SNL Season 38: End of an era

Last year, Saturday Night Live said goodbye to Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg, two of the major performers on the show over the past couple of seasons.  Samberg and his cohorts from The Lonely Island brought the show into the viral media age with their Digital Shorts, and for better or worse, Wiig was the show’s dominant performer.  The loss of the show’s most recognizable stars seemed to portend an uncertain time in SNL’s history, but despite the hires of a few new faces and the dismissal of another player (Abby Elliott), the 2012-13 season didn’t seem to have a feeling that there was a void the show was desperately trying to fill.

A lot of the credit belongs to the new performers hired as featured players, particularly Cecily Strong; she established her place on the show quickly and firmly, in a way not seen since Amy Poehler.  Kate McKinnon (a late-season addition for 2011-12), was also fairly prominent, owing to having similar strengths as the departed Wiig.  While Aidy Bryant and Tim Robinson are still waiting for their breakouts, both show promise and distinct sensibilities that the show could mine to its benefit.  I do feel the long tenures of some players like Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen and Kenan Thompson tend to hold the show from developing some of the new cast, but in three seasons alone,  Taran Killam seems ready to take over as SNL’s alpha male next season.  Jason Sudeikis and Bill Hader provided a solid backbone for this season.  Bobby Moynihan had his best year ever.  Vanessa Bayer rebounded from a confidence drop that plagued her in 2011-12, and Jay Pharoah taking over the Obama impression helped establish his place in the cast.  Only Nasim Pedrad feels particularly misused, mainly getting stuck with “little kid” and “old lady” roles.

The writing staff was mostly stable this year.  There were a few departures: Christine Nangle and Weekend Update writer Jessica Conrad did not come back this season, and John Mulaney joined Paula Pell as a part-time contributor.  One writer returned to the show after a seven-year absence (Joe Kelly, most recently a writer/producer for How I Met Your Mother).  Neil Casey and Josh Patten joined the staff, and, beginning in February, a slew of guest writers were brought aboard for brief stints, including Chelsea Peretti, Cora Frazier, Michael Che, Edi Patterson, Monica Padrick and Kids In The Hall alum Kevin McDonald (Che was later added to the regular roster for the May shows).

The season was fairly uneven, though, with more pronounced highs and lows than SNL’s experienced in a few years.  There were a greater number of outright duds this year (the Mountain Pass sketch from Louis CK comes to mind), yet the stumbles felt more like the show was losing its fear of failure that made the last couple of seasons a little too safe and antiseptic.  In a way, this actually came off as promising.   There were also enough flashes of inspiration (“Sad Mouse”, two-part sketches like “Z Shirts” and “Darrell’s House”) that imbued this season with a freshness not seen in a while.

The show has always had castmembers come and go to varying levels of fanfare, but it seems that the big emotional farewell has become de rigeur for a departing castmember in recent years.  Phil Hartman’s 1994 send-off featured the show’s recurring characters performing a variant of “So Long, Farewell” from The Sound Of Music.  Will Ferrell’s 2002 departure was marked by the cast (except for Tracy Morgan) speaking out-of-character about how he’ll be missed.  What turned out to be Darrell Hammond’s final show didn’t have an explicit tribute, but the cameo-filled full-cast “Goodnight Saigon” performance felt uncharacteristically emotional to be just a random Will Ferrell sketch.  The Kristen Wiig “graduation ceremony” at the end of Mick Jagger’s show last season seemed to outdo all these earlier goodbyes; despite Wiig being such a divisive castmember for a lot of fans, the emotional displays of from her colleagues made her swan song all the more moving.

I touched on the news of Bill Hader, Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers’ departures from SNL in my last post.  Hader and Armisen both got their goodbyes last night; unlike Wiig, both performers chose to say their goodbyes in character.  Hader’s farewell was one last Stefon appearance on Weekend Update, culminating in a pre-taped segment of Seth Meyers racing through New York to stop the club promoter’s wedding to Anderson Cooper a la The Graduate.  Armisen used the show’s 10-to-1 to perform an understated farewell tune as his Thatcherite punk character Ian Rubbish, with Hader, Killam and Sudeikis as the Bizarros, and cameos by Aimee Mann, Michael Penn, J. Mascis, Kim Gordon, Sex Pistol Steve Jones, and Armisen’s Portlandia collaborator Carrie Brownstein.   SNL is not a show that often features genuine emotion very often: when it does, such as last night, the results are amazing and devastating.

With the departures of Hader and Armisen, Meyers’ impending move to the Late Night desk, and the rumored exit of Jason Sudiekis, last night’s show truly felt like the end of an era for Saturday Night Live.  Even if Meyers sticks around to ease the transition to the next Weekend Update anchor and head writer, he will seem more a vestige of a prior version of SNL than a full-fledged member of the new guard.

SNL’s cast change news

The next season I’m going to be reviewing on the blog is…1982-83!  I’m going to start my reviews after the current season wraps up; I’ll be giving my thoughts on 2012-13 as a whole before doing my intro post for the season, then the first review will be of the Chevy Chase / Queen show.

It’s been quite an eventful week in Saturday Night Live related news: it hasn’t been a full week since the last live show with host Kristen Wiig (which was, by most accounts, underwhelming) but with the word that this week’s season finale will be Bill Hader and Fred Armisen’s last show, and the announcment that Seth Meyers will depart mid-season to take over Late Night, SNL’s next season is already shaping up to be very different.

Bill Hader’s departure is going to be a huge loss for the show; I consider him to be the “glue” of the current cast, and many fans on the message boards have already mentioned he belongs in the ranks of the top ten SNLers of all time.  He impressed me even in his rookie season: there was one sketch in the Jason Lee episode that was a commercial parody for tasers, and Hader walked away with the whole thing with his delivery on one line: “Is that man a criminal? Well, he sure looked like one.”  There was a time when Andy Samberg overshadowed him, especially immediately after “Lazy Sunday” hit big, but Hader has been consistently solid in sketches, even if sometimes he begins to break character (like in Scared Straight, The Californians, or Stefon).  Despite sticking around the show for a year longer than Kristen Wiig, it never really felt like he overstayed his welcome: even his big recurring character Stefon is still capable of providing the highlight of a particular show.

I’m a little more mixed on losing Fred Armisen.  Early in his tenure, he brought such a different sensibility to the show, and was a relief from the antics of Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz, which were starting to run their course (sidenote: I’ve since grown to appreciate both a bit more).   Unfortunately, Armisen’s last few years haven’t held up to the standard set by his early SNL work.  Part of the blame goes to his being cast as Barack Obama: at the time, it made a bit of sense, since Armisen had the closest resemblance to the candidate, but he never really got the voice down or found a real hook for the impression.  It didn’t help that the most frequent use of his Obama was in these lengthy, lecture-like “in one” segments.  Toward the end of the run, his other roles started to run together: there was a string of middle-eastern dictators making outdated pop-culture references.  I never cared much for Garth and Kat or The Californians either.  His work on Portlandia seems to be him at his best, though, even if his later SNL work comes off as him goofing off and participating in private jokes.     He still had a knack for knowing parodies of certain types of people and affectionate tributes to musical genres, though.  Eleven years is a long time to stay on the show, though, and Armisen’s departure is something that opens up a lot of possibilities.

The biggest change will be Seth Meyers’ promotion to late-night talk show host.  Meyers has been the show’s head writer and Weekend Update anchor since 2006; he is currently the longest-tenured WU anchor of all time.  While the show has taken a bit of a dip in quality around 2009, a lot of the sketches with Meyers’ name attached have been some of the strongest of the past few seasons: he wrote Coach Bert (Steve Buscemi episode) and Darrell’s House (Zach Galifianakis episode).  He’s staying an extra half-season, but I’m curious whether his exit will also mean that he’s going to poach the ranks of the current SNL writing staff for his new show.  Despite all the new players that have been introduced since Meyers became head writer, the writing feels stale at times, with the writers’ room dominated by veterans and new writers only lasting a short period of time (particularly the 2008, 2009 and 2010 hires).  If anything is going to shift the show significantly, it’s going to be Meyers leaving.

I think the remaining cast (particularly Taran Killam and Cecily Strong) has proven they are more than capable of carrying the show, even if these three veterans are gone.  Some expect Jason Sudeikis and Kenan Thompson to leave with them, but until either say the word, they could still be heading up the next year’s cast.  Despite some issues with the writing, this year’s cast is one of the best in a long time.

But I’ll get back to that after the finale.

Next season for SNL reviews (and want list)

I’m still on my hiatus from blogging, but I’m actually getting a few ideas about what I’m going to do once I come back to updating this page on a regular basis.  Yes, this includes more classic SNL episode reviews.

I’m still trying to narrow down which season I’m going to review next: I’m thinking of doing either 1982-83 (the next Ebersol season), 1985-86 (an unusual season, with enough post-production work done to the reruns as to make them seem like two different shows), or 1988-89 (a great season all all around).

I have each of these seasons in some form or another.  However, for a number of these episodes I only have edited rerun versions which may be missing sketches.  As well, for the 1985 and later shows, these repeats have some post-production work done, including dress rehearsal substitutions.

If anyone has the following episodes from their original airing, please contact me so we can arrange a trade:

1982-83
Chevy Chase / Queen (September 25, 1982 – there may be a “running late” filler segment that’s cut from reruns)
Robert Blake / Kenny Loggins (November 13, 1982 – rerun is missing “Best Little Whorehouse On The Prairie”, “Blue Lagoon”, “No More Andy Kaufman” and part of Saturday Night News is edited)
Eddie Murphy / Lionel Richie (December 11, 1982 – rerun is missing A Special Christmas Message. I have a Frankenstein-edit from Comedy Central but prefer original broadcast)
Bruce Dern / Leon Redbone (March 12, 1983 -rerun is missing The Buckwheat Story promo)
Susan Saint James / Michael McDonald (April 16, 1983 – rerun has part of Eddie Murphy’s “killing time” segment edited, and “ass” censored out of Magic Fish Negotiation).

1985-86
Chevy Chase / Sheila E (November 16, 1985)
Ron Reagan / The Nelsons (February 8, 1986)
George Wendt & Francis Ford Coppola / Philip Glass (March 22, 1986)
Tony Danza / Laurie Anderson (April 19, 1986 – rerun is missing Cliff Robertson AT&T Commercial parody)
Jimmy Breslin / Level 42, E.G. Daily (May 17, 1986)

1988-89
Wayne Gretzky / Fine Young Cannibals (May 13, 1989)
Steve Martin / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (May 20, 1989)

How to tell if an episode is an original airing:
-No disclaimer in the opening montage (shows before 1986) or before the cold opening (shows after 1986).
-Don Pardo will either have a voiceover announcing the next show over the goodnights, or they are cut off by an NBC promo.
-Most bumpers in the original live shows (after 1985) are silent; in reruns, they have the SNL band’s music.

Another thought on SNL rerun edits

I had written before about how the repeats of Saturday Night Live are different from the live shows before (in an earlier blog post as well as a piece for Splitsider.com about segments cut from reruns), but one thing I’ve been thinking about lately is how there really isn’t any detailed information in the major SNL episode guides about the repeat-only segments, although sometimes there would be information added to the trivia section of the TV.com listings.  Part of it is that some of these bits are so rare and unaccounted for (such as Gilda Radner’s segment in Aviva Slesin’s “First Love” series), and part of it is that if you’re going to compile a list of those segments, you might as well compile a list of the segments that have major changes between live broadcast and rerun, including dress rehearsal substitutions and fixed errors.  The amount of effort that would go into it wouldn’t really be worth it, unless I were actually getting paid to do this (and you know Broadway Video / SNL Studios must have all this information on a private file somewhere).  It still seems like an interesting project, though.

I leave you with two examples of dress rehearsal changes that have become the “official” version of segments in reruns, syndication or streaming.  Both come from the heavily edited 1985-86 season, which is notable in itself for the amount of tech issues fixed and canned laughter added in the rebroadcast versions.

“You Can Call Me Al” (Catherine Oxenberg, Paul Simon / Ladysmith Black Mambazo, 05/10/86)
The dress rehearsal take can be quickly differentiated from the live version by the color of Paul’s shirt (pink in dress, blue in live), but the performances themselves turned out quite different.  The dress rehearsal version is pretty straightforward: Paul sings the song, then introduces himself before delivering the “Live from New York” (a slight variant this time around).  The live show version is somewhat of a disaster: part of the problem is that the audience gives Paul an extended burst of applause at the very beginning, which delays his cue to start singing.  All through the first verse, Paul struggles to keep up with the music (a backing track that the musicians are miming to) and gives up part of the lyric so he can sing the chorus in time.  He seems a little thrown all through the song, but another big gaffe happens later when the director cuts to the SNL band after the “palindromic bass solo”: the horn line begins but Lenny Pickett doesn’t have his saxophone reed in his mouth.

The Cliffhanger (Anjelica Huston, Billy Martin / George Clinton & the Parliament-Funkadelic, 05/24/86)
The season finale of the troubled 1985-86 season had a runner where the devil (Jon Lovitz in a cheap Halloween costume) gets Billy Martin to fall off the wagon during the show, which leads to his inevitable “firing” as host.  This plotline culminates in the final segment of the show: instead of going straight to home base with the hosts, guests and cast waving goodbye, the cast congregates in the locker room to congratulate themselves on the season, before it cuts to Billy pouring gasoline just outside to light the whole place on fire.  The green-screened fire effect is marred somewhat in the live show by a visible folding chair in the flames, and Lorne Michaels doesn’t look at the camera when he delivers the “they won’t be able to do the show next year line”.  The biggest difference is in the part where Martin joins Anjelica Huston and George Clinton at home base for the goodnights: when Anjelica asks where Billy is, her question is interrupted by a still mic’d Billy’s very loud footsteps running; Anjelica laughs and does a slashy “cut” motion with her hand, and they don’t do their dialogue for the closing.  The rerun also has a visible edit during the end sequence with the cast in the smoke-filled locker room (removing Anthony Michael Hall yelling for help in an exaggerated way).

Final thoughts on SNL season 6 (1980-81)

A lot has been written about this season of Saturday Night Live, and a fan is more likely to read a lot about this season before actually watching a single episode.   The first time I actually saw these shows was in late 1998, when they ran on the Comedy Network; I was surprised that they weren’t anywhere as terrible as their reputation made them out to be.  The shows were still weak, but I had already seen worse first-run shows by that point.  When watching the show again for these reviews, I have to admit it was a little more draining this time around, but that could have been because I was in a more analytical frame of mind, trying to locate specific strengths and weaknesses.

What I saw was a decent group of actors without a strong group dynamic.  It usually helps a new SNL cast when some of the members have worked together in the past, most notable examples being the original 1975 ensemble and the 1986 “second golden age” group.   Ferris Butler confirmed that the entire creative staff had not worked together before.  Several of the writers were also very young or inexperienced.  Twelve episodes really would not have been enough time for such a cobbled-together team of cast and writers to find their collective voice (for comparison’s sake, the original cast’s 12th show was Dick Cavett / Jimmy Cliff).   There definitely wasn’t a lack of talent in either group, but they would have benefited from a little more time, a little less pressure and better leadership at the top.

A lot of the blame for the season’s woes rightly falls on Jean Doumanian’s head.  Most accounts I’ve read indicated that she was not suited to a creative role, yet wouldn’t cede authority on that particular front.  One of the most widely-circulated stories about Doumanian’s creative input was her written advice on one 1980-81 sketch: “Make it funnier”.  For all the criticism Doumanian deserves, though, NBC should get its share for selecting her for the role.  Once buyer’s remorse set in, their increased meddling with the show probably didn’t help matters much either.

That said, I’m not entirely convinced that the show would have been received better under anyone besides Jean Doumanian.  One such scenario would be if Al Franken hadn’t done the “Limo for a Lamo” bit in May 1980 and succeeded Lorne Michaels as producer: he may have been able to retain some key creative staff, and that may have helped quell the cries of “pretender” from the viewers and critics.  Yet that may not have been enough.  Franken (and the late Tom Davis) did actually produce the first season after Lorne Michaels returned to SNL in ’85 (Side note: Michaels has served as executive producer for every season since except 1986-87 and 1995-96: he had a more hands-on role during these “retooling years” that followed very poorly received seasons).  Even the continuity from season 5 may not have helped the show, since the season before often had a tired and burnt-out aura.

I sometimes think Doumanian’s failures ensured SNL’s survival in the long-term, by necessitating the hiring of a network suit (Dick Ebersol) who served as a buffer between the show and NBC.  His show wasn’t quite as edgy as the Michaels or even Doumanian versions, but Ebersol kept the show going long enough so that by the time he stepped down in 1985, Lorne Michaels was ready to return to the show.

I’m always interested in hearing the different takes on life at the show; I want to give a thank you to 1980-81 writer Ferris Butler for his valuable information regarding that season and his identification of show staff in bit parts as well.  Special thanks also goes to Raj for his information on the extras.  If anyone has more information regarding writers on sketches, people doing background work, or would like to tell their side of their story, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly.

My next project will be a collaboration with some other SNL fans, where we review some of the more poorly-recieved shows throughout SNL’s history.  I’m taking a break before embarking on this venture, though.  Afterward, I will review 1985-86, but would prefer to wait until I get more original broadcasts of those shows (still looking for Chevy Chase, Ron Reagan, George Wendt, Tony Danza and Jimmy Breslin).  I may do 1982-83 in the future if I can get a copy of the original live Robert Blake episode as well.

Classic SNL Review: April 11, 1981: (no host) / Jr. Walker & The All Stars (S06E13)

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

OPENING: STOREROOM
-Due to cutbacks at NBC, Chevy Chase is forced to change in a storage room holding cobweb-covered artifacts from the old show.  When he finds Mr. Bill (voice of Walter Williams) among the props and costumes, the two of them reminisce about the good old days.
-Although this was a shamelessly calculated attempt to link the retooled show with the original five years, it did get the audience in the right mood: they give big rounds of applause for Chase, the cobweb-covered Land Shark head, Mr. Bill, and the obligatory pratfall from Chase that preceded the “Live From New York…” line.  Once you saw Mr. Bill you had an idea what was coming, but I thought Mr. Bill’s mangling coming from Chase carelessly picking away at him, etc. worked.
-They worked in a dig at Chase starring in Oh, Heavenly Dog!, and the line “Yeah, you’re a little late, but they all are!” refers to the delay of the fall television season caused by the actor’s strike the previous year.
-Props seen/used: Bees Costumes, Coneheads prosthetic heads, the NBC Dancing N, the Land Shark head.  There are also boxes upon boxes of Bambu rolling papers.
***

MONTAGE
-A collection of still photographs taken around New York City by Patti Perret, with no animation or camera pans and zooms, ending with the camera pulling out to reveal the last shot is on a display stand on home base before a stagehand carries it away.
-The cast appear in random snapshots with text a simple white font for the main cast, and no text for featured players.  Among the highlights: Robin Duke’s slide of her posing while holding up a dress in front of a mannequin is crooked (you can see the film sprockets), Tim Kazurinsky is getting a haircut, Gail Matthius stares blankly while crawling between two carousel hourses, Eddie Murphy blows out candles on a birthday cake, and Laurie Metcalf reclining on top of a ping-pong table.  The picture of Joe Piscopo has to be seen to believed.
-I particularly like the shot of the Statue of Liberty.
-The band reverts back to the original 1975-79 theme song.
-Incidentally, two of the new cast additions can be seen on the local station promos advertising SCTV right after tonight’s show on my copy (from WNBC): Robin Duke is in the one right before the cold opening, and Tony Rosato can be seen at the end of the one that airs before the Wedding Day sketch.

SHOW: DRIVE FOR AMERICA
-Frank Sinatra (Joe Piscopo) solicits support for the American auto industry through guilt trips, jingoism and openly bashing the Japanese.
-I do have to give credit to Piscopo’s Sinatra impression, but right off the bat I’ll say that all the anti-Japanese slurs were very cringe-worthy, even if they tie in well with the whole theme of the sketch.
-Of the three other castmembers appearing in the sketch, Rosato did OK with a relatively serviceable part, Matthius had an excellent “little girl” voice (although the pathetic facial expression was a bit much), and Kazurinsky had the best part (especially the sight gag with him raising his amputated arm by mistake).
-Former featured player Yvonne Hudson makes a non-speaking appearance as the nurse pushing Matthius’ wheelchair.
**1/2

COMMERCIAL: LITE BEER
-In a bar, Bill Cosby (Eddie Murphy) recommends Lite Beer to a table of young children, because regular beer’s too heavy for them.
-Funny concept, with some good lines (“By the time you’re nine you’ll be drinking like a 37-year-old”).  The whole thing has a very loose feel to it and is mostly an excuse for Murphy to do his impression of the Cos, but was a good sendup of how he seemed to pitch anything back then.
-Denny Dillon is the waitress, but has no lines.  Talent coordinator Liz Welch can be seen at the table behind Murphy and the kids, sitting with the two African-American extras (is that Hudson?  I’ll add her to the sketch listing once I get a corroboration).
***

SKETCH: I MARRIED A MONKEY
-A cuckolded husband (Tim Kazurinsky) confronts chimpanzee wife Madge about her affair with his best friend (Tony Rosato).
-This really gets the audience going: they like Madge enough and respond well to her (particularly when she starts drinking the sugar bowl), but what really makes this memorable is the blooper with the “baby” not wanting to let go of the trainer to go onstage.  Kazurinsky gets applause after his line about Madge having turned the baby against him.
-Kazurinsky acquits himself well in this sketch, and does a good job of playing off some of the chimps’ unexpected behavior.  For all the cheesiness of the concept (right down to the old-timey soap opera organ stings), Kazurinsky commits to it, and that helps the sketch.
-Rosato’s character’s name is Mike Short, a shout-out to Martin Short’s older brother, a writer who worked with both Kazurinsky (on Big City Comedy) and Rosato (on SCTV).
***1/2

MISCELLANEOUS: JOHNNY CASH AT SPANDAU PRISON
 -A brief fake NBC promo slide.  Definitely a Mr. Mike bit.
***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “ROADRUNNER/SHOTGUN”
-Robin Duke promises she’ll have more to do next week (oh, the irony) before talking about how they used the original SNL theme again, and how that was written with Walker’s sound in mind.
-Walker is very energetic and his band has a very spare and simple sound; very back-to-basics R&B.

WEEKEND UPDATE I: WITH CHEVY CHASE
-At the beginning, an intense announcer with a British accent reads in an exaggerated tone (that reminds me of a goofy Paxton Whitehead impression for some reason) that Weekend Update is sponsored by “Smitt-Burney” who makes money “the old-fashioned way: we steal it”.  I’d love to know who is doing the voiceover: it’s not Pardo and doesn’t sound like anyone in the cast.
-Best joke: Bad day for the Little Engine That Could.
-The audience gives a lot of applause for Chase sitting at a recreation of the old Weekend Update set from the first seven shows, and he keeps the flashback alive by saying “You still aren’t”.  Unfortunately, his delivery seems to be really lax this time around, with a lot of pauses and speech fillers (“uh”).  Hill & Weingrad mention that when Chase was on the fence about showing up because it might cut into a movie shoot, Ebersol offered to let him fly back from Hollywood on the day of the show.  Whether or not that is what happened is yet to be confirmed, but it would account for why he’s essentially cameoing instead of serving as an official host, as well as for the sloppiness of this week’s Update.  The jokes themselves seem to be an improvement over the Doumanian WUs, though.  I wonder who was writing them, since Brian Doyle-Murray is not credited as a writer this week.
-In light of the allegations Mackenzie Phillips made in her memoir High on Arrival, the joke about her and father John announcing their wedding plans really comes off more disturbing than intended.
-Raheem Abdul Mohammed (Eddie Murphy) gives a review of Stir Crazy that reveals he was watching Altered States instead.  Not one of the better outings for the character, although this is the first time where they establish him as their film critic.  He isn’t quite as angry as he would become, and at the end offers to sell Chase some marijuana.
-Laurie Metcalf makes her only appearance as an SNL featured player in a short “man on the street” film where she asks people if they would take a bullet for the President.  This was an odd segment: it was played completely straight in the wake of the recent assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.  I give them credit for doing something different and tasteful, though.  Once the film ends, the band starts playing and goes to commercial.  Some places list Weekend Update as one segment for this episode, but for the purpose of this review I will list them as two separate bits.
**

WEEKEND UPDATE II: WITH CHEVY CHASE
-Best jokes: Jean Harris, Microwave Baby
-Pardo introduces Chase this time around.  Chase reprises more of his old Weekend Update bits, including the nose picking, Franco Dead (which gets a little applause), the “nations of” joke.  There are a few better jokes than in the other segment but Chase is still half-assing it.
-The “Microwave Baby” joke refers to a Mrs. “Nelson Lyon”, a shout-out to the Telephone Book writer-director, who O’Donoghue would bring onto the writing staff next season.  That joke has to be another Mr. Mike contribution.
-Al Franken brings back his “Al Franken Decade” routine, including his name appearing superimposed whenever he mentions it, to explain the show’s tumultuous season and ask that viewers send letters requesting that NBC “Put SNL To Sleep” (but not before next week’s show with him, Tom Davis and the Grateful Dead).  While Franken says he doesn’t want to be cruel to Jean Doumanian, this bit is essentially SNL formally disavowing the past twelve shows, and the audience applauds Franken for saying he has nothing to do with the new show.  He gets in a dig at Chase (“Then, Chevy left. And the show, of course, got even better”), and doesn’t spare new producer Dick Ebersol either, sarcastically calling him “Mr. Humor” and playing up some questionable shows he brought to the network, such as The Waverly Wonders, Rollergirls, and Joe & Valerie (a promo for the latter’s April 1978 premiere is on Youtube, as well as the Rollergirls opening title sequence).  His conclusion: “he doesn’t know dick” about comedy.
-In a way it does feel like this is a potential final episode, because the Writer’s Guild of America strike had began that day (Chase alludes to it after one of his jokes bomb); knowing the rest of the season (including the Franken & Davis / Grateful Dead show, as well as a Dan Aykroyd-hosted show for April 25) had to be scrapped makes Franken’s commentary seem even more like it’s a part “SNL is dead, long live SNL”, and part pouring gasoline on the studio, lighting a match and walking away.
***

MUSICAL SKETCH: “SAME”
-Irene Cara (Gail Matthius) sings about how tedious it is for her to keep singing “Fame” over the past year.
-What turned out to be Gail Matthius’ last hurrah was a funny parody of “Fame”.  Her singing’s a little dodgy/shouty in this one but the bit was enjoyable and helped increase the show’s energy.
-I especially dug the outro with Matthius and the dancers exiting out of Studio 8H to the music.  Still adds to the “potential last show” feeling though.
***1/2

COMMERCIAL: THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS
-A new NBC series features holier-than-thou professionals one-upping each other on who takes their job the most seriously.
-Probably the best-written sketch all night, despite the tepid audience response.  It built on the joke nicely, with a nice payoff in the form of Eddie Murphy as a patient demanding the right to die with dignity (for a flesh wound).  O’Donoghue’s narration worked for me too.
****

SKETCH: WEDDING DAY
-Italian Papa (Tony Rosato) imparts Old World advice to son Frank (Tim Kazurinsky) on his wedding day, but tensions between the two build to shouting matches.
-A slower, somewhat sweet character piece with a bit more emotional depth.  Rosato does alright, but Kazurinsky is better in the straight role.  I prefer the second appearance of these two characters a little better just because while the obscene gesture fight toward the end of this one was a little funny, the big fight in the other one was a bit more impressive.
**1/2

COMMERCIAL: THE FAMOUS BROADCASTER’S SCHOOL OF CUE-CARD READING
-Pitchman (Joe Piscopo) betrays the quality of the school’s education on discreet card reading and camera switches.
-Pretty one-joke but goofy enough for it to work.  Best part in this was Kazurinsky as the cue-card holder repeatedly turning his head to read the address of the card he’s holding.
-The logo for the school looks so cheap!
***

MISCELLANEOUS: FRIENDS
-Chevy Chase thinks Saturday Night Live is bouncing back, but friends Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams don’t back him up on that.
-Not really going to rate this as it’s mainly a musical guest intro with a few cameos, just thought it warranted a mention.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “HOW SWEET IT IS/WHAT DOES IT TAKE”
-”How Sweet It Is” is a bit more relaxed, but I really thought “What Does It Take” was the best song they did all night, with the band sounding more intense than ever.

COMMERCIAL: WILD COUNTRY GUN CARDS
-Families bond when they learn about different species of firearms together.
-An old sketch: there is a still photo on Gettyimages that shows the original cast performing this sketch (mislabled as the “Lupner skit”) at a dress rehearsal sometime in season 2, with Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin as the parents, and John Belushi and Gilda Radner as the children.  Knowing that kind of ruins the sketch for me because I can’t help but compare Rosato’s more relaxed delivery with how I would imagine Aykroyd would do it.  The casting seems a little odd too (Piscopo is usually the patriarch in family sketches, while Duke usually played children the next season). Dillon actually works in the Radner role, though.  Nice dark ending with them shooting what they thought was a burglar.
-Addendum: Dennis Perrin confirms this was another Michael O’Donoghue sketch.
**1/2

FILM: “BAG LADY”
-Offscreen voices criticize a homeless woman (Denny Dillon) for being derivative of other downtrodden characters in media.
-The film Neil Levy discusses being suckered into taking credit for by Dick Ebersol in Live From New York.  It’s not quite as bad as he makes it out to be: without the overdubbed voices it would have come across as mawkish.  While still pretty unremarkable, it was good enough as a filler piece.
-Matthius and Duke are two of the offscreen voices.  Any idea who the others are?
**

GOODNIGHTS
-Chevy Chase kisses Madge while Kazurinsky thanks the audience.  The chimps’ trainer Dave Sabo joins Chase, the All-Stars and the cast on home base.  Irene Cara (Gail Matthius) and her dancers come down the stairs for a reprise of “Same”.
-The original broadcast ends at the Eaves-Brooks credit and Matthius breaking character to say “You gotta put me down now, Chevy!”.  The full goodnights (on the repeat version aired on Comedy Central) have Matthius and the dancers going around the studio.  The credits are in a different font than normal; acting coach Del Close is credited as “House Metaphysician”.

Final Thoughts:
Not a bad first outing for Dick Ebersol.  A little over-reliant on the nostalgia, yes, and Chase’s lazy performance prevented the Weekend Update doubleheader from being a highlight, but there are no truly bad sketches.  Murphy and Piscopo both appear in one fewer sketch each than new regulars Rosato and Kazurinsky, the latter standing out above the others tonight.  Poor Robin Duke and Laurie Metcalf don’t make as big impressions, while Emily Prager doesn’t even show up in tonight’s show.  This show doesn’t exactly feel much like a triumphant return, though: as I said a few times in the review, this show had a feeling of them knowing it could very well be their last show, and it gives the whole show a bittersweet aura.  Even the use of the 1980-81 home base sets made it feel a little like everyone snuck into an abandoned building right before demolition to have one last party.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
-The Self-Righteous
-Al Franken commentary (Weekend Update II)
-Same
-I Married A Monkey

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:
-Bag Lady
-Weekend Update I

MVP:
Tim Kazurinsky

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:
cast:
Denny Dillon: 4 appearances [Storeroom, Lite Beer, Wild Country Gun Cards, Bag Lady]
Robin Duke: 2 appearances [The Self-Righteous, Wild Country Gun Cards], 1 voiceover [Bag Lady]
Tim Kazurinsky: 5 appearances [Drive For America, I Married A Monkey, The Self-Righteous, Wedding Day, The Famous Broadcaster's School of Cue-Card Reading]
Gail Matthius: 2 appearances [Drive For America, "Same"], 1 voiceover [Bag Lady]
Eddie Murphy: 4 appearances [Lite Beer, Weekend Update I, The Self-Righteous, Wild Country Gun Cards]
Joe Piscopo: 4 appearances [Drive For America, The Self-Righteous, The Famous Broadcaster's School of Cue-Card Reading, Wild Country Gun Cards], 1 voiceover [Lite Beer]
Tony Rosato: 5 appearances [Drive For America, I Married A Monkey, The Self-Righteous, Wedding Day, Wild Country Gun Cards]

featured players:
Laurie Metcalf: 1 appearance [Weekend Update I]
Emily Prager: 0 appearances [credited in montage]

non-cast:
Yvonne Hudson: 1 appearance [Drive For America]
Michael O’Donoghue: 1 voiceover [The Self-Righteous]
Liz Welch: 1 appearance [Lite Beer]

guests:
Jr. Walker & The All-Stars: 2 appearances ["Roadrunner/Shotgun", "How Sweet It Is/What Does It Take?"]
Chevy Chase: 4 appearances [Storeroom, Weekend Update I, Weekend Update II, Friends]
Al Franken: 1 appearance [Weekend Update II]
Christopher Reeve: 1 appearance [Friends]
Robin Williams: 1 appearance [Friends]
Walter Williams: 1 voiceover [Storeroom]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
September 26, 1981
Known alterations: ”Drive For America” and “Bag Lady” are removed; “60 Minutes” from Karen Black (s06e07) and “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood” (s06e11) are added.  Opening montage removes blurry picture of the World Trade Centre and replaces it with a shot originally seen later in the montage; it also segues into I Married A Monkey.  Full closing credits.

Additional screen captures from this episode can be seen here.

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.