Micheal McKean/Chaka Kahn (11.3.1984)

Gerry and the Mon-Dells – Geraldine Ferraro (Mary Gross) and three male backup singers in Walter Mondale masks sing a rather bawdy, suggestive lyrics about how their ticket wouldn’t be falling behind in the polls if “they’d let the woman get on top” and let Ferraro run as president. This was a quick open and there obviously wasn’t much to it…not too bad. The backup singers were good for a few chuckles. B-

Monologue – McKean comes out on stage and states what a rush and a thrill it is to host the show and begins to sing “an 18th century Scottish Acapella dirge” as an unseen audience member (Larry David) repeatedly heckles him as “Lenny” and asks of the whereabouts of “Squiggy”(from Laverne and Shirley). McKean stops in the middle of the song and reminds the audience of his other acting roles (Spinal Tap, Eugene O’Neill conference) and demands respect as an actor by saying he’s done Hamlet. The heckler then says “Hey Hamlet, where’s Squiggy?” This wasn’t a bad monologue. McKean is a decent singer, but Larry David provided the only real laughs here. C+

Young Christians For Reagan – Reagan (Shearer) addresses the nation on how his goal of passing a prayer in school amendment is facing opposition from a group of people who think that “it would make their children feel left out”. He then tries to refute this idea by pointing out that Nancy visited a school recently where only two students had objected to a morning prayer. These children’s names and addresses are shown on screen. He then introduced a “compromised” law which mandates that “non praying students” wear an armband that says “I Decline To Pray”. He then encourages people to vote on this so that the two remaining children “won’t have a prayer.” This wasn’t exactly as dry as your typical Shearer piece and it came off slightly mean spirited. It got some decent laughs from the audience. I didn’t hate this sketch, but I still didn’t really care for it much either. C+

Baby Double – This was the first filmed segment of the night and it was a TV spot for a fake film. Rich Hall and Gary Kroeger are scientists working in a lab. Kroeger states that a “criminal baboon heart” had been stolen. Cut to a shot of a baby chewing on the handle of a knife like a teething ring. This was just a quick silly piece with a rather odd premise. Still, I liked it well enough. B-

Fernando’s Hideaway – This was the first time Billy Crystal’s evergreen impersonation was taken out of the News setting and given his own flagship sketch. In this first installment, Fernando states that he is all alone in the booth and doesn’t feel “mah-velous” (despite looking so) because his scheduled guest, Barry Manilow, cancelled at the last minute. In his place, heavy set camera operator Al Camoin steps in and conducts the interview as if he were Manilow. Al talks about beig a sex symbol and sings a bit of “I Write The Songs” and Crystal carries on with his affectations. Camoin’s bit felt very scripted (although he isn’t a bad singer either), so I doubt Crystal had as much wiggle room to ad lib. This was kept pretty short compared to other “Hideaway” installments. This one wasn’t bad as it had sort of an anachronistic premise to it that it’s successors didn’t.

Folksmen – Pamela Stephenson states that SNL is proud to host a reunion of “one of the great folk groups of the early 60s” and that their camera crew captured their first rehearsal in 20 years. Jerry Palter (McKean) Alan Barrows (Guest) and Mark Schubb (Shearer) are seen rehearsing “Old 97” (the song about the train disaster) and talk the heyday of folk music. This is immediately followed by a live performance of “Old Joe’s Place” on the SNL stage. If you’ve seen “A Mighty Wind”, then I’m sure familiar with this routine. Most of it is just the dry humor you might expect from the former “Credibility Gap” alumni. For me, the only real laughs came from Guest’s vibrato and his not wanting to do Valencia because he doesn’t know Spanish. Shearer’s voice wasn’t that far off from Principal Seymour Skinner. I think that’s what made Guest’s performance remind me of Dan Castellaneta (as they look and sound alike when he is in this character). B-

PBS Pledgebration – Shearer hosts this Public TV pledge drive. McKean impersonates Vincent Price encouraging support for Public TV and plugs his new series “Recipe” which is simply a cooking show set in a “spooky old library”. McKean’s impression was certainly accurate, but he certainly didn’t make me forget about Bill Hader. This sketch turned out to be better than I had remembered it upon second viewing. I liked McKean stating that the only work he’s been getting lately is PBS and “Snorks” voiceovers as well as his dramatic reading from the “dead man’s beans” recipe stating that his guests will be “other distinguished doily sniffers”. Shearer was a good host as well. I liked his stating the “only 75% of our funds some from oil companies” and that Steve Allen would explain why Jayne Meadows is in show business later on. This was a pretty good sketch for Shearer’s impossibly high standards. B+

Buddy Young Jr. is Back! – Crystal plays an aging Rickles-esque insult comic of a different era in the second filmed piece of the night. Cigar in hand, he wears a purple velvet tux with a ruffled shirt and an oily hairpiece reminiscent of Howard Cosell. This is just a TV spot for one of his shows using faux footage of him tossing out barbs to his audience. The audience recaps of his personal insults and ill wishes upon them were funny, but other than that there wasn’t a lot to this piece. The jokes were lame and derivative (which I’m sure is a stretch for Crystal) but he really played to role of a venomous performer well. B-

First Draft Theater II – This is the first draft of Reginald Rose’s classic play “Twelve Angry Men” and is presented in similar fashion to the film version. Like the previous installment, this is obviously a piece Shearer wrote. Martin (Guest) is the juror who believes the defendant is innocent of murder and Harvey (Crystal) is trying to make him come around. I found this to be funnier than the original “First Draft Theater” mainly because I’m more familiar with “Twelve Angry Men” than I am with “The Big Sleep” and the former has just aged better. I think Crystal started off playing it too big, but I liked his Harvey/Herve swtich and the “Kids” number toward the end. I also like Guests’ line about the old woman being blind, Hall’s line about ordering lunch and Short’s gag involving the instructions to assemble a judge. B+

Madonna Navel Accessories – Madonna (Stephenson) writhes around to “Lucky Star” revealing painted lips on her midriff. She also smokes a cigarette using her belly button and puts on a low hanging necklace with Groucho Marx glasses and drinks out of a tiny bottle. This was cute and a funny takeoff on Madonna’s 80s fashion style as far as I could tell. B-

Rabbi – Crystal plays a Rabbi who Harry Adelson (Martin Short) goes to for advice on “marital difficulties”. He thinks his wife is cheating on him. Crystal just tells an entirely unrelated story and then suggests Short simply kill his wife as it adheres to his own hand written version of the Book of Exodus which suggests all of existence is just god’s dream. This was one of the two funniest sketches of the night due to the sheer absurdity of it. Crystal and Short played very well off of each other. A+

Saturday Night News w/Edwin Newman – This segment is only available in the Netflix version. Newman makes his third and final appearance at the SNL News Desk to state how he refuses to make jokes about the election because he moderated the debates and the laughs might affect the outcome. Jeanne Kirkpatrick (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) responds to Jesse Jacksons’ desire for her from the previous episode and denies that there is anything going on between them. She then states that she is having a fling with the president of El Salvador. She spoke in very grandiose terms with long pauses. Dreyfus did alright with the impression and the material was worth a few laughs when she used terms like “bitchin’” and “boss”. Mary Gross trots out her Dr. Ruth impression again...more sex gags…no comment. Newman “polls” himself. That bit was pretty funny. Rich Hall delivers a public service announcement against drunk voting stating the hazards and that drunken voters elected Jimmy Carter. This was the funniest bit at the News Desk so far. Newman comments on various amendments, referendums, bond issues and the like which leads him to voting on certain state songs that should be voted on for change. He reads lyrics from songs that he thinks should be changed. There are no jokes here at all. You may even think he is singing ACTUAL state songs. He even suggests a song for Washington which consists of him spelling the states name. He then signs off by wishing the viewer a good…everything. This was kind of a waste of a cameo if you ask me and a pretty uneven Update. C-

Mondale Headquarters – Walter Mondale (Kroger) and his campaign aides Jack McGregor (McKean), Ann Redmond (Stephenson) and the rest (Hall) are coming up with a strategy to lose every state to Reagan except his home state, Minnesota. Suddenly, two representatives from the Reagan campaign Martha Siskine (Dreyfuss) and Jonathan Gillespie(Short) ask Mondale if he is voting for himself because it might be great for them if Reagan won completely unanimously. This outrages Mondale to the point where he pledges to win Massachusettes and maybe Rhode Island, too. His staff humors him until he leaves and then tries to curry the favor of Reagan’s campaigners. I found it to be rather dry and ham fisted, but Kroeger turned in a good performance and it seemed like an accurate commentary on ‘80s politics. C+

SNL Fashion Report – David Byrne (Hall) dons his classis huge suit and sings to the tune of “Once In A Lifetime” and “Life During Wartime” about how it could be altered and taken in and how unfashionable it is now but “geek may be chic”. This was definitely the best sketch of the night. Hall did very well with the impression and the dance moves. A+

Aside from one memorable sketch, this was one of the more forgettable episodes of the tenth season. At least McKean wasn’t as horrible a performer as he would be inexplicably joining the cast ten years later. Next episode is George Carlin/Frankie Goes To Hollywood.