminiscing about when he first fell in love with Jon’s Boesky is providing some good laughs.
— Bill’s Nick has some particularly strong transitions into the songs he’s relating to situations in this sketch.
— I especially like the part now with Bill’s Nick breaking out into Party Like It’s 1999.
— Overall, the usual great Nick the Lounge Singer piece. That being said, I’ve always kinda felt it was a missed opportunity to not pair Nick with the Sweeney Sisters. The Sweeney Sisters were basically the Nick the Lounge Singer of the late 80s, and it would’ve been interesting seeing team together.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE
after a six-year absence, BIM returns with his Oscar picks for 1987

— I’m liking all the jokes about the televangelists scandal (which SNL will get even more great mileage out of in the following week’s episode, especially in a memorable Church Chat sketch).
— Aside from two lame photo-based jokes (which I feel Dennis unfairly gets a bad rap for over-relying on; he’s barely done ANY photo-based jokes in the Updates I’ve covered so far, but then again, I am pretty early in his Update tenure), Dennis is on fire with a lot of these jokes so far tonight.
— Good bit with Dennis demonstrating a Rubik’s Condom.
— Alright! The return of Bill’s Oscar picks!
— And there’s goes the tradition of Bill giving short-shrift to the supporting actors/actresses category.
— Bill dismissing movie sequels and saying he’ll probably never do a Ghostbusters 2 is certainly funny to hear in hindsight, considering…
— I got a good laugh from Bill saying Platoon and Hannah & Her Sisters are basically the same movie.
— Bill’s overall Oscars segment was the usual great stuff.
STARS: ****

IT’S A GIRL
an obstetrician (PHH) delivers only girls- he removes testes if necessary

— Some laughs from Bill’s frustrated reaction to hearing his baby’s going to be a girl.
— Very dark reveal that many of the “female” babies Phil’s delivered have had to receive a special operation to remove their penis and testicles.
— Funny walk-on from Jon as a grown-up version of one of the “female” babies Phil’s delivered.
— I love how this is now taking an even darker turn with Phil’s tense “ boys are bad” monologue, complete with dramatic background music.
— Overall, a sketch that I’ve always loved, for its humorously dark subject matter and fantastic Phil Hartman performance.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “When A Man Loves A Woman”

IL RETURNO DE HERCULES
the out-of-shape demigod (BIM) can’t lift a rock

— The usually-impeccable Phil Hartman actually has a hard time delivering his opening narration, stumbling over a few words. Very rare to see Phil giving a clumsy performance. This would result in YET ANOTHER change made to reruns of tonight’s episode: Phil’s narration is replaced with Al Franken doing a flub-less take.
— Dana’s facial expressions and badly-dubbed American voice are hilarious.
— Funny visual with Bill’s gut hanging out.
— I love the deadpan dubbed voice Jim Downey is using for Bill.
STARS: ****

TOUGH PARENTS
(DAC) feels pressured by his overdemanding parents (BIM) & (NOD)

— I like how tense this is increasingly getting.
— Geez, now Dana pulls out a pistol.
— Funny how Bill is instructing Dana on how to properly attempt to shoot him.
— Excellent very dark ending with Dana shooting Nora and Bill, followed by Bill happily concluding that “Mikey can shoot.”
— Overall, I liked this for similar reasons I liked the disturbing It’s A Girl sketch earlier tonight, only with the darkness reaching a full 11 this time.
STARS: ***½

TAXI
cab driver Honker & fare (DAC) relate their recent experiences

— The return of Bill’s Honker character.
— Funny story from Honker about kidnapping a prostitute to save her from a pimp. I also like how Dana is hesitantly going along with the story.
— Pretty poor greenscreen work at the end when Honker was “driving” away.
— Overall, a decent sketch that offered amusing weirdness.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A great episode, as expected with Bill Murray hosting. There weren’t any sketches I disliked tonight, and a lot of the sketches were strong. I also like how several of the post-Update sketches took on a more dark, disturbing tone than we’re used to seeing on SNL. This overall episode has always been one of my personal favorites from this whole era, though I might be biased because it’s one of the earliest episodes I recall ever seeing in a Comedy Central rerun, very early in my SNL fandom when I had mostly only seen new episodes (this was in 1999, by the way) and hadn’t yet been exposed to a lot of reruns of older seasons on Comedy Central. Because of that, I have very fond memories of this episode.
— Bill Murray was his usual great self. One of the things I always like about seeing a former cast member hosting is seeing how well they work with a completely different cast. Bill had a really good chemistry with this cast and fit well in this era’s style.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Charlton Heston