Disclaimer – “Jacques Costeau Gets an Undersea Enema” is
being pre-empted. This seemed like one of the lazier ones. D+
Modern Crimes – This is a silent movie about the two Swedish
men (Aykroyd, Belushi) who robbed the grave of Charlie Chaplin (Radner) as they
try to elude a policeman (Murray) by propping Chaplin up on a bench with them.
This was cleverly written and well-acted on Gilda’s part. I also liked the use
of a dialogue card to silently introduce the show as well as the ones that said
simple things like “No Loitering. This is Switzerland” and “Let’s Get Out Of
Here.” B-
Monologue – Garfunkel immediately goes into a performance of
“Wonderful World” when his amp suddenly gives him some feedback. Belushi comes
on stage to rail on how they get the cheapest equipment and how shabbily
they’re treated just for being a late night show. Art says he didn’t want to
make trouble with the network and John warns him not to cave in to the network
and chews him out in one of his patented “BUT NOOOOO!” speeches for the path
his music career has taken, but still allows him to finish his opening number.
This was great even though this has to be the most visibly sweaty we’ve seen
John all season. Belushi was very funny here saying how NBC was just using them
and I especially liked his line about how Garret shouldn’t have to get up early
and drive Jane Pauley to work. It was also nice to see a musical number and a
sketch combined in such a way. We haven’t seen something like this since and I
doubt we’ll ever see it again. A-
Kromega III – Rerun from Steve Martin/Jackson Browne
(9/24/1977)
Tomorrow VI – Tom Snyder (Aykroyd) interviews anonymous
guest “Frank” (Garfunkel) who is a battered husband. Snyder accidentally reveals
his true identity, occupation, physical statistics and that his real name is
Andy Strauss by the end of the interview. This might have been in questionable
taste, but the performances really sold it. I liked Garfunkel’s line about how
“others masturbate and cry alone” like him and Aykroyd calling him a “battered
masturbator” and his line about losing his eyebrows. C+
Miracle in Chicago – In Chicago bar the week before St.
Patrick’s Day, an Irish bartender (Aykroyd) and a construction worker (Murray)
are complaining that the jukebox doesn’t have “Turah Lurah Lurah” and question
whether or not Mayor Richard Daley (Belushi) will appear when he suddenly
appears in this bar and says God told him to reconsider his “one vote, one
turkey” policy. He says the new mayor should add giblet gravy, cranberry sauce,
etc. before calling to get “Turah Lurah Lurah” on the jukebox (as sung by
Pardo). This sketch feels pretty dated and stuck in a certain time period, but
I still like it even though the “turkey” joke was a bit lame. Also, I believe
this was the only time Pardo ever delivered a straight song performance on SNL.
B-
KISS Concert – Backstage at a KISS concert, road manager
Steve Parrish (Belushi) is keeping fans behind barricades and keeping those not
on the guest list out. Newman is a groupie who flew in from LA without a ticket
and claims to be a friend of Peter Criss and hits on him and even she doesn’t
get in. Paul Stanley’s brother, Angus (Garfunkel) claims to have bailed out
over the city and still doesn’t get in. “Dr. Bob” (Davis) carrying a tanker of
laughing gas gets in because he is on the list. Tatum O’Neal’s uncle (Downey)
gets in because he is on the list. Stephen Bishop doesn’t get in because he’s
not on the list and Parrish hates his song. Jerry Eldini (Murray) of Poly Sutra
records and his guest (Curtin) can’t get in because he isn’t on the list and
threatens Steve he won’t work in this business again if his two tennis partners
find out about this. Paul Stanley (Aykroyd) comes in and welcomes his brother.
Steve goes inside for a beer but his security guard (Morris) won’t let him in
because…get this…he’s not on the list, so he just strong arms his way in. The
only parts of this sketch I found funny were Davis and Bishop’s cameos.
Otherwise, this was pretty forgettable. C-
Weekend Update w/ Aykroyd and Curtin – Best jokes: Robbins
Police Force, Studio 54. Curtin offers a reward for mailing in Charlie
Chaplin’s body. This was cute, but derivative. Garrett Morris reports on an
anti-coagulant that prevents blood clots called “hemomicen”. A demonstration is
shown in the form of a microscopic view of an old “Mighty Mouse” cartoon. This
also felt like it had been done before. Bill Murray delivers a review of
“Coming Home” with Jane Fonda and Jon Voight about the Vietnam War. He mostly
talks about how he thought at the time that Fonda shouldn’t have gone to
Vietnam lest she be branded a “radical” but he now respects her politics. I
thought it was funny how he said we shouldn’t have fought the war and acted as if
that were a ballsy statement. This was another forgettable Update and Jane’s
last joke closely resembled something Chevy would’ve told. C-
Looks At Books VI – Jane Curtin hosts this interview of the
authors of “Whatever Happened To the Class Of ‘77” written to cash in on the
hit TV series “Whatever happened to the Class of ‘65”. The authors just happen
to be Lisa Loopner (Radner) and Todd LaBounta (Murray). It’s mostly about what
odd summer jobs their friends had and a few guys who just drove around the country.
These characters aren’t quite in the right setting just yet and they are still
being formed, but again Murray and Radner’s performances sold it. I liked the
line about the girl who saw Cybil Shepard and the girl who got cooties. B-
Schiller’s Reel: Don’t Look Back In Anger – An elderly John
Belushi takes a train to visit the “Not Ready For Prime Time Cemetary” which is
the grave site of all his former SNL cast mates as this film apparently takes
place in some alternate universe where Belushi was the LAST to die. He states
that he lived the longest because he’s a “dancer” and dances on all their
graves. This is undoubtedly Schiller’s most famous film for SNL for all the
wrong reasons. I liked the joke about Murray living the longest at 38 and Chevy
dying right after “Foul Play”. Otherwise, it was rather poignant to watch
seeing as Belushi died so soon and so tragically and since he played such a
convincing older version of himself. B+
Guest Performance – Garfunkel welcomes sharply dressed,
newly British accented Andy Kaufman who briefly plays a record and then states
that the producers trust him with the entire rest of the show if he wants. He
then states that instead of playing another “character” (like “Foreign Andy”
and “American Andy”) he would come out as “himself” and read “The Great Gatsby”
in its entirety inviting the audience to point out subtleties he missed that
made this the greatest American novel of all time. A lot of the audience
members start “coughing” loudly. Of course, this turns into hissing, groaning
and booing with the occasional awkward chuckle. Andy discourages this by
threatening to stop reading to which the audience wildly applauds. Lorne comes
out and tells him to leave and states that he was going to play a record. The
audience overwhelmingly demands he play the record which turns out to be more
of him reading “Gatsby”. Wow, this was pretty ballsy of Andy to do on a live TV
show. It was pretty funny to see him really test the audiences’ patience like
this. It’s also interesting to watch because it’s just before he would start
wrestling women two seasons later and his whole act would’ve jumped the shark.
I’m particularly wondering what TheLazenby would have to say about this
considering he would know more about Andy’s career than I do. B-
Looking For Mr. Goodbar Sleepytime Playset – Gilda
advertises this dollhouse set while Bill narrates. Gilda must take her Diane
Keaton doll back to the “singles bar” and shoot back “tequila sunrises” until
she gets killed by a “psychotic blonde homosexual”. This was pretty
anachronistically funny. The idea of a movie being inappropriately marketed to
kids reminds me of the “Philidelphia” playset sketch from 1994. Watching Gilda
pour tequila everywhere was pretty funny. C+
Well, this was kind of an underrated episode. It certainly
had its moments and Garfunkel proved to be a useful (if not forgettable)
comedic host. Next episode is Jill Clayburgh with Eddie Money.
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