Tag: Paul Simon

Posted on

November 20, 1976 – Paul Simon / George Harrison (S2 E8)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host says “hi” to CHC on way into studio; LOM haggles with musical guest
    
— This opened strangely with Don Pardo’s voice-over explaining that “portions of the following program have been pre-recorded”. You could hear some people in the audience awkwardly chuckling afterwards.
— Oh, an outdoors cold opening. I guess that explains the special Pardo intro.
— ANOTHER Chevy cameo?!?
— The joke of Chevy being a down-and-out street performer in his post-SNL career is pretty funny, I admit. But man, with him appearing in the first two episodes after his departure, it doesn’t feel like he’s even left yet.
— I love how Lorne and George Harrison’s conversation is referencing Lorne’s famous Beatle Offer sketch.
— Paul Simon’s doubts to Lorne about the monologue is pretty funny, especially when you know what the monologue is going to be.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
turkey costume-wearing host complains to LOM about his wardrobe
   
— This is a famous monologue that’s often shown in SNL’s annual Thanksgiving compilation special.
— The visual of Paul seriously singing “Still Crazy After All These Years” in that ridiculous costume is simply great.
— I’m getting a lot of laughs from Paul’s angry complaining to Lorne, and Lorne is equally hilarious not understanding Paul’s anger.
— Overall, a classic monologue.
STARS: *****

QUARRY
all-natural Quarry cereal is full of minerals because it’s made of rocks
 
— A very funny concept.
— I love the loud crunching sound effects.
— Overall, a strong fake ad.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (PAUL SIMON)

BABA WAWA AT LARGE
Henry Kissinger (JOB) talks about his career

— Another Baba Wawa talk show sketch.
— Some of John’s deadpan facial reactions are pretty funny.
— Baba Wawa: “Have you any final words for the Amewican pubwic?” Kissinger: “(bluntly) No.”
— Overall, an okay sketch, though I’m beginning to tire of the constant Baba Wawa talk show sketches.
STARS: ***

THE TWILITE ZONE
Rod Serling (DAA) joins three starlets in a hotel room
 
— Dan is doing an absolutely flawless imitation of Rod Serling’s voice. I feel Dan doesn’t get enough credit for being such a strong impressionist in general.
— A funny unplanned part when the camera panned over to Dan too late after he had stopped speaking, then after an awkward silence, Dan just smiled really big at the camera.
— I had been wondering where this whole thing was going, but the reveal at the end was pretty funny. Still feels like this Twilight Zone parody could’ve been funnier, though.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE
LAN reports from a Long Island diner full of Nazi war criminals
JAC asks viewers to suggest how Morris The Cat should kill himself
GAM reports on a new strain of gonorrhea that kills penicillin
     
— Jane’s porn star cocktail joke was great, made even funnier by Jane’s apologetic comment immediately afterward: “It’s my job, mom, I’m sorry.”
— The whole Morris the Cat bit is fantastic, especially Jane urging viewers to send in ways to kill him.
— I believe this is Garrett’s very first commentary at the Update desk.
— The old black-and-white cartoon footage representing penicillin is pretty funny. As I said sometime before, I always get a kick out of when SNL does stuff like that.
— The “Loretta” punchline of Garrett’s commentary was hilarious.
— Yay, no mid-WU break!
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (PAUL SIMON AND GEORGE HARRISON)

CRACKERBOX PALACE
musical guest performs “Crackerbox Palace” in music video
   
— Not sure if I should rate this, since this is just a George Harrison music video.
— Despite that, this is fun to watch and the song is very catchy.
— I also like knowing that Eric Idle directed this; I can definitely see his influence in the video’s style.
STARS: N/A

BILLY PAUL
Billy Paul (host) fights for civil rights in an ice cream parlor
     
— Surprisingly, this is the first actual sketch Paul has appeared in all night.
— I like the shifting backgrounds behind Paul.
— That sure looks like 70s era Shelley Duvall as one of the diner patrons. (lower right corner of the third screencap above) That can’t be her, though, can it? Wouldn’t she have been too famous at the time to randomly appear as a silent background extra in an SNL sketch? In fact, doesn’t she actually host later this same season?
— Dan crushing ice cream cones during Gilda’s terrible singing is pretty funny.
— Hilarious gag when the door immediately slammed back into Paul’s face after he busted the door open.
— Paul’s cracking me up with his performance as an over-dramatic tough guy character.
— I like how this ended with the characters marching off the set and continuing to march through the studio.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (PAUL SIMON)

TOMORROW
it’s clear that Tom Snyder (DAA) has no idea who host is

— The return of Dan’s hilarious Tom Snyder.
— Pretty funny with him constantly mixing Paul up with other people.
STARS: ***

THIS SONG
musical guest performs “This Song” in a musical courtroom
   
— Another George Harrison music video.
STARS: N/A

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (PAUL SIMON)

GOODNIGHTS
 
— Paul: “My special apologies to Michael O’Donoghue, he knows why.” Did a segment of Michael’s get bumped?

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A strange episode, in how a majority of the show was taken up with musical performances and George Harrison music videos. Those were all fine in themselves, but that combined with the low amount of sketch content brought back not-too-fond memories of Paul’s season 1 episode, which consisted of almost nothing but musical performances. Tonight’s episode wasn’t nearly as extreme, but still left me craving more sketches.
— I guess I can’t complain too much. After all, what we got in this episode was still good, there weren’t any sketches I disliked, the monologue was a memorable classic, and as always, Paul Simon did a very good job and had a likable presence.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dick Cavett):
— a step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
14-year-old Jodie Foster

Posted on

October 18, 1975 – Paul Simon / Randy Newman, Phoebe Snow (S1 E2)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host performs “Still Crazy After All These Years”; CHC falls
 
— Our first of what I know is going to be MANY musical performances tonight……
— Ha, Chevy out of nowhere doing a pratfall after the song ended. That was so random, but certainly funny. It’s also noteworthy in that it was the birth of Chevy’s traditional SNL pratfalls. And after this and the previous week’s episode, this opening also pretty much solidified a tradition of Chevy being the one who says “Live from New York…” every week.

OPENING MONTAGE
— The audio quality of the theme music is noticeably A LOT better than the muffled/cardboard box sound it had in the first episode.
— Wow, are George Coe and Michael O’Donoghue gone from the cast ALREADY? The cast list in this episode’s montage just lists the seven Not Ready For Prime-Time Players that everyone’s familiar with nowadays. And unlike last week, they’re listed alphabetically this time, too:

MONOLOGUE
host & Jesse Dixon Singers perform “Loves Me Like A Rock”

— Hmm, Paul is already standing on stage (along with the Jesse Dixon Singers) after the opening montage ends, instead of making the usual entrance that hosts make after Don Pardo announces “Ladies and gentlemen, (insert host name here)”.
— Ah, our first real sighting of the “basement” homebase stage that I remember from this era. Technically, it was used in the previous episode for Janis Ian’s musical performances, but this is the first time it’s being used for the monologue/goodnights stage.

THE BERKELEY COLLECTION
Jerry Rubin [real] pitches the Berkeley Collection of graffiti wallpaper
 
— Like in last week’s pre-taped segments, there doesn’t seem to be any audience sounds mixed into this.
— Uh… I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be laughing at this commercial or not. But I am finding it strangely enjoyable and this has a nice charm to it. This is serving as a nice little time capsule into the late 60s hippie era.
— This actually seems like this could be a real advertised product.
STARS: ***

We get our very first audience caption, a gag that would go on to become one of the staples of 70s SNL.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Paul Simon)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Randy Newman)

BEES
host informs The Bees that their number has been cut from the show

— Hi, cast members!
— Hmm, Chevy isn’t there. But there appears to be a guy in his place who I don’t recognize. (He’s the one standing next to Belushi in the above screencap) I’m guessing he’s one of the writers.
— Paul’s line about how the Bees bit “didn’t work last week” is referring to how poorly-received the previous episode’s Bee Hospital sketch was. I read someplace that the higher-ups at NBC ordered Lorne not to ever bring the Bees back after how badly that sketch bombed.
— Bye, cast members!
— Overall, I can’t rate this segment because it was so short, but it was a pretty funny bit. Unfortunately, I know it’s the last we see of these cast members for the rest of the night…..

WEEKEND UPDATE
host goes one-on-one with Connie Hawkins [real]; Marv Albert cameo
  
— The string of President Ford jokes are all pretty funny so far.
— Hmm, I’m starting to notice a Chevy Chase trademark I never caught before: him pounding his fist on the desk whenever an Update joke gets a big reaction from the audience. He did it last week after the famous prostitution stamp joke, and now he did it this week after a joke.
— Well, this sudden Connie Hawkins/Paul Simon pre-tape certainly seems strange.
— Did I just hear audience laughter? I thought audio of the audience wasn’t mixed into the early pre-tapes.
— Hey, this Simon/Hawkins match is actually really fun. I’m loving this.
— I got a good laugh from the “he’s not hurt” caption after Paul got up from the floor.
— Loved the slow-motion part with Paul ducking under Hawkins’ jump, then successfully making a shot.
— That’s the end of Update? Kinda surprised they never cut back to Chevy. That long pre-tape almost made you forget it was even part of Update.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Simon & Garfunkel, #1)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Simon & Garfunkel, #2)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Art Garfunkel)

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Ploobis & Scred seek The Mighty Favog’s help during a financial crisis

— Well, I surprisingly didn’t groan when this popped up, but I’m sure that’s just because after so many consecutive musical performances, I’m desperate for ANY comedy on the show, even this.
— Not too bad so far. It feels weird to actually be laughing during this episode.
— The close-up of Scred’s facial reaction to Favog saying he’ll “take” him was great.
STARS: **½

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
traumatic home movies & failed Candid Camera stunts
 
— The interplay between Albert and his little daughter is pretty funny.
— Hey, I’m actually laughing a lot during this film. Again, however, I’m sure part of that is because of how comedy-deprived I’ve been after sitting through musical performance after musical performance all night.
— Man, Albert’s dad ages fast.
— Overall, Albert Brooks gave me some good much-needed laughs in this film.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Phoebe Snow)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Phoebe Snow, Paul Simon, Jesse Dixon Singers)

TRY-HARD 1-11
the battery is strong enough to run a pacemaker all night

— Uh… okaaayyyy…
— I have no idea what to say about this overall, other than I feel like I missed why this was supposed to be funny. Man, some of these early SNL fake ads are strange.
STARS: *

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (Paul Simon)

GOODNIGHTS
Bill Bradley [real] presents host with a basketball trophy
 
— The visual of Paul struggling to carry that huge trophy is pretty funny.
— Paul continues to get laughs, with him now challenging Kareem Abdul Jabbar to a one-on-one match.
— Interestingly, when thanking tonight’s guests, one of the “guests” Paul mentions is Chevy Chase, which is strange considering Chevy’s in the cast. But then again, in the previous episode’s goodnights, George Carlin also mentioned the cast (or, as he called them, “The Not Quite Ready For Prime-Time Players”) among the rest of that episode’s guests. I think this, among other things, shows that in these early episodes, the cast wasn’t quite as ingrained into the show as they would soon be.
— Like how last week’s goodnights just had Carlin on stage by himself, this episode’s goodnights just have Paul and Bill Bradley by themselves. To modern eyes, the stage looks so odd not having the cast & musical guest there as the credits are rolling.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Well… what is there to say about SNL: The Concert, besides “wow, what a weird episode” or “this did not feel like SNL”?
— Honestly, I actually enjoyed the musical performances in this episode, but man, the live sketches’ presence was VERY missed, as was the Not Ready For Prime-Time Players’ presence. Chevy was the only cast member who got any real screen time, and even THAT isn’t saying much, as he just made a walk-on (or “fall-on”, rather) at the end of the cold opening and didn’t do many jokes on Weekend Update before throwing to the Connie Hawkins/Paul Simon basketball pre-tape (which was easily the best segment of the night).
— This being such an early episode and the format not being set in stone yet, it’s understandable that SNL was trying different things – that’s part of what makes these early episodes so fascinating. But let’s just be happy this episode’s ‘all music, no sketches’ format isn’t what SNL ended up sticking with in the long run, though I don’t think that was ever the plan anyway; from what I remember hearing, this episode was basically created as an excuse for the cast and staff to take a breather after all the hard work it took putting together the first episode.
— Despite mostly just focusing on music, Paul Simon was a likable and charming guest host and you can see why he became a frequent repeat guest in the future.

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
— Rob Reiner