Tag: saturday night live

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April 16, 1977 – Elliott Gould / The McGarrigle Sisters, Roslyn Kind (S2 E19)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Leonid Brezhnev (JOB) parlays NBC Olympic coverage into Tonight Show spot
 
— This feels like an odd choice for a cold opening, but maybe that’s because of Elliott Gould’s presence.
— John entering the scene by wiping off his pants when exiting the bathroom was pretty funny.
— I like John resorting to bomb threat gestures to persuade Elliott and Bill.
— John’s whole Johnny Carson request is great.
— Overall, a solid cold opening.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— In the version of the episode I’m watching, the show has strangely gone back to being titled “Saturday Night” in the opening montage, despite the fact that it was titled “Saturday Night Live” in the preceding two episodes. What’s up with this?

MONOLOGUE
JOB, host, BIM demonstrate the new dance craze- The Castration Walk
   
— Will we be getting another song-and-dance monologue from Elliott?
— Pardo’s intro to the musical number is very interesting and is getting me excited.
— Haha, this “Castration Walk” number is hilarious. I’m glad they’re letting Elliott do an actual comedic song-and-dance number this time.
— Great lyric from Bill about how the mohel made him a “goil”.
— Overall, this was very fun and catchy.
STARS: ****½

THE CONEHEADS AT HOME
Merkon (GAM) arrives from Remulak to check on Coneheads’ progress
   
— Judging from this living room set, I think we’re in for another Coneheads edition.
— I was right!
— LOL at the visual of Conehead Garrett Morris.
— Garrett’s doing a better job in this role than I would have expected.
— Laraine’s delivery sure was awkward when she was explaining what pizza is.
— Very funny part with Dan and Jane scolding Laraine for having a senso-ring hidden under her bed, as if it were an adult sex toy.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (THE MCGARRIGLE SISTERS)

YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BUDDY
men talk about men’s issues
 
— Dan’s over-emphasis of how every painting he’s displaying was done by a man is funny.
— Yet another stumbly performance from early-era Bill Murray. He kept tripping over his lines throughout his portion of this sketch.
— I’m loving the tasteless humor of John promoting a rape hotline that helps male rapists after they commit a rape. This portion of the sketch is hilarious.
— Overall, a well-written and mostly well-executed group sketch with an interesting gender-flip premise.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE
BIM uses sexual metaphors while covering anti-pornography rally
at Howdy Doody’s funeral, LAN interviews his widow Debbie (GIR)
as a service to shut-ins, JOB explains the different types of weather
     
— Tonight, Jane seems to be over-relying on lots of ad-libs and exaggerated laughter after a joke gets a tepid audience reaction, which has been happening an awful lot so far.
— Bill’s suggestive descriptions in his anti-porn rally commentary are really funny.
— And now, Bill has an even funnier post-commentary bit about how he’s embarrassed to stand up in front of the camera due to the stimulating commentary he just did.
— Hmm, Jane is making Bill read several Update jokes. Interesting. Is this their way of trying Bill out as a potential future Update co-anchor? Though as we now know, they would end up giving Dan a season as Jane’s co-anchor before eventually giving that spot to Bill.
— Great Howdy Doody suicide joke.
— I like this interview with Gilda as Howdy’s wife, Debbie Doody. The visual is very funny, and Gilda’s giving an excellent physical performance.
— John’s commentary seems different from his usual Update stuff. Not too sure how I feel about tonight’s bit with him using a lamp to demonstrate different kinds of weather.
— Oh, wait, here’s John’s Update staple where he gradually gets intense and over-the-top. This always cracks me up.
— Ah, and there’s the debut of John’s “But nooooooo!” catchphrase.
— Great backwards tumble from John out of his chair.
— No mid-WU break tonight.
STARS: ***½

NICK SUMMERS
at a resort, lounge singer Nick “Summers” (BIM) works unresponsive crowd
   
— Bill in that get-up is making me wonder if we’re in for our very first Nick the Lounge Singer sketch.
— Bill: “My name is Nick Summers.” Yep, that confirms it. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— I like John and Gilda’s sour attitude.
— Funny line from Bill about Dan: ‘He’s an Indian and they don’t lie.  I love that.”
— After how much Bill has struggled as a cast member so far, it’s great to see him have his first successful character piece with this sketch. He’s doing so well here, and it’s a lot of fun watching him play this type of smarmy character with total ease.
STARS: ****

UNITED FACE BANK
Joan Crawford (JAC) solicits donations for the faceless
   
— Oh my god at Garrett’s transplanted white girl face. A hilarious sight.
— The fridge of faces was delightfully creepy.
— I get the feeling this is a parody of a real Joan Crawford ad from the time, but I was still able to find this sketch pretty funny and I liked the oddball premise.
STARS: ***½

SPORT VIOLENCE
by Gary Weis- “America the Beautiful” plays over sports fight footage
 
— This feels like a typical Gary Weis film, but I’m always entertained by watching fights break out during sports games.
— Okay, the fight clips are starting to get old now, and this film is just coming off pointless. And besides, didn’t Weis already do a film like this, where it was another Ray Charles song being juxtaposed with clips of rowdy crowd members at sports games yelling and cheering?
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (THE MCGARRIGLE SISTERS)

SIDE NOTE: After the preceding musical performance has ended and before the following sketch has begun, a screen briefly showed up saying “SAT NITE: Aren’t You Glad You’re Not Watching Lloyd Dobyns Right Now?” From what I understand, Lloyd Dobyns hosted a show that aired in SNL’s slot whenever SNL was on break during their early seasons. But this brief screen gag still seemed like a random, strange bit for SNL to do.

24 HOUR BANK
automated teller machine subjects (BIM) to pointless security tests
     
— I like the subtle joke of how Mesopotamia keeps randomly showing up as the last option in all the multiple choice questions.
— This sketch kinda feels ahead of its time. The excessive, ridiculous confirmation tests Bill and Garrett are subjected to are not too far removed from the ridiculous “prove you’re not a robot”-type online Captchas we have to put up with nowadays.
— I’m really enjoying the fast-paced increasing silliness of the tests.
— Haha, the money being replaced by headcheese was a funny way to end this.
STARS: ****

NATURAL CAUSES RESTAURANT
restaurant of Jason & Sunset serves animals that died of natural causes
 
— Hey, it’s the hippie characters that Dan and Laraine played in the Peter Boyle episode from season 1.
— Some decent laughs from the odd ways that the animals in the menu are said to have died.
— Hmm, as Dan and Laraine are recalling an incident where a cow fell from the sky, it sounds like you can hear a plane flying nearby. Are we in for another “drop the cow” ending?
— Yep, and there’s the cow-drop. Funny ending as always.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ROSLYN KIND)

CLOWN DOLL
a man learns his wife is having an affair with a toy clown
   
— The silliness of seeing a man in a wild, violent physical fight with a tiny puppet is pretty funny.
— My only complaint is the ending. Why was there no punchline? The man just gets back together with his cheating wife, and… The End?
STARS: ***

PILSON’S FEEDBAG DINNERS
— Rerun of a Chevy Chase commercial. It feels a little weird to see Chevy again after I’ve gotten so used to the show without him in the second half of this season.

GOODNIGHTS
DAA informs viewers that he needs tanks for his motorcycle
   
— We get some funny antics with the cast trying to kill time. Dan is especially funny desperately asking viewers for tanks that his motorcycle needs.
— John declares Elliott the best host they’ve ever had.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very strong Elliott Gould episode, and a bit of an improvement over the second episode he hosted back in season 1. So many solid sketches tonight, several of which had interesting, creative, and fun premises. And aside from the Gary Weis film (seriously, when does this guy’s tenure as an SNL filmmaker officially end?), none of the segments in this episode fell flat; everything worked.
— However, is it just me or did it feel like Elliott didn’t do much in this episode? I’m having a hard time remembering a lot of what he did. It feels like he spent most of the second half of the show just intro-ing musical guests and short films.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Eric Idle

Posted on

April 9, 1977 – Julian Bond / Tom Waits, Brick (S2 E18)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Emily Litella’s new love makes her feel like a “national” woman

— A backstage Emily Litella cold opening? Normally, I would give the show credit for trying something different, but opening an episode with this tired, overused character is getting things off to a bad start.
— How come she isn’t saying who she’s in love with? Is she referring to tonight’s host?
— Jane: “Have you prepared anything for tonight’s Weekend Update?” Oh, no – so you mean this is going to be another episode where she appears twice?
— Overall, despite the change in setting, there was nothing particularly new from Litella here. Basically the same old shtick. One of the weakest cold openings of the season.
STARS: **

MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— The audience keeps chuckling for some reason, despite the fact that Julian has been saying nothing but serious things so far. Is something funny happening off-camera that we home viewers can’t see?
— Julian’s line about being SNL’s “chocolate Easter bunny” kinda made me chuckle, but please don’t tell me that’s the joke this monologue is going to end on.
— Aaaaaaand it IS the joke this monologue ended on, unfortunately. Second monologue in a row that had a long build-up to a punchline that wasn’t worth it (after Jack Burns’ cringeworthy “touching himself” gag).
STARS: **

H&L BROCK
Lowell Brock (JOB) takes time to do taxes right because he’s doing time
   
— Not too excited to see this back. These H&L Brock segments are usually a little too dry for their own good.
— The “I’m doing time” reason is making me laugh.
— The revelation that he’s actually behind bars is great.
— Overall, not bad at all, surprisingly.
STARS: ***½

BLACK PERSPECTIVE
GAM & host on IQ differences among & within the races
 
— Right out of the gate, the lead-off sketch of the night is what would go on to become the most well-known sketch from this episode.
— Some good laughs from Julian reading examples from the white-biased questionnaire.
— LOL at Garrett flubbing his set-up to the most famous part of the sketch that’s about to happen right now.
— Julian bluntly stating that light-skinned blacks are smarter than dark-skinned blacks, and Garrett, after a good non-verbal facial reaction, responding “Say whaat?” is truly a hilarious, classic turn this sketch has taken.
STARS: ****½

AN OVAL OFFICE
host & Andrew Young (GAM) remind Jimmy Carter (DAA) of campaign promises
 
— The “An Oval Office” opening title almost had me thinking for a second that this was going to be a Chevy-as-Gerald-Ford sketch, since they used that same title for some of his sketches.
— “How are things down there in the peach state?” “The pits.”
— What’s that white stuff in the back of Garrett’s hair?
— Dan’s Carter’s ridiculous childhood stories (peanut shell house, shoebox his parents kept him in) is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (TOM WAITS)

DR. X, FAMILY COUNSELLOR
weirdo (DAA) assesses catatonic Colleen (GIR)
   
— Right from the start, I already like the concept.
— The first real appearance of Gilda’s catatonic Colleen character (the “One Flew Over the Hornet’s Nest” sketch doesn’t really count).
— I’m loving the heated occasional bits with Bill as the father jumping out of his seat and physically attacking John every time John calls out the doctor’s physical oddities.  Kinda reminds me of the Simpsons’ recurring gag of Homer strangling Bart.
— I didn’t even notice Dan’s mechanical arm until John mentioned it.
— Dan’s random maniacal sobbing when trying to explain his physical oddities is cracking me the hell up.
— Funny hearing the mention of a character named Dr. R.D. Lange. Doesn’t the name “R.D. Lange” sound an awful lot like the name of a certain rotund comedian from more recent decades?
— Loved Dan’s “The woman’s vegged out!” line about Gilda’s Colleen.
— The ending was pretty funny.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— The jokes have been okay so far, though nothing noteworthy yet.

RIGHT ON AFRO LUSTRE
(host) uses Right On Afro Lustre, the hairspray in a fist-shaped canister
 
— At first, I didn’t even recognize Julian in that afro & mustache, until he started speaking. He looks hilarious in that get-up.
— The high-pitched disco-type singing in the commercial jingle was both funny and very catchy.
— Short but funny. Something about the combination of the aforementioned aspects of this sketch (Julian’s look & the high-pitched disco song) made me find this commercial even funnier than it actually was, which will bump up the rating a bit.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
during a related story, the landing of the Concorde SST drowns out JAC
 
— The audience groaning at Jane’s self-admittedly corny High-Chairman Mao joke was pretty funny.
— No idea what to say about the extended gag with Jane’s plane-landing joke being drowned out by the sound effect of a plane landing. I guess it was kinda funny if a little corny (again).
— Hmm, no Emily Litella on tonight’s Update after all. There IS a God.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

GREAT MOMENTS IN MOTOWN
a musical group adopts hand gestures & dancing
   
— The premise of an all-black musical group being portrayed by three white guys and only one actual black guy, as well as the oddity of that not even being called out within the sketch, is reminding me of a cross between two things: 1) an infamously bad Boyz II Men sketch the show would later do in season 20, and 2) the pretty funny Roots II sketch from earlier this season.
— Another sketch where Julian’s get-up is giving me some good laughs.
— Bill’s voice is very funny.
— Funny unscripted moment with Garrett kinda calling Julian out for referring to him as “Clemont” when his name is supposed to be “Clement”.
STARS: ***

CREELEY’S SOUP
announcer (BIM) sidetracks a little girl (GIR) as she eats Creeley’s Soup
 
— I seem to recall seeing this before; probably in Gilda’s Best Of.
— The part with her stuffing corn into her nose because “the soup man says so” is pretty funny.
— Overall, this was decent, but nowhere near as funny as I had remembered it being. If this sketch is widely considered by SNL fans to be a near-classic, then count me as someone who finds it overrated.
STARS: ***

BAD CINEMA
Truman Capote (JOB) & others review “ooh-la-la! les legs!”
     
— The return of the “Bad (insert type of play here)” sketch.
— What in the world was up with the blooper where Laraine was missing from the beginning of the sketch, and then made a very late entrance? And as if that wasn’t bad enough, we then had to wait for her to find her clip-on mic before she was able to deliver her first line. Yikes! Recently back in 2016, people on online SNL boards understandably gave short-lived featured player Jon Rudnitsky a lot of crap for mysteriously showing up late to the famous “Space Pants” sketch, but now I see he wasn’t the first SNL cast member to make that bad mistake. I wonder what Laraine’s excuse was for showing up so late.
— Also, I think this was Laraine’s very first appearance of the whole night, and keep in mind, we’re in the last 20 minutes of the show! (ADDENDUM: I just now remembered Laraine was in the Oval Office sketch earlier tonight) What’s going on with her airtime lately? She’s been struggling kinda badly.
— Yet another sketch tonight where I’m getting good laughs out of Julian’s get-up.
— WTF at this film they’re showing. Is this footage from a real French film, or is it an SNL-made clip? That guy with the main girl looks kinda like Bill.
— No, never mind, that’s not Bill. I guess this IS a real French film clip. It’s starting to remind me of the “Les Jeunes de Paris” sketches SNL would later do in the early 2010s.
— I liked the specificity of Julian’s line about his expertise being in “bad 3D insect fear films of the 60s”.
— Overall, this was okay, but way too different from the format of other Leonard Pinth-Garnell sketches for my likes. I prefer the usual format.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (BRICK)

CIVIL RIGHTS FARBERS
the Farbers try to convince host of their neighborhood’s racial tolerance
 
— Julian: “[Young black men’s] unemployment rate is as high up as 40% in the south.” John: “Well, they’re not gonna come up HERE, are they?”
— This sketch has a nice, enjoyable realistic tone to it, which I’m guessing will be par for the course in the Farbers’ subsequent sketches.
STARS: ***

MR. MIKE MEETS UNCLE REMUS
MOD tells a tale involving Brer Rabbit
   
— This interestingly opens with a disclaimer about how “Mr. Mike’s Least Loved Bedtime Tales” will not be seen tonight.
— Oh, looks like this IS a Mr. Mike sketch after all. This premise of him meeting Song of the South’s Uncle Remus seems like a very intriguing change of pace.
— It feels unusual seeing Garrett Morris so prominent throughout tonight’s episode. He usually never gets this many leading roles in one night.
— I’m really liking the mismatch of Mr. Mike’s usual sadistic storytelling with the more conventional old-timey southern storytelling of Uncle Remus.
— Garrett’s reaction to the story’s dark ending is pretty funny.
STARS: ****

PATTI SMITH
by Gary Weis- Patti Smith [real] discusses censorship & her SNL gig

— I want to appreciate the message Smith is trying to express in this film, but man, could this be any more rambly? And could she use the word “like” any more times?
STARS: *½

NEW SOUTH
George Wallace (JOB) lists supposed improvements to the South’s bad image
 
— Yet another one-person-talking-to-the-camera sketch tonight starring John. I actually thought at first that he was playing the H&L Brock guy again.
— The new “respectful” racial segregation rules are pretty funny.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS
 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— The first legitimately solid episode in a while. Glad to see the show get out of the slump it had been in during the three March episodes.
— After a slow start with a tepid cold opening & monologue, tonight’s episode had a consistent run of pretty good sketches and about two great ones. There was also an interesting running thread of racial humor throughout the show.
— For a stiff politician, Julian Bond was surprisingly not bad. He actually made me laugh a few times, he had a good sense of humor, didn’t play himself in every single sketch, and something about his stiffness actually worked in his favor in the sketches where he wore silly get-ups.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Elliott Gould

Posted on

March 26, 1977 – Jack Burns / Santana (S2 E17)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
JOB refuses to say SNL’s opening line until his demands are met
 
— Just now, John noticeably referred to the show as “Saturday Night Live”. I wonder if this is the episode where the show’s title officially became that instead of just “Saturday Night”.
— I love John’s mischievously joyful realization that he’s the only thing keeping the show from starting.
— All of his LFNY fake-outs are funny.
— Funny turn with him now reading a list of demands.
— Great ending with him being tricked into saying LFNY when reading aloud the letter he was handed. His panicked reaction when realizing he was fooled is killing me.
STARS: ****

OPENING MONTAGE
— Yep, this is indeed the very first episode where the show’s title was officially changed to “Saturday Night Live”.

MONOLOGUE
host fulfills a lifelong yearning by touching himself
 
— I thought I didn’t know who this guy is, but he looks surprisingly familiar. Eh, maybe he just reminds me of another actor.
— Oh, this guy’s a stand-up?
— Really? THAT’S the punchline? THAT’S what this whole monologue was building up to?
— The less said about that overly-corny punchline, the better…
STARS: *½

THE FARBERS MEET THE CONEHEADS
Larry & Bobbi Farber have Coneheads over for dinner
   
— Ah, the Farbers.
— Coneheads! I love this idea for a recurring character crossover. I’m kinda surprised, though, because the Farbers weren’t established recurring characters yet; they’ve only appeared once prior to this, in a miscellaneous piece with Kris Kristofferson.
— Something about the forehead/eyebrows area of Jane’s Conehead make-up looks odder than usual in tonight’s installment.
— Very funny part with the Coneheads “reading” the game instructions.
— Haha, Gilda and John are now breaking character and cracking up after the Coneheads all jumped through the window. Very rare to see any major character-breaking from this particular cast, which makes it a welcome novelty whenever it happens.
— The unplanned laughing was a good way to end the sketch.
— Overall, a great sketch.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

MARINE WEDDING
(host) performs a militaristic wedding service for Marines (DAA) & (JAC)
  
— When I first saw Jane, I almost thought that was Candice Bergen making a cameo. I guess it’s something about Jane’s wig…
— This premise seems like it’ll get old FAST.
— They basically already used this same one-joke premise in that season 1 sketch with Chevy trying to film a commercial for the Marines, and I wasn’t crazy about it then.
— Overall, I was not a fan of this sketch at all.
STARS: *½

A TOWN WITHOUT PITY
Eliot Ness (DAA) & Untouchables take over India from Indira Gandhi (LAN)
   
— The return of Laraine’s Indira Gandhi impression.
— Oh, no, not a song.
— John’s performing very well in his and Laraine’s song, but this is still a chore for me to sit through.
— Ha, I like the sudden turn this has taken with “The Untouchables” being revealed to be the characters from the Untouchables TV series.
— Our first time in quite a while seeing the “drop the cow” sketch-ending routine that was used a few times in season 1.
— Overall, a sketch that started out really bad, but slowly improved a little in the second half.
STARS: **½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
JAC begs cardboard cut-out of Harry Reasoner to join her at SNL
   
— Funny beginning with Jane flirting with a Harry Reasoner cardboard cut-out.
— The Karl Malden/Ernest Borgnine joke was hilarious.

LEECH-TAB 100
old-fashioned pharmacist (DAA) prescribes leeches to (BIM) & (GIR)
 
— Fairly funny concept.
— Dan’s pitchman in this is a big change of pace from the fast-talking pitchmen he usually plays.
— Ha, they’re actually using REAL leeches?
— Despite the okay concept, the execution felt a little bland and didn’t work as well as I thought it would.
STARS: **½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
JAC announces the Oscar winners with results stolen from accounting firm

— The bit with Jane “spoiling” the results of the then-upcoming Oscars was interesting. I wonder how accurate those “spoilers” ended up becoming.
— No guests this week (unless you count Cardboard Harry Reasoner)
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

THE STORY OF THE SQUATTERS
crouching early Americans settle the frontier
   
— The visual gag of literally “squatting” – ohh, geez. Not sure how to feel about this premise; something about it feels very season 6-ish – not a good thing.
— I did get a laugh just now from the “Does a bear squat in the woods?” line.
— Props to the performers for being committed in carrying out this premise, but man, is this sketch going awfully far for such a flimsy, corny visual gag.
STARS: *½

SUICIDE LETTER
host blows suicidal businessman skit by doing his jump without ducking
   
— I think the suicide revelation was supposed to be a surprise, but I saw it coming early on as soon as Jack casually opened the window.
— I like the way this is breaking the fourth wall after Jack has “ruined” the sketch.
— This is great with more and more cast members coming on and realizing the illusion of the sketch has been shattered.
— Loved Bill’s stern delivery of “What the hell are you doing standing up?”
— Gilda’s overly-emotional entrance as the wife is hilarious.
— Oh, wait, Gilda’s actually playing a mistress. Still funny, though.
STARS: ***½

ROCKY
by Gary Weis- host trains for SNL Rocky-style
host drinks a raw egg to show that his training worked
   
— Funny hearing some audience members having a grossed-out reaction to Jack drinking the egg yolk.
— What’s with the generic background music during this parody of the famous training montage from “Rocky”? Shouldn’t we be hearing the usual “Gonna Fly Now” song?
— Oh, there’s the song now, in this “the next day” scene.
— This film had an okay pay-off and Jack gave a good performance. The ending slo-mo shot went on way too long, however.
STARS: **½

ASK BIG DADDY
Idi Amin (GAM) thinly covers massacres of citizens

— I like seeing the return of Bill’s Walter Cronkite impression. The voice he uses as him always makes me laugh.
— Is this supposed to be a variation of the “Ask President Carter” sketch from a few episodes earlier?
— Hearing white cast members & writers doing voices of African citizens feels kinda wrong.
— The repeated “everyone died in a car crash” joke has already gotten old.
— Overall, this wasn’t very good. Yet another weak Garrett Morris-led piece.
STARS: **

MIRAGE
desert vending machine fails to quench a traveller’s thirst
 
— Well, that sure was short, but the punchline definitely worked.
STARS: ***½

PANTYGRAMS
Ricardo Montalban (DAA) tells how Pantygrams send messages via underwear
  
— The idea of a Panty-Gram is pretty funny.
— LOL at Gilda in those shorts.
— This sketch is not really working so far, and is falling flat.
— Despite looking awkward at the very beginning of his scene, Bill ended up being funny and the pay-off of his scene made me laugh. That almost redeemed this whole sketch.
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GAGS BEASLEY
drunk, washed-up comedy writer (host) approaches JAC & GIR in a bar

— I like the staging of this sketch.
— What was with that brief cut to a far away camera angle?

— I love the name Gags Beasley.
— This sketch is being performed very well, and even has a sad undertone to Jack’s character. This era of SNL was always good at pulling off pathos.
— Funny bit with Jack’s “business card” turning out to just be an 8 of clubs card.
— A nice sentimental ending to this overall solid 10-to-1 sketch.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS
 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty weak episode. A large number of sketches fell flat, either due to overly-thin concepts (Squatters, Marine Wedding, Ask Big Daddy), poor executions of decent ideas (Panty-Gram, Leech-Tab 100), or other circumstances. There were a few things that did work well, like the Farbers/Coneheads crossover, the 10-to-1 piece, and the fourth-wall-breaking suicide sketch, but there sure was a lot of mediocrity surrounding them.
— Jack Burns seemed to have a natural comedic presence, but boy was his monologue cringeworthy. Other than that, he wasn’t bad, but as a host, he ended up coming off as kind of a poor man’s Robert Klein. Great job in that last sketch, though.
— Man, the show has been in a bit of a slump lately, with the overly-average Sissy Spacek episode, the fairly-underwhelming Broderick Crawford episode, and now this mediocre episode. It’s been a while since the last time I was crazy about an episode.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Broderick Crawford):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Julian Bond

Posted on

March 19, 1977 – Broderick Crawford / The Meters, Dr. John, Levon Helm, Paul Butterfield (S2 E16)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Rhonda Weiss & Rhondettes sing “Goodbye Saccharine”; Linda Ronstadt cameo
 
— Unique use of Gilda’s Rhonda Weiss character.
— It feels almost too soon to be using Rhonda Weiss in this manner; she’s not an established-enough character yet. Also, where’s her sunglasses?
— Are they trying to make Gilda saying “bitch” to Jane a regular thing even outside of Emily Litella bits?
— Hate to say it, but this song is going on far too long, and I’m pretty much completely losing interest.
— Random Linda Ronstadt cameo.
STARS: **

MONOLOGUE
host recalls his firing from NBC thirty-seven years ago
 
— Interesting set-up of the homebase stage, with a comfy chair, lamp, and table all in the spot where the host always stands while performing their monologue.
— Wow, Broderick Crawford looks NOTHING like how I had pictured him. Yes, I shamefully admit that I’m not familiar with him at all, and this is my first exposure to him.
— Instead of entering from down the stairs like hosts in this era usually do, Broderick was already seen standing on the floor when this began. I guess he wasn’t in any condition to go down the stairs.
— Overall, the story he told was fairly interesting and had a decent ending.
STARS: ***

SAMURAI HIT MAN
Futaba will pose as Benihana chef to carry out contract
   
— Dan sounds like he’s doing his Irvin Mainway voice.
— For the first time in his SNL tenure, Bill Murray is seen without his mustache. He looks a lot better without it. I’m still waiting for Dan to eventually get rid of his mustache; I’m guessing that doesn’t happen until season 3.
— Futaba! That’s a genuine surprise, as this sketch did not seem like this was leading into another Samurai piece.
— His extended demonstration as a chef is making me laugh.
— Overall, this was fine, but I was left wanting more out of this. Then again, I guess they did everything they could with the concept, short of showing the actual hit take place. Maybe the latter is what I had been wanting to see.
STARS: ***

BRODERICK’S OLD NEIGHBORHOOD
by Gary Weis- host revisits his old neighborhood & Central Park
   
— In Broderick’s intro to this, he’s still in the same homebase chair he was in during the monologue. Is this how he’s going to be doing the whole show tonight? I guess he wasn’t kidding when he said at the end of the monologue “I’m gonna sit back and enjoy the show”. Will he be our least-involved host since George Carlin?
— Kinda early in the night for a Gary Weis film, isn’t it? These usually always appear after Update.
— This short has a fairly bittersweet feel to it that’s making it a little more tolerable than Weis’ usual work. Broderick’s likability is also carrying this.
STARS: **½

MEL’S HIDE HEAVEN
they supply the cow, you make your own clothes

— Dan’s pitchman performance feels slightly different than usual this time.
— Oh, wait, this is starting to feel like the Mel’s Char Palace ads, as Dan’s saying the same “Select your own cow; you stun it, you skin it, etc.” spiel.
— Yeah, this is definitely intended as a variation of Mel’s Char Palace; it even has basically the same name. Hope there’s not gonna be three of these sketches tonight, like how the Christmas episode from season 1 had three of the Char Palace ads, all of which felt the exact same.
— Why did Laraine play Gilda’s chainsaw-toting “Mrs. Mel” character this time? Gilda was much funnier at working a fake chainsaw than Laraine is in this sketch.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (DR. JOHN, LEVON HELM, PAUL BUTTERFIELD)

NEW KID
new castmember BIM admits to not being funny on SNL, seeks viewer support

— Oh, this is gonna be the legendary “I don’t think I’m making it on the show” piece with Bill addressing his struggles as a new cast member. I’ve never actually seen this sketch for myself before; I’m only familiar with it through reading the transcript.
— I know he’s generally been having an unimpressive and fairly awkward start these last handful of episodes (except for, strangely, his very first episode) and constantly getting stuck in dull non-comedic roles, but I can’t help but wonder if it was specifically his nervous wreck of a performance in the preceding week’s “quintlexia” sketch that was the final straw that led to him doing this sketch right now.
— He’s getting great laughs at the expense of his own lack of funny roles.
— Bill: “That reminds me of something funny…. my father died when I was 17.”
— LOL at him begging the audience to always laugh at him on the show no matter what.
— Overall, this was a wonderful piece, and a very important turning point, as it not only made viewers want to start rooting for Bill, but it would eventually lead to a breakthrough of him developing into a beloved cast member, to say nothing of the greatness he would achieve in his career after his SNL tenure.
— Not only was it unheard of at the time for a cast member to address something like this, it STILL remains a rarity all these decades later for struggling cast members to do something of this sketch’s nature. The only other instance I can think of is Tracy Morgan’s self-deprecating Weekend Update commentary about how his only claim-to-fame on SNL is being known as “the other black guy”.
STARS: *****

LUCY A-BOMB
Lucy (GIR) gets a job putting whipped cream on nuclear warheads
   
— I liked hearing the audience’s recognition when they came to the realization that this is going to be a parody of an iconic scene from I Love Lucy.
— Funny twist on the I Love Lucy scene by bizarrely replacing the chocolates with nuclear warheads.
— It’s pretty fun to watch Gilda’s reactions to the gradually increasing speed of the conveyor belt.
— Boy, that explosion stock footage sure is drawn out.
— Oh, that’s why the footage was drawn out: they had to give Gilda and Dan enough time to get their tattered post-explosion look ready.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
JAC describes what undergarments she is & isn’t wearing
GAM reports from vacant Black Governor Conference
   
— Interesting opening bit with Jane sultrily talking about the undergarments she’s wearing. That famous bra-flash she did a few episodes ago has definitely sparked a more sexualized persona from her at the Update desk.
— Garrett annoyedly points out that reporting at an event where nothing’s happening is supposed to be “Laraine Newman’s thing”, which is true, but Garrett seems to have forgotten that he actually did an Update commentary with that “reporting at an inactive event” premise before, in a season 1 episode where he was at the winter Olympics.
— Garrett’s commentary ended awkwardly. His rant was delivered strangely, and the audience sounded VERY quiet and disinterested.
— Jane to Garrett: “Have fun next week when we send you to the conference on black popes!”

PUPPY UPPERS & DOGGIE DOWNERS
— Rerun

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
to explore “the luck of the Irish,” JOB offers a personal anecdote
 
— The debut of John’s “Luck of the Irish” rants.
— John’s already done the “slowly escalate from calmly professional to insanely angry” bit on Update in his weatherman commentaries, but his stories are usually always funny and it’s fun to watch his mood slowly change as the story he’s telling gets more and more maddening.
— Jane’s open-mouthed horrified facial reaction to John’s flailing at the end was hilarious.
— Jane ends this Update by saying “Good night, Mary Richards.” I remember reading somewhere that Jane was referring to the fact that the Mary Tyler Moore Show aired its final episode around this time.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

HIGHWAY PATROL
Jack Kerouac (JOB) DWI, Siamese twin hostage situation
     
— What was with that long beep sound just now?
— Not really caring for this so far. It also probably doesn’t help that I’m not familiar with the show it’s parodying.
— Okay, I like this sudden premise of someone holding their own Siamese twin hostage.
— John in two different roles in the same sketch???
— John and Bill as Siamese priests is pretty funny.
— Amusing touch with John doing same hand gestures as Bill when Bill is talking.
— Some technical issues at the end, with the ending credits failing to display while the theme music was playing.
STARS: **½

BABA WAWA AT LARGE
an interview with Godzilla (JOB) in his L.A. home

— I’m already liking this idea of Baba Wawa interviewing Godzilla.
— John using a normal, casual voice for Godzilla is pretty funny.
— Overall, I wanted this to be better than it turned out. Despite some laughs, I don’t feel this lived up to its potential. I was a little bored during some parts.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (DR. JOHN, LEVON HELM, PAUL BUTTERFIELD)

HOOVER / NIXON
Richard Nixon (DAA) wants J. Edgar Hoover (host) to support police force
 
— I always love Dan’s Nixon impression.
— Didn’t Gilda play Julie Nixon last time? So why’s Laraine playing her now? Strangely, this is the second time tonight where Laraine took over a role that was previously played by Gilda.
— What’s with Bill and Garrett as effeminate blond-haired secret service men?
— Love the intended irony of 1970 Nixon saying it would take a real idiot to get himself impeached.
— Couldn’t help but get a cheap laugh from the audio recording of a Chinese hooker repeatedly moaning “Oh, Mr. Plesident” in a stereotypical Asian accent.
— Oh, THAT’S why Bill and Garrett are playing effeminate secret service men.
— I feel like I’m saying this for the 100th time in this review, but I felt this sketch didn’t fully live up to its potential.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (THE METERS)

GOODNIGHTS
 

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— I’m not too crazy about what I just watched. This episode had a bit of a bland feeling to me. Thinking back on the show, it wasn’t even particularly bad nor did I give out a large amount of low ratings, but I dunno, the show just left me a little underwhelmed. And nothing in it is standing out as particularly great in my memory, except for Bill Murray’s groundbreaking address to viewers.
— Hard to say anything about Broderick Crawford himself, as he did little during the show. I’ll just say that considering his seeming physical limitations, he did okay with what he was given, and he had a laid-back atmosphere to him that made him quite likable and relatable.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sissy Spacek):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Jack Burns (the second consecutive host I’m completely unfamiliar with)

Posted on

March 12, 1977 – Sissy Spacek / Richard Baskin (S2 E15)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
sudden death of director Dave Wilson [real] prompts castmember eulogies
   
— For some reason, I cracked up at Don Pardo’s hesitance when stating “The director of the show, uh… died.”
— Dave Wilson being slumped over the control board the whole time is a pretty funny visual.
— Dan’s doing a great job at making this look genuinely awkward and spontaneous.
— Why does Bill’s face look so old and haggard in this? Is he wearing some kind of special make-up for a later sketch?
— Gilda: “He reminded me of my grandfather.” Dan: “Oh, yeah? What does your grandfather do?” Gilda: “He died.”
— I like the strange animal clips shown during the highlight reel of Dave’s career.
— Boy, this is a long opening. Not complaining, though.
— Interesting ending with Dave being brought back to life by the cast saying LFNY.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host gives her Oscar speech & performs baton scene cut from Carrie
 
— This is straightforward so far, with nothing really all that funny yet.
— The sudden baton-twirling ending was fairly fun, if not exactly funny.
STARS: **½

BURGER MASTER
Burger Master makes your sandwich how you want it- no request is too odd
   
— Bill still has the old, haggard make-up on, and I just now realized why: I remember this episode having the famous “Ask President Carter” sketch, where Bill wears old make-up as Walter Cronkite. I guess to save time, they put the make-up on Bill before tonight’s episode started.
— The customers’ crazy requests and the employees happily fulfilling them is pretty funny.
— Strange seeing early-era Jim Downey with such long, blonde hair. Also, I think this is his very first speaking role on the show.
STARS: ***

ASK PRESIDENT CARTER
he has the answers for all callers’ questions
 
— I’ve always loved this sketch ever since I first saw it in an SNL “Presidential Bash” compilation special back when I first started really getting into SNL.
— Bill’s Walter Cronkite impression is making me laugh a lot.
— What’s was with the first caller’s echo-ish voice?
— Dan’s Carter is fantastic acting all cool and collected while expertly answering all of the callers’ questions.
— Funny part with “Dr. Midnight”’s obscene call.
— Classic part with Dan talking down the caller who took acid. I especially like Dan’s suggestion to listen to some Allman Brothers.
— LOL at Nixon over the phone. Is that a pre-taped Aykroyd doing the voice? It sounds like his impression.
STARS: ****½

AMY’S BEDTIME STORY
ex-con nanny (GAM) tells Amy Carter (host) a felonious bedtime story

— Ask President Carter has interestingly transitioned into this related sketch.
— Unless I’m forgetting something, I think this is Garrett’s very first drag role on the show. I’ve always heard that he played a lot of women on SNL.
— I’ve been finding a lot of Garrett’s performances pretty rough these last few episodes, but his delivery in this is kinda making me laugh. I’m fully prepared, though, to quickly get sick of him playing drag roles as I go further down SNL’s timeline.
— Oh my god, Sissy’s sudden attempt at doing streetwise jive talk is HORRENDOUS. It also doesn’t help that I can barely decipher what she’s saying during it.
STARS: **

HOW YOUR CHILDREN GROW
JAC interviews quintlexia sufferer (BIM)
 
— Yet another new Jane Curtin talkshow sketch.
— Oh, wait, I know where this is going. This is the “quintlexia” sketch that has an infamous screw-up I’ve always heard about, where Bill Murray supposedly blows the “only able to speak the same five words” joke by accidentally saying more than five words at one point.
— Geez, Bill looks uncomfortable right from the start of this sketch, and he keeps making heavy breathing sounds while Jane’s talking. What’s up with that?
— Okay, there’s Bill’s infamous gaffe, where he says “That’s true, you’re absolutely right about th–” and then kinda cuts himself off when he realizes his mistake. Honestly, that wasn’t as bad as legend had me expecting. It isn’t throwing the sketch off as much as I though it would, and his flub was so inaudible that a lot of viewers probably didn’t even notice it. Supposedly, Lorne and the writers were PISSED at Bill for his mistake, though. I think I even remember reading that Bill overheard one of the writers referring to him as a “fucking amateur” backstage after the sketch ended.
— This sketch is getting quite funny.
— Love Jane cruelly asking Bill inappropriate questions (e.g. “You sleep in a wedding gown, don’t you?”) just so she can hear him helplessly respond with those famous five words.
— Jane’s sudden “Oh, shut the hell up!” had me laughing out loud.
— Overall, that was definitely better than I was expecting. Still, I kinda wish they waited until later in Bill’s tenure to do this sketch, when he was an established pro and was no longer a nervous new kid in the cast.
STARS: ***½

JOHN BELUSHI’S DREAM
JOB announces that he’s leaving show business to train for the decathlon

— This almost feels like a precursor to John’s classic Little Chocolate Donuts commercial from a year or so later.
— This wasn’t anything special and came off kinda filler-ish.
STARS: **

WEEKEND UPDATE
in a rhyme-filled LAN interview, Muhammad Ali (GAM) unveils movie plans
Emily Litella doesn’t understand the fuss over “endangered feces”
   
— Something blocked the Yankees picture on the news screen for a second.
— Haha, that joke about how the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson needs to finally be put to its death was quite mean-spirited. Little did they know at the time just how bad the Tonight Show could truly get later on with a certain big-chinned successor of Carson’s…
— A nice touch how they followed Garrett’s rhyming Muhammad Ali commentary with an Update joke from Jane that also rhymed.
— Ohh, here comes yet another visit from Emily Litella…
— Okay, I’m ashamed to admit it, but Litella’s “endangered feces” rant is actually kinda making me laugh.
— And now, I just got a surprisingly good laugh from Litella’s intentionally bad joke about how the feces could “really hit the fan”.
— Jane coldly telling Litella that her shtick is “wearing thin” and that “at first, it was cute, then it was tolerable, now it’s annoying” perfectly echoes how I (and I’m sure some viewers at the time) generally feel about this character. Too bad that had to be followed by the usual “bitch” remark from Litella, as if THAT joke hasn’t gotten just as tired as the rest of her shtick.
— No mid-WU break tonight.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

FRANKEN AND DAVIS
ALF & TOD perform a newscast from the evening of World War III
 
— LOL at the unseen audience member who keeps suggesting “Pittsburgh!” everytime Franken and Davis look to the audience for suggestions.
— Franken’s delivery of “575 million…Chinese” made me laugh.
— Overall, nothing special, despite the good premise. This wasn’t horrible, but felt like it could’ve been funnier.
STARS: **½

GIDGET GOES TO SHOCK THERAPY
terminally cute women (host), (GIR), (LAN) suffer from Gidget’s Disease
 
— Gilda portrayal of a little girl seems even cuter than usual to me in this.
— A very funny twist from Jane.
— I like the dark humor of the shock therapy treatment premise, and Jane has had some really funny lines.
STARS: ****

ROMANCE
argument of white trash couple (JOB) & (host) is spurred by impotence
 
— John is funny in this, even though this seems to be a more dramatic sketch.
— Sissy’s voice during her angry rant is kinda brutal on the ears.
— Sissy’s doing better now during her whole story about receiving a sign from God.
— Nice ending.
— Overall, a pretty well-done slice-of-life piece.
STARS: ***½

BATON
by Gary Weis- slow motion footage shows host twirling a baton
 
— Absolutely no idea what to say about this, other than my usual “a typical dull Gary Weis film” and “his films belong on a different show” comments.
STARS: *½

BAD PLAYHOUSE
Leonard Pinth-Garnell (DAA) presents The Millkeeper
   
— SNL’s very first Leonard Pinth-Garnell “Bad (insert type of play here)” sketch.
— The various insane looks on John’s face is cracking me up.
— Overall, hilariously bizarre & pointless. I’m looking forward to future installments of this sketch.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

OUTTAKES
by Robert Altman- host’s 3 Women & Welcome To L.A. scenes are juxtaposed
 
— This appears to be a montage of random clips from Sissy Spacek movies.
— Yet another short film that I have no idea what to say about.
— Wait, did she just kiss her own panties before hanging them up in that one clip just now? Why?
STARS: *½

GOODNIGHTS
   
— A few differences I noticed in the writing credits tonight: Aykroyd is now listed separately instead of listed as a team with Belushi, and Belushi is now strangely listed as a team with Murray.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An average episode with an average host. A lot of the sketches worked, but not much is standing out to me aside from Ask President Carter and maybe Gidget Goes To Shock Therapy. Sissy Spacek did an okay-if-forgettable job for the most part, despite a few irksome unintelligible moments and I just now realized that I wasn’t crazy about ANY of the segments that were centered entirely around her (the monologue and the two short films).
— Is it true that this ended up becoming an Emmy-winning episode? That doesn’t really make sense to me. There were much more noteworthy episodes this season.
— I felt Jane had a pretty strong night. The niche she’s carved out for herself as a blunt, icy, no-nonsense straightman was put to great use several times tonight: Gidget Goes To Shock Therapy, the end of the “quintlexia” sketch, and the Emily Litella commentary on Update.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Martin):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Broderick Crawford

Posted on

February 26, 1977 – Steve Martin / The Kinks (S2 E14)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
the cast is unhappy that host’s success has gone to his head
   
— When Gilda and Steve started talking to each other at the beginning, what was with the very brief cutaway to some of the male cast members just standing around? Technical error?
— They mistakenly cut off Gilda’s mic before she said her final line.
— Bill to Steve: “I wasn’t here last time you did the show, but from what I hear, I don’t think I like you too much.” Heh, that reminds me of how Bill would feel in real life a year later when Chevy Chase came back to host the show. Up until that week, the rest of the cast had told Bill so many negative stories about working with Chevy, which painted a really bad picture of him in Bill’s mind and caused lots of tension between the two of them the whole week Chevy hosted. And we know what infamous incident that ended up leading to…
— Hilarious when an angry Belushi had to be held back from attacking Steve after Steve did his “Excuuuuuse meeeee!” catchphrase.
— Overall, an enjoyable backstage cold opening with a good premise.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Lily Tomlin is credited as a special guest.

MONOLOGUE
host gets happy feet, sings Indian folk song, describes “getting small”
 
— I liked him randomly snapping a photo of himself at the beginning.
— Another Steve Martin monologue that begins with him doing about 20 different things within the first minute.
— His exaggerated Indian chanting is cracking me up.
— Steve: “I hate people who are still into [drugs].” You mean, like, say, practically everyone you worked with on SNL that week?
— The whole “getting small” routine is hilarious.
STARS: ****

THE CONEHEADS AT HOME
IRS agent (host) asks Coneheads some questions about their tax returns
   
— Only the Coneheads’ second appearance, and the audience is already applauding their entrance.
— It’s pretty fun watching Steve playing a straight man to them.
— Their answers to Steve’s questionnaire are pretty funny.
— A fine installment, overall, though I liked their first one better.
STARS: ***½

GARRETT MORRIS: “NUR WER DIE SEHNSUCHT”
GAM performs “Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt” during explanatory scroll
   
— Garrett’s wearing the same festive conga-type outfit that he and some of the other male cast members wore at the preceding episode’s goodnights.
— Another operatic performance from Garrett.
— And another scrolling disclaimer during an operatic Garrett Morris performance.
— A few really funny lines in tonight’s disclaimer, especially the Harry Belafonte one.
STARS: ***½

CELEBRITY WEIGHTLIFTING
Russian (JOB) defeats Jackie Onassis (GIR)
   
— I remember seeing this sketch before, but I’m not sure where, as this is my first time seeing the rest of this episode. If this sketch is in Gilda’s Best Of, then I’m guessing that’s where I saw it before.
— Just the idea of putting Jackie Onassis in a competition like this is already very funny.
— Whenever I think of how great Gilda could be at doing physical comedy, this is usually one of the first sketches that immediately come to mind. She’s mining lots of laughs out of her strained, drawn-out attempts to lift the weights.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— Haha, Jane dryly addresses her famous bra-flash moment from her last Update, then says “Not tonight, I have a headache.”
— After stumbling through the set-up of the Adolf Hitler/Rudolph Hess joke, Jane stops, and then slowly repeats the entire joke from the beginning. Yikes. Not sure whether to laugh or feel embarrassed for her.

DR. BREADLOAF’S QUICK-LOSS DIET BOOK
the pages of Dr. Breadloaf’s (GIR) Quickloss Diet Book are the meals
 
— I already like the name of Gilda’s character, Ruth Breadloaf.
— What the hell? Eating pages?
— Overall, I didn’t care for the premise, but Gilda did what she could with this.
STARS: **

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
LAN reports from an expensive & dangerous military aircraft
 
— Dan’s reaction to Laraine’s question is pretty funny.
— Jane is quite stumbly with her delivery tonight.
— Jane’s accent at the end of the airline joke was good.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

BROADWAY BABY
on a diner set, Lily Tomlin [real], GIR, LAN, JAC perform “Broadway Baby”
 
— I had been wondering what Lily Tomlin was going to do tonight.
— Oh, I don’t like where this is going.
— Man, this musical performance from Lily and the girls is just plain boring to me. It can’t be said enough in my reviews how much I dislike watching straightforward singing of a non-comedic song in sketches, and how much I dislike sitting through Broadway-type showtunes.
STARS: **

PLUG
doctor (host) tries to “accidentally” pull the plug on comatose boy (JOB)
   
— Steve’s inappropriate “moss” joke was hilarious.
— Another very funny inappropriate joke with Bill informing Steve to pull the plug after hearing how much it costs to keep his son alive.
— I’m liking Steve’s failed attempts to “accidentally” pull the plug.
— John’s performance and delivery is weird.
— Overall, I wasn’t too crazy about the strange turn this took after John came out of his coma, which is a shame because I was loving where the sketch had been going before then.
STARS: ***½

NEW ORLEANS SOUL FOOD RESTAURANT
by Gary Weis- Buster Holmes [real] shows off his New Orleans restaurant
 
— Is this film a leftover from the previous week’s Mardi Gras special?
— I’m running out of different ways to say “a typical dull Gary Weis film” in every episode review. I feel kinda bad for being so down on his films, because they seem well-meaning and are not awful in themselves; they’re just on the wrong show.
— All this particular film is succeeding in doing to me is making me very hungry.
STARS: *½

HOLLYWOOD BINGO
(host) consumes game show with celebrity introductions
     
— Steve was very funny unintelligibly explaining the rules in a rapid-fire manner.
— The return of Garrett’s so-bad-it’s-good Sammy Davis Jr. impression!
— This is fun so far, with the fast-paced endless parade of impressions.
— I know I said before that 70s-era Tom Schiller sometimes resembles Fred Armisen, but he ESPECIALLY reminded me of him in this sketch.
— The punchline with the show running out of time before the game could even be played reminds me of a gripe I have with SNL’s current Celebrity Family Feud sketches: they always take up so much damn time having Kenan Thompson’s Steve Harvey introduce each celebrity impression that by the time they get to actually playing the game, it just ends up being a minor part of the sketch.
STARS: ****

FROM THE BIG ORANGE TO THE BIG APPLE
Lily Tomlin characters go to NYC
   
— Hey, it’s Ernestine!
— Oh, Lily seems to be playing every part in this film.
— It feels like Lily is basically co-hosting tonight’s SNL with Steve.
— Overall, a pretty funny film.
STARS: ***½

ROOTS II
more oppressed ancestors of Alex Haley (GAM)
   
— The concept of doing a rushed sequel to Roots sounds quite funny and promising, though I’m wondering how they’re going to pull it off with this particular cast.
— Haha, I’m strangely liking seeing John and Bill playing black roles and wearing half-assed dark grease that’s smeared over a few spots of their faces and bodies.
— John’s character being named Bop-Shoo-Wop is hilarious.
— Hmm, Bill is actually very good at sounding black. Part of me isn’t surprised by that.
— This sketch is hilarious so far.
— Another big laugh from Steve as the slave owner telling John his name is now Peggy Fleming, during the parody of the famous Roots whipping scene.
— This died down towards the end, unfortunately; kinda like the hospital room sketch earlier tonight.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

LOVERS
in a singles’ bar, (host) & (GIR) discover they have plenty in common

— As no surprise, Steve and Gilda are having very charming chemistry with each other.
— Some parts of their conversation, when talking about their favorite kinds of pain and talking about what they hate kinda reminds me of the Willie & Frankie sketches (a.k.a. the “I hate when that happens” guys) that Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest would later do in season 10.
— Overall, a very nice little scene to end the night with.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS
 

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Another consistently solid Steve Martin episode from this season, though I felt his first episode had more memorable sketches than this one. This was still enjoyable, Steve has developed into a reliable recurring host, and special guest Lily Tomlin’s presence added to the fun vibe of the night (even if I didn’t like that musical Broadway sketch of hers).

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Sissy Spacek

Posted on

January 29, 1977 – Fran Tarkenton / Leo Sayer, Donny Harper and The Voices Of Tomorrow (S2 E13)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
JOB coaches host & cast on what to do during tonight’s show
   
— John as the coach: “We’re losing some strength; Belushi’s gonna be out this week.”
— This is a fun and interesting way to open the show, and I’m loving all the energy.
— SNL’s very first instance of a group LFNY.
STARS: ****

MONOLOGUE
(BIM) gives play-by-play as GAM takes over host’s rendition of “Feelings”
    
— I like the little touch of how the floor of the homebase stage’s main section has been painted to look like the 50-yard line of a football field.
— What was with the sound of a bass playing in the background briefly while Fran was in the middle of talking?
— Fran’s having some funny lines at the expense of the Vikings’ Super Bowl loss.
— Oh, he’s begun singing. I guess that explains the brief bass sound earlier.
— I like how this has suddenly turned into a continuation of the SNL football team cold opening, and Bill Murray as the play-by-play commentator is adding to the fun.
STARS: ***

SWISS ARMY GUN
(DAA) pitches Rovco’s multi-purpose Swiss Army Gun
  
— Another Rovco item, like the Puberty Helper from the Jodie Foster episode.
— It goes without saying that Dan’s doing yet another great job as a pitchman.
— The visual of all the features of the oversized swiss army gun is funny, especially how the actual gun part is just a small normal revolver.
STARS: ***½

AMY
Secret Service agents (BIM) & (DAA) help Amy Carter (LAN) cheat on a quiz
   
— This is the one sketch from this episode I remember when I saw this episode years ago.
— Dan and Bill are hilarious as the secret service men.
— Love the part with Dan and Bill stuffing Gilda inside her desk. That’s the portion of this sketch that stuck with me all the years since I last saw this episode.
— After the Gilda/desk gag, Bill seemed to accidentally hurt Gilda for real by unintentionally closing the desk top on her hand. Gilda’s making a comically-exaggerated pained facial expression, and Bill looks genuinely apologetic towards her.
— The ending could’ve been a little better.
STARS: ***½

SIDELINE
after losing an arm, football player (DAA) is sent back into the game
 
— Another continuation of the cold opening’s premise.
— Funny reveal with Dan’s missing arm after it reportedly got torn off during the game.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (LEO SAYER)

BLACK PERSPECTIVE
host confirms stereotypes about blacks as quarterbacks
 
— Garrett sure flubbed his intro to Fran.
— This is the first actual sketch Fran has appeared in tonight.
— Hilarious with Fran explaining that all the negative stereotypes about black football players are true. I’m kinda surprised they’re getting away with racial humor of this extent.
— Garrett’s reactions are funny, too.
STARS: ****

ALSATIAN RESTAURANT
(BIM) & (JAC) get great food & domestic strife at an in-house restaurant
   
— The whole repeated thing with Dan and Gilda loudly arguing off-camera in the kitchen after putting on a kind facade for their guests is too predictable for my likes, and is too cliched of a premise.
— Okay, Dan returning from the kitchen with blood on his face is kinda funny.
— Funny detail of Gilda picking the spilled food up off the floor and serving it on a platter after she got pushed out of the kitchen.
— Gilda slowly sneaking up on Dan with a knife… okay, I’m liking where this sketch is going now.
— Overall, too much of this sketch suffered from feeling too cliched, but it slowly got better towards the end.
STARS: **½

SUGAR-FROSTED ANABOLIC STEROIDS
host gets strength he needs from sugar-frosted Anabolic Steroids cereal
 
— An okay premise for a commercial.
— I got a good laugh from the “turn your grapes into raisins” line.
— Fran’s delivery sure is awkward in some parts of this, and you can tell he’s amused by the lines he’s reading.
— Great reveal with his wife having a whole bunch of facial hair due to eating the cereal.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
tired of being compared to CHC, JAC rips open her shirt & displays bra
silent film footage documents testing of the new cruise missile
   
— An odd start with Jane very coldly addressing criticisms of her Update performance from viewers who miss Chevy and feel that Jane can’t hold a candle to Chevy’s sex appeal.
— Jane: “[The network is] putting a lot of pressure on Lorne to try somebody new for Update, like that new kid Murray or whatever his name is.” Ha! Little did Jane know that she’d eventually be co-anchoring Update with “that Murray kid”.
— Oh, wait, I think this whole rant of Jane’s is leading to a certain famous moment…
— Yep, and there it is. “Try these on for size, Connie Chung!” Always a classic. Even though, as mentioned earlier, I previously saw this episode years ago, this is the first time I remember seeing this “Try these on for size, Connie Chung!” moment in its full context instead of just as a clip in SNL highlight reels.
— Funny how Jane seamlessly transitioned from her angry demeanor to a professional news anchor delivery immediately after her whole rant ended.
— I like the cruise missile launch being represented by a wacky black-and-white silent film clip of people frantically running away from a bomb that’s following them.

COMMUNITY APPEAL
host says “thanks to Community Appeal, drug-addled JOB is working”
 
— Uh, is John supposed to be acting like a special-needs kid? If so, this seems kinda in bad taste, but I’d be lying if I said John’s performance wasn’t giving me some laughs.
— At certain points in this, John’s voice actually sounds like future cast member Chris Farley’s.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
 
— Jane seems to be playing to the camera a lot more than usual in tonight’s Update, like making lots of charming little random ad-libs to the camera (“Hi, there”) or just giving the camera a funny sly look. I wonder if this is her attempt to spice up her Update performance in response to the aforementioned criticisms she’s supposedly been getting.
— Another ad-lib from Jane, with her jokingly starting to open her shirt up a little again after the Shirley Temple Black joke bombed.
— That polar bear story was too similar to the zoo stories that Chevy used to sometimes do on Update.
— Yay, no Emily Litella.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ****

ALICE
with JOB’s coaching, host does a hotel room sketch with LAN
   
— This has turned into yet another continuation of the “SNL football team” premise, with Fran calling a time-out in the middle of a sketch and running off-stage to receive advice from “Coach John Belushi”.
— Why does “Coach John Belushi” now have gray hair? He didn’t have it earlier tonight.
— The “time-out” interludes are cool and everything, but the actual bedroom sketch with Fran and Laraine is not interesting me.
STARS: **

GRAND STAND, PART 1
Lee Whitehead (BIM) & Bryant Gumbo (GAM)

— The preceding sketch has segued into this sports-related one.
— Boy, if Garrett’s supposed to be doing a Bryant Gumbel imitation, then he’s doing a TERRIBLE job.
— Huh? Why did Bill and Garrett throw to a “commercial” as soon as this started? It’s bad enough that Weekend Update in this era always has to have a fake ad break in the middle; now they’re doing that in the middle of sketches, too?

SPEARMINT GUM
at a funeral, Spearmint Gum-holding priest (TOS) says “carry it with you”
  
— This is actually a rerun from season 1, but it wasn’t in my copy of any episodes from that season, so this is my first time seeing it.
— The twist at the end was really random, but cracked me up. I probably would find this even funnier, though, if I was familiar with the real ad this seems to be parodying.
STARS: ***

GRAND STAND, PART 2
Lee Whitehead (BIM) & Bryant Gumbo (GAM) interview host
     
— The “Saturday Night” blimp was pretty funny.
— Funny gag with the halftime show of a marching band performing a salute to “blind non-white American composers”.
— A bizarre brief technical error just now, where the entire screen turned yellow except for the little monitor showing Fran.

— Fran’s gay quarterbacks remark about someone who reportedly insulted him (I didn’t catch the name) got some shocked “ooh!”s from the audience.
— Bill flubbed the hell out of his “terrific steroid bit” line (“terrific styroid bead”).
— I like the idea behind them doing slow-mo replays of clips of Fran from earlier in the show, but nothing funny is coming out of that.
— During the fake ending credits playing now, I just caught a listing of “Engineered by Coneheads”. Haha! And keep in mind, the Coneheads haven’t even become recurring characters yet at this point; they’ve only been done once.
— Some other parts of these fake ending credits seem to be reusing the same jokes from the fake ending credits of the all the Ford/Carter debate sketches (including the same typo where Dr. Seuss is misspelled “Dr. Suess”).
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (LEO SAYER)

SMALL WORLDS
by Gary Weis- amphibians & reptiles displayed at pet store
   
— Very random outro with Fran, on the homebase stage, holding a tarantula and getting “bitten” by it. It was a cheap, predictable gag, but I got an unintentional laugh from how they abruptly cut to a black screen after Fran yelled from getting “bit”.
— Regarding the film itself, well, the frog was funny, at least. The rest of this was the usual Gary Weis snoozefest.
STARS: **

FRENCH LIQUID
the new perfume gives different scents to different women
 
— This was a weird short piece, but I liked the narrator’s increasingly-odd fragrance descriptions given to each woman’s perfume.
— I think that was the voice of O’Donoghue as the narrator, by the way.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (DONNY HARPER AND THE VOICES OF TOMORROW)
— Fran bizarrely introduces them by the wrong name: “Donny Harper and The Voices Of America”.

CREDIT CARD
Rhonda Weiss (GIR) & credit card employee Barbara (JAC) one-up each other

— The return of Gilda’s Jewish character that was introduced in the Ralph Nader episode.
— I’m liking Gilda and Jane constantly one-upping each other in a stereotypical Jewish New Yorker way.
— Jane’s doing a good job playing a similar character to Gilda’s.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS
 
— We don’t get the usual goodnights speech from the host. These goodnights just begin with the credits rolling and the music kicking in. I guess they were running really low on time.
— Also, no Don Pardo goodnights announcement tonight either.
— Some of the male cast members are wearing festive conga-type outfits for some reason. Was a sketch cut at the last minute? Or were they dressed like that because the (infamous) Mardi Gras special was approaching?

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very average episode. Kinda reminds me of how I felt about the Dyan Cannon episode from season 1: consistently decent but overall very forgettable. Tonight’s “SNL football team/Belushi as coach” running premise added a fun vibe, at least, and gives this episode the slight edge over Dyan Cannon’s.
— As SNL’s very first athlete host, Fran Tarkenton wasn’t anything special, and he played himself in everything he appeared in, but his expected wooden acting style wasn’t bad enough to drag down the show or anything. I’ve seen worse from some athletes who would host later.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ruth Gordon):
— a moderate step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Steve Martin

Posted on

January 22, 1977 – Ruth Gordon / Chuck Berry (S2 E12)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
prospect of drug cutoff makes injured JOB well enough to do SNL

— I like this premise and I like how they’re addressing John’s return from his absence in the last episode.
— The situation of this, with the doctor urging Lorne to put John on the air while Lorne is worried John is not in shape to go on is like the reverse of a well-known real-life situation that would happen backstage a few years later the night of (I think) the Kate Jackson episode from season 4, where John was in terrible health and a doctor informed Lorne that there are odds that John could die if he  performs on the show that night, and Lorne reportedly snapped back “I’ll take those odds!” and defiantly put John on the air. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that episode, so I’m morbidly curious to see how much John’s poor health was evident during the show.
— Funny ending.
— John’s the first non-Gilda cast member to say LFNY in the post-Chevy Chase era.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Bill Murray finally receives a credit as a cast member.

MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Man, she’s speaking a mile a minute.  Nice energy, though.
— And that’s it??? It’s over already? Nothing even happened in this! Not even sure if I should rate it.
STARS: N/A

THE MARINES
— Rerun of a fake ad

ME
Barbra Streisand (LAN) sings a medley about how great she is

— Loved the “even if my film sucks” lyric.
— Very nice performance from Laraine.
— Okay, this is starting to go on too long.
— And it’s still going on…
— Overall, this was still pretty good and featured a great job from Laraine, but it really would’ve benefited from being shortened.
STARS: ***

THE LITELLA SISTERS AT HOME
Emily Litella & sister Essie (host) discuss issues of the day

— A change of pace seeing Emily Litella outside of Update. However, I’m still tired of this character.
— This has turned meta with Emily trying to come up with a topic for her next Weekend Update commentary.
— Boy, that “Air F*g / homos” joke would not fly today AT ALL.
— The “Flea Erection” correction was pretty funny.
— Ruth is not doing a very good Emily Litella imitation at all.
— A kinda-funny ending with Emily putting the postcard in the toaster.
STARS: **

TOMORROW
Dino De Laurentiis (JOB) talks about the King Kong remake
 
— So John really IS confined to a wheelchair? I thought it was just a gag for the cold opening, much like the cold opening from earlier this season when Chevy returned from his hospitalization in a wheelchair, only to immediately get pushed out of it (by John, ironically). It’s gonna be weird seeing John like this in every sketch he’s in tonight.
— The second “A Star is Born” reference tonight.
— The mean comments about Streisand are really funny.
— Like the “Me” sketch earlier tonight, this is another one that’s started to drag on too long.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
LAN asks Lillian Carter (host) what it’s like to be the new First Mother
  
— Jane’s opening gag involving her spraying perfume inside the chest of her shirt was interesting.
— Ruth’s story had a funny twist.
— I wonder how Jane made herself burp on cue like that.

CRAZY FRANK
(DAA) identifies truly Crazy Frank as source of Crazy Ernie’s low prices
 
— Dan’s performance here is even more maniacal than his usual fast-talking pitchmen. He’s killing me in this.
— A funny parody of these types of real-life “Crazy (insert name here)” ads.
— The ridiculously low prices are hilarious.
— IIRC, this would end up being the first in a series of “Crazy (insert name here)” fake ads than Dan would do on the show. I think I also remember Jim Belushi doing one or two of these in the Dick Ebersol era.
STARS: ****½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
to JAC’s annoyance, Emily Litella hasn’t found anything to report about

— Oh, no. I didn’t realize the earlier Emily Litella sketch was going to lead to an actual Update commentary later in the same episode. Not happy about that, though it IS always interesting the times an SNL sketch starts a premise that continues later in the same night.
— Litella pointing out Jane’s crankiness and asking “Is it that time?” was pretty funny, I admit.
— Emily to Jane: “Bitch.” Oh, yeah, THAT sure hasn’t gotten old yet!!![/end sarcasm]
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): **½

NIGHT MOVES
by Gary Weis- lady loses patience with absent boyfriend GAM
   
— What the HELL was up with Garrett’s intro? It was very awkward; he badly stumbled his way through the whole thing. Was that intentional? Also, is this his first appearance of the whole night?
— This is a little better than the usual Gary Weis films, as this music video-esque film is well-edited-together, and the sexiness of this is entertaining me.
STARS: **½

LITTLE OLD LADIES OF THE NIGHT
elderly (host) becomes a hooker
   
— I like Dan’s intro.
— I think Garrett’s wearing the exact same pimp outfit he wore in the “white horse / white whores” bit from the Dyan Cannon episode.
— During Gilda’s close-up, someone accidentally blocks the screen for a quick second as they’re walking past.
— Bill Murray! I had actually forgotten he’s now part of the cast, as this is his first appearance of the whole damn night.
— Also, I think that was Bill who accidentally blocked the screen in Gilda’s aforementioned close-up. I had heard that Bill was prone to making gaffes in his early episodes.
— I love Dan’s occasional, increasingly-exaggerated exclamations.
— Overall, a weak and uninteresting sketch. Dan was pretty much the sole highlight.
STARS: *½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

BABYSITTER
a girl (GIR) asks her babysitter (host) some questions about sex
 
— As usual, Gilda’s doing a very convincing job as a little girl.
— Funny line from Ruth about God clumping males’ dirty parts together because they’re always losing things.
— Probably the best performance Ruth has given so far tonight, which still isn’t saying much. Most other female hosts probably could’ve done more with the solid script this sketch has.
STARS: ***½

MR. BILL GOES TO A MAGIC SHOW
by Walter Williams- mangling ensues
 
— Loved the ending with Mr. Bill being “sent into outer space”.
— Overall, this was the usual greatness from Mr. Bill.
STARS: ****

RICKY JAY
Ricky Jay [real] does a card trick with two audience members
   
— Two segments in a row tonight dealing with magicians?
— WTF at this guy’s bizarre laughing during his opening card trick.
— Pretty cool trick he did with the female audience member.
— What in the world was with the ending?
STARS: ***

THE LAST DAYS OF HOWARD HUGHES
projector repairman (GAM) observes dying Howard Hughes’ (LAN) compulsions
   
— Laraine as Howard Hughes??? Well, the opening scrolling disclaimer did describe Hughes as being scrawny and scraggly, so who better in the cast to play him than rail-thin Laraine Newman?
— Well, I can tell THIS is gonna be a weird sketch…
— They’re really going light on Bill Murray tonight, relegating him to only appearing in the post-Update half of the show in forgettable supporting straight roles, which makes no sense to me considering how he impressed with a strong dominant presence in his debut the preceding week.
— Garrett: “This guy is Nixon, ain’t he?”
— Loved Garrett’s delivery of “Aaaaallllll white people are crazyyyyy…”
— I liked the weirdness behind this (I bet O’Donoghue wrote it), but the overall sketch fell flat.
STARS: *½

WORLD OF ADVENTURE
anthropologist’s (host) breast-filled film excites E. Buzz Miller (DAA)
  
— The debut of E. Buzz Miller!
— What the hell was up with Dan and Ruth talking over each other for a long time? That didn’t seem to be a part of the script to me. Sloppy as hell. I’m guessing Ruth’s the one to blame for that.
— This sketch was way too short. Pretty much nothing happened in it besides Dan commenting during the brief African native dancing clip they showed. I thought what I was watching was just the beginning, but then the sketch ended before it could even take off. I wanted to see so much more from this.
STARS: **

MR. MIKE’S LEAST-LOVED BEDTIME TALES
MOD tells (GIR) a Least-Loved Bedtime Tale- “Willy The Worm”

— Overall, this was okay, but a step down from the last one. This was more like the first two installments of this sketch, where Mr. Mike’s story wasn’t quite as twisted and disturbing as it should be.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS
   
— Ruth’s comment about “bare-assed” costume changes made me laugh.
— The cast seems pretty warm in their interactions with Ruth, which is kinda surprising me because I remember reading that the cast supposedly didn’t like working with her. But then again, the cast also acted warm to Louise Lasser during her goodnights, so I’ll just assume that they were really good at hiding their true emotions when interacting with an unruly host during the goodnights.   It’ll be interesting to see if this also holds true for the goodnights  of the Milton Berle and Frank Zappa episodes later this era.
— John gets carried out of his wheelchair and is brought onto the stage. I just now realized that aside from the cold opening, he only appeared in one actual sketch tonight. Guess there’s not many roles you can write a wheelchair into.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Much like the Jodie Foster episode from earlier this season, this was another one that I heard has a bit of a bad reputation, but unlike the Foster episode, which I personally found to be surprisingly decent, THIS one lived up to its reputation. Despite a few highlights, this was an overall weak episode, with a lot of wasted potential like the E. Buzz Miller and Howard Hughes sketches, and some good sketches suffering from going on a lot longer than they should have, like the Barbra Streisand and Tom Snyder sketches.
— Ruth Gordon’s energy during her monologue made me want to root for her, but boy, did she end up being a subpar host. I don’t know the story of what went on with her backstage that made the cast supposedly hate working with her, but there were some moments during this episode where I could understand the animosity, especially whatever the hell she was doing in the E. Buzz Miller sketch where she kept stepping all over Aykroyd’s lines while he was trying to end the sketch.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ralph Nader):
— a big step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Fran Tarkenton

Posted on

January 15, 1977 – Ralph Nader / George Benson (S2 E11)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
safety hazards at Studio 8H dampen host’s attempt to lighten his image
   
— LOL at Ralph’s suit.
— Hilarious part with Ralph informing Garrett that the hot dog he’s eating contains “rat excrement and rodent hairs”. Garrett’s reaction is funny as well.
— The airbag ending seemed to be botched by a special effects failure, but Nader was able to still make it funny.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Hey, where was Bill Murray’s credit??? This is his first episode, so I was anticipating seeing him credited among the cast in the montage. Disappointed not to see him in this. I guess since he was SNL’s very first new cast hire after the show’s debut, they wanted to break him in carefully so viewers wouldn’t have an instant negative reaction to SNL’s first newbie. Oh, well, this wouldn’t end up being the only time a new cast member was uncredited in their first episode; off the top of my head, the opening montage of the season 24 premiere strangely gave no credit to then-new cast hires Jimmy Fallon, Chris Parnell, and Horatio Sanz, despite the fact that they appeared in noteworthy roles throughout that episode.

MONOLOGUE
“technical errors” occur while host talks about RCA’s wrongdoing
  
— For some reason, after Pardo announced him, Nader just walked onstage from the front instead of making his entrance from down the stairs in the back of the stage like hosts usually do in this era.
— Pretty funny with the “Network Trouble Temporary” screen showing up when Ralph began revealing bad things about RCA.
— And now, the camera has begun slowly panning away from him as he’s continuing to go on, which kinda reminds me of some of Buck Henry’s monologues.
STARS: ***

LONG DISTANCE
(BIM) starts badmouthing his ingrate grandson while waiting for his call

— Our very first appearance of Bill Murray!!!
— With him not being credited in the opening montage earlier, I’m sure a lot of audience members and viewers back then must’ve been wondering who the heck this guy is and why he’s starring in his own sketch at the top of the show.
— Going through SNL’s timeline in chronological order on a daily basis, it feels so interesting for me to see a new cast member after I’ve gotten so used to the cast we’ve had since the show debuted.
— His slowburn with him gradually turning against his grandson is great, especially his line “I hope the kid dies”.
— And now, he had an even funnier line, bitterly mentioning how the watch he gave the grandson cost “800 friggin bucks”. I didn’t even know that saying “friggin” was a thing yet in the 70s. In a way, it’s very fitting that SNL’s first use of that word was uttered by Bill Murray.
— Overall, a great first sketch for Bill to make his debut in.
STARS: ****

T.V. EXECUTION
(BIM) directs the dress rehearsal for the televised execution of (TOS)
   
— I like this premise, doing a dress rehearsal for a prisoner’s execution.
— I’m getting some pretty good laughs from Dan’s comically stiff performance.
— Wow, Bill Murray in another big role already?
— Bill is absolutely fantastic in this! This feels like the type of performance I’d expect from him in his later seasons, when he was an established SNL pro.
— Bill’s reaction to the casting decision of having a black priest was very funny.
— Funny part with the “AARRGGGGHHHH!!” cue card being used prematurely.
STARS: ****

BABA WAWA TALKS TO HERSELF
Baba Wawa promotes her new special, in which she talks to herself
 
— Gilda’s delivery is great here, rapidly listing off the silly topics she’ll be covering in her next special. It must not be easy speaking that fast while flawlessly doing the ‘w’ talk that Gilda does as Baba.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

NADER / CARTER
host dreams of Jimmy Carter (DAA) planning a Confederate takeover
   
— Good gag with Ralph fastening a seat belt over himself and then sleeping in his office chair.
— Funny touch with Dan’s Carter having peanuts scattered on his desk.
— Ralph’s spastic gestures when he’s enthusiastically making his points to Dan’s Carter is giving me some laughs.
— I like the turn this took with Dan’s Carter going over his plans for a confederate-themed inauguration.
— Loved Dan’s crazy southern war yell.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE
hospitalized JOB calls in to ask JAC why no one has mentioned his injury
BIM’s report on Rosalynn Carter concerns the new First Lady’s looks
Texxon chairman (host) tells LAN the conditions of a solar energy deal
new correspondent Emily Litella is against making Puerto Rico a “steak”
       
— Jane’s hairstyle is a lot different tonight.
— Oh, I completely forgot that I had read somewhere about Belushi not appearing in this episode due to an injury. Surprisingly, I hadn’t even noticed his absence.
— What’s with cast members this season getting injured and having to take an episode off? First Chevy, now John.
— The picture shown of John “in happier times” during his phone call made me laugh.
— John: “Who’s that new kid that’s in the show? The one with the mustache. Murphy? What’s his name?”
— Love the bit with Jane gushing over the phone about what a great performer Bill Murray is while John gets jealous.
— Bill Murray with his own Update commentary!
— Interesting seeing Bill interacting with Jane, considering they would later become an Update team.
— Bill’s perverted details about Rosalyn Carter’s legs are very funny.
— Great ending with Bill saying “Next week, Miss Amy Carter”.
— Nader’s performance in the Laraine remote segment was funny, but why did it end with a very muted audience?
— Emily Litella’s commentary is introduced by Jane interestingly announcing her as a new addition to the Update team.
— Hmm, not sure why they went out of their way to have Jane give Litella that special introduction as if this Litella commentary was going to be a change of pace, considering this has ended up being same old shtick.
— I do like Jane’s cold reactions to Litella.
— Aaaaand there’s the return of Litella’s “bitch” line that was introduced in just the last episode. I see SNL has wasted no time in already starting to run that once-funny joke into the ground.
— No mid-Update break tonight.
STARS: ***

ANDY KAUFMAN
as Elvis, Andy Kaufman [real] sings “Love Me” & “Blue Suede Shoes”
   
— Our first time seeing Andy in quite a long time.
— He has a big suitcase with him? Oh, is this gonna be the classic bit where he becomes Elvis?
— Him as Foreign Man doing non-impressions is always funny to watch.
— It’s pretty fascinating watching his extended transformation into Elvis while he has his back to the camera.
— Haha, the audience is going nuts at him having now flawlessly become Elvis.
— Fantastic Elvis musical performance.
— I love the “somethin’ wrong with muh lip” part during the close-up of him doing the Elvis lip-twitch.
— This second Elvis musical performance is even more fun, especially the great dancing he’s doing during it.
— Perfect ending with him, sweaty and out-of-breath, going back to doing a Foreign Man-voiced “dank you veddy much” into the microphone.
STARS: *****

PARTY DOLLS
host “tests” party dolls during a magazine reporter’s (GAM) visit
   
— Pretty funny premise. I like Ralph trying to pass off his use of blow-up dolls as being for “experiments”.
— I’m enjoying Garrett’s straight man reactions in this, especially him constantly gulping down wine to help him get through the weirdness he’s witnessing.
— Ralph is great in this. He made me laugh a lot just now with his “Yvonne failed the Nail Test” line.
— Ralph’s “Not today, I have a yeast infection” line was a hilarious ending.
STARS: ****

GARBAGE
— Rerun of a Gary Weis film from last season

THE CONEHEADS AT HOME
aliens Beldar (DAA) & Prymaat (JAC) Conehead have adapted to Earth life
     
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— I’m getting a kick out of hearing the audience’s great reaction to the initial reveal of Dan’s cone-shaped head when he removes his winter cap.
— One of the cameras oddly has a mysterious red shade on the left end of the screen. (you can see it in the third and fifth screencaps above) Actually, I kinda noticed it earlier in the Party Dolls sketch, but it’s especially noticeable here.
— This is such a great example of how delightfully weird Dan Aykroyd sketches tend to be.
— The part with the Coneheads piggishly “consuming” potato chips and six-packs of beer is a riot. Bill Murray’s reaction is great, too, as well as him hesitantly trying to eat like them.
— Early-era Bill Murray’s voice sounds quite different, at least in this sketch. At some points in this, he actually sounds kinda like Belushi, funnily enough. Then again, I think Bill might just be doing a youthful voice in this sketch since he’s playing a teenager.
— The ring toss ending was very funny.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

YOUTH ASKS THE QUESTIONS
students give host lightweight questions
   
— Has Nader been wearing that exact same suit in every sketch tonight?
— Laraine’s Sherry character’s name is spelled with an ‘i’? Sites like SNL Archives have always spelled her name with a ‘y’.
— The debut of Gilda’s Jewish character, Rhonda Weiss. I’ve always found this character funny.
— The ridiculous questions and Ralph constantly getting cut off is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

AMBASSADOR TRAINING INSTITUTE
— Rerun of a commercial from last season

GOODNIGHTS
  
— Another host who mispronounces John Belushi’s last name as “Belucci” during the goodnights. It’s probably just me who finds that kinda funny.
— This is the first time in this era that I’m seeing a listing for James Downey in the writing credits. Was this his first episode as a writer, or was he already one and I just failed to notice his name in the goodnights of earlier episodes?
— Don Pardo: “Joining tonight’s cast was Bill Murray.”
— The cast has begun walking off the stage, one-by-one.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very good episode. The material was consistently solid, there weren’t any sketches I disliked, and we got an all-time classic Andy Kaufman performance & a great debut of one of the best recurring characters from this era (Coneheads).
— Ralph Nader was a better host than one might expect. Right from the beginning of the cold opening, he came off very game and eager to perform silly material. While he ended up playing himself in literally every sketch (unless I’m mistaken) and, as I pointed out earlier, seemed to wear the exact same suit in everything after the cold opening, he did a good job in every sketch, and was particularly funny in the Party Dolls sketch.
— I was very impressed by Bill Murray in his debut. It’s well-documented what a rough beginning he would have on the show his first few months, but you sure wouldn’t know that from watching this episode. I saw no signs of first-night jitters, no signs of someone who was going to initially have a hard time fitting into an already-established show. He performed like someone who’s already been in the cast for a while, and I especially loved his performance in the first two sketches (Long Distance and T.V. Execution) as well as his Update commentary. I’m very curious how he goes from a confident newbie in his first night to someone who’s struggling on the show so badly that he eventually had to address that in a meta sketch where he talks to us about how he doesn’t think he’s “making it on the show”.
— Belushi’s absence surprisingly didn’t hurt this episode (like I said earlier, I didn’t even notice he was missing until it was mentioned halfway through the episode on Update), but now that I’m thinking about it, I do miss his presence, especially considering what a fantastic night he had in the preceding Christmas episode. I’m looking forward to his return in the next episode.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Candice Bergen):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Ruth Gordon

Posted on

December 11, 1976 – Candice Bergen / Frank Zappa (S2 E10)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
home from prison, Patty Hearst (GIR) spends the evening with her family
   
— This opening is almost TOO topical. I remember when I first saw this episode years ago, I had absolutely NO context for what this opening was about, which made me feel pretty lost. Thankfully, due to me watching SNL episodes in chronological order for my ‘One SNL a Day’ project, I now know a lot more about Patty Hearst, simply because SNL has been making A LOT of references and Update jokes about her in these first two seasons. That’s one of the things that’s going to be fascinating about going through SNL’s timeline for my project: it will almost be like a history lesson, due to how many topical references the show has made over the decades. These first two seasons have taught me some things I didn’t know about Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, etc.
— Everything on TV having some kind of relevance to Patty Hearst’s unfortunate situation is pretty funny.
— Nice meta ending.
— So far, the only cast member in the post-Chevy Chase era to say LFNY has been Gilda, in three out of four episodes (the one non-Gilda LFNY in those four episodes was from musical guest George Harrison). I wonder if the plan at the time was for Chevy’s LFNY tradition to be passed on to Gilda, but somewhere along the line, they decided it would be better to have a different person say it each week.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
JOB’s Humphrey Bogart impression gets reluctant host out of dressing room
     
— There’s no entrance from Candice Bergen after Pardo has announced her name, which is reminding me of Buck Henry’s second monologue from last season, where he went missing.
— And now, the bit with Candice refusing to come out of her dressing room is reminding me of Louise Lasser’s monologue, only without the infamy and without the real-life uncomfortable subtext.
— Jane: “He’s not worth it; no man is, especially John Belushi.”
— Lorne is cracking me up with his seriously questioning how Belushi has so much power over women.
— Jane: “[John]’s had his way with every single woman on this network; why do you think Barbara Walters left?”
— This has turned into an interesting Casablanca parody.
— For some reason, I liked Candice’s line to John about how she’s only attracted to “swill”.
— Yet another funny line: “We’ll still have Paris… and the Muppets.”
— Overall, a very good monologue.
STARS: ****

JIMMY CARTER
Jimmy Carter (DAA) announces he won’t be able to keep all his promises

— Funny premise with Dan’s Carter going back on his campaign promises from the election.
— Another Bob Dylan quote from him. Was the real Jimmy Carter known for pandering to Dylan fans during the election?
— Dan’s Carter: “Don’t expect things to start improving until the beginning of my second term.” Uh, I have bad news for you, Jimmy…
STARS: ***

SANTI-WRAP
DAA touts Santi-Wrap as protection from unhygienic Santas, like (JOB)
 
— A very memorable fake ad that’s been played in a lot of compilation specials.
— Love the close-up of John drunkenly going “ho ho ho” after taking a swig from his bottle.
— Overall, a very funny concept that was executed perfectly.
STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
   
— An incredible and legendary performance of “I’m The Slime”, especially Don Pardo’s participation and the special effect of the slime oozing out of the TV monitor.

CONSUMER PROBE
Irwin Mainway (DAA) defends some unsafe children’s toys
   
— The debut of Irwin Mainway, one of my all-time favorite Dan Aykroyd characters. And this debut sketch is probably Mainway’s most well-remembered appearance.
— The ‘Teddy Chainsaw Bear’ is particularly hilarious.
— I love this part with him trying to prove how normal, safe toys are supposedly “dangerous”.
— Loved him throwing himself backwards out of his chair when strangling himself with the phone wire.
STARS: *****

K-PUT PRICE-IS-RITE STAMP GUN
— Rerun from last season

RIGHT TO EXTREME STUPIDITY LEAGUE
Fern’s (host) friend Lisa (GIR) supports the right to extreme stupidity
   
— Yet another very memorable sketch.
— Gilda is very funny playing a character like this.
— Here’s the legendary blooper, where Candice mistakenly calls Gilda “Fern”, which is her own character’s name, then says “I mean… whatever your name was” and starts cracking up.
— Topping that is Gilda’s classic subsequent “We all can’t be brainy like Fern here!” line.
— Haha, Candice cannot stop laughing; she’s not even trying to hide it.
STARS: *****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
(TOS) begs his wife JAC to come home, then hides beneath the newsdesk
Ray Basalt (DAA) gives the holiday radioactive fallout report
     
— Interesting opening, with Jane arguing with her “husband” Tom Schiller.
— After the Nixon joke bombed, Jane crumbled the paper she read the joke off of and gave it to a hand that reached out from under the desk. What the…? Was that planned?
— Another gag with the hand.  Okay, it seems to be an intentional running gag in tonight’s Update. And I just now remembered that Schiller ducked under the desk at the end of the opening “arguing with Jane” bit, so that must be his hand we’re seeing.
— Dan doing a “Fallout Report”… I can tell I’m gonna like this.
— This “Fallout Report” segment is featuring the usual masterful fast-paced Aykroyd performance.

FX-70 CHEESE SLICER
the new FX-70 cheese slicer resembles a Polaroid camera
   
— Are we in for another non-joke sponsored Polaroid ad?
— Oh, the “cheese slice coming out of the camera’s photo dispenser” gag. I remember seeing this commercial before.  I’m glad this isn’t another plug for Polaroid.
— Cute commercial.
— Candice again started cracking up at the end; I’m not sure why this time.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella is bothered by the notion of collecting for “Unisex”
   
— This is Emily Litella’s first appearance in quite a long time. My main complaint about her in the past was how overused she was, appearing in long stretches of consecutive episodes, which is way too much for a character with a thin premise like her.
— This is also the first time she’s appearing with Jane as the anchorperson instead of Chevy.
— Heh, and now they actually mentioned that, by having Litella say to Jane “Ever since you’ve been doing Update, I haven’t been on the show too much; I used to be on quite often.”
— Loved Litella’s “bitch” remark to Jane. Unfortunately, IIRC, they eventually run that into the ground in Litella’s subsequent appearances.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
— Belushi! Futaba! He came out of nowhere!
— Haha, that whole thing was amazing, with Futaba’s crazy scatting in fake Japanese, him having the band imitate everything he does, and his bizarre ways of playing the saxophone.
   

THE KILLER TREES
(DAA) & (JOB) search for the bloodthirsty arbor
     
— Oh, I always love watching this sketch.
— Yet another display of wonderful operatic singing from Garrett.
— Garrett suddenly getting impaled by the tree while in the middle of singing was timed so well.
— Funny little touch with Gilda giddily singing “La Cucaracha” while dialing the phone.
— LOL at the “tree branch sticking through the chest” effect unintentionally being delayed when Gilda tried to trigger the mechanism on herself.
— Love the 70s-sounding action music sting that plays after someone gets killed by a tree.
— Hilarious seeing Frank Zappa randomly being among the tree suspects in the police line-up.
— “Lieutenant Bushakis”. So I guess this counts as another appearance from John’s Steve Bushakis character who appears in different random sketches each time.
— The tree’s high-pitched raspy singing of “O Tannenbaum” always cracks me up.
— John asking about the guy behind the tree and Dan pointing out it’s just a stagehand is something I used to think wasn’t part of the script, but is obvious to me now that it definitely IS.
— Overall, I don’t know if this sketch is widely considered a classic, but it’s always been one of my personal favorite sketches of this whole era.
STARS: *****

DIANA NYAD
by Gary Weis- Diana Nyad’s [real] students talk about her as she trains

— As the camera fades to black at the end of Candice’s intro, you can see Candice busting out laughing due to her intro sounding awkward.
— Another Gary Weis film I have no idea what to say about. This is a well-meaning mini-documentary about this swimmer, but as with a lot of Weis films, it’s just not entertaining or interesting me AT ALL. It’s also killing the momentum this episode had going until this point.
STARS: *½

ADOPT BELUSHI FOR CHRISTMAS
host announces the Adopt JOB For Christmas Contest- he has nowhere to go
 
— Candice, when talking about the cast’s vacation plans for the holidays: “I guess Garrett will be going back to Africa…”
— I love the premise of this, and it’s being executed very well.
— Random Chevy Chase mention.
STARS: ****

GARY GILMORE
cast performs “Let’s Kill Gary Gilmore For Christmas”
 
— Third segment in a row with Candice doing an intro from the homebase stage, and in the exact same outfit too.
— Such a grim intro to this by Candice, but I’m glad she’s going into detail about Gary Gilmore’s crimes, because I otherwise would’ve had no context for him.
— Very funny reveal of the song’s main message about killing Gilmore. It’s hilarious hearing such dark, sadistic lyrics being sung in a cheery Christmas tone.
— At first, I almost thought some of the cast members were missing from this, due to how incredibly small the cast group in this sketch looks. But then I remembered that the entire cast size really is this small with Chevy gone. There are only SIX members of the cast at this point, though that doesn’t last much longer.
— Overall, a classic performance.
STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
host & castmembers close the show from Rockefeller Center skating rink
     
— SNL’s very first instance of the goodnights taking place at the Rockefeller Center skating rink.
— The show must be running short, since Candice is obviously being forced to keep talking to the camera. Haha, she’s not even trying to hide her embarrassment over not knowing what to say.
— And now, she just made a very funny deadpan remark: “This is such an unfair thing to do to me”.
— Now Candice and the cast have begun skating.
— Funny seeing a shaky Michael O’Donoghue skating with both of his hands being held by someone.
— I’m impressed by Candice’s ability to skate backwards.
— The return of the Killler Tree’s high-pitched raspy singing of “O Tannenbaum”.
— Wow, I have no idea why, but I’m now actually starting to feel kinda emotional and a bit teary-eyed watching this.
— I think this episode holds the all-time record for longest the goodnights music has ever been played in an SNL episode. Not only did the complete song play, but it actually started up again afterwards until the show eventually faded to black. I think the only other episode that comes close to having goodnights music as complete as this is actually the most recent Christmas episode from 2017 with Kevin Hart (which, just like tonight’s episode, also had ice-skating goodnights).

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Wow, what a great episode! Definitely one of the best I’ve reviewed so far in this project; in fact, I’d say of all the episodes I’ve covered, this one is probably my second favorite, after the Richard Pryor episode from season 1.
— Literally every single one of the actual sketches tonight worked, with so many of them being strong, memorable, and highly-regarded, and several of them flat-out being all-time classics. The captivating musical performances from Frank Zappa and the special extended skating goodnights also added to the overall epic vibe. If it wasn’t for the Gary Weis film, this would’ve been a 100% flawless episode.
— Of the cast, Belushi seemed to have a particularly great night, giving a lot of memorable, stand-out performances.
— Once again, Candice Bergen was a solid host, had a comforting presence, and worked so well with this cast. With this being the second consecutive Christmas episode she hosted, it should’ve remained a tradition for her to host every Christmas show in this era (much like how it would soon become a tradition for Buck Henry to always host the season finales in this era), but unfortunately, this episode would end up being the last time she ever hosted with this cast. In fact, she doesn’t make her return until 11 years later, during the late 80s Phil Hartman/Jon Lovitz era.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
We enter 1977, with Ralph Nader hosting, and a certain new cast member joining the show!