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