Tag: saturday night live

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February 14, 1976 – Peter Boyle / Al Jarreau (S1 E13)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
during St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, valet (CHC) is riddled with bullets
 
— John Belushi has the ability to already get a good laugh from the audience by just simply walking into a scene with a fake mustache and accent.
— For some reason, I’m getting amusement out of watching Garrett’s background acting as the waiter.
— Chevy upped the ante with his usual falls, doing two consecutive big falls this time.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host sings “My Funny Valentine” while girlfriend runs off with a stranger
 
— He’s holding a microphone already. Will he be doing stand-up?
— Oh, he’s going to sing, which, as I might have said before, is something I usually dread in monologues. But this IS Valentine’s Day, after all…
— Haha, great comedic twist with Peter’s sweetheart getting involved with the guy sitting next to her. I had been wondering why that guy was staring at her funny when Peter first introduced her to us.
STARS: ***½

THE CORRIDA
Ricardo Montalban (DAA) talks about the Corrida automobile’s faux luxury

— This is already making me laugh from the start.
— Overall, a decent commercial, helped by Dan’s very funny performance.
STARS: ***

SAMURAI DIVORCE COURT
Futaba & wife (JAC) split their assets
 
— “Futaba vs. Futaba”? Ah, I see this is going to be a Samurai sketch.  Who’s gonna be the other Futaba?
— Samurai’s wife? Well, this is gonna be different.
— Jane is really selling the fake Japanese gibberish.
— The Godzilla fake-out/desk-chop part was pretty funny.
— Wow, they didn’t even attempt to make that little girl look Japanese.
— I liked the fake freeze-frame ending.
STARS: ***

THE SHAPIRO SISTERS
The Shapiro Sisters [real] lip-sync & dance to “This Will Be”

— Uhhhhhh… cute, I guess?
STARS: N/A

ACID TRIP
stoners Jason (DAA) & Sunset (LAN) present slide show for neighbor (host)
   
— I’m liking how 70s this is.
— Laraine’s hippie character is pretty funny, though the voice sounds quite similar to her Sherry voice.
— We’re supposed to believe that’s Dan’s foot in that picture they’re showing right now, but if you know your Aykroyd trivia, you’d know that can’t be his foot because he has webbed toes in real life.
— Loved Dan just saying “That’s mine” when the hairy nipple picture showed up in his and Laraine’s slideshow.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
famous art makes up artist’s rendering of Patty Hearst trial testimony
GAM reports Olympic news from deserted Innsbruck
LAN reports from outside a snuff director’s room at the Blaine Hotel
   
— Showing professional paintings as “artist’s renderings” of the Patricia Hearst trial is a pretty funny variation on the gag of showing childlike Tom Schiller drawings.
— Hilarious Dorothy Hamill/Gerald Ford joke.
— What the heck was with the delayed start to Garrett’s commentary? That didn’t seem intentional. What went wrong there?
— And is there supposed to be scenery behind Garrett that we’re not seeing? We’re just seeing a plain blue screen behind him, even though we’re supposed to believe he’s “at the Olympics”.
— This Garrett bit is just a tired variation of Laraine’s Times Square commentary from earlier this season.
— I have to say, though, Garrett’s lament over having to cover “white sports” was kinda funny, even though it’s a cliched joke nowadays.
— I got an unintended laugh from Chevy’s mention of “CIA director George Bush”.
— Laraine’s Blaine Hotel bit didn’t work for me this time; it fell flat. The ones she did earlier this season were better.

K-PUT PRICE-IS-RITE STAMP GUN
— (sigh) Yet another rerun. Man, when was the last time a NEW fake ad was aired during an Update this season? And why does this season’s Updates even need to break in the middle for a fake ad anyway? I guess it’s to make this seem more like an authentic news broadcast from that time, but honestly, I’ve gotten tired of this format. I definitely prefer when Update is just one continuous un-broken segment. I’m guessing they don’t start doing that regularly until sometime after Jane takes over the Update desk the next season.

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella thinks that “canker” research is a waste of money

— For the 50th time, please stop using the “guests of SNL stay at the Blaine Hotel” promo. It was only funny the first time.
— Oh, man, and speaking of tired rehashing, now we get Emily Litella AGAIN. This now makes, what, the third or fourth episode in a row she’s appeared in? I know she’s a well-remembered character nowadays, but come on, she was not flexible enough to be used EVERY WEEK.
— While there are many aspects of 70s SNL that I feel make modern-day SNL pale badly in comparison, there’s at least ONE thing I prefer about modern-day SNL: they at least know how to space out recurring characters’ appearances. We thankfully don’t have instances of the same recurring character appearing on Update week-after-week nowadays, unlike how 70s SNL had no qualms about using Emily Litella or Garrett’s “News for the Hard of Hearing” bit for long stretches of consecutive episodes. If they did that with any existing modern-day Update character from, say, Kate McKinnon, Kenan Thompson, Cecily Strong, or Heidi Gardner, that would probably drive online SNL fans crazy.
— Please don’t tell me this baby sandpiper story Chevy’s telling is going to be the same one from the premiere.
— (sigh) I was right, it was the same story, right down to the exact same punchline.
— Overall, this Update was a huge letdown. The actual news jokes portion with Chevy was fine, but in regards the rest, there was WAAAAY too much lazy recycling for my likes. Easily the weakest Update of the season so far.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): **

ALL-PRO WRESTLING
Bees (JOB) & (host) vs. WASPs (CHC) & (GIR)
   
— It’s been a while since we’ve last seen the Bees.
— This is pretty fun to watch, as we don’t usually see anything this physical in a live sketch.
— Dan is great as the fast-talking announcer.
— LOL at the random “drop the cow” ending. This is the second episode in a row that happened. Was this SNL’s new go-to ending?
STARS: ***½

REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST
disguised Richard Nixon (DAA) philosophizes
 
— Haha, it’s Nixon!
— It’s hilarious hearing Dan do the gruff Nixon voice inside that ridiculous mask.
— Another great performance from Dan. I’m glad we’re seeing so much of him in tonight’s episode, considering how underutilized he seemed to be the last few episodes.
— Him doing the ‘ohm’ meditation thing gave me a big laugh just now.
STARS: ***½

PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE
by Gary Weis- kids & Rubin Carter (GAM) recite Pledge Of Allegiance
 
— Is this gonna be another Gary Weis film? He’s been having a bad track record the past few episodes.
— It’s over already??? Uh… I’m definitely gonna need some clarification of what this was about, because I didn’t understand this AT ALL. Was this short making some kind of social or political statement? And who was Garrett playing at the end?
STARS: N/A

DUELLING BRANDOS
Duelling Brandos (host) & (JOB) trade Marlon’s famous movie lines
 
— They misspelled “Dueling” with two ‘L’s on the title card.
— Ah, yes, this is one of two sketches I was looking forward to seeing from this episode, after having only seen this in the form of a clip when Peter made a cameo in Ray Romano’s 1999 SNL monologue.
— I’m loving this, with Peter and John taking turns reciting increasingly-brief Brando movie quotes.
— Excellent ending with Peter and John yelling Brando’s rant from “On The Waterfront” in unison.
STARS: ****

JANITOR IN A FRIDGE
(JAC) convinces husband (host) that orgy participants are new products
   
— And here’s the second of two sketches I was looking forward to seeing, after reading a write-up about this just a few days ago.
— Jane is great acting like an overly-chipper commercial spokeswoman with that forced big smile. Between these last two episodes, Jane’s been getting a lot of nice showcases lately.
— Funny subtle bit with Garrett slowly walking away with Jane behind Peter’s back.
— Nice ending with Laraine.
STARS: ***½

A HOME MOVIE
by Howard Grunwald- a single shot of a house
 
— The audience is already chuckling and nothing’s even happened in the film yet, except for an exterior shot of a house.
— Oh, I get it. Haha, this is the entire “home movie”: a shot of a home. I love this type of humor.
STARS: ****

VALENTINE’S DAY CARD
GAM gives GIR a raunchy valentine

— Interesting pairing of Gilda and Garrett.
— Garrett’s increasingly-raunchy poem is pretty funny.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

HOMEWARD BOUND (GARY WEIS FILM)
— An encore presentation.

GOODNIGHTS
at closing, host points out handcuffed Patty Hearst lookalike in audience
 
_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty good, fairly-consistent episode. There wasn’t much to complain about, and it was a nice rebound after the underwhelming Dick Cavett episode.
— Peter Boyle did fine throughout the show, though it felt like he was given too many straight roles.
— Thankfully, no Muppets tonight, for the second episode in a row. You’d almost think that SNL finally dropped them from their show permanently, but I recall hearing that their final SNL appearance was the first episode of season 2. So it looks like I still have more Muppet sketches to put up with until then.

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:
Desi Arnaz

Posted on

January 31, 1976 – Dick Cavett / Jimmy Cliff (S1 E12)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
envious GAM employs voodoo to make attention-getting CHC tumble
 
— Interesting way to address that Chevy was becoming a bigger star and getting more press than the rest of the cast.
— They keep mentioning “last week’s fall”, but Chevy didn’t do his traditional fall in that episode; he instead got “hit” with a pie.
— The twist of Garrett having a Chevy voodoo doll is hilarious.
— Great segue to the traditional Chevy fall.
STARS: ****

MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about various topics before “dropping the cow”
 
— His jokes here had been pretty good so far, but he really won me over just now with the sperm bank/losing-interest-after-making-a-deposit joke.
— Another good laugh came from the ‘dropping the cow’ part.
STARS: ***½

HUNTER BOYFRIEND
eager to be wed, (JAC) ignores misfires of her hunter boyfriend (CHC)
 
— I kinda saw where this was going, where Jane would have forgiving reactions to Chevy’s increasingly-unforgivable accidental shootings.
— This is featuring a really good Jane performance. It feels like she hasn’t gotten many showcases this season so far, beyond straight roles or talk show host roles.
— Ending was a bit strange.
STARS: ***

DICK CAVETT’S SCHOOL OF AUTO REFINISHING & UPHOLSTERY
enroll in host’s school to earn money via auto refinishing & upholstery

— Nothing special, but I liked the ending.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

H&L BROCK, PART 1
Lowell Brock (JOB) gives some reasons to use H&L Brock- they cheat
 
— Two sketches in a row with one person talking to the camera? This is usually one of my least favorite types of sketches.
— Like the preceding Cavett Upholstery sketch, this was also a quick piece, but I liked this more, as this had a funnier premise and better jokes.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
amateurish TOS drawings summarize the arraignment of Patty Hearst
in war-torn Angola, lonely British mercenary (DAA) wants sex with LAN
   
— The joke about Professor Backwards’ cries of “pleh pleh” while being murdered was great, and was one I had always heard about on some SNL boards.
— The Dan/Laraine bit had a pretty funny payoff.

FELINA CAT FOOD
— Rerun.
— I still don’t get what the joke of this was supposed to be.

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella disagrees with an “eagle” rights amendment
TOS repeats the top story a la Ricky Ricardo for I Love Lucy fans
 
— Emily Litella AGAIN??? Man, are they overusing this character lately.
— She still had some funny lines tonight, though.
— The “News for ‘I Love Lucy’ Fans” bit was our latest in funny variations of “News for the Hard of Hearing”.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

DICK CAVETT’S SCHOOL OF HYDROPLANE OPERATION
enroll in host’s school of hydroplane operation for a solid future

— Oh, this is a recurring bit tonight?
— He said a slightly-different phone number than the one that was displayed onscreen.
— I’m finding this one even more forgettable than the first.
— Funny ending line, though.
STARS: **

OUR TOWN
Stage Manager (host) lists some of his favorite NYC problems

— Two solo Dick Cavett sketches in a row?
— Overall, I wasn’t too sure of this sketch at first, but it started winning me over towards the end. This was fairly funny in a dry way, and it had a unique structure.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

CAVETT LOOKALIKE
winner of a lookalike contest (Marshall Efron) doesn’t resemble host much

— Uh…………..
— This “lookalike” guy seems kinda funny, but I dunno, I’m not too crazy about this segment.
STARS: **

CLOTHING DESIGNER & PLASTIC SURGEON
by Gary Weis- in absentia, tailor & plastic surgeon improve each other
 
— Unlike the last two Gary Weis films, this one seems to have a somewhat-interesting premise.
— Okay, that was a letdown. I liked this film more for the idea than for the execution of it. At least this wasn’t as frustratingly pointless as Weis’ last two shorts, though.
STARS: **

DANCE TO THE NATION
Betty Ford (JAC) combines advice & modern dance
 
— This is the first time we’ve seen any of the cast since Update, which feels like 20 minutes ago.
— Another interesting showcase for Jane tonight, in another type of role we don’t usually see her in. Her performance in this is making me like the material more than I would under a lesser performance.
— A kinda funny ending with her thinking the inept “turkey” of a husband described in the third letter was her own husband Gerald.
STARS: ***

H&L BROCK, PART 2
another reason to use H&L Brock- they will bribe the IRS

— I liked the random little opening gag with the torn pieces of paper.
— Overall, not as funny as the first one was.
STARS: **½

LOOKS AT BOOKS
Nebraska Pimp host is a quaint prostitution practitioner

— I was expecting to see Jane as the host once again, but surprisingly, we get Chevy this time. A bit of a different role for him.
— Pretty funny seeing Cavett playing a pimp in a very “Dick Cavett” way.
— This started losing me towards the end, but they got me back with some funny lines at the end, especially Dick’s ad-lib(?) about the lack of audience laughter.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

H&L BROCK, PART 3
yet another reason to use H&L Brock- they have mob ties & cheap goods
  
— “We have close ties with the underworld” – Ha, I’m already liking this.
— Is John trying not to laugh?
— Hmm, and now the audience is laughing, too, as if something funny is happening off-camera. I wonder if this is the incident I remember reading about before, where a cast or crew member pranked John Belushi during a live sketch by tying his shoelaces together off-camera while John was speaking to the camera in-character.
— Yep, I was right. Haha, the sketch ended with the camera cutting to a wide shot where you could see someone crawling away from John, then John stood up and broke character a bit as he noticed his shoelaces are tied together. None of that was supposed to be part of the sketch, from what I read in the past. I also remember reading that John angrily mutters an audible “What the fuck? Goddammit!” when he notices his tied-together shoelaces, but I didn’t hear that at all just now. He just laughs and mumbles something indecipherable before the camera fades to black.
— Does anyone know the whole story behind this? Who was the person who tied John’s shoelaces together, and why’d they do it? Were they just goofing around? I guess this shows how loose SNL was back in these early years, because it’s hard to imagine an on-air prank like that being pulled in later SNL eras. The closest I can think of is an absolutely classic incident from 1983 where Eddie Murphy was performing a sketch and suddenly kept getting food thrown at him from off-camera by Joe Piscopo.
STARS: N/A (because the actual material of the sketch was completely overshadowed by the prank)

THE APPLE FOLLIES
by Harry McDevitt- peel show ends with arrests
   
— This is pretty interesting to watch.
— Funny gag with the stripper apple “undressing” by peeling its skin.
— Good ending with the director eating the cast.
— Considering this was a fan-made home video, this was well-done.
STARS: ***½

AL ALEN PETERSEN
hardhat Al Alen Petersen [real] becomes blonde girl to “I Gotta Be Me”
 
— Another strange special guest performer tonight.
— Whoa, what in the world am I watching???
— Overall, I have no idea what to make of this as a whole, but hey, I did laugh.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS
 
— After Cavett gives his goodnights speech (with nobody onstage with him, BTW), they just cut to still photos from opening montage while the ending credits scroll by and the goodnights music plays. This is similar to what they did in the rerun version I reviewed of the Rob Reiner episode, when the live show supposedly ran long and got cut off before they could even get to the goodnights. Did the show run long tonight, too?

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— I’ve been praising so many episodes lately, saying the show has been on a hot streak since episode 4. But tonight’s left me underwhelmed. A lot of the sketches had a middle-of-the-road feel, and there was almost nothing that I’ll remember by the time we reach the end of this season. I wouldn’t say this was a particularly “bad” episode; just a letdown compared to how strongly the show had been doing before this. This IS the fourth in a string of four consecutive live episodes, though, which could explain the drop in quality.
— Cavett handled himself well, and performed smoothly throughout the show. It didn’t feel like he played any characters, though; it seemed like he was “Dick Cavett” in every single sketch he appeared in. I guess the Our Town sketch was the only one where he played someone other than himself. He seemed to make a good impression on the people at the show, considering they bring him back to host again the following season, IIRC.
— A lot of the cast seemed underutilized, especially Gilda and Dan, who I think made their only appearance of the night on Weekend Update. Thinking back on the show, almost every sketch tonight each involved only one or two performers, so I guess that explains why a lot of cast members had such a light night. I wonder if that’s one of the reasons why I wasn’t too crazy about this episode.
— I just realized, there were no Muppets tonight, for the first time all season. THANK GOD.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Peter Cook & Dudley Moore):
— a step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Peter Boyle

Posted on

January 24, 1976 – Peter Cook & Dudley Moore / Neil Sedaka (S1 E11)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
bomb squad expert (CHC) attempts to deactivate a cream pie bomb
 
— George Coe sighting!
— It’s funny listening to the audience tittering during the long stretches of mock-tense silence.
— I’m already laughing right before Chevy’s even opened the box, because I heard about this before: a hand in the box is supposed to hit Chevy in the face with a pie, but the bit gets botched when the hand unintentionally misses his face, which actually sounds pretty funny to me. I think I also heard that it’s John Belushi’s hand in the box.
— Yep, I see I was right about the gag getting botched. I got a good unintentional laugh from that. I heard they actually re-do the gag properly during the goodnights.
— By the way, interesting how this didn’t end with Chevy doing a trademark fall for once. It’s good that they’re starting to branch out and have other silly things happen to him at the end of the cold openings.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Despite the fact that the cast members are still credited collectively in a list, Pardo has now started announcing their names individually for the first time ever.

MONOLOGUE
producer (Peter) tells one-legged actor (Dudley) he’s unfit to be Tarzan

— I’m not familiar with Peter Cook & Dudley Moore as a comedy team, but based on my familiarity with just Dudley and my love for British comedy, I already know I’m going to like them.
— This is very good so far, as expected.
— A funny little part just now with Dudley placing his non-leg onto the chair, accompanied by a light “thunk” sound.
— Great line from Peter: “I’ve got nothing against your right leg. The trouble is, neither have you.”
STARS: ****

UTAH PRISON
prisoners audition for parts in a jailhouse production of Gigi
 
— Another George Coe sighting!
— Oh, is this gonna be the famous sketch with Garrett singing “I’m Gonna Get Me a Shotgun and Kill All the Whiteys I See”?
— Dan’s whole scene is great so far.
— Dan’s insane rant at the end of his scene was hilarious! This is one of the types of Aykroyd performances I’ve been loving the most while going through these episodes one-by-one.
— LOL at Chevy suddenly lunging at Gilda in the middle of his harmonica solo.
— Chevy’s pedophile song – uh, wow…
— Ah, yes, the classic Garrett song. This is a riot just like I had remembered.
— I’m surprised to see that Garrett’s song is just a small part of the sketch. From the clip I had always seen of it, I had assumed it was its own sketch.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

DON PARDO’S HOLIDAY IN AN ELEVATOR
(GIR) & (DAA) go on the low-cost vacation
 
— Very interesting premise.
— I like how every country the elevator opens up on is just Dudley in front of a green-screen with a fake animal head.
— Dudley saying “No way, no way” to doing the Borneo part was great.
— The un-tucked uniform on Chevy as the “cop” was a little detail I liked.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
CHC’s attempt to call Angola ends up reaching Angela’s roommate JAC
at Times Square, LAN asks (GAM) for his opinions on abortion
 
— If Jane’s playing herself, why are we supposed to believe she would be at home during a live SNL episode?
— Jane’s “stringing beads” line was a funny callback to Chevy’s opening phone conversation gag.
— “Swarms of killer bees from South America crossing the border…” Oh, so THAT’S why they did that Killer Bees sketch a few episodes ago. I hadn’t realized it was based on a topical news story.
— Hilarious ad-lib with Chevy briefly spouting random Spanish after messing up the beginning of the Great Britain plane joke.

MIDDLE AMERICAN VAN LINES
— rerun

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella doesn’t understand the fuss about “saving Soviet jewelry”
CHC declares a moratorium on Gerald Ford jokes, then finds a loophole
aided by showering ALZ, CHC repeats the top story for wet people
 
— Loved the bit with Chevy having to combine two unrelated news stories since Update was “pressed for time”.
— The “News For the Wet” is our latest variation of “News for the Hard of Hearing”. I didn’t think this one was all that funny, though. I do like how these have been a nice way for Alan Zweibel to get some airtime.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

TABLE TALK
(Dudley) interviews The Frog & Peach restaurant owner (Peter)

— I’m already laughing right at the beginning, with Peter kicking Dudley’s clipboard out of his hand while crossing his legs.
— I’m really enjoying watching these two play off of each other.
— Again, this has the type of absurd British humor that I love.
— A good laugh from Peter’s anti-World War II letter: “Dear sir, stop it.”
— The whole bit about Peter’s character’s wife is hilarious.
STARS: ****

THE PARAMOUNT NOVELTY STORE
by Gary Weis- shop owner explains the jokes

— Where is this going? So far, this has been nothing but the store owner showcasing different novelty items.
— And that’s the end??? Man, I can accept the fact that there weren’t any jokes in this, as I know serious segments weren’t uncommon during this SNL era, but this short wasn’t even interesting or entertaining. What in the world was this going for???
— I had heard somewhere that Gary Weis’ SNL shorts were generally bad, but I wasn’t willing to believe it earlier this season after seeing his heartwarming “Homeward Bound” short and his creative “Play Misty for Me” short. But after his short tonight and his one from the preceding episode with Buck Henry searching for the funniest person, I’m slowly starting to understand why his shorts were supposedly considered bad.
STARS: *

SONNY & CHER
British Sonny (Dudley) & Cher (Peter) sing “I Got You Babe” & trade barbs

— Haha, oh my god at the initial sight of Peter and Dudley dressed like that.
— This is pretty funny, with the Scottish version of “I Got You Babe” and the spot-on imitation of bad Sonny & Cher humor.
STARS: ***½

GILDA & SCRED
GIR breaks it to Bee Scred that the Bees skit has been cut from the show

— Well, this is different. Hopefully, this means we won’t be getting our usual “Land of Gorch” Muppets sketch tonight.
— Hey, this is actually kinda cute so far.
— I like how when imitating Chevy’s Update shtick, Scred referenced Chevy’s habit of ad-libbing “toyboat toyboat”.
— This and the sketch with Lily Tomlin prove that Scred is actually a charming character when used the right way.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

BACKSTAGE BANTER
JAC interviews male impersonator Sheila Ellington (JOB)

— Hmm, unique premise with John as a woman who’s a male impersonator.
— It’s funny how this is being played so straight.
— The ‘cramps’ bit was great.
— John’s brief Rod Steiger impression just now sounded the exact same as the voice he used in the Exterminators sketch from the Robert Klein episode. Was that Exterminators sketch a parody of a Rod Steiger movie that I’m not aware of?
STARS: ***

LOVERS
neither (CHC) nor (Jaqueline Carlin) use products to feel more attractive

— Another appearance from Chevy’s then-girlfriend and occasional SNL extra Jacqueline Carlin.
— Uh, what??? That’s the whole commercial???? It was, like, 10 seconds long, and its punchline was a voice-over simply saying “neither of these two people used any commercial product to make themselves more attractive to each other”. I guess that’s kinda funny if it was intended as a spoof of the type of beauty product commercials I’m thinking of, but this came off a little too random for its own good.
STARS: **

OPERATING ROOM
not-quite-deceased (GAM) objects to having his organs harvested
 
— Another very short sketch, though at least this one had an actual good punchline.
STARS: ***½

GOSPEL TRUTH
Matthew (Dudley) interviews a shepherd (Peter) who saw the baby Jesus

— I’m liking all the little ad-libs they keep throwing in here. I caught Dudley stifling a little laughter a few times.
— So far, this is yet another fun Peter/Dudley piece, and I’m enjoying all the wordplay here.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS
CHC & hosts redo the botched opening
 
— Ah, so I was right when I said I remember hearing they re-did the cold opening’s botched pie gag. Haha, this is pretty cool.
— Oh, so that really WAS John as the pie-thrower in the cold opening.
— Okay, now that the goodnights music is playing, where’s the rest of the cast?
— And why is there no scrolling ending credits? Technical error?
— Oh, there’s the credits. For some reason, the credits are in yellow text tonight instead of the usual white text that’s typically been used this season.
— Oh, and there’s the rest of the cast, showing up one-by-one.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yet another pretty solid, fun episode, even if not quite as strong as the last two that preceded this.
— This episode made great use of the hosts, not only utilizing them well in sketches with the cast, but also giving them lots of spots throughout the show to do their two-man act, all of which were solid.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Dick Cavett

Posted on

January 17, 1976 – Buck Henry / Bill Withers, Toni Basil (S1 E10)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
suicide hotline worker (CHC) takes a fall while trying to field a call
 
— Wow, we’re getting our trademark Chevy fall right out of the gate at the beginning of this cold opening.
— Haha, the gunshot heard from the other end of the call is dark, but funny.
— Wow, that’s it? That’s gotta be one of the shortest cold openings in the show’s history. The brevity definitely worked here, as a very quick ‘set-up & punchline’ funny gag.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
on-screen super lists people the producers called before settling on host
 
— For some reason, I thought this episode had that great monologue where Buck fails to show up on stage because he’s stuck downstairs arguing with NBC pages who won’t let him into the show, and Lorne has to come downstairs to rescue him. I guess that’s from the episode Buck hosted later this season.
— SNL’s very first of what would be quite a number of “screen captions” monologues over the years, where the host’s speech is overshadowed by disclaimers on the bottom of the screen.
— The long list of potential hosts SNL called before Buck is very funny, even if I’m not familiar with 70% of these names.
— I wonder why they listed “The Two Stooges”. Who would that have been? All of the main Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp) were dead by this point. I guess SNL’s referring to lesser-known Stooges Joe Besser and “Curly Joe” DeRita.
— Haha, Generalissimo Francisco Franco was on the list just now.
— It looks like an extra name got cut off right when the screen crawl went away.
— The “We? Buck’s a little out of line here” caption gave me a big laugh.
— The “Buck’s favorite charities/favorite activities” lists were also very funny, especially how the latter just repeated the same list as the former.
— Wow, this list of “people we are calling now” has even MORE celebrities I’ve never heard of. It’s still giving me a laugh, though.
STARS: ***½

SAMURAI DELICATESSEN
Futaba makes a sandwich for Mr. Dantley (host)
 
— Probably the most famous installment of John’s Samurai sketches.
— Interesting how he’s already getting a good amount of recognition applause from the audience, despite this only being his second sketch.
— Loved him using his forehead to split open the hero bread in half.
— Great part with him about to use his sword to commit seppuku after he messed up Buck’s order.
— Interesting to see that right from the start, Buck was always excellent at playing off of Futaba.
— Nice fake-out with Futaba violently taking out his sword only to end up just gently cutting the sandwich in half.
— Overall, I’d say of all the Samurai sketches I’ve ever viewed, this one is definitely the quintessential installment.
STARS: ****½

PRESIDENTIAL FOREPLAY
affair claimant (GIR) mixes up Richard Nixon & JFK

— A very different role for Gilda. I’m not used to seeing her play sultry characters.
— The twist at the end where it turns out she was actually talking about Nixon instead of JFK was decent, but overall, I wasn’t all that crazy about this sketch.
STARS: **½

AN OVAL OFFICE
Ron Nessen (host) & Gerald Ford (CHC) launch Operation Stumblebum
   
— I don’t know why, but I’m already laughing just from the quiet beginning where the “An Oval Office” title graphic showed up on screen.
— Hilarious how after Chevy says to the already-sitting Buck “Come on in and sit down”, Buck actually gets up, leaves the room, re-enters, and sits down.
— The little things Chevy keeps doing during the briefing are pretty funny.
— The stuffed dog tipping over when Chevy says “Lie down, Liberty” is a memorable gag.
— Some of the odd-looking NBC logos on the press conference microphones Buck’s speaking into seem to be a reference to an Update joke in the preceding episode, where they displayed a series of (fake) unused NBC logos.
— This is great with Buck, Garrett, and John imitating Chevy’s constant blunders.
— Ah, I recognize Lorne’s voice as one of the off-camera press people asking the president a question.
— Haha, the imitations of Chevy’s blunders is now getting insane and is killing me.
— All-in-all, a hilarious sketch.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (BILL WITHERS)

THE EVELYN WOODSKI SCHOOL OF SPEED READING
poor reader Evelyn Woodski (LAN) advertises her speed reading school
 
— Wow. Much like the cold opening, here’s another sketch that surprised me with how extremely brief it was. I thought what I was watching here was just the set-up to the main premise, but it ended up being the entire sketch.
— Again, the brevity definitely worked here, and was much funnier than if they had tried to stretch this joke out into a normal-length sketch, where it could’ve risked getting old.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
CHC’s midnight call to Angola reaches janitor (GAM) at 6am
 
— Hmm, instead of the usual “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not”, we instead get “I’m Chevy Chase and I love you all very deeply”.
— Considering the sketch that preceded this, it’s funny seeing Chevy have a hard time reading off the word “Presbyterian”.
— I’m glad the Angola phone call bit didn’t just end up being yet another “Angelo’s Pizza” mix-up. Garrett as the janitor was pretty funny with his confused reactions.
— Got a good laugh from the “killer dope / squirrel playing with his nuts” joke.
— Chevy’s coming off pretty stumbly with his delivery tonight. Toyboat.

GERMASOL
roll-on Germasol air freshener removes foul odors without aerosol
 
— Why does Gilda look so much taller than usual in this?
— While the initial sight gag with the giant deodorant stick was funny at first, it wasn’t enough to carry this whole commercial. The joke fell kinda flat after a while.
STARS: **½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
CHC mocks Henry Zuckerman (host) during his anti-masturbation editorial
dead ALZ helps CHC repeat the top story for deceased viewers
 
— Ohh, here comes the ‘Chevy makes goofy faces behind a correspondent’ routine again.
— Geez, the ‘goofy faces’ routine felt half-assed this time. Chevy didn’t get anywhere near as into it as he usually does. Hell, I got more laughs from Buck’s actual speech than from the faces Chevy was making during it.
— Like how the preceding episode’s Update substituted the overused “News for the Hard of Hearing” bit with a new segment called “News for the Foreigners”, tonight’s Update has a very funny new variation called “News for the Dead” featuring Alan Zweibel as an unresponsive dead body.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

CITIZEN KANE II
a search for meaning of his post-“Rosebud” words
   
— Wow, this is the first time we’ve seen Dan all night, which is odd since the episode’s halfway over.
— Quite a fast mid-sketch costume change for Chevy.
— Dan is fantastic in this.
— LOL at Chevy’s crooked mustache after he had to quickly re-change back into the elderly version of his character.
— Haha, and now Chevy has started cracking up. It looked like Laraine began smirking a bit before him, too. I wonder what happened to make them lose it like that. Was it Chevy’s sloppily-applied fake mustache? BTW, I guess this counts as SNL’s very first major instance of performers breaking during a sketch.
— The “roast beef on rye with mustard” ending was pretty funny.
— Overall, this was an interesting and pretty entertaining Citizen Kane parody.
— Oh, wait, we’re not done yet. Now there’s an “Introducing the Cast” bit that I thought at first glance was the beginning of a separate sketch, but appears to be part of this Citizen Kane sketch.
— Ha, Chevy’s still laughing a bit.
— This “Introducing the Cast” bit is kinda funny with all the awkward pauses, though I’m not sure if that’s intended to get a laugh or not.
— At times, Tom Schiller reminds me so much of future cast member Fred Armisen. There’s something similar about their facial features & expressions.
STARS: ***½

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Scred & Peuta try to figure out how their new Japanese sex device works

— (groan)
— Hmm, they’re back to doing the usual intro sequence, after not using it in the last two Muppets sketches.
— Scred thumping Peuta on the head twice and asking “Feel anything now?” was kinda funny, at least.
— Oh, man. Seeing/hearing these Muppets acting out sex is just plain disturbing.
— One positive thing to this installment is that it was surprisingly much shorter than the usual Muppets sketches. Doesn’t make it any better, though. That unnecessary ‘puppet sex’ sequence killed any redeeming factors this may have potentially had.
— Oddly, Ploobis was nowhere to be seen in this one, despite the fact that he’s, you know, THE MAIN CHARACTER.
STARS: *½

TRIPLE-TRAC
— rerun

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (TONI BASIL)

MECHANICS BEDTIME STORY
auto mechanic (DAA) tells his daughter (GIR) bedtime car repair stories

— Gilda’s always very convincing playing little girls.
— The ‘Bambi getting run over’ part of the story was pretty funny.
— Overall, this was decent.
STARS: ***

WHY CALL IT DOPE?
drug user (CHC) misuses a joint- “Why do you think they call it ‘dope’?”
 
— I almost thought at first that this was going to turn into the recurring(?) “A President’s View on Marijuana” bit they did in this era, where the camera shows “the president”’s hands unsuccessfully attempting to roll a joint.
— It’s very funny when you come to the realization of what Chevy’s going to try to do with the joint.
— Hilarious punchline with the “Why do you think they call it ‘dope’” ending title card.
STARS: ****

WHO’S FUNNY?
by Gary Weis- host looks for the funniest person in Irvington, New York
 
— Why was the studio audience already laughing at the beginning of Buck’s intro?
— Uh, and that’s the end? Huh? I thought the lady calling herself the funniest person would, you know, actually SHOW us how she’s the funniest person, but then this film ended before anything even happened there. Maybe I didn’t “get” what this was going for.
STARS: ehh, I don’t know…

THE BLUES BROTHERS
Blues Brothers Jake (JOB) & Elwood (DAA) perform “King Bee” with SNL Band
 
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Interesting how these two wore Bee costumes in their debut, which is something that eventually got dropped in their later appearances.
— Another unusual thing about this is that Dan’s not singing along with John; he’s only playing harmonica in the background the whole time.
— John’s cartwheels and flips are fun and impressive.
— Overall, this was absolutely great.
STARS: ****½

IMPRESSIONIST MICHAEL O’DONOGHUE
MOD does impression of Mike Douglas having long needles plunged into eyes
 
— Ha, I can tell just from Buck’s intro that this is gonna be the famous “celebrities’ eyes plunged with needles” bit making its first appearance. Of Michael O’Donoghue’s many disturbing, weird ideas that would appear on the show over the years, this bit has always been one of my favorites.
— After the kind-hearted set-up where O’Donoghue gives all this praise to Mike Douglas, it’s funny to hear the audience reaction when O’Donoghue slowly reveals what his “impression” is going to be.
— O’Donoghue writhing all around the stage while screaming is as hilarious as I’ve always found it.
STARS: ****

AMERICAN CONSTIPATION SOCIETY
neighbors’ euphemisms about (host)’s constipation make him uncomfortable
 
— I’m liking how all the constipation euphemisms & cliches are getting more and more out of hand.
— Buck’s facial reaction is great, too.
— Ha, and now this is getting even funnier with more and more people randomly coming in to join in on the euphemisms.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS
at closing, host announces that the entire SNL cast & crew is gay

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yet another solid episode, keeping alive the long streak of good shows since episode 4. I’m so impressed with how consistently well SNL has surprisingly been doing this early into its run.
— You’d have never guessed that this was Buck’s first hosting stint. Right out of the gate, he came off as a total pro who’s already been doing this for years, navigating his way through the sketches with total ease & perfection. His interplay with the cast was also fun and seemed so natural. There’s a reason it became a tradition for him to host multiple times per season during this era (IIRC, he becomes a 10-time host over the course of just five seasons).

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore

Posted on

January 10, 1976 – Elliott Gould / Anne Murray (S1 E9)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
a chain reaction in The Dead String Quartet causes cellist (CHC) to fall
   
— The inactive, silent beginning of this with the dead quartet just sitting there is giving me a big laugh, and it’s also funny hearing the audience reaction during it.
— Oh, that was absolutely great just now, with the very slow chain reaction of each quartet member tipping to the side while “playing” a slight musical note, culminating in Chevy doing a particularly funny fall at the end.
— Overall, that was brilliant. My favorite cold opening of the season so far.
STARS: ****½

OPENING MONTAGE
— “New talent Franken and Davis”. It looks like this episode is when those two start doing their recurring comedy segment.

MONOLOGUE
host sings “Let Yourself Go” & “Crazy Rhythm” before tap-dancing
GIR tells host that she had a wonderful time with him last night
 
— Kind of a weird beginning to this, but he’s carrying himself well and showing interesting stage presence right out of the gate.
— I guess this counts as SNL’s very first instance of what’s usually my least favorite monologue trope: the host singing and dancing. Since it was a new thing for monologues back at this time, I’ll go easy on this.
— Despite the fact that this is a non-comedic performance, Elliott’s doing a great job and is actually making me get into this song. The studio audience is loving it too. Oh, and now he’s tap-dancing? Impressive.
— Gilda’s back-and-forth with Elliott about “last night” took this into a different direction, and was charming like most sketches with Gilda playing herself are. However, I kept expecting some kind of twist during their conversation, but then it just ended.
STARS: ***

TRY-HARD 1-11
— rerun

INTERIOR DEMOLITIONISTS
interior demolitionists (host) & (CHC) wreck the home of (JAC) & (DAA)
 
— I’m loving this random premise.
— This got even funnier just now with the handheld wrecking ball used to destroy the TV.
— Loved them cutting down the chandelier just to break the table under it.
— Strange when the couch barely moved when it “exploded”. Was there a special effects failure there?
— Dan coming downstairs and reacting angrily to all the mess is great.
— Was it intentional for the vase NOT to break when Jane threw it at the wall?
STARS: ****

GODFATHER THERAPY
support group members Vito Corleone (JOB) & Sherry discuss their troubles
 
— Oh, THIS, the “Vito, you’re blocking” sketch. I’m happy to finally get to see it, after hearing great things about it for years.
— Ah, now Laraine’s Sherry character has the familiar blonde wig that she was missing in her first appearance earlier this season.
— John is doing a fantastic Godfather impression, and his performance is cracking me up a lot. This is another sketch that’s proving to me that he had a lot more range than just the wild performances I remembered most from him.
— Great line just now with the ASPCA going after Vito for “this horse thing”.
— The non-verbal orange-peel-in-the-mouth enactment was insane and very funny.
— Laraine’s doing an excellent job with her whole long spiel.
— Overall, this sketch definitely lived up to all of the hype.
STARS: *****

NEW SHIMMER
new Shimmer can be used as both a floor wax & a dessert topping
 
— Ah, and here’s another well-known piece from this era that I’ve never seen for myself until now.
— This is already very funny, with Dan and Gilda’s bickering at the beginning.
— Interesting seeing Chevy play a commercial pitchman.
— All-in-all, a very funny and cute ad.
STARS: ****½

PLAY MISTY FOR ME
by Gary Weis- lounge pianists perform interpretations
 
— Another serious, non-comedic Gary Weis film. This isn’t having anywhere near the same effect on me that his touching “Homeward Bound” short had, but I like the structure of this one, with the back-and-forth cutaways to different performances of the same song.
STARS: ***

GILDA & ELLIOTT
GIR tells host that she meant everything she said to him last night

— Ah, a continuation of the storyline from the monologue. Now I see why the monologue ended so abruptly when I expected there to be a twist.
— This was too short to give a rating to, as it just segued into introducing the musical guest performance, but I always like when SNL does a running storyline throughout an episode.
STARS: N/A

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
CHC again reaches Angelo’s Pizza during attempt to reach Angola
LAN reports from Cape Canaveral on attempt to dump nerve gas into space
 
— “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” got absolutely no audience reaction just now.
— The Angola/Angelo’s Pizza bit from the last Update wasn’t really necessary to repeat a second time.
— The gradual explosion of the deadly gas-loaded rocket behind Laraine had a very slow but hilarious build-up.

JAMITOL

— Rerun. Weird that they would re-air this in the middle of Update, since this ad stars Chevy as a character.

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
CHC & wife MOD have a domestic squabble at the newsdesk
as a safety measure, CHC volunteers to test marijuana sent in by viewers
a look at some early designs of the new NBC network logo
as an aid to foreigners, CHC repeats the top story in a foreign language
 
— Ah, the Jamitol storyline is continuing into Update! Chevy and Michael’s argument at the Update desk was funny. Interesting how they played it off like they were actually playing themselves in the commercial.
— Yet another “toyboat” ad-lib when Chevy flubs a joke.
— Good bit with Chevy informing viewers to mail any “killer dope” to his home address.
— Hmm, him doing a “News for the Foreigners” bit. So I take it they finally realized how much they were overusing the “News for the Hard of Hearing” bit. Thank god, because MAN was I getting tired of seeing that in every Update.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

THE KILLER BEES
Killer Bees take (GIR) & (CHC) hostage in an attempt to get pollen
LOM finds reason for poor camera work- drunk director Dave Wilson [real]
GIR introduces host to her mother (Paula Kahn)
     
— The random Sandy Duncan ad on the radio gave me a good laugh.
— I’m liking this new variation of the Bees running gag.
— The right end of the “The Killer Bees” logo looked like it was cut off.
— Haha, this is great, with them dropping character and breaking the fourth wall regarding the camera staying on the wrong shot.
— Ah, we have Lorne Michaels’ very first on-camera appearance.
— As the camera’s following Lorne backstage while the cast is talking off-camera about Lorne losing his temper, I got an unintentional big laugh just now from whoever’s voice that was (I think Chevy) mistakenly saying “I’ve seen Elliott mad, but… uh, I mean, Lorne, not Elliott…”
— This is also, I believe, SNL’s very first instance of showing someone walking through the halls backstage.
— Lorne arriving in the control room and finding a drunk Dave Wilson is hilarious! Man, I’m loving this.
— I love John’s mock-dramatic “He’s in there… firing… his own father” speech.
— Right now, this segued back into the Gilda & Elliott storyline, which is pretty funny, though I feel it’s slowing down the great momentum of where this sketch had been going before then.
— I’m assuming that’s just an actress and not Gilda’s real mom.
— Man, this was one jam-packed sketch.
STARS: ****

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
(James L. Brooks) & other audience researchers study Albert Brooks [real]
   
— This is going to be his last SNL short, eh? I’ve actually enjoyed his work this season, aside from whatever that “Sick in Bed” short was supposed to be.
— The visual quality of this is noticeably a lot better than most of his other shorts.
— No big laughs so far, but I’m enjoying this.
— His frustration with the old couple viewing him via satellite is funny.
— Great part with that one guy vehemently going on to Albert about how he hates him.
— If this really was Albert’s last short, he left on a pretty good note. Overall, he added a unique voice to these early SNL episodes.
STARS: ***

GILDA & ELLIOTT
GIR asks host to consider the possibility of marriage

— The “Mr. Gilda Radner” line was pretty funny.
— Another charming continuation of the storyline.
STARS: ***

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
affair of Scred & Peuta is jeopardized when Ploobis becomes suspicious

— Neither this nor the preceding episode’s Muppets segment opened with the usual intro sequence. I wonder if it’s because Jim Henson and/or SNL have become aware that a lot of people have been hating these sketches.
— Yet ANOTHER bad ending punchline from The Mighty Favog.
— Overall, this installment wasn’t exactly horrible, but I still didn’t like it at all. I’ve gone easy on the first few Muppets sketches this season, but I knew it wouldn’t be long until I’d start understanding why everybody hated them. The Richard Pryor episode is when I officially reached that point. And to think, I still have the rest of the season to put up with this! Why does Albert Brooks have to leave mid-season, but not THESE guys?
STARS: *½

BIRTHRIGHT
doctors (DAA) & (host) explain their preferred birth methods
 
— Hmm, the set-up of this is going on so long, I can’t predict where this is headed.
— Okay, after Dan’s calm, conventional birthing technique, I can predict what the joke will be: Elliott’s technique will be chaotic and loud.
— Yep, I was right. Even though I saw it coming, it was still pretty funny.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

FRANKEN AND DAVIS
ALF & TOD present alternate society in which Indians stereotype whites
 
— Nice to see them actually appearing, and not doing another Pong voice-over bit again.
— The ‘alternate universe’ in which Indians won instead of the whites is an interesting concept.
— The racist white team names are all very funny.
— Overall, a good segment, and knowing that “the comedy team of Franken and Davis” goes on to become a recurring feature on SNL this era, this first appearance was a nice way to introduce them to viewers.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS
at closing, a priest (MOD) marries GIR & host
 
— Oh, wow, this sudden “wedding” came out of nowhere and is a funny way to end the show. I like that the Gilda/Elliott storyline built up to this.
— Dave Wilson’s name being crossed out during the scrolling credits is a great reference to his “firing” earlier.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very solid episode. The first half was especially strong, featuring some all-time well-remembered pieces like Godfather Therapy, Shimmer, and The Dead String Quartet. There was also a great post-WU Killer Bees sketch that had a fantastic meta turn midway through.
— The impressive long streak of solid shows since episode 4 stays alive.
— The sketches must’ve been longer than what we’ve usually been seeing this season, since there was noticeably a much smaller amount of segments tonight compared to the last few episodes.
— Elliott was a fun and loose host, and the bits with him and Gilda was a nice running storyline that escalated humorously. I can definitely see why he went on to become a frequent host of this era. I can’t recall when his next hosting stint is, but knowing how things were done on SNL back in these days, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s later this same season. As a side note, I wonder why getting someone to host multiple times in one season eventually fell by the wayside sometime in the 80s. It would be fun if they still continued that to this day.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Another future five-timer makes their hosting debut: Buck Henry

Posted on

December 20, 1975 – Candice Bergen / Martha Reeves, The Stylistics (S1 E8)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Gerald Ford (CHC) gives a Christmas Eve fireside chat from White House
 
— Was it intentional for Garrett to trip over the Christmas presents when he made his entrance? I thought Chevy was supposed to be the clumsy one in these cold openings.
— I liked Chevy’s Ford insisting Garrett call him “Dr. President” instead of the formal “Mr. President”.
— Ah, and there’s the famous Chevy-as-Ford Christmas tree pratfall, which has often been played in SNL highlight reels.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Wow, it’s over already? That was it? Geez, this monologue ended almost as soon as it began.
— There was no actual material in this. This just consisted of Candice saying her hosting a second time is her Christmas present to herself, gave thanks to Lorne Michaels, then threw to the following musical guest performance.
— This has to be the second shortest SNL monologue I can recall ever seeing, next to Teri Garr’s “monologue” a few years later in season 5.
STARS: N/A

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (MARTHA REEVES)

MEL’S CHAR PALACE, PART 1
they supply the cow, you make your own steak
 
— Oh, THIS. I believe this is actually one of the very first things I ever saw from this era, in reruns when I was much younger. But then again, I think this sketch ended up recurring in a later episode, so maybe that was the version I saw when I was younger.
— I absolutely love Dan’s manic rapid-fire delivery here; he’s fantastic. The crazy dialogue he’s saying is already funny in itself, but his delivery is making it that much greater.
— Gilda revving up a chainsaw while chewing gum with that sly look on her face is the part of this sketch that stuck in my memory the most from when I first saw this.
STARS: ****

PARENT’S NIGHTMARE
(CHC) calls his parents to say that he’s guilty of 26 counts of murder
 
— The murder revelation is great.
— Decent punchline at the end.
STARS: ***

HOME MOVIES
host & DOP invite viewers to submit home movies for absolutely no reward
 
— Watching this in 2018, I’m getting an unintended kick out of Candice’s line about sending film in “super-8 or 16mm”.
— Don Pardo’s lines about viewers getting absolutely nothing in return for sending their films in is pretty funny.
— Not even sure if I should rate this, since it was clearly an actual instructional segment on where viewers should send their films to SNL, but it did have funny lines from Pardo.
STARS: ***

BEE CAPADES
host & Bees do formations at Rockefeller Center skating rink
 
— This is a nice little segment, though I’m more ‘entertained’ than ‘amused’ so far. That’s not exactly a bad thing, though.
— The “Leon/Noel” ending bit was very funny.
STARS: ***

DON PARDO DIGITAL GIFT CATALOGUE, PART 1
an ashtray clock is just one item in DOP’s Digital Gift Catalogue

— This is being played so straight, it’s hard to tell if it’s even intended to be comedic. I mean, a digital ashtray that tells time sounds like something that would actually exist nowadays. Maybe the idea of that was funnier in 1975 (much like three-bladed razors).
STARS: **

SPONSORED POLAROID AD
(no synopsis available)

— “Hi, I’m the Easter Bunny” — John Belushi as Santa.
— Hmm, is this going to be another non-joke Polaroid ad? I guess I was right in that earlier review where I said I remember hearing they did several of these during this era.
— Why did Candice’s voice get all echo-ish for a brief moment just now?
— Overall, yep, this was another serious Polaroid ad. At least John added a little humor here, though.
STARS: N/A

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (THE STYLISTICS)

K-PUT PRICE-IS-RITE STAMP GUN
— rerun

LATENT ELF
(host) discovers that her brother (CHC) & father (DAA) are latent elves
 
— Funny to see Chevy playing a giddy elf, which is very unlike the type of roles we’ve seen him in so far this season.
— Interesting premise, with Chevy being outed as an elf the exact same way one would be outed as gay. This sketch is making some pretty funny parallels.
— Call me immature, but I got a big laugh from Candice’s “I can see your bells” line to Elf Chevy when he started sitting on top of the couch with his legs spread apart.
— Good revelation that their father (Dan) is an elf, too, complete with a hidden green elf hat. Right before that reveal, I was just about to ask why Dan had green hair sticking out from under his normal hat.
— Loved Dan joining Chevy in giddily dancing like an elf.
— Where did that loud beep sound at end come from? Didn’t seem to be part of the sketch.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
amateurish TOS drawings summarize the Squeaky Fromme trial
from Times Square, LAN reports on New Years’ bash 11 days too soon
attempting to call war-torn Angola, CHC reaches Angelo’s Pizza
   
— Hmm, the Update set has changed a bit. The Weekend Update logo in the background is now colored differently, and there’s now a Weekend Update logo on the front of Chevy’s desk.
— And why does Chevy now have a (very distracting) anchorman earpiece?
— Ha, and now his earpiece just fell out. He made a bit of a funny brief ad-lib in response.
— Ah, the “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead” line that was introduced in the preceding episode’s Update now becomes an official running gag. Interestingly, despite the fact that this is only the second time the line has been used, it surprisingly got a huge reaction from tonight’s audience as if it were already a classic long-running gag.
— The childlike “artist rendering” drawings of the Squeaky Fromme trial is really funny. I also like the muffled nasal voice of the on-scene reporter, which is a dead-on imitation of those types of reporter voices in news & radio broadcasts.
— Oh, that’s Chevy doing the reporter voice! Great reveal when the camera pulled back and showed the voice was just him plugging his nose.
— Laraine’s Times Square New Years report reminds me of something very similar they would later do in a Dennis Miller-era Weekend Update (I think in the Bruce Willis episode from 1989), where Victoria Jackson basically did the exact same bit Laraine did here, right down to the same punchline. That Victoria Jackson bit was mysteriously removed from all reruns of that episode, and I wonder if maybe the person who wrote the original Laraine Newman version complained to SNL for stealing his/her material.
— This Angola/pizza shop phone call mix-up is pretty funny.
— The “brief lookback at 1975” gag with Chevy literally looking at the number 1975 briefly is something that would’ve felt right at home in a Kevin Nealon Weekend Update from the early 90s.

TARN-OFF
Tarn-Off gets Princess Grace’s (host) jewels sparkling clean
 
— Ah, a bit of a change of pace having the mid-Weekend Update commercial be a live one instead of a pre-tape.
— Nice visual of Candice dunking her head into a bowl of the product.
— She’s selling this ad like a pro.
— The two knights are funny, too.
— Overall, pretty good ad.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella is against “firing the handicapped”
with GAM’s help, CHC repeats the top story for the hard-of-hearing
 
— Hmm, Emily Litella again.
— Overall, another decent Litella commentary, though I hope they aren’t on their way to overusing this character so quickly. It’s bad enough we have to see the “News for the Hard of Hearing” bit in EVERY SINGLE EPISODE. Heh, I guess this is one of the downsides of my ‘One SNL a Day’ project: watching these season 1 episodes one-by-one on a day-to-day basis has almost officially ruined my enjoyment of “News for the Hard of Hearing”, which I used to find hilarious back in the days when I only saw it occasionally.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

LAUNDROMAT
in a laundromat, (JOB) & (GIR) silently flirt via clothing they deposit
   
— This is coming off charming so far, and I always like this type of sketch where there’s no dialogue at all.
— I love the way this is building up.
— John pulling out a wine bottle & drinking glasses from his laundry basket is very funny. He’s giving a surprisingly sweet performance in this sketch.
— Aww, what a nice ending.
— Overall, this was a great little piece. I wonder if this was one of those sentimental Marilyn Suzanne Miller-written sketches that this era often had.
— In a way, the fact that this touching sketch starred two performers whose lives would sadly end early adds even more of a sentimental feel in retrospect.
STARS: ****

PONG
Pong-playing college students are accompanied by “Pinball Wizard”

— I mentioned in the last review that while I’ve actually enjoyed the Pong segments so far, one more of them will probably make me start getting tired of them. Let’s see if that prediction is correct.
— Well. this is actually kinda funny so far.
— Oh, wow, this is over already???
— This was literally only about 15 seconds long, and was basically just a reference to “The Who”. Weird. But, hey, this did make me laugh, and at least they took it into a much different direction from the earlier Pong segments.
STARS: ***

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
the Bees’ Christmas party overshadows one thrown by Ploobis & Peuta
host, Ploobis, Scred perform “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”
 
— Strangely, this began without the usual set-up introduced by Don Pardo.
— Yet another reference to The Bees.
— This unfortunately seems to have the same type of bad pun-ny humor that I hated in the weak Muppets installment from the preceding episode.
— Candice’s appearance helped breathe some much-needed life into this. While it didn’t make this any funnier, it gave this a feel-good atmosphere.
STARS: **½

MEL’S CHAR PALACE, PART 2
Mel & chainsaw-toting Mrs. Mel (GIR) advertise the Char Palace again

— Oh, they made this recurring in the SAME NIGHT? I had assumed they at least waited until a later episode to bring this back.
— Uh, what exactly was the point of this follow-up? There was absolutely no discernible difference from the first one. Dan was basically just saying the same thing he said in the first, and Gilda just did the exact same rev-up-a-chainsaw-while-chewing-gum thing.
— The studio audience was dead silent during this one.
STARS: **

WINTER WONDERLAND
GAM, host, cast & SNL Band perform “Winter Wonderland”
   
— Hmm, a Garrett Morris musical performance? Well, as I said a few episodes ago, he DOES have a wonderful singing voice.
— Oh, wait, I think this is the classic “Winter Wonderland” performance that’s often shown on SNL’s annual Christmas compilation special.
— Yep, I was right!
— What’s with the frozen, almost-unhappy deadpan look on Jane’s face while she and the rest of the girls are dancing? I guess she’s just doing that to be funny.
— Overall, a fun classic as always. After having only seen this in the aforementioned Christmas specials, it was nice to now get to see it in the context of the original episode it came from.
STARS: *****

DON PARDO DIGITAL GIFT CATALOGUE, PART 2
a mood ring clock is another item in DOP’s Digital Gift Catalogue

— Again, are these intended to be comedic? In today’s age of everything being digital, the humor is lost on me.
STARS: **

MINUTE MYSTERY
Mike Mendoza overlooks clues that point to sexy (host)

— Couldn’t help but get a laugh from this sketch opening on a shot of Michael O’Donoghue as a dead body with a deadpan (no pun intended) look on his face & a smoking pipe hanging from his mouth.
— The voice of Don Pardo (who SNL is getting a lot of mileage out of tonight) getting in on the act of trying to impress Candice is pretty funny.
— Overall, a pretty good second installment of this sketch, and it’s nice that this went in a different direction from the first.
STARS: ***½

DON PARDO DIGITAL GIFT CATALOGUE, PART 3
a three-piece suit clock is one more item in DOP’s Digital Gift Catalogue

— Okay, this one actually kinda worked for me. The idea of a digital vest clock IS pretty funny.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (MARTHA REEVES)

WHAT GILDA ATE
GIR recalls how she overate during the previous Christmas

— Though there was no opening title screen this time, this looks like it’s going to be another “What Gilda Ate” bit.
— Yep, it is. I never knew until now that this was a recurring segment.
— Like last time, this got funnier the more and more Gilda went on about the details, and again, she had the same charm from last time.
STARS: ***

THE FRITZIE KRINGLE SHOW
cooking ingredients get eaten prematurely
 
— I’ve never heard Laraine talk in this kind of voice before. She’s doing a very good job.
— Ha, she’s eating far more ingredients than she’s putting into the meal she’s cooking, which is pretty funny, but feels kinda redundant seeing this right after we just got through a sketch with Gilda talking about eating excessively.
— The terrible-looking finished cookies are very funny.
STARS: ***

MEL’S CHAR PALACE, PART 3
another ad for Mel’s Char Palace- “Over 3000 Stunned”

— Oh, man, now we get a THIRD one of these??? Oh, why couldn’t they just leave these at one?
— Please tell me this one’s going to actually have some distinction from the first two.
— Nope. No distinction at all, I see. It was just Dan once again basically re-performing the same script from the first. As I asked earlier, WHAT EXACTLY WAS THE POINT OF THIS FOLLOW-UP????
— Oh, SNL, it’s wonderful to see that even way back in 1975, you had that now-familiar bad habit of running once-funny things into the ground. Some things never change.
— It pains me to give such a low rating to ANYTHING that features a manic Dan Aykroyd, but…
STARS: *½

MARGARET KUHN
Margaret Kuhn [real] says “getting old is nothing to be afraid of”
 
— So far, this has just been a straightforward serious segment, but this has a very sweet message and she’s making some great points about aging.
— Whoa, an unexpectedly very funny moment just now with her Gray Panthers sign-off: “Off your asses”. That came out of nowhere!
STARS: N/A

HOMEWARD BOUND
by Gary Weis- holiday travellers reunite with family
 
— I remember hearing about this one before. Wow, this is very beautiful.
— Overall, that’s got to be one of the most sentimental, heartwarming things that has ever aired in the show’s entire history.
— I’m currently having a hard time deciding whether I should give a rating to any of SNL’s serious, non-comedic shorts, of which I know we’ll be seeing quite a number of throughout this era. But for now, I’ll give this one what I feel is a well-deserved rating.
STARS: *****

GOODNIGHTS
 
— Wow, what a line-up! This has got to be one of the most crowded I’ve ever seen the goodnights stage.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— This episode had such a feel-good, heartwarming vibe. In present day, we’re right smack dab into summer, yet watching this episode STILL got me in the Christmas spirit.
— While this was far from the funniest episode ever, it was definitely an entertaining holiday show. Thinking back on it, this episode was probably more heavy on the “feel-good” and the “heartwarming” than it was on the “funny”, but hey, that describes quite a number of SNL’s Christmas episodes over the years, and let’s remember that this IS the show’s first-ever Christmas episode, after all. Honestly, doing this type of heartwarming holiday episode was probably the only sensible way to follow the almost-untouchable Richard Pryor episode.
— Candice did another very solid hosting job and perfectly justified SNL’s decision to bring her back so soon after her first hosting stint a mere month ago. And they clearly loved having her as the host of this Christmas episode, since they bring her back a year later for the next Christmas episode, which I remember being a very strong one.
— Tonight might have the all-time record for highest number of segments in a single SNL episode. You may have noticed while reading through the review, but man, this episode had TONNNNS of segments. I look back at the long list of sketches from this episode (here and here), and at first I wonder “How in the world did they fit all of that into just 90 minutes???”, then I wonder “Why can’t SNL episodes nowadays have this many segments?”

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Richard Pryor):
— a step down (though I kinda feel it’s unfair to compare almost ANY episode to Pryor’s)

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
We enter 1976, with Elliott Gould making his hosting debut

Posted on

December 13, 1975 – Richard Pryor / Gil Scott-Heron (S1 E7)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
CHC gives pointers after yielding to host’s wish that GAM do the fall
 
— Interesting seeing them actually acknowledge that it’s become a tradition for every cold opening to have Chevy to do a fall and say LFNY.
— Wow, that was possibly Chevy’s best fall so far this season.
— Our very first non-Chevy LFNY, which I believe happens only one more time this season later on.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about an alcohol-induced bar fight & an acid trip

— I think it’s safe to say that by this point in the show’s timeline, it’s finally become an official tradition for hosts to make an entrance after Pardo announces their name.
— Knowing that this is going to be Richard Pryor doing stand-up, I can already predict right now that I’ll probably have next-to-nothing to type while watching this, because 1) I’ll be too engaged in the stand-up, and 2) it would be too much for me to list every single thing I find funny in this.
— I believe that’s the very first time the words “bitch” and “ass” have ever been uttered on SNL. I might be wrong, but I don’t recall hearing either those words in any of the previous episodes I reviewed this season.
— His imitation of a person on acid is freaking great.
— Overall, absolute A+ comedy as expected. I lost count of the number of times I nearly busted a gut laughing.
STARS: *****

SAMURAI HOTEL
Futaba (JOB) & bellboy (host) fight over (CHC)’s luggage
 
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Right out of the gate, John is fantastic in everything he’s doing as this character. Even the foreign gibberish he mutters is cracking me up.
— Chevy is doing fine, but I’ve always felt Buck Henry was the best at playing straight man to Futaba.
— LOL at Richard suddenly appearing as a black samurai. And, oh my god, that insane wig…..
— “Your mama-san” was a hilarious line.
— Very funny out-of-character moment with Futaba saying in a humble American voice “I can dig where you’re comin’ from”. From what I remember reading before, this ends up being the only time he ever spoke English in any of his sketches.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

LOOKS AT BOOKS
Junior Griffin (host) talks about his life as a Caucasian
 
— The book is titled “White Like Me”? Heh, I don’t think I need to say which future classic SNL sketch THAT brings to mind.
— I got a big laugh from Richard saying he accomplished becoming white by simply using shoe polish.
— His “white guy walk” is hilarious.
— Overall, this whole sketch can, in many ways, be considered the spiritual precursor to the aforementioned future classic sketch that needs not be named. While tonight’s version wasn’t QUITE as great, this was still a very strong piece.
STARS: **** ½

NEW DAD
— rerun

LINE-UP #1
rigged police line-up leads to handcuffed (host) being chosen as culprit

— Overall, a funny quick piece, and I always love when these early episodes do “blackout gag”-type mini-sketches that are basically just ‘set-up & punchline’.
STARS: ***½

WORD ASSOCIATION
interviewer (CHC) conducts racially-charged free association with (host)

— Oh, here we are, folks…
— Richard’s subtly-annoyed facial reaction after Chevy’s “tar baby” is perfect, and is the official kickoff point of this sketch’s main humor.
— What does “ofay” mean? That’s something I’ve always wondered ever since first seeing this sketch. However, I still always laugh at Richard’s great delivery of that word.
— Ah, and there it is – the immortal moment that defines this classic sketch. That part still kills me no matter how many times I’ve seen it. It goes without saying why it’s so funny, but a little detail that I’ve always felt added to its greatness is the dramatic pause Chevy does right before saying you-know-what.
— And as if that epic moment wasn’t perfect enough, the aftermath just now with Richard’s face-twitching during his intense staredown of Chevy was a hilarious way to follow it.
— Overall, unarguably one of the greatest SNL sketches of all-time.
STARS: *****

PONG
Pong-playing college students recount a rough hockey outing

— What’s with Franken’s lisp? He didn’t speak like that in the previous installments of this segment.
— Oh, I see, the lisp is from a hockey accident they’re going into detail about right now.
— Funny ending line.
— Overall, another okay edition of this segment, but I’m not too sure if I want to see these continue. The novelty of its unique format is starting to wear off, and I can see myself starting to get tired of these if there are any more of them.
STARS: ***

THEY’RE TAKING OVER
(DAA)’s paranoia about black takeover misses changes in his own family
 
— I’m absolutely loving the structure of this so far, with each family member returning as a black person while Dan obliviously rants on.
— “Pass the grits” – haha! A perfect ending line.
— Overall, a brilliant sketch.
STARS: ****½

NEXT WEEK
(no synopsis available)

— Another straightforward bit with Gilda informing us who’s going to be next week’s guests.
— Gilda again manages to come off so likable in such a simple non-comedic segment.
STARS: N/A

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— I’m glad Chevy’s back to actually saying funny things during the opening “phone conversation” gag, after the baffling bit in the preceding episode where he said absolutely nothing during the phone call.
— Ah, we get our very first utterance of the “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead” line.
— Another “toyboat” ad-lib from Chevy after he stumbled over a joke.

SPUD BEER
— Rerun. Didn’t we just see this in the last Weekend Update?

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella is upset about the prospect of “busting” school children
with GAM’s help, CHC repeats the top story for the hard-of-hearing
 
— I like Chevy briefly singing the Spud Beer jingle to himself when the commercial ended and he (jokingly) didn’t realize he was back on the air. That IS a catchy jingle, isn’t it?
— Emily Litella makes her very first Update appearance.
— Ah, now THIS is the Emily Litella humor that people remember nowadays. This is definitely better than that subpar sketch she made her debut in a few episodes ago.
— I’m also glad her commentary didn’t turn into yet another ‘Chevy makes goofy faces behind the correspondent’ bit.
— I don’t know whether to laugh or groan at the intentionally(?)-bad “ship hitting the fan” punchline to Chevy’s Frank Sinatra joke.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

LINE-UP #2
(host) is chosen from a line-up featuring a nun (JAC), a duck, an icebox

— Even funnier than the first one.  These sketches have kind of a comic strip-type of format, which is interesting to see on SNL.
— I also liked Gilda’s voice-over asking “Could you open the ice box please?”
STARS: ****

L-PILL
soldier (host) accidentally takes suicide pill during mission briefing
 
— Hey, it’s the Word Association set!
— You could hear Richard stifling his laughter for some reason when Dan shows him the hook gadget on the desk. Dan does a bit of a double-take when he notices Richard’s laugh.
— I love the camera slowly zooming in on Richard’s facial reaction to hearing the pill he just swallowed will kill him.
— His slowly passing out was great, and… wow, the sketch is over already. Once again, I love blackout gag / ‘set-up & punchline’ mini-sketches.
STARS: ****

JIM HENSONS’S MUPPETS
drunk Ploobis & Scred decide to pay a visit to the Mighty Favog

— The jokes are pretty bad here so far.
— Hmm, another blooper where one of the puppets gets its hand caught on something.
— The “why don’t, why don’t, why don’t” drunken stammering was the only time I’ve come close to laughing at anything in this so far.
— Was that ending even supposed to be funny? It was awful.
— Overall, yikes. Until now, I surprisingly haven’t been hating any of the Muppet sketches so far; in fact, the one from two episodes ago with the acupuncture needles actually gave me some big laughs, and the last one with Lily Tomlin was downright good. But THIS one, on the other hand, was exactly the type of bad humor that people had me expecting to see from these segments when I first came into this season.
STARS: *½

LINE-UP #3
(host) is chosen from a line-up in which all the other choices are cops

— Yet another really good one.
— I also like how all the cops were immediately pointing at Richard.
STARS: ****

EXORCIST II
another priest (host) tries to help possessed Regan (LAN)
 
— I recognize the actor with Richard; I recall seeing him in guest appearances on various black sitcoms from the 70s. The most notable role I remember seeing him in was Raj’s dad in “What’s Happening”.
— Richard already wanting to leave as soon as he heard the demonic sounds from upstairs is great.
— Strangely, this is Laraine’s first appearance of the night, and I remember hearing it ends up being her ONLY appearance. Then again, A LOT of cast members haven’t been seen much tonight. I wonder if it’s because this episode has so many guest performers who Richard requested be brought in.
— I read someplace (I think at SNL Archives) that it’s Chevy who does Laraine’s demonic voice-over in this. Is that true? Watching the sketch now, I’m having a hard time believing that’s his voice I’m hearing.
— Excellent timing from Richard when he seamlessly went from chanting “The bed… must be… on the floor” to frantically chanting “The bed… is on… my foot”, which is a quote I remember very well from seeing this sketch when I was a lot younger.
— Laraine’s facial expressions in this are great.
— Hilarious ending with Richard helping the other priest strangle Laraine.
STARS: ****

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
from his sickbed, Albert Brooks [real] advances his own agenda

— Is he actually sick, or this just a bit? His congested voice certainly sounds genuine.
— “Broasted” chicken???
— What did they bleep out when the delivery boy was saying the record title?
— What was on that big poster that Albert held up? It’s hard for me to see it in the copy of this episode I’m watching.
— Bad ending.
— Overall, I have no idea what to make of this film as a whole. All I can say is I was very underwhelmed by it compared to Albert’s usual work this season.
STARS: **

ASSASSINATION
(TOS) is shot after alleging JFK assassination was a conspiracy
 
— Hey, it’s Tom Schiller in a big role!
— Richard desperately denying having any involvement in Schiller getting shot is very funny.
— Wow, what a random little segment overall, but again, that’s one of the things I love about these early SNLs.
STARS: ***

RICHARD PRYOR STAND-UP #2
host does stand-up about a heroin addict being mentored by a wino
 
— Again, don’t expect to see me type much while watching a Richard Pryor stand-up set.
— The way he’s able to flawlessly go back-and-forth between all the various different-voiced characters he’s doing is so much fun to watch.
— Man, this is just getting funnier and funnier as it goes along.
— Overall, another prime, brilliant stand-up set; even better than the monologue earlier.
STARS: *****

SHELLEY PRYOR
Shelley Pryor [real] tells a story about a pair of carousel horses

— Okay, THIS is unusual, but intriguing.
— Overall, I surprisingly liked this, despite it not really being a comedic segment. Her story was interesting, and I liked the poetic, rhythmic style of it.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
 
— The cast members are each holding food up to Richard. (Jane especially has a very funny intense deadpan stare on her face) I wonder if this is an inside joke and/or a comedic follow-up to the Candice Bergen goodnights where the cast members each held up a rose to her.
— These are, I believe, the very first goodnights to have the special guests of the night joining the host & cast onstage.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— What can I say about an episode like this? An all-time classic show, and I’m glad to see that it still holds up.
— Unlike most of this season’s episodes I’ve reviewed so far where I had never seen them before, I was already familiar with a lot of this episode, due to various SNL compilation specials that some of tonight’s sketches made it onto, airings on “SNL Vintage” on NBC, etc. But, thanks to my ‘One SNL a Day’ project, it was interesting to now view this episode in the context of the other episodes that aired around this time. And I’d say this is by far the episode I’ve enjoyed the most so far this season, which is truly saying something since SNL’s been on an impressive streak of solid shows since episode 4 (the Candice Bergen one).
— I think part of what helps this episode still hold up, besides the basic fact that most of the sketches were very funny, is that a lot of the social commentary and racial humor that dominated the night is surprisingly still relevant today, all these decades later. That’s just one of the reasons why this is widely considered a very important episode in SNL history.
— And what can be said about Richard Pryor as host? Unsurprisingly, he was laugh-out-loud hilarious in every single sketch he appeared in, he gave many all-time-memorable performances, and his two stand-up sets are among some of the best stand-up comedy that’s ever been performed on the SNL stage.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
— Candice Bergen becomes SNL’s very first return host, only one month after her first hosting stint

Posted on

November 22, 1975 – Lily Tomlin (S1 E6)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Gerald Ford (CHC) addresses link between NYC debt default & re-election
   
— Hmm, another disclaimer on the bottom of the screen, this time stating this is not a good Gerald Ford impression. Ha, unlike the last Ford cold opening, where the disclaimer they showed made it confusing as to whether or not Chevy was actually playing Ford, this disclaimer makes it clear that he IS playing Ford, but they’re comically acknowledging how there was zero attempt at accuracy with his impression.
— The Rich Little disclaimer was very funny, too.
— The gag with him answering a glass of water as if it were a phone is a well-remembered classic SNL moment.
— I got a kick out of seeing him hang the red and black receivers onto the opposite phones.
— Great backwards tumble over the desk at the end. My favorite Chevy falls so far have been the really messy ones where a whole bunch of stuff gets crashed into, rather than the straightforward falls where he just goes straight to the floor and then that’s it.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Nothing noteworthy about the cast list tonight: their names are again divided into two separate screens, like we saw in the preceding episode.
— I think it’s safe to say by this point that Michael O’Donoghue isn’t going to be put back into the cast list. We can pretty much officially say his last episode as a credited cast member was the Candice Bergen one, which was episode 4 of the season.

MONOLOGUE
host reads some one-liners from her journal & does a cheer for NYC
 
— Unlike the last few episodes, tonight they have the host actually make an entrance when their name is announced by Pardo.
— Lily’s jokingly-angry, psychotic yell of “STOP!!!!” during the audience applause after her entrance was great. Already, you can see she’s going to be a fantastic host.
— I really liking the format of this so far, with her doing a string of random funny one-liners, which, as I said in the George Carlin review, is my favorite style of stand-up comedy.
— This New York cheer she’s now doing is very funny.
— Overall, wow, this whole thing was great. Best monologue of the season so far, I’d argue.
STARS: ****½

BEETHOVEN, PART 1
Beethoven (JOB) invents “Tie A Yellow Ribbon ‘Round The Ole Oak Tree”

— Oh, is this going to be the classic Ray Charles bit?
— John’s various facial expressions when playing the piano are funny.
— Hmm, this ISN’T the Ray Charles piece; he’s playing a different song.
— This was still a funny twist in the sketch, though, made even better by John’s puzzled look while continuing to play the song.
— Oh, wow, and that’s it? I like how this ended when the joke was still hot. I guess this is going to be a running segment throughout the show, that’ll lead to the Ray Charles bit I’m remembering.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

TRIOPENIN
— Boy, they sure love re-airing this commercial………

JAWS III
Matt Cooper (JOB) & Sheriff Brady (DAA) resume Land Shark hunt
   
— Surprised to see a Landshark sequel so soon, but this should be good.
— The heavy breathing John does every time he and Dan are hesitant to look at the various victims’ remains is a little detail that keeps cracking me up.
— “That’s the third time he’s hit that building”? More like, it’s the third time he’s hit that APARTMENT. I have to laugh at how each scene with the Landshark targeting a different woman all take place in the exact same living room set, with the same furniture, background decorations and everything.
— I’m liking this change of pace by showing the Landshark at the police station.
— Loved the part with the voice of Pardo getting attacked by the Landshark during a radio announcement.
— Whoa, this is unexpected, with them breaking the fourth wall and being told by the Landshark that the sketch has to be cut short.
— Great ending line with John lamenting the fact that he turned down “Cuckoo’s Nest” for this show.
STARS: ****

BELL-HOP
a clumsy bellhop (CHC) walks in on an interracial couple (GAM) & (JAC)

— As if it weren’t already strange enough seeing the same living room set used in various scenes throughout the Jaws III sketch, now we see that same living room used in this next, completely-unrelated sketch. It’s especially odd since I’m watching the DVD version of this episode, where there’s no commercial breaks or bumpers, thus we go from Jaws III’s ending with John sitting on the living room couch to the beginning of this sketch with Garrett and Jane in the exact same spot John was.
— Wait… WHAT??? This sketch is over ALREADY??? Nothing even happened in it! It was just a minute of Chevy doing his usual ‘klutz’ shtick by fumbling around with newspapers while Garrett and Jane looked on, and then Chevy left the room, and the sketch ended. What the hell??!?! If there was a premise to this sketch, I sure missed it.
— And why did Chevy have an old-timey southern accent?
— And was there supposed to be some social commentary by having an interracial couple? (remember, this WAS in the 70s, back when showing interracial couples on TV was still taboo) The writers went absolutely nowhere with that aspect of the sketch.
— Overall, this whole sketch just left me baffled. I think my review of it is longer than the sketch itself was.
STARS: *

EDITH ANN SKATES
little girl Edith Ann (host) cautiously ventures onto an ice skating rink
 
— Is this the same character that Lily would later do in a sketch I remember seeing from her 1983 hosting stint where she and Julia Louis-Dreyfus played two little girls?
— This looks like an interesting film, and seems like it will be a good showcase for some physical comedy from Lily.
— Hmm, I was right about the physical comedy, though the main humor actually seems to be coming from the various funny little things she’s saying in her voice-over narration.
— I especially like the line about pasting her dog’s paws to the floor.
— Overall, a cute little film that I enjoyed.
STARS: ***½

BEETHOVEN, PART 2
Beethoven (JOB) plays piano & sings “My Girl”

— Ah, this IS a running piece.
— An even funnier twist this time, with him now actually singing the tune he unexpectedly breaks into.
— I love how he actually kept the thick accent while singing “My Girl”s lyrics.
STARS: ****

NEXT SHOW
GIR announces Richard Pryor & Candice Bergen will do SNL in December

— So far, this seems to just be a straightforward announcement of upcoming SNL airings, but even in something as simple as this, Gilda comes off so charming and endearing.
— I liked the audience breaking out into applause at the mere mention of Richard Pryor being the next host. You can tell they’re eagerly awaiting him being on the show.
STARS: N/A

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— What the—? For our opening “phone conversation” gag, instead of saying something funny into the phone, Chevy just picked up the phone, dialed some numbers, stayed silent for a while, and then disinterestedly hung up without even saying anything. Odd. That, understandably, got zero reaction from the audience.
— Hmm, a news story about Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s death back when it first happened.
— Since Francisco Franco’s death was new at the time, the punchline of tonight’s joke obviously wasn’t what we would now expect (that he’s still dead), but was instead about how despite his death, doctors say his health has taken a turn for the worse, which in some ways is like an early prototype of the later ‘he’s still dead’ running joke.
— Oh, wow. The preceding episode’s Update had a tasteless George Wallace wheelchair joke that I liked a lot, but now tonight’s Update had an even-funnier tasteless George Wallace/“Ironside” wheelchair joke that I absolutely LOVED. I also enjoyed the audience’s loud “ooh” reaction. And again, that joke would be right at home in a modern-day Michael Che/Colin Jost Weekend Update.

SPUD BEER
Spud Beer is the potato-based brew to drink after electroshock therapy
 
— Haha, this is great. Again, while I’ve been kinda underwhelmed by most of this season’s fake ads so far, this one has a lot of things that I always like to see in an SNL fake ad, such as a memorably-creative fictional product that’s being advertised, a catchy commercial jingle, etc.
— A few familiar faces from the writing staff have prominent roles in this, including Tom Davis and Alan Zweibel, the latter of whom is particular funny here with his catatonic demeanor.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
CHC admits he drinks Spud Beer & pours a can of it on his suit
with GAM’s help, CHC repeats the top story for the hard-of-hearing
 
— The ad-libbed “toyboat toyboat” vocal exercise Chevy just did when stumbling through a joke was pretty funny. Like I said in the preceding review, I always like when Chevy quickly ad-libs little things like that. I heard he actually does the “toyboat toyboat” thing in some other Updates later this season whenever he stumbles over a joke.
— In tonight’s obligatory hard-of-hearing-news bit, I like how towards the end, Garrett was yelling some of the things Chevy “said” before Chevy even said it. That was a bit of a much-needed shake-up to the hard-of-hearing-news routine. I mean, I know the routine is considered a classic nowadays, but man, did they have to use it in EVERY Weekend Update?
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

PATTY
Susie (host) forgives her recently-arrested sorority sister Patty Hearst

— I couldn’t think of anything to say at all while watching this, but overall, this was an okay piece that was helped by Lily’s performance.  And while I initially wasn’t happy when she started to break out into song here, I ended up liking how the song actually had some heart.
STARS: ***

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Ploobis & wife Peuta (Alice Tweedy) find that Scred has fallen for host
 
— I like where the premise is going; Scred being in love with Lily Tomlin seems like it will be a welcome change of pace for these Muppets segments.
— Interesting segue to Scred meeting Lily.
— Hmm, more singing…
— I have to say, though, that their performance of “I Got You Babe” is pretty funny and really sweet.
— Overall, definitely one of the better Muppet segments so far.
STARS: ***

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
— This is just a replay of Albert’s film from the first episode. Lily gave an interesting intro/set-up to this, though.

BEETHOVEN, PART 3
Beethoven (JOB) sings “What’d I Say” with backups wife (GIR) & maid (LAN)
 
— Is it really necessary to keep doing the ‘good morning, nice to see you’ bit at the beginning of ALL of these Beethoven segments?
— I liked John’s deadpan “achoo” after snorting some snuff.
— Ah, the sunglasses… Yep, here we go, we’re getting the Ray Charles piece I had been anticipating.
— Yes, this is fantastic. And I like how Gilda and Laraine are now getting involved, too.
— John’s Ray Charles imitation is simply perfect. This is definitely one of his all-time best performances.
— It’s great how these Beethoven segments used a three-part format to slowly build up to this Ray Charles bit, which is much better than if they had gone right into it in the first segment like I had been expecting.
STARS: *****

HARD HATS
forewoman (host) gives female hardhats lessons on how to harass men
 
— Lily just called Jane by her real name. Ah, I see this is yet another instance of this cast playing themselves in a sketch that in more recent years would’ve given them character names instead.
— Not too sure how I feel about this premise. However, Lily and the female cast are doing nice ensemble work here, and their fun performances are helping make this sketch more enjoyable.
— Very strange ending. Was Gilda’s “Don’t cry; it’s only school” line even intended to be funny? It ended the sketch on a flat note.
STARS: **½

SPEED
Speed diet pill lets housewife (Anne Beatts) get a lot of work done
 
— I’m loving the concept of this.
— Great visual with the cabinet filled with neatly-folded brown paper bags.
— Overall, another very funny fake ad tonight. They’ve been getting better with these.
STARS: ****

MARGO’S DANCE PALACE
at a dance, 1950s teen (host) gossips about classmates to her friend

— Ah, I see this is a ‘one-woman show’ performance piece.
— Considering I usually don’t care for ‘one-man/woman show’ sketches, I’m surprised by how much I’m really enjoying this. Lily is doing such a great job and I’m very engaged in her performance.
— Overall, a very strong performance piece. I even liked the sentimental dramatic turn this took towards the end.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS
host & Bees GAM, LAN, GIR, CHC scat with SNL Band
 
— Oh, I can see these goodnights are going to be special, right from the beginning.
— Funny blooper when they were waiting for Gilda to speak and she didn’t even realize they were on the air.
— Looks kinda weird seeing Chevy in one of the Bee costumes, though I know he wore one in the Bee Hospital sketch from the premiere.
— I believe this is our first of several instances this era where Garrett showcases his nice singing voice.
— Wow at Gilda’s raspy-voiced scatting.
— This is a very nice way to close the show. Unpredictable format-breaking moments like this is part of what made the original cast so fun.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Another fun episode. This is what I expected would happen when you mix Lily Tomlin with 70s SNL.  It was a given that Lily would be an excellent host, and she certainly delivered, being fantastic in every single segment. Hell, she even got me to love a ‘one-man show’ piece. Overall, she was a strong enough host to make me wish she were a regular member of this cast.
— Lots of musical-based material tonight, which is something I’m usually not crazy about seeing on SNL, but it’s hard for me to complain about it in this episode when most of the music was actually fun, especially the goodnights number and, of course, the classic Beethoven three-parter.
— SNL seems to have officially hit its stride by this point. Knowing what episode is coming up next, it’s nice to know things get even better from here.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Richard Pryor

Posted on

November 15, 1975 – Robert Klein / Abba, Loudon Wainwright III (S1 E5)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
beauty pageant winner Sherry (LAN) refuses to accept her crown
 
— Hmm, Chevy called Laraine’s character “Sherry” just now. Is this the same Sherry character with the California accent that Laraine would later play?
— Yep, she’s speaking with the accent, so I guess this counts as that character’s debut. Odd how she’s not wearing the blonde wig she later wore in some other sketches I remember seeing her in, but as I pointed out in the last episode, I don’t think any of the cast members have worn a wig yet in any of these early episodes I’ve covered so far. Did SNL not have a budget for wigs yet back then or something?
— Interesting that they’re letting someone else get laughs in the cold opening besides Chevy for once.
— I especially like this part with Laraine angrily stripping down from her fancy pageant dress to just a plain shirt and (very 70s-looking) jeans.
— How are they going to work the traditional Chevy fall into THIS opening?
— Oh, he’s now walking towards the edge of the stage…
— Yep, and there’s the traditional fall. Good for a laugh as always, though.
— I liked the visual of him having Laraine’s crown crookedly on his head while saying LFNY.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Ha, instead of announcing “A Film By Albert Brooks” like Pardo’s been doing every week so far, they actually had Pardo announce “No Film By Albert Brooks” this time, which is pretty funny.
— Well, since it seems to have become a tradition for me to chronicle the different ways the cast has been listed in each episode’s credits so far this season, here’s tonight’s update: unlike in the last episode, the WHOLE cast is listed this time… well, everyone except Coe and O’Donoghue. However, the cast list is divided into two separate screens this time.
 
— I think I now understand the bizarre error in the preceding episode’s opening credits, where only four cast members were listed (Garrett, Laraine, Gilda, and Michael): the cast list was probably divided into two screens, but for some reason, one of those screens must’ve failed to display, and thus we only saw the screen crediting the aforementioned four cast members.

MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about the dangers of animal stereotypes & movie issues

— Like in the preceding episode, after the opening montage ends, the host is already present, sitting on a stool on stage as Pardo announces their name. I can see why SNL later decided to have it be a tradition for hosts to actually make an entrance after Pardo announces them: it’s more exciting for the studio audience to see that. In this episode, it looked kinda silly for the audience to start applauding Robert Klein after Pardo announced him, considering he was already there in front of them the whole time.
— Ah, a stand-up monologue, I see. I’m not familiar with Robert Klein’s stand-up, but I usually always enjoy seeing any hosts do this in their monologue.
— This is pretty good so far. I’m liking his delivery, and he comes off so natural in front of the audience.
— The “HE’S EATING MY BABY!!!” part was very funny.
— Another part I really liked just now is the bit about going “ooooooooWOOOOOooooooo” when you’re about to be murdered.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ABBA)
— Very interesting having the musical guest being introduced by Robert as a captain on the set of a ship, and their performance playing out as if they’re entertainment for the ship’s “passengers”.
— I’m liking the amusing cutaways to Robert as the captain struggling with a leak on the ship.

PONG
Pong-playing college students discuss their history midterm

— Surprised to see them bringing this unique segment back already after just one episode. And as the first sketch of the night this time, when in the last episode, it was in the 10-to-1 slot.
— I got a good laugh from Franken’s realization that he mistook Aaron Burr for Alexander Hamilton during the midterm.
— Overall, another pretty nice edition of this sketch. The conversation between Franken & Davis was actually a little funnier than the last one.
STARS: ***

MINUTE MYSTERY
Mike Mendoza (DAA) challenges viewers to solve a crime

— Heh, Laraine’s supposed to be a dead body, yet the sketch began with a tight close-up of her clearly turning her head. I wonder if that was an intentional joke.
— Dan is very funny acting like a Hollywood-type photographer while taking pictures of the dead body.
— John’s old-timey delivery is surprisingly great. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play this type of role before.
— The close-ups of increasingly-strange objects around the room while the ‘quiz music’ is playing is pretty funny.
— Good ending.
STARS: ***½

BEE CENTENNIAL MINUTE
(GAM) describes an insect’s brush with history

— Ah, the Bees running gag continues…
— Quite a long set-up, but I do like the way it built to the ending line. I was hoping for a funnier punchline, though.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III)
— Wait, is this supposed to be a comedy performance instead of a musical guest performance? I went through the whole first minute of this assuming it was just standard musical guest fare, but now his utterly-bizarre facial expressions and increasingly-goofy singing style have me re-thinking that.
— And now I can hear some of the audience members actually laughing in response to some of his lyrics. Hmm. I’m still very confused over whether this is supposed to be a legit musical performance or just a comedy bit.
— There are some points where he bares quite a resemblance to future cast member Will Ferrell, especially with some of the over-the-top facial expressions he’s making.

GREG ALLMAN, HOW’S YOUR LOVE LIFE?
Gregg Allman (CHC) eventually answers “How’s your love-life?” truthfully
 
— Ha, Chevy in that ridiculous wig, goatee, and sunglasses…….
— Hey, speaking of which, I guess this is SNL’s very first instance of a cast member wearing a wig on the show.
— The structure of this seems so random. I wonder if this is making fun of a real ad that Greg Allman starred in at the time.
— The punchline with him just saying “toilet” (in response to being asked how his love life’s going) and then doing a depressed face-plant into the piano keys actually made me laugh out loud.
STARS: ***½

TOUGH DIRECTOR
Sam Peckinpah (JOB) treats actress (GIR) roughly while directing a comedy

— Isn’t this the exact same living room set we just saw minutes ago?
— Whoa at John slapping Gilda out of nowhere. Should I laugh? I think I’d feel bad if I did, partly because of all the stuff I heard about John supposedly being misogynistic in real life.
— And now he kicked Gilda in the shin. Okay, I see where this is going, where his abuse to Gilda will increase each time he stops the filming of the movie.
— This is kinda like a violent version of that Sexist Director sketch Michael McKean would later do in 1994.
— I have to say, Gilda is doing a great job selling John’s hits, especially the way she fell all over the place just now.
— Very funny ending with Robert turning the tables on John.
STARS: **½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1

— That Sammy Davis Jr. Judaism conversion joke was fantastic
— I liked how during the audience’s huge reaction to the David & Julie Eisenhower execution joke, Chevy briefly picked up the phone on his desk and pretended to start dialing while he was waiting for the audience’s reaction to die down. I always like whenever Chevy ad-libs quick little things like that.
— LOL at the tasteless George Wallace wheelchair joke. That’s a joke I can easily picture Michael Che or Colin Jost doing nowadays.
— Wow, that Muhammad Ali/Joe Fraser joke bombed hard.

JAMITOL
(GEC) tells how Jamitol lets his wife (JAC) keep very busy

— George Coe sighting!
— Jane’s delivery is very funny here.
— She also got me laughing just now with the way she slowly passed out.
— Oh, wow, Coe actually made me laugh for once, with his delivery of the “I think I’ll stuff her” line at the end.
— Overall, this was a lot better than the earlier Jamitol ad this season (the one with Chevy and O’Donoghue playing a couple).
— I guess it’s safe to say that by this point in the show’s history, they won’t be putting Coe back into the opening credits, considering how many episodes we’ve been through since the last time he was credited, which was the very first episode. So technically, even though he’s continuing to make appearances on the show, this puts him right down there with future short-lived SNL players Laurie Metcalf and Emily Prager as people who only lasted one episode as a cast member. I’m just a bit surprised, since there have been some SNL sites that have stated Coe’s stint as a cast member lasted SEVERAL episodes, not just one. There seems to be a similar confusion over just how long Michael O’Donoghue was a credited cast member.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Frank Telinka (DAA) warns of the coming energy crisis while CHC mocks him
with GAM’s help, CHC repeats the top story for the hard-of-hearing
 
— They’re not going to be doing the ‘Chevy makes goofy faces behind a correspondent’s back’ bit EVERY week now, are they? I mean, the “news for the hard-of-hearing” bit has already seemingly become a weekly recurring Update segment, and if that & the ‘goofy faces’ bit are BOTH going to be weekly features, I fear that it’s soon going to feel like I’m watching the same Weekend Update day after day. That reminds me of the complains the two hosts at the That Week in SNL podcast had about how Norm Macdonald’s Season 21 Weekend Updates always relied on the same cycle of punchlines week-after-week (as a Norm fan, I’m sure I’ll feel differently about that when I reach that season in my reviews).
— Hmm, strange – Chevy actually doing a news story about the birthday of his then-girlfriend-and-occasional-SNL-extra Jacqueline Carlin.
— And now he’s acknowledged Lorne Michaels’ birthday as well. I believe this is the very first on-air mention of Lorne in an SNL episode.
— Looks like I was right about the “news for the hard-of-hearing” bit having become a weekly segment.
— Something new I’m starting to find funny in these hard-of-hearing bits is the mock-serious look on Garrett’s face when the circle of him first appears on-screen. His mock-serious look tonight especially made me laugh.
— You could see Chevy trying not to laugh just now during the hard-of-hearing-news bit.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

EXTERMINATORS
(host) tries to convince fellow exterminator (JOB) not to kill roaches
 
— Just now as John made his entrance, I couldn’t help but notice at first glance how much he resembled his brother Jim Belushi for a quick second. Maybe it’s the oil/grease on John’s face in this sketch that made the resemblance stand out more. Or maybe it’s because of the army clothes he’s wearing; I remember Jim often being cast as army-type guys during his SNL years.
— Speaking of first glance, I didn’t even recognize Robert Klein the first few seconds he showed up here. The glasses and hat make him look a lot different.
— I like the premise of this so far, with army-like exterminators treating their roach-killing job as if they’re soldiers at war.
— John’s accent & the look on his face are both fantastic. This is yet another sketch tonight where he’s surprised me by doing a voice I didn’t know he could pull off. Going through these early episodes one-by-one, I’m slowly starting to see that John was more versatile than I had thought.
— Weird segue to the “The Eternal Crawl”sequence. I almost thought they had cut to a separate sketch at first until I realized it’s still part of the same sketch.
— The little joke at the end with John subtly continuing to kill bugs behind Robert’s back was pretty funny.
STARS: ***

FIREMAN
fireman GIR talks about her job & gives some fire prevention tips

— Well, this seems random, but like I said recently, I like how these early episodes have been doing random little segments like this.
— Overall, there was nothing really noteworthy in this, but maybe it was intended to be more cute than funny. Either way, it was fine for what it was and Gilda’s performance was good as usual. But considering this starred her as herself, I kinda wanted to like this a little more.
STARS: ***

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Scred tries to come up with ways to remedy Ploobis’ migraine headache

— I liked the part with Ploobis stuffing the ice pack into his wife’s mouth; that felt like something you’d see on The Muppet Show.
— Okay, this is finally starting to actually get really funny, with the acupuncture needles sequence.
— Ploobis’ screaming when Scred jammed in that one needle was hilarious.
— Overall, this is easily the most I’ve ever laughed at these Muppet segments so far.
STARS: ***

ROBERT KLEIN STAND-UP #2
host does stand-up about college life, abnormal psychology, pot & monkeys
 
— I like how he’s getting multiple stand-up segments throughout the show, kinda like George Carlin in the first episode and Richard Pryor a few episodes from now.
— He’s pretty fun to watch as he’s going on about different topics.
— Pretty solid material overall.
STARS: ***½

K-PUT PRICE-IS-RITE STAMP GUN
save lots of money on groceries with K-Put’s Price-Is-Rite stamp gun

— Really good concept for a fake ad.
— Overall, I liked this a lot. I had recently been trying to find an opportunity in these reviews to voice how underwhelmed I’ve been by all the fake ads that SNL has aired in the handful of early episodes I’ve covered so far, but they won me over with this Stamp Gun commercial. So far, this is easily the most I’ve liked a fake ad at this point in the show’s early timeline.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III)
 
— Heh, now his facial expressions during this second performance are MORE crazy & Will Ferrell-esque than ever.
— There goes the audience laughing again, too.
— Okay, more and more, it’s becoming undeniably obvious that, yes, his two performances are indeed intentional comedic musical numbers, and now I feel dumb for thinking they were supposed to be serious performances. I guess I’m just not used to seeing comedic acts as SNL musical guests.

LOOKS AT BOOKS
JAC questions Little Kingdom author Emily Litella (GIR)

— Whoa, our very first Emily Litella sighting. I certainly wasn’t expecting to see her debut happen in a SKETCH; I wasn’t aware she had ever made any appearances outside of Update.
— Something looks a bit different about her in this first appearance.
— I’m liking Jane’s giddy facial expression whenever she fills in the end of Gilda’s sentences.
— The studio audience doesn’t sound like they’re into this sketch at all.
— Okay, the “teeeeeeny tiiiiiiiny…” phrase Gilda kept saying was kinda funny. But overall, ehh…. I wasn’t crazy about this sketch. It’s strange to see that Emily Litella, who would go on to become one of Gilda’s most beloved recurring characters, actually kinda bombed in her first appearance.
STARS: **

AMBASSADOR TRAINING INSTITUTE
— rerun

I CAN’T STOP MY LEG
host plays harmonica with SNL Band & sings “I Can’t Stop My Leg”

— Hmm, Robert’s about to perform what looks to be a comedic number. Is this going to be the “I Can’t Stop My Leg” bit that I’ve always heard about?
— Man, his facial expressions are cracking me up so far.
— Ah, it IS “I Can’t Stop My Leg”! Glad to finally get to see this.
— Wow, this is great. I’m absolutely loving this.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ABBA)
   
— Whoa, these sudden disclaimers on the bottom of the screen….. Oh, that’s right! I remember reading about this before. I think I remember hearing this was Michael O’Donoghue’s idea. He’s actually one of the “passengers” on the ship set during both of these musical performances.
— I do like how they’re continuing the side-act with Robert as the hapless ship captain.
— What’s with all the white spots on the screen suddenly? Is this a technical error?
— Holy hell, that was great just now with the dining tables, waiters, and passengers all crashing into each other due to the ship slanting sideways. I love that.
— Why didn’t it ever become a semi-regular thing for SNL to do fun little things like this during musical guests’ performances?
— Hmm, this ended while Abba was still “singing”. Did the show run long and they had to cut to commercials before the band was done, or was it intentional for their performance to end like that?

GOODNIGHTS
 
— I guess they’re still experimenting with how the goodnights are done. While in the previous episode’s goodnights, they introduced the now-traditional aspect of having the cast on stage with the host, this episode has gone back to what we saw in the first two episode’s goodnights where the host is on stage alone.
_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Pretty good episode. Didn’t have quite as much of a fun vibe as or as many fun quick random sketches as the preceding episode with Candice Bergen, but this was still an overall pretty solid show with not much to complain about. Even the performances from the two musical guests were funny, which is almost unheard of for SNL.
— Going into the episode not being all that familiar with Robert Klein, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from him, though I figured beforehand that he MUST’VE done a good job since I know they bring him back a few more times throughout this era. Watching this episode, I ended up being impressed by him: he was a fun host, I enjoyed his stand-up, he got some laughs in the sketches, I loved his “I Can’t Stop My Leg” number, and he even got involved in Abba’s musical performances where he helped make it watchable with his funny acting & facial expressions.

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:
Lily Tomlin

Posted on

November 8, 1975 – Candice Bergen / Esther Phillips (S1 E4)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
clumsy Gerald Ford (CHC) has a few accidents during a speech   
— Ah, our debut of Chevy’s famous Gerald Ford non-impression.
— Wait, now there’s a disclaimer on the bottom of the screen stating “This is not the president of the United States, but he thinks he is”. Huh? So does that mean this DOESN’T count as him playing Ford? Or does it, but that disclaimer was just their way of waving off the fact that there was no attempt to make Chevy look or sound anything like Ford? If this DOESN’T count as him playing Ford, does that mean this and all of his subsequent Ford appearances should technically be counted as a “character”, and we were wrong all these years when we counted it as an impression? Ha, it’s funny how one little disclaimer has me asking so many questions…….
— I’ve just come to the realization that, unless I’m mistaken,  we’ve yet to see Chevy wear a wig in any of the four episodes I’ve covered.  Actually, come to think of it, have ANY of the cast members wore any wigs yet by this point?
— The overabundance of goofy accidents Chevy keeps having is kinda over-the-top, but pretty damn funny, especially the gag with the glass of water he keeps pouring. Chevy is very skilled at performing a rapid-fire string of blunders; he makes it look effortless.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— I swear, the cast list in the opening montage has been getting stranger and stranger with each passing episode. Tonight, for some bizarre reason, literally only HALF of the cast is listed: Garrett, Laraine, Gilda, and Michael O’Donoghue. What in the world???!!

— Considering the fact that their names are shown on the lower half of the screen, I have to wonder if the full cast was supposed to be listed, but there was maybe some weird technical error where the names on the upper half of the screen failed to display. I know that theory sounds strange, but it’s possible. After all, this IS a very early episode back when SNL’s technology was kinda shoddy.

MONOLOGUE
allergic host attempts to dissuade CHC from hitting a Bee (JOB)

— Right after the opening montage ended, Candice is already on stage, sitting on a stool as Pardo announces her name. It’s interesting seeing how in these early episodes, SNL experimented with how they had their hosts begin their monologues. The first and third episode had the host (George Carlin and Rob Reiner, respectively) make an entrance after Pardo calls their name, whereas the second and fourth episode (Paul Simon and Candice Bergen, respectively) had the host already there on stage as their name is called. Wonder how long it is until SNL made the permanent decision to stick with the former, where the hosts make an entrance.
— It always feels unusual for me seeing Candice Bergen look so young. Because I grew up in the 90s, most of my exposure to her has been from “Murphy Brown” and onward.
— Did I just see one of The Bees in the background?
— Ah, I was right, although it’s just John as a Bee instead of the whole cast playing them.
— I like how they’re playing this out, treating John as an actual bee and trying to sneak up and kill him the way you would a real insect. This is a change from the last two Bees appearances, where the premise was that they’re recurring characters who nobody likes.
STARS: ***

AMBASSADOR TRAINING INSTITUTE
start your career in diplomacy at Ambassador Training Institute
 
— Pretty decent premise.
— The ‘multiple choice’ list has been my favorite part so far.
— Overall, not bad.
STARS: ***

CIA DEPARTMENT OF RECORDS
CIA records keeper (DAA) says he can’t find career criminal GAM’s file

— Hmm, I wasn’t expecting the reveal that Garrett’s playing himself. Until then, I had assumed he was just a random character.
— I’m not really sure where this sketch is going, though I’m liking Dan’s performance and the increasing desperation of the crimes Garrett’s claiming he committed.
— The twist/punchline at the end was pretty funny, but I’m not sure if all that set-up was worth it.
STARS: **

JAWS II
a clever Land Shark (CHC) attacks young women in their homes
  
— The debut of the Landshark!
— All the stuff that Chevy’s saying behind the door in that sheepish voice keeps cracking me up.
— Ah, there’s the classic “Candygram” line.
— I’m liking the short cutaways with John and Dan, especially the egg salad bit just now.
— Another great part of the John/Dan scenes is the “good news/bad news” phone conversation.
— Nice touch having Pardo’s voice as the radio announcer that Candice is listening to.
— Funny ending with Garrett getting mistaken for the Landshark and staggering around after getting conked with the mallet.
— Overall, a very memorable and strong sketch, and I love how they made this feel like an actual movie, with all the various scenery changes.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

HAMLET / POLAROID
Hamlet’s (CHC) crib notes scatter when he fractures Yorick’s skull
   
— The skull breaking and Chevy attempting to read the lines off the small fragmented pieces is pretty funny.
— LOL at the brief “Hello Dolly” part.
— A Polaroid segue? What??? THIS sure came out of left field.
— Oh, I remember hearing about this, where SNL had their performers do an actual non-joke live Polaroid ad in an episode. In fact, I think I heard this was actually done several times in this era of the show, though I might be mistaken.
— I like how Candice is randomly wearing a Bee costume. It’s cute how the whole Bees thing became a big running gag so quickly on SNL in just four episodes.
— Well, this Polaroid bit is just plain odd to see on SNL. I keep expecting some kind of humor, but it’s been played completely straight so far.
— Okay, there was a little humor at the end just now, with Candice and Chevy’s quick insult to each other.
STARS: N/A

LONG DISTANCE
gay son’s long-distance call to mom is “the next best thing to being her”

— Whaaaaaaaat???  That’s all I could say after this commercial ended.
— Wow, I didn’t understand this at all. Was it even intended to be funny? Was the “it’s the next best thing to being her” tagline intended to be an insult to gay men? I get the bad feeling the latter is what SNL was going for here, which is something that wouldn’t fly on the show nowadays in our more gay-friendly world.
— I have no idea what to make of this ad as whole. Man, like I said a few episodes ago, some of these early SNL fake ads are STRANGE.
STARS: *

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
 
— Ah, we have our very first utterance of Chevy’s famous “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not” intro!
— Hmm, the president back then was known for making big firings and hirings in his white house staff? Heh, some things never change…
— I loved the joke about vandals attaching arms to the Venus de Milo statue.

TRIOPENIN

— We break in the middle of Update for our very first instance of a repeated fake ad.

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
while CHC makes faces at her, JAC blasts New York’s vote on the ERA
with GAM’s help, CHC repeats the top story for the hard-of-hearing
 
— Finally, four episodes into SNL’s existence, Weekend Update has its first-ever guest commentary at the desk. Jane Curtin gets the honors. Kinda meaningful in hindsight, considering she would later go on to be Chevy’s successor as Update anchor.
— Oh, this is the well-known recurring bit where Chevy makes faces behind the guest commentator’s back while they’re addressing the camera. Wow, a lot of Chevy trademarks were born in this episode: his Gerald Ford impression/character, his Landshark sketches, “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not”, and now this.
— After just one episode, they’ve already brought back the “news for the hard of hearing” bit? I can’t complain, because as I said before, it’s always funny.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***½

CHANEL
Catherine Deneuve (host) lies on a Chanel bottle & talks about fame

— I can tell this must be parodying a specific ad that’s before my time, but I’m still enjoying this so far. Candice’s performance is excellent and her accent is making me laugh.
— Good ending with the bottle still attached to her face when she held her head upright.
STARS: ***

ANDY KAUFMAN
as Foreign Man, Andy Kaufman [real] bombs while attempting stand-up

— Yes! Our first instance of Andy’s “Foreign Man” act on SNL.
— I love the way this is building up so far.
— The very long, painfully-awkward pause when he “forgets” what impression to do next is fucking great. Most of my favorite Andy Kaufman bits over the years are ones that rely on making the audience confused & having no idea how to react to what they’re seeing.
— Oh, I see this is where his sobbing noises are gradually going to turn rhythmic and then segue into him playing on the big bongo drum and then dancing. I saw a clip of that part years ago in an Andy Kaufman documentary.
— Overall, this was such a fascination to watch. It had just about everything I love to see in an Andy Kaufman performance.
STARS: *****

FEMININE TALK
GIR & host chat about their insecurities, femininity, gender equality

— Hmm, Gilda and Candice as themselves on the homebase stage… I can already tell this will be interesting.
— So far, this hasn’t been too laugh-out-loud funny, but is very charming.
— Overall, this was really good. While there were some jokes scattered in there, there’s something I enjoy about seeing a realistic, slice-of-life, laid-back conversation between these two charismatic female performers.
STARS: ****

A FILM BY ALBERT BROOKS
NBC series Medical Season, The Three Of Us, Black Vet
   
— Previewing various fictional mid-season replacement shows seems like a premise I’ll enjoy, and is a bit of a change of pace from the other shorts we’ve seen from Albert Brooks so far.
— This medical show preview is strange, but kinda funny.
— The guy with the sunglasses in the “you could get hit by a car driving home today” bit looks familiar.
— This “The Three of Us” preview is cracking me up with the intentional bad jokes and typical sitcom laughtrack.
— Is that the same little girl from the ‘age of consent lowered to seven’ scene in Albert Brooks’ short from the first episode?
STARS: ***

MIDNIGHT PROBE
host interviews kiwi trappers (DAA) & (JOB)
 
— Feels like the first time we’re seeing Belushi in quite a while.
— Unusual sketch so far, but I’m enjoying how the silliness of what Dan and John are saying is being played so straight.
— Wow, this turned crazy all of sudden with the demonstration of kiwi-bagging. This is hilarious, especially Dan and John’s goofy high-pitched chanting during it.
— This HAD to have been written (or at least co-written) by Dan. Watching & reviewing these SNL episodes in order, I’m starting to notice in the four episodes I’ve covered that he’s the one in this cast who seems to star in the particularly bizarre, inventive, out-there material (e.g. the Square Dance and Home Security sketches), which is starting to make him my new favorite of this cast.
STARS: ***½

CRANK CALL
airline ticket vendor (LAN) calmly takes (MOD)’s sadistic crank call

— Oh, THIS sketch. I’ve never actually seen it before, but I must’ve read the transcript because this is coming off very familiar to me so far.
— I’m always a fan of O’Donoghue’s disturbing, fucked-up humor, so naturally, I’m absolutely loving his psychotic deadpan rant to Laraine in this sketch.
— Great punchline with Laraine. Once again, I really like how these early SNL episodes have so many quick, to-the-point, random little sketches.
STARS: ****½

JIM HENSON’S MUPPETS
Scred & Ploobis consult Mighty Favog about the dwindling Glig population
 
— Ploobis’ extended eating sequence at beginning is pretty funny.
— Hmm, the food-deliverer’s (I think her name is Vazh) voice is completely different from her voice in the first Muppets sketch. I like this new voice better.
— Ploobis’ wife’s delivery of her lines always amuses me.
— While I’m going on about the Muppet’s voices, I’m getting a pretty good laugh from the yelling Glig’s voice. That character is one I can picture being on The Muppet Show.
— Overall, while none of these SNL Muppet sketches have been anywhere near great so far, I’m surprised to see I haven’t exactly been hating them yet.
STARS: **½

IRK THE TURK
host’s obnoxious practical jokes eventually ire third-world ruler (JOB)
 
— There seems to be a lot of instances tonight where it’s randomly revealed someone’s playing their self after I assumed they were just playing a character. Like the interviewers Candice played in both this sketch and Midnight Probe. I guess this is yet another unique aspect of 70s SNL. If they did those two sketches nowadays, the host would’ve been given a character name instead of their real name.
— Kinda surprising seeing Candice doing these rude antics to John’s character. Her antics are funny, especially the match-burning bit. I also really like John’s frustrated facial reactions; they’re a lot more subtle than you’d expect from a performer like him.
— I know I keep saying this, but again, I’m loving the randomness of these early sketches. They seem so unconventional by modern-day SNL standards.
STARS: ***½

BLACK PERSPECTIVE
GAM praises lily-white African-American expert JAC

— When they first showed Garrett after the title screen, I almost expected this to be the well-known bit with him interviewing Julian Bond, but I know that doesn’t come until later on in this era.
— “Soul sister Jane Curtin” – haha! And again, this further proves my point that there’s a lot of instances of performers playing themselves in tonight’s sketches. There’s something about that I’m starting to find fun.
— LOL at the ‘jungle bunny’ line, which naturally brings up memories of a certain epic Richard Pryor sketch that’s coming up in a few episodes.
STARS: ***

PONG
Pong-playing college students (ALF) & (TOD) discuss Thanksgiving plans

— Oh, yeah, this. I know this eventually becomes a recurring bit this season. I recall seeing at least one of these before.
— I really admire the unique structure of this sketch. I can see why some would find its format boring, but it’s intriguing to me for some reason.
— Not really any actual laughs so far, but I think Franken & Davis’ conversation is supposed to be going for a ‘slice-of-life’ feel, kinda like the Gilda/Candice conversation earlier.
— Oh, wow, very funny ending just now.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

GOODNIGHTS
 
— Ah, not only do we thankfully see the goodnights this time unlike the last episode, but finally for the first time ever, the goodnights actually have the cast onstage with the host.
— All Candice says is “goodnight”, and is then bombarded with a rose by each cast member.
— Chevy’s surprisingly coming off sweet in his interaction with his castmates.

_______________________________

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— What a fun episode. I especially liked the post-Update half, where just about every sketch kept me entertained.
— Now that I’ve finally seen this episode, I can say that yes, the comments I had read over the years about this being the first episode that feels like a typical SNL is correct. This episode introduced the traditions of: 1) the host playing various characters while appearing in sketches with the cast (though, as mentioned earlier, there were some instances of Candice playing herself in certain sketches that usually would give the host a character name), 2) there being only one musical guest and two musical performances, 3) Weekend Update having guest commentaries at the desk, and 4) the cast being present at the goodnights. There are still some aspects of the show that come off foreign to viewers today, however (e.g. the host already being on stage at the beginning of the monologue as Pardo calls their name, a lot of the pre-taped fake ads starring unknown actors instead of cast members, etc.).
— Candice was a great host, easily the best of the four we’ve had so far. She fit into the show perfectly, had great chemistry with the cast, and got several good laughs of her own. It’s no surprise she went on to be a recurring host so quickly; as you’ll see very soon, her second hosting stint is only shortly after this one.
— So far, I’m having a blast discovering these early SNLs. I love how loose, unpredictable, and experimental the sketches have been. We’re seeing interesting things like cast members frequently playing themselves in sketches, a lot of creative and weird sketches, a lot of sketches that are very short and lead to an actual punchline, and, of course, the running gag with The Bees. There were so many fun aspects of the show back then that you unfortunately don’t see in modern-day SNL.

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

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Robert Klein