SNL Season 38: End of an era

Last year, Saturday Night Live said goodbye to Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg, two of the major performers on the show over the past couple of seasons.  Samberg and his cohorts from The Lonely Island brought the show into the viral media age with their Digital Shorts, and for better or worse, Wiig was the show’s dominant performer.  The loss of the show’s most recognizable stars seemed to portend an uncertain time in SNL’s history, but despite the hires of a few new faces and the dismissal of another player (Abby Elliott), the 2012-13 season didn’t seem to have a feeling that there was a void the show was desperately trying to fill.

A lot of the credit belongs to the new performers hired as featured players, particularly Cecily Strong; she established her place on the show quickly and firmly, in a way not seen since Amy Poehler.  Kate McKinnon (a late-season addition for 2011-12), was also fairly prominent, owing to having similar strengths as the departed Wiig.  While Aidy Bryant and Tim Robinson are still waiting for their breakouts, both show promise and distinct sensibilities that the show could mine to its benefit.  I do feel the long tenures of some players like Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen and Kenan Thompson tend to hold the show from developing some of the new cast, but in three seasons alone,  Taran Killam seems ready to take over as SNL’s alpha male next season.  Jason Sudeikis and Bill Hader provided a solid backbone for this season.  Bobby Moynihan had his best year ever.  Vanessa Bayer rebounded from a confidence drop that plagued her in 2011-12, and Jay Pharoah taking over the Obama impression helped establish his place in the cast.  Only Nasim Pedrad feels particularly misused, mainly getting stuck with “little kid” and “old lady” roles.

The writing staff was mostly stable this year.  There were a few departures: Christine Nangle and Weekend Update writer Jessica Conrad did not come back this season, and John Mulaney joined Paula Pell as a part-time contributor.  One writer returned to the show after a seven-year absence (Joe Kelly, most recently a writer/producer for How I Met Your Mother).  Neil Casey and Josh Patten joined the staff, and, beginning in February, a slew of guest writers were brought aboard for brief stints, including Chelsea Peretti, Cora Frazier, Michael Che, Edi Patterson, Monica Padrick and Kids In The Hall alum Kevin McDonald (Che was later added to the regular roster for the May shows).

The season was fairly uneven, though, with more pronounced highs and lows than SNL’s experienced in a few years.  There were a greater number of outright duds this year (the Mountain Pass sketch from Louis CK comes to mind), yet the stumbles felt more like the show was losing its fear of failure that made the last couple of seasons a little too safe and antiseptic.  In a way, this actually came off as promising.   There were also enough flashes of inspiration (“Sad Mouse”, two-part sketches like “Z Shirts” and “Darrell’s House”) that imbued this season with a freshness not seen in a while.

The show has always had castmembers come and go to varying levels of fanfare, but it seems that the big emotional farewell has become de rigeur for a departing castmember in recent years.  Phil Hartman’s 1994 send-off featured the show’s recurring characters performing a variant of “So Long, Farewell” from The Sound Of Music.  Will Ferrell’s 2002 departure was marked by the cast (except for Tracy Morgan) speaking out-of-character about how he’ll be missed.  What turned out to be Darrell Hammond’s final show didn’t have an explicit tribute, but the cameo-filled full-cast “Goodnight Saigon” performance felt uncharacteristically emotional to be just a random Will Ferrell sketch.  The Kristen Wiig “graduation ceremony” at the end of Mick Jagger’s show last season seemed to outdo all these earlier goodbyes; despite Wiig being such a divisive castmember for a lot of fans, the emotional displays of from her colleagues made her swan song all the more moving.

I touched on the news of Bill Hader, Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers’ departures from SNL in my last post.  Hader and Armisen both got their goodbyes last night; unlike Wiig, both performers chose to say their goodbyes in character.  Hader’s farewell was one last Stefon appearance on Weekend Update, culminating in a pre-taped segment of Seth Meyers racing through New York to stop the club promoter’s wedding to Anderson Cooper a la The Graduate.  Armisen used the show’s 10-to-1 to perform an understated farewell tune as his Thatcherite punk character Ian Rubbish, with Hader, Killam and Sudeikis as the Bizarros, and cameos by Aimee Mann, Michael Penn, J. Mascis, Kim Gordon, Sex Pistol Steve Jones, and Armisen’s Portlandia collaborator Carrie Brownstein.   SNL is not a show that often features genuine emotion very often: when it does, such as last night, the results are amazing and devastating.

With the departures of Hader and Armisen, Meyers’ impending move to the Late Night desk, and the rumored exit of Jason Sudiekis, last night’s show truly felt like the end of an era for Saturday Night Live.  Even if Meyers sticks around to ease the transition to the next Weekend Update anchor and head writer, he will seem more a vestige of a prior version of SNL than a full-fledged member of the new guard.

SNL’s cast change news

The next season I’m going to be reviewing on the blog is…1982-83!  I’m going to start my reviews after the current season wraps up; I’ll be giving my thoughts on 2012-13 as a whole before doing my intro post for the season, then the first review will be of the Chevy Chase / Queen show.

It’s been quite an eventful week in Saturday Night Live related news: it hasn’t been a full week since the last live show with host Kristen Wiig (which was, by most accounts, underwhelming) but with the word that this week’s season finale will be Bill Hader and Fred Armisen’s last show, and the announcment that Seth Meyers will depart mid-season to take over Late Night, SNL’s next season is already shaping up to be very different.

Bill Hader’s departure is going to be a huge loss for the show; I consider him to be the “glue” of the current cast, and many fans on the message boards have already mentioned he belongs in the ranks of the top ten SNLers of all time.  He impressed me even in his rookie season: there was one sketch in the Jason Lee episode that was a commercial parody for tasers, and Hader walked away with the whole thing with his delivery on one line: “Is that man a criminal? Well, he sure looked like one.”  There was a time when Andy Samberg overshadowed him, especially immediately after “Lazy Sunday” hit big, but Hader has been consistently solid in sketches, even if sometimes he begins to break character (like in Scared Straight, The Californians, or Stefon).  Despite sticking around the show for a year longer than Kristen Wiig, it never really felt like he overstayed his welcome: even his big recurring character Stefon is still capable of providing the highlight of a particular show.

I’m a little more mixed on losing Fred Armisen.  Early in his tenure, he brought such a different sensibility to the show, and was a relief from the antics of Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz, which were starting to run their course (sidenote: I’ve since grown to appreciate both a bit more).   Unfortunately, Armisen’s last few years haven’t held up to the standard set by his early SNL work.  Part of the blame goes to his being cast as Barack Obama: at the time, it made a bit of sense, since Armisen had the closest resemblance to the candidate, but he never really got the voice down or found a real hook for the impression.  It didn’t help that the most frequent use of his Obama was in these lengthy, lecture-like “in one” segments.  Toward the end of the run, his other roles started to run together: there was a string of middle-eastern dictators making outdated pop-culture references.  I never cared much for Garth and Kat or The Californians either.  His work on Portlandia seems to be him at his best, though, even if his later SNL work comes off as him goofing off and participating in private jokes.     He still had a knack for knowing parodies of certain types of people and affectionate tributes to musical genres, though.  Eleven years is a long time to stay on the show, though, and Armisen’s departure is something that opens up a lot of possibilities.

The biggest change will be Seth Meyers’ promotion to late-night talk show host.  Meyers has been the show’s head writer and Weekend Update anchor since 2006; he is currently the longest-tenured WU anchor of all time.  While the show has taken a bit of a dip in quality around 2009, a lot of the sketches with Meyers’ name attached have been some of the strongest of the past few seasons: he wrote Coach Bert (Steve Buscemi episode) and Darrell’s House (Zach Galifianakis episode).  He’s staying an extra half-season, but I’m curious whether his exit will also mean that he’s going to poach the ranks of the current SNL writing staff for his new show.  Despite all the new players that have been introduced since Meyers became head writer, the writing feels stale at times, with the writers’ room dominated by veterans and new writers only lasting a short period of time (particularly the 2008, 2009 and 2010 hires).  If anything is going to shift the show significantly, it’s going to be Meyers leaving.

I think the remaining cast (particularly Taran Killam and Cecily Strong) has proven they are more than capable of carrying the show, even if these three veterans are gone.  Some expect Jason Sudeikis and Kenan Thompson to leave with them, but until either say the word, they could still be heading up the next year’s cast.  Despite some issues with the writing, this year’s cast is one of the best in a long time.

But I’ll get back to that after the finale.

Two TV-related websites

There’s finally a decent St. Elsewhere site on the internet.  I had caught the show periodically when the Canadian cable channel then known as Prime ran episodes after M*A*S*H reruns, but it was the DVD release back in 2006 that got me hooked.  Unfortunately, the DVD releases stopped with the first season: there are some good episodes in that set, but it’s the least characteristic season of the show.  I eventually managed to get a hold of the rest of the series in some form or another, and season two is where it starts resembling the show it would be for the rest of its run: Dr. Jack Morrison goes through the first of many tragedies and indignities a few episodes in, the “you’re a pig, Ehrlich” running gag, autistic Tommy Westphall, and the obsession with continuity that would pay off greatly as the show goes on.  It’s a shame this show isn’t more readily available.

Viewers with nostalgia for the PBS kids shows they grew up with should also take a look at The Neighborhood Archive, a tribute to Fred Rogers and comprehensive exploration of his biggest TV legacy, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.  There’s a detailed episode guide that’s still in the process of being put together (the webmaster is almost done the 1969 season).  Looking at some of these episode summaries takes me back: when I was watching the show in the late 80s, they were still running many of the older episodes during the spring and summer.  I remember they would run a block of  newer episodes with school-aged Prince Tuesday and Ana Platypus, then suddenly the model neighborhood in the titles would look different, Mister Rogers would have darker hair, and the walls of his “TV house” would be brown instead of blue.  Watch this video of the 1970 opening and closing (pre-PBS, when the show was still called “Misterogers’ Neighborhood); even if you weren’t watching the show the last time that season aired in 1989, the music playing during the art card with the trolley and the episode number will stir some memories.

Name the SNL extras (and guests) #3

 

As part of my research for the SNL Archives, I go through old episodes to see if I can identify writers, crew, and various other production staff, especially if they are used prominently in sketches.  I’ve posted a few times before to see if I can get some help identifying them (so far I was able to get IDs for writers Paul Barrosse, costume designer Karen Roston, and talent executive Laurie Zaks; there are still a few I haven’t identified yet.  Check out out the first and second posts).  I was wondering if anyone reading can confirm the identities of some of these staffers (and guests):

Dark-haired female staffer: She can be seen wishing Michael Keaton luck at the beginning of the October 30, 1982 show.  It looks a tiny bit like Laurie Zaks going by the picture from the Casablanca sketch later that season (she’s the one playing Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ lesbian skier girlfriend); not entirely sure though.

Gary and Eddie’s Hookers: From “Why?” sketch in the Ron Howard episode (October 9, 1982).  They used up the full female cast on three roles.  I’m assuming they’re either writers or PAs that got roped into appearing on camera.

Dr. Robert Levine: Joel from the SNL Archives is quicker to include a non-cast if they end up portraying a real person on the show, and this commercial parody made fun of Mary Tyler Moore’s recent marriage to a much-younger man.

Clamdigger #1: From “A Roy Orbison Christmas” sketch (December 21, 1985).  The other three are (left to right) Terry Sweeney, Lanier Laney and Robert Downey Jr.  I’m trying to figure out who the guy on the far left is.

Older man onstage during goodnights: Same show as above.

Final thoughts on SNL season 6 (1980-81)

A lot has been written about this season of Saturday Night Live, and a fan is more likely to read a lot about this season before actually watching a single episode.   The first time I actually saw these shows was in late 1998, when they ran on the Comedy Network; I was surprised that they weren’t anywhere as terrible as their reputation made them out to be.  The shows were still weak, but I had already seen worse first-run shows by that point.  When watching the show again for these reviews, I have to admit it was a little more draining this time around, but that could have been because I was in a more analytical frame of mind, trying to locate specific strengths and weaknesses.

What I saw was a decent group of actors without a strong group dynamic.  It usually helps a new SNL cast when some of the members have worked together in the past, most notable examples being the original 1975 ensemble and the 1986 “second golden age” group.   Ferris Butler confirmed that the entire creative staff had not worked together before.  Several of the writers were also very young or inexperienced.  Twelve episodes really would not have been enough time for such a cobbled-together team of cast and writers to find their collective voice (for comparison’s sake, the original cast’s 12th show was Dick Cavett / Jimmy Cliff).   There definitely wasn’t a lack of talent in either group, but they would have benefited from a little more time, a little less pressure and better leadership at the top.

A lot of the blame for the season’s woes rightly falls on Jean Doumanian’s head.  Most accounts I’ve read indicated that she was not suited to a creative role, yet wouldn’t cede authority on that particular front.  One of the most widely-circulated stories about Doumanian’s creative input was her written advice on one 1980-81 sketch: “Make it funnier”.  For all the criticism Doumanian deserves, though, NBC should get its share for selecting her for the role.  Once buyer’s remorse set in, their increased meddling with the show probably didn’t help matters much either.

That said, I’m not entirely convinced that the show would have been received better under anyone besides Jean Doumanian.  One such scenario would be if Al Franken hadn’t done the “Limo for a Lamo” bit in May 1980 and succeeded Lorne Michaels as producer: he may have been able to retain some key creative staff, and that may have helped quell the cries of “pretender” from the viewers and critics.  Yet that may not have been enough.  Franken (and the late Tom Davis) did actually produce the first season after Lorne Michaels returned to SNL in ’85 (Side note: Michaels has served as executive producer for every season since except 1986-87 and 1995-96: he had a more hands-on role during these “retooling years” that followed very poorly received seasons).  Even the continuity from season 5 may not have helped the show, since the season before often had a tired and burnt-out aura.

I sometimes think Doumanian’s failures ensured SNL’s survival in the long-term, by necessitating the hiring of a network suit (Dick Ebersol) who served as a buffer between the show and NBC.  His show wasn’t quite as edgy as the Michaels or even Doumanian versions, but Ebersol kept the show going long enough so that by the time he stepped down in 1985, Lorne Michaels was ready to return to the show.

I’m always interested in hearing the different takes on life at the show; I want to give a thank you to 1980-81 writer Ferris Butler for his valuable information regarding that season and his identification of show staff in bit parts as well.  Special thanks also goes to Raj for his information on the extras.  If anyone has more information regarding writers on sketches, people doing background work, or would like to tell their side of their story, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly.

My next project will be a collaboration with some other SNL fans, where we review some of the more poorly-recieved shows throughout SNL’s history.  I’m taking a break before embarking on this venture, though.  Afterward, I will review 1985-86, but would prefer to wait until I get more original broadcasts of those shows (still looking for Chevy Chase, Ron Reagan, George Wendt, Tony Danza and Jimmy Breslin).  I may do 1982-83 in the future if I can get a copy of the original live Robert Blake episode as well.

SNL Season 6: Final cast and episode summary

The cast:

Denny Dillon and Gilbert Gottfried

Denny Dillon:
Dillon made a strong impression fairly early on, carrying a lot of the sketches in the first two shows of the season, having the first recurring character of the season, and bringing needed energy to weaker sketches.  There was a little bit of a sameness to her performances that became more evident over the season, but she was a consistent, dependable performer.  She gave a lot of her castmates a boost whenever she shared sketches with them (Gail Matthius’ Vickie was better once she had Dillon’s Debbie to play off), and just seemed to exhibit a willingness and commitment in whatever she appeared in.  [MVP: Gould, McDowell]

Gilbert Gottfried:
It’s a little disarming to see Gofffried in these shows, with his eyes wide open and not speaking in that famous stilted squawk, and a tad green.  Where Dillon jumped in, Gottfried had a tendency to hold back: the legend goes that he didn’t want to use his A-material on the show because he was concerned the network would claim ownership.  Gottfried’s performances would end up being the clearest barometer of the Jean Doumanian era: early on, he’s more lively and animated, if a little green, but toward the end of the season, he is a little more sullen and withdrawn.  Maybe it’s because he got some of the most thankless jobs on the show that didn’t go to featured players (having to wear the Master Po makeup all night in Carradine, playing a vegetable along the featureds in Dazola, and his nadir: being the corpse in a funeral sketch).  Like most of the cast, though, he was not without his moments: he worked well with Dillon as the Waxmans, and I thought his collaborations with writer Ferris Butler were particularly fruitful.  [MVP: Kellerman]

Gail Matthius

Gail Matthius:
Matthius definitely had potential to be a great cast member, and hit the highest highs out of all three female leads, but she also had a few really frustrating moments on the show.  Impressions were her weakest point, and despite her efforts, she didn’t really have the ability to rise above some of the material she was given.  She had a rough time on Weekend Update as well; fumbling a bit in the early shows, and getting saddled with some of the worst jokes ever written.  These missteps seem even more disappointing because when she was actually given good material, she really did well with it: I especially liked Francis Lively, the little girl character she played in “Lonely Old Lady”, and she ended up going out on a strong note with “Same”.    I only wonder how she would have fared on a different incarnation of the show.  [MVP: Carradine, Harry]

Joe Piscopo

Joe Piscopo:
Piscopo ended up being one of the two castmembers that stole Rocket’s thunder this season by demonstrating he was a better fit for the characters and celebrity impressions that the show built its name on in the first five seasons.  Piscopo was consistent, well-rounded, and seemed to feel more natural in the prominent roles that Rocket was being schooled for.  I’d draw the line at calling Piscopo an MVP of the season: I believe the key to his relative success this year were clear and repeated hooks in his signature bits (SNL Sports and Paulie Herman; Sinatra developed more fully after Ebersol took over), but he was always more of a “safe” performer and didn’t have the kind of charisma that demanded attention like Eddie Murphy would provide, a quality that was desperately needed this season. [MVP: Gould]

Ann Risley:
I actually thought Risley handled the straighter roles fairly well.  Risley never managed to have a recurring character, and there were a few performances of hers that were pretty dodgy (mainly as the hosts of “Dying To Be Heard” and “Was I Ever Red”), but I wonder how much of it was actually her acting style (she’s more of a straight actress) and how much of it was the writers not finding a breakout role for her (she did come close with the Toni Tenille sketch).  Some say that she was a poor fit for SNL, but I see a few small glimpses at a potential Kristen Wiig-style performer whose true gift was understatement, although Wiig had the added benefit of being able to write for herself.  A key part of success on the show is either writing for yourself or finding the right writer to collaborate with; I don’t know whether Risley had that support for herself.

Charles Rocket and Ann Risley

Charles Rocket:
Doumanian was banking too much on Rocket to be the breakout star: usually when something is pushed so heavily, it only helps build a backlash toward the performer.  Rocket was no exception, and he had a few liabilities that probably hurt him on the show: his impressions were weak, and whenever he tried to play big (like his February Updates or even in Billy-Gram), he chewed so much scenery it was distracting.  When he dialed it back, though, he was a decent utility player, and his strengths in those roles presage his respectable career as a character actor.  Rocket’s true strength on the show, though, was catching people off-guard during The Rocket Report, where a different type of charm emerged than when he was doing sketches.  Unfortunately, Rocket became the public face for Jean Doumanian’s mistakes on the show, and that one moment during the Charlene Tilton goodnights overshadowed pretty much everything he did since, even after he took his own life.  [MVP: Black]

Yvonne Hudson:
SNL’s first black female featured player was essentially doing the same types of roles she had been doing uncredited the previous couple of seasons; aside from some increased prominence in sketches for a few episodes, she was still essentially an extra on the show.  There is actually one episode where she has less lines that SNL’s resident “old man” extra, Andy Murphy.  Despite no longer being in the opening credits, she was kept around as an extra the next few seasons.

Matthew Laurance:
Aside from Eddie Murphy, Laurance was the most prominent of the featured players.  I thought he was decent as a utility man, and served as a good counterpoint to the more exaggerated performances of Rocket and Piscopo, even if he didn’t make a strong impression on his own.  I wonder how he would have done in a pitchman role that usually went to either of those two.

Matthew Laurance and Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy:
From his first speaking role, Murphy demonstrated why he was full cast material.  There were a few appearances of his that betrayed his inexperience (particularly Newsbreak in Harry), but he had a confidence that the others in the cast seemed to lack, and made stronger impressions than much of the cast that had a heavier sketch load.   [MVP: Burstyn, Sharkey, Hays, Tilton]

Patrick Weathers

Patrick Weathers:
His Bob Dylan sketch in Carradine was the main thing that distinguished him; he might have made a bigger impact if he was given more to do.  I won’t hold Ravi Sings against him.

Robin Duke

Robin Duke:
Out of Dick Ebersol’s three full-cast hires, Duke made a smallest impression of the three, getting a band intro, a leftover Jane Curtin role, a decent part in a five-man sketch and a last-minute voice-over in the bag lady film.  None of these roles really showed what she was known for on SCTV, and viewers would get a better glimpse of her the next season.  Part of this can be attributed to the fact that Duke was a last-minute addition: Catherine O’Hara was originally slated to be on the show in her place (and was listed in news articles as late as five days before airtime), but O’Donoghue’s first staff meeting scared her away from the show.  O’Hara recommended old friend Duke for the show, and a month later, O’Hara was on the same network with the resurrected SCTV.  If the strike hadn’t happened, Duke could have been making an impact as soon as the next show.

Tim Kazurinsky:
Kazurinsky seemed to fit SNL immediately, and ended up dominating the first Ebersol-produced show.  Part of Kazurisnky’s strong first outing comes from his prominence in two of the longer pieces, but being a combination writer/performer, and coming from an improv background certainly would have helped.  It was John Belushi’s recommendation that got Kazurinsky hired on the show, and Belushi’s instincts turned out to be correct.  [MVP: Finale]

Tim Kazurinsky and Tony Rosato

Tony Rosato:
Like Duke, Rosato came from SCTV, and like Kazurinsky, he was hired as a writer/performer and made a fairly strong impression in his first show.  He and Kazurinsky worked well together in their two main sketches, but he would find a stronger footing the following season.

Laurie Metcalf

Laurie Metcalf:
One of the most successful people to have an incredibly brief SNL tenure, Metcalf’s sole appearance on the show was a pre-filmed “man on the street” piece.   I can’t assess how she would have fared if Ebersol kept her on based on that one segment.

Emily Prager

Emily Prager:
Prager didn’t even appear on-camera during her only live show.  She has, however, appeared on the show before and after (she was a girlfriend of Tom Davis’ and appeared occasionally as an extra around 1977-78; she and Davis also appear in the Button film next season).

Strongest shows:
1. Karen Black / Cheap Trick, Stanley Clarke: (Average rating: 3.18/5)
The show where everything seemed to go right.  It’s not flawless (SNL rarely is) but the combination of an energetic host, more determined writing and a receptive audience worked wonders.  As much as Black and the audience kept things lively, its really the cast and writers’ victory.
2. Bill Murray / Delbert McClinton: (Average rating: 3.11/5)
This is the textbook example of the host bringing a boost to the show.  The last four shows were dispirited affairs, and the prior show in particular contained the moment that overshadowed the rest of the Doumanian-era.  Murray shows up and infuses what would be the final Doumanian-produced SNL with energy and the sense of fun that had all but vanished in the second half of the season.
3. No Host / Jr. Walker & The All-Stars: (Average rating: 2.88/5)
Ebersol takes over, cleans house (as much as the budget would allow), and makes an appeal to nostalgia with his first show.  It’s weighed down by Chevy Chase’s disappointing Weekend Update return engagement, but this one remains consistently watchable if not an all-out return to form.

Weakest shows:
1. Robert Hays / Joe “King” Carrasco & The Crown, 14 Karat Soul: (Average rating: 2/5)
The string of mediocre-to-bad sketches that come after Weekend Update is the air seeping out of the SNL ’80 tire that they finally were able to inflate the week before.
2. Jamie Lee Curtis / James Brown: (Average rating: 2.22/5)
The first three shows of the season had enough highlights to counteract the weaker material.  Here is where the good to bad ratio finally tips to to the other side; while nothing in this show is as bad as “Commie Hunting Season”, a lot of the sketches were underdeveloped and uninspired.
3. Charlene Tilton / Todd Rundgren, Prince: (Average rating: 2.26/5)
A fair amount of OK material here, but the backstage runner that culminates in “Who Shot C.R.” is underwhelming, and the highs don’t really offset the lows enough.

Best sketches:
1. The Writer (03/07/81)
Bill Murray is in front but playing it straight, while the new cast gets the fun of acting out the revisions he makes to his story.  Just a good sketch done well.
2. Hospital Bed (01/17/81)
Probably one of the saddest sketches the show has ever done, with Gilbert Gottfried’s disembodied voice communicating the thoughts of a stroke victim.  It’s punctuated enough with humor to avoid mawkishness, but the writers wisely put the emotion of the scene first.
3. Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood (02/21/81)
The debut of one of Eddie Murphy’s signature sketches, pretty much fully-formed.  The audience is on board by the end of the theme song.
Honorable mention: The Rocket Report – Fifth Avenue
Charles Rocket’s signature piece remains the place where his talents were best put to use.

Worst sketches:
1. Commie Hunting Season (11/22/80)
SNL tries to make a pointed statement about the Greensboro Massacre acquittals; it’s uncomfortable and alienating, but without the humor to redeem it.
2. Ravi Sings (01/24/81)
The only joke in the sketch: a cartoonish portrayal of an Indian musician singing American love songs.
3. Badgers (12/13/80)
A grating, amateurish sketch that hinges on a pun.

Best musical guests:
1. James Brown
His sweat-drenched eight-minute medley of classics is a high point for both the season and the series, especially taking into consideration that the band exceeded their allotted time.
2. 14 Karat Soul
Five young singers with no instrumental accompaniment get one of the biggest reactions from the audience this season.
3. Stanley Clarke Trio
Instrumental jazz-fusion that rocks as hard as any other musical guest this year.

Worst musical guests:
To be honest, I couldn’t really say that there were any truly bad musical guests.  Joe “King” Carrasco may have had a rough and raw sound but it was clear the band was going for energy over technique, and the worst I could really say about Ellen Shipley is that she was decent but a little generic-sounding.  The other musical guests only really pale in comparison to the stellar choices Doumanian (and whoever else was involved in snagging musical guests) made this year.  I wonder how much of the booking strategy was intentional and how much of it was necessity, but this was where the Jean Doumanian show had some of their biggest victories.

Writer tally and turnover:
(*) indicates the writer returned the next season, (~) indicates return to SNL.

Aside from Ferris Butler’s contributions (special thanks goes to Butler for providing a lot of insightful information about the season, by the way), knowledge of Blaustein & Sheffield’s partnership with Eddie Murphy and a handful of other sketches whose writers have been identified, I don’t really know what each specific writers’ voices are in the show and whether any shifts in quality were from writers joining or leaving, or being favored or disfavored.  If anyone has more information regarding who was responsible for any sketches, please feel free to drop me a line.

Full season:
Barry W. Blaustein*
Billy Brown & Mel Green
Patricia Marx
Douglas McGrath
Pamela Norris*
David Sheffield*
Terrence Sweeney

Full Doumanian run:
Larry Arnstein & David Hurwitz
Ferris Butler
John DeBellis
Jean Doumanian
Brian Doyle-Murray*~
Leslie Fuller

Shorter tenure:
Mason Williams (head writer, Gould through Carradine)
Jeremy Stevens & Tom Moore (head writers, Sharkey through finale)
Nancy Dowd (Gould and McDowell only)
Sean Kelly (Gould and McDowell only)
Mitchell Kreigman (Gould through Carradine)
Mark Reisman (Harry through finale)

Post-hiatus hires:
Mitchell Glazer
Judy Jacklin
Tim Kazurinsky*
Matt Neuman~
Michael O’Donoghue*~
Tony Rosato*
Dirk Wittenborn

An essay regarding the season as a whole will follow in a subsequent post.

Tom Davis and Nelson Lyon

Cancer claimed two former SNL writers this week.  Nelson Lyon, a writer for the 1981-82 season, died Tuesday of liver cancer at the age of 73.  Two days later, Tom Davis, one of the show’s original writers and a returning contributor to the show following Lorne Michaels’ re-arrival, succumbed to throat and neck cancer at 59.

Tom Davis (second from right, with (l-r) Sarah Paley, Liz Welch, and Bill Murray, Franne Lee and Matt Neuman in background)

Davis was a prominent figure in the show’s history, responsible for many of the well-known sketches such as Coneheads, Final Days, and got more than a few complaints with his and Al Franken’s Stunt Baby, X-Police, and First He Cries.  He appeared on camera fairly often through his tenure on the show, usually in tandem with Franken, and at one point landing “featured player” status with the other tenured writers for 1979-80; he also provided countless voiceovers for sketches.  He left with the original writers in 1980, then returned along with Lorne Michaels and Al Franken five years later.  Franken and Davis produced the poorly-received 1985-86 season (with Michaels as executive producer).  When Michaels took a more direct involvement with the show the following season, Davis was gone, but not for long: he rejoined the writing staff in January 1987 and stayed through the 1993-94 season.  He contributed sketches on 12 shows between 1997 and 2004, including “Leather Man” with Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz.

Nelson Lyon (right, with Mary Gross)

Lyon was more of a shadowy, underground figure; a collaborator of Michael O’Donoghue’s probably known more for his sex comedy “The Telephone Book” and his association with John Belushi during his final days.  Lyon contributed to O’Donoghue’s “At Home With The Psychos” (with Terry Southern and Rosie Shuster) and penned “The Mild One”, an existential biker sketch featuring Bruce Dern.  He had a handful of on-camera appearances as well, as a prisoner, a bodyguard and Josef Stalin.  Lyon’s impact on SNL may be less apparent than Davis’, but as the basis for O’Donoghue’s “Mr. Mike” and a key part of the unique tone of the 1981-82 SNL, it should not be underestimated.

Classic SNL Review: April 11, 1981: (no host) / Jr. Walker & The All Stars (S06E13)

RATINGS SYSTEM:
***** – Classic
****   – Great
***     – Good / Average
**       – Meh
*         – Bad

OPENING: STOREROOM
-Due to cutbacks at NBC, Chevy Chase is forced to change in a storage room holding cobweb-covered artifacts from the old show.  When he finds Mr. Bill (voice of Walter Williams) among the props and costumes, the two of them reminisce about the good old days.
-Although this was a shamelessly calculated attempt to link the retooled show with the original five years, it did get the audience in the right mood: they give big rounds of applause for Chase, the cobweb-covered Land Shark head, Mr. Bill, and the obligatory pratfall from Chase that preceded the “Live From New York…” line.  Once you saw Mr. Bill you had an idea what was coming, but I thought Mr. Bill’s mangling coming from Chase carelessly picking away at him, etc. worked.
-They worked in a dig at Chase starring in Oh, Heavenly Dog!, and the line “Yeah, you’re a little late, but they all are!” refers to the delay of the fall television season caused by the actor’s strike the previous year.
-Props seen/used: Bees Costumes, Coneheads prosthetic heads, the NBC Dancing N, the Land Shark head.  There are also boxes upon boxes of Bambu rolling papers.
***

MONTAGE
-A collection of still photographs taken around New York City by Patti Perret, with no animation or camera pans and zooms, ending with the camera pulling out to reveal the last shot is on a display stand on home base before a stagehand carries it away.
-The cast appear in random snapshots with text a simple white font for the main cast, and no text for featured players.  Among the highlights: Robin Duke’s slide of her posing while holding up a dress in front of a mannequin is crooked (you can see the film sprockets), Tim Kazurinsky is getting a haircut, Gail Matthius stares blankly while crawling between two carousel hourses, Eddie Murphy blows out candles on a birthday cake, and Laurie Metcalf reclining on top of a ping-pong table.  The picture of Joe Piscopo has to be seen to believed.
-I particularly like the shot of the Statue of Liberty.
-The band reverts back to the original 1975-79 theme song.
-Incidentally, two of the new cast additions can be seen on the local station promos advertising SCTV right after tonight’s show on my copy (from WNBC): Robin Duke is in the one right before the cold opening, and Tony Rosato can be seen at the end of the one that airs before the Wedding Day sketch.

SHOW: DRIVE FOR AMERICA
-Frank Sinatra (Joe Piscopo) solicits support for the American auto industry through guilt trips, jingoism and openly bashing the Japanese.
-I do have to give credit to Piscopo’s Sinatra impression, but right off the bat I’ll say that all the anti-Japanese slurs were very cringe-worthy, even if they tie in well with the whole theme of the sketch.
-Of the three other castmembers appearing in the sketch, Rosato did OK with a relatively serviceable part, Matthius had an excellent “little girl” voice (although the pathetic facial expression was a bit much), and Kazurinsky had the best part (especially the sight gag with him raising his amputated arm by mistake).
-Former featured player Yvonne Hudson makes a non-speaking appearance as the nurse pushing Matthius’ wheelchair.
**1/2

COMMERCIAL: LITE BEER
-In a bar, Bill Cosby (Eddie Murphy) recommends Lite Beer to a table of young children, because regular beer’s too heavy for them.
-Funny concept, with some good lines (“By the time you’re nine you’ll be drinking like a 37-year-old”).  The whole thing has a very loose feel to it and is mostly an excuse for Murphy to do his impression of the Cos, but was a good sendup of how he seemed to pitch anything back then.
-Denny Dillon is the waitress, but has no lines.  Talent coordinator Liz Welch can be seen at the table behind Murphy and the kids, sitting with the two African-American extras (is that Hudson?  I’ll add her to the sketch listing once I get a corroboration).
***

SKETCH: I MARRIED A MONKEY
-A cuckolded husband (Tim Kazurinsky) confronts chimpanzee wife Madge about her affair with his best friend (Tony Rosato).
-This really gets the audience going: they like Madge enough and respond well to her (particularly when she starts drinking the sugar bowl), but what really makes this memorable is the blooper with the “baby” not wanting to let go of the trainer to go onstage.  Kazurinsky gets applause after his line about Madge having turned the baby against him.
-Kazurinsky acquits himself well in this sketch, and does a good job of playing off some of the chimps’ unexpected behavior.  For all the cheesiness of the concept (right down to the old-timey soap opera organ stings), Kazurinsky commits to it, and that helps the sketch.
-Rosato’s character’s name is Mike Short, a shout-out to Martin Short’s older brother, a writer who worked with both Kazurinsky (on Big City Comedy) and Rosato (on SCTV).
***1/2

MISCELLANEOUS: JOHNNY CASH AT SPANDAU PRISON
 -A brief fake NBC promo slide.  Definitely a Mr. Mike bit.
***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “ROADRUNNER/SHOTGUN”
-Robin Duke promises she’ll have more to do next week (oh, the irony) before talking about how they used the original SNL theme again, and how that was written with Walker’s sound in mind.
-Walker is very energetic and his band has a very spare and simple sound; very back-to-basics R&B.

WEEKEND UPDATE I: WITH CHEVY CHASE
-At the beginning, an intense announcer with a British accent reads in an exaggerated tone (that reminds me of a goofy Paxton Whitehead impression for some reason) that Weekend Update is sponsored by “Smitt-Burney” who makes money “the old-fashioned way: we steal it”.  I’d love to know who is doing the voiceover: it’s not Pardo and doesn’t sound like anyone in the cast.
-Best joke: Bad day for the Little Engine That Could.
-The audience gives a lot of applause for Chase sitting at a recreation of the old Weekend Update set from the first seven shows, and he keeps the flashback alive by saying “You still aren’t”.  Unfortunately, his delivery seems to be really lax this time around, with a lot of pauses and speech fillers (“uh”).  Hill & Weingrad mention that when Chase was on the fence about showing up because it might cut into a movie shoot, Ebersol offered to let him fly back from Hollywood on the day of the show.  Whether or not that is what happened is yet to be confirmed, but it would account for why he’s essentially cameoing instead of serving as an official host, as well as for the sloppiness of this week’s Update.  The jokes themselves seem to be an improvement over the Doumanian WUs, though.  I wonder who was writing them, since Brian Doyle-Murray is not credited as a writer this week.
-In light of the allegations Mackenzie Phillips made in her memoir High on Arrival, the joke about her and father John announcing their wedding plans really comes off more disturbing than intended.
-Raheem Abdul Mohammed (Eddie Murphy) gives a review of Stir Crazy that reveals he was watching Altered States instead.  Not one of the better outings for the character, although this is the first time where they establish him as their film critic.  He isn’t quite as angry as he would become, and at the end offers to sell Chase some marijuana.
-Laurie Metcalf makes her only appearance as an SNL featured player in a short “man on the street” film where she asks people if they would take a bullet for the President.  This was an odd segment: it was played completely straight in the wake of the recent assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.  I give them credit for doing something different and tasteful, though.  Once the film ends, the band starts playing and goes to commercial.  Some places list Weekend Update as one segment for this episode, but for the purpose of this review I will list them as two separate bits.
**

WEEKEND UPDATE II: WITH CHEVY CHASE
-Best jokes: Jean Harris, Microwave Baby
-Pardo introduces Chase this time around.  Chase reprises more of his old Weekend Update bits, including the nose picking, Franco Dead (which gets a little applause), the “nations of” joke.  There are a few better jokes than in the other segment but Chase is still half-assing it.
-The “Microwave Baby” joke refers to a Mrs. “Nelson Lyon”, a shout-out to the Telephone Book writer-director, who O’Donoghue would bring onto the writing staff next season.  That joke has to be another Mr. Mike contribution.
-Al Franken brings back his “Al Franken Decade” routine, including his name appearing superimposed whenever he mentions it, to explain the show’s tumultuous season and ask that viewers send letters requesting that NBC “Put SNL To Sleep” (but not before next week’s show with him, Tom Davis and the Grateful Dead).  While Franken says he doesn’t want to be cruel to Jean Doumanian, this bit is essentially SNL formally disavowing the past twelve shows, and the audience applauds Franken for saying he has nothing to do with the new show.  He gets in a dig at Chase (“Then, Chevy left. And the show, of course, got even better”), and doesn’t spare new producer Dick Ebersol either, sarcastically calling him “Mr. Humor” and playing up some questionable shows he brought to the network, such as The Waverly Wonders, Rollergirls, and Joe & Valerie (a promo for the latter’s April 1978 premiere is on Youtube, as well as the Rollergirls opening title sequence).  His conclusion: “he doesn’t know dick” about comedy.
-In a way it does feel like this is a potential final episode, because the Writer’s Guild of America strike had began that day (Chase alludes to it after one of his jokes bomb); knowing the rest of the season (including the Franken & Davis / Grateful Dead show, as well as a Dan Aykroyd-hosted show for April 25) had to be scrapped makes Franken’s commentary seem even more like it’s a part “SNL is dead, long live SNL”, and part pouring gasoline on the studio, lighting a match and walking away.
***

MUSICAL SKETCH: “SAME”
-Irene Cara (Gail Matthius) sings about how tedious it is for her to keep singing “Fame” over the past year.
-What turned out to be Gail Matthius’ last hurrah was a funny parody of “Fame”.  Her singing’s a little dodgy/shouty in this one but the bit was enjoyable and helped increase the show’s energy.
-I especially dug the outro with Matthius and the dancers exiting out of Studio 8H to the music.  Still adds to the “potential last show” feeling though.
***1/2

COMMERCIAL: THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS
-A new NBC series features holier-than-thou professionals one-upping each other on who takes their job the most seriously.
-Probably the best-written sketch all night, despite the tepid audience response.  It built on the joke nicely, with a nice payoff in the form of Eddie Murphy as a patient demanding the right to die with dignity (for a flesh wound).  O’Donoghue’s narration worked for me too.
****

SKETCH: WEDDING DAY
-Italian Papa (Tony Rosato) imparts Old World advice to son Frank (Tim Kazurinsky) on his wedding day, but tensions between the two build to shouting matches.
-A slower, somewhat sweet character piece with a bit more emotional depth.  Rosato does alright, but Kazurinsky is better in the straight role.  I prefer the second appearance of these two characters a little better just because while the obscene gesture fight toward the end of this one was a little funny, the big fight in the other one was a bit more impressive.
**1/2

COMMERCIAL: THE FAMOUS BROADCASTER’S SCHOOL OF CUE-CARD READING
-Pitchman (Joe Piscopo) betrays the quality of the school’s education on discreet card reading and camera switches.
-Pretty one-joke but goofy enough for it to work.  Best part in this was Kazurinsky as the cue-card holder repeatedly turning his head to read the address of the card he’s holding.
-The logo for the school looks so cheap!
***

MISCELLANEOUS: FRIENDS
-Chevy Chase thinks Saturday Night Live is bouncing back, but friends Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams don’t back him up on that.
-Not really going to rate this as it’s mainly a musical guest intro with a few cameos, just thought it warranted a mention.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “HOW SWEET IT IS/WHAT DOES IT TAKE”
-”How Sweet It Is” is a bit more relaxed, but I really thought “What Does It Take” was the best song they did all night, with the band sounding more intense than ever.

COMMERCIAL: WILD COUNTRY GUN CARDS
-Families bond when they learn about different species of firearms together.
-An old sketch: there is a still photo on Gettyimages that shows the original cast performing this sketch (mislabled as the “Lupner skit”) at a dress rehearsal sometime in season 2, with Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin as the parents, and John Belushi and Gilda Radner as the children.  Knowing that kind of ruins the sketch for me because I can’t help but compare Rosato’s more relaxed delivery with how I would imagine Aykroyd would do it.  The casting seems a little odd too (Piscopo is usually the patriarch in family sketches, while Duke usually played children the next season). Dillon actually works in the Radner role, though.  Nice dark ending with them shooting what they thought was a burglar.
-Addendum: Dennis Perrin confirms this was another Michael O’Donoghue sketch.
**1/2

FILM: “BAG LADY”
-Offscreen voices criticize a homeless woman (Denny Dillon) for being derivative of other downtrodden characters in media.
-The film Neil Levy discusses being suckered into taking credit for by Dick Ebersol in Live From New York.  It’s not quite as bad as he makes it out to be: without the overdubbed voices it would have come across as mawkish.  While still pretty unremarkable, it was good enough as a filler piece.
-Matthius and Duke are two of the offscreen voices.  Any idea who the others are?
**

GOODNIGHTS
-Chevy Chase kisses Madge while Kazurinsky thanks the audience.  The chimps’ trainer Dave Sabo joins Chase, the All-Stars and the cast on home base.  Irene Cara (Gail Matthius) and her dancers come down the stairs for a reprise of “Same”.
-The original broadcast ends at the Eaves-Brooks credit and Matthius breaking character to say “You gotta put me down now, Chevy!”.  The full goodnights (on the repeat version aired on Comedy Central) have Matthius and the dancers going around the studio.  The credits are in a different font than normal; acting coach Del Close is credited as “House Metaphysician”.

Final Thoughts:
Not a bad first outing for Dick Ebersol.  A little over-reliant on the nostalgia, yes, and Chase’s lazy performance prevented the Weekend Update doubleheader from being a highlight, but there are no truly bad sketches.  Murphy and Piscopo both appear in one fewer sketch each than new regulars Rosato and Kazurinsky, the latter standing out above the others tonight.  Poor Robin Duke and Laurie Metcalf don’t make as big impressions, while Emily Prager doesn’t even show up in tonight’s show.  This show doesn’t exactly feel much like a triumphant return, though: as I said a few times in the review, this show had a feeling of them knowing it could very well be their last show, and it gives the whole show a bittersweet aura.  Even the use of the 1980-81 home base sets made it feel a little like everyone snuck into an abandoned building right before demolition to have one last party.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-The Self-Righteous
-Al Franken commentary (Weekend Update II)
-Same
-I Married A Monkey

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-Bag Lady
-Weekend Update I

MVP:
Tim Kazurinsky

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:
cast:
Denny Dillon: 4 appearances [Storeroom, Lite Beer, Wild Country Gun Cards, Bag Lady]
Robin Duke: 2 appearances [The Self-Righteous, Wild Country Gun Cards], 1 voiceover [Bag Lady]
Tim Kazurinsky: 5 appearances [Drive For America, I Married A Monkey, The Self-Righteous, Wedding Day, The Famous Broadcaster's School of Cue-Card Reading]
Gail Matthius: 2 appearances [Drive For America, "Same"], 1 voiceover [Bag Lady]
Eddie Murphy: 4 appearances [Lite Beer, Weekend Update I, The Self-Righteous, Wild Country Gun Cards]
Joe Piscopo: 4 appearances [Drive For America, The Self-Righteous, The Famous Broadcaster's School of Cue-Card Reading, Wild Country Gun Cards], 1 voiceover [Lite Beer]
Tony Rosato: 5 appearances [Drive For America, I Married A Monkey, The Self-Righteous, Wedding Day, Wild Country Gun Cards]

featured players:
Laurie Metcalf: 1 appearance [Weekend Update I]
Emily Prager: 0 appearances [credited in montage]

non-cast:
Yvonne Hudson: 1 appearance [Drive For America]
Michael O’Donoghue: 1 voiceover [The Self-Righteous]
Liz Welch: 1 appearance [Lite Beer]

guests:
Jr. Walker & The All-Stars: 2 appearances ["Roadrunner/Shotgun", "How Sweet It Is/What Does It Take?"]
Chevy Chase: 4 appearances [Storeroom, Weekend Update I, Weekend Update II, Friends]
Al Franken: 1 appearance [Weekend Update II]
Christopher Reeve: 1 appearance [Friends]
Robin Williams: 1 appearance [Friends]
Walter Williams: 1 voiceover [Storeroom]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
September 26, 1981
Known alterations: ”Drive For America” and “Bag Lady” are removed; “60 Minutes” from Karen Black (s06e07) and “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood” (s06e11) are added.  Opening montage removes blurry picture of the World Trade Centre and replaces it with a shot originally seen later in the montage; it also segues into I Married A Monkey.  Full closing credits.

Additional screen captures from this episode can be seen here.

Classic SNL Review: March 7, 1981: Bill Murray / Delbert McClinton (S06E12)

RATINGS SYSTEM:
***** – Classic
****   – Great
***     – Good / Average
**       – Meh
*         – Bad

OPENING: DRESSING ROOM
-Bill Murray advises the cast not to worry about the negative reviews and comparisons to the original show.
-This was the first time the show openly acknowledged the bad press that they’ve been getting all season.  Later seasons with bad publicity tended to sour the mood of the show whenever they referred to how bad the show was, but I didn’t get that feeling from this opening.  While Murray does in a way playfully validate a bit of the criticism (Rocket copying Murray, Gottfried’s sad-sack demeanor), bringing up the criticism only to adopt an attitude of “it just doesn’t matter” helped a lot.
-A lot of the credit for the success of this segment rightfully belongs to Bill Murray, who just has a way of infusing a scene with energy.  The audience cheers the loudest it has all season for the Live From New York line here.
-ADDENDUM: The whole cold opening is a reference to a scene in Meatballs, right down to the shirt Murray is wearing.
***1/2

MONOLOGUE
-A manic Bill Murray has the band play the theme again and picks up an audience member, nearly dropping her on her head.  Eddie Murphy rushes out to stop him, and the two declare themselves a new Pryor and Wilder by declaring “we bad”.
-Right away, Murray brings the energy in what is easily the most memorable of the season 6 monologues.  Murphy and Murray play off each other well, with laughs from Murphy saying “we terrible, gimme 15!” and dismissing Murray’s suggestion of the two doing an Irish jig as “bad and dangerous”.
-Murray is the first host to enter the home base set through the elevator instead of the stairs; the only time the elevator had been used all season was in the Gould monologue (he still used the stairs) and in the Handgun Association commercial from the Karen Black show.
***1/2

FILM: FORMULA FOR THE GOOD LIFE
-New Jersey chemical plant worker Paulie Herman (Joe Piscopo) is proud of his job and of where he’s from.
-I liked this a bit better than the other Paulie Herman bits this season for some reason; maybe its just that the pre-filmed aspect took a bit of the edge of his irritating qualities or that the character worked better in a documentary context.
-Nice little sight gag there with Paulie talking about how lunch tastes better at the plant before a bunch of white powder spills from his hat onto his food.
***

SKETCH: THE WRITER
-While a writer (Bill Murray) makes revisions to his script, actors performing the scene behind him struggle to keep up with the changes.
-This was such a simple idea, but still so clever and so well done, that it’s a highlight of the season.  This escalated nicely and had a good ending.
-While Murray was the perfect choice to serve as the anchor of the piece, special mention has to go to the castmembers involved: they do all the comic business and mix their “performances” as Murray’s characters with great reactions to the last-minute changes he makes.   There’s a sense of fun to their performances here that seemed absent through a lot of the last few shows, especially the part where Matthew Laurance and Ann Risley struggle to hold their pose.
-I especially thought Risley had a good part in this, as the actress who is either removed from the scene or forced to be the pitiful, sickly maid.
-Addendum: Ferris Butler informed me that this was a Billy Brown and Mel Green piece.
*****

SKETCH: ALTERED WALTER
-Just-retired Walter Cronkite (Bill Murray) alarms wife Betsy (Denny Dillon) and Dan Rather (Joe Piscopo) with his obsessive experiments in drugs and isolation chambers.
-I have to give credit for the interesting concept (a parody of Altered States with Walter Cronkite) as well as the topicality of this sketch (this original aired the day after Cronkite’s last day as CBS Evening News anchor), even if it did stetch on a little long.  I still thought it was fairly well done if not hilarious, and ended on a strong note (with Cronkite turning into a test pattern).
-The trip sequences, while well-done, did feel a little like padding (although with excellent music choices, including Frank Zappa’s Uncle Meat Variations).  I’ve never been a fan of Piscopo’s Dan Rather, but Murray carries the whole piece anyway.
-One thing I noticed about 1980-81 is that they always seemed to try to squeeze in three segments between commercial breaks, excluding musical guests and Weekend Update, and usually not really late in the show.   I think the emphasis on doing a lot of shorter material ended up hurting the season in the long run: although longer sketches have the danger of seeming indulgent or tedious, a lot of the time I’ve been seeing underdeveloped ideas, and packing the show with so many sketches seems to make them seem longer.
***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “GIVING IT UP FOR YOUR LOVE”
-Bill Murray introduces McClinton as someone who once sang with Jake Blues, and mentions Bonnie Bramlett joining him tonight.
-Tight and energetic performance of McClinton’s only Top 40 hit, with SNL Band members Ronnie Cuber, Lou Marini, Alan P. Rubin and Tom Malone playing alongside regular McClinton saxman Robert Harwell.

SATURDAY NIGHT NEWSLINE: SCIENCE BREAK WITH DR. JONATHAN LEAR (MARK KING)
-The news segment gets another major overhaul for the third time this season, split into three shorter segments spaced throughout the show’s middle third: no Pardo voiceover introducing any of the segments.
-This was amusing and kept short; it reminds me of the Dr. Jack Badofsky segments Tim Kazurinsky would do in the following seasons: both featured a guy with an exaggerated nerdy voice displaying jokes on cards.
-Too many places list this Mark King as the same one that was in Level 42; this is the Mark King appeared on Cheers about two seasons later as a nerdy scientist character Carla fools into thinking he’s the father of her baby.
***

COMMERCIAL: CHAPSTICK
-Autograph seeking girls (Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius) find that Dr. J., Sammy Davis, Jr. (Eddie Murphy), John Kenneth Galbraith (Joe Piscopo) and Roman Polanski (Gilbert Gottfried) have adopted “ChapStick” as their surnames.
-This is a spoof of the ChapStick commericals (“Suzy ChapStick” is the best known example, but the version with “Dr. ChapStick” was airing at this time; this is a parody of that commercial).  I chuckled at the absurdity of the girls getting excited over Galbraith, but the Roman Polanski part with the girls going in with him just felt a little tasteless (though I though Matthius wailing “Roman Polaaaaanskiiiiiii” was funny).
-Who was playing Julius Erving?
**

SATURDAY NIGHT NEWSLINE: ARTS & LEISURE WITH BILL MURRAY
-Murray bringing back his “Oscar Nominations” board for the fourth year in a row went over well with the audience, and after his usual “nobody cares” remark about supporting actors.
-More notable for the sentimental quality of nominating his former castmates than anything funny, although the big “Caddyshack” magnet slapped on the board for Best Picture was funny.
***

SKETCH: NICK RIVERS
-Aboard a riverboat paddling down the Mississippi, lounge singer Nick (Bill Murray) and pianist Paul Shaffer entertain a crowd including a former hostage (Yvonne Hudson) and some Mary Kay representatives (Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius).
-Another sentimental favorite brought back.  Murray carries this, and he and Shaffer get the audience going with their version of “Celebration”.
-Neil Levy plays the magician at the beginning, and costume designer Karen Roston can be seen among the lounge patrons, as can Patrick Weathers.
***1/2

SATURDAY NIGHT NEWSLINE: WITH CHARLES ROCKET
-Best joke: Welles / Winters
-Still nothing great, but Rocket seems comparatively toned down this week, despite still adopting a Bill Murrayesque delivery.  I wonder how this would have played out if they kept him on.
-Piscopo’s bit seemed a little weaker than usual.  Dom Irrera and Dennis the recurring extra are the two hockey players.  Rocket pokes fun at his F-bomb in the last show by asking “Did you say Puck?”
**

FILM: “CUT FLOWERS” – MARY PAT KELLY
-A florist (Bill Murray) tries to find just the right flower for an exacting customer (Brian Doyle-Murray).
-This was directed by the show’s associate producer, who was Murray’s sister-in-law at the time; Murray’s then-wife is credited with the idea for the short.
-I thought this one had a good payoff, and it looked and sounded significantly better than a lot of the films that ran this year.  Very nice use of tight closeups.
-This was shot at the Associated Cut Flower Company on West 28th St. in New York; incidentally, they are wholesale only and do not sell to retail customers as depicted in the film
-Looks like Dennis the recurring extra is in here as well (he’s the first person you see in the film).
***

COMMERCIAL: NO SEX WITH MARY
-Despite leaving Bendix for Seagram’s, Mary Cunningham (Gail Matthius) still can’t get away from executives making suspiciously specific denials that they sleep with her.
-This is another topical sketch based on a real story at the time: Mary Cunningham resigned from a corporate position at Bendix due to speculation that she was promoted because of a relationship with the CEO, and had just gotten a new position at Seagram’s at the time of the show’s original airing.
-Basically a one-joke premise, with the executives all denying affiars, but decent performances from all (Rocket seems very reigned-in), especially Matthius with her non-verbal mortified reactions.  Gottfried (as the janitor) gets the biggest laugh from me with his “I think she’s frigid” comment after his denial.
-Dennis the recurring extra is Jim Deacon, and has one line (“No”).
**1/2

SKETCH: CAT’S NAME
-Frustration rises as Richard (Bill Murray) and Marilyn (Ann Risley) struggle to remember the name of their friend Ron’s (Matthew Laurance) cat.
-This feels like a sketch that could play in any season, largely getting laughs from how universal the situation would be.  Murray gives good energy and carries the whole scene, but I also thought Risley did alright here.  I wonder how she would have played if she was used more like Kristen Wiig was in the earlier years of her tenure.
-One observation: they establish it to be a female cat earlier on but the name ends up being Herman.
***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “SHOTGUN RIDER”
-A more laid-back tune this time.  Good performance from McClinton and Bramlett.

SKETCH: BUBBA’S WASH, FAYETTA’S DRY
-Divorced couple Bubba (Bill Murray) and Fayetta (Denny Dillon), still sharing their laundromat after marriage has ended, snipe each other about their new significant others.
-A slower character piece that has some surprising emotional moments towards the end: good work from both leads here.
***1/2

GOODNIGHTS
-Bill Murray announces that next week’s show will be Robert Guillaume with Ian Dury & The Blockheads, and apologizes to the old cast for appearing on the show.
-The cast gives him a one-sided group hug.  Murray seems more interested in bonding with Murphy, who hugs Patrick Weathers as well.  Charles Rocket wears horrific pink pants.
-No Don Pardo credit voiceover; judging by the runtime of the Comedy Network version, the show must have run long and had the goodnights cut off on original broadcast.

Final Summary:
The Jean Doumanian era ends on a high note; while Karen Black’s show had a few more peaks, Murray brought an energy that seemed to erase the combination of defeat and panic that lingered over the last few shows.  Rocket’s over the top tendencies were reigned in, Risley seems to find her niche, and everyone seems to be having fun again.  The reduction in the number of sketches seems to have also helped tonight.  Most importantly, I didn’t have a feeling of “this may be our last show”; if the show had continued with the same cast, writers and producer, I wonder if they would have come up with for Guillaume / Dury.  NBC would fire Doumanian the next week, and when the show returned the next month, Rocket, Risley and Gottfried were no longer in the cast, and the writing staff was now without Larry Arnstein & David Hurwitz, Ferris Butler, John DeBellis, Brian Doyle-Murray and Leslie Fuller.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-The Writer
-Nick Rivers
-Monologue
-Dressing Room
-Bubba’s Wash, Fayetta’s Dry

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-Newsline (Rocket/Piscopo segment)
-ChapStick

MVP:
Bill Murray

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:
cast:
Denny Dillon: 6 appearances [Dressing Room, The Writer, Altered Walter, ChapStick, Nick Rivers, Bubba's Wash Fayetta's Dry]
Gilbert Gottfried: 3 appearances [Dressing Room, ChapStick, No Sex With Mary]
Gail Matthius: 4 appearances [Dressing Room, ChapStick, Nick Rivers, No Sex With Mary]
Eddie Murphy: 4 appearances [Dressing Room, Monologue, ChapStick, Nick Rivers]
Joe Piscopo: 6 appearances [Dressing Room, Formula For The Good Life, Altered Walter, ChapStick, Newsline, No Sex With Mary]
Ann Risley: 3 appearances [Dressing Room, The Writer, Cat's Name]
Charles Rocket: 4 appearances [Dressing Room, The Writer, Newsline, No Sex With Mary]

featured players [none credited in montage]:
Yvonne Hudson: 1 appearance [Nick Rivers]
Matthew Laurance: 3 appearances [The Writer, Altered Walter, Cat's Name]
Patrick Weathers: 1 appearance [Nick Rivers]

non-cast:
Ronnie Cuber: 2 appearances [Monologue, "Giving It Up For Your Love"]
Lawrence Feldman: 1 appearance [Monologue]
Tom Malone: 2 appearances [Monologue, "Giving It Up For Your Love"]
Lou Marini: 2 appearances [Monologue, "Giving It Up For Your Love"]
Chris Palmaro: 1 appearance [Monologue]
Leon Pendarvis: 1 appearance [Monologue]
Karen Roston: 1 appearance [Nick Rivers]
Alan P. Rubin: 2 appearances [Monologue, "Giving It Up For Your Love"]
David Spinozza: 1 appearance [Monologue]
Buddy Williams: 1 appearance [Monologue]

guests:
Bill Murray: 9 appearances [Dressing Room, Monologue, The Writer, Altered Walter, Newsline: Arts & Leisure, Nick Rivers, Cut Flowers, Cat's Name, Bubba's Wash Fayetta's Dry]
Delbert McClinton: 2 appearances ["Giving It Up For Your Love", "Shotgun Rider"]
Bonnie Bramlett: 2 appearances ["Giving It Up For Your Love", "Shotgun Rider"]
Mark King: 1 appearance [Newsline: Science Break]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
Not repeated on NBC.

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.

Classic SNL Review: February 21, 1981: Charlene Tilton / Todd Rundgren, Prince (S06E11)

RATING SYSTEM:
***** – Classic
****   – Great
***     – Good / Average
**       – Meh
*         – Bad

OPENING: SUPER FIGHT
-Joe Piscopo teases the upcoming paperweight championship between Marc Weiner’s puppets Rocko Weineretto and Weindulah.
-This was a very short cold opening (under 50 seconds) and mainly served to tease a segment later in the show, so I can’t really rate this.  This is the same reason why I didn’t rate the opening segment to the Danny DeVito show from the following season.  I did get a laugh from the “stats” presented for the boxers (no neck on either).

MONOLOGUE
-Charlene Tilton mentions how Charles Rocket took her under his wing this week.  Backstage, Gail Matthius tells Joe Piscopo that girlfriend Ann Risley was at Rocket’s place last night.  Piscopo vows revenge.
-Tilton is energetic and enthusiastic, almost distractingly so:.  The joke about escaping the crime, sex and corruption of Dallas by going to New York was a little corny, but this monologue’s real purpose was to set up tonight’s runner by having Tilton talk about how Rocket serve as a mentor during this week and be the only one who hasn’t tried to take advantage of her.
-I’m counting this as a combined segment with the backstage antics; not really much to laugh at although I though Matthius seemed to be giving it her all (especially on the line “Joe, get with it!”).
**1/2

COMMERCIAL: GREATEST RECORDS OF ALL TIME
-Music by the likes of Jack Webb, Jerry Lewis, Robert Mitchum and Hugh Downs is perfect to get you and your loved one in the mood.
-There’s really not much more to the joke than the fact that this “makeout music” is mostly comprised of one-off albums by unlikely singers, but it wasn’t bad.  I still have to chuckle at the fact that there is a real album called “An Evening With Hugh Downs” (just the album cover alone, with Hugh and his guitar, makes me laugh).
**1/2

SHOW: MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
-Mister Robinson (Eddie Murphy) gives a lesson on how to say “bitch”, gets a “chemistry kit” from Mr. Speedy (Gilbert Gottfried) and shows why he can’t get a cab.
-The audience was won over by the end of the theme song.  Pretty much all the basic pieces of the sketch are intact here, from the theme song and the “word of the day”, to Mister Robinson’s “reaction face” and the way people answer the door in his neighborhood.  (“WHO IS IT?”).
-Lots of great lines in this one: my favorite ones were “Did mommy slap you? Then you said it right!” and the dig at Richard Pryor’s freebasing accident.
****

SKETCH: PORK PARADE
-Former Culhane’s Pork Queen Sally (Gail Matthius) gives her successor Starla (Charlene Tilton) advice before the big Osceola Pork Parade.
-Pretty laugh-free, with the few laughs in this coming from whenever Matthius makes a snorting noise.  I suppose the fact that they treat pig meat so seriously is the big joke, but it really just dragged on.
-Once again, Yvonne Hudson (appearing here as the “Chitlin Princess”) gets no lines.  She honestly had more to do when she wasn’t billed in the opening credits.
-There seems to be a fair number of mistakes in this sketch: Matthius stumbles on one of her lines, Dillon calls Risley the wrong name (Mary Jean instead of Mary Ann), and at one point Matthius’ sash slips off her shoulder.
*

FILM: THE ROCKET REPORT- SUBWAY
-Charles Rocket takes Charlene Tilton on her first New York City subway ride.
-A return to form for Charles Rocket, with him asking passengers if they stole their stereo equipment.  The funniest moment doesn’t belong to Rocket or Tilton, though: the old lady with a few teeth missing describing an unpleasant subway experience gets the biggest laugh by talking about how someone was “fooling around” so she hit him.
-Tilton’s a little annoying in this one.
***1/2

COMMERCIAL: A FIDDLER BE ON THE ROOF
-In the tradition of the all-black “Hello Dolly” and “The Wiz”, Stevie Wonder (Eddie Murphy) plays Tevye in an adaptation of “Fiddler On The Roof”.
-The audience liked this one and started clapping along to the music.  Murphy did alright matching the Stevie Wonder visual with a wheezy “old Jew” voice.
-I’m pretty sure that’s Neil Levy in the shadows with the violin, going by the outline and the fact that he’s played violin on the show on several occasions.
***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “HEALER” – TODD RUNDGREN
-A full band rendering of one of Rundgren’s one-man recordings, and they do a good job of it in this lively performance.
-Once again, a different set is used for the musical guest.  This set reminds me a little of the early 90s set with the working fan.
-Backing band: Pat Travers (guitar), Kasim Sulton (bass), Roger Powell (synthesizer), Ralph Schuckett (keyboards), Ernest “Boom” Carter (drums), Mike Shrieve (percussion), Eric Troyer (vocals), Rory Dodd (vocals).  Schuckett appeared with Ellen Shipley two months before.  Dodd appeared with Meat Loaf in 1978 and is the guy who sings “Turn Around” on Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse Of The Heart.

WEEKEND UPDATE: WITH CHARLES ROCKET & GAIL MATTHIUS
-Best Joke: Budget cuts rant
-If I thought Charles Rocket was over the top in the last two shows, it’s nothing compared to how he was tonight: he’s powering through the jokes at manic speed, and at one point he’s stomping his foot after the punchline to a joke.  It really is a shame to see Rocket go from cool and reserved to all but begging for laughs.  Poor Gail Matthius gets her worst set of jokes and actually gets a bit more response to her reactions to each joke that dies than to the actual jokes.  This was a shorter-than-normal edition; that saved it from being a one-star.
-Reagan budget director David A. Stockman (Gilbert Gottfried) proposes a new social program where the receipt of food stamps depends on claimants ability to catch criminals.  Gottfried’s voice in this segment sounds almost like the stilted voice that has become his trademark, with a little less squawk to it (and of course no squinting).  This wasn’t too bad and provided a welcome break from the jokes.
-Rocket ends Weekend Update by promoting the fight later tonight.  His face when he was saying “Where’s Joe Piscopo?” might have been an attempt at goofiness but I couldn’t help but read a little bit more into that.  Matthius ends her last Weekend Update by pretending to write something in an exaggerated way; that was probably funnier than most of what she was stuck with for all six shows.
*1/2

SKETCH: LINCOLN BEDROOM
-Nancy Reagan (Gail Matthius) leaves her detested daughter-in-law Doria (Ann Risley) to fend with the ghosts in the Lincoln Bedroom.
-Not very strong, but better than it could have been, despite the underdeveloped feeling and weak ending.  I’m not a fan of Matthius’ Nancy Reagan, but I have to give some credit for whatever did work in this sketch to her and her delivery choices (especially “Of course I’m right”).
-For some reason I laughed at the absurdity Mary Todd Lincoln (Denny Dillon) breaking from a moan to “Oklahoma!” (and Risley’s line after).
-Goof: sounds like the knock for the Ford’s Theatre apparition (Eddie Murphy) came a bit too early.
**

MISCELLANEOUS: BACKSTAGE
-Charlene Tilton learns of Rocket’s two-timing from Gilbert Gottfried, who is jealous of Rocket going out with all the hosts.
-Again, mostly there to propel the runner, but not without humor (the movie Gottfried mentions he wouldn’t mind seeing again is Insatiable, a 1980 adult film staring Marilyn Chambers).  Gottfried’s a little more sullen in this, although for some reason that made his reading of “Ann’s carrying Charlie’s baby” a bit funnier.
-Listing Malcolm McDowell as one of the hosts Rocket went out with and Laurance telling Gottfried he’d go out with him reminds me a little of how the current writers tend to add a gay reference as a joke.
-Goof: you can see a hand-held microphone in the shot at one point.
-Is it just me, or would this shot of “Angry Young Gillie” make an awesome meme on par with Unsure Fry?
**

COMMERCIAL: THE COMPETITION
-Finger-breaking is fair game for the piano rivals (Gail Matthius and Joe Piscopo).
-A parody of the then-current movie of the same name starring Amy Irving and Richard Dreyfuss (Piscopo’s definitely imitating Dreyfus’ delivery here).  This worked largely because it was so short and ends on the joke; honestly, I thought it held up even without knowing what it’s supposed to be a parody of.
-The commercial that was being parodied actually aired during the network commercial break in the original broadcast of this show (after Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood).
***

SHOW: SPEAKING OUT
-Officer Ruth Warren (Denny Dillon) alerts the public of the disturbing upswing in illegal handicapped restroom stall use.
-Pretty weak sketch: Dillon tried, but there really wasn’t anything there to carry.  Matthew Laurance got a prominent but thankless role; the whole thing felt pretty lopsided right down to the microphone levels (Dillon’s was much louder than Laurance’s).  At least it was short.
*1/2

SKETCH: WOMEN BEHIND BARS
-Hardened female inmates give a fresh-faced new prisoner (Charlene Tilton) “the treatment”: a debate on whether America’s public school system was adequate during the Industrial Revolution.
-A takeoff of the 1950 movie “Caged”.  I have to give this sketch credit for having a good twist in the usual premise, but I felt there wasn’t too much more to the sketch beyond that.  The structure felt a little stronger than some of the other bits from tonight, though.
-Written by Ferris Butler with assistance from Billy Brown and Mel Green.
-Aside from the reveal, the part where Dillon’s character had a graph about illiteracy was probably the best part of the sketch.
-Yvonne Hudson gets her first lines of dialogue in over a month.  Looks like the older female extra from this season as the matron too.
**1/2

SHOW: SNL SPORTS
-Joe Piscopo and Don King provide commentary on the big fight between Rocko Weineretto and Weindulah.
-More amusing than out-and-out funny, but it helps that the audience seems really involved in the outcome of the bout, and the presence of Don King helps the commitment to the whole segment.
***

COMMERCIAL: SUBMISSIVE SUGAR DADDIES
-A new referral service matches wealthy old men with attractive women who like their money and gifts, but like to remain in control.
-Pretty much a one-joke segment.  It lasted the right amount of time.
-The actor playing “Ralph” was one of the hoodlums from last week’s “Sinatra Interview” cold opening.
**

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “TIME HEALS” – TODD RUNDGREN
-More poppy than the first song (that hook is going to be stuck in your head for days), ending with Rundgren going nuts on the guitar.
-Man, his pants leave very little to the imagination.

MISCELLANEOUS: MARY LOUISE
-Denny Dillon’s solo performance of her character, a bossy little girl who uses her hand puppet Sam The Snake to terrorize her friends at her birthday party.
-Nice to see Dillon bring this back (again, viciousness filtered through puppets is one of my weaknesses); I found it interesting that this was a solo performance. I would have liked to have seen some back-and-forth with someone, though, and overall this wasn’t quite as good as the last time she did the character.
**

SHOW: AFTER MIDNIGHT
-Vince Calypso (Charles Rocket) and Marilyn “Kitty” Sparks (Gail Matthius) get suggestive while bathing a dog on a kinky cable show.  When the sketch is interrupted by a sniper’s bullet, the question is “Who Shot C.R.?”
-Again, mostly there to prop up the runner, although this one has a few funny unscripted moments thanks to the dog continually walking away.
-There’s also a funny moment when, in the middle of the ensuing panic, Tilton casually accepts Gottfried’s brunch invite.
-Seen in the ensuing kerfuffle following the gunshot: Billy Brown (orange shirt), Joe Dicso, Neil Levy and Liz Welch.
**1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “PARTYUP” – PRINCE
-An all-time classic.  Backing Prince is Dez Dickerson (guitar), Andre Cymoné (bass), Lisa Coleman (keyboards), Doctor Fink (keyboards) and Bobby Z. (drums).  Perfect ending with Prince forcefully knocking the mic stand to the ground and the band all leaving the stage.
-Prince sings “Fighting war is such a fucking bore”

GOODNIGHTS
-With some time to kill, Charlene Tilton asks Charlene Rocket how he’s doing.  Rocket replies: “Oh man, it’s the first time I’ve ever been shot in my life.  I’d like to know who the fuck did it”, then smirks.  Everyone’s reaction is priceless: Tilton cackles, Dillon locks shocked, Risley puts her hand over her mouth, Murphy makes a face similar to his Mister Robinson reaction shot before breaking into a huge grin, Laurance really seems to enjoy it, and Matthius has this naughty look on her face.
-The band start to play, and the camera makes a rare pan over to the side stage: you can see pretty much the whole group there.
-Over the closing theme, Don Pardo announces the next show will be in two weeks with Bill Murray, and confesses that he shot Charles Rocket for fooling around with his wife, with a Smith & Wesson bought from the Spiegel catalog (“Chicago, 60608″).

Final thoughts:
If it weren’t for the incident during the goodnights, this would just be a typical 1980-81 show, with maybe a slight improvement over the three previous shows thanks to Mister Robinson, a better Rocket Report.  There’s still one long pointless sketch, a few bits that fail to fully live up to their promise or are saved by their brevity, and a Weekend Update that seems to be aware of how bad it is, but there are still signs of life throughout the show.  One thing I’ve noticed about watching this particular episode is that now that you know what happens during the goodnights, it helps the runner feel more like it’s leading up to something.

Rocket’s comment seems more deliberate than just a mere slip a la Jenny Slate or Paul Shaffer, but it still has the feeling of something tossed off and in-the-moment.  It would be what led to the end of the line for Doumanian’s version of the show and end up following Rocket to his grave, but it still seems more like a quick lapse in judgement than anything else.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:
-The reaction to Rocket during the goodnights.
-Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood
-The Rocket Report

SHOW LOWLIGHTS:
-Pork Parade
-Weekend Update
-Speaking Out
-Submissive Sugar Daddies
-Backstage
-Mary Louise
-Lincoln Bedroom

MVP:
Eddie Murphy

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:
cast:
Denny Dillon: 6 appearances [Pork Parade, Lincoln Bedroom, Speaking Out, Women Behind Bars, Mary Louise, After Midnight]
Gilbert Gottfried: 5 appearances [Greatest Records of All Time, Mister Robinson's Neighborhood, Weekend Update, Backstage, After Midnight]
Gail Matthius: 7 appearances [Monologue, Pork Parade, Weekend Update, Lincoln Bedroom, The Competition, Women Behind Bars, After Midnight]
Eddie Murphy: 4 appearances [Mister Robinson's Neighborhood, A Fiddler Be On The Roof, Lincoln Bedroom, After Midnight]
Joe Piscopo: 5 appearances [Super Fight, Monologue, The Competition, SNL Sports, After Midnight], 2 voiceovers [A Fiddler Be On The Roof, The Competition]
Ann Risley: 6 appearances [Monologue, Greatest Records of All Time, Pork Parade, Lincoln Bedroom, Women Behind Bars, After Midnight]
Charles Rocket: 5 appearances [Monologue, Pork Parade, The Rocket Report, Weekend Update, After Midnight]

featured players
Yvonne Hudson: 2 appearances [Pork Parade, Women Behind Bars]
Matthew Laurance: 2 appearances [Backstage, Speaking Out]

non-cast
Billy Brown: 1 appearance [After Midnight]
Joe Dicso: 1 appearance [After Midnight]
Neil Levy: 2 appearances [A Fiddler Be On The Roof, After Midnight]
Liz Welch: 1 appearance [After Midnight]

guests
Charlene Tilton: 7 appearances [Monologue, Pork Parade, The Rocket Report, Backstage, Women Behind Bars, Submissive Sugar Daddies, After Midnight]
Todd Rundgren: 2 appearances ["Healer", "Time Heals"]
Prince: 1 appearance ["Partyup"]
Don King: 1 appearance [SNL Sports]
Marc Weiner: 2 appearances [Super Fight, SNL Sports]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
Not rebroadcast on NBC.

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.