Classic SNL Review: October 17, 1981 – George Kennedy / Miles Davis (S07E03)

RATINGS SYSTEM
***** – Undisputed classic
**** – Great
***     – Good/Average
**        - Meh
*          - Bad

NOTE: Summary is in rebroadcast version running order

OPENING: CONTROL ROOM ’81
-While shooting a To Tell The Truth sketch with Regis Philbin, Ron Howard and George Kennedy, the studio cameras begin failing one by one, and ultimately the disaster escalates to the point where the entire control room suffers heart attacks.  It’s up to Kennedy and a lone script girl (Christine Ebersole) to take over the show. -Nice to see a full-fledged cold opening; this is the first time in the season the show had something besides a brief bumper before the opening credits.
-I particularly enjoyed Kennedy referring to the crew as “a bunch of wimps” for having heart attacks during the crisis, as well as Piscopo’s master controlman character getting all snippy with Kennedy for not being in a union.
***

SKETCH: MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
-Mister Robinson hasn’t paid rent in six months, so Mister Landlord (Tim Kazurinsky) serves him with an eviction notice, which brings up the word of the day: “scumbucket”.  Mister Robinson also shows the dress his wife used his money on and takes an imaginary trip to ask the President why he’s so poor.
-A strong second installment of Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood, with enough fresh material in this sketch to keep it from being a rewrite of the first one from the Charlene Tilton show last February.
-Eddie had some good lines in this one, like him cheerfully saying “I’m so glad the bitch is gone” after his wife left him, as well as “How come I sound like Geraldine?” when he was doing the screechy falsetto voice during the Visiting The President puppet show.
-I can’t believe they got away with Eddie basically giving the middle finger to the camera during the puppet show; maybe the faces and hair on the fingers made it excusable to the censor, but I’ve seen so many times where American network TV blurs the middle finger lest anybody be offended by the gesture, even if it’s just a picture or representation of one.  [addendum: on closer inspection it's actually his ring finger he held up]
-The one weak point in this is that I thought the part with him bragging about his wife didn’t have to take the dress off for him to put the footprint on it was a little too tasteless.
****

MUSICAL SKETCH: 53 AT STUDIO 54
-After the doorman (Tony Rosato) turns him away, George Kennedy sings about the perils of the nightlife when you’re middle-aged.
-I thought this was a better song than last week’s lifeboat bit; somewhat of a throwaway still but it still had some good lines like how even Sanka makes him pace the floor.
***

SHOW: A FEW MINUTES WITH ANDY ROONEY: CHOCOLATE
-The 60 Minutes codger (Joe Piscopo) is back with a few thoughts on chocolate and married life with wife Marguerite (Christine Ebersole).
-I thought they brought back Rooney far too soon; the last time was only two weeks before, and if it wasn’t for Christine Ebersole it would have been way too much of a carbon copy of the last one.
-There were a few good lines in there, like how there aren’t any homosexuals named Buster and that Ed Bradley is sort of “white chocolate” himself.
-The audience really reacted well to the line about Rooney fantasizing about Jessica Savitch when he makes love to his wife.
**1/2

COMMERCIAL: VELVET JONES SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY
-Velvet Jones (Eddie Murphy) describes the opportunities that await for graduates of his course: “I Wanna Be A Ho”
-I have to admit Velvet Jones is overrated, but I always like his wooden “local TV pitchman” voice, and Duke’s testimonial was a nice touch.
***

GUEST PERFORMANCE: HARRY ANDERSON: $5 BILL
-Harry Anderson does a few sleight-of-hand tricks with an audience member’s $5 bill, then demonstrates the grapplers that made the illusions possible.
-Good act, and a good companion piece to Michael Davis’ act a few weeks before; I’d put it a little bit lower but Anderson was pretty engaging with his lines like “I’m Harry, but aren’t we all?” and the props like the “pinky grappler” and the “Camel grappler”
-I noticed Anderson actually said “BFD” at one point.
**** 

FILM: “MR. BILL IN L.A.”- WALTER WILLIAMS
-The Play-Doh man gets addicted to cocaine thanks to Sluggo and Mr. Hands and loses his house.  While hitch-hiking back to New York, Mr. Hands suggests a picnic on the San Ansluggo Fault Line.
-With Mr. Bill, you’ve seen one, you’ve pretty much seen them all, and this one didn’t have as many funny moments as the earlier ones.  The audience really reacted well to the film though.
**

COMMERCIAL: SPRAY ON LAETRIL
-Peggy’s (Mary Gross) lung cancer threatens her trip to the prom with Ted (Joe Piscopo), so Gwen (Christine Ebersole) suggests the new drug that comes in “the pump”.
-This was very funny, very tasteless (good tasteless, mind you) stuff from Michael O’Donoghue, made even funnier by the singing cigarette-smoking doctors marching and singing “The pump!” (I believe that was from a hairspray ad from the time).  Even funnier was when Kazurinsky started to spray Murphy and they broke character.
-I love Joe Piscopo’s delivery on the line where he’s just blatantly asking Mary Gross if he can come inside so he could have sex with her.
-Speaking of Gross, some of her facial expressions in this sketch remind me of The State’s Kerri Kenney, particularly at the very end when she’s trying to kiss a non-responsive Joe (who just found out she has syphilis) before conceding with a handshake.
****

SNL NEWSBREAK: WITH BRIAN DOYLE-MURRAY AND MARY GROSS, COMMENTARY BY EDDIE MURPHY AND JUAN GAVINO
-Best jokes: Idi Amin, Big Bird assassination attempt, Lech Walesa.
-The footage of the adult Sesame Street performers trying to calm the pandemonium looked like it must have been very old; the original Gordon (Matt Robinson) was there.
-I was surprised how much better Mary Gross’ delivery was this week, especially considering they yanked her off the desk the next show and had her back intermittently afterwards.
-Another surprising thing: the lack of audience applause for Eddie Murphy when Doyle-Murray introduced him.  I would say this was the best of his first three commentaries, especially the facial expressions he was using to demonstrate why nobody really is too ugly to have sex with.
-Some of the actual jokes weren’t as bad as usual, but there was one about Wayne Newton that just died, at least the second part.  There was also a poorly done joke about everyone in Ireland dying (a rewrite of last week’s joke about Iran) only it had a punchline about England moving blacks and Asians there that also didn’t work.
-Juan Gavino’s (John Candy) forecast for illegal aliens was merely OK, but him “shoving Mexico up the United States” was funny.
**1/2

COMMERCIAL: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES ’81
-George Kennedy plays female impersonator Albin opposite Ugo Tognazzi’s (Tim Kazurinsky) Renato in the newest sequel to the hit play and film.
-This was very funny, especially with George Kennedy’s over-the-top effeminate character.  The main reason it worked so well is because Kazurinsky played off him completely straight and did an excellent job doing so.
****

FILM: “UP AND AT ‘EM”- DOUG WENDT
-After being fed peanut butter, a dog continually licks his mouth.
-To be honest, this film belonged more on “America’s Funniest Home Videos” than SNL.
*

COMMERCIAL: RUBIK’S TEETH
- A new puzzle with a number of dental color combinations.
-Kind of a one joke bit and not that great, but at least it was brief.
**

MUSICAL SKETCH: AN EDITORIAL REPLY
-Marilyn Monroe sings “Downers Are A Girl’s Best Friend” to comment on the continued press sensationalism of her life and death.
-A very well-executed and enjoyably cynical production number with an excellent performance by Mary Gross.  I remember reading someone in a discussion forum mention Gross was actually surprisingly sexy because she could turn it on or off like so; watching this I completely understand.
-This aired later in the live show but was moved earlier in the repeats.
**** 

SKETCH: JAKE THE HIRED HAND
-Jake, The Hired Hand (Tony Rosato) and his employer, widowed landowner Ms. Luke (Robin Duke), experience sexual tension.  Bill Thompson (George Kennedy), the man who killed Ms. Luke’s husband, comes by to take her land, also seeking revenge on Jake for killing his brother.
-This was a lot funnier than I remembered it being; it was still a bit long, but it had enough silliness to it to make it enjoyable.
-The audience had a bit of a delayed reaction to Jake mentioning marauders raping all the cattle; then they give a big one for the callback to it a few lines later when he hears the gang coming and says he’s going to hide the cattle.
-Another funny part was when both Rosato and Kennedy fire their guns at Duke while she’s preaching at them for their constant violence; what makes it funny is the completely unnecessary last shot Rosato shoots after they’ve both shot her multiple times.  And then she gets up to speechify again a moment later.
-Kennedy did seem a little glued to the cue cards in this one.
***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “JEAN PIERRE”
-Miles Davis performs with sidemen Mike Stern on guitar, Marcus Miller on bass, Al Foster on drums, Bill Evans on saxophone and Mino Cinelu on percussion.
-Miles wasn’t in great physical shape tonight and was shuffling around the stage very stiffly; I heard he was dealing with a lot of physical pain related to a hip problem in this performance so that explains a lot.  He also didn’t sound the best but I thought overall it was still a pretty good performance.
-One thing that did bug me was that the camera would just be on Miles’ back or him staring at the band while they were playing their solos.  This is especially noticeable during Stern’s guitar solo.
-It sounds like they cued the applause early and it goes to commercial as the last note is playing.  Considering the performance was earlier in the live show than it is in the rerun I don’t think they would have been short on time.

SKETCH: TUNA MELTS & TYPING
-A janitor (George Kennedy) and secretary (Christine Ebersole) have lunch together; he discusses how life is too short to worry about small things, his admiration for Frank Sinatra and she talks about having trouble typing, and discusses her plans to pay for her own engagement ring.  The janitor argues that doing it this way robs her of the thing she can’t give herself: romance.
-A great Marilyn Suzanne Miller sketch; I thought this succeeded very well at a small, real-life, semi-dramatic piece.  I really liked the ending of this one with the Helen O’Connell song playing and Kennedy musing sadly that life is too short.
-Very good characterization from Kennedy as the older janitor and especially Ebersole as the slightly shallow secretary obsessed with Marilu Henner.
*****

GOODNIGHTS
-Kennedy mentions if he could adopt seven more kids, he’d adopt the whole cast.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
A definite improvement over the previous week’s show and one of the better shows of the season.  Two of Eddie Murphy’s most famous sketches are in this episode, but I found the real highlights to be some of the long-overlooked sketches like Tuna Melts & Typing and La Cage Aux Folles ’81.  As usual with this season, some of the material did feel filler-ish or just fell flat, but overall it had a stronger hit-to-miss ratio and was a fairly solid show by this season’s standards.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
-Tuna Melts & Typing
-Spray-On Laetril
-Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood
-An Editorial Reply
-Harry Anderson
-La Cage Aux Folles ’81

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS
-Up And At ‘Em
-A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney
-Mr. Bill In L.A.
-Rubik’s Teeth
-some jokes in SNL Newsbreak

MVP
-Tim Kazurinsky

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN
main cast
Robin Duke: 2 appearances [Velvet Jones School of Technology, Jake The Hired Hand]
Christine Ebersole: 4 appearances [Control Room '81, A Few Moments with Andy Rooney, Spray-On Laetril, Tuna Melts & Typing]
Mary Gross:  3 appearances [Spray-On Laetril, SNL Newsbreak, An Editorial Reply]
Tim Kazurinsky:  3 appearances [Mister Robinson's Neighborhood, Spray-On Laetril, La Cage Aux Folles '81]
Eddie Murphy:  4 appearances [Mister Robinson's Neighborhood, Velvet Jones School of Technology, Spray-On Laetril, SNL Newsbreak]
Joe Piscopo: 4 appearances [Control Room '81, A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney, Spray-On Laetril, Rubik's Teeth]
Tony Rosato: 3 appearances [53 At Studio 54, Spray-On Laetril, Jake The Hired Hand]

featured players
Brian Doyle-Murray: 1 appearance [SNL Newsbreak]

non-cast
Dave Wilson: 1 appearance [Control Room '81]

guests
George Kennedy: 5 appearances [Control Room '81, 53 At Studio 54, La Cage Aux Folles '81, Jake The Hired Hand, Tuna Melts & Typing]
Miles Davis: 1 appearance ["Jean Pierre"]
Harry Anderson: 1 appearance [Guest performance]
Regis Philbin: 1 appearance [Control Room '81]
Ron Howard: 1 appearance [Control Room '81]
John Candy: 1 appearance [SNL Newsbreak]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
November 28, 1981
June 12, 1982
Known alterations: Exxico opening bumper is removed from the cold opening. 

Classic SNL Review: October 10, 1981: Susan Saint James / The Kinks (Episode S07E02)

RATINGS SYSTEM
*****  - Undisputed classic
****    - Great
***      - Good/Average
**        - Meh
*          - Bad

OPENING: EXXICO: YESTERDAY’S TECHNOLOGY
-SNL sponsor Exxico brings you yesterday’s technology at tomorrow’s prices
-A little weaker than last week’s opening; not quite as much sting as the jab at NBC.
**1/2

MONOLOGUE/SKETCH: MACDONALD AND WIFE
-Susan Saint James clears up a few misconceptions regarding her TV work and gives the audience a chance to vote on the obligatory “host sketch”, a spoof of McMillan and Wife.  Ronald McDonald (Joe Piscopo) bests Douglas MacArthur (Tim Kazurinsky) and MacBeth (Tony Rosato); in “McDonald and Wife”, Ronald and Sally solve a murder while using McWords in bed.
-Susan Saint James did come across as very cute and likeable in the monologue, but it wasn’t particularly memorable or funny.  The main point of the monologue was more of a preamble to the McDonald and Wife sketch which is why I combined the two segments for the purposes of this review.
-Good lord, was Joe Piscopo’s Ronald McDonald makeup garish or what?
-The actual “host sketch” wasn’t particularly funny either (very one-joke) but the sex references (such as the scene at the beginning with Sally under the covers exclaiming “I can’t find it!”) seem very envelope-pushing, especially for early 80s network TV.
-I did kind of chuckle at the MacNeil/Lehrer and Wife art card at the end (just the look Saint James seems to be giving to Robert MacNeil).
**

 

COMMERCIAL: BUH-WEET SINGS
-Buckwheat, the Little Rascal (Eddie Murphy) is grown up and has a new record to promote, but he still pronounces words the way he always has.
-Eddie didn’t have to say anything to get a laugh, as the audience really reacted well to the visual of Eddie Murphy in the wig and suspenders.
-This is one of those sketches that is so well-known and used as the representative for Eddie Murphy’s SNL career so often that it’s a little too familar.
-Like Little Richard Simmons, it was a very simple premise (actually, pretty much the one joke) but executed very well.  The song titles like “Fee Tines A Mady” and “Barbah Ob Dabill” being put on-screen actually helped the joke a lot.
-I did like the “????” caption for the Buckwheatized “Bette Davis Eyes”.
-I’d say this is classic, but there were some later sketches with Buckwheat that were a little better done and more creative than this (particularly the whole assassination storyline from season 8).
****1/2

SKETCH: THE BIZARRO WORLD: THE BLACK HOUSE
-Michael O’Donoghue introduces us to a parallel world that replicates Earth events and customs backwards.  A visit to the Trapezoid Office in the Black House shows that Bizarro President (Joe Piscopo) does a lot of things the same way as Earth’s Ronald Reagan.
-A very good sketch, although the best material was when the Bizarro President finally entered the office after the setup.  The “Be Cruel To Animals Week” with Eddie Murphy holding the axe while calling “Here, kitty kitty kitty” was hilarious though.  Very O’Donoghue.
-Favorite parts from the Trapezoid Office sequence: Last Lady (Christine Ebersole) saying she’s off to visit her masculine son, Bizarro President being told to react to the crisis by going to sleep, and the cabinet appointment scene with a very nasty dig at Al Haig (“For Secretary of State, scary man with morals of a styrofoam cup.”)
-I noticed a few errors in the live version but I can’t remember if they were fixed in the rerun (which is the source of the 60-minute episode): in the first example, Mary Gross starts speaking a little too early before pausing and waiting for Robin Duke to finish.  You can also see Mary and Robin start to swap places and put on their Bizarro masks for a second, and the camera switch takes a few seconds before they’re visible again when they’re finally ready to talk.
-Nice touch with the aides leaving through the window they broke when they dirtied up the office.
****

FILM: BUTTON
-Passersby are given a choice of two buttons to push.  One is for a crosswalk light: the other is to explode a building across the street.  Tom Davis doesn’t look at which one he presses.
-Kind of a predictable ending but it was structured pretty well (rule of three).  I did like Davis’ panicked reactions when he realizes what button he pushed.
**1/2 

MUSICAL SKETCH: HERE IN A LIFEBOAT WITH YOU
-As their ocean liner sinks in the background, a couple finds romance in a lifeboat.
-Very cheesy and a bit too much like a bad variety show sketch, especially the pose at the end.  There were a few things that helped make it a little darkly funny like them beating back the man who keeps trying to climb into the lifeboat, and I did like the line “Not to be rude, but what’ll we do for food?”
**

SKETCH: SHE’S A PIG
-Ellen (Mary Gross) runs into ex-boyfriend Peter (Tim Kazurinsky) at a restaurant and meets his new fiancée, Paulette (Robin Duke), a loud, trashy and rude woman.
-I actually find that Mary Gross’ very meek delivery on her lines made them even funnier, especially the stuff about her slashing her wrists after the breakup, as well as all the lines where she’s giving her opinion on Paulette (the audience really liked her initial “She’s a pig!”)
-Robin was pretty enjoyable as Paulette, especially her sticking her nail in the drink and wiping her armpits with a napkin.  Christine Ebersole was also good as Kazurinsky’s Pig-like mother.
***1/2

FILM: LET’S SEE WHAT’S BOTHERING BOB
-In an educational film, the narration tries to find out why a 1950′s-style suburban father (Brian McConnachie) is distracted and agitated.
-This is the second segment in a row where Mary Gross’ character is named Ellen.
-The audience was mostly dead for this; I’d say this film wasn’t as bad as the audiences’ reaction would imply but it was merely alright.  As a satire of those 50′s educational films it was pretty well done (particularly the narration), even though the chainsaw ending did seem a little too much like a weaker stab at black humor.
-I did like the not particularly forceful kick Bob gives his car.
**1/2.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “DESTROYER”
-There’s another tech error in the intro…you can’t see Saint James while she’s talking until the last second or so.  I remember in the 60-minute show they switched the order of the two performances and cut the intro so it seems like they just start playing.
-The song is basically “All Day And All Of The Night 2″ but I’ve always enjoyed this song and performance.

SNL NEWSBREAK: BRIAN DOYLE-MURRAY AND MARY GROSS, WEATHER WITH CHRISTINE EBERSOLE, COMMENTARY BY JOE PISCOPO AND EDDIE MURPHY
-Best joke: John Hinckley
-This is the second time they did the gag with the letters breaking off and falling on Doyle-Murray.  A definitely unneeded running gag and a classic example of diminishing returns.  I can’t remember when they finally stopped with that opening gag.
-The audience really seemed to enjoy the idea of every person in Iran being dead in that one joke.  Kind of an interesting reaction.
-The Senesia Floods film item was one-joke and not particularly funny but I did like a couple of the throwaway lines (like the country having a Fiat factory).
-Christine Ebersole’s segment wasn’t very good either; they’ve done the whole “come out for something and get distracted to the point where they never get to doing what they intend to” far too many times on the show (basically, the whole point of “What Up With That”).  Whether it works or not depends on the execution, but it just kind of dragged.
-The audience seemed to pick up for Joe Piscopo’s Saturday Night Sports segment.  I’ve always thought these were alright and Joe did have a good visual aide with the bobbleheads, especially the few seconds at the end where he’s bobbling his own head and Doyle-Murray bobbles for a second as well.
-Eddie’s segment with the Reagan fan mail was pretty funny, especially his facial expression as he realized that the jokes that Reagan included were all racist, as well as Doyle-Murray laughing beside him.
-Mary Gross’ editorial suggesting potential assassins go kill themselves actually worked because of her delivery.  She wasn’t a particularly good fit for the news anchor position but the juxtaposition of her almost cheerful delivery and what she was saying worked.
-Stronger guest material at times but most of the jokes were still dreadfully bad.
** 

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “SINGLE WOMEN”
-Christine Ebersole sings Michael O’Donoghue’s “Single Women”, a bittersweet country-tinged ballad about the loneliness and emptiness in the world of singles bars.
-I still can’t believe this song was written by the same man who wrote “Boulevard of Broken Balls”.  It’s actually a very good song, very melancholy.
-Christine Ebersole did an excellent job singing here, and the audience reaction at the end really shows they were impressed.
-This is the second time they use the same set from “She’s A Pig” tonight.
*****

 

SKETCH: HONEYMOON VIRGIN
-In their hotel room, newlyweds Billy (Tony Rosato) and Sharon (Susan Saint James) prepare to make love; Sharon surprises Billy at the last minute by revealing she’s still a virgin at 31.
-Kind of a sweet, low-key sketch, even though it wasn’t very memorable or funny.
-Rosato did sound a lot like Jerry Seinfeld when he was talking about how her inexperience means the onus was now on him to be incredible.
-I did like how the sketch ended with Saint James jumping onto the bed in the same way Rosato was about to when she admitted her virginity to him.
**1/2

SKETCH: CHEAP LAFFS
-Tim Kazurinsky explains that some pieces don’t make it in the show just because they’re so incredibly cheap, and shows us an example: an ad for Sta-Free Peenie Pads, a product that helps men prevent “trouser tracks”.
-I really enjoyed this.  It wasn’t lazy like when the current writers try to do sophomoric body-function sketches, and a good energetic performance from Joe Piscopo as the pitchman.|
-Third appearance of the “She’s A Pig” set.
**** 

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “ART LOVER”
-A very pretty song with ambiguous lyrics about a man in the park who is obsessed with a young girl: it could either be about a pedophile or a man who has lost his own daughter.  I’ve always taken it to be the latter.

FILM: ANDY WARHOL’S TV: DEATH
-Warhol discusses the glamour of death while having makeup applied; his face becomes more and more pixellated as the film goes on.
-I kind of found some of Warhol’s random comments amusing but it really is more of a “WTF” piece; it just kind of ends randomly.
*1/2

COMMERCIAL: ALAN ALDA’S SENSITIVITY TRAINING FOR MEN
-A macho pig (Tony Rosato) repulses women that he hits on; the bartender (Tim Kazurinsky) suggests that cultivating an image of sensitivity with Alan Alda’s book is the best way to pick up women.
-Kind of funny, especially Kazurinsky’s promise to Rosato that he’ll be “drilling pipe like a demon”.  A bit of a late-show throwaway.
-This is the fourth sketch tonight with that same set from “She’s A Pig”.
**1/2

FILM: ASSASSINATION AFTERMATH
-An emotional janitor cleans the site of Anwar Sadat’s assassination, still littered with bloody newspapers and some of Sadat’s personal belongings.
-Very heavy material for a comedy show.  Was Sadat’s assassination really that huge back in 1981?  I would assume so, but I don’t think SNL has ever commented on any political assassinations besides this one in such a serious manner.  Just imagine Quentin Tarantino introducing a film about Yitzhak Rabin on his 1995 gig.
-I really could have done without the dove with the bullet hole in it; such a ham-fisted image and it ruined the film for me, which is a shame because the lack of dialogue and the sad middle eastern music did work though.
-This may be my dark streak speaking but when I first saw him look at the glasses, I half expected him to put them on and do a Ray Charles impression.
*1/2.

GOODNIGHTS
-Susan Saint James declares “Saturday Night is back!”; Mel Brandt announces that the next show will be George Kennedy and Miles Davis.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Some strong material again this week, but there was a lot more weaker/mediocre material than I remembered.  The first appearance of Buckwheat is the sketch everyone remembers, and there was some funny material in The Bizarro World and Cheap Laffs, but the one thing I thought was the true highlight of the show was “Single Women”.  There was still quite a lot of mediocre material, especially on SNL Newsbreak; I’d say it was a more even show than the premiere but overall it wasn’t as good.  Saint James was alright but didn’t really do a whole lot (she did marry executive producer Dick Ebersol the day the show was first rebroadcast, though).

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
-“Single Women”
-Buh-Weet Sings
-Cheap Laffs
-The Bizarro World

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS
-Assassination Aftermath
-Andy Warhol’s TV
-Here In A Lifeboat With You
-McDonald and Wife
-the first half or so of SNL Newsbreak

MVP:
Tie: Mary Gross/Tim Kazurinsky

CAST / GUEST APPEARANCE BREAKDOWN
main cast
Robin Duke: 3 appearances [The Bizarro World, She's A Pig, Cheap Laffs]
Christine Ebersole: 6 appearances [The Bizarro World, She's A Pig, SNL Newsbreak, "Single Women", Cheap Laffs, Alan Alda's Sensitivity Training For Men]
Mary Gross: 5 appearances [The Bizarro World, She's A Pig, Let's See What's Bothering Bob, SNL Newsbreak, Alan Alda's Sensitivity Training For Men]
Tim Kazurinsky: 5 appearances [Monologue/McDonald and Wife, The Bizarro World, She's A Pig, Cheap Laffs, Alan Alda's Sensitivity Training For Men]
Eddie Murphy: 3 appearances [Buh-Weet Sings, The Bizarro World, SNL Newsbreak]
Joe Piscopo: 5 appearances [Monologue/McDonald and Wife, The Bizarro World, Here In A Lifeboat With You, SNL Newsbreak, Cheap Laffs]
Tony Rosato: 5 appearances  [Monologue/McArthur and Wife, The Bizarro World, Honeymoon Virgin, Cheap Laffs, Alan Alda's Sensitivity Training For Men]

featured players:
Brian Doyle-Murray: 2 appearances [The Bizarro World, SNL Newsbreak]

non-cast:
Tom Davis: 1 appearance [The Button]
Brian McConnachie 1 appearance [Let's Find Out What's Bothering Bob]
Andy Murphy: 1 appearance [Sensitivity Training For Men]
Michael O’Donoghue [The Bizarro World]

guests, cameos and filmed cameos:
Susan Saint James: 3 appearances [Monologue/McDonald and Wife, Here In A Lifeboat With You, Honeymoon Virgin]
The Kinks: 2 appearances
Andy Warhol: 1 appearance

REBROADCAST HISTORY
November 21, 1981
July 17, 1982

More video captures of the show are available here.

Classic SNL Review: Oct 3, 1981: (no host) / Rod Stewart (S07E01)

RATINGS SYSTEM
*****- Undisputed classic
****  - Great
***    - Good/Average
**      -  Meh
*        -  Bad

COLD OPENING:  NBC ID
-A brief station ID spoof: “NBC: Our Age Is Showing”

-Brief and funny.  I did like the graphic of the faded, molting peacock logo sitting on the old NBC N logo.
***

OPENING MONTAGE
-Just an observation, but I always thought Mel Brandt’s voice over suited the griminess of this montage better than Don Pardo’s did.

SHOW: THE LITTLE RICHARD SIMMONS SHOW
-Eddie Murphy plays effeminate exercise guru Little Richard Simmons, who leads four women and the studio audience in a workout to reworked versions of classic Little Richard songs.
-Right away, Eddie shows he’s in control of the new Saturday Night Live.  This was a very good way to get the energy level up for the show and it was a great execution of a simple premise.
-My particular favorite parts were his advice to the heavyset blonde woman (“Never wear battleship gray.  2000 sailors will try to board you.”) and him going up to the very overweight crew members (“You girls have let yourselves go!”).  For some reason I also find Yvonne Hudson’s expressions and movements funny too.
-The sax player wearing  a leotard and shorts as well was a nice touch.
-Eddie looked like he was breaking character a few times here.
****

COMMERCIAL: THE CLAMS
-Brian DePalma’s latest film bears more than a passing resemblance to Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”
-Very well done, especially the scenes with the silly looking stop motion clams being cut in with the panicked crowds of children.
-Great line: “Once a year, Brian De Palma picks the bones of a dead director and gives his wife a job!”
***1/2

SKETCH: NUNS ON VACATION
-On vacation, Robin Duke finds that her fellow nun (Mary Gross) got into the order by way of a multiple choice exam at Bob’s Ecumenical College.
-The audience was fairly dead for this one, and it was a fairly slight premise.  It felt more like something that would have been done in an improv stage show than a lead-off sketch on a TV program.  The ending was weak too.
-That said, there were a few funny lines in this one from Gross’ character (“Well, she could be a slut!”).
-Was that Del Close as the voice of “God”?  It sounds a lot like him.
** 

SHOW: A FEW MINUTES WITH ANDY ROONEY: SHOES
-The 60 Minutes coot opines for a few minutes about different types of footwear, his voice, Morley Safer’s name, Mike Wallace, the sun
- I thought Piscopo’s Rooney was a bit too broad and cartoonish (I think Norm MacDonald had the best impression overall), but it did accurately capture how pointless his 60 Minutes segments are.
-There were a few good lines like the one about there not being any Nazis named “Steve”, Mike Wallace being a jackass and how irritating Rooney’s own voice is.
***

FILM: PROSE AND CONS
-People like magazine editor Terry McDonnell and literary agent Irving “Swifty” Lazar agree: prisons are becoming the latest hotbed of budding literary talent.  Maximum Security inmate Tyrone Green (Eddie Murphy) reads his award-winning poem.
-A very well done short film; definitely the first classic of the entire season.
-I’ve always loved the guy telling his agent that “People who watch Merv Griffin don’t read books!  Any agent in the business knows that!”
-Eddie Murphy walks away with the whole thing when he reads the poem “Kill My Landlord”.  The audience response when he gets to the part “C-I-L-L My land-lord!” is so big, the laughter and applause practically drowns out the last word in the poem (“Death!”).
-The Norman Mailer / Jack HenryAbbott credits at the end refer to a then-current news story where Mailer and other critics had championed prisoner Abbott’s literary talent and got him released from prison, only for Abbott to fatally stab someone six weeks after his release.  The film still holds up despite the topical reference, but until I got the background it just seemed like a silly throwaway gag.
*****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “DANCE WITH ME”, “HOT LEGS”
-As a rule I won’t rate the actual musical performance but I will give some thoughts if I feel the performance warrants it.
-The guitar seems to be mixed significantly louder than the other instruments and particularly Rod’s vocals which kind of made it hard to enjoy.
-Did anyone else pick up Rod singing the lyric “Why the fuck is she ignoring me?”
-I’ve always thought the thing with two people singing into the same mic (in this case two of Rod’s backup musicians) to be incredibly cheesy.
-Stewart’s second song was better mainly because of the surprise guest appearance by Tina Turner.

SNL NEWSBREAK: BRIAN DOYLE-MURRAY AND MARY GROSS, COMMENTARY BY RAHEEM ABDUL MOHAMMED
Best joke: C. Everett Koop.
-Was there supposed to be a voiceover during the intro?  It seemed like there might have been a technical error during the live show.
-The gag with the letters in “NEWSBREAK” breaking off and falling on Brian Doyle-Murray was amusing at first but it was not something they needed to bring back every week.  See the upcoming reviews for more thoughts on this.
-The jokes themselves weren’t very good.  The introduction where Gross and Doyle-Murray were explaining they were co-anchorpersons who haven’t decided what sex they would be fell flat, as well as a lot of the jokes.  The big exception was the joke making fun of Koop’s pro-life beliefs (he started work immediately because he believed his term begins at nomination) which got a healthy response from the audience.
-Doyle-Murray’s delivery never really bothered me or anything but Gross was a poor match for the newsdesk, particularly at first because her delivery is so slow and hesitant, still kind of intimidated by the TV camera.
-The best part of the news segment was the fake clip from a retooled Tomorrow show, with Tom Snyder (Joe Piscopo) wearing a mustache and talking rapid-fire spanish.  Snyder was definitely one of Piscopo’s better impressions, and the clip actually reminded me a lot of Bill Hader as Vinny Vedecci.
-the commentary by Eddie Murphy as his Raheem Abdul Mohammed character wasn’t one of his better ones and started off quite slow.  It did pick up as it went on.  Eddie also broke character a couple of times, specifically when he was talking about Isaac Hayes proving he could act in Truck Turner, and right after he ended his commentary.
-The audience also laughed pretty hard at the way Eddie said “Thank you, Mary Gross” in his Raheem voice.
** 

COMMERCIAL: THE KHADDAFFI LOOK
-In a spoof of a then-current ad campaign for Jordache, the Libyan leader’s clothing line is the preferred fashion choice for revolutionaries and terrorists everywhere.
-For some reason this commercial has a different look to it than the other film segments that were done for the show before; much cleaner and modern looking.
-Well done visually but it wasn’t especially funny.
**1/2.

SKETCH: STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT
-In the middle of the night, Ruth (Robin Duke) gets a phone call with bad news about her father.  Adding to her troubles is Rod (Tim Kazurinsky), an oblivious and self-absorbed creep who she just had a one night stand with; he doesn’t seem to get the message that she is not interested in him in the least and wants him to leave her apartment.
-This is obviously a Marilyn Suzanne Miller piece; Miller wrote a lot of quieter character pieces for the show from 1975-78, and they weren’t necessarily laugh out loud sketches but they were usually excellent at true-to-life characterization and chances for the actors to stretch.   Kazurinsky’s Rod kind of reminds me a little of the character Dan Aykroyd played in Luncheonette Reunion about five years before, a grown-up nerd who is not particularly clued in to the fact that his chance reunion with a high school cheerleader is more thrilling for him than it is for her.
-Excellent performances from both Kazurinsky and Duke in this sketch.  Kazurinsky makes Rod irritating and clueless but at the same time keeps him enjoyable to watch, while Duke has several great reactions to Kazurinsky, especially the part where Rod is crawling over to the side of the bed where Ruth’s sobbing, and Ruth turns around to glare at him and fume “WHO ARE YOU?”.  She did a very good job with a particulatly difficult role.
-I also liked the  little details in the sketch, like Rod’s particularly tacky smiley face t-shirt and him blowing smoke rings in the background as Ruth’s getting the phone call about her father.
****1/2

SKETCH: STRANGERS IN THE FUNERAL PARLOR
-A continuation of the previous sketch.  Ruth is at her father’s wake dealing with hyper-critical Aunt Edie (Mary Gross) and obnoxious Uncle Ed (Tony Rosato).  Things go from bad to worse when Rod shows up.
-Kazurinsky and Duke were playing the same characters the same way; I can’t really comment a whole lot more on their performances, but I did think Duke had some good lines in there (“Rod, you’re such a tool.”)
-I did think that awful blue leisure suit Rod was wearing was a nice touch; it describes a whole lot about the character.
-Gross’ performance was still fairly weak and her character got no laughs from the audience; the audience responded to Rosato a lot better, in fact, Rosato’s delivery on one particular line made the whole sketch (when Rod mentions the hotel he’s staying at, Uncle Ed cuts in with “You’ll like that hotel, I’ve been there myself.”)
-A little weaker than the first part but still well done.
***1/2.

FILM: ANDY WARHOL’S TV: WARHOL ON SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
-Warhol discusses being approached for SNL, gives his thoughts about comedy and tells a joke.
-I did find the audience’s big laugh at the part where Warhol says that he hates the show funny, and I did laugh at the joke but this really felt more like an oddity than anything else.
*1/2.

GUEST PERFORMANCE: MICHAEL DAVIS
-Davis demonstrates his juggling ability with a machete, an ax and a cleaver.
-Easily the highlight of the whole show; Davis had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand with his excellent dry delivery and timing.  He also did a good job at building suspense to the actual juggling section.
-Davis also had some excellent lines as well (“People don’t take you seriously with just one ball”).
*****

HOME MOVIES: FEATURING “SEASON OF GLASS”, A FILM BY YOKO ONO
-Christine Ebersole stands on home base and asks audience members to submit their home movies for a chance to have them aired on national TV.  This segues into this week’s “Home Movie” from Yoko Ono.  ”Goodbye Sadness” plays over home movies of her and John Lennon as well as footage of the memorial vigil on December 14, 1980; Yoko recites a poem during the instrumental break.
-Was this a way to plug the album?  The image of Lennon’s bloody glasses next to the half-full glass of water against the NYC skyline is the album cover for “Season Of Glass”
-There’s a shot of John and Yoko with the World Trade Center in the background (it looks like it was still being completed at the time it was filmed).  Kind of chilling in retrospect.
-The impact of the short may have been a lot bigger when it originally aired (less than a year after Lennon’s murder), but I’ve always felt the footage of the vigil being timed to the “Winter comes” line in the poem still is pretty moving.
**1/2. 

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “YOUNG TURKS”

GOODNIGHTS
-The cast and Michael Davis stand at home base.  Over the closing theme, Mel Brandt announces that next week’s guests are Susan Saint James and Rickie Lee Jones (Jones backed out and was replaced by The Kinks before the show went to air).

FINAL THOUGHTS
A strong, if uneven, start to the new season.  The strongest material in this episode is easily much better than the strongest material in the season before, and one sketch in particular (“Prose and Cons” is now widely recognized as a classic Eddie Murphy piece.  The experimental format-breaking stuff was hit or miss: I did like the Strangers In The Night/Funeral Parlor 2-part sketch but the Warhol’s TV didn’t do much for me at all, and the Yoko film was a little out-of-place here.  SNL Newsbreak was also a weak spot in the show and unfortunately the Ebersol years were not known for particularly strong news segments.  It does still feel like a much more competent, confident show than what was being put on the season before.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
-Guest Performance: Michael Davis
-Prose and Cons
-Strangers In The Night
-The Little Richard Simmons Show
-Strangers In The Funeral Parlor

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS
-Andy Warhol’s TV
-most of SNL Newsbreak
-Nuns on Vacation

MVP
Eddie Murphy / Michael Davis

CAST / GUEST APPEARANCE BREAKDOWN
main cast
Robin Duke: 3 appearances  [Nuns on Vacation, Strangers In The Night, Strangers In The Funeral Parlor]
Christine Ebersole: 2 appearances [Strangers In The Funeral Parlor, Home Movies intro]
Mary Gross: 3 appearances [Nuns on Vacation,  SNL Newsbreak, Strangers in the Funeral Parlor]
Tim Kazurinsky:  2 appearances [Strangers In The Night, Strangers In The Funeral Parlor]
Eddie Murphy: 3 appearances [The Little Richard Simmons Show, Prose and Cons, SNL Newsbreak]
Joe Piscopo: 3 appearances [A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney, SNL Newsbreak, Strangers In The Funeral Parlor]
Tony Rosato:  1 appearance [Strangers In The Funeral Parlor]

featured players:
Brian Doyle-Murray: 1 appearance [SNL Newsbreak]

non-cast:
Yvonne Hudson: 1 appearance [The Little Richard Simmons Show]
Andy Murphy: 1 appearance [Strangers In The Funeral Parlor]

guests, cameos and filmed cameos:
Rod Stewart: 2 appearances
Tina Turner: 1 appearance
Michael Davis: 1 appearance
Andy Warhol: 1 appearance

REBROADCAST HISTORY:
December 26, 1981
July 10, 1982
Known alterations: Nuns on Vacation replaced with Sugar Breakfast (S07E04).

SNL Up Close: 1981-82

Lorne Michaels produced or executive produced all but five seasons of Saturday Night Live; the gap bridges the original “classic” five-year run of the show and the often lambasted but underrated 1985-86 season.  For various reasons these five seasons are relatively underrepresented in reruns and the assorted compilations Michaels’ production company has assembled over the years.  Aside from Eddie Murphy’s breakthrough sketches and the all-star cast of 1984-85 that included Billy Crystal, Martin Short and Christopher Guest, most of these shows have fallen into relative obscurity.

The 1981-82 season, while not considered a great year for the show, was a rebirth for SNL.  Taking over the show after Jean Doumanian produced twelve generally reviled episodes, NBC executive Dick Ebersol took over the show and actively sought Lorne Michaels’ blessing to continue; he also attempted to bring back as many original writers as he could to the show, although only succeeding in getting back Michael O’Donoghue (installed as a producer with Bob Tischler), Marilyn Suzanne Milller and Rosie Shuster.   Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo flourished even in the Doumanian shows and were kept to anchor a new cast.  Three new featured players were brought on board from Second City to replaced the fired Ann Risley, Gilbert Gottfried and Charles Rocket: from Toronto and late of SCTV, Tony Rosato and Robin Duke (an 11th-hour replacement after original pick Catherine O’Hara was scared off by O’Donoghue), and from Chicago, writer-performer Tim Kazurinsky.  A long writers’ strike after Ebersol’s first show in April 1981 meant he could fine-tune the show and make further changes, dropping two more Doumanian castmembers (Gail Matthius and Denny Dillon), adding Christine Ebersole and Mary Gross, as well as bumping writer Brian Doyle-Murray back into an onscreen role.

There were a lot of things unique to the 1981-82 season.  The practice of opening the show with “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” was stopped entirely, while announcer Don Pardo was fired in favor of the late NBC announcer Mel Brandt, the voice who announced that shows on NBC in the 60s were in living color.   Monologues were also done away with for the most part and replace with a “talent entrance”, the host posing with the entire cast on the main stage.  The show would revert back to its classic format the next season, hiring back Don Pardo and phasing the opening phrase back in.

I’m going to be posting reviews of episodes from this season in chronological order.   I see the season divided into three parts: the run where O’Donoghue was on board is the strongest part of the season, and after he was fired over the Christmas break there was a tremendous drop in quality.  The show did get a bit of its creative energy back after March, although it had become a blander, safer show than the original series.  The next season was more consistent in terms of quality and built upon this upsurge.

I’m going to try to get this all done before the next season starts.  It’ll be fun to rewatch the season.  Here is a tentative schedule (always subject to change):
July 3/4:
October 3, 1981: (no host) / Rod Stewart
October 10, 1981: Susan Saint James / The Kinks
July 10/11:
October 17, 1981: George Kennedy / Miles Davis
October 31, 1981: Donald Pleasance / Fear
July 17/18:
November 7, 1981: Lauren Hutton / Rick James & The Stone City Band
November 14, 1981: Bernadette Peters / Billy Joel, The Go-Gos
July 24/25:
December 5, 1981: Tim Curry / Meat Loaf
December 12, 1981: Bill Murray / The Spinners, 1982 Whiffenpoofs of Yale
August 14/15:
January 23, 1982: Robert Conrad / The Allman Brothers Band
January 30, 1982: John Madden / Jennifer Holliday
August 21/22:
February 6, 1982: James Coburn / Lindsey Buckingham & The Cholos
February 20, 1982: Bruce Dern / Luther Vandross
August 28/29:
February 27, 1982: Elizabeth Ashley / Daryl Hall & John Oates
March 20, 1982: Robert Urich / Mink DeVille
September 4/5:
March 27, 1982: Blythe Danner / Rickie Lee Jones
April 10, 1982: Daniel J. Travanti / John Cougar
September 11/12:
April 17, 1982: Johnny Cash / Elton John
April 24, 1982: Robert Culp / The Charlie Daniels Band
September 18/19:
May 15, 1982: Danny DeVito / Sparks
May 22, 1982: Olivia Newton-John