It was believed for years that Grodin legitimately didn’t
know the show was live and missed rehearsal, stumbling through all his
performances. There was also an “urban legend” going that this caused Lorne to
never ask him back again (or “ban” him as those less perceptive among us would
say). However, Grodin himself revealed to The Onion AV club recently that he
pitched that as an idea to the writers and they wrote the entire show around
this suggestion. I would say he performed it brilliantly and I doubt anyone
would argue that. He even mentioned that he had been asked back, but refused to
host again just to keep the illusion going. With all that in mind, let’s review
this episode.
Backstage – With only two minutes to airtime, Belushi and
Gilda complain about Grodin barely being conspicuously absent all week and
missing rehearsal. He may be a great actor, but he doesn’t seem to know how TV
works and he can barely grasp the idea of the show being performed live. Grodin
suddenly enters with gifts he bought for everyone (going along with “Old New
England tradition). John and Gilda try to explain this to them and inform him
he has to do a monologue seconds form now as he begins stressing about who he
forgot to get gifts for (Garret, Lorne, the director, etc). This was a nice way
to set up the show’s running gag. I especially liked Grodin calling Gilda and
Belushi “Glenda” and “Bungee” and John’s line “he doesn’t smoke dope, he’s not
one of us”. B-
Montage #3 – More or less, they’ve settled into the montage
for this season they would stick with and we would all be familiar with. The
screen features a new lower case font and the cast react to seeing just their
names up there in a nighttime shot. Garret is still rifling through some purse
and Gilda is still eating an apple…in an almost Mr. Peepers-esque fashion. I
did like Bill’s attempted dog hand shadow and Dan taking a swig from a brown
bag.
Monologue – Grodin expresses some more exasperation that the
show is in fact live and he never knew it. He goes on to describe his vague
impression of the show (from what little time he spent rehearsing) as well as
the course of his sightseeing in New York. This was a nice continuation of the
gag from the cold open, but there wasn’t much in terms of real humor here as
much as just plain acting. C+
Update Promo – Dan is on a plane ticking away on a
typewriter while all the other passengers are asleep. A voice over tells us
that since the news itself doesn’t sleep, the Update “news team” doesn’t sleep
either and hangs in there working late nights after all the others have quit.
At the very end, we see the typewriter had no paper in it as Dan looks on dazed
and dumbfounded. This was a great fake ad with a great quick sight gag. This
was also a throwback to an era where Update was treated as a legitimate
show-within-a-show type entity and not just a dumping ground for cheap
throwaway topical gags delivered in a stale fashion and accompanied by tired,
weak recurring commentaries. B-
Return of the Coneheads – In this sixth installment of the
show’s evergreen extraterrestrial sketch, the family from Remulak (Aykroyd,
Curtin, Newman) is at home on Halloween dispensing “treats” (beer and fried
eggs) to trick-or-treaters and compare Earth’s Autumn rituals unfavorably to
their own traditional moon harvest. Suddenly, block parents Carl and Sharlene
Van Arsdale (Murray, Radner) show up with some more disapproving words over
their choice of “treats” for the kids as the Coneheads compare to consume the
“vegetable orb”. This is obviously a very well-known and famous sketch as it
has been seen in many Halloween-themed compilations over the years. Bill, Jane
and Gilda’s performances made this sketch for me. I liked Jane’s detachment
from Halloween in general and Gilda’s confusion over the idea of fried eggs as
kiddie treats. B+
Chuck’s Film – Grodin attempts to provide a lengthy
introduction to a clip from his latest film, but it is cut off early due to
time as Lorne explains from off screen. Instead, Grodin just introduces Paul
Simons’ performance of “Slip Slidin’ Away”. Not much here either, just some
filler to reestablish Grodin’s cluelessness.
Consumer Probe – Joan Face (Curtin) once again hosts this
alarmist program and interviews sleazy novelty mogul Irwin Mainway (Ayrkroyd)
about a line of defective and dangerous Halloween costumes he just put on the
market. Irwin Mainway is perhaps my all-time favorite character Dan Aykroyd
ever played on SNL and I never tire of him. The highlights of this include the
“Invisible Pedestrian” costume with the “Not for Blind Kids” warning label, the
“Johnny Human Torch” costume consisting of oily rags and a large lighter and
Aykroyd setting his jacket on fire at the end. B+
Anyone Can Host – Murray and Micheal O’Donoghue go through
postcards people sent in. Mr. Mike tears them up for trivial grammatical
reasons (“poor penmanship, uneven margins, and unattractive stamp”). Bill
encourages more people to send in their postcards by Monday. This was a great
way to remind viewers that the contest was still going on temporarily. Mr. Mike
was great here and I liked Bill saying how much Lorne was “willing to take a
chance on an unknown” and his line “This time next year, you could have MY
job!” B-
Samurai Dry Cleaners – In this eleventh installment in the
“Samurai” saga, a husband and wife (Grodin, Radner) walk into Samurai Futaba’s
dry cleaning shop (which alone may have made this the most stereotype based
“Samurai” sketch in the show’s history) to pick up their shirts. Grodin, of
course, breaks character reading John’s “lines” off the card by accident and
totally disrupting the sketch telling John and Gilda what a great job they did.
Everyone played well off each other here and I liked Chuck questioning the
logistics of the sketch throughout. By now, it was pretty obvious that Grodin
couldn’t be a “hands on” host in every sketch for this to work and when he was
in sketches, he could really only be in ones with thin enough premises that it
could be written into the show more easily (you’ll see what I’m getting at a
little later on). This sort of phenomenon was more common in the earlier years
of the show and nowadays it’s pretty rare for a host to be absent in any
sketch. B+
Weekend Update w/ Aykroyd and Curtin – Best jokes: Niturc
Enaj, Fetus Erectus.This Update was pretty much identical in format to the
previous two. The “Dancing N” makes another appearance despite not having a
real bulletin. Dan and Jane join him as a show of good faith. Bill Murray
delivers a commentary on “one man shows” and why they are put on for cheap by
theater promoters and owners and how dramatic interaction between real people
is preferable entertainment. In “News for the Silent Movie Buff”, Aykroyd tells
a hammy, black and white subtitled joke about a recent wildfire. Lt. Willard
Jackson (Morris) delivers an Update on the Jimmy Hoffa story. He brings out
bones to show to Dan that don’t belong to the late Teamsters’ chieftain.
Strangely enough, an alligator skull happens to have Hoffa’s teeth but he also
has Bishop Pike’s jockey shorts. This was another quick forgettable Update that
was rather light on real laughs. C-
Sounds of Silence – Paul Simon is distracted by Chuck Grodin
singing alongside him during a performance wearing a Garfunkel wig despite not
knowing all the lyrics. Grodin explains to Simon that he’s doing this because
his film clip was cut short and they gave him nothing else to do in sketches.
Simon gently informs him that America isn’t quite ready to sing and that he
should stick to things like acting and directing. Simon exits the stage just
before Grodin goes into a different Garfunkel song and having Lorne play it
back to him. At this point, Garfunkel himself comes on stage to chastise Grodin
and grab the wig. The confrontation between Simon and Grodin here was very
funny and they played off each other brilliantly as polar opposites. B+
Killer Bees – The bees pose as trick-or-treaters to break
into Grodin and Radner’s home and rob them of their pollen. Once again, Grodin
breaks to ask Belushi about the layers to this sketches’ premise to the casts’
annoyance. They try to pick up the sketch from where they left off when John
breaks again to deliver a speech about professionalism on live TV and how much
performing on SNL meant to him. Finally, he calls out Grodin as “the lamest
host we’ve ever had” and then Gilda tries to convince him to “take control of
the show.” Grodin then talks to Lorne who tells him that his song has been cut
and tells him to break for commercial. This was great and felt like it
should’ve been the big payoff to Grodin’s shtick. I particularly liked the
argument between Dan, Bill and Garret about what exactly they were playing.
John’s performances also really stood out and I liked Grodin’s sudden line
about his “presence.” Also, it’s obvious that the writers felt they had to use
the bees for this running gag because the last two times a bee sketch were
introduced (Elliott Gould, Eric Idle) there would be some attempt at breaking
the fourth wall with something that “ruins” the sketch and causes everyone to
break character completely. In the Gould show, it was director Dave Wilson
being drunk and in the Idle show it was his English accent that made everyone
break. Obviously, the writers noticed a pattern here. A-
Judy Miller Show – Prepubescent Brownie Judy Miller (Radner)
hosts a make believe one woman show in her room with dolls in which she acts
out her own marriage complete with commercials and the queens of France and
Germany and a ballet dancer. This is another well remembered sketch from this
season where Gilda turned in a very fearless, high energy performance. She is
one of the few performers who can pull off playing kids just because of her
fearless energy. I particularly liked when she slammed into the door
repeatedly. I heard somewhere that she broke a rib doing that in dress and
decided to go on anyway. What a trooper. A-
Professional School of Football - Garret pitches this school
in a fake ad making points about how pro football players are overpaid and live
the high life and gives the viewers a quick multiple choice quiz. This was
another forgettable short ad. It reminded me quite a bit of the “Ambassador
Training Institute” ad from the first season. C+
Hire The incompetent – Grodin is the spokesperson for this
PSA for people who are terrible at their jobs getting to keep them introducing
testimonies from an incompetent grocery bagboy (Murray), a horny air traffic
controller (Newman), and Roseanne Roseannedanna (Radner) making her first ever
appearance as an incompetent fry cook whose customers complain of hair in their
burgers. Grodin suddenly realizes he is the butt of this joke as he reads the
cue cards, so Lorne lets him sing his quick song. It’s obvious that this was
meant to be the big payoff of the night, but I personally think the bees
would’ve fit better in this spot. Laraine’s delivery was funny especially
“Where’s the runway?/Where were you Saturday night?” Gilda got the biggest
reaction here and it’s pretty obvious why since this character would be the
most recognizable thing she’s ever done. Grodin’s bit at the end added a really
good self-reflexive vibe to the sketch. A-
Goodnights – Grodin and Belushi begrudgingly admit that they
were just kidding.
Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? I’ll admit, I said to myself
if I was ever going to write a full length review of this episode, this
probably wasn’t going to be the way I was going to do it but that was before I
was pointed to the AV club interview. Next episode features the late Ray
Charles pulling double duty as host and musical guest.
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