Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Telepsychic Ray (DAA) makes up callers’ fortunes as he goes
— I’ve always liked these sketches when I saw them years ago.
— Funny part with Dan hastily cutting off the call from Tom Davis(?) that starts with him saying “My sister wants to take some butter–”.
— An even better part with the “sick friend” prank call from Jane, and then Dan, after realizing he’s been tricked, predicts that Jane will be the one to get sick.
— Nice meta segue into LFNY.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host goes backstage when the writers fail to deliver a monologue on time
— Some funny awkward stalling from Eric while waiting to be given the monologue.
— I’m liking what I always call “the unintentional backstage tour”, whenever a host is shown going all around backstage.
— Are those showgirls I’m seeing in the background? I wonder if this is what started the traditional gag of backstage sketches always having a llama, showgirls, and an Abraham Lincoln.
— The writers room being a smoke-filled drug den is a priceless gag, especially knowing all the real-life backstage drug stories we’ve heard about the original SNL era.
— Ah, there’s the background Lincoln. Still haven’t seen a llama, though. Does the random horse from earlier count?
— Speaking of horse (*TERRIBLE SEGUE ALERT*), Gilda’s voice sounds quite hoarse in this.
— A good laugh from Eric apathetically breaking the Tunisian jar after talking about how valuable it is.
— Eric’s foreign chanting is hilarious.
— Eric: “She says she cannot marry him as she has boils.”
STARS: ****½
THE FRENCH CHEF
Julia Child (DAA) bleeds profusely after cutting herself
— Oh, its the famous Julia Child sketch!
— Dan’s way of saying “saltine” was a very funny little touch.
— “I’ve cut the dickens out of my finger.”
— SNL’s very first instance of an “excessive bleeding sketch”, and boy is this one a riot.
— The audience is getting a huge kick out of this.
— Liked him pointing out that the phone he tried to call 911 on is just a prop.
— Great ending with him passing out.
— Overall, a true classic, and possibly my favorite of SNL’s excessive bleeding sketches.
STARS: *****
MADRIGAL
host, LAN, JAC, BIM sing a madrigal about a ship put to sea in May
— Never realized until now that Laraine and Eric have the exact same hairstyle.
— Judging from Garrett’s set-up and the way the song is going so far, is this going to be another serious performance like Garrett’s operatic performance in the last episode? Then again, it’s hard to take this song seriously when Eric has that hilarious facial expression.
— Hey, this song’s structure and lyrics are actually subtly comedic, especially with they way it’s amusingly being delivered in such a straight manner.
— The sudden “sank” part was a perfect ending.
STARS: ***½
THE WOMAN HE LOVED
Prince Charles (host) & hick teen love (LAN) bicker
— Dan is great as the cop.
— I liked John genially saying, while carrying a shotgun, “I’m gonna go down there and blow their heads off.”
— The abruptly shifting music during the back-and-forth cutaways from the plane footage to the England footage is a funny contrast.
— Pretty funny when Eric came back to the trailer after his long trip just to deliver a brief message to Laraine before leaving again.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
WHAT DO YOU
the game’s sound effect rules take entire show to explain
— LOL at the name “Lord Lupus”.
— This is absolutely hilarious with Eric explaining the convoluted game show rules with all the various sound effects.
— Overall, this was a fantastic little sketch. I loved the silliness, fast pacing, and Monty Python-esque vibe, and this was performed wonderfully with Eric’s flawless, rapid-fire Brit delivery.
STARS: ****½
WEEKEND UPDATE PREVIEW
WEEKEND UPDATE
during a BIM interview, Valerie Harper (GIR) finds out she’s not Jewish
Chico Escuela gives a baseball-centric sports report
BIM & JAC debate prospect of oral sex moratorium pending ERA ratification
Father Guido Sarducci explains what his trip to 42nd Street was like
— Yeah, Gilda’s voice is DEFINITELY shot tonight.
— Great reaction from Gilda’s Valerie Harper when being told she’s not Jewish.
— Chico Escuela making his Update debut.
— Chico’s lack of knowledge over the sports he’s covering is making me laugh.
— It’s good to see Garrett finally having a hit character, after four years on the show.
— Very funny Women Rights segment with Jane calling a moratorium on performing oral sex on males.
— Haha at Bill’s objection to Jane’s moratorium.
— Bill’s “hoardes of rats” news story was great.
— The whole nude wrestling story part of Father Guido Sarducci’s commentary is really good.
— Overall, a strong Update.
STARS: ****
CANDY SLICE
burned-out punk singer Candy Slice (GIR) shows up at the studio wasted
— Judging from the recording studio set, I think we’re getting our debut of Gilda’s famous Candy Slice character.
— Yep, it is! This is gonna be great.
— Why does the name of Bill’s character, Jerry Aldini, sound familiar? I’m pretty sure he played a character with that name sometime prior to this, but I can’t remember which sketch.
— I wonder if rehearsing this sketch all week explains why Gilda’s voice has been so hoarse throughout tonight’s episode. She probably blew her voice out from scream-singing during all the rehearsals.
— LOL at Gilda brushing her armpit hair.
— John and (especially) Gilda are both fighting to keep a straight face (fourth screencap above) after Gilda failed at her attempt to spit booze in John’s face.
— “If You Look Close, You Can See My Tits”. Surprised to hear that in a 70s episode.
— Gilda’s punk rock-style singing and dancing during her performance are great, and her real-life temporary hoarseness actually kinda fits the song’s style well.
STARS: ****
CONSUMER PROBE
Irwin Mainway’s endangered species fashions displayed
— Always nice to see Irwin Mainway, though I can’t help but notice the similarities to Dan’s Telepsychic character we saw just earlier tonight. Both characters have basically the same voice, are sleazy, and wear sunglasses. The same can also be said for Dan’s E. Buzz Miller character.
— The “trumpeter swan slippers” are really funny.
— I like the vest made of human skin with human teeth for buttons.
— Jane’s indignant reactions throughout this are all great.
STARS: ****
THE CANINE CHORUS
by Aviva Slesin- (BIM) is the agent for a band of singing dogs
— Hmm, a new SNL filmmaker. As long as it ain’t Gary Weis, I don’t mind. I was nervous for a second when Eric mentioned Gary Weis’ name during the intro to this film.
— The back-and-forth cutaways between Bill’s phone conversation and the barking dogs are fairly funny.
— Did this get cut off too early? This “ended” right when the camera cut back to a shot of Bill as if he was going to continue speaking.
STARS: ***
COCHISE AT OXFORD
the Apache Indian (BIM) joins (host)’s rhetoric class
— This has some importance to me, as it’s one of the first sketches from this era that I can remember ever seeing, in a rerun back in my early days as an SNL fan. I had a special liking for both the strange concept and Bill’s performance, despite the fact that this isn’t a terribly hilarious or particularly memorable sketch from what I recall.
— LOL at Bill’s entrance as Cochise.
— The class, asking what kind of Indian Cochise is: “A woo-woo Indian or an Indian-Indian?”
— The class hypothesizing how ducks “take a leak” is really funny.
— For some reason, the part of this sketch that stuck in my memory the most from my first viewing is when Bill throws a tomahawk off-camera at Eric, then the camera pans over to Eric hilariously staring fearfully at a tomahawk planted into the chalkboard next to his face, then he naively asks the class “Who threw that?”
— Overall, this sketch was very different from what I had remembered from my first viewing. I had no recollection of all the long discussions between Eric and the class, and I was surprised to see that this sketch was mostly focused on that. Despite being the title character, Bill as Cochise was barely a factor in this and didn’t even show up until halfway through the sketch. I’m kinda disappointed by that, because I had remembered really liking Bill’s Cochise performance.
— Overall, I still liked the sketch, though. The discussions between Eric and the class had some good moments.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
GOODNIGHTS
— What’s with the paper Eric’s holding? At first, I thought this was going to be a comedic bit where he finally received the monologue the writers were supposed to give him earlier. Perhaps that WAS the intention, but maybe the show ran long and thus, Eric didn’t have enough time to do the bit. Just a theory of mine. These goodnights were kinda sloppy in general (it opens with Eric and the cast in the process of making their arrival onstage, as seen in the first screencap above).
— When announcing next week’s guests, Don Pardo says that Mr. Mike will be a special guest. Did Mr. Mike end up canceling or getting bumped, because I was told that his only two cameos after leaving SNL were in this season’s Buck Henry season finale, and next season’s 100th episode.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yet another very strong Eric Idle episode. He’s 3-for-3 in great episodes so far. Tonight had an impressive number of sketches that received a high rating from me, and there were no sketches I disliked. And just like in his first two episodes, the writers did a great job catering to Eric’s specific comedic style.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Walter Matthau):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Our Christmas episode of the season, hosted by Elliott Gould