As I’m sure some of you know, this was a special that
consisted mostly of filmed pieces from the Ebersol era with some new live
sketches by Crystal and some special guests thrown in. It was somewhat similar
to the “Just Shorts” special with Andy Samberg that aired back in the spring of 2009. This can't be seen on Peacock and is no longer available on Netflix, but when they did have this as part of their former SNL collection, their version is only twenty minutes long
so I couldn't imagine it must've been worth watching. Fortunately, a tape of the
original airing was included on the myspleen/ioffer set that has been out there on the web for about a decade now. For the benefit of
those who still haven’t seen this, I will mostly be reviewing the live bits and maybe
some short films from episodes that nobody reviewed previously (at the time of this writing). For shorts from episodes I have already reviewed previously, I will provide links to my blog entry for said episodes. For the shorts from the ones I haven't, I will provide links to reviews from fellow SNL bloggers Stooge and Bronwyn Douwsma as their currently two of the best SNL review bloggers out there.
This is another show with no cold open. Crystal is billed as
the host and performs in his own sketches without the rest of the cast. Siskel
and Ebert are billed as “special guests” and also announced are “cameo appearances
by Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, Stevie Wonder and more.”
Monologue – Crystal walks out onto a set redecorated to look
like the outside of a movie theater what with the various posters up and all.
He announces that this is the first time SNL has had a “film festival” and that
we will be seeing films from “the past four years or so” featuring “some people
you miss and some people you’re seeing this year.” He also states that Siskel
and Ebert will be reviewing the movies live as they are shown and they have no
idea what will be said about them. The rest was just his stand up. I did like
how he counted the pause for a joke that got no laughs during the drive in bit.
He shows us ways to do imitations of actors if you have no talent…by sticking
your lips through cut out pictures of said actors. He does this with photos of
Humphrey Bogart, Matt Dillon (during his “teen heartthrob” phase) and Rin Tin
Tin. The only one I liked was the Rin Tin Tin one with Crystal wagging his
tongue through the photo. He then does his “Ten Commandments” bit about how
that movie has actors who don’t belong in biblical films such as Edward G.
Robinson and Yule Brynner whom he does impressions of. The Brynner imitation
was good and I particularly liked how he closed his monologue with “now my SNL
citizens, let’s go to the movies!” C+
Synchronized Swimming
Audience – Ricky (Crystal) badmouths that film he just saw
while wearing 3-D glasses for some reason and annoys a woman sitting next to
him. He also sarcastically insults the guy behind him who shushes him. I liked
him making fun of Short’s forehead size, but this character is usually better
when he can play off Guest. C-
Kannon AE-1 – This is from the May 7, 1983 episode where
Stevie Wonder pulled double duty as host and musical guest. In it, Wonder
advertises a camera so simple that even HE can use it. To demonstrate this,
they have him take a bunch of out of focus pictures of tennis star John Newcombe
(Piscopo, who also does the voiceover). Newcombe also takes pictures of Wonder
swinging his racket all over the place as well. This wasn’t much to this sketch
in terms of jokes, but the crowd went wild for it. Wonder must have had and
incredible sense of humor to go along with this and I liked how he pulled
Piscopo’s lens cap off at the end. C+
Fernando’s Hideaway III – Fernando (Crystal) interviews
Siskel and Ebert…and confuses them for each other a few times. He asks them
about their basis for critiquing movies, Ebert’s screenplays Mariel
Hemmingway’s breasts and what they say if they run into the star of a film they
both panned. (They would tell them how they liked a previous movie of theirs
and how they should make more like that.) I liked the discussion of Sting in
“Dune”, but other than that this felt like another meandering sketch that went
nowhere and an odd use of Gene and Roger in the show. C-
Walking After Midnight
Buddwieser Light
Robin Wiliams/Adam Ant, 2/11/1984
(my review of this episode is lost to the sands of time but here are the reviews from Stooge and Bronwyn Douwsma)
An 80s light rock type jingle about how Bud Light “brings
out your best” set to a hockey fight between Williams and Piscopo among others.
This actually turned out to be pretty damn funny. I liked Piscopo’s line about
how his wife ran away with the top scorer in the hockey league. B+
Lifestyles of the Relatives of the Rich and Famous
Candy Stand – Willie (Crystal) is manning the concessions
when John Canady and Eugene Levy stop by (whom he thinks are Siskel and Ebert
at first). They say their in town to catch a couple movies and see Hall and
Oates perform on the show next week. Willie offers them the chance to host as
they have no host for next week (and he claims to be the producer of the show
now) to which Candy and Levy agree. Crystal played better off John and Eugene
here than he did Guest. This was a good way to use this character differently
than they usually did. The popcorn gag at the end was pretty lame. Obviously,
the John Candy & Eugene Levy/Hall and Oates didn’t happen because of a
writer’s strike that took effect the following week. One might even think it
had started this week since Crystal seemed to be the only cast member
participating in the live bits and they all seemed unscripted. B-
Needleman
Billy Crystal, Ed Koch, Father Guido Sarducci, Betty Thomas,
Edwin Newman/The Cars, 5/12/1984 (9. 19)
This was fantastic. I especially liked how Kroeger rhymed
“oral surgeon” with “tired of being a virgin” as well as how he chose to
incorporate his idea of a perfect date and his interests (including Barry
Manilow, Star Trek, Radio Shack and shag carpeting.) I also loved how
increasingly silly and ridiculous this video got with the constant “drill”
references and the ending with the nurses rubbing huge tubes of toothpaste on
his chest. I think the humor in this came from how this rock video refused to
take itself seriously. A-
Miscellaneous – Crystal takes the stage to announce that
after the commercial, a film starring Eddie Murphy will be shown and Siskel and
Ebert will conduct their first of two review segments.
Prose and Cons
(I personally didn’t review this episode but Bronwyn Douwsma and Stooge did in their own reviews of the season 7 premiere which you can read for yourself here and here)
Review I
Prose and Cons
Ebert – Could’ve use more Murphy, otherwise the premise is
run into the ground
Siskel – pretty much agrees with Ebert, but says the premise
is dumb to begin with and that prisoners should be allowed to write if they
happen to be good writers
(TWO THUMBS DOWN)
Needleman
Siskel – says character is inconsistent and film relies too
heavily on scantily clad girls
Ebert - says he couldn’t tell “whether they were satirizing
MTV or dentistry” which gets a negative crowd response
(TWO THUMBS DOWN)
Walking After Midnight
Ebert – calls is a simple concise “masterpiece” that is very
quick
Siskel – says it was very concise with no wasted shots and
the first film of the night that doesn’t belabor the point
(TWO THUMBS UP)
Lifestyles of Relatives of the Rich and Famous
Siskel – says it’s hard to do a parody of a show that isn’t
the dumbest thing on television, but they had a good premise and was impressed
by Short doing Hepburn by just his voice and mannerisms without makeup, also
says they should do this sketch every week with a different celebrity
Ebert – pretty much agrees, and points out a good TV in joke
with the same shot of Shearer nodding to satirize shows that only have one
camera
(As an aside, I personally think they should’ve used the
second installment from the Murphy hosted episode as I feel it was much
stronger.)
(TWO THUMBS UP)
Synchronized Swimmers
Ebert mentions he didn’t watch the ’84 Olympics, but he
happened to catch some the Synchronized Swimming event and thought he was
watching an SNL sketch. Both just agree that it is the silliest sport in recent
history and think they did a spot on parody because they picked a dumb target.
(TWO THUMBS UP)
Don’t Hitchhike – see Lou Gosset Jr./George Thorogood and
the Destroyers, 10/02/1982 (8. 2)
Since nobody seems to have reviewed this episode (at the time of this writing anyway but again Bronwyn Douwsma and Stooge have since covered these ones on their blogs), I guess I
will have to comment on this sketch. In what turns out to be a rather long
drawn out PSA, Tim Kazurinsky hitches a ride with a scantily clad beautiful
woman. She entices him to the point where he strips down to his underwear as
she is driving and she suddenly floors the gas pedal causing them to go off a
very steep cliff. It just looked like there was a big build up to a pay off
that was barely worth it to me. Still, it wasn’t a bad effort. C+
Video Junkies – see Chevy Chase/Queen, 9/25/1982 (8. 1)
(once again, you can read Bronwyn Dowsmas' review of this episode here as well as Stooges' here but the paragraph directly below contains my own original thoughts)
I could’ve sworn this was shown during Season 7, but
apparently it wasn’t. Anyway, this is sort of a mockumentary chronicling the
road to recovery of children who are addicted to video arcade games juxtaposing
it with a crack or heroin addiction. Kids are seen looking strung out and
hanging out in seedy alleyways begging for quarters. Then, we are taken to
Columbia House who tries to get kids to stop blowing money on videos games and
start blowing money on records. We see a doctor subjecting a young girl to
aversion therapy by giving her a quarter for a machine that electrocutes. The
main subject, Alan, is hit by a garbage truck on his way to the arcade. He is
falsely convinced he can beat his video addiction. No wonder I thought this was
a 81-82 sketch. It seems to be going for dark shock humor. The most glaring example
of this is the character “Phyllis” who is dressed like a prostitute and the
narrator says she will “earn 6.75 the hard way…a quarter at a time.” I have to
admit I thought that was worth the shock laughs that the audience gave it as
was the window washing scene where Alan yells “Oh, come on…school supplies!” I
genuinely laughed at Timmy, the alleged 14 year old who has a grey beard and
has some vaguely ethnic accent. I loved how they used him to show that video
games are stressful and his delivery of the line “Have you played Tron? It’s
totally awesome!” This was one of the better films shown and it still holds up
somewhat well today creepily enough. It had its moments for being in
questionable taste. C+
Negro Baseball
Crystal introduces this from a phony projection room as his
favorite character he got to play this year. (ugh) I admire his enthusiasm and
commitment but seriously, fuck you Crystal.
Review II
Negro Baseball
Siskel – says it’s interesting to sports fans of the era, it
parodies the documentary style well and the makeup is convincing but it
ultimately had nothing to say
Ebert – disagrees with Siskel, liked the acting and
cadence/mannerisms of clichéd speech but also says they satirized documentary
style well.
Video Victims
Ebert – says he loved it (much to the audience’s distaste)
but points out that they also showed this the last time they were on SNL three
years ago and accused them of showing it again purposely to get a good review
in advance (since they liked it last time).
Siskel – pretty much agrees and says he particularly liked
the “quarter at a time” bit
In case anyone was wondering, last time they saw “Video
Victims” Ebert called it a “brilliant satire” of “interchangeable alarmist TV
documentaries” right down to the narrators’ “tightly controlled hysteria”.
Siskel agrees and says he liked the visual quality and the actor who played the
doctor. Strangely enough, their first appearance on the show seemed more
scripted. Maybe they just weren’t as comfortable on live TV as they would be.
Don’t Hitchhike
Siskel – says it “goes nowhere absolutely fast” and if Tim
pushed the gas pedal instead of the girl it would’ve been more consistent with
his nervous character
Ebert – doesn’t add anything, but gives this a thumbs down
With their film reviews done, Gene and Roger move on to
their “X Ray” segment where they focus on the career of Fernando. Ebert says he
doesn’t like how far Fernando strays from the hard hitting probing TV interview
format that Barbara Walters and Mike Wallace were known for. To prove his point,
he shows us clips of Fernando’s alleged interviews with Ronald Reagan and Clint
Eastwood (both conveniently off screen) where he just tells them how
“mah-velous” they look. Siskel completely disagrees and says he’d rather watch
Fernando conduct and interview than Walters or Wallace. He also wants SNL to
“work him to death” and show us more about his life and family.
Black Like Me
Goodnights – Crystal (on stage with the rest of the cast in
what must’ve been a taped appearance) reminds the audience to tune in for the
John Candy & Eugene Levy/Hall and Oates show that never happens and says
“the film festival will be back in a moment”. Crystal appears back on the
theater set with Gene and Roger to say goodnight.
Next I will review Mr T. & Hulk Hogan/Commodores
episode.
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