Tag: saturday night live

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November 27, 1976 – Jodie Foster / Brian Wilson (S2 E9)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
peeved GIR tells viewers that she won’t be in much of tonight’s show
 

— Loved how after Gilda casually brought up LFNY, they falsely started the opening montage & theme music before being cut off by Gilda yelling she’s not finished yet.
— Yet another “while someone is addressing the camera, a disclaimer on the bottom of the screen reveals the truth” gag. Always funny.
— After Gilda delivered the real LFNY, the theme music kicked in as usual, but they took a long time to cut to the opening montage for some reason, thus we just see Gilda standing on stage for a while as the theme music was playing.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host maintains that her youth has had no effect on her treatment at SNL
 
— Just now, she has mentioned that she’s the show’s youngest host, which receives applause from the audience.
— The jokes about all hosts being treated like a kid are pretty tepid, not helped by Jodie’s awkward delivery of them. However, I do like hearing her namedrop some of SNL’s previous hosts (Raquel Welch, Desi Arnaz, Elliott Gould).
STARS: **

PILSON’S FEEDBAG DINNERS
CHC recommends Pilson’s Feedbag Dinners for people on the go
   
— Chevy ONCE AGAIN??? Ha, he’s been gone for a grand total of ZERO episodes since he “left the cast”. I guess because of how popular he was during his tenure and because SNL wasn’t used to cast members leaving the show, SNL felt they had to wean the audience off of him.
— Funny visual with people eating from the feedbags. Nothing more to this commercial than that, though.
STARS: ***

PETER PAN BEES
Wendy (host) doesn’t believe in Bee Peter Pan (LAN) or Tinkerbee (JOB)
Bee directors Dave Wilson & Heino Ripp [real] send SNL to a commercial
   
— I’m not liking Jodie’s performance as a typical 70s stoner much.
— John freaking out is pretty funny.
— Laraine: “Bees are like Muppets with longer contracts.”
— Hmm, fourth-wall break, with Jodie asking the audience to applaud to bring Bee John back to life. I’m liking this.
— LOL at John’s request for a standing ovation.
— Loved the cutaway to Bee Dave Wilson and Bee Heino Ripp in the SNL control room.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

PUBERTY HELPER
host shows how Rovco’s big Puberty Helper bag prevents teen trauma
   
— Dan doing a fantastic job as yet another manic fast-talking pitchman.
— Who’s the guy in the Puberty Helper bag talking to Jodie? Neil Levy? I’ve gotten to the point where any time I don’t recognize a guy in a sketch from this era, I assume it’s Levy.
— The scene with Jodie and the guy could’ve been funnier.
— Dan is hilarious quickly spouting off the long list of things that Puberty Helper prevents.
— For some reason, I cracked up at Dan’s odd way of pronouncing “bra”. I assume that pronunciation is a Canadian thing.  Norm Macdonald, another SNL canuck, once pronounced “taco” in a similarly odd fashion (“tack-o”) during a Weekend Update joke about Taco Bell.
STARS: ***½

METAL DETECTOR
airport security guards (LAN) & (musical guest) detain metal-laden (DAA)
   
— The reveal of Dan wearing a whole bunch of kinky metal under his clothes is very funny.
— Funny ending with Laraine giving the Tin Woodsman a free pass through the metal detector.
— What was the point of Brian Wilson just standing there silently for almost the entire sketch?
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
JAC phones Jimmy Carter (DAA) with Generalissimo Francisco Franco quiz
alleged footage of Christina & Jackie Onassis mud-wrestling over will
   
— What was with Jane’s “Here but for the grace of God goes Gilda” opening line? I guess that was some kind of reference to tonight’s cold opening.
— Jane’s phone call to (president-elect) Jimmy Carter was pretty fun.
— The mud wrestling clip representing a fight between Christine & Jackie Onassis was good and silly, helped by Jane’s solid narration.

WHAT KINDA GUY WATCHES SATURDAY NIGHT?
promiscuous Steve Bashekis (JOB) is the sort of man who watches SNL

— John played this Steve Bushakis character before, but I can’t remember when. Maybe the Prisoner Auditions sketch from season 1.
— This whole thing was just baffling. What was the point of this? And what was with the weird homophobic vibe?
STARS: *½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
JAC reads viewers’ suggestions on how Morris The Cat should kill himself
 
— Another mention of “CIA director George Bush”.
— A very good follow-up to the preceding episode’s Morris the Cat bit.  I wonder if the suggestions Jane read were really sent in by viewers.
— No guests tonight.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

LITTLE KNOWN TALENTS OF THE NOT READY FOR PRIME-TIME PLAYERS
LAN’s talents include imitations of a crying baby & a possessed chicken
 
— Gilda’s intro to this seems to be a continuation of the cold opening’s premise of Gilda not having anything to do tonight because she’s being “phased out of the show”.
— This sketch appears to be in a similar vein to the sketch last season with Gilda and Madeline Kahn each displaying a unique impression they can do.
— I really liked Laraine doing the Looney Tunes theme song with her lip.
— Very funny ending with Laraine imitating a chicken possessed by the devil.
STARS: ***½

DON PARDO: THE FIRST 50 YEARS
(DAA) narrates DOP’s life history
     
— I’ve always heard about this sketch.
— Great part with young Pardo tattling on his classmates in his usual professional style.
— John playing multiple roles in the same sketch?
— Dan’s insane extended laughter cracked me up.
— Oh, everybody seems to be playing multiple roles in this sketch.
— Lorne in 1975: “Don Pardo? Is he still alive?”
— Overall, a very entertaining sketch, and this made me really appreciate and respect Pardo’s long, impressive career.
STARS: ****½

TEACHER
smitten (host) has a chat with junior high biology teacher (DAA)

— This seems to be one of those realistic, slice-of-life sketches that this era would often do.
— Boy, did Jodie have a hard time delivering that line about a “felt tip pen”.
— Overall, nothing great, but this whole sketch had a charm to it that I appreciate.
STARS: ***

KIDS’ DREAMS
by Gary Weis- kids talk about dreams they have at night

— Gilda’s intro was another funny continuation of tonight’s “Gilda’s being phased out of the show” running premise.
— Typical dull Gary Weis film; this time, it’s a “cute” video with little kids babbling nonsense about dreams they’ve had. Sorry, not my type of SNL entertainment.
STARS: *

THE KING KONG DIRGE
GAM sings “The King Kong Dirge”
 
— As usual, Garrett’s operatic singing voice is phenomenal, but I’m not quite sure what I’m watching so far.
— Okay, I’m now starting to kinda love the powerful tone of this performance. It’s actually quite haunting and moving.
STARS: ****

SIDE NOTE: The “Gilda’s being phased out” gag continues, as we now see her sitting in the audience while the camera zooms in on her, in a similar manner to when the show does audience captions.  Gilda’s adorable in this.
 

WHITE WIFE
(JAC) reveals to her husband (GAM) that she’s not black

— Two consecutive sketches starring Garrett Morris? There’s something you don’t see everyday.
— The little white ball of fuzz on the top of Garrett’s head is a bit distracting.
— Is this the same interracial couple that Garrett and Jane played in that awful Chevy Chase bellhop sketch from season 1?
— Jane’s dramatic “I’m not black” reveal seems like a really funny concept.
— A good laugh from Jane’s “The bottoms of my feet are the same shade as the tops!” line.
— This kinda lost me at the end.
STARS: ***

MR. MIKE’S LEAST-LOVED BEDTIME TALES
MOD tells host a Least-Loved Bedtime Tale- “The Little Train That Died”

— With the inclusion of Jodie, this seems like this will be a bit different from the previous two appearances of this sketch.
— This is a lot better than the last two, as this has exactly the type of twisted, disturbing humor I’ve come to love from Mr. Mike, with him acting out the train’s sudden heart attack, the bit about the schoolbus of kids getting killed by the train, and the ending with the frog getting beaten to death.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
 
— Haha, I couldn’t help but notice that Jodie mistakenly called John Belushi “John Belucci”.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— I had always heard negative things about this episode, so I went into this expecting a rough show. What I ended up getting was not as bad as I was expecting. I didn’t quite see why this episode has such a negative reputation. I’m not saying this was a great episode, but there were a few sketches I found really well-done (Don Pardo: The First 50 Years, King Kong Dirge, Mr. Mike), I enjoyed the “Gilda’s being phased out” running premise throughout the night, and there were nowhere near as many duds as I thought there would be. Honestly, I’ve seen worse episodes this season (Karen Black, Dick Cavett).
— Another negative thing I had always heard about this episode is Jodie Foster’s performance as host. After seeing this episode for myself, I can kinda see what those criticisms were about. Her performances in the first 10-15 minutes were pretty rough, but I felt she got a little better as the night went on. I’m probably going a little easy in my critique of her due to her young age, though. That being said, some of SNL’s later kid hosts would do a more impressive job on the show (Fred Savage especially).

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Candice Bergen hosts the Christmas show, for the second year in a row

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

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

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

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

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

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (PAUL SIMON)

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

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

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

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

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (PAUL SIMON AND GEORGE HARRISON)

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

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

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (PAUL SIMON)

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

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

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

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (PAUL SIMON)

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

_______________________________

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

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
14-year-old Jodie Foster

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November 13, 1976 – Dick Cavett / Ry Cooder (S2 E7)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
GAM hits his TV when Chroma-Trak girl GIR’s colors are reproduced wrong
 
— Garrett’s confused reaction to the TV gave me a pretty good laugh.
— Interesting how this ended with Gilda doing a fall. This being the first episode after Chevy Chase’s departure, viewers at the time probably assumed from this sketch that Chevy’s cold opening pratfall tradition would live on through the remaining cast, but as we now know, that didn’t last long.  What if  it DID stay a tradition to this day in 2018?  Can you imagine the political cold openings nowadays ending with Alec Baldwin’s Trump or Kate McKinnon’s Jeff Sessions doing a pratfall before saying LFNY?
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
host attempts to answer a few questions from the audience

— Hmm, according to Dick, he’s a last minute replacement for Elliott Gould, who was the originally-booked host for this episode. If Elliott had hosted, this would’ve been the third time an episode of his either followed or preceded a Buck Henry episode. Was SNL trying to make it a tradition for Buck and Elliott to always host back-to-back?
— A good laugh from “What makes New York so crummy these days?” “Tourists.”
— Funny answer to the “Are you hung in proportion to your height?” question.
STARS: ***

PUPPY UPPERS & DOGGIE DOWNERS
(LAN) recommends Puppy Uppers & Doggie Downers for (GIR)’s unbalanced dog
 
— This is a well-known fake ad from this era that I’ve never seen for myself before.
— Overall, that lived up to the hype pretty well. I wouldn’t say it’s a classic, but I found it very enjoyable.
STARS: ****

BLONDE AMBITION
Richard Nixon (DAA) tried to pin Watergate on John Dean (host)
 
— Al Franken’s voice-over in this is hilarious!
— I always love Dan’s Nixon.
— Overall, a pretty good Nixon sketch, though I’ve seen better ones.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

NEXT WEEK
GIR announces Paul Simon & George Harrison will do the next SNL

— Just a straightforward announcement from Gilda of the next episode’s guests. This had no jokes, no cameos, or anything.
STARS: N/A

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
JAC repeats Sally Field’s multiple thoughts on playing the role of Sybil
LAN reports from the site of Smokey The Bear’s ironic cremation
   
— The Jane Curtin era of Update officially begins.
— Interesting beginning, with Jane engaged in a “How’s Your Sex Life?” article she’s reading, instead of doing Chevy’s ‘raunchy phone conversation’ bit, despite the fact that there’s a phone right next to her.
— What??? They’re repeating the famous ‘prostitution stamp’ joke from last season? Why?
— Jane was fantastic doing various voices during the Sally Field/Sybill joke. I especially liked how she snuck “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” in there.
— Jane had a funny ad-lib when looking at the wrong camera during the baptist church joke.
— And just now, Jane made an even funnier ad-lib when the audience had no reaction to the punchline of the baptist church joke due to her stumbling over several words.

THE MARINES
Marine (GAM) is looking to pick up a few good men
   
— Fairly funny punchline.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2

— The twist of Jane’s Good Samaritan joke was very dark, which I loved just for that reason, also helped by Jane’s good delivery of it.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

CROSSROADS
communication breakdown caused by (JOB)’s desire to drop out
   
— Funny when Dan suddenly smacked John out of his chair after John’s long speech. John’s exaggerated extended reaction is making it even funnier.
— Oh, now John’s speaking to Gilda. Don’t tell me she’s going to do the same thing to him that Dan just did.
— (sigh) Yep, she did. Wasn’t anywhere near as funny, since I saw it coming. Also, the audience noticeably didn’t laugh AT ALL.
— Dick’s line at the end was great, but man, what a long way to go just for that joke.
STARS: **½

MOBILE SHRINK
CHC stars in TV show about analyst who visits his patients
   
— WTF? Chevy??? ALREADY??? He just left!
— Could Chevy seriously not go through ONE EPISODE after his departure without making his first cameo? Good god.
— Am I crazy, or is that future cast member Ann Risley on the therapist couch? It sure looks like her. I knew Denny Dillon appeared in a 70s episode, but I never knew her season 6 castmate Ann Risley apparently did, too. What next – will I be seeing Gail Matthius as a background extra in a sketch from 1977?
— The end of the pizzeria scene was kinda funny.
— Overall, this commercial as a whole fell flat. I dunno, maybe I didn’t enjoy it because the entire time, I was too busy just going “Really, Chevy? You couldn’t wait until more than one episode?”
— Maybe I’m being too harsh on Chevy. After all, this commercial may possibly have been a way for SNL to show how Chevy has moved on from their show, by airing a fake ad with him starring in a jokingly-bad NBC drama. That still doesn’t make this commercial funny to me, though.
STARS: *½

HOW THINGS WORK
(host) explains to JAC how pressure groups work

— That medicine bottle/typewriter joke may have been so bad, it was funny, but I can’t even tell.
— Overall, yet another sketch I wasn’t all that crazy about.
STARS: **

THE PARAMOUNT NOVELTY STORE
by Gary Weis {rerun}

— Isn’t that the same lady from that Novelty Store film Gary Weis did last season?
— Oh, wait, this IS the same film. I pretty much hated this the first time, and I’m not looking forward to having to now sit through an encore presentation of it.
— The audience is laughing their asses off at this. Like I said sometime before, they usually seem to like Gary Weis films a lot more than I do.
STARS: N/A

BEE HISTORY
grandparent Bees (JOB) & (LAN) recall overcoming past discrimination
   
— Dan’s “Boy, I’d love to dip my spoon in her honey” remark about Bee Laraine was very funny.
— John’s ending “son of a bee” line was pretty good.
— Overall, I appreciate the idea behind this sketch, but the result ended up being yet ANOTHER sketch tonight that left me bored. Man, tonight’s show has really fallen apart after Update.
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

MR. MIKE’S LEAST-LOVED BEDTIME TALES
“The Blind Chicken”

— Surprised they bought this back so soon, after only one episode.
— Something about the lighting and those glasses are giving Mr. Mike a nice, devilish look.
— Another pretty good story, and I liked Mike acting out the chicken being eaten by the alligator. However, much like the last Bedtime Tale, this one wasn’t quite as disturbing as I like my Mr. Mike humor.
— Pretty funny cynical message at the end about love being “a death camp in a costume”.
STARS: ***

FRANKEN AND DAVIS
scientists ALF & TOD do a survey about which words are funny
 
— Heh, why is Davis talking nasally like Franken?
— Davis has been doing all the talking, while Franken has only been gesturing and not saying a single word. Reminds me of Penn and Teller.
— Oh, Franken has begun speaking now.
— The face Franken keeps making when hesitating to say certain words is pretty funny.
— Overall, this was nothing special for Franken and Davis. I liked their segment from last season better.
STARS: **

GOODNIGHTS
 
— Dick does a lot of talking & antics to kill time since the show is running short.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Not very good as a whole. The pre-Update half was actually decent, albeit short, but I wasn’t crazy about ANYTHING in the post-Update half, which really brought this episode down. This is the second subpar episode that Dick Cavett has hosted, which makes me happy he never hosted a third time.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Buck Henry):
— a pretty big step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Paul Simon

Posted on

October 30, 1976 – Buck Henry / The Band (S2 E6)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
trick-or-treating Land Shark gets (GIR) on Halloween
  
— Landshark! Interesting choice to open Chevy’s final show.
— Well, that was short and straightforward, but still funny. This is also the Landshark installment that I was first exposed to when I was younger, as SNL often used to open their older Halloween compilation specials with this one.
— This is the second cold opening in a row that didn’t end with a Chevy fall. Was it doctor’s orders for Chevy to ease up on the falls after his injury earlier this season? Or is this SNL’s way of getting viewers used to cold openings that don’t end with falls, since Chevy was on his way out?
— After getting so used to seeing Chevy say LFNY in every episode (except two) I’ve reviewed so far, it’s going to temporarily feel weird and interesting seeing other people saying LFNY after this episode.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host unconvincingly argues that the SNL cast is made up of normal folks

— I’m loving these stories about the cast’s personalities.
— Buck talking about how weird Aykroyd is probably has some truth to it.
— Some of the audience knowingly applauded when Buck mentioned how sweet Gilda is.
— Love the bit about Garrett’s talent being cannibalism.
— An on-air mention of this being Chevy’s last show.
STARS: ****

SAMURAI STOCKBROKER
Mr. Dantley is worried about his investments
     
— Buck actually said Futaba’s last name just now, though I couldn’t make out what exactly it was.
— I got a good laugh from Futaba’s method of “splitting” the stock.
— I liked the card coming out of the slot in the databank.
— Here we are – the notorious part with Buck getting unintentionally cut in the forehead by John’s sword while John was wildly using it to make a “window” into the wall.
— Immediately after getting hit, Buck actually turned around and looked like he was about to walk off the set in a panic (fourth screencap above), before immediately turning back and continuing with the sketch. Very interesting to see that brief flash of genuine panic during a live sketch.
— As if Buck getting cut in the forehead wasn’t unfortunate enough, as he was crawling out the “window”, the wood he was leaning on broke unintentionally and caused him to clumsily fall “out the window” sooner than he was supposed to. The audience got a big kick out of that.
— I don’t understand the ending with John adding a tiny stick-on body figure to a drawing of a plane that has other stick-on body figures in it.
— Heh, the sketch ends on a shot of John happily drumming onto a table, not even being aware of what he had unintentionally just done to Buck a minute earlier.
STARS: **** (the rating was boosted a bit by the notoriety of the sword/forehead incident)

NOT FOR FIRST LADIES ONLY
Betty Ford (JAC) & Rosalynn Carter (LAN)

— Loved the “I’m the kind of person that you can’t picture going to the bathroom” line from Jane as Betty Ford.
— The whole conversation between Jane and Laraine is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

ROOTS
GAM’s family history research uncovers some famous Morris relatives
   
— Yet another solo Garrett Morris sketch. He seems to do sketches by himself more often than anyone else in this cast does.
— Despite Garrett’s good storytelling skills, I’m wondering when exactly the big joke of this is coming.
— WTF at the sudden Hollywood Squares twist. That came out of nowhere.
STARS: **½

SIDE NOTE: A fake “Coming Up Next” teaser caption (which the show often does in this era before going to commercial) mentions something titled “Buck Henry Gets Even”. Is that a last-minute reference to the sword/forehead incident, or just a coincidence?

DEBATE ’76
Jimmy Carter (DAA) & Gerald Ford (CHC) vie in beauty pageant
     
— In his first appearance since the Samurai incident, Buck is now seen wearing a bandage on his forehead.
— I’m pretty sure they said in the preceding debate sketch from the Karen Black episode that THAT was the third and last debate. Yet they’re claiming that same thing about tonight’s debate sketch. Strange.
— Good creative premise having the presidential debate being done as a beauty pageant.
— Chevy has now shown up wearing a band-aid on his forehead, too, in what will end up being a running gag for the rest of the night with various cast members randomly having a band-aid on their head, in an attempt to make Buck feel less self-conscious about his own bandage.
— I cracked up at Garrett’s pained moan and facial expression after Dan poked around inside his mouth with dental tools.
— Chevy’s “There’s no paper in here” when inside the voting booth was hilarious.
— Was that padding I saw on the floor when Chevy did his pratfall out of the voting booth? Now I’m definitely sure that Chevy must’ve received doctor’s orders to go easy on the falls, because SNL never used any visible padding in any of Chevy’s earlier pratfalls.
— Loved Buck’s quick “We’ll be right back… we’re back” when he acted like the show was going to cut to commercial.
— Clearly an ad-lib when Chevy said to Buck “I cut myself shaving here this evening too”.
— Buck’s long-winded scenario about Ford having a string of disastrous accidents at a Moscow state dinner is great.
— And just now, Chevy’s unrelated answer to Buck’s scenario is equally as funny.
— They again repeated the same gag ending credits from the first debate sketch.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
unreleased Gerald Ford ad features Jimmy Carter’s admission of heart lust
unreleased Jimmy Carter ad features Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon
     
— Chevy has kept on the band-aid from the preceding sketch.
— Haha, the top story Chevy reads tonight is of Buck Henry getting cut in the forehead by a “drugged-out John Belushi” during the Samurai sketch. As I recall hearing, when NBC aired this episode on “SNL Vintage” a few years ago (back in the days when they aired actual VINTAGE episodes instead of episodes from just 1-3 years ago), they accompanied Chevy’s joke with an actual slow-mo clip of the Samurai incident.
— The jokes are very funny so far tonight.
— Hmm, I like this idea of airing fake Ford/Carter attack ads during Update.
— The unexpected twist at the end of the Carter ad was very good.
— I almost thought the footage of President Ford announcing a pardon of Richard Nixon was a comedic bit he (somehow) filmed for SNL, before I just now came to the horrible realization that this is real footage from an actual presidential address. Geez, no wonder Ford didn’t get re-elected.

BAT-O-MATIC
the Super Bat-O-Matic ’77 is the witch’s aid for blending magic potions
   
— The premise is a funny twist on Bass-O-Matic, though I know this won’t be able to hold a candle to the original.
— Dan’s insane rapid-fire delivery is still top-notch and continues to crack me the hell up.
— I don’t know why, but the little detail of one of the ingredients he added into the blender being “the eye of a rat” has me dying with laughter right now.
— Is that a real dead bat or just a fake prop?
— Overall, while I was right that this didn’t quite measure up to the original Bass-O-Matic, it was better than I thought it would be and still provided some of my biggest laughs of the episode so far.
STARS: ****½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
JAC reads faux story about CHC replacing Johnny Carson on Tonight Show
CHC receives a phone call from the late Generalissimo Francisco Franco
picture of Gerald Ford with “evil” mustache belies CHC’s impartiality
     
— BAND-AID WATCH: Jane Curtin is now the latest cast member to show up with one.
— Jane’s Sammy Davis Jr. story was really funny.
— Chevy replacing Johnny Carson? Wait, what?
— Never mind, the Chevy/Carson thing is clearly just a “bit”.
— Jane’s commentary was an interesting subtle passing-of-the-torch from Chevy to his Update successor.
— I liked the random “Game of the Week” segment with Chevy flawlessly doing the ‘rapidly jabbing a pen in the empty spaces between the fingers’ trick.
— The Update phone is now ringing. Oh, god, let me guess: it’ll be Emily Litella calling to say her goodbyes to “Cheddar Cheese”.
— Oh, the phone call is actually from Chevy’s favorite punchline:  Generalissimo Francisco Franco! This is a nice surprise.
— Overall, a very good Update to end Chevy’s tenure with.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

THE OintMENt
a search for the real parents of devil child Damian (JOB)
     
— BAND-AID WATCH: the teddy-bear that John’s holding.
— Buck: “I hate it when nanny hangs herself.”
— The “OintMENt” title always makes me laugh, even though I never understood why they titled it that. I know the letters for “omen” are within that word (as this sketch is a spoof of the movie The Omen), but what does the sketch itself have to do with ointments?
— LOL at “dildo sharpener” being one of the ‘d’ words that Buck guessed Dan was trying to say.
— Love the close-ups of John’s creepy facial expressions into the camera.
— The cemetery scene is very funny.
— Yet another great line: Chevy’s “It’s a bit dark in here, let’s turn on the priest”, which Chevy himself seems amused by, as he’s trying not to laugh right now.
— Hilarious bit when Buck read the ‘666’ on John’s forehead upside-down and assumed they were three 9s.
— Oh, so THERE’S the connection this sketch has to ointments.
STARS: ****

IT’S HALLOWEEN TONIGHT
by Gary Weis- host is made up to look female
   
— There’s a surreal tone to this film that I’ve always found interesting.
— A nice original song (written and sung by Howard Shore) to accompany the montage of Buck getting made up as a woman.
— The end result of Buck’s makeover is fascinating; almost creepy in a way.
STARS: ***½

HOUDINI’S GRAVE, PART 1
GAM reports from Houdini’s grave on the 50th anniversary of his death
 
— Garrett’s nervous demeanor during his report is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

MR. MIKE’S LEAST-LOVED BEDTIME TALES
MOD tells a Least-Loved Bedtime Tale- “The Enchanted Thermos”

— The birth of a recurring segment.
— Mr. Mike is stumbling over some words a bit throughout his story.
— Funny story overall, though I expected it to be more hilariously disturbing; it felt a little tame for Mr. Mike standards. Maybe the stories get darker in later installments of this sketch.
— I liked the random little addendum about fingernails continuing to grow after death.
STARS: ***

HOUDINI’S GRAVE, PART 2
GAM is rendered speechless after having seen Houdini’s ghost
 
— Haha, the combination of the sight gag of Garrett’s standing-on-end hair, his hilarious terrified facial expression, and his speechless mumbling is making me laugh a lot.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
   
— BAND-AID WATCH: the entire cast. John in particular has the entire top half of his head wrapped up.
— I love how John is acting as a reporter asking Buck questions, presumably about the Samurai incident. (we can’t hear their conversation, since the goodnights music is playing)
— Right now, everyone onstage has all randomly begun laying down on the floor, one-by-one.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yet another absolutely solid Season 2 episode, and yet another solid Buck Henry episode. Aside from the Roots sketch, I got enjoyment out of every single segment (even a Gary Weis film), and charming little spontaneous things like the impromptu additions of band-aids to cast members’ (and teddy bears’) foreheads throughout the night just added to the fun feeling of the episode.
— Farewell, Chevy. While doing reviews for these Season 1-2 episodes, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see that I’ve been enjoying Chevy as a cast member. Not that I had been expecting him to be bad, but I guess when I first went into this era when starting my ‘One SNL a Day’ project, I wasn’t looking all that forward to seeing him doing pratfalls week-after-week and hogging up the airtime at the expense of the rest of the cast. Not to mention, I was worried that all the famous negative behind-the-scenes stories about him would cloud my judgment. But as it turned out, I ended up finding him funny for the most part, I liked him a lot as Update anchor, and even the weekly pratfalls usually always amused me. All that being said, I am looking forward to seeing the remaining cast now finally get their chance in the spotlight, am looking forward to them finally becoming a strong ensemble, and am looking forward to the upcoming addition of a certain new cast member who joins the show several episodes from now.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Dick Cavett

Posted on

October 23, 1976 – Steve Martin / Kinky Friedman (S2 E5)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
disgruntled Yankee (CHC) hangs manager (DAA) after World Series loss
  
— Dan as the coach is standing on a stool for some reason during his speech to the losing Yankees. Is he going to hang himself?
— Yep, I saw it coming, though it was Chevy who caused Dan to hang. Still gave me a pretty good laugh, though, and it was a rare deviation from the usual ‘Chevy does a pratfall’ gag these cold openings usually end with.
— I always like when this era does this type of short cold opening with a quick gag.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
Ramblin’ Guy host demonstrates banjo prowess & gets mad at control room
 
— It feels weird watching this in the mindset of this being a time before he was a regular host.
— He’s already making me laugh a lot with the “great to be here” stuff.
— Funny quick random bit with him spitting water into the audience.
— I love how loose this is. We’re only a minute into this, and he’s already done about 20 different things.
— Ah, here’s the classic “Ramblin’ Guy” routine.
— And there’s his trademark ‘arrow through the head’ prop.
— And now, “Excuuuuuse meeeee!”
— Overall, a very fun monologue.
STARS: ****

SPEAK OUT FOR MILK
CHC says too much during multiple takes for ad
 
— Pretty funny premise with Chevy inadvertently revealing unpleasant facts about milk.
STARS: ***

JEOPARDY 1999!
contestants’ questions provide a glimpse of the future
DOP describes prizes that Jeopardy! 1999 contestants can win
     
— I’m surprised to see this in tonight’s episode. I had always thought this was in one of Steve’s 1977 episodes.
— Oh, why didn’t I remember that Chevy is in this? If I had remembered, I would’ve known this sketch couldn’t possibly have been from 1977, because Chevy was gone from the cast by then.
— Watching this sketch in modern times, I get a big kick out of seeing what comedy writers in the 70s jokingly predicted what 1999 would be like.
— The contestants’ last names being a random combo of a letter and various numbers is actually a somewhat accurate prediction, as it kinda mirrors what a lot of online usernames have looked like from the late 1990s and onwards.
— Walter Mondale as first president to accidentally kill himself in office. Well, he did end up almost becoming president in ’84…
— The ‘baby-killing being legalized in 1983’ part was hilariously shocking.
— I wonder why Chevy’s the only contestant not to use his real first name.
— I’m loving this so far.
— Ha, “longest running show on TV”. Is SNL gonna accurately predict the future and say their own show?
— Nope, the answer ended up being “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. I so wanted the answer to be SNL, but understandably, nobody back in 1976 could have foreseen how long this show would last. Besides, in 1999, SNL wouldn’t have been anywhere near the longest running show on TV yet; they celebrated just their 25th anniversary that same year.
— LOL at the meta “comedian who’s career fizzled after leaving NBC’s Saturday Night” part with Chevy. I take it everyone, including viewers, knew back then that he was leaving soon?
— Steve’s ad-lib after he kept stumbling through that one line just now was pretty funny.
— Overall, this was a lot of fun to watch.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
CHC narrates boring footage of Rubin Carter [real] jury selection
 
— The Chairman Mao/Chinese take-out grave joke was hilarious.
— I didn’t get the point of the “artist’s rendering” of Rubin Carter’s trial.

FIDO-FLEX
the Fido-Flex digital watch dog is the only canine that can tell the time
 
— They screwed up all the close-ups that were supposed to show what each screen on the dog’s body does.
— An okay commercial.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
CHC purports to accept JAC as co-anchor, makes faces during her report
a snacking (ALF) wanders onto set & reads a news item over CHC’s shoulder
   
— I can already tell from the set-up of Jane’s commentary that it will end up being another “Chevy makes goofy faces behind correspondent’s back” bit.
— Yep, I was right.
— WTF? Franken wandering onto the set out of nowhere.
— Well, Franken’s bit sure was brief, but it was amusing in how random it was.
— I was worried the baby gorilla story would end up having the same punchline as the baby sandpiper story that Chevy has occasionally used, but this one thankfully went in a different direction.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

BEATNIKS
poet (host), stand-up comic (JOB), dancer (LAN) perform in a beatnik bar
     
— Oh my god, I absolutely love Dan’s crazy raspy beatnik voice. He is KILLING me in this.
— Chevy looked almost unrecognizable at first.
— Chevy’s wailing and terrible guitar playing is hilarious.
— Steve’s angry poem is very funny as well.
— I didn’t know Garrett could play the guitar and harmonica.
— John appearing as the “hip comic” – I can tell I’m already gonna like this.
— Loved John sneaking in his Brando impression.
— Wow, Laraine’s bit is pretty insane.
— I like how they’ve worked every cast member into this.
— The graphic onscreen is saying Jane’s character is named Francesca Richardson, yet Pardo’s voice-over has called her Francesca Robinson just now.
— The epilogue informing us what each character has gone on to do is pretty funny.
STARS: ****

LOOKS AT BOOKS
(host) gives results of research into abstinence & sports
 
— That one clip seemed to cut off too early.
— I liked the quick bit about how the catcher was “teased” the night before the game.
— The montage of baseball gaffes being played off as if their lousy performances were caused by abstinence is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

AUTUMN IN NEW YORK
by Gary Weis- various people lip sync to covers of “Autumn in New York”
 
— Surprise, surprise – yet ANOTHER Gary Weis film that’s not doing anything for me so far.
— The audience always seems to laugh at his films a lot more than I do.
— Okay, the random weasel(?)-head ending made me laugh.
STARS: **

MARY
Ted Baxter’s (host) Drano-in-coffee prank kills Mary Richards (LAN)
   
— I never knew SNL did a Mary Tyler Moore Show parody in this era. I had always associated SNL’s parodies of that show with the early 80s Mary Gross era.
— I’m loving the dark premise.
— Casting Gilda as Rhoda seems so natural.
— Why was the audience not into this anymore towards the end? They seemed to stop laughing in the last two minutes. I thought the whole sketch was hilarious myself.
STARS: ****

MYSTERIES IN MEDICINE
elaborate diet plan involves faux Eskimo (JOB)
    
— Some technical issues when the “Mysteries In Medicine” graphic showed up on screen.
— I love the fact that John’s eskimo character is named Blog.
— Laraine’s desire to get her weight down to 10 pounds is almost disturbing, considering her apparent real-life eating disorder back then.
— John’s crazy performance is cracking me up so much.
— I like the twist with Blog turning out to be a refined scientist.
— Overall, a delightfully weird little sketch.
STARS: ****

STEVE MARTIN STAND-UP #2
host does stand-up about meeting Jackie Onassis, destruction of Earth
 
— I like how back in these days, SNL let stand-up comedian hosts do multiple stand-up sets throughout the show instead of just relegating it to their monologue spot.
— LOL at one person in the audience briefly applauding when Steve spoke against one-night stands.
— The random shoelaces joke was pretty funny.
— The “she was a pig” revelation about Jackie Onassis is hilarious.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS

— Funny gag with the cast all facing backwards for no apparent reason.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A great and very enjoyable show, and a nice rebound after the disappointing preceding episode. Just about every single sketch tonight worked; some of them being very well-written and a lot of fun to watch (Jeopardy 1999, Beatniks, Mary Tyler Moore, etc.).
— Right out of the gate, Steve Martin proved himself as someone who was born to host SNL. He hosted this episode with the ease of someone who had already been hosting the show for years.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Buck Henry. This is the famous episode where Buck gets cut in the forehead during a Samurai sketch. Also, I’m not 100% sure, but isn’t this also Chevy’s final episode?

Posted on

October 16, 1976 – Karen Black / John Prine (S2 E4)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
JOB dumps recovering CHC out of his wheelchair
 
— Looks like Chevy’s returning tonight. Not for long, though; I know he ends up leaving SNL for good very soon.
— Jane, on Chevy’s return: “That probably means I won’t be doing Update anymore…” Oh, don’t worry, Jane, your day as a regular Update anchor will be coming sooner than you think…
— LOL at Chevy’s overdramatic entrance in the wheelchair.
— Great unexpected shove out of the wheelchair by John.
— There seemed to be a technical error when no lights turned on at Chevy while he said LFNY.

Not only did it look strange only seeing his silhouette during his LFNY, but right before he said it, you could hear an off-camera voice audibly saying what sounded like “Billy, turn it on”.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host introduces her son Hunter [real] & narrates a history of mothers
   
— A host making their monologue entrance while holding a baby? I don’t think that’s ever happened any other time on SNL.
— The various pictures are kinda funny, but not anything great.
— Haha, the baby is stealing the show, grabbing at Karen’s chest while she’s trying to go on with the monologue. Was the baby thirsty?
STARS: **½

BABA WAWA AT LARGE
Indira Gandhi (LAN) defends antidemocratic policies
 
— Pretty funny hearing Laraine say “dear Ms. Wawa” in that Indian accent.
— The “free ewections” bit was good, but I kinda wanted them to go further with it.
— Funny moment with Baba pointing out the “pimento” on Laraine’s forehead.
STARS: ***

DEBATE ’76
Gerald Ford (CHC) & Jimmy Carter (DAA) inspire diffidence
  
— I like the needle sticking out of Chevy’s arm, especially how it’s not even being addressed within the sketch.
— Chevy trying to “name that tune” when they played the National Anthem was hilarious.
— Dan’s sexual comments to Jane are great.
— Not really liking Karen much as the moderator. Her performance has been strange and feels out-of-place. Lily Tomlin did a much better job in the first debate sketch.
— Funny bit with Ford and Carter both making their closing statements simultaneously.
— The ending credits of this sketch are re-using the exact same jokes from the ending credits of the first debate sketch. Only difference is this one is displayed in a different font and color, for some reason.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— The opening camera angle on Chevy is quite different tonight.
— Chevy making the Jiminy Cricket face while singing “When You Wish Upon A Star” (first screencap above) is something he would later do again in his 1995 monologue.
— The Swine Flu Deaths joke was very funny.

TRIPLE TRAC
— Oh, come on, if you’re gonna rerun a commercial, at least do one from this season! But then again, it feels like there’s barely been any pre-taped commercials so far this season; the only one that comes to mind right now is Lily Tomlin’s Ernestine commercial.
— For some reason, they added in new goofy sound effects during the animation of the razor blades tugging at the hair.

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
 
— Chevy doesn’t seem to realize he’s looking at the wrong camera during the mafia joke. (first screencap above)
— Ha, and now he finally realized. His reaction was pretty funny.
— No Update guests at all tonight.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

GREEN CROSS CUPCAKES
truth in advertising laws allow Green Cross claim of cancer-free cupcakes
   
— The short scene of the two scientists just slowly walking by with a stretcher of cupcakes in the red-flashing lab was strange, but made me laugh.
— Funny visual with John slowly shoving a whole cupcake into his mouth.
— Overall, I feel like I kinda didn’t get this sketch.  Its randomness does have somewhat of an appeal to me, though.
STARS: **½

A*M*I*S*H
crime-fighting Mennonites are slow to react to a bank robbery
   
— Looks like this has suddenly turned into an Amish version of typical 70s cop shows. I can tell I’m gonna like this concept.
— John’s character just being named “Churn” is pretty funny.
— Nice background music throughout this.  Again, very accurate to typical 70s cop shows.
— Overall, not sure how I feel about this sketch as a whole. I get what it was going for, but I dunno, I kinda wanted this to go in a bit of a different direction.
STARS: **½

LOVE RUSSIAN STYLE
stressed Catherine the Great (host) & equine lover
 
— There are a few funny little details like Dan’s deep-voiced vocalizing during John’s long story, but where exactly is this sketch going?
— What was with Karen’s “Off with his pants… I mean, head” line? I can’t tell if that was a genuine flub or a random joke.
— What’s with the coughing during Gilda and Karen’s conversation?
— Oh, never mind, the coughing is part of sketch.
— The horse’s Mr. Ed-esque voice is cracking me up.
— I also like the reference to the Mr. Ed theme song.
— Overall, strange sketch, but got better towards the end.  The entire first half felt overlong and unnecessary.
STARS: **½

PIPS
by Gary Weis- nightclub owner George Schultz [real] tells anecdotes
 
— Oh, that was Chevy doing the horse’s voice in the preceding sketch!
— This nightclub owner guy seems funny, but aside from some little chuckles, I haven’t been finding myself laughing all that much at his stories. I don’t know what to make of this short (I feel like I’m saying that about a lot of stuff tonight).
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

REUNION
high school nerd (DAA) reunites with cheerleader (JAC) at a lunch counter

— Oh, man, we’re two minutes into this sketch, and I have not cared much for anything in it so far.
— I’m usually not a fan of whenever SNL does this type of sketch. In fact, this one is kinda reminding me of a dreadful Bar sketch that Seth Meyers would later do with Paris Hilton in 2005.
— Overall, I wanted to like this, considering how much I’ve generally been loving Dan Aykroyd sketches in the episodes I’ve covered so far, but this was a huge misfire.
STARS: *½

MR. BILL GOES TO A PARTY
by Walter Williams- Mr. Bill attends Vance Degeneres’ [real] party
   
— Haha, this is pretty hilarious so far.
— What the hell? What’s with all the screen jumping and the abrupt cut to the party? The screen jumps almost made it look like a whole bunch of stuff was sloppily edited out.
— Great ending.
STARS: ****

KAREN BLACK: “TEN CENTS A DANCE”
host performs “Ten Cents A Dance”

— Another instance of a host doing a serious musical performance…

AMERICAN COINAGE
GAM, CHC, DAA, JOB pay musical tributes to American coinage
as JOB sings “One More For The Road,” on-screen scroll lists thefts
     
— The preceding Karen Black song has now segued into the cast doing a musical tribute to American coinage. At least this looks like this will be an actual comedic segment.
— Garrett sounds like he’s doing his so-bad-it’s-good Sammy Davis Jr. voice from the Nixon’s Final Days sketch.
— What was with Chevy beginning to say Dan’s lines before realizing his mistake? Again, that’s something I can’t tell was a real flub or an intentional joke.
— This tribute is kinda funny so far.
— Another mid-song disclaimer scroll, which seems to have become a semi-common thing in this era of SNL. I’m liking all the anecdotes in this one about John stealing things.
— What the hell? Why has the disclaimer suddenly started scrolling by so fast? That’s making it hard to read what it says, which is killing the joke.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS

— Much like the Rob Reiner and Dick Cavett goodnights from last season, this is just still photos of the opening credits while the goodnights music plays. I guess SNL once again ran out of time before they could do a real goodnights segment. I wonder if the show running out of time is the reason they sped up the last half of the Belushi disclaimer scroll in the last sketch.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Strange episode. And honestly, it left me kinda cold. I dunno, I just wasn’t crazy about it. There were some individual highlights, but as a whole, the episode came off as a letdown compared to how well this season had been going before this point.
— Something else I wasn’t crazy about: Karen Black’s performance as host.  I’m having a hard time remembering most of what she did, I wasn’t all that impressed by her, and her performance in the debate sketch was actually kinda bad. From what I read, she does a better job in her next hosting stint a few years later, in an episode that’s usually considered one of the better ones from the infamous 80-81 season.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Steve Martin makes his hosting debut

Posted on

October 2, 1976 – Eric Idle / Joe Cocker, Stuff (S2 E3)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
hospitalized CHC phones SNL to confront his impostor (Richard Belzer)
   
— Who the heck is this guy? Neil Levy?
— Ha, I couldn’t help but laugh at how the audience had no absolutely reaction to him saying the opening “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” line.
— The return of “the voice of Chevy Chase”.
— I got a great laugh from Chevy’s deadpan “This is Chevy Chase; who the hell are YOU?”
— It seemed like Chevy missed his cue to say LFNY and it sounds like right as he finally said it, you could hear someone prompt him.
— Overall, a good opening.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— There seemed to be some slight differences at the beginning of this.

MONOLOGUE
host plays guitar & yells “Here Comes The Sun” until JAC interrupts him
   
— Strangely, this begins with Eric already sitting on a stool onstage when Pardo announces him. Reminds me of some of the early monologues from last season, before it became a regular thing for hosts to make an entrance when Pardo announces them.
— This yelled-out song is pretty funny.
— Interesting how this is now segueing into stagehands getting Eric dressed into costume and moving him over to the set of the next sketch.
STARS: ***½

GENETIC COUNSELOR
(DAA) & (GIR) choose their future baby’s traits with doctor’s (host) help
 
— Eric’s delivery is fantastic here, and this has the type of absurd British humor that he always excels at.
— I’m loving all the crazy questions and little details.
STARS: ****

AM-FM
KLOG deejay (DAA) switches personas to match station’s AM & FM formats
 
— I had always heard great things about this sketch.
— LOL at the sudden change into Dan’s mellow FM voice.
— Unsurprisingly, Dan’s doing a fantastic job here.
— Antler Dance reference!
— Overall, another quintessential Dan Aykroyd sketch.
STARS: ****½

THE KILLER BEES
host’s British words blow sketch about Killer Bees & swine flu center
 
— I like the way the preceding sketch segued into this.
— Eric getting called out for his out-of-place British accent is pretty funny.
— Another fourth-wall break in a Killer Bees sketch. This one is good, though not as funny as the Elliott Gould one.
STARS: ***½

ERIC’S SONG
host continues to butcher “Here Comes The Sun” until JAC stops him
 
— Another interruption from Jane.
— I like how they’re doing this as a running premise tonight, assuming this will be concluded at the end of the show.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JOE COCKER)

FAREWELL
Baba Wawa uses her last moments on NBC to explain why she’s leaving

— A simple but still pretty funny joke with her “w”s diminishing the seriousness of her message.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
amateurish TOS drawings summarize the Norton-Ali boxing match
in a GAM interview, rabbi (ALZ) OKs Michelangelo’s David’s circumcision
    
— Jane’s delivery seems even better this week than it did in her debut.
— The return of the childlike “artist’s rendering” drawings.
— I like how the Ali joke was a callback to the Ford joke earlier.
— Garrett’s segment was pretty funny.

EPIFIX
druggist (DAA) touts syringe-based Epifix for super-fast headache relief
 
— I can already tell this will be yet another great Dan Aykroyd commercial.
— Him demonstrating how to use the medicine was absolutely hilarious and gave me the biggest laugh I’ve had in this episode so far.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
alleged Carson clip shows Ed Ames (JOB) attacking silhouette with an ax
   
— This Belushi/Tonight Show bit looks interesting.
— The blatantly-fake old-timey audience laughter during John’s bit is pretty funny.
— Loved John going insane on the crotch of the body outline while yelling in a Futaba-esque manner. I remember hearing about the real Tonight Show clip that this bit is spoofing.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***½

THE RUTLES
LOM recounts how host duped him into giving him the Beatles’ money
British rock group’s music & history mirrors the Beatles’
     
— Another Beatles Offer sequel.
— Oh, is this going to be the well-known Rutles sketch that I’ve never seen for myself?
— It is!
— This Beatles-esque music video is fun to watch.
— The “last a lunchtime” line was very funny.
— I love Eric as the reporter frantically running to keep up with the increasingly-faster-moving camera.
— Overall, a great and very well-done Beatles parody.
STARS: ****½

BEHIND THE LINES
Allied spies (host) & (DAA) make plans at a Nazi hangout during WWII
 
— The homebase stage looks interesting set up like that.
— I’m liking how Dan and Eric are seamlessly going back-and-forth between accents.
— I didn’t get the ending with John.
STARS: ***

ERIC’S SONG
host ruins an Australian song until GAM interrupts him
 
— Ha, what in the world is that hanging off Eric’s hat?  Marshmallows?
— Yet another funny continuation of tonight’s running premise.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (JOE COCKER)
  
— Ah, it’s the famous Joe Cocker performance with him being accompanied halfway through by John’s impression, which Cocker himself genuinely wasn’t expecting, from what I remember hearing.
— John’s impression comes off even more dead-on when seeing it right next to the real thing.
— If it’s true that Cocker didn’t expect this, he’s being a great sport about it.

DRAGNET
(host) & Joe Friday (DAA) investigate crimes in women’s clothing
JOB interrupts skit by telling host that drag is not funny to Americans
   
— IIRC, Dan would actually later co-star in a movie version of Dragnet.
— Dan’s narration is cracking me up.
— I like the random absurdity of Dan having a phone conversation, when it was Eric instead of Dan who was holding the receiver to his ear.
— This is hilarious so far.
— There’s the familiar Landshark living room set.
— Very interesting fourth-wall break, regarding telling Eric that drag doesn’t work as well in America.
— Couldn’t help but laugh at John’s “If you do it once…” warning when Dan was going to “accompany” Eric in his dressing room.
STARS: ****½

DRAG RACING TODAY
crossdressed DAA & host sprint against each other

— What the–?
— Haha, a nice continuation of the drag premise of the preceding sketch.
— I liked the “How do you know [the audience is] laughing? We’re on film.” line.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (STUFF)

THE UNDERSEA WORLD OF JACQUES COUSTEAU
a toy sub explores an aquarium
(host) shows how to feed people food to goldfish
   
— LOL at the “submarine” just being a cheap-looking toy model. I always get a kick out of whenever they do stuff like that on SNL.
— Unexpected turn this took, with this sketch now being a show called “Pets and Petting”.
— Eric is fantastic with his rapid-fire additions of inappropriate food to the fish tank.
STARS: ****

TALENT SPOT
Ken Norton (GAM) claims that he is more talented than Muhammad Ali
 
— Where is this going?
— Garrett singing in an operatic voice again…
— Overall, this came off as kinda-pointless filler.
STARS: **

CUFFLINKS OF THE GODS?
(LAN) displays evidence of alien comic existence
 
— Lots of TV show sketches tonight, it feels like.
— The native chanting on the tape player was pretty funny
— Overall… ehh, not horrible, but I was kinda bored by this.
STARS: **

PONG
Pong-playing college students discuss myriad ways to use a barometer

— Aw, man, I’m not crazy about seeing this return after a long hiatus. I believe this is the first time they’ve done this since last season’s Christmas episode.
— This is slowly starting to get better, with some funny lines from Davis.
STARS: **½

GOODNIGHTS
host & cast shout a rendition of “Here Comes The Sun”
 
— Pretty funny conclusion to tonight’s running premise of Eric’s song.
— Don Pardo: “Also appearing in tonight’s cast: Richard Belzer”. Where was he? Don’t tell me that was him playing Chevy’s replacement in the cold opening. If so, I’m ashamed of myself for not recognizing him. I guess I’m not used to seeing him that young and without glasses.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very strong and fun episode; probably one of the best I’ve reviewed so far in this project. This is no surprise, considering who was hosting; Eric fit this show perfectly and his comedic presence definitely added to the proceedings. I’m looking forward to the other episodes he hosted later in this era.
— There was an unfortunate drop-off of quality at the end with the last three segments, but aside from that, tonight had a consistent run of very entertaining sketches, and a good number of all-time well-known SNL moments came from this episode (Dan’s AM-FM sketch, The Rutles, Joe Cocker Meets Joe Cocker).
— This episode also had a lot of fun with the format, doing interesting things like the way they segued from the monologue to the doctor sketch, several instances of sketches overlapping with each other, and the running premise with Eric trying to perform a song.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Karen Black

Posted on

September 25, 1976 – Norman Lear / Boz Scaggs (S2 E2)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
with GIR’s help, hospitalized CHC simulates a fall via phone
   
— They’re making a big deal addressing Chevy’s absence, which goes to show you how important he was seen as being to SNL.
— I almost thought Gilda actually was going to do the pratfall, before the phone interruption.
— Ha, it’s the voice of Chevy calling from his hospital room, accompanied by a still photo.
— Great ending with Gilda making the phone do a pratfall, followed by Chevy’s voice saying LFNY.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Pardo announces Chevy as “The voice of Chevy Chase”.

MONOLOGUE
stars of host’s sitcoms [real] feign reverent attitudes toward their boss
 
   
— Something about the way Norman Lear looks is reminding me of future cast member Bill Murray.
— Going by the disclaimer on screen now, I guess the gag with the sound cutting out is a topical reference to something that happened at one of the Ford/Carter presidential debates.
— Wow, it feels strange hearing Jean Stapleton’s normal voice, which sounds so drastically different from her Edith voice.
— Hilarious when the mustached actor (sorry, I don’t know his name; I do recognize Bernadette Peters next to him) was being held back from hitting Norman.
— It’s funny seeing Jeffersons-era Sherman Hemsley casually dressed in a normal t-shirt & jeans, which you would NEVER see him wear on The Jeffersons.
— Haha, the ball-and-chain revelation was perfect.
— I’m absolutely loving seeing these on-the-set interviews of some of my all-time favorite 70s sitcoms.
— The water-dumping bit was very funny, especially Norman having no reaction to it.
STARS: ****½

PAID POLITICAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Jimmy Carter (DAA) says his lusty heart perpetuates Democratic tradition
 
— Just from the “sexual performance in the White House” line early on, I can already tell I’m in for a good sketch.
— This audience is loving this.
— Overall, this whole sketch was very funny.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

THE SNAKEHANDLING O’SHEAS
host’s sitcom about a family with odd traits
 
— A very funny title to the fictional sitcom.
— I’m liking the absurdity of this sitcom scene.
— A good laugh from each of the family members chanting to their snakes; Dan’s chanting and John’s facial expression are especially funny to me.
STARS: ****

NEXT WEEK
GIR announces that Eric Idle [real] will be hosting next week’s SNL
 
— Hey, it’s Eric Idle!
— I’m not sure why exactly he’s doing what he’s doing with the newspaper. Still making me laugh though.
STARS: N/A

WEEKEND UPDATE
LAN reports from Times Square about lack of activity during Rosh Hashanah
   
— Ah, Jane makes her temporary-for-now-but-soon-to-be-permanent debut as an Update anchor.
— It feels so weird to see someone else doing Update, after I’ve gone day-after-day of seeing Chevy as the anchorperson in all the episodes I’ve reviewed so far. That’s one of the things I love about the idea of going through SNL’s timeline in my ‘One SNL a Day’ project: it’s going to feel so interesting to me whenever there’s a big change on the show. And so far, I think this is the very first big change I’ve had to cover in SNL’s timeline.
— LOL at Jane’s ‘golden shower’ opening phone conversation.
— Jane’s delivery started a little slow at first, but it’s getting better now.
— I was mistaken when I said in my review of last season’s Candice Bergen Christmas episode that Victoria Jackson would later (in 1989) do a complete knock-off of the Times Square New Years commentary that Laraine did in that episode’s Update. Looking at the description of Victoria’s commentary in the SNL episode guide, the holiday Victoria reported about the inactivity of was Rosh Hashanah, so it was actually tonight’s Laraine commentary that Victoria’s commentary ripped off. I still wonder if the writer of Laraine’s bit complained to the show in ’89 for stealing his/her material, because as I mentioned in the Bergen review, Victoria’s commentary was mysteriously removed from all reruns.
— Weird seeing a news story about Elton John coming out as “bisexual”. I guess he wasn’t ready back then to announce that he’s 100% gay.
— The “Women’s Wear Daily Magazine” joke about Elton’s coming-out is another Update joke that would probably be considered too un-PC nowadays.
— The “Speedy Alka Seltzer” suicide jokes were absolutely great.
— Yay, no mid-WU fake ad break tonight!
— Overall, Jane did fine in her first night as Update anchor, even if she doesn’t quite have the personality that Chevy added to the desk.
STARS: ***

NORMAN PULLS A CHEVY
host takes a fall to make up for CHC’s absence
 
— Norman’s pratfall came out of nowhere and was surprisingly good.
STARS: N/A, because this was just a quick set-up to the following sketch

CHEVY’S GIRLS
singing Chevy’s Girls GIR, LAN, JAC wish CHC was falling for them
 
— Oh, this is a classic, well-known sketch.
— I love how the song is referencing all of Chevy’s SNL trademarks, even his Generalissimo Francisco Franco running gag.
— The girls are doing a great job and the song has a very catchy 70s sound.
— Gilda’s solo was very funny.
STARS: *****

THE METRIC LEISURE WEEK
Joseph Franklin describes the effects of metric time conversion
   
— It’s Dan’s decabet guy from last season. I didn’t know this was a recurring bit.
— Also, didn’t he have dark hair last time? Now he has gray hair.
— I get the feeling this is going to pale in comparison to the decabet sketch.
— The sleeping habit comment was funny.
— I’m liking this more and more as it’s going along.
— Love the concept of the Government Adrenaline Supplement.
— The dramatization is taking this into a different direction from the first one.
— Overall, while not quite as strong as the decabet sketch, I still enjoyed this a lot.
STARS: ****

SIGHT GAG
Gary Weis [real] hums “Yankee Doodle Dandy” as SNL cast does slapstick
 
— WTF at the sudden quick cutaways to a different cast member having something zany happen to them, in time to the music. This is actually cracking me up, as random as it is.
— Overall, I liked the structure of this, and this was surprisingly laugh-worthy for a Gary Weis film.
STARS: ***

WIFE ABUSE
divorce lawyer (JOB) abuses (GIR) while coaching her testimony
JOB breaks character & attacks host during skit
 
— Meh, I’m not crazy about how this seems to be yet another sketch with John beating up Gilda while he’s showing her how to do something, just like in that director sketch from last season.
— Him yanking Gilda by the nostrils made me laugh right now, I admit.
— Haha, I love how this suddenly broke the fourth wall and has turned into John dropping character and violently going off on “Mr. Lear” because he’s sick of the overexposure of Lear’s sitcoms. That redeemed this whole sketch.
— One has to wonder how John would’ve felt about the overexposure of Chuck Lorre sitcoms in more recent years. I’m sure some of us wouldn’t mind seeing Chuck Lorre get the same treatment that John gave Lear in this sketch.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

PEACE TALKS
Henry Kissinger (JOB) uses song while mediating Rhodesian negotiations
    
— I think I heard Lorne’s voice just now, once again playing an unseen reporter asking a question in a press conference setting.
— I think I remember seeing this sketch before. Doesn’t this have a scene toward the end with John and some other guys crouching on the table while bickering like kids, or singing in a drunken manner, or something like that?
— This feels like the first real thing Garrett has done all night, and we’re near the end of the show!
— Dan’s dignified accent is pretty funny.
— I think Dan has had that same gray dye in his hair in every sketch he was in tonight, starting with the Jimmy Carter sketch early in the show.
— Garrett seems to like saying “umbwebwe” as a nonsense African word. He did the same thing several times in the Idi “V.D.” Amin sketch last season.
— Dan and Garrett’s insults to each other are cracking me the hell up!
— LOL at Dan’s line flub, exclaiming “You can’t look at a white man like that!” (in response to Garrett eagerly looking at a woman in a Playboy magazine) when he meant to say “white woman”, not “white man”. Garrett correcting him afterwards made me laugh a lot, too.
— Ah, there’s John crouching on the desk, like I had remembered. However, my memory of it was a little fuzzy, getting some of the sketch details mixed together.
— Hilarious ending.
— Overall, I liked this sketch a lot. The silliness of it appealed to me, and the performances were fun.
STARS: ****

NORMAN’S JOKE
host & an audience member try to tell a joke together

— Did the girl really screw up the joke set-up, or is this part of the act?
— Oh, never mind, it appears to be part of the act.
— Nice ending with Norman revealing that the girl is actually his daughter.
STARS: ***

SPANISH PEANUTS
by John Brister- stop-motion nuts have a celebration
 
— Another home movie using peanuts and stop-motion. Is this a sequel to last season’s peanut movie?
— The visuals are well-done, but not exactly funny or all that interesting so far.
— Okay, I’m getting bored now……
STARS: **

GOODNIGHTS
 
— I didn’t notice this in the season premiere goodnights (probably because I was distracted by all the Antler Dancing going on), but “Danny” Aykroyd and John Belushi have been added to the writing staff this season, as well as an unfamiliar name: Bruce McCall. I wonder if Dan and John’s addition to the writing staff is just temporary to make up for Chevy’s absence.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very solid episode, even better than the preceding week’s season premiere. This season has been having a strong start so far.
— I was curious how Norman Lear would fit into the sketches. While he ended up playing either himself or variations of himself all night, he did fine in his performances and came off as a pretty likable host.
— I was very eager to see how the show would feel without Chevy, though with the phone call cold opening and the Chevy’s Girls song, it didn’t feel like he was all that absent. Maybe his presence will be less felt in the next episode.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Eric Idle

Posted on

September 18, 1976 – Lily Tomlin / James Taylor (S2 E1)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
big-shot host arrives with entourage, intends to do show sans rehearsal
   
— An outdoors cold opening. Is this being done live?
— Lily thinking Gilda is Goldie Hawn is pretty funny.
— “Pepe”? Is that the same Pepe of Butch and Pepe, two little people who would later frequently appear on the show in the Dick Ebersol era?
— This is an exciting way to start the season.
— If this whole opening has been live (again, I’m not sure), I’m liking how this is reminding me of how extensive Buck Henry’s second monologue from last season was.
— LOL at “Jane Belushi”.
— I like the added touch of Chevy chasing Pepe after saying LFNY.
STARS: ****

OPENING MONTAGE
— It’s the same one from last season. There doesn’t appear to be any changes in it, from what I’m seeing.

MONOLOGUE
when the cameras turn off, so does host’s cheerful attitude toward SNL
 
— Heh, figures that when she was naming off the cast, Garrett was almost forgotten and then was added in as an afterthought.
— The monologue’s over already? No, there’s gotta be more.
— Ah, an extended scene after the monologue “ended”. I knew this wouldn’t just end without Lily having done anything funny in the monologue.
— Good ending. I still wanted more out of this whole monologue, though, considering how strong Lily’s last one was. Maybe they made tonight’s monologue so short to compensate for the cold opening being so long and extensive.
STARS: ***

DEBATE ’76
Gerald Ford (CHC) & Jimmy Carter (DAA) discuss the issues
   
— Ah, SNL’s first-ever presidential debate parody. This one is famous for two parts, which I’ll point out when they occur.
— The negro line about Garrett was very funny.
— This is going great so far.
— The slow zoom-in on Chevy’s serious-yet-puzzled facial expression (third screencap above) during Jane’s complicated question is cracking me up so much, especially since I know the classic response that’s coming from him next.
— FAMOUS PART #1: “It was my understanding that there would be no math.” Absolutely hilarious line, and one that would begin a tradition of future presidential debate sketches having one particular legendary line that would go on to become well-remembered for ages (e.g. “Strategery”, “I can’t believe I’m losin’ to this guy!”, etc.)
— FAMOUS PART #2: Chevy’s podium pratfall. It’s not only famous because of how funny and memorable the visual is, but also because of the real-life injury Chevy suffered from it. From what I remember hearing, the prop guys at the show forgot to pad the podium, and thus, when Chevy landed groin-first into it during the pratfall……. yeah, you can imagine the damage that did. I’m not seeing any visible signs of pain from him in the sketch (probably because from what I hear, he had a high threshold for pain back in those days), but the injury ended up being serious enough for him to be hospitalized for a while, which causes him to miss the next two (I think) episodes. Considering how much I’ve gotten so used to seeing him as the show’s star in the episodes I’ve reviewed so far, it’s gonna be interesting seeing an episode without him.
— The ending credits of this sketch has a lot of funny jokes in it.
 
— Overall, a classic debate sketch.
STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
LAN reports on Foreign Legionnaire’s Disease outbreak at the Blaine Hotel
 
— The “tennis without balls” joke about the transsexual tennis player was hilarious, even though it would be seen as very un-PC nowadays.
— The Idi Amin joke was very funny as well.
— John getting struck with the disease was pretty funny.

THE PHONE COMPANY
Ernestine (host) on The Phone Company- “We don’t care, we don’t have to”

— Hey, it’s the Laugh In character that I remember the most out of Lily’s characters on that show.
— Lily’s character is very funny in this with her brash actions and ‘don’t care’ attitude.
— Overall, this was great.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
DOP is felled by Foreign Legionnaire’s Disease during Blaine Hotel promo
Emily Litella calls to inquire about “crustaceans” hijacking an airplane
 
— “Guests of Saturday Night Live stay at the Blaine Hotel” – ugh, ENOUGH with that overdone joke.
— Oh, wait, Pardo suddenly getting struck with the disease while announcing the Blaine Hotel promo is actually very funny.
— The Update phone is now ringing. I get the bad feeling it’s gonna be Emily Litella.
— Yep, I was right.
— Litella’s bit ended up being the same-old tired routine; they might as well have just had her appear at the desk like she usually does.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

MUPPET MORGUE
in the morgue, host tries to get the Muppets to “Whistle A Happy Tune”
 

— This would end up being the final appearance of the SNL Muppets. Can’t say I’ll miss them.
— It sounds like you could hear whispering right before Wisss appeared.
— Mighty Favog is actually making me laugh in this.
— Interesting hearing a mention of “The Muppet Show”.
— I laughed at Scred’s response to Lily asking them if they’re family entertainment.
— Favog’s face turning inward when trying to whistle is a funny visual.
— This ended strangely.
— And now, this has segued into Lily introducing James Taylor’s next musical performance. Will this Muppets bit be continued later tonight? This felt unfinished.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

TESS
eccentric Tess DiSenzo (host) chats with a real estate salesman (GAM)

— Ha, I hear audio of the Three Stooges!
— I recognize that audio as being from the Stooges’ 1952 short “Gents in a Jam”. As someone who’s a huge Three Stooges fan (which is where I get my online name from), you’ll be seeing me geeking out at any reference to them that SNL makes.
— What’s with the Christmas decorations?
— Garrett’s straight man reactions are kinda funny.
— I’m getting some enjoyment out of the weird details of Lily’s stories.
— Man, the studio audience is not into this anymore.
— Overall, I wanted to like this more than I did. I usually always enjoy the character work that Lily Tomlin does, and while this sketch did have its moments, something about it left me kinda underwhelmed.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

JUDITH BEASLEY
housewife Judith Beasley (host) submits to pointless product tests & more
   
— I know this is a Laugh In character, but I’m only familiar with her by name only. I don’t recall ever seeing any of her sketches before.
— I’m liking this a lot so far.
— The big close-up of Dan’s smile at the camera was hilarious.
— I’m loving how Lily’s being asked to do increasingly ridiculous and irrelevant tasks.
— LOL at the hamster head.
— Ah, there’s the Antler Dance that I’ve always been curious to see.
STARS: ****

WOMEN IN LITERATURE
Elna Sullivan’s (LAN) journal entries lack depth

— I’m not crazy about this so far.
— I can’t think of anything else to say, other than this didn’t work much for me.
STARS: **

TAYLOR MEAD
by Gary Weis- Taylor Mead [real] gives his thoughts about television
 
— Oh, no, no, no! Not another short with this Taylor Mead guy again.
— This one is leaving me just as baffled and weirded-out as the first short with him did.
STARS: *½

LILY TOMLIN: “THE ANTLER DANCE”
host, PAS, SNL Band perform “The Antler Dance”
   
— A very fun and catchy performance.
— And now, Lily’s being joined by the cast, James Taylor, the Muppets (wearing actual antlers on their heads), Pepe, and I think I see some of the writers.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS
at closing, host, cast, audience members do the Antler Dance
 
— A continuation of the fun preceding musical number.
— Quite a sight seeing the whole audience standing up and doing the dance.
— Overall, this has got to be one of the most fun and energetic ways SNL has ever closed out an episode.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A solid way to start a season. There wasn’t much to complain about, a lot of moments were fun, we got a classic presidential debate sketch, even the Muppets made me laugh, and Lily did another top-notch job as host. She was such a natural for SNL that I wish she would’ve hosted more often in this era; IIRC, the next (and last) time we see her as host will be much later in 1983, where SNL had a completely different cast and completely different tone.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1975-76):
— about the same

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Norman Lear

Posted on

July 31, 1976 – Kris Kristofferson / Rita Coolidge (S1 E24)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host sings “Help Me Make It Through The Night” as CHC woos musical guest
 
— Opening with a musical performance? I guess this is like the Paul Simon episode earlier this season.
— Oh, never mind, looks like there’s gonna be comedic cutaways with Chevy throughout this song.
— Who’s the woman with Chevy? The musical guest?
— I appreciate the idea, but I wasn’t crazy about this opening overall.
STARS: **

MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Boy, is his timing and delivery terrible in this. I heard that he supposedly got drunk right before airtime, and I’m not having a hard time believing that right now.
— “See why they didn’t let me do the monologue?” Haha, at least he’s aware of how badly he’s doing.
— And it’s over ALREADY? Probably a good thing…
STARS: N/A, because this wasn’t an actual monologue; it was basically just an introduction to the following sketch

I WAS NOT A SUCKER FOR SATURDAY NIGHT
new employee Sherry recalls male SNL writers’ advances toward her

— Very interesting meta premise.
— The comment about Alan Zweibel was very funny.
— The Michael O’Donoghue comment just now was even better.
— Overall, this was very strong and Laraine gave an excellent performance.
STARS: ****½

SAMURAI GENERAL PRACTITIONER
Futaba gives host an examination
 
— I liked the bit with Futaba clipping off a tiny piece of Kris’ beard to lower his weight.
— I don’t get the joke with Futaba sliding a gloved finger up and down the height ruler. That got a big reaction from the audience.
— Whoa at the uncensored picture of a topless woman that Futaba’s looking at. (second screencap above, though the topless pic is hard to see in it; here’s a bigger screencap) Between that and the woman nipple pic shown a few Weekend Updates ago, I’m assuming NBC was more lenient about female nudity back in the 70s. I’m surprised. They certainly wouldn’t let modern-day SNL get away with showing that.
— What was with Kris blatantly moving during the fake freeze-frame ending?
— Overall, a lesser Samurai sketch, but still had its moments.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
— Hey, it’s Gilda and Laraine hula-hooping!

GREAT WHITE ATHLETES
Jesse Owens (GAM) sells medallions of the endangered Great White Athlete

— Loved the line about great white athletes being a dying breed.
— Overall, short but funny.
STARS: ***½

FORD DELEGATE
Gerald Ford (CHC) hears uncommitted delegate’s (host) pork barrel request
 
— Ha, it’s Pardo’s voice on the intercom as Ford’s secretary.
— The ‘tulip in the drink’ gag was hilarious.
— Kris’ delivery is noticeably starting to become slurred.
— Great performance from Chevy, making his Ford come off even more bungling than usual.
STARS: ***½

POLICE STATE
officers (DAA) & (CHC) shoot first, ask questions later
   
— I can already tell from the intro that I’m gonna like this. It helps that I have a strong love for old 70s cop shows.
— John appears to be wearing the same fancy Hollywood clothes he wore in the preceding episode’s cold opening, minus the jacket.
 
— Haha, holy hell at John suddenly getting shot a whole bunch of times by the cops.
— I’m loving the transition shots showing toy model cars & buses crashing into each other.
— I also like how Chevy and Dan keep continuing their “what do you want to eat tonight?” conversations at the most random times.
— This is all hilarious so far.
— The fake freeze-frame ending credits is cracking me up.
— Overall, I loved this. A very funny parody of 70s cop shows.
— Was the (recurring?) “X-Police” sketch SNL would later do in this era in a similar vein to this sketch, or am I remembering incorrectly?
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
Viking I’s soil scoop narrowly misses finding evidence of life on Mars
 
— I like how Chevy’s opening phone conversation gag tonight is making fun of Pardo.
— Ha, and now Pardo just had a funny retort after Chevy did his usual “I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not” line (“Nobody wants to be, Chubby!”).
— “Still to come”? Aww, man, I see they’re unfortunately going back to dividing Update into two separate parts with a fake ad in between. I thought they stopped doing that in the last episode.

TALK COUNTRY
host’s book helps you overcome education with dialect

— Once again, Kris’ delivery is just plain rough.
— I did like the joke of him including “children” as one of the words his book teaches you to drop the ‘g’ at the end of.
STARS: **½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
LAN reports on Viking I mission from Nassau instead of NASA
 
— Laraine’s NASA/Nassau mix-up is a simple but funny joke.
— I liked Laraine’s “Will I have to pay for this?” line at the end.
— Loved the Spiro T. Agnew joke.
— Our newest variation of the running “News for (insert group here)” gag is Chevy just saying “For those of you who may be growing tired of Weekend Update, I will not repeat tonight’s top story”.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

BOBBY MCGEE
Bobbi McGee (GIR) of host’s song is now the wife of Larry Farber (JOB)
   
— The debut of Bobbi Farber. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of the Farber sketches before, but I’ve heard about the characters quite a lot over the years.
— What was with Kris busting out laughing during Gilda’s talk?
— I like John’s walk-on as the husband.
— John’s un-hip suburban dancing during Kris’ song is pretty funny.
— Gilda is so good in this.
STARS: ***½

BLIND DATE
(JAC) is apprehensive about a blind date with her gynecologist (host)

— Jane’s having some really funny lines during her phone conversation.
— Now Kris’ bad delivery has gotten to the point where he’s taking long pauses between some of the dialogue. Just now, after a particularly long stretch of silence, Jane actually had to prompt him to go ahead with his next line.
— Overall… man, I wanted to like this, as it had the type of slice-of-life conversational humor that this era was so good at pulling off, but something about this one seemed lacking. I blame Kris’ performance.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

CARTER-YOUNG
suckup Andrew Young (GAM) sings the praises of Jimmy Carter (DAA) in vain
 
— Is this gonna be yet ANOTHER solo Garrett Morris commercial? He’s been doing these a lot lately.
— I’m liking Garrett’s energy here, but where is this going?
— Ah, there’s Dan’s Jimmy Carter.
— And ah, there’s the gray hair that was missing from Dan’s Carter debut in the preceding episode.
— I like Garrett’s slowburn as he’s realizing that he isn’t going to be put in Carter’s presidential cabinet.
— The way Garrett’s overly wrapped up in the blanket, you can tell he’s trying to hide the suit he still has on from the dream.
— Wasn’t crazy about how this ended.
— Overall, this sketch feels like it could’ve been better.
STARS: **

WAITING FOR PARDO
Vladimir (host) & Estragon (CHC) ponder enigmatic DOP
 
— I love the premise. SNL seemed to have so much fun with Pardo in these early seasons.
— Ehh, this isn’t turning out as funny as I was expecting.
— Okay, I was getting tired of the “Pardo keeps announcing gameshow-esque promo ads” joke, but now it’s starting to become kinda funny because of the ridiculous repetition.
— I know it’s intentional, but all the silence between Chevy and Kris is becoming WAY too dry & drawn-out.
— What did Kris mumble to Chevy at the very end? It didn’t seem to be part of the script.
— Another odd thing about the end: what appeared to be an audience caption showed up when the camera was still just on Kris and Chevy’s silhouettes.

— Overall, I’m not sure how I feel about this sketch as a whole. I think I feel the concept was excellent, but it kinda died in the execution, despite some funny parts. It also probably doesn’t help that I’m not familiar with “Waiting for Godot”.
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
 

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Hmm, I’m kinda iffy. I feel like I didn’t care much for this episode, but thinking back on my review, I gave out a couple of pretty good ratings, nothing received the dreaded one-star rating, and there were two sketches I loved (Police State and I Was Not A Sucker For Saturday Night). That all adds up to an average episode. I think Kris Kristofferson’s rough performances just left a bad taste in my mouth, which is probably dampening my enthusiasm over the episode. I mean, as a host, Kristofferson wasn’t Louise Lasser bad, but still – oof. This episode also seemed to suffer from that famous “post-Weekend Update drop-off”, which has plagued quite a number of episodes in the second half of this season.
— Considering this was the season finale and considering the disastrous episode that preceded this, I had been hoping this would be a strong episode with a strong host, so maybe that’s why I feel a bit let down.
— Speaking of season finale, was this even intended to be the last episode of the season? There were no mentions of it at all during the show, no “see you next season”, nothing. The only aspect of this episode that made it seem like a finale is when some of the cast members took pictures of the rest of the group onstage during the goodnights.
— Well, folks, we’re officially one season down in my ‘One SNL a Day’ project! 40-something seasons to go.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Season 2 begins, with host Lily Tomlin