Tag: saturday night live

Posted on

February 25, 1984 – Edwin Newman / Kool & The Gang (S9 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
SNL employees Dion & Blaire decide what to do about host’s lack of hair

 

— Good meta premise with Dion Dion and Blair now working as SNL hairdressers.
— Pretty funny part with Dion and Blair mistaking Edwin Newman for Paul Newman and wondering why he aged so poorly.
— Amusing visual of Edwin in the Ted Koppel wig.
— Dion: “Blair, you ignorant slut.”
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— After being out sick in the last episode, Don Pardo is back, but he’s noticeably not as energetic-sounding as he usually is. His delivery is fairly low-key tonight. He must still be getting over his laryngitis.


MONOLOGUE
recently-retired host sings “Please don’t talk about me when I’m gone”

  

— Funny start with Edwin nitpicking a grammatical error on the cue card.
— Edwin’s coming off funny, likable, and a good sport, in a stiff, deadpan way.
— Love the audience worriedly going “ohhh” when he hints that he might sing.
— Nice audience response when he actually does end up singing well.
— A surprisingly strong monologue overall. Edwin did it ALL.
STARS: ****


BUDDWEISER LIGHT
— Rerun. I always find it odd when a fake ad that has a host in it (Robin Williams in this case) is re-aired in another host’s episode


HYMIETOWN
Jesse Jackson (EDM) tries to reconcile with Jews by singing “Hymietown”

— Eddie’s Jesse Jackson impression seems to have improved a little from the last time he played him, even though his portrayal is a lot more low-key than we’re used to seeing Jesse being impersonated on SNL.
— Oh, I can tell this is going to turn into the famous “Hymietown” number.
— Ha, the lyrics are really funny and the song sounds great.
— I think I just heard a woman in the audience saying “Sing it, Eddie!”
STARS: ****


HOTLINE
host corrects a suicide hotline caller’s (ROD) grammar

— Ha, even after the monologue, Edwin is still correcting people’s grammar.
— Funny bit about a “bottle of tequila wearing panties”.
— I like the whole “major/lieutenant slut” part.
— Robin’s threatening message at the end of the phone conversation was good.
— Decent sketch overall.
STARS: ***


FUR: YOU DESERVE IT!
— Yet another rerun, this time from two seasons ago. Boy, is this season in desperate need of new fake ads.


NEWS BAR
host bets Tom Snyder (JOP) a la My Fair Lady- I can make BRH an anchorman

   

— I’m liking this gathering of famous newscasters.
— Joe’s Tom Snyder impression looks different from how it usually does. It kinda looks more like his Dan Rather impression.
— Edwin’s quivery-voiced singing just now was funny.
— Brad’s playing himself and references his recent ousting as anchorperson of Saturday Night News. Very surprising that they’re openly acknowledging his firing on the air.
— I like Edwin’s constant utterances of “The bet’s off” regarding turning Brad into a competent anchorman.
— Great My Fair Lady-esque turn this is taking, especially the “The Iranian’s pains come mainly from Khomeni” vocal exercise. This is brilliant.
— Overall, a strong sketch.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Joanna”


SPEAKING FREELY
host interviews James Brown (EDM)

— Great to see Eddie’s James Brown again. He’s already making me laugh with his opening statement just being typical James Brown-esque vocalizations.
— Okay, this sketch doesn’t seem to be offering anything other than Eddie’s James Brown answering all of Edwin’s questions with random lyrics from his own songs, which isn’t quite as funny as you’d think it would be. This is paling badly in comparison to Eddie’s classic James Brown sketches from the past.
STARS: **


HOW HIGH THE NOON
ex-gunfighter Kid Halpern (host) teaches (GAK) the tricks of the trade

   

— “The Kelton Gang”. Guess I don’t need to ask which writer penned this sketch.
— All of Edwin’s odd advice to Gary is providing some good laughs.
— The whole countdown confusion is cracking me up.
— Strong ending.
STARS: ***½


A NICKEL
old men (JOP) & (EDM) remember the days when everything cost a nickel

  

— I think I recall hearing this ends up being Eddie’s final live sketch as a cast member.
— This is another strong pairing of Eddie and Joe, and has some really funny lines between them.
— Ha, they’re both starting to crack up.
— Eddie acknowledges a line flub of his and, while laughing, angrily ad-libs “I read the card wrong!” which gets a great response from the audience.
— Joe: “(ad-libbing) Ever notice I look like Al Franken in 50 years?”
— Haha, I love how this sketch has gone completely off the rails, with Eddie and Joe now openly breaking the fourth wall and talking (in character) about having to end the sketch in time before the show runs over.
— A fun and solid sketch overall, enhanced by the flubs and loose ad-libbing. If this is indeed Eddie’s final live sketch, this is a pretty big deal. Even though I’m aware there are still a few taped sketches he’s in that will air in some of the remaining episodes of this season, tonight being Eddie’s final live episode as a cast member kinda feels like the end of an era in some ways. Kinda bittersweet, really. At least he got to go out while having fun in this sketch and being paired with the castmate who he’s always had the best chemistry with over these last four years.
STARS: ****


FACE THE PRESS
(JIB) rubs out panelists who mention his links to the mob

     

— Another funny instance of Jim throwing Gary over a desk, after the Cabbage Patch Kid bit from earlier this season.
— I liked Mary just casually moving on after the whole crazy incident with Gary.
— Good fake blood on Tim after getting shot.
— Loved Edwin’s “I pass” when it’s his turn to ask Jim a question, after seeing what Jim had just done to Gary and Tim.
— Edwin’s various ways of stalling when everybody’s waiting for him to ask Jim a question are very funny.
STARS: ****


HARRY ANDERSON
Harry Anderson [real] tells of his attempts to win at four card monty

 

— Nice reveals of how to do the “cheating” version of the four-card monty trick.
— An overall change of pace from Harry’s usual acts on the show and had an unusually low-key feel, but this was still pretty good.
STARS: ***


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
JIB raps recent headlines
irritated MAG complains about the multitude of official national holidays
Worthington Clotman chastises respected figures who sell out for laughs

     

— Fitting that tonight’s guest anchor is someone who has actual experience being a real newsman.
— Edwin already throws to a guest correspondent without having done any jokes.
— Hmm, Jim has a boombox with him. I think I know where this is going…
— Yep, we’re already getting the return of Rappin’ Jimmy B after only one week.
— Jim rapping the week’s big news is fairly fun, but this isn’t coming off quite as enjoyable as his cold opening from the last episode.
— Edwin constantly choosing to skip over certain news stories for little reasons is kind of a strange runner, but it’s working.
— Tonight’s Spittin’ Mad Mary Gross commentary is okay so far, but I notice it doesn’t seem to be getting as much audience reaction as it usually does. Usually, the crowd is really hyped up during these.
— I liked Mary’s line about having a holiday called ‘Are You Sure I’m The Father?’s Day
— The return of Tim’s Worthington Clotman.
— Tim’s criticism of Edwin is pretty funny.
— Haha, I absolutely LOVED Edwin silently responding to Tim’s “Vaudevillian buffoon” insults about Edwin’s SNL performances by pulling out a seltzer bottle and spraying Tim with it.
— This is the longest edition we’ve had of Saturday Night News in a while, but it’s also one of the better ones. Also, I’ve noticed in these old Comedy Central reruns I’ve been reviewing that their versions of this era’s episodes always move Saturday Night News to an unusually late spot in the show when it’s a particularly lengthy SNN (like we’ve seen tonight), whereas the short SNNs are usually kept in their original spot somewhere in the middle of the show.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Celebration”


URBAN ANSWERS
gang leaders (BRH) & (host) talk about their conflicts

 

— LOL at Brad freaking Hall of all people playing a hardcore gang member.
— Ha, now this has gotten even more comically ridiculous with Edwin Newman playing a rival gang member.
— Brad’s performance is kind of reminding me of future cast member Andy Samberg, for some reason.
— I love how Edwin’s using his normal professional delivery for his gangster character.
— Edwin to Brad: “(deadpan, while holding a switchblade) I am prepared to filet you.” Boy, this sketch is cracking me the hell up.
— Strange but funny turn this has taken, with the fourth wall being broken by Gary “dropping character” and calling Edwin out on “ruining” the sketch with his random delivery of “Live from New York…”.
STARS: ****


JACOBY ESCORT SERVICE
(ROD) & (MAG) guarantee “absolutely no sex”

— Good to see a rare Robin Duke showcase.
— A fairly funny concept with Mary and Robin’s escort service spokeswomen advertising no sex.
— What was with Robin’s off-camera “Call us now” while Don Pardo is announcing the phone number?
— Overall, this wasn’t too bad, but comes off as a lesser sketch compared to other material from this episode.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A great episode, with lots of strong sketches, a fun atmosphere, and even a decent Saturday Night News.
— Who would’ve guessed that Edwin Newman would turn out to be such a fun host, enhancing every sketch he appeared in and without even having to stretch his range? He’s one of those non-actor hosts who surprise you by how funny they come off and how they end up adapting well to SNL’s format.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jamie Lee Curtis):
— a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Future cast member Billy Crystal hosts

Posted on

February 18, 1984 – Jamie Lee Curtis / The Fixx (S9 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
JIB raps & breakdances to celebrate the fact that it’s Saturday Night

   

— Funny “Thriller”-esque opening disclaimer about not endorsing a belief in the occult.
— The debut of Jim’s Rappin’ Jimmy B persona.
— This doesn’t seem to be going much for laughs, but I’m finding this to be a very fun and exciting way to hype up the show.
— A pretty good laugh from his intentionally bad breakdancing attempt, which also serves as a reminder of the huge breakdancing craze around this time.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo is noticeably absent, as Joe takes over with the Pardo impression that we’ve heard him practice on the show in a season 6 cold opening. This is the first of what would be several times over the years where someone had to temporarily fill in for a sick Pardo. Darrell Hammond would usually be given those honors (too many instances to count, but the most memorable one has to be the James Van Der Beek episode from season 24, considering the monologue that night), but there’s one instance where Seth Meyers fills in for Pardo (the Jonny Mosely episode from season 27) and one where Bill Hader does it (Christoph Waltz episode from season 38).


MONOLOGUE
EDM believes host when she jokes that she’s pregnant with his child

— Between Jim’s “Eddie Murphy’s here and Jamie Lee Curtis” lyric in the cold opening and Jamie’s talk at the beginning of this monologue, they’re making a big deal tonight about proving that Eddie’s in the building and isn’t on tape like he’s been in so many recent episodes.
— Funny line from Eddie about “a little beige baby” that he and Jamie are going to have.
— An overall decent monologue, with Eddie getting his usual laughs.
STARS: ***


RUBIK’S GRENADE
— Rerun


TAG, YOU’RE IT
(JIB)’s life goes down the tubes when he’s tagged “it”

       

— A big laugh from Tim’s shifty-looking burglar character just turning out to childishly tag Jim “it”.
— I like where this is going, with Jim’s wife seriously backing away from him afterwards.
— They’re going all out with this, now cutting to a pre-taped scene with Jim slowly walking out in the street as everybody is fearfully jumping out of his way. This whole thing is great.
— Funny quick part with the old lady.
— The pre-taped sequence continues to be strong, with a cut to several weeks later showing Jim slowly descending into homelessness while failing to tag anyone “it”.
— Loved the bear trap part.
— Overall, my new favorite writer Andy Breckman does it once again. Also, much like the Shoplifting short from a few episodes ago, this feels like another precursor to the heavy reliance on great pre-taped segments that the show will soon be doing the following season.
STARS: ****


JAKE’S VIDEO HUT
a video store employee (EDM) acts out scenes from movies not in stock

  

— Fairly fun bit with Eddie acting out an Elvis movie live for Robin, which is reminding me of that Gas Station sketch from last season where Eddie played a guy possessed by Elvis’ spirit.
— Now Eddie’s acting out another movie. This sketch seems like a pretty good concept for him.
— Good part with Tim requesting that Eddie do Deep Throat, which Eddie responds to by nervously telling Joe “You’re gonna have to help me out with that one”.
— The ending came off awkward and botched.
STARS: **½


TEXXON
— Another rerun. I didn’t realize until now that it doesn’t feel like there’s been many new pre-taped commercials this season AT ALL. In fact, the Buddweiser Light commercial from the previous week’s episode is the only one that’s coming to mind right now. Are there any others I’m forgetting, or is this the record for lowest number of new pre-taped fake ads in a single season?


EL DORKO
on a date with contest winner El Dorko, host discovers he’s a good kisser

   

— They seem to mention Gary’s real-life hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa quite a bit these last two seasons.
— The return of Gary’s El Dorko character.
— A pretty good laugh from Gary talking about a prank that some of the guys played on him where they spread deep heating rub in his jock.
— Another ending with an unlikely girl falling for El Dorko.
STARS: ***


THE JULIA SHOW
self-absorbed JLD dominates interview with host & EDM

   

— Good way of giving the underused Julia Louis-Dreyfus a showcase as herself.
— Very funny part with Julia’s quick “Do you think my hips are getting too wide? I don’t. Nobody does!”
— The redubbed “Trading Places” clip was fairly funny.
— Interesting segue at the end, with Julia throwing to Joel Hodgson’s following segment.
— Great performance from Julia overall.
STARS: ***½


JOEL HODGSON
Joel Hodgson [real] uses props & plays Rock-’em Sock-’em robots

     

— Some of these gags aren’t working for me tonight.
— Okay, I did like the trick he did just now with his “face” going through the rollers device.
— The part with the audience requests has a pretty good laugh with Joel insultingly telling one particular audience member “This is you, okay?” while holding up a Mr. Potato Head doll.
— I’m really enjoying this Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots competition between him and an audience member.
— Overall, this was very hit-and-miss and a step down from Joel’s last appearance (which itself was a step down from his first appearance), but what worked for me here gave me a pretty good laugh.
STARS: **½


REAGAN WORKOUT
during a workout, Ronald Reagan (JOP) can’t find anything to watch on TV

— This is already starting off rough, with that bad “steering aid” joke that was met with complete silence from the audience.
— This is tepid so far, and no funny lines have been standing out for me.
— What’s with the painfully awkward, long silent pause after Reagan wishes the Three Stooges(!) were on TV?
— Overall, boy, was this weak.
STARS: *½


REHEARSAL
(host) & (JIB) verbally rehearse a love scene they’re doing together

 

— The stiff lovemaking sounds are pretty funny.
— I’m liking Jim’s reaction to Jamie suddenly doing a high-pitched lovemaking scream in the middle of the script reading.
— Jim’s loud, out-of-place “AAH!” during the lovemaking sounds was funny and seems to have made both him and Jamie almost crack up.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “One Thing Leads To Another”


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Wayne Huevos (TIK) offers his thoughts on improving NYC’s garbage problem

   

— As “Pardo” is doing the opening voice-over, the camera pans over to Joe in the anchorman chair to reveal that it’s him doing the Pardo voice. During Joe’s explanation about Pardo being out sick with laryngitis (which Joe says is tonight’s top story), we get the “immortal” line about how no one can fill Don’s throat.
— Also, Joe mentions that Don has been the SNL announcer for the last 9 years, which would mean he’s been there for SNL’s entire run so far. I guess they already forgot about season 7 and Mel Brandt.
— Without even doing any news jokes at all, Joe immediately throws to a commentary.
— A new Saturday Night News character for Tim.
— This commentary from Tim hasn’t been working at all, though the part with him suggesting we dress hobos as clowns was so dumb that it kinda made me chuckle just for that reason.
— And already, this Saturday Night News ends, without Joe doing a single news joke. Not even an SNL Sports commentary from him. This, along with some of the other recent editions of Saturday Night News, really shows how Ebersol would often give SNN short shrift in the post-Brad Hall era.
STARS: *½


PERSONS EXPRESS
passengers of Persons Express economy airline are treated as cargo

   

— I already like this concept with passengers being in place of shipment in a crowded cargo room.
— Funny sequence with Jim and Robin very roughly trying to switch seats when Robin wants the “window seat”.
— Good little touch with Jim pointing to one part of Robin’s grandchildren picture and saying “That one’s ugly”.
— Jim’s been having a really strong night in this episode.
— The Yentl ending didn’t really work.
STARS: ***


HEART TARTARE
host & (GAK) rehearse their parts in a horror-based Broadway musical

   

— Ah, the familiar “Halloween” music sting has begun.
— Heh, if this is supposed to be “Halloween”, why is Jamie’s attacker wearing Jason Voorhees’ iconic hockey mask?
— Gary’s menacing killer character suddenly breaking out into a joyful musical number is fairly funny.
— This hasn’t been going anywhere too interesting after the above-mentioned part, though I did like the sudden addition of chainsaw-wielding dancers circling around Jamie and Gary.
STARS: **½


WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Pete Best (BRH) is still upset over Beatle ouster

   

— I remember when I last saw this sketch years ago (when NBC showed it on “Classic SNL” in 2004), I couldn’t for the life of me recognize Brad in that wig and mustache, and I spent the whole sketch racking my brain trying to figure out which cast member that was. I eventually settled on it being either Piscopo or some unannounced special guest who I’m not familiar with. It wasn’t until the following day when reading a discussion of this episode on an SNL message board that I realized it was Brad playing the role.
— Seeing this sketch again now, it’s instantly obvious to me that it’s Brad under that wig and mustache, though that may be because thanks to doing daily reviews of this era lately, I’m much more familiar with Brad than I was in 2004.
— Usually, Brad’s tendency to play certain roles too hokey and over-the-top kinda annoys me, but it’s working perfectly for this sketch with his back-and-forth violent crying outbursts.
— Funny part with him repeatedly stabbing a Ringo Starr picture on the inside of a cabinet door.
— Good fake out with Gary’s Rolling Stones drummer-seeking roadie wanting to hire Tim’s narrator character instead of Brad.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Red Skies at Night”


PROSE AND CONS
— As if all the repeated fake ads tonight wasn’t enough, now we get a rerun of a short film from two-and-a-half years earlier.  I wonder why.  It’s not like they had to cut off Fear’s musical performance again.


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A fairly underwhelming episode. Barely anything stood out as truly strong, and quite a bit of the show came off as pretty forgettable. There was also a strange amount of padding with all the reruns of fake ads and shorts from earlier seasons.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robin Williams):
— a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Edwin Newman

Posted on

February 11, 1984 – Robin Williams / Adam Ant (S9 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
at the Winter Olympics, JOP interviews bobsledders (host), (EDM), (JIB)

  

— After appearing on tape for the last three episodes, Eddie’s back, making his first live appearance of 1984.
— For whatever reason, Eddie’s hand has been held on his crotch the whole time so far, which apparently wasn’t in the script. I see I don’t have the censored version of this sketch, where they hide Eddie’s hand-on-crotch by superimposing something like a grass bush on the bottom of the screen.
— The bobsledding stock footage with the guys’ voices dubbed in screaming is fairly funny.
— That’s the whole cold opening? Not much to this at all.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about what it’s like to be a new father

   

— Some pretty funny stuff about the winter Olympics.
— I’m enjoying his material about parenthood. No particular jokes have been standing out at all in this monologue, though. I recall liking his later two monologues (from seasons 12 and 13) better.
STARS: ***


BUDDWEISER LIGHT
hockey players (host) & (JOP) bring out their best

     

— It feels rare in this era to see a host appearing in this type of pre-taped fake ad.
— Piscopo’s sudden whack to Williams’ face with the hockey stick really cracked me up.
— I’m getting some good laughs from the hockey players’ wild fight being played over a commercial jingle.
— Good ending shot with a beat-up-looking Piscopo and Williams jovially enjoying a beer together.
STARS: ****


ROCK & ROLL AND THEN SOME
Clarence Walker (EDM) proves he was 5th Beatle

  

— I have great memories of first seeing this sketch in Eddie’s “Best Of” compilation special, which was my very first exposure to this era of SNL. This was one of the first sketches I caught in the special, and immediately, I could see how strong of a cast member he was. It will be great to revisit this sketch.
— I’m loving Eddie’s hostility and fast-talking demeanor here.
— The medley of “original” Beatles songs being played on a tape is great, especially the one song with Eddie just speak-singing for a long time over the music.
— Here’s the part of the sketch that I’ve always remembered the most, where they play a Beatles song in reverse and you can hear John Lennon hilariously saying “Let’s get rid of Clarence and steal all his good ideas”.
— This overall sketch held up very well and was just as strong as I remembered it.
STARS: ****½


WILD KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
an evangelical veterinarian (host) heals pets

   

— Robin Williams’ voice in this is already making me laugh.
— The concept of this doesn’t seem all that great, though I have no doubt that Williams will get some laughs out of it, and this does seem like a good vehicle for his penchant for ad-libbing.
— I’m pretty sure that’s the same fluffy white cat that I once pointed out had appeared in a few sketches from seasons 5 and 6 (one of them being the sketch with Bill Murray and Ann Risley as a couple desperately trying to remember the name of their friend’s cat).
— I like the album title “Hymns That Only Dogs Can Hear”.
— Pretty funny reveal of Duke’s pet being a now-cooked fried chicken.
— A good unintentional laugh from Williams’ repeated difficulty in saying “Colonel Harlan Sanders”.
STARS: ***


GANDHI AND THE BANDIT
a movie about the truckin’ man of peace (TIK)

 

— They might as well have just said Tim is playing his Havnagootiim Vishnueerheer character, as his “Gandhi” portrayal here is the exact same, using the same voice, delivery, make-up, and outfit.
— Overall, while I kinda liked the initial concept, the sketch didn’t end up going anyplace interesting.
STARS: **


NEW BAD BABIES
babies (host), (EDM), (ROD), (TIK) plan an escape from their playpen

  

— An interesting-seeming sketch, even if the concept does kinda remind me a bit of the somewhat-corny Oscar Statuettes sketch from last season.
— Good baby voices from the performers, especially Williams.
— Mary’s “You’re being circumcised tomorrow” gave me a big laugh.
STARS: ***


FIRING LINE
William F. Buckley (host) asks (EDM) about flammable blacks

 

— Good to see Eddie so prominent tonight. It’s kinda funny how him appearing in a lot of sketches has become such a rarity lately, considering how much he typically dominated the show last season.
— The concept of flammable black men is already making me laugh consistently.
— Not familiar with William F. Buckley, but I’m getting amusement from Robin Williams’ impression.
— The Michael Jackson part was good.
— What’s with all the brief, quick cuts to a close-up of Williams silently listening to Eddie speaking?
— Good ending gag with smoke coming from Eddie. I also liked his yell of “Help! Tito!”
STARS: ***½


BABIES IN MAKEUP
— Are they kidding me? THIS short film again? Wasn’t it bad enough suffering through this TWICE back in season 7? Why bring this back two seasons later? And what’s with the baby theme in tonight’s episode anyway?


MIME ROOMMATE
(BRH) is fed up with having a mime (host) for a roommate

   

— A perfect role for Robin Williams.
— Ehh, despite the promise this initially seemed to have, this is kinda falling flat.
— Okay, I do like the part with Williams acting as a mirror while imitating all of Hall’s moves.
— The ending with Williams getting shot was nothing special, though it felt like it should’ve been.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Strip”


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
BRH interviews (JIB), the person who is mugged every eleven seconds
TIK criticizes NY Post’s lack of creativity regarding Andropov’s death

         

— I cannot imagine what Robin Williams will be like as an anchorperson.
— Ha, a callback to the Beatles sketch from earlier tonight.
— Hmm, Brad Hall’s picture has just shown up on the news screen. We’re getting a joke about our recently-fired SNL news anchor?
— Oh, it turns out to be a set-up to a pre-taped remote bit with “correspondent Brad Hall”, which was said as if Brad’s technically still part of the Saturday Night News team. I guess this is Ebersol’s way of trying to keep Brad happy despite his firing, but it’s still sad that an anchorperson has gotten demoted in this manner. Though thinking about it, I guess they already kinda did that with Mary Gross in season 7’s SNL Newsbreaks.
— I love the concept of how the saying “a person gets mugged every 11 seconds” turns out to be literally one person. Despite being a bit one-joke, this commentary is coming off very funny, and Jim is perfect for this role.
— I like the Jack Nicholson impression Williams’ did during his Nicholson joke.
— This is a really good edition of Tim’s “Salute to Journalism” so far, with him displaying his suggestions for typical New York Post-esque bad headlines that the Post should’ve given for Andropov’s death, instead of the uncharacteristically normal one they ended up using.
— If this ends up being Tim’s final “Salute to Journalism” (after all, he IS leaving soon), this was a very fitting way for it to go out.
— While Robin Williams ended up coming off a little less out-of-place in the anchorman role than Don Rickles did in the last episode, I still found him to be an ill fit here. However, Rickles and Williams may end up being two of the better guest anchors of this era by default, compared to how poorly I’m sure some of the upcoming hosts like Michael Douglas and Bob Uecker will do anchoring the news.
STARS: **½


MTV NEWS
an interview with musicians The Ugly Sisters Step (MAG) & (ROD)

 

— We’re starting off with an Adam Ant music video?
— Oh, the music video turns out to be part of an MTV sketch, with the return of Julia’s Nina Blackwood impression.
— I’m liking how very 1984 Gross and Duke’s musical group is coming off. I also like Duke’s fake teeth.
— Ehh, this sketch doesn’t seem to be offering much other than obvious ugly jokes.
— The camera-breaking gag at the end came off really weak.
STARS: **


SIAMESE TWINS
odd couple Siamese twins (JIB) & (host) try to pick up women in a bar

   

— For some reason, this bar set reminds me of the one used in the final Festrunk Brothers sketch that Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd did.
— Great reveal that Williams and Belushi are Siamese twins.
— This feels like the first appearance Gary has made all night, and of course, it’s just a small straightman role.
— Good touch with Belushi himself getting hurt as he’s beating up Williams.
— Belushi’s “I made the swim team… I didn’t make the swim team” line flub gets some good ad-libbing out of Williams, which makes Belushi smirk afterwards.
— Pretty funny ending.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Goody Two Shoes”


PAULA POUNDSTONE
Paula Poundstone [real] does stand-up about her driving woes

— I think this is the first (and maybe only?) time a special guest stand-up performer on SNL has been a female.
— The part about no longer being afraid to hurt people while driving is pretty funny.
— Good part at the end regarding Sirhan Sirhan and Robert Kennedy.
STARS: ***


PATTY’S PLACE
(JLD) & (TIK) live 30 seconds ahead, behind present

   

— Judging from the beginning with Julia answering a question Mary didn’t even ask yet, I’m going to guess that Julia’s character is a psychic.
— Oh, turns out Julia’s character has a condition where she’s always 30 seconds ahead.
— There’s the name Dale Butterworth once again, making it obvious that this is another sketch written by my new favorite writer Andy Breckman.
— Now it’s revealed that Tim’s character is 30 seconds behind. This whole concept is great.
— Good part with Mary patiently waiting a long time for 30-seconds-behind Tim to say the “funny” thing that Julia laughed early at, only for it to turn out to be a bad corny joke.
— Haha, I like how Julia is now being grossed out by something we haven’t seen Tim do yet.
— Funny visual with the rope of snot hanging from Tim’s nose.
— Solid ending with an even more grossed-out second reaction from Julia causing Mary to panickedly end the show in a hurry so she doesn’t have to see what disgusting thing Tim is going to do.
— Overall, Andy Breckman knocks one out of the park once again. He seems to particularly excel at doing conceptual talk show sketches like this, Larry’s Corner, and No That’s Okay (though I’m only speculating that he wrote the latter; it hasn’t been confirmed whether he did or not).
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

 

— We’re told there’s time to kill, which is perfect for Robin Williams’ knack for freely ad-libbing.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty good episode. Even if there wasn’t much that was outstanding, the overall show still had a good feel, helped by Robin Williams’ always-fun presence and him fitting perfectly in the sketch comedy format.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Don Rickles):
— a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Jamie Lee Curtis

Posted on

January 28, 1984 – Don Rickles / Billy Idol (S9 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Ronald Reagan (JOP) says “vote for me, Ronco’s TV President”

  

— A fairly funny concept with Joe’s Reagan doing his presidential campaign in the style of an infomercial.
— An overall simple, short cold opening, but a decent one.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host insults audience, including John Madden & Brandon Tartikoff [real]

     

— Unsurprisingly, Don Rickles is immediately coming off hilarious here and is doing great at working the crowd.
— Lots of great snappy ad-libs in response to various sounds from the audience.
— Haha, loved his “I don’t care what you are, you’re fat” comment to the racially-ambiguous audience member.
— This is like an actual funny version of Milton “I usually bow for 20!” Berle’s infamous season 4 monologue.
— I like how Don is actually going into the audience now.
— I loved his initial reaction to the punk-dressed female audience member.
— Former one-time SNL host John Madden is in tonight’s audience.
— Another former SNL host, Brandon Tartikoff, is also in the crowd. I thought I recognized him during an earlier shot of the audience, but I wasn’t sure.
— Great responses from Don towards director Dave Wilson when he cuts Don’s monologue off.
— Absolutely fantastic monologue overall.
STARS: *****


KANNON AE-1
— Rerun. Why are they re-airing this Stevie Wonder-starring commercial in someone else’s episode?


WITNESS RELOCATION
(host) doubts the FBI’s witness relocation program will work for him

    

— I like the randomness of Don’s character’s last name being Booty.
— Hilarious how Tim’s “disguise” for Don is just a simple cowboy hat.
— I absolutely LOVED how after Joe ad-libbed a funny comment to Don, Don ad-libbed right back to him “I’ll do the funny stuff; you just do the regular lines!”
— Don and Joe are having a lot of fun with each other in general here, with ad-libs galore between them.
— And now, a priceless improvised slap-match between Don and Joe keeps surfacing.
— Don’s stone-faced silent reaction to Joe managing to get in a whole bunch of consecutive slaps to Don’s face while delivering a lengthy line to him is great, as well as how Don “passed out” afterwards.
— This whole thing is fun as HELL. All the constant ad-libs are so funny that the scripted ending with the off-camera explosion almost didn’t even register at first.
STARS: *****


FASCINATING PEOPLE AND THEIR FRIENDS
(EDM) uses dynamite to get women, Dr. Joyce Brothers [real] disapproves

  

— A Dr. Joyce Brothers appearance. Heh, this almost makes me feel like I’m watching an “All That” sketch, as I recall it being a running gag for her to make random cameos on that show.
— Also, Joyce Brothers’ appearance in this sketch makes it obvious that they must’ve filmed this during the Eddie Murphy “preview show” taping, as the famous James Brown Celebrity Hot Tub Party sketch that was also filmed at that “preview show” ends with a photo of Eddie in the hot tub with Dr. Joyce.
— Dr. Joyce is already coming off funny here, especially the bit with her saying an unintentionally dirty-sounding “not afraid to stand up and show his we-ness”.
— Pretty funny concept with Eddie’s method of using dynamite to get women.
— The stock footage montage of Eddie’s explosions cracked me up, even if it got predictable fast. For some reason, I usually always like when SNL does this type of “explosion montage” (e.g. Linda Hamilton’s monologue from season 17).
— I also like how after the clip of an entire building exploding, Eddie says “Boy, I couldn’t walk for a week after that one.”
STARS: ***½


SAINT DON OF VERONA
during Romeo & Juliet sketch, host breaks character to spew venom at JOP

  

— Oh, ALREADY this is perfect with Don playing a very Don Rickles-esque character in a Shakespeare-type setting.
— This has REALLY started to take off with another display of loose back-and-forth improv between Don and Joe.
— An epic breaking-the-fourth-wall ad-lib with Don telling Joe “I didn’t forget in the other sketch when you slapped me around for a half an hour” as well as “Even though we’re eight centuries behind, I’m fed up with you!”
— Just when I thought all the improv between Don and Joe couldn’t get any funnier, now Don utters an absolutely classic “I hope Eddie Murphy robs your house!”
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “White Wedding”


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
host comments on various politicians & celebrities in the news
NBC censor Worthington Clotman (TIK) dislikes insult comedians

     

— And so begins the dreaded era of guest hosts anchoring Saturday Night News (though there will be some occasional episodes where a cast member or special guest fills in as anchorperson, such as Piscopo in the upcoming Jamie Lee Curtis episode).
— Don’s usual style is coming off kinda awkward in this “Faces in the News” format (a format that works better for someone like, say, David Spade in the “Hollywood Minute” commentaries he would later do on Weekend Update), though he still got some laughs from me with his comments about John Glenn, Dean Martin, Mussolini, and Prince Charles & Princess Diana.
— A new character for Saturday Night News staple Tim Kazurinsky. This particular character, Worthington Clotman, is based on then-current NBC censor William Clotworthy.
— Don’s silent facial reactions to Tim’s decry of insult comedians are quite funny.
— I liked Tim namelessly referring to Don as “a certain fat little bald Jew from Las Vegas who should wear a truss over his head”.
— Though predictable, I got a laugh from Don physically attacking Tim’s character at the end of the commentary.
— Overall, not a great edition of Saturday Night News. The fact that not even Don freakin’ Rickles could make this work all that well just shows how Ebersol’s idea of having guest hosts anchor the news was ill-fated as hell.
STARS: **½


EL DORKO
(MAG) & (JLD) fight for the right to kiss loser El Dorko (GAK)

     

— Looks like this will be another good character piece for Gary.
— Funny turn with Mary’s waitress character bizarrely falling in love with Gary.
— Good delivery from Mary of the line “He’s mine, you tramp!”
— Wow at the wild bit with Mary and Julia fighting over Gary by taking turns aggressively making out with him.
STARS: ***


THIS IS YOUR AFTERLIFE
(GAK) makes suicidal comedian (host) want to live

       

— Boy, this era sure does a lot of sketches with a suicidal character preparing to jump off a ledge. The exact same set is always used in these sketches too.
— Nice “This is Your Afterlife” twist.
— Ha, Tim sneaks in an unscripted slap to Don during their talk, which Don responds to by saying “Another slapper I got!”
— I like Mary’s interesting delivery of the word “alimony” while talking in that high-pitched, old-timey, Betty Boop-esque voice.
— Don’s ad-libbed “Get my alpine shoes!” had me howling.
— LOL at how during Don and Joe’s improvised(?) impression-off, Don tried to stretch his Humphrey Bogart impression when Joe was ready to move on with the sketch.
— The Rickles/Piscopo slap-match resurfaces once again!
— A huge laugh from Joe realizing that at one point during his ad-libbing, he accidentally called Don by his actual first name instead of by his character’s name. After amusedly correcting himself on that flub, Joe adds in a great “This sketch is going in the toilet anyway” remark.
— Haha, now Don breaks the fourth wall in an epic manner, by pointing out that Joe (who’s ghost character has just “dissolved” into thin air via special effects) is actually making his exit on an off-camera ladder, then Don runs over to yell at Joe on the ladder, as the camera follows all this unscripted action and actually shows the off-stage portion of this sketch’s set. You usually NEVER see anything like this happening in an SNL sketch.
— I really liked Don’s “I don’t know who you are, but I’m gonna see you’re on the show every week” ad-lib to the underused and underappreciated Gary Kroeger.
STARS: ****½


I MARRIED A MONKEY
Madge is having an affair with (host)

     

— They really fooled me at the beginning. I did not foresee this turning into another “I Married a Monkey” sketch at all.
— This is the first time they’ve done this sketch in almost an entire year. I can definitely see why they brought this sketch out of the mothballs tonight, as the perpetual loose, ad-lib-heavy nature of it is absolutely PERFECT for Don Rickles.
— LOL at the baby monkey unexpectedly imitating Don’s monkey-esque “Ooh ooh ooh” sounds, which makes Don actually crack up after a while.
— Overall, this was the funniest “I Married a Monkey” sketch in a while. The quality of these had slowly been going downhill during the last 2 or 3 installments, but Don’s presence in tonight’s version immensely helped bring up the quality.
— I think this ends up being the final “I Married a Monkey” installment. (Tim’s leaving SNL a few months from now anyway) I wonder if tonight’s sketch was before or after Tim found out about that life insurance that Ebersol secretly took out on him…
STARS: ***½


THE HAMLISCH MANEUVER
Marvin Hamlisch’s (JOP) nauseating songs stop choking

   

— Meh, kind of a corny concept of Marvin Hamlisch’s version of the Heimlich maneuver being him singing to choking victims, which causes them to throw up the food stuck in their throat.
— I think this has been the first time all night that I wasn’t crazy about a segment. [ADDENDUM: Oh, I forgot about Saturday Night News]
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rebel Yell”


GOODNIGHTS

 

— For some reason, Mary is dressed as Pee Wee Herman. I’m guessing a sketch got cut for time, which doesn’t surprise me, as I figured all the constant ad-libs we saw throughout the night would cause the show to run long (much like what happened with the Jerry Lewis episode earlier this season).
— Now Rickles has pointed out someone onstage who’s randomly dressed in an old-timey Native American outfit. I think that’s Brad, but I can’t tell.
— Now I’ve noticed Joe dressed as David Letterman. Wow, what in the world kind of sketch was cut that involved Pee Wee Herman, an old-timey Native American, and David Letterman? [ADDENDUM: Turns out Mary’s Pee Wee and Joe’s Letterman appeared together in a fake “Late Night with David Letterman 2nd anniversary special” promo that actually made it on the air but was removed from reruns. Not sure about Brad’s Native American character, though.]
— What’s with the unseen audience member who can be heard constantly making indecipherable shout-outs in a loud, growly, punk-ish voice while the goodnights music is playing? Billy Idol fan, I take it?

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— I had thought the earlier Jerry Lewis episode was insanely fun with a loose, ad-lib-heavy nature, but THIS takes the cake. I absolutely LOVE this episode, so much so that I can officially dub it one of my all-time favorite SNLs ever. Don Rickles made everything a blast, the sketches he was put in were great and fit him PERFECTLY, the cast – particularly Joe – played well off of him (it’s too bad Eddie couldn’t be there, though; imagine seeing him and Rickles playing off of each other), and the show was wise to loosely format the show to allow for Don to run wild with plentiful ad-libs. This episode is probably the closest we’ll ever come to seeing what an entirely-improvised episode of SNL is like.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Michael Palin and his mother):
— a huge step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
SNL keeps the fun, ad-lib-prone comedians coming, as Robin Williams hosts our next episode

Posted on

January 21, 1984 – Michael Palin and his mother / The Motels (S9 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
JOP is upset- they gave him Charlie Chan makeup for a Donahue sketch

   

— LOL, oh my god at Joe’s makeup. Who in the world is he playing?
— Ha, turns out he’s Phil Donahue. Why in the world does he look like that, though?
— Joe’s Donahue voice still leaves a lot to be desired.
— I’m loving how they’re now breaking the fourth wall with Joe storming backstage after realizing he was mistakenly given Charlie Chan make-up for his Donahue impression.
— This is hilarious, and Joe is really selling the hell out of his anger. I especially loved his loud outburst of “I’m supposed to be Phil Donahue! DOES THIS LOOK LIKE PHIL DONAHUE?!?!”
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Michael’s mother interrupts his monologue with requests & advice

    

— This is unique, having someone host with their non-famous mother. And even funnier, Michael Palin’s mother was literally announced and billed as “his (Michael’s) mother”, which makes this probably the only time in SNL history where a host wasn’t billed under any name. I also wonder if she’s the second least-famous SNL host ever, after “Anyone Can Host” contest winner Miskel Spillman.
— This is pretty funny with Michael angrily making frequent trips backstage to accommodate his mother’s wishes.
— The fact that Michael’s mother isn’t even saying anything audible makes this even funnier, for some reason.
— Okay, she did speak aloud just now.
— The ridiculous hat Michael’s forced to wear is pretty hilarious.
STARS: ***½


BOY GEORGE BURNS: THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC
a strange TV special

— Nice hybrid of a Boy George and a George Burns impression.
— This overall sketch didn’t turn out to be anywhere near as funny as the setup had me thinking it would be. Jim did a pretty decent George Burns, though.
STARS: **


MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
the dognapper shows how to ransom a pooch

   

— Nice addition with the puppy.
— I liked Eddie’s line about kids asking him “You don’t have no job, do ya?”
— I love how Eddie named the dog Cujo.
— The phone call to the puppy’s owner has a lot of very funny parts.
— Great Mister Robinson sketch overall.
STARS: ****


MICK PITWHISTLE DOES IT ALL
Pitwhistle’s (Michael) singing is bad in many genres

 

— Another fake promo starring a singer tonight?
— I did get one laugh so far, from Pardo’s jovially-delivered line “Mick Pitwhistle is the number one recording artist NOWHERE!”
— Overall, a letdown. The writing of this was really weak and not even Michael could save it.
STARS: **


POWERFUL LIVING SNAPS
Lorne Greene (JOP) for Powerful Living dog snacks- nutrition & religion

 

— Another sketch involving someone with a dog? There seems to be a lot of running themes in tonight’s episode.
— The “Powerful Living” book turning out to be a box of dog food gave me a chuckle.
— Overall, this ended up being another disappointing sketch tonight. There just wasn’t much to laugh at here.
STARS: **


MAN ON A CHAIN
(Michael) tries to lease an apartment that contains a man-on-chain (JIB)

   

— Hilarious entrance from Jim as some random cave-living savage who comes with the apartment that Brad and Robin want to buy.
— Jim’s reminding me so much of his brother John in this. I can easily imagine John playing this character in the original era.
— Very funny part with Michael’s explanation of the vague “M.O.C.” (man on chain) description that was in the lease.
— Outrageous part with Jim dragging a screaming Robin into his cave.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Brad following the above-mentioned Robin-dragging incident by casually asking Michael “Would that include utilities?”
STARS: ***½


THAT’S OKAY
(BRH) is stuck when (JOP) wants him to perform his skill

   

— There goes Julia in Ana Gasteyer’s future Bobbi Mohan-Culp dress once again.
— Pretty funny gradual reveal that the show’s title (“No, That’s Okay”) is what the host, Joe, always says to the guests when they ask him if he wants to see their incredible talent that they’ve just described to him.
— Great twist with Joe telling the third guest, Brad, that he actually wants to see him perform his talent involving driving three nails into his head with a hammer, and Brad responding that he never intended to do that dangerous stunt because he thought Joe would tell him the usual “No, that’s okay”.
— Hilarious how Gary and Tim are forcibly holding Brad down and hammering the nails into his head.
— Haha, great callback to Joe’s “No, that’s okay” mantra by having him say it in response to Jim’s cry of “My god, somebody help him!”
— I wonder if this was another sketch written by my new favorite writer Andy Breckman. This sketch kinda had the feel of his usual writing style.
STARS: ****


SHOPLIFTER
(JIB) steals the contents of a convenience store from under (GAK)’s nose

     

— Ah, here’s the “Shoplifting” film that was supposed to air in the previous week’s episode but got cut for time.
— Jim’s cracking me up with his hastily grabbing things near him in the store.
— Haha, this is getting insane with Jim stuffing literally EVERYTHING into his jacket.
— Very funny visual with the end result of Jim’s whole shoplifting spree causing his jacket to be insanely huge and clunky, which Gary’s store clerk character is hilariously oblivious to.
— There was a weird abrupt cut to the ending shot of Gary and Tim surrounded by a completely empty store.
— Overall, a really good short film. This kinda felt like a precursor to the “The Bulge” short we’ll be seeing in the season 10 premiere (both films involve Jim stuffing a ridiculous amount of things into one part of his clothing that results in it looking like a huge, clunky mess). In fact, this feels like a precursor to the general high usage of clever short films we’ll be seeing in season 10.
STARS: ****


WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT?
(Michael)’s high-tech game show has problems
more technical difficulties during second attempt

    

— Very interesting setting.
— Wow, holy hell at the immediate explosion at the beginning of the show, just as Michael’s character was talking about how technologically advanced his show is.
— Heh, after the sudden explosion, the show has restarted with a now-bandaged Michael.
— Michael’s name randomly being Sally Benjamin cracked me up.
— Ehh, this overall sketch ended up fizzling out after a while and didn’t live up to its potential.
STARS: **


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
JOP analyzes upcoming Super Bowl XVIII by using the telestrator

     

— This is the first time we’re seeing Saturday Night News after Brad’s firing as anchorperson.
— Hmm, interestingly, Don Pardo introduces this as “A special sports edition of Saturday Night News”, and we then see Joe in the anchorman chair, doing his SNL Sports routine.
— Joe’s commentary about the following day’s Super Bowl (between the Redskins and the Raiders) has some pretty good laughs.
— Ha, the audience boos loudly when Joe predicts the Redskins will win, so he “changes” his prediction to the Raiders.
— That’s it? That’s the whole “Saturday Night News”? Wow, they didn’t even TRY to make this come off as a fake news segment. From Pardo’s intro to this, I assumed this would turn out to be Joe doing sports-related news stories, but instead, it was just the usual type of SNL Sports commentary that Joe typically does as a guest correspondent.
STARS: ***


WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT?
first question is 17-2=?, “fedora” is accepted

 

— Yet another follow up to this sketch.
— I like the random cartoonish sound whenever a paper gets printed out of the futuristic machine.
— A good laugh from the participant choosing “fedora” as the answer to the math question 17 minus 2.
— The bungling-up of the transportation gimmick is another part I like.
STARS: ***


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Dr. Jack Badofsky goes over the types of menopause

   

— Oh, so it’s going to be a recurring thing tonight for regular guest commentators to “anchor” Saturday Night News. Yeah, I’m not crazy about this idea AT ALL. Ebersol clearly has no idea what to do with Saturday Night News anymore ever since he fired Brad.
— Tim’s portrayal of Dr. Jack Badofsky seems even more twitchy than usual tonight.
— The audience boos hard after Badofsky’s “Gentle-Ben-opause” pun. Between this and the audience’s constant booing and hissing during Badofsy’s previous appearance, they seem to officially have had enough of this character.
— Heh, I love how after the audience had a PARTICULARLY negative reaction to the “Tutankhamen-opause” pun, Tim added a “I guess that joke ‘sphinx’” and then smiled self-satisfyingly.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Suddenly Last Summer”


SAVE LOTS OF PLANKTON
(Michael) says “don’t worry about the whales, save all those poor plankton”

 

— This silly, ridiculous concept seems like a perfect sketch for Michael.
— The acronym for the S.L.O.P. organization was kinda funny.
— Overall, there were a few decent parts, but this kinda ended up being yet another underwhelming use of Michael’s talents tonight.
STARS: **½


HOUSE OF MUTTON
(Michael) is the owner of the House of Mutton sheep-themed restaurant

   

— A Clint Smith sighting. His speaking role in this sketch makes it obvious that this is yet another episode where Eddie’s not there live in the studio.
— I haven’t been liking where this sketch is going. Not even the “black sheep” joke with Clint could make me laugh much.
— What was with Michael randomly getting water thrown into his face when speaking to off-camera waiters in the kitchen? Michael’s strange reaction to that makes me wonder if that part wasn’t in the script.
— An all-around bad sketch overall, and I’m running out of different ways to say Michael’s talents were wasted.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Remember the Nights”


BOY’S LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
riverboat captain (Michael) is mentor for (GAK)

 

— LOL at Michael quickly writing down the answers that Gary gives to Michael’s boat questions.
— During Michael’s brief song, I can see where they dubbed over his “Oh, you big wet bastard” lyric, which I guess was deemed too offensive to re-air.
— I like the bit where we find out Gary’s brother was run over by the ship.
— This overall funny sketch played well to Michael’s strengths, which is more than I can say for some of the other material he was given tonight.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very hit-and-miss episode. About half the episode was well-written, solid pieces, like That’s Okay and Boy’s Life On The Mississippi, while the other half was mediocre, thinly-written stuff that Michel Palin couldn’t save, like House of Mutton and Mick Pitwhistle Does It All.
— In hindsight, it seems pointless for them to have credited Michael’s mother as a co-host when she only ended up appearing in the monologue and musical guest intros. Couldn’t they have found a way to use her in a sketch or two?


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Father Guido Sarducci):
— about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Don Rickles

Posted on

January 14, 1984 – Father Guido Sarducci / Huey Lewis & The News (S9 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
JOP & MAG announce & explain the SNL National Phone-In Democratic Primary

   

— Looks like we’re getting another Larry the Lobster/Andy Kaufman-type vote-in contest.
— A very noticeable cut right after Joe brings up Larry the Lobster. I recall hearing that SNL removed a mention of the Andy Kaufman vote-in, due to the fact that Kaufman passed away before this episode was first rebroadcast.
— A somewhat interesting idea for viewers to call in and vote for their favorite democratic candidate.
— Some pretty funny loose ad-libs between Joe and Mary.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


MONOLOGUE
host thinks we should worry less about Central America, more about Canada

— The idea of a recurring character hosting the show is very original, even if Father Guido Sarducci is far from my favorite character.
— His Central America/Texas/Maine bit was funny.
— Very funny line from him pointing out how Canada is closer to the United States than Manhattan is to Brooklyn.
— I’m surprised by how much I’m actually laughing at Sarducci in this.
— Good monologue overall.
STARS: ***½


BUCKWHEAT’S GHOST
Buckwheat’s ghost appears when publishers want tell-all book from Alfalfa

   

— I like the idea of this Alfalfa sketch so far.
— Mary’s whimper of “Heelllp!” cracked me up for some reason.
— The ghost of Buckwheat suddenly appears.
— Funny entrance from Gary as Buckwheat’s translator.
— Haha, Gary’s great at doing “Buckwheat speak” when translating the execs’ normal talk into gibberish that Buckwheat can understand.
— They make a passing mention of fellow Little Rascal Darla being dead too. Uh, what? When did she die? Didn’t we just see Julia playing her in Robert Blake’s Little Rascals Reunion monologue a season earlier?
STARS: ***


WHAT’S NEW
Linda Ronstadt (JLD) answers the musical question “What’s New”- not her

— I never knew Julia could sing so well.
— Some funny lyrics so far.
— This is a pretty solid (and harsh) parody of Linda Ronstadt. Something about it feels like a sketch that would’ve appeared during the original era. Maybe I’m reminded of that Barbra Streisand sketch that Laraine Newman once did.
STARS: ***½


COUNTDOWN 84
Jesse Jackson is the number one vote-getter so far; host nominates ZZ Top
Democrats join ZZ Top in “Sharp Dressed Man” video to ensure equal time
Nina Blackwood (JLD) announces that the winner will get a T-shirt

       

— An update on the voting so far. Due to the nature of this particular poll, it takes Joe a long time to go through each of the candidates’ vote totals and and call-in phone number, which is getting a little tiring to watch, though Joe IS throwing in some loose ad-libs here and there.
— Now Joe throws to a commentary from Father Guido Sarducci. So I take it this whole “Countdown 84” thing is also being used as a substitute for Saturday Night News tonight? After all, Brad Hall HAS just gotten fired as anchorperson, so maybe Ebersol didn’t know what to do with Saturday Night News yet, which just goes to show you how un-thought-out his decision to fire Brad mid-season was. You can’t fire an anchorperson mid-season without having a backup anchorperson ready to go.
— Sarducci putting ZZ Top into the vote-in polls is pretty funny.
— Now Sarducci has thrown to a ZZ Top music video. They’re not going to show the ENTIRE music video, are they?
— Okay, they cut the video off after about 30 seconds.
— A montage of the democratic candidates is being played to the ZZ Top song we just heard. This is actually pretty fun and I’m getting some laughs here.
— Now after the video ends, we suddenly get the debut of Julia’s soon-to-become recurring impression of MTV VJ Nina Blackwood.
— Julia’s pretty funny here.
STARS: I guess I can give this one a rating, so… **½


TASTELESS CHOICE
(JOP) is incestuous- times like these are made for Tasteless Choice

 

— Haha, holy hell at Joe’s out-of-nowhere “I’ve been sleeping with our daughter” reveal to his wife (Mary). Hilarious.
— Another big laugh from Mary’s response to Joe’s aforementioned reveal: “I’ll make some coffee.”
— Judging from the background music playing right now, I get the feeling this is going to turn into a coffee commercial.
— I was right.
— Strong sketch overall.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Heart & Soul”


THE MAN WHO LOVED SWIMMIN’
movie shows how host keeps his chastity vow

    

— Robin’s screentime seems to be becoming more and more scarce these last few episodes.  She’s been very invisible lately.
— Pretty funny setting for Sarducci.
— Julia’s very funny in her scene so far. I’m surprised by how many funny things she’s been getting to do tonight in general, considering she’s usually wasted in forgettable straight roles.
— This sketch is getting pretty repetitive.
— Ha, I did love Sarducci immediately jumping back into the pool after silently looking through a National Geographic magazine.
STARS: **½


NICE BOYS DON’T GET GIRLS PREGNANT
Michael Jackson (EDM) says “Nice Boys Don’t Get Girls Pregnant”

 

— Considering how huge Michael Jackson was at the time, I’m surprised by how little SNL has been spoofing him in this era.
— This sketch appears to be in a similar vein to the Poly-Rock sketch from earlier this season (a sketch where Brad played an aging fictional rocker in need of denture glue). They’re even re-using the exact same concert stage and backstage sets that were used in that sketch.
— Like the last time Eddie played Michael Jackson, his impression is disappointingly generic, just doing an unspecific high-pitched voice and portraying him as vaguely gay (which probably comes off strange nowadays). I guess there wasn’t much about Michael’s personality to spoof yet back in this time period.
— Very short sketch overall, and I’m not quite sure the “Nice boys don’t get girls pregnant” twist worked for me. I didn’t really get a laugh from it.
STARS: **


STEVEN WRIGHT
Steven Wright [real] does stand-up involving his unique perspective

— Yes! Great to see Steven Wright again.
— Right off the bat, he’s already making me laugh out loud.
— This overall segment wasn’t quite as strong as his last appearance, which was more consistently funny and tighter, but what DID make me laugh here was fucking hilarious and had me in tears. My favorite one-liners were the bit about everything in his apartment having been stolen and replaced with an exact replica, his random “I’m feelin’ kinda hyper” line, and him thinking the dictionary was a poem for everything.
STARS: ***½


COUNTDOWN 84
ZZ Top has now pulled in front of Jesse Jackson in the voting
host asks people on the street who they would vote for

   

— Oh, turns out we DO get Brad Hall (in his first appearance of the whole night, by the way) in an anchorman-type role tonight after all. Having him anchor one of these “Countdown 84” segments seems to be Ebersol’s way of throwing Brad a bone to keep him from getting too upset over his recent Saturday Night News firing.
— By the way, this is the first time in SNL history where an episode doesn’t have a fake news segment. Ebersol HAS been known to occasionally do away with some of SNL’s traditions, but dumping the fake news segment is pretty drastic.
— The first guy who Sarducci is interviewing seems kinda familiar, but I’m not sure why. (third screencap above)
— Oh, no, I’m hearing another instance of the dreaded “Comedy Network overlapped audio”. You see, as I mentioned in a recent review, whenever these old Comedy Network reruns remove something from a sketch, it often strangely results in a few seconds of the sketch being overlapped with audio of the removed portion. In this particular sketch’s case, when the camera cuts back to Brad in the studio after Father Guido Sarducci’s Man on the Street segment ends, something that Brad said appeared to be removed and you can momentarily hear audio of it while Brad’s speaking. Very sloppy. Who the heck was in charge of these Comedy Network edits anyway?
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Want a New Drug”


RIGHT TO VOTE
JOP encourages viewers at home to participate in the democratic process

— Interesting setting for this vote-in update.
— Despite a few comedic lines, this was a pretty straightforward segment overall. Nothing for me to say here.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


AIRPORT
after host’s flight is delayed, TransEastern employee (JIB) gets friendly

 

— LOL at Sarducci’s violent temper tantrum when finding out his flight has been delayed.
— I had been wondering where Jim was tonight. This is his first appearance of the whole night, very late in the show. The whole “Countdown 84” stuff that’s been eating up a lot of the show seems to have made it hard for most of the cast to get any airtime.
— This sketch seems to be taking a slice-of-life, low-key turn.
— The “I work on tips” ending was kinda weird.
— Overall, this was another sketch tonight that I’m not sure what to think of. I usually enjoy the low-key slice-of-life pieces that SNL does in these older seasons, but I’m not even sure if I liked this particular one or not.
STARS: **½ by default


PHONE-IN RESULTS
Dick Ebersol [real] gives host the tally- ZZ Top wins with 131,384 votes

      

— We get a VERY brief walk-on from Dick Ebersol, making one of his rare on-screen appearances.
— I like how behind Sarducci, we see the cast, Steven Wright, and Huey Lewis each holding a board with one of the candidates’ face on it.
— Speaking of the cast, Eddie is noticeably absent, making this yet another episode this season where we wasn’t there live in the studio.
— The voting results are announced. Predictably, ZZ Top is the winner.  Uh, yay?
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


GOODNIGHTS

  

— A pre-taped segment titled “Shoplifting” is noticeably listed in the scrolling ending credits, even though it was nowhere to be seen tonight. I guess it got cut for time. If “Shoplifting” is what I think it is (a short film with Jim Belushi as a shoplifter sneakily stuffing items from a convenience store into his jacket), it ends up airing in a later episode this season.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An unusual-feeling episode, with the “Countdown 84” vote-in contest absolutely dominating the night (much moreso than the prior Larry the Lobster and Andy Kaufman vote-ins, which didn’t get in the way of their respective episode’s sketches too much). The non-election portions of this episode felt scarce and, as mentioned earlier, we barely saw most of the cast. (Julia Louis-Dreyfus had a rare strong night, though) The fact that there was no fake news segment also added to the odd feeling of the night. There were still a few good non-election segments, though, and the election stuff itself did provide a few fun moments.
— Father Guido Sarducci was a surprisingly decent host and came off more likable and enjoyable than I usually find him.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Flip Wilson):
— a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Michael Palin and his mother

Posted on

December 10, 1983 – Flip Wilson / Stevie Nicks (S9 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Blaire’s amused when Dion Dion’s mother Geraldine (host) visits the salon

   

— Nice to see Dion Dion and Blair in the cold opening slot.
— Perfect casting of Flip Wilson’s famous Geraldine character in the role of Dion Dion’s mother.
— Ha, I like how we find out Dion Dion’s real name is Harold. I also like seeing Joe’s Blair being amused by that.
— When Flip incredulously asks “Quasi-what?!?” repeatedly to Eddie, Eddie’s clearly trying not to laugh.
— Something got bleeped out in my version when Flip’s Geraldine says “I had big (bleep) back then”. I’m guessing it was a euphemism for the word “breasts”.
— Eddie again cracks up when Flip keeps loudly repeating “I’m sorry” to him.
— Loved Eddie and Flip both saying “Shut up, bitch!” to Joe in unison.
— Very fun cold opening overall.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— For some reason, when the montage ends, they don’t show the SNL Band playing on the home base stage’s rooftop like they usually do this season.


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Oh, no. My copy of this monologue is unfortunately the edited version. See, there’s two different versions of this monologue: one where Flip tells a joke, and another version where the aforementioned joke portion is removed, leaving his monologue to be a pointless brief segment where he just comes out on stage, says his greetings, then suddenly says “We’ll be right back!” and the monologue ends. Unfortunately, the latter version is the one in my copy (which is an NBC “Classic SNL” airing from sometime around December 2004). I remember once seeing the unedited version of this monologue on Comedy Central ages ago.
— I can’t remember what exactly Flip’s joke is in the unedited version of the monologue, but I do remember Flip preceding it by asking someone off-camera if the censors have allowed him to go ahead with it. I guess the joke he did was so off-color that some of the rerun versions of this episode censor it.
STARS: N/A


UNREQUITED SEX
sleazy couple (ROD) & (JOP) exchange Christmas presents & cheap jokes

  

— I’m trying to figure out which celebrity Joe is playing. They haven’t said his name yet.
— Never mind, I guess Joe’s just playing a random character. I wonder why they gave him such a specific, detailed look, though. It made me think he was playing someone famous.
— I loved Joe’s suggestive “Remind you of anything?” ad-lib(?) to Robin when some eggnog accidentally(?) spills on his lap.
— Some laughs so far, but I’m not sure what the main joke of this sketch is supposed to be.
— Joe’s smooth-voiced delivery of “Baby, you KNOW what I like!” cracked me up.
— And the sketch is over??? The punchline that neither of them wants to go through with the sex didn’t quite work for me. I was hoping that the long set-up of this sketch was leading up to a funnier punchline than that.
STARS: **


AIRPLANE WASHROOM
(host) is an attendant in a cramped airline restroom

  

— Pretty funny concept of a small, cramped airplane lavatory having a bathroom attendant.
— I like how the addition of Gary is making the already-cramped space even more chaotic.
— Again, I ask, the sketch is over ALREADY??? The ending of this was terrible, with Brad’s “Nah, get out of here!” after he acted like he was about to pay Flip a tip.
— This overall sketch didn’t come off quite as funny as it could’ve.
STARS: **½


CRAZY WEINSTEIN
Crazy Weinstein (JIB) isn’t selling anything- he’s just insane

— Great twist on the usual “Crazy Eddie” commercial spoofs, by having the “crazy” pitchman this time turn out to be a random, legitimately-crazy man who’s not even selling anything.
— Jim is hilarious in this with all his random psychotic revelations about himself. I especially like the various “Don’t touch my hat!” warnings he keeps repeating throughout this.
STARS: ****


PUDGE & SOLOMON
at Christmastime, Solomon & Pudge discuss shoes & feet

  

— I like how Eddie’s trying to make Joe crack up with his shoeless foot.
— Eddie’s whole “cold feet, warm news, etc.” philosophy is hilarious. Again, you can tell Eddie and Joe are having fun with each other during this.
— As usual in these Pudge & Solomon sketches, this takes a touching turn, this time by having Pudge’s Christmas gift to Solomon be a much-needed new pair of shoes.
— I wonder why they didn’t put Flip Wilson in this sketch. He actually would’ve fit really well into this.
— There’s an infamous backstory that right after this sketch ended, Joe had a HUGE blow-up backstage when Dick Ebersol congratulated Eddie on his performance in the sketch and then walked off with his arm around Eddie while completely ignoring Joe. This infuriated Joe and he WENT OFF on both Dick and Eddie. I wonder if this could be considered the official beginning of the end of Eddie and Joe’s friendship.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stand Back”


REVEREND LEROY
a reverend’s (host) parishioners agree with him until he asks for money

— I’m liking Flip’s energy here.
— Yet another sketch tonight with a weak, abrupt punchline that just leaves me going “THAT’S the ending? The sketch is over ALREADY???”
STARS: **


UNANSWERED QUESTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE
Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer on more Unanswered Questions of the Universe

— I take it this is going to be a follow-up to Havnagootiim’s last appearance where he asked viewers to mail in mysterious questions that he will answer in his next appearance.
— I was right.
— I liked the answer to the question “What makes Ed McMahon laugh so much?” (2.5 million dollars).
— One of the mailed-in letters comes from someone named Louis Klein. I’m assuming that’s the same Louis Klein who’s a long-time SNL viewer and is well-known for attending SNL every single week.
— Another funny answer from Havnagootiim, this time in response to the question “Why do we always look in the toilet after we’ve gone to the bathroom?” (We want to know how fast corn travels through our body).
STARS: ***


HELLO, TRUDY!
call-in show’s sole viewer (JLD) asks (JOP) dumb questions

— I liked the bizarre thumb/roller coaster question that Trudy asks Joe.
— Funny reveal that Trudy is always the show’s only caller and how the show’s original name eventually had to be changed to reflect that.
— Solid sketch overall. I think this sketch goes on to eventually become recurring. I worry that it’ll suffer diminishing returns, as I’m not sure that the joke will work with repetition.
STARS: ***½


JOEL HODGSON
Joel Hodgson [real] shows the devices that enable him to become Agent J

     

— Interesting backstory from Flip during his intro, addressing how after Joel Hodgson’s previous appearance on the show in which he displayed a prop bomb, Hodgson later got in trouble with the law for leaving that prop bomb in his hotel room wastebasket, which got mistaken by the hotel staff for a REAL bomb.
— Good to see Hodgson on SNL again.
— All his stealth gun props are getting increasingly funny.
— Love the random part with him displaying some kind of weird pig thing he built when he was bored.
— Overall, this was a slight step down from Joel’s previous appearance on the show, but this was still consistently funny with me receiving one laugh after another all throughout this.
STARS: ***½


SHOE TIER
Walter (GAK) insists he can make a living by only tying host’s shoelaces

  

— The debut of Gary’s old man character, Walter.
— I’m enjoying the bizarre concept of a professional shoe-tier.
— Gary’s bitter “Scum!” remark to Tim as Tim’s walking off was a little thing that gave me a surprisingly big laugh.
— Nice subtle touch with all the pictures on Gary’s wall being of Flip Wilson.
— Overall, the usual good Gary Kroeger-starring sketch, and a great character piece for him.
STARS: ***½


WHAT FAMOUS PERSON DO YOU LOOK LIKE?
— A rerun of a Man on the Street segment that originally aired just two episodes ago. Did they just add this to the reruns to fill in the extra time left over from the edit they made to Flip’s monologue? [ADDENDUM: In addition to the cut portion of the monologue, this Man on the Street rerun also replaces a sketch removed from rebroadcasts, titled “Older Sisters Of The Young” starring Mary Gross as Mary Tyler Moore.]


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Dr. Ruth Westheimer (MAG) points out holiday season sexual imagery
TIK extends the “Truly Tasteless Jokes” idea to other literary genres
BRH offers sample dishes from the Cabbage Patch Cookbook

      

— Okay, two things to immediately address here. One, this ends up being Brad’s final night anchoring Saturday Night News. Dick Ebersol would abruptly fire him from his anchorman role sometime between this and the next episode. The second thing to address here is how INSANELY FUCKING LATE tonight’s Saturday Night News is airing. There’s only about 20 minutes of the show left and Saturday Night News is JUST NOW starting. Now, I know some of the earlier Comedy Central reruns I’ve reviewed of this era also have Saturday Night News appearing unusually late in the show, but that’s a different case: those are just the result of the episodes’ original running order being rearranged in those Comedy Central reruns. In tonight’s case, however, Saturday Night News REALLY DID air this late in the original airing. This is NOT an edit. And I’m honestly stunned by this. After all, it’s absolutely unheard of for SNL to schedule the show in this bizarre manner, burying their news segment into the 12:40 timeslot, just 20 minutes before the show ends. The writing is CLEARLY on the wall for Brad by this point. Placing tonight’s Saturday Night News in such a ridiculously late timeslot must’ve been Ebersol’s way of letting Brad know that his days are numbered. I have a lot more to say about Brad’s firing, but I’ll save it for the end of this edition of Saturday Night News.
— Mary’s overall Dr. Ruth commentary was okay. No particular lines stood out, though, and I’m not happy that they revived her tired old habit of always doing the “finger-in-hole” sexual gesture at the end of her commentaries.
— I got a good laugh from Brad’s joke about Gary Coleman being Sammy Davis Jr.’s black Cabbage Patch Doll.
— Tim’s suggestions for bad book ideas has some pretty good laughs, especially “Nancy Drew’s Unbearable Cramps”.
— Ehh, not to sure about this bit with Brad displaying samples from a “Cabbage Patch Cookbook”. It’s not really working for me.
— And so ends Brad Hall’s final Saturday Night News ever. I have mixed feelings over Ebersol’s firing of him. On one hand, I never really warmed up to Brad too much as an anchorperson. I did initially find him to be a mild breath of fresh air from the dreadful Brian Doyle-Murray “SNL Newsbreak” era that preceded him, but those somewhat-amiable feelings towards Brad soon faded once I started realizing I don’t care for his hokey delivery nor his tendency to try too hard when doing some of the sillier bits & ad-libs. The weak jokes he was often handed didn’t help, either. He still occasionally had some okay moments, but overall, I can’t say I’m going to miss him as an anchorperson at all. On the other hand, I still can’t help but feel bad for him getting fired from the news desk right in the middle of the damn season. Couldn’t Ebersol have at least had the decency to pull this move over the summer, when the season is over? Yanking Brad from the news desk mid-season would at least be slightly understandable if Ebersol had someone else in the cast prepared to take over his spot. But here’s the thing: HE DIDN’T! Instead, he ends up resorting to getting the freakin’ guest hosts to anchor each Saturday Night News, turning the segment into a ridiculous revolving door of out-of-place anchormen. Boy, am I dreading that era of the news segment.
— Oh, and this isn’t the only time in my SNL project where I’ll have to cover an SNL news anchor getting fired mid-season. 14 seasons later, the same thing that happened to Brad happens to a certain other anchorperson, but considering how I’m MUCH more of a fan of said anchorperson than I am of Brad Hall, you can bet that I’m going to have things to say regarding his firing when we reach that point in SNL’s timeline.
STARS: **½


SUBTERRANEANS
classical station ad is (TIK)’s solace from clashing subway radio mimics

   

— An interesting piece so far. I’m eager to see where it’s going.
— Good turn with Tim, fed up with the other passengers obnoxiously singing along to the various contemporary songs playing on their respective walkmen, making them each tune into the same classical radio station, which they all beautifully sing along to in unison.
— Overall, this clearly wasn’t intended as a laugh-out-loud sketch, but it was a well-written and very nice piece, especially for this late in the show.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nightbird”


GOODNIGHTS

   

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty good episode overall, though there were a few fairly rough things early on after the monologue, and there was an unusual amount of quick sketches that had weak punchlines. Flip Wilson seemed a little too underutilized as a host, especially considering his background.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (The Smothers Brothers):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
We enter 1984 (my birth year!), with host Father Guido Sarducci

Posted on

December 3, 1983 – The Smothers Brothers / Big Country (S9 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
studio rain delay- Tom Seaver & Ron Luciano [real] hope show will go on

     

— Very creative idea for a cold opening, in which SNL has an in-studio rain delay. This is pretty fun.
— Great use of the home base stage, showing cast members occupying various parts of the stage’s doors and windows.
— Eddie being the only cast member not to appear in this makes it obvious that tonight is yet another episode that he won’t be making any live appearances in.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
Tom tries to snap a photo of Dick & audience singing “If I Had A Ship”

   

— Tom’s “haul ass” comment was hilarious.
— The whole “candid” picture-snapping bit is solid.
— Love the rapid-fire string of questions Dick is asking a befuddled Tom about his camera.
STARS: ***½


JAZZ RIFFS
— At first glance, this appears to be a re-airing of a sketch the show already did in the season premiere. However, according to something I recall reading years ago, this airing isn’t the same take that was done in the season premiere; it’s an alternate take from the Eddie Murphy “preview show” (which was a special taping where they filmed a whole bunch of Eddie Murphy sketches right before this season began, due to the fact that Eddie won’t be able to appear live in a number of episodes this season). I have no idea why there’s two different versions of this same sketch, nor why they inserted one into THIS episode. Is this replacing a sketch that aired in the original live broadcast? [ADDENDUM: Turns out this replaces TWO things: a sketch called “Know Your Neighbor”, and a Smothers Brothers musical number titled “Fantasy For Auto Horn & Electronic Pulse in D Minor”]


DREAMLAND
(JIB) can’t decipher (MAG)’s obvious sexual fantasy about him

   

— Ehh, not too sure of this premise with Jim’s character arrogantly assuming his female guests’ dreams are a subtle sexual fantasy about him.
— And now, the dream the third female guest (Mary) describes IS a subtle sexual fantasy about Jim’s character, and the big joke is that he’s oblivious to it. Bah, a very predictable and weak punchline.
STARS: *½


CARVEL
Tom Carvel (JOP) discovers franchisee’s (TIK) risque holiday ice cream

     

— Joe’s look and voice is really making me laugh.
— Hilarious bit with the “Jolly Jugs”.
— The other dirty ice cream creations are also funny, especially “Peter the Yule Log” and how the chocolate version of it has much more inches.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “In a Big Country”


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
GAK shows Huckleberry, his 21 year-old Cabbage Patch Kid
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists varieties of influenza
JOP asks new heavyweight champ Larry Holmes [real] if he’s retiring

       

— Brad’s opening joke with him venting about the overexposure of Cabbage Patch Dolls is amusing, and in retrospect, serves as a nice time capsule in regards to the big Cabbage Patch Dolls craze that was going on at this time around 1983.
— I’m getting some pretty good laughs from the commentary with Gary and his now-grown Cabbage Patch Doll. Judging from the voice, I’m assuming that’s Jim inside that costume. His growly voice in this reminds me of future cast member Horatio Sanz, for some reason.
— Another display of Gary’s great pratfall skills, when Jim angrily tosses him over the news desk.
— Brad’s bit about dirty-sounding station initials was just plain random.
— Wow, right off the bat with tonight’s Dr. Jack Badofsky commentary, the audience ALREADY loudly boos and hisses just over his opening “and then, in flew Enza” joke.
— Geez, this is a hostile audience. LOL, they’re booing very easily over quite a lot of Badofsky’s puns tonight.
— Pretty fun audience participation bit right now, with Badofsky having the audience try to guess what the next influenza puns are going to be, just based on his description of them. That’s an interesting change of pace for this character, and is at least calming down all the hostility that tonight’s crowd kept directing to him.
— Joe’s facial reaction to Larry Holmes sternly telling him to be quiet was pretty funny.
— The overall Joe/Larry Holmes commentary was fairly fun.
— I do kinda like the new running gag Brad has been doing lately, where he signs off under the name of a random celebrity (first Elvis Presley, now Betty Grable). Enjoy it while it lasts, because the clock is ticking down on Brad’s anchorman tenure. A change on Saturday Night News is soon coming, folks…
STARS: **½


CRISIS GAME ’83
John Glenn (Tom) & Jesse Jackson (EDM) react to problems

   

— Fun idea for a sketch.
— This is the first time all night we’ve seen either of our two hosts appearing in an actual sketch.
— Good casting of Tom Smothers as John Glenn, as there is a pretty strong resemblance between them.
— Oh, Eddie IS in the building tonight after all. Wonder why he wasn’t in the cold opening with the rest of the cast. And why in the world is the biggest star of this cast making his first appearance so late in the show tonight? [ADDENDUM: Turns out this sketch aired much earlier in the original live broadcast and ended up being the victim of “rerun reshuffling”, a habit that SNL had in the 80s and early 90s where the original sketch order in episodes gets completely rearranged in reruns, which is something that kinda irks me] Was he actually flown in from Hollywood in the middle of this episode or something?
— Eddie’s Jesse Jackson impression isn’t very good. I see what he’s going for, but I feel Joe captured Jesse’s fiery delivery much better when he played him earlier this season in that astronaut cold opening. However, neither Joe nor Eddie have nailed Jesse’s voice.
— I like the random inclusion of Gary as Carl Sagan and Brad as William F. Buckley.
— I got a laugh from the line about a computer nerd who’s “playing with his Wang… Computer”.
— The “prize” that Eddie’s Jesse Jackson was given was really funny.
STARS: ***


CLARK STREET GARAGE BAND
no-talent garage band auditions for record company representative (Dick)

  

— Ha, this band’s god-awful music-playing is cracking me up.
— I like Dick bluntly telling the band how bad they are.
— Some good laughs from the band members’ delusions, and Jim is great in the lead role here.
STARS: ***½


MENTL
a movie starring Barbra Streisand (JOP)

 

— Here we have yet ANOTHER Joe Piscopo impression relying on an insane amount of prosthetics that render him unrecognizable (until you hear his voice). I admit, the initial sight of him as Streisand made me laugh.
— I thought Joe-as-Streisand’s selfish rambling was kinda funny when it started, but this kinda ran out of steam fast, and then it just ended.
STARS: **


THE POINT
Tom tells “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” to illustrate Dick’s unrelated point

— Another funny and brief Smothers Brothers routine.
STARS: ***


AUTOGRAPH
(Tom) has to make repeated trips to get Dick’s autograph for his wife

  

— A fairly interesting idea having Tom play an average joe who’s afraid to interact with Dick, who’s playing himself.
— Eh, not caring too much for how this sketch is turning out so far. Tom’s performance is kinda tickling me, but the material itself isn’t too good.
— Okay, I do like the bit with Tom trying to pose as a waiter.
— What’s with the indoor raining all of a sudden?
— Oh, it’s a follow-up to the “rain delay” bit from the cold opening.
— THAT’S how this sketch ends? Weak. It felt like they couldn’t come up with any other way to end this.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fields of Fire”


GOODNIGHTS

  

— Nice conclusion to rain storyline.
— Interestingly, both SNL episodes that the Smothers Brothers hosted had out-of-the-ordinary goodnights. The goodnights of the Smothers Brothers’ previous episode from a year earlier had them, the musical guest, and the cast taking turns jumping off a “ledge” that had been used for a sketch earlier that night, and tonight’s goodnights take place during an “indoor rainstorm”.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— First episode in a while that I wasn’t all that crazy about. Much like the previous episode that the Smothers Brothers hosted, tonight’s episode was hit-and-miss. Tonight might actually be the lesser of the two Smothers Brothers episodes, as their previous one at least had a few strong sketches that I gave a high four-star rating to, whereas tonight’s episode didn’t really contain anything I found particularly strong; nothing got higher than a three-and-a-half star rating from me. At the same time, however, tonight’s episode at least didn’t contain anything I found frustratingly god-awful like the Truck Driving Women and Inside Story sketches from the previous Smothers episode.
— Another kinda “off” thing about tonight’s episode is something about it strangely felt kinda sparse. Maybe that’s due to the fact that a sketch in my rerun copy was apparently removed and replaced with an alternate take of a sketch that already aired (Jazz Riffs).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jerry Lewis):
— a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Flip Wilson hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

November 19, 1983 – Jerry Lewis / Loverboy (S9 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
during heart surgery, host dreams that Dean Martin (JOP) is his doctor

   

— Great entrance from Joe as Dean Martin. In typical Joe Piscopo fashion, he’s relying on tons of make-up for his impression, but in this particular case, it really DOES make his Dean Martin look pretty uncanny.
— Jerry reverts to his old goofy voice from his younger days as he’s speaking to Joe’s Dean Martin.
— Jerry seems genuinely amused during parts of this.
— Just now, I noticed a sudden cut, as if something were removed from my copy.
— Eddie makes his first live appearance in weeks, and his performance here as Sammy Davis Jr. is very welcome.
— Yep, Jerry’s definitely amused by the others’ performances, especially Eddie’s.
— A strange and awkward ending, but I loved Jerry’s “Live from New York…” delivery.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— You can hear a strange-sounding voice from the audience loudly cheering “Whuh-whuh-whooooaaaa!!!” all throughout this montage. Funnily enough, the voice sounds kinda reminiscent of future cast member Fred Armisen whenever he does a certain type of goofy, surfer-esque voice.


MONOLOGUE
JOP & EDM present a throne to host because he’s the real King of Comedy

     

— Huge extended applause break for Jerry at the beginning.
— I got a good laugh from his sudden passing-out pratfall immediately after claiming he’s not nervous.
— Joe and Eddie have suddenly entered with a throne for Jerry.
— Similar to my observation about Jerry seeming genuinely amused throughout the cold opening, now Joe’s the one who you can tell is genuinely amused during his interplay with Jerry.
— Very funny reaction from Eddie when hearing Jerry won a Nobel prize.
— I’m loving the way all three of these guys are playing off of each other. The natural rapport here is entertaining.
— Fun bit with Joe, Eddie, and the entire studio audience getting up and simultaneously doing wacky Jerry Lewis impressions. You can REALLY hear the aforementioned Fred Armisen-sounding audience member’s “Whuh-whuh-whooooaaaahhhhh!!!”s loud and clear during this part. Maybe I shouldn’t make fun, though; after all, I remember reading a comment from someone who had a theory that the audience member may have been a mentally-disabled person who Jerry knew from his work with special-needs people, and brought to the audience as a favor.
STARS: ****


WHAT FAMOUS PERSON DO YOU LOOK LIKE?
“What famous person do you look like?”; Florence Henderson cameo

     

— They’re going really heavy on the number of Man on the Street segments this season.
— Interesting random Florence Henderson cameo, posing as a random citizen saying she looks like Florence Henderson.
— LOL, right before that one guy answered “Gary Coleman”, I said to myself that’s who he looks like.
— This is very fun so far. I’m really enjoying most of the answers.
— Hilarious how almost every single black guy’s answer is “Eddie Murphy”.
— Funny ending with the woman saying she’s been told she resembles Mary Gross but doesn’t know who that is.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


THE FORUM
people say where they were when they heard JFK had been shot

   

— Jim is very funny with his reveal that he didn’t find out about JFK’s assassination until 9 years after it happened, when he was in college. I’m also liking Joe’s reaction to that.
— An even more hilarious reveal right now with Robin revealing she didn’t hear about the JFK incident until just before this interview.
— Okay, I initially liked Joe’s incredulous reactions, but he’s now getting a little too over-the-top with it. Here we have yet another display of his bad tendency to play some roles too big.
— Even though the escalation with each interviewee feels like it should be getting predictable by this point, I’m still getting a pretty good laugh from Tim as the final guest literally just now finding out about JFK.
— There’s the aforementioned audience member’s “Whoooooaaaaaahhhh!!” heard once again.
STARS: ***½


ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT
interviews with host & other celebrities

       

— Tons of airtime for Joe tonight.
— Julia’s interview was pretty funny.
— Weird seeing Joe doing a Robin Leach impression.
— Mary’s brief Suzanne Sommers interview was hilarious.
— I’m liking all the random humor throughout this sketch.
— Something about Jim’s look and facial expressions in this remind me so much of his brother John.
— I liked Jim’s dinner show comment.
— Overall, while this sketch felt all over the place, it was pretty interesting and didn’t have the usual Ebersol-era feel at all… or at least, not the seasons 7-9 Ebersol-era feel. I can picture this sketch airing in the season 10 portion of the Ebersol era, now that I think about it.
STARS: ***


FASCINATING PEOPLE AND THEIR FRIENDS
a Jewish Football Leaguer (host)

 

— Seems to be a lot of talk show-type sketches tonight.
— The “American Jewish Football league” premise is pretty funny.
— Haha, Jerry has ALREADY begun cracking up.
— Everything in this sketch is tickling me, even if the dialogue itself isn’t all that great. The performances and occasional breaking are putting this over.
— An okay twist with Tim suddenly coming to the realization “Wait a minute, Jews don’t play football!”
STARS: ***½


PARACHUTE
skydivers (host) & (EDM) realize there’s only one parachute while falling

 

— Very interesting visual effect.
— This seems like a tailor-made sketch for Jerry, and I really like seeing him and Eddie paired together.
— Some great lines from Eddie and Jerry.
— Very strange ending, with Eddie randomly breaking the fourth wall to plug an upcoming TV movie about JFK that’s airing on NBC. Maybe this ending was funnier back in 1983 (lots of JFK biopics and documentaries were apparently airing at this time, as this was the 20th anniversary of his assassination), but it hasn’t aged well at all.
— Nice reveal of how they pulled off the green-screen effect, with Eddie and Jerry actually laying upside-down on two adjacent platforms.
STARS: ***½


CORNET
Rosemary Clooney (JIB) sings the praises of Cornet paper products

— Jim’s fairly funny as Rosemary Clooney.
— Ehh, this sketch isn’t turning out to be anything special. The humor here is pretty dull and weak.
— Wow, during the sketch-ending audience applause, you can hear a PARTICULARLY loud and fierce “Whooooooooaaaaahhh!! Whuh-whuh!!” from the aforementioned Armisen-sounding audience member tonight.
STARS: **


THANKSGIVING DINNER
a rebellious college freshman (JLD) is home for a tense Thanksgiving meal

   

— Mary’s funny as the overly-apologetic mother.
— This sketch is an interesting realistic & pretty funny piece so far.
— Hmm, Jim playing a character with his own first name.
— Pretty funny part with Jim tying Julia to the chair and starting to force-feed her, though I kinda wanted that part to go even further.
STARS: ***


LARRY’S CORNER
the luckiest man on Earth (GAK) loses his claim to fame

  

— I wonder if this is the record for most talk show sketches in a single episode.
— There’s writer Andy Breckman’s favorite character name Dale Butterworth again.
— Haha, holy hell, this freakin’ KILLED me! I am in tears, practically rolling on the floor right now as I try to type this. Andy Breckman strikes again.
— I also love how brief this whole thing was. I said in my review of the previous Larry’s Corner sketch from earlier this season (the classic “milk coming out of nose” one) that the subsequent installments of the sketch will never be able to top that one. While I wouldn’t say tonight’s topped it, it came very close to at least equaling it for me.
— Andy Breckman is quickly starting to become one of my favorite SNL writers of all-time. Just out of curiosity, does anyone have a list of all the known sketches that he’s written throughout his SNL tenure? I’d love to know what Breckman sketches are in store for me in future episodes I cover.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO

 

— As I’m still laughing hysterically from the preceding sketch, Jerry continues to keep me in stitches just now with his random yell of “BABY, BABY!!!” while running over to the musical guests, before immediately going back into a straight face while returning to his “musical guest intro” spot.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Working for the Weekend”


AMERICAN IN PARIS
host watches (TIK) dub King of Comedy into French as if it were slapstick

   

— I like Tim’s awestruck interactions with Jerry. Jerry’s clearly amused by it too, judging from his ad-libbed responses.
— LOL at Tim’s young Jerry Lewis-esque goofy French dubbing.
— Just now, Jerry noticeably called Mary by her real first name. Was that a flub, or just another example tonight of a cast member playing a character with their own name?  My guess is the former, as the name Mary doesn’t quite fit her French character here.
— Some good physical work during Tim expressing that he wants to die.
STARS: ***


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
BRH narrates a version of The Day After suitable for preschool children
JIB would rather talk about football than engage in The Day After debate
JLD doesn’t have much time to complain about the length of her segment
MAG talks about how fed up she is with holiday traditions
Jim Brown (EDM) to JOP- “I want credit for my Dirty Dozen run yardage”

       

— The child-friendly version of “The Day After” was an interesting idea (and also reminded me of the Tom Schiller-drawn “Artist’s Rendering” childlike drawings the show used to often do during the Chevy Chase era of Weekend Update), but didn’t really land for me.
— Another point-counterpoint between Brad and Jim? Is this going to be a rehash of the bit with Jim being called out on stealing catchphrases from the original SNL era?
— Oh, this one is different, I see, with Jim’s rebuttal trailing off into off-topic football talk.
— Loved Jim’s ridiculous claims of ABC airing “The Day After” as a pilot for a series that will feature different cities being nuked in every episode.
— Brad’s Lebanese Roulette joke gave me a good laugh.
— Julia’s been doing lots of Saturday Night News commentaries this season. I think she’s been appearing on SNN even more than the usual SNN staple Tim Kazurinsky has lately.
— Oh, this is the bit where Julia’s entire commentary only consists of her saying “Boy, do I hate the way things are run around here. In dress rehearsal, this speech was 4½ mintues long! Back to you, Brad.” I’m not 100% sure where I remember seeing a clip of this before (probably in the “SNL in the 80s: Lost and Found” documentary from Kenneth Bowser), but this was a very funny quick bit, and was most likely written as a way for Julia to vent her real-life frustrations regarding her lack of airtime.
— I think this is our first Spittin’ Mad Mary Gross commentary of the season. After going heavy on these last season, they seem to be scaling back the number of these lately.
— Mary’s mistletoe complaint was very funny.
— Impressive fast-paced delivery from Mary during the whole “pre and post holiday parties” portion of her commentary.
— Ugh, every week this season, Brad keeps doing this groanworthy bit where he follows a guest commentary by saying “Here now with more news is Brad Hall. (to himself) Thanks, Brad.” I admit, that’s the type of gag that an anchorperson like Kevin Nealon or Chevy Chase could make funny, but it never works with Brad and it ALWAYS dies with the audience. Well, I don’t have much longer to put up with seeing him do that gag, considering what’s about to happen to him a few episodes from now.
— FIVE guest commentaries tonight?!? What is this, a Brian Doyle-Murray era “SNL Newsbreak” all of a sudden? [ADDENDUM: I was mistaken; there were only four guest commentaries tonight. For some reason, it felt like more than that as I was watching this episode.]
— Eddie in that make-up as Jim Brown is a pretty funny initial sight.
— I got a good laugh from Eddie’s “Imma probably go throw some white ladies out the window” line.
— I admit, Brad did get a laugh from me just now by randomly announcing himself as Elvis Presley during his sign-off at the end.
STARS: **½


JERRY SCHTICK
host gives JOP & EDM tips on how to impersonate him

   

— Joe’s impression of older Jerry Lewis’ voice seems to have gotten better than it used to be. Maybe working with the real Jerry all week helped Joe finally nail the voice.
— Oh, this turns out to be a “next week” promo, with Joe announcing that next week’s episode will be a rerun of last season’s Joan Rivers episode, and the following week will be a new episode hosted by The Smothers Brothers.
— The whole interplay between Joe and Jerry feels very loose and ad-libby.
— Joe brings out Eddie to do his famous dead-on impression of Jerry’s wacky younger voice.
— This is fun as hell, even if it just feels like an extension of the monologue from earlier tonight.
STARS: ***½


GUSTY
Gusty (JIB) sings a song in honor of the whales

 

— I’ve been liking a lot of what Jim Belushi has been doing on the show so far in his SNL tenure, but the punchline of this sketch with his “whale sounds” didn’t really work for me.
— The format of this reminds me of the educational film narrator sketch that Gary did in the last episode, in that both sketches are a quick blackout gag with someone giving a presentation in front of an unseen audience. I liked Gary’s sketch much better, though.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

 

— We’re told that Loverboy won’t be able to perform their scheduled second number due to the show running long. I’m guessing it was all the ad-libbing and character-breaking tonight that caused the show to run long.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An insanely fun episode, which was to be expected with Jerry Lewis as the host. The writing itself was far from perfect, but the fun atmosphere to the whole show was very infectious, there were barely any segments I didn’t like, and a few parts of the show (especially Larry’s Corner) gave me some of the biggest laughs that I’ve gotten from SNL in a while. This episode was a blast for me to watch.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Teri Garr):
— a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
The Smothers Brothers

Posted on

November 12, 1983 – Teri Garr / Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo (S9 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
pom-pom girls teach some unorthodox cheers to the new girl (host)

   

— The bad cheers being demonstrated are pretty funny.
— Teri’s overly-wordy, long-winded cheer was delivered really well.
— An overall decent piece, but felt a little odd in the cold opening slot.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— No Jim Belushi credited tonight. This must be the episode I heard he took off early in his tenure, I’m assuming because of being tied down to a play he was doing at the time, “True West”. I wonder if that’s also the reason he didn’t officially join the cast until the third episode of the season.


MONOLOGUE
host thinks she remembers the audience but isn’t quite sure

 

— Not the best idea for a monologue, but something about it works pretty well with Teri, and at least they’re actually GIVING her a monologue this time, unlike in her previous episode.
— Pretty funny reaction from her when she asks the audience to tell her their name.
STARS: **½


MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
a nutrition lesson from stolen groceries

   

— Looks like tonight’s another episode where Eddie will be appearing on tape all night.
— The stolen grocery bag reveal is pretty funny.
— Great part with the comparison with the chicken and the hidden t-bone steak.
— A pretty solid Mister Robinson installment overall.
STARS: ***½


THIRSTY GUY
Thirsty Guy contraceptive sponge- designed for the quicker picker-upper

  

— I’m already finding this contraceptive sponge premise funny.
— The cream test that Robin demonstrated was hilarious.
— Really good piece overall.
STARS: ****


HISTORY: THE REAL STORY
obnoxious Abraham Lincoln (JOP) provokes assassination

 

— I’ve been noticing lately that Tim always seems to play the host of shows like this.
— Joe is perfect in this role. His obnoxious behavior as Lincoln is absolutely hilarious, especially his bad “Gettysburg address” joke.
— Poor Julia stuck in yet another role with no lines.
STARS: ****


DION’S
Blaire gets upset when he sees Dion Dion kissing customer (ROD)

   

— Good to see the team-up of Dion Dion and Blair again.
— LOL at Eddie’s reaction to flubbing a line.
— I really like the interesting turn this has taken with Robin trying to start a relationship with Dion.
STARS: ***½


CORONET MAN
educational film narrator Dwight MacNamara (GAK) speaks at an assembly

— Hilarious reveal of Gary’s educational film narrator speaking in the same manner as the bad quavering audio from old educational films shown from a projector. Gary’s imitation is dead-on, and I also like how he’s even vocalizing the opening music of a typical educational film in the same manner.
— And the sketch is quickly over. This was a really funny blackout gag.
STARS: ****


DOPEBALL
a song about drugs in professional athletics

     

— I think this is the first time Joe has done an SNL Sports bit outside of the news segment since season 6.
— This “Dopeball” song is fantastic.
— Okay, this song is turning out to be pretty long, though still funny. I feel like this should be a little shorter, though.
— I like how they included a clip from one of Joe’s earlier SNL Sports commentaries, where he pours cocaine onto the news desk.
— Really funny part with a wind-up bowling ball walking across a line of cocaine.
STARS: ***½


CAFFEINE ACHIEVERS
caffeine achiever host gets increasingly agitated while making commercial

  

— Interestingly, Teri mentions Jane Curtin among celebrities who like coffee.
— The constant re-takes are kinda funny.
— The still-photo montage of blown takes isn’t doing anything for me.
— I didn’t care much for this sketch as a whole. It started off fairly promising, but ran out of steam halfway though for me. This also ruined the streak of solid segments the show had going after the monologue.
STARS: **


JOEL HODGSON
Joel Hodgson [real] does an explosive card trick & imitates Batman

     

— He’s already making me laugh here with his sullen delivery.
— Haha, the card “trick” bit was very funny.
— What was with the brief audience applause when he asked director Dave Wilson how much time he has left?
— Very funny fake-out with the dove.
— Good ending with the sideways Batman climbing bit.
— Overall, a hilarious debut segment for Joel Hodgson, with just about every gag in this getting a big laugh from me. I’m definitely looking forward to his later appearances this season.
STARS: ****


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Linda Ellerbee (JLD) talks about being fired from NBC News Overnight
GAK reviews Star 80 & shows off a sexy camisole from the film
Ann Landers (MAG) reads a letter from El Salvador & gives military advice
TIK shows Chicago Sun-Times readers what to expect from Rupert Murdoch

       

— I like the brief “viewer roll” Julia’s Linda Ellerbee is showing to thank her loyal viewers, especially the subtle joke with two of those viewers apparently being her own parents (judging from their last name).
— Julia’s commentary had a decent punchline at the end.
— Gary’s commentary seems to slowly be turning into him once again detailing how skimpily-dressed some of the women in the movie he’s reviewing were.
— LOL, Gary upped the ante from his last commentary of this nature, by pulling off his wardrobe to reveal the lingerie that was worn in the movie he’s reviewing.
— Mary’s overall Ann Landers commentary was really short. I liked her voice as Landers, but the commentary itself wasn’t anything special to me.
— A lot of Brad’s jokes are bombing BADLY tonight.
— Lots of guest commentaries tonight, while there’s very few jokes from Brad. Probably a good thing, though I can’t help but see this as the writing being on the wall for Brad regarding his soon-to-come mid-season firing as anchorperson.
— Funny part of Tim’s Salute to Journalism commentary with the Heineken kidnappers.
— Decent ending to Tim’s commentary with the cat litter box bit.
STARS: **


KENNEDY: THE MAN BEHIND THE WOMAN!
Marilyn Monroe (host) gives JFK (JOP) advice about the Berlin crisis

   

— Two sketches tonight about former presidents, though I think the reason for this JFK one is because at this time, it’s around the 20th anniversary of JFK’s assassination.
— Joe and Gary are hilarious playing off of each other in their fast-talking Kennedy accents.
— Good casting of Teri as Marilyn Monroe.
— Decent premise with Teri’s Marilyn secretly giving JFK intelligent advice on the Berlin situation.
— Teri’s Marilyn impression is turning out to be kinda disappointing. She’s not really nailing the whispery, sultry voice; it sounds too much like her normal voice.
— The interplay between Joe and Gary is now getting even funnier, with the frequent “the ah, the ah, the ah” bits.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Tonight”


SARCASTIC MOTHER SUPERIOR
a nun’s (MAG) sarcasm gets her in trouble with Father Alexander (TIK)

 

— There’s Mary once again playing her favorite type of role: a nun.
— Mary’s constant sarcasm is pretty funny.
— The ending was very weak and predictable.
STARS: **½


SHE’S A WITCH
(GAK) claims wife (JLD) will turn him into a rabbit when they get home

  

— I’m liking Gary’s sudden “Help me, she’s a witch” reveal about his wife.
— Funny twist that Gary’s “rabbit transformations” were all just a bogus prank from his wife, and I liked Gary’s delivery of “I am so gullible”.
— An overall interesting random sketch for this late in the show.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Way Down”


WHAT’S THE STUPIDEST THING YOU’VE EVER DONE?
answers to “What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done?”

   

— I like one guy’s answer being he set fire to his grandmother’s house.
— A few funny answers here, but not as much as these Man on the Street segments usually have. I’m getting more laughs from the quirkiness of a lot of the interviewees than from their actual answers.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


GOODNIGHTS

 

— Teri confirms that Jim Belushi indeed had to miss tonight’s episode due to “True West”, and then the camera pans over to show that he’s onstage, looking like he literally just arrived in the building.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Much like the previous week’s episode, this was an overall pretty solid show with a strong, impressive first half and a drop-off after Saturday Night News. This was also a big improvement over the previous episode Teri hosted.
— I feel like with these last two episodes, this season has really begun taking off.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Betty Thomas):
— about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Jerry Lewis