Disclaimer – “The Little House On The Prairie Burns To The
Ground” is being pre-empted tonight. This struck me as much funnier than the
previous two disclaimers just for its sheer simple brutality. B-
A Former President Speaks To The Nation – In response to
then-Governor Reagan’s address on the Panama Canal, Former President Gerald
Ford (Chase) stumbles through an address urging congress to ratify the Suez
Canal treaty. His wife Betty (Curtin) phones him saying that its’ time for soup
and he tells her to bring it to him. She briefly drops by stating her ERA
support. Ford then stumbles over a map illustrating the path of the canal.
Jane’s “nasty chemicals” line was strange and fell flat. I liked him mistakenly
calling Curtin “Ron”, but other than that this just seemed like a very cheap
excuse to shoehorn in Chevy’s non-impression of Ford. Yeah, in terms of impressions
it is pretty overrated as he barely looks and makes no effort to sound like
Jolly Gerry. Still, I have to admire his commitment to physical comedy. He got
a strong response from the audience with the old water glass/phone gag. C-
Montage – Just for tonight, the opening credits revert back
to those of season two (76-77) but with a different font.
Monologue – Chevy states how much he misses the show
(especially the applause) and how his “friends put on the best damn comedy show
in the world”. He then mentions his trip back to New York in a cheap attempt to
milk as much applause out of the audience as possible just before singing
briefly. For more applause he mentions Leon Spinks, Muriel Humphrey, the
release of the new Haldermann book and how all the Watergate conspirators
should be in jail just before complementing the audience on the “spontaneity”
of their applause. Then, he brings out the cue card guy to show how live TV is
tightly scripted and isn’t as “spontaneous” as it feels and the crowd gives him
a round of applause. Basically, Chevy just milked all the easy applause he
could out of the audience and that was about it. Kind of highlights how little
talent Chevy truly has, doesn’t it? Still, this wasn’t as painfully awkwardly
delivered as his 85 monologue or as overly needlessly emotionally sappy as his
two 90s monologues. C-
Moth Masher – Aykroyd pitches this device as demonstrated by
Newman that is a hot press meant to smash moths into tiny pieces cleaner and
more efficiently so that they fit in your wallet. Newman shows a moth as her
stationary letterhead. This tried too hard to imitate “Super Bass-O-Matic ‘76”
but just felt a little forced and labored. It was one of the more forgettable
and formulaic fake ads. C-
After Sex – Chevy and Gilda make small talk after
lovemaking. They discuss orgasms in the vaguest and most elusive terms. I liked
Gilda’s line about how she didn’t know she was allowed to have orgasms until
college. They cuddle briefly as they ask each other about the names they mentioned
during the act. Chevy’s character, Terry Forrester shouting his own name felt a
little trite predictable as did his confessing to not pitching for the Yankees.
This felt like it was written by Marylin Suzanne-Miller, but Chevy’s awkward
acting kind of ruined it. Another dry relationship piece light on broad laughs
that was typical of this era. C-
King – This sketch takes place in 1963 as JFK (Aykroyd) and
Bobby Kennedy (Murray) are having Clam chowder and meeting with a bugged Martin
Luther King Jr. (Morris) on vacation. They are discussing a march on
Washington, but Bobby says the only time for this would be when he is
president. John asks if he has slept with any white girls and Martin mentions
his sister as he leaves in a huff as the Kennedys don’t seem to grasp the
seriousness of what he’s talking about. This sketch felt like it wasn’t as good
as the sum of its parts, but it had some good moments even if it got off to a
slow start. The highlights were Pardo’s voice over stating that half-truths
were added to make it more interesting, Murray’s angry lines delivered in his
faux Massachussettes accent, Morris line “I shall only urinate”, and Aykroyd’s
line about how none of them will look back on this years later and laugh. B-
Weekend Update w/Aykroyd, Curtin (and Chase) – Best jokes:
Halderman/Nixon, Rythym and Blues method, Billy Carter, Seattle Slew, Bert
Lance. Aykroyd receives a call saying that there was an accident and his mother
is very ill forcing him to leave. Jane continues Update solo until Chevy steps
in alongside her. Newman interviews mine worker black lung stricken Ray Lewis
(Franken) on what health benefits the union hopes to get out of the strike. He
can barely get a word in edgewise as he is coughing up so much coal and Laraine
must guess what he is going to say. Kudos to the makeup department, but
otherwise this bit was pretty repetitive and trite. Curtin also receives a call
about her ill mother, but it is revealed to be Chevy disguising his voice form
across the desk. Belushi delivers a commentary on the Ali/Spinks fight which
turns into a flashback to his viewing of the “Thrilla in Manilla” match and how
he got dragged into a fight with some guys who beat up Steve Beshakis. In case
you can’t tell, this is another one of his patented “BUT NOOOOO” commentaries.
He then closes by saying that Ali could come back with some discipline and that
everybody should be able to defend themselves. This turns into a “self-defense
demonstration” on Jane which quickly devolves into him slugging her out with
boxing gloves on. Belushi was always funny on Update and this was no exception.
Finally, Emily Litella comes back (Radner) to catch up with Chevy blaming Jane
for her lack of appearances even calling her “Mussolini in drag”. Curtin comes
back sporting a big shiner and chews out Emily before bemoaning Chevy’s lack of
talent, integrity, and credibility until he apologizes and Garret does his hard
of hearing bit. This Update certainly felt like the event of the season because
everything was overshadowed by the cameos and old bits making a comeback. It
must be pretty obvious that Jane was making her true feelings about her
coworkers abundantly clear here. B+
Baggage Inspection – At airport customs, a security guard
(Aykroyd) is telling the new guy, Whitfield (Chase) to watch out for smugglers.
Aykroyd finds marijuana in Morris’ bag and subjects him to a search leaving
Whitfeild on his own. Belushi and a “pregnant” Newman reluctantly subject
themselves to a search. The oblivious guard fails to notice the massive amounts
of cocaine and herion in their bags and that Newman’s jacket breast is leaking
cocaine. This was also a bit trite and felt like the type of sketch I’ve seen
numerous times on SNL in the 70s and 80s, but John and Laraine’s performances
really sold it for me. Whitfield lets a priest (Murray) go with a whole
wheelbarrow of coke and subjects Yvonne Hudson to a search. I especially liked
the business/pleasure back and forth and the rapid fire
“thankyouthanksyouthankyouthankyous” at the end. C+
Weis Film: The Voice – Newman finds a haunting, wailing,
ominous voice seems to be narrating her clothing related errands. She arrives
home to find Valri Bromfield wailing away in her bedroom and screams at her to
shut up. This was one of the later Weis films with much more humor value than
his work from the previous seasons. B-
Sermonette – Archbishop Maharishi O’Mulliganstien (Chase)
from the Church of Confusion delivers a rambling sermonette borrowing from not
only all religion and faiths, but from literally anything else. This was pretty
all over the place. It just seemed like another thinly veiled excuse for Chevy
to act like a buffoon given that he was stumbling through his lines on purpose.
C+
Great Moments of War – Sergeants (Belushi, Chase, Morris)
are trying to stop German soldiers in disguise (Aykroyd, Murray) from crossing
their borders. They must answer baseball and American geography trivia and
correctly identify Wollinski’s (Chase) Cagney impression. They are called out
as Gerrys once Belushi sees their matchbooks. Morris suggests identifying
specific baseball managers, but this only confuses the issue as no one knows
them. Everyone is under the impression that they were all Gerrys. I felt like
this sketch didn’t go on longer than it needed to, but at the same time they
probably could’ve done more with it. C+
Endings – Radner, Newman and Curtin are all performing a
Pythonesque pepperpot type scene when Chevy causes them all to break character
as he interrupts and asks where this scene is going so they don’t cut into his
speech. They tell him their ending was Garrett entering as the archbishop of
Canterbury as they all hit him with their purses. Chase states that he had a
better ending for them, but he has forgotten it. Aykroyd attempts to close with
his cheap Rod Serling imitation. Belushi tries to close with his Capote
imitation before Murray as director calls him out for not his wearing pants
being a cheap gag to go out on. The girls reenter the scene as he tells them
the only way out is to fake a heart attack and they all follow suit. Chevy
reenters the scene as the landshark providing an ending. Garrett comes into the
first scene on his cue, but makes an awkward Porky pig type ending. This was a
great stream of consciousness scene to go out on and it was one of the true
highlights of this episode. I also liked Belushi calling the girls “lame-os”.
Also, I notice Chevy said “as a guy whose has his own special” he found the
scene lame and pointless. Well, I’ve seen both of his late 70s NBC specials and
let me tell you his 77 one was pretty good, but his ’79 one was embarrassingly
bad. They should both still be on myspleen, so you all can see exactly what I’m
talking about. A-
Goodnights – Pay close attention to Murray sullenly
sauntering onto stage late and his back and forth with Belushi and Aykroyd.
That seems to be the only way you could tell that he and Chevy were in a
fistfight minutes before air.
Well, this show got off to a bit of a slow start but it
really picked up after update. Next episode is hosted by O.J. Simpson. You
know, for a show hosted by an athlete with some decent acting experience, you
can’t get through it without cringing at some point. See you then!
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