Monday, May 27, 2013

Miskel Spillman/Elvis Costello and the Attractions (12.17.1977)

Dislcaimer – “How The Grinch Raped and Strangled Christmas” is being pre-empted. Cheap Grinch drawing, forgettable joke but still, ya gotta love these. C+

Backstage Cold Open – John and Laraine are chatting about how neat it is having an octeganarian host when Buck Henry enters looking for Miskel. John says she’s still in her dressing room because he just came from there. Buck points out how strangely she is acting (lying on the floor and staring at a bowl of fruit, blaring a radio). John admits they smoked one of his especially strong maui wowie/hash oil joints to calm her down to Buck and Laraine’s dismay. Buck laments having to introduce the “oldest living doper” to the crowd. This was a funny cold open even though it felt like they had to establish some sort of gimmick to write around in case Mrs. Spillman wasn’t comfortable delivering a monologue. I did like Buck’s line about how Belushi’s joints “overwhelm even an experienced drug user like myself” and Laraine asking if he put rhino tranquilizer in it. I did chuckle at John’s line about planning on being dead at 30, even though now it is kind of chilling. C+

Monologue – Buck walks Miskel to the stage. She is still holding onto the fruit bowl from earlier and refuses to let it go. Buck reminds the audience that she won the “Anyone Can Host” contest weeks ago. A dazed Miskel wonders how much sense she is making and how well the monologue is going and mentions Belushi’s visit. This was just okay, but the audience responded well to it. It was a nice continuation of the “stoned grandma” gag established earlier. I did like her line “the colors…wow” even if, like Andy Kaufman on Fridays, she didn’t “play stoned” all that convincingly. C+

Meat Wagon Action Track Set – This was a typical “Hot Weels/Micro Machines” type car track ad, but this set includes an ambulance with medical equipment to transport dismembered accident victims to the hospital. This was a little dark even for 70s standards, but I did get a kick out of seeing the tiny medical equipment and the blood and tiny body parts lying all over the track. I also liked the “Mainway toys” callback. B-

American Date the Self Conscious Association – This opens with a “dramatic reenactment” of two “painfully” self-conscious individuals (Murray, Radner) make a date for New Years’ Eve as they ramble on about nothing and stumble over their own words, failing to maintain eye contact. They end up mutually agreeing not to see each other. Newman is the spokesperson for the group and speaks advocating setting up the self-conscious with the members of the Society for the Extremely Obnoxious (Belushi). If you’re unsure you’re self-conscious enough to date the extremely obnoxious, Newman suggests speaking with a member of the League for the Brutally Tactless (who refused to appear in this ad because they thought it was stupid). Also, because they don’t have enough money for their own ad, a representative of the Extremely Stupid People’s Ammalgamation (Aykroyd) is piggybacking on this ad and encouraging people to date them for New Years. This was very funny and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Belushi and Aykroyd’s roles especially made this sketch for me. I liked Belushi’s loud suit and joy buzzer and Aykroyd’s entire cameo. I also liked Laraine’s “twitching wrecks” line and her bit about millions of people watching her. A+

Gift of the Magi – Curtin and Spillman introduce an adaptation of the classic holiday tale starring Belushi and Radner. In this version, Helen (Radner) is in the hospital with long beautiful hair, but a failing kidney. The doctor (Aykroyd) tells Robert (Belushi) he is a perfect match for a donor, but he has to sell his old watch to pay for the operation. Meanwhile, Helen sells her hairbrush to get Robert a gift, which turns out to be a chain for the watch he sold. Belushi berates and strangles Radner for being selfish going into his usual “BUT NOOOOO” shtick. Curtin and Spillman close by saying the moral of the story is that the gift, NOT the thought, actually counts. This was a great comedic take on “Gift of the Magi” that was perfectly tailored to everyone’s acting talents. I also liked Curtin’s line “they don’t call the story ‘the THOUGHT of the magi’” although I feel I have to point out this was another scene where Belushi was distractingly sweaty. B+

Weekend Update w/Curtin and Aykroyd – Best Jokes: “I Get Your Drift, Dan”, Ms Magazine/Jimmy Carter. Curtin phones the Carter/Begin summit at the white house and talks to the President (Aykroyd V/O) who says the meeting is going fine, but not after complimenting her and Aykroyd and asking for tickets to the show. Aykroyd’s Carter is usually funny and was decent here, but the early cutaway gag has been done to death at this point. I did like the line about Sadat being indisposed “with a magazine”. Garrett Morris delivers a commentary about how a basketball fight involving one white and one black player has set back race relations. He believes that the black man was used as a scapegoat for no good reason, but seeing the tape forces him to eat those words as the black player clearly hit the white guy and admits the mistake. This didn’t get funny until Garrett has to save face. Murray delivers a scathing critical review of “Miracle on 34th Street”. He questions the logistics of the films heartwarming pro-belief in Santa statement and passes off the film as more commercialization of the holiday. This turns into Murray recounting all the times he tried to stay up and see Santa but fell asleep before he arrived. He ends by saying his prayers and falling asleep. This wasn’t as good as any of his previous movie review bits so far, but it was good for some sentimental value. The “Dancing N” makes its’ obligatory appearance, but this time promising to deliver the bulletin in person once they are let out of the “Proud N” costume. The “N” is revealed to be Emily Litella (Radner) as this is the only way she could sneak back on Update and beg for another chance despite her “hearing problem” causing her to report on all the wrong issues. Dan prods her to give her another chance since it is Christmas and she reluctantly agrees. She gives a commentary on the fuss over the “sst” coming to New York because she hates secrets and would rather not have things whispered. Curtin patiently explains that this stands for “Super Sonic Transport” to which Litella (as usual) responds “never mind”. Curtin calls her out for having some sort of mental disability in addition to a hearing problem and refuses to let her come back to which responds for the umpteenth time “bitch”. Seeing Emily Litella return was nice. Even though nothing has changed about her act, her back and forths with Jane are always funny. This Update was kind of all over the place, but it was carried by the commentaries.

Sartresky and Hutch – The police captain (Morris) calls in Jean Paul (Aykroyd) and Hutch (Belushi) to stop a freaked out “human bomb” Vietnam vet from blowing up a bank. Jean Paul spouts existentialist philosophy throughout. Meanwhile, Buck Henry is haggling with an undercover hooker (Newman) whom they get directions to the bank from. Jean Paul commands Hutch to gain back the trust of Rusty Kramer (Murray) who is holding his wife Gwen (Curtin) and his mother Miskell (Spillman) hostage and doesn’t know what to believe is right after Vietnam. Jean Paul steps in and convinces Rusty that death is the highest form of self-negation, but he blows himself up anyway because he is a determinist with a free will. Even though they kind of stretched this premise out a bit, this sketch had its moments. I particularly liked Aykroyd saying he initially wanted to “sneak around back and blow his freaking head off” and Buck’s line “I’ll take the room”. I also liked Murray introducing Curtin and Spillman as his wife/mother and hostage as well as the cheesy fake freeze frame at the end. C+

Franken and Davis III – Tom and Al come out and announce that this is a special show because Al’s real life parents, Joe and Phoebe Franken have flown in for Christmas and they want to thank them for all their support (even during their lean years) by singing a special song he wrote and giving them autographed pictures as gifts. Suddenly, Al is upset when Phoebe mentions a time when Al was 12 and the school called her to say that he wet himself. He causes a scene and forces Tom and his parents off the stage. Al’s hammy singing was pretty funny and his parents were very good sports (and good actors) to participate. Franken and Davis is proving to be a real comedic highlight of this season of SNL. Still, this would’ve benefitted from a bigger finish where Al brings his parents back out. B+

E. Buzz Miller’s Art Classics – This is a public access cable program where sleazy hosts E. Buzz Miller (Aykroyd) and Christie Christina (Newman) present several painting by Titian and others containing the nude female form which he goes over the top to point out the suggestiveness of. This was another funny Aykroyd performance on par with Irwin Mainway. I especially liked his line about the first painting being of “a broad on a couch” and his assessment of the “picnic in the park” painting was priceless. I also liked his clumsy segue into “Father Tim McCarthy’s Pause For Thought.” B+

Girlfiend – Mother (Curtin) and father (Aykroyd) are anticipating their son Jeff (Belushi) returning from college and meeting his first serious girlfriend, Sharon (Spillman). Jeff insists on sleeping together in his old room, but their parents insist they get married. Sharon disagrees because it would put too much pressure on their relationship. After getting acquainted, they cave in and decide to let them sleep together. This seemed to be written pretty clumsily and light on laughs, but it was nice to see them give Miskell some more airtime after being quite conspicuously absent throughout the entire show. C+

Wino Santa – A boozy Santa (Murray) takes delight in denying a small girl (Radner) all her gift requests in favor of “Santa’s Trap Door” in which spreads his knees and causes Radner to fall. He also makes her agree to not tell her parents about “Santa’s little bottle”. This was great and Murray’s performance really made it for me. B+

Coral Waters Café – Mr. Mike (O’Donoghue) makes Laraine sing the aria from “Madame Butterfly” for a least loved bedtime tale as he mixes her a “soiled kimono”. The recipe for the drink scrolls across the screen followed by the story which consists of a geisha flinging the recipe in the face of an unfaithful soldier and hitting him in the lungs with a gardening tool. Mike denies Laraine her story because of her lousy singing. Laraine does have a lovely voice. I did chuckle when she offered to sing anything by Nancy Sinatra instead. The story was very funny as well. Another great piece of dark comedy from Mr. Mike. B+

Elvis Costello – This is worth noting for a couple of reasons. Costello and his band were booked as replacements because The Sex Pistols couldn’t get passports. Also, this is the infamous performance that got Costello banned for 15 years because he played a few bars of “Less Than Zero” before going into “Radio Radio” which they were warned not to play as it is heavily critical of the media. At the end, the band just leaves the stage. Also worth pointing out, “Weird Al” Yankovic does this in his concerts when his video server screws up as his whole show is rigidly timed around it even during songs. He’s done this in the middle of performances of “White and Nerdy”, “Fat”, “I’ll Sue Ya”, and “You’re Pitiful”. There is even footage of this on YouTube.


Well, that was one of the better shows of the season even if Mrs. Spillman barely had that much to do. I really didn’t see the point of holding this contest of the “host” was barely going to be in the show although that’s kind of understandable since the host was a guaranteed “non-actor”. Maybe it was a ratings gimmick? Anyway, next show will be Steve Martin with Randy Newman and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

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