I thought I’d try to get a few more names to faces here:
Burl Ives Fan: This extra has a small speaking role at the end of “Viewer Letter” in the Robert Blake show (Eddie Murphy dispelling that he hates white people like his Tyrone Green character).
Hallway Blondes: Right at the beginning of the Drew Barrymore show, these two extras get a few seconds of airtime before Brad Hall and Joe Piscopo enter the scene.
Garage Band drummer: The bearded guy. (Hey Late Show fans, that’s Tom “Bones” Malone with the bass!) [Addendum: Identified! He's Malone's personal assistant Barry Nicholls]
Guest singers, 11/05/88: The SNL Band would occasionally have a guest musician sitting in with them, and normally they would be acknowledged during the goodnights, or at least credited with the SNL Band personnel. I’ve been trying to identify them for a long time now.
I’ll be getting to the rest of the 1981-82 shows shortly (sorry, behind schedule) but I thought I’d post a poll as to which season of SNL I should review next. I’m probably going to stick to the 1980s for now just out of personal preference but if you want to have a write-in, leave a comment.
I’m also posting an appeal here. I do have practically every SNL ever made in some form or another but a lot of these episodes are the repeat versions: some of them are missing sketches that aired in the live show, while others may not be missing material but have some audience sweetening, dress rehearsal versions of sketches or music performances, fixed mistakes and dead seconds removed. I’ve been able to track down some original broadcast recordings of many older episodes, but there are still many holes I want to get rid of. I’m going to list a few specific episodes and why I’m looking for them:
November 13, 1982: Robert Blake / Kenny Loggins I have a repeat version of this episode, which has a lot of material that was added from other shows to fill time for cut segments. I know they removed a Little House On The Prairie spoof as well as the segment where then-producer Dick Ebersol explains why Andy Kaufman was cut from the show the last week (and says that he’s no longer funny). There is also a small edit during one of the Weekend Update commentaries as well.
December 3, 1983: The Smothers Brothers / Big Country The repeat version is missing the “Know Your Neighbor” sketch (Jim Belushi mocks Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ description of Hanukkah traditions) as well as a musical interlude with the Smothers Brothers performing a piece called “Fantasy for Auto Horn and Electronic Pulse In D Minor”. ”Know Your Neighbor” actually does turn up in the 60-minute cut-down version of the show, but if someone has a complete live show that would be great.
December 10, 1983: Flip Wilson / Stevie Nicks The repeat version is missing “Older Sisters Of The Young”, starring Mary Gross and mocking Mary Tyler Moore’s relationship with a much younger man. There are also a few censored lines and edits in the rerun but I believe the 60-minute cut-down has them unedited. I would prefer the full live show as well.
January 28, 1984: Don Rickles / Billy Idol The repeat version is missing the promo for the David Letterman 2nd Anniversary special with Joe Piscopo as Dave and Mary Gross as Pee-Wee Herman; apparently Brad Hall is also in this sketch.
May 12, 1984: 5 Hosts (Billy Crystal, Betty Thomas, Ed Koch, Father Guido Sarducci, Edwin Newman) / The Cars I have a live broadcast but it is incomplete; unfortunately the sketch that was taken out of reruns (“Top Of The Sushi”, about Godzilla terrorizing a Japanese restaurant) is mostly cut out of my recording.
October 20, 1984: Jesse Jackson / Andrae Crouch & Wintley Phipps There is a segment in the live show where Jesse Jackson asks why there aren’t any black people on SNL and asks minority America to help it become more integrated. This is not in the repeat version of the show.
December 1, 1984: Ed Begley, Jr. / Billy Squier The repeat version adds a “special appearance by Eddie Murphy” (really just a segment from the previous year added to the reruns that were prepared during a writer’s strike). Unfortunately, to make room they cut the one sketch Larry David managed to get on air during his one year at SNL, a ten-to-one sketch with an architect and a client arguing over whether there should be a stool in the elevator for the operator (Christopher Guest). The plot did get lifted for a Seinfeld episode but I’ve never seen the actual SNL sketch.
December 8, 1984: Ringo Starr / Herbie Hancock Another writer’s strike rerun with “a special appearance by Eddie Murphy”, but also with a number of other older non-Murphy sketches such as “Crazy Weinstein”, “4 Minutes To Live”, and “Reach Out and Touch Someone”. They cut Massacre On 34th Street, a rerun of the Texxon ad and Herbie Hancock’s first performance (“Junku”; the rerun splices Ringo’s introduction onto “Rockit”) but those segments are in the 60-minute cut-down. The other missing segment is a job interview sketch with Jim Belushi and Christopher Guest.
December 14, 1985: Tom Hanks / Sade The repeat version is missing a sketch with Nora Dunn and Joan Cusack as two mothers taking a break from Christmas shopping and adds “Critic” from the premiere. There is likely some audience sweetening through the entire episode as well.
January 25, 1986: Dudley Moore / Al Green The repeat version is missing “Miss Pregnant Teenage America” with Danitra Vance as her Cabrini Green Jackson character and Dudley Moore as Roman Polanski and adds “Big Ball Of Sports” from the Harry Dean Stanton episode. I believe “Just Like Phoebe” was only added to the repeat from the dress rehearsal, I’m not sure.
April 19, 1986: Tony Danza / Laurie Anderson The repeat version is missing a spoof of the AT&T commercials with Cliff Robertson (Randy Quaid), where Cliff destroys his phone in a fit of rage after not getting a part.
November 8, 1986: Rosanna Arquette / Ric Ocasek The repeat version is missing a film called “Pango: Giant Dog of Tokyo” and replaces it with Jim Jarmusch’s “Coffee and Cigarettes” starring Roberto Benigni and Steven Wright.
Also interested in: -Live broadcasts of any show before 1987 or between 1991-93, preferably with ads intact. I do have a number but I am especially interested in 1985-86 episodes considering that was a season with a lot of audience sweetening for the reruns. For a specific list please contact me by email (as listed on my ‘About’ page).
