COLD OPENING: PARDO IMPRESSION
-Backstage, Joe Piscopo works on his Don Pardo impression to potentially get an extra paycheck.
-A very short “blackout” cold opening with very little audience reaction.  For what it was, though, it wasn’t painful.
-They seem to be carrying on the original cast’s running joke of Pardo being this disembodied voice (see Waiting For Pardo, Don Pardo: The First 50 Years), now with added omniscience. -I can’t really say I’m a fan of Piscopo’s impression: like with a lot of Piscopo impressions it’s mitigated by too much of Piscopo’s natural voice tone.
**

MONTAGE
-After two and a half seasons as an uncredited bit player, Yvonne Hudson is credited for the first time as a featured player.

MONOLOGUE
-David Carradine sings “I Want To Be A Dancin’ Man” and deflects Charles Rocket’s protests that SNL is for comedy, not soft-shoe.
-Carradine seems to be adlibbing a lot here: at one point, he says “I’m supposed to say this really fast”, and when the joke about his father saying “no son of mine is going to make a living with his feet” got no reaction, he says “that didn’t work”.  He even says “Just reading the cards, that’s all”.
-The rumors say he under the influence that night, but  he actually doesn’t do too badly in the monologue.  The musical number was entertaining to watch, and him (literally) kicking Charles Rocket off the stage got a good reaction.
***

COMMERCIAL: GUN CITY
-Crazy Eddie-style pitchman (Joe Piscopo) recommends weapons as Christmas gifts.
-Short and carried by Piscopo’s manic delivery.  This benefits from having a few good lines, most notably a dig at Nancy Reagan with the “teeny weeny guns” line.
-After watching a few real Crazy Eddie ads, I can appreciate Piscopo’s impression a little better.
***

SKETCH: KUNG FU MENSWEAR
-Caine’s (David Carradine) journeys lead him to a black menswear shop and conflicting fashion advice from its owner (Eddie Murphy) and Master Po (Gilbert Gottfried).
-David Carradine is a mess here, constantly looking at the cue cards and mumbling his lines.  His delivery actually bungles a lot of the funnier jokes.   Eddie Murphy does his best to carry the sketch, but despite his efforts (particularly the reactions) the sketch falls apart due to pacing problems, a weak ending and a badly-cued music sting.
-Gilbert Gottfried appears heavily made-up as Master Po from Kung Fu, although not really doing an impression so much as talking in an ominous tone of voice.  He gets some good lines, and the characterization as slightly annoyed and contemptuous of Caine was good for a few chuckles.
-This was the first of three Kung Fu segments in the show.  Ferris Butler confirms they were going for working in Cain throughout the show as much as possible.
-Does anyone else find the “coming up” gag at the very end (Babes in Thailand) has a little bit of an unintentional irony considering where Carradine died?
**

SKETCH: CEDAR MALL
-Vickie (Gail Matthius) and Debbie (Denny Dillon) try to impress some guys (Charles Rocket and Joe Piscopo) at the mall.
-Matthius is especially good here, particularly when she recounts her conversation with the guy with a string of “and he said, and I said…”
-Despite the audience not really being into this one (except for Rocket’s little garbage throw routine), I thought it was a good low-key sketch.
-I can see Yvonne Hudson in the background; I wonder if any of the other extras were writers.
***

FILM: THE ROCKET REPORT: SANTA CLAUS
-Charles Rocket talks glowingly about Jolly Old St. Nick while a derelict Santa (also Rocket) stumbles around New York.
-A bit short of the better Rocket Reports.  What makes them work is Rocket’s interactions with other people, and while there was a little of it with Santa hitting on women and lighting up with a fellow pedestrian, it took a backseat to the juxtaposition of Rocket’s effusive narration and Santa’s seedier activities.
-This is the first appearance of the “skyline” title card that would be used for the Rocket Report for the rest of the season.
***

SKETCH: DYLAN & GUTHRIE
-Bob Dylan (Patrick Weathers) cribs ailing hero Woody Guthrie’s (David Carradine) conversation during a hospital visit.
-This is a genuinely good sketch with a solid premise and strong performances from Weathers, who does a very good “young Dylan”, and Carradine.
-Nice little detail: Dylan’s “This machine kills facists [sic] too!” on his guitar.
****

COMMERCIAL: THE HOME VERSION OF DALLAS
-Dysfunctional family drama can be made entertaining just by pretending you’re the characters from the prime-time soap.
-This was brief but amusing, particularly the visual of the dysfunctional family wearing the cowboy hats and wigs.
***

FILM: “MR. BILL’S CHRISTMAS SPECIAL” – WALTER WILLIAMS
-A now homeless Mr. Bill reflects on Yuletide mangling at the hands of Mr. Hands and Sluggo.
-Best mangling: Sled, bike spokes
-A little short of the classic Mr. Bill segments from the original cast years.  This Mr. Bill has a (relatively) happier ending, with all of Mr. Bill’s dismemberment happening solely in flashbacks.  Then again, Mr. Bill, Miss Sally and Spot are homeless during the winter…
-I wonder if this segment was originally made for the previous season, because some of the clips (the train set, Sluggo In A Box and the sled) were in “Mr. Bill Gets Help” from the Teri Garr episode eleven months before.  I can even hear some of the same dialogue in the clips under the voiceovers in “Gets Help”.  This would make sense in the story timeline too.
***

COMMERCIAL: KUNG-FU CHRISTMAS
-Caine (David Carradine) and Bruce Lee (Eddie Murphy) battle evil Santas in a Christmas movie trailer.
-This worked in spite of itself: it was a fairly weak idea and the whole thing seemed kind of slapped together at the last minute, but I thought that actually kind of made it a bit funnier.
-I couldn’t help but laugh at “Bruce Lee is back, but this time he’s black!” and Master Po saying “You must kick their butts, grasshopper” in that tone of voice.
-Gottfried’s last sketch of the night.
**1/2

WEEKEND UPDATE WITH CHARLES ROCKET
-Best jokes: Rupert Murdoch apologizes, Ronald Reagan resigns.
-Short Update tonight.  Including the two commentaries, this clocks in at about 5 1/2 minutes, and was likely truncated to make room for the musical performances.  Rocket had a comparatively good week this time.  Was the Rupert Murdoch joke the first SNL mention of the Australian mogul?
-Ann Risley’s holiday tips that revolve around suggesting “lard wrapped in a plastic bag” come off as an attempt at weird humor that may have worked a little better with a different performer.  I still can’t decide whether it’s bad, or so bad it’s good.
-Joe Piscopo has a brief Saturday Night Sports about the NFL on NBC’s “silent game” that aired earlier that day, criticizing Don Ohlmeyer for how boring it really was, and demonstrating what it would be like if applied to his own segment.  This is more notable for Piscopo creating more of a character for his Saturday Night Sports persona (as a poorly paid counterpart to real-life sportscasters) and doing a Christmas greeting in the same style as his intros.
**1/2

MUSIC PERFORMANCE: PENZANCE MEDLEY: “I AM THE VERY MODEL OF A MODERN MAJOR GENERAL”, “OH, IS THERE NOT ONE MAIDEN BREAST”, “POOR WANDERING ONE!”, “WHERE THE FOREMAN BARES HIS STEEL” – THE CAST OF “THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE” FEATURING LINDA RONSTADT, REX SMITH, & GEORGE ROSE
-This was a very interesting idea to actually book the cast of a Broadway show as musical guest.  It was a little difficult to crowd all these people on the tiny SNL home base stage (especially in “Where The Foreman Bares His Steel”) but it makes me wish SNL would do something like this again with a musical guest booking.
-The scheduling in the show was wisely done: usually SNL musical performances are done before Weekend Update, but this longer performance flows better in the show here.

SKETCH: HEROIN IN HARLEM
-Rich white drug users (Joe Piscopo, Charles Rocket, Ann Risley and Gail Matthius) seeking the “real experience” go to Harlem for their heroin.
-While the rich drug users’ characterizations seemed a little too cartoonish for my liking, I actually thought this was a decent sketch with a good payoff at the end, the black junkies actually being undercover cops.  I liked the visual of Rocket taking a picture of the pusher threatening Matthius with a knife at her throat.
-Eddie Murphy’s line ends the sketch on a strong note:  ”Look — I am SICK AND TIRED of you junkies coming up and giving Harlem a bad name! You should have STAYED on Park Avenue where you belong!”
-One line, “you’re probably the kind of guy who worries about dirty needles” takes on a whole new light since the AIDS crisis began.  This actually aired less than six months before the disease was first reported.
***

FILM: “VIRGIN SEARCH” – LINDA LEE
-NBC executives (Neil Levy, Matthew Laurance, Mitchel Kriegman) search for the next female SNL castmember takes them from Anytown, USA to Paris to Rome to LA, all in search of a virgin.
-This is the film that was originally the subject of the big battle with standards for the Burstyn show; I don’t know if there was anything that was altered for it to finally air on the Carradine show.  I’d say it was alright but not particularly memorable.
-Gail Matthius gets a good workout, having to play four different characters, including an all-American cheerleader, a Parisian schoolgirl, a Roman Catholic nun and a version of herself with garish New Wave makeup and a Carl Sagan obssession.
-The joke with the Parisian schoolgirl not being a virgin because of Roman Polanski was a little tasteless, but the nun’s “Damn you, Father Sarducci” got a good response.
-Does anyone have an ID for the actor who played the network president?  He looks very familiar: I think they actually got a local character actor instead of using show personnel like they normally do for small roles.
**1/2

COMMERCIAL: DOPENHAGEN & HAPPY DAZE
-Country singer (David Carradine) gets his THC from a dipping tobacco-like product.  Now with a starter variety for the kids.
-Weaker segment.  While Heroin in Harlem was also a drug bit, it had a bit more substance than just substituting marijuana for chewing tobacco.  This commercial really didn’t have any more to it than that.
-Carradine’s delivery was off (he even says Copenhagen instead of Dopenhagen at first).
**

SKETCH: MOURNING THE COLONEL
-Chicken lovers (David Carradine, Denny Dillon, Eddie Murphy) grieve the passing of fried chicken icon Colonel Sanders.
-This wasn’t a bad idea for a topical sketch; kind of understated, with good work from all three (and one of Carradine’s better performances that night).
-This uses the same mall set as the Vicki and Debbie sketch from earlier tonight.
***

FILM: “THE DANCING MAN” – MITCHELL KRIEGMAN
-Hungover man (Bill Irwin) compulsively boogies whenever presented with “Shake Your Groove Thing”.
-This was good, carried entirely by Irwin’s skill as a mime; there is not a line of dialogue in the whole segment.
***1/2

SKETCH: KUNG-FU WELFARE
-Unemployed Caine (David Carradine) and Ms. Robley (Yvonne Hudson) are literally pimped out due to changes to their welfare requirements.
-Written by Ferris Butler, Billy Brown & Mel Green.
-This had the best premise of the three Kung Fu parodies, a good spoof of government doublespeak, and Dillon was good as the dismissive bureaucrat.
-I kind of liked the bits of business with Caine (still seeking water) not entirely sure what to do with the water cooler.
-Yvonne Hudson gets her first prominent role as a credited featured player, despite doing some fairly major sketch work the season before (“Bad Clams”).
-Carradine blanking out towards the end (“I am troubled by one thing, um…”) and Denny asking the question for him did not seem scripted.  It did derail the sketch, unfortunately, and the sketch never quite recovers.
-The last exchange between Carradine and Risley’s character is probably one of the dirtiest things I can think of them getting away with this season (think “water sports”).
**1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “O COME EMANUEL”, “THE FIRST NOEL”, “JOY TO THE WORLD”
-This was a nice touch, with the Penzance cast performing a capella (the only bit of instrumentation is the organ playing the key change for each new song), and snow beginning to fall for Joy To The World.

GOODNIGHTS
-David Carradine, the cast, and the Penzance performers are all crowded on or below home base.  Gilbert Gottfried is still in his Master Po robes.
-Don Pardo announces the show will return live on January 10th, and that he’ll be spending New Years’ at Art Fleming’s, snorting potpourri.

Final Summary:
This was a surprisingly consistant show, with no truly awful segments (at the very worst, the weaker segments were either forgettable or just not strongly executed) and one very strong sketch (“Dylan & Guthrie”).  Carradine wasn’t exactly a great host, though, and is responsible for derailing the Kung Fu Menswear and Kung Fu Welfare sketches, though he did alright in most of what else he was in.  That said, the show seemed to move quickly and was actually pretty enjoyable for the most part.  This is the last show before a significant upheaval backstage, though, with Mason Williams and Mitchell Kriegman out, and Jeremy Stevens and Tom Moore in by the next show.

MVP:
Gail Matthius

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-Dylan & Guthrie
-The Dancing Man

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-Ann Risley’s WU commentary
-Dopenhagen & Happy Daze
-Kung Fu Menswear
-Pardo Impression

CAST & GUEST SUMMARY:
cast
Denny Dillon: 4 appearances [Cedar Mall, The Home Version of Dallas, Mourning the Colonel, Kung Fu Welfare]
Gilbert Gottfried: 2 appearances [Kung Fu Menswear, Kung Fu Christmas]
Gail Matthius: 5 appearances [Cedar Mall, The Home Version of Dallas, Kung Fu Christmas, Heroin In Harlem, Virgin Search]
Joe Piscopo: 6 appearances [Pardo Impression, Gun City, Cedar Mall, The Home Version of Dallas, Weekend Update, Heroin in Harlem]
Ann Risley: 5 appearances [Pardo Impression, Dylan & Guthrie, Weekend Update, Heroin In Harlem, Kung Fu Welfare]
Charles Rocket: 7 appearances [Monologue, Cedar Mall, The Rocket Report, The Home Version of Dallas, Weekend Update, Heroin In Harlem, Kung Fu Welfare]; 1 voiceover [Kung Fu Christmas]

featured players
Yvonne Hudson: 1 appearance [Kung Fu Welfare]
Matthew Laurance:  1 appearance [Virgin Search]
Eddie Murphy:  4 appearances [Kung Fu Menswear, Kung Fu Christmas, Heroin In Harlem, Mourning the Colonel]
Patrick Weathers: 1 appearance [Dylan & Guthrie]

non-cast
Mitchell Kriegman: 1 appearance [Virgin Search]
Neil Levy: 1 appearance [Virgin Search]
Andy Murphy: 1 appearance [Kung Fu Christmas]
Don Pardo: 1 voiceover [Pardo Impression]

guests
David Carradine: 7 appearances [Monologue, Kung Fu Menswear, Dylan & Guthrie, Kung Fu Christmas, Dopenhagen & Happy Daze, Mourning the Colonel, Kung Fu Welfare]
The cast of “The Pirates of Penzance”: 2 appearances [Penzance medley, Christmas carols]
Bill Irwin: 1 appearance [The Dancing Man]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
February 28, 1981

Additional screen captures not shown above can be found here.

The last time a musical guest bombed this bad on the ‘SNL’ stage was in April 2010.  Ke$ha performed “Tik Tok” with an American flag cape a bizarre laser show and astronaut-suited backing band, with a pause to ask “Did anyone ever stop to think we were the aliens?”, which seemed an attempt at invoking Robert Plant’s “Does anybody remember laughter?” while just looking even sillier.  Her second number, “Your Love Is My Drug” was even more bizarre, with her and her band covered in day-glo body paint.  I wrote at the time that Ke$ha came off as a half-assed Lady Gaga impersonator: I stand by that assessment.

Some other SNL musical moments of note, for all the wrong reasons:

• Kanye West’s attempt to replicate his autotune album “808s and Heartbreak” on the SNL stage with a giant video screen behind him.  There were a few times when the autotune “glitches” weren’t able to cover West’s weak singing ability, and the whole stage presence felt completely underwhelming.  I actually don’t mind West’s other performances (despite his braggadocio) and actually thought his 2010 performance art style numbers were a bounce back from this one.
• Ashlee Simpson’s appearance in 2004 has been the subject of enough commentary already.  When she was booked on the show, I just thought it was weak to have someone best known for riding the coattails of her more successful older sisters (who by that point was better known for being an airhead on an MTV reality show than any music she put out beforehand).  For a brief moment, Ashlee did eclipse her sister…as the subject of scorn and derision.  Once her second number began with her vocals from the first song playing, while her mic was at hip level, she realized what was going on, did a little jig to save face and then left her band on stage to play out.  The show had to scramble to fill time because her aborted performance threw the timing off that night, and Simpson blamed her gaffe on her band playing the wrong song during the goodnights.  Post-script: Simpson got a do-over performance for her next album a year later to mass indifference.
• Brian Wilson appeared on the show in 1976, during one of his low ebbs.  Overweight, bearded and with hair resembling that of a Fisher-Price man, Wilson was there to promote the Beach Boys’ “comeback” 15 Big Ones, but despite able backing from the SNL band, was not in any shape to perform.  His missing the high notes in “Love Is A Woman” is painful enough to watch even without the tragic biography, but even sadder is a solo piano “Good Vibrations” in a giant sandbox at the end of the show.
• Laura Branigan had a big hit with “Gloria” in 1982, and was booked on the show in December of that year.  Unfortunately, it seems she was under the weather that weekend because her voice was shot.  She resorts to speak-singing for much of the song, but at one point her voice gives out and squeaks a high note.
• Spice Girls received much criticism when they performed “Wannabe” and “Say You’ll Be There” in 1997: their vocal performances left much to be desired, but their dance moves bordered along the territory of the Juul Haalmeyer Dancers from SCTV, without the intentional comedy.
• Backstreet Boys’ appearance in March 1998 had a dance break where with the Boys doing this bit of choreography with folding chairs.  Even watching this with the benefit of hindsight and a bit of distance from when they were all over the radio playlists, it wasn’t a very good performance to begin with, but the chair dance just made it look stupid.
• The Go-Gos’ appearance in 1981 was completely flimsy, slippy and lethargic at the same time.  Belinda Carlisle has admitted in her autobiography that this is due to being coked and boozed up that particular night, even going so far as calling it the worst performance the band ever did.

Much has already been written about Sinead O’Connor’s well-intentioned but overly-strident protest of Catholic sex abuse at the end of her performance of “War”, and Rage Against The Machine being tossed out of the studio for hanging down an upside-down flag on their amps (which was torn down before showtime) but I didn’t really find too much fault with those performances.

Anyone who has their own nominees for infamously bad SNL performances, please leave a detailed comment.

The quality of journalism is another sticking point I have with the amount they charge: there are a few bright spots here and there buried beneath articles cribbed wholesale from wire services, trivial city boosterism, and a lack of true analysis.  The front of the Moncton Times & Transcript, for example, usually has a piece on the front page about how great a place Moncton is to shop. The “News Today” (ostensibly for actual current events in Canada and abroad) section once counted the birth of Suri Cruise as front-page material.  Compared to their sister paper, Saint John’s Telegraph-Journal, it makes Moncton (and Eastern New Brunswick by default) look like a region of morons.  There’s a sense of redundancy as well, you feel like you’ve read the same pieces last month.  (For a more thorough discussion of the media and short-sighted city strategy in Moncton, check out Graeme Decarie‘s blog).  The small town papers are important for their local coverage, but for every worthwhile story in the Miramichi Leader, there’s another four page spread of old ladies at luncheons.

Irving can get away with charging so much for so little because print media is a captive market in New Brunswick.  There are other sources for news, especially online, but Irving still has the power to muscle out or absorb anything that comes along.  Some speculate that Irving will take a hit because of the people cancelling their subscriptions in protest, and revert back to the old model, but I doubt it will ever go back to free online content.  The way they have it now, though, is like having each newspaper at a newsstand covered in an opaque bag.

The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall, disc 3 – The Fall
This disc collects the band’s assorted BBC Radio sessions done to promote the album when it was originally released in 1984.  Since the LP was one of their more “produced” efforts, it’s interesting to hear the songs in a more straightforward presentation, without a whole lot of echo, effects or Gavin Friday’s guest vocals.  ”Copped It” has its early punkish Fall sound more apparent in this setting.

This Nation’s Saving Grace, disc 2 – The Fall
Like with the BBC sessions disc for the previous Fall album, this lets you hear less polished versions of tracks that would show up on the album, as well as a few that didn’t make it including “Ma Riley” and Brix Smith’s guitar instrumental “Edie”.  I particularly liked hearing the rough “Paintwork”, which on the album is a sonic collage.

Bernstein Conducts Bernstein and Gershwin: The Royal Edition (14/100) – Leonard Bernstein
I’m trying to get into more instrumental music these days, and I got this as a Christmas present.  This has a little more flourish and presence to the music, either because of the 20th-century origins of the compositions or just the conducting and recording.  I haven’t really developed my ear as well as I want to.  Hopefully this will help.

Jazz From Hell – Frank Zappa
I’ve been on a Zappa kick lately.  Interesting album: it’s all performed on the Synclavier except for the guitar solo “St. Etienne”.  It did free him up to do more challenging compositions that the technically-accomplished musicians in his band would still have difficulty with, but the technology does sound a little dated.

I’m looking for more recommendations for music as well, especially classical music.
 

The Office (US)
Parks and Recreation
Arrested Development
Breaking Bad
Community

Thanks for everything, Joe.

OPENING: THE MEAN MAJORITY
-Members of the right-wing pressure group (Charles Rocket, Denny Dillon, Gail Matthius), smug from the Republican victory last month, dictate what TV shows America is not to watch.
-I can see what they were trying to do with this piece but it didn’t come off, and the whole thing felt like an extended riff on the same joke.
-Something about this felt very underwritten, and there were too many disconnects for it to work, particularly the ticker.  I don’t know if it was just timed wrong, but the way it went by without any link as to why they were running it just made it feel sloppy, without knowing a similar joke had been done before (and better) with Michael Palin in the What If sketch from January 1979.  The whole thing felt like it was written five minutes before air.
-The very quiet audience did not help, aside for the laughter at the titles of the verboten shows.
When Dillon, Matthius and Rocket do the “LFNY” line, there is absolutely no response and you can hear the band count-in.
*

MONTAGE
-Billed for the first time are featured players Matthew Laurance, Eddie Murphy and Patrick Weathers.

MONOLOGUE
-Jamie Lee Curtis explains that audiences have expectations of certain performers, and fulfills these tonight by letting out a blood-curdling scream.
-Par for the season: another very short “talk” monologue.  You could kind of see where this was going when she was talking about the other performers.
-Second week in a row that the host got a perm in between bumper photography and the live show.  Also, Curtis’ belt falls off as she walks down the set stairs and you can see her reattach it before she gets to the stage.
**1/2

COMMERCIAL: CLOVIN HIND I
-Brooke Shields (Gail Matthius) contorts, whistles and plucks her eyebrows, before confessing only her brains come between her and her Clovins.
-This spoof of Brooke Shields’ Calvin Klein jeans worked, and the audience responded well to it.  The periodic “ouch” from Matthius was a nice detail.
***

SKETCH: ATTACK OF THE TERRIBLE SNAPPING CREATURES
-Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her roommate (Gail Matthius) experience the horror of sentient wooden clothespins.
-Essentially one joke, and I felt the sketch could have been played a little bit sillier than it was, but it did have its moments.  Despite the show doing this sketch because of Curtis’ movies, this was Gail Matthius’s sketch to carry.  I noticed there were a few line trips earlier on, but she did an adequate job.
-The audience liked the clothespin on Curtis’ nipple.
**

SKETCH: THREE CARD MONTY
-Paulie Herman (Joe Piscopo) meets a card hustler (Eddie Murphy) in a New York bus terminal.
-The audience gives Paulie Herman recognition applause, but Herman did not need to be brought back a week later and this sketch had too many similarities to the original one.  A character whose whole schtick is saying “I’m from Jersey, are you from Jersey?” gets old pretty fast.
-Eddie Murphy appears in his first speaking role outside of Weekend Update, and has his turn of doing the Herman schtick to get out of trouble with Rocket’s Irish cop character.  He’s still a little green with his delivery, but he’s already starting to build a voice and is the main highlight of an otherwise unnecessary sketch.
-Rocket’s Irish cop archetype reeked a little too much of lazy writing.
-Who was the really tall guy at the beginning with Levy?
*1/2

FILM: “WHO IS GILBERT GOTTFRIED” – LINDA LEE
-A short film traces Gottfried’s path from meager beginnings to SNL stardom
-Nothing overly special.  The joke with the revolving door where his family lived was overused, but I did chuckle at the Mexican toupee dance.
-Does anyone know who played the post office clerk handing Gottfried his diploma or the police officer who co-stars in the audition tape?
** 1/2

SHOW: DYING TO BE HEARD
-Female poets seeking posthumous fame kill themselves to have their works read on TV.
-I liked this one…a funny, if very dark concept, but executed well enough.  I liked the “poems” of the characters too.
-The only real liability in the sketch is Ann Risley’s awful delivery as the host: she seems to be trying for this grave tone that just makes her seem wooden and awkward.
***1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “RAPP PAYBACK” – JAMES BROWN
-Excellent performance from all involved.  Very tight, with Brown’s split second moves providing perfect flourish.
-SNL Band members Ronnie Cuber, Alan Rubin, Lou Marini, Tom Malone and Georg Wadenius are visible in the band (they’re the ones not wearing the same outfit that the JBs are wearing).

WEEKEND UPDATE WITH CHARLES ROCKET
-Best jokes: Vibrating rocket, Ted Koppel/Howdy Doody
-After a slight improvement last week, Rocket has a weaker outing tonight, not helped by him adopting a more exaggearated delivery and tripping on his words.  This also has perhaps the  biggest negative response to a Weekend Update joke of the Rocket tenure, if not all time, about the Republicans deciding that abortion was OK as long as the fetus was female.
-The audience responded well to Denny Dillon’s Woodswoman bit.  When they gave her a featured bit on the show, Dillon would usually deliver and at least clearly be throwing herself into the piece, whether it was any good or not.  Fortunately, this was one of her better pieces.
-Joe Piscopo’s Saturday Night Sports segment with his rhymes about the baseball trades also does pretty well with the audience.  For me, it’s something where I admire the craft but really don’t see too much humor in it (aside from some unintentional humor coming from the ballplayers’ hair and mustaches).
-Eddie Murphy gets his first solo Weekend Update commentary tonight, this week suggesting that poor people can get their nutrition from eating dog food.  This is a bit of an oddity because Murphy speaks in a nasal twang throughout, and this segment was not in the 60-minute syndication edit of this episode.  There is also a portion where the picture gets very jumpy, which is an issue with the master tape because I’ve seen this issue on both the Comedy Network and NBC classic airing of this show.  The bit itself seems only to exist for the visual of Murphy eating dog food.  Considering some of the movies Murphy’s made over the last couple of years, though, this is hardly the most embarrassing thing he’s ever done.
**

COMMERCIAL: POKER AND DRUGS
-Poker players make errors in judgement while under the influence in a public service announcement.
-This had a promising premise that eventually petered out due to inept execution.  Rocket’s overexaggerated narration didn’t work, and the sketch just ends suddenly.
-There were a few funny moments, such as Risley being convinced the Queen and Jack cards were having an affair, and Gottfried hepped up on eight cups of coffee, but overall it just seemed slapped together and not developed well enough.  Squandered idea of the night.
**

COMMERCIAL: CLOVIN HIND II
-Brooke Shields (Gail Matthius) contorts and sings “Take Me Out To The Ball Game”, then confesses that if her Clovins could talk, she could act.
-Another brief blackout bit that connected with the audience.
***

SKETCH: BADGERS
-Waitress (Jamie Lee Curtis) takes insults from a group of obnoxious lodge members (Charles Rocket, Matthew Laurance, Patrick Weathers, Eddie Murphy, Andy Murphy).
-I really did not care for this at all, with most of the humor being based on the double meaning of the word “badger”.   Unfortunately this sketch is as grating as the lodge brothers were, and the twist at the end with the hotel manager (Piscopo) being a brother was pretty lame as well.
-Eddie uses a similar voice as he did in WU, while Gottfried brings out an early version of his trademark screech.
*

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “MEDLEY”- JAMES BROWN
-One of the peaks of the season for sure, if not the entire 37 year history of SNL.  You can see the sweat coming off of Brown by the halfway mark.
-According to musical director Kenny Vance,  Brown performed for a much longer period of time than he was scheduled to, lasting for over eight minutes.  This may account as to why the last third of the show is oddly paced.

COMMERCIAL: TORTU-MATIC
-Increase your ability to withstand pain with a Rube Goldberg machine to admininster abuse and toughen you up.
-Written by Ferris Butler, another remake of a Waste Meat News bit (originally titled “LA Test”).
-Rocket invokes Dan Aykroyd with his manic pitchman delivery, but the real laugh came from the prop used to beat Rocket up.   The over-the-top aspect of this one made it work for me.
***

SHORT SHOT: SCENES FROM “HOT DOGS FOR GAUGUIN” – MARTIN BREST
-Adrian (Danny DeVito) tries to get rich quick by taking a picture of a “chance disaster” and tries to rig one involving the Statue of Liberty
-DeVito’s performance made the portion of the film that was shown (a few minutes out of 22).  I probably would have rated this higher if it were the complete work on the show, but that would have taken away from the live element too long.
-Brest would later direct Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop, as well as be responsible for the infamous Ben Affleck / Jennifer Lopez vehicle Gigli.
*** 

SKETCH: ROWEENA’S CUT ‘N CURL
-Cigarette-dangling, midwestern hairdresser Roweena (Gail Matthius) works on friend Nadine (Denny Dillon) as the latter gets a visit from her unrecognizable daughter (Jamie Lee Curtis).
-Good character work from Dillon and especially Matthius, but unfortunately the audience had checked out by this time, and the writing in the sketch doesn’t let it get off the ground.
**

COMMERCIAL: CLOVIN HIND III
-Brooke Shields (Gail Matthius) loses her balance as she tries to recite a limerick about her Clovins.
-Not as good as the other two segments.
-The show actually went back from commercial into this pretaped bit, which indicates there likely was a timing issue cause by the James Brown performance.  Usually, SNL will come back from a break into a live bit, and at the time, usually sandwiched all the pretapes between two live segments.  I wonder what was cut.
**

SKETCH: THE OCELOTS
-Reporter Joyce Shrapnel (Jamie Lee Curtis) interviews a biker chick (Ann Risley) whose gang’s motivation is disposing of road kill.
-Risley at least tried with this character but aside from her grabbing the reporter’s microphone to sing badly, the tearfulness and tough accent just ended up grating after awhile.  The sketch dragged and the props of the flattened animals didn’t really add much.
*1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “FOTOGENIC” – ELLEN SHIPLEY
-Decent new-waveish mainstream rock.
-I think that’s Ralph Schuckett on keyboards.

GOODNIGHTS
-Jamie Lee Curtis reminds the audience of the ten minute vigil for John Lennon to be held at 2 PM the next day.

Final Summary:
A weaker outing.  Jamie Lee Curtis didn’t really have to carry much of the material tonight, but the cast did seem to be trying their best.  There really wasn’t a whole lot to carry, though.  We got a mix of weak premises, underwritten ideas that could have been further developed (“Mean Majority”, “Poker and Drugs”, “Terrible Snapping Creatures”) and just plain laziness (the unneccesary Paulie Herman “Three Card Monty”).  The strongest segments were still musical performances, with “Dying To Be Heard” being the best of the live sketches and the Short Shot (the final in the series) being the highlight of the rear third of the show.  More indivual lowlights this time, and fewer highlights, with the main thing keeping this show from being a new low is that the weak material is nowhere as bad as some of the bits from McDowell.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-James Brown (I normally don’t include musical guests in highlights/lowlights, but this was probably the main reason this was included as a Classic SNL on NBC All Night in 2005).
-Dying To Be Heard

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-The Badgers
-The Mean Majority
-The Ocelots
-Three Card Monty
-Clovin Hind III
-Weekend Update
-Attack of the Terrible Snapping Creatures
-Poker and Drugs
-Roweena’s Cut and Curl

MVP:
James Brown

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:
Denny Dillon: 5 appearances [The Mean Majority, Dying To Be Heard, Weekend Update, Poker and Drugs, Roweena's Cut 'n Curl]
Gilbert Gottfried: 3 appearances [Who Is Gilbert Gottfried, Poker and Drugs, Badgers]
Gail Matthius: 7 appearances [The Mean Majority, Clovin Hind (3 part), Attack Of The Terrible Snapping Creatures, Dying To Be Heard, Roweena's Cut 'n Curl]; 1 voice-over [Poker and Drugs]
Joe Piscopo: 5 appearances [Three Card Monty, Dying To Be Heard, Weekend Update, Poker and Drugs, Badgers]; 3 voice-overs [Clovin Hind (3 part)]
Ann Risley: 3 appearances [Dying To Be Heard, Poker and Drugs, The Ocelots]
Charles Rocket: 5 appearances [The Mean Majority, Three Card Monty, Weekend Update, Badgers, Tortu-Matic]; 2 voice-overs [Who Is Gilbert Gottfried, Poker and Drugs]

featured players
Matthew Laurance: 2 appearances [Poker and Drugs, Badgers]
Eddie Murphy: 3 appearances [Three Card Monty, Weekend Update, Badgers]
Patrick Weathers: 1 appearance [Badgers]

non-cast
Ronnie Cuber: 2 appearances ["Rapp Payback", "Medley"]
Neil Levy: 1 appearance [Three Card Monty]
Tom Malone: 2 appearances ["Rapp Payback", "Medley"]
Lou Marini: 2 appearances ["Rapp Payback", "Medley"]
Andy Murphy: 1 appearance [Badgers]
Alan P. Rubin: 2 appearances ["Rapp Payback", "Medley"]
Georg Wadenius: 2 appearances ["Rapp Payback", "Medley"]

guests and cameos
Jamie Lee Curtis: 6 appearances [Monologue, Attack of the Terrible Snapping Creatures, Dying To Be Heard, Badgers, Roweena's Cut 'n Curl, The Ocelots]
James Brown: 2 appearances ["Rapp Payback", "Medley"]

Rebroadcast history:
Not repeated on NBC as a regular rebroadcast.  This was the sole 1980-81 episode to re-air as part of NBC’s Classic SNL lineup (which was just a rebroadcast of the live air version).  This was pre-empted in many markets by the first papal mass of Pope Benedict XVI.

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.

Listened to:
Curtis Mayfield – Superfly
Frank Zappa – Freak Out!, We’re Only In It For The Money, Hot Rats
The Roots - Do You Want More?!!!??!
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes – self-titled

Listened To:
Feist- Metals
Kate Bush – Hounds Of Love
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – self-titled
The Roots - Phrenology
Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra – La Boheme: Highlights

Pawnee Police Station, 2011

It looked very familiar.  Parks and Recreaction is shot in California, and there was another show that was shot there about 25 years earlier.  The building looks a tiny bit different (and thanks to the wonders of modern computer graphics, had Pawnee Police Station added to the top), but the architecture design was unmistakeable.

Mathnet Headquarters, 1986

Yes, the Pawnee Police Station was the same building they used for exterior (and interior) shots on the Mathnet segments of Square One TV, the PBS sketch-comedy math show, at least while they were still shooting in L. A.  Remember those?

In real life, the building is the former Los Angeles Police Station No. 11 on Yost Boulevard, now the Northeast Area L. A. Police Community Service Center, and home to the L. A. Police Historical Society Museum.  The building’s also been used for other TV and film productions over the years.