Author: Stooge

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December 13, 1975 – Richard Pryor / Gil Scott-Heron (S1 E7)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
CHC gives pointers after yielding to host’s wish that GAM do the fall
 
— Interesting seeing them actually acknowledge that it’s become a tradition for every cold opening to have Chevy to do a fall and say LFNY.
— Wow, that was possibly Chevy’s best fall so far this season.
— Our very first non-Chevy LFNY, which I believe happens only one more time this season later on.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about an alcohol-induced bar fight & an acid trip

— I think it’s safe to say that by this point in the show’s timeline, it’s finally become an official tradition for hosts to make an entrance after Pardo announces their name.
— Knowing that this is going to be Richard Pryor doing stand-up, I can already predict right now that I’ll probably have next-to-nothing to type while watching this, because 1) I’ll be too engaged in the stand-up, and 2) it would be too much for me to list every single thing I find funny in this.
— I believe that’s the very first time the words “bitch” and “ass” have ever been uttered on SNL. I might be wrong, but I don’t recall hearing either those words in any of the previous episodes I reviewed this season.
— His imitation of a person on acid is freaking great.
— Overall, absolute A+ comedy as expected. I lost count of the number of times I nearly busted a gut laughing.
STARS: *****

SAMURAI HOTEL
Futaba (JOB) & bellboy (host) fight over (CHC)’s luggage
 
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Right out of the gate, John is fantastic in everything he’s doing as this character. Even the foreign gibberish he mutters is cracking me up.
— Chevy is doing fine, but I’ve always felt Buck Henry was the best at playing straight man to Futaba.
— LOL at Richard suddenly appearing as a black samurai. And, oh my god, that insane wig…..
— “Your mama-san” was a hilarious line.
— Very funny out-of-character moment with Futaba saying in a humble American voice “I can dig where you’re comin’ from”. From what I remember reading before, this ends up being the only time he ever spoke English in any of his sketches.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

LOOKS AT BOOKS
Junior Griffin (host) talks about his life as a Caucasian
 
— The book is titled “White Like Me”? Heh, I don’t think I need to say which future classic SNL sketch THAT brings to mind.
— I got a big laugh from Richard saying he accomplished becoming white by simply using shoe polish.
— His “white guy walk” is hilarious.
— Overall, this whole sketch can, in many ways, be considered the spiritual precursor to the aforementioned future classic sketch that needs not be named. While tonight’s version wasn’t QUITE as great, this was still a very strong piece.
STARS: **** ½

NEW DAD
— rerun

LINE-UP #1
rigged police line-up leads to handcuffed (host) being chosen as culprit

— Overall, a funny quick piece, and I always love when these early episodes do “blackout gag”-type mini-sketches that are basically just ‘set-up & punchline’.
STARS: ***½

WORD ASSOCIATION
interviewer (CHC) conducts racially-charged free association with (host)

— Oh, here we are, folks…
— Richard’s subtly-annoyed facial reaction after Chevy’s “tar baby” is perfect, and is the official kickoff point of this sketch’s main humor.
— What does “ofay” mean? That’s something I’ve always wondered ever since first seeing this sketch. However, I still always laugh at Richard’s great delivery of that word.
— Ah, and there it is – the immortal moment that defines this classic sketch. That part still kills me no matter how many times I’ve seen it. It goes without saying why it’s so funny, but a little detail that I’ve always felt added to its greatness is the dramatic pause Chevy does right before saying you-know-what.
— And as if that epic moment wasn’t perfect enough, the aftermath just now with Richard’s face-twitching during his intense staredown of Chevy was a hilarious way to follow it.
— Overall, unarguably one of the greatest SNL sketches of all-time.
STARS: *****

PONG
Pong-playing college students recount a rough hockey outing

— What’s with Franken’s lisp? He didn’t speak like that in the previous installments of this segment.
— Oh, I see, the lisp is from a hockey accident they’re going into detail about right now.
— Funny ending line.
— Overall, another okay edition of this segment, but I’m not too sure if I want to see these continue. The novelty of its unique format is starting to wear off, and I can see myself starting to get tired of these if there are any more of them.
STARS: ***

THEY’RE TAKING OVER
(DAA)’s paranoia about black takeover misses changes in his own family
 
— I’m absolutely loving the structure of this so far, with each family member returning as a black person while Dan obliviously rants on.
— “Pass the grits” – haha! A perfect ending line.
— Overall, a brilliant sketch.
STARS: ****½

NEXT WEEK
(no synopsis available)

— Another straightforward bit with Gilda informing us who’s going to be next week’s guests.
— Gilda again manages to come off so likable in such a simple non-comedic segment.
STARS: N/A

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— I’m glad Chevy’s back to actually saying funny things during the opening “phone conversation” gag, after the baffling bit in the preceding episode where he said absolutely nothing during the phone call.
— Ah, we get our very first utterance of the “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead” line.
— Another “toyboat” ad-lib from Chevy after he stumbled over a joke.

SPUD BEER
— Rerun. Didn’t we just see this in the last Weekend Update?

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella is upset about the prospect of “busting” school children
with GAM’s help, CHC repeats the top story for the hard-of-hearing
 
— I like Chevy briefly singing the Spud Beer jingle to himself when the commercial ended and he (jokingly) didn’t realize he was back on the air. That IS a catchy jingle, isn’t it?
— Emily Litella makes her very first Update appearance.
— Ah, now THIS is the Emily Litella humor that people remember nowadays. This is definitely better than that subpar sketch she made her debut in a few episodes ago.
— I’m also glad her commentary didn’t turn into yet another ‘Chevy makes goofy faces behind the correspondent’ bit.
— I don’t know whether to laugh or groan at the intentionally(?)-bad “ship hitting the fan” punchline to Chevy’s Frank Sinatra joke.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

LINE-UP #2
(host) is chosen from a line-up featuring a nun (JAC), a duck, an icebox

— Even funnier than the first one.  These sketches have kind of a comic strip-type of format, which is interesting to see on SNL.
— I also liked Gilda’s voice-over asking “Could you open the ice box please?”
STARS: ****

L-PILL
soldier (host) accidentally takes suicide pill during mission briefing
 
— Hey, it’s the Word Association set!
— You could hear Richard stifling his laughter for some reason when Dan shows him the hook gadget on the desk. Dan does a bit of a double-take when he notices Richard’s laugh.
— I love the camera slowly zooming in on Richard’s facial reaction to hearing the pill he just swallowed will kill him.
— His slowly passing out was great, and… wow, the sketch is over already. Once again, I love blackout gag / ‘set-up & punchline’ mini-sketches.
STARS: ****

JIM HENSONS’S MUPPETS
drunk Ploobis & Scred decide to pay a visit to the Mighty Favog

— The jokes are pretty bad here so far.
— Hmm, another blooper where one of the puppets gets its hand caught on something.
— The “why don’t, why don’t, why don’t” drunken stammering was the only time I’ve come close to laughing at anything in this so far.
— Was that ending even supposed to be funny? It was awful.
— Overall, yikes. Until now, I surprisingly haven’t been hating any of the Muppet sketches so far; in fact, the one from two episodes ago with the acupuncture needles actually gave me some big laughs, and the last one with Lily Tomlin was downright good. But THIS one, on the other hand, was exactly the type of bad humor that people had me expecting to see from these segments when I first came into this season.
STARS: *½

LINE-UP #3
(host) is chosen from a line-up in which all the other choices are cops

— Yet another really good one.
— I also like how all the cops were immediately pointing at Richard.
STARS: ****

EXORCIST II
another priest (host) tries to help possessed Regan (LAN)
 
— I recognize the actor with Richard; I recall seeing him in guest appearances on various black sitcoms from the 70s. The most notable role I remember seeing him in was Raj’s dad in “What’s Happening”.
— Richard already wanting to leave as soon as he heard the demonic sounds from upstairs is great.
— Strangely, this is Laraine’s first appearance of the night, and I remember hearing it ends up being her ONLY appearance. Then again, A LOT of cast members haven’t been seen much tonight. I wonder if it’s because this episode has so many guest performers who Richard requested be brought in.
— I read someplace (I think at SNL Archives) that it’s Chevy who does Laraine’s demonic voice-over in this. Is that true? Watching the sketch now, I’m having a hard time believing that’s his voice I’m hearing.
— Excellent timing from Richard when he seamlessly went from chanting “The bed… must be… on the floor” to frantically chanting “The bed… is on… my foot”, which is a quote I remember very well from seeing this sketch when I was a lot younger.
— Laraine’s facial expressions in this are great.
— Hilarious ending with Richard helping the other priest strangle Laraine.
STARS: ****

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
from his sickbed, Albert Brooks [real] advances his own agenda

— Is he actually sick, or this just a bit? His congested voice certainly sounds genuine.
— “Broasted” chicken???
— What did they bleep out when the delivery boy was saying the record title?
— What was on that big poster that Albert held up? It’s hard for me to see it in the copy of this episode I’m watching.
— Bad ending.
— Overall, I have no idea what to make of this film as a whole. All I can say is I was very underwhelmed by it compared to Albert’s usual work this season.
STARS: **

ASSASSINATION
(TOS) is shot after alleging JFK assassination was a conspiracy
 
— Hey, it’s Tom Schiller in a big role!
— Richard desperately denying having any involvement in Schiller getting shot is very funny.
— Wow, what a random little segment overall, but again, that’s one of the things I love about these early SNLs.
STARS: ***

RICHARD PRYOR STAND-UP #2
host does stand-up about a heroin addict being mentored by a wino
 
— Again, don’t expect to see me type much while watching a Richard Pryor stand-up set.
— The way he’s able to flawlessly go back-and-forth between all the various different-voiced characters he’s doing is so much fun to watch.
— Man, this is just getting funnier and funnier as it goes along.
— Overall, another prime, brilliant stand-up set; even better than the monologue earlier.
STARS: *****

SHELLEY PRYOR
Shelley Pryor [real] tells a story about a pair of carousel horses

— Okay, THIS is unusual, but intriguing.
— Overall, I surprisingly liked this, despite it not really being a comedic segment. Her story was interesting, and I liked the poetic, rhythmic style of it.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
 
— The cast members are each holding food up to Richard. (Jane especially has a very funny intense deadpan stare on her face) I wonder if this is an inside joke and/or a comedic follow-up to the Candice Bergen goodnights where the cast members each held up a rose to her.
— These are, I believe, the very first goodnights to have the special guests of the night joining the host & cast onstage.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— What can I say about an episode like this? An all-time classic show, and I’m glad to see that it still holds up.
— Unlike most of this season’s episodes I’ve reviewed so far where I had never seen them before, I was already familiar with a lot of this episode, due to various SNL compilation specials that some of tonight’s sketches made it onto, airings on “SNL Vintage” on NBC, etc. But, thanks to my ‘One SNL a Day’ project, it was interesting to now view this episode in the context of the other episodes that aired around this time. And I’d say this is by far the episode I’ve enjoyed the most so far this season, which is truly saying something since SNL’s been on an impressive streak of solid shows since episode 4 (the Candice Bergen one).
— I think part of what helps this episode still hold up, besides the basic fact that most of the sketches were very funny, is that a lot of the social commentary and racial humor that dominated the night is surprisingly still relevant today, all these decades later. That’s just one of the reasons why this is widely considered a very important episode in SNL history.
— And what can be said about Richard Pryor as host? Unsurprisingly, he was laugh-out-loud hilarious in every single sketch he appeared in, he gave many all-time-memorable performances, and his two stand-up sets are among some of the best stand-up comedy that’s ever been performed on the SNL stage.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
— Candice Bergen becomes SNL’s very first return host, only one month after her first hosting stint

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November 22, 1975 – Lily Tomlin (S1 E6)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Gerald Ford (CHC) addresses link between NYC debt default & re-election
   
— Hmm, another disclaimer on the bottom of the screen, this time stating this is not a good Gerald Ford impression. Ha, unlike the last Ford cold opening, where the disclaimer they showed made it confusing as to whether or not Chevy was actually playing Ford, this disclaimer makes it clear that he IS playing Ford, but they’re comically acknowledging how there was zero attempt at accuracy with his impression.
— The Rich Little disclaimer was very funny, too.
— The gag with him answering a glass of water as if it were a phone is a well-remembered classic SNL moment.
— I got a kick out of seeing him hang the red and black receivers onto the opposite phones.
— Great backwards tumble over the desk at the end. My favorite Chevy falls so far have been the really messy ones where a whole bunch of stuff gets crashed into, rather than the straightforward falls where he just goes straight to the floor and then that’s it.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Nothing noteworthy about the cast list tonight: their names are again divided into two separate screens, like we saw in the preceding episode.
— I think it’s safe to say by this point that Michael O’Donoghue isn’t going to be put back into the cast list. We can pretty much officially say his last episode as a credited cast member was the Candice Bergen one, which was episode 4 of the season.

MONOLOGUE
host reads some one-liners from her journal & does a cheer for NYC
 
— Unlike the last few episodes, tonight they have the host actually make an entrance when their name is announced by Pardo.
— Lily’s jokingly-angry, psychotic yell of “STOP!!!!” during the audience applause after her entrance was great. Already, you can see she’s going to be a fantastic host.
— I really liking the format of this so far, with her doing a string of random funny one-liners, which, as I said in the George Carlin review, is my favorite style of stand-up comedy.
— This New York cheer she’s now doing is very funny.
— Overall, wow, this whole thing was great. Best monologue of the season so far, I’d argue.
STARS: ****½

BEETHOVEN, PART 1
Beethoven (JOB) invents “Tie A Yellow Ribbon ‘Round The Ole Oak Tree”

— Oh, is this going to be the classic Ray Charles bit?
— John’s various facial expressions when playing the piano are funny.
— Hmm, this ISN’T the Ray Charles piece; he’s playing a different song.
— This was still a funny twist in the sketch, though, made even better by John’s puzzled look while continuing to play the song.
— Oh, wow, and that’s it? I like how this ended when the joke was still hot. I guess this is going to be a running segment throughout the show, that’ll lead to the Ray Charles bit I’m remembering.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

TRIOPENIN
— Boy, they sure love re-airing this commercial………

JAWS III
Matt Cooper (JOB) & Sheriff Brady (DAA) resume Land Shark hunt
   
— Surprised to see a Landshark sequel so soon, but this should be good.
— The heavy breathing John does every time he and Dan are hesitant to look at the various victims’ remains is a little detail that keeps cracking me up.
— “That’s the third time he’s hit that building”? More like, it’s the third time he’s hit that APARTMENT. I have to laugh at how each scene with the Landshark targeting a different woman all take place in the exact same living room set, with the same furniture, background decorations and everything.
— I’m liking this change of pace by showing the Landshark at the police station.
— Loved the part with the voice of Pardo getting attacked by the Landshark during a radio announcement.
— Whoa, this is unexpected, with them breaking the fourth wall and being told by the Landshark that the sketch has to be cut short.
— Great ending line with John lamenting the fact that he turned down “Cuckoo’s Nest” for this show.
STARS: ****

BELL-HOP
a clumsy bellhop (CHC) walks in on an interracial couple (GAM) & (JAC)

— As if it weren’t already strange enough seeing the same living room set used in various scenes throughout the Jaws III sketch, now we see that same living room used in this next, completely-unrelated sketch. It’s especially odd since I’m watching the DVD version of this episode, where there’s no commercial breaks or bumpers, thus we go from Jaws III’s ending with John sitting on the living room couch to the beginning of this sketch with Garrett and Jane in the exact same spot John was.
— Wait… WHAT??? This sketch is over ALREADY??? Nothing even happened in it! It was just a minute of Chevy doing his usual ‘klutz’ shtick by fumbling around with newspapers while Garrett and Jane looked on, and then Chevy left the room, and the sketch ended. What the hell??!?! If there was a premise to this sketch, I sure missed it.
— And why did Chevy have an old-timey southern accent?
— And was there supposed to be some social commentary by having an interracial couple? (remember, this WAS in the 70s, back when showing interracial couples on TV was still taboo) The writers went absolutely nowhere with that aspect of the sketch.
— Overall, this whole sketch just left me baffled. I think my review of it is longer than the sketch itself was.
STARS: *

EDITH ANN SKATES
little girl Edith Ann (host) cautiously ventures onto an ice skating rink
 
— Is this the same character that Lily would later do in a sketch I remember seeing from her 1983 hosting stint where she and Julia Louis-Dreyfus played two little girls?
— This looks like an interesting film, and seems like it will be a good showcase for some physical comedy from Lily.
— Hmm, I was right about the physical comedy, though the main humor actually seems to be coming from the various funny little things she’s saying in her voice-over narration.
— I especially like the line about pasting her dog’s paws to the floor.
— Overall, a cute little film that I enjoyed.
STARS: ***½

BEETHOVEN, PART 2
Beethoven (JOB) plays piano & sings “My Girl”

— Ah, this IS a running piece.
— An even funnier twist this time, with him now actually singing the tune he unexpectedly breaks into.
— I love how he actually kept the thick accent while singing “My Girl”s lyrics.
STARS: ****

NEXT SHOW
GIR announces Richard Pryor & Candice Bergen will do SNL in December

— So far, this seems to just be a straightforward announcement of upcoming SNL airings, but even in something as simple as this, Gilda comes off so charming and endearing.
— I liked the audience breaking out into applause at the mere mention of Richard Pryor being the next host. You can tell they’re eagerly awaiting him being on the show.
STARS: N/A

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— What the—? For our opening “phone conversation” gag, instead of saying something funny into the phone, Chevy just picked up the phone, dialed some numbers, stayed silent for a while, and then disinterestedly hung up without even saying anything. Odd. That, understandably, got zero reaction from the audience.
— Hmm, a news story about Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s death back when it first happened.
— Since Francisco Franco’s death was new at the time, the punchline of tonight’s joke obviously wasn’t what we would now expect (that he’s still dead), but was instead about how despite his death, doctors say his health has taken a turn for the worse, which in some ways is like an early prototype of the later ‘he’s still dead’ running joke.
— Oh, wow. The preceding episode’s Update had a tasteless George Wallace wheelchair joke that I liked a lot, but now tonight’s Update had an even-funnier tasteless George Wallace/“Ironside” wheelchair joke that I absolutely LOVED. I also enjoyed the audience’s loud “ooh” reaction. And again, that joke would be right at home in a modern-day Michael Che/Colin Jost Weekend Update.

SPUD BEER
Spud Beer is the potato-based brew to drink after electroshock therapy
 
— Haha, this is great. Again, while I’ve been kinda underwhelmed by most of this season’s fake ads so far, this one has a lot of things that I always like to see in an SNL fake ad, such as a memorably-creative fictional product that’s being advertised, a catchy commercial jingle, etc.
— A few familiar faces from the writing staff have prominent roles in this, including Tom Davis and Alan Zweibel, the latter of whom is particular funny here with his catatonic demeanor.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
CHC admits he drinks Spud Beer & pours a can of it on his suit
with GAM’s help, CHC repeats the top story for the hard-of-hearing
 
— The ad-libbed “toyboat toyboat” vocal exercise Chevy just did when stumbling through a joke was pretty funny. Like I said in the preceding review, I always like when Chevy quickly ad-libs little things like that. I heard he actually does the “toyboat toyboat” thing in some other Updates later this season whenever he stumbles over a joke.
— In tonight’s obligatory hard-of-hearing-news bit, I like how towards the end, Garrett was yelling some of the things Chevy “said” before Chevy even said it. That was a bit of a much-needed shake-up to the hard-of-hearing-news routine. I mean, I know the routine is considered a classic nowadays, but man, did they have to use it in EVERY Weekend Update?
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

PATTY
Susie (host) forgives her recently-arrested sorority sister Patty Hearst

— I couldn’t think of anything to say at all while watching this, but overall, this was an okay piece that was helped by Lily’s performance.  And while I initially wasn’t happy when she started to break out into song here, I ended up liking how the song actually had some heart.
STARS: ***

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Ploobis & wife Peuta (Alice Tweedy) find that Scred has fallen for host
 
— I like where the premise is going; Scred being in love with Lily Tomlin seems like it will be a welcome change of pace for these Muppets segments.
— Interesting segue to Scred meeting Lily.
— Hmm, more singing…
— I have to say, though, that their performance of “I Got You Babe” is pretty funny and really sweet.
— Overall, definitely one of the better Muppet segments so far.
STARS: ***

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
— This is just a replay of Albert’s film from the first episode. Lily gave an interesting intro/set-up to this, though.

BEETHOVEN, PART 3
Beethoven (JOB) sings “What’d I Say” with backups wife (GIR) & maid (LAN)
 
— Is it really necessary to keep doing the ‘good morning, nice to see you’ bit at the beginning of ALL of these Beethoven segments?
— I liked John’s deadpan “achoo” after snorting some snuff.
— Ah, the sunglasses… Yep, here we go, we’re getting the Ray Charles piece I had been anticipating.
— Yes, this is fantastic. And I like how Gilda and Laraine are now getting involved, too.
— John’s Ray Charles imitation is simply perfect. This is definitely one of his all-time best performances.
— It’s great how these Beethoven segments used a three-part format to slowly build up to this Ray Charles bit, which is much better than if they had gone right into it in the first segment like I had been expecting.
STARS: *****

HARD HATS
forewoman (host) gives female hardhats lessons on how to harass men
 
— Lily just called Jane by her real name. Ah, I see this is yet another instance of this cast playing themselves in a sketch that in more recent years would’ve given them character names instead.
— Not too sure how I feel about this premise. However, Lily and the female cast are doing nice ensemble work here, and their fun performances are helping make this sketch more enjoyable.
— Very strange ending. Was Gilda’s “Don’t cry; it’s only school” line even intended to be funny? It ended the sketch on a flat note.
STARS: **½

SPEED
Speed diet pill lets housewife (Anne Beatts) get a lot of work done
 
— I’m loving the concept of this.
— Great visual with the cabinet filled with neatly-folded brown paper bags.
— Overall, another very funny fake ad tonight. They’ve been getting better with these.
STARS: ****

MARGO’S DANCE PALACE
at a dance, 1950s teen (host) gossips about classmates to her friend

— Ah, I see this is a ‘one-woman show’ performance piece.
— Considering I usually don’t care for ‘one-man/woman show’ sketches, I’m surprised by how much I’m really enjoying this. Lily is doing such a great job and I’m very engaged in her performance.
— Overall, a very strong performance piece. I even liked the sentimental dramatic turn this took towards the end.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS
host & Bees GAM, LAN, GIR, CHC scat with SNL Band
 
— Oh, I can see these goodnights are going to be special, right from the beginning.
— Funny blooper when they were waiting for Gilda to speak and she didn’t even realize they were on the air.
— Looks kinda weird seeing Chevy in one of the Bee costumes, though I know he wore one in the Bee Hospital sketch from the premiere.
— I believe this is our first of several instances this era where Garrett showcases his nice singing voice.
— Wow at Gilda’s raspy-voiced scatting.
— This is a very nice way to close the show. Unpredictable format-breaking moments like this is part of what made the original cast so fun.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Another fun episode. This is what I expected would happen when you mix Lily Tomlin with 70s SNL.  It was a given that Lily would be an excellent host, and she certainly delivered, being fantastic in every single segment. Hell, she even got me to love a ‘one-man show’ piece. Overall, she was a strong enough host to make me wish she were a regular member of this cast.
— Lots of musical-based material tonight, which is something I’m usually not crazy about seeing on SNL, but it’s hard for me to complain about it in this episode when most of the music was actually fun, especially the goodnights number and, of course, the classic Beethoven three-parter.
— SNL seems to have officially hit its stride by this point. Knowing what episode is coming up next, it’s nice to know things get even better from here.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Richard Pryor

Posted on

November 15, 1975 – Robert Klein / Abba, Loudon Wainwright III (S1 E5)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
beauty pageant winner Sherry (LAN) refuses to accept her crown
 
— Hmm, Chevy called Laraine’s character “Sherry” just now. Is this the same Sherry character with the California accent that Laraine would later play?
— Yep, she’s speaking with the accent, so I guess this counts as that character’s debut. Odd how she’s not wearing the blonde wig she later wore in some other sketches I remember seeing her in, but as I pointed out in the last episode, I don’t think any of the cast members have worn a wig yet in any of these early episodes I’ve covered so far. Did SNL not have a budget for wigs yet back then or something?
— Interesting that they’re letting someone else get laughs in the cold opening besides Chevy for once.
— I especially like this part with Laraine angrily stripping down from her fancy pageant dress to just a plain shirt and (very 70s-looking) jeans.
— How are they going to work the traditional Chevy fall into THIS opening?
— Oh, he’s now walking towards the edge of the stage…
— Yep, and there’s the traditional fall. Good for a laugh as always, though.
— I liked the visual of him having Laraine’s crown crookedly on his head while saying LFNY.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Ha, instead of announcing “A Film By Albert Brooks” like Pardo’s been doing every week so far, they actually had Pardo announce “No Film By Albert Brooks” this time, which is pretty funny.
— Well, since it seems to have become a tradition for me to chronicle the different ways the cast has been listed in each episode’s credits so far this season, here’s tonight’s update: unlike in the last episode, the WHOLE cast is listed this time… well, everyone except Coe and O’Donoghue. However, the cast list is divided into two separate screens this time.
 
— I think I now understand the bizarre error in the preceding episode’s opening credits, where only four cast members were listed (Garrett, Laraine, Gilda, and Michael): the cast list was probably divided into two screens, but for some reason, one of those screens must’ve failed to display, and thus we only saw the screen crediting the aforementioned four cast members.

MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about the dangers of animal stereotypes & movie issues

— Like in the preceding episode, after the opening montage ends, the host is already present, sitting on a stool on stage as Pardo announces their name. I can see why SNL later decided to have it be a tradition for hosts to actually make an entrance after Pardo announces them: it’s more exciting for the studio audience to see that. In this episode, it looked kinda silly for the audience to start applauding Robert Klein after Pardo announced him, considering he was already there in front of them the whole time.
— Ah, a stand-up monologue, I see. I’m not familiar with Robert Klein’s stand-up, but I usually always enjoy seeing any hosts do this in their monologue.
— This is pretty good so far. I’m liking his delivery, and he comes off so natural in front of the audience.
— The “HE’S EATING MY BABY!!!” part was very funny.
— Another part I really liked just now is the bit about going “ooooooooWOOOOOooooooo” when you’re about to be murdered.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ABBA)
— Very interesting having the musical guest being introduced by Robert as a captain on the set of a ship, and their performance playing out as if they’re entertainment for the ship’s “passengers”.
— I’m liking the amusing cutaways to Robert as the captain struggling with a leak on the ship.

PONG
Pong-playing college students discuss their history midterm

— Surprised to see them bringing this unique segment back already after just one episode. And as the first sketch of the night this time, when in the last episode, it was in the 10-to-1 slot.
— I got a good laugh from Franken’s realization that he mistook Aaron Burr for Alexander Hamilton during the midterm.
— Overall, another pretty nice edition of this sketch. The conversation between Franken & Davis was actually a little funnier than the last one.
STARS: ***

MINUTE MYSTERY
Mike Mendoza (DAA) challenges viewers to solve a crime

— Heh, Laraine’s supposed to be a dead body, yet the sketch began with a tight close-up of her clearly turning her head. I wonder if that was an intentional joke.
— Dan is very funny acting like a Hollywood-type photographer while taking pictures of the dead body.
— John’s old-timey delivery is surprisingly great. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play this type of role before.
— The close-ups of increasingly-strange objects around the room while the ‘quiz music’ is playing is pretty funny.
— Good ending.
STARS: ***½

BEE CENTENNIAL MINUTE
(GAM) describes an insect’s brush with history

— Ah, the Bees running gag continues…
— Quite a long set-up, but I do like the way it built to the ending line. I was hoping for a funnier punchline, though.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III)
— Wait, is this supposed to be a comedy performance instead of a musical guest performance? I went through the whole first minute of this assuming it was just standard musical guest fare, but now his utterly-bizarre facial expressions and increasingly-goofy singing style have me re-thinking that.
— And now I can hear some of the audience members actually laughing in response to some of his lyrics. Hmm. I’m still very confused over whether this is supposed to be a legit musical performance or just a comedy bit.
— There are some points where he bares quite a resemblance to future cast member Will Ferrell, especially with some of the over-the-top facial expressions he’s making.

GREG ALLMAN, HOW’S YOUR LOVE LIFE?
Gregg Allman (CHC) eventually answers “How’s your love-life?” truthfully
 
— Ha, Chevy in that ridiculous wig, goatee, and sunglasses…….
— Hey, speaking of which, I guess this is SNL’s very first instance of a cast member wearing a wig on the show.
— The structure of this seems so random. I wonder if this is making fun of a real ad that Greg Allman starred in at the time.
— The punchline with him just saying “toilet” (in response to being asked how his love life’s going) and then doing a depressed face-plant into the piano keys actually made me laugh out loud.
STARS: ***½

TOUGH DIRECTOR
Sam Peckinpah (JOB) treats actress (GIR) roughly while directing a comedy

— Isn’t this the exact same living room set we just saw minutes ago?
— Whoa at John slapping Gilda out of nowhere. Should I laugh? I think I’d feel bad if I did, partly because of all the stuff I heard about John supposedly being misogynistic in real life.
— And now he kicked Gilda in the shin. Okay, I see where this is going, where his abuse to Gilda will increase each time he stops the filming of the movie.
— This is kinda like a violent version of that Sexist Director sketch Michael McKean would later do in 1994.
— I have to say, Gilda is doing a great job selling John’s hits, especially the way she fell all over the place just now.
— Very funny ending with Robert turning the tables on John.
STARS: **½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1

— That Sammy Davis Jr. Judaism conversion joke was fantastic
— I liked how during the audience’s huge reaction to the David & Julie Eisenhower execution joke, Chevy briefly picked up the phone on his desk and pretended to start dialing while he was waiting for the audience’s reaction to die down. I always like whenever Chevy ad-libs quick little things like that.
— LOL at the tasteless George Wallace wheelchair joke. That’s a joke I can easily picture Michael Che or Colin Jost doing nowadays.
— Wow, that Muhammad Ali/Joe Fraser joke bombed hard.

JAMITOL
(GEC) tells how Jamitol lets his wife (JAC) keep very busy

— George Coe sighting!
— Jane’s delivery is very funny here.
— She also got me laughing just now with the way she slowly passed out.
— Oh, wow, Coe actually made me laugh for once, with his delivery of the “I think I’ll stuff her” line at the end.
— Overall, this was a lot better than the earlier Jamitol ad this season (the one with Chevy and O’Donoghue playing a couple).
— I guess it’s safe to say that by this point in the show’s history, they won’t be putting Coe back into the opening credits, considering how many episodes we’ve been through since the last time he was credited, which was the very first episode. So technically, even though he’s continuing to make appearances on the show, this puts him right down there with future short-lived SNL players Laurie Metcalf and Emily Prager as people who only lasted one episode as a cast member. I’m just a bit surprised, since there have been some SNL sites that have stated Coe’s stint as a cast member lasted SEVERAL episodes, not just one. There seems to be a similar confusion over just how long Michael O’Donoghue was a credited cast member.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Frank Telinka (DAA) warns of the coming energy crisis while CHC mocks him
with GAM’s help, CHC repeats the top story for the hard-of-hearing
 
— They’re not going to be doing the ‘Chevy makes goofy faces behind a correspondent’s back’ bit EVERY week now, are they? I mean, the “news for the hard-of-hearing” bit has already seemingly become a weekly recurring Update segment, and if that & the ‘goofy faces’ bit are BOTH going to be weekly features, I fear that it’s soon going to feel like I’m watching the same Weekend Update day after day. That reminds me of the complains the two hosts at the That Week in SNL podcast had about how Norm Macdonald’s Season 21 Weekend Updates always relied on the same cycle of punchlines week-after-week (as a Norm fan, I’m sure I’ll feel differently about that when I reach that season in my reviews).
— Hmm, strange – Chevy actually doing a news story about the birthday of his then-girlfriend-and-occasional-SNL-extra Jacqueline Carlin.
— And now he’s acknowledged Lorne Michaels’ birthday as well. I believe this is the very first on-air mention of Lorne in an SNL episode.
— Looks like I was right about the “news for the hard-of-hearing” bit having become a weekly segment.
— Something new I’m starting to find funny in these hard-of-hearing bits is the mock-serious look on Garrett’s face when the circle of him first appears on-screen. His mock-serious look tonight especially made me laugh.
— You could see Chevy trying not to laugh just now during the hard-of-hearing-news bit.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

EXTERMINATORS
(host) tries to convince fellow exterminator (JOB) not to kill roaches
 
— Just now as John made his entrance, I couldn’t help but notice at first glance how much he resembled his brother Jim Belushi for a quick second. Maybe it’s the oil/grease on John’s face in this sketch that made the resemblance stand out more. Or maybe it’s because of the army clothes he’s wearing; I remember Jim often being cast as army-type guys during his SNL years.
— Speaking of first glance, I didn’t even recognize Robert Klein the first few seconds he showed up here. The glasses and hat make him look a lot different.
— I like the premise of this so far, with army-like exterminators treating their roach-killing job as if they’re soldiers at war.
— John’s accent & the look on his face are both fantastic. This is yet another sketch tonight where he’s surprised me by doing a voice I didn’t know he could pull off. Going through these early episodes one-by-one, I’m slowly starting to see that John was more versatile than I had thought.
— Weird segue to the “The Eternal Crawl”sequence. I almost thought they had cut to a separate sketch at first until I realized it’s still part of the same sketch.
— The little joke at the end with John subtly continuing to kill bugs behind Robert’s back was pretty funny.
STARS: ***

FIREMAN
fireman GIR talks about her job & gives some fire prevention tips

— Well, this seems random, but like I said recently, I like how these early episodes have been doing random little segments like this.
— Overall, there was nothing really noteworthy in this, but maybe it was intended to be more cute than funny. Either way, it was fine for what it was and Gilda’s performance was good as usual. But considering this starred her as herself, I kinda wanted to like this a little more.
STARS: ***

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Scred tries to come up with ways to remedy Ploobis’ migraine headache

— I liked the part with Ploobis stuffing the ice pack into his wife’s mouth; that felt like something you’d see on The Muppet Show.
— Okay, this is finally starting to actually get really funny, with the acupuncture needles sequence.
— Ploobis’ screaming when Scred jammed in that one needle was hilarious.
— Overall, this is easily the most I’ve ever laughed at these Muppet segments so far.
STARS: ***

ROBERT KLEIN STAND-UP #2
host does stand-up about college life, abnormal psychology, pot & monkeys
 
— I like how he’s getting multiple stand-up segments throughout the show, kinda like George Carlin in the first episode and Richard Pryor a few episodes from now.
— He’s pretty fun to watch as he’s going on about different topics.
— Pretty solid material overall.
STARS: ***½

K-PUT PRICE-IS-RITE STAMP GUN
save lots of money on groceries with K-Put’s Price-Is-Rite stamp gun

— Really good concept for a fake ad.
— Overall, I liked this a lot. I had recently been trying to find an opportunity in these reviews to voice how underwhelmed I’ve been by all the fake ads that SNL has aired in the handful of early episodes I’ve covered so far, but they won me over with this Stamp Gun commercial. So far, this is easily the most I’ve liked a fake ad at this point in the show’s early timeline.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III)
 
— Heh, now his facial expressions during this second performance are MORE crazy & Will Ferrell-esque than ever.
— There goes the audience laughing again, too.
— Okay, more and more, it’s becoming undeniably obvious that, yes, his two performances are indeed intentional comedic musical numbers, and now I feel dumb for thinking they were supposed to be serious performances. I guess I’m just not used to seeing comedic acts as SNL musical guests.

LOOKS AT BOOKS
JAC questions Little Kingdom author Emily Litella (GIR)

— Whoa, our very first Emily Litella sighting. I certainly wasn’t expecting to see her debut happen in a SKETCH; I wasn’t aware she had ever made any appearances outside of Update.
— Something looks a bit different about her in this first appearance.
— I’m liking Jane’s giddy facial expression whenever she fills in the end of Gilda’s sentences.
— The studio audience doesn’t sound like they’re into this sketch at all.
— Okay, the “teeeeeeny tiiiiiiiny…” phrase Gilda kept saying was kinda funny. But overall, ehh…. I wasn’t crazy about this sketch. It’s strange to see that Emily Litella, who would go on to become one of Gilda’s most beloved recurring characters, actually kinda bombed in her first appearance.
STARS: **

AMBASSADOR TRAINING INSTITUTE
— rerun

I CAN’T STOP MY LEG
host plays harmonica with SNL Band & sings “I Can’t Stop My Leg”

— Hmm, Robert’s about to perform what looks to be a comedic number. Is this going to be the “I Can’t Stop My Leg” bit that I’ve always heard about?
— Man, his facial expressions are cracking me up so far.
— Ah, it IS “I Can’t Stop My Leg”! Glad to finally get to see this.
— Wow, this is great. I’m absolutely loving this.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ABBA)
   
— Whoa, these sudden disclaimers on the bottom of the screen….. Oh, that’s right! I remember reading about this before. I think I remember hearing this was Michael O’Donoghue’s idea. He’s actually one of the “passengers” on the ship set during both of these musical performances.
— I do like how they’re continuing the side-act with Robert as the hapless ship captain.
— What’s with all the white spots on the screen suddenly? Is this a technical error?
— Holy hell, that was great just now with the dining tables, waiters, and passengers all crashing into each other due to the ship slanting sideways. I love that.
— Why didn’t it ever become a semi-regular thing for SNL to do fun little things like this during musical guests’ performances?
— Hmm, this ended while Abba was still “singing”. Did the show run long and they had to cut to commercials before the band was done, or was it intentional for their performance to end like that?

GOODNIGHTS
 
— I guess they’re still experimenting with how the goodnights are done. While in the previous episode’s goodnights, they introduced the now-traditional aspect of having the cast on stage with the host, this episode has gone back to what we saw in the first two episode’s goodnights where the host is on stage alone.
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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Pretty good episode. Didn’t have quite as much of a fun vibe as or as many fun quick random sketches as the preceding episode with Candice Bergen, but this was still an overall pretty solid show with not much to complain about. Even the performances from the two musical guests were funny, which is almost unheard of for SNL.
— Going into the episode not being all that familiar with Robert Klein, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from him, though I figured beforehand that he MUST’VE done a good job since I know they bring him back a few more times throughout this era. Watching this episode, I ended up being impressed by him: he was a fun host, I enjoyed his stand-up, he got some laughs in the sketches, I loved his “I Can’t Stop My Leg” number, and he even got involved in Abba’s musical performances where he helped make it watchable with his funny acting & facial expressions.

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:
Lily Tomlin

Posted on

November 8, 1975 – Candice Bergen / Esther Phillips (S1 E4)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
clumsy Gerald Ford (CHC) has a few accidents during a speech   
— Ah, our debut of Chevy’s famous Gerald Ford non-impression.
— Wait, now there’s a disclaimer on the bottom of the screen stating “This is not the president of the United States, but he thinks he is”. Huh? So does that mean this DOESN’T count as him playing Ford? Or does it, but that disclaimer was just their way of waving off the fact that there was no attempt to make Chevy look or sound anything like Ford? If this DOESN’T count as him playing Ford, does that mean this and all of his subsequent Ford appearances should technically be counted as a “character”, and we were wrong all these years when we counted it as an impression? Ha, it’s funny how one little disclaimer has me asking so many questions…….
— I’ve just come to the realization that, unless I’m mistaken,  we’ve yet to see Chevy wear a wig in any of the four episodes I’ve covered.  Actually, come to think of it, have ANY of the cast members wore any wigs yet by this point?
— The overabundance of goofy accidents Chevy keeps having is kinda over-the-top, but pretty damn funny, especially the gag with the glass of water he keeps pouring. Chevy is very skilled at performing a rapid-fire string of blunders; he makes it look effortless.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— I swear, the cast list in the opening montage has been getting stranger and stranger with each passing episode. Tonight, for some bizarre reason, literally only HALF of the cast is listed: Garrett, Laraine, Gilda, and Michael O’Donoghue. What in the world???!!

— Considering the fact that their names are shown on the lower half of the screen, I have to wonder if the full cast was supposed to be listed, but there was maybe some weird technical error where the names on the upper half of the screen failed to display. I know that theory sounds strange, but it’s possible. After all, this IS a very early episode back when SNL’s technology was kinda shoddy.

MONOLOGUE
allergic host attempts to dissuade CHC from hitting a Bee (JOB)

— Right after the opening montage ended, Candice is already on stage, sitting on a stool as Pardo announces her name. It’s interesting seeing how in these early episodes, SNL experimented with how they had their hosts begin their monologues. The first and third episode had the host (George Carlin and Rob Reiner, respectively) make an entrance after Pardo calls their name, whereas the second and fourth episode (Paul Simon and Candice Bergen, respectively) had the host already there on stage as their name is called. Wonder how long it is until SNL made the permanent decision to stick with the former, where the hosts make an entrance.
— It always feels unusual for me seeing Candice Bergen look so young. Because I grew up in the 90s, most of my exposure to her has been from “Murphy Brown” and onward.
— Did I just see one of The Bees in the background?
— Ah, I was right, although it’s just John as a Bee instead of the whole cast playing them.
— I like how they’re playing this out, treating John as an actual bee and trying to sneak up and kill him the way you would a real insect. This is a change from the last two Bees appearances, where the premise was that they’re recurring characters who nobody likes.
STARS: ***

AMBASSADOR TRAINING INSTITUTE
start your career in diplomacy at Ambassador Training Institute
 
— Pretty decent premise.
— The ‘multiple choice’ list has been my favorite part so far.
— Overall, not bad.
STARS: ***

CIA DEPARTMENT OF RECORDS
CIA records keeper (DAA) says he can’t find career criminal GAM’s file

— Hmm, I wasn’t expecting the reveal that Garrett’s playing himself. Until then, I had assumed he was just a random character.
— I’m not really sure where this sketch is going, though I’m liking Dan’s performance and the increasing desperation of the crimes Garrett’s claiming he committed.
— The twist/punchline at the end was pretty funny, but I’m not sure if all that set-up was worth it.
STARS: **

JAWS II
a clever Land Shark (CHC) attacks young women in their homes
  
— The debut of the Landshark!
— All the stuff that Chevy’s saying behind the door in that sheepish voice keeps cracking me up.
— Ah, there’s the classic “Candygram” line.
— I’m liking the short cutaways with John and Dan, especially the egg salad bit just now.
— Another great part of the John/Dan scenes is the “good news/bad news” phone conversation.
— Nice touch having Pardo’s voice as the radio announcer that Candice is listening to.
— Funny ending with Garrett getting mistaken for the Landshark and staggering around after getting conked with the mallet.
— Overall, a very memorable and strong sketch, and I love how they made this feel like an actual movie, with all the various scenery changes.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

HAMLET / POLAROID
Hamlet’s (CHC) crib notes scatter when he fractures Yorick’s skull
   
— The skull breaking and Chevy attempting to read the lines off the small fragmented pieces is pretty funny.
— LOL at the brief “Hello Dolly” part.
— A Polaroid segue? What??? THIS sure came out of left field.
— Oh, I remember hearing about this, where SNL had their performers do an actual non-joke live Polaroid ad in an episode. In fact, I think I heard this was actually done several times in this era of the show, though I might be mistaken.
— I like how Candice is randomly wearing a Bee costume. It’s cute how the whole Bees thing became a big running gag so quickly on SNL in just four episodes.
— Well, this Polaroid bit is just plain odd to see on SNL. I keep expecting some kind of humor, but it’s been played completely straight so far.
— Okay, there was a little humor at the end just now, with Candice and Chevy’s quick insult to each other.
STARS: N/A

LONG DISTANCE
gay son’s long-distance call to mom is “the next best thing to being her”

— Whaaaaaaaat???  That’s all I could say after this commercial ended.
— Wow, I didn’t understand this at all. Was it even intended to be funny? Was the “it’s the next best thing to being her” tagline intended to be an insult to gay men? I get the bad feeling the latter is what SNL was going for here, which is something that wouldn’t fly on the show nowadays in our more gay-friendly world.
— I have no idea what to make of this ad as whole. Man, like I said a few episodes ago, some of these early SNL fake ads are STRANGE.
STARS: *

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— Ah, we have our very first utterance of Chevy’s famous “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” intro!
— Hmm, the president back then was known for making big firings and hirings in his white house staff? Heh, some things never change…
— I loved the joke about vandals attaching arms to the Venus de Milo statue.

TRIOPENIN

— We break in the middle of Update for our very first instance of a repeated fake ad.

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
while CHC makes faces at her, JAC blasts New York’s vote on the ERA
with GAM’s help, CHC repeats the top story for the hard-of-hearing
 
— Finally, four episodes into SNL’s existence, Weekend Update has its first-ever guest commentary at the desk. Jane Curtin gets the honors. Kinda meaningful in hindsight, considering she would later go on to be Chevy’s successor as Update anchor.
— Oh, this is the well-known recurring bit where Chevy makes faces behind the guest commentator’s back while they’re addressing the camera. Wow, a lot of Chevy trademarks were born in this episode: his Gerald Ford impression/character, his Landshark sketches, “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not”, and now this.
— After just one episode, they’ve already brought back the “news for the hard of hearing” bit? I can’t complain, because as I said before, it’s always funny.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***½

CHANEL
Catherine Deneuve (host) lies on a Chanel bottle & talks about fame

— I can tell this must be parodying a specific ad that’s before my time, but I’m still enjoying this so far. Candice’s performance is excellent and her accent is making me laugh.
— Good ending with the bottle still attached to her face when she held her head upright.
STARS: ***

ANDY KAUFMAN
as Foreign Man, Andy Kaufman [real] bombs while attempting stand-up

— Yes! Our first instance of Andy’s “Foreign Man” act on SNL.
— I love the way this is building up so far.
— The very long, painfully-awkward pause when he “forgets” what impression to do next is fucking great. Most of my favorite Andy Kaufman bits over the years are ones that rely on making the audience confused & having no idea how to react to what they’re seeing.
— Oh, I see this is where his sobbing noises are gradually going to turn rhythmic and then segue into him playing on the big bongo drum and then dancing. I saw a clip of that part years ago in an Andy Kaufman documentary.
— Overall, this was such a fascination to watch. It had just about everything I love to see in an Andy Kaufman performance.
STARS: *****

FEMININE TALK
GIR & host chat about their insecurities, femininity, gender equality

— Hmm, Gilda and Candice as themselves on the homebase stage… I can already tell this will be interesting.
— So far, this hasn’t been too laugh-out-loud funny, but is very charming.
— Overall, this was really good. While there were some jokes scattered in there, there’s something I enjoy about seeing a realistic, slice-of-life, laid-back conversation between these two charismatic female performers.
STARS: ****

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
NBC series Medical Season, The Three Of Us, Black Vet
   
— Previewing various fictional mid-season replacement shows seems like a premise I’ll enjoy, and is a bit of a change of pace from the other shorts we’ve seen from Albert Brooks so far.
— This medical show preview is strange, but kinda funny.
— The guy with the sunglasses in the “you could get hit by a car driving home today” bit looks familiar.
— This “The Three of Us” preview is cracking me up with the intentional bad jokes and typical sitcom laughtrack.
— Is that the same little girl from the ‘age of consent lowered to seven’ scene in Albert Brooks’ short from the first episode?
STARS: ***

MIDNIGHT PROBE
host interviews kiwi trappers (DAA) & (JOB)
 
— Feels like the first time we’re seeing Belushi in quite a while.
— Unusual sketch so far, but I’m enjoying how the silliness of what Dan and John are saying is being played so straight.
— Wow, this turned crazy all of sudden with the demonstration of kiwi-bagging. This is hilarious, especially Dan and John’s goofy high-pitched chanting during it.
— This HAD to have been written (or at least co-written) by Dan. Watching & reviewing these SNL episodes in order, I’m starting to notice in the four episodes I’ve covered that he’s the one in this cast who seems to star in the particularly bizarre, inventive, out-there material (e.g. the Square Dance and Home Security sketches), which is starting to make him my new favorite of this cast.
STARS: ***½

CRANK CALL
airline ticket vendor (LAN) calmly takes (MOD)’s sadistic crank call

— Oh, THIS sketch. I’ve never actually seen it before, but I must’ve read the transcript because this is coming off very familiar to me so far.
— I’m always a fan of O’Donoghue’s disturbing, fucked-up humor, so naturally, I’m absolutely loving his psychotic deadpan rant to Laraine in this sketch.
— Great punchline with Laraine. Once again, I really like how these early SNL episodes have so many quick, to-the-point, random little sketches.
STARS: ****½

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Scred & Ploobis consult Mighty Favog about the dwindling Glig population
 
— Ploobis’ extended eating sequence at beginning is pretty funny.
— Hmm, the food-deliverer’s (I think her name is Vazh) voice is completely different from her voice in the first Muppets sketch. I like this new voice better.
— Ploobis’ wife’s delivery of her lines always amuses me.
— While I’m going on about the Muppet’s voices, I’m getting a pretty good laugh from the yelling Glig’s voice. That character is one I can picture being on The Muppet Show.
— Overall, while none of these SNL Muppet sketches have been anywhere near great so far, I’m surprised to see I haven’t exactly been hating them yet.
STARS: **½

IRK THE TURK
host’s obnoxious practical jokes eventually ire third-world ruler (JOB)
 
— There seems to be a lot of instances tonight where it’s randomly revealed someone’s playing their self after I assumed they were just playing a character. Like the interviewers Candice played in both this sketch and Midnight Probe. I guess this is yet another unique aspect of 70s SNL. If they did those two sketches nowadays, the host would’ve been given a character name instead of their real name.
— Kinda surprising seeing Candice doing these rude antics to John’s character. Her antics are funny, especially the match-burning bit. I also really like John’s frustrated facial reactions; they’re a lot more subtle than you’d expect from a performer like him.
— I know I keep saying this, but again, I’m loving the randomness of these early sketches. They seem so unconventional by modern-day SNL standards.
STARS: ***½

BLACK PERSPECTIVE
GAM praises lily-white African-American expert JAC

— When they first showed Garrett after the title screen, I almost expected this to be the well-known bit with him interviewing Julian Bond, but I know that doesn’t come until later on in this era.
— “Soul sister Jane Curtin” – haha! And again, this further proves my point that there’s a lot of instances of performers playing themselves in tonight’s sketches. There’s something about that I’m starting to find fun.
— LOL at the ‘jungle bunny’ line, which naturally brings up memories of a certain epic Richard Pryor sketch that’s coming up in a few episodes.
STARS: ***

PONG
Pong-playing college students (ALF) & (TOD) discuss Thanksgiving plans

— Oh, yeah, this. I know this eventually becomes a recurring bit this season. I recall seeing at least one of these before.
— I really admire the unique structure of this sketch. I can see why some would find its format boring, but it’s intriguing to me for some reason.
— Not really any actual laughs so far, but I think Franken & Davis’ conversation is supposed to be going for a ‘slice-of-life’ feel, kinda like the Gilda/Candice conversation earlier.
— Oh, wow, very funny ending just now.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
 
— Ah, not only do we thankfully see the goodnights this time unlike the last episode, but finally for the first time ever, the goodnights actually have the cast onstage with the host.
— All Candice says is “goodnight”, and is then bombarded with a rose by each cast member.
— Chevy’s surprisingly coming off sweet in his interaction with his castmates.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— What a fun episode. I especially liked the post-Update half, where just about every sketch kept me entertained.
— Now that I’ve finally seen this episode, I can say that yes, the comments I had read over the years about this being the first episode that feels like a typical SNL is correct. This episode introduced the traditions of: 1) the host playing various characters while appearing in sketches with the cast (though, as mentioned earlier, there were some instances of Candice playing herself in certain sketches that usually would give the host a character name), 2) there being only one musical guest and two musical performances, 3) Weekend Update having guest commentaries at the desk, and 4) the cast being present at the goodnights. There are still some aspects of the show that come off foreign to viewers today, however (e.g. the host already being on stage at the beginning of the monologue as Pardo calls their name, a lot of the pre-taped fake ads starring unknown actors instead of cast members, etc.).
— Candice was a great host, easily the best of the four we’ve had so far. She fit into the show perfectly, had great chemistry with the cast, and got several good laughs of her own. It’s no surprise she went on to be a recurring host so quickly; as you’ll see very soon, her second hosting stint is only shortly after this one.
— So far, I’m having a blast discovering these early SNLs. I love how loose, unpredictable, and experimental the sketches have been. We’re seeing interesting things like cast members frequently playing themselves in sketches, a lot of creative and weird sketches, a lot of sketches that are very short and lead to an actual punchline, and, of course, the running gag with The Bees. There were so many fun aspects of the show back then that you unfortunately don’t see in modern-day SNL.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Robert Klein

Posted on

October 25, 1975 – Rob Reiner / (no musical guest) (S1 E3)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
wheelchair-bound (CHC) briefly regains his ability to walk, then falls 
— Chevy slowly coming to the realization that he had just walked was pretty funny.
— I’ve seen funnier pratfalls from Chevy, but this was still a fairly funny ending gag. I like the simplicity of these early cold openings.
STARS: ***

OPENING MONTAGE
— Hey, Michael O’Donoghue’s back in the cast list, after being taken out of it in the previous episode. George Coe’s still missing from it, though. I guess the plan so far is for Coe and O’Donoghue to only be credited in episodes that they actually appear in.
— Also, after listing the cast alphabetically in the previous episode’s opening credits, SNL does something a bit strange tonight: the cast is mostly still listed alphabetically, except for Gilda, who’s name is put between Chevy and Jane for some reason:

MONOLOGUE
host lives out his dream by portraying a smarmy lounge singer
— Hmm, a specially-decorated stage with floor lights. This should be interesting.
— I’ve always been curious to see this, after Robert DeNiro built it up as this strange experimental piece when he talked about it in SNL’s 40th anniversary special.
— The “This is not Irving Berlin, but Rob doesn’t know it” caption gave me a good laugh.
— Reiner’s giving a very committed performance to this.
— Interesting ending with him actually dropping character and taking off his wig.
STARS: ***

NATIONAL PANCREAS ASSOCIATION
a trip to the doctor (DAA) reveals that (JOB)’s pancreas is on the fritz 
— Are John and Gilda playing the same couple from the home security sketch in the first episode? They appear to be wearing the exact same clothes from that sketch.
— Dan is pretty funny as the doctor.
— So refreshing to actually see several cast members in this, by the way, after the Paul Simon episode where they were virtually non-existent.
— How is John able to go from set-to-set so fast? Though it did seem like Dan was stalling a bit at the beginning of the doctor’s office scene to give John time to make it to the set. This is one of the things I’ve always loved about SNL being a live show.
— Overall, this was nothing really noteworthy, but it had a certain charm to it that I liked, partly due to the performances.
STARS: **½

FASHION DON’TS
host & Penny Marshall [real] emcee a fashion show of style mistakes  
— This sketch has a weird but fun structure.
— LOL at the way Garrett’s walking.
— The Aykroyd/leisure suit bit was really good.
— Still feels strange seeing O’Donoghue among the cast.
— O’Donoghue’s bit, however, was a funny ending to the sketch.
STARS: ***½

GOLDEN NEEDLES
(GEC) pitches surgery-free healing via Golden Needles voodoo acupuncture

— Oh, so George Coe IS in this episode after all. Wonder why he wasn’t in the opening cast list tonight. I guess after the season premiere, they’ve ALREADY relegated him to only making non-credited appearances.
— His pitchman delivery isn’t bad in this and he comes off believable in this role, but he doesn’t seem to have quite the comedic touch that someone like Aykroyd, Harry Shearer, or Phil Hartman would’ve given this sketch. I think I’m starting to see why this guy didn’t last long on the show.
— The concept of this ad is decent.
STARS: ***

ANDY KAUFMAN
Andy Kaufman [real] lip-syncs “Pop Goes The Weasel”

— Oh, geez, already they’re trying to replicate the success of the classic Mighty Mouse bit from the first episode, right down to him coming out in the exact same outfit.
— I’ve never seen this one before, except for a very brief clip in an Andy Kaufman documentary.
— He’s lipsyncing the WHOLE song this time? Where’s the joke in doing that?
— Oh, wait, it is pretty funny seeing him lipsync the dad’s non-singing dialogue while having that cheesy “1950s dad” expression on his face.
— This is paling terribly in comparison to the Mighty Mouse bit and feels below standards compared to the usual weirdness I love from Andy. However, I’m still finding myself laughing. I guess Andy can crack me up doing ANYTHING.
— Great bit towards the end with the record temporarily stopping but him still bopping along, then miming the “pop” sound effect with flawless timing right as the song came back on.
STARS: ***

DANGEROUS BUT INEPT
Squeaky Fromme (LAN) is unable to shoot JAC

— Haha, I’m really liking Laraine’s performance.
— Overall, quite a bizarre little mini-sketch, but I definitely enjoyed it.
— I love how short and to-the-point a lot of SNL’s early live sketches are.
STARS: ***½

FELINA CAT FOOD
in-store test proves Felina Cat Food is indiscernible from regular tuna
— Okaaaayyyy……
— Well, THAT just came and went without any visible punchline. What exactly WAS the joke here?
STARS: *

THE LOCKERS
Toni Basil, Fred Berry, other Lockers [real] dance around Studio 8H  
— Just now, as one of the Lockers is making his entrance, I can see the set for the pancreas sketch from earlier, and now I understand how Belushi was able to quickly go back-and-forth from the living room set to the doctor’s office set: they were both actually just one set, but with different-colored walls to make them look like two individual sets.
— THAT’S the “Mickey, Mickey, you’re so fine” girl? Really???
— Hey, it’s Rerun!
— And hey, during his solo dance, he unintentionally kicks one of the floor lights into the audience! Ha, just now, I spotted a lady in the audience pick the light up and just look at it confusedly.
— I won’t give this a rating, but this sure was fun to watch.

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
at the Blaine Hotel, kidnappers use DOP to voice their demands 
— I liked the randomness of the Sirhan Sirhan joke.
— Hmm, didn’t realize that the Blaine Hotel bit with Laraine from the first episode’s Update ended up being a recurring segment.
— I didn’t get Laraine’s joke about the kidnappers calling themselves “Blowfish”. The audience liked that joke a lot, so I’m guessing it was a topical reference.
— Oh, wow, I love this bit with an unseen Don Pardo being held hostage and reading off a list of the kidnappers’ demands in a “gameshow announcer” manner.
— “Still to come”? Ah, I see this is another Update that’s going to have a break in the middle for a fake ad.

MIDDLE AMERICAN VAN LINES
Middle-American Van Lines moves people, not possessions

— Eh, movers moving people as furniture is a pretty corny, kinda-outdated (even for the 70s) joke.
— I did kinda like the little detail at the end with the teddy bear being left behind, though.
STARS: **

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
with GAM’s help, CHC repeats the top story for the hard-of-hearing
 
— Was it really necessary to the repeat the ‘guests of SNL stay at the Blaine Hotel’ bit from the first episode? It was hilarious the first time, but that kind of joke doesn’t work with repetition. The studio audience apparently agrees with me, judging from their tepid response to the bit.
— Did I just see the picture in the news screen jump suddenly in the middle of Chevy’s joke?
— Ah, the very first appearance of the classic “news for the hard of hearing” routine. Always funny, and a good way to end this Update.
— We’re three episodes in, and interestingly, there has yet to be an Update guest correspondent who does a commentary at the desk. I wonder when we get our first one.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JOE COCKER)
spastic Joe Cocker (JOB) sings “With A Little Help From My Friends”
 
— Oh, THIS famous Belushi sketch! I had no idea this appeared so early in the show’s history.
— Haha, Belushi’s already making me laugh hysterically before he’s even started singing. The close-up of his insane facial expressions and gestures is KILLING me.
— Wow, he’s doing an excellent vocal impression of Cocker.
— Loved the sudden spinning fall to the ground, then him rolling around on his stomach.
— Overall, just… wow! What else can I say? This was fucking perfect and well-deserving of its status as an all-time classic.
STARS: *****

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Ploobis discovers his son Wisss (Richard Hunt) has been smoking craters
 
— The initial sight of that puppet smoking craters was good for a laugh.
— LOL, everything about this is so 70s, from the drug premise to all the ‘hippie speak’ from the son.
— Another terrible punchline from The Mighty Favog. I’m starting to realize that he’s probably my least favorite aspect of these Muppets sketches so far.
STARS: **

DROOLERS ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
Droolers Anti-Defamation League representative (CHC) promotes awareness

— The way Chevy looks in those glasses & mustache is already making me chuckle.
— Oh, man, this is gross, but pretty funny so far.
— Loved how Don Pardo was randomly mentioned as one of the famous droolers.
— Ha, Chevy’s starting to crack up. I guess you can pinpoint this as the very first instance of character-breaking on SNL.
— At first, I was wondering how he was able to speak so clearly while drooling, but now he’s starting to flub some lines and mispronounce words. I guess his laughing has thrown off his ability to speak clearly while drooling.
— The ‘sealing envelopes’ line was great. That and Chevy’s breaking boosted the sketch’s rating a bit.
STARS: ***½

SQUARE DANCE
a deranged, sadistic hoe-down caller (DAA) torments square dancers
 
— Haha, this is really twisted so far.
— Dan’s maniacal performance is great, especially the sadistic wild laugh he keeps doing.
— Ha, Dan reacted to getting shot a few seconds BEFORE the gunshot sound effect even went off.
— Wow, what an insane little sketch overall. I loved it. I’m always a big fan of seeing Dan do crazy stuff like this.
STARS: ****½

MARK HAMPTON AND DENNY DILLON
nuns (Mark Hampton) & (DED) emcee a convent’s talent night
 
— Feels so strange seeing future cast member Denny Dillon appearing in such an early episode.
— We’re about a minute and half into this, and unfortunately, I haven’t been laughing at all. Neither has the studio audience. Man, this is dying so far.
— Okay, the audience seems to be getting more and more into it now. However, I am not.
— Overall, I really wanted to like this, but found almost no enjoyment. Maybe because ‘nun humor’ just isn’t my bag.
— I hope this isn’t the kind of stuff I have to look forward to seeing from Denny when we reach the 80-81 season.
STARS: *½

WHAT GILDA ATE
GIR rambles about everything she consumed that day

— This is another bit that I’m surprised to see appeared so early in the history of the show. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this sketch before, but I read about it and I assumed it didn’t appear until well into Gilda’s tenure on the show.
— I can already tell I’m going to like this. Gilda always has a way of making concepts like this funny.
— Yep, I was right. This got increasingly funny the more she went on and on. This may have been our very first glimpse of the Gilda charm that always helps makes segments like this work.
STARS: ***½

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
“Operation”- a George Plimpton-ish stab at heart surgery
  
— Oh, the Albert Brooks surgery film. I heard about this before; supposedly, this has an unusual runtime of around FIFTEEN MINUTES, which sounds unbearable.
— Well, so far, not bad. I’ve been getting some laughs.
— I really like the part when they sudden realize the patient was never anesthetized and Albert goes “Why the hell is he awake?!?”
— Albert’s growing frustration with that one doctor is pretty funny.
— Okay, yes, this film is noticeably starting to get very long, but I’m actually enjoying this.
— Very nice ending.
— Overall, this was nowhere near as bad as I was dreading. For such a long film, I was surprisingly entertained the whole way through.
STARS: ***½

BEES
host is upset when The Bees ruin his dramatic scene
 
— Ah, a sketch using the homebase stage as a setting. I like that.
— WTF? The Bees?
— I like how starting with the Paul Simon episode, it’s become a running joke that everyone hates the Bees.
— Belushi’s “This is all the writers came up with for us” confession is great.
— Wow, Belushi acted the hell out of his whole rant. His performance is really making this sketch.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS
— The goodnights in the first two episodes were already unconventional, in that neither of them had anybody on stage except the host and, in second episode’s case, special guest Bill Bradley. But, man, THIS episode’s goodnights are definitely our most unconventional yet – they technically don’t even count as “goodnights”. There’s no visual of a host standing on stage giving their thanks and then waving goodbye or ANYTHING – we’re literally only shown still shots from the opening montage with the ending credits scroll displayed over it, while the traditional goodnights music plays.

— Boy, it’s weird seeing an SNL episode end this way. Kind of an empty-feeling way to end a live episode; you’d think this was the end credits of a “Best Of” compilation or something.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Overall, an enjoyable, pretty solid episode. It especially felt nice to see lots of comedy, after the musical performance-dominated episode with Paul Simon.
— There wasn’t much that I disliked in this episode, aside from the Denny Dillon nun act and a couple of subpar fake ads. Everything else was good for the most part; even the insanely-long Albert Brooks film managed to hold my enjoyment.
— Reiner did a fine job as host, though it felt like he didn’t do any actual “characters” aside from the monologue. But let’s remember that this IS only SNL’s third episode and they still hadn’t fully figured out how to really use the hosts yet. They are getting there, though: after all, Reiner was the very first host to actually change outfits/costumes throughout the show and act with the cast in various pieces.
— Chevy didn’t seem quite as dominant as usual tonight. We actually got to see some of the other cast members shine; Belushi especially had a pretty strong night, with his epic Joe Cocker performance and his great ranting in the Bees sketch.
— You can see the SNL that we’re familiar with slowly starting to take shape by this point, though they’re still not quite there yet.

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
— Candice Bergen. This has often been said by many to be the first episode that feels like a typical SNL. I’m eager to see if that’s true.

Posted on

October 18, 1975 – Paul Simon / Randy Newman, Phoebe Snow (S1 E2)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host performs “Still Crazy After All These Years”; CHC falls
 
— Our first of what I know is going to be MANY musical performances tonight……
— Ha, Chevy out of nowhere doing a pratfall after the song ended. That was so random, but certainly funny. It’s also noteworthy in that it was the birth of Chevy’s traditional SNL pratfalls. And after this and the previous week’s episode, this opening also pretty much solidified a tradition of Chevy being the one who says “Live from New York…” every week.

OPENING MONTAGE
— The audio quality of the theme music is noticeably A LOT better than the muffled/cardboard box sound it had in the first episode.
— Wow, are George Coe and Michael O’Donoghue gone from the cast ALREADY? The cast list in this episode’s montage just lists the seven Not Ready For Prime-Time Players that everyone’s familiar with nowadays. And unlike last week, they’re listed alphabetically this time, too:

MONOLOGUE
host & Jesse Dixon Singers perform “Loves Me Like A Rock”

— Hmm, Paul is already standing on stage (along with the Jesse Dixon Singers) after the opening montage ends, instead of making the usual entrance that hosts make after Don Pardo announces “Ladies and gentlemen, (insert host name here)”.
— Ah, our first real sighting of the “basement” homebase stage that I remember from this era. Technically, it was used in the previous episode for Janis Ian’s musical performances, but this is the first time it’s being used for the monologue/goodnights stage.

THE BERKELEY COLLECTION
Jerry Rubin [real] pitches the Berkeley Collection of graffiti wallpaper
 
— Like in last week’s pre-taped segments, there doesn’t seem to be any audience sounds mixed into this.
— Uh… I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be laughing at this commercial or not. But I am finding it strangely enjoyable and this has a nice charm to it. This is serving as a nice little time capsule into the late 60s hippie era.
— This actually seems like this could be a real advertised product.
STARS: ***

We get our very first audience caption, a gag that would go on to become one of the staples of 70s SNL.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Paul Simon)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Randy Newman)

BEES
host informs The Bees that their number has been cut from the show

— Hi, cast members!
— Hmm, Chevy isn’t there. But there appears to be a guy in his place who I don’t recognize. (He’s the one standing next to Belushi in the above screencap) I’m guessing he’s one of the writers.
— Paul’s line about how the Bees bit “didn’t work last week” is referring to how poorly-received the previous episode’s Bee Hospital sketch was. I read someplace that the higher-ups at NBC ordered Lorne not to ever bring the Bees back after how badly that sketch bombed.
— Bye, cast members!
— Overall, I can’t rate this segment because it was so short, but it was a pretty funny bit. Unfortunately, I know it’s the last we see of these cast members for the rest of the night…..

WEEKEND UPDATE
host goes one-on-one with Connie Hawkins [real]; Marv Albert cameo
  
— The string of President Ford jokes are all pretty funny so far.
— Hmm, I’m starting to notice a Chevy Chase trademark I never caught before: him pounding his fist on the desk whenever an Update joke gets a big reaction from the audience. He did it last week after the famous prostitution stamp joke, and now he did it this week after a joke.
— Well, this sudden Connie Hawkins/Paul Simon pre-tape certainly seems strange.
— Did I just hear audience laughter? I thought audio of the audience wasn’t mixed into the early pre-tapes.
— Hey, this Simon/Hawkins match is actually really fun. I’m loving this.
— I got a good laugh from the “he’s not hurt” caption after Paul got up from the floor.
— Loved the slow-motion part with Paul ducking under Hawkins’ jump, then successfully making a shot.
— That’s the end of Update? Kinda surprised they never cut back to Chevy. That long pre-tape almost made you forget it was even part of Update.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Simon & Garfunkel, #1)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Simon & Garfunkel, #2)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Art Garfunkel)

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Ploobis & Scred seek The Mighty Favog’s help during a financial crisis

— Well, I surprisingly didn’t groan when this popped up, but I’m sure that’s just because after so many consecutive musical performances, I’m desperate for ANY comedy on the show, even this.
— Not too bad so far. It feels weird to actually be laughing during this episode.
— The close-up of Scred’s facial reaction to Favog saying he’ll “take” him was great.
STARS: **½

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
traumatic home movies & failed Candid Camera stunts
 
— The interplay between Albert and his little daughter is pretty funny.
— Hey, I’m actually laughing a lot during this film. Again, however, I’m sure part of that is because of how comedy-deprived I’ve been after sitting through musical performance after musical performance all night.
— Man, Albert’s dad ages fast.
— Overall, Albert Brooks gave me some good much-needed laughs in this film.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Phoebe Snow)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Phoebe Snow, Paul Simon, Jesse Dixon Singers)

TRY-HARD 1-11
the battery is strong enough to run a pacemaker all night

— Uh… okaaayyyy…
— I have no idea what to say about this overall, other than I feel like I missed why this was supposed to be funny. Man, some of these early SNL fake ads are strange.
STARS: *

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Paul Simon)

GOODNIGHTS
Bill Bradley [real] presents host with a basketball trophy
 
— The visual of Paul struggling to carry that huge trophy is pretty funny.
— Paul continues to get laughs, with him now challenging Kareem Abdul Jabbar to a one-on-one match.
— Interestingly, when thanking tonight’s guests, one of the “guests” Paul mentions is Chevy Chase, which is strange considering Chevy’s in the cast. But then again, in the previous episode’s goodnights, George Carlin also mentioned the cast (or, as he called them, “The Not Quite Ready For Prime-Time Players”) among the rest of that episode’s guests. I think this, among other things, shows that in these early episodes, the cast wasn’t quite as ingrained into the show as they would soon be.
— Like how last week’s goodnights just had Carlin on stage by himself, this episode’s goodnights just have Paul and Bill Bradley by themselves. To modern eyes, the stage looks so odd not having the cast & musical guest there as the credits are rolling.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Well… what is there to say about SNL: The Concert, besides “wow, what a weird episode” or “this did not feel like SNL”?
— Honestly, I actually enjoyed the musical performances in this episode, but man, the live sketches’ presence was VERY missed, as was the Not Ready For Prime-Time Players’ presence. Chevy was the only cast member who got any real screen time, and even THAT isn’t saying much, as he just made a walk-on (or “fall-on”, rather) at the end of the cold opening and didn’t do many jokes on Weekend Update before throwing to the Connie Hawkins/Paul Simon basketball pre-tape (which was easily the best segment of the night).
— This being such an early episode and the format not being set in stone yet, it’s understandable that SNL was trying different things – that’s part of what makes these early episodes so fascinating. But let’s just be happy this episode’s ‘all music, no sketches’ format isn’t what SNL ended up sticking with in the long run, though I don’t think that was ever the plan anyway; from what I remember hearing, this episode was basically created as an excuse for the cast and staff to take a breather after all the hard work it took putting together the first episode.
— Despite mostly just focusing on music, Paul Simon was a likable and charming guest host and you can see why he became a frequent repeat guest in the future.

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
— Rob Reiner

Posted on

October 11, 1975 – George Carlin / Janis Ian, Billy Preston (S1 E1)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WOLVERINES
(JOB) mimics wolverine phrases & heart attack of English teacher (MOD)

— For some reason, I like the kinda-gritty feel of the beginning of this inaugural sketch.
— Ha, all that’s happened so far is John Belushi simply walking down the stairs with a bag of groceries, yet the audience is ALREADY chuckling.
— The disturbing phrases Michael is having John repeat is a hilarious out-of-nowhere reveal.
— It seems fitting that the first sketch Michael O’Donoghue appears in has him acting out an almost-too-realistic heart attack, which is so true to his style.
— A great little touch right before John imitates Michael’s heart attack is this funny puzzled eyebrow raise he does, which is a bit similar to the eyebrow raise that would later become his trademark.
— What better way for SNL to debut than with a bizarre, twisted sketch that let audiences know this wasn’t going to be another Carol Burnett or Laugh-In kind of show?
STARS: ****½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Ah, here we go…
— I, and I’m sure a lot of people, often forget that the show was called “NBC’s Saturday Night” in its early days.
— It’s funny how primitive the theme music sounds in this first episode; it almost sounds like it’s being played inside a cardboard box. Even in other early Season 1 episodes I remember seeing before, the sound quality is definitely better.
— Ah, Pardo’s famous “Not For Ready Prime-Time Players” flub. It sounds like he himself realized his mistake as soon as he said it.
— Another thing I often forget about these early episodes is that the cast members weren’t announced one-by-one accompanied with a picture/clip of them, but were announced collectively as just “The Not Ready For Prime-Time Players” accompanied by a quickly-shown list of their names. And in this first episode, the list of their names isn’t even in alphabetical order, either:

— And let’s not forget that George Coe and Michael O’Donoghue were actually part of the cast early on. Those two only last for a very small handful of episodes (not sure how many exactly) before being taken out of the cast and making non-credited appearances. The fact that they’re the bottom two credited in this episode’s cast list makes me wonder if it was ALREADY planned for their stay in the cast to be short-lived.

MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about football & baseball terminology differences
 
— So unusual to see the host making their entrance through the audience instead of through the ‘basement’ set that would soon become the familiar homebase stage of the early seasons.
— I like his little comments at the beginning about the novelty of this being a live TV show.
— This football/baseball routine is different from the type of stand-up I’m used to seeing from him, but I still like it (especially considering I’ve always liked football and hated baseball). His delivery is helping sell this routine.
— Oddly, at the very end, as the audience is applauding, the band replays the opening theme music for a bit before we go to the next segment.
STARS: ***½

NEW DAD INSURANCE
New Dad insurance covers all your family’s needs, not just financial ones
 
— Hard for me to believe that Dan Aykroyd was only 23 at this time. I think what makes him seem older is the combo of the mustache and his mature demeanor.
— Oh, that’s right, SNL didn’t mix in the audience reactions during the pre-taped segments in these early episodes. It feels so unusual hearing silence during the parts of this commercial that you’d expect to get a laugh.
— A pretty funny premise, and the execution was okay.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (BILLY PRESTON)

THE COURTROOM
sleeping juror (GIR) interprets a piece of evidence as a pick-up line


— Garrett’s accent is pretty funny.
— Gilda’s reaction to the note was great.
— And hey, they ended the sketch right there. I love the simple “set-up/punchline” quick structure of this.
STARS: ****

ANDY KAUFMAN
Andy Kaufman [real] lip-syncs the Mighty Mouse theme song
 
— Oh, yes. As a huge Andy Kaufman fan, this classic Mighty Mouse routine has always been one of my all-time favorite things on SNL ever, and also my #1 favorite thing Kaufman ever did anywhere.
— In addition to the main joke of him only lipsyncing to that one key lyric, there’s a lot of little things he does that helps makes this so great, such as 1) the awkward beginning where there’s just dead air as he nervously stands there for a while before turning the record player on, 2) the brief close-up of him about to lipsync to the wrong part before realizing his mistake and then looking down in shame, and 3) the way you can see him visibly getting prepared to raise his arm & lipsync every time the key lyric is about to come up.
— The water-drinking bit during the song’s long instrumental break is another classic part.
STARS: *****

(SIDE NOTE: The post-commercial bumper pictures in this episode just show still shots of NYC nightlife, instead of a picture of the host like we’re used to seeing)

GEORGE CARLIN STAND-UP #2
host does observational stand-up about many different topics

— Love the line about looking at the crowds in old movies and wondering if they’re dead yet.
— I’m really enjoying the loose structure of this, jumping from one quick random topic to another, which is my favorite type of stand-up comedy.
— The ‘there’s a moment coming, it’s on the way, here it i— aw, it’s gone’ bit was fantastic.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JANIS IAN)

VICTIMS OF SHARK BITE
(JOB) falsely claims to have had limbs bitten off
 
— Hmm, an opening graphic of a shark. Are we getting our very first Landshark ske– oh, wait, I see from the title that just showed up that this is something different.
— Jane plays her first of what I remember being MANY talk show hosts over the next few seasons.
— Wow, another quick sketch. This was a nice, simple bit that got out before anything could get too one-note.
STARS: ***

JAMITOL
CHC describes how Jamitol allows his wife MOD to be productive

— Ohh, boy. This hasn’t aged very well, as the idea of a commercial testimonial featuring a same-sex couple isn’t as unusual or funny nowadays as it was in the 70s.
— It still is fairly amusing to see Michael O’Donoghue of all people saying sensitive woman lines that the wives in these commercial testimonials usually gets.
STARS: **

NEXT WEEK PROMO
Paul Simon [real] announces he’ll be hosting SNL next week

— Not gonna rate this, obviously, but it is interesting to see the “next week promo” being done with an appearance by that episode’s host instead of it just being a bumper stating the upcoming host and musical guest’s names.

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
LAN reports from the Blaine Hotel on its latest murder victim
   
— Wow, right from the very first episode, we get Chevy’s trademark “phone conversation” opening gag, which I wasn’t expecting so soon.
— Hmm, no “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” intro, which I WAS expecting.
— Did Chevy look into the wrong camera during that one news story just now?
— I was right, he did it again in the next news story… or are the camera people the ones that messed up?
— Ah, and now he acknowledged the camera screw-ups by jokingly looking back-and-forth between both cameras quickly.
— Oh, the famous prostitution stamp joke was in THIS episode? For some reason, I always thought it was a little later this season. Anyway, we can pinpoint this as the very first time an Update joke ever got a HUGE audience reaction.
— Hey, it’s Laraine. I believe this is the first time all night we’ve seen her, which is strange since the show’s halfway over and all the other cast members already made their first appearance much earlier.
— A “still to come” news bit? I guess this is one of those early Updates that has a break in the middle for a fake ad.

TRIOPENIN
a child-proof safety cap makes Triopenin arthritis medicine unobtainable

— I was right.
— The ‘hand acting’ from the unseen actor was good. The frustrated attempts to open the bottle was nice and subtle.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
 
— The ‘guests stay at the Blaine Hotel’ ad was a hilarious callback to earlier.
— The baby sandpiper story had a great dark ending after such a long set-up.
— Strong way to end the first Weekend Update.
STARS: ***

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Ploobis (Jim Henson) & Scred (Jerry Nelson) visit Mighty Favog (Frank Oz)
 
— Oh, boy, here we are, the infamous Muppets from Season 1.
— I surprisingly kinda like the voices of these puppets, especially the one for Ploobis’ wife.
— What hideous puppets, though. All of them.
— Some of these lines are actually kinda making me laugh, especially the “massage your moogies” line from Scred.
— Was it intentional for the food deliverer puppet to have trouble letting go of Ploobis’ meal, or was that a real blooper?
— Some of these jokes are pretty corny.
— Wow, that “cheer up, things could be worse” punchline was awful.
— And that’s the joke they end this sketch with? Oh, man. I was actually kinda enjoying some of the humor of this sketch early on, but the last two minutes was pretty bad and made me start to kinda understand why these Muppets segments would go on to be so hated.
STARS: **

GEORGE CARLIN STAND-UP #3
host does stand-up about blue food, vitamins, oxymorons

— This is when you start to realize that he hasn’t appeared in any actual sketches at all tonight; just these solo stand-up pieces on the homebase stage. This is just one of the many unusual aspects of this first episode.
— Love his “Have I done these jokes before tonight?” ad-lib after the jokes started getting a tepid reaction.
— The “why is there no blue food” bit is both very funny and a great point.
— This is another ‘one quick random topic after another’ stand-up bit, which once again is something I always enjoy.
STARS: ****½

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
“The Impossible Truth”- newsreel reports unlikely items
 
— The blind cab driver looks familiar for some reason. Maybe he just reminds me of someone.
— I haven’t been laughing much yet, but I do always like ‘alternate universe’-type premises like this.
— The “I can’t read yet” line from the little girl in the ‘age of consent lowered to age 7’ scene was pretty funny, though aren’t most kids able to read by that age?
— Overall, not bad.
STARS: ***

BEE HOSPITAL
new fathers find out where their offspring rank in the hive
 
— Well, we may not have gotten a Landshark debut in this episode like I falsely thought earlier, but we DO get the debut of another staple of 70s SNL: the bees.
— Feels odd seeing Coe and O’Donoghue paired with the rest of the male cast.
— Eh, not really liking the humor here much. Cheesy jokes like this can sometimes work, but I think I had my fill of that type of humor after sitting through the Muppets earlier.
— This didn’t overstay its welcome, though. This was yet another short sketch tonight. I don’t think there’s been a sketch with the cast that was over two minutes long so far.
STARS: **

ACADEMY OF BETTER CAREERS
call Academy of Better Careers now to become a stand-by operator
 
— Wow, yet another pre-taped fake ad tonight.
— There’s the wife from the New Dad commercial again. I think I remember hearing she was Chevy’s girlfriend at the time.
— I like the “not affiliated with the American Broadcast Company” disclaimer that comes up every time ABC is mentioned.
— Overall, this was just okay.
STARS: ***

VALRI BROMFIELD
Valri Bromfield [real] portrays teacher, high school volleyball player

— Well, this feels strange to see on SNL.
— Not caring much for this teacher routine, though some people in the audience are absolutely loving it.
— She sure has energy, though.
— And now she’s suddenly doing ANOTHER character? Ehhh…….
STARS: **

SHOW US YOUR GUNS
SNL goes to the streets to view citizens’ firearms
 
— Unlike some of the other pre-taped segments in this episode, this is a bit that still holds up surprisingly well. SNL even did a fake ad recently in 2015 that can be considered the spiritual successor to this.
— This has some really good little gags thrown in, like the angry store clerk who’s about to shoot at two robbers but then stops to happily wave at the camera, and the traffic cop finding out his gun’s missing and then just shrugging it off.
STARS: ****

GEORGE CARLIN STAND-UP #4
host does stand-up about the relationship between God, man, religion

— While I was really digging the ‘random quick topics’ format of his last two stand-up pieces tonight, THIS is more the George Carlin stand-up that I’m used to seeing.
— Just now, you could see the musical guest stage for Billy Preston light up in the background behind Carlin, before dimming back down again. I’m guessing we weren’t supposed to notice that. Heh, for some reason, I’m getting a kick out of seeing little errors like that in this first episode; it adds to the charm of these early, primitive SNLs.
— I’m loving this whole religion routine.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (BILLY PRESTON)

TROJAN HORSE HOME SECURITY
(DAA) breaks into house of (JOB) & (GIR) to show need for home security
 
— Wow, I love the concept of this sketch.
— Dan is absolutely PERFECT here. Our first glimpse of his knack for playing pitchmen/salesmen.
— While it was just a throwaway joke, I love the concept of a “toilet bowl piranha” to scare away burglars. That sounds like something that could be a fake SNL ad in itself.
— It feels strange seeing an actual normal-length, fleshed-out sketch tonight, after having so many quick “blackout gag”-type sketches earlier.
— Great bit with John suddenly getting shot at from the back and he reacts in absolute horror, only for it to be revealed the gun was shooting blanks.
— Excellent ending.
STARS: ****

TRIPLE-TRAC
gullible people will appreciate the Triple-Trac shaver’s tricky bladework
 
— I mentioned that the Jamitol commercial earlier hasn’t aged very well, but THIS takes the cake. The then-ridiculous idea of a three-blade razor would later become a case of “life imitates art”, and it’s now considered so normal to use that type of razor that it can be hard to understand what the intended humor of this ad was. If you showed this fake ad to someone without telling them it’s from SNL, they’d most likely think it was a real commercial (which would also be supported by the fact that, again, there were no audience sounds mixed in these early pre-taped segments).
— I did get a laugh from the “Because you’ll believe anything” tagline at the end, which is funny nowadays in an ironic way.
STARS: N/A, because I don’t feel I can fairly rate this nowadays

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JANIS IAN)

GOODNIGHTS
 
— Adding to the already-long list of unusual things about this episode is that Carlin is by himself on stage during these goodnights, with no cast members, musical guests, special guests, or anyone else.
— Ah, the familiar goodnights music – one of the things about SNL that hasn’t changed after all these decades (aside from Season 6). In a way, hearing that music in this episode really makes me appreciate the history of the show.
— Every name in the ending credits scroll has the nickname “Bud”. Inside joke? Or was that intended to be the start of a weekly tradition where the ending credits scroll would always have a different gag each time? If so, it’s too bad it never took off.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Wow! Well, there it was, the very first SNL ever.
— This was such a fascination to watch, not just because we now know the still-active institution it would become, but also in how primitive everything about the show felt, in how unusual a lot of things about the show were compared to what we’re used to today, and how probably nobody we saw performing in the show knew what an important part of TV history this episode would later be looked back as. Who would’ve guessed back then that this was a program that would still be running 43 years later?
— To me, the most unusual, uncharacteristic aspect of this episode was the “variety show” feel it had. Instead of focusing mainly on sketches like we’re used to seeing from SNL, this episode was jam-packed with everything from sketches, many musical performances, many stand-up performances, many pre-taped segments, and even a puppetry segment. I’m not used to having to review so many segments in a single episode. It’s been said some places that this episode has the highest number of pieces an SNL episode has ever had. From what I saw, that very well may be true, though I know it was common for the early seasons in general to have a lot of pieces per episode.
— The short length of most of the live sketches was refreshingly surprising, which is something I wish became a long-standing SNL tradition that continued to this day. I wonder at what point in the show’s history did they start to gain their bad reputation for doing overlong one-joke sketches. I guess we’ll see as we go along.
— Excluding George Coe (who ALREADY seems like an outsider among the cast), most of the cast seemed to get a fairly equal amount of airtime for the most part, though I can’t help but feel Laraine kinda got the short end of the stick. Unsurprisingly, Chevy had the most prominent presence.

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
— (sigh) If you know your SNL history, you’ll know that the next episode is going to be a very weird one to review, as it consists almost entirely of nothing but musical performances, with very few comedy pieces. Since I don’t review musical performances, that will possibly end up being my shortest episode review ever in this ‘One SNL a Day’ project.