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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MVP:
Bill Murray

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

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

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

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

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
Not repeated on NBC.

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MVP:
Eddie Murphy

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

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

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

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

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
Not rebroadcast on NBC.

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.

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 17, 1981: Karen Black / Cheap Trick, Stanley Clarke Trio (S06E07)

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

OPENING: WHITE HOUSE STRIP
-The Carters take everything of value from the White House before Ron and Nancy Reagan move in.
-A strong, fast-paced opener that got a good reaction from the audience.   Good work from everyone all around, and Ann actually succeeds pretty well as lead here.
-Funniest bits for me were Amy asking if Nancy Reagan has killed anyone and Rosalynn explaining that she just “marries them instead”, and Jimmy Carter stealing the hotline as it beeps.
-The only major complaint I have is the awkward shoehorn of the LFNY line, but this gets the show running on a promising note.
***

MONOLOGUE
-Karen Black shamelessly says anything she thinks will get the audience to applaud.
-A bit reminiscent of Chevy Chase’s monologue from February 1978, but this is helped by its relative brevity and Black being so energetic and animated here.
-Black addresses son Hunter Carson (who appeared with her during her monologue four and a half years ago, memorably grabbing her left breast) at the end of the monologue.
***

COMMERCIAL: THE LEGENDARY COMPOSERS
-A new record offer exploring the links between the great classical works and modern pop hits like “Whip It”.
-Didn’t care for Rocket’s choice of character voice (high-pitched and nasal with slight accent), and he seemed to muff a line, but the concept works and the audience reacts well.
*** 

COMMERCIAL: FOUNDATION FOR THE TRAGICALLY HIP
-In a moment with Sir William Martin (Bill Martin), he solicits donations for the terminally materialistic.
-Another one of the Michael Nesmith acquisitions aired on the show during January 1981 (Nesmith appears in a cameo at the end as Foyer the butler).  This is perhaps most well known as the comedy bit that inspired the name of Canadian rock group The Tragically Hip.
-I thought this worked better than the Nesmith pieces that aired the week before, helped by a good concept (especially the “machines which keep Bobby alive”) and a good punchline.
***1/2

 SKETCH: THE LIVELYS
-TV host Phil Lively (Charles Rocket) and wife Frances (Gail Matthius) extend the game show format to a dinner party with new neighbors (Denny Dillon and Gilbert Gottfried).
-A genuinely great sketch for the season, with a solid premise, good development, and strong work by Rocket and Matthius with Gottfried and Dillon doing  well in straight roles.
-There are lots of funny bits here, particularly Matthius instantly changing outfits when presenting their dining set, her singing the Jeopardy! “think music” when Gottfried and Dillon try to guess the vintage of the wine only to make the buzzer sound (loudly).  The Livelys showing the guests out (a la game show losers) for not guessing correctly was a good ending as well.
****

SKETCH: SINATRA & REAGAN
-The Chairman of the Board (Joe Piscopo) advises Ronald Reagan (Charles Rocket) on his inauguration and recommends he dump George Bush for First Lady Nancy (Gail Matthius).
-Historically important for Joe Piscopo’s first appearance doing Frank Sinatra, which would be his signature impression.  Rocket’s Reagan is still weak but I thought the dynamic between the two worked enough to establish Sinatra as the more powerful.
-The reveal of Nancy hiding in the dressing room and being the one behind Sinatra’s request worked pretty well.  I liked the way they ended with the shot of the mirror, too.
***1/2

FILM: THE ROCKET REPORT – DAREDEVILS
-Charles Rocket profiles one of the biggest risk-takers in a city full of them: cab driver Richard Schmaltz.
-A classic Rocket Report, and probably the best one of the entire series, even stronger than the 5th Avenue one thanks to the more specified focus.  The audience also loved it, especially Schmaltz’s “stunt” of the left turn across three lanes of traffic.
****1/2

SKETCH: MONA LISA
-Museum guard (Charles Rocket) breaks off his romance with famed Da Vinci painting Mona Lisa (Karen Black).
-Perhaps it is a little too cute and broad, but I can’t help but like this sketch, buoyed by good work from Rocket and Black.
Funniest parts: Mona Lisa wanting a baby after talking with Madonna With Child, “You wish I had legs!”, her disparaging the Renoir nudes that the guard had been seeing (“Those SLUTS! With little tiny brush strokes, no DEPTH at all!”), the visual of her smiling wearing the guard’s parting gift (a cowboy hat) at the end.
***1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “BABY LOVES TO ROCK” – CHEAP TRICK
-Rawer and noisier than the version on the George Martin-produced All Shook Up album.  Pete Comita is on bass.
-The band plays their numbers on a different set than the regular SNL musical guest stage.

WEEKEND UPDATE WITH CHARLES ROCKET & GAIL MATTHIUS
-Best jokes: Inauguration, Reagan family portrait
-Rocket and Matthius had a better night than usual with their material, but I thought the attempts at chemistry between the two (Rocket making drinks for them both, “never with a co-worker” after the Sunbelt film) didn’t succeed, and were met with silence from the audience.  Rocket’s increasingly manic delivery worked particularly well in the description of the inauguration and had a good payoff.
-Matthius still has a few rough patches, slipping up Risley’s character’s name after her segment (and looking a bit embarrassed) and losing her place again as she starts her intro to the Sunbelt segment.  She also sort of tries to do Rocket’s manic thing on the Winnebago One joke.  The receptive audience keeps the energy level up, though.
-Risley’s “tips for stupid dieters” segment was a bit weak, and it seemed a little like Risley was thinking it too as she went for a slightly exaggerated delivery as she went along.
-Rush To The Sunbelt worked for me, just because I like stock footage bits.  I like the joke about the “belt” before the sun was added in 1972.  Can anyone confirm who was doing the voiceover on that?
-Piscopo’s Saturday Night Sports appears yet again, now firmly entrenched as an audience favorite.  Piscopo tries to scalp Super Bowl tickets, which leads to another funny “upstage Rocket” bit when he waves the tickets in front of his face as he tells a joke.  Rocket plays along, though.
***

SHOW: 60 MINUTES
-Dan Rather (Joe Piscopo) investigates the lack of female journalists at his network in “No Babes In Newsland”
-A decent parody of the CBS newsmagazine, helped by making this a filmed parody with studio bookends.  Some good bits in here, such as an “anonymous” Walter Cronkite explaining that Mike Wallace doesn’t want to work with women because of friend Harry Reasoner’s “vicious castration” at the hands of Barbara Walters, and Wallace blatantly lying about making threatening signs.
-This is notable for being the debut of Piscopo’s Dan Rather.  This is also notable for not featuring any other cast or featured players: aside from Piscopo, the principal speaking parts are done by various show personnel, including associate director Peter Fatovich as CBS News president Bill Leonard and Jeannine Kerwin as journalist Heather Clark (thanks to Ferris Butler for the ID).  Other show staff can be seen in the background, including writer Barry W. Blaustein.
-Another cool detail: the shelves of video tapes in the background of the interview segments are actually recordings of actual SNL episodes.  You can see names like Art Garfunkel and Elliott Gould with the show numbers on the spine as well.  (Every episode of SNL that aired in late night, including repeats, were numbered sequentially up until the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike: after this point, only the original airings get the episode numbers.  But that’s another post…)
-I still have no idea who is playing Mike Wallace in this sketch: it’s such a non-impression I actually find it funny.  Any idea who was Cronkite as well?
***

SKETCH: HOSPITAL BED
-A view from the perspective of stroke victim Morris Birnbaum (voice of Gilbert Gottfried), including the thoughts he is unable to communicate to his nurse, greedy daughter and old flame.
-Like with the Old Lady sketch from Burstyn, the 1980-81 season really nailed the bittersweet sketches that Marilyn Suzanne Miller used to do.  I thought this actually was even better than the Old Lady piece, helped by the unusual setup (single camera perspective with voiceover).  Gottfried’s voice carries the sketch as the bitter, self-pitying Birnbaum.
-The change in tone in the sketch when Dillon entered as Rachel was also very effective, particularly Birnbaum begging Rachel not to start singing, only to start “singing” along in his head.  I liked that they also didn’t try to end it on a light note…just having the sketch end with Birnbaum going out of consciousness
****1/2

SHOW: SATURDAY NIGHT SPORTS- FAIR DINKUM
-Joe Piscopo covers the championship match of the kilt-pulling Scottish game of manhood.
-Like with the Nose Wrestling segment in Gould, this was a short segment played more for the concept than hard laughs, anchored by strong work from both commentator Piscopo and referee “Mc”Gottfried.
***

SKETCH: NEIGHBOR
-When her neighbor’s (Eddie Murphy) noisy stereo keeps her up at night, (Yvonne Hudson) goes to his apartment door to confront him.
-Good use of featured players Murphy and Hudson.  I thought it was a bit similar to the insult contest stand-up Murphy did the week before, and he blew a bit of his delivery early on, but once he reacted to the unnamed extra playing Hudson’s boyfriend, he really came together.
***

SKETCH: TURNPIKE DINER
-Paulie Herman (Joe Piscopo) ends up in a recreation of the famous diner scene from “Five Easy Pieces” when he sits with a Texan (Karen Black) in an overcrowded diner.
-Still not a big fan of Paulie Herman, but this one at least gives the character a new setting and something different to mix in with the “I’m from Jersey”.  The audience now recognizes and applauds the character.
-This sketch picked up a bit once they got to the Five Easy Pieces “chicken salad sandwich” homage.  Karen Black seemed to be amused and having fun doing it, as she was starting to crack up.
**1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “CAN’T STOP IT BUT I’M GONNA TRY” – CHEAP TRICK
-A slower but intense song about addiction.  Again, rawer than the LP version, which was somewhat fuller-sounding.
-Drummer Bun E. Carlos gives a little thumbs up after the end of the song. 

COMMERCIAL: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE ACTION DOLLS
-Charles Rocket shows how you can create your own backstage drama with dolls of the new Saturday Night Live cast.
-Rocket brings his manic pitchman mode back for this, which works as the moment the cast is fully established as a unit rather than just as the substitute players that took over when the original group left.  It seems to be a conscious effort to set an offstage “reality” for the group like the backstage sketches did for the original cast.
***

SHOW: WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT
-Pinky and Leo Waxman (Denny Dillon and Gilbert Gottfried) continue to stray from their guests, this time taking Karen Black’s mental stability in the process.
-This one actually felt like an afterthought, and the Waxman’s tangents weren’t as warmly recieved this time.  It also seemed like they were rushing toward the end.
-The breakdown was a decent way to end the sketch, with Black crouching on the ground with a banana like a monkey,  This part had a few good lines too, like “I think the camera should have a breakdown!” and Leo Waxman commenting on the mess Black made.
**

COMMERCIAL: NATIONAL HANDGUN ASSOCIATION
-A mugging scenario reminds the audience that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”.
-Not really a lot to this other than what I described, but I did laugh a little at Matthew Laurance shoving Eddie Murphy’s head right into Ann Risley’s face.  Nice to see the home base elevator actually get used.
**

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “WILD DOG” – STANLEY CLARKE TRIO
-Black introduces the performance by mentioning how Clarke has topped polls regarding bass players since 1976 and introduces him as her friend.  I’m guessing they knew each other through their involvement in Scientology.  Accompanying Clarke is George Duke on keyboards and John Robinson.
-This is one of the best performances on the show this year, especially for a 10-to-1 slot.  Clarke’s signature technique makes this an interesting performance: he thrusts his right hand downward, almost strumming.  Good solos from Clarke and Duke, and another performance that has more life to it than the studio counterpart.  The audience goes wild for the thundering conclusion.

GOODNIGHTS
-Karen Black says she had a stupendous time.  Gail Matthius tugs her ear a la Carol Burnett.
-Don Pardo announces next week’s show with Robert Hays and Joe “King” Carrasco before the studio feed cuts out as Jean Doumanian’s credit begins to appear.

Final thoughts:
Best show of the season so far, with Black being an energetic and game host, and the cast and writers proving they are capable of pulling off a consistently strong show.  This particular show is a highlight of the Doumanian era, and actually manages to be a better show than Black’s first appearance in 1976.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-Hospital Bed
-The Rocket Report
-The Livelys
-Mona Lisa
-Sinatra & Reagan
-Foundation for the Tragically Hip

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS
-What’s It All About
-National Handgun Association

MVP:
Karen Black / Charles Rocket

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:
cast
Denny Dillon: 5 appearances [White House Strip, The Livelys, Hospital Bed, Turnpike Diner, What's It All About], 1 voiceover [Mona Lisa]
Gilbert Gottfried: 4 appearances [The Livelys, Sinatra & Reagan, Saturday Night Sports, What's It All About], 1 voiceover [Hospital Bed]
Gail Matthius: 3 appearances [The Livelys, Sinatra & Reagan, Weekend Update], 1 voiceover [White House Strip]
Joe Piscopo: 7 appearances [White House Strip, Sinatra & Reagan, Weekend Update, 60 Minutes, Saturday Night Sports, Turnpike Diner, National Handgun Association]
Ann Risley: 3 appearances [White House Strip, Weekend Update, National Handgun Association]
Charles Rocket: 9 appearances [The Legendary Composers, The Livelys, Sinatra & Reagan, The Rocket Report, Mona Lisa, Weekend Update, Hospital Bed, Saturday Night Sports, Saturday Night Live Action Dolls]

featured players
Yvonne Hudson: 2 appearances [Hospital Bed, Neighbor]
Matthew Laurance: 4 appearances [White House Strip, Sinatra & Reagan, Saturday Night Sports, National Handgun Association]
Eddie Murphy: 3 appearances [Hospital Bed, Neighbor, National Handgun Association]
Patrick Weathers: 3 appearances [White House Strip, Sinatra & Reagan, Saturday Night Sports]

non-cast
Barry W. Blaustein: 1 appearance [60 minutes]
Pete Fatovich: 1 appearance [60 Minutes]
Jeannine Kerwin: 1 appearance [60 minutes]
Neil Levy: 1 appearance [Turnpike Diner]

guests
Karen Black: 5 appearances [Monologue, Mona Lisa, Hospital Bed, Turnpike Diner, What's It All About]
Cheap Trick: 2 appearances ["Baby Loves To Rock", "Can't Stop It But I'm Gonna Try"]
Stanley Clarke Trio: 1 appearance ["Wild Dog"]
Bill Martin: 1 appearance [Foundation For The Tragically Hip]
Michael Nesmith: 1 appearance [Foundation For The Tragically Hip]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
Not rebroadcast on NBC.

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here

Classic SNL Review: December 20, 1980: David Carradine / The cast of “The Pirates of Penzance” (S06E05)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MVP:
Gail Matthius

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-Dylan & Guthrie
-The Dancing Man

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

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

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

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

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

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
February 28, 1981

Additional screen captures not shown above can be found here.

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: May 15, 1982: Danny DeVito / Sparks (S07E19)

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

OPENING: ANDY KAUFMAN WRESTLING TEASER
-A short clip of Andy Kaufman’s April 5 wrestling match against Jerry Lawler with voiceover from Piscopo teasing Kaufman’s first time wrestling a man.
-I’m not going to review this as it is too short to really comment on and it’s strictly a teaser for a segment later on in the show.  As well, my recording begins about halfway through the opening montage.

MONOLOGUE
-Danny DeVito announces that Taxi has been cancelled by ABC, to the audience’s dismay.  He reads a letter from his mother Julia that bad-mouths the network.  Because the season finale was taped two months earlier and the cast did not know the network was cancelling the show, Danny then introduces castmates Andy Kaufman, Christopher Lloyd, Marilu Henner, Tony Danza and Judd Hirsch for a belated final bow.
-DeVito comes off as an engaging and enjoyable host right away, and it’s no surprise that he would end up doing the show five more times as host.
-Even though this wasn’t a strict comedy monologue, this gets the show off to a good start.  The audience response was really strong going by the applause DeVito gets at the beginning, their boos at ABC for cancelling Taxi, and the standing ovation they give the cast as they all assemble on stage.
-You can see Marilu Henner through the window on the set…she’s obscured by  the cloudiness of the glass but it’s her going by the outfit she’s wearing.
-Of course, NBC would pick up Taxi for the next fall.
****

FILM: TAXI
-Louie DePalma (Danny DeVito) gets his revenge on ABC.
-A good companion piece to the monologue.
-Of course, in a post-9/11 world, Louie bombing the ABC headquarters via remote control would NEVER be allowed on the air.
****

SKETCH: WHINERS
-Aboard an airplane, Doug (Joe Piscopo) and Wendy Whiner (Robin Duke) complain loudly to a stewardess (Mary Gross) and the man in the seat next to them (Danny DeVito).
-The audience gives Piscopo and Duke recognition applause right at the start of this sketch, which really felt too similar to the last one.  I also find Duke and Piscopo’s voices really grating in these sketches, which was probably the effect they were going for. Duke’s Wendy Whiner moan reminds me a little of Julia Sweeney as Pat.
-The main thing this sketch had going for it was DeVito, who was an excellent foil for the Whiners, and a great ending where after being nagged repeatedly by Doug and Wendy to be careful with a package of china, DeVito aggressively kicks and shakes the box while the couple is distracted by “What I Did For Love” on their headset, all the while mimicking their repeated admonitions in a nasal, mocking voice.
**

SKETCH: STRESS TEST
-Bill’s (Danny DeVito) excitement over his promotion is short-lived as a perfect storm of personal crises converge.
-I apologize that the sketch name gives away the twist at the end of the sketch, but all the episode guides (including the official show sketch titles) call it that or a variant of that.
-DeVito stumbled a little at the beginning but again was a good straight man for all the antics in the sketch.
-I really enjoyed Joe Piscopo’s smug snake co-worker character commenting as the drug dealer (Eddie Murphy) gives DeVito some cocaine and threatens him with a knife for not paying, but the others had some good moments, particularly Christine Ebersole screaming “YOU ANIMAL!” at DeVito for giving her herpes and Mary Gross’ orgasmic moans over the speakerphone.
-The twist with it all being a test the CEO orchestrated to see how Bill handles pressure was pretty funny, especially the denouement with DeVito muttering and growling while holding a knife.
***1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “MICKEY MOUSE”
-Ron Mael, toothbrush-mustached keyboard player and songwriter for Sparks, prefaces the number with a lecture about the mouse.
-Crunchy, guitar and synth heavy power-pop, but the real fun is the contrast between energetic lead singer Russell Mael and his brother with the Hitler mustache.  Ron’s facial expressions and upstaging activities make the performance for me, especially the part where they cut to the different band members singing and Ron is just smiling creepily.  Plus, Ron gets his own dance solo during the instrumental break.

MISCELLANEOUS: NEXT WEEK
-Tim Kazurinsky has Danny DeVito guess who next week’s special guest is.
-Good break from the usual format, which also felt like this was a way for them to get rid of a little extra time.

SNL NEWSBREAK WITH MARY GROSS, CHRISTINE EBERSOLE AND BRIAN DOYLE-MURRAY: MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT DR. JACK BADOFSKY (TIM KAZURINSKY), WEATHER WITH LOU GRANT (TONY ROSATO)
-Best joke: Death penalty in NJ/Rely tampon
-An improvement over the past several SNL Newsbreaks, partially because of a shorter running time (only 12 minutes) and also because they don’t use the photo montage like they had been the last few weeks, even if they still use their other crutch, the crawl with names.  Still not great, but it doesn’t weigh down the show as much as it had been the last few weeks.
-Dr. Jack Badofsky gets a big round of applause, but this was one of the weaker outings this season, with more groan-worthy puns.
-Mary Gross gets an amusing “ditzy correspondent” segment, thanks largely to the dog that’s supposed to be playing “Sandy” spooking (you can hear him growl) and she makes a few adlibs as she tries to get him back on the bench.  She also gets a good adlib after another one of Brian Doyle-Murray’s marblemouth moments.
-Falkland Island Rorschach Crawl was alright, again preferable to the photo montage bits they did the last few shows, with some unintentional humor coming from Doyle-Murray and Ebersole having time to kill before the crawl finishes.
-Tony Rosato returns as Lou Grant, fresh off his just-cancelled CBS drama and reduced to doing the weather, where he promptly changes the subject and appeals for aid in El Salvador before Doyle-Murray tells him that Grant Tinker has cancelled the weather report.  For some reason I like Rosato’s Asner/Lou Grant a little more this time in spite of the makeup job (they didn’t do a great job on John Belushi when he played Lou Grant either).  The whole thing where Lou Grant claims he fixed Tinker up with Mary was a little cute for my liking.
***

SKETCH: SOLOMON AND PUDGE
-Solomon (Eddie Murphy) and Pudge (Joe Piscopo) discuss the Falkland Islands.  Wino buddy Willie (Danny DeVito) reunites with his friends in time to watch Solomon dance.
-This sketch was again carried by the chemistry between Piscopo and Murphy, although the mood was distinctly lighter than the previous Solomon and Pudge sketch.  DeVito’s character was a good addition and fit the mood of the sketch.
-Best line was Solomon talking about the “Puerto Ricans in the Falklands!” and Thatcher being “out of her Falkland mind”.
-Eddie Murphy doesn’t really appear in this episode much; this is his only starring role and he only appeared in one other sketch before and none after.
***1/2

MISCELLANEOUS: KAUFMAN VS. LAWLER
-Brian Doyle-Murray interviews Andy Kaufman about his April 5 match against Jerry Lawler and shows highlights.  Kaufman announces he will never wrestle again and apologizes for his past matches against women.
-When I first saw this episode, I thought this segment was boring, particularly because it was a wrestling match framed by what looked like a straight interview between Doyle-Murray and Kaufman, even though Kaufman had a good line about wrestling women bigger than Jerry Lawler.  Since it became known that the “feud” between Kaufman and Lawler was actually as staged as any other professional wrestling storyline and the two were actually close friends, I have to admire their commitment to the hoax.
-As well, the wrestling match also plays pretty well as a slapstick/silent movie type deal with Kaufman mocking Lawler, running away and putting Lawler in a headlock only to get slammed with a pile driver.
-Funniest moment for me: when Lawler taunts Kaufman “Are you here to wrestle or act like an ass”, the commentator (Lance Russell) repeats the comment but pauses and says “so and so” instead of “ass”.
****

COMMERCIAL: ENZO
-Ozzy Osbourne (Tim Kazurinsky) touts the enzymatic mouthwash’s ability to remove various animal parts from his teeth.
-Slightly fillerish.  The funniest part was Robin Duke as the groupie slurring “Wowts rull min-tee” and swigging from the bottle in the last shot.
**

COMMERCIAL: COME ON OUT AMERICA [RERUN FROM 03/27/82]

SHOW: TABLE TALK
-Tony Rosato demonstrates how to intimidate the wine steward (Nate Herman).
-Rosato is in fine form here.  I’ve finally figured out that he reminds me a LOT of Jason Sudeikis, because they both can play both the straight and support roles as well as somewhat boorish, obnoxious types.   I’d say he was the perfect choice to do this segment and he carries it well.
-The part where Rosato does a quick devilish laugh after demonstrating his displeasure to the wine steward reminds me of Vic Salukin after his crank call.
-Nate Herman reportedly was a last-second fill-in for a regular cast member.  For all the screen time the original writers of SNL got, Ebersol and Doumanian didn’t really give their writers many bit parts (except for Andy Breckman) so for a writer to have a big role as this is rare.
***1/2

SHOW: LOOKS AT BOOKS
-Karen Block (Mary Gross) interviews “A Hard Day’s Reich” author Dr. Simon Radlauer (Tim Kazurinsky), who asserts the Beatles stole their ideas from the Nazis.
-While the doctored Beatles covers were funny, the joke really runs out of steam and it doesn’t really feel like they worked too hard on fleshing out the idea.
-This is notable for being the only time the show would use the title “Looks At Books” after the original cast left.  Most of the time Ebersol book review show sketches would be “Book Beat”
-Gross’ exaggerated delivery at the beginning was a little irritating.  Also, if the Nazi music records were supposed to be LPs then that would be an anachronism seeing that the 33 1/3rd RPM LP wasn’t developed until after the war.
**

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “I PREDICT”
-You can see Danny DeVito dancing on the side stage as the band starts playing.
-Another catchy number.  Ron seemed to be cracking up a little at Russell at one point.
-One of the song’s jokes (pointed out elsewhere): the prediction that the song will fade out, but it actually ends cold.

GOODNIGHTS
-Danny’s mother Julia DeVito (who’s even shorter than he is) curses out ABC in Italian to cheers from the cast and audience.
-A few audience members can be seen standing up in the balcony, evidently trying to start another standing ovation.  It doesn’t take.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Easily one of the highlights of the season and definitely a highlight of the later part of the year.  Danny DeVito was the strongest host the show had in a while, perhaps since Bill Murray, and while the show still had a few stumbles, overall the cast and writers seemed to have a good night.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-Monologue/Taxi Film
-Kaufman vs. Lawler
-Table Talk
-Stress Test
-Solomon & Pudge

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-Looks At Books
-The Whiners
-Enzo

MVP:
Danny DeVito

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:
cast
Robin Duke: 2 appearances [Whiners, Enzo]
Christine Ebersole: 3 appearances [Stress Test, SNL Newsbreak, Enzo]
Mary Gross: 4 appearances [Whiners, Stress Test (voice only), SNL Newsbreak, Looks At Books]
Tim Kazurinsky: 4 appearances [Next Week, SNL Newsbreak, Enzo, Looks At Books]
Eddie Murphy:  2 appearances [Stress Test, Solomon and Pudge]
Joe Piscopo: 4 appearances [Wrestling Teaser (voice only), Whiners, Stress Test, Solomon and Pudge]
Tony Rosato: 4 appearances [Stress Test (voice only), SNL Newsbreak,  Enzo, Table Talk]
featured players
Brian Doyle-Murray: 3 appearances [Stress Test, SNL Newsbreak, Kaufman vs. Lawler]
non-cast
Nate Herman: 1 appearance [Table Talk]
Yvonne Hudson: 1 appearance [Whiners]
Neil Levy: 1 appearance [Whiners]
guests
Danny DeVito: 6 appearances [Monologue, Taxi, Whiners, Stress Test, Next Week, Solomon & Pudge]
Sparks: 2 appearances ["Mickey Mouse", "I Predict"]
Andy Kaufman: 2 appearances [Monologue, Kaufman vs. Lawler]
Tony Danza: 1 appearance [Monologue]
Marilu Henner: 1 appearance [Monologue]
Judd Hirsch: 1 appearance [Monologue]
Christopher Lloyd: 1 appearance [Monologue]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
September 18, 1982
Known alterations: Next Week is removed, The Khaddaffi Look (from 10/03/81) is added.

Additional screen captures are available here.

Classic SNL Review: April 24, 1982: Robert Culp / The Charlie Daniels Band (S07E18)

RATING SYSTEM:
***** – Classic
****   – Great
***     – Good / Average
**        - Meh
*          - Awful

OPENING: TENNIS CLUB
-Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp), reduced to pushing towels at the tennis club, runs into his “I Spy” buddy Alexander Scott (Eddie Murphy), still living the high life and plugging products.
-A decent opening.  Culp seemed to be overdoing it with his delivery and Eddie had a few stumbles but this was one of the better segments of the night, and making fun of Cosby’s tendency to plug products always makes me laugh.
-The segments with Piscopo as John McEnroe throwing a tantrum because Culp said his towel wasn’t “in” the hamper and Kazurinsky as Billie Jean King (telling Culp “Hold my balls” while she used the restroom) were a little obvious but funny nonetheless.
-I also liked how the ending tied it into “The Greatest American Hero”.  Who was that playing Ralph in this sketch?
-You can hear an audience member shout “Eddie!” when Murphy makes his entrance in this sketch.
***

MONTAGE
-This is one of the earliest episodes where the audience response for Eddie Murphy is considerably louder than for the other cast members, at least, this is the first one where I really notice it.

MONOLOGUE
-After being told that they don’t do the monologue anymore due to the number of non-comedian hosts, Robert Culp tries to demonstrate his stand-up comedy skills.
-Culp was very nervous and fidgety throughout this really quick monologue, and even him delivering a joke poorly wasn’t funny in itself.   It came across as desperate instead of self-deprecating.
*

COMMERCIAL: MIDDLE AGE OF AQUARIUS
-Mary Travers (Christine Ebersole) pitches an album of altered 60s hits for the flower child that ditched peace and love for materialism and stock options.
-This was written by Joe Bodolai and is a companion piece to Jesus In Blue Jeans from the James Coburn show back in February.  I have to say the earlier one was a better piece overall, but the audience response to this was strong, and it had some amusing song titles just like the other one (I like “Why Don’t We Do It In The Bank?”)
-The audience really loved “If I Had A Valium”.
-I guess this sketch falls under “it’s funny because it’s true”.  As Patti Smith once lamented, “My generation, we had dreams, we had dreams man and we fuckin created George Bush!”
***

SKETCH: EGG & SPERM
-After a woman’s (Christine Ebersole) bad one-night stand, one of her partner’s sperm (Tim Kazurinsky) tries to pick up her egg (Mary Gross) in her uterus.
-A weaker sketch.  I kind of felt that the whole thing played as too cutesy with the wordplay about “Labor Day”.  There were still some amusing moments like Gross asking Kazurinsky “Who the hell are you?” when he entered and disgustedly pointing out he was “nothing but…sperm!”
-The highlight was Kazurinsky realizing another particularly drunk sperm (played by Tony Rosato) was not from his own group and then yelling upward “You slut!” towards Ebersole.
-Robert Culp only makes a brief appearance at the beginning but he still seemed very nervous in the sketch.
-Brian Doyle-Murray appears at the end wearing a very thick wig…I wonder why they didn’t use his normal hair this time?  He usually did when he was playing nondescript small roles like this one.
**

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “STILL IN SAIGON”
-Robert Culp introduces The Charlie Daniels Band holding a frightened baby wearing a “Greatest American Hero” outfit.
-This song is about a Vietnam veteran with PTSD, one of a few songs that started coming out at that time when the plight of the Vietnam veteran was becoming well-known.  Stevie Wonder’s “Front Line” and Billy Joel’s “Goodnight Saigon” came out that same year.  Good performance, seems a little more rockish for Daniels.

SNL NEWSBREAK WITH MARY GROSS, CHRISTINE EBERSOLE AND BRIAN DOYLE-MURRAY: COMMENTARY BY TIM KAZURINSKY AND EDDIE MURPHY, SATURDAY NIGHT SPORTS WITH JOE PISCOPO
-Best jokes: White House set their clocks to 1932.
-Another overlong SNL Newsbreak segment (15 minutes) with another long photo-montage, this week about the length of time the Royal Navy took when going from Portsmouth, England to the Falkland Islands.  There were a few funny pictures (they gay pride parade shot being used for the crowd) but the audience tired of this fast, and it’s becoming obvious how much of a crutch these bits are.
-The Royal Navy bit was four minutes when combined with the portion where Brian Doyle-Murray draws the navy route on the map, spelling “slow” in cursive handwriting.  I could see where this was going fast.
-The jokes this week were also considerably weak, with a terrible joke about the city of Stanley changing its name to Puerto Argentino, leading to a bad Laurel & Hardy joke.  Several other jokes died hard.  Thank goodness for the commentaries.
-Tim Kazurinsky’s commentary about the baby boomers giving their kids “jerky” names was pretty amusing, particularly when he got to the fake “real” names for Ricardo Montalban and Ronald “Ebeneezer Pennypincher” Reagan.
-Mary Gross’ dash from ABC to CBS when she realizes she’s reporting from the wrong network was amusing as well, and a break from overusing Akira Yoshimura.
-Joe Piscopo has a merely OK Saturday Night Sports about George Steinbrenner trading away the Yankees’ best players.  The audience loved it as usual.
-Related to an item on NASA launching their first black astronaut in space and mentioning a racist backstage joke, Eddie Murphy comments on how the resemblance between black people and monkeys is a myth, giving different examples and even bringing out a hirsute crew member (actually writer Barry W. Blaustein) and comparing body hair.  This was quite funny, and the best commentary of the night.
**

SKETCH: PARTY GIRL
-Two out-of-towners (Brian Doyle-Murray and Joe Piscopo) take the porter’s (Eddie Murphy) suggestion to hire a “party girl” while attending a dental convention, but Mavis (Robin Duke) has a different idea of what kind of party they want.
-The audience wasn’t really into this, but I thought it was a funny enough sketch, carried by a good performance by Duke in her only appearance tonight.  Piscopo was also amusing as the guy who seemed to be enjoying himself, and Eddie Murphy steals his scenes as the porter, giving his character a kind of nasal older-guy voice.
-The bit where Duke’s character has Piscopo and Doyle-Murray chasing her to pin the tail on her and they end up in each others arms reminds me of something they did with the Roxbury guys in the 90s.  Piscopo can be seen sticking his tongue out!
-This sketch uses the same bedroom set as Sperm & Egg, and a boom shadow is visible at the very beginning.
***

COMMERCIAL: JAMES BROWN IS ANNIE
-The Godfather Of Soul, James Brown (Eddie Murphy) brings his own style to the title role of the musical.
-The best segment of the entire show, with Eddie Murphy doing his classic James Brown impression with the added visual of him wearing a red wig and dress.
-This is very similar to James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub, performed a year and a half later; his “Tomorrow” is basically the same music and rhythm as the Hot Tub song.  Hot Tub was a more fully fleshed out idea so I would have to say that was the better sketch, but this was very good, and I especially liked that they worked Brown’s cape act into it.
****

FILM: “BABIES IN MAKEUP” [RERUN FROM 01/23/82]
-Mary Gross introduces an encore presentation of the film by mentioning the hate mail they got over it the first time it aired in January, adding “Hope you get it this time.”

COMMERCIAL: HAPPY’S MAYONNAISE PALACE
-Happy (Eddie Murphy) advertises all-mayonnaise dessert treats at his Carvel-esque parlor.
-Another Eddie Murphy solo showcase.  This one was written by Mark O’Donnell according to the music publishing database.
-This was more silly and fun than outright funny, but I did like Murphy slowly changing his voice into the high-pitched screechy “Aunt Jollity” voice and the camera switching back to Murphy before he was finished his “uncle’s” spiel.  Eddie also breaks character a little bit after the “Aunt Jollity” routine.
-For some reason, the graphic of “Maynard the Clown” cracks me up.
***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA”
-Another good performance.  I have a feeling most of SNL’s viewers wouldn’t care about another song off of Daniels’ then-new album so it’s appropriate they played their big hit tonight.
-That has got to be the highest number of giant hats and beards ever on stage for an SNL musical performance.

SKETCH: SUNKEN SUBMARINE
-Business as usual for the crew of the U.S.S. Cunningham, still stuck on the ocean floor with the life support systems intact for 19 years.
-My God, I hate this sketch.  Hate. Hate. Hate this sketch.  This is definitely the season’s low point and has got to be one of the five worst SNL sketches of all time.  Not only is it incredibly long (over 10 minutes), meandering and pointless, but there are also very long stretches where the audience is dead and for the most part the most they even give is a light chuckle.
-What’s amazing is how many jokes and gags really fall flat, from the wearing of the ship’s dress, to Kazurinsky’s character playing with string, to the command being misinterpreted, to Culp telling Rosato to call him skipper instead of captain.  I still have no idea whether Neil Levy pretending to be a dog or Culp eating a bowl of mush without a spoon was supposed to be funny.
-I did get a couple of mild chuckles from a few moments, like Culp saying “Damn! Same as yesterday!” when told the coordinates of their sub, and the AWOL ensign actually have being retired in one of the torpedo tubes.  Eddie Murphy also got the best reaction in the sketch when he yelled “Put your leg down!” at Levy’s character.  The difference in reaction between that and the rest of the sketch really illustrates what a giant bomb this sketch was.
-Evidently the producers could tell this sketch died, because they moved it to the end of the show in the rerun.  I’d call it a 10-to-1 sketch but because this was so incredibly long and the goodnights were also extended, this actually began at about 17-to-1.
-I can’t make out who most of the non-cast in this sketch are.  I think Nate Herman’s in the back; I’m not sure.
*

GOODNIGHTS
-Robert Culp kills time by trying more stand-up jokes.   Eddie Murphy gives him advice on delivery and demonstrates how Bill Cosby would tell the same jokes as the show closes.
-According to the credits, Paul Shaffer was sitting in with the SNL Band that week.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
A weaker episode, weighed down especially by the outstandingly shitty sunken submarine sketch, a below-average SNL Newsbreak, a lack of outstanding material except for “James Brown is Annie”.  This week’s show had a generally tired aura to it, relying on a rewrite of a commercial from February and the rebroadcast of a film from January.  Robert Culp didn’t seem to help matters much; he came across as an ill fit with the show pretty much all night and seemed nervous at times.  Most of the strong moments belonged to Eddie Murphy who had two solo showcases tonight, and it’s becoming obvious he is the fan favorite.   One thing I can’t fault the show for this year, though, is the musical guest selection.  It’s not quite as cutting edge or filled with big names as the original era, nor as avant-garde as 1980-81, but for the most part they’ve been solidly entertaining and Charlie Daniels Band was no exception.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-James Brown Is Annie

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-Sunken Submarine
-Monologue
-SNL Newsbreak except for the commentaries
-Egg & Sperm

MVP:
Eddie Murphy

CAST & GUEST RUNDOWN:
cast
Robin Duke: 1 appearance [Party Girl]
Christine Ebersole: 3 appearances [Middle Age Of Aquarius, Egg & Sperm, SNL Newsbreak]
Mary Gross: 2 appearances [Egg & Sperm, SNL Newsbreak]
Tim Kazurinsky: 4 appearances [Tennis Club, Egg & Sperm, SNL Newsbreak, Sunken Submarine]
Eddie Murphy: 6 appearances [Tennis Club, SNL Newsbreak, Party Girl, James Brown Is Annie, Happy's Mayonnaise Palace, Sunken Submarine]
Joe Piscopo: 3 appearances [Tennis Club, SNL Newsbreak, Party Girl]
Tony Rosato: 2 appearances [Egg & Sperm, Sunken Submarine]
featured players:
Brian Doyle-Murray: 4 apperances [Egg & Sperm, SNL Newsbreak, Party Girl, Sunken Submarine]
non-cast:
Barry W. Blaustein: 1 appearance [SNL Newsbreak]
Ronnie Cuber: 1 appearance [James Brown Is Annie]
Lawrence Feldman: 1 appearance [James Brown Is Annie]
Neil Jason: 1 appearance [James Brown Is Annie]
Neil Levy: 2 appearances [Tennis Club, Sunken Submarine]
Tom Malone: 1 appearance [James Brown Is Annie]
Lou Marini: 1 appearance [James Brown Is Annie]
Alan P. Rubin: 1 appearance [James Brown Is Annie]
David Spinozza: 1 appearance [James Brown Is Annie]
guests:
Robert Culp: 4 appearances [Tennis Club, Monologue, Egg & Sperm, Sunken Submarine]
The Charlie Daniels Band: 2 appearances ["Still In Saigon", "The Devil Went Down To Georgia"]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
August 7, 1982

Additional screen captures not posted above are available here.