Author: Stooge

Posted on

January 29, 1977 – Fran Tarkenton / Leo Sayer, Donny Harper and The Voices Of Tomorrow (S2 E13)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
JOB coaches host & cast on what to do during tonight’s show
   
— John as the coach: “We’re losing some strength; Belushi’s gonna be out this week.”
— This is a fun and interesting way to open the show, and I’m loving all the energy.
— SNL’s very first instance of a group LFNY.
STARS: ****

MONOLOGUE
(BIM) gives play-by-play as GAM takes over host’s rendition of “Feelings”
    
— I like the little touch of how the floor of the homebase stage’s main section has been painted to look like the 50-yard line of a football field.
— What was with the sound of a bass playing in the background briefly while Fran was in the middle of talking?
— Fran’s having some funny lines at the expense of the Vikings’ Super Bowl loss.
— Oh, he’s begun singing. I guess that explains the brief bass sound earlier.
— I like how this has suddenly turned into a continuation of the SNL football team cold opening, and Bill Murray as the play-by-play commentator is adding to the fun.
STARS: ***

SWISS ARMY GUN
(DAA) pitches Rovco’s multi-purpose Swiss Army Gun
  
— Another Rovco item, like the Puberty Helper from the Jodie Foster episode.
— It goes without saying that Dan’s doing yet another great job as a pitchman.
— The visual of all the features of the oversized swiss army gun is funny, especially how the actual gun part is just a small normal revolver.
STARS: ***½

AMY
Secret Service agents (BIM) & (DAA) help Amy Carter (LAN) cheat on a quiz
   
— This is the one sketch from this episode I remember when I saw this episode years ago.
— Dan and Bill are hilarious as the secret service men.
— Love the part with Dan and Bill stuffing Gilda inside her desk. That’s the portion of this sketch that stuck with me all the years since I last saw this episode.
— After the Gilda/desk gag, Bill seemed to accidentally hurt Gilda for real by unintentionally closing the desk top on her hand. Gilda’s making a comically-exaggerated pained facial expression, and Bill looks genuinely apologetic towards her.
— The ending could’ve been a little better.
STARS: ***½

SIDELINE
after losing an arm, football player (DAA) is sent back into the game
 
— Another continuation of the cold opening’s premise.
— Funny reveal with Dan’s missing arm after it reportedly got torn off during the game.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (LEO SAYER)

BLACK PERSPECTIVE
host confirms stereotypes about blacks as quarterbacks
 
— Garrett sure flubbed his intro to Fran.
— This is the first actual sketch Fran has appeared in tonight.
— Hilarious with Fran explaining that all the negative stereotypes about black football players are true. I’m kinda surprised they’re getting away with racial humor of this extent.
— Garrett’s reactions are funny, too.
STARS: ****

ALSATIAN RESTAURANT
(BIM) & (JAC) get great food & domestic strife at an in-house restaurant
   
— The whole repeated thing with Dan and Gilda loudly arguing off-camera in the kitchen after putting on a kind facade for their guests is too predictable for my likes, and is too cliched of a premise.
— Okay, Dan returning from the kitchen with blood on his face is kinda funny.
— Funny detail of Gilda picking the spilled food up off the floor and serving it on a platter after she got pushed out of the kitchen.
— Gilda slowly sneaking up on Dan with a knife… okay, I’m liking where this sketch is going now.
— Overall, too much of this sketch suffered from feeling too cliched, but it slowly got better towards the end.
STARS: **½

SUGAR-FROSTED ANABOLIC STEROIDS
host gets strength he needs from sugar-frosted Anabolic Steroids cereal
 
— An okay premise for a commercial.
— I got a good laugh from the “turn your grapes into raisins” line.
— Fran’s delivery sure is awkward in some parts of this, and you can tell he’s amused by the lines he’s reading.
— Great reveal with his wife having a whole bunch of facial hair due to eating the cereal.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
tired of being compared to CHC, JAC rips open her shirt & displays bra
silent film footage documents testing of the new cruise missile
   
— An odd start with Jane very coldly addressing criticisms of her Update performance from viewers who miss Chevy and feel that Jane can’t hold a candle to Chevy’s sex appeal.
— Jane: “[The network is] putting a lot of pressure on Lorne to try somebody new for Update, like that new kid Murray or whatever his name is.” Ha! Little did Jane know that she’d eventually be co-anchoring Update with “that Murray kid”.
— Oh, wait, I think this whole rant of Jane’s is leading to a certain famous moment…
— Yep, and there it is. “Try these on for size, Connie Chung!” Always a classic. Even though, as mentioned earlier, I previously saw this episode years ago, this is the first time I remember seeing this “Try these on for size, Connie Chung!” moment in its full context instead of just as a clip in SNL highlight reels.
— Funny how Jane seamlessly transitioned from her angry demeanor to a professional news anchor delivery immediately after her whole rant ended.
— I like the cruise missile launch being represented by a wacky black-and-white silent film clip of people frantically running away from a bomb that’s following them.

COMMUNITY APPEAL
host says “thanks to Community Appeal, drug-addled JOB is working”
 
— Uh, is John supposed to be acting like a special-needs kid? If so, this seems kinda in bad taste, but I’d be lying if I said John’s performance wasn’t giving me some laughs.
— At certain points in this, John’s voice actually sounds like future cast member Chris Farley’s.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
 
— Jane seems to be playing to the camera a lot more than usual in tonight’s Update, like making lots of charming little random ad-libs to the camera (“Hi, there”) or just giving the camera a funny sly look. I wonder if this is her attempt to spice up her Update performance in response to the aforementioned criticisms she’s supposedly been getting.
— Another ad-lib from Jane, with her jokingly starting to open her shirt up a little again after the Shirley Temple Black joke bombed.
— That polar bear story was too similar to the zoo stories that Chevy used to sometimes do on Update.
— Yay, no Emily Litella.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ****

ALICE
with JOB’s coaching, host does a hotel room sketch with LAN
   
— This has turned into yet another continuation of the “SNL football team” premise, with Fran calling a time-out in the middle of a sketch and running off-stage to receive advice from “Coach John Belushi”.
— Why does “Coach John Belushi” now have gray hair? He didn’t have it earlier tonight.
— The “time-out” interludes are cool and everything, but the actual bedroom sketch with Fran and Laraine is not interesting me.
STARS: **

GRAND STAND, PART 1
Lee Whitehead (BIM) & Bryant Gumbo (GAM)

— The preceding sketch has segued into this sports-related one.
— Boy, if Garrett’s supposed to be doing a Bryant Gumbel imitation, then he’s doing a TERRIBLE job.
— Huh? Why did Bill and Garrett throw to a “commercial” as soon as this started? It’s bad enough that Weekend Update in this era always has to have a fake ad break in the middle; now they’re doing that in the middle of sketches, too?

SPEARMINT GUM
at a funeral, Spearmint Gum-holding priest (TOS) says “carry it with you”
  
— This is actually a rerun from season 1, but it wasn’t in my copy of any episodes from that season, so this is my first time seeing it.
— The twist at the end was really random, but cracked me up. I probably would find this even funnier, though, if I was familiar with the real ad this seems to be parodying.
STARS: ***

GRAND STAND, PART 2
Lee Whitehead (BIM) & Bryant Gumbo (GAM) interview host
     
— The “Saturday Night” blimp was pretty funny.
— Funny gag with the halftime show of a marching band performing a salute to “blind non-white American composers”.
— A bizarre brief technical error just now, where the entire screen turned yellow except for the little monitor showing Fran.

— Fran’s gay quarterbacks remark about someone who reportedly insulted him (I didn’t catch the name) got some shocked “ooh!”s from the audience.
— Bill flubbed the hell out of his “terrific steroid bit” line (“terrific styroid bead”).
— I like the idea behind them doing slow-mo replays of clips of Fran from earlier in the show, but nothing funny is coming out of that.
— During the fake ending credits playing now, I just caught a listing of “Engineered by Coneheads”. Haha! And keep in mind, the Coneheads haven’t even become recurring characters yet at this point; they’ve only been done once.
— Some other parts of these fake ending credits seem to be reusing the same jokes from the fake ending credits of the all the Ford/Carter debate sketches (including the same typo where Dr. Seuss is misspelled “Dr. Suess”).
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (LEO SAYER)

SMALL WORLDS
by Gary Weis- amphibians & reptiles displayed at pet store
   
— Very random outro with Fran, on the homebase stage, holding a tarantula and getting “bitten” by it. It was a cheap, predictable gag, but I got an unintentional laugh from how they abruptly cut to a black screen after Fran yelled from getting “bit”.
— Regarding the film itself, well, the frog was funny, at least. The rest of this was the usual Gary Weis snoozefest.
STARS: **

FRENCH LIQUID
the new perfume gives different scents to different women
 
— This was a weird short piece, but I liked the narrator’s increasingly-odd fragrance descriptions given to each woman’s perfume.
— I think that was the voice of O’Donoghue as the narrator, by the way.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (DONNY HARPER AND THE VOICES OF TOMORROW)
— Fran bizarrely introduces them by the wrong name: “Donny Harper and The Voices Of America”.

CREDIT CARD
Rhonda Weiss (GIR) & credit card employee Barbara (JAC) one-up each other

— The return of Gilda’s Jewish character that was introduced in the Ralph Nader episode.
— I’m liking Gilda and Jane constantly one-upping each other in a stereotypical Jewish New Yorker way.
— Jane’s doing a good job playing a similar character to Gilda’s.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS
 
— We don’t get the usual goodnights speech from the host. These goodnights just begin with the credits rolling and the music kicking in. I guess they were running really low on time.
— Also, no Don Pardo goodnights announcement tonight either.
— Some of the male cast members are wearing festive conga-type outfits for some reason. Was a sketch cut at the last minute? Or were they dressed like that because the (infamous) Mardi Gras special was approaching?

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very average episode. Kinda reminds me of how I felt about the Dyan Cannon episode from season 1: consistently decent but overall very forgettable. Tonight’s “SNL football team/Belushi as coach” running premise added a fun vibe, at least, and gives this episode the slight edge over Dyan Cannon’s.
— As SNL’s very first athlete host, Fran Tarkenton wasn’t anything special, and he played himself in everything he appeared in, but his expected wooden acting style wasn’t bad enough to drag down the show or anything. I’ve seen worse from some athletes who would host later.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ruth Gordon):
— a moderate step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Steve Martin

Posted on

January 22, 1977 – Ruth Gordon / Chuck Berry (S2 E12)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
prospect of drug cutoff makes injured JOB well enough to do SNL

— I like this premise and I like how they’re addressing John’s return from his absence in the last episode.
— The situation of this, with the doctor urging Lorne to put John on the air while Lorne is worried John is not in shape to go on is like the reverse of a well-known real-life situation that would happen backstage a few years later the night of (I think) the Kate Jackson episode from season 4, where John was in terrible health and a doctor informed Lorne that there are odds that John could die if he  performs on the show that night, and Lorne reportedly snapped back “I’ll take those odds!” and defiantly put John on the air. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that episode, so I’m morbidly curious to see how much John’s poor health was evident during the show.
— Funny ending.
— John’s the first non-Gilda cast member to say LFNY in the post-Chevy Chase era.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Bill Murray finally receives a credit as a cast member.

MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Man, she’s speaking a mile a minute.  Nice energy, though.
— And that’s it??? It’s over already? Nothing even happened in this! Not even sure if I should rate it.
STARS: N/A

THE MARINES
— Rerun of a fake ad

ME
Barbra Streisand (LAN) sings a medley about how great she is

— Loved the “even if my film sucks” lyric.
— Very nice performance from Laraine.
— Okay, this is starting to go on too long.
— And it’s still going on…
— Overall, this was still pretty good and featured a great job from Laraine, but it really would’ve benefited from being shortened.
STARS: ***

THE LITELLA SISTERS AT HOME
Emily Litella & sister Essie (host) discuss issues of the day

— A change of pace seeing Emily Litella outside of Update. However, I’m still tired of this character.
— This has turned meta with Emily trying to come up with a topic for her next Weekend Update commentary.
— Boy, that “Air F*g / homos” joke would not fly today AT ALL.
— The “Flea Erection” correction was pretty funny.
— Ruth is not doing a very good Emily Litella imitation at all.
— A kinda-funny ending with Emily putting the postcard in the toaster.
STARS: **

TOMORROW
Dino De Laurentiis (JOB) talks about the King Kong remake
 
— So John really IS confined to a wheelchair? I thought it was just a gag for the cold opening, much like the cold opening from earlier this season when Chevy returned from his hospitalization in a wheelchair, only to immediately get pushed out of it (by John, ironically). It’s gonna be weird seeing John like this in every sketch he’s in tonight.
— The second “A Star is Born” reference tonight.
— The mean comments about Streisand are really funny.
— Like the “Me” sketch earlier tonight, this is another one that’s started to drag on too long.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
LAN asks Lillian Carter (host) what it’s like to be the new First Mother
  
— Jane’s opening gag involving her spraying perfume inside the chest of her shirt was interesting.
— Ruth’s story had a funny twist.
— I wonder how Jane made herself burp on cue like that.

CRAZY FRANK
(DAA) identifies truly Crazy Frank as source of Crazy Ernie’s low prices
 
— Dan’s performance here is even more maniacal than his usual fast-talking pitchmen. He’s killing me in this.
— A funny parody of these types of real-life “Crazy (insert name here)” ads.
— The ridiculously low prices are hilarious.
— IIRC, this would end up being the first in a series of “Crazy (insert name here)” fake ads than Dan would do on the show. I think I also remember Jim Belushi doing one or two of these in the Dick Ebersol era.
STARS: ****½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
to JAC’s annoyance, Emily Litella hasn’t found anything to report about

— Oh, no. I didn’t realize the earlier Emily Litella sketch was going to lead to an actual Update commentary later in the same episode. Not happy about that, though it IS always interesting the times an SNL sketch starts a premise that continues later in the same night.
— Litella pointing out Jane’s crankiness and asking “Is it that time?” was pretty funny, I admit.
— Emily to Jane: “Bitch.” Oh, yeah, THAT sure hasn’t gotten old yet!!![/end sarcasm]
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): **½

NIGHT MOVES
by Gary Weis- lady loses patience with absent boyfriend GAM
   
— What the HELL was up with Garrett’s intro? It was very awkward; he badly stumbled his way through the whole thing. Was that intentional? Also, is this his first appearance of the whole night?
— This is a little better than the usual Gary Weis films, as this music video-esque film is well-edited-together, and the sexiness of this is entertaining me.
STARS: **½

LITTLE OLD LADIES OF THE NIGHT
elderly (host) becomes a hooker
   
— I like Dan’s intro.
— I think Garrett’s wearing the exact same pimp outfit he wore in the “white horse / white whores” bit from the Dyan Cannon episode.
— During Gilda’s close-up, someone accidentally blocks the screen for a quick second as they’re walking past.
— Bill Murray! I had actually forgotten he’s now part of the cast, as this is his first appearance of the whole damn night.
— Also, I think that was Bill who accidentally blocked the screen in Gilda’s aforementioned close-up. I had heard that Bill was prone to making gaffes in his early episodes.
— I love Dan’s occasional, increasingly-exaggerated exclamations.
— Overall, a weak and uninteresting sketch. Dan was pretty much the sole highlight.
STARS: *½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

BABYSITTER
a girl (GIR) asks her babysitter (host) some questions about sex
 
— As usual, Gilda’s doing a very convincing job as a little girl.
— Funny line from Ruth about God clumping males’ dirty parts together because they’re always losing things.
— Probably the best performance Ruth has given so far tonight, which still isn’t saying much. Most other female hosts probably could’ve done more with the solid script this sketch has.
STARS: ***½

MR. BILL GOES TO A MAGIC SHOW
by Walter Williams- mangling ensues
 
— Loved the ending with Mr. Bill being “sent into outer space”.
— Overall, this was the usual greatness from Mr. Bill.
STARS: ****

RICKY JAY
Ricky Jay [real] does a card trick with two audience members
   
— Two segments in a row tonight dealing with magicians?
— WTF at this guy’s bizarre laughing during his opening card trick.
— Pretty cool trick he did with the female audience member.
— What in the world was with the ending?
STARS: ***

THE LAST DAYS OF HOWARD HUGHES
projector repairman (GAM) observes dying Howard Hughes’ (LAN) compulsions
   
— Laraine as Howard Hughes??? Well, the opening scrolling disclaimer did describe Hughes as being scrawny and scraggly, so who better in the cast to play him than rail-thin Laraine Newman?
— Well, I can tell THIS is gonna be a weird sketch…
— They’re really going light on Bill Murray tonight, relegating him to only appearing in the post-Update half of the show in forgettable supporting straight roles, which makes no sense to me considering how he impressed with a strong dominant presence in his debut the preceding week.
— Garrett: “This guy is Nixon, ain’t he?”
— Loved Garrett’s delivery of “Aaaaallllll white people are crazyyyyy…”
— I liked the weirdness behind this (I bet O’Donoghue wrote it), but the overall sketch fell flat.
STARS: *½

WORLD OF ADVENTURE
anthropologist’s (host) breast-filled film excites E. Buzz Miller (DAA)
  
— The debut of E. Buzz Miller!
— What the hell was up with Dan and Ruth talking over each other for a long time? That didn’t seem to be a part of the script to me. Sloppy as hell. I’m guessing Ruth’s the one to blame for that.
— This sketch was way too short. Pretty much nothing happened in it besides Dan commenting during the brief African native dancing clip they showed. I thought what I was watching was just the beginning, but then the sketch ended before it could even take off. I wanted to see so much more from this.
STARS: **

MR. MIKE’S LEAST-LOVED BEDTIME TALES
MOD tells (GIR) a Least-Loved Bedtime Tale- “Willy The Worm”

— Overall, this was okay, but a step down from the last one. This was more like the first two installments of this sketch, where Mr. Mike’s story wasn’t quite as twisted and disturbing as it should be.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS
   
— Ruth’s comment about “bare-assed” costume changes made me laugh.
— The cast seems pretty warm in their interactions with Ruth, which is kinda surprising me because I remember reading that the cast supposedly didn’t like working with her. But then again, the cast also acted warm to Louise Lasser during her goodnights, so I’ll just assume that they were really good at hiding their true emotions when interacting with an unruly host during the goodnights.   It’ll be interesting to see if this also holds true for the goodnights  of the Milton Berle and Frank Zappa episodes later this era.
— John gets carried out of his wheelchair and is brought onto the stage. I just now realized that aside from the cold opening, he only appeared in one actual sketch tonight. Guess there’s not many roles you can write a wheelchair into.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Much like the Jodie Foster episode from earlier this season, this was another one that I heard has a bit of a bad reputation, but unlike the Foster episode, which I personally found to be surprisingly decent, THIS one lived up to its reputation. Despite a few highlights, this was an overall weak episode, with a lot of wasted potential like the E. Buzz Miller and Howard Hughes sketches, and some good sketches suffering from going on a lot longer than they should have, like the Barbra Streisand and Tom Snyder sketches.
— Ruth Gordon’s energy during her monologue made me want to root for her, but boy, did she end up being a subpar host. I don’t know the story of what went on with her backstage that made the cast supposedly hate working with her, but there were some moments during this episode where I could understand the animosity, especially whatever the hell she was doing in the E. Buzz Miller sketch where she kept stepping all over Aykroyd’s lines while he was trying to end the sketch.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ralph Nader):
— a big step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Fran Tarkenton

Posted on

January 15, 1977 – Ralph Nader / George Benson (S2 E11)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
safety hazards at Studio 8H dampen host’s attempt to lighten his image
   
— LOL at Ralph’s suit.
— Hilarious part with Ralph informing Garrett that the hot dog he’s eating contains “rat excrement and rodent hairs”. Garrett’s reaction is funny as well.
— The airbag ending seemed to be botched by a special effects failure, but Nader was able to still make it funny.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Hey, where was Bill Murray’s credit??? This is his first episode, so I was anticipating seeing him credited among the cast in the montage. Disappointed not to see him in this. I guess since he was SNL’s very first new cast hire after the show’s debut, they wanted to break him in carefully so viewers wouldn’t have an instant negative reaction to SNL’s first newbie. Oh, well, this wouldn’t end up being the only time a new cast member was uncredited in their first episode; off the top of my head, the opening montage of the season 24 premiere strangely gave no credit to then-new cast hires Jimmy Fallon, Chris Parnell, and Horatio Sanz, despite the fact that they appeared in noteworthy roles throughout that episode.

MONOLOGUE
“technical errors” occur while host talks about RCA’s wrongdoing
  
— For some reason, after Pardo announced him, Nader just walked onstage from the front instead of making his entrance from down the stairs in the back of the stage like hosts usually do in this era.
— Pretty funny with the “Network Trouble Temporary” screen showing up when Ralph began revealing bad things about RCA.
— And now, the camera has begun slowly panning away from him as he’s continuing to go on, which kinda reminds me of some of Buck Henry’s monologues.
STARS: ***

LONG DISTANCE
(BIM) starts badmouthing his ingrate grandson while waiting for his call

— Our very first appearance of Bill Murray!!!
— With him not being credited in the opening montage earlier, I’m sure a lot of audience members and viewers back then must’ve been wondering who the heck this guy is and why he’s starring in his own sketch at the top of the show.
— Going through SNL’s timeline in chronological order on a daily basis, it feels so interesting for me to see a new cast member after I’ve gotten so used to the cast we’ve had since the show debuted.
— His slowburn with him gradually turning against his grandson is great, especially his line “I hope the kid dies”.
— And now, he had an even funnier line, bitterly mentioning how the watch he gave the grandson cost “800 friggin bucks”. I didn’t even know that saying “friggin” was a thing yet in the 70s. In a way, it’s very fitting that SNL’s first use of that word was uttered by Bill Murray.
— Overall, a great first sketch for Bill to make his debut in.
STARS: ****

T.V. EXECUTION
(BIM) directs the dress rehearsal for the televised execution of (TOS)
   
— I like this premise, doing a dress rehearsal for a prisoner’s execution.
— I’m getting some pretty good laughs from Dan’s comically stiff performance.
— Wow, Bill Murray in another big role already?
— Bill is absolutely fantastic in this! This feels like the type of performance I’d expect from him in his later seasons, when he was an established SNL pro.
— Bill’s reaction to the casting decision of having a black priest was very funny.
— Funny part with the “AARRGGGGHHHH!!” cue card being used prematurely.
STARS: ****

BABA WAWA TALKS TO HERSELF
Baba Wawa promotes her new special, in which she talks to herself
 
— Gilda’s delivery is great here, rapidly listing off the silly topics she’ll be covering in her next special. It must not be easy speaking that fast while flawlessly doing the ‘w’ talk that Gilda does as Baba.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

NADER / CARTER
host dreams of Jimmy Carter (DAA) planning a Confederate takeover
   
— Good gag with Ralph fastening a seat belt over himself and then sleeping in his office chair.
— Funny touch with Dan’s Carter having peanuts scattered on his desk.
— Ralph’s spastic gestures when he’s enthusiastically making his points to Dan’s Carter is giving me some laughs.
— I like the turn this took with Dan’s Carter going over his plans for a confederate-themed inauguration.
— Loved Dan’s crazy southern war yell.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE
hospitalized JOB calls in to ask JAC why no one has mentioned his injury
BIM’s report on Rosalynn Carter concerns the new First Lady’s looks
Texxon chairman (host) tells LAN the conditions of a solar energy deal
new correspondent Emily Litella is against making Puerto Rico a “steak”
       
— Jane’s hairstyle is a lot different tonight.
— Oh, I completely forgot that I had read somewhere about Belushi not appearing in this episode due to an injury. Surprisingly, I hadn’t even noticed his absence.
— What’s with cast members this season getting injured and having to take an episode off? First Chevy, now John.
— The picture shown of John “in happier times” during his phone call made me laugh.
— John: “Who’s that new kid that’s in the show? The one with the mustache. Murphy? What’s his name?”
— Love the bit with Jane gushing over the phone about what a great performer Bill Murray is while John gets jealous.
— Bill Murray with his own Update commentary!
— Interesting seeing Bill interacting with Jane, considering they would later become an Update team.
— Bill’s perverted details about Rosalyn Carter’s legs are very funny.
— Great ending with Bill saying “Next week, Miss Amy Carter”.
— Nader’s performance in the Laraine remote segment was funny, but why did it end with a very muted audience?
— Emily Litella’s commentary is introduced by Jane interestingly announcing her as a new addition to the Update team.
— Hmm, not sure why they went out of their way to have Jane give Litella that special introduction as if this Litella commentary was going to be a change of pace, considering this has ended up being same old shtick.
— I do like Jane’s cold reactions to Litella.
— Aaaaand there’s the return of Litella’s “bitch” line that was introduced in just the last episode. I see SNL has wasted no time in already starting to run that once-funny joke into the ground.
— No mid-Update break tonight.
STARS: ***

ANDY KAUFMAN
as Elvis, Andy Kaufman [real] sings “Love Me” & “Blue Suede Shoes”
   
— Our first time seeing Andy in quite a long time.
— He has a big suitcase with him? Oh, is this gonna be the classic bit where he becomes Elvis?
— Him as Foreign Man doing non-impressions is always funny to watch.
— It’s pretty fascinating watching his extended transformation into Elvis while he has his back to the camera.
— Haha, the audience is going nuts at him having now flawlessly become Elvis.
— Fantastic Elvis musical performance.
— I love the “somethin’ wrong with muh lip” part during the close-up of him doing the Elvis lip-twitch.
— This second Elvis musical performance is even more fun, especially the great dancing he’s doing during it.
— Perfect ending with him, sweaty and out-of-breath, going back to doing a Foreign Man-voiced “dank you veddy much” into the microphone.
STARS: *****

PARTY DOLLS
host “tests” party dolls during a magazine reporter’s (GAM) visit
   
— Pretty funny premise. I like Ralph trying to pass off his use of blow-up dolls as being for “experiments”.
— I’m enjoying Garrett’s straight man reactions in this, especially him constantly gulping down wine to help him get through the weirdness he’s witnessing.
— Ralph is great in this. He made me laugh a lot just now with his “Yvonne failed the Nail Test” line.
— Ralph’s “Not today, I have a yeast infection” line was a hilarious ending.
STARS: ****

GARBAGE
— Rerun of a Gary Weis film from last season

THE CONEHEADS AT HOME
aliens Beldar (DAA) & Prymaat (JAC) Conehead have adapted to Earth life
     
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— I’m getting a kick out of hearing the audience’s great reaction to the initial reveal of Dan’s cone-shaped head when he removes his winter cap.
— One of the cameras oddly has a mysterious red shade on the left end of the screen. (you can see it in the third and fifth screencaps above) Actually, I kinda noticed it earlier in the Party Dolls sketch, but it’s especially noticeable here.
— This is such a great example of how delightfully weird Dan Aykroyd sketches tend to be.
— The part with the Coneheads piggishly “consuming” potato chips and six-packs of beer is a riot. Bill Murray’s reaction is great, too, as well as him hesitantly trying to eat like them.
— Early-era Bill Murray’s voice sounds quite different, at least in this sketch. At some points in this, he actually sounds kinda like Belushi, funnily enough. Then again, I think Bill might just be doing a youthful voice in this sketch since he’s playing a teenager.
— The ring toss ending was very funny.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

YOUTH ASKS THE QUESTIONS
students give host lightweight questions
   
— Has Nader been wearing that exact same suit in every sketch tonight?
— Laraine’s Sherry character’s name is spelled with an ‘i’? Sites like SNL Archives have always spelled her name with a ‘y’.
— The debut of Gilda’s Jewish character, Rhonda Weiss. I’ve always found this character funny.
— The ridiculous questions and Ralph constantly getting cut off is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

AMBASSADOR TRAINING INSTITUTE
— Rerun of a commercial from last season

GOODNIGHTS
  
— Another host who mispronounces John Belushi’s last name as “Belucci” during the goodnights. It’s probably just me who finds that kinda funny.
— This is the first time in this era that I’m seeing a listing for James Downey in the writing credits. Was this his first episode as a writer, or was he already one and I just failed to notice his name in the goodnights of earlier episodes?
— Don Pardo: “Joining tonight’s cast was Bill Murray.”
— The cast has begun walking off the stage, one-by-one.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very good episode. The material was consistently solid, there weren’t any sketches I disliked, and we got an all-time classic Andy Kaufman performance & a great debut of one of the best recurring characters from this era (Coneheads).
— Ralph Nader was a better host than one might expect. Right from the beginning of the cold opening, he came off very game and eager to perform silly material. While he ended up playing himself in literally every sketch (unless I’m mistaken) and, as I pointed out earlier, seemed to wear the exact same suit in everything after the cold opening, he did a good job in every sketch, and was particularly funny in the Party Dolls sketch.
— I was very impressed by Bill Murray in his debut. It’s well-documented what a rough beginning he would have on the show his first few months, but you sure wouldn’t know that from watching this episode. I saw no signs of first-night jitters, no signs of someone who was going to initially have a hard time fitting into an already-established show. He performed like someone who’s already been in the cast for a while, and I especially loved his performance in the first two sketches (Long Distance and T.V. Execution) as well as his Update commentary. I’m very curious how he goes from a confident newbie in his first night to someone who’s struggling on the show so badly that he eventually had to address that in a meta sketch where he talks to us about how he doesn’t think he’s “making it on the show”.
— Belushi’s absence surprisingly didn’t hurt this episode (like I said earlier, I didn’t even notice he was missing until it was mentioned halfway through the episode on Update), but now that I’m thinking about it, I do miss his presence, especially considering what a fantastic night he had in the preceding Christmas episode. I’m looking forward to his return in the next episode.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Ruth Gordon

Posted on

December 11, 1976 – Candice Bergen / Frank Zappa (S2 E10)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
home from prison, Patty Hearst (GIR) spends the evening with her family
   
— This opening is almost TOO topical. I remember when I first saw this episode years ago, I had absolutely NO context for what this opening was about, which made me feel pretty lost. Thankfully, due to me watching SNL episodes in chronological order for my ‘One SNL a Day’ project, I now know a lot more about Patty Hearst, simply because SNL has been making A LOT of references and Update jokes about her in these first two seasons. That’s one of the things that’s going to be fascinating about going through SNL’s timeline for my project: it will almost be like a history lesson, due to how many topical references the show has made over the decades. These first two seasons have taught me some things I didn’t know about Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, etc.
— Everything on TV having some kind of relevance to Patty Hearst’s unfortunate situation is pretty funny.
— Nice meta ending.
— So far, the only cast member in the post-Chevy Chase era to say LFNY has been Gilda, in three out of four episodes (the one non-Gilda LFNY in those four episodes was from musical guest George Harrison). I wonder if the plan at the time was for Chevy’s LFNY tradition to be passed on to Gilda, but somewhere along the line, they decided it would be better to have a different person say it each week.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
JOB’s Humphrey Bogart impression gets reluctant host out of dressing room
     
— There’s no entrance from Candice Bergen after Pardo has announced her name, which is reminding me of Buck Henry’s second monologue from last season, where he went missing.
— And now, the bit with Candice refusing to come out of her dressing room is reminding me of Louise Lasser’s monologue, only without the infamy and without the real-life uncomfortable subtext.
— Jane: “He’s not worth it; no man is, especially John Belushi.”
— Lorne is cracking me up with his seriously questioning how Belushi has so much power over women.
— Jane: “[John]’s had his way with every single woman on this network; why do you think Barbara Walters left?”
— This has turned into an interesting Casablanca parody.
— For some reason, I liked Candice’s line to John about how she’s only attracted to “swill”.
— Yet another funny line: “We’ll still have Paris… and the Muppets.”
— Overall, a very good monologue.
STARS: ****

JIMMY CARTER
Jimmy Carter (DAA) announces he won’t be able to keep all his promises

— Funny premise with Dan’s Carter going back on his campaign promises from the election.
— Another Bob Dylan quote from him. Was the real Jimmy Carter known for pandering to Dylan fans during the election?
— Dan’s Carter: “Don’t expect things to start improving until the beginning of my second term.” Uh, I have bad news for you, Jimmy…
STARS: ***

SANTI-WRAP
DAA touts Santi-Wrap as protection from unhygienic Santas, like (JOB)
 
— A very memorable fake ad that’s been played in a lot of compilation specials.
— Love the close-up of John drunkenly going “ho ho ho” after taking a swig from his bottle.
— Overall, a very funny concept that was executed perfectly.
STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
   
— An incredible and legendary performance of “I’m The Slime”, especially Don Pardo’s participation and the special effect of the slime oozing out of the TV monitor.

CONSUMER PROBE
Irwin Mainway (DAA) defends some unsafe children’s toys
   
— The debut of Irwin Mainway, one of my all-time favorite Dan Aykroyd characters. And this debut sketch is probably Mainway’s most well-remembered appearance.
— The ‘Teddy Chainsaw Bear’ is particularly hilarious.
— I love this part with him trying to prove how normal, safe toys are supposedly “dangerous”.
— Loved him throwing himself backwards out of his chair when strangling himself with the phone wire.
STARS: *****

K-PUT PRICE-IS-RITE STAMP GUN
— Rerun from last season

RIGHT TO EXTREME STUPIDITY LEAGUE
Fern’s (host) friend Lisa (GIR) supports the right to extreme stupidity
   
— Yet another very memorable sketch.
— Gilda is very funny playing a character like this.
— Here’s the legendary blooper, where Candice mistakenly calls Gilda “Fern”, which is her own character’s name, then says “I mean… whatever your name was” and starts cracking up.
— Topping that is Gilda’s classic subsequent “We all can’t be brainy like Fern here!” line.
— Haha, Candice cannot stop laughing; she’s not even trying to hide it.
STARS: *****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
(TOS) begs his wife JAC to come home, then hides beneath the newsdesk
Ray Basalt (DAA) gives the holiday radioactive fallout report
     
— Interesting opening, with Jane arguing with her “husband” Tom Schiller.
— After the Nixon joke bombed, Jane crumbled the paper she read the joke off of and gave it to a hand that reached out from under the desk. What the…? Was that planned?
— Another gag with the hand.  Okay, it seems to be an intentional running gag in tonight’s Update. And I just now remembered that Schiller ducked under the desk at the end of the opening “arguing with Jane” bit, so that must be his hand we’re seeing.
— Dan doing a “Fallout Report”… I can tell I’m gonna like this.
— This “Fallout Report” segment is featuring the usual masterful fast-paced Aykroyd performance.

FX-70 CHEESE SLICER
the new FX-70 cheese slicer resembles a Polaroid camera
   
— Are we in for another non-joke sponsored Polaroid ad?
— Oh, the “cheese slice coming out of the camera’s photo dispenser” gag. I remember seeing this commercial before.  I’m glad this isn’t another plug for Polaroid.
— Cute commercial.
— Candice again started cracking up at the end; I’m not sure why this time.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella is bothered by the notion of collecting for “Unisex”
   
— This is Emily Litella’s first appearance in quite a long time. My main complaint about her in the past was how overused she was, appearing in long stretches of consecutive episodes, which is way too much for a character with a thin premise like her.
— This is also the first time she’s appearing with Jane as the anchorperson instead of Chevy.
— Heh, and now they actually mentioned that, by having Litella say to Jane “Ever since you’ve been doing Update, I haven’t been on the show too much; I used to be on quite often.”
— Loved Litella’s “bitch” remark to Jane. Unfortunately, IIRC, they eventually run that into the ground in Litella’s subsequent appearances.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
— Belushi! Futaba! He came out of nowhere!
— Haha, that whole thing was amazing, with Futaba’s crazy scatting in fake Japanese, him having the band imitate everything he does, and his bizarre ways of playing the saxophone.
   

THE KILLER TREES
(DAA) & (JOB) search for the bloodthirsty arbor
     
— Oh, I always love watching this sketch.
— Yet another display of wonderful operatic singing from Garrett.
— Garrett suddenly getting impaled by the tree while in the middle of singing was timed so well.
— Funny little touch with Gilda giddily singing “La Cucaracha” while dialing the phone.
— LOL at the “tree branch sticking through the chest” effect unintentionally being delayed when Gilda tried to trigger the mechanism on herself.
— Love the 70s-sounding action music sting that plays after someone gets killed by a tree.
— Hilarious seeing Frank Zappa randomly being among the tree suspects in the police line-up.
— “Lieutenant Bushakis”. So I guess this counts as another appearance from John’s Steve Bushakis character who appears in different random sketches each time.
— The tree’s high-pitched raspy singing of “O Tannenbaum” always cracks me up.
— John asking about the guy behind the tree and Dan pointing out it’s just a stagehand is something I used to think wasn’t part of the script, but is obvious to me now that it definitely IS.
— Overall, I don’t know if this sketch is widely considered a classic, but it’s always been one of my personal favorite sketches of this whole era.
STARS: *****

DIANA NYAD
by Gary Weis- Diana Nyad’s [real] students talk about her as she trains

— As the camera fades to black at the end of Candice’s intro, you can see Candice busting out laughing due to her intro sounding awkward.
— Another Gary Weis film I have no idea what to say about. This is a well-meaning mini-documentary about this swimmer, but as with a lot of Weis films, it’s just not entertaining or interesting me AT ALL. It’s also killing the momentum this episode had going until this point.
STARS: *½

ADOPT BELUSHI FOR CHRISTMAS
host announces the Adopt JOB For Christmas Contest- he has nowhere to go
 
— Candice, when talking about the cast’s vacation plans for the holidays: “I guess Garrett will be going back to Africa…”
— I love the premise of this, and it’s being executed very well.
— Random Chevy Chase mention.
STARS: ****

GARY GILMORE
cast performs “Let’s Kill Gary Gilmore For Christmas”
 
— Third segment in a row with Candice doing an intro from the homebase stage, and in the exact same outfit too.
— Such a grim intro to this by Candice, but I’m glad she’s going into detail about Gary Gilmore’s crimes, because I otherwise would’ve had no context for him.
— Very funny reveal of the song’s main message about killing Gilmore. It’s hilarious hearing such dark, sadistic lyrics being sung in a cheery Christmas tone.
— At first, I almost thought some of the cast members were missing from this, due to how incredibly small the cast group in this sketch looks. But then I remembered that the entire cast size really is this small with Chevy gone. There are only SIX members of the cast at this point, though that doesn’t last much longer.
— Overall, a classic performance.
STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
host & castmembers close the show from Rockefeller Center skating rink
     
— SNL’s very first instance of the goodnights taking place at the Rockefeller Center skating rink.
— The show must be running short, since Candice is obviously being forced to keep talking to the camera. Haha, she’s not even trying to hide her embarrassment over not knowing what to say.
— And now, she just made a very funny deadpan remark: “This is such an unfair thing to do to me”.
— Now Candice and the cast have begun skating.
— Funny seeing a shaky Michael O’Donoghue skating with both of his hands being held by someone.
— I’m impressed by Candice’s ability to skate backwards.
— The return of the Killler Tree’s high-pitched raspy singing of “O Tannenbaum”.
— Wow, I have no idea why, but I’m now actually starting to feel kinda emotional and a bit teary-eyed watching this.
— I think this episode holds the all-time record for longest the goodnights music has ever been played in an SNL episode. Not only did the complete song play, but it actually started up again afterwards until the show eventually faded to black. I think the only other episode that comes close to having goodnights music as complete as this is actually the most recent Christmas episode from 2017 with Kevin Hart (which, just like tonight’s episode, also had ice-skating goodnights).

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Wow, what a great episode! Definitely one of the best I’ve reviewed so far in this project; in fact, I’d say of all the episodes I’ve covered, this one is probably my second favorite, after the Richard Pryor episode from season 1.
— Literally every single one of the actual sketches tonight worked, with so many of them being strong, memorable, and highly-regarded, and several of them flat-out being all-time classics. The captivating musical performances from Frank Zappa and the special extended skating goodnights also added to the overall epic vibe. If it wasn’t for the Gary Weis film, this would’ve been a 100% flawless episode.
— Of the cast, Belushi seemed to have a particularly great night, giving a lot of memorable, stand-out performances.
— Once again, Candice Bergen was a solid host, had a comforting presence, and worked so well with this cast. With this being the second consecutive Christmas episode she hosted, it should’ve remained a tradition for her to host every Christmas show in this era (much like how it would soon become a tradition for Buck Henry to always host the season finales in this era), but unfortunately, this episode would end up being the last time she ever hosted with this cast. In fact, she doesn’t make her return until 11 years later, during the late 80s Phil Hartman/Jon Lovitz era.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
We enter 1977, with Ralph Nader hosting, and a certain new cast member joining the show!

Posted on

November 27, 1976 – Jodie Foster / Brian Wilson (S2 E9)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
peeved GIR tells viewers that she won’t be in much of tonight’s show
 

— Loved how after Gilda casually brought up LFNY, they falsely started the opening montage & theme music before being cut off by Gilda yelling she’s not finished yet.
— Yet another “while someone is addressing the camera, a disclaimer on the bottom of the screen reveals the truth” gag. Always funny.
— After Gilda delivered the real LFNY, the theme music kicked in as usual, but they took a long time to cut to the opening montage for some reason, thus we just see Gilda standing on stage for a while as the theme music was playing.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host maintains that her youth has had no effect on her treatment at SNL
 
— Just now, she has mentioned that she’s the show’s youngest host, which receives applause from the audience.
— The jokes about all hosts being treated like a kid are pretty tepid, not helped by Jodie’s awkward delivery of them. However, I do like hearing her namedrop some of SNL’s previous hosts (Raquel Welch, Desi Arnaz, Elliott Gould).
STARS: **

PILSON’S FEEDBAG DINNERS
CHC recommends Pilson’s Feedbag Dinners for people on the go
   
— Chevy ONCE AGAIN??? Ha, he’s been gone for a grand total of ZERO episodes since he “left the cast”. I guess because of how popular he was during his tenure and because SNL wasn’t used to cast members leaving the show, SNL felt they had to wean the audience off of him.
— Funny visual with people eating from the feedbags. Nothing more to this commercial than that, though.
STARS: ***

PETER PAN BEES
Wendy (host) doesn’t believe in Bee Peter Pan (LAN) or Tinkerbee (JOB)
Bee directors Dave Wilson & Heino Ripp [real] send SNL to a commercial
   
— I’m not liking Jodie’s performance as a typical 70s stoner much.
— John freaking out is pretty funny.
— Laraine: “Bees are like Muppets with longer contracts.”
— Hmm, fourth-wall break, with Jodie asking the audience to applaud to bring Bee John back to life. I’m liking this.
— LOL at John’s request for a standing ovation.
— Loved the cutaway to Bee Dave Wilson and Bee Heino Ripp in the SNL control room.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

PUBERTY HELPER
host shows how Rovco’s big Puberty Helper bag prevents teen trauma
   
— Dan doing a fantastic job as yet another manic fast-talking pitchman.
— Who’s the guy in the Puberty Helper bag talking to Jodie? Neil Levy? I’ve gotten to the point where any time I don’t recognize a guy in a sketch from this era, I assume it’s Levy.
— The scene with Jodie and the guy could’ve been funnier.
— Dan is hilarious quickly spouting off the long list of things that Puberty Helper prevents.
— For some reason, I cracked up at Dan’s odd way of pronouncing “bra”. I assume that pronunciation is a Canadian thing.  Norm Macdonald, another SNL canuck, once pronounced “taco” in a similarly odd fashion (“tack-o”) during a Weekend Update joke about Taco Bell.
STARS: ***½

METAL DETECTOR
airport security guards (LAN) & (musical guest) detain metal-laden (DAA)
   
— The reveal of Dan wearing a whole bunch of kinky metal under his clothes is very funny.
— Funny ending with Laraine giving the Tin Woodsman a free pass through the metal detector.
— What was the point of Brian Wilson just standing there silently for almost the entire sketch?
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
JAC phones Jimmy Carter (DAA) with Generalissimo Francisco Franco quiz
alleged footage of Christina & Jackie Onassis mud-wrestling over will
   
— What was with Jane’s “Here but for the grace of God goes Gilda” opening line? I guess that was some kind of reference to tonight’s cold opening.
— Jane’s phone call to (president-elect) Jimmy Carter was pretty fun.
— The mud wrestling clip representing a fight between Christine & Jackie Onassis was good and silly, helped by Jane’s solid narration.

WHAT KINDA GUY WATCHES SATURDAY NIGHT?
promiscuous Steve Bashekis (JOB) is the sort of man who watches SNL

— John played this Steve Bushakis character before, but I can’t remember when. Maybe the Prisoner Auditions sketch from season 1.
— This whole thing was just baffling. What was the point of this? And what was with the weird homophobic vibe?
STARS: *½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
JAC reads viewers’ suggestions on how Morris The Cat should kill himself
 
— Another mention of “CIA director George Bush”.
— A very good follow-up to the preceding episode’s Morris the Cat bit.  I wonder if the suggestions Jane read were really sent in by viewers.
— No guests tonight.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

LITTLE KNOWN TALENTS OF THE NOT READY FOR PRIME-TIME PLAYERS
LAN’s talents include imitations of a crying baby & a possessed chicken
 
— Gilda’s intro to this seems to be a continuation of the cold opening’s premise of Gilda not having anything to do tonight because she’s being “phased out of the show”.
— This sketch appears to be in a similar vein to the sketch last season with Gilda and Madeline Kahn each displaying a unique impression they can do.
— I really liked Laraine doing the Looney Tunes theme song with her lip.
— Very funny ending with Laraine imitating a chicken possessed by the devil.
STARS: ***½

DON PARDO: THE FIRST 50 YEARS
(DAA) narrates DOP’s life history
     
— I’ve always heard about this sketch.
— Great part with young Pardo tattling on his classmates in his usual professional style.
— John playing multiple roles in the same sketch?
— Dan’s insane extended laughter cracked me up.
— Oh, everybody seems to be playing multiple roles in this sketch.
— Lorne in 1975: “Don Pardo? Is he still alive?”
— Overall, a very entertaining sketch, and this made me really appreciate and respect Pardo’s long, impressive career.
STARS: ****½

TEACHER
smitten (host) has a chat with junior high biology teacher (DAA)

— This seems to be one of those realistic, slice-of-life sketches that this era would often do.
— Boy, did Jodie have a hard time delivering that line about a “felt tip pen”.
— Overall, nothing great, but this whole sketch had a charm to it that I appreciate.
STARS: ***

KIDS’ DREAMS
by Gary Weis- kids talk about dreams they have at night

— Gilda’s intro was another funny continuation of tonight’s “Gilda’s being phased out of the show” running premise.
— Typical dull Gary Weis film; this time, it’s a “cute” video with little kids babbling nonsense about dreams they’ve had. Sorry, not my type of SNL entertainment.
STARS: *

THE KING KONG DIRGE
GAM sings “The King Kong Dirge”
 
— As usual, Garrett’s operatic singing voice is phenomenal, but I’m not quite sure what I’m watching so far.
— Okay, I’m now starting to kinda love the powerful tone of this performance. It’s actually quite haunting and moving.
STARS: ****

SIDE NOTE: The “Gilda’s being phased out” gag continues, as we now see her sitting in the audience while the camera zooms in on her, in a similar manner to when the show does audience captions.  Gilda’s adorable in this.
 

WHITE WIFE
(JAC) reveals to her husband (GAM) that she’s not black

— Two consecutive sketches starring Garrett Morris? There’s something you don’t see everyday.
— The little white ball of fuzz on the top of Garrett’s head is a bit distracting.
— Is this the same interracial couple that Garrett and Jane played in that awful Chevy Chase bellhop sketch from season 1?
— Jane’s dramatic “I’m not black” reveal seems like a really funny concept.
— A good laugh from Jane’s “The bottoms of my feet are the same shade as the tops!” line.
— This kinda lost me at the end.
STARS: ***

MR. MIKE’S LEAST-LOVED BEDTIME TALES
MOD tells host a Least-Loved Bedtime Tale- “The Little Train That Died”

— With the inclusion of Jodie, this seems like this will be a bit different from the previous two appearances of this sketch.
— This is a lot better than the last two, as this has exactly the type of twisted, disturbing humor I’ve come to love from Mr. Mike, with him acting out the train’s sudden heart attack, the bit about the schoolbus of kids getting killed by the train, and the ending with the frog getting beaten to death.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
 
— Haha, I couldn’t help but notice that Jodie mistakenly called John Belushi “John Belucci”.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— I had always heard negative things about this episode, so I went into this expecting a rough show. What I ended up getting was not as bad as I was expecting. I didn’t quite see why this episode has such a negative reputation. I’m not saying this was a great episode, but there were a few sketches I found really well-done (Don Pardo: The First 50 Years, King Kong Dirge, Mr. Mike), I enjoyed the “Gilda’s being phased out” running premise throughout the night, and there were nowhere near as many duds as I thought there would be. Honestly, I’ve seen worse episodes this season (Karen Black, Dick Cavett).
— Another negative thing I had always heard about this episode is Jodie Foster’s performance as host. After seeing this episode for myself, I can kinda see what those criticisms were about. Her performances in the first 10-15 minutes were pretty rough, but I felt she got a little better as the night went on. I’m probably going a little easy in my critique of her due to her young age, though. That being said, some of SNL’s later kid hosts would do a more impressive job on the show (Fred Savage especially).

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Candice Bergen hosts the Christmas show, for the second year in a row

Posted on

November 20, 1976 – Paul Simon / George Harrison (S2 E8)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host says “hi” to CHC on way into studio; LOM haggles with musical guest
    
— This opened strangely with Don Pardo’s voice-over explaining that “portions of the following program have been pre-recorded”. You could hear some people in the audience awkwardly chuckling afterwards.
— Oh, an outdoors cold opening. I guess that explains the special Pardo intro.
— ANOTHER Chevy cameo?!?
— The joke of Chevy being a down-and-out street performer in his post-SNL career is pretty funny, I admit. But man, with him appearing in the first two episodes after his departure, it doesn’t feel like he’s even left yet.
— I love how Lorne and George Harrison’s conversation is referencing Lorne’s famous Beatle Offer sketch.
— Paul Simon’s doubts to Lorne about the monologue is pretty funny, especially when you know what the monologue is going to be.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
turkey costume-wearing host complains to LOM about his wardrobe
   
— This is a famous monologue that’s often shown in SNL’s annual Thanksgiving compilation special.
— The visual of Paul seriously singing “Still Crazy After All These Years” in that ridiculous costume is simply great.
— I’m getting a lot of laughs from Paul’s angry complaining to Lorne, and Lorne is equally hilarious not understanding Paul’s anger.
— Overall, a classic monologue.
STARS: *****

QUARRY
all-natural Quarry cereal is full of minerals because it’s made of rocks
 
— A very funny concept.
— I love the loud crunching sound effects.
— Overall, a strong fake ad.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (PAUL SIMON)

BABA WAWA AT LARGE
Henry Kissinger (JOB) talks about his career

— Another Baba Wawa talk show sketch.
— Some of John’s deadpan facial reactions are pretty funny.
— Baba Wawa: “Have you any final words for the Amewican pubwic?” Kissinger: “(bluntly) No.”
— Overall, an okay sketch, though I’m beginning to tire of the constant Baba Wawa talk show sketches.
STARS: ***

THE TWILITE ZONE
Rod Serling (DAA) joins three starlets in a hotel room
 
— Dan is doing an absolutely flawless imitation of Rod Serling’s voice. I feel Dan doesn’t get enough credit for being such a strong impressionist in general.
— A funny unplanned part when the camera panned over to Dan too late after he had stopped speaking, then after an awkward silence, Dan just smiled really big at the camera.
— I had been wondering where this whole thing was going, but the reveal at the end was pretty funny. Still feels like this Twilight Zone parody could’ve been funnier, though.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE
LAN reports from a Long Island diner full of Nazi war criminals
JAC asks viewers to suggest how Morris The Cat should kill himself
GAM reports on a new strain of gonorrhea that kills penicillin
     
— Jane’s porn star cocktail joke was great, made even funnier by Jane’s apologetic comment immediately afterward: “It’s my job, mom, I’m sorry.”
— The whole Morris the Cat bit is fantastic, especially Jane urging viewers to send in ways to kill him.
— I believe this is Garrett’s very first commentary at the Update desk.
— The old black-and-white cartoon footage representing penicillin is pretty funny. As I said sometime before, I always get a kick out of when SNL does stuff like that.
— The “Loretta” punchline of Garrett’s commentary was hilarious.
— Yay, no mid-WU break!
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (PAUL SIMON AND GEORGE HARRISON)

CRACKERBOX PALACE
musical guest performs “Crackerbox Palace” in music video
   
— Not sure if I should rate this, since this is just a George Harrison music video.
— Despite that, this is fun to watch and the song is very catchy.
— I also like knowing that Eric Idle directed this; I can definitely see his influence in the video’s style.
STARS: N/A

BILLY PAUL
Billy Paul (host) fights for civil rights in an ice cream parlor
     
— Surprisingly, this is the first actual sketch Paul has appeared in all night.
— I like the shifting backgrounds behind Paul.
— That sure looks like 70s era Shelley Duvall as one of the diner patrons. (lower right corner of the third screencap above) That can’t be her, though, can it? Wouldn’t she have been too famous at the time to randomly appear as a silent background extra in an SNL sketch? In fact, doesn’t she actually host later this same season?
— Dan crushing ice cream cones during Gilda’s terrible singing is pretty funny.
— Hilarious gag when the door immediately slammed back into Paul’s face after he busted the door open.
— Paul’s cracking me up with his performance as an over-dramatic tough guy character.
— I like how this ended with the characters marching off the set and continuing to march through the studio.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (PAUL SIMON)

TOMORROW
it’s clear that Tom Snyder (DAA) has no idea who host is

— The return of Dan’s hilarious Tom Snyder.
— Pretty funny with him constantly mixing Paul up with other people.
STARS: ***

THIS SONG
musical guest performs “This Song” in a musical courtroom
   
— Another George Harrison music video.
STARS: N/A

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (PAUL SIMON)

GOODNIGHTS
 
— Paul: “My special apologies to Michael O’Donoghue, he knows why.” Did a segment of Michael’s get bumped?

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A strange episode, in how a majority of the show was taken up with musical performances and George Harrison music videos. Those were all fine in themselves, but that combined with the low amount of sketch content brought back not-too-fond memories of Paul’s season 1 episode, which consisted of almost nothing but musical performances. Tonight’s episode wasn’t nearly as extreme, but still left me craving more sketches.
— I guess I can’t complain too much. After all, what we got in this episode was still good, there weren’t any sketches I disliked, the monologue was a memorable classic, and as always, Paul Simon did a very good job and had a likable presence.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
14-year-old Jodie Foster

Posted on

November 13, 1976 – Dick Cavett / Ry Cooder (S2 E7)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
GAM hits his TV when Chroma-Trak girl GIR’s colors are reproduced wrong
 
— Garrett’s confused reaction to the TV gave me a pretty good laugh.
— Interesting how this ended with Gilda doing a fall. This being the first episode after Chevy Chase’s departure, viewers at the time probably assumed from this sketch that Chevy’s cold opening pratfall tradition would live on through the remaining cast, but as we now know, that didn’t last long.  What if  it DID stay a tradition to this day in 2018?  Can you imagine the political cold openings nowadays ending with Alec Baldwin’s Trump or Kate McKinnon’s Jeff Sessions doing a pratfall before saying LFNY?
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
host attempts to answer a few questions from the audience

— Hmm, according to Dick, he’s a last minute replacement for Elliott Gould, who was the originally-booked host for this episode. If Elliott had hosted, this would’ve been the third time an episode of his either followed or preceded a Buck Henry episode. Was SNL trying to make it a tradition for Buck and Elliott to always host back-to-back?
— A good laugh from “What makes New York so crummy these days?” “Tourists.”
— Funny answer to the “Are you hung in proportion to your height?” question.
STARS: ***

PUPPY UPPERS & DOGGIE DOWNERS
(LAN) recommends Puppy Uppers & Doggie Downers for (GIR)’s unbalanced dog
 
— This is a well-known fake ad from this era that I’ve never seen for myself before.
— Overall, that lived up to the hype pretty well. I wouldn’t say it’s a classic, but I found it very enjoyable.
STARS: ****

BLONDE AMBITION
Richard Nixon (DAA) tried to pin Watergate on John Dean (host)
 
— Al Franken’s voice-over in this is hilarious!
— I always love Dan’s Nixon.
— Overall, a pretty good Nixon sketch, though I’ve seen better ones.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

NEXT WEEK
GIR announces Paul Simon & George Harrison will do the next SNL

— Just a straightforward announcement from Gilda of the next episode’s guests. This had no jokes, no cameos, or anything.
STARS: N/A

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
JAC repeats Sally Field’s multiple thoughts on playing the role of Sybil
LAN reports from the site of Smokey The Bear’s ironic cremation
   
— The Jane Curtin era of Update officially begins.
— Interesting beginning, with Jane engaged in a “How’s Your Sex Life?” article she’s reading, instead of doing Chevy’s ‘raunchy phone conversation’ bit, despite the fact that there’s a phone right next to her.
— What??? They’re repeating the famous ‘prostitution stamp’ joke from last season? Why?
— Jane was fantastic doing various voices during the Sally Field/Sybill joke. I especially liked how she snuck “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” in there.
— Jane had a funny ad-lib when looking at the wrong camera during the baptist church joke.
— And just now, Jane made an even funnier ad-lib when the audience had no reaction to the punchline of the baptist church joke due to her stumbling over several words.

THE MARINES
Marine (GAM) is looking to pick up a few good men
   
— Fairly funny punchline.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2

— The twist of Jane’s Good Samaritan joke was very dark, which I loved just for that reason, also helped by Jane’s good delivery of it.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

CROSSROADS
communication breakdown caused by (JOB)’s desire to drop out
   
— Funny when Dan suddenly smacked John out of his chair after John’s long speech. John’s exaggerated extended reaction is making it even funnier.
— Oh, now John’s speaking to Gilda. Don’t tell me she’s going to do the same thing to him that Dan just did.
— (sigh) Yep, she did. Wasn’t anywhere near as funny, since I saw it coming. Also, the audience noticeably didn’t laugh AT ALL.
— Dick’s line at the end was great, but man, what a long way to go just for that joke.
STARS: **½

MOBILE SHRINK
CHC stars in TV show about analyst who visits his patients
   
— WTF? Chevy??? ALREADY??? He just left!
— Could Chevy seriously not go through ONE EPISODE after his departure without making his first cameo? Good god.
— Am I crazy, or is that future cast member Ann Risley on the therapist couch? It sure looks like her. I knew Denny Dillon appeared in a 70s episode, but I never knew her season 6 castmate Ann Risley apparently did, too. What next – will I be seeing Gail Matthius as a background extra in a sketch from 1977?
— The end of the pizzeria scene was kinda funny.
— Overall, this commercial as a whole fell flat. I dunno, maybe I didn’t enjoy it because the entire time, I was too busy just going “Really, Chevy? You couldn’t wait until more than one episode?”
— Maybe I’m being too harsh on Chevy. After all, this commercial may possibly have been a way for SNL to show how Chevy has moved on from their show, by airing a fake ad with him starring in a jokingly-bad NBC drama. That still doesn’t make this commercial funny to me, though.
STARS: *½

HOW THINGS WORK
(host) explains to JAC how pressure groups work

— That medicine bottle/typewriter joke may have been so bad, it was funny, but I can’t even tell.
— Overall, yet another sketch I wasn’t all that crazy about.
STARS: **

THE PARAMOUNT NOVELTY STORE
by Gary Weis {rerun}

— Isn’t that the same lady from that Novelty Store film Gary Weis did last season?
— Oh, wait, this IS the same film. I pretty much hated this the first time, and I’m not looking forward to having to now sit through an encore presentation of it.
— The audience is laughing their asses off at this. Like I said sometime before, they usually seem to like Gary Weis films a lot more than I do.
STARS: N/A

BEE HISTORY
grandparent Bees (JOB) & (LAN) recall overcoming past discrimination
   
— Dan’s “Boy, I’d love to dip my spoon in her honey” remark about Bee Laraine was very funny.
— John’s ending “son of a bee” line was pretty good.
— Overall, I appreciate the idea behind this sketch, but the result ended up being yet ANOTHER sketch tonight that left me bored. Man, tonight’s show has really fallen apart after Update.
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

MR. MIKE’S LEAST-LOVED BEDTIME TALES
“The Blind Chicken”

— Surprised they bought this back so soon, after only one episode.
— Something about the lighting and those glasses are giving Mr. Mike a nice, devilish look.
— Another pretty good story, and I liked Mike acting out the chicken being eaten by the alligator. However, much like the last Bedtime Tale, this one wasn’t quite as disturbing as I like my Mr. Mike humor.
— Pretty funny cynical message at the end about love being “a death camp in a costume”.
STARS: ***

FRANKEN AND DAVIS
scientists ALF & TOD do a survey about which words are funny
 
— Heh, why is Davis talking nasally like Franken?
— Davis has been doing all the talking, while Franken has only been gesturing and not saying a single word. Reminds me of Penn and Teller.
— Oh, Franken has begun speaking now.
— The face Franken keeps making when hesitating to say certain words is pretty funny.
— Overall, this was nothing special for Franken and Davis. I liked their segment from last season better.
STARS: **

GOODNIGHTS
 
— Dick does a lot of talking & antics to kill time since the show is running short.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Not very good as a whole. The pre-Update half was actually decent, albeit short, but I wasn’t crazy about ANYTHING in the post-Update half, which really brought this episode down. This is the second subpar episode that Dick Cavett has hosted, which makes me happy he never hosted a third time.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Buck Henry):
— a pretty big step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Paul Simon

Posted on

October 30, 1976 – Buck Henry / The Band (S2 E6)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
trick-or-treating Land Shark gets (GIR) on Halloween
  
— Landshark! Interesting choice to open Chevy’s final show.
— Well, that was short and straightforward, but still funny. This is also the Landshark installment that I was first exposed to when I was younger, as SNL often used to open their older Halloween compilation specials with this one.
— This is the second cold opening in a row that didn’t end with a Chevy fall. Was it doctor’s orders for Chevy to ease up on the falls after his injury earlier this season? Or is this SNL’s way of getting viewers used to cold openings that don’t end with falls, since Chevy was on his way out?
— After getting so used to seeing Chevy say LFNY in every episode (except two) I’ve reviewed so far, it’s going to temporarily feel weird and interesting seeing other people saying LFNY after this episode.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host unconvincingly argues that the SNL cast is made up of normal folks

— I’m loving these stories about the cast’s personalities.
— Buck talking about how weird Aykroyd is probably has some truth to it.
— Some of the audience knowingly applauded when Buck mentioned how sweet Gilda is.
— Love the bit about Garrett’s talent being cannibalism.
— An on-air mention of this being Chevy’s last show.
STARS: ****

SAMURAI STOCKBROKER
Mr. Dantley is worried about his investments
     
— Buck actually said Futaba’s last name just now, though I couldn’t make out what exactly it was.
— I got a good laugh from Futaba’s method of “splitting” the stock.
— I liked the card coming out of the slot in the databank.
— Here we are – the notorious part with Buck getting unintentionally cut in the forehead by John’s sword while John was wildly using it to make a “window” into the wall.
— Immediately after getting hit, Buck actually turned around and looked like he was about to walk off the set in a panic (fourth screencap above), before immediately turning back and continuing with the sketch. Very interesting to see that brief flash of genuine panic during a live sketch.
— As if Buck getting cut in the forehead wasn’t unfortunate enough, as he was crawling out the “window”, the wood he was leaning on broke unintentionally and caused him to clumsily fall “out the window” sooner than he was supposed to. The audience got a big kick out of that.
— I don’t understand the ending with John adding a tiny stick-on body figure to a drawing of a plane that has other stick-on body figures in it.
— Heh, the sketch ends on a shot of John happily drumming onto a table, not even being aware of what he had unintentionally just done to Buck a minute earlier.
STARS: **** (the rating was boosted a bit by the notoriety of the sword/forehead incident)

NOT FOR FIRST LADIES ONLY
Betty Ford (JAC) & Rosalynn Carter (LAN)

— Loved the “I’m the kind of person that you can’t picture going to the bathroom” line from Jane as Betty Ford.
— The whole conversation between Jane and Laraine is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

ROOTS
GAM’s family history research uncovers some famous Morris relatives
   
— Yet another solo Garrett Morris sketch. He seems to do sketches by himself more often than anyone else in this cast does.
— Despite Garrett’s good storytelling skills, I’m wondering when exactly the big joke of this is coming.
— WTF at the sudden Hollywood Squares twist. That came out of nowhere.
STARS: **½

SIDE NOTE: A fake “Coming Up Next” teaser caption (which the show often does in this era before going to commercial) mentions something titled “Buck Henry Gets Even”. Is that a last-minute reference to the sword/forehead incident, or just a coincidence?

DEBATE ’76
Jimmy Carter (DAA) & Gerald Ford (CHC) vie in beauty pageant
     
— In his first appearance since the Samurai incident, Buck is now seen wearing a bandage on his forehead.
— I’m pretty sure they said in the preceding debate sketch from the Karen Black episode that THAT was the third and last debate. Yet they’re claiming that same thing about tonight’s debate sketch. Strange.
— Good creative premise having the presidential debate being done as a beauty pageant.
— Chevy has now shown up wearing a band-aid on his forehead, too, in what will end up being a running gag for the rest of the night with various cast members randomly having a band-aid on their head, in an attempt to make Buck feel less self-conscious about his own bandage.
— I cracked up at Garrett’s pained moan and facial expression after Dan poked around inside his mouth with dental tools.
— Chevy’s “There’s no paper in here” when inside the voting booth was hilarious.
— Was that padding I saw on the floor when Chevy did his pratfall out of the voting booth? Now I’m definitely sure that Chevy must’ve received doctor’s orders to go easy on the falls, because SNL never used any visible padding in any of Chevy’s earlier pratfalls.
— Loved Buck’s quick “We’ll be right back… we’re back” when he acted like the show was going to cut to commercial.
— Clearly an ad-lib when Chevy said to Buck “I cut myself shaving here this evening too”.
— Buck’s long-winded scenario about Ford having a string of disastrous accidents at a Moscow state dinner is great.
— And just now, Chevy’s unrelated answer to Buck’s scenario is equally as funny.
— They again repeated the same gag ending credits from the first debate sketch.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
unreleased Gerald Ford ad features Jimmy Carter’s admission of heart lust
unreleased Jimmy Carter ad features Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon
     
— Chevy has kept on the band-aid from the preceding sketch.
— Haha, the top story Chevy reads tonight is of Buck Henry getting cut in the forehead by a “drugged-out John Belushi” during the Samurai sketch. As I recall hearing, when NBC aired this episode on “SNL Vintage” a few years ago (back in the days when they aired actual VINTAGE episodes instead of episodes from just 1-3 years ago), they accompanied Chevy’s joke with an actual slow-mo clip of the Samurai incident.
— The jokes are very funny so far tonight.
— Hmm, I like this idea of airing fake Ford/Carter attack ads during Update.
— The unexpected twist at the end of the Carter ad was very good.
— I almost thought the footage of President Ford announcing a pardon of Richard Nixon was a comedic bit he (somehow) filmed for SNL, before I just now came to the horrible realization that this is real footage from an actual presidential address. Geez, no wonder Ford didn’t get re-elected.

BAT-O-MATIC
the Super Bat-O-Matic ’77 is the witch’s aid for blending magic potions
   
— The premise is a funny twist on Bass-O-Matic, though I know this won’t be able to hold a candle to the original.
— Dan’s insane rapid-fire delivery is still top-notch and continues to crack me the hell up.
— I don’t know why, but the little detail of one of the ingredients he added into the blender being “the eye of a rat” has me dying with laughter right now.
— Is that a real dead bat or just a fake prop?
— Overall, while I was right that this didn’t quite measure up to the original Bass-O-Matic, it was better than I thought it would be and still provided some of my biggest laughs of the episode so far.
STARS: ****½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
JAC reads faux story about CHC replacing Johnny Carson on Tonight Show
CHC receives a phone call from the late Generalissimo Francisco Franco
picture of Gerald Ford with “evil” mustache belies CHC’s impartiality
     
— BAND-AID WATCH: Jane Curtin is now the latest cast member to show up with one.
— Jane’s Sammy Davis Jr. story was really funny.
— Chevy replacing Johnny Carson? Wait, what?
— Never mind, the Chevy/Carson thing is clearly just a “bit”.
— Jane’s commentary was an interesting subtle passing-of-the-torch from Chevy to his Update successor.
— I liked the random “Game of the Week” segment with Chevy flawlessly doing the ‘rapidly jabbing a pen in the empty spaces between the fingers’ trick.
— The Update phone is now ringing. Oh, god, let me guess: it’ll be Emily Litella calling to say her goodbyes to “Cheddar Cheese”.
— Oh, the phone call is actually from Chevy’s favorite punchline:  Generalissimo Francisco Franco! This is a nice surprise.
— Overall, a very good Update to end Chevy’s tenure with.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

THE OintMENt
a search for the real parents of devil child Damian (JOB)
     
— BAND-AID WATCH: the teddy-bear that John’s holding.
— Buck: “I hate it when nanny hangs herself.”
— The “OintMENt” title always makes me laugh, even though I never understood why they titled it that. I know the letters for “omen” are within that word (as this sketch is a spoof of the movie The Omen), but what does the sketch itself have to do with ointments?
— LOL at “dildo sharpener” being one of the ‘d’ words that Buck guessed Dan was trying to say.
— Love the close-ups of John’s creepy facial expressions into the camera.
— The cemetery scene is very funny.
— Yet another great line: Chevy’s “It’s a bit dark in here, let’s turn on the priest”, which Chevy himself seems amused by, as he’s trying not to laugh right now.
— Hilarious bit when Buck read the ‘666’ on John’s forehead upside-down and assumed they were three 9s.
— Oh, so THERE’S the connection this sketch has to ointments.
STARS: ****

IT’S HALLOWEEN TONIGHT
by Gary Weis- host is made up to look female
   
— There’s a surreal tone to this film that I’ve always found interesting.
— A nice original song (written and sung by Howard Shore) to accompany the montage of Buck getting made up as a woman.
— The end result of Buck’s makeover is fascinating; almost creepy in a way.
STARS: ***½

HOUDINI’S GRAVE, PART 1
GAM reports from Houdini’s grave on the 50th anniversary of his death
 
— Garrett’s nervous demeanor during his report is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

MR. MIKE’S LEAST-LOVED BEDTIME TALES
MOD tells a Least-Loved Bedtime Tale- “The Enchanted Thermos”

— The birth of a recurring segment.
— Mr. Mike is stumbling over some words a bit throughout his story.
— Funny story overall, though I expected it to be more hilariously disturbing; it felt a little tame for Mr. Mike standards. Maybe the stories get darker in later installments of this sketch.
— I liked the random little addendum about fingernails continuing to grow after death.
STARS: ***

HOUDINI’S GRAVE, PART 2
GAM is rendered speechless after having seen Houdini’s ghost
 
— Haha, the combination of the sight gag of Garrett’s standing-on-end hair, his hilarious terrified facial expression, and his speechless mumbling is making me laugh a lot.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
   
— BAND-AID WATCH: the entire cast. John in particular has the entire top half of his head wrapped up.
— I love how John is acting as a reporter asking Buck questions, presumably about the Samurai incident. (we can’t hear their conversation, since the goodnights music is playing)
— Right now, everyone onstage has all randomly begun laying down on the floor, one-by-one.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yet another absolutely solid Season 2 episode, and yet another solid Buck Henry episode. Aside from the Roots sketch, I got enjoyment out of every single segment (even a Gary Weis film), and charming little spontaneous things like the impromptu additions of band-aids to cast members’ (and teddy bears’) foreheads throughout the night just added to the fun feeling of the episode.
— Farewell, Chevy. While doing reviews for these Season 1-2 episodes, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see that I’ve been enjoying Chevy as a cast member. Not that I had been expecting him to be bad, but I guess when I first went into this era when starting my ‘One SNL a Day’ project, I wasn’t looking all that forward to seeing him doing pratfalls week-after-week and hogging up the airtime at the expense of the rest of the cast. Not to mention, I was worried that all the famous negative behind-the-scenes stories about him would cloud my judgment. But as it turned out, I ended up finding him funny for the most part, I liked him a lot as Update anchor, and even the weekly pratfalls usually always amused me. All that being said, I am looking forward to seeing the remaining cast now finally get their chance in the spotlight, am looking forward to them finally becoming a strong ensemble, and am looking forward to the upcoming addition of a certain new cast member who joins the show several episodes from now.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Martin):
— about the same

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Dick Cavett

Posted on

October 23, 1976 – Steve Martin / Kinky Friedman (S2 E5)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
disgruntled Yankee (CHC) hangs manager (DAA) after World Series loss
  
— Dan as the coach is standing on a stool for some reason during his speech to the losing Yankees. Is he going to hang himself?
— Yep, I saw it coming, though it was Chevy who caused Dan to hang. Still gave me a pretty good laugh, though, and it was a rare deviation from the usual ‘Chevy does a pratfall’ gag these cold openings usually end with.
— I always like when this era does this type of short cold opening with a quick gag.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
Ramblin’ Guy host demonstrates banjo prowess & gets mad at control room
 
— It feels weird watching this in the mindset of this being a time before he was a regular host.
— He’s already making me laugh a lot with the “great to be here” stuff.
— Funny quick random bit with him spitting water into the audience.
— I love how loose this is. We’re only a minute into this, and he’s already done about 20 different things.
— Ah, here’s the classic “Ramblin’ Guy” routine.
— And there’s his trademark ‘arrow through the head’ prop.
— And now, “Excuuuuuse meeeee!”
— Overall, a very fun monologue.
STARS: ****

SPEAK OUT FOR MILK
CHC says too much during multiple takes for ad
 
— Pretty funny premise with Chevy inadvertently revealing unpleasant facts about milk.
STARS: ***

JEOPARDY 1999!
contestants’ questions provide a glimpse of the future
DOP describes prizes that Jeopardy! 1999 contestants can win
     
— I’m surprised to see this in tonight’s episode. I had always thought this was in one of Steve’s 1977 episodes.
— Oh, why didn’t I remember that Chevy is in this? If I had remembered, I would’ve known this sketch couldn’t possibly have been from 1977, because Chevy was gone from the cast by then.
— Watching this sketch in modern times, I get a big kick out of seeing what comedy writers in the 70s jokingly predicted what 1999 would be like.
— The contestants’ last names being a random combo of a letter and various numbers is actually a somewhat accurate prediction, as it kinda mirrors what a lot of online usernames have looked like from the late 1990s and onwards.
— Walter Mondale as first president to accidentally kill himself in office. Well, he did end up almost becoming president in ’84…
— The ‘baby-killing being legalized in 1983’ part was hilariously shocking.
— I wonder why Chevy’s the only contestant not to use his real first name.
— I’m loving this so far.
— Ha, “longest running show on TV”. Is SNL gonna accurately predict the future and say their own show?
— Nope, the answer ended up being “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. I so wanted the answer to be SNL, but understandably, nobody back in 1976 could have foreseen how long this show would last. Besides, in 1999, SNL wouldn’t have been anywhere near the longest running show on TV yet; they celebrated just their 25th anniversary that same year.
— LOL at the meta “comedian who’s career fizzled after leaving NBC’s Saturday Night” part with Chevy. I take it everyone, including viewers, knew back then that he was leaving soon?
— Steve’s ad-lib after he kept stumbling through that one line just now was pretty funny.
— Overall, this was a lot of fun to watch.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
CHC narrates boring footage of Rubin Carter [real] jury selection
 
— The Chairman Mao/Chinese take-out grave joke was hilarious.
— I didn’t get the point of the “artist’s rendering” of Rubin Carter’s trial.

FIDO-FLEX
the Fido-Flex digital watch dog is the only canine that can tell the time
 
— They screwed up all the close-ups that were supposed to show what each screen on the dog’s body does.
— An okay commercial.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
CHC purports to accept JAC as co-anchor, makes faces during her report
a snacking (ALF) wanders onto set & reads a news item over CHC’s shoulder
   
— I can already tell from the set-up of Jane’s commentary that it will end up being another “Chevy makes goofy faces behind correspondent’s back” bit.
— Yep, I was right.
— WTF? Franken wandering onto the set out of nowhere.
— Well, Franken’s bit sure was brief, but it was amusing in how random it was.
— I was worried the baby gorilla story would end up having the same punchline as the baby sandpiper story that Chevy has occasionally used, but this one thankfully went in a different direction.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

BEATNIKS
poet (host), stand-up comic (JOB), dancer (LAN) perform in a beatnik bar
     
— Oh my god, I absolutely love Dan’s crazy raspy beatnik voice. He is KILLING me in this.
— Chevy looked almost unrecognizable at first.
— Chevy’s wailing and terrible guitar playing is hilarious.
— Steve’s angry poem is very funny as well.
— I didn’t know Garrett could play the guitar and harmonica.
— John appearing as the “hip comic” – I can tell I’m already gonna like this.
— Loved John sneaking in his Brando impression.
— Wow, Laraine’s bit is pretty insane.
— I like how they’ve worked every cast member into this.
— The graphic onscreen is saying Jane’s character is named Francesca Richardson, yet Pardo’s voice-over has called her Francesca Robinson just now.
— The epilogue informing us what each character has gone on to do is pretty funny.
STARS: ****

LOOKS AT BOOKS
(host) gives results of research into abstinence & sports
 
— That one clip seemed to cut off too early.
— I liked the quick bit about how the catcher was “teased” the night before the game.
— The montage of baseball gaffes being played off as if their lousy performances were caused by abstinence is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

AUTUMN IN NEW YORK
by Gary Weis- various people lip sync to covers of “Autumn in New York”
 
— Surprise, surprise – yet ANOTHER Gary Weis film that’s not doing anything for me so far.
— The audience always seems to laugh at his films a lot more than I do.
— Okay, the random weasel(?)-head ending made me laugh.
STARS: **

MARY
Ted Baxter’s (host) Drano-in-coffee prank kills Mary Richards (LAN)
   
— I never knew SNL did a Mary Tyler Moore Show parody in this era. I had always associated SNL’s parodies of that show with the early 80s Mary Gross era.
— I’m loving the dark premise.
— Casting Gilda as Rhoda seems so natural.
— Why was the audience not into this anymore towards the end? They seemed to stop laughing in the last two minutes. I thought the whole sketch was hilarious myself.
STARS: ****

MYSTERIES IN MEDICINE
elaborate diet plan involves faux Eskimo (JOB)
    
— Some technical issues when the “Mysteries In Medicine” graphic showed up on screen.
— I love the fact that John’s eskimo character is named Blog.
— Laraine’s desire to get her weight down to 10 pounds is almost disturbing, considering her apparent real-life eating disorder back then.
— John’s crazy performance is cracking me up so much.
— I like the twist with Blog turning out to be a refined scientist.
— Overall, a delightfully weird little sketch.
STARS: ****

STEVE MARTIN STAND-UP #2
host does stand-up about meeting Jackie Onassis, destruction of Earth
 
— I like how back in these days, SNL let stand-up comedian hosts do multiple stand-up sets throughout the show instead of just relegating it to their monologue spot.
— LOL at one person in the audience briefly applauding when Steve spoke against one-night stands.
— The random shoelaces joke was pretty funny.
— The “she was a pig” revelation about Jackie Onassis is hilarious.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS

— Funny gag with the cast all facing backwards for no apparent reason.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A great and very enjoyable show, and a nice rebound after the disappointing preceding episode. Just about every single sketch tonight worked; some of them being very well-written and a lot of fun to watch (Jeopardy 1999, Beatniks, Mary Tyler Moore, etc.).
— Right out of the gate, Steve Martin proved himself as someone who was born to host SNL. He hosted this episode with the ease of someone who had already been hosting the show for years.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Buck Henry. This is the famous episode where Buck gets cut in the forehead during a Samurai sketch. Also, I’m not 100% sure, but isn’t this also Chevy’s final episode?

Posted on

October 16, 1976 – Karen Black / John Prine (S2 E4)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
JOB dumps recovering CHC out of his wheelchair
 
— Looks like Chevy’s returning tonight. Not for long, though; I know he ends up leaving SNL for good very soon.
— Jane, on Chevy’s return: “That probably means I won’t be doing Update anymore…” Oh, don’t worry, Jane, your day as a regular Update anchor will be coming sooner than you think…
— LOL at Chevy’s overdramatic entrance in the wheelchair.
— Great unexpected shove out of the wheelchair by John.
— There seemed to be a technical error when no lights turned on at Chevy while he said LFNY.

Not only did it look strange only seeing his silhouette during his LFNY, but right before he said it, you could hear an off-camera voice audibly saying what sounded like “Billy, turn it on”.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host introduces her son Hunter [real] & narrates a history of mothers
   
— A host making their monologue entrance while holding a baby? I don’t think that’s ever happened any other time on SNL.
— The various pictures are kinda funny, but not anything great.
— Haha, the baby is stealing the show, grabbing at Karen’s chest while she’s trying to go on with the monologue. Was the baby thirsty?
STARS: **½

BABA WAWA AT LARGE
Indira Gandhi (LAN) defends antidemocratic policies
 
— Pretty funny hearing Laraine say “dear Ms. Wawa” in that Indian accent.
— The “free ewections” bit was good, but I kinda wanted them to go further with it.
— Funny moment with Baba pointing out the “pimento” on Laraine’s forehead.
STARS: ***

DEBATE ’76
Gerald Ford (CHC) & Jimmy Carter (DAA) inspire diffidence
  
— I like the needle sticking out of Chevy’s arm, especially how it’s not even being addressed within the sketch.
— Chevy trying to “name that tune” when they played the National Anthem was hilarious.
— Dan’s sexual comments to Jane are great.
— Not really liking Karen much as the moderator. Her performance has been strange and feels out-of-place. Lily Tomlin did a much better job in the first debate sketch.
— Funny bit with Ford and Carter both making their closing statements simultaneously.
— The ending credits of this sketch are re-using the exact same jokes from the ending credits of the first debate sketch. Only difference is this one is displayed in a different font and color, for some reason.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— The opening camera angle on Chevy is quite different tonight.
— Chevy making the Jiminy Cricket face while singing “When You Wish Upon A Star” (first screencap above) is something he would later do again in his 1995 monologue.
— The Swine Flu Deaths joke was very funny.

TRIPLE TRAC
— Oh, come on, if you’re gonna rerun a commercial, at least do one from this season! But then again, it feels like there’s barely been any pre-taped commercials so far this season; the only one that comes to mind right now is Lily Tomlin’s Ernestine commercial.
— For some reason, they added in new goofy sound effects during the animation of the razor blades tugging at the hair.

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
 
— Chevy doesn’t seem to realize he’s looking at the wrong camera during the mafia joke. (first screencap above)
— Ha, and now he finally realized. His reaction was pretty funny.
— No Update guests at all tonight.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

GREEN CROSS CUPCAKES
truth in advertising laws allow Green Cross claim of cancer-free cupcakes
   
— The short scene of the two scientists just slowly walking by with a stretcher of cupcakes in the red-flashing lab was strange, but made me laugh.
— Funny visual with John slowly shoving a whole cupcake into his mouth.
— Overall, I feel like I kinda didn’t get this sketch.  Its randomness does have somewhat of an appeal to me, though.
STARS: **½

A*M*I*S*H
crime-fighting Mennonites are slow to react to a bank robbery
   
— Looks like this has suddenly turned into an Amish version of typical 70s cop shows. I can tell I’m gonna like this concept.
— John’s character just being named “Churn” is pretty funny.
— Nice background music throughout this.  Again, very accurate to typical 70s cop shows.
— Overall, not sure how I feel about this sketch as a whole. I get what it was going for, but I dunno, I kinda wanted this to go in a bit of a different direction.
STARS: **½

LOVE RUSSIAN STYLE
stressed Catherine the Great (host) & equine lover
 
— There are a few funny little details like Dan’s deep-voiced vocalizing during John’s long story, but where exactly is this sketch going?
— What was with Karen’s “Off with his pants… I mean, head” line? I can’t tell if that was a genuine flub or a random joke.
— What’s with the coughing during Gilda and Karen’s conversation?
— Oh, never mind, the coughing is part of sketch.
— The horse’s Mr. Ed-esque voice is cracking me up.
— I also like the reference to the Mr. Ed theme song.
— Overall, strange sketch, but got better towards the end.  The entire first half felt overlong and unnecessary.
STARS: **½

PIPS
by Gary Weis- nightclub owner George Schultz [real] tells anecdotes
 
— Oh, that was Chevy doing the horse’s voice in the preceding sketch!
— This nightclub owner guy seems funny, but aside from some little chuckles, I haven’t been finding myself laughing all that much at his stories. I don’t know what to make of this short (I feel like I’m saying that about a lot of stuff tonight).
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

REUNION
high school nerd (DAA) reunites with cheerleader (JAC) at a lunch counter

— Oh, man, we’re two minutes into this sketch, and I have not cared much for anything in it so far.
— I’m usually not a fan of whenever SNL does this type of sketch. In fact, this one is kinda reminding me of a dreadful Bar sketch that Seth Meyers would later do with Paris Hilton in 2005.
— Overall, I wanted to like this, considering how much I’ve generally been loving Dan Aykroyd sketches in the episodes I’ve covered so far, but this was a huge misfire.
STARS: *½

MR. BILL GOES TO A PARTY
by Walter Williams- Mr. Bill attends Vance Degeneres’ [real] party
   
— Haha, this is pretty hilarious so far.
— What the hell? What’s with all the screen jumping and the abrupt cut to the party? The screen jumps almost made it look like a whole bunch of stuff was sloppily edited out.
— Great ending.
STARS: ****

KAREN BLACK: “TEN CENTS A DANCE”
host performs “Ten Cents A Dance”

— Another instance of a host doing a serious musical performance…

AMERICAN COINAGE
GAM, CHC, DAA, JOB pay musical tributes to American coinage
as JOB sings “One More For The Road,” on-screen scroll lists thefts
     
— The preceding Karen Black song has now segued into the cast doing a musical tribute to American coinage. At least this looks like this will be an actual comedic segment.
— Garrett sounds like he’s doing his so-bad-it’s-good Sammy Davis Jr. voice from the Nixon’s Final Days sketch.
— What was with Chevy beginning to say Dan’s lines before realizing his mistake? Again, that’s something I can’t tell was a real flub or an intentional joke.
— This tribute is kinda funny so far.
— Another mid-song disclaimer scroll, which seems to have become a semi-common thing in this era of SNL. I’m liking all the anecdotes in this one about John stealing things.
— What the hell? Why has the disclaimer suddenly started scrolling by so fast? That’s making it hard to read what it says, which is killing the joke.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS

— Much like the Rob Reiner and Dick Cavett goodnights from last season, this is just still photos of the opening credits while the goodnights music plays. I guess SNL once again ran out of time before they could do a real goodnights segment. I wonder if the show running out of time is the reason they sped up the last half of the Belushi disclaimer scroll in the last sketch.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Strange episode. And honestly, it left me kinda cold. I dunno, I just wasn’t crazy about it. There were some individual highlights, but as a whole, the episode came off as a letdown compared to how well this season had been going before this point.
— Something else I wasn’t crazy about: Karen Black’s performance as host.  I’m having a hard time remembering most of what she did, I wasn’t all that impressed by her, and her performance in the debate sketch was actually kinda bad. From what I read, she does a better job in her next hosting stint a few years later, in an episode that’s usually considered one of the better ones from the infamous 80-81 season.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Steve Martin makes his hosting debut