Tag: saturday night live

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October 23, 1982 – Howard Hesseman / Men At Work (S8 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
ROD stalls for time because host hasn’t arrived; Susan Saint James cameo

       

— Lots of interesting sights in the chaotic background behind Robin.
— Robin explains to us that SNL’s regular studio is currently being used by NBC news for election coverage, which forces SNL to do this episode from two separate studios, each on different floors. She also explains that the show only has half the usual number of studio audience members tonight. Pretty fascinating backstory from Robin here.
— I like Eddie randomly portraying himself as his Gumby character.
— Heh, after Robin walks away from Tim and his “real-life” family members (the two monkeys from “I Married a Monkey”), one of the monkeys can be seen going wild in the background. A female staff member pops into that background shot amusedly staring at the monkey’s hijinks with her mouth wide open in shock.
— Great visual of a drunk Howard Hesseman making his late arrival through the elevator doors while on the back of a motorcycle.
— Very creative, unique way of doing “Live From New York…”. Kinda reminds me of how they did it in that Irish Potato Torture cold opening with Bill Murray and Eric Idle back in season 2.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host tells dead-Belushi jokes, says “don’t worry about offending people”

   

— A very different and more simplistic home base stage for tonight’s non-Studio 8H episode.
— I like how this started as a continuation of the cold opening, by having a still-drunk Howard getting pushed out onto the home base stage.
— Howard mentions that he’s the first host from the original SNL era to do “the new SNL”. I guess by “new SNL” he’s only referring to the then-current Ebersol era, because the Jean Doumanian season did have some original-era hosts.
— Howard, on his agent and P.R. man warning him not to host in the new SNL era: “They said it would look like my career was on the skids; like I needed the work.” Heh, like a lot of the hosts from season 7.
— Howard: “Okay, so I’m a whore.”
— Howard brings up the recently-deceased John Belushi and says some very interesting things about him.
— He makes a fascinating complaint about how “the new SNL” lacks the type of personal references and “autobiographical sketches” that the original cast frequently did, where they starred in sketches as themselves. That complaint comes off a little strange in hindsight, because this early 80s era actually does quite a bit of “autobiographical sketches” compared to later decades, where there truly IS a huge void of cast members playing themselves in sketches. The show has actually gotten a little better about doing that in more recent years, with stuff like some of the short films that star the cast as themselves (e.g. the Leslie Jones/Kyle Mooney relationship story arc) or Pete Davidson and Leslie Jones’s constant Weekend Update appearances using their private lives as comedic material (hell, if anything, I’d argue we’ve gotten to know WAY TOO MUCH about Pete’s private life).
— Howard: “When is Eddie Murphy going to start doing scenes in drag?! Garrett did!”
— Fun part with Howard telling some dead Belushi jokes. I actually wanted that part to go on longer.
— I like how he’s getting more and more worked-up, now comically railing against President Reagan’s policies.
— Ah, now I see what he’s doing; he’s imitating the Weekend Update rants that used to always end with Belushi flinging himself onto the floor.
— An actually fairly touching ending with Howard looking skywards and delivering a short sincere message to Belushi.
— Overall, wow, what a fantastic monologue. Howard was incredible here.
STARS: ****½


THE GIRLS OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
Playboy profiles The Girls of Saturday Night Live- ROD, MAG, JLD

       

— Uh… WOW, to say the least!
— Oh, there’s some jokes in here too, but who’s paying attention to THAT aspect of this commercial?
— Overall, while I’m not exactly sure what the comedic aspect of this was supposed to be, I certainly can’t complain about the excuse to see all that eye candy.
STARS: ***½


DELOREAN HOME
John Delorean (BRH) packs his suitcase with “Bisquick” & “sugar”

   

— Strange topical John Delorean sketch so far. I get what all the “flour”, “sugar” and “Bisquick” really are, but other than that, I feel like this whole thing played better to 1982 audiences than to me today.
— I did get a laugh just now from the big bag of sugar that Brad emptied out into a huge pile inside the suitcase.
STARS: **½


BILL IRWIN
2 years later, dancing man (Bill Irwin) is still shaking his groove thing

   

— Always nice to see this guy, and I liked the Dancing Man short he did back in season 6.
— He’s dancing to the same song from the aforementioned short.
— Oh, this whole segment appears to be some kind of continuation or variation of the Dancing Man short. Wonder why he has such a different look this time, though the wig and oversized clothes do work well in making his rubbery physical movements look even funnier.
— Great “walking down a staircase inside the suitcase” miming at the end, a trick I also saw him do on another show.
— Overall, wow, that whole thing was great, and it was more impressive seeing him perform this in a live segment than in a pre-taped short.
STARS: ****


CARIBBEAN VACATION
Caribbean intrigue for nerdy couple Celeste (MAG) & “Iguana” Marvin (TIK)

     

— This appears to be the return of Tim and Mary’s meek couple from that Couples Therapy sketch earlier this season with Louis Gossett Jr.
— Tonight’s general episode has really been getting a lot of mileage out of Julia’s sex appeal.
— Tim and Julia’s dance is cracking me up with how they’re doing occasional throw-head-back moves in unison.
— Pretty funny part with Tim calm-and-collectedly sipping his drink while effortlessly holding back Howard from stabbing him with a knife.
— This overall sketch went a little too long for my likes, but the craziness of the whole thing was pretty funny, and I really appreciate how well-performed and fully-committed the whole thing came off. Something about this sketch had quite a different feel for this era of SNL.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Who Can It Be Now”


GOOD MORNING AMERICA
clip of David Hartman (JOP) film is Bullwinkle-like

   

— Haha, oh my god at Joe’s look in this. At first glance, I almost thought that was Gilbert Gottfried I was looking at. It’s something about the way Joe’s eyes look in this.
— Another oh my god at Joe’s dopey-sounding Bullwinkle-esque voice.
— Hilarious random gag with Joan Lunden being portrayed by a mannequin.
— The redundant interview with Gary is giving me some good laughs.
— Ha, they actually acknowledged the Bullwinkle similarities in Joe’s voice by showing an actual Bullwinkle clip being used to represent Joe.
— Overall, some pretty big laughs in this short silly sketch.
STARS: ***½


CONFESSION
(GAK) returns home from college & tells his father (host) he’s straight

 

— LOL at Gary’s dramatic reveal being “I’m straight!” after that long buildup where you think he’s going to come out as gay.
— I like the bizarro universe feel of this premise, where being straight is looked down on while being gay is accepted.
— Howard’s crying outburst is cracking me up.
— Funny ending with Howard arranging to watch “Magnum P.I.” with his apparent boyfriend.
STARS: ***


NAKED WAKE
as per the deceased’s wishes, his open casket features a naked corpse

     

— Tim, when initially looking into the casket: “He’s naked.” LOL!
— Loved Julia’s comment while staring at a certain part of the nude corpse: “His wife is REALLY gonna miss him.”
— I remember hearing Del Close has something to do with this sketch, but I can’t remember what exactly.
— Great delivery of Mary’s “This surprises me!” line immediately after she confidently claims that nothing would surprise her. I also loved her “What a NUT!” line right afterwards.
— I’m already laughing at Eddie’s mere walk-on. I can tell his bit is gonna be hilarious.
— I was right. Eddie’s “This dude is butt-naked, man!” killed me.
— Another huge laugh, this time from Eddie saying a threatening “You a DEAD MAN!!” to the corpse.
— Oh, now I remember what Del Close has to do with this sketch. Howard’s funny hippie-type character here is based on Close. I noticed that Howard was addressed as “Del” just now.
— Haha, now here comes Robin’s funny Italian mama character that we saw several times last season.
— Overall, this sketch was an absolute riot. One of the hardest I’ve laughed this season so far.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Down Under”

— Wow, we’re getting the second musical performance when Saturday Night News STILL hasn’t aired yet? What the heck is going on? I’m starting to question if they’re even going to DO a Saturday Night News tonight.
— WTF? Why did this musical performance abruptly fade to black and go to commercial while the song was still being performed? I doubt they ran out of time, considering we’re not at the end of the show yet.


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
TIK’s salute to journalism deals with the New York Post
JLD announces the Save The World Contest- prizes for solutions to crises
JOP says the Brewers are World Series losers because they are slobs

         

— Can’t believe this is just NOW coming on, when there’s only about 18 minutes left in the show. That’s insane! I don’t think I’ve EVER seen any other SNL episode that had the news segment buried this late in the show’s line-up. I *think* the Flip Wilson episode from season 9 may also have an insanely-late appearance of Saturday Night News, but I’m not sure.
— Knowing that the order of sketches is often shuffled around in the rerun versions of this era’s episodes, I wonder if tonight’s Saturday Night News originally aired in a much earlier spot and only got moved to this late spot in the rerun version I’m watching.
— (*after seeing a joke that Brad has just done about John Delorean getting busted for cocaine*) Oh, NOW I fully understand that Delorean sketch from earlier tonight!
— The debut of Tim’s “Salute to Journalism” segment, which would go on to become a recurring bit.
— Lots of good, smart, sarcastic, biting comments from Tim here (I especially liked “Wow, three days of dead gays”).
— Between this and some of the SNL Newsbreak commentaries he did as himself last season, I’m noticing that Tim seems to have a good sardonic, snarky quality about himself. Amazing that this is the same man who also seems to like doing corny pun-based shtick like the Dr. Jack Badofsky bits.
— Julia makes her very first visit to the news desk, doing a commentary as herself.
— Julia announces a tongue-in-cheek contest for viewers to solve the Middle-East crisis. Pretty funny concept.
— Good use of Don Pardo’s voice-over in Julia’s commentary.
— Joe’s SNL Sports commentary about the Brewers acting like classless slobs at the recent World Series ended up being very brief. I kinda liked the clips shown, but there wasn’t much to this overall commentary.
— An off-camera Joe reaching his hand into the camera view to offer Brad a chewed-up ball of tobacco while Brad is in the middle of delivering his sign-off to the camera reminds me of how Joe often used to troll Charles Rocket with props after finishing his Update commentaries.
— Overall, not a particularly good edition of Saturday Night News, but not any worse than usual. I still can’t understand why they would bury this so unusually late in the show, as if they were ashamed of it.
STARS: **½


UNCLE TEDDY’S LITTLE THEATRE
family members criticize young (GAK)

    

— There’s that same living room set again tonight.
— Great kid voice from Gary.
— Tim’s bluntly negative comments to Gary are really funny.
— Strange that both sketches using this living room set tonight deal with Gary as a son and the topic of homosexuality.
— Wow, dark turn this has taken with Howard hinting at Gary to shoot himself.
— I’ve been enjoying this sketch so far, though the idea of this sketch mining humor out of a young boy being viciously belittled by family members for being “effeminate” probably won’t hold up well with a lot of people nowadays.
— Great twist with Gary turning the gun on Howard.
— Joe’s creepy host character is quite funny, and I now see what they’re going for with him, basically hinting that he’s a child predator.
STARS: ***


THE AMAZING RONCO ANSWER BOOK
The Amazing Ronco Answer Book has responses to ads’ rhetorical questions

— Joe plays the lead of yet another sketch tonight.
— Fairly funny premise, and the usual strong fast-paced pitchman delivery from Joe.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Very strong episode. Lots of really solid stuff all throughout the show, and nothing fell too flat; even the weakest segments of the night were still somewhat watchable. I got so much enjoyment from watching this episode.
— And what a great hosting performance from Howard Hesseman, who was an even better fit here than he was in his prior hosting stint in season 5. I can definitely see why they bring him back to host again just a few months later in this same season.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ron Howard):
— a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Michael Keaton

Posted on

October 9, 1982 – Ron Howard / The Clash (S8 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Bureau of Weights & Measures requests viewers watch SNL with TV on lap

— Oh, so we’re back to doing those brief “disclaimer gag” cold openings that were rampant in the first half of season 7?
— What the hell? THAT’S the joke? Placing your TV set on your lap??? Man, even the season 7 disclaimer openings were funnier than this.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
being on SNL makes host feel liberated- he says bad words & drinks a Bud

   

— Knowing that it would soon become a regular thing in this era for hosts to make their monologue entrance through the door on the right side of this home base stage, it feels weird seeing Ron Howard randomly make his entrance through the left side, which doesn’t even have a door or anything.
— Love this premise with Ron eager to say and do things he was never allowed to do in prime-time.
— His choice of “bad words” are pretty funny.
— Wow, huge audience reaction to him drinking a beer. Judging from the shot of the crowd during that part, it looks like they were even about to give him a standing ovation before the camera cut away from them. (last screencap above)
— Fun monologue overall.
STARS: ***½


OPIE’S BACK
adult Opie Taylor (host) returns to seedy Mayberry; Andy Griffith cameo

         

— I like the details on the trashy current state of Mayberry 1982.
— Ha, Eddie does yet another impression of a white celebrity/character.
— Hmm, turns out Eddie’s Floyd isn’t quite as good as other “white impressions” that he has nailed, but I’m still liking his performance here.
— Great “Opie’s Back” twist.  I’m loving this whole premise.
— The cast is doing fun impressions of the Andy Griffith Show characters; I especially like Brad’s Gomer voice.
— Nice pre-taped guest appearance from Andy Griffith.
— Funny blooper with Ron mistakenly referring to Eddie’s Floyd as “Otis”, and then after being corrected, he saves himself with a great ad-lib (“I told ya I couldn’t recognize ya!”).
— Overall, I really enjoyed this Andy Griffith Show take-off.
STARS: ****


VELVET JONES ROMANCE NOVELS
Velvet Jones romance novels, including Kicked In The Butt By Love

— So much for Velvet Jones’ “retirement”, which he and fellow “overexposed” recurring character Paulie Herman announced in the Robert Conrad episode last season.
— Eh, I’m tired of these “Velvet Jones advertises a new book of his” sketches; they peaked too early with the classic first installment (“I Wanna Be a Ho”) and none of the subsequent installments have measured up. Tonight’s sketch is doing nothing for me.
— What the–? Is that season 7 SNL announcer Mel Brandt doing the voice-over at the end? I also couldn’t tell earlier if that was him or not as the voice-over in tonight’s cold opening disclaimer gag. If this IS indeed Mel Brandt, what’s up with that? I thought he was no longer employed with the show this season. Is tonight’s episode using leftover cut bits from season 7?
STARS: **


WHINERS
Doug & Wendy Whiner visit a doctor (host) to see about having a baby

  

— Ohh, god, here comes this season’s first appearance of the Whiners, easily my least favorite recurring sketch of this whole era (so far).
— I’m now a minute into this sketch and nothing in it has made me laugh at all so far.
— Okay, just now, I did like Ron’s “Alright, alright, just SHUT UP!” outburst.
— Another funny comment from Ron saying “They don’t allow babies in Puerto Rico”.
— Weak ending.
— Overall, this pales badly in comparison to the last Whiners sketch from the Danny DeVito episode, which at least had enough funny stuff from the various non-Whiners characters in the sketch to make it more tolerable than usual. Tonight’s Whiners sketch, on the other hand, had too little to work with.
STARS: *½


HARRY ANDERSON
Harry Anderson [real] shoves a hat pin through his forearm

    

— Nice opening trick with him turning a paper into a cigarette in a quick flash.
— Hmm, judging from Harry’s definition of “geek” (a circus freak who bites heads off of animals), that word had a VERY different meaning back then than it would later on. Now I finally understand that “the geek’s mouthwash” tagline from that sketch last season where Tim played Ozzy Osbourne advertising a mouthwash for fellow bat head-biters like himself.
— I like the audience gasping and screaming when Harry shows the needle stuck through his arm.
— OH MY GOD, that part with him moving the needle through his arm back and forth while blood oozes out… Jesus Christ, that looks WAY too realistic to be faked. Now I’m on the same page as the screaming and gasping audience members.
— Harry: “If your cat has kittens in the oven, you don’t call them biscuits, do ya?”
— Very funny ending with his “rabbit trick” just being him simply impaling a stuffed rabbit with a giant needle.
— Overall, even if some of the more gory aspects made me wince like crazy, this was another great Harry Anderson segment. In fact, I’d say that the gory aspects actually made this even better than his usual SNL appearances.
STARS: ****½


IN QUEST OF
Leonard Nimoy (JOP) In Search of Francis The Talking Mule; Rex Reed cameo

    

— Huge amount of make-up and prosthetics on Joe’s Leonard Nimoy impression. Joe looks completely unrecognizable.
— Interesting-looking pre-taped segment.
— I like the subtle gag with Joe’s Nimoy’s ears getting increasingly bigger and more Spock-like every time the camera cuts back to him.
— Overall, a pretty well-done film and a decent display of dry humor. Felt kinda like an early version of the type of brilliant pre-taped shorts the show would regularly do later this era in season 10; I can easily picture Harry Shearer in Joe’s role here.
STARS: ***


FOCUS ON FILM
Raheem Abdul Muhammed prefers “Opie Cunningham” to host

 

— I like Eddie referring to Ron as “Opie Cunningham”.
— I’m assuming the baby daughter that Ron mentioned here is the now-famous Bryce Dallas Howard.
— Eddie’s disbelief over Ron having sex is very funny.
— Fun part with Eddie leading the audience in a chant of “Opie Cunningham” so Ron will shave his mustache.
— Even though I kinda saw it coming, I got a decent laugh from Ron angrily telling Eddie “Sit on it, bucko!” before walking off, as well as Eddie’s frozen reaction to that.
— Loved Eddie’s “WHAT?!? Imma kill ‘im!” outburst after being told what “bucko” means.
STARS: ***½


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
angry MAG lists people who deserve to be out of work but aren’t
some before & after photos of celebrities’ plastic surgery
BRH apologizes for the incident in which he called James Watt a “slime”
Andy Rooney (JOP) gives his thoughts on the Middle East

        

— Wow, only 20 seconds into this Saturday Night News, and we’re ALREADY getting a guest commentary. Is this the record for earliest appearance of a guest commentary ever?
— Ah, the debut of the “Spitting-Mad Mary Gross” persona, which would go on to become a Saturday Night News recurring bit. Nice change of pace seeing Mary playing against type from her usual soft-spoken, kind demeanor.
— Very good delivery from Mary here, with her endless, rapid-fire listing-off of things that irk her.
— Brad’s Vietnam children/Bob Hope joke was really good.
— Hmm, Brad has begun a listing-off of celebrities that had cosmetic surgery. Uh-oh, is this a leftover Brian Doyle-Murray “long photo montage” segment from last season’s SNL Newsbreaks?
— Eh, I guess you can say this cosmetic surgery photo montage is different enough from the montages that Doyle-Murray used to do, and I did get a laugh from the “before” picture of both Barbra Streisand and David Letterman.
— Brad gives a sincere-seeming apology for yelling at James Watt on the phone back in the season premiere, then suddenly loses his temper and angrily punches a hole through the picture of Watt displayed on the news screen. Wow, can’t say I’ve ever seen an SNL anchorperson punch a hole through the news screen any other time. Can’t say this one made me laugh, though.
— After the overuse of Joe’s Andy Rooney impression last season, I’m not too excited to see him back tonight, though this IS his first time appearing on SNL’s news segment.
— Tonight’s overall Andy Rooney commentary didn’t end up being anything special. I feel like they’ve already done everything they can with this impression of Joe’s.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Straight to Hell”


HAIL TO THE CHIEF
Jimmy Carter (JOP) recalls Ronald Reagan’s uninterested White House visit

     

— First time we’ve seen Joe’s Jimmy Carter impression since the infamous season 6.
— Joe’s Carter impression now sounds even better than it used to. There’s more details in the vocal tics this time. I’d argue that his Carter voice now sounds almost as dead-on as Dan Aykroyd’s classic version.
— Hmm? Another “Hail to the Chief” sketch showing Reagan’s perspective? I thought I remembered hearing they only did these sketches in season 7. This won’t be the same without Tony Rosato there anymore to carry the sketch as Ed Meese.
— Kinda surprised this is Julia’s first appearance of the whole night. I had been wondering where she was tonight.
— Feels weird seeing a “meeting” of two presidential Joe Piscopo impressions.
— Joe’s Reagan’s method of “sounding presidential” is to simply say “Shut up!” That may have been unheard of for a president in 1982, but oddly enough, it would feel commonplace nowadays, considering who’s currently in the White House (as of 2019).
— The sketch is over already? Boy, this overall installment was pretty weak and paled badly in comparison to the season 7 “Hail to the Chief” installments.
STARS: **


COME ON OUT AMERICA
— A rerun from last season


SYLVESTER SCHOOL
an IRS agent (TIK) visits the Sylvester School of Speech Therapy

   

— Wow, even stranger than Julia making her first appearance fairly late in tonight’s episode is the fact that this sketch is the first time we’ve seen Kazurinsky all night. Very unusual for him.
— Gary’s doing a good Sylvester the Cat vocal imitation.
— Oh, turns out they’re ALL speaking like Sylvester.
— Heh, poor Tim, having to get repeatedly spit on throughout this sketch with everyone exaggeratedly lisping into his face. Even I’m starting to cringe for Tim.
— Haha, another instance of Eddie breaking character and laughing during a sketch. (last screencap above)
— This overall sketch probably didn’t look too funny on paper, but the performances made it a decent sketch.
STARS: ***


WHY
(host) asks a prostitute (ROD) why she hooks & gets plenty of reasons

   

— I almost thought this was going to be a quiet, semi-dramatic, Marilyn Suzanne Miller-esque slice-of-life sketch, especially after Robin’s “molested as a child” reveal (that line was quite dark for an SNL sketch). However, this now seems to be going in a more comedic, broad direction.
— LOL at Tim Kazurinsky, of all people, playing a pimp.
— What’s with Joe’s very fake-looking mustache? It looks almost as if it’s ready to fall off.
— Very weak punchline at the end.
— Overall, I didn’t care for this sketch at all.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Should I Stay or Should I Go”


NUKES ARE FOR KOOKS
in a small town, deterrence power of personal nuclear warheads fails

    

— Apparently, this is another sketch from the Practical Theatre Company that this season’s three new cast members (Brad, Julia, and Gary) brought with them to SNL.
— I assume that in the original PTC stage version of this sketch, Joe’s part was played by Paul Barrosse, who was Brad, Julia, and Gary’s PTC partner and also an SNL writer during this season.
— I like the odd concept of this sketch so far, casually carrying around huge nuclear warheads as a weapon.
— Interesting fourth wall-breaking PSA-type ending.
— Overall, a pretty decent closing sketch with some nice offbeat humor.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— This is the first episode of the season that I wasn’t all that impressed by, though it certainly wasn’t terrible or anything. This episode started pretty strong with the strangely charming monologue and the epic “Opie’s Back”, but the show hit a brief rough patch immediately afterwards with a weak Velvet Jones followed by a damn Whiners sketch. The rest of the show afterwards was very hit-and-miss.
— Considering this was the third consecutive live episode, I can cut them a little slack, and I hope the next episode brings back the quality that I had been enjoying from season 8 before tonight’s episode.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Louis Gossett Jr.):
— a somewhat big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Howard Hesseman

Posted on

October 2, 1982 – Louis Gossett Jr. / George Thorogood & The Destroyers (S8 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
NBC is so desperate for viewers they’re willing to disrobe

   

— I like spokesperson Joe’s line about the realization the network came to after taking a long hard look at their new fall line-up.
— The idea of this is fairly funny, the jingle is catchy, and Mary’s giving a good performance. However, this pales in comparison to better shots SNL has taken at NBC’s ratings woes in earlier seasons.
— No “Live From New York” at the end of this. In my review of the season premiere, I made a big deal about them bringing back LFNY this season, but I forgot that there’s still some occasional LFNY-less episodes within these next few seasons. Hell, there are some episodes these next few seasons that don’t even have a cold opening!
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host puts cast through comedy boot camp

     

— This unexpectedly begins with Louis Gossett Jr. already onstage right in front of the camera, instead of making an entrance like most hosts do in their monologues.
— Really good premise to this monologue, and a nice use of the whole cast.
— Haha, I’m loving Eddie and Joe’s exaggeratedly cocky, laid-back personas as the two veterans of this cast.
— If you know me, you know I personally got a kick out of seeing Eddie and Joe imitating Curly from The Three Stooges.
— Gary’s panicked facial expression when he doesn’t know the punchline to Brad’s joke is really funny.
— Lots of great rapid-fire pratfalls-on-command from Gary. I’m aware that doing falls on the show would go on to be one of Gary’s strengths as a cast member; I recall seeing some really good falls from him in my past viewings of this era.
— Overall, I found this to be a very fun, unique monologue.
STARS: ****


DON’T HITCH-HIKE
(TIK) learns his lesson the hard way- “Don’t hitch-hike”

       

— A very slow but interesting buildup so far.
— Ha, holy hell at the sudden drive off the cliff (represented by now-familiar stock footage that would later go on to be regularly used in the Toonces the Driving Cat sketches) and this turning out to be a “Don’t Hitchhike” PSA. A really good twist.
STARS: ***½


MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
Mr. T [real] objects to drum noise

    

— The glitter shoes are hilarious.
— Interesting change of pace for the “word of the day” segment.
— Nice drumming from Eddie.
— Ha, Mr. T!
— Mr. T: “The new word for today is PAIN.”
— An overall very memorable installment of this recurring sketch.
STARS: ****½


SEX THERAPY
a sex therapist (host) enjoys putting his patients through play therapy

     

— Boy, Brad is really overacting in this. When I started doing reviews of this season, this is exactly the type of performance I was worried I would see from Brad, based on my past viewings of this era.
— What’s with Louis’ constant drawn-out “Ah ha” laughter throughout this sketch?
— Tim and Mary’s husband/wife characters are funny.
— LOL at the whole bit with Tim prematurely “climaxing” with his gun. That was great.
— Good ending with Louis’ gun going off multiple times after Mary kisses him on the cheek.
STARS: ***½


MR. & MRS. T BLOODY MARY MIX
Mr. [real] & Mrs. (ROD) T Bloody Mary Mix- drink it or be pitied

 

— Oh my god at Robin in this. She is hilarious here.
— Loved Robin’s “Dat’s mean!” after drinking the mix.
— Wow, this overall sketch was quick and incredibly fast-paced. Flawless execution of a really funny idea, and featured a very different side of Robin that we’ve never seen prior to this.
STARS: ****½


WHAT’S THE WORST THING YOU’VE EVER DONE?
people on the street are asked “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

   

— The one guy’s ashamed “I stole money… from a nun” confession after tip-toeing around saying it was really funny.
— Love the bluntness of one guy’s answer being he slept with his best friend’s wife… multiple times.
— What’s with this part with the hard-of-hearing old guy?
— Ha, the hard-of-hearing old guy’s answer to the “worst thing you’ve ever done” question being a simple “I got married” was a great way to end this.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


SINGING IN THE STALL
a quartet of bathroom-goers sing “Under The Boardwalk” from their stalls

   

— I like the camera slowly panning over to reveal the other stall occupants have begun to sing along with Joe.
— I absolutely loved the part with Tim looking for an empty stall while quietly singing Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” (“Don’t…push…me…cuz…I’m…close…to…the…eeeeedge”, etc). It’s also hilarious because Tim’s one of the last people you’d expect to see casually singing that song to himself.
— This was an overall very well-done and enjoyable sketch. Tonight’s episode in general has been on fire so far.
STARS: ****


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
BRH delivers bad news with a song & a guitar in order to soften the blow
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists names for advanced stages of medical conditions
Shelley Winters (ROD) talks about the death of her friend Marilyn Monroe
JOP interviews Canadian Football League player Bubba St. Jacque (EDM)

           

— Brad’s still wearing the glasses from last week.
— Hmm, interesting-seeming bit with Brad busting out a guitar to announce the bad news of the week in a “pleasant” way with a folk song.
— Decent audience participation bit with having them sing along to Brad’s guitar song.
— Whoa at Brad’s angry outburst and subsequent guitar-smashing at the end of the song. A fairly funny ending.
— Brad really seems to be trying to leave his mark as an anchorperson so far this season, by doing several unique side segments that I can NEVER picture Brian Doyle-Murray doing the previous season.
— Here comes this season’s first appearance of Dr. Jack Badofsky.
— Funny opening line from Badofsky.
— Maybe it’s because tonight’s episode has put me in a really good mood, but I’m finding myself enjoying tonight’s Badofsky puns more than I usually do.
— Whoops, a blooper. Tim has shown the wrong card for his “Tomorrow-The-World-Measels” pun, which has resulted in confused silence from the audience.
— Tim, in an ad-libbed response to his aforementioned blooper: “(deadpanly) I knew that’d happen someday.” Ha, he’s making a great recovery from his blooper.
— Some more very funny ad-libs from Tim in response to the aforementioned blooper. The audience is LOVING this.
— Badofsky’s “you have to wear a Hefty bag on your side” addendum to his “colossal colostomy” bit gave me a good laugh.
— This overall Badofsky commentary has definitely been one of his better appearances so far, with the blooper elevating this to a more noteworthy level.
— Nice to see the return of Robin’s Shelley Winters. She was hilarious in her appearance last season.
— Uh, wow. Robin’s portrayal of Winters is a lot more over-the-top tonight, especially the extremely drawn-out syllables. Not sure whether to find that funny or annoying. Sadly, I think I might have to pick the latter. Her performance here is a bit too much for my likes; her Winters impression was a lot funnier last season where it was more reigned-in while still being the right amount of loopy.
— Robin’s overall commentary was kind of a letdown, despite a few okay lines here and there.
— Brad’s whole “Our Gang-style killings” joke was great.
— Hmm, a Chevy Chase joke, a mere week after he hosted the show.
— Brad mentions that Chevy is going to be a father. The “he can feel the baby stumble” punchline was a bit of a groaner, but I found it okay just because I appreciate the callback to Chevy’s pratfall routine from the original SNL era.
— As usual, Eddie and Joe are doing great playing off of each other. It can’t be said enough how much I always love their chemistry whenever they’re paired together.
— Haha, I loved the extended ending of Joe and Eddie’s commentary, with Eddie ad-libbing a whole bunch of angry foreign gibberish to Brad.
STARS: *** (the highest rating I’ve given to SNL’s news segment in quite a long time)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bad to the Bone”


SATURDAY NIGHT EDITORIAL
MAG tells jokes about Jerry Lewis to prove SNL has nothing against him

— I like how Mary is all too eager to read off un-airable tasteless SNL jokes about Jerry Lewis.
— Very awkward ending with Mary suddenly apologizing.
— I didn’t enjoy this overall segment nearly as much as the set-up to it had me expecting to.
STARS: **


DON’S BACK
DOP describes his year away from SNL

   

— Joe brings up the fact that there’s several new things about SNL this season and how the return of SNL announcer Don Pardo isn’t exactly new.
— This sketch was actually supposed to air in the season premiere (which would’ve been more fitting, as that was Pardo’s actual first episode back), but due to the show running long, it was replaced with a brief “killing time” segment with Joe telling us that a great bit planned for that episode will be airing next week instead. I didn’t get to see that brief Joe segment, as it was removed from my copy of the season premiere.
— Nice way to re-introduce Pardo back to SNL, by having him detailing in a gameshow-style manner what he did over the past year after being fired from SNL. The general joke of Pardo saying casual things in an out-of-place gameshow-style manner has already been done by him multiple times back in the original SNL era (Jill Clayburgh’s season 1 monologue, the “Waiting For Pardo” sketch, etc.), but it’s still nice to see again.
— The oven part was pretty funny.
— Joe’s ending sign-off seemed really rushed and abrupt. Was something removed from my copy of this sketch?
STARS: ***


DONAHUE
Phil (JOP) discusses conflict with Begin (TIK) & Arafat (GAK)

    

— It feels weird to see a Phil Donahue impression from Joe. While doing reviews of this SNL era, I’ve been noticing that Joe seems to do A LOT of impressions that either Phil Hartman or Darrell Hammond would later do more famously (Frank Sinatra, Ted Koppel, Dan Rather, etc.), and in the case of Donahue, both Hartman AND Hammond would play him (come to think of it, there’s quite a number of impressions that Hartman and Hammond share with each other).
— At first glance, I seriously thought for a second that that was Tony Rosato as Yasser Arafat sitting next to Tim’s Menachim Begin (after all, Tony DID once play Arafat alongside Tim as Begin in an SNL Newsbreak last season), until I remembered Tony’s not on the show anymore. I guess after reviewing the entirety of season 7 in such a short amount of time these past few weeks and becoming so attached to that season’s cast, I haven’t gotten used to not seeing Tony and Christine Ebersole anymore this season. I guess that’s to be expected with the nature of this SNL project of mine; after all, when I started reviewing season 6, there were a few times where I initially mistook some of the uncredited bit players for certain members of the original cast, because I had been so used to reviewing the original SNL era.
— Ah, turns out that’s Gary Kroeger playing Arafat. Good make-up job on him in this.
— Joe is nailing the trademark Phil Donahue gestures and mannerisms, but the voice is leaving a lot to be desired.
— Really funny bit with Joe’s Donahue suddenly diving onto an audience member’s lap to take Mary’s question.
— An overall decent sketch, if nothing special.
STARS: ***


FATHER AND SON
EDM & host quit a sketch that stereotypes blacks; cameo by EDM’s father

     

— Heh, there’s the Mister Robinson’s apartment set again tonight.
— It’ll be funny to see where this overly-dramatic sketch will go.
— Ha, Eddie drops character to say to the camera “This scene bites!”
— I’m liking where this is going. I usually always enjoy this type of meta sketch where the performers drop character midway through and break the fourth wall.
— Hilarious random bit with Eddie suddenly stopping mid-sentence and opening a closet door to yell a deep-voiced “SHUT UP!” to the band inside that’s been playing the dramatic background music for this sketch.  I recall reading that Eddie reprises that gag in another sketch later this season.
— I like the reveal of this black sketch turning out to be written by a very whitebread Jewish-looking guy, which kinda reminds me of a joke they would later do in a season 11 “That Black Girl” sketch with Danitra Vance.
— Is that really Eddie Murphy’s father standing up in the audience? I’m not seeing any facial resemblance between him and Eddie at all.
STARS: ***


THE INTERESTING FOUR
the superhero team of last resort is summoned

     

— A fairly funny pre-taped intro, giving us a rundown of the unimpressive superpowers each member of this superhero team has.
— Heh, Don Pardo as the voice of Hawkman on his answering machine.
— I like the randomness of Louis’s agent character using a Snoopy phone to make his important phone call.
— Joe is perfectly cast in the role of a schmaltzy stand-up comedian/lounge performer.
— Not too many laughs in this sketch so far. It feels like after the long pre-taped intro setting us up on the individual superpowers of each team member, there aren’t many places left for this sketch to go. Maybe they should’ve done away with the intro and let the reveal of each member’s superpower display itself over the course of the sketch.
— Boy, between the monologue and this sketch, they sure seem to be letting Julia Louis-Dreyfus mug the camera quite a lot tonight.
— I like the idea of a villain being named “Dr. Inconsiderate”.
— I’ve been noticing throughout tonight’s episode that Louis seems to be playing a lot of his roles in a VERY over-the-top manner, which I’m not crazy about. It’s especially hurting this particular sketch.
— This overall sketch fell flat. I’m aware that this somehow ends up becoming a recurring sketch later this season, which I’m definitely not looking forward to seeing.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Back in Wentzville”

— The show abruptly goes to commercial while this musical performance is still in progress. I guess the show is running long.


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An overall solid episode, particularly the first half, which (aside from a somewhat “meh” cold opening) contained a consecutive long string of strong pieces and a general good vibe that I found infectious (I mentioned earlier during my review of Saturday Night News that tonight’s episode has put me in a really good mood). Even Saturday Night News was fairly decent. Despite a drop-off in quality in the second half of the episode, things were still pretty good until the show bottomed-out with that weak superheroes sketch.
— Louis Gossett Jr. was a letdown as a host. A lot of overacting and over-the-top performances from him tonight. He was a little TOO animated for his own good, which is a shame because I usually find him to be really funny in other things I’ve seen him in.
— I’m surprised at how much I’ve really been liking the way this season has been going so far. We’re off to a promising start.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Ron Howard

Posted on

September 25, 1982 – Chevy Chase / Queen (S8 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
CHC explains why he’ll do the show via satellite from Burbank

   

— I like how this opened on Chevy doing his trademark “raunchy phone conversation” opening gag, though I swear the “beads” conversation he’s doing in this sketch was already used in a Weekend Update of his from the first two seasons.
— I’m surprised we just got a simple “I”m Chevy Chase” introduction, with no “and you’re not” added after it.
— Interesting slow reveal that Chevy is actually being displayed on a TV monitor on SNL’s (new) home base stage.
— Chevy eventually explains that, due to a missed flight, he’s not in New York but in Burbank, as SNL’s first bi-coastal video host.
— Has it ever been confirmed whether this whole “missed flight” thing was genuine or just a gimmick? My theory is it’s a gimmick. I doubt they would’ve been able to get this whole “via satellite” thing prepared on time if it were done on such short notice like we’re led to believe. And besides, SNL was known for doing unconventional gimmicks throughout the Ebersol era.
— Nice ending with the crew members inducing a trademark Chevy pratfall by tipping his TV monitor over.
— We get the return of “Live from New York…” for the first time since season 6! Very nice to hear it again. And who better to deliver the re-introduction of LFNY than the guy who delivered it in SNL’s first episode ever?
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— It’s the same opening montage from the previous season, but right off the bat, there’s a noticeable difference, as the opening shot of a woman lighting her cigarette with a conventional lighter has been replaced with an awesome-looking shot of a construction worker lighting his cigarette with a torch.

— After being replaced in season 7, beloved original announcer Don Pardo is back! It feels so refreshing hearing his voice again after I’ve gotten so used to Mel Brandt’s season 7 announcing.
— The SNL logo looks to be in a more orange-red color compared to season 7’s plain-red logo. Something about the sizing or the letter spacing of the logo looks a bit different tonight too.
— The cast shots have all been changed. I really like the idea of that, as I’ve always said that whenever a new SNL season uses the same opening montage from the preceding season, they should at least update the cast shots, just to keep things somewhat fresh. Aside from this season, the only other time SNL would go on to do that would be in season 22.
— The new cast members joining the show tonight are Brad Hall, Gary Kroeger, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

  

 

MISCELLANEOUS
(no synopsis available)

— Just a very brief post-opening montage continuation of the cold opening, with Chevy still “on the floor” and announcing that he’ll be back. Much like in season 7, I see SNL is still toying with the idea of whether to do a monologue or not. However, I believe monologues officially go back to being a regular weekly thing after tonight’s episode.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


ART OPENING
Tyrone Green is the darling of the New York art scene

     

— The return of Eddie’s famous “Cill my landlord” character Tyrone Green.
— As if the wild cheers Eddie received in tonight’s opening montage wasn’t enough of a sign that he had become a huge star by this point, the energetic audience applause that his entrance receives in this sketch certainly shows you. This really sets the tone for this season, as IIRC, this is the season where Eddie reaches his absolute peak as a cast member.
— LOL at Eddie’s casual “Okay, bitch” line to Robin.
— Gary Kroeger and Brad Hall make their debut playing an effeminate gay art couple.
— I like the one collage that Eddie titled “Smart-Ass White Boy Blues”.
— For some reason, Eddie randomly starts breaking in response to Mary asking him a question. (second-to-last screencap above)
— I like Eddie angrily turning down a request to recite the “Cill My Landlord” poem. Probably a good thing, as we’ve already seen him repeat that poem in a sketch with Mary last season.
— Eddie’s “I Hate White People” poem is pretty funny. I know him spelling out “white” as “W-I-T-E” is just a knock-off of his funnier “C-I-L-L” from the original Prose and Cons short, but this still managed to crack me up a lot. It was something about the intense squinty-eyed look he gave the camera during his extreme close-up while spelling out “W-I-T-E” that slayed me.
STARS: ***


JOE TAKES A BRIDE
JOP announces that he’s fallen in love with Rose Kennedy & wants nuptials

   

— As proof that he’s become the #2 most popular member of this cast, Joe’s “I’m Joe Piscopo” intro at the beginning of this sketch gets a very big reaction from the audience.
— An amusing premise with Joe announcing that over the summer, he’s fallen in love with Rose Kennedy.
— Decent pre-taped video of Joe going for a romantic walk on the beach with Kennedy.
— The football-throwing bit was pretty funny.
STARS: ***


JOHN HINCKLEY FOR PRESIDENT
John Hinckley (BRH) announces he’s a candidate for president

 

— Funny reveal that Brad is playing John Hinckley.
— A good sketch so far, and Brad’s doing fine playing an unabashedly crazy Hinckley.
— Good subtle bit at the very end, where he slowly puts the pillow into his mouth right before the camera fades to black.
STARS: ***½


MYSTERY THEATRE
Zacherley (John Zacherle) & a video Land Shark

   

— I’m afraid I have no familiarity with this horror show host making a cameo.
— He is coming off pretty funny in this, though.
— Ha, the familiar Jaws/Landshark music sting is heard as Julia Louis-Dreyfus is heading to the door.
— Okay, tonight’s whole “Chevy missed his flight to New York” thing DEFINITELY has to be a gimmick, because how else would Chevy have his Landshark costume available in Burbank? Am I supposed to believe he always randomly carries that costume in his luggage?
— There’s the famous and always-funny “Candygram” routine.
— Landshark being displayed on a TV screen was kinda fun, I guess, but it’s disappointing not to see him attacking a woman who answers the door like he usually does. Made this feel anticlimactic.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
Danny DeVito [real] introduces musical guest

 

— Danny DeVito on SNL again!
— Nice to see Danny shutting off Chevy’s typical self-indulgent bragging.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
JOP’s football strike resolution proposal appeals to players’ drug habits
during a phone call to James Watt, BRH gives him a piece of his mind
Father Andrew B. Titus (TIK) dislikes Reader’s Digest’s condensed Bible
Tonight Show set in Burbank doubles for Tel Aviv during CHC’s report

           

— The debut of a revamped version of SNL’s news segment, featuring a new title, a new anchorperson, and a new set.
— Speaking of the new set, I like it a lot, especially the NYC nighttime skyline background.
— Hmm, Brad is wearing glasses in this. IIRC, that doesn’t go on to be a regular thing during his tenure as anchorperson.
— His very first joke is already self-referential, naming himself as one of America’s most trusted newsmen. Not sure how to react to that.
— He’s taken off the glasses already.
— His delivery isn’t too bad so far. However, I wonder if he eventually gets worse over time, because my past memories of watching reruns of this era seem to recall Brad having an annoyingly cheesy, exaggerated, unnatural delivery. I wonder if maybe he actually IS using that same cheesy delivery tonight and I’m not noticing it because suffering through a whole season of Brian Doyle-Murray makes Brad’s delivery sound less awful to me by comparison.
— Good to see a Joe Piscopo SNL Sports appearance as the very first guest commentary of the revamped Saturday Night News.
— Joe’s cocaine bit was very funny.
— Interesting-seeming bit with Brad calling up Secretary of the Interior James Watt.
— Brad’s sudden screaming outburst to Watt over the phone actually gave me a big laugh, even if it was a bit too heavy-handed in its politics (which would make it fit perfectly on modern-day SNL).
— A new character from Tim.
— A lot of funny complaints from Tim about the ridiculous changes made to the condensed bible.
— Weak punchline at the end of Tim’s commentary.
— Brad has randomly put his glasses back on after Tim’s commentary. Why doesn’t he make up his mind?
— Chevy’s remote segment is serving as a nice view of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show set. Unfortunately, that’s just about the only worthwhile thing about this whole segment.
— Overall, tonight’s Saturday Night News debut was a small step up from the dreary SNL Newsbreaks of season 7, but they still have a LONG way to go.
STARS: **½


VIDEO VICTIMS
by Claude Kerven- children addicted to video games

       

— Good premise for a mockumentary.
— I love the way this really captures the arcade craze from this time period in the early 80s. It’s also fun to see so many of the (now) old-school video games from the time.
— The drug addiction-esque downfall of the kids is very funny.
— Hilariously shocking part with the little girl prostitute who has to earn her money “the hard way”.
— The old foreign-accented guy as “11 year old Timmy” was funny as hell.
— Overall, wow, this film was excellent and incredibly well-done.
STARS: *****


REVIEW
Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert [real] review the show & criticize CHC

   

— Adding to the exciting feel of tonight’s episode is a Siskel and Ebert cameo where they give “history’s first live review of a TV show still in progress”. Fun idea.
— Hmm, they’re reviewing a “PTC” sketch that hasn’t even aired yet in the copy of the episode I’m watching. The sketch order must’ve been shuffled around in my version.
— Them naming Chevy as the “dog of the week” is pretty funny.
— Heh, the “picture” of Chevy in the background turns out to be live, as he suddenly starts doing his famous “making faces behind someone’s back” bit, which is a pretty nice blast-from-the-past, but it’s never been my favorite recurring Chevy routine.
— Funny line about “one of the great acting hand jobs of all time”.
— Assuming Siskel and Ebert’s sketch reviews are their genuine opinions and aren’t scripted lines, I’m finding their comments about the sketches to be quite interesting.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


POPIEL GALACTIC PROPHYLACTIC
Popiel Galactic Prophylactic & Dura-phram- EDM touts the tough devices

   

— Wow, Eddie’s doing a great pitchman voice.
— Hilarious concept.
— After Eddie fires the gun at the prophylactic, somebody (I think one of the two extras playing the wrestlers) mistakenly runs past the camera, temporarily blocking Eddie.
— Haha, lots of funny fast-paced craziness in this sketch.
STARS: ****


LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN
Gumby & a Bob the Dog film

    

— Joe is absolutely dead-on as Letterman; even the look is scarily accurate.
— Hmm, Gary Kroeger appearing as Paul Shaffer (a dead-ringer, by the way). Is this the first time in SNL history where a former cast member was impersonated by someone?
— Joe’s even nailing Letterman’s trademark laugh.
— Haha, Tim as Larry “Bud” Melman.
— Joe throwing two pencils behind him and breaking the window made me howl.
— A welcome return of Eddie’s Gumby.
— Ah, Eddie’s Gumby now has the angry delivery I’ve always been familiar with, unlike the low-key delivery he used in his debut last season.
— Great stories from Eddie’s Gumby, especially the “someone eat my buns” story about Poppin’ Fresh (the Pillsbury Doughboy).
— Overall, this was a riot. I got lots of laughs throughout this whole sketch, and it was also a solid parody of Letterman’s “Late Night”.
STARS: ****


PTC CLUB
April May June (JLD) preaches, (GAK) heals audience members

     

— Ah, here’s the aforementioned PTC sketch.
— Nice to see a showcase for Julia on her first episode.
— Very good character work from Julia here.
— Brad’s “soft rock” bit was pretty funny.
— Oh my god, Julia’s increasingly psychotic detailing of fighting Satan was insane and hilarious.
— Gary’s whole audience interaction bit is FANTASTIC so far. He’s giving an excellent performance here, and is handling his interactions with various audience members with so much ease that you can’t even tell this is his first night as a cast member.
— LOL at the unscripted part with a male audience member volunteering to be the person who puts his hand on the female audience member’s breast.
— Overall, this was a pretty strong showcase for the three new cast members. I’m aware that this is reportedly a sketch that they had done together in their improv days at the Practical Theatre Company (which I guess is where they got the “PTC” abbreviation for this sketch), which explains why this had such a polished feel.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Under Pressure”


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A good way to kick off the new season. The feel of this episode was quite different from the previous season, and there was a nice quality to tonight’s show, especially in the second half where there was a consistent run of very solid material. Some of the season’s big changes and the various guest appearances throughout the night also added to the exciting feel of the episode. The fact that the “Chevy hosting via satellite” gimmick is a complete afterthought in my mind right now shows how good the rest of the show was.
— The three new cast members got some good showcases tonight, especially with the PTC Club sketch. Due to my past viewings of a handful of episodes from this era, I’m already somewhat familiar with how the three newbies’ respective SNL tenures end up turning out, but based on just tonight’s episode, I would say Gary is the newbie I’m looking most forward to seeing more of, especially after his great work in PTC Club.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1981-82):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Louis Gossett Jr.

Posted on

May 22, 1982 – Olivia Newton-John (S7 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Paulette Clooney meets her idol host by chance in the ladies’ restroom

 

— Nice to see another appearance from Robin’s “She’s a pig” character, Paulette Clooney. Does this character appear beyond this season, or does this end up being her final appearance?
— A good laugh from Robin’s line “Olivia Newton-John in the john!”
— Pretty funny lipstick job Robin did on herself.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Announcer Mel Brandt (who we’ll be hearing on SNL for the last time tonight) mistakenly announces Michael Davis as a “special host” instead of “special guest”.


TALENT ENTRANCE

— Uh, where’s the cast? For this Talent Entrance, Brandt announces “Olivia Newton-John and the cast of Saturday Night Live!”, but only Olivia makes an entrance. Strange. This would’ve been the cast’s last chance to do a Talent Entrance, as that segment gets dropped after this season.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Physical”


TRANSEASTERN
— Rerun


EBONY & IVORY
Frank Sinatra (JOP) & Stevie Wonder (EDM) sing “Ebony & Ivory” variant

 

— Oh, this is a very well-known classic sketch.
— Eddie’s solo singing of “Ebony and Ivory” actually sounds genuinely nice.
— Joe’s Sinatra: “When I think of Ebony, I think of a magazine that most people do not buy.”
— I always get a kick out of Sinatra’s lyric “You are blind as a bat and I have sight”.
— Overall, a perfect and very well-done sketch, and is one of the quintessential displays of the great chemistry Eddie and Joe have always had.
STARS: *****


I MARRIED A MONKEY
Madge doesn’t want to give up her new life as a nun

   

— Ha, they fooled me with the long opening set-up with the nuns before the monkey showed up. I had no idea this would turn into another “I Married a Monkey”.
— Funny part with Tim responding to Madge’s lack of a verbal response to his question by saying “You’ve taken a vow of silence”.
— Overall, ehh, I found myself laughing very little during this. After a strong first two installments, I definitely seem to be slowly getting tired of this recurring sketch. These last two installments didn’t do much for me. I’m afraid to ask how many more times they’ll do this sketch over the next two seasons.
STARS: **


HITLER IN HEAVEN
Colonel (Graham Chapman) halts sketch about Hitler (TIK) at pearly gates

   

— Ha, is that a Hitler mustache I’m seeing on Tim under his “Mother Theresa” cloak?
— Yep, he IS playing Hitler.
— Tony’s “Go to hell” to Hitler was funny.
— Graham Chapman!
— Good audience applause in response to Chapman’s appearance. I thought I remember reading somewhere before that Chapman’s cameo in this episode disappointingly got no reaction from the audience.
— Nice breaking of the fourth wall with Chapman pointing out the general idea of this sketch was “stolen” from Monty Python.
— Another Twilight Zone twist with Brian showing up as Rod Serling. That’s making this feel reminiscent of a sketch they did before. I might be thinking of that sketch from the Chevy Chase-hosted episode in season 3 where characters in a scene tried various ways to end the sketch they’re in. Did Dan Aykroyd’s Rod Serling impression appear in that? I can’t remember.
— Overall, this didn’t work quite as well as it should have, especially for something involving a Graham Chapman appearance. This paled in comparison to that aforementioned season 3 sketch.
STARS: **½


NOT A RECORD AD
an unspecified product is very beneficial, but it’s not a record

   

— I’m enjoying the rapid-fire shots of random stock photos and clips.
— Wow, what the—? This overall ad went by so fast and was so strange, I couldn’t even fully process it. From what I could make of it, I did enjoy its weirdness.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Make a Move on Me”


SNL NEWSBREAK
ersatz Arnold Schwarzenegger (Leo Yoshimura) impresses MAG with his body
a banned advertisment for “The Secret Policemen’s Other Ball”
Graham Chapman [real] apologizes for any offensive material in the ad
TIK dislikes the popularity of self-help books
stills of Sophia Loren’s movie roles document her prison stay
host summarizes what James Watt has done during his time in office
JOP predicts how the trend of athlete endorsements will continue
EDM’s warning to fathers- “everybody gets it on prom night”

               

— A continuation of the running gag with Mary interviewing Akira Yoshimura as the wrong person, this time as “Arnold Schwarzenegger”. The image of a monotone Yoshimura in that Conan the Barbarian outfit is cracking me up.
— I liked Mary’s “Any lower and I’d be having your children!” line when Yoshimura lifted her in his arms.
— Graham Chapman again!
— The ending of Graham’s commentary was very predictable, though it was kinda funny seeing Brian dressed like that.
— Why’d the camera randomly move to the side strangely in the middle of Tim’s commentary?
— Tim’s overall commentary was okay and displayed some decent snarkiness and sarcasm from him.
— Oh, no, here comes SNL Newsbreak’s dreaded weekly “long photo montage”, this time showing Sofia Loren “in prison”.
— Odd seeing an Olivia Newton-John commentary. Hosts rarely do their own Update commentaries, especially back in this era.
— Uh, wow. What the heck was the point of Olivia’s overall commentary??? To deliver a straight, non-comedic speech railing against then-Secretary of the Interior James Watt? If I wanted to see out-of-place preachiness and politically-charged clapter on SNL, I’d tune into a modern-day episode.
— Man, most of Christine’s jokes are absolutely BOMBING tonight, even worse than they usually do.
— Joe’s SNL Sports commentary tonight is pretty funny with the increasingly silly fake athlete-endorsed products he’s displaying. I especially like the Secretariat ballpark franks.
— Funny ending to Joe’s commentary, with him repeatedly shoving the pull-string doll of himself into Brian’s face while Brian’s trying to speak. Seems like something Joe would’ve done to Charles Rocket the previous season, back when Joe would sometimes follow up his SNL Sports commentaries by trolling Rocket with a prop while Rocket was in the middle of a news joke.
— Is tonight’s SNL Newsbreak ever going to end?
— Great commentary from Eddie about sex on prom night, especially his line about “giving her the ol’ heave-ho like a champ” and him declaring that “EVERYONE gets it on prom night”.
— And so ends the final edition of SNL Newsbreak. And with that, I breathe a sigh of relief and thank God I no longer have to review this segment. My goodness, what a dreadful year for SNL’s news segment this was. You KNOW it was terrible when it has me welcoming the upcoming freakin’ Brad Hall era of the news with (somewhat) open arms.
STARS: **


MICHAEL DAVIS
Michael Davis [real] orally juggles ping-pong balls & hard-boiled eggs

     

— LOL at the audience gasping at Michael quickly inhaling a ping-pong ball into his mouth.
— Michael, on the dangers of swallowing a ping-pong ball: “It would hurt… twice.” Haha, I like how it took a few seconds for both me and the audience to get that joke.
— Man, some of Michael’s tricks never fail to make me wince, but I love it.
— Funny mock-disgusted sounds from Michael when he spits the ball into the audience.
— Very funny part with the audience going “ohh” when Michael actually messed up and didn’t catch the ball in his mouth like he was supposed to, only for him to quickly put the ball into his mouth by hand and then sternly ask the audience “What do you mean ‘ohh’?”
— Very impressive work, orally juggling two ping-pong balls at the same time.
— I love the cruel pleasure he always takes in making the audience wonder if he’s really going to do a stunt he announces.
— Overall, fantastic work from Michael as usual. Does this end up being his final SNL appearance, or does he appear beyond this season? If this is indeed his final appearance, it’s a shame he didn’t continue to appear after this season. He was definitely a consistent big highlight of the year.
STARS: ****½


BUZZ WORDS
(EDM) can’t comprehend other businessmen’s metaphors for “you’re fired”

— LOL at Eddie’s “white guy businessman” voice.
— What’s with all the abbreviation talk?
— Tim’s “What’s all this BS?” amid all the professional abbreviation talk kinda made me laugh, though it got no audience reaction.
— Very good flawless fast-paced delivery from Tim and Joe, even if it’s not making me laugh much.
— I do like Eddie suddenly dropping his “white” voice and going all loud, deep-voiced, and ghetto on Tim and Joe after they fire him, though it’s not enough to save the sketch.
STARS: **


SANDY’S CURSE
unpopular girls (MAG) & (ROD) try to impress bad girls (host) & (CHE)

   

— Our obligatory Grease-related sketch of the night.
— Why do they keep trying to pass Brian Doyle-Murray off as a teenager this season? Who are they fooling?
— Yet another sketch tonight making mention of Robin’s alleged small chest size.
— Christine is dead-on as Rizzo.
— An overall decent sketch, though it kinda dragged a bit in some spots.
STARS: ***


SPORTS ORGAN CLASSICS
bring ballpark excitement home with this songbook

  

— Not too great of a concept, but still kind of a fun idea.
— An overall pretty forgettable sketch. I’m assuming this ends up being Tony’s final big role on the show, which is an underwhelming way for him to go out, though he certainly did what he could with the material in this.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Landslide”


THE CLAMS
— Aw, man, THIS is our final segment of the season? A repeated commercial??? Really, SNL?
— In a way, this is an accurate representation of the unusually high amount of repeated commercials we’ve seen over the course of this season. Sure hope there’s a lot less repeats in store for me in season 8.


GOODNIGHTS

       

— Is Joe drunk? He looks a bit smashed and his speech sounds unusually slurred.
— Joe announces that Eddie “is doing a movie this summer with Nick Nolte”. Of course, we now know what movie that would be.
— Oh, wow, very interesting how they’re now showing a still-photo montage of various sketches from this season while the ending credits are rolling.
— One of the pictures is of Danny DeVito dressed as a king while sitting on a throne. (fifth screencap above) Where did that come from? DeVito was never dressed like that anywhere in my copy of his episode, and as far as I know, there weren’t any sketches missing from my copy. Was that picture from a cut dress rehearsal sketch?
— The picture of Bill Murray and the cast singing with the Yale Whiffenpoofs in the Christmas episode noticeably has Father Guido Sarducci singing with them. That picture DEFINITELY has to be from dress rehearsal, because Sarducci was nowhere to be seen during that Whiffenpoofs performance in the live show.
— Overall, that montage was very fun. And something about it combined with the usual touching goodnights music playing in the background and the fact that this is the end of the season actually made me feel a little emotional.
— As far as I know, this ends up being the only season finale in SNL history that does this type of year-end “season montage”. It should’ve gone on to become a tradition for the end of every season; it’s a fun way to look back on the year as a whole.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An underwhelming, forgettable episode, which is pretty disappointing for a season finale. Kind of a microcosm of the quality of the second half of this season in general. Even Graham Chapman’s cameos tonight ended up being kinda disappointing. And ending a season finale with a repeated fake ad wasn’t the best idea, either (though maybe the show ran long and had to put that repeated ad in place of a planned live sketch). The only two things that stood out as strong were the classic Ebony & Ivory sketch and the Michael Davis spot.

— This would end up being the final episode for Tony Rosato, Christine Ebersole, and Brian Doyle-Murray. I know Tony and Christine were fired, but I’m not sure if Brian’s departure was his own decision or not. I was pretty surprised at how Tony and Christine turned out to be better cast members than I had been expecting. I already mentioned recently how reliable and solid Tony could often be in his performances. I’ve also noticed that he had a bit of a “Low-Key John Belushi” quality to him at times, and also had some of the likability that Belushi brought to his “everyman”-type of roles back in the day. Christine was a good performer in her own right and displayed solid performance skills in various roles. I said at one point early this season that I’m not looking forward to a whole season of constant Christine Ebersole musical sketches, but after now having gone through the entire season, I take that comment back. I actually ended up finding her musical sketches to be pretty enjoyable, and there weren’t anywhere near as many of them as I had been worried. In fact, the second half of the season barely had any. That may be a bad thing, actually, as Christine’s airtime in general also seemed to somewhat diminish in the second half of the season. Giving her the co-anchor spot on SNL Newsbreak in the last quarter of the season wasn’t a good decision, either, as she came off too bland and overly-straight for the role. Speaking of Newsbreak, I certainly have no problem with Brian’s departure. He helmed what is possibly the all-time worst era of SNL’s news segment, and his nothing-special delivery of the jokes didn’t help at all. As a sketch performer, he was serviceable at best, but nothing noteworthy. His presence on the show will not be missed at all.

— Season 7 as a whole was a very unusual one. It’s basically a tale of two halves: the first half with Michael O’Donoghue in charge saw lots of experimentation, weirdness, darkness, and a daring sense of danger (particularly the Donald Pleasence episode on Halloween), more than any other SNL era has ever had. O’Donoghue’s sense of experimentation, weirdness, etc. may not have always worked in this season’s first half, but I admired it and found myself enjoying most of the episodes in that half of the season. The second half of the season after O’Donoghue’s mid-season firing saw the show having a VERY different feel from the first half. Gone was the experimentation, weirdness, and danger, and in its place was a lot more safeness, blandness, and a generally overly-average feeling. Also adding to the unexciting vibe was the roster of hosts, as aside from Danny DeVito, the entire second half of the season had an endless string of bland or non-comedic celebrities hosting, with only Johnny Cash defying expectations and giving a strong hosting performance. While the second half of the season was a definite step down from the first, the season as a whole was still a step in the right direction after the chaos of season 6.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Season 8 begins, hosted by Chevy Chase via satellite. We get a few new cast members, a revamped news segment, and the return of several SNL traditions that season 7 did away with.

Posted on

May 15, 1982 – Danny DeVito / Sparks (S7 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
footage of wrestling match between Andy Kaufman & Jerry Lawler teased

— Just a quick, straightforward announcement of an Andy Kaufman wrestling match we’ll be seeing later in the episode.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


TALENT ENTRANCE


MONOLOGUE
Christopher Lloyd, Marilu Henner, Tony Danza, Judd Hirsch [real] bow

      

— Danny’s already getting lots of good laughs right off the bat. I had forgotten what its like to have an actual funny actor hosting this season, after the endless string of non-comedic hosts we’ve had in the second half of this season.
— The audience boos loudly when Danny announces that ABC has just canceled Taxi.
— Very nice idea having the Taxi cast show up to take the final bow they never got to do on their show.
— Oh, this is during Andy’s neckbrace phase.
— Lots of great infectious energy from the one-by-one entrances of the Taxi cast.
— The studio audience is actually giving a standing ovation now.
STARS: ****


TAXI
Louie DePalma (host) takes a taxi to ABC headquarters & blows up building

     

— Ah, Taxi’s opening credits. Considering it’s been a very long time since I last  watched a rerun of that show, it’s making me very nostalgic seeing these credits & theme song again.
— LOL at the sight of Danny moping outside ABC’s headquarters.
— Ha, Danny blew up the ABC building! Hilarious.
STARS: ****


WHINERS
(host) is stuck next to Doug & Wendy Whiner on an airplane

   

— Ohhh, the Whiners officially become recurring characters. Their return actually received APPLAUSE from the audience tonight.
— I got a good laugh from Mary as the stewardess forcibly throwing another passenger’s blanket at the Whiners when they complain about how cold they are.
— Another good laugh from other passengers eagerly requesting a headset in unison when Mary’s handing them out.
— Great ending with Danny purposely wrecking the Whiners’ box of china after they spent the whole sketch telling him to be careful with it.
— Overall, probably one of the more tolerable Whiners sketches ever, just due to all the various funny things happening around them, whereas in the first Whiners sketch, Tony was the only thing holding it together.
STARS: **½


EXECUTIVE STRESS TEST
(host) has to pass an unannounced stress test to get promoted

   

— Boy, those are some disturbingly exaggerated sexual moans from Mary over the phone.
— Great appearance from Eddie as a no-nonsense drug dealer.
— Haha, holy hell at the herpes revelation from Christine.
— Good twist with the stress test reveal.
— The knife ending was kinda weak in theory, but Danny’s acting made it funny.
— Overall, a pretty solid sketch and featured strong performances from all involved.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mickey Mouse”

 


SNL NEWSBREAK
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists types of rabies
MAG reports from Central Park that she’s found Annie’s Sandy
Argentine responses to a Falklands ink blot test
Lou Grant (TOR) gives the weather report

           

— I’m starting to realize that Christine’s delivery as an anchorperson is just wrong for SNL Newsbreak. She’s so OVERLY professional-sounding that it kills the humor.
— Yet another Dr. Jack Badosfsky appearance.
— During these last two Badofsky appearances, I’m noticing a trend where his commentaries start out not working for me at all, and then after about a minute or so, I find myself starting to actually laugh at some of his puns. I don’t know if this means he always uses his weakest, corniest puns up front before getting to the better material or what, but it’s just something I’ve been noticing.
— Good risque ending to Badosfky’s commentary, with Linda Lovelace-induced rabies being named “Fellabies”.
— Yet another “Mary interviews the wrong person” gag. This routine is getting tired.
— What’s with the dog’s growling? Or is that a sound effect they’re playing?
— Mary’s overall commentary didn’t work for me at all.
— Oh, no, Brian has begun listing off responses to a Falklands ink blot test. Here comes our dreaded weekly “long screen crawl” gag.
— I admit, some of the early entries in this screen crawl list are actually pretty funny, but I just know this crawl is going to get tired fast.
— Yep, I was right.
— Once again, Brian’s ends his spiel long before the accompanying screen crawl stops scrolling, forcing him to stall for time.
— Christine’s Rely tampon joke was actually really funny.
— Tony’s Lou Grant impression seems to have improved, or maybe it’s just growing on me.
— The Lou Grant weatherman segment was okay overall, but nothing special.
— Overall, for this season’s standards, tonight’s SNL Newsbreak was actually somewhat short. I’m glad it didn’t go on forever like it did in the last few episodes.
STARS: **½


PUDGE & SOLOMON
Solomon does his dance while Pudge plays his new song

  

— Good to see these characters back.
— Feels like Eddie hasn’t been appearing much in tonight’s show; a contrast to how much he dominated the last few episodes.
— Eddie’s comments about John Hinkley are really funny.
— I’m also getting laughs from Eddie and Joe’s conversation about “Puerto Ricans” being in the Falklands.
— Joe’s “I want a meal, not a snack” insult was hilarious.
— Nice to see Danny getting involved in this, though he’s not as good at doing the type of “black voice” that Eddie and Joe are effortlessly doing.
— Good ending with Eddie’s doing “his dance”.
STARS: ***½


ENZO
Enzo mouthwash- it can freshen even Ozzy Osbourne’s (TIK) breath

  

— Oh my god at Tim’s look as a bloody-faced 80s-era Ozzy Osbourne. And the casting decision to have HIM of all cast members play Ozzy seems pretty random.
— While this overall commercial had a decent idea, the result didn’t really work for me. This was very forgettable.
STARS: **


COME ON OUT AMERICA
— Rerun


TABLE TALK
TOR shows how to intimidate the wine steward

 

— I’m really liking Tony’s outbursts at the waiter and his subsequent Vic Salukin-esque sadistic laughter into the camera afterwards.
— Overall, a pretty solid showcase for Tony.
STARS: ***½


NO MORE WRESTLING
wrestling match between Andy Kaufman & Jerry Lawler [real] causes injury
Andy Kaufman [real] apologizes to wrestling fans, retires from the mat

    

— A Brian Doyle-Murray-conducted interview with Andy.
— Haha, I always crack up at Jerry Lawler’s whole fast-talking “Andy Kaufman, you’re about to get hurt, son” rant, as I’ve seen that clip multiple times before, in a documentary about Andy’s wrestling career that Comedy Central used to air an endless amount of times back in the day. (I think the documentary is titled “Andy Kaufman: I’m From Hollywood”)
— Some big laughs from Andy’s constantly ducking in and out of the ring when Lawler’s about to begin wrestling him.
— Lawler: “Are you here to wrestle or act like an ass?!?!”
— Seeing Andy repeatedly getting brutally pile-driven head-first into the ring floor is really making me wince, even if I know he didn’t REALLY get injured from it (his use of a neckbrace in the present-day scenes is just an act, IIRC, as is the whole rivalry between him and Lawler).
— LOL at the loud “Ohhh!”s from the crowd during the second pile driver Andy received (which looked PARTICULARLY painful).
— Oh, geez, now they’re replaying those wince-worthy pile drivers in slow-motion. I can’t look.
— After the wrestling video package ends, Andy gives a sincere apology for his entire wrestling shtick and announces he’ll never wrestle again, which receives genuine applause from SNL’s audience.
STARS: ***½


LOOKS AT BOOKS
(TIK) claims that the Beatles stole ideas from the Nazis

  

— Was it intentional to reuse the title of a Jane Curtin-hosted recurring talk show sketch (I believe Chevy hosted it at one point too) from the original era?
— A decent laugh from the record covers and titles shown.
— Overall, while the premise of the Beatles stealing their music from the Nazis was really promising, the sketch ended up being a little forgettable. This felt like a weaker prototype of two better sketches they would do later this era: the “Heil Hits” sketch where Tim advertises an album of Hitler-ized hit songs and the famous talk show sketch with Eddie claiming the Beatles originally had a black member (him).
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Predict”


GOODNIGHTS
host’s mom Julia [real] curses out ABC in Italian

 

— Great bit with Danny’s mother cursing out ABC in Italian.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— One of the better episodes of the second half of this season, which I was expecting considering the host. While nothing was really classic tonight, the show had a nice flow with mostly solid material. Even The Whiners and SNL Newsbreak were a little more tolerable and didn’t hurt the show as much as usual.
— Danny DeVito did an unsurprisingly fun job hosting and you can see why he would go on to be a fairly frequent host for the rest of the 80s as well as the 90s.  I’m definitely looking forward to reviewing his other episodes.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robert Culp):
— a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Season 7 comes to an end, with host Olivia Newton-John

Posted on

April 24, 1982 – Robert Culp / The Charlie Daniels Band (S7 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Kelly (host) goes undercover to investigate old I-Spy buddy Scotty (EDM)

    

— What’s with Joe’s weird acting? Is he supposed to be doing a take-off of John MacEnroe’s infamous “You cannot be serious” rant?
— Ah, he is.  Just now, Robert addressed him as “Mr. MacEnroe”.
— A “reunion” between Culp and “Cosby”.
— Tim’s walk-on as Billie Jean King is giving me a good laugh.
— Another laugh from Tim’s BJK asking Robert to “hold her balls” (tennis balls) while she goes to the bathroom.
— Of course, we get a Jell-O Pudding reference, as well as other products the real Cosby was doing commercials for at the time.
— Decent twist with Robert turning out to still be a spy.
— Overall, despite a few highlights and good efforts from Eddie, I didn’t care too much for this cold opening. Too much of it dragged and felt like it went on a little too long.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Interesting hearing the show make an actual acknowledgment that they don’t do monologues anymore.
— That’s it?!?!? This just had Robert rapidly reading a bad stand-up joke, and then he ended the monologue. What was the point of this?
STARS: *


MIDDLE AGE OF AQUARIUS
Mary Travers (CHE) introduces updated ’60s hits

   

— This is in a similar vein to the “Jesus in Blue Jeans” commercial from earlier this season. I think there’s another commercial like this later this era, where Tim advertises a record of Hitler-ized songs.
— The 60s hippie hits adjusted for 80s yuppie-type audiences are pretty funny, though the studio audience seems more amused by it than I am. Then again, the studio audience has the benefit of living in the 80s while I’m watching this in a much later decade.
— The “It’s My Condo (And I’ll Sell If I Want To)” song gave me a good laugh.
— Overall, pretty decent, though it went on a bit too long for something that was fairly one-joke.
STARS: ***


EGG & SPERM
in (CHE)’s uterus, a sperm (TIK) tries to pick up an egg (MAG)

   

— Well, this certainly seems to be a weird sketch.
— Oh, I now see where this is going. A fairly decent concept showing a human representation of a sperm and an egg inside a uterus.
— Loved the part with Tim as the sperm mentioning how he had to enter through the “back door” because a “big rubber trampoline” was blocking the front.
— Tim looking upwards and yelling “You slut!” was hilarious.
— The bit with Tony as a sleazy sperm isn’t coming off that funny.
— Took me a while to recognize Brian in bed with Christine at the end; I actually almost mistook him for his brother Bill Murray at first. Guess I was thrown off by the wig and the fact that we can only see the side of his face.
— Awkward ending.
— Overall, despite a decent concept and a few funny lines from Tim, this kinda fell flat and ended poorly.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Still in Saigon”


SNL NEWSBREAK
various photos aid BDM’s explanation of Britain’s slow Falklands trek
tracked path of the Royal Navy’s Falklands route spells out their speed
disgusted with current naming trends, TIK lists some famous bad monikers
MAG sets a record running from ABC headquarters to assignment at CBS
JOP wants George Steinbrenner to stop trading the Yankees’ good players
racist joke prompts EDM to dispel the link between black people & monkeys

           

— Brian’s Oliver Hardy bit was just cringeworthy.
— Brian has begun listing off reasons why it took the Royal Navy so long to reach the Falkland Islands. Uh-oh, are we getting our weekly “long series of pictures” gag?
— Yep, looks like it. Ugh!
— Tonight’s SNL Newsbreak has been going on for five minutes so far, and Christine has yet to say a single word. Brian’s been doing all the talking so far.
— What is the point of this map bit that Brian is doing?
— The path that Brian drew on the map ended up spelling out “slow”. THAT’S the big payoff to the overlong map gag??? Ugh, SNL Newsbreak just gets worse and worse. Thank god there’s only two episodes remaining for this era of SNL’s news segment. Like I said recently, season 8 can’t come fast enough for me.
— Another commentary with Tim as himself.
— One of the “jerky” names that Tim complained about was Brad. Little does Tim know he would soon have a new castmate with that name next season.
— Some good laughs from Tim revealing the “real” names of celebrities, such as Ricardo Montalban really being named Irving Weinblatt.
— Here’s comes Mary’s weekly remote segment. Is she going to interview Akira Yoshimura as the wrong person for the third consecutive episode?
— Nope, the premise of Mary’s remote just turned out to be another “Mary’s reporting from the wrong location” gag, where she’s outside the ABC building when she’s supposed to be at CBS.
— Pretty fun with Mary “running over” from the ABC building to the CBS building.
— I’m enjoying Joe’s fast-paced recapping of the insane number of trades Steinbrenner has been making to the Yankees this season.
— Brian’s punchline to the blackface undercover cop joke was lame, but I got a laugh just from the premise of an undercover cop wearing ridiculous Al Jolson-esque blackface.
— Eddie’s whole “Black people don’t look like monkeys, whites do” commentary is great so far, and he’s making some really funny points.
— Great Monkees reference from Eddie.
— Interesting to see natural camaraderie between Christine and Eddie at the end of Eddie’s commentary. I didn’t realize until now that out of this entire cast, Christine is probably the cast member we’ve seen Eddie interact with the least on the show.
STARS: **


PARTY GIRL
out-of-town convention attendees (JOP) & (BDM) hire a “party girl” (ROD)

   

— There’s that same bedroom set again tonight.
— Great voice from Eddie as the bellhop.
— I’m surprised this is the first time we’re seeing Robin all night, but now that I think about it, this seems to be common for her lately. Feels like her airtime is diminishing more and more these last handful of episodes.
— With the facial expression she has in this sketch, Robin resembles Lily Tomlin in certain camera angles. I can kinda picture Tomlin playing a character like this.
— Brian dismissively calling Robin “Morey Amsterdam with a freight wig” has been one of my few laughs in this sketch so far, and this sketch has been going on for MINUTES.
— Overall, this sketch was a disappointment. I really wanted to like it because of how much poor Robin has been struggling for airtime lately, but I felt this missed the mark and very few things in it worked for me.
STARS: **


JAMES BROWN IS ANNIE
Godfather of Soul (EDM) sings hits from the musical

   

— Oh, this is a well-known sketch, though I’ve never seen it myself until now.
— Oh, this is great! I especially love Eddie singing a James Brown-ized version of “Tomorrow”; this version actually sounds like a genuinely great song.
— Wow, overall, this was fantastic. I kinda wanted it to go on longer, but maybe it was the right length after all.
STARS: ****½


BABIES IN MAKEUP
— Mary mentions that the show received hate mail from viewers in response to the “Babies in Makeup” short from earlier this season, so SNL is rebelliously airing the short again.
— Despite Mary’s funny intro, that doesn’t make up for the fact that I have to suffer through this film again. I kinda hated this the first time, and I ain’t liking it any better now.
— This is noticeably getting more audience response than the last time this aired.


HAPPY’S
Happy’s (EDM) Mayonnaise Palace- delicious treats made entirely of mayo

   

— Tons of airtime for Eddie tonight. With these last three episodes I’ve reviewed, I think I’ve officially reached the point in Eddie’s tenure where they famously start putting him into practically every single sketch.
— The concept of a mayonnaise restaurant is quite funny.
— I like Eddie doing the screechy aunt’s voice off-camera.
— Ha, Eddie looks like he started cracking up after doing the aunt’s voice.
— Great audience reaction to Eddie drinking the disgusting-looking mayonnaise drink.
— At some points, the kinda-screechy New Yorker voice Eddie’s using in this reminds me a little of Gilbert Gottfried. Makes me want to picture Gilbert doing this commercial in season 6.
— Overall, pretty funny commercial, helped by Eddie’s performance and his giggliness.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”


SUNKEN SUBMARINE
business-as-usual for the crew of a submarine stranded on the ocean floor

    

— Oh, much like tonight’s earlier James Brown sketch, here’s another sketch I’ve always heard about, except this time, it’s in a bad way. This is supposedly an EPICALLY terrible sketch.
— “Mr. Rosato”? Tony’s playing himself in this sketch?
— What the fuck is WITH this sketch so far? This is just bizarre in all the wrong ways, and the writing feels like a really bad attempt at doing silly M*A*S*H/Hogan’s Heroes-type humor.
— It’s almost laughable in itself how bad this sketch is. It’s getting ridiculously terrible and none of the things that’s been happening in it make any sense. And the audience is (understandably) COMPLETELY DEAD.
— Oh, now we’re just getting desperate. WTF at this human dog that was brought in just now? And whoever that is playing the dog (Neil Levy, I think) is overacting terribly.
— Okay, Eddie’s always-reliable line deliveries are making me chuckle at least, which is the first sorta-laugh I’ve gotten in this whole sketch so far.
— Eddie ALMOST came close to saving the sketch, but unfortunately, he’s already exited the scene before he could fully salvage this.
— Not only is this sketch dreadfully unfunny, but it’s becoming quite long too.
— Robert Culp’s delivery in this is pretty awful. I just now realized that I haven’t been enjoying him as an SNL host at all tonight. I honestly came into this episode expecting better from him.
— Overall, yep, this sketch definitely lived up to its negative reputation in every single way. In a way, it’s fascinating what a laughless trainwreck this was; probably one of the most noteworthy failures in SNL history.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS
EDM kills time at the end of the show by showing host how to tell a joke

 

— We’re told there’s a lot of time to kill, so Robert begins doing a follow-up to his monologue by telling more bad jokes. Ugh.
— Haha, to show Robert how it’s done, Eddie tells the same joke but with funnier delivery, which gets a much better audience reaction.
— Eddie’s now re-telling Robert’s earlier joke from the monologue with a long-winded Bill Cobsy delivery, until the goodnights music officially starts.
— I like how in these earlier SNL seasons from the 70s and early 80s, the host and cast would do fun things like this during the goodnights whenever there was time to kill. We really see the cast’s genuine personalities, as well as the camaraderie between them and the host. We never get anything like this in modern-day SNL’s goodnights.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very off episode. Very few things stood out as truly good, a lot of the sketches starring usually-reliable performers surprisingly flopped (e.g. Tim and Mary’s Egg & Sperm sketch, Robin’s Party Girl sketch), and that god-awful submarine sketch at the end of the show was a noteworthy disaster and left a bad taste in my mouth. There also seemed to be an unusually low amount of sketches tonight, I guess due to how insanely long SNL Newsbreak and the submarine sketch were (and even Party Girl felt kinda long too), not to mention the unnecessary rerun of the Babies in Makeup short.
— Eddie at least had a particularly strong night, starring in the two of the few highlights of the show (Happy’s and especially James Brown Is Annie), doing a great Newsbreak commentary, and getting the only thing closely resembling laughs in Sunken Submarine.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Johnny Cash):
— a huge step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Danny DeVito, the first host in a long time who’s name alone has me excited for an episode

Posted on

April 17, 1982 – Johnny Cash / Elton John (S7 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host sings while his younger self (TIK) has character-forming experiences

   

— Looks like we’re getting a straight musical performance as the cold opening.
— Oh, turns out they’re doing a sketch during the performance after all, with Tim playing Johnny’s younger self acting out the song Johnny’s singing.
— The extra who’s playing Tim’s cellmate looks like the same guy who played Sinatra’s mean-looking bodyguard in an earlier SNL Newsbreak where Mary interviewed Joe as Sinatra. I think I heard he’s writer Nelson Lyon.
— LOL at Johnny receiving a rough back massage while singing in his trademark vibrato.
— Funny story from Johnny about how he gained the last name Cash.
— Why did the screen randomly turn black-and-white for a few seconds? (screencap below) Technical error?

— This is a very charming opening so far.
STARS: ***½


TALENT ENTRANCE

— Where’s Joe? I guess he’s going to be at the beginning of the sketch that follows this.


THE HONEYROONEYS
Andy Rooney (JOP) plays Kramden & makes observations

   

— Yep, there’s Joe. Still don’t see why he couldn’t have been with the cast in the Talent Entrance and then ran over to the Honeymooners set; he had enough time considering how long the opening credits of this sketch were.
— I guess the black-and-white filter used for this sketch explains the aforementioned technical error in the cold opening.
— A fairly funny concept, combining The Honeymooners and Andy Rooney, though they’ve really been going heavy on Joe’s Rooney impression this season.
— Christine does a good Alice, which is no surprise as she seems like a natural for that role.
— Good laugh from Joe’s Rooney pointing out the fake backdrop outside the window.
— Great Norton impression from Eddie. I always like seeing Eddie do dead-on impressions of white celebrities/characters.  The man is so talented.
— Overall, despite the somewhat promising concept, this sketch didn’t come off all that funny in execution and kinda ran out of steam halfway through. The studio audience wasn’t very into this either, only really responding to Eddie’s impression.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Empty Garden”


LAST REQUEST
a death row inmate’s (EDM) last wish- host sings “99,999 Bottles of Beer”

   

— Second time we’re seeing that prison set tonight. I think the cellmate is also the same one from the cold opening. Funny to imagine that he just stayed in that same jail cell set during all the time between the cold opening and this sketch.
— Eddie’s funny requesting that the priest read entire Old Testament, just so his execution will be stalled.
— Great use of Johnny in this.
— This is getting even funnier with Eddie requesting that Johnny sing the “original uncut version” of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.
— Eddie’s gleeful dancing during Johnny’s perfectly deadpan singing is hilarious.
— Loved Tim’s angry delivery of “You had your last request; now move it!”
— Very fun sketch overall.
STARS: ****½


SNL NEWSBREAK
MAG asks a Japanese tourist (Leo Yoshimura) if he’s seen Leonid Brezhnev
BDM examines world leaders’ predilection for salutes
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists varieties of amputations
EDM gives a Larry the Lobster update- a viewer letter prompted boiling

           

— I must have Elton John on the brain after having just seen his musical performance, because when they first showed the picture of John Hinkley in this Newsbreak (screencap below), I honestly thought it was Elton at first. Hinkley’s a dead ringer for a young Elton John in that picture.

— Ha, I like how it’s become a running joke for Mary to interview Akira Yoshimura as the wrong person. Yoshimura’s monotone delivery never fails to amuse me.
— Aw, geez, here comes another “long series of pictures” gag, this time showing various dictators doing a hand salute. Again, NOT FUNNY.
— As a Three Stooges buff, I did like how during the Mussolini salute picture, Brian made a reference to “Curly of the Three Stooges”.
— Also a reference to the original SNL era’s classic “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead” running joke.
— Are they freakin’ kidding me with this?!? This “dictator salute” photo montage is going on even longer than the “waving Reagans” photo montage from the last episode, and that’s saying something! There were about four times where I thought this dictator montage would finally end, only for it to continue. Why do they consistently waste so much time on SNL Newsbreak with unfunny stretched-out segments like this?
— Finally, 100 years later, the montage has ended.
— Another appearance of Dr. Jack Badofsky. At least they waited a few episodes after his last appearance.
— I liked Badofsky’s opening trick with his “cut-off” finger.
— What in the world was the point of Badofsky’s “stamp in the mouth” bit?
— Bah, none of the corny puns on Tim’s cards have been making me laugh so far tonight.
— Okay, after a very slow start, Tim’s puns are getting funnier. “Diaphragmputation” got a pretty good laugh from me just now.
— Ha, Tim has started cracking up after the “Diaphragmputation” one.
— I got another good laugh from Tim’s “Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’amputation” card.
— Brian’s George Foster/black superiority joke was actually really funny.
— Ah, a callback to the famous Larry the Lobster gimmick in the last episode.
— I like how Eddie’s reading what we’re told is a real letter that SNL received from a viewer objecting to Eddie’s manhandling of the lobster throughout the previous week’s episode. The random racist part of the letter is hilarious (“I thought those people didn’t like seafood”, referring to black people).
— Ha, great ending with Eddie sticking it to the letter-writer by eating the now-cooked Larry the Lobster (though I assume, or at least hope, that that’s just some random lobster they cooked, and not Larry).
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “I Walk The Line” & “Folsom Prison Blues” & “Ring of Fire”


JAY CLAY GETS DEPRESSED
by Timothy Hittle- suicidal claymation

   

— A follow up to Timothy Hittle’s previous claymation short from earlier this season, featuring the same clay character.
— This is really weird so far, and hard to figure where it’s going.
— I got a laugh from the clay character using a Marlboro cigarette box to boost himself up to the noose.
— WTF at the random “I lost mah head!” part.
— This overall short was just plain strange. I didn’t like this one anywhere near as much as the last short with this character.
STARS: **


TEGRIM
see if you have dandruff by shaking your head over host

  

— I think this is Robin’s first appearance of the whole night.
— Robin’s face (especially her eyes) looks kinda different in this sketch, for some reason.

— Hilarious concept, with the dandruff test being to shake ones head over “The Man in Black” Johnny Cash. This is helped even more by how Johnny is just sitting there deadpanly, and then apathetically brushes Robin’s dandruff off of his shoulders.
STARS: ****


HAIL TO THE CHIEF
Ronald Reagan (JOP) suggests Margaret Thatcher (MAG) kiss an Argentinian

    

— Now it’s Tony who’s making his first appearance of the night, very late in the show. I guess between all the musical performances from Johnny and Elton, not to mention the super-long SNL Newsbreak, there’s not much airtime left for some of the cast.
— Amusing hearing Joe’s unseen Reagan voice-over happily singing “Day-o”.
— Interesting how we can now actually see Joe’s Reagan as a “reflection” in the (fake) mirror. He kinda looks creepy in this, for some reason.
— Pretty good laughs from Reagan making Mary’s Margaret Thatcher and Brian’s character romance each other as part of a “movie”. Some funny facial expressions from Mary during the hesitant kiss too.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
(I just HAD to make a separate section for this just to show the priceless screencap of Johnny’s intro below)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ball & Chain”

— It’s probably just me, but I can’t help but notice that without glasses, early 80s-era Elton John kinda resembles future cast member Taran Killam. Elton would actually later end up working with Taran when hosting SNL decades later in 2011.


TRAIN POET
train commuter (host) waxes poetic about his preferred mode of transport

— Johnny doing a bizarre poetic spiel in a typical Johnny Cash-esque way about riding trains is strangely tickling me a lot.
— Overall, wow, it’s hard to explain why this sketch was so funny to me, but it just was. Johnny did a really good job in this.
STARS: ***½


BLACK TALK
(EDM) & (Clint Smith) engage in some of the show’s title

— Clint!
— Eddie’s still wearing the outfit he had on in SNL Newsbreak.
— Haha, this was a funny quick fake-out sketch, with “Black Talk” just turning out to be Eddie and Clint in the middle of a jive-talk conversation with each other while not even acknowledging the camera.
STARS: ***½


REACH OUT
parents “reach out & touch” elderly couple

— Aw, man, yet ANOTHER rerun of this. Boy, am I beyond sick of seeing this commercial so much while reviewing this season over the last few weeks, especially since this commercial isn’t as funny when you already know what the big twist ending is going to be.
— If I see this or that Khaddaffi Look commercial one more time before I reach the end of this season, I think I’m gonna snap.
— Strangely, there were no audible audience sounds at all during this particular airing; no laughter during the reveal of the big twist, and no applause at the end. Is the audience as sick of seeing this commercial as I am, or were they just not mic’ed during this?


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE / GOODNIGHTS
host performs “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”

  

— Nice to see the cast sitting around Johnny during this.
— Really cool how the show is now segueing into the goodnights right in the middle of the performance.
— This is one of the rare episodes in SNL history that doesn’t end with traditional goodnights music.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A solid episode. Despite the decreased number of sketches and cast appearances, this episode was fun, enjoyable, and had a certain feel that made it stand out from other episodes in the second half of this season. Part of what gave this episode such a good atmosphere was Johnny Cash, who was a surprisingly fun host, despite (or maybe because of) basically playing himself all night. Something about his style and personality just worked really well in SNL’s format. He’s the first host I was impressed by in a LONG time this season.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Daniel J. Travanti):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Robert Culp

Posted on

April 10, 1982 – Daniel J. Travanti / John Cougar (S7 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
EDM asks the home audience to call in to decide Larry the Lobster’s fate

  

— Heh, immediately, we open on Tony doing the most Italian-est Italian stereotype ever.
— Eddie ‘s “You people are sick!” rant to the viewers is really funny.
— Very interesting and fun gimmick for tonight’s show, having viewers call in and vote to either save or kill Larry the Lobster. I wonder how they came up with the idea for this.
— Amusing how an “unbiased” Eddie speeds through the “Save Larry” number and then slowly reads the “Kill Larry” number.
— Tony: “(Italian accent) Let’s boil that sucker, eh?!?”
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host’s recognizability helps a policeman settle a domestic dispute

     

— A kinda interesting-seeming pre-taped sequence with Daniel taking a ride in a cop car.
— The Spanish couple’s excitement at recognizing Daniel from “Hill Street Blues” is fairly funny.
— Overall, this was a bit of a letdown. It wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be, and came off kinda dull.
STARS: **


WHINERS
Doug (JOP) & Wendy (ROD) Whiner go out to eat on their anniversary

   

— Ohh, no. The debut of The Whiners, two characters that I’ve been dreading having to review. These characters seem like they’re going to be unbearable.
— Tony’s funny as the straight man, especially him yanking the wine bottle off of the passing-by waiter’s platter. He’s been my only enjoyment in this sketch so far.
— Another laugh from Tony giving the Whiners the keys to his own car just so they won’t stay at the restaurant.
— Overall, if it weren’t for Tony’s funny straight man performance, this sketch would’ve been completely worthless. I fear any of the future Whiners sketches that may not have as good a straight man for them to play off of.
STARS: *½


EVERYBODY DOES MERMAN
(TOR) tells Ethel Merman impersonator (CHE) that her skill isn’t special

       

— LOL at Tim as a “Tim Kazurinsky lookalike”, and Tony telling him that nobody’s interested in the real Kazurinsky, let alone a lookalike.
— Christine’s Ethel Merman impression is cracking me up.
— Loved Tony’s angry “Everyone does Merman!!!” outburst.
— Whoever that is as the Woody Allen impersonator is pretty funny.
— This sketch is getting even better, as they’re now breaking the fourth wall by having Tony take Christine off the set and show her SNL staff members (including Dick Ebersol) doing a Merman impression.
— During Tony and Daniel J. Travanti’s conversation, you can see someone in the background wearing the same fish costume that Blythe Danner wore in the goodnights of the last episode.
— This sketch is getting even better and better, with Tony having a breakdown by seeing a Merman impression everywhere he goes backstage. Tony’s been delivering a lot of strong performances tonight in general.
— Great Twilight Zone twist, and Brian is doing a dead-on Rod Serling.
STARS: ****½


VOTING SO FAR
host gives a Larry update- a slight majority says “boil him”

— We get an update on how the Larry the Lobster vote results are going so far.
— Funny part with Daniel saying “Eddie’s right, you’re sick” when some of the audience applauds the fact that “Kill Larry” is getting a higher number of votes.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hurts So Good”


SNL NEWSBREAK
MAG interviews bogus Prince Andrew (Leo Yoshimura) en route to Falklands
TOR gives a realistic version of the Emergency Broadcast System
a frozen JOP silently indicates that it’s too cold for baseball in April
the many photos depicting the Reagans waving are documented
TIK has some suggestions regarding how to improve the Academy Awards
BDM gives an update on Larry’s fate

           

— LOL at Akira Yoshimura as “Prince Andrew”.
— The monotone delivery that Yoshimura always uses on the show cracks me up.
— Tonight’s SNL Newsbreak is having lots of mentions of the Falkland Islands situation going on at the time.
— Tony’s emergency broadcast test (him just screaming a whole bunch of panicked things) was too obvious a joke. Also, it was something I can picture John Belushi doing in the original era, and I feel like he would’ve done it funnier. I mentioned in an earlier review that I once heard Tony was supposedly hired to be a Belushi type for the cast, which never really ended up panning out.
— Haha, this whole bit with a funny-looking frozen Joe Piscopo silently doing his SNL Sports report via subtitles is freakin’ hilarious to me. I especially got a big laugh from the “Froze my #&%@$x’s off!” subtitle.
— Ugh, a variation of SNL Newsbreak’s dreaded “long screen crawl” gag, showing a long series of pictures of Ronald and Nancy Reagan waving.  How the hell is this supposed to be funny?
— Man, the Reagan waving montage is STILL going on. THIS IS TORTURE.
— Interesting seeing Tim doing a commentary as himself.
— I like Tim’s list of improvements to make to the Academy Awards. Some of his complaints are still relevant today.
— God, tonight’s SNL Newsbreak is looking to be one of the longest news segments in SNL history. Feels like tonight’s Newsbreak been going on for 20 minutes. Maybe I wouldn’t complain about that if Brian and Christine’s jokes were actually funny.
— The mushroom cloud picture bit seemed like it could’ve been interesting, but ended up coming off fairly weak.
STARS: ** (mostly just for the guest commentaries)


HILL STREET BLUES
Furillo (host) & Belker (Bruce Weitz) at the station

       

— The reveal of the bedroom being in a police station office didn’t come off that funny to me.
— Joe’s making me laugh, even though I’m not familiar with who he’s impersonating (I have no memory of ever watching Hill Street Blues). The audience seems to think he’s doing a good impression.
— I know Robin already kinda resembles future cast member Cheri Oteri, but she is looking PARTICULARLY Oteri-esque here.  I swear I remember Cheri once wearing the exact same wig that Robin’s wearing here.

— Ha, another Akira Yoshimura appearance! His walk-on was pretty funny.
— The bit with Tony as the Gypsy King was really weak.
— I would probably enjoy the various walk-ons from the cast members if I were actually familiar with Hill Street Blues. Since I don’t know who’s playing who in this and since the references are so specific, a lot of the humor is lost on me. Is Christine playing Betty Thomas’ character?
— Now we get a cameo from what appears to be an actual Hill Street Blues actor. Why in the world is he acting like a dog?
— Travanti: “That’s another thing that’s been getting my Mediterranean goat!” That line is so bizarrely cringeworthy that it’s funny in itself.
— Overall, I couldn’t wait for this sketch to end. It went on SO long and almost everything in it went over my head as someone who has no familiarity with the real show.
STARS: *½


LARRY’S STORY
Larry’s life history is told

  

— “Save Larry” is now in the lead.
— The video package showing Larry’s biography is fairly funny if nothing great.
STARS: **½


BAVARIAN BUTTERFLY DANCE
by Josef Sedelmaier- a demonstration of the Bavarian Butterfly Dance

  

— What the hell is this?!?
— Ha, the ending with the guy suddenly crashing through the floor caught me off guard and made me laugh out loud.
STARS: ***½


CAREER CORNER
Tooth Fairy (EDM) wishes to change his profession

— Promising concept with Eddie playing a very Eddie Murphy-esque Tooth Fairy.
— Overall, while there was nothing much to say about this, it was a pretty solid sketch and featured the usual good amount of funny Eddie Murphy lines.
STARS: ***½


IF LARRY LIVES
EDM announces that Larry will live large if the callers spare him

   

— A pretty decent video package, showing exaggerated examples of what Larry will be treated to if he lives.
STARS: ***


REAGAN BRAND ECONOMICS
“where the D.C. stands for don’t care”

  

— First time we’re actually seeing Joe’s Ronald Reagan impression instead of just hearing him as a voice-over in those Hail to the Chief sketches.
— LOL at the poverty-stricken family’s meal being “rat tail gumbo”.
— An overall pretty biting parody of Reagan’s economics.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ain’t Even Done With The Night”


FINAL VOTE
the final count is in- Larry lives by a vote of 239,096 to 227,452

  

— Eddie reveals the results: Larry lives!
— The cast and extras (including Fake Woody Allen from the Merman sketch) come out to celebrate while confetti drops down. Nothing else to this. For a second when the cast first showed up, I thought this would segue to the goodnights, but nope.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Decent episode, helped a lot by the Larry the Lobster gimmick, which added a fun, unique feel to the episode. The rest of the show was pretty hit-and-miss, though things got better towards the end of the episode. There were a few terrible things earlier on that really got my Mediterranean goat (sorry, I had to use that at least once), such as The Whiners, the non-commentary portions of SNL Newsbreak, and Hill Street Blues.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Blythe Danner):
— somewhat of a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Johnny Cash

Posted on

March 27, 1982 – Blythe Danner / Rickie Lee Jones (S7 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Alpo pitchman Lorne Greene (JOP) is the meat dogs really prefer

 

— A short cold opening with a quick, funny punchline of Lorne Greene getting attacked by the dog because Greene himself is “The Meat Dogs Love”.
STARS: ***


TALENT ENTRANCE


MONOLOGUE
MAG ruthlessly forces host to do impersonations of random celebrities

 

— I’m confused over the inconsistency of when they decide to do Talent Entrances. The last two episodes just went straight into the monologue without a Talent Entrance, whereas one preceded tonight’s monologue. It’s baffling; how do they decide when to randomly do these Talent Entrances?!?
— Mary’s brief Eleanor Roosevelt impression is pretty funny.
— I’m loving Mary’s increasingly faster and bossier requests to Blythe.
STARS: ***½


COME ON OUT AMERICA
America is turning gay- “Wouldn’t you like to be a homo too?”

   

— I remember hearing that this is a parody of a specific soda commercial from that time.
— Some of the shots of happy townspeople are amusing, especially the random Nixon one.
— Overall, I found this commercial to be pretty funny and well-made, but for various reasons, I’m sure I would’ve laughed at it even more in 1982.
STARS: ***


THE NEW CELIBACY
discovering their celibacy was accidental, (ROD) & (TIK) rush dinner

     

— A very long delay before the camera fades into this sketch at the beginning. Also, when the camera finally does fade in, Christine can be seen making a late entrance.
— Tim’s “Don’t touch me, I’m a time bomb” line was great.
— This is getting really funny with Robin and Tim frantically speeding through dinner to get to their lovemaking.
— Great delivery from Robin of the line “Just give me meat!”
— Excellent part with Robin and Tim sultrily eating their meal while staring at each other.
— Overall, a very strong lead-off sketch for the night.
STARS: ****½


20/20
Geraldo Rivera (JOP) badgers baby delivery during hospital expose

  

— Joe’s Geraldo impression is pretty good.
— I like the surgeons going “Who the hell is this guy?!” when Geraldo enters the delivery room while reporting to the camera.
— Short sketch overall. Not sure where else this could’ve gone, but I kinda wanted more from it.
STARS: **½


THE KHADDAFFI LOOK
— Rerun, for the billionth time this season. At this point, I can’t even get any enjoyment out of this ad’s catchy jingle anymore.


POETS
reclusive poet (MAG) finds her kindred spirit in burglar Tyrone Green

  

— A laugh from Robin “treating” Mary to the joy of tweezing Robin’s chin.
— Eddie’s “I don’t know nothin’ about your wazoo” was a funny line.
— I’m liking Eddie’s various confused reactions to Mary’s speech to him.
— Ah, they’ve revealed Eddie is playing his Tyrone Green character from the classic “Prose and Cons” short earlier this season.
— Eddie (and eventually Mary) quoting the familiar “Cill My Landlord” poem got a good audience reaction.
— Pretty amusing ending.
— Overall, a good sketch and featured several very funny lines from Eddie.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pirates”


FAB FIFTIES
some of the less appealing facets of the ’50s have resurfaced in the ’80s

 

— Brian’s amusing delivery of “Abortion’s illegal, so you’re ruined for life… you tramp” was VERY Bill Murray-esque.
— Interesting premise, pointing out how the 80s seems to be bringing back the worst aspects of the 50s. This is serving as a nice snarky contrast to how people usually tend to overglorify the 50s.
— Blythe’s delivery doesn’t seem right for this commercial AT ALL. She also stumbled over one line really badly.
STARS: ***


SNL NEWBREAK
MAG reports from Vince Edwards’ house instead of Shuttle landing site
Yvonne DeMouchier (ROD) gives fashion tips to Best Actress nominees
JOP gives Georgetown the NCAA championship on merit of coeds’ looks
BDM announces the birth of BIM’s son Homer Banks Murray

        

— We get the arrival of Christine Ebersole as Brian’s new co-anchor, while Mary is announced as being “on assignment”.
— WTF was with the random shot of Christine laughing and saying to the audience “It’s okay” as she puts on her clip-on mic?
— Wait, what the hell is going on? There seems to be major microphone issues in general at the start of this Newsbreak. Brian sounds like his mic isn’t working and you can hear very loud moving sounds off-camera. And what the hell was that high-pitched rewinding sound I just heard? All of this is completely drowning out Brian’s first joke (something about Norton from “The Honeymooners”).
— Haha, the technical difficulties are now getting a great audience reaction and Brian has acknowledged that his clip-on mic hadn’t been applied yet. It’s sad that this blooper is probably the hardest I’ve laughed at SNL Newsbreak all season.
— Mary’s commentary was pretty weak.  I did like her opening ad-lib about the earlier technical snafus with Brian and Christine’s mics.
— Christine’s delivery as a Newsbreak anchor so far is okay, I guess. Nothing special, though; pretty generic.
— Strange seeing Robin in an SNL news commentary. Didn’t realize until now that, unless I’m forgetting something, she’s the only person in this cast who had never appeared at the SNL news desk until now.
— Robin’s fashion critic commentary is very weak and her delivery is not working.
— Boy, I don’t think I’ve laughed at a single news joke from Brian or Christine so far.
— Joe’s SNL Sports commentary was kind of a letdown tonight.
— A very nice ending with Brian mentioning that he’s recently become an uncle thanks to his brother Bill Murray.
STARS: **


MICHAEL DAVIS
Michael Davis [real] juggles a bowling ball, an egg, a tomato

   

— Some good laughs from his “razor-sharp bowling ball” test.
— I really like the idea of his stunt being to juggle a bowling ball, egg, and a tomato while eating just the tomato.
— Great unplanned bit with the audience member tossing the tomato back to Michael right as Michael’s about to tell him not to do that.
— Funny line from Michael about people juggling in India.
— Wow, very impressive part with him seamlessly going from catching the tomato from the audience member to immediately juggling that tomato with the bowling ball and egg.
— Ha, he ate the egg by mistake!
— Overall, the usual fantastic Michael Davis segment.
STARS: ****½


THE UNCLE TOM SHOW
Gumby (EDM) tells Snyder (JOP) of toon scandal

 

— Is there supposed to be music playing during the opening credits? We can’t hear anything except the announcer’s intro. Seems to be a technical error.
— I’m surprised to see this sketch again. Never knew this became recurring.
— The debut of Eddie’s Gumby! I thought we wouldn’t first see him until season 8.
— Eddie’s choice of playing Gumby with a curmudgeon Jewish accent is brilliant. But wow, his delivery in this debut is VERY different from the trademark angry delivery that I remember him having. He’s speaking in a much more low-key voice here. I guess he didn’t develop the angry delivery until subsequent Gumby sketches.
— Great part with Eddie’s Gumby explaining how Wilma Flintstone is a slut.
— There’s the very first utterance of “I’m Gumby, dammit”, but it ain’t the same without his now-famous angry delivery.
— Wow, the audience is kinda dead so far.
— Okay, the audience getting more into it.
— Overall, a pretty good sketch, but definitely not as strong as some of the future Gumby sketches I remember seeing.
STARS: ***½


MEET THE PEOPLE
panelists’ rude questions offend Princess Di (CHE)

   

— Blythe’s method of making people seem less dignified by picturing them going to the bathroom is pretty funny.
— Not too funny of a premise with all the panelists asking Princess Di crude questions.
— Overall, aside from a few lines, I didn’t care for this sketch. Just didn’t work for me.
STARS: **


BLYTHE’S PLEA
lack of funding forces legitimate actors like host to do shows like SNL

 

— Wow, this sketch is over already? This had a pretty funny initial idea, but it didn’t go anywhere near as far as it should’ve. It felt like they ended this too early or something.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lush Life”
musical guest performs “Woody & Dutch On The Slow Train To Peking”


GOODNIGHTS

  

— Pretty funny continuation of the ending of the Blythe’s Plea sketch, by showing Blythe in the fish costume.
— Oh, we find out that was Joe’s own dog in the cold opening.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty good episode. Excluding SNL Newsbreak, there was a consistent quality throughout the night until it really trailed off with the last two sketches. As a whole, this was an overall perfectly satisfying show.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robert Urich):
— A fairly big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Daniel J. Travanti