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 14, 1981: Deborah Harry / Funky 4 + 1 (S06E10)

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

OPENING: SINATRA INTERVIEW
-Ronald Reagan (Charles Rocket) discusses the most pressing issue in America today: is Frank Sinatra (Joe Piscopo) a hoodlum?
-A weak opening hampered by a fairly obvious joke (Reagan naming the mobster, then giving the nickname).  At least Piscopo’s Sinatra impression is better than Rocket’s Reagan.
-The ending with Sinatra getting Reagan to pose with him and a bunch of mobsters (one played by Dom Irrera) was unnecessary.
*1/2

MONOLOGUE
-Deborah Harry introduces her blonde-wigged parents, and celebrates Valentine’s Day by having Cupid (Eddie Murphy) shoot an obnoxious audience member (Neil Levy).
-This was fast-moving enough to prevent it from overstaying its welcome, even if there really wasn’t that much to it.  It’s worth it to see Eddie Murphy in the costume, though.
-The “parents” are the same older extras I’ve been seeing all season.
**

COMMERCIAL: DON’T LOOK IN THE REFRIGERATOR
-The horror that awaits when you return from a month-long vacation and want a snack…
-This feels like something that would have been on a kid’s show, not SNL.  Mercifully short, though.
*

SKETCH: LIVELYS II
-Phil (Charles Rocket) and Frances (Gail Matthius) keep the game show going with a nursing home representative (Ann Risley).
-Aside from the choice of having Don Pardo playing Dad, this was an unnecessary retread of the sketch from the Karen Black show, with many of the basic jokes repeated instead of built on; it reminds me of all the recurring sketches from the last few years that just use the same beats with very minor variations.
-While the audience is a bit more tepid, I did laugh a little at “Back to you, Beverly!”, and the audience still liked Matthius making the buzzer noise in Risley’s face.  I actually though Risley did alright in the straight role.
**1/2

MISCELLANEOUS: NEWSBREAK I
-Eddie Murphy reports on Jean Harris, the Las Vegas Hotel Fires and a suspicious order to a Soviet “Chicken Delight” restaurant from Poland.
-This was alright, even if its main purpose was to set up a runner for tonight’s episode.  Eddie Murphy seems a little uncomfortable here, but no worse than the Rocket / Matthius Weekend Update Team.
**1/2

SKETCH: WHERE’S COOTER?
-The ordinary and repetitive existence of Cooter (Gilbert Gottfried) hillbilly family is deemed a one-act play by the Tennessee Williams Authority.
-The main thing that this has going for it is the twist where Matthew Laurance appears as the Authority representative, because the part before that was very repetitive and tedious.  At least Gottfried does a good bumpkin voice, and things picked up a little when Matthius ran in as Raylene (whose stretches on the “mmmmmmmmmama” line seem to be getting bigger as the sketch goes on).  I thought Rocket was playing too big to the point of distraction.
-In the audience watching the family as a one-act play: Yvonne Hudson, Wendie Malick, Andy Murphy and the older couple from the monologue.
**

FILM: THE ROCKET REPORT – CENTRAL PARK
-Charles Rocket looks for danger in the park’s trails, tunnels and playgrounds.
-Again, a weaker Rocket Report; not very much interruption or interaction with people (except from a distance).  Probably the weakest one overall.
-The audience laughed loud at Rocket slipping and falling when he runs away from a jogger, and at least the unexpected slide gave Rocket a few impromptu comments.
**

SKETCH: CARD STORE
-Jersey guy Paulie Herman (Joe Piscopo) meets his female counterpart (Deborah Harry) while browsing for cards.
-A little predictable, and again still not my favorite character, but Harry gave a good effort (the audience seemed to like her approximation of Piscopo’s nasal Jersey whine) and it ended at exactly the right point.
-Hudson appears as an extra at the very beginning of the sketch, again with no lines.  She has not had a single line in a sketch since the Karen Black show.  I’m not sure who the other two people looking at cards are.
***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “LOVE TKO” – DEBORAH HARRY
-Harry covers Teddy Pendergrass’ signature song; I always liked her version in this show (with a bit of a reggae tinge to the verses), especially the organ/bass sound during the choruses.
-Personnel: Chris Stein (guitar), Georg Wadenius (guitar), Lou Marini (sax), Leon Pendarvis (piano), Chris Palmaro (organ), Marcus Miller (bass), Buddy Williams (drums), Errol “Crusher’ Bennett (percussion), Janice Pendarvis (backing vocals)

WEEKEND UPDATE: WITH CHARLES ROCKET & GAIL MATTHIUS
-Best joke: Michael Reagan.
-Rocket’s decline in delivery is really apparent now, with the most egregious example being the first joke: not only was it a horrible joke to begin with, Rocket’s desk slap afterward really comes off as a panicky and desperate move.  Matthius is mostly given crap to read, but her delivery seems to be getting better this week.
-Who is that in the picture being described as the agent who issued Sinatra his gaming license?
-Gottfried’s commentary as “Reagan philosopher” Atkinson Peabody III about how there aren’t any poor people in America wasn’t bad.  It might have felt a little exaggerated back then, but now sounds like something you’d expect to hear for real on Fox News now.
-Rocket was really overdoing it on the reveal of the Polish invasion of the Soviet Union; the interview with the Polish ambassador (Andy Murphy) had a few funny lines but the pacing felt off.
-After a mistaken throwback to Matthius, Rocket introduces Piscopo who has puppeteer Marc Weiner back.  The audience liked the Weindulah rap (who was doing the voice) but I thought this was a bit weaker than the first Weiner segment because it didn’t really have all that much to it besides the puppet “dancing” and rapping.
*1/2

SKETCH: BIG BROTHER
-The milquetoast dictator (Gilbert Gottfried) gets his courage together and asks prole Michelle (Deborah Harry) out.
-Best sketch of the night, with a good concept and funny dialogue (especially Melvin/Big Brother saying he’d feel like a schlep if  he still had to address Michelle every morning even after she turned him down), and helped by having a strong ending (Melvin deciding Michelle is too easy after she accepts and has her reprogrammed).
-Gottfried does well although Harry has a little trouble with her lines.
-Written by Ferris Butler, with assistance from Gilbert Gottfried.  Music during the wake-up sequence: Petrushka, Scene I (The Shrovetide Fair) by Igor Stavinsky.
***1/2

FILM: “SWEET HEARTS” – LEON ICHASO
-In a foreign/gangster movie pastiche, robbers Swifty (Kenny Vance), Vinnie (Matthew Laurance) and their female ringleader successfully steal women’s undergarments from a laundromat, but turn on each other after a discovery.
-Aesthetically this was pretty well done; not really funny but more along the lines of Schiller’s pieces for the show.  I liked this a bit more than Ichaso’s other piece for the show (Pepe Gonzales).
-Any idea who’s playing the ringleader?  It doesn’t look like anyone in the cast or Harry.
***

SKETCH: SOHO
-Susan (Deborah Harry) tries to come out subtly during a surprise visit from her aunt and uncle, Pinky (Denny Dillon) and Leo Waxman (Gilbert Gottfried).
-I always liked this one; a very low-key sketch that wouldn’t have felt out of place in the earlier seasons, and a nice way to get the Waxmans (who get some recognition applause) into a new context.
-I noticed a few audience members laughed nervously when Harry tells Matthius that she loves her.  Just found that interesting.
-Check out the audience at the end; in the row behind the audience member that gets the caption, you can clearly see Glenn Close.
***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “COME BACK JONEE” – DEBORAH HARRY
-A Devo cover; same personnel as before except Clem Burke on drums instead of Williams, no Marini or Bennett, and only the female backup singers this time.  Stein is wearing a pink mask.
-Georg Wadenius and Marcus Miller are really playing the hell out of their instruments.  Chris Palmaro seems quite into it too (rocking on his organ bench).

MISCELLANEOUS: NEWSBREAK
-Eddie Murphy gives an update on the Polish invasion of the Soviet Union.
-Murphy actually has a bit of a rougher go here; he really starts to stumble on his lines about halfway through the bit.   He seems a little less confident here too.  Aside from the monologue, the two Newsbreak segments were the only things he appeared in all show.
-The filmed vox pops were the best part, with one passerby commenting about how it’s about time someone stood up to Russia.
-The runner ends with the Polish army turning toward the Arctic circle and all marching into the sea.  I give the show credit for trying a running joke throughout the show but it felt like there should have been more done with this for it to work.
**1/2

SKETCH: BIG APE
-Faye’s (Deborah Harry) comment to her date (Joe Piscopo) leads to a chain of events right out of “King Kong”.
-Not very much to it.  The sketch seems to be written as an excuse for Piscopo to do his King Kong impression, which was somewhat funny.
-Harry’s delivery was off again, although I did like how she delivered “your bullets have killed my date!” in a mildly annoyed tone.  Something about that stuck me as funny.
-Who’s the other cop shooting at Piscopo with Gottfried?  He has a mustache and doesn’t look like anyone in the cast.
**1/2

SKETCH: DROPOUT
-Vickie (Gail Matthius) tries to impress dropout Tina (Deborah Harry).
-Matthius did her best, and it was good to see her continue to put the character in new situations, but overall this was fairly forgettable.
**
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “THAT’S THE JOINT” – FUNKY 4 + 1
-Notable for the historic importance of being the first rap act to appear on a national television act.
-This is just the first two minutes of the song with them rapping as a group; the individual raps on the 12″ are a better example of their ability.

GOODNIGHTS
-Some people on the stage are waving Japanese flags (both the state flag and the Rising Sun), and someone is dressed in military garb.  I assume that must have been a sketch cut from the show.
-Gilbert Gottfried is now starting to dress like Charles Rocket.
-Don Pardo announces next weeks guests Charlene Tilton and Todd Rundgren and reminds the audience that there is eight days until his birthday, but begs “please, no more toasters!”

Final summary:
Most of the show fell in the “forgettable” category more than truly wretched, with the possible exception of Weekend Update (slipping even further), the weak cold opening, and the dumb “Refrigerator” commercial.  There were still a few bright spots, especially in the segments right after Weekend Update, and a few twists that helped some otherwise weak sketches.  Deborah Harry may not have been the best at sketch comedy but she seemed to try to put an effort in places, and is more engaged than Kellerman was at least.  Still, her best performances were the two covers she performed with Chris Stein, Clem Burke and the SNL band.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-Big Brother

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-Don’t Look In The Refrigerator
-Weekend Update
-Sinatra Interview
-Where’s Cooter
-Dropout
-The Rocket Report

MVP:
Deborah Harry / Gail Matthius

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:
cast
Denny Dillon: 3 appearances [Where's Cooter?, SoHo, Dropout]
Gilbert Gottfried: 5 appearances [Where's Cooter?, Weekend Update, Big Brother, SoHo, Big Ape]
Gail Matthius: 5 appearances [Livelys II, Where's Cooter?, Weekend Update, SoHo, Dropout], 1 voiceover [Big Brother]
Eddie Murphy: 3 appearances [Monologue, Newsbreak I, Newsbreak II]
Joe Piscopo: 4 appearances [Sinatra Interview, Card Store, Weekend Update, Big Ape], 1 voiceover [Big Brother]
Ann Risley: 2 appearances [Livelys II, Where's Cooter?]
Charles Rocket: 5 appearances [Sinatra Interview, Livelys II, Where's Cooter?, The Rocket Report, Weekend Update], 1 voiceover [Don't Look In The Refrigerator]

featured players:
Yvonne Hudson: 2 appearances [Where's Cooter?, Card Store]
Matthew Laurance: 4 appearances [Sinatra Interview, Where's Cooter, Card Store, Sweet Hearts]
Patrick Weathers: 2 appearances [Sinatra Interview, Dropout]

non-cast:
Errol “Crusher” Bennett: 1 appearance ["Love TKO"]
Dom Irrera: 1 appearance [Sinatra Interview]
Neil Levy: 1 appearance [Monologue]
Wendie Malick: 1 appearance [Where's Cooter?]
Lou Marini: 1 appearance ["Love TKO"]
Marcus Miller: 2 appearances ["Love TKO", "Come Back Jonee"]
Andy Murphy: 2 appearances [Where's Cooter?, Weekend Update]
Chris Palmaro: 2 appearances ["Love TKO", "Come Back Jonee"]
Janice Pendarvis: 2 appearances ["Love TKO", Come Back Jonee"]
Leon Pendarvis: 2 appearances ["Love TKO", "Come Back Jonee"]
Kenny Vance: 1 appearance [Sweet Hearts]
Georg Wadenius: 2 appearances ["Love TKO", "Come Back Jonee"]
Buddy Williams: 1 appearance ["Love TKO"]

guests:
Deborah Harry: 9 appearances [Monologue, Don't Look In The Refrigerator, Card Store, "Love TKO", Big Brother, SoHo, "Come Back Jonee", Big Ape, Dropout]
Funky 4 + 1: 1 appearance ["That's The Joint"]
Clem Burke: 1 appearance ["Come Back Jonee"]
Chris Stein: 2 appearances ["Love TKO", "Come Back Jonee"]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
Not rebroadcast on NBC.

Additional screen captures from this episode can be seen 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.

SNL Season 7: Final cast and episode summary

The cast

(l to r) Mary Gross, Christine Ebersole, Robin Duke

Robin Duke: Despite a strong start, Duke seemed to have a slightly rougher go this year than her fellow female cast members for a couple of reasons.  She didn’t have the advantage that Mary Gross and Christine Ebersole had from anchoring SNL Newsbreak, where they would be allowed a) significant screen time and b) the privilege of appearing as “themselves” which makes it easier for the audience to connect to a performer.  She had a few shows where she was barely featured (James Coburn, Johnny Cash, Robert Culp) and also visibly missed a cue in a sketch.  Still, I find it hard not to root for her or enjoy her performances.  She reminds me quite a bit of either Cheri Oteri or Almost Live’s Nancy Guppy, two other sketch comedy performers of similar physical qualities and ability to pull off more manic and fearlessly abrasive characters.  Duke also does these small little details in sketches that really add to her enjoyability once you notice them (the change in vocal tone in The New Celibacy coming to mind).

Christine Ebersole: A one-seasoner who had some outstanding moments on the show (particularly musical numbers and the acting challenges of a Marilyn Suzanne Miller piece), and not having a bad performance anywhere.  Even her tenure on SNL Newsbreak was adequate at the very least.  Once the show started getting away from the musical numbers and the sadder slice-of-life material, Ebersole just seems to be a support player.  A very good one, mind you, but it felt like the changed creative direction of the show was selling her talents as a performer short.

Mary Gross: It seems Gross had the opposite year of Duke’s on some level because in her first few shows she still seems very green and her performances lack the confidence that the other two have, but she would quickly come into her own.  Towards the end they had her cast more successfully as a ditzy persona (add in a little bit of delusion and that is where Gross rocked), but I also felt that she really did well with sarcastic delivery, and they tapped into one of her other strengths the next year (manic mode, hints of which can be seen in the Blythe Danner monologue) when she would start rattling off the lists of things that piss her off.  She would grow into the most well-rounded female performer of the Ebersol era.

Tim Kazurinsky

Tim Kazurinsky: Kazurinsky seems the most likely of this cast to be able to mesh with one of the Lorne Michaels seasons’ casts, because there was a sarcasm and bite to some of his commentaries on SNL Newsbreak that was sorely lacking elsewhere.  Kazurinsky’s specialty is slightly weird, obnoxious characters (kind of like Robin Duke: they both also excel at old geezers), but can be a straight man and also benefits from being able to play off the other cast members’ reactions in a sketch (must be that Second City training).  ”I Married A Monkey” kind of had diminishing returns but Kazurinsky is the only one in the cast that could make that idea work because of this.

Eddie Murphy: The performer that shone brightest this year was undoubtedly Murphy, who the previous year had started off without any lines in his first show; the next season, he would lead off the first real sketch of the year and by the end of the season would be getting significantly more audience noise in the opening montage.   He may not have been an impressionist quite at the level of Piscopo, but Murphy could just appear on home base as himself and you would know something funny was going to happen.  He wasn’t quite at the level of fame as he would be at following 48 Hrs, and it is interesting seeing him playing support in a sketch alongside Robin Duke or Tim Kazurinsky.

Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo

Joe Piscopo:  Piscopo was dominant this season, largely benefiting from the recognition he received as a bright spot the previous season.  I would actually argue that Piscopo was a more dominant presence this season than Eddie Murphy: both were in a class of their own but Piscopo seemed more woven into the fabric of the cast at times.  Looking back, Piscopo was a good, if somewhat overrated performer: his solid Frank Sinatra and Saturday Night Sports were able to bring the audience to life, and he was a very effective sketch performer, but sometimes an impression would merely be passable and there are times when he wouldn’t necessarily be as funny as some of the lesser acknowledged cast members.  Still, 1981-82 was undoubtedly Joe Piscopo’s year as well as Eddie Murphy’s: a document of the time before Murphy would begin to eclipse him the next year.

Tony Rosato: Rosato ended up being the biggest surprise for me; his short tenure on the show in the time when SNL was “The Joe and Eddie Show” made it easy for me to overlook him, and I had written him off based on a few of his more cartoonish roles (usually as a wacky Italian but once as an Indian).  However, I found that he was solid in sketches and could do a wide variety of roles.  Late in the season I figured out he was 1981-82′s Jason Sudeikis: a confident performer who usually delivered whether it was carrying a sketch (Table Talk, The Vic Salukin Show) or in a support or bit part, faring best when he was either playing a gregarious sleaze or the reality anchor in a sketch.  Rosato was fired after this season reportedly because he was not one to shy from challenging Dick Ebersol, and never got his due as a cast member, but managed to keep busy as a supporting actor.  Sadly, he is more known in recent years for his mental health issues and a miscarriage of justice that led him to spend several years in prison.

Brian Doyle-Murray and Tony Rosato

Brian Doyle-Murray: Doyle-Murray has the reputation of being one of the weakest news segment anchors SNL has ever had, largely because SNL Newsbreak was nowhere as well-written as the best Weekend Updates, relying too much on lengthy crawls and photo montages to fill time.  His delivery was underwhelming but he served as an “anchor” for both the news and the show, but only really started appearing more prominently in sketches after the March hiatus (notable exception: the Bill Murray episode).   Not really a great cast member by any stretch (more of an ascended writer), he would do better as a character actor.

Strongest shows
Tim Curry / Meat Loaf & The Neverland Express: Tim Curry was by far the best host of the entire season and was able to bring the show up to a certain level just by showing up, but this show also shows a more confident cast and writing staff starting to emerge from the shadows of the original show and decide that they can come up with something just as good.  Even so, this is Curry’s show through and through from the Mick! variety special to the Zucchini Song.
Bill Murray / The Spinners, The Whiffenpoofs of Yale 1982: A little underwhelming considering who’s hosting, but Murray does bring a jolt of cheer to the show which overall was without any true bad sketches.  ”At Home With The Psychos” is O’Donoghue’s last attempt at asserting himself on the show, and while it was a compromised version, was a good sketch for the self-styled “Reich Marshall” to go out on.
Danny DeVito / Sparks: SNL gets itself a new “great host” after a year filled with more than a few bookings of questionable fit and relevance: Danny DeVito has the most enthusiasm of any host in a long time.  The show also has its best show after a few odd or lackluster outings and this feels like the hint of the what the show would become the next season.

Weakest shows
John Madden / Jennifer Holliday: Surprisingly, Madden wasn’t weighing down the show too much, and in fact provided the funniest moment all night with his locker room story.  This show just generally felt like they had lost a lot of their creative wind when Michael O’Donoghue was fired and had yet to regain their bearings.  Most of the material was forgettable at best (the surprisingly melancholy Solomon & Pudge and the recasting of Tom Snyder as kiddie-show host being the exceptions) and the cast seemed to be having a bad night as well.
Robert Conrad / The Allman Brothers Band: The first post-O’Donoghue show wasn’t much better than the second.  This benefits from having the meta-sketch about overexposed characters and an excuse to have Tony Rosato bring his Lou Costello out of mothballs, but there are a few reasons why this show was so weak.  First, Conrad was a bad host that was front and center in quite a few sketches.  Second, between a mess of a 10-minute sketch, a 12-minute sketch that didn’t quite justify the length, and three performances by the Allman Brothers Band (featuring Gregg in very rough shape), it was apparent that they were struggling to fill 66 minutes of airtime.  I’ve said this in my review too, but Conrad and the Allmans seem to be the kind of booking that cemented that SNL was no longer as cool as it was a few years before.
Donald Pleasence / Fear: I had to choose between this and Robert Culp as my third place choice.  Culp was more all-around mediocre and weighed down heavily by a long, terrible sketch, but this episode was more of a mess.  Yes, you had some daring moments such as the Vic Salukin Show (easily the most fucked up thing that made it to air that season), and it benefits from having Michael Davis make a return appearance, but Brian Doyle-Murray solo on Newsbreak is painful, Pleasence was easily a worse host than Culp, and the whole episode seemed disorganized and felt like an uneasy compromise between the kind of show O’Donoghue wanted to do and the kind of show Ebersol found acceptable.

Best sketches
Ebony & Ivory: Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy at the same level and the top of their respective games.  Deservedly a classic and one of the token Ebersol-era clips that always seem to make the compilation specials.  It mixes topicality with great impressions, but just feels like an inspired idea from the get go.  The execution couldn’t be better as well.
Mick!: A supersized sketch carried by Tim Curry’s impression of the Rolling Stones’ frontman, with significant screen time for a lot of the cast.  Eddie Murphy’s Buckwheat and Joe Piscopo’s Sinatra also drop by.
Tuna Melts & Typing / The Party (tie): Marilyn Suzanne Miller filled a niche in the show that really hasn’t been featured in the show in the last 25 years with her low-key, bittersweet one-act plays.  Her style would eventually be forced out of the show (she was gone by year’s end) but both these sketches have to be her work.  I couldn’t decide which was better: Tuna Melts & Typing creates two very real characters and is just a beautiful sketch all around, while The Party is a sketch that reveals itself halfway and has an excellent payoff.
Honorable mention: Any appearance by Michael Davis would usually end up being a highlight of the show he was featured in. 

Worst sketches
Sunken Submarine: Let me say once again that I hate this sketch, easily the biggest turd of the Ebersol era by a long shot.  The sketch has the lethal combination of a 10-minute-plus running time, a dead audience, an endless string of material that just fails and an atmosphere of desperation to be funny throughout.  Whatever the Doumanian eras’ weaknesses are, they never let a sketch bloat so long as this one did.  The set also didn’t seem to help matters, as the longer you spent time watching the sketch, the more you really wanted to get the hell off that sub and just drown already.
Wild Wild Wild West: Dreadful for a lot of the same reasons Sunken Submarine was: very long running time, an unresponsive audience, too many diverse elements that fail to combine into a cohesive whole (really, an atom bomb?).  Actually, come to think of it, both of them featured a lackluster host (I’d say Conrad was more painful to watch than Culp), and both had the main laughs come from Eddie Murphy.  It doesn’t help the women ended up playing prostitutes, the old cliché role for a woman in sketch comedy (at one point, Velvet Jones calls out “Sing, you hos!”  I wonder what was going through the female cast’s mind when they were doing this sketch).  This had a few more funny moments than Sunken Submarine (from Tony Rosato) and had an ambitiousness that was commendable, but overall, it just played as a mess onscreen.  
Mafia Name Giver: Aside from a few clever in-jokes mainly aimed at Second City fans and SNL buffs, I still can’t tell what the point of this sketch is.  Besides a general pointlessness to it, the sketch was weighed down by everyone just seeming off (Tim Kazurinsky speaking in an irritating high voice, Robin Duke actually blowing her cue in the live show).  It was down to this or “Papal Tour”, and while I find that 9-minute plus sketch painfully boring, it did have more coherent concept and a decent enough performance from Joe Piscopo.
Dishonorable mention: Andy Warhol’s TV: These weren’t long enough to make any significant dip in the quality of episodes but at best, they felt like hipster wanking, with the atmosphere of “Andy Warhol’s in it so it must be good” rather than actual entertainment value.  I have a feeling if Andy Warhol agreed to shoot one of him talking about his favorite pinecones while taking Number 2, it would have still made it on the air.

Best musical guests
Rick James & The Stone City Band: Before James’ behavior and legal problems made him a punchline, he was a hell of a performer.  His two numbers are some of the tightest, funkiest R&B the show’s ever had.
Jennifer Holliday: ”And I Am Telling You That I’m Not Going” ended up being a cockroach of a song that just. will. not. go. away (largely due to the prevalence of people thinking that singing that song automatically makes them a good singer) but you can’t deny that Holliday’s performance was not only the highlight of an otherwise bad show but of the season as well.
Luther Vandross: Two outstanding performances that demonstrate his full talent as a singer.

Worst musical guests
The Go-Go’s: The band’s playing seemed amateurish and sloppy.  Even Belinda Carlisle considers this the worst performance they ever did, largely because she admits to being very fucked up on coke and booze that night in her autobiography.
The Allman Brothers Band: A band long past their commercial decline at the time of their appearance, and despite a better than average second number, didn’t seem to be at their best that night.
Miles Davis: Just in comparison to some of the others, and largely because he himself seemed to be having an off night despite his sidemen doing well.  His rough physical shape made him saunter stiffly around the stage, and he had his back to the camera often.

Classic SNL Review: May 22, 1982: Olivia Newton-John / The SNL Band (S07E20)

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

OPENING: THE PIG MEETS OLIVIA
-Skanky Paulette Clooney (Robin Duke) runs into her idol Olivia Newton-John in the ladies’ room.
-My recording from Classic SNL starts a little late and I didn’t feel like digging the tape from the box, but what I saw was alright, if not anything great (I’m not big on “recurring SNL character meets celebrity playing themselves”), carried largely by Robin Duke, who provided the biggest laugh of the sketch by wiping her armpit with a piece of paper towel.  Her dancing as she left the left the restroom was also amusing.
-Nice bit of continuity with her mentioning Petey (Tim Kazurinsky’s character from the first “She’s A Pig”).
-They seemed to get a good bit of mileage out of Robin Duke’s waifish figure as this is the first sketch which makes reference to her small bust (which her character decides to enlarge via paper towel).
***

MONTAGE/TALENT ENTRANCE
-The SNL Band gets their only acknowledgment in the opening credits in the Ebersol era (they are credited as musical guest), which is their last montage mention until 1986, when G.E. Smith and the band would become more prominent in the show.  Paul Shaffer, Ray Chew, Joe Caro and Sammy Figuroa are not pictured but credited at the end.  For the purposes of the guest rundown I am including the SNL Band collectively as a “guest”.
-Michael Davis is referred to as “special host”.
-Mel Brandt announces Olivia and the cast of Saturday Night Live but the cast doesn’t post on-stage with her.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “PHYSICAL”
-Alright performance.  Olivia had good energy and it’s nice to see the whole SNL band on stage (with the horn section making a contribution to the chorus).  She also made use of the whole main stage set and went into the audience.  Still feels a little cheesy though, especially after all those great performances the show had this season.
-One observation: one of the male backup singers has a cast on his right arm.

COMMERCIAL: TRANS-EASTERN AIRLINES [RERUN FROM 11/07/81]

SKETCH: EBONY & IVORY
-Frank Sinatra (Joe Piscopo) and Stevie Wonder (Eddie Murphy) prepare to record a new “Ebony and Ivory” duet that’s more fitting with the former’s style.
-If there’s a reason to watch this episode, it’s definitely this sketch, an undisputed classic and one of the best examples of Piscopo and Murphy at their peak together, which wouldn’t be the same for long (see the goodnights).
-Piscopo also gets some recognition applause right at the beginning when he appears as Sinatra.
-The part where Sinatra and Wonder sing the new version together is the highlight, especially at the lines “You are blind as a bat and I have sight / Side by side you are my amigo, negro, let’s not fight!”
-There is a boom shadow visible in the first show; as well, this sketch continues the convention the show used to have about displaying the real time on any clocks on the set.
*****

SKETCH: I MARRIED A MONKEY IV
-Tim discovers his chimpanzee bride Madge is now a nun of the order of the Seventh Day Horizontalists.
-Kind of flat.  The main laughs in the sketch come from the monkeys antics (particularly Madge sucking the teapot spout before pouring some into the cup, and baby Ronnie sneaking onto the chair behind Tim and hopping onto the table), but it’s basically a retread of the other sketches.
**1/2

SKETCH: PEARLY GATES
-Adolf Hitler (Tim Kazurinsky) tries to get past St. Peter (Tony Rosato) by dressing as Mother Teresa, but The Colonel (Graham Chapman) thinks the whole thing’s too silly.
-Rosato is fine as usual in his straightman role, and I have to giggle a bit at the premise, but if they were going to use a Monty Python member, I still can’t help but think that it should have been a better sketch than this.  It kind of felt like a copy of “Endings” from Chevy Chases’ ’78 show (it doesn’t help that both involved a Twilight Zone cutaway) and it felt like a wasted opportunity.
**1/2

COMMERCIAL: NOT A RECORD AD
-Whatever this product is, it’s amazing, but it’s not a record.
-Fillerish but it does have some funny non-sequiturs (particularly the dilemma of Tony Orlando rearranging your furniture and animals billing you for long distance calls).
***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “MAKE A MOVE ON ME”
-I liked this song a bit better than the first number.

SNL NEWSBREAK WITH MARY GROSS, CHRISTINE EBERSOLE AND BRIAN DOYLE-MURRAY: COMMENTARY BY GRAHAM CHAPMAN, TIM KAZURINSKY, OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN AND EDDIE MURPHY, SATURDAY NIGHT SPORTS WITH JOE PISCOPO
-Best joke: Sex without partners on the QE2, Nancy Reagan’s family
-After last week’s shorter installment, this week’s Newsbreak is back to 15 minutes long.
-Mary Gross and Akira Yoshimura are back for a segment in which Mary found “Arnold Schwarzenegger” outside a bar in the East Village called the Anvil.  I think this might be my favorite of the Mary/Akira pairings just for the fact that not only does Akira not look/sound anything like Arnold (or make any attempt to for that matter), he’s also wearing the Conan the Barbarian outfit which for some reason makes him look so much funnier.
-after airing a banned ad for The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball which ends with him revealing he’s wearing a tutu and garter belt, Chapman apologizes for any desecration of the US Flag or mocking of the Moral Majority.  Chapman only got mild applause when he is introduced and the end where he stands up and reveals a garter and an American flag Speedo (shades of Show Your Patriotism?) felt a little predictable.  Brian Doyle-Murray gets one up on him for wearing a garter and tutu himself as he gets up to shake his hand.
-Tim Kazurinsky comments on the glut of self-help books flooding the market.  It felt like a warm-up for some of Kazurinsky’s other commentaries, namely his Salute To Journalism feature and a few other book reviews where he uses that same sarcastic tone.  There are some good lines, particularly Kazurinsky’s assertion that Dr. Wayne W. Dyer looks like he “pulls his own string”.  He also ends with probably one of the more directly angry lines on the show about how these books sell so many copies while small-minded towns burn The Catcher In The Rye.
-Next is the return of SNL Newsbreak’s favorite crutch in the last third of the season, the photo montage, this one being two minutes devoted to Sophia Loren in prison for tax evasion, using stills from her previous film roles.  Whatever chuckles coming from the audience there were, they seemed to die off pretty fast.  Brian Doyle-Murray gets a good line at the end about how European values have stars thrown in jail while Americans put stars in the White House.
-Olivia Newton-John gives a commentary about Secretary of the Interior James Watt, listing his ethical issues as well as his callous disregard for the environment.  This segment was too straight and too earnest to really be funny.  It would fit in as a cold opening for the show in 2010-11.
-Joe Piscopo raises the energy level with his final Saturday Night Sports for the year, turning more into a prop comic while displaying potential new athlete-endorsed products.  Best one: Secretariat for ballpark franks.  Piscopo also ends the segment with a pull-string doll saying his catchphrase and gets a few laughs by pushing the doll into Brian Doyle-Murray’s face.
-Eddie Murphy gets the highlight of the week’s Newsbreak with his commentary about prom night and that fathers shouldn’t fool themselves into thinking their daughters won’t be having sex because “everybody gets it on prom night”.
**

GUEST PERFORMANCE: MICHAEL DAVIS
-Davis demonstrates his oral juggling abilities by sucking and spitting ping-pong balls and hard-boiled eggs.
-Davis cartwheels onto the stage and is funny, engaging and impressive as usual.
-Best joke: “If I were to swallow this ball…it would hurt.  (pause) Twice.”
****

SKETCH: BUZZ WORDS
-Businessmen (Tim Kazurinsky, Joe Piscopo, and Eddie Murphy) communicate in corporate-speak but when one is fired, he can’t comprehend the others’ euphemisms
-The show slips quality-wise with this not particularly funny sketch, which suffers also from a largely dead audience.  Lame punchline too.
-Eddie Murphy finally realizing that he’s fired and yelling at his co-workers was the only highlight, particularly his switch from his angry bellow to his “normal” voice.
**

SKETCH: SANDY’S CURSE
-Geeky Rydell High students Norma (Mary Gross) and Kathy (Robin Duke) don’t exist in the same social strata as Sandy (Olivia Newton-John), Rizzo (Christine Ebersole), Danny (Tony Rosato) and Kenickie (Brian Doyle-Murray).
-Interesting idea and I thought Robin Duke and especially Mary Gross did a good job here (watch Gross’s gestures and facial expressions during  the “Grow boobs grow” chant).
-Olivia Newton-John didn’t really add much aside from just showing up and Brian Doyle-Murray as Kenickie seemed more funny just because the man always comes across as middle-aged this season even if he’s not trying to be.  He always looked old for his age, which is even more obvious when you realize Seth Meyers is now older than he was back then.
-More flat-chest jokes at Duke’s character’s expense.  As well, I can’t believe they actually used the word “retard” in this sketch, coming from Mary Gross’ mouth no less.
***

COMMERCIAL: SPORTS ORGAN CLASSICS
-Bring the excitement of the ballpark back to your living room with a songbook of Sports Organ Classics.
-Another meh sketch.  Tony Rosato’s exaggerated facial expressions when he was playing the organ were funny as well as him playing “Hava Nagilah” when “the Blausteins from next door” arrive (an obvious joke, yes).   Otherwise, it feels like they didn’t have enough material for the whole show (exhaustion perhaps) and they came up with this in five minutes.
-I’ve heard from someone that the young man on the far right watching the game is John Murray, younger brother of Bill and Brian.
**

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “LANDSLIDE”
-Christine Ebersole, Mary Gross and Robin Duke introduce Olivia by each saying a part of her name.
-This was the weakest of the performances.
-The percussionist playing the timpani is Ray Chew, who is now the music director for American Idol.

COMMERCIAL: THE CLAMS [repeat from 10/03/81]

GOODNIGHTS
-Joe Piscopo mentions that Eddie Murphy’s going to be filming a movie with Nick Nolte that summer; during the credits, still images show highlights from the season just concluded.
-Of course, we all know what movie Eddie Murphy was filming, and by the time the show returned in the fall, he would cement his position as the dominant cast member.
-Tony Rosato can be heard yelling “How ’bout that band, huh?”
-Going by the still photos, the producers must have been especially proud of the Daniel J. Travanti, Blythe Danner, Bill Murray and Tim Curry shows, but there were also a few shots from John Madden and one of Robert Conrad.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Aside from the classic Ebony & Ivory sketch and a great as usual performance by Michael Davis, this episode is a bit of an anticlimax like most SNL season finales are.  Olivia Newton-John didn’t really contribute a whole lot to the show besides three okay music performances, and Graham Chapman’s appearance was a little disappointing.  The last half of the show also gets weighed down by weaker material and while nothing is truly awful (even the weak sketches are over with quickly), it’s a largely forgettable show that gets boosted by one very good sketch.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
-Ebony & Ivory
-Michael Davis

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS
-SNL Newsbreak aside from Eddie Murphy
-Buzz Words
-Sports Organ Classics

MVP
Eddie Murphy & Joe Piscopo

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN
cast
Robin Duke: 2 appearances [The Pig Meets Olivia, Sandy's Curse]
Christine Ebersole: 2 appearances [SNL Newsbreak, Sandy's Curse]
Mary Gross: 4 appearances [I Married A Monkey, Pearly Gates, SNL Newsbreak, Sandy's Curse]
Tim Kazurinsky: 5 appearances [Ebony & Ivory, I Married A Monkey, Pearly Gates, SNL Newsbreak, Buzz Words]
Eddie Murphy: 3 appearances [Ebony & Ivory, SNL Newsbreak, Buzz Words]
Joe Piscopo: 5 appearances [Ebony & Ivory, Pearly Gates, SNL Newsbreak, Buzz Words, Sports Organ Classics]
Tony Rosato: 4 appearances [Ebony & Ivory, Pearly Gates, Sandy's Curse, Sports Organ Classics]
featured player
Brian Doyle-Murray: 4 appearances [Pearly Gates, SNL Newsbreak, Sandy's Curse, Sports Organ Classics]
non-cast
John Murray: 1 appearance [Sports Organ Classics]
Akira Yoshimura: 1 appearance [SNL Newsbreak]
guests
Olivia Newton-John: 6 appearances [The Pig Meets Olivia, "Physical", "Make A Move On Me", SNL Newsbreak, Sandy's Curse, "Landslide"]
Graham Chapman: 2 appearances [Pearly Gates, SNL Newsbreak]
The SNL Band: 3 appearances ["Physical", "Make A Move On Me", "Landslide"]
Michael Davis: 1 appearance [Guest Performance]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
August 21, 1982

Additional screen captures from this episode can be found here.

I will be doing a final post about the season and cast in general following shortly.

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.

Classic SNL Review: April 17, 1982: Johnny Cash / Elton John (S07E17)

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

OPENING: “MAN IN BLACK”
-Johnny Cash sings “Man In Black” as his younger self (Tim Kazurinsky) undergoes character-forming experiences.
-Johnny Cash gets a big round of applause for his signature “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash”, getting the show off to a good start.
-This was a pretty funny opening segment, particularly the still of the mother holding a black-clad baby, and the flashback sequences were pretty good.  Kazurinsky was the right choice to play the younger Cash, playing him more as a pip-squeak kid than attempting a real impression of Cash.  Having Kazurinsky say the requisite “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die!” in that high voice made the joke funnier.  Speaking of that scene, can anyone ID the older prisoner for me?
-Cash himself was pretty funny in a deadpan sort of way.  His delivery on some of the lines was a little off but I did particualrly like the fade from young Cash being admonished by his mama that he’s going to poke a hole in his face from twisting his finger on his cheek to middle-aged Johnny doing the very same, or to him singing with increased vibrato as Joe Piscopo gives him a massage.
-There seems to be a new design to the back set when the stage is lifted for the music performances.
-There were a few bloopers: you can see a single sheet of paper fall down at one point during Cash’s singing, and the camera goes black-and-white for a few seconds as Cash crosses over from the side stage.
****

SHOW: THE HONEYROONEYS
-Andy Rooney (Joe Piscopo) plays Ralph Kramden opposite Audrey Meadows’ (Chrstine Ebersole) Alice and Art Carney’s (Eddie Murphy) Ed Norton.
-I did get a few laughs out of the comments about the phony buildings and the “Ever want to send your wife to the moon?” line, but overall this wasn’t really all that funny and based on a thin premise, and the ending seemed a little hokey.  It doesn’t help that Piscopo’s Andy Rooney voice is so incredibly grating.
-Christine Ebersole gave a good performance as usual, and I did like Eddie Murphy’s Ed Norton.
**

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “EMPTY GARDEN (HEY HEY JOHNNY)”
-More big applause for Elton John, who appears with his classic band lineup of Nigel Olsson, Dee Murray and Davey Johnstone (his second SNL appearance this season, after appearing with Meat Loaf & The Neverland Express).  Elton John is the only musical guest this season to get a separate stage for his performances, as opposed to playing on the giant home base set.
-A sad, emotional performance befitting the song, John’s tribute to his friend John Lennon.  I wonder what it would have been like to hear this song when it originally came out less than 18 months after the “insect” killed Lennon.  Sometimes I wonder if I can fully grasp how sad that event really was considering Lennon has always been dead within my lifetime.  Coincidentally, I actually watched my recording of this episode the morning of December 8, the thirtieth anniversary of Lennon’s murder.

SKETCH: LAST REQUEST
-Death row inmate Frankie’s (Eddie Murphy) bluff is called when Johnny Cash fulfills his last request by singing the uncut “99,999 Bottles of Beer On The Wall”
-Eddie Murphy’s charisma carries this sketch, while Johnny Cash, despite being a little stiff, plays well opposite him by singing the song completely deadpan.
-The best moments in the sketch are purely visual, from Murphy’s gleeful dancing as Cash sings with utter seriousness, to the very bored warden and the older prisoner (who wails “This is cruel and unusual punishment!” at one point) playing cards as the priest munches on a burger and holds a soda.
-Murphy messes up his line towards the end: “That’s the warden! I mean, that’s the governor!”
***1/2

MISCELLANEOUS: NEXT WEEK
-Bill Cosby (Eddie Murphy) announces his old I Spy co-star Robert Culp will be the host next week
-Interesting way to shake up the Next Week formula.  I think the “It’ll make you smile” comes from Cosby’s Coke ads from that timeframe.

SNL NEWSBREAK WITH MARY GROSS, CHRISTINE EBERSOLE AND BRIAN DOYLE-MURRAY: MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT DR. JACK BADOFSKY (TIM KAZURINSKY), EDITORIAL BY EDDIE MURPHY
-Best joke: James Stewart/Ginger Rogers having sex from memory, albino baseball player.
-Another overlong segment; this one clocks in at 17 minutes.
-Mary Gross reprises her ditzy correspondent act in Red Square where she asks a Japanese tourist (Akira Yoshimura) if he’s seen the ailing Brezhnev.  I always find Akira Yoshimura’s deadpan, decidedly non-actor delivery funny in itself (especially considering his character is supposed to be Japanese but speaks with Yoshimura’s American accent) but it seemed a little off this time.
-There’s also another very long segment of still photos: over four minutes are dedicated to the different salutes of world leaders.  I’m of two minds of this, because I do appreciate the amount of effort that went into this one and it had a few funny lines and pictures (the one of Charles and Di with Charles’ limp wrist describing their wedding night), but it’s really clearly a crutch at this point and could have been much, much shorter.
-Speaking of things that could have been much shorter, the bit with Doyle-Murray and Ebersole discussing varying pronunciations seemed to stretch something that was purely the setup to a line about the different pronunciations of “Falk” too thin.
-Dr. Jack Badofsky (Tim Kazurinsky) returns for a third appearance, in which he discusses the different types of amputations.  The usual assortment of silly wordplay with a few highlights like Ramputations (weird lonely shepherds experience these), and Kazurinsky breaks character briefly after he delivers the line about using Krazy Glue instead of jelly leading to a Diaphragmputation, which makes this a little more memorable than the other installments.
-Christine Ebersole seems to flub a lot of her lines later in the segment.
-Last segment is Eddie Murphy reading a viewer letter accusing him of really boiling Larry the Lobster with a racially loaded comment about blacks’ supposed aversion to seafood, which led him to boil Larry in revenge.  Decent closure to last week’s episode.
**1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: CASH MEDLEY “I WALK THE LINE”, “FOLSOM PRISON BLUES”, “RING OF FIRE”
-Good performance, and Cash really is beginning to look like he’s enjoying himself here, particularly during the “Folsom Prison Blues” guitar solo.
-Of note is that one of Cash’s guitarists in this appearance is a young Marty Stuart.

SKETCH: HAIL TO THE CHIEF
-Ronald Reagan (Joe Piscopo) is back from vacation and Ed Meese (Tony Rosato) has kept him in the dark about the Falklands situation.  Despite Meese’s best efforts, Margaret Thatcher (Mary Gross) and Leopoldo Galtieri (Brian Doyle-Murray) meet the President, who uses the situation to fulfill every actor’s dream by directing.
-Decent sketch, with Rosato in fine form as usual as Meese.  I particularly liked Mary Gross’ awkward reaction as Galtieri is about to kiss her under Reagan’s directions.
-Interesting use of Joe Piscopo in Reagan makeup strictly for the mirror’s “reflection” when the rest of the sketch is him doing the voice over only.
***

FILM: “JAY CLAY GETS DEPRESSED” BY TIMOTHY HITTLE
-A claymation man’s suicide attempt.
-A silly little film despite the dark subject matter; this also has an uplifting ending as Jay’s head bounces around and lands on his butt, and he realizes “I lost my head!”.
-The painting in the film is “L’Absinthe” by Edgar Degas
***

COMMERCIAL: TEGRIM
-Kathy’s (Robin Duke) friend (Christine Ebersole) tells her how to check for problem dandruff: shake her head over Johnny Cash.
-A brief but very enjoyable commercial parody, with possibly the best in-sketch use of Johnny Cash all night.  He didn’t have to utter a single word.
-Robin Duke really looks young here.  Speaking of Duke, this is her only on-camera appearance in a sketch tonight, not counting a voiceover-only role in the opening and appearances in the talent entrance and goodnights.  I never really noticed it until now but she really seemed to be struggling at the end of this season.  I always liked her as a performer but between her very limited appearances at the end of this season and a few other incidents in other shows (blown cue in Madden, Newsbreak piece not doing so well in Danner) I wonder if she was kept on because Ebersole was gone over the summer.  Duke made a good impression at the beginning of the season and in some other shows, but I’m seeing her get eclipsed by Ebersole and Gross a lot.  Fortunately Duke got a second chance next fall as well as the added bonus of joining the writing roster.
****

MISCELLANEOUS: FLASH AND SHOWMANSHIP
-Johnny Cash demonstrates how Elton John’s performance style has begun to rub off on him.
-Not really a rateable segment but the visual of Cash wearing the gaudy outfit and glasses was also a highlight of the show.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “BALL AND CHAIN”
-A catchy, uptempo song from Elton’s then current LP Jump Up!

SKETCH: TRAIN POET
-A man who loves passenger rail (Johnny Cash) waxes poetic about the rails to a commuter (Brian Doyle-Murray).
-Not really much in terms of laughs but it was a cute segment, even if the ending was a little sappy with Cash advising Doyle-Murray “If you take the train to work, you’ll never enjoy the ride”.
-Cash’s delivery is a little awkward at the beginning before he gets into the rhythm of the poem.
**1/2

SHOW: BLACK TALK
-Eddie Murphy shares his experience paying the power bill with buddy Clint Smith.
-Short, fillerish segment that depends mainly on Murphy’s charisma.  Good one-joke-and-out structure.
***

COMMERCIAL: REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE [rerun from 02/06/82]

GOODNIGHTS: “SUNDAY MORNING COMING DOWN”
-The cast really seems like they’re having a ball here, especially when they’re circled around Cash on the stage like children.  Eddie Murphy can be seen smiling and dancing while Robin Duke can be heard singing along at one point as the credits roll.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
This was an unusual show with a few weaker segments, and it felt kind of like halfway between a show and a week off for the writers thanks to the extra music performances in the show.  There was a considerably higher number of shorter pieces throughout this episode, while SNL Newsbreak lasted forever.  Cash, a limited host, stuck pretty well to his comfort zone but fortunately that comfort zone was itself something that could work well in sketches, and he seemed to be a good sport having a fun time that night.  Besides Cash, Eddie Murphy in particular seemed to dominate tonight, particularly in “Last Request”, the next week segment, SNL Newsbreak and Black Talk.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-Tegrim
-”Man In Black”
-Last Request

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-The Honeyrooneys
-Train Poet
-SNL Newsbreak’s obvious padding

MVP:
Eddie Murphy

CAST & GUEST RUNDOWN:
cast
Robin Duke: 2 appearances ["Man In Black" (voice only), Tegrim]
Christine Ebersole: 4 appearances [The Honeyrooneys, SNL Newsbreak, Hail To The Chief, Tegrim]
Mary Gross: 2 appearances [SNL Newsbreak, Hail To The Chief]
Tim Kazurinsky: 4 appearances ["Man In Black", Last Request, SNL Newsbreak, Hail To The Chief]
Eddie Murphy: 5 appearances [The Honeyrooneys, Last Request, Next Week, SNL Newsbreak, Black Talk]
Joe Piscopo: 3 appearances [The Honeyrooneys, Last Request, Hail To The Chief]
Tony Rosato: 2 appearances [Hail To The Chief, Train Poet]
featured players:
Brian Doyle-Murray: 4 appearances [Last Request, SNL Newsbreak, Hail To The Chief, Train Poet]
non-cast:
Andy Murphy: 1 appearance [Train Poet]
Akira Yoshimura: 1 appearance [SNL Newsbreak]
guests:
Johnny Cash: 6 appearances ["Man In Black", Last Request, Cash Medley, Tegrim, Flash and Showmanship, "Sunday Morning Coming Down"]
Elton John: 2 appearances ["Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)", "Ball and Chain"]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
August 28, 1982
Known alterations: Next Week is removed.

Additional screen captures not posted above are available here.

Classic SNL Review: April 10, 1982: Daniel J. Travanti / John Cougar (S07E16)

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

OPENING: LARRY THE LOBSTER PHONE-IN VOTE
-Eddie Murphy interrupts a sketch as a chef (Tony Rosato) is about to boil a lobster, protesting the killing of a living creature.  Murphy names the lobster “Larry” and invites the home audience to determine his fate via a 1-900 number phone in vote.
-I wasn’t originally going to rate this segment because its purpose is to set  up a real vote the show had that night, but there was enough comedy mixed in to warrant a rating, from Murphy telling Rosato to “speak English to me” and screaming “YOU PEOPLE ARE SICK!” to the audience, to Rosato cutting in a few times to say “Let’s boil that sucker, huh?”, to Eddie rushing through the “save” number and slowly and clearly reading the “kill” number.
***1/2

MONOLOGUE
-Daniel J. Travanti reminds the viewers about the poll and sets up the short film.
-I’m not going to rate this as it’s not really a standalone monologue; I thought I’d point out that you can hear an audience member shout “boil him!”

FILM: RIDEALONG
-Daniel J. Travanti accompanies a real NYC policeman as he responds to a domestic disturbance call.
-Interesting change-of-pace segment with no recognizable SNL performers or personnel.  I don’t think they’d do anything like this today.
-It had a few somewhat funny parts like the real policeman having only seen Hill Street Blues once, and the audience reacted well to the part where they tell the woman to clean up their dog, but I didn’t really go for the ending where the couple recognize Travanti, pose for a picture with him, and resume their fighting.  It just felt a little obvious.
-Some of tonight’s bumpers were shot during the taping of this segment, including one of Travanti and the couple.
**1/2

SKETCH: WHINERS
-Grating couple Doug and Wendy Whiner (Joe Piscopo and Robin Duke) annoy the maitre d’ (Tony Rosato) and patrons of the restaurant where they had their first date.
-The Whiners are definitely two of the most irritating and corny characters that have ever been on SNL; part of it is deliberate but it’s so overly broad and one-joke (the sketches usually have a mention of diverticulitis every time, too) that it’s hard to really enjoy the sketches.  It reminds me a little of Kristen Wiig’s tics-and-twitches characters in the way that there really isn’t any room for growth with the characters: they whine, therefore they are.
-The main thing that elevates these bits from the copy-by-numbers sketches they tend to have now is that there’s a little more variety with the situations they got into, and of course the humor coming from the frustration of the foil who has to deal with the couple.  This is one of those sketches where Rosato is really on his game, doing excellent slow-burn as the increasingly pissed-off maitre d’.
-Funniest moment: Rosato grabbing the wine from the passing waiter and plunking it onto the Whiners’ table.
-An observation: a lot of the same extras that appear in the sketch – regular extra Andy Murphy, the other people in line at the beginning, and the waiter in particular – show up in several of the other sketches tonight.  As well, I’m pretty sure that white-haired woman who had to give up her table to the Whiners had been on a few times in the 70s (I think she was “Jody from next door” in Celebrity Bingo in Steve Martin ’77).  If someone can confirm or ID her, please comment. [Addendum: the white-haired woman is Karen Roston, SNL's costume designer] 
***

SKETCH: THE MERMAN ZONE
-An Ethel Merman impersonator (Christine Ebersole) auditions for the head of a celebrity doubles agency (Tony Rosato), who desperately to convince her that every single human being can do an imitation of Merman and ends up in what Rod Serling (Brian Doyle-Murray) calls “The Merman Zone”
-Before I begin the review, can anybody identify the guy playing Barry, the Woody Allen impersonator at the beginning of the sketch?  He’s about as short as Kazurinsky and it doesn’t  look like any of the writers I’ve been able to identify.  The part is a significant one in this sketch and it’s odd they don’t credit him.
-I really enjoyed this sketch, with good performances from everyone, particularly Rosato and Ebersole, and the different impressions from everyone around made this a lot of fun.  The real fun begins when Rosato breaks the fourth wall and starts approaching the SNL crew (including cameraman Al Camoin), and the producers (Dick Ebersol and Bob Tischler; Ebersol’s wife Susan Saint James is also visible in this part), and everyone in the control room (including Dave Wilson and Audrey Peart Dickman) singing.
-I also really enjoyed the part with Kazurinsky as the out-of-work Kazurinsky impersonator (and the line about how nobody’s really even demanding the real thing).  I also found it really funny how Duke was visibly annoyed that he kept coming back to the agency.
-Callback to last show:  one of the extras in the hallway is wearing the tuna fish outfit from the Blythe Danner show.
****

MISCELLANEOUS: LARRY THE LOBSTER PHONE-IN VOTE: SO FAR
-In his intro to John Cougar’s performance, Travanti announces that “Kill Larry” is leading  65,743 to 56,893; after commenting “Eddie’s right, you’re sick!” he reads the voting numbers again, speeding through the “Kill Larry” number and slowly reading the “Save Larry” number.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “HURT SO GOOD”
-Good performance.  Right after the first chorus, John jokes “Sound just like the Supremes, don’t we?”

MISCELLANEOUS: NEXT WEEK
-My recording is missing part of this; it sounds like Kazurinsky is reminding people about the contest and giving an update beforehand. I do have him announcing next week’s guests will be Johnny Cash and special musical guest Elton John.

SNL NEWSBREAK WITH MARY GROSS, CHRISTINE EBERSOLE AND BRIAN DOYLE-MURRAY: EMERGENCY BROADCAST WITH TONY ROSATO, SATURDAY NIGHT SPORTS WITH JOE PISCOPO, OSCARS REVIEW WITH TIM KAZURINSKY
-Best jokes: 7-year-old Cavalry soldier, Easter Bunny, New York Compost
-This particular edition stretches for 14 minutes; SNL Newsbreak is starting to eat up more and more of the show, and it’s guaranteed never to be the show’s strongest segment.  It kind of feels like Seth Meyers’ more recent Weekend Updates but I’d say Meyers WU has better jokes; it’s sometimes the correspondents that can really sink a segment whereas during the SNL Newsbreak era it was often the other way around.
-This is also the only Ebersole-period Newsbreak that made it into the 60-minute
-The first segment is Mary Gross’ report from the HMS Invisible; her “ditzy correspondent” act was a little too cutesy (especially the HMS stands for “HuMongous Ship” line), but I always enjoy the complete deadpan of SNL’s production designer Akira Yoshimura (who appeared in all of the SNL Star Trek sketches as Sulu) as the fake Prince Andrew.  The ending was dumb with Doyle-Murray suggesting Gross invite him to a sushi dinner, but the “Sunday morning – sneak attack” line was funny.
-Tony Rosato appears to give a test of the Emergency Broadcast Network [sic], which consists of panicked screaming.  Kind of an obvious joke but Rosato did alright with it and his segues between that and his calm intro and outro were flawless.
-Joe Piscopo’s Saturday Night Sports segment changes the formula a little bit by not having Piscopo utter a word: instead, Piscopo was made up to look as if he were covered in ice and snow as on-screen captions spelled out the normally bellowed lines.  It was a welcome change of pace and the audience loved it.
-Up next is an interminable two-and-a-half minute photo montage bit about the many photos of the Reagans waving.  By this point in the season, they really are padding out the Newsbreak segments with these bits (there’s some more pointless ones to come) and while there were a few humorous asides from Brian Doyle-Murray and the somewhat funny last pictures with the Reagans’ arms starting to move propellor-like, the bit definitely did not warrant its length.
-Tim Kazurinsky comments on that year’s overlong Oscars by offering suggestions on how to improve next year’s ceremony.  I thought this was alright, particularly when Kazurinsky suggested to take the award away from the winner if their speeches ran too long and mentioning Bette Midler as a “hilarious woman with large breasts”.  The funniest moment, though, was when Kaz handed off back to Christine Ebersole who asked “What the heck was Morgan Fairchild doing there?”  The audience evidently agreed.
-The little bit where Doyle-Murray spells the new formula for relativity on a blackboard as ROLAIDS is a spoof of a then-current ad campaign for the antacid.  You can view the commercial here.
-At the end of the segment, Doyle-Murray gives the numbers to vote on Larry’s fate.
***

SHOW: HILL STREET BLUES
-Captain Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) has trouble keeping his work life and personal life separate.
-It really is unusual to see a straight parody of a current TV show during the Ebersol era of SNL.  I do admire that they did attempt something like this, but I couldn’t help but be underwhelmed by the whole thing.  It was 10 minutes long and it seemed like they were throwing together things that didn’t gel as a whole.  Some of it was especially clunky, particularly Travanti’s lampshade hanging line of being overly sensitive, “especially for a cop”.  In what would become de rigeur for SNL’s later parodies, we get a cameo by one of the host’s co-stars: Bruce Weitz appears in the parody, playing the animalistic Belker as even more of a dog.
-Mary Gross did a very good job playing against type as Joyce Davenport.  It was rare that they had her play an attractive woman who wasn’t a prostitute at this point, and the long hair really went a long way in softening her look up.  Joe Piscopo’s take on Phil Esterhaus was alright.  I did enjoy Robin Duke as Fay but felt they didn’t make her pathetic enough; same with Brian Doyle-Murray as Howard Hunter, which also felt like a wasted opportunity.  Eddie Murphy’s bit as Neal Washington didn’t really have a lot to work with and Rosato’s “Gypsy King” informant was kind of lame.  Christine Ebersole seemed pretty miscast as Lucy Bates; Ebersole reminds me a lot more of Barbara Babcock (Grace Gardner) and I don’t recall Bates being a mopey type like she was written here.
-The ending with Furillo starting to rant about his problems and breaking down crying was an OK way to wrap the sketch up, though.
-The extras from the Whiners’ sketch are all in the hallway outside of the office.  As well, Akira Yoshimura gets a quick laugh with his bit as an undercover detective.
**1/2

MISCELLANEOUS: LARRY THE LOBSTER PHONE-IN VOTE: LARRY’S STORY
-Eddie Murphy announces that “Save Larry” has pulled ahead 184,316 to 171, 717, and gives the audience a view of the kind of lobster Larry really is.
-More “cute” than laugh out loud funny; Rosato (not dressed in the chef outfit but still using the accent) gets a laugh with another “Let’s boil that sucker, huh!”
***

FILM: BAVARIAN BUTTERFLY BY JOSEF SEDELMAIER
-A silent film demonstrates a hopscotching dance.
-Short, amusing slapstick.
***

SHOW: CAREER CORNER
-Burt Wedermeyer (Tim Kazurinsky) interviews Mr. Tooth Fairy (Eddie Murphy) about his unrewarding and dangerous job.
-Aside from the Whiners sketch, this is the other one that seems to show up in highlight reels and compilations, with a tutu-wearing Eddie Murphy complaining about how difficult delivering teeth to God is for a living.  It benefits from good back-and-forth between Kazurinsky and Murphy, but it’s clearly the latter’s showcase.
***1/2

MISCELLANEOUS: LARRY THE LOBSTER PHONE-IN VOTE: NIGHT ON THE TOWN
-Eddie Murphy announces that in a few minutes they will have the final tally of the vote; Mel Brandt announces what Larry can look forward to if he lives.
-Some of the photos were pretty funny, but this basically was a time filler segment to wrap up the voting portion.
-This originally was part of the 12:30 station break segment; subsequent repeat versions edit this together with Reagan-Brand Economics in the same segment.
***

COMMERCIAL: REAGAN-BRAND ECONOMICS
-Ronald Reagan (Joe Piscopo) suggests to an impoverished family that they try a new brand of economics.
-This is a funny spoof of the Sanka commercials with Robert Young but with a good amount of bite, particularly Rosato’s line “I only like real economic programs!” and the family having to sell their surviving child to pay for food under the new program.
-This is also the first time we see Piscopo in Reagan makeup; before this appearance he was a voiceover-only role in the “Hail To The Chief” sketches.
****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “AIN’T EVEN DONE WITH THE NIGHT”
-Cougar and band have a particularly big sound tonight; they also seemed to having fun as well which makes things enjoyable.

MISCELLANEOUS: LARRY THE LOBSTER PHONE-IN VOTE: RESULTS
-Eddie Murphy reads the final vote: Larry the Lobster lives, 239,096 to 227,452.  The SNL band plays “Happy Days Are Here Again” as the cast and extras celebrate.
-Not really much more to it than that, really.  Even the guy who played Barry the Woody Allen Lookalike in The Merman Zone is here.

GOODNIGHTS
-Eddie conducts a mock interview with Larry as Daniel J. Travanti exclaims “Larry Lives!”
-Mel Brandt announces next week’s show with Johnny Cash and special guest Elton John and says “Good night from New York!  …which I don’t think is the most dangerous city in America”.  Kind of an odd attempt at Don Pardo’s style of humorous comments over the goodnight announcements.
-Brian Doyle-Murray is standing far back from everyone else for some reason.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
An above-average show with an interesting gimmick to carry it through.  Despite not being used at all in the last half hour, Travanti actually was quite good in what he appeared in and while sometimes the writing wasn’t up to par (Hill Street Blues could have been so much better), there wasn’t a terrible segment at all tonight except for a little bit of the overlong SNL Newsbreak.  Even the Whiners (never my favorite characters) didn’t weigh the show down.  Tony Rosato seemed to have his best night ever this week too, especially in the first half of the show.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-Reagan Brand Economics
-The Merman Zone
-Career Corner
-Larry The Lobster Phone-in Vote

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-the Reagans Waving portion of SNL Newsbreak
-Ridealong
-Hill Street Blues

MVP:
Tony Rosato

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:
cast
Robin Duke: 4 appearances [Whiners, The Merman Zone, Hill Street Blues, Larry: Results]
Christine Ebersole: 5 appearances [The Merman Zone, SNL Newsbreak, Hill Street Blues, Reagan Brand Economics, Larry: Results]
Mary Gross: 4 appearances [The Merman Zone, SNL Newsbreak, Hill Street Blues, Larry: Results]
Tim Kazurinsky: 5 appearances [The Merman Zone, Next Week, SNL Newsbreak, Career Corner, Larry: Results]
Eddie Murphy: 7 appearances [Larry: Phone-In Vote, The Merman Zone, Hill Street Blues, Larry: Larry's Story, Career Corner, Larry: Night On The Town, Larry: Results]
Joe Piscopo: 5 appearances [Whiners, SNL Newsbreak, Hill Street Blues, Reagan Brand Economics, Larry: Results]
Tony Rosato: 8 appearances [Larry: Phone-In Vote, Whiners, The Merman Zone, SNL Newsbreak, Hill Street Blues, Larry: Larry's Story, Reagan Brand Economics, Larry: Results]

featured player:
Brian Doyle-Murray: 4 appearances [The Merman Zone, SNL Newsbreak, Hill Street Blues, Larry: Results]

non-cast:
Dick Ebersol: 1 appearance [The Merman Zone]
Bob Tischler: 1 appearance [The Merman Zone]
Al Camoin: 1 appearance [The Merman Zone]
Audrey Peart Dickman: 1 appearance [The Merman Zone]
Dave Wilson: 2 appearances [The Merman Zone, SNL Newsbreak (voiceover only)]
Andy Murphy: 4 appearances [Whiners, The Merman Zone, Hill Street Blues, Larry: Results]
Akira Yoshimura: 2 appearances [SNL Newsbreak, Hill Street Blues]
Yvonne Hudson: 1 appearance [Whiners]
Neil Levy: 2 appearances [Whiners, Hill Street Blues]

guests:
Daniel J. Travanti: 5 appearances [Larry: Phone-In Vote, Ridealong, The Merman Zone, Larry: So Far, Hill Street Blues]
John Cougar: 2 appearances ["Hurt So Good", "Ain't Even Done With The Night"]
Susan Saint James: 1 appearance [The Merman Zone]
Bruce Weitz: 1 appearance [Hill Street Blues]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
September 11, 1982
January 15, 1983
Known alterations: Next Week is removed.

More captures from this episode are available here.