Tag: Dudley Moore

Posted on

January 25, 1986 – Dudley Moore / Al Green (S11 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
monks break their vow of silence & discuss their yearly Super Bowl bet

— Funny hearing Dennis Miller using his typical delivery in this monk role.
— The Super Bowl twist is okay.
— I recall hearing that Damon is one of the monks in this (and it ends up being his only appearance of the whole night), but I can’t spot him. Must be a non-speaking role, which makes this yet ANOTHER example of this season wasting Damon’s talents. No wonder he was so miserable working at SNL.
— Overall, a pretty meh cold opening. Didn’t care too much for this as a whole.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host plays classical variants of Bridge On The River Kwai theme on piano

— I like how he mentions that he previously hosted exactly 10 years ago on this exact Saturday (January 24, 1976), even though this leads into a variation of the obligatory “I did such a great job (insert large number here) years ago, they couldn’t wait to have me back” joke, as well as a joke that his next hosting stint will be 10 years later in 1996.
— Fun bit with the piano so far, and I like the different ways he keeps breaking into the march song from The Bridge On The River Kwai.
— I like how into it he’s getting.
— The camera showed an interesting low undershot of Dudley at the end, a rare type of camera angle that would be repeated in the monologue of the George Wendt/Francis Ford Coppola episode later this season.
— Overall, a pretty entertaining monologue.
STARS: ***½


MISS PREGNANT TEENAGE AMERICA
(JOC) & Cabrini Green compete in Miss Pregnant Teenage America Pageant

— Kind of a cringey joke having Roman Polanski as host of a pregnant teen pageant.
— The opening “Let’s Hear It For the Boy” dance number is kinda cute, but is going on WAY too long for something that doesn’t contain any jokes.
— Here’s our Terry Sweeney drag role of the week.
— Terry’s scene came off kinda awkward.
— An interesting, different way to use Danitra’s Cabrini Green.
— A technical error with the microphone not being on when Danitra first speaks into it.
— Robert’s scene was okay.
— Joan’s bad poem to her baby is making me laugh.
— Dudley seems to be making lots of little ad-libbed asides throughout the sketches tonight, and I’m not sure it’s working for me.
— I liked the bit about if the winner shall bring disgrace upon this pageant.
— Overall, for something that came off as a big production, this didn’t quite pay off for me. I didn’t laugh all that much throughout this, and it felt weird how it wasted Cabrini Green in a largely silent role.
— This sketch would later get removed from all reruns and be replaced with some repeated pre-taped segments and a cut dress rehearsal sketch titled Just Like Phoebe. I wonder why this was removed from reruns, especially considering how elaborate it was and how many extras were heavily involved.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest sings “Going Away”


THE PAT STEVENS SHOW
poses that build self-esteem; Jackie Stewart (host)

— Pat Stevens’ demonstrated advice to strike a pose while reading Vogue Magazine is pretty funny.
— I like Pat’s bad ways of relating Dudley’s stories to something that happened to her.
— This ended abruptly. I recall getting more laughs from the dress rehearsal version that’s shown in reruns, where the sketch was longer and Dudley was given funnier dialogue.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
Tommy Flanagan says he saw Ferdinand Marcos’ war heroics first-hand
a ten second gap of blank air, courtesy of SNL & Ronald Reagan

— Kinda chilling hearing a joke about Space Shuttle Challenger, as this is just a few days before the infamous Challenger disaster. For this reason, the first half of this Update would later be replaced in reruns with the dress version, where Dennis doesn’t do the Challenger joke.
— Dennis’ joke about Herb from Burger King’s “Where’s Herb?” campaign was hilarious, as was his ad-libbed aside afterwards.
— Interesting seeing Tommy Flanagan in an Update commentary.
— Flanagan’s line about flying Japanese sand tigers was really funny
— Some laughs from Flanagan’s obvious doctored photo.
— Flanagan’s overall commentary was pretty solid, with some fun lies as usual.
STARS: ***


THE LIMITS OF THE IMAGINATION
comic’s (host) audience is over-responsive

 

— The usual good laughs during Randy’s Floating Head intro, especially the part where he electrocutes an off-camera person and we hear them scream wildly.
— The debut of Jon’s Mephistopheles character, though his costume has some minor differences from the one he would later wear regularly.
— Seemed to be a miscue with one audience member in the club being heard starting to ask “How cold is it?” earlier than they were supposed to.
— This is hilarious with the over-responsive audience ruining Dudley’s jokes by asking him non-stop questions in unison after every little thing he says, which eventually drives Dudley mad.
— Overall, my favorite Limits Of The Imagination installment so far.
STARS: ****


NAME THAT TUNE
contestants (JOC) & (host) fail to identify simple songs

— Awkward silence at the beginning, where I’m assuming the “Name That Tune” theme music failed to play.
— The bidding part was really funny.
— Nice little detail of Joan picking lint off of her outfit while Jon is explaining the game rules to her.
— Overall, they managed to get a decent amount of humor out of a such a simple, one-note premise.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest sings “True Love”


MASTER THESPIAN
a rehearsal with rival actor Sir Roger Tewksberry (host)

— Tons of airtime for Jon Lovitz tonight. And in this episode alone, we’ve gotten the three recurring characters that Jon’s probably most remembered for nowadays (Tommy Flanagan, Mephistopheles, and Master Thespian).
— LOL at Don Pardo doing a dignified thespian accent during his opening voice-over. I don’t remember him doing that in the previous installment of this sketch earlier this season.
— Classic blooper where Dudley’s thrown shawl unintentionally lands on the chandelier behind him, resulting in Dudley giving “wink-wink”-type looks to the laughing audience while Jon ad-libs a great “Thank you for the lampshade!”
— Jon’s stretched-out delivery of “The gooooooaaaaaaatsssssssss” was pretty funny.
— Did I just hear Dudley call Jon by the name “Tewksberry”? Tewksberry is supposed to be the name of Dudley’s character, not Jon’s.
— A pretty good laugh from Dudley’s character coming to the realization that he’s “stabbing” Master Thespian with a feather.
STARS: ***½


DUDLEY MOORE AND THE SNL BAND: “I GOT YOU”
host & SNL Band mix Tchaikovsky with “I Got You”

— Loved Dudley’s facial reaction to the SNL Band unexpectedly breaking out into “I Feel Good”.
— I like how Dudley’s joining in on “I Feel Good” by playing classical piano notes in tune to the song.
— Nice touch with SNL Band member Leon Pendarvis constantly looking back at Dudley with amused expressions.
— Overall, another pretty entertaining piano number tonight.
STARS: ***


DIE FOREIGNER DIE!
— Rerun


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A decent episode with a nice flow that felt very consistent, even though there were a few subpar things in the first 25 minutes (cold opening, Miss Pregnant Teenage America). While the overall episode wasn’t as strong as the consecutive three-episode Herman/Lithgow/Hanks run, this will still probably end up standing out at the end of the season as one of the better 1985-86 episodes by default.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Harry Dean Stanton):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Ron Reagan

Posted on

January 24, 1976 – Peter Cook & Dudley Moore / Neil Sedaka (S1 E11)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
bomb squad expert (CHC) attempts to deactivate a cream pie bomb
 
— George Coe sighting!
— It’s funny listening to the audience tittering during the long stretches of mock-tense silence.
— I’m already laughing right before Chevy’s even opened the box, because I heard about this before: a hand in the box is supposed to hit Chevy in the face with a pie, but the bit gets botched when the hand unintentionally misses his face, which actually sounds pretty funny to me. I think I also heard that it’s John Belushi’s hand in the box.
— Yep, I see I was right about the gag getting botched. I got a good unintentional laugh from that. I heard they actually re-do the gag properly during the goodnights.
— By the way, interesting how this didn’t end with Chevy doing a trademark fall for once. It’s good that they’re starting to branch out and have other silly things happen to him at the end of the cold openings.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Despite the fact that the cast members are still credited collectively in a list, Pardo has now started announcing their names individually for the first time ever.

MONOLOGUE
producer (Peter) tells one-legged actor (Dudley) he’s unfit to be Tarzan

— I’m not familiar with Peter Cook & Dudley Moore as a comedy team, but based on my familiarity with just Dudley and my love for British comedy, I already know I’m going to like them.
— This is very good so far, as expected.
— A funny little part just now with Dudley placing his non-leg onto the chair, accompanied by a light “thunk” sound.
— Great line from Peter: “I’ve got nothing against your right leg. The trouble is, neither have you.”
STARS: ****

UTAH PRISON
prisoners audition for parts in a jailhouse production of Gigi
 
— Another George Coe sighting!
— Oh, is this gonna be the famous sketch with Garrett singing “I’m Gonna Get Me a Shotgun and Kill All the Whiteys I See”?
— Dan’s whole scene is great so far.
— Dan’s insane rant at the end of his scene was hilarious! This is one of the types of Aykroyd performances I’ve been loving the most while going through these episodes one-by-one.
— LOL at Chevy suddenly lunging at Gilda in the middle of his harmonica solo.
— Chevy’s pedophile song – uh, wow…
— Ah, yes, the classic Garrett song. This is a riot just like I had remembered.
— I’m surprised to see that Garrett’s song is just a small part of the sketch. From the clip I had always seen of it, I had assumed it was its own sketch.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

DON PARDO’S HOLIDAY IN AN ELEVATOR
(GIR) & (DAA) go on the low-cost vacation
 
— Very interesting premise.
— I like how every country the elevator opens up on is just Dudley in front of a green-screen with a fake animal head.
— Dudley saying “No way, no way” to doing the Borneo part was great.
— The un-tucked uniform on Chevy as the “cop” was a little detail I liked.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
CHC’s attempt to call Angola ends up reaching Angela’s roommate JAC
at Times Square, LAN asks (GAM) for his opinions on abortion
 
— If Jane’s playing herself, why are we supposed to believe she would be at home during a live SNL episode?
— Jane’s “stringing beads” line was a funny callback to Chevy’s opening phone conversation gag.
— “Swarms of killer bees from South America crossing the border…” Oh, so THAT’S why they did that Killer Bees sketch a few episodes ago. I hadn’t realized it was based on a topical news story.
— Hilarious ad-lib with Chevy briefly spouting random Spanish after messing up the beginning of the Great Britain plane joke.

MIDDLE AMERICAN VAN LINES
— rerun

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella doesn’t understand the fuss about “saving Soviet jewelry”
CHC declares a moratorium on Gerald Ford jokes, then finds a loophole
aided by showering ALZ, CHC repeats the top story for wet people
 
— Loved the bit with Chevy having to combine two unrelated news stories since Update was “pressed for time”.
— The “News For the Wet” is our latest variation of “News for the Hard of Hearing”. I didn’t think this one was all that funny, though. I do like how these have been a nice way for Alan Zweibel to get some airtime.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

TABLE TALK
(Dudley) interviews The Frog & Peach restaurant owner (Peter)

— I’m already laughing right at the beginning, with Peter kicking Dudley’s clipboard out of his hand while crossing his legs.
— I’m really enjoying watching these two play off of each other.
— Again, this has the type of absurd British humor that I love.
— A good laugh from Peter’s anti-World War II letter: “Dear sir, stop it.”
— The whole bit about Peter’s character’s wife is hilarious.
STARS: ****

THE PARAMOUNT NOVELTY STORE
by Gary Weis- shop owner explains the jokes

— Where is this going? So far, this has been nothing but the store owner showcasing different novelty items.
— And that’s the end??? Man, I can accept the fact that there weren’t any jokes in this, as I know serious segments weren’t uncommon during this SNL era, but this short wasn’t even interesting or entertaining. What in the world was this going for???
— I had heard somewhere that Gary Weis’ SNL shorts were generally bad, but I wasn’t willing to believe it earlier this season after seeing his heartwarming “Homeward Bound” short and his creative “Play Misty for Me” short. But after his short tonight and his one from the preceding episode with Buck Henry searching for the funniest person, I’m slowly starting to understand why his shorts were supposedly considered bad.
STARS: *

SONNY & CHER
British Sonny (Dudley) & Cher (Peter) sing “I Got You Babe” & trade barbs

— Haha, oh my god at the initial sight of Peter and Dudley dressed like that.
— This is pretty funny, with the Scottish version of “I Got You Babe” and the spot-on imitation of bad Sonny & Cher humor.
STARS: ***½

GILDA & SCRED
GIR breaks it to Bee Scred that the Bees skit has been cut from the show

— Well, this is different. Hopefully, this means we won’t be getting our usual “Land of Gorch” Muppets sketch tonight.
— Hey, this is actually kinda cute so far.
— I like how when imitating Chevy’s Update shtick, Scred referenced Chevy’s habit of ad-libbing “toyboat toyboat”.
— This and the sketch with Lily Tomlin prove that Scred is actually a charming character when used the right way.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

BACKSTAGE BANTER
JAC interviews male impersonator Sheila Ellington (JOB)

— Hmm, unique premise with John as a woman who’s a male impersonator.
— It’s funny how this is being played so straight.
— The ‘cramps’ bit was great.
— John’s brief Rod Steiger impression just now sounded the exact same as the voice he used in the Exterminators sketch from the Robert Klein episode. Was that Exterminators sketch a parody of a Rod Steiger movie that I’m not aware of?
STARS: ***

LOVERS
neither (CHC) nor (Jaqueline Carlin) use products to feel more attractive

— Another appearance from Chevy’s then-girlfriend and occasional SNL extra Jacqueline Carlin.
— Uh, what??? That’s the whole commercial???? It was, like, 10 seconds long, and its punchline was a voice-over simply saying “neither of these two people used any commercial product to make themselves more attractive to each other”. I guess that’s kinda funny if it was intended as a spoof of the type of beauty product commercials I’m thinking of, but this came off a little too random for its own good.
STARS: **

OPERATING ROOM
not-quite-deceased (GAM) objects to having his organs harvested
 
— Another very short sketch, though at least this one had an actual good punchline.
STARS: ***½

GOSPEL TRUTH
Matthew (Dudley) interviews a shepherd (Peter) who saw the baby Jesus

— I’m liking all the little ad-libs they keep throwing in here. I caught Dudley stifling a little laughter a few times.
— So far, this is yet another fun Peter/Dudley piece, and I’m enjoying all the wordplay here.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS
CHC & hosts redo the botched opening
 
— Ah, so I was right when I said I remember hearing they re-did the cold opening’s botched pie gag. Haha, this is pretty cool.
— Oh, so that really WAS John as the pie-thrower in the cold opening.
— Okay, now that the goodnights music is playing, where’s the rest of the cast?
— And why is there no scrolling ending credits? Technical error?
— Oh, there’s the credits. For some reason, the credits are in yellow text tonight instead of the usual white text that’s typically been used this season.
— Oh, and there’s the rest of the cast, showing up one-by-one.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yet another pretty solid, fun episode, even if not quite as strong as the last two that preceded this.
— This episode made great use of the hosts, not only utilizing them well in sketches with the cast, but also giving them lots of spots throughout the show to do their two-man act, all of which were solid.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Dick Cavett