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: February 6, 1982: James Coburn / Lindsey Buckingham & The Cholos (S07E11)

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

OPENING: THE PRESIDENT’S 71st BIRTHDAY
-Frank Sinatra sings a medley of altered versions of his songs for his friend Ronald Reagan’s birthday.
-A good opening, with some funny moments like Sinatra’s altered “It Was A Very Good Year” (“When I was 17…Ron, you were 63!”) and Sinatra disparagingly referring to Ron Reagan Jr. as “the dancer”.
-The Lech Walesa mention with the audience applause seemed to have been played in earnest.
***

MONOLOGUE
-Eddie Murphy asks Schlitz Light spokesman James Coburn to buy drinks for him after the show since he is still underage; James gives him pointers on ordering drinks with authority.
-Brief and amusing; Eddie was largely the reason why, with him shouting “THUNDERBIRD LIGHT, DAMMIT!” and then coolly going on with his order and what he’ll do afterward.
***

COMMERCIAL: REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE
-An elderly couple decides it’s time for little Jimmy to speak to his parents.
-A great commercial parody of a then-current Bell Systems campaign and the reveal of the elderly couple not being Jimmy’s grandparents but his captors was well executed.
****

SKETCH: I MARRIED A MONKEY
-Madge, Tim and Baby Ronnie are on vacation at Walt Disney World, but Madge has been having more fun with a gas station attendant (James Coburn).
-Not quite as good as the last outing.  There were a few unpredictable elements like Tim Kazurinsky having to calm Madge down as Coburn is giving his exit lines and Ronnie knocking a suitcase off a stand before pulling that down too, but it just fell a little flat.  The cue for the baby cry to play also seemed to come a little too late and that didn’t help.
-The audience loved Madge taking lithium and drinking, though.
**1/2

SKETCH: MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
-Mister Landlord (Tim Kazurinsky) has shut off the heat, so Mister Robinson teaches the boys and girls two new words: “mutha” and “pyromaniac”.
-A forgotten outing and a good change from the usual Mister Robinson format.  This is the only one that takes place outside of the apartment (it’s set near the entrance of the building).
-The audience really enjoyed the “mutha” part, but my favorite part was the rebus for “pie-row-man-knee-ack”.
-Murphy has a great line when he asks the thug to read the word and he just wordlessly goes to Mr. Landlord’s apartment to start the fire: “I guess he didn’t graduate, boys and girls!”
****

COMMERCIAL: JESUS IN BLUE JEANS
-Jerry Falwell (Brian Doyle-Murray) pitches an album of Rock and Roll that contains no sex or drugs, just rockin’ love songs to God.
-I enjoyed this a lot, particularly the list of the fake song titles that would scroll on screen, which were funnier than the actual songs themselves (favorites were “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Pray” and “Short Shorts”).
-This was co-written by Joe Bodolai and Rosie Shuster; Bodolai also mentions that he wrote “Middle Age Of Aquarius” on livevideo.com. The show would do several more similar ads after Bodolai and Shuster left the show (“Heil Hits”, “Taking Care of Business”, “Direct Hits”); I wonder who wrote those.
***1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “BWANA”
-Buckingham’s backing band is mentioned in the montage as “The Cholos”; this is actually an early version of Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo, who would appear without Buckingham in November 1983.  Most episode guides list just Fleetwood with Buckingham on this appearance, but they also mention Buckingham in the 1983 show.  Perhaps the confusion comes from this appearance.

SKETCH: CRAZY MARY, GAY JIM
-Christine Ebersole is smitten with James Coburn but Mary Gross is convinced he’s a homosexual and clues the audience into the tells of his orientation.
-One of the more memorable segments of this part of the season, and this sketch actually got moved to the cold opening for the rerun, which actually works well.  I particularly liked the part where Eddie Murphy shows up with an effeminate “James, you bitch!”.  The ending with Mary and Christine walking off as a couple as an inset with a cigar-smoking James Coburn pops up smugly concluding “you can’t judge a book by its cover” was also pretty funny.
-This definitely wouldn’t play so well now, but I did have to laugh at the outstretched pinky finger being counted as a sign he was gay.
**** 

SNL NEWSBREAK WITH BRIAN DOYLE MURRAY: CORRESPONDENTS RAHEEM ABDUL MOHAMMED AND MARY GROSS
-Best jokes: Let Poland be Nova Scotia, Bert and Ernie come out.
-Doyle-Murray has a lengthy photo montage at the beginning of the segment about Bush getting a rock thrown at his limo and a line of succession influenced by free association.  It was largely a waste of time but it had a few funny suggestions like “Sandy” from Little Orphan Annie and Elizabeth Taylor being the wild card.  They would do a lot more of these lengthy and unfunny montages as the season goes on.
-The Raheem Abdul Mohammed commentary started off as a rewrite of the “no blacks in the movies” commentary from the season premiere; in fact, he actually screws up and says “Those were great movies!” again before correcting himself.  It did get funnier afterward when he asserted that Gary Coleman wasn’t black but “a little short Jewish man named Stu” and that NBC really meant “No Blacks and Coloureds”.
-I also enjoyed him snapping to Doyle-Murray “You ain’t funny, and this show ain’t funny!  And Eddie Murphy ain’t funny neither!”
-The book review was solely to start the final Gross/Doyle-Murray co-anchor stretch in motion, where Mary Gross takes her glasses off and Doyle-Murray falls in love with her (a la the “Beautiful All Along” trope) and it wasn’t particularly funny aside from the exaggerated passionate kissing between the two.
**1/2 

COMMERCIAL: VICTIMS
-Dan Rather (Joe Piscopo) speaks on behalf of people who were forced into destitution thanks to exposes on 60 Minutes.
-I still don’t like Piscopo’s Rather impression but it was a somewhat funny bit, and the 60 Minutes watch sound effect was well placed at the end.
***

SKETCH: MAGNIFICENT ANALYST
-Ronald Reagan (voice of Joe Piscopo) goes over birthday cards and meets with Coburn, whose film roles in Our Man Flint, The President’s Analyst and The Magnificent Seven have the President convinced that he’s the right man to help liberate Poland.  Ed Meese (Tony Rosato) isn’t so convinced.
-This is another “Hail To The Chief” segment from Reagan’s point of view and it continues the theme of Reagan still being convinced he’s only acting in a movie.  It wasn’t quite as good as the first one but it did have a few good moments like Reagan insisting Coburn has one up over other politicians and diplomats because he had acting training, and it picked up when Ed Meese came in.  Rosato makes a good foil in these sketches.
-The use of the Sinatra cold opening on Reagan’s TV was interesting.
*** 

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “TROUBLE”
-A very good performance with a different sound than the studio version.  Buckingham also has a better solo in this version.
-Buckingham seems pretty twitchy and agitated in these performances, possibly on cocaine.

COMMERCIAL: THE KHADDAFFI LOOK
Repeat of segment from 10/03/81

SHOW: UNIQUE PERSPECTIVES
-Harmony Hart-Seely (Robin Duke) interviews two survivalists (Tim Kazurinsky and Tony Rosato) who see nuclear war as an opportunity to pick up chicks.
-I didn’t really care for this, although I did like Kazurinsky’s “It’s going to be bitchin’” line about nuclear war.
*1/2

SKETCH: THOSE CRAZY TABOOSTERS
-When daughter Cookie (Robin Duke) won’t date Medgar Montessori (Eddie Murphy), his parents visit her family and make some unsettling discoveries about the Tabooster clan.
-This is another memorable sketch but mainly for how disturbing it actually is, with the focus being on an inbred, incestuous family (the parents and children are both twins, the parents are also dating the children) who also practice cannibalism (or, as Mrs. Tabooster says, “We like to think of it as eating our old”).  The audience is actually pretty quiet except for a little uncomfortable laughter, and a few of the lines are really squicky, particularly Piscopo mentioning that other men are breast men and leg men and he happens to be a “family man”, as well as “The grass is greener in your own backyard”.
-Disturbing aspects aside, it was still pretty well written and with good performances from all involved.  Rosie Shuster mentions she wrote it in the LFNY book; she also co-wrote Uncle Roy so it actually isn’t too much of a leap for her to write a sketch like this.
-Eddie Murphy got some of the biggest laughs as the kid from the other family who just flat-out asks them about their weird habits.  I also enjoyed the way he said “Goodbye, Ruby Tabooster” at the end.  I also liked Robin Duke’s little curtsy and skip as she goes to the kitchen to get a hot beverage.
-Did anyone else notice that the family dynamic was the same in Taboosters and in Breakfast from the Pleasence show?  Joe Piscopo and Mary Gross were the parents while Robin Duke and Tony Rosato were the children.
****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “DON’T LET IT SHOW”
-Christine Ebersole performs a song for the other women on the show who have to put up with sexism and degrading roles in sketches.
-I can’t really assign a star rating to this because this is pretty much a straight musical performance, and unlike “Single Women” or “I’m So Miserable” (aka Last Night I Killed My Husband), it wasn’t written by any of the writers but a straight cover of an Alan Parsons song (already covered by Pat Benatar).
-I can’t fault Ebersole’s performance or the song but it really was quite a downer.

GUEST PERFORMANCE: MARC WEINER
-Weiner tells of his mother undermining his father and involves two audience members in a nautical-themed stand-up.
-Wasn’t too crazy about this, but the funniest moments were actually from the female audience member’s (Jane Wald?) comments and reactions to him, particularly when he asks her to pull out her sword and she says she doesn’t have one.  When Weiner is doing one of his “mother in the background doing this” moments, she also goes behind him and makes some faces of her own.
**1/2

GOODNIGHTS

FINAL THOUGHTS:
The first decent episode after O’Donoghue’s firing and easily the strongest and most memorable of the January-February stretch.  Coburn was an alright host, playing himself two times and straight roles in everything else, but he did pretty well in what he appeared in.  There still were some weaker elements in the show, including a weaker “I Married A Monkey” and Ebersole’s song did really seemed to interrupt the mood of the show.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-Crazy Mary, Gay Jim
-Those Crazy Taboosters
-Mister Robinsons’ Neighborhood
-Reach Out and Touch Someone
-Jesus in Blue Jeans

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-The non-Eddie segments of SNL Newsbreak
-I Married A Monkey
-Marc Weiner’s standup

MVP:
Eddie Murphy

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:
cast
Robin Duke: 2 appearances [Unique Perspectives, Those Crazy Taboosters]
Christine Ebersole: 4 appearances [Crazy Mary Gay Jim, Magnificent Analyst, Those Crazy Taboosters, "Don't Let It Show"]
Mary Gross: 3 appearances [Crazy Mary Gay Jim, SNL Newsbreak, Those Crazy Taboosters]
Tim Kazurinsky: 4 appearances [I Married A Monkey, Mister Robinson's Neighborhood, Victims, Unique Perspectives]
Eddie Murphy: 5 appearances [Monologue, Mister Robinson's Neighborhood, Crazy Mary Gay Jim, SNL Newsbreak, Those Crazy Taboosters]
Joe Piscopo: 4 appearances [The President's 71st Birthday, Victims, Magnificent Analyst (voice only), Those Crazy Taboosters]
Tony Rosato: 3 appearances [Magnificent Analyst, Unique Perspectives, Those Crazy Taboosters]

featured players
Brian Doyle-Murray: 2 appearances [Jesus In Blue Jeans, SNL Newsbreak]

non-cast
Dick Ebersol: 1 appearance ["Don't Let It Show" (voice only)]

guests
James Coburn: 5 appearances [Monologue, I Married A Monkey, Crazy Mary Gay Jim, Magnificent Analyst, Those Crazy Taboosters]
Lindsey Buckingham & The Cholos: 2 appearances ["Bwana", "Trouble"]
Marc Weiner: 1 appearance [Guest performance]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
May 8, 1982
Known alterations: Crazy Mary, Gay Jim is the cold opening in the rebroadcast, while The President’s 71st Birthday is moved after the monologue; other sketches are shuffled.