S1E14 Desi Arnaz

I'm surprised I didn't comment last post on the unexpected host for this week: Desi Arnaz. One of the oddest host choices for the first season. I remember watching the rerun of this one as a kid, at a time when I Love Lucy was still aired every day on local stations, and being thrown by just how old Arnaz looked.

THE HOST

It's a strange choice, and the main reason Arnaz is hosting is to promote his autobiography. Has anyone else hosted SNL to promote a book? I can't think of anyone.

Anyway, Arnaz actually does a fine job. He opens with a marijuana joke. I'm guessing as a bandleader in the 1940s, Arnaz had already had plenty of experience with pot, but his feigned ignorance over the special "cigars" the cast gave him is still funny, and immediately indicates he'll be up for anything. He's in plenty of skits, and he's the musical guest. Not bad for a guy pushing sixty, but who looks like he's already in his seventies.

THE GOOD

The highlights, naturally, are the I Love Lucy Parodies. The parade of failed I Love Lucy Pilots is a classic skit, one of the great early TV parodies done by the show. It's easy to forget, that for this cast, I Love Lucy was still an integral part of their lives. Not only had they grown up with it, but it was still aired every day. Up through the eighties, it was almost impossible to not find one local station showing reruns, unlike today. For many viewers, this was a long overdue parody, and it pays off great. Gilda does a great Lucy, and Desi Arnaz, Jr. guests as a young version of his father

Many people might not realize that Arnaz's production company was responsible for The Untouchables television show. Arnaz plays the villain, along with Radner reprising her Lucy, while Aykroyd nails Robert Stack's Eliot Ness. I've never seen an episode of The Untouchables, but the amount of detail that went into this skit tells me the SNL writers have. It's also a little odd seeing Arnaz Sr. and Jr. take part in a skit that involves Lucy being shot and killed at the end.

THE BAD

Only two things, and one is only here because I'm sick of seeing it. Enough with the diet pill commercial.

We've also entered the period where Gary Weis overstays his welcome. A film about Taylor Mead, a writer/actor/etc associated with Andy Warhol, and his cat, is fine, but why is it on this show?

THE MEH

Sadly, the rest of the episode doesn't fare as well as the two television parodies.

Gilda reprises her Lucy for one more skit and a commercial for Arnaz's book, and the gimmick wears thin from overuse.

Chevy gets a lot to do in this episode. He plays a white version of Barry White; a husband hoping to have sex on his 40th birthday but instead finding himself in the middle of a surprise party; and a man using nonsense phrases to frustrate his girlfriend and break up with her. All three skits are just okay, as is his Weekend Update.

Arnaz has two more showcases: His reading of the Jabberwocky, foiled by his Cuban accent, is entertaining. His performance as a Cuban acupuncturist treating John Belushi.... well, I can't remember a thing about it, so it didn't make much of an impact.

Garrett Morris gets a quick bit as Rubin Carter shilling for American Express, and Laraine Newman does an advertisement for cosmetics. It's another one of Newman's characters that doesn't really stick with you, and this is the second time in two weeks that Morris has played Carter. I guess this is the point when he was in the news a lot.

THE MUSIC

How awesome is Desi Arnaz? Seriously, I never paid attention to his music on I Love Lucy, but he's terrific here. He plays Cuban Pete, his biggest, pre-TV career hit, and he dances everyone out at the end to Babalu. He was good enough to make me seek out more of his music.

GRADE: A

Nothing too bad, the weaker skits are fine, and we've got two lengthy, classic skits. Weis's film is brief enough to be painless, and the music is great. Surprisingly, this is one of my favorite first season episodes.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

I was shocked to learn that Arnaz was about 59 at this point. He looks much, much older. And his teeth look dreadful, especially watching this on a big screen, digitally streamed. Hard living, I guess? I'd assumed he was in his 70s, he could even pass for 80s.

Radner does a great Lucy. It's a shame they beat it into the ground by using it four times in one show.

NEXT

Jilly Clayburgh with Leon Redbone. I have no feelings either way about that. Maybe she'll be funny, who knows.

S1E13 Peter Boyle w. Al Jarreau

So here's a case of a host at one peak of his career, but likely better known today for a later peak. Best known today as the father in Everybody Loves Raymond, at the time he hosted, Peter Boyle was best known for his work in Young Frankenstein. This his only stint hosting SNL.

THE HOST

Boyle does fine, though it would have been nice to see him, and the cast as well, do more. This episode has an above average amount of musical performances, film shorts, and reruns from past episodes. You'd think coming back from a two week break would have rejuvenated the writers and cast, but it doesn't seem to be the case. The highlight of the night feels less like a written skit and more like something Belushi and Boyle were riffing on backstage that made it's way in front of the camera.

THE GOOD

The aforementioned Dueling Brandos, featuring the Brando impersonations of both Belushi and Boyle. It's great, and yet another strong showcase for Belushi.

We're introduced to two stoners played by Aykroyd and Newman, when Boyle visits them as their clueless neighbor. It's all very '70s drug humor, but it worked for me. Apparently these are recurring characters, but I don't recall them. Maybe these skits were edited out of the shortened reruns aired in the '80s, either for time or content.

A wrestling match between Bees and WASPS beats an old joke into the ground, but it's funny at least the first time you see it.

And, Gilda Radner has another cute segment just being herself, this time being harassed by Garrett Morris reading aloud a filthy valentine he's written for her.

THE BAD

I usually put them in the Meh category, but the reruns of commercial parodies really grate this episode, since there's so many and they're far from the best ones. Ambassador Training Institute? New Dad? The do-it-yourself price gun? Diet pills? Why are we still seeing these?

And while I don't want to be too critical of three preteen girls, what the heck is the deal with the Shapiro Sisters?  They lip sync This Will Be by Natalie Cole. The audience seems to love it, but what's it doing on this show?

Gary Weis is starting to annoy, as well. His film on the Pledge of Allegiance, complete with a closing shot of Garrett Morris as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, is heavy-handed and pretentious.

Did the audience really request a repeat of Weis' Homeward Bound film? Because I sure didn't.

THE MEH

The opener, with Chase playing a valet shot during the St Valentine's Day Massacre, is an odd choice.

Samurai Divorce Court shows that minus Buck Henry, the Samurai skits aren't nearly as good.

The one decent commercial of the night is Aykroyd as Ricardo Montalban in a parody of his infamous car commercial.

Weekend Update chugs along with more Emily Litella.

Aykroyd does what I think is his first Nixon impression on an interview show with Jane Curtin. He'll get bettter.

Boyle coming home to find his wife with a house full of men pretending to be human appliances is only so-so.

This week's home movie is literally a static shot of a home.

THE MUSIC

It's Al Jarreau. I don't think he does any of his better known hits here, but I'm not a fan, so who knows. Not my thing, so I find myself pretty ambivalent about him.

GRADE: C

I feel like I should rate it higher, because it's not terrible, but this episode is so pedestrian. About half of it feels like repeats or non-cast related stuff, so it inevitably feels like they're coasting.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Apparently Boyle actually married, and remained married, to the woman he sings to in his monologue.

I'm finding myself already wanting change. Chase's Weekend Updates never blow me away like I'd expect, so I'm already eager to see how things shift when he's removed from the equation next season. The other cast members still don't get the spotlight enough, and we all know they can handle it.

S1E12 Dick Cavett w/ Jimmy Cliff

Well, it was a good run while it lasted. After one classic episode after another, we find ourselves with Dick Cavett. At least Jimmy Cliff is around to energize things.

THE HOST

Nothing against Dick Cavett, but he doesn't mesh well with the cast at all. Most of his skits are solo affairs. He seems to be over-thinking the whole thing, as if he was taking part in an interesting experiment and not there to entertain.

THE GOOD

We get another opening touching on Chase's burgeoning popularity. Garrett Morris playing with a voodoo doll, and clearly enjoying it, takes us into more mean-spirited territory. It'll get worse.

Aside from John Belushi's commercial parodies of H&R Block, the rest of the episode is a wash to me. And even those are funny entirely because of Belushi's performance.

THE BAD

At least there's not much that's terrible, but the one thing that is is a doozy. A construction worker delivers a monologue about being true to himself, strips to a bra and panties, and sings "I Gotta Be Me". It's the type of time filler we saw in the first few episodes, and it feels very out of place at this point.

THE MEH

Pretty much everything else. Cavett does some commercials for various vocational schools for unlikely vocations. He delivers a monologue parodying Our Town that's okay, but weighed down under the strain of striving too hard to be cerebral. Chevy Chase interviews him about a book detailing his time as a Nebraska pimp, which makes no attempt to go further than "Dick Cavett as a pimp, isn't that funny?" We get a Dick Cavett look-alike contest, featuring a winner who looks nothing like him and takes up far more screen time than he should. They just don't seem to know what to do with their host, and it shows.

A skit involving Chevy Chase as an accident prone hunter never rises above mere silliness, and Jane Curtin playing Betty Ford as she delivers a speech through interpretative dance is just odd.

We also get a standard Weekend Update (again with Emily Litella), as well as a rerun of another tired commercial (cat food versus tuna). And Gary Weis' film isn't too bad this week.

THE MUSIC

Thank goodness something salvages this episode. Another great musical guest from season one - the legendary Jimmy Cliff, riding high from his movie The Harder They Come. He does two classics (the film's title track and Many Rivers To Cross) as well as a song I'm unfamiliar with. He's amazing, and the performances haven't dated at all.

GRADE: C-

There's not much that's dreadful (and what is doesn't involve the regular cast or host), but there's little to recommend from this episode, either. The cast takes a two week vacation after this, and it looks like they need it.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

I could have sworn I'd heard somewhere that Cavett wasn't the first choice to host this week, but I may be confusing him with Buck Henry. There's little attempt to integrate him with the cast, so it's possible he was shoe-horned in late in the game.

Is this the first time a musical guest has been allowed to perform three numbers? I'm used to big names like McCartney and U2 being given the opportunity, but Jimmy Cliff more than validates the choice.

S1E11 Peter Cook & Dudley Moore w/ Neil Sedaka

Here's a first - an SNL hosted by legendary British comedians. But it's not anyone from Monty Python. Before watching this, I hadn't realized that Peter Cook & Dudley Moore had ever hosted the show. These days, it's Moore who's most likely to be remembered (and even then, I think his fame has waned substantially since his death), but for a time in the late '60s, at least in England, it was the duo that commanded attention. I feel like their popularity was probably fading at this point in their careers. I honestly didn't even know they were still working together in 1976. SNL was probably an opportunity for them to make some extra cash and maybe get some new gigs, but in hindsight it feels more like the end, with Moore about to surprise everyone by launching a massively successful solo career.

THE HOSTS

They're both seasoned comedy professionals, so they know what they're doing, and they do it well. The infamous tension between Cook and Moore is absent, so overall the episode runs smoothly and entertains throughout. Cook and Moore both take part some skits with the cast, but most of their screen time is devoted to routines that I suspect were part of their regular stage show. Their opening monologue, a famous skit involving a one-legged Moore auditioning for the role of Tarzan, definitely is.

THE GOOD

The opening skit, featuring Chevy Chase defusing a bomb, but instead ending up with a pie in the face, features a pretty big mistake when the pie misses most of Chase's face. It's reprisal at the end, though, makes for a nice reminder that the show really is live.

The real highlight is a skit featuring prisoners auditioning for a production of "Gigi". The big moment is Garrett Morris' performance of the song "I'm Gonna Get Me A Shotgun And Kill All The Whities I See". If you've seen anything from this episode, it's this. The entire skit is great, though, and holds up as well as the best of this era.

All of Cook & Moore's skits are strong. In addition to the monologue, they do some very British routines involving a restaurant called The Frog & Peach, one involving shepherds meeting the baby Jesus, and they even play Scottish Sonny and Cher. It's a different style than we usually see on SNL, and at times it feels like they've hijacked the show, but if you're a fan of British comedy, it's consistently entertaining.

As for the regular cast, the standout is John Belushi as a male impersonator in another one of Jane Curtin's interview segments, skits that are often hit or miss for me, depending completely on who she's partnered with and what they're doing.

THE BAD

Honestly, nothing. Like other recent episodes, part of this episodess success is due to a lack of bad skits as much as to a preponderance of good skits.

THE MEH

The commercials - one new, two reruns - are just adequate, as usual these days.

Weekend Update is about what you'd expect, though Emily Litella makes an appearance.

Moore's skit with the cast, involving doctor's harvesting the organs of a man who's clearly still alive, is less successful than Cook's prison skit.

So why aren't Gary Weis or the Muppets in the bad category? Weis' film about a New York novelty store isn't too bad,  and the Muppets aren't on, aside from Scred being told by Gilda that they won't be on this week. It's the beginning of the end for the Muppets. Our long national nightmare will soon be over.

THE MUSIC

It's Neil Sedaka, at a time when he was experiencing a resurgence. He's okay, though a gimmick of him listening to one of his old songs on a transistor radio before playing the modern version of it fails when the radio is too faint to hear.

GRADE: A-

It's another strong episode, with little to drag it down.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Between the pie and Sedaka's radio, this is a gaffe prone episode, at least in a way that stands out more than usual.

I get the sense that the cast is getting a little burnt out. They leave most of the heavy lifting to Cook & Moore, so it's less noticeable, but we're halfway through the season, they're on their third week in a row with one more to go. They just feel a little AWOL from their own show.