Dislcaimer – “Charlie’s Angels Catch the Spyh” is being
pre-empted. We see a doctored photo of Kate Jackson with a cold sore. Not one
of the best disclaimers, but still funny enough on its own. Still, slightly
above the last show’s lame Grinch gag. C+
Rock Concert – Don Kirshner (Schaffer) gives us his usual
lengthy introduction to the “Mr Mike (O’Donoghue) and Tina Turner (Morris)
Revue”. Singing back up are the “Mikettes” (Curtin, Newman, Radner). The
perform a rendition of “Proud Mary” which Mr. Mike opens with a “least loved bedtime
tale” about a vain rabbit who works in a factory and refuses to amputate his
ears like his coworkers resulting in his ears getting caught in a machine. Tina
laments Mr. Mikes’ preference for doing things “rough” rather than “nice and
easy”. Tina and the Mikettes then perform the song as we know it. This is one
of my favorite openings form this season and a very funny use of Michael
O’Donoghue on the show. Having Garret in drag as Tina Turner really added
something to the dark tone of Mr. Mike’s humor. I especially liked O’Donoghue’s
line about how the rabbit “looked like tomato bisque” when he was pulled out of
the machine. Some other small touches I liked were Jane, Laraine and Gilda
dressed as Mr. Mike in his dark blazer and sunglasses as well as O’Donoghue
pulling stuffed rabbits out of a guitar he didn’t even play. A+
Monologue – Robert Klein does more of his typical stand-up
routine including bits about college brochures, (which he obviously recycled
from his first hosting stint in ’75) going to a small rural school, (Alfred
University) encountering “subtle anti-Semitism” and doing drama in college. He
even reprises his old role as “Shylock” in Romeo and Juliet for the crowd. This
was good, but I sort of remember his first monologue from ’75 being a bit more
entertaining. I did like the bits about making fun of the way others talk,
classmates yelling “jew boy” at him as he discovered they were all Nazis and
mastering the “palsy shake”. B-
Olympia Café – This is the first installment of the famous
Greek restaurant sketch where cheeseburgers, potato chips and Pepsi seem to be
the only menu items available no matter what anyone orders. Owner Pete
(Belushi) briefly explains to a customer (Radner) how he is related to his
coworkers. Klein comes in ordering eggs several times until Pete wears him down
only to hear the fry cook George (Aykroyd) tell him they are temporarily out of
burgers. I never really got what was so funny about these Olympia Café sketches
until I saw how they used the dialogue back and forth. I especially liked how
Murray’s character didn’t speak English and Aykroyd mistakenly thinking there
were several cheeseburger orders when in fact Belushi was pointing out to Klein
that everyone else was having cheeseburgers. Overall, there was a lot of build
up to a satisfying pay off. B+
X-Police II – Klein and Newman are an unmarried couple of
graduating med students who have been living together for eight years. The
former cops (Aykroyd, Murray) bust in unwarranted and rough them up for no reason.
This pretty much follows the exact same format as the previous sketch from the
Hugh Hefner episode. Aykroyd and Murray trick Klein into thinking he strangled
Newman in a fit of jealous rage when she offered sexual favors, so he jumps out
the window dramatically. Much like the last one, this was another exercise in
bad taste and might have even been worse than the previous sketch. Still,
having Klein introduce Bonnie Rait right off the end of his Dragnet-style
epilogue was a nice touch. D-
Weekend Update w/ Curtin and Aykroyd – Best Jokes: Seattle
Slew, Dimital, Bert Lance/Larry Flynt, Tom Snyder lynching. Curtin mentions a
Russian satellite full of Uranium-235 being found in a Nova Scotia lobster bed
with the only known effect on marine life being lobsters being “as large as
helicopters” thus establishing the running theme of the remainder of this
sketch. Aykroyd comments on necessary corrections to Einstein’s relativity
theory resulting in the end of space and time as we know it. I liked the
drawing of a sad face on the chalkboard, otherwise this was forgettable. There
is a brief technical glitch with the cameras switching back to Jane too early
causing her to scrap two jokes before the following commentary saying they
“just weren’t funny anyway”. Roseanne Roseannadanna (Radner) returns to deliver
a commentary on aneurysms and states her gratitude that they occur on the
inside of the body rather than the outside. Then, the commentary turns to warts
and toenails gone missing. When Jane asks the point of her commentary, she
responds with an updated version of “this little piggy”. This Update showed
much improvement as far as jokes went and Gilda got a very good response from
the ground. I especially liked her line “Oh no! The big dance is tomorrow and I
got an aneurysm on my face!” B-
Nick Winters – This is the second appearance of Murray’s
famed lounge singer. This time, he is performing in the "Powder Room” of
Meatloaf Mountain. Working the crowd, Nick talks to ski bunny Marlyin Sunberg
(Radner) who broke her leg and her husband Paul (Belushi) as well as head of
ski patrol Heinz Kleimer (Klein) and his mistress Mrs. Lyman (Newman). Then, he
gets a weather report from lodge owner Jimmy Joe Red Sky (Aykroyd). Nick
performs his renditions of “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, “Don’t It Make My Brown
Eyes Blue”, “That’s The Way I like It” and of course, the theme from “Star
Wars”. This was another well remembered sketch from this season and deservedly
so. Klein, Aykroyd and Newman really added something with their performances.
This sketch was a perfect fit for Murray’s well known warm and boozy
performance style. Aykroyd affected a decent Native American accent and I
especially liked Klein calling Murray a pimp and saying he’ll believe anything.
Of course, the musical highlights were Bills’ versions of “Zarathustra” (or
“twenty-oh-one” as he called it) and new lyrics to the classic Star Wars theme.
A-
Frogs Look at Film – A close personal friend of Francois
Truffaut (Newman) hosts this French film retrospective which focuses on the
films of “le moron stupid” himself Jerry Lewis (Klein) showing scenes from “The
Nutty Air Traffic Controller”. Lewis plays Melvin, an employee of Butterworth
airlines. His girlfriend, Veronica Butterworth (Cutrin) is convincing her
father Chester (Aykroyd) who owns the airport to give him a shot as an air
traffic controller as a coworker (Murray) shows him the ropes. Melvin has some
trouble communicating with two pilots simultaneously (Davis V/O) causing them
to crash into each other. He expects Chester to chew him out, but Chester
actually congratulates him on this because the two planes were full of Russian
and Japanese spies. This was a well-acted sketch on Aykroyd and Klein’s parts.
Klein did a decent Jerry Lewis (I particularly thought the ridiculous sailor
suit was a funny visual gag) and Aykroyd played a good pompous straight man as
well. The voice he used in this sketch reminded me of the one he did in that
Lucy A-Bomb sketch from the season two Broderick Crawford episode. B-
Nerd Rock – KLOG-FM DJ Larry Dugan introduces his listeners
to the band “The Nerds” in the genre of “Nerd Rock” and has a hard time giving
away free copies of their album “Trying Desperately To Be Liked” with cuts like
“Give Me Back My Algebra Homework, Baby”, “I’ll Give You My Lunch Money” and “I
Can’t Help It If I Have Egg Salad On My Retainer”. Their members are Spaz
(Klein), Lisa “Four Eyes” Loopner (Radner), and Todd “Pizza Face” Dilamuca
(Murray). They tell us how Lisa’s aunt set them up and that nerds are due for
popularity. At the end, Mrs. Loopner (Curtin) comes to pick them up with her
husband. Apparently, this took place before Mr. Loopner passed away. Murray’s
noogies are still present here. Even though this was a rather primitive early
version of the nerds in an awkward setting, they still made a strong debut here
and the sketch knew exactly where to end. Murray and Radner were great as usual
and Klein even added something to the nerds’ performance dynamic. I especially
liked his Mexican accent and “hobby shop” line. B+
Miscellaneous – As Klein introduces Bonnie Raitts’ second
performance, Curtin rushes on stage with an Update bulletin stating that the
giant lobsters mentioned earlier are moving along the eastern seaboard toward
New York. Klein makes an awkward joke about how lobsters don’t eat orthodox
Jews just before joining Raitts’ band on harmonica. No comment here, just a
continuation of the runner.
Rhonda and Barbara – Radner and Curtin’s Jewish princesses
are in Rhonda’s apartment each smoking a joint and taking in the full effects
before becoming extremely paranoid and having to pull themselves out of a deep
trance. This wasn’t very funny. It would’ve just dragged on if it was a real
sketch, but it was another setup to the payoff of tonight’s runner. This sketch
was purposely underwritten, but it was still better than that phone call sketch
from the Madeline Kahn episode. C-
Attack Of The Atomic Lobsters – As Curtin and Radner start
to think someone broke into their house, they and the director (Bob Van Ry)
break character to address the strange sounds suddenly heard. Belushi (in a bee
suit for some reason) is called in and identifies this as the call of the giant
lobsters who then climb up Rockefeller Center and break into the studio King
Kong style. Suddenly, Klein finds himself alone on home base stage. It’s every
man for himself as the audience and crew run for their lives. Belushi is seized
and dismembered. The band plays “Nearer My God to Thee” as several national
guardsmen shoot at the lobsters. Newman breaks her ankle running off and
Aykroyd carries her off. Morris is a blind man caught in the middle of the
scene. After a brief commercial break, Klein describes a lobster coming toward
him as guardsmen Murray tries to contain the scene. Pardo signs off as the feed
goes out. The last thing we hear are Davis and O’Donoghue discussing plans to
kill and cook the lobsters and what kind of desert goes with them. I would
agree with the consensus of this payoff that it was ambitious and entertaining,
but they could’ve done a bit more with it. The ending with Davis and O’Donoghue
went on much too long and we could’ve done without Morris’ cameo. The whole
second act just felt sloppily written anyway, but Pardo’s line “This is Don
Pardo saying AGHHHHH…” was funny. I did like the commitment of the “audience”
to the bit of dying a bloody death and the bloody Belushi corpse dummy was a nice
touch. I also liked Robert’s line “he had his whole life ahead of him…well, two
or three years left anyway”. The level of B-horror-flick cheesiness in this
sketch really took some of the chilling vibe out watching it all these years
later. Also, Eddie pointed out that Chevy Chase did the voice of the lobsters.
If that’s true, I barely recognized him. The SNL Archives doesn’t even credit
him. B-
Well, a moderately successful theme show turned out to be
one of the highlights of this particular season although SNL would later pull
off gags like this more successfully. Anyway, next episode is Chevy Chase's
first appearance since leaving. See you then!
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