Tag: Eddie Murphy

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December 15, 1984 – Eddie Murphy / The Honeydrippers (S10 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Alfalfa magnifies a newspaper photo & discovers Buckwheat is still alive

— I liked Mary’s exaggerated double-take when spotting Buckwheat in a crowd photo.
— LOL, a replay of the classic “Buckwheat gets shot” clip, which never fails to crack me up.
— Hmm, a “To be continued…” ending.
STARS: N/A (not sure if I should rate this, since it was just a short, straightforward set-up to a later sketch)


OPENING MONTAGE
— Despite being fired, Jim Belushi is still credited in the opening montage, due to the fact that the continuous side-scrolling style of this season’s montage makes it impossible to edit out any of the cast members. The show would face this same problem a little later this season when a certain other cast member gets fired.


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— After getting used to no longer reviewing him since late last season, it’s good to see Eddie back on SNL.
— What a suit he’s wearing. In a later interview, Eddie addressed this monologue and admitted that him wearing this type of overly fancy suit is a sign that you don’t wanna be around him behind the scenes because he’s “not acting right”. Apparently, it’s true, as Billy Crystal would later go on to say that Eddie was a NIGHTMARE to work with that week.
— I’m liking Eddie’s various self-deprecating comments about his recent box-office bomb Best Defense, which he says is “a movie that sucked REAL bad”.
— Great story about how he was convinced to do Best Defense, and how it led into him hosting this episode.
— Funny part with him admitting “not everything in tonight’s show is hysterical”, and how most SNL hosts lie to you by saying it’s gonna be a great show; you usually end up seeing some things that suck. Gotta love Eddie’s bluntness here.
— He throws to a short film starring him, which takes us to our next segment (and what a famous one it is).
STARS: ****


WHITE LIKE ME
by Andy Breckman- undercover as a caucasian, EDM is shocked by white life

— Here’s an all-time classic, well-known piece with Eddie investigating what it’s like to experience America as a white man.
— Hilarious that he’s studying how to be white by watching Dynasty and reading Hallmark cards.
— A freakin’ hilarious initial sight of White Eddie. Very good make-up job on him.
— Love the walk he’s doing.
— I always like Jim Downey’s delivery of “Go ahead, take it”, as well as Eddie hesitantly following those instructions.
— Yet another great part with the whites in the bus breaking out into party mode after the sole black passenger leaves.
— So much great social commentary here.
— I think the guy playing the white boss is the same guy who’s appeared in several Ebersol-era pieces, usually playing doctors (such as the doctor who officially announces Buckwheat’s death in the legendary Buckwheat Gets Shot sketch).
— Great line from White Eddie: “What a silly negro!”
STARS: *****


THE END OF BUCKWHEAT
Buckwheat staged his death to evade a killer, who turns out to be Alfalfa

— The anticipated return of Buckwheat.
— I liked him just pushing Mary’s Alfalfa out the door when having no answer to her asking what his “ailment” is.
— For some reason, just the idea of Buckwheat having a tattoo on his chest that says “mother” amuses me.
— After his fake beard gets removed by Alfalfa, Eddie-as-Buckwheat looks into the camera and exclaims “D’ohhhhhhh!” in a silly high-pitched voice. That absolutely SLAYED me.
— Interesting turn with Alfalfa getting revenge on Buckwheat for a childhood frog-in-the-pants prank. Strong performance from Mary here.
— Looks like we now officially have the REAL death of Buckwheat.
STARS: ***½


MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
the easy way to make a Cabbage Patch Doll

— The night of returning Eddie Murphy favorites continues, as we now get this popular recurring sketch.
— This is probably a well-remembered installment among SNL fans, due to its annual inclusion in SNL’s older Christmas compilation specials from the 90s.
— I love how his idea of a homemade Cabbage Patch Doll is to tear off the head of a regular doll and replace it with a head of lettuce.
— Seeing as how Tim Kazurinsky isn’t on the show anymore, I wonder who that is doing Mr. Landlord’s off-camera voice this time. Gary, maybe?
— Overall, another good Mister Robinson, even if this isn’t one of my absolute favorite installments of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


NEWSMAKERS
Communists’ (MAG) & (JLD) schoolyard chant wastes time

— Were we supposed to see Billy hastily applying his clip-on mic at the beginning?
— I’m liking Mary and Julia randomly going into a very extensive superstitious childish chant after they’ve “jinxed” each other by saying the same thing simultaneously. I especially like the Egyptian dance part of the chant.
— Great reaction afterwards from Billy, with his deadpan “What the hell was that?”
— Funny turn with Mary and Julia STILL launching into another rendition of their chant routine even after simply coughing in unison.
— Feels weird seeing Billy playing a straightman to Mary and Julia. Usually, it’s the other way around.
— This obviously started getting repetitive after a while, but the overall sketch was still good and I’m usually always a fan of the rare times SNL allows Julia Louis-Dreyfus to be funny.
STARS: ***


BLACK HISTORY MINUTE
Shabazz K. Morton (EDM) on George Washington Carver

— I’m already laughing from the beginning, just from Eddie’s silent, head-thrown-back posture when the camera first shows him.
— I love the character name Shabazz K. Morton.
— I almost feel like Eddie might as well be playing his Raheem Abdul Mohammed character here. There’s not much difference in the characterization.
— Funny soul/soil line flub, which gets a laugh from the audience.
— And there’s Eddie’s legendary ad-libbed response to the audience: “So I messed up, SHUT UP!!!” An absolutely classic moment. He also adds a great “Stop clappin’ ‘fore ya’ll make me smile!” afterwards. Eddie always had a penchant for fantastic ad-libs whenever anything went wrong in a sketch.
— Another funny line flub with Eddie’s “This pastes pretty g– tastes pretty good”. When the audience laughs at that, Eddie ad-libs a callback to his earlier ad-lib by angrily saying “Yeah, keep on smilin’!”
— The line about George Washington Carver’s method to compress peanuts into phonograph needles gave me a pretty good laugh.
— Very funny reveal of the names of the two white men who stole George Washington Carver’s peanut butter recipe: Edward “Skippy” Williamson and Frederick “Jif” Armstrong.
— Overall, great sketch, elevated by Eddie’s reliable delivery and terrific ad-libbing skills.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rockin’ at Midnight”


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Paul Harvey (RIH) sneaks ads into The Rest of the Story on Kennedys
British journalist Angela Bradleigh’s (PLS) analysis is unintelligible
EDM discusses the recent glut of celebrity dolls

— Saturday Night News makes its return after not appearing in the last episode.
— Christopher’s actually showing personality at the beginning, with him urging the audience to continue applauding.
— Unfortunately, it’s right back to Dry City for Christopher, with his bland delivery of the news jokes.
— I do like Christopher’s meta joke about Eddie Murphy starring as young Frank Sinatra in a biopic titled “Old Blue Eyes is Black”.
— I always like Rich-as-Paul-Harvey’s various product promotions.
— Christopher’s bit about finding the USA on the world map fell COMPLETELY flat.
— For once, Pamela Stephenson actually gets to do a character!
— Pamela’s British-accented gibberish is pretty funny, especially how she occasionally throws in random comprehensible statements (at one point, inexplicably breaking out into a verse from the 12 Days of Christmas song).
— Very few jokes from Christopher so far tonight. He’s basically just transitioning from one guest commentator to another.
— Eddie’s wearing his old Raheem Abdul Mohammed early 80s Adidas tracksuit.
— Eddie’s various homophobic comments about Ken dolls haven’t aged well.
— Very funny part with Eddie making the Brooke Shields and Mr. T dolls kiss each other, and then imagining that Brooke’s mom is going “(sternly) Brooke, you’re kissing this tremendous negro on television”.
— Loved Eddie pointing out how the gremlin doll has Miles Davis’ facial features.
— Eddie’s whole bit with the Michael Jackson doll is hilarious.
STARS: **½
[ADDENDUM: It turns out that in the original airing of tonight’s episode, Saturday Night News was oddly buried all the way towards the end of the show as the third-to-last segment of the night (they moved it up to an earlier timeslot in the rerun version I’m reviewing), which ties this with the previous season’s Flip Wilson episode as the latest that SNL has ever aired their fake news segment in an episode. With Saturday Night News being completely eliminated from the previous week’s episode and now it airing insanely late in tonight’s episode, it’s become very obvious that Ebersol has absolutely NO confidence left in the segment. Thank god there’s only half a season left of this nonsense before Lorne comes back. Ebersol clearly never had a damn clue what he was doing with SNL’s news segment.]


LISHMAN’S DELI
Gumby reunites with (CHG), Irving Cohen & Lew Goldman at a deli

— Another random Alan Zweibel sighting this season, this time as an employee behind the counter in the background. Was he a frequent guest writer this season or something?
— Good to see Martin’s Irving Cohen, as I wasn’t able to review his debut appearance from the George Carlin episode due to that sketch (“In Thickeness and In Health”) being removed from my version.
— Boy, this sketch doesn’t seem to be going anywhere interesting so far.
— Amusing seeing a young Larry David so prominent in the background throughout this. (you can see him to Rich Hall’s right in the screencap below)

— The return of Gumby.
— Another funny fictional character name tonight, with the moniker Adolf K. Musselman.
— At first glance, Rich in that wig and glasses strongly resembled Joe Piscopo in character.
— Rich’s sarcastic “Oh, I guess that was some OTHER green jew” to Gumby made me laugh.
— Man, this sketch has mostly been going NOWHERE.
— Not sure what made Billy lose his composure and start cracking up (fourth screencap above), but that was pretty funny.
— This overall sketch did not work for me. To paraphrase a comment I remember once reading about this sketch on Reddit: “How do you have comedy greats Eddie Murphy, Martin Short, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Rich Hall, and Larry David all in one sketch, and not a single funny moment be produced?”
STARS: *½


LIFESTYLES OF THE RELATIVES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS
Denise Lewis (MAS)

— Good to see this back again.
— Unsurprisingly, Martin’s doing a great Jerry Lewis impression as his niece. His scene, however, pales in comparison to his Nelson Hepburn interview from the first installment of this sketch, as Nelson Hepburn was a more fleshed-out and interesting character.
— Love the fact that they’re showing out-of-place footage of an outdoors Robin Leach (Harry Shearer) nodding during an indoors interview.
— Funny visual of Billy as Yul Brenner’s travel agent aunt. Even with the bald head, Billy actually looks convincing as a woman. I remember when I first saw a screencap of him in this sketch long before I actually watched the sketch, I mistook him for Pamela Stephenson.
— Nice ending with Eddie as a James Brown relative musically directing traffic in the street.
STARS: ***


MILESTONES
Bishop Tutu (EDM) accidentally ruins Doug Flutie’s (RIH) Heisman Trophy

— I’ve always had a biased love towards this sketch, as I first saw it in 2000 as a young teenager while watching a Comedy Central airing of Eddie’s “Best Of” special, which was my very first exposure to his SNL tenure. This was one of the first sketches I caught in that special, and I have great memories of being so tickled by so many things in this sketch and being surprised that they got so much humor out of such a simple, thin premise. However, I also remember wondering who the hell the two white guys (Christopher Guest and Rich Hall) were. It’s understandable that I didn’t know Rich Hall yet back then, but it’s probably surprising to some that I didn’t recognize Christopher Guest. Then again, I was probably a little too young back then to be familiar with his movies.
— Funny random pairing of Desmond Tutu and Doug Flutie.
— The back-and-forth whispery arguing between Christopher and Eddie is really cracking me up.
— Love the cutaway to Eddie and a mechanic using some kind of torch to fix the trophy.
— Hilarious visual of the horrible-looking melted trophy after the aforementioned torch procedure.
STARS: ****


CLIMBING THE STAIRS
the fate of a WWII platoon depends on Lawrence’s stair-climbing ability

— Good to see the return of Lawrence.
— Funny explanation from Lawrence that he never learned how to climb the stairs because it never came up in his life.
— Great aggressive delivery from Gary here.
— A big laugh during the stick figure drawing part, where Lawrence asks “Which is me?” and Gary angrily responds “THE ONE WITH THE HEAD, LAWRENCE!”
— This is the first time tonight that I’ve really noticed Jim Belushi’s absence, because he would’ve been perfect for this sketch as one of the angry soldiers playing straightman to Lawrence. I can see Jim playing Billy’s role.
— Some really good physical comedy from Martin here in his bizarre attempts to climb the stairs.
— Pretty funny ending with the phone.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Santa Claus is Back in Town”


KILLING TIME
with 30 seconds to kill, EDM describes scheduling mishap & plays piano

— According to Eddie, we missed a dirty joke that he told the audience right before the show came back from commercial break.
— Eddie humorously explains to us that SNL timed the show wrong; tonight’s episode ended up being 30 seconds longer than they scheduled, so they’re forced to do this random “killing time” segment.
— Funny how Eddie quickly rushes to play the piano just seconds before they run out of time and go back to commercial break. Eddie’s always had a knack for making these “killing time” segments entertaining.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


GOODNIGHTS
EDM announces Willie Day’s [real] retirement

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty strong and memorable episode as expected. A lot of solid stuff throughout the show, and Eddie commanded the stage and provided lots of laughs just like in his cast member days. It was also nice to see his popular characters return for one last time.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
We enter 1985, with host Kathleen Turner

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December 11, 1982 – Eddie Murphy / Lionel Richie (S8 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
planned host Nick Nolte is ill, so EDM introduces “The Eddie Murphy Show”

— I like the opening shot of pictures of various Eddie Murphy sketches on the wall.
— Eddie gives a legitimate but funny explanation as to why scheduled host Nick Nolte had to drop out, and how we’re still going to see a “48 Hours” star host tonight because Eddie’s taking over Nolte’s duties.
— It speaks volumes on how huge of a star Eddie was at this point that he was allowed to fill in as a host (and in only his third season as a cast member!) and the episode would still be a big draw for audiences. I don’t think there’s ever been another cast member since Eddie who’s megastardom on the show was THAT much higher than that of their castmates. Some people might argue Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, or even current cast member Kate McKinnon, but nope, they weren’t on Eddie’s early 80s level of huge stardom (especially not by their respective third seasons).
— “Live from New York, it’s the Eddie Murphy Show!” I know the decision to have Eddie open the show with that line bothered some of his castmates, but in some ways, that line DOES sum up how this SNL era is often looked as, for better or worse.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Funnily enough, despite being credited and announced by Pardo as the host (with his head pasted over a picture of Nick Nolte), Eddie’s also still credited and announced as a cast member as usual.


MONOLOGUE
EDM does stand-up about black people & haunted houses, Stevie Wonder

    

— Feels great to see Eddie making the entrance that hosts usually do at this part of the show.  And wow, listen to those huge audience cheers for him.
— I like how this has started with him jokingly saying the cliched things hosts usually start their monologues with (“great to be here in New York”, “working with this cast has been great”, etc.) as if he’s never been to New York or worked with this cast before.
— Yet another great display of Eddie’s knack for doing a perfect “old Jew” voice.
— Lots of laughs from Eddie giving examples on why black characters can’t realistically be in horror films. Even if that’s a cliched stand-up topic by today’s standards, Eddie’s making some funny points here.
— Love how he’s now doing his “bad taste” Stevie Wonder impression.
— Great part with him miming a fight with Stevie.
— Overall, great stand-up monologue from Eddie as expected.
STARS: ****


RUBIK’S GRENADE
“Maybe the last puzzle you’ll never solve”

  

— Funny concept, and seems to be an improvement over that “Rubik’s Teeth” commercial from last season.
— I’m getting some good laughs from the very frantic, shaky movements of the hands panickedly trying to solve the Rubik’s Grenade.
— Good tagline.
STARS: ***½


I CAME, I SAW, I CAME AGAIN
(JOP) & (JLD) see the Kensington Dance Theater For The Blind in action

   

— Some pretty funny missed falls from the dancers.
— Good reveal that it’s not the dancers who are blind but rather the audience. I had been wondering why the audience members were all staring blankly ahead during Joe’s speech.
STARS: ***


MERRY CHRISTMAS, DAMMIT!
Frank Sinatra (JOP) sings on Gumby’s special

       

— Ah, here’s what’s considered the quintessential Gumby sketch, as well as a famous classic sketch in general. It used to be a yearly tradition for SNL to always include this in their annual Christmas compilation special.
— I got an unintentional chuckle at how cheap-looking the title graphic for this sketch comes off by today’s standards, with “Merry Christmas, Dammit!” being written in a very plain-looking font.
— Haha, I like Sammy Davis Jr.’s tree ornament being a glass eye.
— Classic moment with the song from Gary and Julia’s Donny and Marie gradually turning into a squicky brother/sister make-out session. That’s probably the most well-remembered part of this sketch.
— Good dark ending to Gumby’s Christmas story to the kids.
— Loved the part with Gumby throwing a little girl out into the snowy outdoors and making her walk to Andy Williams’ Christmas special.
— Is that Clint Smith as the shortest of the three singing Don Kings? I can’t tell.
— I’m loving Joe-as-Sinatra’s medley of cartoon character theme songs.
— The scrolling ending credits of nothing but Jewish names was probably overkill of a joke they already established earlier, but it still made me chuckle anyway.
— Nice touch at the end with the little girl who was kicked out earlier now being frozen while staring in through the window.
— Overall, this sketch is absolutely deserving of its classic status.
STARS: *****


HARRY ANDERSON
Harry Anderson [real] tries bottle-in-a-tube trick with audience member

    

— Harry’s different ways of trying to communicate with the male audience member, especially after finding out he’s from New Jersey, are pretty funny.
— Good comment from Harry regarding the audience volunteer’s baldness: “You brushed your hair, but you forgot to bring it, didn’t you?”
— Overall, Harry’s interactions with the volunteer were fun as expected, but this overall segment wasn’t quite up to Harry’s usual standards. This felt pretty average.
STARS: ***


HAIREM SCAREM
Dion Dion (EDM) denies knowledge of stealing hair for wigs

   

— The debut of Eddie’s Dion Dion character, who would later go on to be teamed with Joe as a pair of flamboyant hairstylists.
— The audience seems to be getting a real kick out of the mere fact that Eddie is queening it up in this. I guess the portrayal of stereotypical gay characters was more of a novelty back in those days.
— I kinda like how it’s now being hinted that Eddie is wearing Robin’s old hair.
— At the end during the sketch-ending applause, Eddie can be seen yanking off his wig and throwing it at Robin, which I’m assuming was an ad-lib.
— Fairly forgettable sketch overall.
STARS: **½


HERPES GONE BANANAS
a Herpes Simplex II virus (EDM) returns home from the front lines

  

— Pretty interesting, unusual set-up.
— Good character voice on Eddie here.
— Wow, this sketch is really “out there” so far. And the studio audience ain’t into this at all.
— Overall, I don’t know WHAT to think of this, but I think I feel confident enough to say this did not work, despite a somewhat creative concept and a very committed performance from Eddie.
STARS: *½


JOY OF CHRISTMAS
jaded children discuss Christmas
— What the–? It’s a rerun of an SNL Newsbreak pre-tape from last season’s Christmas episode, where Mary interviews little kids about “the meaning of Christmas”. I know it’s Christmas again, but is it really necessary to re-air this?
— At least it’s worth it just for the (now) novelty of seeing a young Seth Green again.


A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
Jesus’ birth, as told by April May June

— The return of this character from Julia’s very first episode.
— I like how Julia is getting increasingly worked up during her story. She always does a good job as this character.
STARS: ***


CLYSLER-PRYMOUTH
— I already covered this in my review of the Robert Blake episode. This was actually originally aired in tonight’s episode and was later added to the Blake episode in reruns.
— Comedy Central’s big-ol’ “The Eddie Murphy Experience” station bug on the lower corner of the screen (which I’m sure you’ve been noticing in some of my screencaps of this era’s episodes; “The Eddie Murphy Experience” was a big 1994 marathon of early 80s SNLs that Comedy Central showed to promote the release of Eddie’s “Beverly Hills Cop 3”) completely blocked the “Prymouth” part of the racially stereotypical “Clysler-Prymouth” name at the end, thus ruining the gag (not that it was funny anyway). (screencap below)

ORIGINAL RATING: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You Are”


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists some Christmas-related medical problems
May Bradley (ROD) has holiday advice for old people- drink smart egg nogs
a riled-up MAG offers some of her Christmas pet peeves

         

— Brad’s Tony Orlando Lookalike Contest joke was pretty funny.
— It took two minutes into tonight’s Dr. Jack Badofsky for me to finally get a laugh. It was the “Richard-Pryorrea” one that did it.
— Bah, aside from the aforementioned Richard Pryor bit, Badofsky’s overall commentary did absolutely NOTHING for me. I’ve officially been over this character for a while now.
— A lot of Brad’s jokes are bombing badly tonight.
— Here comes yet ANOTHER attempt from Robin at an SNL news character. None of her attempts in the past have worked at all. Will this?
— Eh, Robin’s overall commentary was marginally better than her previous SNL news attempts, though this one took a while to take off.
— Now Brad has been relying on an endless consecutive string of groanworthy picture gags.
— Tonight’s “Spittin’ Mad Mary Gross” commentary had a slow start, but after a while, we’re now getting her usual strong delivery and lines. She’s saving this whole Saturday Night News for me tonight.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Truly”


GOODNIGHTS
Steve Martin [real] is hurt because he wasn’t called upon to do the show

  

— Another mention from Eddie of tonight being “The Eddie Murphy Show”.
— Steve Martin! We haven’t seen him on the show since the original era. Having regularly reviewed his many prior episodes during my coverage of the first five seasons, it feels very refreshing seeing him again after a two-season absence, even if this is just a cameo. I still have to wait until we reach 1986 in my SNL project before I can go back to regularly reviewing his episodes again. I wonder if the reason for his long hosting gap between 1980-1986 is because for a while, he possibly stuck to doing what fellow original-era frequent host Buck Henry did: stay loyal to the original cast by never hosting in subsequent eras.
— Steve’s whole angry rant over not being asked to host is fantastic.
— His obligatory “Excuuuse meee!” at the end was delivered very differently and less exaggeratedly from how we’re used to hearing it, which may go to show that his style was already beginning to shift by this point in 1982. By the time he starts regularly hosting SNL again a few years later in 1986, his manic style from the 70s has completely changed to a more low-key style.
— I love Eddie’s frozen, deadpan reaction after Steve’s whole rant is finished.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A decent but surprisingly average episode. I had always been under the impression that this episode was generally considered to be a bit of a classic, so I was kinda disappointed to see it just turned out to be a normal episode. I think the whole “Eddie Murphy hosting the show while still in the cast” novelty might make this episode seem better in some people’s minds than it really is. Well, that and the often-aired Gumby Christmas sketch. Looking past those two aspects, there was still a decent amount of fun highlights, but not more so than usual.
— Eddie handled the job of a host perfectly, even managing to be funny in his musical guest intros (“Ever say to yourself, wow, the musical guest really sucked?” and then later “Ever say to yourself, wow, that last sketch really sucked?”, the latter referring to tonight’s Herpes sketch). It can’t be said enough how amazing it is that an SNL episode was actually hosted by someone who’s still in the cast. Needless to say, this milestone would turn out to be a turning point for Eddie, and it’s no surprise that even as early as the beginning of next season, he already has one foot out the door.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
We enter 1983, with host Lily Tomlin