First Season: Third Episode

Sorry about a lack of a new review last week. Life got in the way. You can treat like when you would stay up and tune in for a new SNL and NBC would be showing “Weekend” with Lloyd Dobins.

Host: Rob Reiner
No musical guest.
Special Guests: Penny Marshall, The Lockers, Jim Henson's Muppets
A film by Albert Brooks
An appearance by Andy Kaufmann
An appearance by Denny Dillon and Mark Hampton

Michael O'Donoghue is listed as one of the Not Read For Prime Time Players. And I mention it because I love Mr. Mike and watch for that sort of thing.

Cold open: Chevy Chase is wheeled into a room in a wheelchair. He's left alone,. Starts to light a cigarette and drops his lighter. He gets up, picks it up and sits back down, then realizes that he was able to get up and walk. He tosses the lighter, tries to get up and pick it up, and falls to the floor. “Live from New York, it's Saturday night!”

The opening credits roll and once again, Don Pardo doesn't mess it up. From the books I've read, Pardo often messed things up, and some of the writers would get incredibly upset over his screwing up their jokes, but that's not the case here.

Rob Reiner comes out for the opening monologue with a cheap black wig and launches into a bit where he performs as a lounge singer, telling the audience that how they see him on “All In The Family” is just a “character” and this is how he really is. It was a “hip” thing to make fun of lounge singers in the 70's, but the parody is a bit too close to the original for my tastes and it came off as boring and WAY too long.

When he finishes, we go to Belushi and Gilda in the same “married couple” costumes they used in the first epsiode in a fake ad for the “National Pancreas Association.” This bit really works well, as it is solid parody of the old public service commercials and is absurd enough that it stands up to this day. My first real laugh of the show.

Reiner then introduces his wife, Penny Marshall, who was still on “The Odd Couple” at the time. They play announcers at a fashion show where members of the cast come down in progressively more outrageous outfits. A passable bit that again goes on way too long, and is hurt by Reiner's hamming it up and staying in the “smarmy Hollywood type” mode, calling attention to the jokes instead of just letting them work on their own.

An ad for having your medical procedures done via voodoo acupuncture follows. A one joke premise that passes quickly.

Next up is Andy Kaufman, who lip syncs to a children's recording of “Pop Goes The Weasel”. Not as absurd as t6he Mighty Mouse bit, so it wasn't as funny.

This is followed by Jane Curtain hosting “Dangerous But Inept” where she interviews Laraine Newman who plays failed President Ford assassin and Manson Family member “Squeaky” Fromme. Through the entire interview, she is attempting to shoot Jane. A GREAT bit and was a strong sign of where the show would be heading.

Next we have a cat food ad, involving a taste test where a woman think she is eating tuna casserole. Lots of fake ads in these early epsiodes.

The Lockers perform, and if you've never heard of them, you've probably7 heard of some of the people in the dance troupe if you know much about 70's and 80's pop culture. They were an early breakdancing groups with members Shabba Doo (made famous by the movie “Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo”), Fred “Rerun” Berry, who would later appear on “What's Happenin'” and Toni Basil, whose song “Mickey” would infect pop charts in the early 80's. Really entertaining sequence that got a lot of audience reaction.

And Now, Weekend Update with Chevy Chase. The ad in the middle was an ad for “People Movers” who move people as if they were furniture...and it's just as bad as it sounds. Weekend Update concludes with the first “News For The Hard Of Hearing” where Garret Morris shouts the top story as Chevy is reading it. They would go back to the well on that one a lot over the next year, but it was a solid bit. The whole news broadcast is hurt by Chevy never quite knowing what camera to look at. It wasn't a bit, as you ca see him getting visibly flustered and upset as it goes on and caused him to flub a series of punchlines.

The next bit is a “signer who needs no introduction” according to Reiner...

And it's John Belushi doing his Joe Cocker Impression singing “A Little Help From My Friends”. Even if you have no idea in the world who Joe Cocker is, this is a great sequence. I loved it.

The show this grinds to a halt with the Mucking Fuppets...Ploobis finds out his son is “smoking craters”. Yep, your bad pot jokes for the night.

Another ad with Chevy speaking for the Droolers Anti-Defamation League. Chevy can't keep a straight face as he drools while telling people to quit making fun of people who drool. Silliness, but I'm sure that it wasn't looked upon too well that he kept cracking up during the bit, since Lorne Michael said he didn't want the “Carol Burnett Show” type comedy where the performers kept cracking themselves up.

Next sketch in Dan Ackroid as a crazy square dance caller who has the people beat each other up as they dance, ending with him telling them to open fire. I liked the bit, but I liked it a lot more when Bugs Bunny did it.

This is followed by Denny Dillon and Mark Hampton doing an overlong skit about a Talent show for nuns. Denny Dillon plays the nun who is organizing it, and it REEKS of a bad college acting class exercise. Some bits on these early shows have flopped, but this was embarrassing to watch. They should have been doing this in some high school speech contest and losing, not performing on national TV.

Reiner then introduces a “New Segment” called What Gilda Ate. Gilda goes over everything she'd eaten so far that day, and while it sounds boring, it's a solid bit. Gilda shows her talent at telling normal things in a funny way and is another sign of things to come.

We then get a LONG film by Albert Brooks where he fulfills his lifelong dream of performing open heart surgery. It's a nice film, but again, way too long and seems out of place in the show.

The final sketch is one with Reiner and Marshall as a couple who are cheating on their spouses and deciding if they can keep seeing each other and all of the background parts are being played by the cast in their bee costumes. Reiner breaks character because all of the restaurant parts are being played by Bees. Belushi takes over, explaining that while they may be bees, they just want a chance, a chance to show their talent. Reiner overacts through the dramatic part (which also goes on too long), but once Belushi takes over the scene, it becomes comedy gold.

The show then goes right to credits, no goodbye and the credits run rapidly.

Overall Impression:

The show is coming together, but Oh My GHODS was Rob Reiner horrible. By the middle of the show, I would wince whenever he was on screen because seemed like he was on a “Donny and Marie” style variety show where you have to hammer the audience with the fact that “This Is A Joke” every time he spoke. The cast got more time, and while there are still too many ad parodies, the skits were a step up from the first show and had some real spark and bite to them. Flashes of what was to come poked out here and there. Do I need to mention how horrible the Denny Dillon piece was again?

Rating: I'm switching the scale to 1 – 10 so I can get a bit more nuance in it, and overall, this episode was a 4, with Albert Brooks's film going too long, a few dud sketches, Rob Reiner didn't work as a host and if I were watching it at the time, I would have turned off during the Denny Dillon bit and not tuned back in until 1977. It was that bad.

Best bit of the show: Belushi as Joe Cocker, but “Dangerous But Inept” came close.

SeasonOne: Second Episode

2nd Episode

Host: Paul Simon
Musical Guests: Randy Newman and Phoebe Snow
Special Guest: Art Garfunkel
A film by Albert Brooks
An appearance by Jim Henson's Muppets

The second episode has been written about a lot in that it was planned as an all music episode by Lorne Michaels, knowing that getting the show off the ground would be hard enough that they wanted something easy for the second week. And, for the cast, it was. They only made one appearance, with Chevy getting the only real screen time of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players. I also was a bit surprised that Simon name checked him a few times and no one else...if it were fiction, that would be foreshadowing.

The Cold Open was Paul Simon singing “Still Crazy After All These Years.” A personal aside here: as a kid, my mother was a huge Paul Simon fan. She would play his albums around the house and sang along with them so much that when I hear his songs from the “Still Crazy” album (and ALL Simon and Garfunkel albums), I hear her voice singing along with the songs in my head. It actually sounds strange to me when I hear them without her voice.

As his finishes up, he motions for another guitar, Chevy comes out, trips and gives “Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!”

The credits (read correctly this time) roll, and Michael O'Donoghue is no longer listed as one of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players.

We return to Paul Simon who introduces the Jesse Dixon Singers, who perform “Loves Me Like A Rock” in the best performance of the show. A GREAT version of that song, which is, oddly, a commentary on Nixon's last days in the White House according to Simon.

After the song, we get a parody ad with Jerry Rubin shilling “Protest Wallpaper” with 60's spray painted protests already printed on the paper. As it fades out we get the first funny caption as the camera picks out an audience member, which was a bit they did on these early shows that I had completely forgotten about.

Paul Simon sings part of the Randy Newman song “Marie”, mentions that he rarely performs on TV (remember the days when some performers were too cool to show up on TV? Yeah, those days are long gone) and then introduces him. Newman sings “Sail Away,” which is written as slave trader's sales pitch to attract slaves. After he finishes, the cast comes out in the bee costumes and is told by Simon that the bee sketch had been cut because it didn't go over well the week before. AND THAT IS THEIR ONLY APPEARANCE! Thanks for showing up, folks.

Chevy then does a VERY short Weekend Update and does the “on the phone not knowing the camera is on” bit for the first time. He does a few joke about President Ford (two of which have the exact same punchline) and introduces a film where Paul Simon takes on basketball player Connie Hawkins in a game on One on One, with Marv Albert interviewing and narrating. Great bit, but it does on too long before Simon beats him. At the end of the film, we don't go back to Chevy, but instead fade to commercial.

We return to Paul Simon introducing Art Garfunkel. They chat a bit, with Simon saying, “You won't run off to do any more movies, will you?” which seems a bit nastier NOW, given their history since this appearance.

They perform “The Boxer”, Scarborough Fair” and “My Little Town”, and are a bit rough around the edges (messing up the lyrics of My Little Town a few times), but it's still an amazing performance and it gets a huge audience reaction.

Art then performs his song “I Only Have Eyes For You,” and having little experience listening to Garfunkle on his own, I was less than impressed with the song. Sorry.

This is followed by the Muppets. The premice is that the head of the land doesn't have enough money to pay his bills. Is every bit about these Muppets going to end with someone or something being thrown down a well? Very little reaction from the audience, and all of the "Your flatulence" bits are met with stony silence. No wonder the writers hated working on this part of the show.

Albert Brooks's film is next, where he shows some of his childhood home movies and bits for upcoming films that didn't work. Really funny stuff and it reminded me of how much I always liked him.

Phoebe Snow then sings the old Billie Holiday song “No Regrets”. Simon and the Jesse Dixon Singers join her for a rendition of “Gone At Last” that my son was in the room for and said, “That's amazing! Who are these people!”

We get the final parody ad for the night for a long lasting heart battery, making fun of the old “DieHard” bit by having geriatric people outside overnight and seeing which one of them started up. It fell completely flat, with the audience no selling, and only a literal “smattering” of laughter. It probably didn't help that the show has become a concert and it seemed like an interruption rather than part of the show.

We close with Simon singing “American Tune” (another song Simon says was a reaction to Nixon). Bill Bradley comes out and present Simon with the “Best 1 to 1 basketball player” trophy, and he then thanks the audience, Chevy (?!?) and the rest of the people who work on the show and...we're out.

Don Pardo does a bit as the credit roll where he is announcing that he is announcing that he is announcing (and so on).

Overall Impression:

This was a great Paul Simon music special, highlighting him at a creative peak, and the other musical guests were excellent as well. It reminded me a lot more of the “Specials” the networks used to do instead of a NBC's Saturday Night episode, and got me wondering if the show would have done more of these episodes if the cast had not become “The Beatles of Comedy”.

Rating: Come on, Randy Newman, a Simon and Garfunkle reunion and an hour of great music? A solid 5.

Best bit of the show: The film with Paul Simon beating Connie Hawkins at Basketball.

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.

Starting this week

This blog is going to go through the original five years of Saturday Night Live to go through each sketch, guest and my impressions of it both as someone who watched it when it was on (I was 11 when it started in 1975) and now.

I'll also try to explain a lot of the topical references in case the people and events have faded with time.

But mostly, it's an excuse to pick up the DVD sets and watch an episode every week.