Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Gerald Ford-on-tape [real] starts show after Dead String Quartet lead-in
— I didn’t know they did this sketch multiple times in this era.
— Wasn’t Dan in the first one? John’s in his place this time.
— What’s with the audience’s weird delayed applause?
— Garrett’s dead-eyed stare at the camera the whole time is a little detail that’s cracking me up.
— A rare non-Chevy LFNY this season, as a pre-taped President Ford says it this time. His appearance must’ve been a huge deal at the time, and unless I’m mistaken, to this day, it remains the only time a sitting president ever appeared on SNL.
— Overall, this dead quartet gag still made me laugh and everything, but was it really necessary to re-do?
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— A lot of differences in the theme music tonight.
— Pardo announces the show as “Saturday Night” this time, which makes me wonder if it was a mistake in the preceding episode when he announced it as “NBC’s Saturday Night” despite the fact that it was the first episode where the “NBC’s” was taken out of the show’s title.
— “Comedian Bill Crystal”.
— Pre-taped Ford returns at the end of this to announce “the press secretary of the president of the United States”. Something about the stiffness of Ford’s scenes is giving me an unintended chuckle.
MONOLOGUE
from Washington D.C., Gerald Ford calls host to tell him he’s fired
— What’s with the camera angle on Nessen?
— So far, a lot of typical but pretty funny jokes about Ford’s clumsiness.
— Nessen is surprisingly coming off not too stiff here.
STARS: ***
SUPER BASS-O-MATIC ’76
(DAA) pitches a device that creates liquid fish
— Ah, yes, this well-remembered classic.
— For some reason, I thought they did this sketch in season 2, but maybe I’m thinking of a sequel I remember them doing where it was “bats” instead of “bass”.
— I’m happy to see that all of this is still holding up well. The insane premise, Dan’s fantastic manic rapid-fire pitchman delivery, the disgusting visual of the fish liquefying in the blender, Laraine’s brief testimonial… every detail of this sketch is perfect.
— An aged Dan and Laraine famously re-did this sketch in SNL’s 40th anniversary special, and I’m sure SNL meant well, but it was a bit depressing seeing that Dan could no longer come anywhere close to pulling off the rapid-fire delivery.
STARS: *****
AN OVAL OFFICE
host briefs Gerald Ford (CHC) & asks for permission to be on SNL
— The Nixon comment was really funny.
— A funny little touch with Chevy briefly saluting the flag after getting tangled in it.
— Overall, this was good, but a step down from the last “An Oval Office” sketch, where Buck Henry played Nessen.
STARS: ***½
FLUCKERS
jam hawkers one-up each other with progressively disgusting brand names
— Is that the Bass-O-Matic set again?
— Fun premise with different cast members coming on one-by-one with their own jam brand name.
— Ha, Dan playing a pitchman once again tonight.
— I’m loving the increasingly-repulsive brand names.
— Funny ending.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
PRESS SECRETARIES THROUGH HISTORY, PART 1
Catherine the Great’s press secretary (host) relays news of her death
— This seems like this could be fun, assuming this will be Nessen doing quick back-to-back costume changes and playing different press secretaries throughout history.
— Oh, that’s it? We only get one scene? Maybe this will be a recurring piece scattered throughout the night.
STARS: ***½
LIE DETECTOR
David Eisenhower’s (DAA) lie detector test reveals his anti-Nixon actions
— Unique format, only showing a lie detector while the performers in the sketch are speaking off-camera.
— The paper got jammed and torn by the lie detector pen at the end, which didn’t seem intentional.
STARS: ***
THE NEW ARMY
stoner (JOB) is an example of the hip new image of the Volunteer Army
— Eh, this wasn’t anything special. Not even John’s fall out of his chair at the end could do much for me.
STARS: **
WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
Gerald Ford’s [real] identity crisis therapy is a variant of CHC’s line
(host) spins Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s death during LAN interview
— Another appearance from Pre-taped Ford, this time doing his own version of the “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” line. His delivery of it was SO stiff, that it actually made me laugh.
— And funny how that segued into a joke about Ford recovering from an identity crisis.
THE BERKELEY COLLECTION
— Rerun.
— Just now, in the middle of this, I could hear what sounded like Chevy speaking off-camera to someone. I guess they forgot to turn off his mic while this fake ad was running.
WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella is puzzled about the 1976 presidential “erection”
— Emily Litella – (sigh) no comment. I complained enough in the past about SNL’s non-stop usage of her this season.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): **½
GARBAGE
by Gary Weis- interviews with NYC sanitation workers
— Man, I swear, Gary Weis picks the most boring topics to do films on. I think I just don’t “get” him as a filmmaker.
— At least this isn’t yet another Weis film about pets.
— An unexpected turn with that one garbageman talking about finding dead bodies, which is pretty funny in a dark way.
STARS: **
AUTUMN FIZZ
for that fresh & clean feeling, (GIR) uses Autumn Fizz carbonated douche
— A pretty funny feminine hygiene commercial.
— The “Don’t leave him holding the bag” line at the end was hilarious and really made this.
STARS: ***½
TOMORROW
Tom Snyder (DAA) asks host for the scoop on Washington D.C.
— The debut of Dan’s famous Tom Snyder impression.
— The audience is already loving this impression, mere moments into the sketch.
— Dan is absolutely great here. He’s cracking me up all throughout this.
— I don’t get the ending with a giant peanut coming onstage as Jimmy Carter’ s campaign manager (which got a huge reaction from the audience).
— Interesting segue to the next short film.
STARS: ****
MEN’S ROOM URINAL
by David Massar- bathroom goers perform a round from their urinals
— The operatic harmonizing from the increasing number of urinal users is pretty funny.
— Good quick laugh from the janitor walking back out as soon as he walked in and saw what was going on.
STARS: ***
PRESS SECRETARIES THROUGH HISTORY, PART 2
Oedipus’ press secretary (host) announces king’s new living arrangements
— I was right, this IS going to be a recurring piece throughout the night.
— Not as funny as the first, and I still think it would’ve been more fun to do these as one single sketch, with Nessen doing fast costume changes in between each scene.
STARS: **½
SUPREME COURT
Supreme Court “inspects” sex of (JAC) & (CHC) for “unlawful practices”
— A creative premise that I really like.
— Nice way for a lot of the male writers to get airtime.
— Can’t find anything else to say about this, other than it was an overall solid and enjoyable sketch.
STARS: ***½
PRESS SECRETARIES THROUGH HISTORY, PART 3
Thomas Jefferson’s press secretary (host) denies slavery accusations
— The comments about the slaves are funny.
— The humor of this died down afterwards and ended on a weak note.
STARS: **½
BILL CRYSTAL
BIC does monologue about reunion with his father’s jazz musician friend
— Feels strange hearing him being announced as “Bill” instead of “Billy”.
— Oh, is this going to be like those one-man character monologue sketches he often did in season 10? I never was crazy about those.
— Ohh, boy… this is the dreaded “Jazzman” routine I often hear about.
— The studio audience isn’t laughing at all so far, and neither am I.
— “Can you dig it? I knew dat you could!” (groan)
— Overall: man, was this a chore to sit through. The non-responsive audience didn’t help, either. I don’t mind a lot of stuff Crystal would later do on SNL as a host and as a cast member, but THIS stand-up set felt more like the type of hacky comedy routine I would expect to see from him in modern times.
STARS: *
MISCONCEPTIONS
the cliche “too many cooks spoil the broth” refuted
— It’s like we’re seeing tonight’s earlier supreme court judges as chefs now. They’re played by the same writers.
— Uh, okay. This was kinda cute, I guess, but not exactly funny.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
GOODNIGHTS
— Nessen says that Toni Basil and the Muppets both got bumped from the show tonight. No big loss regarding the latter.
— Some funny time-killing antics here.
— For some reason, Pardo still announces the names of the actors who played the Muppets, despite the fact that they got cut tonight. One of the names Pardo mentioned was Richard Hunt, so I guess that means Wisss (Ploobis’ hippie stoner son) was going to appear in tonight’s Muppets sketch.
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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An overall average, decent episode. Some strong material, a few rough spots after Update, and mostly just pretty good sketches.
— Ron Nessen did better than I was expecting. He wasn’t anything TOO great, but he handled himself well for a non-actor and came off as a good sport.
— A strong night for Dan Aykroyd, as two of his best performances of the whole season was in this episode (Bass-O-Matic and Tomorrow). This is a very welcome sight after the preceding episode, where Dan only appeared in that baffling Dance Party sketch at the end of the show. As I said sometime before, watching these 70s SNLs in chronological order day-after-day is giving me an even greater appreciation for Dan than I’ve ever had before.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Anthony Perkins):
— about the same
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Raquel Welch