Disclaimer – “Grizzly Adams Sets Fire To His Head” is being
pre-empted. Another ridiculously funny opener. B+
Pep Rally – Mary Kay Place is getting the cast fired up
before starting the show until she notices Belushi is missing. She laments that
this reflects an attitude of non-participation and lack of pep and then
confesses that this was the whole reason NBC asked her to host, to add some
“pep.” Belushi suddenly shows up and asks him where he and his “pep” have been
to which he confesses his disdain for her and the networks cheerleader sketch
idea. Curtin harangues him and he calls her and Place fascists in response.
Place bursts into apologetic tears to which Belushi apologizes and admits there
might be something to this whole “pep” bit and the cast and host start the show
in true pep rally fashion with a marching band doing their rendition of the
theme and the formation of a human pyramid. This open was pretty repetitive and
pointless, but maybe I’d appreciate it better if I knew a little more about
Mary Kay Place’s career. Still, I did like the references to Belushi’s “disciplinary
problems”, his “Fascist” line and his comment about how he hasn’t given pep
enough thought in the past 15 years. C+
Monologue – Mary Kay mentions a few interesting things that
happened in New York that week and then decides to read from her actual eighth
grade diary. It turns out she was using this as a platform to get back at a guy
who refused to go out with her. This was somehow worse than the previous
sketch. There was a line about how she found some nail polish that was
“throw-uppy”. That was my attitude towards this entire monologue. At the
beginning, she also remarked “not as young as I used to be with those c-jumps”.
I wonder what the hell that alluded to. D-
Hey You – Gilda stars in this advertisement for “the perfume
for one night stands”. It’s mostly her giving steamy looks in a night club and
then hailing a cab the next morning. This was yet another semi-famous ad from
this season and it was nice because it showed Gilda’s range as an actress. C+
More Insects To Worry About – Curtin hosts this talk show
where she interviews Dr. Haskell Lack (Belushi) about dangers posed by the
African Lens Beetle who hatches eggs nested between the human eye and an
adjacent contact lens and mate in a human’s underwear. Also, funny ants play
sophomoric pranks on humans. I liked this well enough for the low key absurdity
of it. C+
Total Woman – Maribel Morgan (Place) teaches a class to
associates Gayvette (Newman), Dickie Nell (Radner) and Lurlene (Curtin) on how
to be a “total woman” and better serve their husbands as they would serve God.
This class is meant to catch each other up on their progress and it was mostly
the women talking about how they are enticing their husbands. Speaking of
which, Belushi has a walk on as Maribel’s wife asking about dinner. They even
act out a play to illustrate this and close with a prayer. The only thing that
was legitimately funny was the line about valium in the prayer. Otherwise, I’m
sure there was some rather subtle, understated satire that was a little lost on
me. C-
Weekend Update w/ Curtin and Aykroyd – Best jokes: New Amos
and Andy Show, severed penis of college student, Franco callback.This update is
the first to adopt the more familiar format of an actual set with a green
screen between the two anchors. Morris appears as a bell boy announcing a call
for himself. Newman reports on how “micromomentary” expressions decide the
outcome of lie detector tests as they occur just before the act of a lie.
Laraine demonstrates this by making statements she would make on a date and
then winking and rolling her eyes. This commentary fell flat and preditcable,
but I did like Laraine holding her nose after complimenting man on his cologne.
Eric Sevareid (Murray) delivers an editorial on the mandatory retirement age
and how it is established mostly because younger generations are becoming less
and less literate in this age of video. This commentary wasn’t as funny as I
remembered it being the first time I saw it, but I liked it anyway and maybe
Murray was on to something there. Jane and Dan deliver a get well soon message
to their ailing cue card man. This update showed improvement over the previous
weeks. B-
Married In A Minute – This sketch takes place in 1961 New
York. The host and female cast play ditzy women who just got here, get a free
hotel room from an eccentric rich guy (Aykroyd) who wanted a Kleenex from them
and just happen upon shit like money, fashion and men who want to marry them
like the prince of France (Murray). This was another sketch where there might
be a larger point that doesn’t quite hold up. Still, the sequence of events
falling into this order and being crammed into such a fast pace really made it
entertaining. Aykroyd and Murray’s performances really made this for me. C+
Guest Performance – Andy Kaufman plays conga drums and sings
in goofy Spanish tongues back and forth in a way that suggests an argument
between married couples. Basically, he is doing a more flamboyant version of
his “foreign man” shtick as he converses with the audience speaking total gibberish
and performs a ritualistic trust fall/spirit dance with a brave volunteer. This
was much better and more entertaining that his last appearance. I liked the
surreal confrontational nature of this bit and the audiences’ sheer
bewilderment with what was going on. B+
Bad Musical – Leonard Pinth Garnell (Aykroyd) introduces
“Leeuwenhook”, a musical about the man who developed the first compound
microscope, Frederich Leeuwenhook (Belushi) and his relationship with his
insecure neglected wife, Eva (Place). The number we see introduces Eva’s affair
with Sean McGinty here played by Ronnie Bateman (Murray). This was much better
upbeat song and dance number than the previous “Bad” showcase from the Madeline
Kahn episode. This was well performed by everyone, especially Murray and
Aykroyd. I also liked Aykroyd’s line about how the play was performed entirely
by wrist injury specialists. B-
Something To Brag About – Willie Nelson and Mary Kay Place
perform a duet. This is worth commenting on because it’s not often that a
non-double duty host joins the musical guest. Place isn’t a bad singer either
as evidenced by her performance in the previous sketch.
Farbers Hanukkah – Larry (Belushi) and Bobby (Belushi)
invite a waspy gentile couple (Murray, Place) over for dinner on the seventh
night of Hanukkah and explain their Jewish holiday traditions and the story of
Hanukkah to their guests. This is acted out in a flashback with Belushi playing
Judah Macabee as Larry Farber. Like most Farber sketches, this was lower key and
intended as a satire of contemporary white middle class life. This one took a
different turn with the Hanukkah story as it took on religion. I liked
Belushi’s blasé declaration that the oil was a miracle and his back and forth
with Murray on who killed Jesus. It would’ve been better if Belushi’s
transitions between sets wasn’t visible on camera, but the audience seemed to
like it and Murray covered for him well enough. C+
Well, this episode started out rather weak, but picked up a
bit after Update. Mary Kay Place turned out to be an enthusiastic host (and
quite a looker at that) despite being saddled with some lame material. Anyway,
next episode is the Christmas 1977 show hosted by the winner of the “Anyone Can
host” contest with an infamous performance by Elvis Costello. See ya then!
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