No More Godfather on NBC – Tom Hagen (Murray) must inform
Don Vito Corleone (Belushi) of the edits to “The Godfather” on TV. Vito
complains about his family’s portrayal and says that the film can no longer be
shown on television. They then plan a hit on NBC, but decide to skip SNL
because it’s good satire. This was well performed and a clever satire of both
“The Godfather” and violence on television in general. I especially liked Murray’s
lines about NBC developing “Godfather Knows Best” and Belushi’s line about
Grizzly Adams waking up with a bear’s head in his bed. B-
Monologue – At his piano, tonight’s host states that he
didn’t want to initially host such a tasteless or offensive show such as SNL,
but he was mainly concerned with how he would sound rather than how he would
look. So, he agreed to host on the grounds that he has the Raelettes and his
own musicians with him as well as getting to perform live from Carnegie Hall.
He is aware that the producers must think he wouldn’t know the difference and
states that the producers aren’t aware that he isn’t really Ray Charles and
that the real Ray is in fact, at Carnegie Hall tonight. The man who is at 8H
right now performs what Ray would’ve performed on SNL which is “I Can See
Clearly Now”. This was a great performance and a good way for Ray to open the
show proving he can poke fun at himself. B+
Carter’s Energy Program – Ray introduces this bit right out
of the previous performances stating how he has a special warm feeling for
President Carter, not necessarily because they’re both from Georgia but because
his family owned Ray’s grandfather. He then does a few bars from “Georgia on My
Mind” dedicated to Jimmy Carter going into the next sketch which features
Aykroyd as Carter giving a speech about his energy program and his frustration
at the dumb American public for ignoring it even after he carefully explained
the energy crisis to them and how this is going to cause his whole presidency
to go down the toilet before he could even get reelected. He also briefly
mentions how we’ll all be screwed by the early eighties when he is out of
office and we run out of energy altogether. This was good for a couple of
laughs and it was shorter than most political speech sketches usually tend to
be. I did like Aykroyd’s line “Honk off, Bozos. You had your chance.” For when
Americans come back to him asking how to solve the energy crisis. B+
Mamorex – Ray talks about sound and talent, like that found
in the voice of Ella Fitzgerald (Morris) who demonstrates this by singing in a
tone that breaks a glass on Ray’s piano. Ray then speaks about reproduction of
the sound that is so precise that you can’t tell the recording from the real
thing such as the kind of recordings found on Mamorex tapes. Ella demonstrates
this again by playing the recording of her singing previously, this time
breaking Ray’s glasses leaving him wondering if Mamorex is going to pay for
them. This was a decent fake ad that strayed from the formula of most of them a
bit. I liked the cheap sight gag at the end, although it would’ve probably been
better if we hadn’t seen Garrett assist Ray with his glasses slightly off
camera. Also, in case you couldn’t tell, the last three sketches were basically
one long unbroken segment with Ray transitioning between them. It’s nice to see
SNL meander from its’ usual format sometimes even when the results aren’t quite
successful. C+
Doody Girls – Howdy Doody’s widow Debbie (Radner) and sister
in law Dottie (Newman) are preparing Debbie for a date. Debbie doesn’t feel
quite right about it as she is still mourning Howdy but Dottie convinces Debbie
it would be good for her. They both reminisce about Howdy until Debbie’s date,
Skip (Murray) shows up. He also happens to be a marionette. I didn’t care much
for the dialogue, but this was funny just for the physicality of it. They all
had it down well and I did like briefly seeing the stage hands operating
everyone’s “strings” from the balcony at the end. B+
Tomorrow V – Tom Snyder (Aykroyd) interviews Ray Charles
about how he got into singing the blues and what kinds of events in life
inspire them. Here, we learn that Snyder may be immune to the blues and has no
groupies so to speak. Ray then demonstrates his other highly developed senses.
Aykroyd’s Snyder impression is usually funny given the right material, but it
seemed the audience wasn’t as much into it and nothing really stood out in this
sketch. I did like Ray pointing out that Snyder is wearing the same socks two
days in a row and tucks his shirt into his underwear as well as his hair being
twelve different colors. C+
What’d I Say – This sketch takes place in a Memphis
Rehearsal Hall in 1957 where Ray’s manager Mr. Dewitt (Morris) informs him that
the hottest white singing group in the country right now, The Young Caucasians
(played by the entire rest of the cast) is going to record the pop version of
his R&B song. Ray finds it hard to get excited about this as he prefers his
own version of the song. They introduce themselves and rehearse their syrupy,
toothless, insipid version of the song and Curtin mentions they left out the
“Arkansas” line because they’re from there. This leads into Charles performing
his own version of the song for the SNL crowd. Morris comes back into the scene
and tells him that while they both appreciate Ray’s version, they both know
white America just isn’t ready for it yet. For some strange reason Belushi’s
speaking voice in this sketch sounded very close to his Truman Capote. The
cast’s singing was decent, but this wasn’t much for comedy. If anything, it
just felt like an overly elaborate introduction to Ray’s next performance, so I
can’t really give it a letter rating.
Weekend Update w/Aykroyd and Curtin – Best jokes: Pardo’s
old script, Penn State nursery school, Aykroyd demonstrates rabies, Socrates.
Murray states he was planning to review “Close Encounters” before reading
Time’s in-depth review which spoiled the film. The “Dancing N” returns and
simply asks Dan and Jane to dance with them to which they reluctantly agree.
This was probably the shortest Update of the season so far. It showed some
improvement in terms of jokes at least. C+
Octet Medley – I’m not reviewing or rating this, but it is
worth mentioning as Ray introduced his original band from the ‘50s playing with
him tonight.
Guest Performances - Ray introduces Franklin Ajaye who
performs stand up on Star Trek reruns. This was okay and he got a decent
reaction from the crowd and I liked his laid back style. I especially liked his
bits on Spock having to “get down” every seven years and their black ensigns
being turned into cubes. I also thought it was kind of funny that he didn’t
know they had gone to commercial for a few seconds. C+
Evelyn Woodski Slow Reading Course – This is a live fake ad
for a course that teaches you to read slower and discourages speed reading
consisting of mostly testimonials from those who found it useful like a brain
surgeon (Murray) who was reading technical manuals and a woman (Curtin) who
just wants to better understand the humor in Mark Twain’s work. Ray advertises
the braille course. This was pretty funny. I particularly liked Aykroyd’s voice
overs as well as Bill and Ray’s performances. B+
Blackout –The sketch takes place in a New York hotel he is
staying at where two burglars (Aykroyd, Morris) are about to rob him. Morris
can’t go through with it, but ray tells him to listen to Aykroyd since he has a
gun. They are about to go through with it when the lights suddenly go out and
then come back on as Aykroyd is knocked out and Morris is tied up. This joke
would be done more often since this sketch, but it was alright here. It was
performed well, but Morris’s character made me think that initially this sketch
was going in a different direction. C+
Next Week – Buck Henry announces he is hosting next week’s
show with Leon Redbone and he is bringing the five “Anyone Can Host” finalists
with him. I did like Buck’s line about how “America is in big trouble” after
meeting the finalists. C+
Goodnights – Belushi and Charles sing this tune with Jane,
Laraine and Gilda while Charles plays piano. Belushi is doing his impression of
Charles from the Beethoven sketch in the first season. Micehal O’Donoghue comes
out and announces that the show and NBC raised enough money to buy an original
Monet painting and donate it to the New York Lighthouse for the blind in Ray’s
honor. Mr. Mike reveals the painting to be a framed sign that just reads
“Please Don’t Tell Him!” and leaves saying he’ll see Ray at the party. Ray says
that Mr. Mike doesn’t know a dozen of his friends are going to be at the party
and beat the living shit out of him. After a commercial break, Ray comes back
and thanks everyone with a minute left and starts the band playing something
livelier to close out the show. This was a fun way to end the show. Belushi’s
singing was great, but there could’ve been more to the painting gag. Still, I
liked Ray’s line about Mr. Mike meeting “the biggest black dudes he’s ever
seen.” B+
Well, this and last week’s show both carried some kind of
running theme throughout, but this one had its moments and Ray did indeed prove
to be a great sport. Next week’s show will be Buck Henry with Leon Redbone
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