Author: Stooge

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September 24, 1977 – Steve Martin / Jackson Browne and The Section (S3 E1)

NOTE: Screencaps in my reviews are now clickable for the full-sized versions (it’ll initially bring you to a page where you have to click on the screencap again to get the full-sized version)


Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Bert Lance (JOB) uses his National Express card to get recognized

  

— Right off the bat, I’ve noticed that Dan’s mustache is finally gone. He looks a little closer to his actual age without it (which was 25 at the time, I believe).
— When they cut to a close-up of John turning to look at the camera, I mistakenly almost thought we were ALREADY gonna get our LFNY, despite the fact that this cold opening has just started and there’s been no jokes far.
— Another American Express card parody? They used this same joke in a season 1 ad with Garrett as Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, and I remember that one went completely over my head. I get the joke more in this cold opening and it’s still fairly funny, but this isn’t exactly the most exciting way to start a season.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE

     

— For the first time after the original montage used since SNL’s debut, we get a brand-new montage! This is the jumbotron montage.
— I remember I used to think the transparent shots of each cast member superimposed in front of their displayed name was kinda creepy and ghostly-looking. It still kinda comes of that way to me, though not as much now. Also, those shots feel out of place in this montage.
— This montage seems really short and overly simplistic. Then again, it’s not like the montage from the first two seasons was long and complex, either.
— If I remember correctly from what I’ve seen of this season years ago, this opening montage will end up going through some modifications throughout the season, especially the shots of the cast members.


MONOLOGUE
host sings “Mack The Knife” excerpt & says he’s looking for cat handcuffs

   

— In addition to the opening montage, we have a new homebase stage, too. This is also the first homebase stage where the SNL band is visible.
— Those squeaky intergalactic-type synthesizer sounds in the theme music when Steve walked onstage… Oh, so I guess we’ve reached THAT point in the 70s where that type of music was popular.
— A funny start to this monologue with Steve’s non-stop random singing of the same lyrics (“Oh, the shark bites… etc.”) from a song.
— The cat handcuffs bit is hilarious.
— I’m loving how this is jumping from one random topic to another.
— Is this the first time a monologue ends with the later-tradition of mentioning the musical guest before saying a variation of “We’ll be right back”?
STARS: ****


ROYAL DELUXE II
even on a bumpy road, backseat circumcision is OK in the Royal Deluxe II

   

— Oh, the “circumcising a baby in the backseat of a smooth car” commercial. This is a well-known fake ad from this era, and years later, SNL would actually re-air it in a 1999 episode to commemorate the show’s 25th anniversary.
— Overall, this commercial was fantastic, with a hilarious premise and perfect execution.
STARS: *****


FESTRUNK BROTHERS
Czechs Georg (host) & Yortuk (DAA) Festrunk flirt with (JAC) & (GIR)

  

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Their 70s swinging outfits are a funny sight, though they’re missing the hats that would become part of their trademark look in later installments of this sketch.
— There’s the first utterance of “We are… two wild and crazy guys”, though it wasn’t exclaimed as energetically as we’re now used to.
— Love the abrupt way the brief table tennis game between the brothers ended.
— Their odd dancing is really funny.
— There’s the first mention of “big American breasts”, which always cracks me up.
— Gilda seems to be fighting to keep her composure after Steve’s stumbly delivery of a line.
— Overall, a great introduction to what would go on to be one of the more defining recurring sketches of this whole era.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE


WEEKEND UPDATE
during her trip to China, LAN bought a Mao Tse-Tung snow globe
film critic BIM reviews “The Deep” & criticizes its stars
sportscaster GAM reports on a record-breaking Japanese baseball player
JOB’s awarding of scholarship to Mexican could be mistaken for a drug buy
text crawl tests the Emergency Broadcast System for the hard of hearing

          

— The very first Update with Jane having a co-anchor. Dan Aykroyd gets the honors.
— Wow, right from the start, this Update feels VERY different. The Update set has completely changed, and this particular Update starts with other cast members (who I assume will be tonight’s correspondents) gathered around Jane and Dan at the Update desk ala the news team of a real news broadcast.
— And now, even the way the news story pictures are displayed is completely different, now being shown behind the anchors in a chroma-key effect instead of being shown in a news screen to the side of the anchor.
— Dan’s very first joke was pretty good, though I’m not sure about his delivery.
— The snow globe bit in Laraine’s Chairman Mao commentary was pretty funny.
— A “weather update” segment? Wow, they’re really going all out to make tonight’s Weekend Update feel like a real news broadcast.
— I’m loving Bill’s on-the-spot movie review.
— Very funny comment from Bill about Nick Nolte’s mustache making him look like a Denver cop.
— Overall, Bill’s commentary was very good, and it’s nice to see him continue to come into his own on SNL.  And I loved his “now get out of here” catchphrase that he repeated throughout this. It’s such a Bill Murray thing to say.
— Garrett’s sports review segment was merely okay.
— John’s commentary has a funny reveal of why he chose one particular student to give a scholarship to: the student provided John with a gigantic bag of weed.
— What’s with the Emergency Broadcast System text crawl on the upper half of the screen right now? It’s kinda funny, but is completely distracting from the actual joke that Dan and Jane are telling during it.
— Overall, wow, this Update had a COMPLETELY different feel. They really revamped the format. This is pretty fascinating to watch after I’ve gotten so used to how Update was in the first two seasons. We’ve definitely reached a new era of the segment.
— It’s too early to say anything about Dan’s performance as an anchor, though knowing he ends up not working out and would leave the desk after only one season due to feeling uncomfortable playing himself, I’m expecting a lot of awkwardness this season. His delivery tonight wasn’t TOO bad, but he had a few moments where he looked unsure of what he was supposed to do next.
STARS: ***


MIKE MCMACK, DEFENSE LAWYER
(host) hits on (GIR) after cross-examination

   

— I can already tell by the Pardo voice-over intro that this is going to be a fun Steve Martin sketch.
— Steve is hilariously cocky and inappropriate all throughout this. He’s cracking me up so much.
— Bill worked in yet another “Get out of here, you”. I guess that was actually his catchphrase in real life.
— Gilda’s making me laugh a lot with her over-the-top crying outburst.
— Steve’s “Nah!” after his whole dramatic “maybe she’s right” monologue was a very funny ending. I remember him doing that in another sketch later this era, though I can’t remember what sketch it was.
STARS: ****½


KEYPUNCH CONFESSION
Trinity 3000 computer helps (DAA) act as priest & travel agent for (GAM)

   

— A great concept with Dan’s priest having a processor assist him with what advice to give Garrett’s confessions.
— I wonder if Garrett’s “Excuse me for calling you ‘man’” comment to Dan’s priest was an ad-lib; it seemed like it.
— Good turn this sketch has suddenly taken with Dan now using the computer to help plan out Garrett’s travels.
STARS: ****


BEATLE OFFER
LOM sweetens his offer to the Beatles- $200 more & hotel accommodations

— Is this a rerun? I’m pretty sure I remember this exact same “Lorne ups the ante on his original Beatle offer” sketch from, I think, the second Buck Henry episode from season 1.
— Yep, I’m 99% sure this is a rerun.
— And now, the “May 21, ’76” date seen on Lorne’s check that the camera showed a close-up of made me 100% sure that this is a repeated segment.
— Another dead giveaway is that Lorne keeps referring to the show by its old name “Saturday Night” instead of by its new official name “Saturday Night Live”.
— So… why exactly are we seeing this sketch again anyway? This isn’t exactly something the show normally re-airs in a new episode; that’s usually reserved for pre-taped fake ads or (sometimes) short films.


GREAT MOMENTS IN ROCK & ROLL
(LAN) is Roy Orbison’s (JOB) “Pretty Woman”

     

— Liked Laraine’s comment about getting her intro done before “those ‘ludes kick in”. Oh, that rampant 70s drug humor…
— John’s stiff walking around when the song has started is really funny.
— John’s doing a damn good impression of Orbison’s singing voice.
— LOL at John suddenly stiffly falling down backwards while singing, and Bill helping prop him up.
— An overall okay sketch, but a few parts dragged too much.
STARS: ***


THE FRANKEN AND DAVIS SHOW
(ALF) & (TOD) compete in Mr. U.S.A. Pageant emceed by Anita Bryant (JAC)

     

— Franken and Davis now have an opening title card sequence with caricatures of themselves. Looks nice.
— Good comment from Jane revealing she’s Anita Bryant’s ex-lover.
— Wow, now they’re involving the whole male cast and writing staff. This is extensive for a Franken and Davis piece, and is starting to feel more like a normal sketch.
— The High Hopes football bit is strangely funny with Franken bizarrely punching the football padded bag thing (sorry, I don’t know the correct term for it) in time to certain parts of the “High Hopes” song.
— Davis’ interpretive dance bit was pretty hilarious.
— LOL at the Jews question Franken was asked.
— This feels like the first time we’ve seen Steve in a while tonight.
— Unfortunately, Steve’s scene ended up feeling kinda pointless and wasn’t that funny
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE


KROMEGA III
the Kromega III watch is so complex, it takes two people to make it work

   

— Pretty decent fake ad, though I think I like it more for the tone and the production values than for the actual humor.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

  

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A fairly strong way to start off the season. There were several great segments in the first hour, though the quality died down a little in the last 30 minutes, which was dominated by average pieces and an unnecessary re-airing of a Lorne sketch. However, none of the sketches tonight were weak; everything worked to some extent.
— This episode had quite a different feel and look from the first two seasons, due to things like the new opening montage, new homebase & musical guest stages, and Update having both a new set and completely new format. All these changes gave the show an exciting feel.
— Steve was his usual funny self, particularly in Mike McMack, Defense Lawyer, which may be one of my new favorite Steve Martin SNL sketches of all-time. Strange how very little Steve appeared after Update, though. Then again, considering this was the season premiere and considering how mainstream SNL had become by this point, it might’ve been intentional to start the season by heavily showcasing the now-superstar cast.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1976-77):
— about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Madeline Kahn

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May 21, 1977 – Buck Henry / Jennifer Warnes, Kenny Vance (S2 E22)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Jimmy Carter (DAA) generates electricity to broadcast energy message
 
— Funny premise with Dan’s Carter powering his television address via his exercise bike.
— I love Gilda as the elderly Lillian Carter.
— Overall, a simple but funny cold opening.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host aims to perform a live on-stage sex act with an audience member
   
— Hmm, what’s all that stuff set up on the stage upon’s Buck’s entrance?
— Heh, a pornography challenge? Very intriguing. I remember hearing about this monologue before, where Buck supposedly showcases a live sex act.
— I like the random inclusion of a big barrel of cottage cheese being part of the sex act.
— LOL at the random nun in the audience when the camera was panning through the crowd.
— Funny fake-out with which audience member Buck would end up picking.
— Good ending.
STARS: ****

SAMURAI B.M.O.C.
Futaba’s bad grades jeopardize his graduation
   
— Gilda: “Dean Bynum will be with you in a moment; it’s just he’s performing a live sex act on stage.” Haha! That’s brilliant how the ending of the monologue carried over into this sketch.
— Buck, upon entering: “Sorry to keep you waiting. Just finishing my cottage cheese.”
— Man, Garrett’s even more stumbly with his lines than usual. He can’t get through a sentence in this sketch without tripping all over it.
— I have a weird feeling from Buck’s set-up that the mysterious “big man on campus” he keeps talking about is going to turn out to be Futaba.
— I was right!!!
— This is the first Samurai sketch that Buck is appearing in since the “stockbroker” installment where Buck infamously got cut in the forehead by John’s sword. The fact that even after that incident, Buck had no problem continuing the tradition of doing a Samurai sketch every time he hosts shows what a great sport he was.
— Clever how Futaba “carved” his fraternity’s symbol into the drapes.
— Overall, the usual great Buck Henry-involved Samurai sketch.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JENNIFER WARNES)

SHOWER MIKE
showering Richard Herkiman (BIM) interviews wife (GIR) & her lover (host)
  
— Right out of the gate, Bill’s doing fantastic in this so far. This sketch’s concept is perfect for him, and his performance is so much fun to watch.
— Bringing Buck on as a man who Gilda’s been cheating on Bill with, and him still having his suit on during the shower is making this sketch even funnier. Everybody’s cheerful attitudes about the affair is very funny, too.
— Overall, wow, this was great. I’d say this is one of Bill’s all-time best sketches from his entire SNL tenure. With how shaky his first few months have been on the show, I’m glad he was able to end this season with an assuring performance that hopefully gave a lot of iffy viewers more confidence in him.
STARS: ****½

RETURN OF THE CONEHEADS
Coneheads fly Chrysler Building to Remulak to meet with Kuldroth (JOB)
 
   
— Coneheads! I’m looking forward to seeing Buck interact with them.
— Laraine’s conehead prosthetic is pretty sloppily applied. You can very clearly see where her real skin ends and the prosthetic begins.

— Buck to the Coneheads: “I think I know exactly what you people are: you’re Ku Klux Klan!”
— I was just about to ask why Buck looks so sweaty in his close-up, before I just now realized he must still be damp from the shower sketch.

— Whoa, a cutaway to a filmed sequence with the Coneheads taking a drive. I’m really liking this.
— This whole filmed sequence is great. SNL’s pulling out all the stops for tonight’s Coneheads installment.
— Funny to watch the crowd of bystanders in the background when the Coneheads exit from their car.
— Wow, now we’re seeing the Coneheads on their home planet. I love seeing John as the leader.
— Nice continuity having Garrett reprise his role from the preceding Coneheads sketch.
— John’s voice is great.
— LOL at the fight sequence between Dan and John.
— Overall, an absolutely great Coneheads sketch, and I love how extensive the whole thing was.
STARS: ****½

WEEKEND UPDATE
on-horse microphone records Preakness ride of Seattle Slew & jockey (CHC)
Emily Litella says Bella Abzug [real] will throw her “cat” in the ring
in hopes of getting laid, host presents JAC with a phony journalism award
     
— This is Jane’s final Update as a solo anchorperson. A certain cast member becomes her new co-anchor the following season.
— Pretty funny with the horse in the horse race footage having a Mr. Ed voice, though this is the second time they used that joke. Last time they did that joke (in the Catherine the Great sketch from the Karen Black episode), Chevy was the one who did the Mr. Ed voice. Does this mean he’s there tonight (in yet ANOTHER cameo) doing the voice again?
— (sigh) Another Emily Litella appearance, though they’re using her as a reporter this time.
— Part of me appreciates that they’ve been trying a lot of different things with Litella these last few months, but this particular commentary still didn’t work for me. The jokes were tired and weak, Bella Abzug’s delivery was stiff, and hearing Abzug attempt to do Litella’s “Never mind” catchphrase was almost cringeworthy.
— Buck giving Jane an award for journalism? Wonder what the catch is going to be.
— Haha, Buck’s creepy stalker-ish pining for Jane is very funny.
— And now, it’s gotten even funnier with Buck’s comment about his personal “rather large trophy” that he want to give to Jane in private.
— Jane’s sign-off at the end was a little strange. I think she sold her post-Buck commentary weirded-out-ness a little TOO well here.
— No mid-WU break tonight. Hopefully in the semi-new era of Update that begins the following season, the mid-WU breaks will officially be gone.
STARS: ***½

RHONDA’S BRIDAL SHOWER
at her bridal shower, Rhonda Weiss loves the gifts she receives
 
— Jane’s voice sounds so different in this. I’ve never heard her talk like that any other time.
— What the heck is a “melonballer”?
— Never mind; I guess the joke there was melonballers don’t actually exist, judging by how the next gift Gilda received was an “egg-tweezer”.
— Not really sure I like this sketch so far. I’m finding myself bored and haven’t laughed a single time yet.
— Overall, yeah, not crazy at all about what I just watched. I think this was something that was aimed more towards female viewers who can relate to this type of humor.
STARS: *½

HOW YOUR CHILDREN GROW
(host) & punctuator patient (GIR) condition (JAC)
   
— LOL, what the heck is going on, with Gilda monotone-ly punctuating Buck’s sentences, Laraine ringing a bell, and Gilda handing Jane a cookie?
— I’m starting to really like the weirdness of this.
— Great twist revelation regarding Jane’s salivation.
— Overall, this was perfect execution of a unique sketch.
STARS: ****

DOG IN BED
by William Wegman- an alarm clock awakens weimaraner Man Ray
 
— The second episode in a row without a Gary Weis film. I can only hope this means they’re phasing him out.
— What in the world??? That’s the whole film??? A dog gets woken up by an alarm clock, sleepily looks around, and… The End?
STARS: ???

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (KENNY VANCE)

LUCKY LINDY
Charles Lindbergh (host) flies across the Atlantic & meets Land Shark
   
— I’m liking the format of this and Dan is fun as the narrator, though nothing really funny has happened yet.
— LOL at Buck placing the thermos below himself to relieve himself into.
— Buck pretending his hand is a stewardess puppet? Ha, he seems to slowly be going crazy.
— Him using the puppet hand to pleasure himself while looking at a “spicy” magazine is a riot.
— The masturbation sequence is made even funnier by the line from Dan as the narrator: “Turbulence suddenly jerked the plane off……. course.”
— Haha, Landshark! So I guess that answers my earlier question about if Chevy’s there tonight.
STARS: ***½

THE SATURDAY NIGHT BAND: “DEPARTURE LOUNGE”
Howard Shore [real] & SNL Band perform “Departure Lounge”

— We get a random musical performance from the SNL Band.

IMPRESSIONIST MICHAEL O’DONOGHUE
MOD, castmembers, others impersonate eye-gouged Mormon Tabernacle Choir
   
— Hmm, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is the subject of tonight’s O’Donoghue impression. Is he going to have a choir accompany him like how he had two ladies accompany his Tony Orlando and Dawn impression last time?
— Even though I always know what’s coming with these O’Donoghue impression segments, it never fails to crack me up whenever he suddenly starts saying “A funny thought occurred to me…” after heaping tons of praise on who he’s about to impersonate.
— Ah, the choir is being played by the entire cast and (what appears to be) entire writing staff!
— Overall, hilarious as always. And this being the final sketch of the season, having the entire cast and writing staff appearing in it is a nice way to end the year.
— So far, all of O’Donoghue’s impression sketches have only appeared in Buck Henry-hosted episodes.   I didn’t realize until now that these sketches were exclusive to Buck’s episodes.  I had always thought that O’Donoghue just did them whenever.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS
  

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very good season finale, and yet another solid Buck Henry episode. I had a great time watching this. A majority of the sketches were both strong and fun, and a few of those sketches had a special extensive feeling that made it seem like SNL was intentionally going all out for their season finale, which is what I always like to see when an SNL season ends.
— This episode would begin a tradition of Buck hosting the season finales for the remainder of this era. It doesn’t need to be explained why, if you’re familiar with what a great host he always makes.
— We’re officially two seasons down in my ‘One SNL a Day’ project!

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Season 3 begins, with host Steve Martin. I’m very eager to go into this season because, IIRC, that and season 4 are both widely considered the zenith of 70s SNL.

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May 14, 1977 – Shelley Duvall / Joan Armatrading (S2 E21)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
after fight clip preempts Bee skit, female castmembers toughen up host
   
— Odd structure to this cold opening so far.
— The brash back-and-forths between Shelley and the female cast members are interesting.
— Jane to Shelley: “Nice teeth; why don’t you tattoo ‘Steinway’ on your upper lip?” LOL, harsh but funny.
— The LFNY, opening montage & theme music is now quietly going on in the background TV while the main action is still on the girls arguing in the locker room. Is this really how they’re going to “start” the show tonight? Very strange and unique. I’ve never seen any other SNL episode that downplayed the LFNY and opening credits this way.
— Can the audience even hear the girls?  They’re not laughing at all at any of the lines.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
Video Vixens JAC, GIR, LAN, host want to make you laugh harder
   
— With technically no real LFNY & opening credits, the cold opening has now just seamlessly transitioned into the girls walking onstage for what I guess will be the monologue. This “Video Vixens” set-up is certainly different.
— The song itself is kinda boring me, but the girls are doing a great job and I do like some of the dirty lyrics as well as the late-70s feel to this whole song and performance.
— I liked Laraine’s lyric referencing her Sherry character.
STARS: ***

INSECT
(DAA)’s disguise isn’t as good as those of his fellow bank robbers
   
— LOL at Dan’s entrance, bizarrely wearing a mask with two oranges over the eyes.
— I like how this has turned into everybody questioning Dan’s costume, and the robbers being more concerned about that than about carrying out their robbery.
— Great ending joke with the cops.
— Overall, a very solid sketch.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

CONTINENTAL MEN
“soy Ricardo Montalban (DAA), Cesar Romero (JOB), o Fernando Lamas (BIM)”

— Cool how after the preceding musical guest performance ended, the camera panned over from the musical guest stage to this sketch.
— In that wig, I thought Shelley was Laraine until the camera cut to a closer shot of her.
— Dan’s voice in this sounds like his Ricardo Montalban impression.
— Oh, he IS playing Montalban.
— I’m not too sure I like where this is going. I am liking the performances from Dan as Montalban and John as Cesar Romero. Bill, on the other hand, is pretty bland as Fernando Lamas; yet another example of how rusty of a performer Bill Murray sometimes tended to be his first few months on SNL.
— I’m getting some laughs from the mentions of other groups of three similar celebrities, but there’s not much else that’s making this sketch interesting.
— What was the point of Garrett playing a background extra during this whole sketch? He had nothing to do or say in this.
STARS: **

AUDIENCE CAPTION
 
— Ha, it’s Chevy!

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— First time in a while they opened Update with a phone conversation.
— The Dale Evans “stuffed and mounted” joke was very funny.

BLACK EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE
boxer Duane Bobick (TOD) says “educate blacks, get them out of the ring”
 
— Funny premise, and this is making decent use of footage of the Duane Bobick/Ken Norton boxing match.
— Also, a good voice-over by, I believe, Tom Davis.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella’s machine requests a message at the sound of the “jeep”
  
— Ohh, here comes yet another visit from Emily Litella… (which has become my catchphrase for whenever she shows up)
— Wait, what? An empty chair? Well, THIS is different. Litella’s not there?
— The whole Litella answering machine bit didn’t end up being TOO bad, even though it was the same basic joke as her usual commentaries.  For some reason, her voice and delivery sounds funnier to me over an answering machine.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

VIVA LAS VEGAS II
Elvis (JOB) plays aspiring Shakespearean actor in Viva Las Vegas II
  
— It’s the same set from the Ricardo Montalban sketch earlier tonight.
— Hmm, I never knew John Belushi ever played Elvis on the show.
— The second time tonight where a wig Shelley is wearing  made me initially think she was Laraine.
— John’s Elvis impression is pretty funny, but this sketch is boring me so far and doesn’t seem to be going anyplace interesting.
— Not even the Jailhouse Rock number at the end could get me into this sketch (and I usually love hearing that song).
STARS: **

BABA WAWA AT LARGE
Richard Burton (BIM) on ex-wife Elizabeth Taylor

— Bill looks like he’s wearing the same outfit he wore in the Irish cold opening from the preceding episode (Eric Idle).
— I have absolutely no idea how accurate Bill’s Richard Burton impression is, but man, I love his voice and accent in this; it’s great.
— Bill was so into his delivery of “they’re creatures who just make their living off of sucking other people’s lives”, he unintentionally spit on Gilda, judging by how Gilda wiped off her face afterwards.
— Bill: “Excuse me for losing my accent again”. That line appeared to be an ad-lib, which is amusing, but him having trouble keeping the accent further proves my point about early-era Bill Murray’s rustiness as a performer.
— Love the exaggerated way he keeps calling Baba “Babaaa”.
STARS: ***

BRIDES
by Sharon Sacks- wacky wedding traditions; Spaulding Gray cameo
   
— Shelley during her intro: “This being June, the film is called ‘Brides’”. Uh, did nobody have the decency to inform Shelley that it was MAY at the time, not June?
— A film by Sharon Sacks, eh? I guess we’re getting a much-needed break from Gary Weis tonight.
— I got a big laugh from the demonstration of a guy screaming in horror when shown a gravy boat.
— Another big laugh from the groom being a giant chicken.
— Haha, this film is weird as hell, but I’m loving all the absurd, random humor.
— In a way, this feels like something that would’ve aired in an early season 1 episode, back when the show was finding its voice and would sometimes do strange, experimental segments that featured no cast members, just like this.
— Just when I thought this film couldn’t get any weirder, we end on a bizarre animated special effect of a bride morphing into a bat.
— Overall, a delightfully silly film that I’m sure is much better than whatever Gary Weis would’ve offered up this week.
STARS: ****

BAD BALLET
Leonard Pinth-Garnell dances with mistreated birds in “Swan”
   
— Yes, the return of the “Bad (insert type of play here)” sketch!
— Good laughs from John randomly tasing/zapping the ballet dancers while the dance is in progress.
— This is really funny and has me chuckling non-stop.
— I liked Dan ad-libbing “Thank you” in response to something somebody in the studio audience yelled while he was talking.
STARS: ****

NIGHT OF THE MOONIES
cult members overwhelm deprogrammers (DAA) & (GAM)
     
— Hmm, a black-and-white sketch.
— I can’t tell what movie or TV show this is a parody of yet.
— LOL at John’s bizarre entrance.
— “Night of the Moonies”. Oh, this sketch is a “Night of the Living Dead” parody. I’m kicking myself for taking this long to get that.
— Garrett’s performance in this is great. I’m loving his energy.
— How did Dan get the zombie eye makeup on so fast without the camera noticing?
— Really liked the reaction from John when getting shot.
— Overall, this was fairly interesting to watch and was performed well.
STARS: ***

SIDE NOTE: A joking “Coming Up Next…” caption mentions “The Loud Family discuss the Concorde SST”. Isn’t “The Loud Family” a sketch they would actually end up doing later this era (when Carrie Fisher hosted, I think)?

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

STEAK HOUSE
(DAA)’s van obsession outweighs wife’s (host) need for Streisand album
 
— Seems like this is going to be another semi-dramatic Marilyn Suzanne Miller-written sketch from this era.
— Dan’s doing great in this so far, but Shelley’s delivery could use some work; she keeps tripping over some of her lines.
— Dan has some great lines during his ranting. I especially like the one about how while he was “putting it” to Shelley while they were watching The Lawrence Welk Show on TV, he imagined he was “putting it to all four of the Lennon Sisters at once.”
— Heh, you can hear an audience member sneezing loudly during a silent moment in the sketch just now.
— Very funny line from Dan passionately referring to his plush van as a “movable fur house”.
— Overall, one of the better semi-dramatic, slice-of-life pieces I’ve seen in this era, and this featured particularly great character work from Dan. This felt like an actual good version of that Reunion sketch he did earlier this season with Jane (which I think I’m in the minority in not liking, judging from other reviews I’ve recently read which praised that sketch).
— This has been a strong night for Dan Aykroyd in general. He absolutely dominated this episode, playing the lead in most of the sketches and giving his usual excellent performances. This episode is a good sample of how versatile and valuable of a cast member he was.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS
 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty average episode, though I feel like the better material actually aired towards the end of the night (Brides, Bad Ballet, Steak House). Before that, most of the sketches were simply average, and some were flat-out subpar (Continental Men, Viva Las Vegas II).
— Shelley Duvall did okay, but was ultimately an unmemorable host, which is what I was expecting.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Eric Idle):
— a step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Season 2 comes to an end, with host Buck Henry

Posted on

April 23, 1977 – Eric Idle / Alan Price, Neil Innes (S2 E20)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Irishman (BIM) talks when British soldier (host) threatens potato torture
 
— I like whenever this era of SNL would do this type of cold opening with a random premise; something that would sadly go on to become unheard of in SNL’s more recent decades.
— Pretty funny premise with Eric using potato torture to get Bill’s Irishman to confess.
— I love the clever way they segued into LFNY, with Bill answering “live”, “from New York”, and “it’s Saturday night” in response to three questions Eric has asked him .
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host & Queen Elizabeth II (Jeanette Charles) emcee Save Britain telethon
     
— Great entrance from Eric, frantically and sloppily rolling out a red carpet.
— I got a big laugh from him quickly throwing an audience member out of their chair so he can give the chair to the queen.
— Judging from what Eric has said, I’m assuming this fundraising event will be a running segment throughout the episode.
— Very funny part with the queen kicking Dan in the groin as part of a “kick a Canadian” contest.
STARS: ****

AMERICAN DOPE GROWERS UNION
support home-grown homegrown
 
— The title sounds familiar; I must’ve heard about this sketch on an SNL board.
— I’m assuming this is a parody of a real commercial from the time. Despite being unfamiliar with the source material, I found this bit funny enough.
STARS: ***

THE NIXON INTERVIEWS
David Frost (host) gets little good material
     
— Eric’s intro alone is hilarious.
— Gilda’s back to playing Julie Nixon. It’s still unclear to me why Laraine took over the impression in the Broderick Crawford episode.
— This “temporary audio problem” portion with the sound being censored during a crucial revelation from Nixon is very funny, especially the exaggerated gestures Dan and Eric are doing during it.
— I’m loving the gradually ridiculous tone of the sketch.
— Overall, a fantastic, well-done sketch.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ALAN PRICE)

BODY LANGUAGE
by Gary Weis- host narrates a primer on the subject
     
— Love the format of this.
— A very fun short so far.
— I especially like the part with Bill shooting the foreigner in the head just because of his confusing gestures.
— “An Idle-Weis production”? Wait, you mean to tell me a short as hilarious as this was somehow directed by GARY WEIS???
STARS: ****½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
bad childhood memories surface during BIM’s editorial on spanking
   
— They’re letting Bill do lots of Update commentaries lately.
— Bill’s personal childhood story is hilariously dark. His delivery is fantastic and the camera’s slow zoom-in on him is a great touch that’s adding to the grim vibe.
— And now, this has gotten even funnier and more disturbing with Bill’s overly-anxious, slow description of the spanking.
— Overall, this segment from Bill has got to be one of my favorite Update commentaries of this whole season.

OXXON
Oxxon blames rising oil prices on their own expensive commercials
 
— A decent fake ad. Can’t think of anything else to say besides that.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella sings “I Will Swallow Him” to show her love for Tom Snyder

— What was with the camera dissolve when Jane turned to the other camera to introduce the next commentator?
— Ohh, here comes yet another visit from Emily Litella…
— “Air ‘solution’”? THAT’S Litella’s “funny” mixed-up term of the night? Really?
— Ha, they actually made Litella self-aware of how incredibly lame the “Air ‘solution’” pun is, by having her stop in the middle of the bit and call it her worst one yet.
— And now, we find out who she was talking about a few cold openings ago where she revealed she’s in love with someone. Turns out it’s Tom Snyder.
— Overall, Litella’s commentary wasn’t quite as tiresome as usual. It was redeemed a bit by her actually calling out how bad that “Air ‘solution’” bit was, her “I Will Swallow Him” mix-up was fairly funny in a dirty way, and at least this commentary didn’t end with her usual “bitch” remark.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

HEAVY WIT CHAMPIONSHIP
in the ring, (host) & (JOB) try to get laughs
   
— What was with the weird quiet beginning before Dan started speaking? Were we supposed to hear an opening voice-over that failed to be heard?
— Surprisingly, this is Belushi’s first appearance of the whole night. I was wondering where he was.
— The premise is pretty creative.
— Eh, I’m not really liking the execution of this idea all that much so far.  The idea of punches being replaced by joke punchlines is actually coming off kinda lame.
— I am, however, getting some laughs from Eric’s bad jokes, but I think that’s mostly because of his usual funny Brit delivery.
— LOL at Eric completely missing Garrett with the pie. I don’t think that was intentional.
— Pretty funny ending.
STARS: **

RON NASTY: “CHEESE & ONIONS”
Rutle Ron Nasty (Neil Innes) performs “Cheese & Onions”

— Good to see the return of The Rutles.
— Overall, pretty funny lyrics. I especially laughed at the part with him spelling out “cheese and onions”.
STARS: ***½

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
low-budget British war film has simple flashbacks
   
— I liked the pointlessness of that ‘goodbye’ flashback.
— Oh, they’re doing another comically pointless flashback. Not as funny this second time.
— I like how you could see Gilda rushing from one part of the set to another during the screen ripple effect at the end of one of the flashbacks just now.
— Okay, these flashbacks are getting less and less funny.
— Funny touch with Gilda actually “reading” the bullet sound effects in the letter.
— Ha, I like how they’re now re-doing the exact same flashback that had just happened.
— Dan’s way of walking is very funny.
— Overall, a very up-and-down sketch. I loved the premise of low-budget flashbacks, but the flashbacks kept going back-and-forth from being funny to being tiresome, to funny again, to tiresome again, etc.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (NEIL INNES)

PLAIN TALK
(host) & (DAA) understand each other’s nonsense sentences
 
— Second sketch tonight with Eric interviewing Dan.
— LOL at Eric’s nonsense-filled intro.
— Oh, they’re both saying nonsense words throughout their conversation. This is cracking me the hell up.
— Overall, a very funny and silly short sketch, featuring excellent performances from Eric and Dan. And it’s so impressive how they both managed to speak all those nonsense sentences rapid-fire with total ease without messing up at all.
STARS: ****½

TRANS EASTERN AIRLINES
flight attendant Sherry accommodates demands of gun-toting passengers
   
— Interesting premise with the casual gun use from non-threatening passengers.
— LOL at John asking if he can “smoke a joint in the can”.
— Overall, a pretty solid sketch that was pulled off well.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ALAN PRICE)

SAVE GREAT BRITAIN TELETHON
BIM attempts to chug a bottle of grape juice after the $20 is withdrawn
 
— Pretty funny bit with Bill trying to chug a bottle of grape juice but giving up after drinking only 1/3rd of it. I also liked Eric’s angry shoving of Bill afterwards.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS
$35,000,000 has been raised by selling the Queen
  
— Good conclusion to the telethon running segment.
— Eric makes some funny complaints about Daylight Savings Time always being on Saturdays.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Another great Eric Idle episode, though I liked his first one from earlier this season a little better. This was still a strong, fun episode with very little to complain about.
— I like how both of the times Eric has hosted so far, the show seems to have a certain unique energy that you don’t see in other hosts’ episodes; the show has had an “SNL/Monty Python hybrid” vibe in Eric’s episodes so far.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Elliott Gould):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Shelley Duvall

Posted on

April 16, 1977 – Elliott Gould / The McGarrigle Sisters, Roslyn Kind (S2 E19)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Leonid Brezhnev (JOB) parlays NBC Olympic coverage into Tonight Show spot
 
— This feels like an odd choice for a cold opening, but maybe that’s because of Elliott Gould’s presence.
— John entering the scene by wiping off his pants when exiting the bathroom was pretty funny.
— I like John resorting to bomb threat gestures to persuade Elliott and Bill.
— John’s whole Johnny Carson request is great.
— Overall, a solid cold opening.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— In the version of the episode I’m watching, the show has strangely gone back to being titled “Saturday Night” in the opening montage, despite the fact that it was titled “Saturday Night Live” in the preceding two episodes. What’s up with this?

MONOLOGUE
JOB, host, BIM demonstrate the new dance craze- The Castration Walk
   
— Will we be getting another song-and-dance monologue from Elliott?
— Pardo’s intro to the musical number is very interesting and is getting me excited.
— Haha, this “Castration Walk” number is hilarious. I’m glad they’re letting Elliott do an actual comedic song-and-dance number this time.
— Great lyric from Bill about how the mohel made him a “goil”.
— Overall, this was very fun and catchy.
STARS: ****½

THE CONEHEADS AT HOME
Merkon (GAM) arrives from Remulak to check on Coneheads’ progress
   
— Judging from this living room set, I think we’re in for another Coneheads edition.
— I was right!
— LOL at the visual of Conehead Garrett Morris.
— Garrett’s doing a better job in this role than I would have expected.
— Laraine’s delivery sure was awkward when she was explaining what pizza is.
— Very funny part with Dan and Jane scolding Laraine for having a senso-ring hidden under her bed, as if it were an adult sex toy.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (THE MCGARRIGLE SISTERS)

YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BUDDY
men talk about men’s issues
 
— Dan’s over-emphasis of how every painting he’s displaying was done by a man is funny.
— Yet another stumbly performance from early-era Bill Murray. He kept tripping over his lines throughout his portion of this sketch.
— I’m loving the tasteless humor of John promoting a rape hotline that helps male rapists after they commit a rape. This portion of the sketch is hilarious.
— Overall, a well-written and mostly well-executed group sketch with an interesting gender-flip premise.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE
BIM uses sexual metaphors while covering anti-pornography rally
at Howdy Doody’s funeral, LAN interviews his widow Debbie (GIR)
as a service to shut-ins, JOB explains the different types of weather
     
— Tonight, Jane seems to be over-relying on lots of ad-libs and exaggerated laughter after a joke gets a tepid audience reaction, which has been happening an awful lot so far.
— Bill’s suggestive descriptions in his anti-porn rally commentary are really funny.
— And now, Bill has an even funnier post-commentary bit about how he’s embarrassed to stand up in front of the camera due to the stimulating commentary he just did.
— Hmm, Jane is making Bill read several Update jokes. Interesting. Is this their way of trying Bill out as a potential future Update co-anchor? Though as we now know, they would end up giving Dan a season as Jane’s co-anchor before eventually giving that spot to Bill.
— Great Howdy Doody suicide joke.
— I like this interview with Gilda as Howdy’s wife, Debbie Doody. The visual is very funny, and Gilda’s giving an excellent physical performance.
— John’s commentary seems different from his usual Update stuff. Not too sure how I feel about tonight’s bit with him using a lamp to demonstrate different kinds of weather.
— Oh, wait, here’s John’s Update staple where he gradually gets intense and over-the-top. This always cracks me up.
— Ah, and there’s the debut of John’s “But nooooooo!” catchphrase.
— Great backwards tumble from John out of his chair.
— No mid-WU break tonight.
STARS: ***½

NICK SUMMERS
at a resort, lounge singer Nick “Summers” (BIM) works unresponsive crowd
   
— Bill in that get-up is making me wonder if we’re in for our very first Nick the Lounge Singer sketch.
— Bill: “My name is Nick Summers.” Yep, that confirms it. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— I like John and Gilda’s sour attitude.
— Funny line from Bill about Dan: ‘He’s an Indian and they don’t lie.  I love that.”
— After how much Bill has struggled as a cast member so far, it’s great to see him have his first successful character piece with this sketch. He’s doing so well here, and it’s a lot of fun watching him play this type of smarmy character with total ease.
STARS: ****

UNITED FACE BANK
Joan Crawford (JAC) solicits donations for the faceless
   
— Oh my god at Garrett’s transplanted white girl face. A hilarious sight.
— The fridge of faces was delightfully creepy.
— I get the feeling this is a parody of a real Joan Crawford ad from the time, but I was still able to find this sketch pretty funny and I liked the oddball premise.
STARS: ***½

SPORT VIOLENCE
by Gary Weis- “America the Beautiful” plays over sports fight footage
 
— This feels like a typical Gary Weis film, but I’m always entertained by watching fights break out during sports games.
— Okay, the fight clips are starting to get old now, and this film is just coming off pointless. And besides, didn’t Weis already do a film like this, where it was another Ray Charles song being juxtaposed with clips of rowdy crowd members at sports games yelling and cheering?
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (THE MCGARRIGLE SISTERS)

SIDE NOTE: After the preceding musical performance has ended and before the following sketch has begun, a screen briefly showed up saying “SAT NITE: Aren’t You Glad You’re Not Watching Lloyd Dobyns Right Now?” From what I understand, Lloyd Dobyns hosted a show that aired in SNL’s slot whenever SNL was on break during their early seasons. But this brief screen gag still seemed like a random, strange bit for SNL to do.

24 HOUR BANK
automated teller machine subjects (BIM) to pointless security tests
     
— I like the subtle joke of how Mesopotamia keeps randomly showing up as the last option in all the multiple choice questions.
— This sketch kinda feels ahead of its time. The excessive, ridiculous confirmation tests Bill and Garrett are subjected to are not too far removed from the ridiculous “prove you’re not a robot”-type online Captchas we have to put up with nowadays.
— I’m really enjoying the fast-paced increasing silliness of the tests.
— Haha, the money being replaced by headcheese was a funny way to end this.
STARS: ****

NATURAL CAUSES RESTAURANT
restaurant of Jason & Sunset serves animals that died of natural causes
 
— Hey, it’s the hippie characters that Dan and Laraine played in the Peter Boyle episode from season 1.
— Some decent laughs from the odd ways that the animals in the menu are said to have died.
— Hmm, as Dan and Laraine are recalling an incident where a cow fell from the sky, it sounds like you can hear a plane flying nearby. Are we in for another “drop the cow” ending?
— Yep, and there’s the cow-drop. Funny ending as always.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ROSLYN KIND)

CLOWN DOLL
a man learns his wife is having an affair with a toy clown
   
— The silliness of seeing a man in a wild, violent physical fight with a tiny puppet is pretty funny.
— My only complaint is the ending. Why was there no punchline? The man just gets back together with his cheating wife, and… The End?
STARS: ***

PILSON’S FEEDBAG DINNERS
— Rerun of a Chevy Chase commercial. It feels a little weird to see Chevy again after I’ve gotten so used to the show without him in the second half of this season.

GOODNIGHTS
DAA informs viewers that he needs tanks for his motorcycle
   
— We get some funny antics with the cast trying to kill time. Dan is especially funny desperately asking viewers for tanks that his motorcycle needs.
— John declares Elliott the best host they’ve ever had.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very strong Elliott Gould episode, and a bit of an improvement over the second episode he hosted back in season 1. So many solid sketches tonight, several of which had interesting, creative, and fun premises. And aside from the Gary Weis film (seriously, when does this guy’s tenure as an SNL filmmaker officially end?), none of the segments in this episode fell flat; everything worked.
— However, is it just me or did it feel like Elliott didn’t do much in this episode? I’m having a hard time remembering a lot of what he did. It feels like he spent most of the second half of the show just intro-ing musical guests and short films.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Eric Idle

Posted on

April 9, 1977 – Julian Bond / Tom Waits, Brick (S2 E18)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Emily Litella’s new love makes her feel like a “national” woman

— A backstage Emily Litella cold opening? Normally, I would give the show credit for trying something different, but opening an episode with this tired, overused character is getting things off to a bad start.
— How come she isn’t saying who she’s in love with? Is she referring to tonight’s host?
— Jane: “Have you prepared anything for tonight’s Weekend Update?” Oh, no – so you mean this is going to be another episode where she appears twice?
— Overall, despite the change in setting, there was nothing particularly new from Litella here. Basically the same old shtick. One of the weakest cold openings of the season.
STARS: **

MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— The audience keeps chuckling for some reason, despite the fact that Julian has been saying nothing but serious things so far. Is something funny happening off-camera that we home viewers can’t see?
— Julian’s line about being SNL’s “chocolate Easter bunny” kinda made me chuckle, but please don’t tell me that’s the joke this monologue is going to end on.
— Aaaaaaand it IS the joke this monologue ended on, unfortunately. Second monologue in a row that had a long build-up to a punchline that wasn’t worth it (after Jack Burns’ cringeworthy “touching himself” gag).
STARS: **

H&L BROCK
Lowell Brock (JOB) takes time to do taxes right because he’s doing time
   
— Not too excited to see this back. These H&L Brock segments are usually a little too dry for their own good.
— The “I’m doing time” reason is making me laugh.
— The revelation that he’s actually behind bars is great.
— Overall, not bad at all, surprisingly.
STARS: ***½

BLACK PERSPECTIVE
GAM & host on IQ differences among & within the races
 
— Right out of the gate, the lead-off sketch of the night is what would go on to become the most well-known sketch from this episode.
— Some good laughs from Julian reading examples from the white-biased questionnaire.
— LOL at Garrett flubbing his set-up to the most famous part of the sketch that’s about to happen right now.
— Julian bluntly stating that light-skinned blacks are smarter than dark-skinned blacks, and Garrett, after a good non-verbal facial reaction, responding “Say whaat?” is truly a hilarious, classic turn this sketch has taken.
STARS: ****½

AN OVAL OFFICE
host & Andrew Young (GAM) remind Jimmy Carter (DAA) of campaign promises
 
— The “An Oval Office” opening title almost had me thinking for a second that this was going to be a Chevy-as-Gerald-Ford sketch, since they used that same title for some of his sketches.
— “How are things down there in the peach state?” “The pits.”
— What’s that white stuff in the back of Garrett’s hair?
— Dan’s Carter’s ridiculous childhood stories (peanut shell house, shoebox his parents kept him in) is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (TOM WAITS)

DR. X, FAMILY COUNSELLOR
weirdo (DAA) assesses catatonic Colleen (GIR)
   
— Right from the start, I already like the concept.
— The first real appearance of Gilda’s catatonic Colleen character (the “One Flew Over the Hornet’s Nest” sketch doesn’t really count).
— I’m loving the heated occasional bits with Bill as the father jumping out of his seat and physically attacking John every time John calls out the doctor’s physical oddities.  Kinda reminds me of the Simpsons’ recurring gag of Homer strangling Bart.
— I didn’t even notice Dan’s mechanical arm until John mentioned it.
— Dan’s random maniacal sobbing when trying to explain his physical oddities is cracking me the hell up.
— Funny hearing the mention of a character named Dr. R.D. Lange. Doesn’t the name “R.D. Lange” sound an awful lot like the name of a certain rotund comedian from more recent decades?
— Loved Dan’s “The woman’s vegged out!” line about Gilda’s Colleen.
— The ending was pretty funny.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— The jokes have been okay so far, though nothing noteworthy yet.

RIGHT ON AFRO LUSTRE
(host) uses Right On Afro Lustre, the hairspray in a fist-shaped canister
 
— At first, I didn’t even recognize Julian in that afro & mustache, until he started speaking. He looks hilarious in that get-up.
— The high-pitched disco-type singing in the commercial jingle was both funny and very catchy.
— Short but funny. Something about the combination of the aforementioned aspects of this sketch (Julian’s look & the high-pitched disco song) made me find this commercial even funnier than it actually was, which will bump up the rating a bit.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
during a related story, the landing of the Concorde SST drowns out JAC
 
— The audience groaning at Jane’s self-admittedly corny High-Chairman Mao joke was pretty funny.
— No idea what to say about the extended gag with Jane’s plane-landing joke being drowned out by the sound effect of a plane landing. I guess it was kinda funny if a little corny (again).
— Hmm, no Emily Litella on tonight’s Update after all. There IS a God.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

GREAT MOMENTS IN MOTOWN
a musical group adopts hand gestures & dancing
   
— The premise of an all-black musical group being portrayed by three white guys and only one actual black guy, as well as the oddity of that not even being called out within the sketch, is reminding me of a cross between two things: 1) an infamously bad Boyz II Men sketch the show would later do in season 20, and 2) the pretty funny Roots II sketch from earlier this season.
— Another sketch where Julian’s get-up is giving me some good laughs.
— Bill’s voice is very funny.
— Funny unscripted moment with Garrett kinda calling Julian out for referring to him as “Clemont” when his name is supposed to be “Clement”.
STARS: ***

CREELEY’S SOUP
announcer (BIM) sidetracks a little girl (GIR) as she eats Creeley’s Soup
 
— I seem to recall seeing this before; probably in Gilda’s Best Of.
— The part with her stuffing corn into her nose because “the soup man says so” is pretty funny.
— Overall, this was decent, but nowhere near as funny as I had remembered it being. If this sketch is widely considered by SNL fans to be a near-classic, then count me as someone who finds it overrated.
STARS: ***

BAD CINEMA
Truman Capote (JOB) & others review “ooh-la-la! les legs!”
     
— The return of the “Bad (insert type of play here)” sketch.
— What in the world was up with the blooper where Laraine was missing from the beginning of the sketch, and then made a very late entrance? And as if that wasn’t bad enough, we then had to wait for her to find her clip-on mic before she was able to deliver her first line. Yikes! Recently back in 2016, people on online SNL boards understandably gave short-lived featured player Jon Rudnitsky a lot of crap for mysteriously showing up late to the famous “Space Pants” sketch, but now I see he wasn’t the first SNL cast member to make that bad mistake. I wonder what Laraine’s excuse was for showing up so late.
— Also, I think this was Laraine’s very first appearance of the whole night, and keep in mind, we’re in the last 20 minutes of the show! (ADDENDUM: I just now remembered Laraine was in the Oval Office sketch earlier tonight) What’s going on with her airtime lately? She’s been struggling kinda badly.
— Yet another sketch tonight where I’m getting good laughs out of Julian’s get-up.
— WTF at this film they’re showing. Is this footage from a real French film, or is it an SNL-made clip? That guy with the main girl looks kinda like Bill.
— No, never mind, that’s not Bill. I guess this IS a real French film clip. It’s starting to remind me of the “Les Jeunes de Paris” sketches SNL would later do in the early 2010s.
— I liked the specificity of Julian’s line about his expertise being in “bad 3D insect fear films of the 60s”.
— Overall, this was okay, but way too different from the format of other Leonard Pinth-Garnell sketches for my likes. I prefer the usual format.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (BRICK)

CIVIL RIGHTS FARBERS
the Farbers try to convince host of their neighborhood’s racial tolerance
 
— Julian: “[Young black men’s] unemployment rate is as high up as 40% in the south.” John: “Well, they’re not gonna come up HERE, are they?”
— This sketch has a nice, enjoyable realistic tone to it, which I’m guessing will be par for the course in the Farbers’ subsequent sketches.
STARS: ***

MR. MIKE MEETS UNCLE REMUS
MOD tells a tale involving Brer Rabbit
   
— This interestingly opens with a disclaimer about how “Mr. Mike’s Least Loved Bedtime Tales” will not be seen tonight.
— Oh, looks like this IS a Mr. Mike sketch after all. This premise of him meeting Song of the South’s Uncle Remus seems like a very intriguing change of pace.
— It feels unusual seeing Garrett Morris so prominent throughout tonight’s episode. He usually never gets this many leading roles in one night.
— I’m really liking the mismatch of Mr. Mike’s usual sadistic storytelling with the more conventional old-timey southern storytelling of Uncle Remus.
— Garrett’s reaction to the story’s dark ending is pretty funny.
STARS: ****

PATTI SMITH
by Gary Weis- Patti Smith [real] discusses censorship & her SNL gig

— I want to appreciate the message Smith is trying to express in this film, but man, could this be any more rambly? And could she use the word “like” any more times?
STARS: *½

NEW SOUTH
George Wallace (JOB) lists supposed improvements to the South’s bad image
 
— Yet another one-person-talking-to-the-camera sketch tonight starring John. I actually thought at first that he was playing the H&L Brock guy again.
— The new “respectful” racial segregation rules are pretty funny.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS
 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— The first legitimately solid episode in a while. Glad to see the show get out of the slump it had been in during the three March episodes.
— After a slow start with a tepid cold opening & monologue, tonight’s episode had a consistent run of pretty good sketches and about two great ones. There was also an interesting running thread of racial humor throughout the show.
— For a stiff politician, Julian Bond was surprisingly not bad. He actually made me laugh a few times, he had a good sense of humor, didn’t play himself in every single sketch, and something about his stiffness actually worked in his favor in the sketches where he wore silly get-ups.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jack Burns):
— a big step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Elliott Gould

Posted on

March 26, 1977 – Jack Burns / Santana (S2 E17)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
JOB refuses to say SNL’s opening line until his demands are met
 
— Just now, John noticeably referred to the show as “Saturday Night Live”. I wonder if this is the episode where the show’s title officially became that instead of just “Saturday Night”.
— I love John’s mischievously joyful realization that he’s the only thing keeping the show from starting.
— All of his LFNY fake-outs are funny.
— Funny turn with him now reading a list of demands.
— Great ending with him being tricked into saying LFNY when reading aloud the letter he was handed. His panicked reaction when realizing he was fooled is killing me.
STARS: ****

OPENING MONTAGE
— Yep, this is indeed the very first episode where the show’s title was officially changed to “Saturday Night Live”.

MONOLOGUE
host fulfills a lifelong yearning by touching himself
 
— I thought I didn’t know who this guy is, but he looks surprisingly familiar. Eh, maybe he just reminds me of another actor.
— Oh, this guy’s a stand-up?
— Really? THAT’S the punchline? THAT’S what this whole monologue was building up to?
— The less said about that overly-corny punchline, the better…
STARS: *½

THE FARBERS MEET THE CONEHEADS
Larry & Bobbi Farber have Coneheads over for dinner
   
— Ah, the Farbers.
— Coneheads! I love this idea for a recurring character crossover. I’m kinda surprised, though, because the Farbers weren’t established recurring characters yet; they’ve only appeared once prior to this, in a miscellaneous piece with Kris Kristofferson.
— Something about the forehead/eyebrows area of Jane’s Conehead make-up looks odder than usual in tonight’s installment.
— Very funny part with the Coneheads “reading” the game instructions.
— Haha, Gilda and John are now breaking character and cracking up after the Coneheads all jumped through the window. Very rare to see any major character-breaking from this particular cast, which makes it a welcome novelty whenever it happens.
— The unplanned laughing was a good way to end the sketch.
— Overall, a great sketch.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

MARINE WEDDING
(host) performs a militaristic wedding service for Marines (DAA) & (JAC)
  
— When I first saw Jane, I almost thought that was Candice Bergen making a cameo. I guess it’s something about Jane’s wig…
— This premise seems like it’ll get old FAST.
— They basically already used this same one-joke premise in that season 1 sketch with Chevy trying to film a commercial for the Marines, and I wasn’t crazy about it then.
— Overall, I was not a fan of this sketch at all.
STARS: *½

A TOWN WITHOUT PITY
Eliot Ness (DAA) & Untouchables take over India from Indira Gandhi (LAN)
   
— The return of Laraine’s Indira Gandhi impression.
— Oh, no, not a song.
— John’s performing very well in his and Laraine’s song, but this is still a chore for me to sit through.
— Ha, I like the sudden turn this has taken with “The Untouchables” being revealed to be the characters from the Untouchables TV series.
— Our first time in quite a while seeing the “drop the cow” sketch-ending routine that was used a few times in season 1.
— Overall, a sketch that started out really bad, but slowly improved a little in the second half.
STARS: **½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
JAC begs cardboard cut-out of Harry Reasoner to join her at SNL
   
— Funny beginning with Jane flirting with a Harry Reasoner cardboard cut-out.
— The Karl Malden/Ernest Borgnine joke was hilarious.

LEECH-TAB 100
old-fashioned pharmacist (DAA) prescribes leeches to (BIM) & (GIR)
 
— Fairly funny concept.
— Dan’s pitchman in this is a big change of pace from the fast-talking pitchmen he usually plays.
— Ha, they’re actually using REAL leeches?
— Despite the okay concept, the execution felt a little bland and didn’t work as well as I thought it would.
STARS: **½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
JAC announces the Oscar winners with results stolen from accounting firm

— The bit with Jane “spoiling” the results of the then-upcoming Oscars was interesting. I wonder how accurate those “spoilers” ended up becoming.
— No guests this week (unless you count Cardboard Harry Reasoner)
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

THE STORY OF THE SQUATTERS
crouching early Americans settle the frontier
   
— The visual gag of literally “squatting” – ohh, geez. Not sure how to feel about this premise; something about it feels very season 6-ish – not a good thing.
— I did get a laugh just now from the “Does a bear squat in the woods?” line.
— Props to the performers for being committed in carrying out this premise, but man, is this sketch going awfully far for such a flimsy, corny visual gag.
STARS: *½

SUICIDE LETTER
host blows suicidal businessman skit by doing his jump without ducking
   
— I think the suicide revelation was supposed to be a surprise, but I saw it coming early on as soon as Jack casually opened the window.
— I like the way this is breaking the fourth wall after Jack has “ruined” the sketch.
— This is great with more and more cast members coming on and realizing the illusion of the sketch has been shattered.
— Loved Bill’s stern delivery of “What the hell are you doing standing up?”
— Gilda’s overly-emotional entrance as the wife is hilarious.
— Oh, wait, Gilda’s actually playing a mistress. Still funny, though.
STARS: ***½

ROCKY
by Gary Weis- host trains for SNL Rocky-style
host drinks a raw egg to show that his training worked
   
— Funny hearing some audience members having a grossed-out reaction to Jack drinking the egg yolk.
— What’s with the generic background music during this parody of the famous training montage from “Rocky”? Shouldn’t we be hearing the usual “Gonna Fly Now” song?
— Oh, there’s the song now, in this “the next day” scene.
— This film had an okay pay-off and Jack gave a good performance. The ending slo-mo shot went on way too long, however.
STARS: **½

ASK BIG DADDY
Idi Amin (GAM) thinly covers massacres of citizens

— I like seeing the return of Bill’s Walter Cronkite impression. The voice he uses as him always makes me laugh.
— Is this supposed to be a variation of the “Ask President Carter” sketch from a few episodes earlier?
— Hearing white cast members & writers doing voices of African citizens feels kinda wrong.
— The repeated “everyone died in a car crash” joke has already gotten old.
— Overall, this wasn’t very good. Yet another weak Garrett Morris-led piece.
STARS: **

MIRAGE
desert vending machine fails to quench a traveller’s thirst
 
— Well, that sure was short, but the punchline definitely worked.
STARS: ***½

PANTYGRAMS
Ricardo Montalban (DAA) tells how Pantygrams send messages via underwear
  
— The idea of a Panty-Gram is pretty funny.
— LOL at Gilda in those shorts.
— This sketch is not really working so far, and is falling flat.
— Despite looking awkward at the very beginning of his scene, Bill ended up being funny and the pay-off of his scene made me laugh. That almost redeemed this whole sketch.
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GAGS BEASLEY
drunk, washed-up comedy writer (host) approaches JAC & GIR in a bar

— I like the staging of this sketch.
— What was with that brief cut to a far away camera angle?

— I love the name Gags Beasley.
— This sketch is being performed very well, and even has a sad undertone to Jack’s character. This era of SNL was always good at pulling off pathos.
— Funny bit with Jack’s “business card” turning out to just be an 8 of clubs card.
— A nice sentimental ending to this overall solid 10-to-1 sketch.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS
 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty weak episode. A large number of sketches fell flat, either due to overly-thin concepts (Squatters, Marine Wedding, Ask Big Daddy), poor executions of decent ideas (Panty-Gram, Leech-Tab 100), or other circumstances. There were a few things that did work well, like the Farbers/Coneheads crossover, the 10-to-1 piece, and the fourth-wall-breaking suicide sketch, but there sure was a lot of mediocrity surrounding them.
— Jack Burns seemed to have a natural comedic presence, but boy was his monologue cringeworthy. Other than that, he wasn’t bad, but as a host, he ended up coming off as kind of a poor man’s Robert Klein. Great job in that last sketch, though.
— Man, the show has been in a bit of a slump lately, with the overly-average Sissy Spacek episode, the fairly-underwhelming Broderick Crawford episode, and now this mediocre episode. It’s been a while since the last time I was crazy about an episode.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Broderick Crawford):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Julian Bond

Posted on

March 19, 1977 – Broderick Crawford / The Meters, Dr. John, Levon Helm, Paul Butterfield (S2 E16)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Rhonda Weiss & Rhondettes sing “Goodbye Saccharine”; Linda Ronstadt cameo
 
— Unique use of Gilda’s Rhonda Weiss character.
— It feels almost too soon to be using Rhonda Weiss in this manner; she’s not an established-enough character yet. Also, where’s her sunglasses?
— Are they trying to make Gilda saying “bitch” to Jane a regular thing even outside of Emily Litella bits?
— Hate to say it, but this song is going on far too long, and I’m pretty much completely losing interest.
— Random Linda Ronstadt cameo.
STARS: **

MONOLOGUE
host recalls his firing from NBC thirty-seven years ago
 
— Interesting set-up of the homebase stage, with a comfy chair, lamp, and table all in the spot where the host always stands while performing their monologue.
— Wow, Broderick Crawford looks NOTHING like how I had pictured him. Yes, I shamefully admit that I’m not familiar with him at all, and this is my first exposure to him.
— Instead of entering from down the stairs like hosts in this era usually do, Broderick was already seen standing on the floor when this began. I guess he wasn’t in any condition to go down the stairs.
— Overall, the story he told was fairly interesting and had a decent ending.
STARS: ***

SAMURAI HIT MAN
Futaba will pose as Benihana chef to carry out contract
   
— Dan sounds like he’s doing his Irvin Mainway voice.
— For the first time in his SNL tenure, Bill Murray is seen without his mustache. He looks a lot better without it. I’m still waiting for Dan to eventually get rid of his mustache; I’m guessing that doesn’t happen until season 3.
— Futaba! That’s a genuine surprise, as this sketch did not seem like this was leading into another Samurai piece.
— His extended demonstration as a chef is making me laugh.
— Overall, this was fine, but I was left wanting more out of this. Then again, I guess they did everything they could with the concept, short of showing the actual hit take place. Maybe the latter is what I had been wanting to see.
STARS: ***

BRODERICK’S OLD NEIGHBORHOOD
by Gary Weis- host revisits his old neighborhood & Central Park
   
— In Broderick’s intro to this, he’s still in the same homebase chair he was in during the monologue. Is this how he’s going to be doing the whole show tonight? I guess he wasn’t kidding when he said at the end of the monologue “I’m gonna sit back and enjoy the show”. Will he be our least-involved host since George Carlin?
— Kinda early in the night for a Gary Weis film, isn’t it? These usually always appear after Update.
— This short has a fairly bittersweet feel to it that’s making it a little more tolerable than Weis’ usual work. Broderick’s likability is also carrying this.
STARS: **½

MEL’S HIDE HEAVEN
they supply the cow, you make your own clothes

— Dan’s pitchman performance feels slightly different than usual this time.
— Oh, wait, this is starting to feel like the Mel’s Char Palace ads, as Dan’s saying the same “Select your own cow; you stun it, you skin it, etc.” spiel.
— Yeah, this is definitely intended as a variation of Mel’s Char Palace; it even has basically the same name. Hope there’s not gonna be three of these sketches tonight, like how the Christmas episode from season 1 had three of the Char Palace ads, all of which felt the exact same.
— Why did Laraine play Gilda’s chainsaw-toting “Mrs. Mel” character this time? Gilda was much funnier at working a fake chainsaw than Laraine is in this sketch.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (DR. JOHN, LEVON HELM, PAUL BUTTERFIELD)

NEW KID
new castmember BIM admits to not being funny on SNL, seeks viewer support

— Oh, this is gonna be the legendary “I don’t think I’m making it on the show” piece with Bill addressing his struggles as a new cast member. I’ve never actually seen this sketch for myself before; I’m only familiar with it through reading the transcript.
— I know he’s generally been having an unimpressive and fairly awkward start these last handful of episodes (except for, strangely, his very first episode) and constantly getting stuck in dull non-comedic roles, but I can’t help but wonder if it was specifically his nervous wreck of a performance in the preceding week’s “quintlexia” sketch that was the final straw that led to him doing this sketch right now.
— He’s getting great laughs at the expense of his own lack of funny roles.
— Bill: “That reminds me of something funny…. my father died when I was 17.”
— LOL at him begging the audience to always laugh at him on the show no matter what.
— Overall, this was a wonderful piece, and a very important turning point, as it not only made viewers want to start rooting for Bill, but it would eventually lead to a breakthrough of him developing into a beloved cast member, to say nothing of the greatness he would achieve in his career after his SNL tenure.
— Not only was it unheard of at the time for a cast member to address something like this, it STILL remains a rarity all these decades later for struggling cast members to do something of this sketch’s nature. The only other instance I can think of is Tracy Morgan’s self-deprecating Weekend Update commentary about how his only claim-to-fame on SNL is being known as “the other black guy”.
STARS: *****

LUCY A-BOMB
Lucy (GIR) gets a job putting whipped cream on nuclear warheads
   
— I liked hearing the audience’s recognition when they came to the realization that this is going to be a parody of an iconic scene from I Love Lucy.
— Funny twist on the I Love Lucy scene by bizarrely replacing the chocolates with nuclear warheads.
— It’s pretty fun to watch Gilda’s reactions to the gradually increasing speed of the conveyor belt.
— Boy, that explosion stock footage sure is drawn out.
— Oh, that’s why the footage was drawn out: they had to give Gilda and Dan enough time to get their tattered post-explosion look ready.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
JAC describes what undergarments she is & isn’t wearing
GAM reports from vacant Black Governor Conference
   
— Interesting opening bit with Jane sultrily talking about the undergarments she’s wearing. That famous bra-flash she did a few episodes ago has definitely sparked a more sexualized persona from her at the Update desk.
— Garrett annoyedly points out that reporting at an event where nothing’s happening is supposed to be “Laraine Newman’s thing”, which is true, but Garrett seems to have forgotten that he actually did an Update commentary with that “reporting at an inactive event” premise before, in a season 1 episode where he was at the winter Olympics.
— Garrett’s commentary ended awkwardly. His rant was delivered strangely, and the audience sounded VERY quiet and disinterested.
— Jane to Garrett: “Have fun next week when we send you to the conference on black popes!”

PUPPY UPPERS & DOGGIE DOWNERS
— Rerun

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
to explore “the luck of the Irish,” JOB offers a personal anecdote
 
— The debut of John’s “Luck of the Irish” rants.
— John’s already done the “slowly escalate from calmly professional to insanely angry” bit on Update in his weatherman commentaries, but his stories are usually always funny and it’s fun to watch his mood slowly change as the story he’s telling gets more and more maddening.
— Jane’s open-mouthed horrified facial reaction to John’s flailing at the end was hilarious.
— Jane ends this Update by saying “Good night, Mary Richards.” I remember reading somewhere that Jane was referring to the fact that the Mary Tyler Moore Show aired its final episode around this time.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

HIGHWAY PATROL
Jack Kerouac (JOB) DWI, Siamese twin hostage situation
     
— What was with that long beep sound just now?
— Not really caring for this so far. It also probably doesn’t help that I’m not familiar with the show it’s parodying.
— Okay, I like this sudden premise of someone holding their own Siamese twin hostage.
— John in two different roles in the same sketch???
— John and Bill as Siamese priests is pretty funny.
— Amusing touch with John doing same hand gestures as Bill when Bill is talking.
— Some technical issues at the end, with the ending credits failing to display while the theme music was playing.
STARS: **½

BABA WAWA AT LARGE
an interview with Godzilla (JOB) in his L.A. home

— I’m already liking this idea of Baba Wawa interviewing Godzilla.
— John using a normal, casual voice for Godzilla is pretty funny.
— Overall, I wanted this to be better than it turned out. Despite some laughs, I don’t feel this lived up to its potential. I was a little bored during some parts.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (DR. JOHN, LEVON HELM, PAUL BUTTERFIELD)

HOOVER / NIXON
Richard Nixon (DAA) wants J. Edgar Hoover (host) to support police force
 
— I always love Dan’s Nixon impression.
— Didn’t Gilda play Julie Nixon last time? So why’s Laraine playing her now? Strangely, this is the second time tonight where Laraine took over a role that was previously played by Gilda.
— What’s with Bill and Garrett as effeminate blond-haired secret service men?
— Love the intended irony of 1970 Nixon saying it would take a real idiot to get himself impeached.
— Couldn’t help but get a cheap laugh from the audio recording of a Chinese hooker repeatedly moaning “Oh, Mr. Plesident” in a stereotypical Asian accent.
— Oh, THAT’S why Bill and Garrett are playing effeminate secret service men.
— I feel like I’m saying this for the 100th time in this review, but I felt this sketch didn’t fully live up to its potential.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (THE METERS)

GOODNIGHTS
 

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— I’m not too crazy about what I just watched. This episode had a bit of a bland feeling to me. Thinking back on the show, it wasn’t even particularly bad nor did I give out a large amount of low ratings, but I dunno, the show just left me a little underwhelmed. And nothing in it is standing out as particularly great in my memory, except for Bill Murray’s groundbreaking address to viewers.
— Hard to say anything about Broderick Crawford himself, as he did little during the show. I’ll just say that considering his seeming physical limitations, he did okay with what he was given, and he had a laid-back atmosphere to him that made him quite likable and relatable.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sissy Spacek):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Jack Burns (the second consecutive host I’m completely unfamiliar with)

Posted on

March 12, 1977 – Sissy Spacek / Richard Baskin (S2 E15)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
sudden death of director Dave Wilson [real] prompts castmember eulogies
   
— For some reason, I cracked up at Don Pardo’s hesitance when stating “The director of the show, uh… died.”
— Dave Wilson being slumped over the control board the whole time is a pretty funny visual.
— Dan’s doing a great job at making this look genuinely awkward and spontaneous.
— Why does Bill’s face look so old and haggard in this? Is he wearing some kind of special make-up for a later sketch?
— Gilda: “He reminded me of my grandfather.” Dan: “Oh, yeah? What does your grandfather do?” Gilda: “He died.”
— I like the strange animal clips shown during the highlight reel of Dave’s career.
— Boy, this is a long opening. Not complaining, though.
— Interesting ending with Dave being brought back to life by the cast saying LFNY.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host gives her Oscar speech & performs baton scene cut from Carrie
 
— This is straightforward so far, with nothing really all that funny yet.
— The sudden baton-twirling ending was fairly fun, if not exactly funny.
STARS: **½

BURGER MASTER
Burger Master makes your sandwich how you want it- no request is too odd
   
— Bill still has the old, haggard make-up on, and I just now realized why: I remember this episode having the famous “Ask President Carter” sketch, where Bill wears old make-up as Walter Cronkite. I guess to save time, they put the make-up on Bill before tonight’s episode started.
— The customers’ crazy requests and the employees happily fulfilling them is pretty funny.
— Strange seeing early-era Jim Downey with such long, blonde hair. Also, I think this is his very first speaking role on the show.
STARS: ***

ASK PRESIDENT CARTER
he has the answers for all callers’ questions
 
— I’ve always loved this sketch ever since I first saw it in an SNL “Presidential Bash” compilation special back when I first started really getting into SNL.
— Bill’s Walter Cronkite impression is making me laugh a lot.
— What’s was with the first caller’s echo-ish voice?
— Dan’s Carter is fantastic acting all cool and collected while expertly answering all of the callers’ questions.
— Funny part with “Dr. Midnight”’s obscene call.
— Classic part with Dan talking down the caller who took acid. I especially like Dan’s suggestion to listen to some Allman Brothers.
— LOL at Nixon over the phone. Is that a pre-taped Aykroyd doing the voice? It sounds like his impression.
STARS: ****½

AMY’S BEDTIME STORY
ex-con nanny (GAM) tells Amy Carter (host) a felonious bedtime story

— Ask President Carter has interestingly transitioned into this related sketch.
— Unless I’m forgetting something, I think this is Garrett’s very first drag role on the show. I’ve always heard that he played a lot of women on SNL.
— I’ve been finding a lot of Garrett’s performances pretty rough these last few episodes, but his delivery in this is kinda making me laugh. I’m fully prepared, though, to quickly get sick of him playing drag roles as I go further down SNL’s timeline.
— Oh my god, Sissy’s sudden attempt at doing streetwise jive talk is HORRENDOUS. It also doesn’t help that I can barely decipher what she’s saying during it.
STARS: **

HOW YOUR CHILDREN GROW
JAC interviews quintlexia sufferer (BIM)
 
— Yet another new Jane Curtin talkshow sketch.
— Oh, wait, I know where this is going. This is the “quintlexia” sketch that has an infamous screw-up I’ve always heard about, where Bill Murray supposedly blows the “only able to speak the same five words” joke by accidentally saying more than five words at one point.
— Geez, Bill looks uncomfortable right from the start of this sketch, and he keeps making heavy breathing sounds while Jane’s talking. What’s up with that?
— Okay, there’s Bill’s infamous gaffe, where he says “That’s true, you’re absolutely right about th–” and then kinda cuts himself off when he realizes his mistake. Honestly, that wasn’t as bad as legend had me expecting. It isn’t throwing the sketch off as much as I though it would, and his flub was so inaudible that a lot of viewers probably didn’t even notice it. Supposedly, Lorne and the writers were PISSED at Bill for his mistake, though. I think I even remember reading that Bill overheard one of the writers referring to him as a “fucking amateur” backstage after the sketch ended.
— This sketch is getting quite funny.
— Love Jane cruelly asking Bill inappropriate questions (e.g. “You sleep in a wedding gown, don’t you?”) just so she can hear him helplessly respond with those famous five words.
— Jane’s sudden “Oh, shut the hell up!” had me laughing out loud.
— Overall, that was definitely better than I was expecting. Still, I kinda wish they waited until later in Bill’s tenure to do this sketch, when he was an established pro and was no longer a nervous new kid in the cast.
STARS: ***½

JOHN BELUSHI’S DREAM
JOB announces that he’s leaving show business to train for the decathlon

— This almost feels like a precursor to John’s classic Little Chocolate Donuts commercial from a year or so later.
— This wasn’t anything special and came off kinda filler-ish.
STARS: **

WEEKEND UPDATE
in a rhyme-filled LAN interview, Muhammad Ali (GAM) unveils movie plans
Emily Litella doesn’t understand the fuss over “endangered feces”
   
— Something blocked the Yankees picture on the news screen for a second.
— Haha, that joke about how the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson needs to finally be put to its death was quite mean-spirited. Little did they know at the time just how bad the Tonight Show could truly get later on with a certain big-chinned successor of Carson’s…
— A nice touch how they followed Garrett’s rhyming Muhammad Ali commentary with an Update joke from Jane that also rhymed.
— Ohh, here comes yet another visit from Emily Litella…
— Okay, I’m ashamed to admit it, but Litella’s “endangered feces” rant is actually kinda making me laugh.
— And now, I just got a surprisingly good laugh from Litella’s intentionally bad joke about how the feces could “really hit the fan”.
— Jane coldly telling Litella that her shtick is “wearing thin” and that “at first, it was cute, then it was tolerable, now it’s annoying” perfectly echoes how I (and I’m sure some viewers at the time) generally feel about this character. Too bad that had to be followed by the usual “bitch” remark from Litella, as if THAT joke hasn’t gotten just as tired as the rest of her shtick.
— No mid-WU break tonight.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

FRANKEN AND DAVIS
ALF & TOD perform a newscast from the evening of World War III
 
— LOL at the unseen audience member who keeps suggesting “Pittsburgh!” everytime Franken and Davis look to the audience for suggestions.
— Franken’s delivery of “575 million…Chinese” made me laugh.
— Overall, nothing special, despite the good premise. This wasn’t horrible, but felt like it could’ve been funnier.
STARS: **½

GIDGET GOES TO SHOCK THERAPY
terminally cute women (host), (GIR), (LAN) suffer from Gidget’s Disease
 
— Gilda portrayal of a little girl seems even cuter than usual to me in this.
— A very funny twist from Jane.
— I like the dark humor of the shock therapy treatment premise, and Jane has had some really funny lines.
STARS: ****

ROMANCE
argument of white trash couple (JOB) & (host) is spurred by impotence
 
— John is funny in this, even though this seems to be a more dramatic sketch.
— Sissy’s voice during her angry rant is kinda brutal on the ears.
— Sissy’s doing better now during her whole story about receiving a sign from God.
— Nice ending.
— Overall, a pretty well-done slice-of-life piece.
STARS: ***½

BATON
by Gary Weis- slow motion footage shows host twirling a baton
 
— Absolutely no idea what to say about this, other than my usual “a typical dull Gary Weis film” and “his films belong on a different show” comments.
STARS: *½

BAD PLAYHOUSE
Leonard Pinth-Garnell (DAA) presents The Millkeeper
   
— SNL’s very first Leonard Pinth-Garnell “Bad (insert type of play here)” sketch.
— The various insane looks on John’s face is cracking me up.
— Overall, hilariously bizarre & pointless. I’m looking forward to future installments of this sketch.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

OUTTAKES
by Robert Altman- host’s 3 Women & Welcome To L.A. scenes are juxtaposed
 
— This appears to be a montage of random clips from Sissy Spacek movies.
— Yet another short film that I have no idea what to say about.
— Wait, did she just kiss her own panties before hanging them up in that one clip just now? Why?
STARS: *½

GOODNIGHTS
   
— A few differences I noticed in the writing credits tonight: Aykroyd is now listed separately instead of listed as a team with Belushi, and Belushi is now strangely listed as a team with Murray.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An average episode with an average host. A lot of the sketches worked, but not much is standing out to me aside from Ask President Carter and maybe Gidget Goes To Shock Therapy. Sissy Spacek did an okay-if-forgettable job for the most part, despite a few irksome unintelligible moments and I just now realized that I wasn’t crazy about ANY of the segments that were centered entirely around her (the monologue and the two short films).
— Is it true that this ended up becoming an Emmy-winning episode? That doesn’t really make sense to me. There were much more noteworthy episodes this season.
— I felt Jane had a pretty strong night. The niche she’s carved out for herself as a blunt, icy, no-nonsense straightman was put to great use several times tonight: Gidget Goes To Shock Therapy, the end of the “quintlexia” sketch, and the Emily Litella commentary on Update.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Martin):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Broderick Crawford

Posted on

February 26, 1977 – Steve Martin / The Kinks (S2 E14)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
the cast is unhappy that host’s success has gone to his head
   
— When Gilda and Steve started talking to each other at the beginning, what was with the very brief cutaway to some of the male cast members just standing around? Technical error?
— They mistakenly cut off Gilda’s mic before she said her final line.
— Bill to Steve: “I wasn’t here last time you did the show, but from what I hear, I don’t think I like you too much.” Heh, that reminds me of how Bill would feel in real life a year later when Chevy Chase came back to host the show. Up until that week, the rest of the cast had told Bill so many negative stories about working with Chevy, which painted a really bad picture of him in Bill’s mind and caused lots of tension between the two of them the whole week Chevy hosted. And we know what infamous incident that ended up leading to…
— Hilarious when an angry Belushi had to be held back from attacking Steve after Steve did his “Excuuuuuse meeeee!” catchphrase.
— Overall, an enjoyable backstage cold opening with a good premise.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Lily Tomlin is credited as a special guest.

MONOLOGUE
host gets happy feet, sings Indian folk song, describes “getting small”
 
— I liked him randomly snapping a photo of himself at the beginning.
— Another Steve Martin monologue that begins with him doing about 20 different things within the first minute.
— His exaggerated Indian chanting is cracking me up.
— Steve: “I hate people who are still into [drugs].” You mean, like, say, practically everyone you worked with on SNL that week?
— The whole “getting small” routine is hilarious.
STARS: ****

THE CONEHEADS AT HOME
IRS agent (host) asks Coneheads some questions about their tax returns
   
— Only the Coneheads’ second appearance, and the audience is already applauding their entrance.
— It’s pretty fun watching Steve playing a straight man to them.
— Their answers to Steve’s questionnaire are pretty funny.
— A fine installment, overall, though I liked their first one better.
STARS: ***½

GARRETT MORRIS: “NUR WER DIE SEHNSUCHT”
GAM performs “Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt” during explanatory scroll
   
— Garrett’s wearing the same festive conga-type outfit that he and some of the other male cast members wore at the preceding episode’s goodnights.
— Another operatic performance from Garrett.
— And another scrolling disclaimer during an operatic Garrett Morris performance.
— A few really funny lines in tonight’s disclaimer, especially the Harry Belafonte one.
STARS: ***½

CELEBRITY WEIGHTLIFTING
Russian (JOB) defeats Jackie Onassis (GIR)
   
— I remember seeing this sketch before, but I’m not sure where, as this is my first time seeing the rest of this episode. If this sketch is in Gilda’s Best Of, then I’m guessing that’s where I saw it before.
— Just the idea of putting Jackie Onassis in a competition like this is already very funny.
— Whenever I think of how great Gilda could be at doing physical comedy, this is usually one of the first sketches that immediately come to mind. She’s mining lots of laughs out of her strained, drawn-out attempts to lift the weights.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— Haha, Jane dryly addresses her famous bra-flash moment from her last Update, then says “Not tonight, I have a headache.”
— After stumbling through the set-up of the Adolf Hitler/Rudolph Hess joke, Jane stops, and then slowly repeats the entire joke from the beginning. Yikes. Not sure whether to laugh or feel embarrassed for her.

DR. BREADLOAF’S QUICK-LOSS DIET BOOK
the pages of Dr. Breadloaf’s (GIR) Quickloss Diet Book are the meals
 
— I already like the name of Gilda’s character, Ruth Breadloaf.
— What the hell? Eating pages?
— Overall, I didn’t care for the premise, but Gilda did what she could with this.
STARS: **

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
LAN reports from an expensive & dangerous military aircraft
 
— Dan’s reaction to Laraine’s question is pretty funny.
— Jane is quite stumbly with her delivery tonight.
— Jane’s accent at the end of the airline joke was good.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

BROADWAY BABY
on a diner set, Lily Tomlin [real], GIR, LAN, JAC perform “Broadway Baby”
 
— I had been wondering what Lily Tomlin was going to do tonight.
— Oh, I don’t like where this is going.
— Man, this musical performance from Lily and the girls is just plain boring to me. It can’t be said enough in my reviews how much I dislike watching straightforward singing of a non-comedic song in sketches, and how much I dislike sitting through Broadway-type showtunes.
STARS: **

PLUG
doctor (host) tries to “accidentally” pull the plug on comatose boy (JOB)
   
— Steve’s inappropriate “moss” joke was hilarious.
— Another very funny inappropriate joke with Bill informing Steve to pull the plug after hearing how much it costs to keep his son alive.
— I’m liking Steve’s failed attempts to “accidentally” pull the plug.
— John’s performance and delivery is weird.
— Overall, I wasn’t too crazy about the strange turn this took after John came out of his coma, which is a shame because I was loving where the sketch had been going before then.
STARS: ***½

NEW ORLEANS SOUL FOOD RESTAURANT
by Gary Weis- Buster Holmes [real] shows off his New Orleans restaurant
 
— Is this film a leftover from the previous week’s Mardi Gras special?
— I’m running out of different ways to say “a typical dull Gary Weis film” in every episode review. I feel kinda bad for being so down on his films, because they seem well-meaning and are not awful in themselves; they’re just on the wrong show.
— All this particular film is succeeding in doing to me is making me very hungry.
STARS: *½

HOLLYWOOD BINGO
(host) consumes game show with celebrity introductions
     
— Steve was very funny unintelligibly explaining the rules in a rapid-fire manner.
— The return of Garrett’s so-bad-it’s-good Sammy Davis Jr. impression!
— This is fun so far, with the fast-paced endless parade of impressions.
— I know I said before that 70s-era Tom Schiller sometimes resembles Fred Armisen, but he ESPECIALLY reminded me of him in this sketch.
— The punchline with the show running out of time before the game could even be played reminds me of a gripe I have with SNL’s current Celebrity Family Feud sketches: they always take up so much damn time having Kenan Thompson’s Steve Harvey introduce each celebrity impression that by the time they get to actually playing the game, it just ends up being a minor part of the sketch.
STARS: ****

FROM THE BIG ORANGE TO THE BIG APPLE
Lily Tomlin characters go to NYC
   
— Hey, it’s Ernestine!
— Oh, Lily seems to be playing every part in this film.
— It feels like Lily is basically co-hosting tonight’s SNL with Steve.
— Overall, a pretty funny film.
STARS: ***½

ROOTS II
more oppressed ancestors of Alex Haley (GAM)
   
— The concept of doing a rushed sequel to Roots sounds quite funny and promising, though I’m wondering how they’re going to pull it off with this particular cast.
— Haha, I’m strangely liking seeing John and Bill playing black roles and wearing half-assed dark grease that’s smeared over a few spots of their faces and bodies.
— John’s character being named Bop-Shoo-Wop is hilarious.
— Hmm, Bill is actually very good at sounding black. Part of me isn’t surprised by that.
— This sketch is hilarious so far.
— Another big laugh from Steve as the slave owner telling John his name is now Peggy Fleming, during the parody of the famous Roots whipping scene.
— This died down towards the end, unfortunately; kinda like the hospital room sketch earlier tonight.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

LOVERS
in a singles’ bar, (host) & (GIR) discover they have plenty in common

— As no surprise, Steve and Gilda are having very charming chemistry with each other.
— Some parts of their conversation, when talking about their favorite kinds of pain and talking about what they hate kinda reminds me of the Willie & Frankie sketches (a.k.a. the “I hate when that happens” guys) that Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest would later do in season 10.
— Overall, a very nice little scene to end the night with.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS
 

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Another consistently solid Steve Martin episode from this season, though I felt his first episode had more memorable sketches than this one. This was still enjoyable, Steve has developed into a reliable recurring host, and special guest Lily Tomlin’s presence added to the fun vibe of the night (even if I didn’t like that musical Broadway sketch of hers).

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Sissy Spacek