Disclaimer – “James at 16 Marries Roman Polanski” is being
pre-empted. This was, at best, a trite cheap laugh which dates itself horribly.
It was a more forgettable opener. C-
Audience Questions – Gilda appears on stage and answers written
questions from tonight’s audience. Strangely, they all concern coming up with
an opening to the show and are all written by guys named Kevin (basically the
entire audience). Gilda simply acknowledges that they had some trouble this
week and this is what they do in case of that eventuality. She also states that
the questions are actually written by the writers rather than the actual
audience. Obviously, there wasn’t a whole lot to this piece but Gilda made the
most of it. Her prodding the audience for the obligatory applause was kind of
cute. I also liked Kevin’s wife, Kevin, asking a question regarding the show
opening with the line “Give Me All Your Hot Monkey Love!”. B-
Montage – This is the fourth and final montage we see this
season and it appears to be the one they’ve settled on for the remainder of the
season. The entire cast (minus Aykroyd and Radner who still have their names
displayed on the screen) are shown walking up form a subway entrance in times
square subtly mugging for the camera.
Monologue – The Juice walks out on stage wearing a black
Conehead and talks about how easily he achieved his dreams while the band makes
a couple of false starts up behind him. He rushes through growing up in San
Francisco and facing some tough times to going to junior college and getting
offered several scholarships and then finally signing with the Buffalo Bills.
Finally, he discusses what it means to be a “fanatic” ending on how Richard
Pryor inspired him to want to host SNL two and a half years ago. O.J’s conehead
appeared to have been applied in quite a rush and his joke about not finding a
helmet to fit him his first week of practice was kind of clunky. I did like him
saying “I’ve been to Detroit once or twice” when asked his take on the Middle
East. Otherwise, it had this strange feeling like it went on too long and yet
at the same time O.J. was rushing through it like they were running short or
something. The band playing briefly behind him was a gag they could’ve done
without, too. That felt like it was building up to some other joke when it
really wasn’t. It was one of the most bizarre monologues I’ve ever seen on SNL.
C-
Samurai Night Fever – Samurai “Tony” Futaba (Belushi) is
placed in this parody of “Saturday Night Fever” beginning with his family bemoaning
his father’s (Murray) lack of a job and their poor Italian lifestyle as he has
it out with them upon a visit from his priest brother Joe (Simpson). Joe
confides in Tony that he doesn’t like being black anymore as Tony invites him
dancing where he meets Tony’s friends (Aykroyd, Novello, Radner). This sounds
like a poorly thought out parody, but of much of the writing and the execution
made it work. I loved how they made Belushi’s bedroom look like the
quintessential 70s pad (Travolt picture on wall, Farrah Fawcett poster, Bee
Gees blaring in background) I especially like Belushi’s suit, hair and his
working a low class Italian accent in with his typical Japanese brogue. The
visual of him eating spaghetti and meatballs with big chopsticks was also funny
and his dance routine was also impressive. O.J.’s line about suddenly becoming
black because “in the 60s, it seemed like the hip thing to do but now nobody
cares about the cause anymore” was also pretty funny even if it seemed too
clunky and awkwardly shoehorned into the sketch to the point of not making a
hell of a lot of sense. I also loved Aykroyd’s line “This is the life; to be
young, stupid and have no future at all. I love Brooklyn!” B-
Great Moments in Sports – O.J. narrates this retrospective
on one of his sports heroes, George Hermann “Babe” Ruth (Belushi) and how he
attempted to return his fans’ love, particularly once in a hospital with a sick
young fan of his (Morris) in yet another parody of the famous scene from “Pride
of the Yankees”. Babe promises the kid he’ll hit a home run, but “the drunken
overweight idol” ends up striking out and hitting foul balls until the kid died
breaking his promise. O.J. points out the moral to the story being to never
underestimate the revenge of the black man as Hank Aaron shattered all of the
Babes’ records anyway. Obviously, this is a bit of a tired, played out trope
we’ve seen several other times on comedy but this must have been one of the
first timed it had been done. The only thing that really stood out to me as
being funny here was Morris not knowing how sick he was until Murray announced
that he was dying on the radio. C-
Mohwak Master – Aykroyd, Murray and Newman hawk (HA!) this
new shaving device designed to give one the quintessential punk hairdo with the
greatest of ease. This was a fairly short piece that seemed better on paper.
Given the pacing of it, I can’t really say much on it except that I’d agree
with Eddie that it was kind of ruined by how cheaply the bald caps were applied
and how crappy the Mohawk on that sheep was. C-
Raid On Nicosia – This promo for NBC’s “Big Event”
advertises a made for TV movie based on the Nicosia raid just one week after
the actual raid occurs. The cast features Sherman Hemsley (Morris) as Egyptian
President Anwar Saddat, Tony Orlando (Murray) as the brave Egyptian commando
leader, Nadil Suki, O.J. Simpson as Ambassador Andrew Young, Debbie Boone
(Newman) as Lynn, the stewardess, Robert Stack (Aykroyd) as Secretary of State
Cyrus Vance, Helen Hayes (Curtin) as hostage Eva Dobrick, Valerie “Rhoda”
Harper (Radner) as Mrs. Yehan L Sadat and Ed Asner (Belushi) as Yasser Arafat.
I don’t know if historical ripped-from-the-headlines docudramas were all that
common on 70s network TV, but this was enjoyable. I especially liked Aykroyd,
Curtin, Murray and Newmans’ performances and I also like Belushi attempting to
disguise his voice while taking a phone call. B-
Weekend Update w/ Aykroyd and Curtin – Best jokes: John
Mitchell, Buffalo snowfall. Dan reports on new findings of long lost
manuscripts that change the opening to Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” that
really doesn’t go anywhere. “Stargazer” Bill Murray reports on Woody Allen’s
three Academy Award nominations and the comparisons to Orson Welles which he
says are unsubstantiated. He then encourages Woody to “grow up” and get out on
the town more often “someplace besides Elaine’s” (which gets some applause)
because he is too paranoid. This was light on jokes, but it was more
entertaining than his previous movie review bits. I liked when Murray called
Curtin out on “shacking up” with Woody. Laraine Newman is the first woman to
ever set foot in the men’s locker room of a professional NFL team. An
“impressed” Laraine stands in the locker room with a seemingly nude O.J. asks
about his future in the game. We could all see where this one was going a mile
away. I did like the “not a first for me” and “feelings mutual” line but didn’t
care for the “twelve year career” line. Roseanne Roseannadanna (Radner) returns
to deliver a consumer report on dental care products which turns into what gets
stuck in her teeth before Jane just bites her head off (HA!) Gilda would do
better Roseanne Roseannadanna commentaries. This one just wasn’t as disjointed
as some of her others. Still, one thing worth noting is that Gilda stated how
the letter came from Bob Van Ry (one of the show’s directors) rather than “Mr.
Richard Feder from Fort Lee, NJ”. I always wondered what the significance of
that name was for Gilda. If anyone out there has some background info on this,
I’d love to hear it. After showing some signs of gradual improvement, Update
goes back to the old format established earlier this season that dragged it
down. C-
O.J.’s Record – O.J. is watching the game where Walter
Peyton breaks his all-time rushing record with his friends A.C. (Aykroyd)
Reggie (Belushi) and Ahmad (Morris). O.J. states that he doesn’t care about one
of his many records just before he sticks a pin in a Peyton voodoo doll causing
him to fumble. As he shoves the doll in his freezer, the announcer (Murray)
states how the weather might be affecting the game. This was something they
probably could’ve gone further with, but I did like O.J. stepping out of the
room screaming “I’m number one!” Still, in light of Peyton’s untimely death
this doesn’t exactly age all that well either. C-
Franken and Davis IV – Tom comes out and announces that Al
has a malignant, terminal brain tumor. He grants Al’s wish to do one last show,
although the tumor has affected his ability to tell and remember jokes. He sets
up three jokes, but only remembers one punch line and Tom has to keep throwing
water in Al’s face so he doesn’t pass out. This was well acted and I liked how
Al kept telling corny old “jokebook” type routines. B-
Mandingo II – This sequel features more sex than the
original. We see Murray, Newman, Simpson and Morris all making out with each
other. Murray even makes out with a cow. I would agree with Eddie that the real
humor came from Aykroyd’s voice over and the toy house constantly being on
fire. I especially liked Ayrkoyd’s line “You may hate it, you may be disgusted
by it, you may even throw up at it.” Also, there seemed to be a technical
glitch when Murray and O.J. were kissing each other (which I’m also surprised
they could get away with in 1978 on network TV). It looked like the camera cut
away at the wrong time. Could they not show interracial kissing on TV back
then? Anyway, thanks to Eddie for putting this piece in the right context or
else I wouldn’t have known this sketch was making fun of the “camp” value of
the original. B-
E. Buzz Miller’s Animal Kingdom – Buzz (Aykroyd) and co-host
Christy Christina (Newman) host this showcase of animal mating footage. This
wasn’t as funny as the art sketch, but I did like all the earthworm jokes. B-
Hertz – Simpson stars in this taped parody of one of his
Rent-A-Car ads in which the receptionist (Newman) informs O.J. that despite his
reservation, they gave his car to Walter Peyton because “he had a better
season” and they “also have to go with a winner”. O.J. seemed like a good sport
about this and it was a nice continuation of the gag from four sketches ago of
his rivalry with Peyton. I also liked the Emily Litella cameo here and the face
and raised fist he made at the end made me chuckle for all the wrong reasons.
B-
Celebrity Battle of the Sexes and Races – Brent Musburger
(Murray) hosts this one-sided competition of black men O.J. Simpson and Leon
Spinks (Morris) vs white women Marie Osmond (Radner) and Sandy Duncan (Newman).
Phyllis George (Curtin) is interviewing the competitors on the sidelines. I
liked that they had events such as “late night subway riding” and “picking up
white girls” but the “speak chucking” line made me cringe as did seeing O.J.
blatantly hit on Curtin. The visual of Simpson and Morris instantly winning the
tug of war and then Yvonne Hudson hosing down Newman and Radner was also funny.
D+
Well, there were a few genuinely funny moments buried among
this mediocre time capsule of an episode. Next episode is hosted by Art
Garfunkel with musical guest Stepehn Bishop. See ya then!
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