Trial Of Lee Harry Oswald - This was an ABC “historical”
miniseries where “names have been changed to protect the innocent”. “Lee Harry
Oswald” (Murray) the alleged assassin of then President “Jon F. Curry” is being
taken to Houston County Jail when “an overweight man” (Belushi, who else?)
suddenly jumps out of the crowd and shoves a cream pie in his face. This might
have been one of the shortest cold opens the show has ever done, but ti was
good for a few cheap gags here and there. This would be slightly better if it
weren’t plagued with technical miscues. I did like Aykroyd’s line about his
motive being jealousy of the president having an affair with his wife. C+
Montage #2 – This is the second of four montages this
season. The screen intros appear to have been tapes earlier in the day and the
cast simply walks by and reacts to their digitized likenesses. Dan reacts in
feigned horror at his. Jane proudly shows hers off. Garret tries to hide the
purse he just stole from the camera. Bill tips the cameraman and asks him to
park his car. John and Laraine casually take their in stride. Gild does a silly
Judy Miller-like skip as she eats an apple.
Monologue – Madeline quickly notes the rain delays of both
the show and the baseball game proceeding it (of course, causing the show to
start late) but states that the show is going to go on anyway. She then notes
the show’s main draw as “dealing with the unknown” and compares this to what we
think we know or what we have planned and encourages the audience to have “a
rip snorting good time.” I really don’t care for these dry preachy monologues
from the early years, but I enjoyed the brevity of this one. Certainly, the
audience could appreciate “dealing with the unknown” more than that staff on
SNL. I’d have to say the show being written and rehearsed in advance does take
away somewhat from “dealing with the unknown” most of the time (at least for
the crew) if absolutely everything goes as planned…or, according to Ms. Kahn at
least that’s what they like to “think” they have planned. This show’s cold
opening was great evidence of that. What a strange coincidence, huh? C+
Swill – In this taped ad, a travelling business man (Murray)
pitches Swill domestic mineral water as part of his typical quick “on the go”
meal. Carly Simon’s “Anticipation” is head as Bill pours the slimy Lake Erie
dredge in a glass. This is another classic well remembered ad that might have
pushed the boundaries of good taste of ‘70s television. It was very funny and I
especially liked the pop top from a soda can falling out of the bottle. B+
Bad Opera – In this fourth installment of the “Bad”
showcase, host Leonard Pinth-Garnell (Aykroyd) presents the German opera “The
Golden Note”. Tina Pivnik (Kahn) plays Mazda, the maiden chosen by the gods to
receive and sing “the golden note”. However, her suitor Thunder Sturum as
played by Steve Beshakis (Belushi, who else?) tries to stop the lightning
bringer played by Ronnie Bateman (Murray) from delivering her the note as it
will lock her larynx onto the note and kill her. This was a great use of the
cast’s singing talents. I especially liked Tom Schiller as a doctor carrying
her away and giving her oxygen at the end. B-
Anyone Can Host – At his desk, Lorne Michaels announces the
contest where literally any average person can write in a postcard telling why
they want to host in 25 words or less and send it to NBC. If it’s funny enough,
they will get chosen and the finalists will be flown to New York in November to
read their postcard on the air and then it’s up to the viewers to choose which
of them will host the Christmas show in December and anyone who drops off their
postcard with Lorne or a cast member if they are seen having dinner somewhere
will be immediately disqualified. There wasn’t really much to this except a
straight forward announcement on the show, but I did like the disqualification
and the callback to the Beatles offer. I also liked when Lorne stumbled over
“Essex House” hotel. This kind of reminded me of his breaking character in the
Hugh Laurie/Beck episode in ’06 as he introduced Sascha Baron Cohen doing
Borat. C+
Bianca Jagger and Three or Four of Her Close Personal
Friends – Murray introduces us to a dinner party hosted by Bianca Jagger (Kahn)
and her guests Truman Capote (Belushi) Grace Kelly (Curtin) and Margaret
Treudeau (Newman). Capote asks Bianca how she has changed since she has begun working
and all the guests take turns spouting pretentious banal sayings which state
the obvious and asking where the hell Mick is until the end where Bianca admits
she doesn’t particularly care for any of this and breaks the fourth wall in
doing so. Coincidentally, I didn’t really care much for this sketch myself
either…heh heh heh. Belushi’s Capote is usually pretty funny, but other than
that this sketch was just too dry and pretentious for my liking and it went on
a little bit too long. D+
Schiller’s Reel: The Acid Generation – This short (and I do
mean short) film is meant to catch up with those children of the ‘60s who
turned on, tuned in and dropped out. Suffice it to say while they appear to
have aged horribly in little more than ten years, they still remember the
sixties quite fondly and speak of it as it was just yesterday. This felt like
it was less than two minutes long, but it was pretty funny if only to hear
elderly people use 60’s hippie slang and talk about dropping a ton of acid. B-
Weekend Update w/Aykroyd and Curtin – Best jokes:
Ringo/Arrafat, TV/Real Life on Trial, Starve A Cold. This is similar in format
to last week’s Update with only Murray joining Aykroyd and Curtin at the
beginning and the use of Chroma Key except with the first two jokes having
pictures in the center with both anchors on screen. Ayrkroyd also seemed pretty
distracted that night, missing cues and everything. I did like Jane’s quick
reation to Dan’s “more sex in real life” crack. The NBC “Dancing N” delivers a
breaking medical bulletin from Mt. Sinai: Feed A Cold, Rape and Strangle A
Fever. Jane shows a clip of the first Russian space launch on its 20th
anniversary which Dan “narrates”. Bill Murray wanted to review Donny and Marie
Osmond’s new shows, but he couldn’t get a tape of it because he wouldn’t give
them a review of this in advance. Good for Bill for sticking by the principals
of the TV industry. He then goes on about Marie. This felt like it was lacking
something, but I did like his line “Sonny and Marie – It’s a horrifying
thought!” This was obviously less crowded and faster paced than last week’s
Update, but it was still more enjoyable. It ended with Dan and Jane wishing
Chevy a happy 37th birthday sounding much more sincere than I would’ve expected
followed by Dan lying on the desk while Jane appears to be giving him “mouth to
mouth”. I always liked these zany sight gags at the end of Update. C+
Silver Balls and Golden Pins – A preacher (Murray) tells one
of his army stories about a guy in his unit who would always go bowling rather
than attend church on Sundays. When asked why, Kahn responds with a song about
how life is like a bowling alley as they go on about the joys of bowling
comparing them to salvation and the highs and lows in one’s own life. Kahn
appears to be the center piece of a bowling trophy. Madeline is a decent singer
and it looks like a substantial amount of production value went into this, but
overall I found this to be rather dull and with no memorable dialogue. C-
Reverse Discrimination – Frank (Murray), Emmett (Curtin) are
on the board of admissions at Santa Barbara Law School. With Dean Archer
(Aykroyd) they are hearing the cases of both Ross Jamal (Morris) and Craig
Baker (Belushi). Jamal (who is also blind) has been accepted under special admissions
into their class of ’81, but Baker is threatening to sue on the grounds of
reverse discrimination. Baker states how he has better GPA and LSAT scores than
Jamal and how he wrote a thesis paper on reverse discrimination. Meanwhile,
Jamal is an orphan who has been supporting 14 siblings. Rather than see the
school getting dragged through a lawsuit and potentially lose money, the board
decides to trick Jamal into thinking that not only is Baker also black, but he
also correctly guessed how many fingers Frank was holding up. As Baker tries to
sneak out, he meets Jamal’s brothers who weren’t previously in on the whole
joke. This premise had the potential to be a little bit funnier than it was in
execution, but it was still enjoyable. I did like Garrett’s line about getting
a D in art appreciation and Belushi’s closing line “looks like you just got
ripped off by whitey again.” B-
Gary Weis Film: Autumn in New York – This merely appears to
be a film of Madeline wearing a dumb hat and singing “autumn in New York” in
various locations around the city. I am starting to see why some people don’t
like these Weis films as they are so lacking in intentional comedic value that
they feel strangely out of place on a show like SNL. Most of them appear to
just be indulging the host. Thankfully, they started relying on them less
heavily this season and by next season they were completely gone. The only
thing I did like about this one was, again, its’ brevity and the ending with
Kahn singing atop a building in Times Square presumably under the screen where
this season’s opening sequence was filmed. That was pretty ambitious. C-
Pink Box – Vickie (Newman) and Sally (Radner) advertise a
pink box-shaped product that is meant to increase one’s “confidence”. Sally
provides vague, evasive answers to all of Vickie’s questions. This premise
would later be done on SNL, but this was a rare time where it felt like it had
a point as evidenced by Pardo’s closing tagline “a woman’s product so personal
even we don’t know what it is.” B-.
Hercules – Barney (Murray) is directing Ross (Aykroyd) in
dubbing over the Italian film “Hercules (Belushi) means Rompulus (Morris)”.
Also, the wife of Hercules (Radner) intervenes and Ross also does her voice.
This was another quick piece that got in, got its laughs and got out. I was
particularly impressed by John, Garrett and Gilda doing their scene in reverse
as the film was cued up. I also liked Murray’s compliment to Aykroyd on seeing
him in a Bufferin commercial “you really looked like you had a headache”. B-
Dame Edna – Madeline introduces the “witty
conversationalist” Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) who briefly touches on
Jackie Onassis’ wedding, her own marriage and her upcoming one woman show
meandering quite a bit in the process. When Madeline tries to go to a
commercial, Edna brings out a traditional Australian dish she cooked for her,
Pineapple Sausage Surprise. I really didn’t care for this bit. It was unfunny
and had no point, but I did like the strange sight gag of the dish at the end.
Also, I didn’t know Humphries was originally from Australia. I thought he was
from England as he is popular there. Maybe he’s English and just playing an
Australian, I don’t know. D-
Pocket Pal – On a plane, Aykroyd advertises an “airborne
early warning system” meant to predict midair collisions. This was yet another
short piece, but I liked Aykroyd whipping the other passengers (and himself)
into a frenzy. C+
Phone Call – Gail (Radner) met this guy and she is telling
Judith (Kahn) about him. Madeline tells her not to worry about whether or not
he is going to call her as he tells her about a guy she met. The “vodka and
Tab” lines at the beginning were interesting, but otherwise this sketch was
also very uninteresting. I remember almost falling asleep when I first saw it
on this DVD. Obviously, this was a Marylin Suzanne-Miller Piece. D-
Well, this was another middle of the road episode. It wasn't
really as good as her first hosting stint from '76 and seemed to continue the
tradition of a mediocre season premiere followed by a much worse second or
third episode. Next episode eis hosted by Hugh Hefner with musical guest Libby
Titus.
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