Tag: 1983-84

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January 14, 1984 – Father Guido Sarducci / Huey Lewis & The News (S9 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
JOP & MAG announce & explain the SNL National Phone-In Democratic Primary

   

— Looks like we’re getting another Larry the Lobster/Andy Kaufman-type vote-in contest.
— A very noticeable cut right after Joe brings up Larry the Lobster. I recall hearing that SNL removed a mention of the Andy Kaufman vote-in, due to the fact that Kaufman passed away before this episode was first rebroadcast.
— A somewhat interesting idea for viewers to call in and vote for their favorite democratic candidate.
— Some pretty funny loose ad-libs between Joe and Mary.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


MONOLOGUE
host thinks we should worry less about Central America, more about Canada

— The idea of a recurring character hosting the show is very original, even if Father Guido Sarducci is far from my favorite character.
— His Central America/Texas/Maine bit was funny.
— Very funny line from him pointing out how Canada is closer to the United States than Manhattan is to Brooklyn.
— I’m surprised by how much I’m actually laughing at Sarducci in this.
— Good monologue overall.
STARS: ***½


BUCKWHEAT’S GHOST
Buckwheat’s ghost appears when publishers want tell-all book from Alfalfa

   

— I like the idea of this Alfalfa sketch so far.
— Mary’s whimper of “Heelllp!” cracked me up for some reason.
— The ghost of Buckwheat suddenly appears.
— Funny entrance from Gary as Buckwheat’s translator.
— Haha, Gary’s great at doing “Buckwheat speak” when translating the execs’ normal talk into gibberish that Buckwheat can understand.
— They make a passing mention of fellow Little Rascal Darla being dead too. Uh, what? When did she die? Didn’t we just see Julia playing her in Robert Blake’s Little Rascals Reunion monologue a season earlier?
STARS: ***


WHAT’S NEW
Linda Ronstadt (JLD) answers the musical question “What’s New”- not her

— I never knew Julia could sing so well.
— Some funny lyrics so far.
— This is a pretty solid (and harsh) parody of Linda Ronstadt. Something about it feels like a sketch that would’ve appeared during the original era. Maybe I’m reminded of that Barbra Streisand sketch that Laraine Newman once did.
STARS: ***½


COUNTDOWN 84
Jesse Jackson is the number one vote-getter so far; host nominates ZZ Top
Democrats join ZZ Top in “Sharp Dressed Man” video to ensure equal time
Nina Blackwood (JLD) announces that the winner will get a T-shirt

       

— An update on the voting so far. Due to the nature of this particular poll, it takes Joe a long time to go through each of the candidates’ vote totals and and call-in phone number, which is getting a little tiring to watch, though Joe IS throwing in some loose ad-libs here and there.
— Now Joe throws to a commentary from Father Guido Sarducci. So I take it this whole “Countdown 84” thing is also being used as a substitute for Saturday Night News tonight? After all, Brad Hall HAS just gotten fired as anchorperson, so maybe Ebersol didn’t know what to do with Saturday Night News yet, which just goes to show you how un-thought-out his decision to fire Brad mid-season was. You can’t fire an anchorperson mid-season without having a backup anchorperson ready to go.
— Sarducci putting ZZ Top into the vote-in polls is pretty funny.
— Now Sarducci has thrown to a ZZ Top music video. They’re not going to show the ENTIRE music video, are they?
— Okay, they cut the video off after about 30 seconds.
— A montage of the democratic candidates is being played to the ZZ Top song we just heard. This is actually pretty fun and I’m getting some laughs here.
— Now after the video ends, we suddenly get the debut of Julia’s soon-to-become recurring impression of MTV VJ Nina Blackwood.
— Julia’s pretty funny here.
STARS: I guess I can give this one a rating, so… **½


TASTELESS CHOICE
(JOP) is incestuous- times like these are made for Tasteless Choice

 

— Haha, holy hell at Joe’s out-of-nowhere “I’ve been sleeping with our daughter” reveal to his wife (Mary). Hilarious.
— Another big laugh from Mary’s response to Joe’s aforementioned reveal: “I’ll make some coffee.”
— Judging from the background music playing right now, I get the feeling this is going to turn into a coffee commercial.
— I was right.
— Strong sketch overall.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Heart & Soul”


THE MAN WHO LOVED SWIMMIN’
movie shows how host keeps his chastity vow

    

— Robin’s screentime seems to be becoming more and more scarce these last few episodes.  She’s been very invisible lately.
— Pretty funny setting for Sarducci.
— Julia’s very funny in her scene so far. I’m surprised by how many funny things she’s been getting to do tonight in general, considering she’s usually wasted in forgettable straight roles.
— This sketch is getting pretty repetitive.
— Ha, I did love Sarducci immediately jumping back into the pool after silently looking through a National Geographic magazine.
STARS: **½


NICE BOYS DON’T GET GIRLS PREGNANT
Michael Jackson (EDM) says “Nice Boys Don’t Get Girls Pregnant”

 

— Considering how huge Michael Jackson was at the time, I’m surprised by how little SNL has been spoofing him in this era.
— This sketch appears to be in a similar vein to the Poly-Rock sketch from earlier this season (a sketch where Brad played an aging fictional rocker in need of denture glue). They’re even re-using the exact same concert stage and backstage sets that were used in that sketch.
— Like the last time Eddie played Michael Jackson, his impression is disappointingly generic, just doing an unspecific high-pitched voice and portraying him as vaguely gay (which probably comes off strange nowadays). I guess there wasn’t much about Michael’s personality to spoof yet back in this time period.
— Very short sketch overall, and I’m not quite sure the “Nice boys don’t get girls pregnant” twist worked for me. I didn’t really get a laugh from it.
STARS: **


STEVEN WRIGHT
Steven Wright [real] does stand-up involving his unique perspective

— Yes! Great to see Steven Wright again.
— Right off the bat, he’s already making me laugh out loud.
— This overall segment wasn’t quite as strong as his last appearance, which was more consistently funny and tighter, but what DID make me laugh here was fucking hilarious and had me in tears. My favorite one-liners were the bit about everything in his apartment having been stolen and replaced with an exact replica, his random “I’m feelin’ kinda hyper” line, and him thinking the dictionary was a poem for everything.
STARS: ***½


COUNTDOWN 84
ZZ Top has now pulled in front of Jesse Jackson in the voting
host asks people on the street who they would vote for

   

— Oh, turns out we DO get Brad Hall (in his first appearance of the whole night, by the way) in an anchorman-type role tonight after all. Having him anchor one of these “Countdown 84” segments seems to be Ebersol’s way of throwing Brad a bone to keep him from getting too upset over his recent Saturday Night News firing.
— By the way, this is the first time in SNL history where an episode doesn’t have a fake news segment. Ebersol HAS been known to occasionally do away with some of SNL’s traditions, but dumping the fake news segment is pretty drastic.
— The first guy who Sarducci is interviewing seems kinda familiar, but I’m not sure why. (third screencap above)
— Oh, no, I’m hearing another instance of the dreaded “Comedy Network overlapped audio”. You see, as I mentioned in a recent review, whenever these old Comedy Network reruns remove something from a sketch, it often strangely results in a few seconds of the sketch being overlapped with audio of the removed portion. In this particular sketch’s case, when the camera cuts back to Brad in the studio after Father Guido Sarducci’s Man on the Street segment ends, something that Brad said appeared to be removed and you can momentarily hear audio of it while Brad’s speaking. Very sloppy. Who the heck was in charge of these Comedy Network edits anyway?
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Want a New Drug”


RIGHT TO VOTE
JOP encourages viewers at home to participate in the democratic process

— Interesting setting for this vote-in update.
— Despite a few comedic lines, this was a pretty straightforward segment overall. Nothing for me to say here.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


AIRPORT
after host’s flight is delayed, TransEastern employee (JIB) gets friendly

 

— LOL at Sarducci’s violent temper tantrum when finding out his flight has been delayed.
— I had been wondering where Jim was tonight. This is his first appearance of the whole night, very late in the show. The whole “Countdown 84” stuff that’s been eating up a lot of the show seems to have made it hard for most of the cast to get any airtime.
— This sketch seems to be taking a slice-of-life, low-key turn.
— The “I work on tips” ending was kinda weird.
— Overall, this was another sketch tonight that I’m not sure what to think of. I usually enjoy the low-key slice-of-life pieces that SNL does in these older seasons, but I’m not even sure if I liked this particular one or not.
STARS: **½ by default


PHONE-IN RESULTS
Dick Ebersol [real] gives host the tally- ZZ Top wins with 131,384 votes

      

— We get a VERY brief walk-on from Dick Ebersol, making one of his rare on-screen appearances.
— I like how behind Sarducci, we see the cast, Steven Wright, and Huey Lewis each holding a board with one of the candidates’ face on it.
— Speaking of the cast, Eddie is noticeably absent, making this yet another episode this season where we wasn’t there live in the studio.
— The voting results are announced. Predictably, ZZ Top is the winner.  Uh, yay?
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


GOODNIGHTS

  

— A pre-taped segment titled “Shoplifting” is noticeably listed in the scrolling ending credits, even though it was nowhere to be seen tonight. I guess it got cut for time. If “Shoplifting” is what I think it is (a short film with Jim Belushi as a shoplifter sneakily stuffing items from a convenience store into his jacket), it ends up airing in a later episode this season.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An unusual-feeling episode, with the “Countdown 84” vote-in contest absolutely dominating the night (much moreso than the prior Larry the Lobster and Andy Kaufman vote-ins, which didn’t get in the way of their respective episode’s sketches too much). The non-election portions of this episode felt scarce and, as mentioned earlier, we barely saw most of the cast. (Julia Louis-Dreyfus had a rare strong night, though) The fact that there was no fake news segment also added to the odd feeling of the night. There were still a few good non-election segments, though, and the election stuff itself did provide a few fun moments.
— Father Guido Sarducci was a surprisingly decent host and came off more likable and enjoyable than I usually find him.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Michael Palin and his mother

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December 10, 1983 – Flip Wilson / Stevie Nicks (S9 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Blaire’s amused when Dion Dion’s mother Geraldine (host) visits the salon

   

— Nice to see Dion Dion and Blair in the cold opening slot.
— Perfect casting of Flip Wilson’s famous Geraldine character in the role of Dion Dion’s mother.
— Ha, I like how we find out Dion Dion’s real name is Harold. I also like seeing Joe’s Blair being amused by that.
— When Flip incredulously asks “Quasi-what?!?” repeatedly to Eddie, Eddie’s clearly trying not to laugh.
— Something got bleeped out in my version when Flip’s Geraldine says “I had big (bleep) back then”. I’m guessing it was a euphemism for the word “breasts”.
— Eddie again cracks up when Flip keeps loudly repeating “I’m sorry” to him.
— Loved Eddie and Flip both saying “Shut up, bitch!” to Joe in unison.
— Very fun cold opening overall.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— For some reason, when the montage ends, they don’t show the SNL Band playing on the home base stage’s rooftop like they usually do this season.


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Oh, no. My copy of this monologue is unfortunately the edited version. See, there’s two different versions of this monologue: one where Flip tells a joke, and another version where the aforementioned joke portion is removed, leaving his monologue to be a pointless brief segment where he just comes out on stage, says his greetings, then suddenly says “We’ll be right back!” and the monologue ends. Unfortunately, the latter version is the one in my copy (which is an NBC “Classic SNL” airing from sometime around December 2004). I remember once seeing the unedited version of this monologue on Comedy Central ages ago.
— I can’t remember what exactly Flip’s joke is in the unedited version of the monologue, but I do remember Flip preceding it by asking someone off-camera if the censors have allowed him to go ahead with it. I guess the joke he did was so off-color that some of the rerun versions of this episode censor it.
STARS: N/A


UNREQUITED SEX
sleazy couple (ROD) & (JOP) exchange Christmas presents & cheap jokes

  

— I’m trying to figure out which celebrity Joe is playing. They haven’t said his name yet.
— Never mind, I guess Joe’s just playing a random character. I wonder why they gave him such a specific, detailed look, though. It made me think he was playing someone famous.
— I loved Joe’s suggestive “Remind you of anything?” ad-lib(?) to Robin when some eggnog accidentally(?) spills on his lap.
— Some laughs so far, but I’m not sure what the main joke of this sketch is supposed to be.
— Joe’s smooth-voiced delivery of “Baby, you KNOW what I like!” cracked me up.
— And the sketch is over??? The punchline that neither of them wants to go through with the sex didn’t quite work for me. I was hoping that the long set-up of this sketch was leading up to a funnier punchline than that.
STARS: **


AIRPLANE WASHROOM
(host) is an attendant in a cramped airline restroom

  

— Pretty funny concept of a small, cramped airplane lavatory having a bathroom attendant.
— I like how the addition of Gary is making the already-cramped space even more chaotic.
— Again, I ask, the sketch is over ALREADY??? The ending of this was terrible, with Brad’s “Nah, get out of here!” after he acted like he was about to pay Flip a tip.
— This overall sketch didn’t come off quite as funny as it could’ve.
STARS: **½


CRAZY WEINSTEIN
Crazy Weinstein (JIB) isn’t selling anything- he’s just insane

— Great twist on the usual “Crazy Eddie” commercial spoofs, by having the “crazy” pitchman this time turn out to be a random, legitimately-crazy man who’s not even selling anything.
— Jim is hilarious in this with all his random psychotic revelations about himself. I especially like the various “Don’t touch my hat!” warnings he keeps repeating throughout this.
STARS: ****


PUDGE & SOLOMON
at Christmastime, Solomon & Pudge discuss shoes & feet

  

— I like how Eddie’s trying to make Joe crack up with his shoeless foot.
— Eddie’s whole “cold feet, warm news, etc.” philosophy is hilarious. Again, you can tell Eddie and Joe are having fun with each other during this.
— As usual in these Pudge & Solomon sketches, this takes a touching turn, this time by having Pudge’s Christmas gift to Solomon be a much-needed new pair of shoes.
— I wonder why they didn’t put Flip Wilson in this sketch. He actually would’ve fit really well into this.
— There’s an infamous backstory that right after this sketch ended, Joe had a HUGE blow-up backstage when Dick Ebersol congratulated Eddie on his performance in the sketch and then walked off with his arm around Eddie while completely ignoring Joe. This infuriated Joe and he WENT OFF on both Dick and Eddie. I wonder if this could be considered the official beginning of the end of Eddie and Joe’s friendship.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stand Back”


REVEREND LEROY
a reverend’s (host) parishioners agree with him until he asks for money

— I’m liking Flip’s energy here.
— Yet another sketch tonight with a weak, abrupt punchline that just leaves me going “THAT’S the ending? The sketch is over ALREADY???”
STARS: **


UNANSWERED QUESTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE
Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer on more Unanswered Questions of the Universe

— I take it this is going to be a follow-up to Havnagootiim’s last appearance where he asked viewers to mail in mysterious questions that he will answer in his next appearance.
— I was right.
— I liked the answer to the question “What makes Ed McMahon laugh so much?” (2.5 million dollars).
— One of the mailed-in letters comes from someone named Louis Klein. I’m assuming that’s the same Louis Klein who’s a long-time SNL viewer and is well-known for attending SNL every single week.
— Another funny answer from Havnagootiim, this time in response to the question “Why do we always look in the toilet after we’ve gone to the bathroom?” (We want to know how fast corn travels through our body).
STARS: ***


HELLO, TRUDY!
call-in show’s sole viewer (JLD) asks (JOP) dumb questions

— I liked the bizarre thumb/roller coaster question that Trudy asks Joe.
— Funny reveal that Trudy is always the show’s only caller and how the show’s original name eventually had to be changed to reflect that.
— Solid sketch overall. I think this sketch goes on to eventually become recurring. I worry that it’ll suffer diminishing returns, as I’m not sure that the joke will work with repetition.
STARS: ***½


JOEL HODGSON
Joel Hodgson [real] shows the devices that enable him to become Agent J

     

— Interesting backstory from Flip during his intro, addressing how after Joel Hodgson’s previous appearance on the show in which he displayed a prop bomb, Hodgson later got in trouble with the law for leaving that prop bomb in his hotel room wastebasket, which got mistaken by the hotel staff for a REAL bomb.
— Good to see Hodgson on SNL again.
— All his stealth gun props are getting increasingly funny.
— Love the random part with him displaying some kind of weird pig thing he built when he was bored.
— Overall, this was a slight step down from Joel’s previous appearance on the show, but this was still consistently funny with me receiving one laugh after another all throughout this.
STARS: ***½


SHOE TIER
Walter (GAK) insists he can make a living by only tying host’s shoelaces

  

— The debut of Gary’s old man character, Walter.
— I’m enjoying the bizarre concept of a professional shoe-tier.
— Gary’s bitter “Scum!” remark to Tim as Tim’s walking off was a little thing that gave me a surprisingly big laugh.
— Nice subtle touch with all the pictures on Gary’s wall being of Flip Wilson.
— Overall, the usual good Gary Kroeger-starring sketch, and a great character piece for him.
STARS: ***½


WHAT FAMOUS PERSON DO YOU LOOK LIKE?
— A rerun of a Man on the Street segment that originally aired just two episodes ago. Did they just add this to the reruns to fill in the extra time left over from the edit they made to Flip’s monologue? [ADDENDUM: In addition to the cut portion of the monologue, this Man on the Street rerun also replaces a sketch removed from rebroadcasts, titled “Older Sisters Of The Young” starring Mary Gross as Mary Tyler Moore.]


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Dr. Ruth Westheimer (MAG) points out holiday season sexual imagery
TIK extends the “Truly Tasteless Jokes” idea to other literary genres
BRH offers sample dishes from the Cabbage Patch Cookbook

      

— Okay, two things to immediately address here. One, this ends up being Brad’s final night anchoring Saturday Night News. Dick Ebersol would abruptly fire him from his anchorman role sometime between this and the next episode. The second thing to address here is how INSANELY FUCKING LATE tonight’s Saturday Night News is airing. There’s only about 20 minutes of the show left and Saturday Night News is JUST NOW starting. Now, I know some of the earlier Comedy Central reruns I’ve reviewed of this era also have Saturday Night News appearing unusually late in the show, but that’s a different case: those are just the result of the episodes’ original running order being rearranged in those Comedy Central reruns. In tonight’s case, however, Saturday Night News REALLY DID air this late in the original airing. This is NOT an edit. And I’m honestly stunned by this. After all, it’s absolutely unheard of for SNL to schedule the show in this bizarre manner, burying their news segment into the 12:40 timeslot, just 20 minutes before the show ends. The writing is CLEARLY on the wall for Brad by this point. Placing tonight’s Saturday Night News in such a ridiculously late timeslot must’ve been Ebersol’s way of letting Brad know that his days are numbered. I have a lot more to say about Brad’s firing, but I’ll save it for the end of this edition of Saturday Night News.
— Mary’s overall Dr. Ruth commentary was okay. No particular lines stood out, though, and I’m not happy that they revived her tired old habit of always doing the “finger-in-hole” sexual gesture at the end of her commentaries.
— I got a good laugh from Brad’s joke about Gary Coleman being Sammy Davis Jr.’s black Cabbage Patch Doll.
— Tim’s suggestions for bad book ideas has some pretty good laughs, especially “Nancy Drew’s Unbearable Cramps”.
— Ehh, not to sure about this bit with Brad displaying samples from a “Cabbage Patch Cookbook”. It’s not really working for me.
— And so ends Brad Hall’s final Saturday Night News ever. I have mixed feelings over Ebersol’s firing of him. On one hand, I never really warmed up to Brad too much as an anchorperson. I did initially find him to be a mild breath of fresh air from the dreadful Brian Doyle-Murray “SNL Newsbreak” era that preceded him, but those somewhat-amiable feelings towards Brad soon faded once I started realizing I don’t care for his hokey delivery nor his tendency to try too hard when doing some of the sillier bits & ad-libs. The weak jokes he was often handed didn’t help, either. He still occasionally had some okay moments, but overall, I can’t say I’m going to miss him as an anchorperson at all. On the other hand, I still can’t help but feel bad for him getting fired from the news desk right in the middle of the damn season. Couldn’t Ebersol have at least had the decency to pull this move over the summer, when the season is over? Yanking Brad from the news desk mid-season would at least be slightly understandable if Ebersol had someone else in the cast prepared to take over his spot. But here’s the thing: HE DIDN’T! Instead, he ends up resorting to getting the freakin’ guest hosts to anchor each Saturday Night News, turning the segment into a ridiculous revolving door of out-of-place anchormen. Boy, am I dreading that era of the news segment.
— Oh, and this isn’t the only time in my SNL project where I’ll have to cover an SNL news anchor getting fired mid-season. 14 seasons later, the same thing that happened to Brad happens to a certain other anchorperson, but considering how I’m MUCH more of a fan of said anchorperson than I am of Brad Hall, you can bet that I’m going to have things to say regarding his firing when we reach that point in SNL’s timeline.
STARS: **½


SUBTERRANEANS
classical station ad is (TIK)’s solace from clashing subway radio mimics

   

— An interesting piece so far. I’m eager to see where it’s going.
— Good turn with Tim, fed up with the other passengers obnoxiously singing along to the various contemporary songs playing on their respective walkmen, making them each tune into the same classical radio station, which they all beautifully sing along to in unison.
— Overall, this clearly wasn’t intended as a laugh-out-loud sketch, but it was a well-written and very nice piece, especially for this late in the show.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nightbird”


GOODNIGHTS

   

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty good episode overall, though there were a few fairly rough things early on after the monologue, and there was an unusual amount of quick sketches that had weak punchlines. Flip Wilson seemed a little too underutilized as a host, especially considering his background.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (The Smothers Brothers):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
We enter 1984 (my birth year!), with host Father Guido Sarducci

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December 3, 1983 – The Smothers Brothers / Big Country (S9 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
studio rain delay- Tom Seaver & Ron Luciano [real] hope show will go on

     

— Very creative idea for a cold opening, in which SNL has an in-studio rain delay. This is pretty fun.
— Great use of the home base stage, showing cast members occupying various parts of the stage’s doors and windows.
— Eddie being the only cast member not to appear in this makes it obvious that tonight is yet another episode that he won’t be making any live appearances in.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
Tom tries to snap a photo of Dick & audience singing “If I Had A Ship”

   

— Tom’s “haul ass” comment was hilarious.
— The whole “candid” picture-snapping bit is solid.
— Love the rapid-fire string of questions Dick is asking a befuddled Tom about his camera.
STARS: ***½


JAZZ RIFFS
— At first glance, this appears to be a re-airing of a sketch the show already did in the season premiere. However, according to something I recall reading years ago, this airing isn’t the same take that was done in the season premiere; it’s an alternate take from the Eddie Murphy “preview show” (which was a special taping where they filmed a whole bunch of Eddie Murphy sketches right before this season began, due to the fact that Eddie won’t be able to appear live in a number of episodes this season). I have no idea why there’s two different versions of this same sketch, nor why they inserted one into THIS episode. Is this replacing a sketch that aired in the original live broadcast? [ADDENDUM: Turns out this replaces TWO things: a sketch called “Know Your Neighbor”, and a Smothers Brothers musical number titled “Fantasy For Auto Horn & Electronic Pulse in D Minor”]


DREAMLAND
(JIB) can’t decipher (MAG)’s obvious sexual fantasy about him

   

— Ehh, not too sure of this premise with Jim’s character arrogantly assuming his female guests’ dreams are a subtle sexual fantasy about him.
— And now, the dream the third female guest (Mary) describes IS a subtle sexual fantasy about Jim’s character, and the big joke is that he’s oblivious to it. Bah, a very predictable and weak punchline.
STARS: *½


CARVEL
Tom Carvel (JOP) discovers franchisee’s (TIK) risque holiday ice cream

     

— Joe’s look and voice is really making me laugh.
— Hilarious bit with the “Jolly Jugs”.
— The other dirty ice cream creations are also funny, especially “Peter the Yule Log” and how the chocolate version of it has much more inches.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “In a Big Country”


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
GAK shows Huckleberry, his 21 year-old Cabbage Patch Kid
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists varieties of influenza
JOP asks new heavyweight champ Larry Holmes [real] if he’s retiring

       

— Brad’s opening joke with him venting about the overexposure of Cabbage Patch Dolls is amusing, and in retrospect, serves as a nice time capsule in regards to the big Cabbage Patch Dolls craze that was going on at this time around 1983.
— I’m getting some pretty good laughs from the commentary with Gary and his now-grown Cabbage Patch Doll. Judging from the voice, I’m assuming that’s Jim inside that costume. His growly voice in this reminds me of future cast member Horatio Sanz, for some reason.
— Another display of Gary’s great pratfall skills, when Jim angrily tosses him over the news desk.
— Brad’s bit about dirty-sounding station initials was just plain random.
— Wow, right off the bat with tonight’s Dr. Jack Badofsky commentary, the audience ALREADY loudly boos and hisses just over his opening “and then, in flew Enza” joke.
— Geez, this is a hostile audience. LOL, they’re booing very easily over quite a lot of Badofsky’s puns tonight.
— Pretty fun audience participation bit right now, with Badofsky having the audience try to guess what the next influenza puns are going to be, just based on his description of them. That’s an interesting change of pace for this character, and is at least calming down all the hostility that tonight’s crowd kept directing to him.
— Joe’s facial reaction to Larry Holmes sternly telling him to be quiet was pretty funny.
— The overall Joe/Larry Holmes commentary was fairly fun.
— I do kinda like the new running gag Brad has been doing lately, where he signs off under the name of a random celebrity (first Elvis Presley, now Betty Grable). Enjoy it while it lasts, because the clock is ticking down on Brad’s anchorman tenure. A change on Saturday Night News is soon coming, folks…
STARS: **½


CRISIS GAME ’83
John Glenn (Tom) & Jesse Jackson (EDM) react to problems

   

— Fun idea for a sketch.
— This is the first time all night we’ve seen either of our two hosts appearing in an actual sketch.
— Good casting of Tom Smothers as John Glenn, as there is a pretty strong resemblance between them.
— Oh, Eddie IS in the building tonight after all. Wonder why he wasn’t in the cold opening with the rest of the cast. And why in the world is the biggest star of this cast making his first appearance so late in the show tonight? [ADDENDUM: Turns out this sketch aired much earlier in the original live broadcast and ended up being the victim of “rerun reshuffling”, a habit that SNL had in the 80s and early 90s where the original sketch order in episodes gets completely rearranged in reruns, which is something that kinda irks me] Was he actually flown in from Hollywood in the middle of this episode or something?
— Eddie’s Jesse Jackson impression isn’t very good. I see what he’s going for, but I feel Joe captured Jesse’s fiery delivery much better when he played him earlier this season in that astronaut cold opening. However, neither Joe nor Eddie have nailed Jesse’s voice.
— I like the random inclusion of Gary as Carl Sagan and Brad as William F. Buckley.
— I got a laugh from the line about a computer nerd who’s “playing with his Wang… Computer”.
— The “prize” that Eddie’s Jesse Jackson was given was really funny.
STARS: ***


CLARK STREET GARAGE BAND
no-talent garage band auditions for record company representative (Dick)

  

— Ha, this band’s god-awful music-playing is cracking me up.
— I like Dick bluntly telling the band how bad they are.
— Some good laughs from the band members’ delusions, and Jim is great in the lead role here.
STARS: ***½


MENTL
a movie starring Barbra Streisand (JOP)

 

— Here we have yet ANOTHER Joe Piscopo impression relying on an insane amount of prosthetics that render him unrecognizable (until you hear his voice). I admit, the initial sight of him as Streisand made me laugh.
— I thought Joe-as-Streisand’s selfish rambling was kinda funny when it started, but this kinda ran out of steam fast, and then it just ended.
STARS: **


THE POINT
Tom tells “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” to illustrate Dick’s unrelated point

— Another funny and brief Smothers Brothers routine.
STARS: ***


AUTOGRAPH
(Tom) has to make repeated trips to get Dick’s autograph for his wife

  

— A fairly interesting idea having Tom play an average joe who’s afraid to interact with Dick, who’s playing himself.
— Eh, not caring too much for how this sketch is turning out so far. Tom’s performance is kinda tickling me, but the material itself isn’t too good.
— Okay, I do like the bit with Tom trying to pose as a waiter.
— What’s with the indoor raining all of a sudden?
— Oh, it’s a follow-up to the “rain delay” bit from the cold opening.
— THAT’S how this sketch ends? Weak. It felt like they couldn’t come up with any other way to end this.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fields of Fire”


GOODNIGHTS

  

— Nice conclusion to rain storyline.
— Interestingly, both SNL episodes that the Smothers Brothers hosted had out-of-the-ordinary goodnights. The goodnights of the Smothers Brothers’ previous episode from a year earlier had them, the musical guest, and the cast taking turns jumping off a “ledge” that had been used for a sketch earlier that night, and tonight’s goodnights take place during an “indoor rainstorm”.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— First episode in a while that I wasn’t all that crazy about. Much like the previous episode that the Smothers Brothers hosted, tonight’s episode was hit-and-miss. Tonight might actually be the lesser of the two Smothers Brothers episodes, as their previous one at least had a few strong sketches that I gave a high four-star rating to, whereas tonight’s episode didn’t really contain anything I found particularly strong; nothing got higher than a three-and-a-half star rating from me. At the same time, however, tonight’s episode at least didn’t contain anything I found frustratingly god-awful like the Truck Driving Women and Inside Story sketches from the previous Smothers episode.
— Another kinda “off” thing about tonight’s episode is something about it strangely felt kinda sparse. Maybe that’s due to the fact that a sketch in my rerun copy was apparently removed and replaced with an alternate take of a sketch that already aired (Jazz Riffs).


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Flip Wilson hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

November 19, 1983 – Jerry Lewis / Loverboy (S9 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
during heart surgery, host dreams that Dean Martin (JOP) is his doctor

   

— Great entrance from Joe as Dean Martin. In typical Joe Piscopo fashion, he’s relying on tons of make-up for his impression, but in this particular case, it really DOES make his Dean Martin look pretty uncanny.
— Jerry reverts to his old goofy voice from his younger days as he’s speaking to Joe’s Dean Martin.
— Jerry seems genuinely amused during parts of this.
— Just now, I noticed a sudden cut, as if something were removed from my copy.
— Eddie makes his first live appearance in weeks, and his performance here as Sammy Davis Jr. is very welcome.
— Yep, Jerry’s definitely amused by the others’ performances, especially Eddie’s.
— A strange and awkward ending, but I loved Jerry’s “Live from New York…” delivery.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— You can hear a strange-sounding voice from the audience loudly cheering “Whuh-whuh-whooooaaaa!!!” all throughout this montage. Funnily enough, the voice sounds kinda reminiscent of future cast member Fred Armisen whenever he does a certain type of goofy, surfer-esque voice.


MONOLOGUE
JOP & EDM present a throne to host because he’s the real King of Comedy

     

— Huge extended applause break for Jerry at the beginning.
— I got a good laugh from his sudden passing-out pratfall immediately after claiming he’s not nervous.
— Joe and Eddie have suddenly entered with a throne for Jerry.
— Similar to my observation about Jerry seeming genuinely amused throughout the cold opening, now Joe’s the one who you can tell is genuinely amused during his interplay with Jerry.
— Very funny reaction from Eddie when hearing Jerry won a Nobel prize.
— I’m loving the way all three of these guys are playing off of each other. The natural rapport here is entertaining.
— Fun bit with Joe, Eddie, and the entire studio audience getting up and simultaneously doing wacky Jerry Lewis impressions. You can REALLY hear the aforementioned Fred Armisen-sounding audience member’s “Whuh-whuh-whooooaaaahhhhh!!!”s loud and clear during this part. Maybe I shouldn’t make fun, though; after all, I remember reading a comment from someone who had a theory that the audience member may have been a mentally-disabled person who Jerry knew from his work with special-needs people, and brought to the audience as a favor.
STARS: ****


WHAT FAMOUS PERSON DO YOU LOOK LIKE?
“What famous person do you look like?”; Florence Henderson cameo

     

— They’re going really heavy on the number of Man on the Street segments this season.
— Interesting random Florence Henderson cameo, posing as a random citizen saying she looks like Florence Henderson.
— LOL, right before that one guy answered “Gary Coleman”, I said to myself that’s who he looks like.
— This is very fun so far. I’m really enjoying most of the answers.
— Hilarious how almost every single black guy’s answer is “Eddie Murphy”.
— Funny ending with the woman saying she’s been told she resembles Mary Gross but doesn’t know who that is.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


THE FORUM
people say where they were when they heard JFK had been shot

   

— Jim is very funny with his reveal that he didn’t find out about JFK’s assassination until 9 years after it happened, when he was in college. I’m also liking Joe’s reaction to that.
— An even more hilarious reveal right now with Robin revealing she didn’t hear about the JFK incident until just before this interview.
— Okay, I initially liked Joe’s incredulous reactions, but he’s now getting a little too over-the-top with it. Here we have yet another display of his bad tendency to play some roles too big.
— Even though the escalation with each interviewee feels like it should be getting predictable by this point, I’m still getting a pretty good laugh from Tim as the final guest literally just now finding out about JFK.
— There’s the aforementioned audience member’s “Whoooooaaaaaahhhh!!” heard once again.
STARS: ***½


ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT
interviews with host & other celebrities

       

— Tons of airtime for Joe tonight.
— Julia’s interview was pretty funny.
— Weird seeing Joe doing a Robin Leach impression.
— Mary’s brief Suzanne Sommers interview was hilarious.
— I’m liking all the random humor throughout this sketch.
— Something about Jim’s look and facial expressions in this remind me so much of his brother John.
— I liked Jim’s dinner show comment.
— Overall, while this sketch felt all over the place, it was pretty interesting and didn’t have the usual Ebersol-era feel at all… or at least, not the seasons 7-9 Ebersol-era feel. I can picture this sketch airing in the season 10 portion of the Ebersol era, now that I think about it.
STARS: ***


FASCINATING PEOPLE AND THEIR FRIENDS
a Jewish Football Leaguer (host)

 

— Seems to be a lot of talk show-type sketches tonight.
— The “American Jewish Football league” premise is pretty funny.
— Haha, Jerry has ALREADY begun cracking up.
— Everything in this sketch is tickling me, even if the dialogue itself isn’t all that great. The performances and occasional breaking are putting this over.
— An okay twist with Tim suddenly coming to the realization “Wait a minute, Jews don’t play football!”
STARS: ***½


PARACHUTE
skydivers (host) & (EDM) realize there’s only one parachute while falling

 

— Very interesting visual effect.
— This seems like a tailor-made sketch for Jerry, and I really like seeing him and Eddie paired together.
— Some great lines from Eddie and Jerry.
— Very strange ending, with Eddie randomly breaking the fourth wall to plug an upcoming TV movie about JFK that’s airing on NBC. Maybe this ending was funnier back in 1983 (lots of JFK biopics and documentaries were apparently airing at this time, as this was the 20th anniversary of his assassination), but it hasn’t aged well at all.
— Nice reveal of how they pulled off the green-screen effect, with Eddie and Jerry actually laying upside-down on two adjacent platforms.
STARS: ***½


CORNET
Rosemary Clooney (JIB) sings the praises of Cornet paper products

— Jim’s fairly funny as Rosemary Clooney.
— Ehh, this sketch isn’t turning out to be anything special. The humor here is pretty dull and weak.
— Wow, during the sketch-ending audience applause, you can hear a PARTICULARLY loud and fierce “Whooooooooaaaaahhh!! Whuh-whuh!!” from the aforementioned Armisen-sounding audience member tonight.
STARS: **


THANKSGIVING DINNER
a rebellious college freshman (JLD) is home for a tense Thanksgiving meal

   

— Mary’s funny as the overly-apologetic mother.
— This sketch is an interesting realistic & pretty funny piece so far.
— Hmm, Jim playing a character with his own first name.
— Pretty funny part with Jim tying Julia to the chair and starting to force-feed her, though I kinda wanted that part to go even further.
STARS: ***


LARRY’S CORNER
the luckiest man on Earth (GAK) loses his claim to fame

  

— I wonder if this is the record for most talk show sketches in a single episode.
— There’s writer Andy Breckman’s favorite character name Dale Butterworth again.
— Haha, holy hell, this freakin’ KILLED me! I am in tears, practically rolling on the floor right now as I try to type this. Andy Breckman strikes again.
— I also love how brief this whole thing was. I said in my review of the previous Larry’s Corner sketch from earlier this season (the classic “milk coming out of nose” one) that the subsequent installments of the sketch will never be able to top that one. While I wouldn’t say tonight’s topped it, it came very close to at least equaling it for me.
— Andy Breckman is quickly starting to become one of my favorite SNL writers of all-time. Just out of curiosity, does anyone have a list of all the known sketches that he’s written throughout his SNL tenure? I’d love to know what Breckman sketches are in store for me in future episodes I cover.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO

 

— As I’m still laughing hysterically from the preceding sketch, Jerry continues to keep me in stitches just now with his random yell of “BABY, BABY!!!” while running over to the musical guests, before immediately going back into a straight face while returning to his “musical guest intro” spot.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Working for the Weekend”


AMERICAN IN PARIS
host watches (TIK) dub King of Comedy into French as if it were slapstick

   

— I like Tim’s awestruck interactions with Jerry. Jerry’s clearly amused by it too, judging from his ad-libbed responses.
— LOL at Tim’s young Jerry Lewis-esque goofy French dubbing.
— Just now, Jerry noticeably called Mary by her real first name. Was that a flub, or just another example tonight of a cast member playing a character with their own name?  My guess is the former, as the name Mary doesn’t quite fit her French character here.
— Some good physical work during Tim expressing that he wants to die.
STARS: ***


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
BRH narrates a version of The Day After suitable for preschool children
JIB would rather talk about football than engage in The Day After debate
JLD doesn’t have much time to complain about the length of her segment
MAG talks about how fed up she is with holiday traditions
Jim Brown (EDM) to JOP- “I want credit for my Dirty Dozen run yardage”

       

— The child-friendly version of “The Day After” was an interesting idea (and also reminded me of the Tom Schiller-drawn “Artist’s Rendering” childlike drawings the show used to often do during the Chevy Chase era of Weekend Update), but didn’t really land for me.
— Another point-counterpoint between Brad and Jim? Is this going to be a rehash of the bit with Jim being called out on stealing catchphrases from the original SNL era?
— Oh, this one is different, I see, with Jim’s rebuttal trailing off into off-topic football talk.
— Loved Jim’s ridiculous claims of ABC airing “The Day After” as a pilot for a series that will feature different cities being nuked in every episode.
— Brad’s Lebanese Roulette joke gave me a good laugh.
— Julia’s been doing lots of Saturday Night News commentaries this season. I think she’s been appearing on SNN even more than the usual SNN staple Tim Kazurinsky has lately.
— Oh, this is the bit where Julia’s entire commentary only consists of her saying “Boy, do I hate the way things are run around here. In dress rehearsal, this speech was 4½ mintues long! Back to you, Brad.” I’m not 100% sure where I remember seeing a clip of this before (probably in the “SNL in the 80s: Lost and Found” documentary from Kenneth Bowser), but this was a very funny quick bit, and was most likely written as a way for Julia to vent her real-life frustrations regarding her lack of airtime.
— I think this is our first Spittin’ Mad Mary Gross commentary of the season. After going heavy on these last season, they seem to be scaling back the number of these lately.
— Mary’s mistletoe complaint was very funny.
— Impressive fast-paced delivery from Mary during the whole “pre and post holiday parties” portion of her commentary.
— Ugh, every week this season, Brad keeps doing this groanworthy bit where he follows a guest commentary by saying “Here now with more news is Brad Hall. (to himself) Thanks, Brad.” I admit, that’s the type of gag that an anchorperson like Kevin Nealon or Chevy Chase could make funny, but it never works with Brad and it ALWAYS dies with the audience. Well, I don’t have much longer to put up with seeing him do that gag, considering what’s about to happen to him a few episodes from now.
— FIVE guest commentaries tonight?!? What is this, a Brian Doyle-Murray era “SNL Newsbreak” all of a sudden? [ADDENDUM: I was mistaken; there were only four guest commentaries tonight. For some reason, it felt like more than that as I was watching this episode.]
— Eddie in that make-up as Jim Brown is a pretty funny initial sight.
— I got a good laugh from Eddie’s “Imma probably go throw some white ladies out the window” line.
— I admit, Brad did get a laugh from me just now by randomly announcing himself as Elvis Presley during his sign-off at the end.
STARS: **½


JERRY SCHTICK
host gives JOP & EDM tips on how to impersonate him

   

— Joe’s impression of older Jerry Lewis’ voice seems to have gotten better than it used to be. Maybe working with the real Jerry all week helped Joe finally nail the voice.
— Oh, this turns out to be a “next week” promo, with Joe announcing that next week’s episode will be a rerun of last season’s Joan Rivers episode, and the following week will be a new episode hosted by The Smothers Brothers.
— The whole interplay between Joe and Jerry feels very loose and ad-libby.
— Joe brings out Eddie to do his famous dead-on impression of Jerry’s wacky younger voice.
— This is fun as hell, even if it just feels like an extension of the monologue from earlier tonight.
STARS: ***½


GUSTY
Gusty (JIB) sings a song in honor of the whales

 

— I’ve been liking a lot of what Jim Belushi has been doing on the show so far in his SNL tenure, but the punchline of this sketch with his “whale sounds” didn’t really work for me.
— The format of this reminds me of the educational film narrator sketch that Gary did in the last episode, in that both sketches are a quick blackout gag with someone giving a presentation in front of an unseen audience. I liked Gary’s sketch much better, though.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

 

— We’re told that Loverboy won’t be able to perform their scheduled second number due to the show running long. I’m guessing it was all the ad-libbing and character-breaking tonight that caused the show to run long.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An insanely fun episode, which was to be expected with Jerry Lewis as the host. The writing itself was far from perfect, but the fun atmosphere to the whole show was very infectious, there were barely any segments I didn’t like, and a few parts of the show (especially Larry’s Corner) gave me some of the biggest laughs that I’ve gotten from SNL in a while. This episode was a blast for me to watch.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
The Smothers Brothers

Posted on

November 12, 1983 – Teri Garr / Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo (S9 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
pom-pom girls teach some unorthodox cheers to the new girl (host)

   

— The bad cheers being demonstrated are pretty funny.
— Teri’s overly-wordy, long-winded cheer was delivered really well.
— An overall decent piece, but felt a little odd in the cold opening slot.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— No Jim Belushi credited tonight. This must be the episode I heard he took off early in his tenure, I’m assuming because of being tied down to a play he was doing at the time, “True West”. I wonder if that’s also the reason he didn’t officially join the cast until the third episode of the season.


MONOLOGUE
host thinks she remembers the audience but isn’t quite sure

 

— Not the best idea for a monologue, but something about it works pretty well with Teri, and at least they’re actually GIVING her a monologue this time, unlike in her previous episode.
— Pretty funny reaction from her when she asks the audience to tell her their name.
STARS: **½


MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
a nutrition lesson from stolen groceries

   

— Looks like tonight’s another episode where Eddie will be appearing on tape all night.
— The stolen grocery bag reveal is pretty funny.
— Great part with the comparison with the chicken and the hidden t-bone steak.
— A pretty solid Mister Robinson installment overall.
STARS: ***½


THIRSTY GUY
Thirsty Guy contraceptive sponge- designed for the quicker picker-upper

  

— I’m already finding this contraceptive sponge premise funny.
— The cream test that Robin demonstrated was hilarious.
— Really good piece overall.
STARS: ****


HISTORY: THE REAL STORY
obnoxious Abraham Lincoln (JOP) provokes assassination

 

— I’ve been noticing lately that Tim always seems to play the host of shows like this.
— Joe is perfect in this role. His obnoxious behavior as Lincoln is absolutely hilarious, especially his bad “Gettysburg address” joke.
— Poor Julia stuck in yet another role with no lines.
STARS: ****


DION’S
Blaire gets upset when he sees Dion Dion kissing customer (ROD)

   

— Good to see the team-up of Dion Dion and Blair again.
— LOL at Eddie’s reaction to flubbing a line.
— I really like the interesting turn this has taken with Robin trying to start a relationship with Dion.
STARS: ***½


CORONET MAN
educational film narrator Dwight MacNamara (GAK) speaks at an assembly

— Hilarious reveal of Gary’s educational film narrator speaking in the same manner as the bad quavering audio from old educational films shown from a projector. Gary’s imitation is dead-on, and I also like how he’s even vocalizing the opening music of a typical educational film in the same manner.
— And the sketch is quickly over. This was a really funny blackout gag.
STARS: ****


DOPEBALL
a song about drugs in professional athletics

     

— I think this is the first time Joe has done an SNL Sports bit outside of the news segment since season 6.
— This “Dopeball” song is fantastic.
— Okay, this song is turning out to be pretty long, though still funny. I feel like this should be a little shorter, though.
— I like how they included a clip from one of Joe’s earlier SNL Sports commentaries, where he pours cocaine onto the news desk.
— Really funny part with a wind-up bowling ball walking across a line of cocaine.
STARS: ***½


CAFFEINE ACHIEVERS
caffeine achiever host gets increasingly agitated while making commercial

  

— Interestingly, Teri mentions Jane Curtin among celebrities who like coffee.
— The constant re-takes are kinda funny.
— The still-photo montage of blown takes isn’t doing anything for me.
— I didn’t care much for this sketch as a whole. It started off fairly promising, but ran out of steam halfway though for me. This also ruined the streak of solid segments the show had going after the monologue.
STARS: **


JOEL HODGSON
Joel Hodgson [real] does an explosive card trick & imitates Batman

     

— He’s already making me laugh here with his sullen delivery.
— Haha, the card “trick” bit was very funny.
— What was with the brief audience applause when he asked director Dave Wilson how much time he has left?
— Very funny fake-out with the dove.
— Good ending with the sideways Batman climbing bit.
— Overall, a hilarious debut segment for Joel Hodgson, with just about every gag in this getting a big laugh from me. I’m definitely looking forward to his later appearances this season.
STARS: ****


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Linda Ellerbee (JLD) talks about being fired from NBC News Overnight
GAK reviews Star 80 & shows off a sexy camisole from the film
Ann Landers (MAG) reads a letter from El Salvador & gives military advice
TIK shows Chicago Sun-Times readers what to expect from Rupert Murdoch

       

— I like the brief “viewer roll” Julia’s Linda Ellerbee is showing to thank her loyal viewers, especially the subtle joke with two of those viewers apparently being her own parents (judging from their last name).
— Julia’s commentary had a decent punchline at the end.
— Gary’s commentary seems to slowly be turning into him once again detailing how skimpily-dressed some of the women in the movie he’s reviewing were.
— LOL, Gary upped the ante from his last commentary of this nature, by pulling off his wardrobe to reveal the lingerie that was worn in the movie he’s reviewing.
— Mary’s overall Ann Landers commentary was really short. I liked her voice as Landers, but the commentary itself wasn’t anything special to me.
— A lot of Brad’s jokes are bombing BADLY tonight.
— Lots of guest commentaries tonight, while there’s very few jokes from Brad. Probably a good thing, though I can’t help but see this as the writing being on the wall for Brad regarding his soon-to-come mid-season firing as anchorperson.
— Funny part of Tim’s Salute to Journalism commentary with the Heineken kidnappers.
— Decent ending to Tim’s commentary with the cat litter box bit.
STARS: **


KENNEDY: THE MAN BEHIND THE WOMAN!
Marilyn Monroe (host) gives JFK (JOP) advice about the Berlin crisis

   

— Two sketches tonight about former presidents, though I think the reason for this JFK one is because at this time, it’s around the 20th anniversary of JFK’s assassination.
— Joe and Gary are hilarious playing off of each other in their fast-talking Kennedy accents.
— Good casting of Teri as Marilyn Monroe.
— Decent premise with Teri’s Marilyn secretly giving JFK intelligent advice on the Berlin situation.
— Teri’s Marilyn impression is turning out to be kinda disappointing. She’s not really nailing the whispery, sultry voice; it sounds too much like her normal voice.
— The interplay between Joe and Gary is now getting even funnier, with the frequent “the ah, the ah, the ah” bits.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Tonight”


SARCASTIC MOTHER SUPERIOR
a nun’s (MAG) sarcasm gets her in trouble with Father Alexander (TIK)

 

— There’s Mary once again playing her favorite type of role: a nun.
— Mary’s constant sarcasm is pretty funny.
— The ending was very weak and predictable.
STARS: **½


SHE’S A WITCH
(GAK) claims wife (JLD) will turn him into a rabbit when they get home

  

— I’m liking Gary’s sudden “Help me, she’s a witch” reveal about his wife.
— Funny twist that Gary’s “rabbit transformations” were all just a bogus prank from his wife, and I liked Gary’s delivery of “I am so gullible”.
— An overall interesting random sketch for this late in the show.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Way Down”


WHAT’S THE STUPIDEST THING YOU’VE EVER DONE?
answers to “What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done?”

   

— I like one guy’s answer being he set fire to his grandmother’s house.
— A few funny answers here, but not as much as these Man on the Street segments usually have. I’m getting more laughs from the quirkiness of a lot of the interviewees than from their actual answers.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


GOODNIGHTS

 

— Teri confirms that Jim Belushi indeed had to miss tonight’s episode due to “True West”, and then the camera pans over to show that he’s onstage, looking like he literally just arrived in the building.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Much like the previous week’s episode, this was an overall pretty solid show with a strong, impressive first half and a drop-off after Saturday Night News. This was also a big improvement over the previous episode Teri hosted.
— I feel like with these last two episodes, this season has really begun taking off.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Jerry Lewis

Posted on

November 5, 1983 – Betty Thomas / Stray Cats (S9 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
spacesuit-wearing Jesse Jackson (JOP) thinks staff is better than “stuff”

 

— Oh my god at Joe as Jesse Jackson.
— I recall hearing that the whole spacesuit theme, as well as some of the references Joe makes here, are very topical political references that have become lost to time over the years since this episode’s original airing.
— I can’t exactly call Joe’s Jesse Jackson impression dead-on, but I am liking his fiery performance here.
— That’s it? It’s over already? What exactly was the point of this? Again, it must’ve been funnier to audiences in 1983 who got all the topical references. Watching it in modern times, this seems like it has no jokes at all.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

  

— Some laughs from the gun hidden under her skirt and the bit with the nightstick.
— Not much to this overall monologue, but she handled this really well and came off likable.
STARS: ***


SWAN BREAK
(JIB) dances in a Flashdance-style version of Swan Lake

     

— I like the random inclusion of Jim’s out-of-place character.
— Love the sudden turn this has taken, with the song “Maniac” playing and Jim sloppily going through all of Jennifer Beals’ classic Flashdance moves.
— Jim is really funny in this, and this feels like the type of sketch his brother John would’ve made a popular classic if it were done in the original era.
— The obligatory “lay back in a chair as water splashes down from above” part was funny due to the heavy amount of water that splashed Jim, which knocked off his wig. Judging from his amused reaction, I don’t think that was supposed to happen.
STARS: ****


CURLY AUDITION
Elvis look-alike (JOP) auditions for role of Curly in a 3 Stooges tribute

  

— A Three Stooges sketch! If you know me, you’ll know how I feel about seeing this.
— I loved Joe taking off his Elvis wig, revealing a Curly-esque look, and how he’s now going into random Curly sound effects throughout the song he’s singing.
— What the–? This suddenly gets cut off by a “special report”, which I guess leads us into our next segment. I actually wanted to see this sketch go on longer.
STARS: ***½


SPECIAL REPORT
shortchanged USA tourist leads to invasion of Switzerland

     

— Pretty funny premise of the U.S. invading Switzerland. I like how SNL is going out of their way to make this appear real, even going so far as using an outside actor to play the anchorman delivering the breaking news. And I think that’s head writer Andrew Smith playing the White House press secretary holding a conference.
— An appearance from Brad’s Saturday Night News anchorman persona. Why is he reporting from a generic news set instead of the usual Saturday Night News set?
— The whole “shortchanged at a chocolate shop” scene is quite funny.
STARS: ***½


PERFECTLY FRANK
ad exec (JOP) subliminally seduces psychologist (host)

  

— The title almost had me thinking this was going to be another Frank Sinatra-themed TV show sketch.
— Funny concept with Joe subliminally saying seductive things to Betty. But, boy, does Joe’s subliminal delivery pale badly in comparison to future cast member Kevin Nealon’s. Joe’s too broad with the way he’s doing the subliminal lines. The routine is funnier with Nealon, partly because of the way he says it so deadpan and subtle.
— Gary gets some laughs at the end.
STARS: ***


JAMES BROWN’S CELEBRITY HOT TUB PARTY
Godfather of Soul (EDM) gets in

   

— Ahh, here’s an all-time classic! I always enjoy seeing this one.
— Right off the bat after he’s made his entrance, Eddie is already coming off amazing in this.
— Oh, I’m absolutely LOVING this song.
— Hilarious how he’s musically narrating his actions as he’s hesitantly dipping into the hot tub.
— And already, we’re out. This sketch was the perfect length, and the fact that this whole thing just turned out to be his drawn-out entrance into the hot tub is very funny.
— Overall, one of Eddie’s all-time best, as well as one of SNL’s all-time best.
— This was the first airing of what will be several Eddie Murphy sketches this season that were taped during a special “preview show” right before the start of this season so Ebersol could insert them into episodes that Eddie will be missing this season while he’s off in Hollywood filming movies.  Eddie not being in the building tonight explains why Jesse Jackson was played by Joe in the cold opening.
STARS: *****


YOU WIN A DOLLAR
(JIB) endures dangerous stunts in vain hope of a buck

     

— Brad plays another gameshow host. The hokey, corny delivery Brad often uses on SNL actually fits well in the role of a cheesy gameshow host.
— There’s SNL’s very first use of the name Dale Butterworth, which would go on to be one of the trademarks of Andy Breckman-written sketches.
— I’m already liking the concept of contestants eagerly striving to win just one dollar.
— Haha, oh my god at the bowl-filled-with-razor-blades part and Jim’s hand emerging from the bowl while covered in blood.
— This is getting more and more insane, with Jim now being forced to “bob for chicken wings” in a deep fryer.
— All of Jim’s reactions are fantastic.
— I like Brad’s constant “Oh, one more thing” additions to the initially pleasant-sounding Love Tent challenge.
— Brad: “Do we have a consolation prize for him, Don?” Don Pardo: “(exuberantly) No!”
— Overall, this very strong sketch was a riot. Between this and the Larry’s Corner sketch from the season premiere, new writer Andy Breckman has been having a VERY promising start so far. I’m not aware of the subsequent sketches he’s written (at least not off the top of my head), but whatever they are, I’m definitely looking forward to them.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “She’s Sexy + 17”


UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer addresses Unanswered Questions Of The Universe

 

— This is the first time this character has ever appeared outside Saturday Night News.
— His various questions about the human body are pretty funny.
— Seems to be a legit mailing address that he asks viewers to send in unanswered questions to, so he can answer them later on. I wonder if SNL ends up following through on this.
STARS: ***


THE GUMBY STORY
Gumby directs the movie version of his life story

    

— You can REALLY tell just by the visual quality of this sketch that it’s another piece that was taped before the start of this season.
— Eddie as Gumby to his impersonator: “Who told you say dammit, dammit?!”
— Funny part with Gary trying various gestures to get Joe’s attention while he’s on the phone.
— I like Robin’s walk-on as Gumby’s dumpy-looking wife.
— Surprised to see Jim in this, considering this was taped before the season began and Jim didn’t officially join the cast until the third episode of the season.
STARS: ***


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
outdated & inappropriate file footage is used to document Swiss invasion
people on the street react to the news of the invasion
BRH warns JIB against using catchphrases & bits from the original SNL
Ronald Reagan (JOP) addresses USA regarding the invasion of Switzerland
Slopes of Fear- a CIA film shows Swiss links to the communists

           

— Nice how they’re keeping up the Switzerland invasion premise from earlier tonight.
— Funny segment with the Switzerland invasion “file footage” consisting of old out-of-place stock footage and silent movies.
— The reactions of people on the street learning about the Switzerland situation has a few laughs.
— I like how Brad calls Jim out on copying his “you ignorant slut” rebuttal from Dan Aykroyd.
— Ha, now Jim’s going through various other catchphrases from the original era (“but nooo”, “excuuuse meee”, etc.) all of which get shot down by Brad because they belong to the original cast. Also, nice touch with one of Jim’s borrowed phrases being Bill Murray’s “I love you, now get out of here, I mean it”, which usually isn’t as often-quoted as the other 70s catchphrases Jim’s quoting here. The audience gave instant recognition laughter when Jim quoted it, though.
— Jim is now griping about how unfair it is that people will turn against him for doing anything even remotely reminiscent of famous things his brother John did in the original era.
— As someone who recently reviewed the entire original era, I personally got much more of a kick out of Jim’s overall commentary than most people probably would.
— Brad’s joke about Big Bird dying of anorexia was hilarious.
— Another follow-up to the Switzerland storyline. Now we’re seeing Joe’s Reagan impression giving a press conference on the Switzerland situation.
— Now Joe throws to a “Slopes of Fear” documentary about Switzerland. SNL’s really going all-out on this whole storyline.
— Funny part of “Slopes of Fear” where they “translate” the yodeling in a stock footage clip.
— Overall, one of the better editions of Saturday Night News.
STARS: ***


JANE FONDA’S PREGNANCY, BIRTH, LABOR, RE-ENTERING THE JOB MARKET, TRYING TO CATCH A MAN, TRYING TO KEEP A MAN, MAKING NEW FRIENDS, HOLDING YOUR BREATH, AND GOING OVER YOUR CREDIT LIMIT WORK OUT
(ROD) goes into labor during Jane Fonda’s (host) pregnancy workout

   

— Longest sketch title ever?
— Whoa, a very distracting audio glitch has suddenly started in my copy, where the dialogue is overlapped with audio of the same dialogue being replayed a second later. I was once informed by fellow SNL fan & reviewer Ben Douwsma that audio glitches like this are common in these old Comedy Network reruns whenever they removed something from a sketch. I wonder what was removed from this particular sketch.
— Okay, thankfully, the audio glitch is over.
— Mary giving up in the middle of the workout and breaking out a cigarette is funny.
— I saw Robin going into labor coming from a mile away.
STARS: **½


MEMOREX
Memorex video tape captures FBI’s close framing of Lee Iacocca (JOP)

  

— This seems a little too topical, but unlike the cold opening, I can still follow this well-enough.
— I liked Brad blatantly calling Iacocca “Mr. Ia-COKE-a”.
— Good Memorex twist at the end.
STARS: ***


CRISIS ’83 UPDATE
footage of American evacuees & their horror stories about Switzerland

   

— The American returnees’ various complaints about the “torture” they endured in Switzerland are really funny.
— Yet another viewer-submission mailing address being displayed tonight (this time on the topic of what country do we want U.S. to invade next), though this one is obviously fake.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Won’t Stand in Your Way”


MISFITS
at a support group meeting, transsexuals miss their former male lives

 

— Uh, okay… this is going to be an… uh, interesting premise.
— It IS a change of pace, though, how they’re using female performers in these roles instead of putting male performers in drag for these roles.
— Robin’s unibrow makes her resemble one of Cheri Oteri’s more obscure recurring characters: the unattractive, accordion-playing Italian daughter Maria.
— I feel like I shouldn’t be laughing at this sketch in today’s world, but I am getting some laughs from the transsexuals going on about what they miss about being a man. It’s something about the performances that’s winning me over; Betty and the female cast members are getting really into this.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A solid episode, especially the first half. The quality dropped off after Saturday Night News, but overall, this is my favorite episode of this season so far. Also, the Switzerland Invasion running premise gave the night a unique feel and the show was fully committed to it.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Teri Garr

Posted on

October 22, 1983 – John Candy / Men At Work (S9 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
JIB’s friend host hasn’t shown up yet, Mr. Mambo (host) says “told ya so”

  

— Right at the start of his first episode as a cast member, Jim Belushi is already front-and-center.
— Pretty funny part with Eddie and Joe coming up with an emergency plan to host the show as The Honeymooners.
— Great entrance from John Candy, and I’m liking his character here.
— Jim gets to deliver “Live from New York…” on his first night.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Interestingly, to keep up the Mr. Mambo premise of the cold opening, the regular SNL theme music is replaced with mambo music tonight.
— This mambo theme is a fun change of pace, though it’s coming off very out-of-place in this particular opening montage.


MONOLOGUE
JOP & EDM kill time doing Ralph Kramden & Ed Norton; host finally arrives

   

— Good Honeymooners impressions from Joe and Eddie.
— John being at a loss for what to do in his monologue was kinda funny at first, but hasn’t been going anywhere interesting.
— I love the way they transitioned out of this monologue by having John just walk over into the next sketch as it begins, which continues the fun vibe of tonight’s episode.
STARS: **½


OLD COUNTRY SKI LODGE
Doc Edmund (EDM) tries country remedies for broken leg & baby delivery

  

— This has had a slow start, but I’m liking Eddie and Robin’s entrance as old doctor and nurse.
— Very funny part with Eddie advising Julia to “push her egg down” during sex.
— Some good character work from Eddie here, especially the laugh he keeps doing.
— This overall sketch wasn’t good enough to justify its long length, but there were some highlights here and there.
STARS: **½


VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED LITTLE RASCALS
Miss Crabtree’s (ROD) class is evil

     

— Interesting premise.
— Great effect with the Rascals’ glowing eyes, though I’m not sure how they’re pulling off that effect.
— So we’re just supposed to forget that Buckwheat got killed off last season? What’s he doing here? Or is this different because this is supposed to be the Rascals when they were still just kids and not grown-up yet?
— Tim giving intentionally dangerous advice to the Rascals is pretty funny.
— Unexpected twist at the end where it turns out the Rascals’ “evilness” was just them playing a gag on the teacher.
STARS: ***½


PHONE BOOTH CONFESSION
a priest (host) uses adjacent phone booths to hear (JIB)’s confession

   

— Ha, I like the concept of holding a confessional in adjoining phone booths.
— Some funny realistic humor here from all the difficulties that would naturally arise from delivering a confessional through a pay phone.
STARS: ***½


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Joanna Carson (JLD) justifies the amount of alimony she wants from Johnny
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists the many types of acne

     

— Boy, Brad’s opening NBC “Be There” joke was fucking terrible.
— Brad’s second joke wasn’t any better. Geez, he’s off to a very rough start tonight.
— Okay, his jokes are starting to get A LITTLE better, but still nothing to write home about.
— When mentioning having to sleep with Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show guest hosts once a week, Julia mentions Bill Cosby as one of them and makes a pudding sex joke regarding him, which comes off cringeworthy in hindsight for obvious reasons.
— I liked Julia’s “He’s not funny upside-down either” line regarding watching Carson’s Tonight Show while having sex.
— I like the fake-out with Tim’s “Balzac-ne” pun, where it ends up being for something much more innocent than the name would have you expect.
— Tonight’s overall Dr. Jack Badofsky commentary was kind of a letdown. Nothing stood out in this one aside from the aforementioned “Balzac-ne” one, nor did we get any of Tim’s usual funny ad-libs in response to the audience’s reactions.
— I’ve been noticing that this season’s editions of Saturday Night News have been quite short so far. I’m glad, because I wasn’t crazy about the overly-lengthy format they often used in the second half of last season. Though the fact that they’ve been shortening Saturday Night News this season could be a sign of the writing being on the wall for Brad, who’s tenure as an anchorperson is soon coming to an abrupt end.
STARS: **


MOVIE CONTRACT
EDM agrees to be in Dr. Tongue’s (host) 3D Chicks in Their Underwear

 

— John’s cheap 3D “effect” with the pen was pretty funny.
— Oh, this just turns out to be a musical guest intro. Clever way to shake up the segment.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Doctor Heckyll & Mr. Jive”


EDDIE IN NEW JERSEY
a look at EDM’s suburban New Jersey lifestyle

   

— Very interesting-seeming segment, showing Eddie’s new life in Jersey.
— Eh, the humor here is turning out to be pretty predictable and basic. Nothing special or clever at all.
STARS: **


BACKSTAGE WITH RONALD MCDONALD
Ronald McDonald (JOP) shows his nasty side in his dressing room

   

— Poor underused Gary Kroeger is just now making his first appearance of the night, and it’s just in a straight role.
— The return of Joe’s portrayal of Ronald McDonald, though at least his clown make-up is a lot less disgusting-looking than it was in that “McMillan and Wife” parody he did with Susan Saint James.
— Is this premise going to be Joe playing McDonald as an egotistical diva backstage, similar to that Pope sketch that Joe did two seasons ago? Considering how I pretty much hated that one, I’m not looking forward to seeing a knockoff of it.
— Pretty funny joke with Ronald McDonald’s “secret sauce” being liquor.
— Ugh at that groanworthy part with Ronald McDonald showing a perverted interest when hearing there are 7-year-olds waiting to see him, only to be disappointed to find out they’re boys and not girls.
— This overall sketch was a small improvement over the aforementioned Pope sketch.
— Something about this had a quintessential Ebersol era feel; one of those sketches that I can’t picture appearing in any other era.
STARS: **½


CANDACE’S FANTASY SHACK
(JIB) becomes the millionth customer at Candace’s (host) Fantasy Shack

   

— John is really funny as Candace.
— LOL at the huge size difference between “Candace” and Tim.
— Interesting character choice from Julia, using a random lisp for her Princess Leia-dressed character.
— Something about Mary-as-Dorothy’s delivery of “I like to be who I am… a whore!” made me laugh.
— Funny “millionth customer” twist.
STARS: ***


POLY-ROCK
Poly-Rock denture cream lets old musicians play guitar with their teeth

  

— For some reason, I almost thought Brad was playing Ozzy Osbourne at first, and I was about to ask “Didn’t Tim play him last time?” (in that “geek’s mouthwash” commercial), before I realized Brad just seems to be playing a fictional rocker.
— Nothing really to say about this overall commercial. It was really generic and just came and went.
STARS: **


BACKSTAGE
William B. Williams (host) & Ed McMahon (JOP) introduce musical guest

— I always crack up at Joe’s McMahon laugh.
— Another fake-out with a sketch turning out to be a musical guest intro. I’m liking this theme tonight.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “It’s a Mistake”


MEN BEHIND BARS
(host) & (JIB) are glad to be back in prison for the winter

   

— Who’s the big guy playing the prison guard? Strangely, it kinda looks like the show’s director Dave Wilson, though I don’t see how it could be him.
— Lots of Jim Belushi for his first episode.
— Not too sure about this premise.
— Okay, I’m slowly starting to like this sketch more and more.
— I admit to getting a very cheap laugh from the off-camera effeminate voices from another prison cell.
— The “Why do you always have to be the last one to say ‘goodnight’?” bit was quite funny.
— An overall pretty good sketch that worked as a more quiet, relatable, realistically-humored piece, much like the Confessional sketch earlier tonight. And much like that sketch, John and Jim worked very well together.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

  

— John thanks “True West for letting Jim Belushi out tonight”. I’m assuming True West was some kind of play or show that Jim was in the middle of co-starring in when making his SNL debut.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty decent though average episode; not as strong as you would expect a John Candy-hosted episode to be (which I recall also saying about the episode that Candy’s SCTV castmates Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas co-hosted together last season). That being said, there was a fun, good vibe to the episode (Candy’s presence certainly helped in that regard) and the pacing of the show felt fairly quick.
— Jim Belushi had a huge first night, gave strong performances, and is already fitting in well on the show. This is making me look forward to the rest of his tenure.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman):
— about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Betty Thomas

Posted on

October 15, 1983 – Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman / Eddy Grant (S9 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Calvin Klein Cream Pies- Andie (JLD) tries on a pair

  

— Yet ANOTHER Calvin Klein Jeans parody on SNL.
— I recall hearing that the “Andie” that Julia’s playing here is actually a young Andie MacDowell, which would explain the curly hair and southern accent.
— This uses the exact same twist from last week’s Calvin Klein Jeans parody, with Julia suddenly getting a pie smashed into her face during her rambling. Doesn’t come off as funny this time, since we already just saw it being done. Was the gag really necessary to repeat?
— I do like how she got hit an additional time while in the middle of saying “Live from New York…”.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
hosts’ dialogue is like the corny banter of award show presenters

— This is an accurate parody of bad, unfunny awards show banter. However, the problem is, this parody is just as unfunny as the real thing.
— Overall, a waste of DeVito and Perlman.  I’m not too crazy about the way tonight’s episode has been starting so far.
STARS: *½


MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
the products of sleeping around show up

   

— Loved Eddie hinting at what’s in the basket by asking viewers, as a riddle, “What’s black and Puerto Rican and has my eyes?”
— The part with “bastard” being the Word of the Day is funny, and has an interesting backstory from writer Kevin Kelton about how they weren’t allowed to say the word “bastard” on air, so they worked around it by having Eddie just point to the word on the board and ask viewers “Can you use this word in a sentence? Cab drivers can!”
— Overall, one of the stronger installments of this sketch in a while, with a good change-of-pace premise and lots of funny lines from Eddie.
STARS: ****


CRAZY EDELMAN
discount psychiatrist Crazy Edelman (JOP)- his prices are insane

  

— Yet another “Crazy Eddie” parody from this era.
— This is a hilarious and clever twist on the usual type of “Crazy Eddie” commercial, by having the pitchman of the “insane” ad be an actual psychiatrist. Great performance from Joe as well.
STARS: ****


WHAT WOULD FRANK DO?
Dion Dion wins on Sinatra’s (JOP) game show

     

— This sketch was inspired by a phrase that Joe was infamous backstage for always telling the writers (“Frank wouldn’t do that”) whenever a script they handed him for a Frank Sinatra sketch contained something that he felt was inaccurate to the real Frank.
— Ha, Eddie’s Dion Dion character is one of the contestants.
— Eddie’s hysterical excitement over both hearing what his prize is (Sinatra singing to him) and seeing Sinatra show up is very funny.
— This was pretty good overall, and a unique approach for a gameshow sketch.
STARS: ***


SMALL WORLD
It’s A Small World riders panic when their boat breaks down in the tunnel

   

— Mary Gross plays yet ANOTHER nun.
— Eddie’s Vietnam comment was pretty funny.
— I love how increasingly insane and dark this sketch is getting.
— Nice touch with the dolls in the background being heard chanting “One down, four to go” after Tim gets killed off.
— Good use of frequent SNL extra Andy Murphy as a robot Grover Cleveland.
— I’m really enjoying the part with the spooky-sounding voice of an un-thawed Walt Disney on the loudspeaker forcing the main characters to sing “Mickey Mouse”.
— I like how as the sketch ended, they revealed how this sketch was green-sceened.
STARS: ****


ODYSSEY OF A PAPERCLIP
why mom warns “you don’t know where it’s been”

     

— The educational film-esque presentation of the paperclip’s ridiculous journey started out a little slow, but I like how increasingly disgusting it’s now getting.
— The ending fell kinda flat, though I did like the little touch of them playing a deadly gunshot sound effect when Gary decides to use the paperclip as a toothpick after being warned not to.
STARS: **½


SPANISH CLASS
a teacher (Rhea) insists that all in-class conversation be “en Espanol”

   

— Was Joe’s late entrance at the beginning a real mistake? He adds a “sorry” to Rhea as the teacher, which came off like an ad-lib.
— The “yo/joe” bit with Gary was funny.
— Eddie’s great in his walk-on.
— This sketch is kinda reminding me of a more well-known French Class sketch that Alec Baldwin would do 10 years later.
— Decent ending.
STARS: ***½


BOOK BEAT
a stalker’s (Danny) works appear to have a common theme

   

— I like the unflattering picture of Mary (I think) on the cover of the “Candidly Debra” book.
— An okay surprise ending with Danny getting shot by Debra from the audience, though something about that part felt like it could’ve been a little better.
— Quick sketch.
STARS: ***


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
fired newscaster (JLD) cries sexism, is unaware of her facial expressions
GAK’s review of Never Say Never Again focusses mostly on the Bond Girls
Dr. Ruth Westheimer (MAG) blames teen pregnancies on media influences

         

— Brad’s random “Still to come” bit threw me off at first, making me mistakenly think he was throwing to a mid-news fake ad like Weekend Update often used to do after a “Still to come” bit back in the first two seasons.
— Heh, WTF at Julia’s brief random crazy face just now?
— Oh, I see what Julia’s going for.
— Julia’s overall commentary was actually pretty funny. While the humor was really broad and basically a mug-fest, Julia pulled it off really well, especially the good comic timing she displayed when she kept seamlessly going back-and-forth from a deadpan, serious delivery to a goofy voice & face. Considering how often she’s gotten stuck in dull straight roles during her SNL tenure so far, it was refreshing to see her doing something like this.
— Interesting seeing Gary doing a commentary as himself.
— Gary increasingly demonstrating how much skin the Bond Girls showed in the latest Bond movie is funny, and I love how overly into it hes getting.
— Brad’s corny “Bingo was his name-o” joke about Reagan made me groan like crazy.
— Mary’s Dr. Ruth commentary about too much sexual messages on TV has taken a confusing turn just now. She’s started griping about Ronald Reagan’s Big Macs, McNuggets, and McMuffins. What in the world does Reagan have to do with those things?
— Interesting big blooper, where Mary actually stops in the middle of her commentary to point out (while still speaking in character) that she’s being informed by off-camera crew members that something’s wrong with the way her clip-on mic is applied. I had been wondering why I kept hearing fuzzy sounds from her mic throughout her commentary. Great ad-libs from Mary in response to all of this.
— I’m glad Mary’s Dr. Ruth commentary didn’t end with the usual finger-in-hole gesture gag they ended all of her previous commentaries with.
— Hmm, no commentary from Tim Kazurinsky tonight, ending his 10-episode streak of appearing in every edition of Saturday Night News.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Don’t Wanna Dance” & “Electric Avenue”


AUTOGRAPH HOUNDS
autograph seekers (TIK), (Rhea), (Danny) compare notes; Dick Cavett cameo

    

— I like the character work that Tim’s doing here.
— Random Dick Cavett cameo.
— I admit, Cavett’s sarcastic response to being asked “Anyone in there?” was funny, as was Danny’s dismissive attitude towards him.
— Strange moment at the end of Cavett’s scene. First, the audience began applauding as if his scene had ended, even though he was still onstage, then he asked Danny “Why do you guys always have those ear-flap hats?”, which was apparently an ad-lib judging from Danny’s genuinely taken-aback reaction. Then Cavett takes off Danny’s hat and wears it on his own head as he exits the scene, resulting in a funny outraged “He took my hat!” response from Danny.
— A pretty good sketch overall, with funny characterizations from each of the main performers.
STARS: ***


THE AMOS ‘N ANDY SHOW
this new version features (EDM) & Andy Rooney (JOP)

 

— Another sketch crossing over Andy Rooney with an old TV show. It wasn’t that funny last time they did it (“The Honeyrooneys” sketch from two seasons ago), and this one is making me laugh even less. It doesn’t help that I’ve never watched “Amos ‘n Andy”, though I’m aware of the basics of that show.
— This overall sketch was pretty much a dud.
STARS: *½


MASTERPIECE HUMOR
the final episode of “A Kangaroo Walks Into A Bar”

    

— Pretty funny concept for a “Masterpiece Theater” parody.
— The big gag with the miniseries conclusion turning out to just be a four-second silly punchline after Tim gave such a dignified, lengthy intro to it didn’t work for me.
— Something about the fancy ending credits that’s being scrolled by onscreen is really tickling me.
STARS: **


BODY GUARD
mourners attack a negligent bodyguard (ROD) at a politician’s funeral

   

— Not sure what to think of this sketch so far. It’s awfully redundant.
— The cast is really committed in their performances, though, which is the only high point I’ve been able to find in this.
— I didn’t get the ending with Brad.
— A terrible one-joke sketch overall.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Living on the Front Line”


GOODNIGHTS

 

— Eddie, seen with his girlfriend around his arm, interrupts Danny’s goodnights speech to tell him he’s getting married.
— Another big announcement, with Danny informing us that “Jimmy” Belushi will be joining the cast in next week’s episode.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Kind of a strange episode, in that it started very rough with a cold opening that was just a lazy rewrite and a dull monologue, before suddenly getting really strong for a while with a string of very solid sketches and inspired premises, then the quality slightly lowered down to a decent level and stayed there until it died off badly with the weak final three sketches of the night. A varying episode as a whole, but the funny and inspired highlights of the night still make it an overall pretty enjoyable show.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
John Candy

Posted on

October 8, 1983 – Brandon Tartikoff / John Cougar (S9 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
TIK, MAG, EDM break into host’s office to see how he got himself on show

  

— LOL at Tim screwing up his “He has more phonelines than viewers” line.
— The audience applauds as soon as Eddie first speaks in this.
— Eddie’s hair looks very different this season.
— Hilarious prank call from Eddie to Mr. T.
— Interesting segue to “Live from New York…”
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage as the last two seasons.
— While the theme music is also the same, it sounds GREAT this season. It has a much funkier, catchier sound than it did in seasons 7 and 8.
— No new cast members tonight; the cast is the exact same as it was the preceding season. However, a certain new cast member IS joining the show a few episodes from now.
— For the first time ever, we see the SNL Band playing on the home base stage’s rooftop when the opening montage ends, which would go on to be a tradition until 1986.


MONOLOGUE
host stresses quality while his bonehead programming decisions scroll by

        

— Ha, they’re doing the “humorous disclaimers show up under a person during their speech/song” bit that the original era often did. A welcome return.
— “Gilligan Meets the Harlem Globetrotters”? That was a real thing once???
— Decent monologue overall. Felt like a nice throwback to the classic Buck Henry monologues from back in the day, even if this one wasn’t as strong.
STARS: ***


CALVIN KLEIN CREAM PIES
for girls you hate, like Martha (JLD)

  

— Yet another Calvin Klein Jeans parody in this SNL era.
— LOL, holy hell at somebody suddenly smashing a pie into Julia’s face during her conceited rambling. Good twist.
— Don’t they end up reusing this same joke in a cold opening later this season? In fact, I think it’s the very next episode.
STARS: ***½


JAMES WATT
James Watt (JOP) is depressed because minority groups don’t like him

     

— Another return of Joe’s impression of Secretary of the Interior James Watt, who’s White House tenure is apparently on its last legs by this point.
— Great joke with Watt getting his drink of water from a mini oil well dispenser.
— Loved Joe’s ending line: “Isn’t it ironic? My last true friends: two Jews, a woman, a black, and a cripple.”
— Good sketch overall.
STARS: ***½


JAZZ RIFFS
sax player (EDM) admits he does weddings & parties for money

 

— A pretty good laugh at the initial sight of Eddie in that ridiculous mask.
— Funny “Excuse me” ad-lib from Eddie in response to a faint booming sound from off-camera.
— A lot of laughs from the part where Eddie’s complaining about the songs he’s most often asked to perform.
STARS: ***


FELN’S DISCOUNT FOOD AND CLOTHING WAREHOUSE
things to wear & eat

  

— Looks like another cast member has a new hairstyle this season. Joe trimmed his fro!
— Funny premise with Joe selling mixtures of clothes and fruit. And as usual, great manic pitchman delivery from him.
— Joe seems like he’s trying not to laugh now, which is making the silly, fast-paced nature of the sketch even more fun.
STARS: ***½


SHOW IDEAS
EDM turns down host’s program ideas; the Whiners want their own show

   

— Eddie once again oddly wears an open leather jacket without a shirt underneath.
— LOL at Brandon in that trendy early 80s leather outfit. I also like how the back of his jacket has NBC’s then-current “Be there” slogan in shiny lettering.
— Eddie’s “Oh, you’re talking negro” realization about Brandon was very funny.
— Strange in retrospect seeing Eddie talking about how he’s perfectly happy staying at SNL, as if he had no plans on leaving any time soon. As we know now, he already had one foot out the door by this point, and would be completely gone before this season is even over.
— Brandon: “I can make you bigger than Gary Coleman.” Eddie: “I got parts in my body bigger than Gary Coleman.”
— The Whiners appearing out of nowhere. Oh, god.
— Considering that the Whiners were in the previous season’s finale I just reviewed yesterday (in what was probably the Whiners’ worst sketch yet), you can imagine how it feels to have to review them two days in a row.
— Brandon’s put-downs to the Whiners are kinda funny, if a bit corny (it’s probably his delivery).
— Overall, not TOO insufferable for a Whiners piece, though I still could’ve done without it.
STARS: **


GUMBY & POKEY
Gumby & Pokey (JOP) rehearse a scene for their reunion show

 

— Pokey being portrayed with an old Jew voice like Gumby is fitting and funny. Is that Joe in the Pokey costume?
— Yep, I guess it IS Joe.
— Joe-as-Pokey’s complaints about his health problems are making me laugh.
— Hmm, not too sure about the parts with Pokey constantly “breaking wind”, though at least they refrained from using a fart sound effect, unlike later eras of SNL.
— Joe’s “They can’t see me laughing behind this thing” ad-lib was hilarious, though it didn’t land with the audience.
— I see they’re putting Brad’s overacting tendencies to good use by having him play an over-the-top, flamboyant, gay dance choreographer.
— Fun moment with Eddie and Joe dropping character and goofing around with each other as the sketch ended.
STARS: **½


MAN ON THE STREET
host hits the pavement to promote NBC’s fine programming, like Manimal

     

— What’s the audience laughing at during Brandon’s non-comedic intro? They seemed to be amused by something going on off-camera that we viewers can’t see.
— Brandon’s ridiculous, desperate ways of getting average joes on the street to tune into NBC’s (doomed) fall schedule are very funny, and he’s a good sport for agreeing to do this piece.
— I especially like the part with him sticking flyers for the show “Manimal” onto car windshields.
— Another really funny part with him using a bullhorn to stop a CBS guy from promoting his network’s shows.
STARS: ****


LARRY’S CORNER
duck noise, nasal milk, thirsty guy synchronicity

   

— Oh, is this going to be the “milk shooting out of nose” sketch that I’ve always heard great things about?
— Yep, from Brad’s intro, I can tell this IS going to be that sketch! I’ve always wanted to see this.
— I think that’s writer Andy Breckman playing the bearded friend. If so, was he one of the new writers hired for this season, or was he already part of the writing staff prior to this season?
— Haha, this is freakin’ HILARIOUS.
— Overall, this sketch definitely lived up to its reputation. The big gag with all three of the guys simultaneously doing their respective thing slayed me.
— I think they eventually go on to make “Larry’s Corner” a recurring sketch, though I doubt any of the subsequent installments will live up to tonight’s.
STARS: *****


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
JOP gives a recap of the baseball playoffs so far
TIK catches up on the NY Post headlines he missed over the summer

       

— Brad’s not wearing his usual suit jacket, instead just being seen in a shirt, vest, and tie, which I think goes on to be his regular anchorman attire this season.
— Joe’s fast-paced recapping of all this season’s World Series games is pretty fun, though kinda light on laughs.
— Was that a mustached Tartikoff briefly seen handing Brad a “breaking news” paper? (fourth screencap above)
— Brad’s “Mr. T and Mr. Coffee” joke was such a groaner that it’s almost funny in itself.
— A mention from Brad of Chevy Chase’s 40th birthday. The punchline to that joke (“He’s 40… and I’m not”) was a nice callback to Chevy’s famous Weekend Update catchphrase.
— Tim keeps alive his impressive streak from last season, where he did a news commentary in every single one of the last nine episodes of the season.
— The AIDS headlines that Tim’s showing are SNL’s very first mention of the infamous AIDS epidemic from this decade.
— Tim’s overall “Salute to Journalism” commentary tonight was decent and an improvement over his last subpar edition of the segment.
— A surprisingly short Saturday Night News overall tonight, compared to some of the overlong ones from last season.
— Brad seems to have a new ending tagline this season: “Thanks for comin’ out in the rain.”
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pink Houses”


RENT-A-GUN
suspicious-looking (TIK) rents a gun from a sporting goods store

 

— Tim’s shadiness is pretty funny.
— I liked Tim’s reaction to Joe’s banks question.
— Funny bit with Tim explaining he only needs one stocking because it’s for his “half-sister”.
— Overall, despite the aforementioned highlights, the sketch as a whole still felt it could’ve been a little better.
STARS: **½


REVIEW
Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert [real] review the night’s sketches

— Second season premiere in a row with Siskel and Ebert giving instantaneous reviews of the night’s sketches while the show’s still in progress. I had no idea this became a semi-recurring bit. Fun to see this back. They should’ve continued to make this a tradition for every season premiere.
— Siskel and Ebert acknowledge that Piscopo and Murphy are the stars of this cast. While that’s something we all knew, it’s interesting to hear it actually being said on the air.
— Funny part with Siskel overpraising Tartikoff’s performances in hopes that NBC will pick up their syndicated show.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO

— I like how the earlier joke from the Man on the Street sketch carried over into this, with Brandon handing a confused John Cougar and his band “Manimal” flyers.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Crumblin’ Down”


BE THERE
watching networks other than NBC leads to damnation & heart disease

 

— I almost thought the reverend was Brad Hall with his hair slicked back, before I realized its just an uncredited outside actor (along with the guy playing the doctor).
— Fairly funny premise with NBC using a reverend and doctor to sternly force people to refrain from tuning into other networks.
— The ending “NBC: Watch us or die and go to hell” tagline was pretty funny.
STARS: ***


ETHEL’S DINER
resilient diner owner Ethel (MAG) takes a series of tragedies in stride

   

— I see where this sketch is going, where Mary’s going to keep receiving increasingly bad news, only for her to keep a stiff upper lip in reaction to it.
— The audience is absolutely dead during this sketch. Then again, I can’t blame them; there ain’t much to laugh at here.
— Weak punchline at the end.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

  

— In addition to the theme music in tonight’s opening montage, even the goodnights music has a bit of a funkier sound this season.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty average start to the season. The episode as a whole wasn’t particularly strong, but wasn’t weak either. Certainly a satisfying-enough season premiere. There was also a nice recurring theme with all the jabs at NBC’s struggles and desperation, and Brandon Tartikoff proved to be a good sport, despite only playing himself all night.
— You can already sense the beginning of the end for Eddie Murphy’s SNL tenure. As I said in my last review, the preceding season 8 seemed to be him hitting his absolute peak, and judging from from tonight’s episode and the fact that his movie career was really taking off, I think season 9 will feature a still-very-funny-but-more-complacent Eddie.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1982-83):
— about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman