“What is baby killing?”
3 Stars
Billy Martin talks to his World Series losing Yankees right before Chevy kicks the stool out from under him to leave him hanging by the neck. I’m glad we got something other than Chevy fall down. He still gets the sign on but he feels like part of the ensemble here.
Steve Martin Monologue
4 Stars
Not worth explaining any of this silliness. Steve tries to suck a stool into his lungs, plays Ramblin’ Man on the banjo, and yells at the director ending in his patented “Excuuuse me!”.
Speak Out For Milk
3 Stars
Chevy speaks on behalf of milk, the nutritious, delicious drink that gives you sour breath and a heart attack if you drink it too quickly.
Jeopardy 1999!
4 Stars
Jeopardy in the future tells us that Walter Mondale was the first president to accidentally kill himself in office, the Tidy Bowl man won 8 Oscars, and Fran Tarkenton was the first man cloned. This sketch gave me my hardest laugh of the season so far with Dan’s answer of “What is baby killing?” which was legalized in 1981 to control overpopulation. And a nice meta joke of none of the contestants remembering that it was Chevy Chase who fizzled out after leaving SNL. I’m confused on the ending. The question is who killed Kennedy and I thought we were building to a joke like we found the real killer in the future and it was going to be Don Pardo or something. But I guess they just all forgot Lee Harvey Oswald’s name.
Kinky Friedman
“Dear Abbie”
I’ve heard that this is not a fair representation of Kinky Friedman. I did not like this and was expecting something more fun just based on his name and outfit.
Weekend Update
I’m entirely confused by the Artists Rendering of Hurricane Carter’s trial. Chevy narrates how Carter behaved at his trial while some guy acts it out. I did like the gag about Chairman Mao being buried in a Chinese takeout container.
Fido-Flex
3 Stars
Steve models a German Shepherd that can tell time and a poodle version for the ladies. I feel like this could have been sillier but it’s just a dog with a thing on its back.
Chevy talks about women in journalism before bringing out the woman who filled in for him behind the news desk, Jane Curtin to make faces behind her back while she talks. There’s probably some symbolism you could point to about something.
And Al Franken randomly walks behind Chevy eating a sandwich. Nothing to say about this but it was dumb in a fun way.
Beatniks
4 Stars
Jane and Mr. Mike dicsuss Lenny Bruce as Dan introduces us to a selection of beatnik acts. Chevy plays some flamenco guitar and gets his fingers stuck in the strings, Steve reads some bad poetry hilariously breaking character to refer to his script when he lost his place in his ramblings.
Garrett’s bit as a blind guitarist was fantastic and just another example of him being my sneaky favorite. He always goes hard for whatever he’s doing. I loved his generic blues song which included having holes in his shoes and feet and being blind yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
I tuned out for John’s drugged out ramblings. I get the kind of performance he’s spoofing but it comes off meandering and pointless, which of course is the joke. He sneaks in his Brando impression at one point which provides a spark.
And then Laraine does this so I can’t complain. This was a long sketch and was basically just a bunch of solo pieces strung together but I liked the vibe. It reminded me of the Utah Prison sketch where everybody gets a little time to just perform something. I didn’t understand the epilogues at the end which included Mr. Mike becoming the ‘Love Dentist’, John playing El Gallo in The Fantastiks, and Gilda’s waitress character getting killed in Vietnam.
Looks At Books
2 Stars
Steve has written a book about sex in sports and has found that abstaining from sex improves athletic performance. But then it’s just about showing home runs and bloopers. Interesting how they end the sketch with an introduction to the Gary Weis film…
Autumn In New York
3 Stars
…which I didn’t hate. It’s just a collection of random people lip syncing to a song but I liked the atmosphere and some of the bored looks on the people’s faces were amusing. It ends with Gary wearing the same hamster head from the Lily Tomlin episode so it at least tries to be entertaining. It’s faint praise to say that I liked this because it had a premise but that’s a lot more than I can say for a lot of Gary’s films.
Mary
2 Stars
This was like a mixture of edgy and corny that I wasn’t digging. Mary Richards is dead, she was poisoned by Ted who put Drain-o in her coffee as a joke. The rest of the cast play other characters from The Mary Tyler Moore Show all reacting to the star’s death. Dan is Murray, John is Lou Grant, Gilda is Rhoda, and Jane is very fun as Sue Ann Nivens but the joke kinda fell flat after the reveal of the dead body. Too morbid? Maybe. But not funny enough to just be a sketch about being nonchalant about death.
Mysteries In Medicine
Steve introduces us to a new diet plan where you are taken to an ice fishing hut and forced to fish but an Eskimo named Blog steals all your food. This could have been helped by cleaning up the pace. There’s a lot of dead air as they transition to different sets when they didn’t need to. They could have set the whole sketch in the ice fishing hut and saved time.
Ramblin’ Guy
4 Stars
Even with all the dead air in the last sketch we still need to fill time but luckily Steve has more jokes. His mother won’t stop borrowing money for food, Jackie O was a pig on their dinner date, and he accidentally spills the beans on that time the Earth blew up.
FINAL ANALYSIS
“We always enjoy having test tube babies on our show”
3.1 Stars
MVP
Laraine Newman
Jeopardy 1999!, Beatniks, Mary, Mysteries In Medicine
Best Sketch
Jeopardy 1999!
Worst Sketch
Looks At Books
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
Not too many issues with the rundown except that the show ran out of steam after Beatniks. Maybe move Mary before Update or give Kinky Friedman another song.
Host Analysis
Is it sacrilegious to say I wasn’t too hot on Steve Martin? His monologue and ending set were great but he felt a little stiff and awkward in sketches. If I didn’t have foresight I wouldn’t have thought that this was the guy who would host so frequently casual fans would think he’s part of the cast. That could be because they didn’t quite know how to use him, he’s a comedian with white hair, what if he played Ted Baxter? He seemed a little nervous and green in the first two sketches and then was kinda wasted in the back half. Good news, he’s got 15 more chances to perfect it.
Final Thoughts
While not the classic I was hoping for, it was still a fun one. It was fun to see Steve’s humble origins, the Jeopardy sketch was good, the Beatnik sketch was long but entertaining, I actually watched that sketch multiple times. I was packing up boxes of all my belongings (moving, not evicted) while watching this episode the first time and I didn’t notice the length until it was over as by the conclusion I had finished 2 boxes of bubble wrapped decorative items. It made perfect packing entertainment, so do with that compliment what you will. Other than those two sketches it’s just an average episode but it flowed nice and passed the time adequately.
Up Next
Buck Henry, The Band, and a farewell to Chevy.
Good to see you back.
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