Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
JLD & JOP discuss host’s phoniness as Merv Griffin [real] interviews him
— Funny comment from Merv Griffin about New York being “America’s G-Spot”.
— I like Joe and Julia’s cynical comments about Robert Blake. I wouldn’t be surprised if their cynicism towards him is genuine, given the negative things I’ve heard about Blake’s behind-the-scenes behavior throughout that week.
— Good slam from Merv telling Robert “You oughta know a lot about not working.”
— I liked Merv’s little “Whoa!” after saying LFNY at the end.
— An overall decent opening. Just about everything in it worked okay except for Robert Blake himself. I’m already dreading him as a host.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
reunion of host’s Little Rascals co-stars- Alfalfa (MAG), Buckwheat, more
— Nice idea for a “reunion” of the Little Rascals characters.
— We get the debut of Mary’s Alfalfa impression, which would go on to be one of her most memorable recurring roles on SNL. Right off the bat, her impression is coming off very funny here.
— Just now, Robert introduced Spanky as the oldest Little Rascal, yet earlier in the monologue, he also introduced Alfalfa as being the oldest.
— I expected Spanky to be played by a cast member in a fat suit, but instead, it’s an actual heavyset extra. He’s pretty funny with his immediate pigging out at the food table.
— Funny bit with Julia’s Darla revealing she’s wearing Petey the Dog over her shoulders as a fur.
— I said in a review last season that I was starting to get a little tired of Eddie’s Buckwheat, but it IS nice to see him in this monologue, and I’m getting some pretty good amusement from him singing a Buckwheat-ized version of the Baretta theme song.
— A pretty long monologue overall, but fun.
STARS: ***½
SPACE SHUTTLE
on a Shuttle mission, (EDM)’s admission of love makes (JOP) uneasy
— Eddie’s random “I love you” reveal to Joe is fairly funny, just because of Eddie’s deadpan, straitlaced delivery of it.
— Joe’s gravelly-voiced “Yes, that’s an order, now tell me you love me!” line was pretty funny.
— I wasn’t too crazy about the overall sketch, despite some decent interplay between Eddie and Joe. I dunno, just something about this didn’t work for me. Maybe this should’ve been placed later in the night instead of as the lead-off sketch.
STARS: **
PBS
PBS’ jazzed-up programming is evidence that “We’re not stuffy anymore”
— I like how the new version of Nova is “animals doing what they do best” (having sex).
— Overall, this was reminiscent of the shots this era took at NBC’s desperation, and like those, this kinda missed the mark and wasn’t as funny as it could’ve been.
STARS: **
TYRONE GOES REGGAE
Tyrone Green’s reggae band plays “Kill The White People” at a talent show
— Tyrone Green with dreads? And he’s part of a reggae band now? Haha, I wonder why they changed this character so much all of a sudden.
— Oh, I think I know what famous sketch this is going to be…
— Yep, it’s “Kill the White People”. I’ve always wanted to see this one.
— From everything that I had heard about this sketch before, I’ve always considered this to be somewhat of a spiritual successor to Garrett Morris’ classic “I’m Gonna Get Me a Shotgun and Kill All the Whiteys I See” musical number from the original era.
— The song is very catchy-sounding, and even besides the main “kill the white people” message, there are also other funny lyrics as well, like the ganja one.
— Loved Tim frantically telling everyone “I thought they were gonna do ‘Day-O’.”
— Clint! Funny ending with Clint Smith as the only guy in the crowd who sticks around enjoying the music when everyone else has angrily walked off.
STARS: ****
THE GIRLS OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
— Rerun
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
JOP shows how Sugar Ray Leonard’s eyesight can be tested- offer big bucks
an irate MAG lists people who should be retired against their will
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists types of orgasms
— Brad’s opening Leonid Brezhnev/Lana Turner eyebrows joke was surprisingly strong.
— What was with the delayed cut to Joe’s SNL Sports commentary?
— Oh, Joe’s at a different set, I see.
— Funny punchline to Joe’s quick bit. Very strange, though, how he then segued into Mary doing a commentary at the desk.
— Yet another “Spittin’ Mad Mary Gross” commentary. These have been great and everything, but man, the show has been leaning very heavily on it this season. I worry they’re on their way to quickly running these into the ground.
— Funny comment and subsequent gesture from Mary regarding athletes who “play with themselves on TV”.
— These “spittin’ mad” commentaries are always good at getting the audience worked up.
— Now we get Dr. Jack Badosky. They seem to be bringing out their most popular recurring news commentators tonight.
— Badofsky’s puns aren’t doing a thing for me so far tonight.
— A noticeable jump cut in the middle of the Linda Lovelace/Steven Spielberg “Jawgasms” bit. I recall hearing something was censored in the rerun version I’m reviewing.
— Decent ending to Badofsky’s commentary with him asking women who are incapable of having an orgasm to contact Tim Kazurinsky, and Brad then breaking the fourth wall by shaming Tim, all of which made me laugh more than any of the Badofsky puns did.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Heart to Heart”
MASTERFUL THEATRE
the characters of Airheads Revisited wax idiotic
— This is the first time Robin Duke has appeared on the show in what feels a like a long time, and I think I recall hearing this ends up being her only appearance of the night. And it’s not even a big role! Poor Robin; what’s going on with her this season? Her presence on the show has been disappearing right before my eyes.
— Speaking of firsts, this is Robert Blake’s first actual sketch appearance of the night. I had been wondering where he was tonight.
— What the heck is with Blake’s performance?
— Joe’s voice and delivery is making me laugh.
— Here’s more homoerotic humor tonight.
— Man, what the hell IS this sketch???
— What’s with tonight’s episode having two Marvin Hamlisch references from Mary? (the first was in her “spittin’ mad” commentary on Saturday Night News)
— I got a laugh from Julia softly biting Gary’s shoulder.
— Overall, boy, this sketch was dreadful. Seemed like a very poor attempt at “random humor”. After a while, I just wanted this whole thing to end.
STARS: *½
CLYSLER-PRYMOUTH
Lee Iacocca’s (JOP) proud to say “Clysler-Prymouth floormats made in USA”
— Another Joe Piscopo impression involving tons of makeup and prosthetics that render him unrecognizable.
— I’m not familiar with Lee Iacocca’s look or voice, but from what I recall of Phil Hartman’s later impression of him (which makes this yet ANOTHER celebrity impression that Piscopo and Hartman share), Hartman played him with a very similar voice and facial mannerisms that Joe is doing here, which I guess proves that Joe’s Iacocca is spot-on.
— Pretty funny joke with the floormats turning out to be the only thing in the car that was made in America.
— Don’t know whether to chuckle or cringe at the racially stereotypical “Clysler-Prymouth” ending joke. Yeah, I think I’m gonna go with the latter. Though I admit I probably would’ve laughed at it in 1982 (if I had been born yet).
STARS: **½
VIEWER LETTER
EDM dispels the myth that he doesn’t love white people
— Heh, is there any particular reason why Eddie is dressed like that?
— Some really strong laughs from Eddie’s questionable ways of defending white people.
— The Burl Ives bit is especially funny.
— Pretty good ending with Eddie’s girlfriend turning out to be white.
STARS: ****
SLEEPY BOY 2000
the auto alarm eradicator kit lets you sleep peacefully
— Very funny punchline with the satellite blowing up the alarm-blaring car, after such a long setup.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Gotta Try”
DTV
the all-death channel is endorsed by Leonid Brezhnev
— Funny idea for a take-off of the then-new network MTV.
— The cheap-looking moving mouth on the Leonid Brezhnev picture saying “I want my DTV!” cracked me up a lot.
— Oh, that’s it? Well, this sure was short. Honestly, I wanted to see more. The premise was probably good enough to do a typical full-length fake ad with.
STARS: **½
VIDEO VICTIMS
— Rerun
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Second episode in a row that underwhelmed me, though it’s really hard to fairly judge the show as a whole, considering that the rerun version I reviewed of this episode is infamously butchered, removing several pieces (one of which was a sketch titled “Best Little Whorehouse On The Prairie”, and another of which was a rare on-screen appearance from Dick Ebersol delivering a message which was a stealth set-up to the “Keep or Dump Andy Kaufman” vote-in that we’ll be seeing in the next episode). Plus, I’m pretty sure that half the pre-taped segments I reviewed tonight were originally aired in later episodes. So, yeah, a difficult episode to critique fairly. From the new material that I did see in tonight’s show, a lot of it wasn’t very good and, despite some highlights, the overall episode had a “filler” feel to it.
— I’m left wondering how much Robert Blake’s notorious behavior that week had to do with his lack of airtime tonight, because after the cold opening and monologue, he was practically non-existent, only appearing in ONE SKETCH all night, which aired fairly late in the show and had him in just a minor role. Yeesh, I think even the little-used Michael Keaton got more to do in the last episode. Then again, Blake was probably in some of the material that got removed from my copy.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Michael Keaton):
— about the same
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
A 7-year-old Drew Barrymore, the youngest host in SNL history. For years, this episode has been near the top of my “must see” list, as it’s hard for me to picture an SNL episode hosted by a 7-year-old.