Season One: First Episode

1st Episode

Host: George Carlin
Musical Guests: Billy Preston and Janice Ian
Special Guests: Andy Kaufman, Valerie Bromfield and Jim Henson's Muppets
A film by Albert Brooks

The first episode of Saturday Night Live was not Saturday Night Live. At the time, ABC had a variety show called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, so the show was called “NBC's Saturday Night”. There are great books that cover the buildup to the first show, but since this blog is both a review, and a more person version of SNL, I'll just go on the show itself.

The show originally aired on October 11th, 1975, and while I have no idea if I saw it on that night, I saw it a number of times afterwards as if has been rerun by NBC, Comedy Central and E! Since. Even though I've seen it a lot of time since, it's always odd when I watch it because it is SO different from what you think of when you think of Saturday Night Live.

The show begins with a cold open: Michael O'Donoghue as an English instructor, John Belushi as an immigrant. It's a new version of an old joke, where the instructor dies, so the student does the same thing, livened up by the phrases Mr. Mike uses, such as “I would like to feed your fingers to the wolverines.” It's still a funny skit due to the odd phrases and constant use of Wolverines. Also sets the tone for the dark humor that Mr. Mike would bring to TV during his tenure on the show. Chevy comes out as a Stage Hand to give “Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!”

In the opening credits, Don Pardo screws up and calls them the “Not For Ready Prime Time Players”, and while all of the guests get their own title card, the cast is all on a single card. It also shows the emphasis of the show, since the cast has little to do, and roughly gets half of the screen time with guests getting the rest.

Opening monologue is Carlin giving the Football/Baseball bit he did through the 70's.

Following is a commercial parody with Dan Ackroid and Chevy Chase for “New Daddy” insurance. A funny idea that still holds up.

Next is Billy Preston performing “Nothing From Nothing”. It seemed odd that they went right to the musical guest from a commercial parody without an opening sketch.

Next up is a sketch with most of the cast in a courtroom. Jane Curtain is a woman who has been assaulted, and is unable to say what the accused said to her. She writes it down, and it is passed from the judge to the lawyers and then to the jury. Belushi wakes up Gilda and passes the note to her and she reads it, winks and gives him the thumbs up. A joke more than a sketch, and until the final gag seemed like a waste of time.

Andy Kaufman then does his “Mighty Mouse” bit and got my first real belly laugh of the show. I remember seeing this as a teen and thinking it was utterly brilliant in its simplicity, and now looking back on it, it shows how Andy was able to do things no one had ever thought of. Just a great bit.

Back to Carlin who does observational humor. He says “Did you ever notice” before most of the gags, which was new back then, but has been lifted by so many comedians that its a cliché. Maybe they should all pay Carlin royalties.

Janice Ian performs “Seventeen”, and while it's a great performance, it seems out of place in the show, which has been fast paced and manic until this point.

Finally, a sketch the seems like the SNL I know as we go into “Victims of Shark Bite” with Jane Curtain and Belushi. Belushi plays a man who is hiding his arm so he can say it was bitten off by a shark. Very funny sketch that is more than a one joke bit. It's also the first time Curtain plays a cynical talk show host who is the anchor for whatever bit the guest is doing. Solid, funny stuff.

Commercial for “Jamitol” with Chevy Chase and Mr. Mike where Chevy introduces Mr. Mike as his wife. Parody of the old Geritol commercial, and without that reference, it just seems odd instead of funny.

Paul Simon is shown talking about the show next week (which seemed VERY strange) where he would be reuniting with Art Garfunkle.

Next up is Weekend Update with Chevy Chase. He opens with a GREAT joke:

“The post office is releasing a stamp commemorating prostitution. It's a ten cent stamp, but if you want to lick it, it's a quarter.” Loraine Newman does her first “Female reporter in the field” bit, which falls flat, and the news has an ad in the middle for “Triopenin”, the arthritis medicine that is in a hard to open bottle which goes on WAY too long.

The next bit is the bit I always dread when I watch the old SNLs of the first season. The “Land of Gortch” Muppets. I watched their sketch, which was BY FAR the longest segment, and didn't get a single laugh. It's not the Muppet characters you would know, but a bunch of odd characters made up for the show, and have not been seen since as far as I can tell.

Carlin then does more stand-up.

Albert Brooks's movie “The Impossible Truth” is shown, and I didn't remember the exact bits from when I have seen reruns (probably because they cut films from the 60 minute edited reruns), but it came off like “The Onion” and was decent enough.

Next sketch is “Bee Hospital” where the entire cast is in bee outfits and the men are expectant father pacing around as the women come out to announce “It's a drone!”, “It's a worker!” and such. The bees never made a lick of sense to me, and this was a one note gag where Belushi is a father disappointed his child is a worker bee.

Another parody ad, this one for a school that teaches Gilda how to be a phone operator for the schools that run ads on late night TV. “A lucrative career in phone answering” probably wasn't as funny then as it is now.

Comedian Valerie Bromfield does a short bit on high school volleyball that flops HARD. I see that she's done a lot of sketch comedy in Canada and voice over work, but I've seen better comedy bits at high school speech contests. By the end of her time, I felt horrible for her.

Then another film, “The Saturday Night truck is traveling America, asking you to show us your guns!” A funny bit of people showing guns they are concealing while mowing the lawn, walking their baby and the like. And, of course, the cop directing traffic can't find his. Odd and funny, it still stands up.

Carlin does an early version of his anti-religion stand-up which is tame today, but got the show in trouble when it5 aired. A few jokes here and there, and Carlin has since polished the bit and still uses it, but this is a VERY early version of it.

Billy Preston performs “Fancy Lady”, which is announced as a “new hit”. I don't know as I ever heard the song anywhere but here.

The final sketch is Belushi and Gilda as a married couple with Dan and Garret Morris as home security sales men who break in as bunglers to show how much they need the security system. A great sketch that shows the direction the show will go. Danny steals the scene as a manic salesman, and I was surprised to see Gilda break character a few times, horsing around with Danny.

The last comedy bit is an ad for a razor with THREE blades because three is better than two. The tag line is “Because you'll believe anything.” Now, in a day when we have 5 bladed razors, the ad doesn't seem as funny, but it does say something for the American Consumer that the idea of a 3 bladed razor was considered a humor bit just 30 years ago, and now a 5 bladed razor is the standard.

Janice Ian sings “In the Winter” slowing things down again with a quiet folk song, and then Carlin thanks the audience. Carlin is the only person on stage for the goodbye and end credits. As the credit roll, most of the cast and crew listed as having “Bud” as their middle name until you get the stage hands and tech people.

Overall impression:

The show was trying to do too much and went by at a frantic pace, leaping from film to guest to bit. Carlin did a lot of stand-up, and didn't interact with the cast in any way, which is a bit jarring. All but one of the sketches were quick, one joke bits that would have worked on “Laugh In”. Four songs, two comedians other than the host, it was a lot different than future shows and doesn't much seem like what you think of when you think Saturday Night Live. Still, Mr. Mike got a lot of TV time, the filmed bits have held up over time, and there were only three or four screw ups (which for a first time live show, isn't bad). There were hints of what the show would become here and there.

Rating: I'll be rating shows on a scale from 1 – 5, with 5 being best.

This show gets a 3, a couple of funny bits, but it relied too much on guests and commercial parodies.

Best bit of the show: Andy Kaufman's Mighty Mouse sing along.