Tag: 1980-81

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April 11, 1981 – (no host) / Jr. Walker & The All Stars (S6 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
amongst old SNL props, CHC & Mr. Bill reminisce about the good old days

   

— A hearty amount of immediate audience applause for Chevy’s backstage walk-on.
— Love seeing some of the costumes and props from the original SNL era, such as Bees costumes, the Coneheads prosthetics, and the (now cobweb-covered) Landshark head.
— The audience recognized Mr. Bill’s off-camera muffled yelling long before I did.
— Weird seeing a live Mr. Bill sketch.
— Nice subtle touch with having the prop sword Chevy uses on Mr. Bill be the familiar sword from the Samurai sketches.
— Overall, an enjoyable nostalgia trip, and a decent way to start the retooled version of SNL.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE

       

— I’ve always been curious to see this episode’s opening montage, because it ended up only being used this once, never appearing in any other episodes.
— Hey, they’re using the original SNL theme music from the first four seasons! Feels strange hearing that theme again.
— Maybe it’s just me, but I’m hearing some of season 5’s theme music in there as well. This sounds like a hybrid of both the original theme and the season 5 theme.
— Boy, are these credits low budget-looking as hell. Very short, too. Then again, I suppose it was known that this montage would only be used temporarily, so they probably figured “Why spend so much money on a new set of opening credits that might not last beyond this week?” Either that, or maybe they just simply didn’t have enough time to film a more elaborate set of credits. After all, Dick Ebersol was only given five weeks to retool the show, hire some new cast members, hire some new writers, etc.
— The new cast members making their debut tonight are repertory players Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky, and Tony Rosato, and featured players Laurie Metcalf and Emily Prager.


DRIVE FOR AMERICA
jingoistic Frank Sinatra (JOP) bashes Japan & promotes American cars

     

— In place of the monologue, we seem to be getting some kind of musical bit with Joe’s Frank Sinatra impression.
— Tony Rosato gets the honors of being the first of tonight’s newbies to make their first appearance.
— Joe as Sinatra: “We’re talkin’ Japs, ladies and gentlemen”. Oh, and I assumed season 6’s reliance on bad racial humor was something that went out the door with Doumanian. Then again, this IS Sinatra we’re talking about. He WOULD make a remark like that.
— So Yvonne Hudson is still hanging around, even despite no longer being credited as a featured player?
— Overall, not much to say about this and this wasn’t exactly the most exciting sketch premise to lead off “the new SNL” with. The sketch itself wasn’t too bad, though, and Tim Kazurinsky walked away with the best moments of the sketch.
STARS: **½


LITE BEER
in a bar, Bill Cosby (EDM) tries to sell a group of kids on Lite Beer

 

— The first real debut of Eddie’s Bill Cosby impression.
— It won’t be easy, but I’ll do my best to refrain from relating this sketch to the modern-day viewpoint of Cosby.
— The concept of a lite beer for children is fairly funny.
— I feel bad for Denny being a glorified extra in this, playing a silent waitress. Maybe I just feel bad about that because I know what lies ahead for her SNL future.
— The writing itself was pretty flimsy and felt like they ran out of funny lines for Eddie halfway through, but Eddie did his usual good job wringing laughs out of the whole thing.
STARS: ***


I MARRIED A MONKEY
(TIK) accuses his wife Madge of having an affair

   

— Starting a sketch with two of the new cast members. I’m already excited for this sketch.
— The name Madge? The use of soap opera music stings? Oh, I know where this is going…
— Yep, there’s the monkey. It’s the debut of “I Married a Monkey”!
— I like how the monkey is just casually stuffing its face full of bananas as Tim is delivering a dramatic rant to it.
— Hilarious part with the monkey actually drinking from the sugar bowl.
— Is Tim laughing right now, or just crying in character? Hard to tell.
— LOL, the blooper with the baby monkey refusing to let go of its off-camera handler while screeching like mad is a riot! Tim’s reactions to this unplanned madness are also great.
— That reminds me, I remember reading that Tim came up with the idea to do a sketch with live monkeys because he wanted to disprove a friend of his who didn’t believe that SNL is really a live show.
— Overall, I surprisingly enjoyed this quite a lot. I’m not sure I’m going to be crazy about them eventually making this into a recurring sketch, but I sure enjoyed this first installment, for Tim’s commitment, for all the unplanned antics from the monkeys, and for the daring idea of doing this sketch in the first place. It’s making me look forward to Tim’s tenure on the show.
STARS: ****


DISCLAIMER
stay tuned after SNL for Johnny Cash At Spandau Prison

— Odd placement for a disclaimer gag, showing it in the middle of an episode after a commercial break, instead of placing it at the very beginning of the show like they used to do in the original era.


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
ROD introduces musical guest & credits him with inspiring SNL theme music

— Robin Duke makes her very first appearance.
— Robin acknowledges she hasn’t done much tonight but explains “You’ll be seeing more of me next week.” Kinda sad hearing that in hindsight, because thanks to a writers strike, we would end up having to wait until the fall to see more of her.
— Man, she’s coming off really stumbly with her lines all throughout this. First night jitters, I take it?
— Interesting tidbit about the original SNL theme music being influenced by tonight’s musical guest. That makes me look at that theme music differently now.
— I think I remember hearing that this ends up being the only thing Robin appears in all night.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Roadrunner”
musical guest performs “Shotgun”


WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
Smitt-Burney makes money the old-fashioned way, they steal it
Raheem Abdul Muhammed saw Altered States but thought it was Stir Crazy
LAM asks pedestrians “Would you take a bullet for our president?”

         

— What’s with the weird intro voice-over doing the opening Smitt-Burney “We steal it” sponsorship promo?
— Hey, it’s Chevy at the original Update set! And doing his trademark “raunchy phone conversation” opening gag! Seeing all of this is flashing me back to when I was doing reviews of season 1 several months ago.
— Chevy’s opening “I’m Chevy Chase… and you still aren’t” line didn’t get anywhere near as big an audience reaction as you’d expect.
— Holy shit, a joke in 1981 about Mackenzie and John Phillips setting their wedding plans. WTF? Were these writers psychic?
— What’s with Chevy’s timing so far in tonight’s Update? He seems fairly awkward and “off”. Not quite as “off” as he was throughout his infamous season 5 hosting stint that I recently reviewed, but still a far cry from how good he was during his cast member days.
— It’s also not helping that the jokes themselves aren’t very good. However, it’s still a little better than the mind-numbingly unfunny dreck we were hearing from Rocket and Matthius all season.
— Ha, I like how when Chevy had trouble saying “This just in”, he ad-libbed some fast-paced Spanish gibberish, which is an old improv bit he used to fall back on during his days as a cast member whenever he would trip over an Update joke. Though I kinda wish he instead said “toyboat”, which used to be his other go-to improv bit when stumbling over a joke.
— Here comes an Eddie commentary as Raheem Abdul Muhammed. Weird seeing a (then) modern-day cast member at Chevy’s original season 1 Update set.
— Eddie’s overall commentary was okay, if nothing special. I liked the ending with him asking Chevy if he wants to buy some reefer. This also made me realize that this may have been the only time in SNL history we’ve seen Eddie and Chevy interacting with each other in person, unless I’m forgetting something.
— We finally get the debut of Laurie “She used to be on SNL?!?!” Metcalf, doing a pre-taped man-on-the-street segment where she asks pedestrians “Would you take a bullet for the president?” I take it this was right after the infamous President Reagan assassination attempt.
— Wait, we can’t even see Laurie Metcalf in this while pedestrians are answering her question.
— Oh, now we can see Laurie. Boy, does it feel weird seeing a young version of her on SNL.
— I recall hearing this is the only thing Laurie appears in tonight, meaning she made no live appearances for her first (and what would go on to be ONLY) episode. But hey, that’s still more than what her fellow featured player Emily Prager supposedly gets to do tonight, from what I’ve heard.
— Boy, these pedestrians’ answers to Laurie’s question are not funny at all. What’s the point of this whole segment?
— After Laurie’s segment ends, we just cut to a commercial break, with no cut back to Chevy at the Update desk. So, this is how tonight’s Update ends? Uh… okay.
STARS: **– oh, wait…


WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
ALF explains what happened to the show & wants to “Put SNL To Sleep”

     

— Oh, after the commercial break, we’re back with a continuation of Update. Wow, this may be the only time in SNL history where a Weekend Update had an actual commercial break in the middle of it. Weird. There are some old Comedy Central reruns that used to add a commercial break into the middle of somewhat lengthy Dennis Miller Updates (there were at least two instances of this: the Rob Lowe episode from season 15, and the Kyle MacLachlan episode from season 16), but I don’t count those because those were only added for syndication.
— We get a Don Pardo voice-over intro at the beginning of this half of Update, unlike the first half.
— A callback to the traditional Generalissimo Francisco Franco joke.
— Just now when a joke received tepid audience reaction, Chevy ad-libbed a “The writers strike continues” remark.
— Man, these jokes are just plain weak. Chevy keeps trying to save them by constantly making little ad-libs after every joke, but the problem is, the ad-libs ain’t funny either. That shows how much Chevy’s off his game tonight, because season 1 Chevy would’ve been more successful in his attempts to save bad jokes.
— Al Franken!!!
— A continuation of the gag with Franken’s name being displayed on the bottom of the screen every time he says “me – Al Franken”.
— The audience automatically applauds Al for simply saying he’s not part of the new SNL.
— This has turned into a very meta commentary, with Al doing a quick recap of SNL’s history and addressing the problems of this troubled season.
— Ha, loved Al’s harsh comment about how SNL got even better after Chevy left the cast.
— Al: “After four seasons, Danny and John left. Now THEM, we missed.”
— Classic line from Al about how Dick Ebersol “doesn’t know dick”.
— Al: “The show is going to be a little better. No English-speaking person can do a worse job than Jean [Doumanian].“
— Very funny conclusion to Al’s commentary, with him announcing a “Put SNL To Sleep” campaign to put the show out of its misery.
— They shoehorn in a mention that Al and Tom Davis will be hosting next week’s SNL with musical guest The Grateful Dead… which we, of course, never ended up getting to see.
— Overall, a fantastic commentary from Al, and I love how rebellious and frank it felt, reminding me of the ballsy anti-Fred Silverman commentary he did the previous season.
— Awkward ending to tonight’s Update with the camera still staying on Chevy long after he signed off, which he tries to ad-lib his way out of by drinking from a glass of water.
STARS: (FOR BOTH UPDATE HALVES ALTOGETHER) **½


SAME
“Same” is how Irene Cara (GLM) musically describes her performances

  

— I got a good laugh from Gail’s lyric about getting yeast infections from wearing those jeans all the time.
— A catchy parody of “Fame” so far, and a fun performance from Gail. I can already tell this song is going to be stuck in my head for a while.
— I liked the fourth wall-breaking extended ending, showing Gail and the back-up dancers dancing their way out of the studio. In hindsight, that has kind of a bittersweet feel to it, knowing what unfortunately lies ahead for Gail’s SNL future.
— Overall, while I’m sure I would’ve found this sketch even funnier if I had been around for the apparent over-saturation of “Fame” back in those days, I still found this to be a fun and enjoyable piece.
STARS: ***½


THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS
holier-than-thou characters populate a new NBC series

   

— Oh, so Robin Duke IS in a sketch tonight.
— This sketch beginning with Robin and Tony as the only performers onscreen makes me feel like I’m watching something from the later years of SCTV. Part of that feeling could also be due to the fact that the copy of the episode I’m watching (which is a recording of the original live broadcast) actually includes an SCTV rerun that aired right after this episode.
— So far, this is a pretty funny parody of the “overdramatic, self-important line deliveries” trope of hospital TV dramas.
— LOL at Eddie as a patient coming out of the operating room mid-surgery to join in on the doctors’ argument.
STARS: ***


WEDDING DAY
an Italian father (TOR) gives son Frank (TIK) advice on his wedding day

   

— Right out of the gate in his first episode, we get an over-the-top Italian-accented character from Tony Rosato. From what I’ve heard about the upcoming season 7, I’m in for quite a number of Italian stereotype characters from Tony throughout that season.
— Some good fast-paced delivery from Tony throughout this.
— Funny line from Tim about Tony strangling chickens in front of his fiancee.
— Liked the part with Tony slapping Tim for calling him a “wop”.
— A very realistic slice-of-life scene so far, but is there going to be an end to this lengthy sketch?
— A good laugh from the way Tony screamed “Mariaaaa!!!” when yelling out the door for more wine.
— Ha, during Tim and Tony’s various rapid-fire fighting gestures during their argument just now, Tim did a Curly-from-the-Three-Stooges gesture with his hand on top of his head.
— Very funny part with Tim and Tony showing the mother their crude crotch-thrusting gesture.
— Overall, this had its highlights, was a good showcase for the new guys, and I appreciate what this was going for, but MAN, what an overlong sketch. There were at least three times where I thought it would end, only for it to continue.
STARS: **½


THE FAMOUS BROADCASTERS SCHOOL OF CUE CARD READING
(JOP) is a product of the Famous Broadcasters School of Cue Card Reading

  

— Feels like the first time in a while we’ve seen Joe as a commercial pitchman. Charles Rocket seemed to slowly take that role away from him as this season progressed.
— Oh, he’s doing an ad for a school of cue card reading. I had been wondering why he kept diverting his eyes back-and-forth from the camera to the side of the camera.
— The part with his delays at keeping up with the back-and-forth camera switching is pretty funny.
— Good part with Tim.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
CHC says SNL is OK but Christopher Reeve & Robin Williams [real] disagree

 

— Random Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve cameo.
— Decent bit with with Chevy saying SNL’s had its ups-and-downs and is currently “on its way back up” only for Williams and Reeve to refuse to back him up on that.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “How Sweet It Is”
musical guest performs “What Does It Take”


WILD COUNTRY GUN CARDS
Wild Country Gun Cards’ firearm facts promote family togetherness

   

— Feels weird seeing Denny being paired with some of the new cast members.
— An okay concept with the family jovially reading off graphic gun descriptions.
— Denny’s delivery of “It’s a ladies gun!” made me laugh.
— Strange bit role for Eddie at the end.
STARS: **½


BAG LADY
critics decry bag lady’s (DED) adherence to stereotypes of homeless genre

   

— I’ve always been kinda curious to see this. I think I remember hearing that this is a very strange, unconventional film with a negative reputation.
— What’s with the off-camera voices gossiping about Denny’s character? And what’s with that stuff they’re saying about Denny’s character just being an actress. I have no idea what they’re going for here.
— And that’s it? What the…?
— Overall, wow, I was pretty much lost during this. If they were trying to go for some kind of “deep” dramatic piece, I can’t help but feel they missed the mark. Maybe this whole film just went over my head.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS
Irene Cara (GLM) reprises “Same”

     

— The usual season 6 home base stage looks so out-of-place in tonight’s episode; I guess because of how drastically different this episode feels from the prior episodes of this season.
— We get a continuation of Gail’s “Same” number as Chevy carries her in his arms.
— Gail ad-libs an out-of-character “You gotta put me down now, Chevy” right before the goodnights get cut off in the live version I’m watching. I want to see how the rest of these unique goodnights go, so I’m quickly gonna pull up the rerun version of this episode with the full goodnights.
— (Two minutes later…) Okay, here it is. Picking up where I left off in the live version, Gail continues to sing while dancing her way off the home base stage and going around the studio. Everyone else on stage follow her one-by-one in a line. Fun way to do the goodnights; kinda reminds me of the “conga line” goodnights in the Desi Arnaz episode from season 1.
— Strange seeing the scrolling ending credits being displayed in a different font from the one they typically used in the first 6 seasons. Tonight’s font would never be used for the goodnights again after this, as far as I know.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Wow. Well, I went into this expecting a unique, strange-feeling episode, and that’s certainly what I got. This episode had a definite rebuilding/transitional vibe to it. At the same time, it had kind of an underlying sense of “What if this ends up being the final SNL episode ever?”, which is kinda sad and eerie when I think about it. Yet another interesting thing about this episode is that parts of it felt like I was watching a season premiere, which I guess is due to the fact that we had so many new cast members making their debut.
— This overall episode was okay. A little rough around the edges and was not anything I’d call great, nor was it the massive instant improvement over the Doumanian era that people may have been expecting. However, you can definitely see the promise and potential there.
— This would end up being the final episode of the season due to the aforementioned writers strike. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Dick Ebersol, as he now had much more time to do a more complete retooling of SNL than the measly five weeks he had been given between the preceding Bill Murray episode and tonight’s episode.
— This turned out to be the final episode for “veterans” (relatively speaking) Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius, as well as the two new featured players who got their “start” tonight: Laurie Metcalf and the unseen Emily Prager (which gives the former a strange, unique place in SNL history as the only cast member ever to only appear in pre-taped form for their entire tenure, while the latter is the only cast member ever to make ZERO appearances for their entire tenure). All four of these women would be casualties of Ebersol’s summer retooling of the show. I’m not too sad to see Denny go, though I didn’t have much of a problem with her throughout this season and she provided some laughs for me here and there. I just can’t help but view her as kinda expendable, though. Gail, on the other hand, did not deserve to get fired. She had some really positive qualities as a performer and seems like she would’ve fit really well into some of the better eras of the show. There were some rough moments with her, however: any potential she may have had as an Update anchor was ruined by her consistently being given some of the absolute worst Update jokes in SNL history, and I was a little put off by her suddenly starting to occasionally rely on overly-cartoonish antics during some of the sketches in the second half of the season. However, I blame the latter on the decreased confidence and increased sense of panic that most of the cast seemed to develop in the back half of the season. If Gail was kept on the show after this season and was given better writing than she got this year, who knows what greatness she could have achieved?
— So, what to say about the infamous Season 6 as a whole? When I started my reviews of this season, I predicted I would come out of the season feeling it was bad, but not quite as horrible as legend has it. That prediction turned out to be 100% correct. The first half of the season was undoubtedly rough, but had enough silver linings and occasional good episodes to keep me somewhat optimistic. However, during the second half of the season, immediately after the surprisingly strong Karen Black episode, this season hit the wall HARD. The great Karen Black episode was followed by a long consecutive string of dire and dreary episodes, where it felt like the show had suddenly given up and let all the bad press they were receiving get in their heads. Thankfully, they eventually got out of that slump, with Bill Murray injecting the cast and writers with tons of spirit and inspiration in the second-to-last episode and new producer Dick Ebersol transitioning the show to a promising new era in the last episode.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Season 7 begins. The show returns from writers strike and summer break with a more complete retooling, and we get introduced to MORE new faces in the cast. This will also be our second consecutive host-less episode.

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March 7, 1981 – Bill Murray / Delbert McClinton (S6 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
BIM convinces the cast that the bad SNL aura “just doesn’t matter”

    

— After having finished my coverage of the original SNL era a few weeks ago, only to find myself having to deal with this difficult season, it certainly feels refreshing seeing Bill Murray on SNL again.
— Gilbert’s jew-fro looks a lot shorter tonight.
— A reference to the “Saturday Night Dead” criticism that the media famously used throughout this season.
— Ha, loved Bill saying to Charles “People are telling me you imitate me.”
— Bill’s “Watch your mouth” advice to Charles is a hilarious passing reference to a certain notorious incident from the last episode.
— Ha, Bill advises Gilbert to “Cheer up”, referring to Gilbert’s sullen, mopey attitude we’ve been seeing a lot in the second half of the season.
— Some good laughs from Bill telling the cast tales of how he “saved” the original cast.
— Love the excited “It just doesn’t matter” chanting.
— A very energetic LFNY from the whole cast.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
after a manic entrance, BIM describes his partnership with EDM- “We bad”

     

— Whoa, Bill’s actually making his entrance through the home base stage’s elevator, which has never happened until now (though Elliott Gould jokingly tried to do it back in the season premiere). Cool.
— A fantastic fun, energetic entrance from Bill, practically bouncing off the walls, going into the audience, carrying an “audience member” (who I think I remember hearing is SNL staffer Audrey Peart Dickman; not 100% sure about that) over his shoulder, and even getting the SNL Band to replay the SNL theme music.
— Bill and Eddie’s whole “we bad” bit is great.
— I’m loving seeing Bill and Eddie working together. They’re having great chemistry, which is making me wish they did end up doing some kind of buddy movie together in the 80s.
— Overall, this was awesome. This feels like the first actual funny monologue of the whole season. Didn’t even realize until now how consistently awful this season’s monologues have been before tonight.
STARS: ****½


FORMULA FOR THE GOOD LIFE
Paulie Herman loves the chemical industry

     

— This pre-taped documentary bit is a very interesting use of Jersey Guy (a.k.a. proto-Jay Leno), and a nice change-of-pace for him.
— I love this scene right now with him at the mall.
STARS: ***


SCRIPT IN DEVELOPMENT
actors struggle to play out a writer’s (BIM) script as he makes revisions

   

— I’m loving the format of this, with the cast acting out Bill’s script and trying to keep up with constant revisions he keeps making. Though maybe I’m crazy, but I could swear I remember the Carol Burnett Show had a recurring sketch using this same concept the previous decade. I think it was during the later, weaker years of that show (sometime after Harvey Korman left the cast). Maybe I’m mistaken.
— Ha, C.R. gets shot for the second episode in a row.
— Hilarious part with Ann as an increasingly disgusting maid character.
— Love the bit with the actors having a hard time keeping their freeze-frame pose during Bill’s long pause break.
— This is all being pulled off very well.
— Oh, this part right now is fantastic with the actors doing a fast-motion re-enactment of everything they had just performed as Bill is quickly re-reading everything he just wrote.
— Overall, this whole sketch was excellent and feels so atypical of this season. This proved that this cast was actually capable of pulling off the type of classic sketch that I can easily imagine appearing during some of the best eras of the show.
STARS: *****


ALTERED WALTER
Dan Rather (JOP) lambastes stoned & tanked Cronkite (BIM)

       

— I’m now finally starting to see some accuracy in Joe’s Dan Rather impression.
— I’ve always wanted to to see this sketch. I’m not familiar with the movie “Altered States”, but everything I’ve heard about this parody of it has always sounded to me like an interesting, weird concept and a unique use of Bill’s Walter Cronkite impression.
— Ha, they didn’t even attempt to make Bill’s suit look wet after he came out of the “water”.
— Wow, the audience has been absolutely silent during this so far. I guess this sketch is a little too weird and talk-y for their likes, but I’m personally enjoying it.
— Hmm, a big scene change mid-sketch.
— Is that Matthew Laurance as the Indian?
— Bill’s trippy hallucination sequence is freakin’ hilarious. I’m loving all the different random images and stock footage shots they’re throwing in there.
— This is looking to be possibly one of the longest sketches in SNL history. Feels weird seeing such a long sketch after I’ve gotten so used to this season’s format of cramming in as many short sketches as they could possibly fit into 90 minutes (taking a page out of season 1’s playbook, perhaps?). This long Cronkite sketch makes me feel like I’m watching something from seasons 4 and 5, back when it became a regular thing to do long sketches that feel like epic mini-movies.
— Very funny part with Bill’s Cronkite receiving a phone call from his mind telling him “I’m leaving.”
— I’m really liking where this whole thing is going. It’s getting weirder and weirder.
— Bill’s strange singing when re-entering the water tank is hilarious.
— Overall, the length of this could’ve been trimmed a little, but I found the overall sketch to be really enjoyable, fun, delightfully bizarre, and well-performed.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Givin’ It Up For Your Love”


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWSLINE
Dr. Jonathan Lear (Mark King) displays photos of DNA molecules

   

— Uh… what in the WORLD is this??? And who the heck IS this guy on my screen right now?
— This guy looks kinda like a panicked Andy Samberg in a wig.
— Is tonight ANOTHER episode where we get mini Weekend Update knock-offs scattered throughout the show, much like the Eddie Murphy-hosted “Newsbreak” segments from the Deborah Harry episode? If so, it’s becoming more and more painfully obvious that the show seems to be trying to phase out the traditional Weekend Update. It’s been a sad experience seeing the once-dependable, beloved Weekend Update segment gradually die a miserable, depressing death over the course of this season.
— This bit with the different types of DNA examples being displayed on individual cards is fairly funny. It feels like the type of thing that upcoming SNL hire Tim Kazurinsky would soon do regularly on the show.
STARS: ***


CHAP STICK
Sammy Davis, Jr. (EDM) & other notables adopt “Chapstick” as a last name

   

— I almost thought that was a white guy in blackface playing Sammy Davis Jr. (which is something we’ll be regularly seeing on the show a few seasons later), before I recognized that as Eddie.
— What the hell?  Strange sketch so far. I’m not getting all this “celebrities changing their name to chapstick” stuff.
— Whoa at the ending with Gilbert as Roman Polanski sleazily walking off with the teen girls.
— Overall, I didn’t get this at all, nor did I get any real laughs. I assume it’s a topical parody of a commercial from back in those days.
STARS: *½


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWSLINE
BIM picks the Oscars & gives awards to original SNL castmembers

    

— Another Newsline segment tonight.
— Oh, hell yeah! We’re getting the return of Bill’s annual Oscar predictions that he always did as a cast member!
— Heh, as always, he continues his tradition of giving short-shrift to the supporting actors/actresses category.
— Wow, he’s speeding through this whole thing.
— Oh, turns out the reason he sped through it is because he wants to focus on doing a “new awards” segment.
— Ah, it’s a meta bit, with him nominating his original SNL castmates under various Oscars categories. Very classy, and it warms my heart seeing this after the attachment and affection I’ve recently developed for the original cast from reviewing the first five seasons on a daily basis. Ah, my sweet, beloved original cast…
— I almost thought he was going to skip poor Garrett, before he jokingly nominated Garrett for his work with the “guardian angels”. I guess that’s their way of working around the fact that at this point in early 1981, Garrett had yet to do ANYTHING in his post-SNL career (which Eddie Murphy got in a harsh-but-funny dig at earlier this season).
STARS: ***½


CUT FLOWERS
by Mary Pat Kelly- finicky (BDM) visits florist (BIM)

   

— Whoa, a short film starring Bill and his brother, the soon-to-be-rejoining-the-SNL-cast-next-season Brian Doyle-Murray.
— Always interesting to see Bill and Brian acting onscreen together, which is one of the things I liked about season 5 when they were both in the cast.
— Very nice visual quality to this film.
— For some reason, the “Brian sniffing different kinds of flowers one-by-one” sequence is making me laugh, even though I’m not even sure if it’s being played for laughs.
— Fairly funny surprise ending with Brian eating the flower.
STARS: ***


NICK RIVERS
Nick “Rivers” & PAS entertain while floating down the Mississippi

     

— The return of Nick the Lounger Singer.
— After getting so used to reviewing these Nick sketches back when I covered the original SNL era, it’s quite a different experience for me seeing this sketch appearing in THIS season. It’s actually pretty fun seeing the new cast appearing in a Nick sketch.
— I got a big laugh from Bill’s story about ladies of the south being forced to eat rat flash.
— Haha, I absolutely LOVE Bill’s performance of Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration”, complete with some great funky dancing.
— Very funny reaction from Bill when finding out that Yvonne as a former Iran hostage is actually one of the black hostages who was freed early on.
— My god, Bill’s high-pitched singing of The Rolling Stones’ “Emotional Rescue” is truly hilarious!
— Overall, a very welcome return and a very solid installment of this recurring sketch.
STARS: ****


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWSLINE
JOP proposes softer sticks as the solution to hockey violence

    

— Now this Update knock-off segment is being hosted by Mr. Update Anchor himself, Charles Rocket. I’m more confused than EVER now. So has the actual Weekend Update been dropped from the show this week? If so, this is DEFINITELY their way of acknowledging how truly unwatchable Update had gradually become over the course of this season.
— So will Gail be getting her own “Saturday Night Newsline” segment later tonight, or are they trying to erase her embarrassing tenure as an Update anchor from our memories?
— Hmm, Charles’ delivery of the jokes doesn’t seem as bad as usual.
— The jokes themselves are still pretty damn weak, though.
— Here’s our weekly Joe Piscopo SNL Sports commentary.
— Hey, it’s stand-up comic Dom Irrera, in a big role as one of the hockey players! He’s actually appeared as an extra at least twice earlier this season (as one of the jurors in the Televised Trial sketch from the Sally Kellerman episode, and as one of the mobsters in the “Is Frank Sinatra a Hoodlum?” cold opening from the Deborah Harry episode), but I didn’t notice those appearances until they were pointed out to me after I had posted those respective episode reviews. This hockey player bit is the first time I’ve caught an Irrera sighting on my own.
— Never mind what I said about this being a big role for Irrera; the scene with him ended almost as soon as it began, and he had no lines. It’s still the most noteworthy thing he’s done so far, though, during his stint as a recurring SNL extra.
— Eh, Joe’s overall commentary was below par and felt kinda pointless.
— Charles to Joe: “Did you say ‘puck’???” Ha, another funny Rocket f-bomb reference, and this one got a great reaction from the audience.
STARS: **


NO SEX WITH MARY
co-workers clear the air- “we’re not sleeping with Mary Cunningham (GLM)”

   

— Much like the earlier “chapstick” thing, this is another bit that seems too topical for me to understand.
— This does seem KINDA funny, at least.
— Yet another ethnic role for Gilbert.
STARS: **


CAT’S NAME
house guests (BIM) & (ANR) try to remember (MAL)’s beloved cat’s name

   

— With all the noteworthy roles Matthew Laurance has been getting tonight, why didn’t he receive his usual featured player credit in tonight’s opening montage? In fact, none of the featured players were credited tonight.
— That looks like the same white cat that Gilda Radner held throughout the Canadian Wizard of Oz sketch from the previous season’s Elliott Gould episode. (a side-by-side comparison is below)

 

— I liked the small part with Bill and Ann rapidly going through random movie character names, trying to remember which character the cat was named after.
— While I find the premise to be kinda flimsy (honestly, why would it be so horrible for Bill and Ann to just admit to Matthew that they can’t remember his cat’s name?), this is being pulled off well by both Bill and (surprisingly) Ann.
— Loved Bill’s sudden intense “WHAT IS THE DAMN CAT’S NAME?!?” outburst over the phone.
— Herman’s the cat’s name? I thought they established earlier in the sketch that this cat’s a female.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guests perform “Shotgun Rider”


BUBBA’S WASH FAYETTA’S DRY
divorce settlement forces Bubba (BIM) & Fayetta (DED) to share laundromat

  

— Some really good character work from Denny and Bill in this.
— Interesting concept with a divorced couple owning two separate parts of the same laundromat, as part of their divorce settlement.
— The random part about the metal plate in Bill’s head is really funny.
— Funny bit at the end.
— Overall, a very well-written and well-performed slice-of-life piece.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS
BIM apologizes to the original SNL castmembers for doing the show

  

— Speaking to the camera, Bill calls out his original SNL castmates’ names one-by-one and says “I’m sorry for what I’ve done”, as a mock apology for betraying them by hosting “the new SNL”. Funny bit. He would later say something in a similar vein during the goodnights of the season 12 episode he hosted, where he urges his original castmates to come back and host the show because “they kiss your butt all week here”.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— What a complete 180 from the long string of dreary episodes that preceded this. Tonight’s episode was consistently strong, had a fun vibe, contained lots of sketches with good, creative premises, had lots of great performances from the cast, and featured the return of some old favorites from Bill. It also felt really good being able to praise plenty of things throughout this review after being so consistently negative in my reviews of the last few episodes.
— Bill’s hosting performance was excellent as expected, and showed a lot of why he was such a great cast member back in the day. Also, he surprisingly had chemistry with this new cast. His presence added a lot of spirit to the episode, which seemed to boost the cast’s energy and confidence levels.
— This would end up being the last episode before NBC steps in and puts SNL on an impromptu month-long hiatus (canceling the following week’s scheduled Robert Guillaume-hosted episode in the process) while they fire producer Jean Doumanian and bring a certain new producer in to begin making massive changes to the show, which includes firing several of the cast members and writers. Of the cast, tonight’s episode ended up being the final one for Charles Rocket, Ann Risley, and Gilbert Gottfried. No big loss at all with those first two names, though I admit Charles sometimes had his moments and Ann at least went out on a decent note with surprisingly good performances in her final episode. Still, I can’t say I’m gonna miss either one of them. As for Gilbert, his tenure on the show was strange, gradually going from a confident-looking new kid to a sullen-looking sourpuss who was clearly miserable working on the show. Even stranger, some of his sketches during his “sullen sourpuss” phase (Italian Comedian, Big Brother, Pillow Pets) were actually some of the better sketches from the string of tepid episodes that preceded tonight’s show. While Gilbert may not have had a very noticeable presence on the show this season, I’m think I’m kinda gonna miss him in a weird way.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Charlene Tilton):
— a huge step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Dick Ebersol’s tenure as SNL producer begins, several new faces in the cast make their debut, and a hastily-retooled version of SNL hits the airwaves, in what ends up being the final episode of the season thanks to a writers strike. I’ve always been curious to see this episode; from all the things I’ve read about it, it sounds like a strange mish-mash of the original SNL era, season 6, and what was soon to come in season 7. Seems like a pretty fascinating one-off episode.

Posted on

February 21, 1981 – Charlene Tilton / Todd Rundgren, Prince (S6 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Rocko Weineretto & Weindulah weigh in before their upcoming bout

  

— Immediately, we’re already opening with Joe’s SNL Sports persona.
— He sets up the Rocko Weineretto and Weindulah boxing match that’s happening later in this episode.
— The weigh-in part is pretty funny.
— Overall, this was a very short, straightforward cold opening just here to set up the upcoming match.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


MONOLOGUE
upon discovering girlfriend ANR was with CHR last night, JOP vows revenge

   

— Fun entrance from Charlene.
— This girl’s got energy and bubbliness for miles. I can see why it would annoy some viewers, but honestly, I’m finding it kinda endearing.
— The LFNY part was weird.
— That’s it? That’s the whole monologue?
— Oh, never mind, we get what appears to be a continuation of the monologue (or at least, I’m COUNTING it as a continuation), with Charlene meeting Charles backstage after having just talked about him when she was onstage.
— There’s another appearance of the “backstage SNL locker room” that we used to see all the time back in the original era.
— Joe “(menacingly) I’ll get that Charlie Rocket if it’s the last thing I do.” And tonight’s running premise is officially off. Unfortunately, it’s also not very funny so far.
STARS: **


GREATEST RECORDS OF ALL TIME
albums contain unlikely make out music

  

— Ann sure got changed fast from the monologue.
— LOL at “An evening with Hugh Downs”
— Not much to say here. Some laughs, but once you got the joke, there wasn’t much else to this.
STARS: **½


MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
Mr. Speedy (GIG) delivers a package

     

— The debut of a legendary recurring Eddie Murphy sketch!
— I’m loving his version of the “won’t you be mine” opening song.
— Immediately, we get “bitch” as our very first “special word of the day”. Man this sketch is already starting hot.
— Classic bit with him asking viewers to test the word of the day on their mothers.
— We get the deep-voiced “Who is it?” door-answering bit, though I recall his delivery of it sounding a little funnier in some of the later installments of this sketch.
— Hilarious passing reference to Richard Pryor’s infamous freebasing accident.
— Overall, this was freakin’ great, and feels like such a breath of fresh air in a season like this. This sketch alone really embodies how much Eddie was the savior of this season. I’m looking forward to future installments of this sketch.
STARS: ****½


PORK PARADE
the Pork Queen (host) & her subjects get ready for the big parade

 

— Denny looks even tinier than usual, making her entrance through that little door at the beginning of this sketch.
— Okay, I finally got one laugh out of this dull sketch so far, at the reveal of Yvonne being known as the “Chitlin Princess”.
— Is Yvonne going to have ANY lines in this? Speaking of whom, what the hell has happened to her these last few episodes? It’s funny how back in my Karen Black episode review, I went on about how all the claims that Yvonne was a glorified extra during her featured player stint were exaggerated, as she had been getting a surprising amount of noteworthy speaking roles. I seem to have spoken too soon, as that Karen Black episode was followed by a long string of episodes where Yvonne either didn’t appear in or only appeared in a non-speaking bit role, including this sketch. She hasn’t gotten anything noteworthy to do since that Karen Black episode. This must be where her reputation nowadays for being such an underused cast member comes from.
— (groan) What in the world is this sketch going for?
— What’s with Gail occasionally making random pig snorting sounds? If that’s her attempt to save this awful sketch, it ain’t workin’. You know, I’ve liked Gail for most of this season, but I can’t help but notice that in the last few episodes, she’s begun resorting to playing some of her roles a little TOO cartoonish and over-the-top (e.g. Where’s Cooter, Was I Ever Red), which isn’t working for me. I can’t help but wonder if that’s an act of desperation from her, due to how badly this season has been bombing lately.
— Overall, boy, was this a bad, sloppy sketch. No idea why they thought this would be funny. This is exactly like the type of sketch that used to immediately come to my mind when thinking about how bad this season supposedly is.
STARS: *


ROCKET REPORT
CHR takes host for her first NYC subway ride

     

— Fun premise with Charles and Charlene at a subway, where Charlene is going to take her very first subway ride.
— Hey, Charles is actually interviewing people! This is the true strength of the Rocket Reports.
— Ha, the lights in the train suddenly going out brings back childhood memories of when that often happened when I rode on the New York trains as a kid.
— Overall, a pretty solid edition of Rocket Report. I’m guessing this ends up being the last-ever appearance of this segment. At least this ended on a good note.
STARS: ***½


A FIDDLER BE ON THE ROOF
a movie starring Stevie Wonder (EDM) as Tevye

 

— Funny visual of Eddie as Stevie Wonder singing Yiddish lyrics in Eddie’s now-famous old Jewish voice.
— Very short, and I would’ve liked to have seen them do more with this, but this was still fine for what it was.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Todd Rundgren performs “Healer”


WEEKEND UPDATE
David Stockman (GIG) prefers “Catch a crook, eat a meal” to food stamps

   

— (*sigh*) Here we go…
— As usual, a very tepid beginning with little-to-no reaction from the audience in response to the first few jokes.
— Oh, god, now Charles is resorting to repeatedly stomping his foot on the ground after a particular weak joke. Man, his increasing desperation for laughs these last few episodes is pathetic.
— Oh, great, now Charles is returning to the hyped-up, manic delivery he keeps falling back on these last few Updates.
— And now Gail has resorted to sheepishly repeating some of her punchlines after it bombs with the audience. God, Update is killing me with its sad desperation lately.
— The audience may not have seemed to mind that corny “Ragu music / Pastafarians” joke, but it had me groaning my head off.
— LOL, Gilbert looks like a little kid playing dress-up. What’s up with that? I guess his strangely-low chair has something to do with that, but seriously, if I had seen a screencap of this Update commentary without knowing that was Gilbert Gottfried, I’d probably think that was either a child or a woman under that wig and glasses.
— The “Catch a crook, eat a meal” program is a pretty funny concept in Gilbert’s commentary.
— The joke about President Reagan being a bad actor actually got a pretty good audience reaction.
— No idea how to respond to the bit with Charles delivering an exaggeratedly angry, manic rant towards President Reagan about saving money. Maybe I wouldn’t mind it if Charles hadn’t developed a tendency to randomly rely on hyped-up, manic delivery in general lately. This anti-Reagan/saving money rant also just seemed to be an excuse to receive clapter from the audience, which I probably wouldn’t have had a problem with back in those days, but our current Trump era has permanently burned me out on comedians relying on clapter in place of actual comedy.
— No Joe Piscopo SNL Sports commentary tonight, as Charles mentions that Joe will be hosting the aforementioned boxing match later in the show.
— An overall short Update tonight, which is one of the few saving graces of it.
STARS: **


LINCOLN BEDROOM
Lincoln Bedroom haunts Nancy Reagan’s (GLM) daughter-in-law Doria (ANR)

   

— Okay, this certainly looks like a weird sketch. I’m interested to see where this will go, though.
— What was with that random door-knocking sound when nobody was even knocking? Where did that come from?
— LOL at Eddie’s creepy entrance.
— Randomly throwing a Mary Todd Lincoln appearance into a sketch is usually always a sure-fire laugh-getter.
— Overall, despite an interesting premise and a good performance from Gail, this sketch didn’t amount to much.
STARS: **


GILLIE AND CHARLENE
rumors of CHR’s exploits lead both host & GIG to vow revenge against him

  

— Another instance of Gilbert being called by his backstage nickname “Gillie”.
— Gilbert’s sounding more sullen and bored than ever in this sketch.
— Now we’re resorting to a whole bunch of lazy gay jokes throughout this.
— Ha, that ending close-up of a sullen Gilbert Gottfried staring deadpan into the camera is a strangely classic image.
— Tonight’s “everyone wants to get revenge on Charles Rocket” throughline isn’t being pulled off well at all so far tonight. Only season 6 could manage to make a Dallas/“who shot J.R.?” take-off so dull.
STARS: *½


THE COMPETITION
a movie about finger-breaking piano rivals (JOP) & (GLM)

 

— This is a parody of a then-new Richard Dreyfuss/Amy Irving movie of the same title. The only reason I know that is because the copy I’m watching of this episode is the original live broadcast where, during one of the commercial breaks earlier in the show, there was actually a commercial for the Dreyfuss/Irving movie.
— Joe’s Richard Dreyfuss impression is fairly funny, though I’m guessing people who’ve seen this sketch without knowing what it was parodying have no idea he was even imitating Dreyfuss and they probably wondered why he was speaking in a high-pitched nasal voice.
— That’s it? Short, but kinda funny punchline, I guess.
STARS: **½


SPEAKING OUT
policewoman (DED) on unauthorized use of handicap toilets

— A very rare instance of Matthew Laurance starring in a sketch.
— Overall, this was a dull sketch that just washed right over me. I got a chuckle from one or two of Denny’s lines, but there was absolutely nothing noteworthy here.
STARS: *½


WOMEN BEHIND BARS
(DED) & (host) debate industrial revolution education

   

— The initial set-up to this is bringing back memories of that “Debs Behind Bars” sketch from season 5. It even looks like this is using the same set from that sketch.
— For some reason, it feels weird seeing Gail playing a tough, mean character.
— Yet ANOTHER silent role for Yvonne. Is that woman going to go through the entire second half of this season without speaking a single word?
— Never mind, Yvonne actually got one line just now. SHE SPEAKS!
— Pretty funny reveal that the dreaded “treatment” Charlene’s character will face is simply a debate involving the Industrial Revolution.
— Denny’s character pulling out a graph as a visual aid is kinda funny, and is the first noticeable laugh this whole sketch received from the studio audience.
— Overall, after taking a good unexpected turn mid-sketch, this unfortunately kinda petered out afterwards and was not as good as it should’ve been.
STARS: **½


SNL SPORTS
Weindulah outboxes Rocko Weineretto to win the title; Don King cameo

  

— Here’s the big boxing match the show kept hyping.
— Don King cameo.
— Weindullah’s various ways of taunting Weineretto are pretty funny.
— An overall decent bit, though I wasn’t laughing out loud and I almost started getting a little bored during some parts. But this had a goofy, fun charm to it, and I can appreciate all the commitment that went into this whole thing. I sure wouldn’t want to sit through another Weiner puppet fight, however.
STARS: ***


SUBMISSIVE SUGAR DADDIES
(host) shows why women should call Submissive Sugar Daddy Referral Service

 

— The visual of that jovial-looking old extra as a sugar daddy is kinda funny, I guess.
— That’s it? I didn’t care for this and it came off kinda pointless.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Todd Rundgren performs “Time Heals”


PARTY
Mary Louise rules her birthday party with Sam The Snake & an iron fist

 

— Hmm, what’s this? Joe introduces Denny as herself. Am I in for a random Denny Dillon stand-up segment?
— Hmm, she’s doing a character, in a one-woman show-esque piece. This is reminding me of how she previously did a guest spot on the show way back in SNL’s third episode ever, where she and her comedy partner (Mark Hampton) did a nun act.
— Oh, this is the same character she played earlier this season in the Ellen Burstyn episode.
— No idea how to feel about this act so far.
— Overall, I liked this character much better in a sketch format. Her routine doesn’t work as well in a one-woman show setting.
STARS: **


AFTER MIDNIGHT
(CHR) & (GLM) arouse each other while bathing a dog
when CHR gets shot during a sketch, the question is “Who Shot C.R.?”

     

— Charles is coming off more Bill Murray-esque than EVER in this. I can totally picture Bill playing this character.
— Boy, is this a weird sketch. Hope it’s a good one, though, because I’m kinda tired of being so consistently negative in tonight’s episode review.
— A sudden cut to a crosshair first-person perspective aiming at Charles. I now see where this is going.
— And there’s the gunshot.
— I’m suddenly getting excited about this sketch now, as we’re seeing a whole bunch of cast and crew members panickedly rushing into the scene and freaking out.
— Funny bit with Gilbert asking out Charlene in the middle of all the chaos.
— “Who shot C.R.?”
— Nice seeing the whole cast gathered together in the ending shot.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Prince performs “Partyup”

— Okay, it’s always been said that Prince supposedly drops an f-bomb when singing the lyric “Fightin’ war is such a fuckin’ bore”. However, I heard the lyric just now, and I’m 99.9% sure I heard him say “freakin”, not “fuckin’”. Is it just me?
— We’ll be returning to the discussion of f-bombs with a certain upcoming segment afterwards (you know the one)…


GOODNIGHTS
gun victim CHR says “I’d like to know who the fuck did it”

  

— Well, here it comes, folks…
— Aaaaaand there’s the legendary notorious moment. Charles: “Aw, man, it’s the first time I’ve ever been shot in my life. I’d like to know who the fuck did it.”
— The reactions from everyone onstage are freakin’ PRICELESS. Writing this review in real-time as I watch the episode, I can’t rewind to focus on each person’s reaction, but I’m quickly looking back-and-forth at various individual people, and there are so many funny different reactions. Meanwhile, Charles is just sitting there with a laid-back smug grin on his face like he’s proud of himself for what he just did.
— Even though I knew the f-bomb was coming and I’ve watched it quite a number of times in the past, it’s a VERY different experience now seeing it in the context of the entire season, where I’ve been watching and reviewing each episode in chronological order on a day-to-day basis for my SNL project. Arriving at the infamous f-bomb just now, I felt genuine shock when Charles said it and when I saw the cast’s reactions. That shocked feeling of mine made me come to the realization that due to my daily watching and reviewing of this season, I’ve developed a strange attachment to this cast. Definitely a different feeling from the last time I watched this f-bomb moment, where I had no kind of connection to this cast or season at all.
— I think I remember hearing that as soon as Charles dropped the f-bomb, one of the people working in the SNL control room threw his hands in the air, said “Well, there’s goes the end of live TV”, whipped off his headphones, threw it onto the control board, and walked right off the show, as if he thought SNL would be canceled right there on the spot.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Boy, am I getting tired of saying “another tepid episode”, but that’s become status quo for the show lately. Like I mentioned earlier, I kinda feel bad for being so consistently negative in my reviews these last few episodes, but I can’t help it if season 6 keeps handing me weak episodes lately. I’m starting to run out of different ways to say a sketch didn’t work. I loved tonight’s Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood debut, and about one or two other segments in this episode were fun (including Rocket Report), but there ain’t much else to praise here. At least the notoriety of the Charles Rocket f-bomb incident boosts this episode’s watchability, as otherwise, it would pretty much be indistinguishable from the rest of the string of mediocre episodes that began with Robert Hays.
— Needless to say, the f-bomb incident went on to cause a ton of controversy for SNL. The show (and particularly Jean Doumanian’s job as producer) had already been on thin ice with NBC brass throughout this troubled season, and the f-bomb incident is said to have been the final straw that would eventually lead to the firings of Jean Doumanian, Charles Rocket, and many of the remaining cast and writers. There’s still one episode left with everyone intact before the mass firings occur.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Deborah Harry):
— a very slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Bill Murray comes back to show them how it’s done

Posted on

February 14, 1981 – Deborah Harry (S6 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Ronald Reagan (CHR) discusses whether Frank Sinatra (JOP) is a hoodlum

 

— Oh, man, yet another cold opening starring Charles’ terrible Ronald Reagan impression. Stop trying to make Charles Rocket as Ronald Reagan happen, season 6.
— Geez, Charles’ impression sounds even worse tonight. What’s with the raspy/scraggly voice?
— That’s it? This overall cold opening was a pointless waste, and also a waste of Joe’s Sinatra impression.
STARS: *


OPENING MONTAGE
— SNL episode guides usually always list Funky 4 + 1 More (the very first rappers to ever appear on SNL, I believe) as the musical guest of this episode. However, I’ve noticed that they’re not credited at all in tonight’s montage. I guess their appearance tonight just counts as a cameo and not as the official musical guest, which is why I’m not going to list them as the musical guest in my title for this episode review.


MONOLOGUE
host reveals her roots & Cupid (EDM) shoots an audience member

   

— The cutaway to Deborah’s blonde-wigged “parents” in the audience wasn’t all that funny.
— Ha, Eddie’s entrance in that cupid outfit…
— I ask once again, that’s it? This was short as hell, contained almost nothing of note, and was a total write-off, which seems to have become status quo for the monologues these last two episodes. This season’s writers seem to have completely given up with the monologues.
STARS: *½


DON’T LOOK IN THE REFRIGERATOR
a horror movie about scary leftovers

 

— Another very quick bit that just came and went. I usually enjoy the “presenting a mundane, everyday annoyance as the subject of a horror movie” comedy trope, but this one just washed right over me.
— Good horror movie-esque scream from Deborah, though.
STARS: *½


LIVELYS
Phil Lively considers putting his father (DOP) in a nursing home

   

— This looks to be the return of the Livelys.
— Yep, it is. As I said in my review of this sketch’s first installment, I’m not sure if this’ll work as a recurring sketch.
— I do like the involvement of an unseen Don Pardo as Gail’s dad.
— Pardo’s voice-over delivering an angry “Somebody get my fork, I dropped my fork!!” cracked me up.
— Okay, I’m starting to notice that Pardo’s interjections are my ONLY laughs in this so far. Yeah, this whole “gameshow family at home” routine ain’t working a second time.
— The rehash of the gag with Gail vocalizing the Jeopardy theme wasn’t necessary.
STARS: **


NEWSBREAK
EDM reports on Jean Harris, Las Vegas fires, Poland

 

— What the hell? What’s this? Eddie Murphy for “Newsbreak”? Almost feels like a Weekend Update substitute. Does this mean the Rocket/Matthius Update has been dropped tonight, due to how horribly it’s been doing lately? If so, good riddance.
— Yeah, this segment is definitely coming off as an Update substitute so far.
— Eddie: “Stay tuned later tonight for a full report on Weekend Update.” Aw, dammit, so much for my hope that Update was dropped from tonight’s show.
— Overall, this segment was okay, I guess, and Eddie did fairly well, but I’m still baffled over why this is in the show and what this possibly means for Update.
STARS: **½


WHERE’S COOTER?
Tennessee Williams Authority deems Cooter (GIG) & kin a one-act play

   

— Ohh, boy, here comes an infamous sketch that I’ve always heard terrible things about. I’m curious to see just how bad this really is.
— As was pointed out a few days ago by a commenter in reply to my Gary Busey episode review from season 4, this sketch has the same set from the Muck-Jumper sketch from the Busey episode.
— I’m a minute into this sketch, and I’ve been hating pretty much everything I’ve seen so far.  What IS this???
— Man, is this dialogue annoyingly repetitive.
— WTF at Gail’s bizarre entrance?
— Oh my god at Gail’s delivery of her lines. I usually like Gail, but GOOD GOD is she annoying the hell out of me here. And the fake baby crying she’s doing into her arms – WTF??? I now feel like I’m seeing her play a rejected Laraine Newman character.
— Seriously, what the hell am I WATCHING in this sketch?
— The twist with this turning into a Tennessee Williams play is doing absolutely nothing to save this sketch for me. I hated the first half SO much that there needed to be a much funnier twist than THIS to excuse it.
— Overall, all I can say is: My god. That sketch definitely lived up to its negative reputation. If it weren’t for Commie Hunting Season, I’d probably consider this sketch to be the absolute bottom of the barrel for the season 6 episodes I’ve covered so far. Man, did I hate this.
STARS: *


ROCKET REPORT
CHR finds the answer to “How scary is Central Park?”

   

— I’m already liking this Central Park premise. Looks like this will be a return to form, after the last two mediocre Rocket Reports.
— Charles’ overdramatizing of everything in the park isn’t coming off as funny as I would’ve expected.
— Charles falling backwards onto the ground when running away in a panic was pretty funny.
— Overall, I think I need to stop saying “Hopefully tonight’s Rocket Report is an improvement over the subpar last one”, because I always end up being disappointed once again. Tonight’s Rocket Report had a few more decent moments than the last two Reports, but the overall film was still below par. What’s going on? Why have these usually-reliable Rocket Reports been so consistently forgettable lately? Are these segments only good when Charles just goes around interviewing random people face-to-face, like he used to do in the earlier films?
— I know I’m almost at the end of Charles’ short-lived SNL tenure, so I’m hoping to see at least ONE more good Rocket Report before his firing. I know there’s one Rocket Report he does with upcoming host Charlene Tilton in a subway train that has always looked kinda interesting to me, but I shouldn’t get my hopes up.
— I just realized that I have yet to like any segments so far tonight. None of the sketches have gotten higher than a mere two-and-a-half-star rating from me yet.
STARS: **½


CARD CORNER
Paulie Herman meets a girl from Jersey (host) in a card shop

 

— The return of Jersey Guy, or as I call, proto-Jay Leno.
— Here comes the obligatory “recurring character meets its similar counterpart played by the host” sketch that a lot of quirky recurring characters eventually do. Deborah’s doing a good job with the Jersey Guy-esque voice.
— Overall, a fairly good sketch, and I like how this was kept short enough. First decent sketch of the whole night.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Love TKO”


WEEKEND UPDATE
arch-conservative (GIG) claims there are no poor people in America
Polish ambassador (Andy Murphy) is ecstatic about the invasion of Russia
JOP interviews boxing & rapping hand puppet Weindulah (Marc Weiner)

     

— Just when I thought tonight’s episode was finally starting to pick up a bit, here comes along Weekend Update to kill the momentum.
— Oh my god at Charles slapping his desk while hammily fake-laughing after his first joke. Jesus Christ. Lately, I’ve been starting to see that the reports I’ve always heard about Charles desperately resorting to hammy over-the-top antics in his later Updates were 100% true. It’s sad to watch.
— Man, they need to stop these unfunny “audio clip” gags that Charles keeps doing this season. They ALWAYS fall flat and get no audience reaction.
— As usual lately, the studio audience is NOT into these awful jokes so far (neither am I, for that matter).
— First in a long time we’ve seen Gilbert at the Update desk. This Reagan philosopher character of his looks seems like it has potential, and hey, Gilbert’s actually showing energy in his delivery for once.
— Unfortunately, Gilbert’s bit just came and went with no laughs and no real point. A letdown.
— Yikes, Gail’s Reagan/“I forgot about it!” joke was particularly awful.
— Here’s something different. Mock breaking news from Charles that “Poland has invaded Russia”. Hmm.
— Hey, an Update commentary from frequent SNL extra Andy Murphy! Feels odd to see him in such a big speaking role.
— The Andy Murphy commentary ended up being another bit that initially looked interesting but turned out to be a forgettable letdown.
— Here’s our weekly Joe Piscopo SNL Sports commentary.
— A follow-up to the preceding episode’s Rocko Weineretto bit.
— Ha, I’m liking this early 80s-sounding rap song from “Weindullah”. I might be biased because I always get a kick out of hearing any kind of early 80s hip-hop. Same reason I’m looking forward to seeing tonight’s NOT!musical guest Funky 4 + 1 More.
— Big extended audience applause break after Weindullah’s rap.
— Joe announces a boxing match that we’ll be seeing in the next episode, between Weineretto and Weindullah.
— Overall, an even worse Update than usual this season, which is really saying something. The guest commentaries are usually the only saving grace this season, but even most of those managed to underwhelm tonight. And the Rocket & Matthius portions of Update continue to go further and further down the tubes, especially with Charles’ newfound desperation of hamming it up during certain jokes. Man, it’s almost becoming DEPRESSING to watch Update gradually die like this over the course of the season. I have to ask, is this the absolute worst state Weekend Update has EVER been in SNL’s 40+ year history? Then again, I haven’t gotten to the upcoming Brian Doyle-Murray “SNL Newsbreak” era yet, which supposedly is also terrible…
STARS: *½


BIG BROTHER
shy Big Brother (GIG) uses telescreen to ask prole (host) out on a date

— I’m getting an unintentional laugh from the giant lego-looking background behind Gilbert.
— Some awkward dead air before some of Deborah’s line deliveries.
— Gilbert’s line about feeling like a “schlep” made me laugh.
— Good twist with Gilbert suddenly turning Deborah down for being “too easy”.
— Overall, there were some issues that made this feel a little sluggish, but this was an overall decent sketch. Better than I thought it would be. Nice showcase for Gilbert as well.
STARS: ***


SWEET HEARTS
by Leon Ichaso- laundry robbers turn on one another

   

— Interesting-looking film.
— Oh, that’s Deborah as the female gangster. Took me a whole minute into this film to realize that. I didn’t even recognize her at first.
— Wait, IS that Deborah? In some angles, it looks like her, while in some other angles, it DOESN’T look like her. Hard to tell.
— I’m liking how this looks and feels like a genuine 1930s gangster flick.
— The bank-esque robbery of a laundromat is pretty funny.
— Okay, they’ve completely lost me. I don’t understand what’s been going on ever since the laundromat robbery scene ended. The random blow-up doll at the party, the three main characters holding a Mexican standoff over a pair of heart boxers… none of this makes sense to me.
STARS: **


SOHO LESBIANS
Pinky & Leo Waxman discover that niece (host) has a lesbian lover (GLM)

 

— Curious to see how this goes. For years, I’ve always assumed just from the title “Soho Lesbians” and the fact that it’s from way back in the 1980s that this was a crazy, wild, raunchy sketch.
— The audience laughs at Deborah and Gail simply telling each other “I love you” (which I doubt was intended to get laughs). The audience’s amusement at that shows how rare it was to see gay couples on TV back in these days.
— Hey, it’s Denny and Gilbert’s “What’s It All About” characters. Very interesting to see them in a different setting for once.
— They seem to be relying on the usual premise of Denny and Gilbert’s characters constantly cutting off others during a conversation, like they always do with their guests on “What’s It All About”.
— Wow, that’s it? This was actually a nice, realistic, low-key scene, and didn’t go the crazy, wild, “homosexuals are weird sex freaks” route I had always assumed this would go. I’m pleasantly surprised.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Come Back Jonee”


NEWSBREAK
people on the streets of NYC weigh in on Poland’s invasion of Russia
EDM reveals the premeditated nature of Poland’s invasion plan

   

— I’m still baffled why we need these Newsbreak segments when there’s already a full Weekend Update in this episode.
— Eddie throws to a remote segment with random people on the street being interviewed about the Poland/Russia invasion.
— That one guy’s “I thought they were going to go into France” comment gave me a pretty good laugh.
— Eddie’s delivery is coming off pretty sloppy, with constant line flubs. And honestly, he looks out of his element in this setting. If these Newsbreak segments are the show’s way of kinda “auditioning” Eddie as a potential Weekend Update anchor, I can see why he doesn’t end up getting hired for that spot.
— Speaking of Eddie, it feels like these Newsbreak segments are the only thing he’s been doing on the show tonight.  This is a waste of him.
— The picture of Poland soldiers heading towards Arctic Circle is pretty funny.
STARS: **½


KING KONG SYNDROME
Fay’s (host) date with a “big ape” (JOP) ends in the style of King Kong

   

— Heh, with Joe’s anger at playfully being called a “big ape” and his freaking out over seeing the Empire State Building statuette, I can see where this is going.
— And now I just realized Deborah’s wearing the white Fay Wray dress.
— Joe’s “transformation” into an ape is fairly funny.
— I do like Deborah unintentionally taunting Joe with a toy plane.
STARS: **½


DROPOUT
Vickie shuns Debbie while catching up with high school dropout (host)

 

— A Vickie valley girl sketch. Where’s Denny’s character?
— Oh, there’s Denny.
— Overall, this was unfortunately another sketch tonight that just washed right over me, with nothing in it standing out. Very forgettable. Knowing that the end of Gail’s SNL tenure is approaching, I wonder if this ends up being the last appearance of this character. If so, it’s sad that this usually-good recurring sketch ended in a whimper with both this and the weak Tommy Torture one with Ray Sharkey.
STARS: **


FUNKY 4 + 1 MORE: “THAT’S THE JOINT”
Funky 4 + 1 More performs “That’s The Joint”


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yet another tepid episode, in what’s been a fairly lengthy string of them, starting with the Robert Hays episode. A very unremarkable show tonight where absolutely nothing stood out as particularly great, and most of the ratings I gave tonight’s sketches were in the unimpressive two-to-three star range. Most of the pre-Update half of the show was particularly weak, and it also doesn’t help that this episode contained one of my absolute least favorite sketches I’ve covered so far in my SNL project (Where’s Cooter). Update was also pretty much a disaster tonight. Even the highest-rated sketches were just things I found merely decent.
— Up until these last three episodes, I’ve been feeling that this season is a LITTLE better than its negative reputation, but man, I now seem to have reached a point where this season kinda bottomed out and pretty much just gave up. And from what I remember seeing of the infamous next episode (I saw the butchered Netflix version of it years ago, where about 50% of the sketches were edited out), things don’t get any better.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sally Kellerman):
— a very slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Charlene Tilton, a.k.a. the notorious “I’d like to know who the fuck did it” episode

Posted on

February 7, 1981 – Sally Kellerman / Jimmy Cliff (S6 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


DISCLAIMER
Battle Of The World Superpowers will be delayed


COLD OPENING
Ronald Reagan (CHR) describes economy with charts, celebrates birthday

   

— Charles’ Reagan impression is still terrible, and I’m very wary about him anchoring his own sketch this time.
— The various chart drawings have a few chuckleworthy parts, but nothing great.
— What was with the weird pause before the other performers entered?
— Hey, it’s then-writer & future-castmember Terry Sweeney! (the guy holding the birthday cake in the second-to-last screencap above)
— I did like the LFNY.
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— Eddie is now credited as part of the main cast.


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— The director’s interrupting of Sally was pulled off very awkwardly.
— That’s it??!???! Kellerman braggingly lists off some of her many movies, the (barely-audible) director tries to cut her off, Kellerman continues listing off a few more movies, then she concludes the monologue? This has to be one of the most pointless, underwritten monologues I’ve ever seen.
STARS: *


ROCKET REPORT
CHR covers parade welcoming Iranian hostages’ return

   

— A Rocket Report THIS early tonight? Hope this one is better than the last episode’s disappointing Rocket Report.
— Charles overglorifying the exhibition sanitation team is fairly funny.
— Overall, this unfortunately was NOT an improvement over the last Rocket Report, and ended up being another ineffective one that I had almost nothing to say about. What’s happened to these Rocket Reports? They used to always be a reliable, fun segment, but it’s been in a bad slump lately.
STARS: **


ITALIAN STAND-UP
talent scout (host) sees Italian stand-up (GIG) perform for his relatives

   

— Hilarious beginning with Joe angrily throwing his TV out the window.
— Ha, oh my god at Gilbert’s entrance, looking like that.
— Denny’s funny as the mother.
— Good to see Gilbert in what seems to be a lead role, which has become a rarity for him in the last stretch of episodes I’ve covered.
— Okay, they’re now overdoing Denny’s bit.
— Love this role for Gilbert. His Italian goombah stand-up routine is giving me good laughs, and his performance is great.  Also nice to see him showing actual energy and enthusiasm for the first time in what feels like quite a while.
STARS: ***½


NAME THAT SIN
contestants (ANR) & (EDM) identify taboos via aural clues

— What’s with the dog-sounding audio clues? And why do I get the feeling that’s Gail doing those voices off-camera? If it is, that reminds me of how Laraine Newman would provide off-camera baby/ puppy sound effects for certain sketches back in the original era.
— Eddie’s “worshiping false buttocks” answer was random enough to make me laugh.
— WTF at this sketch so far.
— The “birth of Art Linklater” part was funny.
— Overall, I’m not quite sure how I feel about this strange, fast-paced sketch as a whole, though I appreciate the oddball premise and there were a few parts that did make me laugh.
STARS: **½


EYE, EAR NOSE & THROAT
body part close-ups accompany nasal piano solo

   

— Creative-looking film so far.
— Uh, wow was that fast. Also: uhhhh, I have no clue what to say about this overall film.
STARS: ????? (undecided)


WAS I EVER RED
snooty women relate breaches of mealtime etiquette

   

— I’m already not liking Ann’s delivery as the host of this sketch. It’s bringing back bad memories of her performance as the host in Dying to Be Heard.
— A fictional character named Jennifer Holliday??? Then again, I suppose the real Jennifer Holliday wasn’t famous at this time yet.
— Very cartoonish performance from Gail. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
— The rich snob premise seems perfect for Sally Kellerman, judging from the impression I’ve been getting from her in this episode.
— Boy, is this sketch a chore to watch so far. We’re two minutes into this, and not a single laugh from me yet.
— All the talk about a dog being served for dinner, vomiting, etc. just seem like desperate attempt for laughs. It’s still not working.
— Jesus, where is this GOING?
— The “cold soup” twist was just plain weak.
STARS: *


IRANIAN JOKE BOOK
stage fake executions & other wacky stunts with the Iranian Joke Book

 

— Who are these people on my screen right now during this prisoner execution scene? I don’t recognize a single one of these performers.
— The streak of Joe and/or Charles playing a commercial pitchman in every episode continues…
— The Iranian Joke Book twist seems kinda funny so far.
— I know I’m saying this a lot tonight but: that’s it??? That’s the whole thing? This one did not work for me as a whole.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Am The Living”


WEEKEND UPDATE
EDM says Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t signed, so get yourself a Negro
JOP interviews boxing hand puppet Rocko Weineretto (Marc Weiner)

     

— Charles’ manic, over-the-top delivery of his very first joke (Reagan slashing) just came off DESPERATE. I couldn’t help but cringe. And it’s way too early in tonight’s Update for that kind of over-the-top joke delivery; you can’t do that right out of the gate.  I’ve always heard that Charles starts resorting to frantic, overly hammy delivery in this season’s later Updates; this must be the beginning of that.  Oh, god.
— Yikes at Gail’s bad “Iran/toasters” joke. The audience reaction said it all.
— Yes, an Eddie Murphy commentary!
— Loved Eddie scolding the audience for laughing at his reveal that Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t signed.
— Eddie urging the audience to take a black person home as a slave is a riot!
— Eddie: “The password will be: ‘Hey, you black Alabama porch monkey, come with me, I’m your master.’”
— Eddie does his now-trademark “Heh heh heh!” laugh at the end of his commentary. This is the first time I recall seeing him do that laugh on SNL.
— Charles’ “Alexander Haig for gym class” joke was another groaner tonight. I got more laughs from Charles’ off-put facial reaction to how badly that joke bombed.
— Geez, Charles’ last few jokes were all met with silence.
— Here’s our weekly Joe Piscopo SNL Sports commentary.
— “Rocko Weineretto”. Oh, I had forgotten that puppeteer Marc Weiner does some bits in the second half of this season.
— This Rocko Weineretto segment is bringing back nice memories of watching Marc Weiner’s Nickelodeon show “Weinerville” back when I was a kid.
— Funny and impressive work from Weiner here. Also, how’s he making the “mouth” move?
— Overall, yet ANOTHER Update this season where the commentaries are the only thing worth a damn, while the actual Update anchors deliver one bomb after another.
STARS: **


PARENT & CHILD
(JOP) & (ANR) explain their kinky foreplay to son (GIG)

   

— I really hate to admit it, but seeing Ann Risley in that S&M outfit is awfully pleasing to my eyes…
— Funny visual of a tied-up Joe hopping around to get his suburban dad-esque glasses and smoking pipe.
— Overall, this ended up dying off after the aforementioned glasses/pipe bit, and the remainder of the sketch just came and went without anything really funny happening.
STARS: **


A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A HOSTAGE
public attention holds returnee captive

   

— Another interesting-looking film tonight.
— I often enjoy any use of a “first-person perspective” P.O.V. camera angle technique.
— Some good laughs from the cleaners guy getting excited over meeting the hostage, and the cleaner guy’s wife coming out to snap pictures of the hostage.
— Clever ending with the evil Uncle Sam.
STARS: ***


LEAN ACRES
trainer (host) gets tough on Lean Acres fat farm attendees (DED) & (ANR)
audience member interrupts skit to protest portrayal of the overweight

     

— Boy, those are some fake-looking slaps.
— So far, this has been yet another tedious sketch with pretty much no laughs.
— Whoa, strange turn this has suddenly taken, with a fake audience member from above interrupting the sketch to complain about the fat-shaming premise.
— Ha, now this has turned into the audience member doing stand-up comedy-style “you’re so fat” jokes to the heavyset female writer, complete with a rimshot. All these sudden turns are really saving this sketch. The second half of this sketch feels so atypical of this season.
STARS: *** (just for the second half)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Gone Clear”


IRANIAN STUDENT COUNCIL
Teheran University student council mulls its post-kidnapping activities

 

— For some reason, I kinda liked the throwaway line about Baghdad Tech having a goat mascot.
— Good performances in this, even though the material isn’t anything to write home about.
STARS: **½


NEW YORK
by C.F. Bressler- claymation street scenes pay homage to NYC

   

— Yet ANOTHER interesting-looking short film tonight. I’m liking the claymation format of this.
— Overall, wow, this was very well-done and interesting to watch.
STARS: ***½


PILLOW PETS
(GIG) pays more attention to his pillow “pets” than to his wife (ANR)

 

— Another bedroom sketch tonight with Ann and Gilbert. Looks like the same bedroom set too. Unfortunately, Ann’s not wearing the S&M outfit again…
— Also, what’s with all the airtime Ann’s getting tonight, anyway? Feels like she’s been in every single sketch.
— We get the return of Gilbert’s sullen, mopey delivery, though it seems to fit the character he’s playing in this.
— I liked Gilbert’s blunt “Oh, you were wrong” response to Ann saying she thought he’d have a lot of love to give her.
— I’m liking how overly passionate Gilbert’s character is about treating his pillow pets as real pets.
— Overall, short sketch, but a good showcase for Gilbert.
STARS: ***½


TELEVISED TRIAL
televised trial takes on the format of a talk show; Jim Fowler cameo

   

— The plaintiff is named Jose Gomez? I can already tell this will be a Gilbert Gottfried character.
— Yep, it IS. Looks like yet another big role for Gilbert in this episode. Wow, what a night for him. Looks like the writers finally remembered he’s in the cast.
— A hand puppet?
— What’s with the TV screen framing being used for the ENTIRE sketch? I thought it was only going to be used for the beginning of this, which would’ve been enough.
— Wild Kingdom’s Jim Fowler appearing with an alligator. I feel like this is the first cameo appearance of the whole season. I didn’t even realize until now the complete lack of cameos this season. Given the season’s quality and how much bad press the show was receiving, did SNL have a hard time getting celebrities to make cameos?
— Overall, I wasn’t crazy about this sketch, but I guess it wasn’t too bad in itself and it at least had a fun vibe to it.
STARS: **


SALLY KELLERMAN: “STARTING OVER AGAIN”
host performs “Starting Over Again”

— At this point, I had almost forgotten that tonight’s episode even has a host, considering how little she’s appeared in the post-Update half.


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Another weak episode, though this one didn’t frustrate me as much as the preceding Robert Hays one did. Maybe because unlike that one, there were some watchable pieces scattered throughout this episode, which kept me from completely losing interest, whereas the Hays episode’s only watchable pieces were all in the pre-Update half, leaving the post-Update half to be an unbearable endless string of duds. However, tonight’s episode was still a disappointment, the trademark weak season 6 writing kept rearing its ugly head, Weekend Update continues to be dire, and there weren’t any sketches that stood out as particularly great or memorable; nothing in this episode received a rating over three-and-a-half stars. And the less said about Sally Kellerman’s performance as host, the better.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Deborah Harry

Posted on

January 24, 1981 – Robert Hays / Joe “King” Carrasco & The Crowns, 14 Karat Soul (S6 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Iranian hostages’ return won’t mean the end for Ted Koppel’s (JOP) show

  

— Here’s the “America Not Held Hostage Anymore” cold opening that I recently said a season 5 cold opening (“Carter Held Hostage”) reminded me of.
— I’m disappointed in Joe’s Ted Koppel impression. It’s coming off very bland and generic, and just sounds like Joe’s normal voice.
— Funny bit with Koppel’s announcement about how they’ll be spending each week profiling a different hostage. “With 52, that should kill a year.”
— Awkward scene with Ann whining at the press outside her door. Her acting came off pretty bad (as usual).
— That’s it? This cold opening felt a little too short and they could’ve done much more with this.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host alters his delivery by monitoring on-screen instant Nielsen ratings

 

— Seem to be a lot of monologues this season that immediately begin with with the hosts trying way too hard to hype up the audience. Some people have had a theory that The Powers That Be were telling the hosts to do this, out of desperation due to how poorly this season was doing and how much the show was getting slaughtered in the press.
— Hmm, the Nielsen rating number on the screen going back and forth in reaction to what Robert’s saying. I liked this premise better the first time, when Buck Henry did it once back in the original era. Why have some of the recent monologues been feeling derivative of monologues from the 70s, like how Karen Black’s monologue had the same premise as Chevy Chase’s season 3 monologue? (though I did like Karen’s a little better)
STARS: **


DAZOLA
(DED) says psilocybin is what makes Dazola mushroom spread a-maize-ing

 

— This seems to be the sister sketch to the “Dopenhagen” bit from earlier this season with David Carradine, right down to the whole idea of taking the first letter of a real brand name (Copenhagen, Mazola) and replacing it with a ‘d’.
— That’s Patrick Weathers in the red costume (a tomato), right? I thought I saw it listed in some places that Matthew Laurance plays the tomato in this, but that sure doesn’t look like him to me.
— Overall, not much to say about this. Despite the drug premise, this ended up being nothing special.
STARS: **


LOVE AMERICAN STYLE
host has a date with an inflatable prostitute

 

— Robert’s pretty funny with his eagerly pulling the blow-up doll’s string to hear the remainder of its sultry sentences.
— Hilarious ending with an inflatable black pimp showing up.
STARS: ***


SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE SPORTS CENTRAL
Asteroids pro Eddie Atari (EDM) shoots space rocks & the Goodyear Blimp

   

— Oh, it’s the Eddie Atari sketch that I’ve always wanted to see!
— I love seeing those old-school early 80s video game graphics.
— Great unique use of Eddie.
— I liked the “What keeps you going?” “Quarters!” exchange between Matthew and Eddie.
— Fun sketch so far.
— Always funny hearing an “Oh, the humanity!” reference.
— Overall, not the classic I was expecting, but still a very enjoyable sketch.
STARS: ****


REAGANCO
look to Reaganco brand products for wallpaper, linoleum tiles, cosmetics

 

— This season continues it’s streak of having Charles and/or Joe play a pitchman once an episode; a streak that I believe started in the third episode of the season.
— The corpse comment about Reagan was pretty funny.
— Overall, an okay ad.
STARS: ***


SAVE-A-NETWORK TELETHON
JOP, ANR, DOP invite viewers to pledge a premise

     

— Interesting idea.
— I like the idea of desperately asking viewers to call in and “pledge a premise” to the struggling NBC.
— The NBC products Ann is showing reminds me of the Reaganco thing we just saw right before this.
— I recognize the deli worker as SNL’s cue card guy from these early eras. I remember seeing him in Jodie Foster’s season 2 monologue and in Chevy Chase’s aforementioned season 3 monologue.
— No idea what to think of Joe’s now un-PC line about the show Pink Lady & Jeff having a “Jap theme”. I guess this wouldn’t be a season 6 episode without at least one bad racial joke.
— Great one-liner from the cameraman, where he responds to Joe asking what NBC means to him by saying “I don’t want to lose my job, Joe”.
— An on-screen appearance from Don Pardo!
— It always feels so weird to see the familiar Pardo voice actually coming out of the man himself.
STARS: ***½


PRE-SUPERBOWL PRE-GAME PREVIEW
(host), (ANR), (CHR) spout silly hype

— The laughs from the audience are mild at best so far. I personally haven’t been laughing AT ALL yet.
— And it’s over. Overall, I could not have been more bored by this sketch.
STARS: *½


THE FOREIGN FILM
by William Dear- (Michael Nesmith) speaks nonsense

 

— Ha, I’m liking how the subtitles on the bottom of screen are phonetically spelling out the foreign dialogue instead of translating it.
— Okay, is that the ONLY joke in this? The joke ain’t as funny after the first 15 seconds.
— Oh, man, apparently it IS the only joke in this. This is going NOWHERE.
STARS: *½


FUNERAL
sports organist Harry Osborne [real] fills in at a funeral service

   

— Who’s that as the organ player?
— Haha, this is pretty funny with him playing inappropriate sports anthems at the funeral.
— Loved the part with an off-camera piano “slide” sound being heard when the casket top was closed and then re-opened.
— I’m not liking Charles’ delivery here as the exasperated straight man. Something about his performance is bugging me.
— Wait, that was Gilbert playing the dead body in the casket the whole time? Poor guy. Why couldn’t they have just used a dummy, an extra, or even one of the male featured players? No wonder Gilbert’s developed such a sullen, sourpuss attitude these last few episodes. The show’s misuse of his talents seems to be getting worse and worse as the season goes on.
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
CHR tries to elicit an apology from an Ayatollah Khomeini mannequin
Tiffany Fleur (ANR) emcees a fashion show for engineering students
JOP derides Super Bowl XV teams, predicts outcome via electric football
frozen assets prevent EDM from recovering $80 spent on undelivered dope

         

— A pretty dead start to Update tonight, with Charles’ string of opening jokes getting tepid audience reactions.
— Isn’t that the same dummy of The Ayatollah that Bill Murray did a segment with in an Update from the previous season? (side-by-side comparison below) Ugh, so not only has Charles Rocket been aping Bill Murray’s persona all season, but now he’s flat-out doing cheap knockoffs of Bill’s bits too?

 

— Boy, that Ayatollah bit was just plain stupid. Gail’s little addition to it afterwards didn’t help, either.
— So far, Gail’s Update jokes tonight have been getting a better audience reaction than Charles’.
— Spoke too soon. Gail’s Eldridge Cleaver joke just now was TERRIBLE and noticeably received loud groans from the audience.
— Yet ANOTHER Update commentary from Ann? Man, why does SNL keep trying to make Ann Risley happen?
— The nerd fashion show bit is okay.
— Funny sight gag with one of the nerd models having a pocket protector glued to his bare chest.
— Overall, hey, Ann’s bit actually wasn’t too bad for once! However, I’m sure that’s due to the fact that most of the focus wasn’t on her. However, her delivery didn’t come off stilted or flat for once.
— Here’s our weekly Joe Piscopo SNL Sports commentary.
— Joe’s “who cares?” assessment of the two Super Bowl teams is pretty funny.
— Okay, I’m starting to get a little tired of Joe’s gimmick with him bringing out some kind of sports toy during his Update commentaries. This is, what, the third or fourth time he’s done that so far?
— At the beginning of Eddie’s commentary, he actually stops the audience from applauding by telling them to hold it. Not sure what that was all about, but I laughed. Eddie just has a way of making little things like that funny to me.
— Hilarious with Eddie revealing he’s holding his Iranian reefer dealer hostage.
— I also liked Eddie’s line about freezing his “assets” off.
— Tonight’s overall Update was a big step down. After a promising upswing in quality with Charles and Gail’s jokes in the preceding episode’s Update, I see we’re back to the usual dreariness.
STARS: **


DISCO MELTDOWN
dance club at nuclear plant is Dena Disco’s (DED) hangout

 

— Denny Dillon as “Deena Disco”.
— Hmm, disco was still around in 1981?
— Denny: “(singing) My shoes are disco, my hair is disco, even my handwriting is disco!” Are they kidding me with this stuff?
— What am I even watching??? Where’s the joke?
— A disco being held at a nuclear power plant. I usually enjoy random sketch premises in this vein, but this particular one is coming off just plain dumb and is lacking actual good humor.
— Overall, boy, this was awful. This is pretty much the type of bad sketch I always imagined season 6 was filled with before I started doing reviews of this season.
STARS: *


ROCKET REPORT
CHR purports to give Ronald Reagan’s daily itinerary

   

— The audience is very unresponsive so far. I’m not finding this film too great myself.
— The horse being named “Darkie” – ugh, yet ANOTHER example of unnecessary racial humor in season 6.
— Overall, wow, I couldn’t find anything good to really say about this. This just came and went without any really good moments standing out. Definitely a big step down from the usually strong Rocket Reports.
STARS: **


THE PACESETTER
(JOP) demonstrates how The Pacesetter can jolt amateur theater to life

   

— When the camera first cut to Ann, I almost thought that was Karen Black at first. Something about Ann’s hair in this and the way her face looked with her head thrown back like that. I guess I still have Karen Black on the brain after having just reviewed an SNL episode she hosted.
— I like the premise of jolting an actor with an electric shock to make them speed up the pacing.
— Okay, well, THAT sure died off fast. Much like the Foreign Film earlier tonight, this went from “funny” to “that’s the ONLY joke???” really fast.
— In the shots of Joe in the studio audience, you can see just how dead tonight’s audience is. They look pretty subdued compared to how SNL audiences are usually seen.
STARS: **


RAVI SINGS
Ravi Shankar (PAW) interprets American romantic ballads on his new album

 

— Oh my god at the make-up on Patrick Weathers. And the only reason I’m aware that this is Patrick Weathers is because of some reviews I read of this sketch in the past. Well, that and the fact that Patrick’s making the same over-the-top bug-eyed facial expressions that he made as a tomato earlier tonight in the Dazola sketch. (a side-by-side comparison is below) Otherwise, I never would’ve been able to tell that’s him in this sketch. I mean, I’ve already been having a hard enough time recognizing him in his normal look, so how would I have recognized him under all that heavy dark make-up?

 

— Is… is he lip-syncing? Why?
— Is there even a joke in this? What IS this??? What are they going for here??? God, you’re killing me with tonight’s episode, SNL.
STARS: *


CUT ‘N’ CURL
Reagan dispute teases out differences of opinion between Roweena & Nadine

   

— I remember liking this sketch last time it appeared earlier this season.
— What the hell? What was with the “$40,000” and all that “Dream Date” text that suddenly flashed on-screen for a few seconds? (screencaps below) Must be a technical error involving on-screen text that’s supposed to be displayed for a later sketch in this episode.

 

— Hmm, what’s with Gail’s aside to the camera? They didn’t do this last time this sketch appeared.
— Now Denny’s doing the “aside to the camera” thing. What is the point of all that? I’m not liking it.
— Overall, a very strange installment of this sketch, and a big step down from these characters’ first appearance. Almost nothing worked in this. And it probably would’ve helped if there were a third person for Gail and Denny to play off of, like how the first one had Jamie Lee Curtis’ New Wave-ish character.
STARS: *½


EDDIE’S PROMOTION
EDM claims that his promotion to full SNL castmember won’t go to his head

  

— An announcement from Eddie that he has been promoted from a featured player to an official cast member. Very good news, and this promotion was LONG overdue. And nice applause from the audience in response to this announcement.
— He was still credited as a featured player earlier tonight in the opening montage, but I’m assuming he’ll start being credited with the main cast in the next episode.
— Funny ending with him disproving his claim that he won’t “go Hollywood”.
— As a rule, I don’t give a rating to segments like this, though I wish I could considering how much better this segment is than the last handful of dreadful sketches.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


DREAM DATE
(CHR) tells how to send in $40,000 for a chance at a Dream Date

  

— Oh, so THIS is what that technical error from the “Cut ‘N’ Curl” sketch was all about.
— What the hell? This was yet another sketch tonight that came and went with me not getting any laughs from the so-called humor.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
14 Karat Soul performs “I Wish That We Were Married”
14 Karat Soul performs “This Time It’s For Real”


NATIONAL ENQUIRER
National Enquirer editorial board makes tough decisions about next issue

   

— Joe’s line about a one-winged bird who only flies in circles kinda made me laugh. It’s probably an old joke that’s been around for ages, but I’ve never heard it before, and at this point of tonight’s dreary episode, I am so desperate for ANY laughs.
— Yet another sketch where Gilbert says his lines with a monotone, drawn-out, half-assed delivery. When I think back on how energetic he looked in the early episodes of the season and then see how increasingly miserable he’s become in the last few episodes, it reminds me so much of Janeane Garofalo’s stint on the show years later during season 20 (another infamous season) – how she started that season looking energetic and happy in her performances, and then a turning point came with the Sarah Jessica Parker episode where, from that point on, Garofalo’s misery from working on the show and the contempt she had for some of her castmates was written all over her face in every sketch and she no longer put any energy into her performances, coming off as a monotone sourpuss in almost everything. We’re seeing the EXACT SAME THING with Gilbert this season.
— “Cripples are big now.” Ugh, just STOP with the poor attempts at offensive shock humor, season 6.
— A lot of this sketch is falling completely flat for me.
— Another ugh at that bad low-brow ending with the guys agreeing to do a piece romantically linking Desi Arnaz Sr. and Jr. to each other.
— Overall, yet ANOTHER terrible sketch tonight with almost no laughs. Man, tonight’s episode has been dying a miserable death.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Joe ‘King’ Carrasco & The Crowns performs “Don’t Bug Me Baby”


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Man, what a rough night. This is like the type of episode most people probably automatically think of whenever season 6 gets mentioned. I’ve been finding out through doing these reviews that this season wasn’t quite as horrible as legend has it, but this particular episode was bad enough to almost make me forget that. Though thinking back on the first half of the episode, while it certainly had its share of bad segments, there were actually some inspired, funny sketches scattered throughout it, mainly Eddie Atari and Save-A-Network Telethon. But damn, what the hell happened afterward? Once Update showed up, that seemed to officially kill any momentum that was left and the show never recovered. The post-Update half of the show was absolutely DIRE, with one dud after another, and a very bored-sounding (and looking) studio audience. Some of the least funniest sketches of the whole season were in the second half of tonight’s episode alone.
— It’s a shame that after the preceding week’s surprisingly strong Karen Black episode, the weaknesses of season 6 came back with a vengeance tonight. And the real worrisome thing is, as bad as this episode was, I’ve heard that the next episode is supposedly even worse.
— Robert Hays was a very bland, unmemorable host. Did absolutely nothing of note tonight. Well, he was decent in the Love American Style sketch, I’ll give him that.
— The copy of this episode I reviewed is missing a short sketch titled “Ordinary Elephant People”, which is a fake promo for a TV movie about an Elephant Man-esque family. I saw that sketch years ago and recall not finding it anything special, though it wasn’t terrible. The most noteworthy thing I remember about it is that Gilbert Gottfried uses his now-recognizable screechy voice, yet he STILL manages to come off sounding monotone and depressed in it.  Man, working on the show this season is DESTROYING that man.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Sally Kellerman

Posted on

January 17, 1981 – Karen Black / Cheap Trick, Stanley Clarke Trio (S6 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
departing Jimmy (JOP), Rosalynn (ANR), Amy (DED) Carter strip White House

   

— Ann’s line about Nancy Reagan clawing her way up the stairs was good.
— The line about Nancy Reagan not killing people but “just marrying them instead” kinda died with the audience.
— I’m liking the Carters’ panicked rush to take all the valuable things in the White House.
— Another funny turn with what I’m assuming is an off-camera Gail as Nancy Reagan announcing through a bullhorn that the Carters need to leave now. Sounds like she’s using her famous midwestern “Don’cha know”-type voice/accent, for some reason.
— Yet another weak segue to LFNY. Why are this season’s writers having so much trouble coming up with good LFNYs?
— Overall, a pretty strong cold opening for this season, and for once, Ann Risley gave a performance I actually liked.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— The “say anything just to get applause” premise is reminiscent of Chevy Chase’s season 3 monologue.
— Funny how her announcement of “I don’t use drugs!” received hesitant applause and even some booing.  A sign of the times.
— I thought this would just be a simple “audience wildly applauds after everything Karen says”, but interestingly, the joke seems to be that the applause keeps varying from loud-to-mild depending on what she says.
— Wow, that was a fast monologue.
STARS: **½


THE LEGENDARY COMPOSERS
album has classical origins of contemporary hits

 

— I like how one of the songs listed is “Theme from Dukes of Hazzard”, even if Charles flubbed the title.
— Loved the two-sided Beethoven/Manilow bust.
— An overall decent commercial.
STARS: ***


FOUNDATION FOR THE TRAGICALLY HIP
Foundation For The Tragically Hip solicits donations to abet the trendy

— Pretty funny, and I love how they’re making this feel like an authentic commercial, using outside actors and delivering the funny subject matter and lines in such a straight manner.
— Some really funny lines here.
— Did the band The Tragically Hip REALLY get their name from this sketch?
STARS: ****


LIVELYS
game show emcee Phil Lively (CHR) & wife Frances (GLM) meet the neighbors

   

— A famous sketch from this season.
— Charles and Gail are doing a great job holding normal, casual conversations in a game show manner.
— I like Gilbert and Denny entering as the confused normal couple and being treated as game show contestants. Gilbert’s sullen demeanor that we’ve been seeing so much lately actually works here.
— Funny turn with Gilbert having to guess in a quiz show manner the year of the wine he’s drinking.
— Charles is surprisingly great throughout this.
— Overall, wow, that was a very strong sketch, especially for this season’s standards. I’m aware they bring this back later this season, but I’m not sure if it’ll work as a recurring sketch.
STARS: ****½


REAGAN / SINATRA
Frank Sinatra (JOP) lobbies for Nancy Reagan (GLM) to be vice-president

 

— The debut of Joe’s Sinatra impression.
— Hey, they actually put Charles’ Reagan in a wig this time.
— Man, his Reagan impression is still terrible, unfortunately.
— I’m really liking Joe’s performance as Sinatra.
— Nice twist at the end with Gail’s Nancy Reagan. For some reason, that reminds me of the “Hillary is the one REALLY running the White House” jokes the show would later make during the Phil Hartman years of Bill Clinton’s presidency.
STARS: ***


ROCKET REPORT
CHR honors cabbie Rich Schmaltz [real], NYC daredevil

    

— What was with the delayed beginning? This started with just dead air as we saw a silent black screen for a long time, and then, while we’re still seeing a black screen, a Pardo voice-over strangely introduces the segment instead of them simply using a “Rocket Report” title screen like they’ve usually been doing this season.
— Geez, quite a daring beginning with Charles leaning far over the railing of the roof of the building. What if he had fallen? Did they have some kind of protective net or something just in case?
— The whole cab part is great. I like how they’re presenting the cab driver as a stunt-taking daredevil and are dramatizing the risky turn he’s attempting to make, with Charles even showing us a layout of the risky turn.
— Overall, one of the best Rocket Report’s I’ve covered so far.
STARS: ****


MONA LISA
a museum security guard (CHR) ends his relationship with Mona Lisa (host)

 

— Strangely, this is the first sketch Karen Black has appeared in all night. I had been wondering where she was.
— Loved Karen loudly telling the off-camera Whistler’s Mother painting to drop dead.
— Karen’s very good in this, and Charles is also doing well.
— Funny ending with Karen hesitantly doing the famous Mona Lisa “smile”.
— Man, tonight’s episode has been on fire so far.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Cheap Trick performs “Baby Loves to Rock”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Mary Lou James (ANR) suggests dumb dieters try disguising portion sizes
Rush to the Sunbelt!- stock newsreel footage documents southern migration
JOP decries scalping of Super Bowl XV tickets, then tries to move a pair
CHR excitedly lists the star-studded lineup for the Reagan inauguration

       

— What was the point of that “scotch and soda” bit between Charles and Gail? It got no reaction from the audience.
— Oh, no, here comes another Ann Risley Update commentary.
— I guess the material itself isn’t bad, but Ann’s attempt at pulling off a snarky, sarcastic delivery is just plain WEAK.
— That’s it? That’s the whole Ann Risley commentary? What was with the awkward ending, with no audience applause and Gail messing up the name of Ann’s character?
— The “Rush to the Sunbelt!” bit was pretty funny, and I always like when SNL uses random old stock footage shots out of context.
— Here’s our weekly Joe Piscopo SNL Sports commentary. I think this is also the first time he’s doing it on Charles’ side of the Update desk.
— Ha, Joe’s bit was very short, but had a very funny turn. I think they’re able to get away with having Joe do an SNL Sports segment on Update every single week because his bits are always short.
— This is the second episode in a row where Joe uses a prop from his commentary to try to sabotage Charles while Charles is in the middle of an Update joke. In the last episode, Joe ran a wind-up bowling ball toy across Charles’ desk, and this time, he’s waving Super Bowl tickets in front of Charles’ face. To Charles’ credit, he always seems to have a good sense of humor about it, which I wouldn’t have expected after all the things I’ve heard about his alleged big ego.
— Good bit with Charles’ fast-paced, hyped-up rundown of events at the upcoming presidential inauguration.
— The Nancy Reagan inaugural dress bit was just dumb.
— Overall, a surprising improvement over the dreadful last Update. Even though they still need a lot of work, the jokes from Charles and Gail were a little better, and the audience was more generous to Gail than they were in the last Update. Gail’s still coming off pretty green as an anchor, though. I’ll be generous and give Update its first passing rating of the whole season so far.
STARS: ***


60 MINUTES
Dan Rather (JOP) investigates lack of female CBS journalists

     

— I can’t judge the accuracy of Joe’s Dan Rather impression, because I’m more familiar with older Dan Rather from more recent decades. Knowing Joe, I’m sure it’s a good impression, though.
— I got a big laugh from the cutaway to Joe’s facial reaction after being told “1 out of every 4 weeks, women wouldn’t be able to work”.
— The “Take this job – you’re dead” letter was very funny.
— I like the segment with an “unidentified” Walter Cronkite.
— Overall, pretty good. This felt kinda like a typical pre-taped segment that would’ve aired in season 10.
STARS: ***½


HOSPITAL BED
hospitalized stroke victim (GIG) is unable to communicate with visitors

  

— I’ve heard about this sketch; from what I’ve read about it, it sounds like a very serious, low-key piece with a subject matter that’s always sounded depressing as hell to me. Still interested to see how this goes, though. After all, I was expecting to be depressed by the controversial “First He Cries” sketch from season 5, only to end up getting good laughs from it.
— I commend them for the intriguing format, with having a single camera be the main character’s P.O.V.
— Gilbert’s sarcastic old Jewish voice-over is actually pretty funny, and this is another good use of his now-perpetual sullen delivery.
— Surprised that this is Eddie’s first appearance of the whole night, after how much he dominated the last episode. He IS still just a featured player, though.
— Eddie’s “He about as alive as a baked potato” line made me laugh.
— Some really good character work here. Karen’s character is especially funny and well-done.
— I liked Karen’s “I nearly had a stroke” faux-pas.
— LOL at Gilbert’s deadpan “Oh my god, she’s gonna sing” line about Denny.
— Nice how Gilbert eventually started singing along with Denny in his head.
— This sketch is starting to get really touching now.
— For some reason, the ending actually gave me a nice smile, even though I’m not sure if it was supposed to.
— Overall, I came into this expecting a depressing sketch, but I ended up finding this sketch to have a perfect mix of humor and sentimentality. They did an excellent job with this, in both writing and performances. The original SNL era would’ve been proud.
STARS: ****½


FAIR DINKUM CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS
JOP calls the championship match of Fair Dinkum, Scottish game of manhood

 

— Another appearance tonight from Joe’s SNL Sports persona.
— WTF at this?
— This is kinda reminding me of the nose-wrestling bit from the season premiere, though that one ended up winning me over. Not sure what to think about THIS one.
— And it’s over already. Wow, that was quick.
STARS: **


APARTMENT BUILDING
in the hallway, (YVH) confronts neighbor (EDM) about his loud stereo

 

— Yvonne to Eddie: “[N-word], are you deaf?!?” Ha, I’m surprised to hear that being said on SNL. I love it!
— Yvonne’s insult about Eddie’s nose was really funny.
— Haha, I’m loving Eddie and Yvonne’s whole back-and-forth insult match.
— Eddie’s Ray Charles line was hilarious.
— Funny turn with Eddie changing his tune when seeing Yvonne’s big boyfriend.
— Good ending with Eddie coming back out to spit on Yvonne’s door.
— Yvonne’s been getting more noteworthy speaking roles this season than I had thought. From everything I’ve heard about this season, I had always been under the impression that Yvonne was basically a glorified extra during her featured player tenure, only being given useless non-speaking bit roles most of the time. Now I see that those reports were fairly exaggerated; the woman has been doing SOME stuff this season so far. Hell, she’s certainly doing more than Patrick Weathers, who gets listed in the opening credits as a featured player in every damn episode yet I never notice him in any sketches (aside from his great turn as Bob Dylan). Where is he??? Am I just having a hard time recognizing him in sketches, much like my misadventures with Peter Aykroyd throughout season 5 (who I was usually only able to identify by his Dan Aykroyd-esque voice than by his actual face)?
STARS: ***½


DINER
in a diner, (host) & Paulie Herman order Five Easy Pieces of wheat toast

   

— Another Jersey Guy sketch. At least they waited a while since the last time he appeared.
— I’m still hearing Jay Leno in Joe’s Jersey Guy voice.
— Karen’s having good rapport with Joe in this.
— Great intense rant from Karen to Denny as the waitress, referencing a famous scene from Five Easy Pieces.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Cheap Trick performs “Can’t Stop It But I’m Gonna Try”


SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE ACTION DOLLS
CHR plays with SNL Castmember Action Dolls to show how much fun they are

   

— I’m loving the meta-ness of doing a fake ad about SNL cast action dolls.
— Gilbert’s being called by his backstage “Gillie” nickname.
— This is fun, and Charles is doing a good job demonstrating the whole thing. Charles has been having a rare strong night in general.
STARS: ***½


WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT
host has a breakdown because subject keeps changing

 

— What’s this doing buried at the end of the episode instead of airing in the first half like the prior installments of this sketch did?
— The set is different and looks more low-budget, with just a background consisting of black drapes. Maybe that’s intentional, since this IS supposed to be a public access talk show.
— Good laughs from Karen going crazy with different accents and then suddenly acting like a monkey.
— Overall, not a noteworthy installment of this sketch, but Karen’s performance helped it.
STARS: ***


NATIONAL HANDGUN ASSOCIATION
(MAL) uses (EDM) to mug a couple because “People kill people, not guns”

 

— Interesting how they’re using the home base stage as a sketch setting, and are having Joe and Ann exiting from that stage’s elevator. Reminds me of how the home base stage from the first two seasons was often used as the setting for sketches taking place in cafes or basements.
— Matthew using Eddie as a weapon was a kinda-funny sight gag for about two seconds, but I’m not sure about the rest of this so far.
— Wow, that was short as hell. (I feel like I’m saying that a lot in this review) The overall “people kill people” gag was typical corny season 6 humor, even if the visual initially gave me a chuckle.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Stanley Clarke Trio performs “Wild Dog”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A consistently strong episode; by far the best I’ve covered from this infamous season so far. This episode was just as good as I had always heard it was, and this was also a big improvement over Karen Black’s surprisingly disappointing season 2 episode. Karen also did a much better job hosting tonight than she did in season 2, where I was iffy on a lot of her performances. She was great tonight. This episode was so good, even Update was passable, for the first time all season.
— This episode also featured some of the better performances from my least favorite members of this cast: Ann was very good in the cold opening, Charles was great in various sketches. Even Gilbert (who I thought I would like when this season began, but have ended up being kinda disappointed by him) had his moments tonight.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ray Sharkey):
— a huge step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Robert Hays

Posted on

January 10, 1981 – Ray Sharkey / Jack Bruce & Friends (S6 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
a bullet teaches Jimmy ‘The Weasel’ Fratiano (MAL) not To Tell The Truth

 

— The copy of this episode I’m reviewing is missing the very beginning of this cold opening, but this appears to be a “To Tell the Truth” parody.
— Funny twist with Charles shooting Matthew Laurance after Matthew confessed to being the real Weasel.  The gunshot was pretty realistic-looking, too.
— A great LFNY from Eddie. This is also, I believe, the very first time a featured player has ever said LFNY on the show. I remember hearing that some of this season’s repertory players were upset over the decision to have a featured player open the show.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

 

— Very excited entrance from him.
— He’s coming off very New York-y, even saying “fuhgettaboutit”.
— Okay, now he’s saying “fuhgettaboutit” way too often…
STARS: **


WORK TIME
manual laborers drink beer before the job to prepare for Work Time

   

— The announcer’s “You’re completely bombed out of your skull” line made me laugh.
— The “work time” montage of drunken workers failing at their jobs is pretty funny.
— Strange how they’re showing production credits at the end of this, something you don’t usually see in an SNL fake ad.
STARS: ***


WASP INTERPRETER
Italian (host) translates feelings of repressed WASP couple (CHR) & (ANR)

   

— Charles playing a character with his same first name.
— Ray’s “worse than leftover fettuccini in bed” line made me laugh.
— I’m iffy about this premise, but Ray is REALLY into his performance.
— Heh, and now Ray’s throwing lamps across the set.
— Now I’ve noticed Ann’s character is named after herself, too.
STARS: **½


TOMMY TORTURE
Vickie & Debbie meet punk rocker Tommy Torture (host) at a new wave club

   

— Right from the beginning of this, I’m loving how “early 80s punk” everything in the club looks.
— Another Vickie and Debbie sketch. This punk club is a very interesting setting for them.
— Ray’s unintelligible drunken statements are kinda funny.
— Ray’s song sounds like it could’ve been a real punk song from that time period.
— Huh? THAT’S all Vickie and Debbie have to say after Ray’s performance? What a weak ending.
— Overall, despite a great performance from Ray, this was a disappointing Vickie and Debbie outing. This sketch was too all over the place and didn’t come together well. It also didn’t help that the audience was silent for pretty much the entirety of the sketch, not even reacting to the (very) few half-funny lines.
STARS: *½


CITIZENS FOR A BETTER AMERICA
(GIG)’s labor plan asks for Ronald Reagan to give him a “hum” job

— These last two episodes, we seem to be seeing the emergence of a more sullen, monotone Gilbert Gottfried, where his misery from working on the show this season starts becoming visible in his performances. His delivery in this sketch is coming off quite unenthusiastic. A contrast to his energy level in some of his earlier performances from the beginning of the season.
— A fairly juvenile premise, but I’m finding some humor here.
— “Mr. President… give me a humjob.”
STARS: **½


BAR / JANUARY 11TH
in a bar, (host) advises unemployed & depressed Jimmy Carter (JOP)
CHR gives an on-the-scene report about NYC’s big January 11th celebration

     

— I was little tough on Joe’s Jimmy Carter impression in my review of the season premiere, but his impression has improved tonight. The make-up is a lot better, too; he now looks more like Carter than Dan Aykroyd ever did.
— Ray: “All you gotta do is sit on your duff and daydream.” President Carter: “Oh, I’ve been doing that for the last four years.”
— Huh? What the fuck just happened? Why did we suddenly cut to an outside shot of a crowd of people while the voice of Charles Rocket is reporting? What happened to the President Carter sketch that I was in the middle of watching? Did the recording of the Carter sketch get cut off in the copy of the episode I’m watching? Am I now watching a Rocket Report segment? WHAT’S GOING ON?!??!
— The Charles Rocket segment is at a gathering where they seem to be celebrating the arrival of January 11 like it’s New Years. Fairly funny idea, even if I’m still baffled over why the hell I’m now seeing this instead of the President Carter sketch I was in the middle of watching.
— Where is Rocket in this anyway? We can’t even see him while he’s reporting. Is he somewhere in the middle of the crowd? The camera shot is from such a far away angle that I can’t find him in the crowd. Also, is this segment actually being performed live from outside the building? We rarely get outdoor live scenes on SNL, aside from the handful of Christmas episodes that have goodnights held at the Rockefeller skating rink.
— Ah, the camera has zoomed in closer and we can now see Charles more clearly.
— Okay, NOW it makes sense to me why they abruptly went from the middle of the Carter sketch to the January 11th celebration; they’re attempting to make this feel like an authentic instance of “regular programming gets interrupted by New Years celebration when the ball is about to drop”. That’s actually a very interesting, unique idea for SNL. Still feels like they could’ve done a less abrupt transition, though. Maybe they could’ve had the Carter sketch get cut off with some kind of “We interrupt this sketch to bring you this special report” announcement, and THEN cut to Charles at the outside crowd.
— I’m loving seeing the in-studio celebration, where even the audience is involved.
STARS: ***½ (the ½ is just for trying something unique and elaborate)


WEEKEND UPDATE
(GIG)’s crime forecast gives urbanites the info needed to weather the day
JOP comments on Joe Frazier’s unretirement & predicts bowling will be big
EDM suggests the draft board pass him over in favor of Garrett Morris

         

— Whoa, whoa whoa. HUGE changes to Update tonight, which I was not expecting. The Update set has been remodeled, the Update logo graphics are different, and Gail Matthius is now at the desk as a co-anchor. Wow. I guess SNL is well-aware of the dire state that Update has been in this season, and are making some drastic mid-season changes to improve the segment.
— After starting off tonight’s Update by doing several consecutive news jokes, Charles FINALLY acknowledges he has a new co-anchor, and gives Gail an intro. There’s no comedic lines during this; just a straightforward intro, audience applause for Gail, and then Gail going right into the next news story.
— Oh, man, they got Gail doing the same type of lame “misinterpret a news picture” jokes that Charles has been doing all season? How is having two different people doing the same type of weak jokes we’ve been suffering through all season supposed to be an improvement?
— This Murder Map segment with Gilbert seems to have promise.
— Gilbert’s commentary is pretty funny, with him doing a professional, meteorologist-esque coverage of murders across the country.
— Here’s our weekly Joe Piscopo SNL Sports commentary.
— Joe’s delivery is now finally starting to sound like the energetic delivery his SNL Sports pieces would become famous for.
— Joe using the toy bowling game is pretty funny, especially his ad-libbing when the bowling ball didn’t go the right direction at first.
— Heh, WTF? Why is the bowling ball toy from Joe’s commentary now moving across the desk while Charles is in the middle of a joke? Is that an ad-lib from Joe off-camera? Either way, it’s hilarious, and serves as a welcome distraction from whatever lame punchline I’m sure Charles’ joke has.
— Now we have to wait for Gail to find her next news story as she awkwardly shuffles through her papers. Yikes. That’s bringing back bad memories of Dan Aykroyd’s sloppiness as an Update anchor back in season 3.
— Man, Gail’s jokes have been TERRIBLE tonight, and the audience ain’t havin’ it. They are DEAD.
— A commentary from Eddie that’s based on his young age (19).
— Eddie: “If I get drafted, who’s gonna be the token black on Saturday Night Live?” Meanwhile, Yvonne Hudson is probably somewhere backstage, sheepishly raising her hand.
— We get a brief sample of some of the soon-to-be-famous celebrity impressions that Eddie would debut in full later in his tenure (Stevie, Cosby).
— Haha, I love Eddie urging the army to draft Garrett Morris instead of him.
— Eddie: “Word has it that [Garrett Morris] has a lot of free time right now.” LOL! Poor Garrett, though. I mean, damn, it hadn’t even been a full year since he’s left the cast, and ALREADY his former show is making a joke like that about his post-SNL career.
— Overall, as usual this season, the guest commentaries were the only thing saving tonight’s Update. The mini-overhaul that Update has gone through seems to have done NO good so far, as I think the Update jokes may have actually gotten even WORSE. Poor Gail ESPECIALLY got stuck with nothing but duds and groaners tonight. The conspiracy theorist in me almost wonders if they added Gail to Update and deliberately gave her such terrible jokes just to make Jean Doumanian’s golden boy Charles Rocket look better by comparison.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Dancing On Air”


FILMED CONFESSION
a suspect (GIG) & his interrogator (host) develop a cinematic confession

  

— What was with Ray’s prop gun accidentally falling on the floor?
— The premise of this is fairly interesting, and something about it kinda reminds me of that Televised Execution sketch that Bill Murray did in his very first episode as a cast member. It’s also reminding me of another sketch, but I can’t put my finger on which sketch that is.
— I’m really liking Ray’s performance.
— Gilbert’s acting in this is starting to get really good, and he seems more into it compared to the sullen demeanor we’ve been seeing from him lately.
— LOL at Ray revealing the camera has run out of tape right in the middle of Gilbert’s confession.
STARS: ***½


HAVE A NICE DAY
smiley faces pervade a gore-filled horror movie

   

— I’m liking the silly idea of this horror movie parody.
— Announcer: “So stupid, you cannot believe grown men and women would stoop so low for a couple of million thousand bucks.”
— Overall, there were a few okay parts, but this didn’t turn out to be as funny as I thought it would.
STARS: **½


WHITE BABIES
in the park, (EDM) sells (JOP) & (ANR) a black market white baby for $500

 

— Hilarious concept with Eddie and Ray selling white babies at the park. I can already tell this is going to be a really funny Eddie Murphy sketch.
— The line about a previous purchase of a white baby that turned out to be a bowling pin was hilarious.
— LOL at the baby being in a garbage can.
— Denny’s baby being named “Splotchy” gave me a pretty good laugh.
— Overall, okay, this didn’t turn out to be quite the classic Eddie Murphy sketch the set-up had me expecting it to be, but it was still pretty funny.
STARS: ***½


AUDIENCE CAPTION

— For the first time this season, we get the return of the original SNL era’s “audience caption” gag that they stopped doing sometime in the middle of season 4. But, boy, tonight’s coleslaw/underwear caption is just plain stupid and is trying way too hard at copying something that the original era did so well.
— I heard there’s an audience caption later this season where a lady being captioned looks VERY pissed off. That’ll be funny to see.


SURROGATE MOTHERS
unruly surrogate mothers (YVH) & (DED) worry moms-to-be (GLM) & (ANR)

   

— What? Ann and Gail as flat-stomached allegedly-pregnant women whose due dates are approaching?
— Oh, I see where this is going. Yvonne and Denny are Ann and Gail’s surrogates.
— Some laughs from Denny wildly acting rebellious against her employer by doing things that will be dangerous to the baby she’s pregnant with.
— Haha, Denny’s threatening to take LSD.
— Are they kidding me with that terrible ending with Yvonne saying the “I don’t know nothing ’bout birthin’ no babies” movie quote? *groan*
STARS: **½


THE MAN WITH THE BLACK HAT
by William Dear- man has pants-around-ankles

  

— Interesting format with us only being able to see the feet of the main character and everyone he interacts with.
— The ending with the guy meeting a similarly-pants-dropped lady was kinda cute, I guess.
STARS: **½


STOP-A-NUT
Stop-A-Nut personal protection unit offers armored defense against crime

   

— There’s the same park set from earlier. I guess that set is to this episode what the mall set was to the last episode (David Carradine).
— Ha, insane sketch so far, especially Ray as an old lady fighting with the armored suit!
— The interior picture of the armor suit is very funny.
— Haha, I love seeing Eddie blasting “Rapper’s Delight” on his boombox.
STARS: ****


THE WAITER-MAKER
(host) tries to mold (GIG) into a superstar server

     

— Not too sure about this premise.
— Okay, this sketch is getting more interesting with Gilbert’s character.
— I love the comedic vamping for time by showing a series of various “10 shifts later” “Okay, make that 20 shifts later” etc. title cards while Gilbert is apparently doing a lengthy costume change off-camera.
— Eh, the sketch petered off again after a while, and I didn’t care for the ending.
STARS: **


COMMERCIAL
(JOP) pitches an unspecified, nonexistent product that costs only $9.99

 

— They seem to be doing lots of sketches this season with either Joe or Charles playing a pitchman.
— Wow, well, that was quick. I did like Joe’s fast-talking performance and how overcrowded the screen had gotten by the end with all the displayed text. Still could’ve been funnier, though, and probably would’ve actually benefited from being a little longer and going further with the “commercial about nothing” premise.
— I usually compare Joe’s pitchman performances to that of Dan Aykroyd’s, but this particular commercial was something I could picture Harry Shearer doing well in season 5.
STARS: **


KILLING TIME
EDM does stand-up about an inner-city insult contest

   

— Oh, this is going to be the legendary occurrence where the show was running short and they threw Eddie out there at the last minute to kill time by having him do a piece from his stand-up. I’ve heard so much about this over the years and have always been dying to see it. Chris Rock also talked about it during a segment on SNL’s 40th anniversary special.
— Right off the bat, I’m already loving Eddie’s energy and demeanor.
— The whole “Yo mama got a mouth in the back of her neck and the bitch chew like this… (*proceeds to demonstrate*)” bit absolutely killed me.
— I love Eddie’s various characterizations in this, going back-and-forth between different voices as he’s doing a retelling of an argument. Reminds me of Richard Pryor doing that in his stand-up pieces from the episode he hosted back in season 1.
— Overall, wow, that was freakin’ great. From the beginning, I was already loving this just for whole impromptu-ness behind the show’s decision to have a cast member go out onto the home base stage to kill time by doing straight stand-up comedy, but Eddie ended up delivering big-time. He not only handled this unplanned segment with total ease, but he was hilarious and killed with the audience. This would end up being a very important part of Eddie’s SNL tenure, as it was pretty much the turning point where this 19 year old kid started being officially viewed as the undisputed breakout star of the cast.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Livin’ Without Ja”


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Not a terrible episode, but not really a good one either. There were a lot of promising sketch premises that unfortunately ended up petering out. Sketches that felt like they should’ve been very strong turned out to be either merely decent or flat-out weak. Even the January 11th celebration segment, which I commend for going outside the box and doing something unheard of for SNL, was executed clumsily with a too-abrupt transition from the President Carter sketch it interrupted.
— Despite me going into this episode having no familiarity with Ray Sharkey, I ended up finding him to be a fun host. He had a lot of great energy, made some of the more iffy sketches become more watchable with his commitment, and seemed to be more prominent tonight than most hosts in these early SNL seasons are, as he appeared in practically every single sketch, even playing an old lady in the type of sketch that would usually place a cast member or writer in that role.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Karen Black

Posted on

December 20, 1980 – David Carradine / The cast of “The Pirates of Penzance” (S6 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
DOP puts the kibosh on JOP’s plans to be both castmember & SNL announcer

 

— They seem to be attempting the type of “backstage locker room” cold openings the original SNL era often did.
— Joe practicing a Pardo impression would later get put to good use in reality during the season 9 episode that Jamie Lee Curtis hosted, where Joe had to fill in for a laryngitis-stricken Pardo.
— I loved Pardo’s “I’m everywhere” line.
— Abrupt segue to LFNY, if it can even be called a segue.  Joe just randomly said it with no set-up. This season’s writers seem to be struggling to come up with good LFNY segues.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Yvonne Hudson receives her first credit as a featured player, becoming SNL’s very first black female cast member.


MONOLOGUE
host shuffles a soft-shoe while singing “I Wanna Be A Dancin’ Man”

   

— I remember hearing a rumor that Carradine pulled a Kris Kristofferson and got drunk shortly before airtime. However, he seems fine in this monologue.
— He made a pretty funny “That didn’t work” ad-lib when his line about his father forbidding him from using his feet got a tepid reaction.
— Another ad-lib with him saying “Just reading the cards, that’s all”. Who is he with that ad-lib, Frank Zappa?
— A song-and-dance number. Wouldn’t have expected that from him.
— There’s no joke to this musical number, but it has a charm to it and is fairly fun.
— I liked Charles’ “This is supposed to be a comedy show” acknowledgment.
— Very funny part with David kicking Charles off the stage.
STARS: ***


GUN CITY
(JOP) makes a Crazy Eddie-style pitch for Christmas firearms

   

— Joe’s doing great at channeling his inner Aykroyd, with his fast-talking manic pitchman delivery.
— Insane premise, and feels a little weird to watch nowadays with our controversial gun control debate, but the concept is coming off great with Joe’s performance and all the various guns he’s rapidly advertising. I’m getting a lot of laughs from this.
STARS: ****


MENSWEAR STORE
Caine (host) gets fashion advice from owner of black menswear shop (EDM)

   

— Judging from Eddie’s wig, is this the debut of his Velvet Jones character?
— Nah, it doesn’t seem to be, as Eddie’s using a different voice. I’m loving his voice in this sketch, though.
— Eddie’s smooth delivery and ease as a performer in this is leaps and bounds above most of the rest of this season’s cast.
— Eddie’s “You a tacky-lookin’ white dude, let me tell you that” comment had me laughing out loud.
— Oh my god, is that Gilbert with fake Asian eyes and insane make-up?
— What the hell was with David’s unsure delivery of that one line just now, where even he gave a puzzled look towards the camera afterwards?
— What’s with the sudden loud music sting? Are they playing that at the wrong time?
— Geez, David’s timing has gotten really off all of a sudden. What was with that long, long awkward pause of his? Man, this sketch in general seems to have gone off the rails.
— The ending with David destroying the store was kinda funny, but it wasn’t enough to save all the bad flubs, timing issues, and miscues this sketch suffered from towards the end. I think I’m now starting to believe that aforementioned rumor about David being drunk.
STARS: **


CEDAR MALL
Vickie & Debbie hang out at the mall & talk with cool boys (JOP) & (CHR)

 

— Good to see these characters back, and this is an interesting setting for them.
— I liked Gail’s vague recapping of an earlier conversation she had, by saying “and Steve goes… and I go… and he goes…”
— Ha, Charles as an overconfident jock, the role he was born to play.
— Overall, another good Valley Girl sketch.
STARS: ***


ROCKET REPORT
derelict Santa Claus (CHR) wanders the streets of NYC

     

— They seem to keep re-designing the “Rocket Report” title screen every time this segment appears.
— Is that Charles himself as the hobo Santa in the cutaways? Hard to tell with the big Santa beard obscuring his face, but that looks like Charles’ nose.
— I can’t help but feel this Hobo Santa bit seems like a role Bill Murray would’ve been great for.
— The juxtapositions between Charles’ (as himself) glowing statements about Santa and the bad stuff we see “Santa” actually doing are pretty funny.
— Overall, this was very different from the usual Rocket Reports, and didn’t work as well as the usual formula does. Still had a decent amount of laughs, though.
STARS: ***


DYLAN & GUTHRIE
Bob Dylan (PAW) & ailing Woody Guthrie (host) converse via song lyrics

 

— This is a famous sketch from this season and, from what I hear, is Patrick Weathers’ only claim to fame during his short-lived SNL tenure.
— I can’t judge the accuracy of David’s Woody Guthrie impression, as I have no familiarity with Guthrie. David seems to be going for an accurate impression, though.
— Patrick’s doing a great Dylan impression.
— I like Patrick’s Dylan stealing potential lyrics by writing down the stuff David’s Guthrie is saying during the conversation.
— Daylight Savings Time?  In December???
— I’m surprised by how short this ended up being. This overall sketch wasn’t quite the classic I had been expecting from comments I read over the years, but this was still a very good sketch.
STARS: ****


THE HOME VERSION OF DALLAS
turn domestic turmoil into TV drama with The Home Version of Dallas

     

— Wow at the wild beginning, with a drunk Gail fighting with Joe, yelling something to him about a “two-bit slut”, and then slapping her daughter (Denny). I’m not used to seeing that much craziness so early in a sketch.
— Another sketch tonight with a cast member playing a pitchman. This time, it’s Charles.
— The “Dallas” twist is funny.
— Haha, Denny looks hilarious in the Charlene Tilton wig.
— Overall, a pretty solid sketch and a good sendup of the Dallas craze going on at the time.
STARS: ***½


MR. BILL’S CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
by Walter Williams- painful yule memories

     

— Weird seeing a Mr. Bill short in this era. There’s actually a bit of a backstory behind this, where this was supposed to air in the previous season’s Christmas episode (Ted Knight), but got cut for time at the last minute. As compensation, SNL’s airing it a year later in tonight’s Christmas episode.
— Some of the scenes from this (toy train running over Mr. Bill’s mom, Sluggo in a Box, a flattened Spot being used as the star on a Christmas tree) were actually shown as a flashback clip in a Mr. Bill short from the second half of last season.
— And now, this sled part is yet another scene that was shown in the aforementioned Mr. Bill short from last season. This makes me feel too much like I’m just watching a repeat of that short.
— Overall, I didn’t enjoy this all that much, due to already seeing many parts of it in the aforementioned short.
STARS: **


KUNG FU CHRISTMAS
a movie starring Caine & Bruce Lee (EDM)

   

— “Bruce Lee is back, but this time he’s black!” (*Eddie jumps into the scene as Bruce Lee*) Hilarious.
— Gilbert as the fake-Asian-eyed sensai again?
— This ended earlier than I wanted. It looked like it was just starting to take off.
STARS: **½


WEEKEND UPDATE
ANR’s holiday suggestions revolve around lard wrapped in plastic bags
JOP opines regarding NBC’s announcerless, statistics-only NFL broadcast

     

— Okay, I’m starting to notice this season’s Updates are relying A LOT on “picture gags”, where they show a news picture and jokingly misinterpret it to make it seem like it’s a picture of something weird. It’s a very lazy resort that a lot of Update eras are guilty of sometimes relying on (even strong Update anchors like Jane Curtin and Dennis Miller), but I swear it seems almost like that’s the ONLY kind of joke that Charles Rocket does in his Updates. Ugh.
— What is with all the racial humor this season?
— Ann Risley with her own Update commentary? Uh-oh…
— A constant mentioning of lard wrapped in a plastic bag. Is that the ONLY joke in Ann’s commentary?
— Overall, Ann’s commentary fell completely flat. Man, am I gonna get ANY good Ann Risley performances out of this season? I haven’t been liking ANYTHING she’s done so far and her delivery is always so damn stiff and bland.
— Charles’ mere mention of quaaludes automatically receives cheap audience applause. Much like the overreliance on racial jokes, all the forced drug humor is another season 6 staple that I’m getting increasingly sick of.
— I guess Joe’s SNL Sports commentaries really ARE a weekly thing. This is the fourth Update in a row now.
— Ha, Joe makes a passing mention of NBC’s Don Ohlmeyer, a name that would later gain infamy with Norm Macdonald fans.
— Joe silently displaying stats on the screen about himself and his salary is really funny.
— Overall, Charles has had worse weeks before, but I’m still not liking his Update jokes nor his tendency to give cocky looks to the camera after certain punchlines. He barely had any jokes that I laughed at tonight.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs a medley of songs from The Pirates of Penzance


HEROIN IN HARLEM
rich white drug users visit Harlem for an authentic heroin experience

   

— Interesting premise with snobby whites visiting Harlem for heroin.
— “You’re probably the kind of guy who worries about dirty needles.” Hoo boy. That may have been an innocent joke in 1980, but little did they know about the then-upcoming AIDS epidemic that would have everyone panicking.
— I really like the part with Charles eagerly taking a picture of Eddie threateningly holding a knife to Gail’s throat.
— Nice unexpected twist with Eddie turning out to be an undercover cop.
— Eddie: “(in a whitebread voice) I am sick and tired of you junkies coming up and giving Harlem a bad name! You should have stayed on Park Avenue where you belong!”
STARS: ***½


VIRGIN SEARCH
NBC exec’s (MAL) worldwide search for a virgin eventually leads to GLM

   

— Gail as a different girl in every scene? Stuff like this seems to be happening a lot tonight, like the earlier Rocket Report where Charles played dual roles.
— Whoa at that Roman Polanski comment from Gail’s young French character.
— Didn’t Gail already play a nun earlier tonight?
— Gail as a nun implying she lost her virginity to Father Guido Sarducci was hilarious.
— Exec: “No virgin anywhere… except my mother.”
— Gail is funny as a crazy early 80s punk girl. “I’m saving myself for Carl Sagan!”
— Gail’s using her real name. It looks like the twist of this film will be that this is how Gail got hired by SNL.
— Overall, a pretty funny film and a really nice showcase for Gail.
STARS: ***


DOPENHAGEN & HAPPY DAZE
(host) goes smokeless with Dopenhagen & Happy Daze instead of lighting up

— More country singing from David tonight?
— David keeps messing up, calling “Dopenhagen” by the wrong name.
— Overall, the humor didn’t work and this felt like pure filler. David’s weak performance didn’t help.
STARS: *½


KFC LOVERS
(host), (DED), (EDM) mourn Colonel Sanders while eating fried chicken

 

— There’s that same mall set again tonight.
— What’s with all the Carl Sagan references tonight?
— I chuckled at the part with David responding to Eddie’s “Gimme some skin!” greeting by literally giving him a piece of fried chicken skin.
— Whether intentional or not, this sketch is making me hungry for some KFC right now.
— Eddie’s story about how fried chicken was discovered was pretty funny.
— The “thigh bone connected to the rib bone, etc.” part felt unnecessary.
— Overall, a decent sketch, if nothing special.
STARS: ***


THE DANCING MAN
by Mitchell Kriegman- (Bill Irwin) can’t resist disco

     

— I remember seeing this Bill Irwin guy on another TV show. He’s really good at doing rubbery physical comedy.
— His uncontrollable spastic dancing is pretty funny.
— LOL at the boombox-carrying black delivery guy shaking his head in response to Irwin’s dancing.
— Good ending with him dancing out onto the street.
STARS: ***½


WELFARE COUNSELING
welfare recipients (YVH) & Caine are told to take up prostitution

  

— Yet ANOTHER sketch with David playing his Kung Fu character?
— I sure am getting tired of that “I seek water” line that David’s character keeps saying tonight.
— Very awkward moment with David’s long pause and then Yvonne seemingly jumping ahead of the script. Or maybe Yvonne was just trying to ad-lib her way out of David’s weird pause. Denny did a good job trying to keep the sketch going at that part. But, man, the drunk rumors about David HAVE to be true.
— We get an accidental close-up of a door very briefly.
— Overall, this sketch didn’t do much for me. The bloopers were more noteworthy to me than the material itself. At least we didn’t get Gilbert in that ridiculous Asian make-up once again. Speaking of which, is that ALL Gilbert has gotten to do tonight?
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs a medley of Christmas carols


GOODNIGHTS

 

— Wow, what a jam-packed stage.
— Gilbert doesn’t look very happy. He’s probably upset that he had to spend the entire episode just playing the same role, which was a waste of his talents. I had always heard that he increasingly looks more and more depressed as this season goes on.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Pretty decent for a season 6 episode. While it was far from being without its faults, there was a fairly high number of good sketches throughout the show, and there wasn’t too much stuff that I hated. Overall, an okay Christmas episode.
— After a positive start with a fun performance in the monologue, David Carradine ended up being a disappointment. It felt like he played nothing but his Kung Fu character and country singers all night, and his alleged drunkenness led to quite a number of awkward moments from him that threw off the material.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jamie Lee Curtis):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
We enter 1981, with host Ray Sharkey

Posted on

December 13, 1980 – Jamie Lee Curtis / James Brown, Ellen Shipley

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Mean Majority members intend to impose their morality on the rest of us

 

— The “Let’s Spit on the Flag” title is the closest I’ve come to even cracking a smile at this so far.
— What a terrible LFNY. The segue to it was weird and didn’t work, and the studio audience didn’t know what to make of it, judging from their VERY delayed applause.
— This season has had a lot of bad LFNYs in general so far, come to think of it.
— Overall, a very weak start to the show. What the heck WAS this?
STARS: *


OPENING MONTAGE
— We finally get the addition of this season’s featured players. Matthew Laurance, Eddie Murphy, and Patrick Weathers each receive their very first credit tonight.

  


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

 

— I got a laugh from Jamie doing what she feels she’s expected to do tonight: a loud, horror movie-ish scream.
— Quick monologue, which seems to have become par for the course this season. This one was fine for what it was.
STARS: ***


CLOVIN HIND JEANS
only brains come between Brooke Shields (GLM) & her Clovin Hind Jeans

 

— This accurately captures the look of the famous Brooke Shields Calvin Klein commercials from that time.
— Funny punchline, and this overall commercial was short and to the point.
STARS: ***½


THE ATTACK OF THE TERRIBLE SNAPPING CREATURES
(host) battles clothespins

     

— I see we’re getting our obligatory horror movie parody out of the way early tonight.
— “Laurie”? Is Jamie playing her character from “Halloween”?
— I’m iffy about the premise, though Jamie and Gail are giving it their all.
— Funny visual at the end with Jamie staggering back to the apartment while covered entirely with clothespins.
STARS: **½


CARD GAME
Paulie Herman plays three-card monty with (EDM) in a bus station

  

— Looks like we get an Eddie Murphy-starring sketch, and early in the episode too. I’m excited to see this.
— Jersey Guy is back ALREADY?
— The audience gives recognition applause at Joe’s “I’m from Jersey, are you from Jersey”, even though this is only the second time he’s appeared.
— We’re already seeing early evidence of Joe Piscopo’s Sinatra obsession, with him briefly singing “Start Spreading the News” after hearing that Eddie’s from New York.
— The reference to tonight’s musical guest James Brown felt kinda shoehorned in.
— Overall, I still don’t mind Joe’s character (I just KNOW I’m eventually gonna get tired of it, though), but this sketch wasn’t anything great. If anything, it was at least nice seeing the early stages of Eddie and Joe’s onscreen chemistry.
STARS: **


WHO IS GILBERT GOTTFRIED?
by Linda Lee- a recap of GIG’s path to SNL

       

— A segment with Gilbert as himself on the home base stage?
— Oh, he’s only there to throw to a short film starring himself.
— Strange joke with his parents living in a revolving door.
— Good gag with him selling “fresh-squeezed water” from a sponge.
— This film isn’t turning out too funny so far.
— Okay, this has gotten a little better with the part where he holds up a bank just so he can film an SNL audition tape on the bank camera.
STARS: **½


DYING TO BE HEARD
poetesses commit suicide, have their works read on TV

   

— Interesting concept and format.
— The whole scene with Jamie is really funny, especially her ridiculous method of killing herself.
— Hilarious part with Gail(?) having killed herself ahead of schedule.
— Still not caring for Ann Risley’s performances. She’s a little too monotone in this.
— Overall, a pretty strong sketch.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
James Brown performs “Rapp Payback”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Woodswoman (DED) says “not in my backyard” to Appalachian nuclear waste
JOP poetically summarizes some recent Major League Baseball transactions
consumer reporter EDM recommends that the poor start eating dog food

       

— The Weekend Update logo on the front of the desk is now gone.
— Ugh at Charles’ cocky laughing after the Breznev rocket joke.
— Charles’ delivery sounds different from the previous Updates, and he keeps doing this head-bobbing thing after some of the jokes.
— I had heard about this Woodswoman commentary years ago, but I thought I remember hearing Ann played this character. Instead, it’s actually Denny.
— Not caring for all the cheap clapter with Denny’s Reagan-bashing statements.
— “I been it, I seen it, I am Woodswoman!”
— Wow, Charles’ joke about only aborting female fetuses was met with boos from the audience. Another example of season 6 trying WAY too hard at shock humor, only for it to backfire on them.
— I kinda laughed at the Howdy Doody/“Heavy Doody” joke, even though it was a corny one.
— Joe’s SNL Sports commentaries seem to have become a weekly thing on Update, as this is the third episode in a row with one.
— I’m loving Joe’s fast-paced rhythmic recap of baseball trades.
— Surprised Joe’s commentary is over already, but I enjoyed it.
— Eddie in his very own Update commentary.
— Interesting voice Eddie’s using.
— Eddie eating from a can of dog food is getting a big reaction from the audience, though I find it only okay; not hilarious. An obvious step down from his fantastic Update commentary in the preceding episode.
— Tonight’s overall Update is hard for me to figure. Aside from the one joke that got booed, Charles’ jokes didn’t bomb nearly as badly as they have lately, and it felt weird hearing him consistently get laughs from the audience for once. However, just because THEY liked it doesn’t mean I automatically have to, as I was still “meh” on a majority of his jokes tonight. I’m also not too sure his new delivery is the right direction for Update.
STARS: **


POKER AND DRUGS DON’T MIX
examples of stoners’ misplayed hands prove that poker & drugs don’t mix

   

— The overhead camera angle is making Ann kinda resemble Jane Curtin.
— Strange but kinda funny part with a voice-over depicting the queen card having an affair with the jack card.
— Weird sketch so far.
— What? That’s the end? I thought this sketch was going somewhere interesting, but the result just came off kinda dumb.
STARS: **


CLOVIN HIND JEANS
if Brooke Shields’ (GLM) Clovin Hind Jeans could talk, she could act

 

— Gail as Brooke Shields: “If [the Clovin Jeans in her closet] could talk, I could act”. Funny.
STARS: ***


BADGER CONVENTION
at their convention, Badger Club members hassle a waitress (host)

   

— Corny concept and humor so far.
— Eddie’s voice is kinda making me laugh, though it’s reminiscent of the voice he just used earlier tonight on Update.
— Jamie’s performance seems unusually stiff. Who is she, Ann Risley all of a sudden?
— Gilbert’s voice is borderline sounding like his now-famous screech.
— Holy hell, the part with the Badger club members “badgering” the waitress – ugh, you’re killin’ me with your trademark corny humor, season 6.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
James Brown performs a medley of his hits

 


TORTU-MATIC
toughen yourself up with the Tortu-Matic physical pain endurance unit

 

— Seems like another typical season 6 concept, but this might have some promise.
— The visual of Charles using the torture device is not as funny as they probably thought it’d come off.
— Overall, this fell completely flat for me.
— The more I think of it, the concept itself wasn’t bad, as this seems like the type of insane fake product that Dan Aykroyd would’ve sold really well during the original era. Not sure why it didn’t work at all here… well, besides the obvious fact that Rocket ain’t no Aykroyd. Maybe they should’ve gotten Piscopo to perform this.
STARS: *½


HOT DOGS FOR GAUGUIN
by Martin Brest- (Danny DeVito) stages a disaster

       

— Danny DeVito!!!
— DeVito looks so young in this.
— I like the other guy’s off-camera “Oh my god” when hearing DeVito’s Statue of Liberty plan.
— Fascinating film so far.
— Great ending with DeVito missing the Statue of Liberty’s head blowing up.
— Overall, this felt like the first thing I’ve liked in the post-Update half of the show so far (aside from James Brown’s epic medley). This season has been having a lot of interesting short films.
STARS: ****


CUT ‘N’ CURL
Roweena (GLM) styles hair of Nadine (DED) & weirded-out daughter (host)

 

— Ha, Jamie coming in with that crazy early 80s trendy look…
— As a kid of the 90s, I recognize the voice Gail’s using as being the same voice she would later use as the mom on the early 90s animated series “Bobby’s World”. As a side note, whenever I saw the name Gail Matthius during that show’s ending credits as a kid, I remember assuming “Matthius” was pronounced “Matthews”.
— Heh, now Gail has just said “Don’cha know?”, which would become her “Bobby’s World” character’s catchphrase.
— Funny comment from Denny about Jamie looking like “a mermaid on drugs”.
— Overall, this was a decent realism scene with good character work from Gail and Denny.
STARS: ***


CLOVIN HIND JEANS
Brooke Shields (GLM) recites a limerick about her Clovin Hind Jeans poses

— Not as funny as the first two.
— At the end, the audience sounded unsure of when to applause.
STARS: **


OSSELOTS
Camille Black (ANR) & her cycle gang are committed to burying road kill

 

— Oh my god, is Ann coming off miscast AS HELL in this role.
— What the heck am I watching?
— Ann to Jamie: “Keep your hands off, bitch.” Sad that that line is the closest I’ve come to chuckling so far.
— Overall, this was AWFUL. Terrible writing, and, man, Ann Risley has yet to impress me so far with her performances this season.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Ellen Shipley performs “Fotogenic”


GOODNIGHTS
host reminds audience of the upcoming vigil for John Lennon

  

— During the scrolling credits, I noticed a credit for “Gillie’s film”. What was that? The Gilbert Gottfried film? Is “Gillie” his backstage nickname?

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— After the promising upswing in quality with the last episode, season 6’s struggles unfortunately return, as we got a weak episode tonight. The writing was bad and a lot of segments fell flat for me, especially in the post-Update half of the show. There weren’t many sketches I was crazy about, but the big highlights of the night for me were Dying To Be Heard and Hot Dogs For Gauguin.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Our Christmas episode of the season, hosted by David Carradine