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.

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.

Classic SNL Review: February 7, 1981: Sally Kellerman / Jimmy Cliff (S06E09)

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

DISCLAIMER
-The Battle of the World Superpowers will be delayed tonight.

OPENING: REAGAN & THE ECONOMY
-Ronald Reagan (Charles Rocket) uses some visual aids to explain the sorry state of the U.S. economy as well as his advanced age. -The audience was amused enough by this, it was concise, and to be honest it had a few funny lines, but I thought it suffered from Rocket’s unsteady Reagan impression, which seemed to go back-and-forth into his regular voice (especially on the “optical illusion”).  It looks like someone was a little late for their cue too because Rocket waited around for a second and coughed right before Matthius and the extras came into view.
-Writer Terry Sweeney makes an appearance as one of the guests; judging by the way he’s dressed (and the picture in the background of the stage), I’m assuming he’s playing Ron Jr.  Talent scout Liz Welch is right beside him; I’ve been seeing the bald guy with the glasses everywhere this season (and the season after) too.
**

MONOLOGUE
-Sally Kellerman mentions all the films she was in before Dave Wilson cuts her off. -If it looks like there’s really no point to the monologue based on my description, you’re right.  A “talk monologue” would be an improvement over this, which only really made Kellerman seem unlikable.
*

FILM: THE ROCKET REPORT - HOSTAGES
-Charles Rocket reports from the ticker-tape parade for the returned hostages and greets Barry Rosen. -This was filmed on January 30, and while it was an improvement over the previous Rocket Report, it still fell a bit short of the usual standard; not a lot of actual interaction with people.
-Rocket does get a funny moment when he misreads a truck sign as being “the council of salutes”.
**1/2

SKETCH: THE AUDITION
-An aspiring stand-up comic (Gilbert Gottfried) does his act for a talent scout (Sally Kellerman) and his lower-class Italian-American family. -Better than expected, despite the overly broad to the point of stereotypical characterizations.  The audience was amused by Dillon’s old lady character dusting around the house and singing to herself; I have to admit it was a little funny even it was milked for all it was worth.
-The best moments in the sketch belong to Gilbert Gottfried, who is as animated as he would be throughout the show’s run.  He gets a good chunk of the sketch’s laughs, especially during his routine.
-Sally Kellerman was decent as the straight character, who didn’t really have a whole lot to do but react to the other characters.
***

SHOW: NAME THAT SIN
-Constestants (Ann Risley and Eddie Murphy) try to identify perversions from the audio clues on this game show. -A lot of randomness and non-sequiturs (“anal vanity”, “freeze-dried sodomy”), which I have to admit I like, but this was also helped by the pacing (one example where Rocket playing over-the-top helped the sketch), and the “historical sins” section actually built the joke pretty well.
-Written by Ferris Butler; this is an adaptation of another one of his pieces from “Waste Meat News” with some of the dialogue toned down to be acceptable for network television.  Charles Rocket assisted with some of the dialogue.
-It sounds like Gail Matthius and Denny Dillon doing the sin sound effects for the first round.
***

FILM: EYE EAR NOSE & THROAT
-A pianist plays “If You Knew Susie” with their nose as various other body parts are seen in close-up. -I’d say this was alright, I suppose.  Not very much to it.
-Where did this film come from?  I can’t find anything about this film, either a director or the year it was made.  It doesn’t look specifically produced for the show and was probably already a few years old by the time SNL acquired it; the young man whose face is partially visible in a lot of the closeups looks an awful lot like Jeff Goldblum.
**

SHOW: WAS I EVER RED
-Carmen Campbell (Ann Risley) hosts a panel discussion of socially-escalated women’s most embarrassing breaches of dinner etiquette.

-This was bad.  The audience only started giving a response when it proceeded into the meat of the sketch, which was Kellerman’s character’s story.  That part just really gave a “trying too hard” feeling, as it was just one gross-out after another.  The payoff of the true horror coming from cold soup felt weak too.
-I found the “snooty” voices that Ann Risley and Gail Matthius were using were so over-the-top to the point of being distracting.  (Risley used a lower register that I guess could be described as someone making fun of Lana Del Rey even though this was taped years before she was born; Matthius was doing this exaggerated high voice with a lot of syllables drawn out).
*

COMMERCIAL: IRANIAN JOKE BOOK
-Play pranks on your hostages the way the Iranians do, like the classic “fake execution” bit. -This was short and didn’t have a lot to it, but didn’t stretch the joke too long.  Rocket is starting to appear manic here.
-According to Ferris Butler, the hostage was played by writer Billy Brown.
** 1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “I AM THE LIVING” -This is a more stripped down performance than on the LP, which has horns.  Cliff is energetic and dancing around.
-Cliff’s songs were performed on a different stage than normal.  Lani Groves is one of the backup singers (thanks to Raj for the ID).

WEEKEND UPDATE WITH CHARLES ROCKET & GAIL MATTHIUS
-Best joke: Crazy Eddie-style budget cuts, Brenda Vaccaro -Charles Rocket’s delivery is really starting to become more frantic by this point; Ferris Butler attributes it to the uncertain future of the show.  Unfortunately, whatever effort Rocket is putting into the jokes can’t distract from how weak they are.   Gail Matthius gets the weakest jokes once again aside from the Vaccaro joke. -Eddie Murphy’s commentary on the Emancipation Proclamation not being valid because Lincoln forgot to sign it was his usual boost to the show, and he gets a little back-and-forth with the audience: after someone laughs at the reveal of the invalid document, he ad-libs “I don’t think that’s funny!”.  There’s also a funny moment when he thanks Matthius for introducing him, and she catches him off-guard by saying “you’re welcome”.  His delivery is starting to become more confident. -Piscopo also gets the audience going with his Saturday Night Sports feature, a guest performance by puppeteer Marc Weiner as Rocko Weineretto.  Piscopo touts the fighter as the new future of boxing, and this serves to set up a segment that will air on the show two weeks later.
-According to the Hill & Weingrad book, Rocket was not happy that Piscopo was bringing in outside performers on Weekend Update.
-I found a few pictures of segments that were cut before air on Getty Images: one was a commentary by Matthew Laurance, and another featured Gilbert Gottfried dressed as an Eskimo, holding a newsletter with a picture of Fidel Castro and the headline “Big Man in Tropics is Wimp in Arctic”.  The latter was an adaptation of “Eskimos Against Castro”, another “Waste Meat News” sketch by Ferris Butler.   Butler also had another piece in dress rehearsal called “Failure Magazine”.
**

SHOW: PARENT AND CHILD
-A demonstration of the proper way to handle when a child (Gilbert Gottfried) walks in on mom (Ann Risley) and dad (Joe Piscopo) during a little BDSM.
-This has a few good moments, particularly Piscopo hopping to and from the bureau in ankle cuffs, and donning glasses and smoking a pipe when he goes into “dad mode”.  I thought it did suffer a little from Matthius’ delivery in the intro and outro, which came across as stilted, and this sketch could have developed the scenario or the parents’ explanation a bit further.
-Gottfried’s exaggerated childlike facial expressions were funny.
**1/2

FILM: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A HOSTAGE
-A first-person perspective shows that while freed from Iran, the released hostage has a new captor: the attention from his friends, neighbors and the media. -More satirical and pointed than out-and-out hilarious, and the point is driven home by the closing visual of Uncle Sam strangling the hostage with a yellow ribbon.
-Barry W. Blaustein and David Sheffield are seen around the piano at the bar; no idea who any of the other actors are.
***

SKETCH: LEAN ACRES
-Lois (Ann Risley) and Tina (Denny Dillon) are prisoners of a fat farm.  An audience member decries the sketch as insensitive to the overweight, and discovers the sketch’s writer is fuller-figured herself. -Maybe the whole “fat farm = prison” trope hadn’t been done to death at the time, but in the wake of jokes on “The Simpsons” and “South Park”, I can’t help but feel that it was a tired idea even back then.  Maybe that’s why they used the fake audience member to shake things up.
-Kellerman seems to be playing her role as the sadistic counselor exactly the same as her other roles tonight: slightly aloof, affected…I have to credit the writers for using her in roles where that seems to fit.
-I appreciate that the show was trying to do some of the fourth-wall breaking that the original show used to do (e.g., The Killer Bees), and while it wasn’t executed as smoothly as it could have been, it was a noble try.
-Ferris Butler identifies the audience member as Karen Roston, the show’s costume designer.  It does look a bit like her (especially going by the wild salt-and-pepper hair, although she normally wore glasses) but I’m still going to hold off on listing her as a confirmed extra until I get a second corroboration.  The writer was apparently a paid extra though.
**

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “GONE CLEAR” -I actually liked the recorded version a little better, but this wasn’t bad at all.

SKETCH: IRANIAN STUDENT COUNCIL
-The Tehran University Class of 1981 discusses the success of their latest fundraiser and try to figure out how they’ll follow the hostage-taking. -The audience was completely silent for this aside from a few titters, but this had a decent concept behind it, treating the international incident as a mere extracurricular activity arranged by young, nauseatingly enthusiastic keeners.
-The audience member who is captioned with “Wishes she was a hostage” looks like she fits that caption.
**1/2

FILM: “NEW YORK” – C.F. BRESSLER
-A short claymation cityscape set to Ray Charles’ “New York’s My Home”
-More technically impressive than anything else, but I thought this was a good palate-cleanser, similar to how the films were used before.  I liked the mood this one set.
-The audience audio was not mixed in with the sound from the film, similar to how the audio was during filmed segments in the first season.
***

SKETCH: PILLOW PETS
-A woman (Ann Risley) is upset her husband (Gilbert Gottfried) seems to favor the dog over her, especially since the “dog” is just a stuffed pillow.
-This sketch has probably my favorite concept of the night, and probably would have been more highly regarded if it were performed either on a different show, or on SNL more than 20 years later.  I honestly could see Will Forte doing something like this.
-Gottfried is a little withdrawn and sullen in his delivery, but I thought it helped him with a few of the lines (especially “Oh, you were wrong” to Risley thinking that a man who loved the pillows so much could give her a lot of love).
***

SKETCH: TELEVISED TRIAL
-In the wake of a recent Supreme Court ruling, a televised small claims trial takes the format of a late-night talk show.
-This wasn’t bad; it didn’t outstay its welcome, and Gottfried did well as the plaintiff suing a restaurant for putting a ball bearing in his food.
-The cameo by Jim Fowler worked well, and he gets a few of the best lines.
-I thought having the image inset into a graphic of a television was a little unnecessary.
-Dom Irrera, one of the people passed over for the new cast, is the juror whispering the verdict to the foreman.
***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “STARTING OVER AGAIN”
-Sally Kellerman performs the Donna Summer and Bruce Sudano-penned song about a middle-aged couple’s dissolved marriage, which was then a recent hit for Dolly Parton.
-She’s not a bad singer, but it doesn’t seem like something you’d end an SNL on.

GOODNIGHTS
 -Kellerman doesn’t seem as affected here, amazingly enough.  Rocket sniffs her head amorously, and Denny Dillon and Gilbert Gottfried hug.
-Don Pardo announces Deborah Harry is hosting next week, and says “happy birthday” to the President before mentioning his birthday is on February 22 and soliciting birthday gifts.
-The costume house that SNL used underwent a name change between the Hays and Kellerman shows; Brooks-Van Horn was acquired by the Eaves costume company and became Eaves-Brooks.

Final Thoughts:
I was surprised how high I rated the sketches; it always seemed like it was worse than it actually was, thanks to a limited host (Kellerman seemed to only play snobbish), an overabundance of jokes on the same topic, a dead audience in places, and a creeping self-awareness that the show’s days (with that staff) were numbered.  But  the more I think about it, aside from the monologue and Was I Ever Red, I didn’t strongly dislike very much of the show, and could find pieces of worth in a lot of tonight.  It seemed more that the show’s biggest issue was a lot of sketches that were sub-par (in either concept or execution), but weren’t balanced out with standout pieces as in other Doumanian shows; even the usually reliable Rocket Report wasn’t up to standard.  Ann Risley had the most appearances out of anyone tonight (I have to wonder if that colors people’s perception of the episode), but for me, it was Gilbert Gottfried who stood out.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-commentaries on Weekend Update.

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-Was I Ever Red
-Monologue
-the jokes on Weekend Update
-Reagan & The Economy
-Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat

MVP:
Gilbert Gottfried

CAST & GUEST RUNDOWN:
cast
Denny Dillon: 4 appearances [The Audition, Was I Ever Red, Lean Acres, Iranian Student Council], 1 voiceover [Name That Sin]
Gilbert Gottfried: 4 appearances [The Audition, Parent & Child, Pillow Pets, Televised Trial]
Gail Matthius: 5 appearances [Reagan & The Economy, Was I Ever Red, Weekend Update, Parent & Child, Iranian Student Council], 1 voiceover [Name That Sin]
Eddie Murphy: 3 appearances [Name That Sin, Weekend Update, Iranian Student Council]
Joe Piscopo: 5 appearances [The Audition, Weekend Update, Parent & Child, Iranian Student Council, Televised Trial]
Ann Risley: 7 appearances [The Audition, Name That Sin, Was I Ever Red, Parent & Child, Lean Acres, Iranian Student Council, Pillow Pets]
Charles Rocket: 5 appearances [Reagan & The Economy, The Rocket Report, Name That Sin, Iranian Joke Book Weekend Update], 1 voiceover [A Day In The Life of a Hostage]

featured players:
Yvonne Hudson: 0 appearances
Matthew Laurance: 3 appearances [Iranian Joke Book, Iranian Student Council, Televised Trial], 1 voiceover [A Day In The Life Of A Hostage]
Patrick Weathers: 2 appearances [Iranian Joke Book, Televised Trial]

confirmed non-cast
Barry W. Blaustein: 1 appearance [A Day In The Life of a Hostage]
Billy Brown: 1 appearance [Iranian Joke Book]
Dom Irrera: 1 appearance [Televised Trial]
Neil Levy: 1 appearance [Iranian Joke Book]
David Sheffield: 1 appearance [A Day In The Life of a Hostage]
Terry Sweeney: 1 appearance [Reagan & The Economy]
Liz Welch: 1 appearance [Reagan & The Economy]
Dave Wilson: 1 voiceover [Monologue]

guests
Sally Kellerman: 5 appearances [Monologue, The Audition, Was I Ever Red, Lean Acres, "Starting Over Again"]
Jimmy Cliff: 2 appearances ["I Am The Living", "Gone Clear"]
Jim Fowler: 1 appearance [Televised Trial]
Lani Groves: 2 appearances ["I Am The Living", "Gone Clear"]
Marc Weiner: 1 appearance [Weekend Update]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
Not rebroadcast on NBC.

Additional screen captures from this episode can be found here.

Classic SNL Review: January 24, 1981: Robert Hays / Joe “King” Carrasco & The Crown, 14 Karat Soul (S06E08)

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

OPENING: AMERICA NOT HELD HOSTAGE ANYMORE
-Following the release of the hostages, Ted Koppel (Joe Piscopo) keeps Nightline on the air by counting down the days the hostages are out of captivity.
-Nothing outstanding, but decent satire of the news media’s tendency to milk a story, which would be done better for Buckwheat Buys The Farm two years latter.  Actually, so would Piscopo’s Koppel (still not really a fan of the impression, though).
-I did like Koppel positioning the freeing of the hostages as the tragedy, and there was a little bit of scattered applause for the line about harassing the victims’ families.  Ann Risley’s part seemed pretty unnecessary, though.
**1/2

MONOLOGUE
-Robert Hays draws attention to an instant Nielsen rating that appears on the screen, which goes down once he starts bad-mouthing Nielsen families.
-Not a bad concept, and they ended it when it needed to, but this was way too similar to Buck Henry’s May 1979 monologue (thanks to TheLazenby for calling that) and not as well-executed.
**

COMMERCIAL: DAZOLA
-Indian (Denny Dillon) speaks highly of the spread that’s low on cholesterol and high on psylocibin.  Really highly.
-A spoof on the “You call it corn, we call it maize” Mazola commercials, right down to the tagline (“You call them mushrooms.  We call them magic”), but is essentially one big drug joke on par with Dopenhagen from the David Carradine show.
-What amused me more than anything was the goofy facial expressions on vegetable costumed Yvonne Hudson, Matthew Laurance and Gilbert Gottfried.  I wonder who got stuck in the pea outfits.
-Incidentally, the actual Mazola commercial they spoof is in my recording of last week’s show.
**

SHOW: LOVE AMERICAN STYLE
-In “Love and the Celebrity” by Sid “Slappy” White, Robert Hays gets companionship on a lonely promotional tour when an inflatable prostitute (voice of Gail Matthius) appears.
-Another merely OK bit, largely carried by the timing of the string pulls and the reactions from Robert.  The predictable ending was made up for by the strong sight gag of an inflatable pimp.
**1/2

SHOW: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE SPORTS CENTRAL
-Matthew Laurance interviews Asteroids champ Eddie Atari (Eddie Murphy) from inside his ship, and witnesses him lay waste to flying saucers and the Goodyear blimp.
-Piscopo’s sports anchor persona anchors this sketch, and gets some amusing material with his overpoetic descriptions of Eddie Atari’s Asteroids technique, but once again Murphy walks away with the whole sketch, doing more with relatively few and succinct lines than either Piscopo or Laurance.
-Piscopo’s “Oh, the humanity!”  got some laughs and applause.  I’m wondering when Herbert Morrison’s quote from the Hindenberg became a common pop-culture trope: I know it was used in WKRP’s “Turkeys Away” show (probably the best-ever example of it in pop-culture, IMO), but right now it’s so common it’s cliché.
***

COMMERCIAL: REAGANCO
-Celebrate the new Reagan administration with decorative and cosmetic products by Reaganco.
-Written by Ferris Butler with assistance from Jeremy Stevens.
-Not bad, although the amount of ridiculous products that have been legitimately marketed to capitalize on the Obama inauguration make this one seem quaint in comparison.
-The audience really liked the line about the rouge that made even a corpse come alive.  Cheap, but sometimes cheap works.
***

SHOW: SAVE-A-NETWORK TELETHON
-Joe Piscopo emcees a telethon where viewers are invited to pledge a premise to the struggling network.
-Alright idea, but I found this more interesting for the on-screen appearances of cue card man Al Siegal (playing deli worker Sidney Sharkman), cameraman Al Camoin, and announcer Don Pardo (only his second on the show, and first where he’s introduced as himself).  The audience goes wild for Pardo, and he seems to be enjoying himself, especially while singing.
-One cringeworthy line in the part about Pink Lady & Jeff and Shogun.
-I can’t tell who most of the phone bank volunteers are (the recurring extra with the combover and glasses is one of them), but it looks like Neil Levy on the right side of Gilbert Gottfried’s table.
-I noticed Ann Risley adlibs a “right” after an audience member says “yay” to the NBC peacock sheets she holds up.
***

SHOW: PRE-SUPERBOWL PRE-GAME PREVIEW
-A panel (Robert Hays, Ann Risley and Charles Rocket) overinflates the importance of tomorrow’s big game.
-Weak.  The main jokes (the hype-up of the game and the football/ballet metaphor) were stretched way past their breaking points, and the final payoff (the anchors don’t even know who are playing tomorrow) underwhelmed.
*1/2

FILM: “THE FOREIGN FILM” – WILLIAM DEAR
-A short segment from “Elephant Parts” features a man (Michael Nesmith) and a woman spouting subtitled gibberish.
-The audience liked this a bit more than the last sketch, but it still suffered from the joke being stretched past the breaking point.  Gibberish is funnier than hyperbole and weak metaphors, though.
**

SKETCH: FUNERAL
-Inappropriate music selections from substitute organist Harry Osborne fit a sports game more than a dignified funeral.
-This was a little predictable once he started playing his first number, but it was silly enough to be worthwhile, largely because of the mourners’ reactions to the music.
-Best part for me was the organ swipe when the widow (Denny Dillon) closed the casket because she didn’t want her husband to hear it.
-I’m still not sure if Harry Osborne is a real person or just some outside actor or production staff member; the leading SNL sites list him as a real person so unless I get other information I’m going to treat him like a cameo.
***

WEEKEND UPDATE WITH CHARLES ROCKET & GAIL MATTHIUS
-Best Jokes: Reagan letter (for the graphic), Margaret Trudeau
-Most of the jokes were pretty bad this week (worst: Mondale and Eldridge Cleaver jokes…).  They’re at least curbing the forced chemistry between the anchors (only one attempt this week) and Gail seems to be getting better, although I don’t think anyone could have made the Eldridge Cleaver joke work.  Probably would have been something Brian Doyle-Murray would have done next season.
-Charles Rocket gets a short bit getting an “apology” from the same dummy of Ayatollah Khomeini they used on the show last season (100th show).   Meh.
-Tiffany Fleur (Ann Risley) shows some of her fashions for the engineering student.  A few easy nerd “slide rule” and “pocket protector” jokes but the sight of the pocket protector glued to the one model’s chest woke up the audience.  That’s writer David Hurwitz playing Paul (the bearded guy), while Robert is one of the administrative staff (no name, unfortunately, but it’s the same guy as in Taped Confession).
-Joe Piscopo gets another prop-based Saturday Night Sports, this time predicting the outcome of Super Bowl XV with an electric football game.  The audience liked his dismissal of the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles as mediocre teams.
-Eddie Murphy gets the strongest segment, discussing how he was out both reefer and heating oil money thanks to frozen Iranian assets.  Murphy actually tells a few audience members that applaud at the beginning of his commentary to “hold it”.  Good payoff.
**

COMMERCIAL: DISCO MELTDOWN
-Dena Disco (Denny Dillon) invites dancers to watch her change colors from “disco radiation” at her nightclub inside a nuclear reactor.
-Not good.  My main problem with this was that it was a thin premise to begin with, but it didn’t really seem to build on the main joke or have any payoff.  It was also a little too dependent on the greenscreen.  Disco was already on the decline by that point so it dated pretty horribly.  Dillon tried, though.
-The song was written by Dillon, with Kenny Vance and Philip Namanworth.
-Vance is actually one of the dancers, as is Wendie Malick.  I think I see Liz Welch in there, and in the promotional photos for this sketch, you can see Yvonne Hudson and Neil Levy in the crowd.
*

FILM: THE ROCKET REPORT – REAGAN
-From Washington, DC, Charles Rocket tries to show us what a day in the life of the President is like.
-Not one of Rocket’s stronger reports: Rocket is at his best when he’s interacting with other people and this was sorely missed.  It had a few funny moments (Rocket saying the cop in riot gear was Reagan atop his horse “Darky”…though, what’s with the racial jokes tonight?)
**1/2

COMMERCIAL: THE PACESETTER
-Liven up plays killed with slow pacing by administering electric shocks to the actors.
-Once again this was an idea milked a little too long.  I found the button noise a bit irritating as well.  Compared to some of the other material tonight it was merely OK.
**

COMMERCIAL: RAVI SINGS
-Master sitar player Ravi Shankar (Patrick Weathers) has a new album of romantic American ballads.
-I guess the joke is from the juxtaposition of Indian sitar music with American love songs but it really just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, with the brownface makeup and bug-eyes.  The audience seemed to be laughing more at the cartoonish impression than the concept.  It might have played a little better as a photo montage.
-Weathers is lipsyncing to a recorded track here (like Gilda Radner in Stretch Marks).
*

SKETCH: CUT ‘N CURL
-Roweena (Gail Matthius) and Nadine (Denny Dillon) don’t see eye-to-eye on the Reagan inauguration,
-They probably could have used The Pacesetter for this as it felt pretty leaden.   This ended up being weaker than the other Cut ‘N Curl sketch; the asides to the audience just seemed to derail the bit.  Both Matthius and Dillon seem to be having trouble with a few of their lines.
-One thing I didn’t pick up on until someone pointed it out was that Dillon’s wearing the exact same outfit (well, a cheap copy of it) that Nancy Reagan wore to her inauguration a few days before, right down to the hat (which was the subject of a photo joke on tonight’s Weekend Update).
*

MISCELLANEOUS: PROMOTION
-Eddie Murphy announces that he has been promoted to the full cast of “Saturday Night Live”
-Not a rateable segment, but the audience seemed to think Murphy deserved his promotion.  Funny visual gag with the rings, sunglasses and mirror too.

COMMERCIAL: DREAM DATE
-A chance at a $40,000 dream date with your ideal partner and location has just one particular step…
-The only joke is the $40,000 in cash that Rocket goes on about being a part of the dream date is supplied by the contestants themselves.
*

COMMERCIAL: ORDINARY ELEPHANT PEOPLE
-The new movie with a family as disfigured internally as they are on the outside.
-My recording is missing this sketch (damn Comedy Network didn’t run short station break segments), but the transcript makes it sound like one of the more worthwhile bits tonight.  I can’t actually rate it until I see it, though (Canadian Netflix only has seasons 20-35, and I can’t access Hulu).

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “I WISH THAT WE WERE MARRIED”, “THIS TIME IT’S FOR REAL” – 14 KARAT SOUL
-After the last group of segments, this was more than welcome.  An excellent a capella performance; the audience response was so huge that it actually delayed the start of the second number (you can see Glenny T. Wright start to snap his fingers for a few beats before stopping).  The second song had the audience clapping along.
-I wonder why they had both musical guests scheduled so late in the show (after the 12:30 station break)

SKETCH: NATIONAL ENQUIRER
-Editors of the tabloid work on compiling stories for the latest issue.
-Another mostly laugh-free sketch that dragged on for  a little too long.  It felt a little like they were going for going for shock/bad taste jokes (cartoon of a man throwing his wife into a treeshredder, “cripples are big now”, romantically linking Desi Arnaz Sr. with Jr.).
-Rocket was doing a character voice for his role but it took me out of the sketch.
*

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “DONT BUG ME BABY” – JOE “KING” CARRASCO & THE CROWN
-For the longest time, I thought this was terrible, but now I’m actually starting to enjoy it.  Most if it is from how entertaining the performance is: Carrasco goes wild here, jumping off amps and diving into the audience.  Music-wise it was pretty raw: I thought the guitar was the weak link, but the main things driving the song were Kris Cummings’ organ and Brad Kizer’s drumming.  This brought the energy up in a show that really needed it.

GOODNIGHTS
-Robert Hays almost accidentally exposes Gail Matthius’ left breast.
-Don Pardo does not announce an upcoming host but continues to show off his singing ability.

Final Thoughts:
I actually was a little taken aback at how weak the show was when I rewatched it.  After last week’s strong episode, this one started off as somewhat of a step down to “business as usual” before crashing after weekend Weekend Update.  I wonder if it was they were exhausted from pulling off three live shows in a row or if there was another factor.  What’s unmistakable is how much dreck comes in the second half of the show, and how much it makes the musical performances seem like a relief.   Hays really didn’t distinguish himself either way.  Even the usually reliable “Rocket Report” was sub par.  I think the biggest disappointment about this episode is that the cast and writers already proved themselves as capable as last week: it felt almost like this is the point where the bad press is starting to seep in.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-Eddie Murphy’s segments in his sketches.  I know it’s a lazy way to list highlights, but this week it really felt like he was the only thing in the show that was really standing out (aside from the music performances), and he managed to do more to make the audience laugh in three short appearances than everyone else who had more airtime tonight.

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-Ravi Sings
-Disco Meltdown
-Dream Date
-National Enquirer
-Cut ‘N Curl
-Pre-Super Bowl Pre-Game Preview
-The Pacesetter
-Dazola
-Monologue
-The Foreign Film

MVP:
Eddie Murphy, 14 Karat Soul

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN
cast
Denny Dillon: 4 appearances [Dazola, Funeral, Disco Meltdown, Cut 'N Curl]
Gilbert Gottfried: 5 appearances [Dazola, Save-A-Network Telethon,  Funeral, Ordinary Elephant People, National Enquirer]
Gail Matthius: 4 appearances [Monologue, Save-A-Network Telethon, Weekend Update, Cut 'N Curl], 1 voiceover [Love American Style]
Joe Piscopo: 6 appearances [America Not Held Hostage Anymore, Saturday Night Live Sports Central, Save-A-Network Telethon, Weekend Update, The Pacesetter, National Enquirer], 2 voice-overs [Ravi Sings, Ordinary Elephant People]
Ann Risley: 6 appearances [America Not Held Hostage Anymore, Save-A-Network Telethon, Pre-Superbowl Pre-Game Preview, Weekend Update, The Pacesetter, Ordinary Elephant People]
Charles Rocket: 8 appearances [Reaganco, Pre-Superbowl Pre-Game Preview, Funeral, Weekend Update, Rocket Report, The Pacesetter, Dream Date, Ordinary Elephant People, National Enquirer], 2 voiceovers [America Not Held Hostage Anymore, Save-A-Network Telethon]

featured players
Yvonne Hudson (uncredited): 2 appearances [Dazola, Disco Meltdown]
Matthew Laurance: 4 appearances [Dazola, Saturday Night Live Sports Central, Funeral, National Enquirer]
Eddie Murphy: 3 appearances [Saturday Night Live Sports Central, Weekend Update, Promotion]
Patrick Weathers: 2 appearances [Ravi Sings, National Enquirer]

confirmed non-cast
Al Camoin: 1 appearance [Save-A-Network Telethon]
David Hurwitz: 1 appearance [Weekend Update]
Neil Levy: 2 appearances [Save-A-Network Telethon, Disco Meltdown]
Wendie Malick: 1 appearance [Disco Meltown]
Andy Murphy: 1 appearance [Funeral]
Don Pardo: 1 appearance [Save-A-Network Telethon]
Kenny Vance: 1 appearance [Disco Meltdown]
(any confirmation that’s Liz Welch?)

guests
Robert Hays: 5 appearances [Monologue, Love American Style, Pre-Superbowl Pre-Game Preview, The Pacesetter, National Enquirer]
14 Karat Soul: 1 appearance ["I Wish That We Were Married/This Time It's For Real"]
Joe “King” Carrasco & The Crown: 1 appearance ["Don't Bug Me Baby"]
Michael Nesmith: 1 appearance [The Foreign Film]
Harry Osborne: 1 appearance [Funeral]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
Not rebroadcast on NBC.

Additional screen captures of this episode can be found here.

Classic SNL Review: January 10, 1981: Ray Sharkey / Jack Bruce & Friends (S06E06)

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

OPENING: TO TELL THE TRUTH
-One of three people (Matthew Laurance, Charles Rocket, Eddie Murphy) is the real mob informant Jimmy “The Weasel” Fratianno.
-A topical blackout written by Barry W. Blaustein and David Sheffield.  This was merely OK, with the humor value diminished a bit if you weren’t aware this was a then-current news story although I did laugh a little at the different characterizations (Laurance doing a straight impression, Rocket doing a raspy-voice 20′s gangster and Murphy getting a big laugh being more or less himself).
-This would be a forgettable cold opening if it weren’t for the fact that this is the first time Eddie Murphy opens the show with “LFNY”, before full cast member Ann Risley even gets the chance.   I like Murphy’s delivery choice here too, delivering the line in a panicked, frightened tone as Rocket holds the gun to his head.
**1/2

MONTAGE
-With this episode, the SNL logo is altered to remove the “’80″ that was added for the previous five shows.

MONOLOGUE
-Ray Sharkey discusses how he loves being back home in New York and talks about the red-eye flight he took from Los Angeles.
-Sharkey is energetic and glad to be here, and gets the crowd going by saying “New York is the greatest (mouths “fucking”) city in the world!” but this wasn’t quite as entertaining as even a regular “talk” monologue.  The liberal use of “fuhgeddaboutit” seemed like it was intended to be funny but its overuse just made the segment drag on.
-I think Sharkey was wearing a hairpiece here: I’ve seen him in a few Barney Miller episodes from about five years earlier and he had noticeably less hair.
*1/2

COMMERCIAL: WORK TIME
-Manual laborers do the more logical thing when they start their day by getting sloshed.
-A spoof of Miller Beer “Miller Time” commercials.  Overall it was amusing (particularly the guy grinning as the individual bricks fell on his head) but I couldn’t help but find it tried a little too hard at times (the “vomiting noise”).  The punchline was strong.
-This was an outside production with its own set of credits: the piece was written and directed by the late Patrick Kelly, who was the co-writer of the well-known Federal Express commercials featuring John Moschitta Jr.
***

SKETCH: INTERPRETER
-Marcello Bellini (Ray Sharkey) interprets the repressed emotions of a WASP couple (Charles Rocket and Ann Risley).
-This sketch had a decent enough concept, a few good lines, and Sharkey put a lot of effort into his performance, but I thought the whole thing was too repetitive (neutral statement, then passionate “translation”).  The ending with Risley unleashing a bit of emotion of her own wasn’t bad.
-Charles Rocket and Ann Risley were playing characters with the same first names.  There was also a bit of “hot mic” at the beginning.
**

SKETCH: TOMMY TORTURE
-Underage Vickie (Gail Matthius) and Debbie (Denny Dillon) sneak into a punk club where Tommy Torture (Ray Sharkey) performs ”Abuse Somebody”.
-The audience is completely silent for the first few minutes, although I thought I did detect a little reaction to the “urinating into a saxophone” line.  When Matthius and Dillon do their “Another One Bites The Dust” and get no reaction from the audience, it is a little chilling.  Sharkey’s slurry voice reminds me a little of Mike Myers’ Ron Wood.
-Tommy Torture’s song was co-written by Barry Blaustein, David Sheffield, Kenny Vance and Chris Palmaro.  The latter two are actually in Tommy Torture’s band, on guitar and keyboards, respectively.  The other band members are Tom Malone (bass), Elliott Randall (guitar solo) and Buddy Williams (drums).  I don’t know if Blaustein and Sheffield wrote the whole thing or if they just did the song.  It actually feels a little like they combined a separate sketch idea with a Vickie and Debbie sketch.
-I have to give Sharkey and the band credit for the song (the extra half-star), but overall, the sketch really did not work.
*1/2

COMMERCIAL: CITIZENS FOR A BETTER AMERICA
-Dissatisfied with a shoddy enema, Dr. Swen Gazzarra (Gilbert Gottfried) bemoans the lack of pride people take in their work and that people resent doing “hum jobs”.
-Written by Ferris Butler with Gilbert Gottfried
-Some may think this was pretty sophomoric, but this is one of the more memorable segments of tonight, and one that holds up better than their attempts at topicality.  It strikes me as a spiritual forerunner to Alec Baldwin’s Schweddy Balls “Delicious Dish” sketch, although not quite as intricate or elaborate, or the sophisticated level of the lines being said over radio.   The audience responded decently once the “hum jobs” lines came, and it didn’t stretch past its welcome.
-I still thought Gottfried’s delivery was off, with him visibly reading the lines off of cue cards.  It didn’t seem like he was putting enough effort into the lines.
***

SKETCH: BOBBIE’S BAR / JANUARY 11th

-Jimmy Carter (Joe Piscopo) commiserates with a fellow member of the unemployed (Ray Sharkey).  Charles Rocket cuts in from the corner of 5th and 50th with coverage of the lead-up to January 11th.
-This felt like two good ideas that weren’t fully fleshed out slapped together. I wonder if they would have been more effective as separate segments, but I’m grading them together.
-The bar scene is promising enough as Piscopo does Carter, one of his stronger impressions and Ray Sharkey gives a good performance, but the scene just sort of peters out with a joke about Carter being indecisive, and there’s no resolution to the scene after the January 11th celebration.
-As for the celebration, while the idea could have been set up a bit better, it is pretty inventive, it is a good use of Rocket playing to his strengths, and it was nice to get some out-of-the studio stuff in the show.  Some unintentional humor comes from the one person going on obsessively about Barbra Streisand.
**1/2

WEEKEND UPDATE WITH CHARLES ROCKET & GAIL MATTHIUS
-Best jokes: Instant justice, Martina Navratilova/John McEnroe.
-This is the debut of the show’s return to a dual-anchor format, with Charles Rocket joined by Gail Matthius.  This pays mixed dividends: while being able to switch between anchors gives the segment an added energy, Matthius seems almost apologetic for some of the weaker jokes and has a few stumbles, fumbling through her notes right after returning to her chair following Piscopo’s segment.  She also reacts in a similar manner to Colin Quinn when a joke dies, usually just making a comment.  Rocket’s delivery is more exaggeratedly pronounced by this point as well.
-Gilbert Gottfried as morning show weatherman-like Marv Peters gives the crime forecast.  A little different from his previous Weekend Update characters, and while a decent idea, it was fairly forgettable.  The audience gives a scattered applause when New York is mentioned in the murder map.
-Joe Piscopo is now completely into his Saturday Night News character, and the audience is quite glad to see him this time.  They react pretty enthusiastically when he brings out the toy bowling game with the wind-up bowling ball, and there’s a good ad-lib about getting two chances when the ball hops off the game.  Piscopo also manages to upstage Rocket during his next joke (Reagan in “The Al Jolson Story”) by having the ball hop across Rocket’s side of the set as he tells the joke.
-As much as Piscopo steals Rocket’s thunder, Eddie Murphy walks away with the whole Weekend Update.  His segment about not wanting to be drafted, makes fun of the whole notion of a “token black” in the cast.  It’s a chance for Murphy to debut his Stevie Wonder and Bill Cosby routines, as well as get a somewhat nasty dig in at Garrett Morris, who “has a lot of time on his hands”.
**1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “DANCING ON AIR”
-The  ”friends” are Clem Clempson (Humble Pie, Colosseum) on guitar, David Sancious (Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Tone) on keyboards and guitar, and drummer Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra).  Sancious would actually appear on SNL exactly ten years and nine days after this appearance when he plays as a sideman with Sting.  Cobham was actually a fill-in on drums for the SNL band before (I think it’s the Eric Idle 1978 show he sits in with the band).
-This is another song I’ve been able to compare to the studio recording, and I prefer this one: the studio version’s a little cooler and less passionate.  This song has some pretty interesting dynamics and some soloing from Sancious and Clempson, as well as a lot of interesting drum fills from Cobham, an especially good drummer.

SKETCH: TAPED CONFESSION
-Interrogator (Ray Sharkey) plays director to lowlife Vic Lazlo’s (Gilbert Gottfried) actor when taping a confession.
-This is carried by another good performance from Sharkey, and helped by a stronger concept, especially when Lazlo starts to disagree with his interrogator’s directions.  Gottfried puts more energy into this as well.
-This was another Ferris Butler piece with Gilbert Gottfried helping on the dialogue.
-If anyone has the name of the younger extra in the uniform with Andy Murphy, please let me know.
***1/2

COMMERCIAL: HAVE A NICE DAY
-A new horror movie ad featuress the ubiquitous yellow smiley faces in bloody scenes of carnage.
-This is an excerpt from Michael Nesmith and William Dear’s “Elephant Parts”.   I actually saw it in proper context and it seems to work better surrounded by pieces with the same sensibility, but on its own as an SNL piece it did leave me a little cold.  It didn’t help that the audience didn’t really react to it.
-Is that Nesmith as the Norman Bates style psycho in the first segment?
-Seeing it as an “Elephant Parts” segment also made me realize just how bad the telecine was at SNL until about halfway through the next season.
**1/2

SKETCH: BLACK MARKET BABY
-In the park, a childless couple (Ann Risley and Joe Piscopo) considers buying a baby from a black market salesman (Eddie Murphy).
-Eddie Murphy fares best here and carries the piece, although Denny Dillon and Ray Sharkey do alright.  Although overall this was a middling sketch, it is helped by some good lines, especially about the other couple buying a white baby that turned out to be a bowling pin, and a strong ending.
-The audience didn’t react to this very much (although Dillon calling the baby “Splotchy” got laughs).
-The end of this segment also has SNL’s first audience caption in years.  Unfortunately, “This man has a lot of cole slaw in his underwear” is particularly inept for an audience caption.  The original captions weren’t as wordy, and this one sounds desperate for a joke.
**1/2

SKETCH: SURROGATE MOTHERS
-Unruly surrogate mothers (Denny Dillon and Yvonne Hudson) use their unborn babies’ welfare as leverage against their employers (Ann Risley and Gail Matthius).
-This really dragged at first, but picked up a little when Dillon’s character started with her blackmail about halfway through.  I had to laugh at “When I get bored, I take LSD!”
-They could have given Matthius and Risley some funnier material, and poor Yvonne Hudson seemed to only be there so they could use the Butterfly McQueen “Gone With The Wind” line at the end (“I don’t know nothing about birthing no babies”).
**

FILM: “THE MAN IN THE BLACK HAT” – MICHAEL NESMITH & WILLIAM DEAR
-Townspeople don’t comment on a nice man’s dropped pants.
-I didn’t see this segment in “Elephant Parts” but it was shot around the same time.  Was “Elephant Parts” compiled/released after the SNL airings of Nesmith and Dear’s short films?
-This only got mild titters from the audience.  Harmless piece, but again kind of at odds with the SNL style.
**

COMMERCIAL: STOP-A-NUT
-Guard yourself from unstable attackers and annoying boomboxes by wearing full body armor that also lets you fight back.
-One of the better segments of the night, with Rocket doing his manic pitchman again, and a good idea for a product.  The audience seemed to enjoy this one as well.
-When Rocket asks “Too good to be true”, the suit makes another blast interrupting him and forcing him to start again, with a little bit of a chuckle.  Definitely seems unscripted.
-The audience loved the suit making short work of the boombox with “Rapper’s Delight” blasting.
***1/2

SKETCH: THE WAITER-MAKER
-Vinnie (Ray Sharkey) Svengalis hapless busboy Domingo Santiago Guadalupe Hidalgo (Gilbert Gottfried) into replacing service industry superstar Joey Dee (Charles Rocket).
-This is the “host sketch” of the night, which is supposed to be a spoof of The Idolmaker, the movie Sharkey would win a Golden Globe for at the end of the month.  Knowing this is supposed to be a spoof of the plot of the movie (with Gilbert Gottfried in the Peter Gallagher role) helps, but even being aware of the plot of the movie doesn’t help this sketch very much.
-I did like the “he was a slow learner” intertitle as Gottfried changed wardrobe and the set was being redressed to put the new picture up.
*1/2

COMMERCIAL: COMMERCIAL FOR NOTHING
-Spokesman (Joe Piscopo) has the pitch style but not an actual product to sell.
-This seems like filler and a sign that the show was desperate to fill airtime.
*

MISCELLANEOUS: INSULT CONTEST
-With time to kill, Eddie Murphy does a stand-up routine about black people fighting with “yo mama” insults.
-The story behind this segment is well-known: when the show was short of material, Neil Levy had Eddie Murphy go on-stage and do a cleaned-up version of the stand-up routine from his audition.
-Murphy has the audience fully engaged with this routine.  It is a little rough around the edges, but the audience that would not react for minutes on end would come to life for this, and right away you can see Murphy cementing his place in the show’s history.
****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “LIVIN’ WITHOUT JA”
-Sancious is now on guitar, and the band is visibly enjoying themselves on this uptempo number.  One of the guitar players gets a “Day Tripper” quote in there as well.

GOODNIGHTS
-Ray Sharkey exclaims “We had a ball!”
-Don Pardo announces that next week’s guests are Karen Black and Cheap Trick, before bemoaning that NBC won’t give him a show of his own because they think of him as an announcer.

Final Summary:
An “off night” for the show, with a deader-than-normal audience in places.  At the same time, this is an important episode in the show’s history because this is where Eddie Murphy says his first LFNY, kills with a Weekend Update bit, and does his solo stand-up on the show.  The show also is using more outside material for film acquisitions, with the departure of in-house filmmaker Mitchell Kriegman.  Backstage there were a few more shakeups over Christmas break, with new head writers Jeremy Stevens and Tom Moore replacing the departed Mason Williams, and Del Close now doing improv coaching with the cast.  The changes would pay off next week, but this show seemed like they were slow getting up and running again after Christmas break (something that still continues on the show to this day).  The weakness of the show is not a reflection on Ray Sharkey, though, who carried much of the show on his back and did a commendable job tonight.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-Insult Contest
-Stop-A-Nut
-Taped Confession

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-Commercial For Nothing
-Tommy Torture
-The Waiter-Maker
-Monologue
-anchor segments of Weekend Update
-Surrogate Mothers
-Intepreter
-The Man In The Black Hat

MVP:
Eddie Murphy

CAST & GUEST RUNDOWN
cast
Denny Dillon: 4 appearances [Tommy Torture, Black Market, Surrogate Mothers, The Waiter-Maker]
Gilbert Gottfried: 4 appearances [Citizens For A Better America, Weekend Update, Taped Confession, The Waiter-Maker]
Gail Matthius: 4 appearances [Tommy Torture, Weekend Update, Surrogate Mothers, The Waiter-Maker]
Joe Piscopo: 4 appearances [Bobbie's Bar/January 11th, Weekend Update, Black Market Baby, Commercial For Nothing]; 2 voice-overs [To Tell The Truth, Work Time]
Ann Risley: 4 appearances [Interpreter, Black Market Baby, Surrogate Mothers, The Waiter-Maker]
Charles Rocket: 7 appearances [To Tell The Truth, Interpreter, Tommy Torture, Bobbie's Bar/January 11th, Weekend Update, Stop-A-Nut, The Waiter-Maker]
featured players
Yvonne Hudson: 3 appearances: [Interpreter, Bobbie's Bar/January 11th, Surrogate Mothers]
Matthew Laurance: 3 appearances [To Tell The Truth, Tommy Torture, Bobbie's Bar/January 11th]
Eddie Murphy: 6 appearances [To Tell The Truth, Bobbie's Bar/January 11th, Weekend Update, Black Market Baby, Stop-A-Nut, The Waiter-Maker]
non-cast
Tom Malone: 1 appearance [Tommy Torture]
Andy Murphy: 1 appearance [Taped Confession]
Chris Palmaro: 1 appearance [Tommy Torture]
Elliott Randall: 1 appearance [Tommy Torture]
Kenny Vance: 1 appearance [Tommy Torture]
Buddy Williams: 1 appearance [Tommy Toture]
guests
Ray Sharkey: 8 appearances [Monologue, Interpreter, Tommy Torture, Bobbie's Bar/January 11th, Taped Confession, Black Market Baby, Stop-A-Nut, The Waiter Maker]
Jack Bruce & Friends: 2 appearances ["Dancing On Air", "Livin' Without Ja"].

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
Not rebroadcast on NBC.  This was also skipped over by the Comedy Network when they aired 90-minute versions of 1980-81 in the fall of 1998.

Additional screen captures not seen above are available here.

Classic SNL Review: December 13, 1980: Jamie Lee Curtis / James Brown, Ellen Shipley (S06E04)

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

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 clothes pin 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 exaggerated 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 ball players’ 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 administer 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 pre-taped 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 pre-tapes 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 a while.  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 unneccessary 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 individual 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.

Classic SNL Review: November 22, 1980: Malcolm McDowell / Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band (S06E02)

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

COLD OPENING: EXECUTION
-A remorseful condemned man (Gilbert Gottfried) is lead to the electric chair.  His mother (Denny Dillon) is allowed one last word for him: “Sit up straight!”.
-The audience was completely silent for this.  At best a lame blackout bit, but the way it was performed in the lead-up to the punchline was far too real and grim for it to work, particularly Gottfried remorsefully saying “I’m sorry, Father” over and over again.
-Where was this performed?  It doesn’t look like it was done inside the studio or even the halls outside of  8H.
*

MONOLOGUE
-Malcolm McDowell explains his difficulties getting a new work permit almost stopped him from hosting tonight’s show.
-This is pretty much a straightforward “talk” monologue.  A lot of people take issue with the story not really being humorous in any way but it seems like your typical early years “introduction” monologue without a comedy routine.
-Of note is that McDowell mentions his marriage to an American woman and that he’s about to become the proud father of an American baby.  The “American woman” in question is Mary Steenburgen, whom McDowell was married to from 1980 to 1990.  Their baby Lilly would be born January 31 of the next year, while younger son Charlie, born two years later, would later go on to create the blog/Twitter feed Dear Girls Above Me.
**

SHOW: MUTUALLY OMAHA’S WILD KINGDOM
-Marlin Perkins (Charles Rocket) narrates “In Search Of The Negro Republican”, in which Jim Fowler (Joe Piscopo) infiltrates a cocktail party.
-Written by Barry W. Blaustein and David Sheffield.
-Not particularly funny, but an amusing concept with OK execution and a few chuckles here and there, particularly the false alarm where a potential Republican is merely the owner of a funeral home.
-Rocket shows that he’s not really an impressionist with Marlin Perkins, something that becomes more evident as the season goes on.
-This sketch is notable for being the SNL debut of future featured player and cast member Eddie Murphy, seen here as just a lowly extra.  Also visible are other eventual featured players Yvonne Hudson, a bit player from the previous few seasons, and Matthew Laurance, twin brother of former SNL staffer and future “Not Necessarily The News” cast member Mitchell Laurance (incidentally, SNL ’80 writers Larry Arnstein and David Hurwitz would eventually write for NNTN).
-The main role of the “negro Republican” was played by an unidentified middle-aged day player.  He wasn’t that great with delivering the lines, though.  If anyone can identify the actor or any other extras I have missed, please leave a comment.
**1/2

COMMERCIAL: TOBACCO GROWER’S ASSOCIATION
-Joseph Richman (Gilbert Gottfried) says that lungs are the reason people get lung cancer, not cigarettes.
-The first segment that was actually funny in tonight’s show, largely thanks to Gilbert Gottfried’s slow-burn as the oily Tobacco representative.  He’s still a little green as a performer here and doesn’t fully come off as comfortable in front of the camera first, but you definitely see the hints of what was to come in his career.
-I enjoyed Gottfried accusing the lung of intentionally trapping cigarette smoke and chiding it for not being able to get rid of smoke like his 7-year-old daughter’s fan can.  I also chuckled at the “persons without lungs need not worry” line when the lung was going to be recalled.
-There’s a blooper at the very beginning where Jan & Dean’s “Surf City” (for the next sketch’s opening title) starts playing for a few seconds before shutting off.  The Comedy Central 60-minute edit cuts this out.
***1/2

SKETCH: SERF CITY
-In feudal times, Lord Jack (Charles Rocket) shows an Earl (Malcolm McDowell) a new way to abuse peasants: stand on their backs and ride them while wenches (Gail Matthius and Ann Risley) tickle them with feathers.
-A pun-filled sketch that didn’t get as many laughs as it wanted to.  In fact, the first thing people laughed at were the names of the sexy wenches: Bingo and Moondoggy.  McDowell was largely used for setups while Rocket got the “laugh” lines.
-The ending where Rocket rejects McDowell’s idea of riding actual waves felt like a pale imitation of Franken & Davis’  Theodoric of York.  I did chuckle slightly at the serfs groaning “oh no…” off-camera.
-Any idea who was playing the serfs?  Neil Levy’s one of them.  Can’t place the other two.
*1/2

SKETCH: ADOPTED AMY CARTER
-Amy Carter (Denny Dillon) prefers being raised in privilege by new parents Ronald (Charles Rocket) and Nancy Reagan (Gail Matthius).
-The audience woke up for this one and relatively speaking, one of the stronger moments in tonight’s show.   A little cute, but the audience got a kick out of little Amy’s hatred for grits and calling her grandmother a dope and her parents losers.
-My favorite bit was a call-back to Amy saying she hates riding the bus earlier in the sketch: when she hides under the table when her parents call, she yells “Tell them I rode the bus!”  I also liked the look Rocket shot Dillon when she has the line about wearing make-up like him.
-Not everything works, though.  They seemed to be reaching with the “Uncle Bert was indicted!” (Bert Lance scandal in 1977) and “Uncle Hamilton eats powdered donuts!” (a reference to the alleged cocaine use of Hamilton Jordan).
-Charles Rocket and Gail Matthius debut their Ronald and Nancy Reagan impressions.  Rocket doesn’t wear a Reagan wig this time out and appears to be wearing a minimal bit of old man makeup, while talking in a gravelly voice.  Matthius speaks slowly and exaggeratedly.  Dillon does her exaggerated Amy Carter but it brings the energy level of the sketch up, and she’s at least giving an effort.
-This is the last time we see Gail Matthius all night, and her only appearance in the show aside from playing a wench in Serf City.  She’s also visibly glancing at the cue cards quite a bit when reading her lines, which is particularly noticeable at the beginning when she’s sitting at the table across from Rocket.
-The extra who played the negro Republican plays Buster, the Reagans’ servant in this sketch.
***

COMMERCIAL: AMERICAN MILK ASSOCIATION
-Alex De Large (Malcolm McDowell) endorses the stimulation and nutritional value of Moloko Plus.
-This gets a little recognition applause for McDowell in his Clockwork Orange getup, but the whole thing doesn’t come off as well as the idea had the potential to be, and is awkward more than anything else.
-Apparently, the inspiration for this bit was McDowell being offered a half-million to reprise Alex for a milk commercial in Japan (which he turned down).
**

SHORT SHOT: “SHOWDOWN” – KEN FRIEDMAN
-Ned and Sam vie for the affections of Rose with a ultraviolent Peckinpah-esque gun battle.
-Not quite on the level of last week’s film, but an amusing diversion.  The main humor comes from the excessive violence and carnage (complete with slow-mo at one point, definitely a nod to The Wild Bunch) as well as the way the bloodied cowboys nonchalantly walk away from it all when they realize they’re fighting over nothing.
**1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “HOT HEAD” – CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND
-Captain Beefheart’s definitely an acquired taste, but his later stuff is a little easier to get into than Trout Mask Replica.  It’s almost kind of this minimalistic punkish music with a really interesting rhythm.  Actually, almost like a weird square dance.
-You can hear Beefheart’s influence on Tom Waits’ post-Swordfishtrombones output.
-The moment that sticks out is when the guitar starts playing its usual line after Beefheart’s verse only to be drowned out by this high-pitched note from Eric Drew Feldman’s keyboard (Mellotron?)
-You can see people going up the stairs through the window behind Feldman.
-Captain Beefheart was 39 when he appeared on SNL but looks much older; if you see pictures of him from about 10 years earlier it’s even more obvious.  He also appeared to be in the early stages of multiple sclerosis at this time.
-The live show has a brief second after the song ends before the applause starts.  The Comedy Central 60-minute version dubs canned applause over the tail end of the performance.

WEEKEND UPDATE WITH CHARLES ROCKET
-Best joke: Iranian earrings
-Wow, Charles is really having a bad night.  A few line flubs here, but that’s nothing compared to the number of jokes that meet no response from the audience, including the very first one about the Las Vegas fire escapes, or elicit groans, such as the Bob Hope comment on Mary Crosby being the one that shot J.R. or the reactionary violence being a return to “traditional values and morality”.
-The interview with John Lennon (Malcolm McDowell) and Yoko Ono (Denny Dillon) is enjoyable.  Despite Dillon being miscast as Yoko, this had some funny lines (yes, even “Yoko is just loco about my cocoa”) and Lennon’s overdomesticated obsessions with clean dishes and finding a fabric softener that shows his family he loves them.
-My favorite little detail was Yoko pouring the cocoa over the burnt cake Lennon was upset about.
-Apparently the real John and Yoko saw this and got a kick out of it.  According to an interview, McDowell had felt bad for doing the sketch so close to Lennon’s murder but after hearing years later the Lennons enjoyed it, he felt better about it.
-Joe Piscopo gets his first Saturday Night Live Sports feature on Weekend Update.  His delivery is still low-key but he’s starting to get into his usual rhythm.
-Here he comments on the upcoming WBC welterweight championship rematch between Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard (what would eventually be known as the “No Mas Fight”) using Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.
-The audience is more awake for this segment, and it’s starting to become clear that while Rocket is the one being groomed for stardom, Piscopo is starting to emerge as the audience favorite.
-Dr. Murray Abramowitz (Gilbert Gottfried) complains about the poorer taste material from last week’s episode in an editorial reply, and suggests SNL’s cast, writers and crew need analysis.  This was not a wise move on the show’s part: by doing this self-deprecating stuff so early when the cast hasn’t really done much to distinguish itself aside from getting negative press, this seems to be giving them the message “you’re right!”  It reminds me of something Kate Beaton (the history comics artist) said about how you can’t really develop a following if you don’t stand behind your own work.
-I did chuckle at “Who writes this show, Hitler?” (in response to all the Jewish jokes in last week’s show).
-Gottfried’s voice in this bit sounds a little like Jerry Seinfeld with a little bit of an exaggerated accent.
**

SKETCH: GOTHIC ROMANCE NOVEL SHOP
-A discerning customer (Ann Risley) hopes the shopkeeper (Malcolm McDowell) fills her precise request for a romance novel.
-Somewhat Pythonesque sketch, and McDowell handled the laundry list variations on Risley’s requests well.  The dialogue seemed better than average too.  Shame the audience was so quiet.  Risley does not seem to do a bad job in this sketch either, which is her only appearance besides Serf City.
-The ending, with McDowell emerging as the hero of Risley’s ideal romance novel is a little cute for my taste but it works.
***1/2

FILM: THE 100 YEARS WAR
-A university extension course barely summarizes the conflict between the houses of Valois and Plantagenet.
-Fillerish, to be honest.  I can see what they were going for, but like “American Milk Association”, the execution didn’t really come anywhere close to the potential of the idea.
**
SHOW: THE LEATHER WEATHER REPORT
-Dominatrix Thelma Thunder (Denny Dillon) gives a BDSM-themed weather forecast with her masochistic weather map John (Charles Rocket).
-Ferris Butler originally wrote this sketch for his Manhattan cable show “Waste Meat News” in 1978 and rewrote it for SNL with Billy Brown and Mel Green.
-This sketch gets a bad reputation and is often used as the example of SNL ’80′s tendency to lean on shock and raunch for laughs.  It’s an easy target, though, and it’s nowhere the comedy abyss as everyone makes it out to be.
-Dillon seems to be really making the most out of her role and recovers nicely from the aerosol can “snow” malfunction”.  I did also like some of Charles’ comments.
-A lot of you are going to thinking I’m being generous with the ratings but while it’s not amazing (more notable for the subject matter than anything), it does succeed at what it aims to do.
***

SKETCH: COMMIE HUNTING SEASON
-In Greensboro, NC, the local redneck population is ready to get going on the first big Commie hunt in 20 years.
-According to Ferris Butler, this was Larry Arnstein and David Hurwitz’s sketch.
-Now this is just awful.  Likely the worst sketch of all time.  This was supposed to be a comment on the acquittal of the defendants in the Greensboro massacre, but it just fails on so many levels, and it ends up being more of a despicable comedy void than the Leather Weather Report was made out to be.   Once you know exactly what they were trying to do, it makes the sketch that much worse.
-This also has the single worst line in an SNL sketch ever: “All’s you got to do is shoot a Jew or [n-word].  Chances are, you’ll be getting a Commie anyway!”.  That line completely killed the sketch and there’s an eerie silence afterward as if they were waiting for an audience to laugh.  The darker than normal lighting doesn’t help.
-Any idea who any of the extras aside from Andy Murphy are?
-I rate this one star because no stars is no rating, and my system is exclusively one-to-five star.  It barely qualifies as one star.
*

FILM: THE ROCKET REPORT – 5th AVENUE
-Charles Rocket spontaneously talks to passers-by on 5th Avenue.
-The best part of what has turned out to be an awful show so far, and after a piece of shit like Commie Hunting Season provided much-needed laughs.
-I think this works so well because the show takes the opportunity of being in New York and working with Charles Rocket’s real strength with off-the-cuff, unrehearsed interactions, rather than shoehorning him into a faux-Chevy Chase role or having him do a bunch of impressions.
-Best moment: the older man who Rocket assumes is on drugs because he’s so happy.
****

SKETCH: JACK THE STRIPPER
-Dotty old prude Dame Lydia Snoot (Malcolm McDowell) and Dr. Woofta (Denny Dillon) investigate a wave of embarrassment caused by “Jack The Stripper”.
-Another terrible sketch.  Hill and Weingrad referred to it as the worst thing the show had done in their book Saturday Night, but this is a little better than Commie Hunting Season in that there’s a few ideas that could have worked if they were executed better.  As it was, though, it came off as a indecipherable mess and was still ultimately terrible.
-Joe Piscopo as “Carl Gustav The Stripper” (complete with cartoony Swedish accent) was so bad it was almost funny, but the reveal with the real Stripper being Prince Charles (Charles Rocket) just didn’t play well.
*

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “ASHTRAY HEART” – CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND
-A little more abrasive and complicated than the other song, but interesting nonetheless.
-Through the window behind Feldman, McDowell can be seen running up the stairs and opening a little door in the side of the stage.  You can also see a few other people run up (stage manager?).
-After Beefheart’s free jazz sax solo at the end, there’s dead silence for a few seconds before someone (Radames Pera according to this site) quite clearly yells “shit!”

FILM: “SOMEONE IS HIDING IN MY APARTMENT” – MITCHELL KRIEGMAN
-Mitchell tells of the weird goings-on that have convinced him there’s someone else in his apartment.
-Nothing great, but not offensive.  A gentler piece to cleanse the palate that succeeds at what it aims for.  Shame Kriegman didn’t last long at the show.
***

SHOW: THE WINE CELLAR
-Carolyn Parker (Denny Dillon) takes aim at the wine snobs by showing some foods work better with American wines.
-Far from brilliant, and the joke was done better with SCTV’s Don Perignon (The Beer Of Champagne) commercial parody three years before, but for what it is it’s alright.
-Denny at least brought a little energy to the proceedings, and it at least ends the show on a lighter note.
***

GOODNIGHTS
-Malcolm McDowell delivers his goodnight in a southern drawl.
-Don Pardo announces that two weeks from tonight, Ellen Burstyn will host with musical guest Aretha Franklin, and next week, “Roadshow” with John Candy and Tom Waits will appear in the SNL timeslot.  Apparently this was a pilot for a new show.  There’s a review available here.
-[Addendum: this is the final show for writers Sean Kelly and Nancy Dowd.  The backstage shakeups begin...] 

Final Summary:
Bad.  This episode is widely considered one of SNL’s all-time worst shows, and is easily the nadir of the season.  Dreck like Commie Hunting Season, Execution, Jack The Stripper and a mostly laugh-free Weekend Update weighed down a show that obscured the odd highlight here and there like some dense, joy-sucking substance.  It’s bad enough when a show has awful to mediocre material to begin with but this one actually seems to have a depressing aura about it.  It’s unfortunate, though, because had they had a stronger second outing, the critics and fans might not have been so quick to write them off.   As it was, this show only made the rest of the season more of an uphill battle.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-The Rocket Report
-Tobacco Grower’s Association
-Gothic Romance Novel Shop

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-Commie Hunting Season
-Jack The Stripper
-Execution
-Weekend Update aside from Lennons and Piscopo
-Serf City
-Monologue
-100 Years War

MVP:
Denny Dillon

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:
Denny Dillon: 6 appearances [Execution, Adopted Amy Carter, Weekend Update, Leather Weather Report, Jack The Stripper, The Wine Cellar]
Gilbert Gottfried: 5 appearances [Execution, Tobacco Grower's Association, Weekend Update, Commie Hunting Season, Jack The Stripper]
Gail Matthius: 2 appearances [Serf City, Adopted Amy Carter]
Joe Piscopo: 5 appearances [Execution, Mutually Omaha's Wild Kingdom, Weekend Update, Commie Hunting Season, Jack The Stripper]
Ann Risley: 2 appearances [Serf City, Gothic Romance Novel Shop]
Charles Rocket: 9 appearances [Execution, Mutually Omaha's Wild Kingdom, Serf City, Adopted Amy Carter, Weekend Update, Leather Weather Report, Commie Hunting Season, The Rocket Report, Jack The Stripper]

confirmed non-cast:
Yvonne Hudson: 1 appearance [Mutually Omaha's Wild Kingdom]
Mitchell Kriegman: 1 appearance [Someone Is Hiding In My Apartment]
Matthew Laurance: 1 appearance [Mutually Omaha's Wild Kingdom]
Neil Levy: 1 appearance [Serf City]
Andy Murphy: 2 appearances [Execution, Commie Hunting Season]
Eddie Murphy: 1 appearance [Mutually Omaha's Wild Kingdom]

guests:
Malcolm McDowell: 7 appearances [Monologue, Serf City, American Milk Association, Weekend Update, Gothic Romance Novel Shop, Commie Hunting Season, Jack The Stripper], 1 voice-over [The 100 Years War]
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band: 2 appearances ["Hot Head", "Ashtray Heart"]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
This episode was not rebroadcast on NBC.

Additional screen captures not seen above are available here

Classic SNL Review: November 15, 1980 – Elliott Gould / Kid Creole & The Coconuts

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

COLD OPENING: GAIL & ELLIOTT & CHARLES & ANN & JOE & GILBERT & DENNY
-Elliott Gould wakes up in bed with the new SNL cast and regales them with tales of the original cast and their drug use.
-This confronts the “legend” of the original five years head-on and it did have some moments.  It served its purpose as a way to introduce the new cast one-by-one and also worked as a shout-out to Gould’s role in “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice”.
-The actual “comparisons” were interesting…for example, Gail Matthius was a Jane Curtin/Gilda Radner cross, Charles Rocket was Chevy Chase/Bill Murray, Ann Risley was Laraine Newman/Gilda, etc.  Gilbert Gottfried got the funniest one just because it seems so improbable now: John Belushi / “that guy from last year who did Rod Serling, nobody remembers his name” (Harry Shearer).
-In a way, though, this was a mistake because not only were the cast set up as replacements for the originals, they were also pigeonholed into roles that may not specifically fit their particular strengths.  (Denny Dillon was more the Gilda of this cast than Ann Risley ever was).  Apparently Jean Doumanian was inviting these comparisons behind the scenes, though…
-They tended to milk the whole “drug use at NBC” angle a bit too much but the audience enjoyed it, and there were some funny lines like Gene Shalit in an elevator all ‘luuded out.  The whole Belushi coke-fiend bit seems a little less funny in retrospect.
-Denny Dillon has the honor of saying “Live From New York…” for the first time this season.  She seems genuinely excited to do it.
**1/2

MONTAGE
-The montage this year is videotaped as opposed to filmed, and was done by Dolphin Productions, whose other work includes some early computer-animation station IDs.  Lights in still pictures are animated to shine, and there are paintover transitions between each picture.  Still photos of the main cast appear in front of a white background with small black dots on a grid, with a black band featuring the castmember’s name in lowercase white letters animated to appear over the second still in the sequence.  Featured players do not appear in the montage yet.
-There is a brand new theme song this year.  I always thought it was a good opening theme and one of the catchier ones the show’s used.
-”Comedy magician” Mel Croft is announced as a special guest during the montage but does not actually appear.

MONOLOGUE
-Elliott Gould explains how he’s honored to host the first show of the new season as SNL is like home to him.  He proceeds to show something very special to him: his collection of old diapers and underwear.  He finds a fellow collector in new cast member Denny Dillon.
-I liked the home base set this season (somewhat of a Grand Central motif, similar to the 2003-present set), with the working elevator and the staircase.  They never seemed to really use the elevator for the entrance, though.  In this show, the elevator comes down empty and Gould races down the stairs to open the door and “pretend” to come out of the elevator.
-Elliott’s line of how SNL is always like home to him may have been a way to try to legitimize the new cast but it seemed to backfire, and it came off as a backhanded compliment more than anything.  Gould also invites comparison to the original cast again when he makes a brief mention of dressing as a Bee (getting a laugh from the audience).
-The “meat” of the monologue, Gould showing off his underwear collection, really doesn’t seem to have much of a point to it aside from forced crudeness.  When he pulls out the especially dirty pair (the one he wore before learning you have to change your underwear), I heard a hiss from the audience.  The sniffing was a bit much.
-Denny Dillon makes a second appearance as herself tonight and is getting more of an established personality on the show.  This appearance really does seem something like Gilda would do in the original cast.
*1/2

COMMERCIAL: HIGHWAY EDUCATION
-Drivers now have the option of reading on their journey thanks to books posted on sequential roadside signs a la Burma Shave.
-Walter Williams (of Mr. Bill fame) directed this commercial parody, which was very well done and clever.  The audience seemed to think so too.
-The actor who played the truck driver looks familiar…is he the same guy who plays the network president in the Virgin Search film?
***1/2

SKETCH: WHITE HOUSE
-Rosalynn (Ann Risley) and Amy (Denny Dillon) try to cheer up a depressed Jimmy Carter (Joe Piscopo) by telling him losing the election was a good thing.  Rosalynn, in particular, is glad Jimmy can finally let out those lustful thoughts…
-This had an okay concept, but here is where it seems to be relying more on outrageousness than actual humor, from Jimmy Carter being described urinating in the hallway to Carter actually saying he hated the Jews for not voting for him (you can hear the audience start to turn), not to mention the overt sexuality of the second part of the sketch.
-Denny Dillon seems to walk away with this sketch with her Amy Carter impression, getting the line I always remember from this sketch (cheerfully adding “Like the slaves!” when Rosalynn tells Jimmy that losing the election actually set him free), as well as “But mama, I wanna hear!” when Rosalynn starts getting hot and horny.
-Joe Piscopo did a decent Jimmy Carter impression, an early sign that he would be the dominant impressionist in the years to come.  Ann Risley did an adequate Rosalynn (not a particularly tough impression for her to do), but she seemed to be overselling the horniness.
-The ending fakeout with Jimmy walking out just short of doing it with Rosalynn on the desk to shoot Billy wasn’t great but it didn’t strike me as any worse an ending than usual.
**

SKETCH: BILLYGRAM
-(Ann Risley’s) religious parents shame her and her live-in boyfriend (Elliott  Gould) through a moralizing musical messenger (Charles Rocket).
-This sketch was written by Terry Sweeney according to an interview he did with Advocate.com.
-I always liked this sketch.  The premise was a little thin but they kept it short and executed it well enough to make sure it was funny.  Charles Rocket’s sketch debut (not counting the opening) is a little bit of a scenery-chewer, but I admit the exaggerated southern accent and intonation kind of made the sketch for me.  (“Repent on your birthday, praise-uh JE-sus!”)
***

COMMERCIAL: AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
-TV censorship hinders the spokesperson’s (Gail Matthius) demonstration of proper self-examination technique.
-Gail Matthius’ solo sketch showcase has the unfortunate distinction of having her flub one of her lines on air (“especially on taboo- an TV”).  She acquits herself well after this but doesn’t have much to work with.  It’s clear she is trying to make it work, though.
-Not particularly offensive unless you’re all up in arms about the implied toplessness.  What’s more worrying is that this one joke doesn’t really go anywhere.  Pardo’s ending voiceover about the “Service for Public Service Announcements” fell flat.
-[Addendum: This sketch was written by Patricia Marx, according to her interview with The Hairpin]
**1/2

SHOW: WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT WITH PINKY AND LEO WAXMAN
-Talkative, Streisand-loving middle-aged Jewish couple Pinky (Denny Dillon) and Leo (Gilbert Gottfried) derails Elliott’s attempt to promote The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark on their cable access show.
-The first appearance of the Waxmans, who are the first potential recurring characters of the season.  SNL message board reviewer TheLazenby mentioned that these sketches seem to be the spiritual predecessor to Mike Myers’ “Coffee Talk” sketches.
-Gottfried and Dillon have good chemistry here, and the audience is enjoying the sketch.  It helps that they were developed enough with the mention of the daughter, and while the “talk show where the guest gets sidelined” would be done to death in later seasons (notably with “What Up With That”), there’s enough to make this worthwhile, particularly Gottfried’s “Who cares about Barbra Streisand? *ptui*” and not being aware there was a movie of M*A*S*H before the series.  Also enjoyed Gottfried concluding Gould was “a very hostile man” when he started to bristle about not being allowed to speak.
***1/2

-side note: the SNL band plays “Pick Up The Pieces” as the sketch fades out, a song that they would play quite a bit that year.  A comment on the show’s situation, perhaps?

SHORT SHOT: “FOOT FETISH” – RANDAL KLEISER
-A student film by the director of “Grease” and “The Blue Lagoon” features stop-motion shoe sex on the beach.
-This was the best part of the whole night.  Unlike the White House sketch, the film actually gets away with the raunchiness thanks to a good idea and clever execution.
-Once you realize what’s happening when the male shoe’s tongue pops out and the female shoe’s lace starts massaging it up and down, you have to wonder how it got past Standards and Practices.  Maybe Bill Clotworthy just thought it was too funny not to air.
-in the transition to the musical guest intro, Gould is seen sniffing a shoe.
****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “MISTER SOFTEE” – KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS
-When I first saw this performance I thought it was a little too cheesy (at one point I described the band looking like Lou Bega with the Spice Girls as backup singers) but now I’ve come to appreciate how good Doumanian’s musical guest instincts were.  Very tight and dynamic performance.
-This isn’t the regular SNL musical guest stage, which is a shame because I always liked the way this one looks better.
-According to IMDB, Coati Mundi (the bald guy playing the xylophone) was master of ceremonies at Charles Rocket’s NYC memorial.

WEEKEND UPDATE WITH CHARLES ROCKET
-best joke: Cary Grant/Chevy Chase, no frills sex.
-Most of the jokes in this edition were pretty bad, with some that were just pointless and unfunny (the rings of Saturn recording), some where you can see them try to be pointed at the recent conservative victory but come off as artless and mean-spirited, and some where they’re just being tasteless for tastelessness’ sake (the ethnic joke in the plane crash, the Anita Bryant joke which just died).  Photo gags were pretty common too but those were no worse and no better than what came after for Brian Doyle-Murray’s SNL Newsbreak.  According to writer Ferris Butler, Doyle-Murray was in charge of WU that year so that may explain that.
-Don Pardo introduces tonight’s edition by referring to Rocket as “Charlie Rocket”.  Rocket then says “Good evening, I’m Charles Rocket”.   If this was supposed to be a running gag (I think it was because Gottfried and Rocket do the same thing later on) it wasn’t best way to warm the cast to a new Weekend Update anchor.
-Gail Matthius’ remote with Piscopo as an unknowingly-defeated John B. Anderson was actually pretty funny, largely thanks to Piscopo’s impression.  I’m still trying to identify a lot of the extras in this bit because I’m not familiar with what a lot of the writers from that season look like compared to the other eras.  If anyone has any idea who some of the people are please comment.  (I think I see longtime SNL extra Andy Murphy behind the gate and talent booker Neil Levy with the camera, though).  [Addendum: 1980-81 writer Ferris Butler identified the people in the screengrab above: Kenny Vance (music director) is the tall man with the sunglasses behind Piscopo, the shorter brunette woman is Mary Pat Kelly (associate producer), and the tall redhead on the far right is Liz Welch (talent coordinator).  He also remembers the man in the blue jacket as Dennis, but not his last name.  Dennis appears in other sketches and has a speaking role in one.]
-Charles Rocket’s “Rocket Report” is the highlight of this Weekend Update and one of a few for this show as well.  You can see Rocket is fully in his element in these segments, and is considerably more engaging here than behind the Update desk, which is ironic considering Rocket’s actual experience as a local TV news anchor.  The audience thought so too because there was a huge wave of applause at the very end of the film, but as the live segment continued, the laughs became more and more sporadic.
-The segment with the old lady talking about the youngsters gathering around the building seeking autographs took on a more chilling subtext in the wake of John Lennon’s murder.
-On that topic, this episode was one of the few Doumanian-produced shows to get a network rerun.  Since the rerun aired after Lennon’s murder, I assume they would have taken this segment out.  I wonder what they would have filled the time with.
-The segment where Barry Grosscup (Gilbert Gottfried) explains that President-elect Reagan is already dead had a silly enough concept that I liked (particularly the photos of “dead” Reagan) but wasn’t able to expand on the premise enough.  It ran out of steam when it got to the point about the young Welsh actor in makeup playing Reagan, which seemed little more than a vehicle for the punchline about “some actor” being the president.
**1/2

SHOW: AT ONE WITH
-Sgt. Steve Brick (Joe Piscopo) demonstrates homosexuals’ fitness to serve in the military with a member of The Gay Brigade (Charles Rocket).
-Another good showcase for Piscopo and Rocket and one of the funnier bits of the night, despite the groan-worthy nature of some of the jokes.  You can hear an audience member go “no!” when they reveal the brigade is stationed at Fort Dix.
-I’m surprised they got away with “I won’t go down on anyone / Uncle Sam is the only one” during the march.
-Gould seems to be the outsider here, filling in another “nothing” part from a writing staff that didn’t have the benefit of familiarity with his strengths on SNL to be able to utilize him better.   He seems to be a little off here.
-Great callback to the Weekend Update joke about Cary Grant suing Chevy Chase for referring to him as a “homo”.
***1/2

FILM: “HEART TO HEART” – MITCHELL KRIEGMAN
-Mitchell can’t shake the feeling that his girlfriend’s changed over their relationship.
-The first of three short films by SNL writer Mitchell Kriegman, who later went on to create “Clarissa Explains It All”.  It was more of a “cute” idea but he managed to execute the changing of the actress between cuts quite skillfully, to the point that several viewers including myself completely missed the first change.
***

MISCELLANEOUS: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE ALL SPORTS NETWORK
-Joe Piscopo presents the Nose Wrestling championship fight between James-James Walker (Charles Rocket) and Scotty Buchman (Elliott Gould).
-The first appearance of Joe Piscopo’s sports commentator persona, played straight and much more subdued here as opposed to his eventual evolution towards more energetic, clipped short sentences.
-This is more an idea played for the concept than actual hard laughs but Gould and Rocket (and referee Gottfried) committed to the dialogue-less action well.
-Thought the line about the sport being previously dominated by Italians and Jews was a little cheap.
-Apparently, the tall brunette model extra in the blue t-shirt is a young Wendie Malick.  Definitely looks like her going by the face alone.  Andy Murphy, the old man extra, is visible.  Looks a little like Neil Levy with the camera again.
***

SKETCH: THE DATE
-Forty year old Mark (Elliott Gould) has a particularly uncomfortable dinner date with teenage Valley Girl Vickie (Gail Matthius).
-Here’s where the show starts to drag.  Gail Matthius would have better Vickie sketches once they paired her off with Denny Dillon as a foil.
-It doesn’t work either as a slice-of-life, softer relationship sketch or as a more “played for laughs” piece.  Part of it is a lack of chemistry with Gould, but also the premise is a little odd (is it ever explained why these two are on a date together?).  It ends quite awkwardly as well.
-Matthius did get a few good lines, particularly here delivery on “Ohhh.  *pause* Wow” after Gould explains the difference between his securities and the burglar alarms she thought he dealt in.
**

SKETCH: THE ACCORDIAN KILLER
-Chuck Levinto (Charles Rocket) kills his dates with polkas as the police (Gilbert Gottfried and Elliott Gould) try to stop him.
-This segment felt a little underwritten to me.  There was the silliness to the whole concept that worked in its favor and a nice punchline with the bagpipe players being used against the killer, but it seems like there wasn’t enough development of the idea beyond that.  The police station scenes between the killer scenes don’t really mesh too well.
-Gilbert Gottfried can be seen in the glass of the door waiting for his cue at the very beginning.
-One thing I noticed about this season is that they had a lot more use of the cast’s real names in sketches, for example, Gail Matthius playing a character named “Gail” in this sketch, and Charles Rocket playing a “Chuck”.
**1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GO I” – KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS
-This is a cover of a song by August “Kid Creole” Darnell’s prior band, the funk disco outfit Machine, in a completely different arrangement.  Well performed like the first song.
-Gould seems pretty pissed off/annoyed in his introduction.

SHORT SHOTS: “GIDGETTE GOES TO HELL” – JONATHAN DEMME
-A music video for Suburban Lawns’ new wave song in which a surfer girl gets eaten by a shark.
-Amusing  novelty.  The audience responded to the shark fin.
-The sound seems pretty muffled on the film.  More an issue with the show’s telecine and sound system than anything I think.
***

COMMERCIAL: SPEED LISTENING
-A cultured speedreading enthusiast (Denny Dillon) listens to the great music in little time with little effort.
-Good, simple idea that was executed pretty well.  My favorite part was all the pop songs with one-second “speed listening” lengths, except for “Stairway To Heaven” (2 seconds) and the inclusion of Manilow in the list of “great composers”.
-There seems to be a bit of an error with the graphic, where they had the second disc advertised of pop music from the 1950s to today but the graphic shows an EP or single of the complete works of several composers that were already name-checked in the main “World’s Great Music” album.
***

GOODNIGHTS
-Elliott Gould introduces each individual cast member by their first name, and says “We’re gonna be around forever…”
-Mama Coconut (Lori Eastside?) puts a hula hoop over Elliott’s head.
-Credits cut off early in the original broadcast for an NBC promo for the season premiere of “The Facts Of Life”.  What I find funny is that they’re still emphasizing the show being a spinoff of  Diff’rent Strokes at this point when that was actually the episode that started the retooled format that added Jo to the cast.

Final summary:
A mixed bag for the opening show of the season.  Rule number one of SNL is that the season premiere is not necessarily the best show of the season to begin with but it should set the tone for the season.  There are several things to be impressed with, but a lot of the best material was outside material (the “Short Shots”, former SNL writer Walter Williams’ education film).  The cast still seems to be finding their way (which would be rougher going once the attack dogs went out) but showing signs of promise.  The writing has a tendency towards thin premises stretched too far and good ideas that are underdeveloped, but the things that really don’t work are the ethnic jokes and general raunchiness, which seem to be awkwardly shoehorned in at times for the sake of competing with “Fridays”.   The negative response to the show is a bit much, though.  Once the atmosphere started to sour, though, it would permeate the sketches.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-Foot Fetish
-The Rocket Report segment on WU.
-Highway Education
-At One With
-What’s It All About

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-Monologue
-Most of the Weekend Update jokes
-The Date
-White House

MVP:
Denny Dillon / Joe Piscopo

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:
cast
Denny Dillon: 6 appearances [Gail & Elliott..., Monologue, White House, What's It All About, Weekend Update, Speed Listening]
Gilbert Gottfried: 5 appearances [Gail & Elliott..., What's It All About, Weekend Update, All Sports Network, The Accordian Killer]
Gail Matthius: 5 appearances [Gail & Elliott..., American Cancer Society, Weekend Update, The Date, The Accordian Killer]
Joe Piscopo: 5 appearances [Gail & Elliott..., White House, Weekend Update, At One With, All Sports Network], 1 voice-over [Speed Listening]
Ann Risley: 5 appearances [Gail & Elliott..., White House, Billy-Gram, The Date, The Accordian Killer]
Charles Rocket: 6 appearances [Gail & Elliott, Billy-Gram, Weekend Update, At One With, All Sports Network, The Accordian Killer]

confirmed non-cast
Mitchell Kriegman: 1 appearance [Heart To Heart]
Andy Murphy: 2 appearances [Weekend Update, All Sports Network]

guests:
Elliott Gould: 8 appearances [Gail & Elliott..., Monologue, Billy-Gram, What's It All About, At One With, All Sports Network, The Date, The Accordian Killer]
Kid Creole & The Coconuts: 2 appearances ["Mister Softee", "There But For The Grace Of God Go I"]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
January 3, 1981

Additional screen captures from this episode not posted above are available here.