Saturday Night Live, Ranked and Reviewed: Season 1

"Let us begin. Repeat after me. I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines."

--

I'm Matt. Few people would know this, and indeed, a part of me hopes that nobody does, but I used to write reviews of SNL as it was airing in 2015/2016. They're all bad and have been lost deliberately to the sands of time, but they served to germinate all of my writing endeavors up to this point, and everything that I've accomplished with this blog. So it feels fair to pay back my dues a bit.

I wasn't actually intending on doing anything like this, but I've been watching the show from the start for the first time and commenting on episodes with some buddies I've made working on the "One SNL a Day 2.0" revival project, and they were so eager to hear my takes that it sort of became a whole, big thing... eventually so big that they suggested I find some way of posting them outside of our private groupchat. So I've decided that I'll compile all of my little write-ups for every season here while adding some fun, extra things! I don't think I'll write these all the way up to the show's current season—I'm not very interested in writing long-form about the seasons I saw as they aired, and I'm already writing about some of the modern seasons per the aforementioned "One SNL a Day 2.0"—but I'm looking forward to covering up to at least Season 30, at which point I'll have seen every episode of SNL ever produced.

Also note: I'm transplanting my write-ups over here with minimal changes, except for assisted clarity. They'll get longer and more comprehensive as time goes on; it's a bit of a slow start, but I think especially by the time we get to the final stretch of this season, my write-ups start to get pretty sweet. Hope you enjoy!

10/11/75: George Carlin / Billy Preston, Janis Iain (S1 E01)

It's sort of hard to evaluate the first episode, and I fear that vibe will be in place until the show begins to resemble what it would eventually become more. As it stands, it feels a lot like a curio piece contemporarily; all of the best bits are the ones I've already seen (with the exception of "Trojan Horse Security," which was pretty great), and the bits that I haven't won't commit themselves too strongly to my memory. (I was amused by the audience having, most clearly, the most joyous reaction to the three-blade razor commercial out of all of the pretaped bits, though.)

I do think the episode got by alright, even if my interest wavered at points. At the very least, everything was fascinating enough that it retains you whether or not it's the most engaging material in the present. I also feel like, aside from some of the baffling fake ads, enough of the material feels evergreen instead of dated, which was a pleasant surprise; that "Show Us Your Guns" bit is as fantastic as it was when it aired.

I'm currently very fascinated by how, for the lack of a better word, unembellished the fake commercials feel, though. I look at a piece like "New Dad" or the "The Berkeley Collection" and I'm struck by how they don't really have the reflex to escalate as the prototypical fake commercial does, with extraneous detail or a broadening of the conceit which I'm far more smitten with. I guess it's just that reflex instead to play the commercials deadeningly straight and realistically, though I feel like that also means that they don't always work comedically; the latter wallpaper sketch is a fun idea that, uh, is presented? So I'm looking forward to when that switch really flicks on; maybe "Triple-Trac" technically qualifies but at this point the humor of it is completely lost. (Penned 5/20/21)

GRADE: B. 

10/18/75: Paul Simon / Randy Newman, Phoebe Snow, Art Garfunkel, and Jessy Dixon Singers (S1 E02)

Alright, second episode finished, it was maybe a smidge less weird than I was expecting. Honestly, it was a very front-heavy episode with its sketch-to-musical-performance balance and I was like "Oh, huh, this isn't too different!" before it turned into basically a concert. But the music was pleasant enough background noise, and I enjoyed the sketches and short films that littered this episode. Paul Simon was a far more game performer than I was expecting someone to be with their first time on the show with that basketball short; I look forward to seeing him do the show proper greatly. However, he was not a good enough actor to make those exchanges with Art any less awkward.

I was also surprised by the almost-complete absence of the cast, especially only two episodes into the show to push them aside, but I guess it was a time of experimentation. (Penned 5/20/21)

GRADE: B. 

10/25/75: Rob Reiner (S1 E03)

The "Rob Reiner" episode was undoubtedly my favorite S1 episode yet, even though I assume that's something I'll keep saying as the show comes more and more into itself. It had the same experimental vibe as the other two episodes, but I think to even greater effect; even if there were the expectedly mixed bits, I appreciated the variety aspect of it all, as well as the increasing emphasis on bits involving the main cast. I thought the "Dangerous but Inept," "Square Dance" and "What Gilda Ate" bits were short but delightful; I wasn't as wowed by the Joe Cocker bit as I was expecting to be but it's good, committed stuff as well, and a nice reflection of the gritty, seedy vibe that SNL was going for at the time. The Lockers were a definite highlight and I loved watching all of the ways that the audience reacted to it (or struggled to figure out how to react to it). Lastly, that long Albert Brooks piece was pretty appreciable to me, perhaps not as lean as it could afford to be but I liked the balance of deadening realism and absurdity that was driving it, something that Brooks is proving himself to be delightfully capable of with these shorts. (Penned 5/20/21)

GRADE: A- 

11/08/75: Candice Bergen / Esther Phillips (S1 E04)

Alright, hmm, I feel like I was maybe a bit underwhelmed. I think the quality is about what I expected given the other three, though there were more things that didn't click with me and more things that I found generally off-putting in their execution. I do agree with the sentiment that this is probably the closest of these shows that we've gotten to getting into the traditional SNL formula, but that made it feel like it was more hovering at an in-between point, not quite as rickety as the experimental first three episodes but not as well-oiled as the show's structure would eventually become; I can hardly strike the show for trying to figure out what it is, though. The sketches themselves were more of a determining factor for me here. "Land Shark" was fantastic, and having only seen one cycle of the shark attack in the past, I loved seeing the premise build and escalate, and it's probably my favorite live sketch from the show that I've seen thus far. I also quite liked Chevy's botched Hamlet speech (before it turned into... a Polaroid commercial), Andy Kaufman, the dialogue between Candice and Gilda, and the "Pong" sketch, which was very low-key but I enjoyed the experimental approach.

With that being said, you also get stuff like that dreadful homophobic commercial, and it's perhaps divisive to say, but I really did not get the appeal of Michael O'Donoghue threatening violence against a woman and that seemingly being the only punchline to the bit. Other bits were fine on-paper but didn't really capture my interest strongly, with more enjoyable outs than set-ups. (Penned 5/21/11)

GRADE: B.

11/15/75: Robert Klein / ABBA, Loudon Wainwright (S1 E05)

Despite going back and forth on my thoughts of it in some sections, I actually found Klein's episode to be a fairly enjoyable effort far in terms of honing in on some conventionality. I think I was perhaps more mixed on the sketches than with the Bergen ep, but I felt more responsive to them, whether in good or bad ways, than strictly ambivalent, which at least made it a better watch. Klein's presence as a host was weird, and I alternated between enjoying what he did ("I Can't Stop My Leg" won me over) and finding him to be a strange, perhaps-desperate presence; apparently he was intending on flashing the audience during the goodnights, which surprised me because all of his stand-up material felt squeaky-clean and kind of dopey. No huge standout sketches this time, though nothing flagrantly offensive either; "Minute Mystery" was probably my favorite, though I also liked the Greg Allman blackout and was surprised by how much I enjoyed both this episode's Land of Gorch piece and the Emily Litella debut. ABBA was the highlight for me, and the conceptual slant of their performances was a riot. (NOTE: it's since been brought to my attention that the ABBA performance was driven, in large part, by Mr. Mike edgelord spite, which taints my enjoyment of it quite a bit, though I do appreciate the idea of a novel framework for SNL's musical performances, an idea we've rarely come back to.) (Penned 5/21/21)

GRADE: B.

11/22/75: Lily Tomlin (S1 E06)

Hmm, Lily Tomlin... another S1 episode that's hard to figure. Lily was a fantastic host, and the sort that really gives things a nice jolt of energy, coming across as fully, lovingly devoted to the show and even adorably suggesting that she was joining the cast... but she almost felt too good for this current iteration of SNL. More than anything else, as I saw the show going through its continued efforts to figure out what it is, I was anticipating Lily's future hosting gigs more than the one I was currently watching. Literally the only piece that struck a chord with me tonight, strangely enough, was the "Land of Gorch" segment, which I found to be strangely sweet and poignant in a distinctly refreshing way, again assisted by how naturally adorable and committed Lily is. Gave me a nice, goofy smile. 

Outside of that, this was sub-standard fare to me. Jaws didn't need to recur so quickly, and even though the changes are novel enough that they should work, it didn't. The Beethoven bit would've probably hit me more if I knew what the sketches were referencing more vividly, though I concede that's a me problem—they were cute. Everything else just sorta washed over me: the sketch where the joke is seemingly that Chevy stumbles a lot and is maybe racist, a sketch that just flips gender roles (maybe that was more cutting in the '70s?), a sketch where Lily sings and I faded out before I caught the premise. I was hoping for a little more here.

Oh, and the goodnights were delightful. Forgot about that somehow. (Penned 5/22/21)

FINAL GRADE: B.

12/13/75: Richard Pryor / Gil Scott-Heron (S1 E07)

Alright, so surprise surprise, the Richard Pryor episode lived up to both expectations and hype! It might've also benefitted from the fact that my expectations were still set pretty low against what the season has been thus far, but it succeeded at the two main things that I think a good S1 episode up to this point can aim for: the good sketches are good, and the interesting sketches/moments are interesting. Obviously, "Word Association" is legendary and the monologue is aces, and the fact that its second-gear material was still absolutely golden (the family dinner sketch, "White Like Me," the military sketch, the Exorcist) means that there's no shortage of things to appreciate, and beyond just being satiated by a good sketch for the night, I was actively looking forward to whatever could come next. 

When the episode got more experimental, too, I was there for it; Shelley Pryor's monologue was weird as hell but enjoyable all the same, and even the Albert Brooks film I found strangely compelling, regardless of the fact that it was a clearly, somewhat spiteful piece. My controversial opinions might be that the police line-up sketches didn't fully work for me, and I have a lot of reservations about the Samurai sketches as an Asian person in 2021 (I get it, they're goofy, but I didn't really find it funny either way and it's weird that an episode so intent on dissecting race would feature a sketch taking the piss out of the exoticism of a different race). Through it all, Pryor was the expectedly wonderful host who brought life to every scene he was a part of, both in pieces clearly written for his voice and pieces clearly spotlighting those around him. Add in some lively musical numbers and we've got the first fully solid episode of the season! (Penned 5/23/21)

FINAL GRADE: A.

12/20/75: Candice Bergen / Martha Reeves, The Stylistics (S1 E08)

Alright, Candice Bergen #2! While I don't think that this episode reached the (modest, for the most part) heights of my absolute favorite S1 episodes, this was by far the most digestible as a whole. There's a surprising amount of wholesomeness to the premises for the most part that helps things maintain a jolly, cheerful vibe that you can never be too mad about; even stuff that didn't hit too hard for me, like the ice rink home video or the Gary Weis film at the end added handsomely to the overall atmosphere. The laundromat scene between Gilda and Belushi was, far and away, the best proper sketch of the episode, a touching and minimalistic slice-of-life piece carried out masterfully by two endearing performers, and the elf sketch comes in at a respectable second place; iffy analogy notwithstanding, it was a sweet piece executed with an unexpected degree of sincerity. Candice receded into the show as most S1 hosts do, but she was always pretty fun when she showed up, helping the "Land of Gorch" piece stick the landing and joining in on the classic "Winter Wonderland" musical number. All in all, this was certainly an episode more fun than funny, but that's exactly what they were aiming for. (Penned 5/23/21)

GRADE: B+.

1/10/76: Elliott Gould / Anne Murray (S1 E09)

Elliott Gould's inaugural hosting gig was an interesting episode to watch for an interesting reason: I have some degree of recency bias with the content of a lot of the sketches, having listened to the That Week podcast episode back in January when I had no plans of really undertaking a grand watchthough. That's had some pros and cons with my viewing experience. 

On one hand, the element of surprise was lost. Arguably the crown jewel of the episode, the meta shift in the "Killer Bees" sketch, didn't do a ton for me. It feels like the sort of sketch that's too light on extra detail to really work once you already know what the gist of the sketch will be, and while I found it very easy to appreciate, it played out too slowly to be gratifying when I knew everything that would be happening for the most part. (John's speech and Lorne slapping Dave Wilson around got me, though.) Meanwhile, the Godfather bit didn't do much for me, and while I assume it's partially hurt by not knowing the source material, it also just felt unfocused with the addition of Larraine's Valley Girl character, like the sketch refused to properly land on a specific target. 

The simplest material gratified me the most, and I found it the most timeless: the fantastic, morbid string quartet opening, that anarchic demolitionist sketch, and of course New Shimmer. The Gilda sub-plot was a cute addition to the episode, though unassisted by Elliott's role seeming more deflective of Gilda than reciprocating. I found him to be a serviceable host, though the most contained and unassuming one yet with his more low-key energy throughout the night; I'm interested in seeing the sort of material he gets to work with as the show strengthens. (Penned 5/24/21)

FINAL GRADE: B+.

1/17/76: Buck Henry / Bill Withers, Toni Basil (S1 E10)

Alright, just wrapped up the Buck Henry episode and I think it might be my favorite thus far; while Pryor's episode had higher highs, this one felt the most consistent, like it took all of the aspects of the show established up to this point and managed to fine-tune all of the kinks into something completely solid. Buck Henry was an interesting host, and I like how the show was very upfront about the oddity of him being there, but I can see why he's come back so many times; he fit into the show's process very well, and even if he wasn't ever given particularly challenging material he was a game and generous performer. 

Something I found refreshing was that the night tried at more long sketches than usual; both the Ford and Citizen Kane pieces felt like small-scale epics. The former of the two was stronger and the best use of Chevy's Ford yet, undoubtedly because it plugged him into a more involved scenario that enabled fun interplay with Buck, Garrett, and John, feeding into those fun chaos vibes that this season seems to enjoy. The Citizen Kane piece, meanwhile, took a while for me to enjoy because I don't know the source material all that well, but I loved the gag of Dan repeatedly firing into the streets, and the ending to that slow, meticulous build was so stupid that it brought me joy. This also felt like the first episode where the blackouts really punched or didn't leave anything to be desired, and their spread across the episode gave the show a nice flow as it alternated between longer and shorter pieces.

Now I'll just try to fill in the rest of the blanks. This Samurai sketch definitely worked for me more than the last one because it felt like there was a more legitimate game than just John fucking around a limply-written script; the Asian blabber is still iffy but his physicality is a lot of fun and I enjoyed all of the little flourishes (his attempted seppuku, delicately cutting the sandwich). O'Donoghue finally contributed something I fully enjoyed; I was familiar with the needle bit but had never seen it, so I was relieved that it was more dark and absurd than aimlessly edgy. Last but not least, the filmed bit with Buck trying to find the funniest person in Irving was perhaps anticlimactic, but I found it be a charming, sincere piece regardless. Great episode! (Penned 5/24/21)

GRADE: A.

1/24/76: Peter Cook & Dudley Moore / Neil Sedaka (S1 E11)

Just watched the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore-hosted episode and hmmm, I feel like I'm a bit disappointed by it. The two made good hosts, and I enjoyed a lot of the material that they performed (especially the monologue and "Frog & Peach" sketch), but this episode felt sort of like it was undoing a lot of the progress that the past few episodes have made with host integration into the show; for the most part, Cook and Moore felt isolated from the show, emerging to perform parts from their act and only occasionally gelling with the cast. When they entered into the formula more, the night generally succeeded; I thought the prison musical sketch had nice beats to it although it was very long, and the elevator sketch was charming. But I wanted to see the sort of energy that the goodnights had, with Moore, Cook, Chevy and John playfully smearing each other's face with a cream pie; it felt like a hint of what could've been, rather than the show alternating between their heavily fine-tuned deadpan and SNL's looseness. 

As a sidenote: I'm amused that Lorne and O'Donoghue had such massive hate boners for ABBA and then invite the dorkiest crooner ever onto the show lol (Penned 5/25/21)

GRADE: B.

1/31/76: Dick Cavett / Jimmy Cliff (S1 E12)

I just finished the Dick Cavett episode, and I... have no idea how much I can really say about that one. Like last episode with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, there wasn't a huge sense of the host really being inserted into the show so much as just existing within it to some capacity, but unlike Cook and Moore, Cavett also never did anything but be himself, and even then he feels uncomfortable in his own skin which tends to read far too much as pitiful rather than endearing. The fact that the episode was so comprised of sketches where the actors talked directly to the camera basked the night with a sense of homogeneity which it couldn't recover from. Only one sketch felt particularly functional, the sketch where Chevy keeps accidentally shooting stuff, but even that one felt kind of like a sketch that on any other night would amicably drift to the bottom. It's at least kinda nice to know that the flame SNL's air rundown issues burns eternal, I suppose.

Strangely enough, the best bits of the night were probably the cold open, with Garrett torturing an ailing Chevy with a voodoo doll, or the fan-submitted apple film, which was incredibly charming and fit the tone of the show surprisingly well. (Penned 5/27/21)

GRADE: C+.

2/14/76: Peter Boyle / Al Jarreau (S1 E13)

With Peter Boyle, I've crossed another S1 episode off my list! It's a bit of a curious episode, lacking in any massive winners that would make the history books or anything of that variety, but it's an episode of great consistency, which in this season I far prefer. Although Peter is cast into almost entirely straight man roles, he gamely imbues all of them with a lot of life and character that makes him feel indispensable from the scenes—the greatest attribute of a character actor hosting the show. The "Janitor in a Fridge" sketch is probably the best of the episode in that regard, a piece that swings for the fences with a solid premise but which he plays with the perfect mix of pity and ignorance. (As stereotypical as it was, I also really enjoyed the druggie sketch, largely indebted to him serving as a perfect, guileless foil to Aykroyd's characterization.) 

The occasions where he's able to really cut loose are equally successful, with the "Bees vs. WASPs" piece and "Dueling Brandos" being especially enjoyable and magnetic despite the excessively one-note nature of their conceits. With the exception of a handful of sketches that scream S1 (the Nixon monkey mask thing, Gary Weiss' "pledge of allegiance" pretape which I have nary a shot of understanding), this was an episode where I really felt like I was in on the joke, approaching the show not just as some vestige of the past but as a source of legitimate entertainment, and that was a joyous feeling to feel. Pushing Pryor's episode of anomalies aside, I'd say this was second to Buck Henry's as the most successful of the season thus far. (Penned 5/27/21)

GRADE: A-.

2/21/76: Desi Arnaz & Desi Arnaz, Jr. (S1 E14)

Watched the Desi Arnaz episode and I was very charmed! It's interesting to see how the show handled its first real "legacy act" sort of host, and that proposition becomes all the more exciting when it becomes clear the degree that Desi enthusiastically worked himself into the process of the show. It's an intensely odd combination, a legendary, aging sitcom star serving as the nucleus of an intensely counterculture sketch show with a nihilistic perspective, but somehow it works. Desi gamely bats around the premises he's presented with, sillier than SNL's usual fare but clearly written from a place of affection for the guy, and whereas there's not any home run sketches here (the obligatory I Love Lucy sketch is probably the closest we get, but it's not quite there), the enthusiasm that permeates the whole episode makes it feel incredibly warm and joyous in a way that SNL rarely does, and not in any way to its detriment. (Real Candice Bergen Christmas episode vibes, in my opinion.) 

Bits like Desi reciting Jabberwocky, or sticking cigars into Belushi's orifices aren't particularly daring, but he makes them work, always playing it safe but keen to go along with the jokes (consider that legendary look he gives at the end of the monologue as if his eyes are about to explode out of his face). Unsurprisingly, he came to life most when he was in his element through the episode's fantastic, lively musical numbers, ending everything with a conga line though 8H and some ferocious drum-slapping that filled me with fear for his health but ultimately joy. A real class act, that guy. (Penned 5/29/21)

GRADE: A-.

2/28/76: Jill Clayburgh / Leon Redbone, The Idlers (S1 E15)

Oh, oops, I didn't write a former review of this episode at the time, or indeed, much of anything about it! But I can say this: it's an episode that's a bit difficult for me to assess, to be honest. I can see the appeal but most of it just didn't really connect with me, especially the mini-epic up top which had some elements to it that just sorta put me off (violence towards a guileless woman from John again, Gilda's role). The cold open and "Warthogs" were pieces I enjoyed, though, and I thought the night's finest moment was Jill's musical number with The Idlers—indelibly charming.

GRADE: B-.

3/13/76: Anthony Perkins / Betty Carter (S1 E16)

Alright, hmm, the Anthony Perkins episode was sort of odd. I feel like there's a lot of stuff in it that I want to like, but simultaneously not a ton gets over me. The unequivocal good was that Perkins was a great host, and the material was crafted wonderfully to his specific cadence; if anything, the monologue might be my favorite piece of the night, a simple bit of writing that he nails perfectly. But the concepts didn't tend to elevate to his level, I feel. I'm not familiar enough with Norman Bates for the motel management ad sketch to fully land, though he anchored it well unsurprisingly and I enjoyed the repeated "hack her to death with a kitchen knife" gag. Nothing else felt fully-formed or fully-satisfying, though; once again, Sherry has been shoved into a random non sequitur premise that falls flat on its face, the dominatrix sketch feels like it's hovering next to excellence but its performances never truly found a rhythm, and I can't tell if the concluding Aykroyd sketch fell completely apart or if I just didn't understand what it was going for at all. On the plus side, though, the Muppets ended up being my favorite part of the night; I'm enjoying the angle of them gasping for airtime and enjoy all of the meta/subtextual gags pertaining to their relationship to SNL. Scred interrupting that one sketch was probably my biggest laugh out of the night.

Oh, also: Gilda slow-dancing with Scred during the goodnights. I love her so much. (Penned 6/03/21)

GRADE: B-.

4/17/76: Ron Nessen / Patti Smith Group (S1 E17)

Alright, so the Ron Nessen episode was fairly interesting. I didn't really get the strange, contemptuous nature of the episode as I was watching it because at this point I sort of expect a degree of counterculture perverseness from Season 1, but it definitely registers as a bit stunning now, in retrospect, the sort of material that they gleefully caked around Ron. Whenever he was woven into the show, it was as if the show was running through its obligations; Nessen is generally uncharismatic, every role of his written politely but deadeningly. (He's fortunate to have stilted Ford clips slammed in at weird spots to make him look more organic.) There is a bit of a wincing factor in how willingly he let the show make him look like a fool for signing up, though, that same brand of provocation that feels equal parts fun and sour (see: ABBA). 

Fortunately, a lot of the bits work well in isolation: the Bass-o-matic is an Aykroyd classic, and the Supreme Court sketch is a fun premise that was solidly-executed, if perhaps less scathing now than it would've been at the time. (I recall it's on the RollingStone's top 50 sketch list, which piqued my interest even if their SNL lists were immensely questionable.) The Flucker's sketch was good fun, even if the ending seemed like too easy of an out for what it was building up to, but as with the douche sketch, it was sold off of its delivery. (Apparently that "Tomorrow" sketch was very good but I couldn't get a bead on it until Garrett walked out in that goddamn peanut costume.)

Contextually, though, it was a morbid and sordid evening, pointed directly at Ron Nessen for allowing himself to enter the lion's den. We start the night with four dead bodies and go on to slam military recruitment, hang out near a bunch of men's urinals, and talk to a garbage man about finding disembodied limbs. (I did quite like the Weis film, admittedly.) I can't tell if I liked it or not, but I bet all the writers were high-fiving each other until Tuesday.

Oh, Patti Smith was pretty cool, though. Weird anti-synergy as usual with this episode. And Billy Crystal, who I managed to mercifully repress throughout the rest of my write-up, fucking sucked and might be the most damning inclusion to this episode of all. (Penned 6/04/21)

4/24/76: Raquel Welch / Phoebe Snow, John Sebastian (S1 E18)

It's been documented of this episode that whenever Raquel Welch would pitch sketches, the writers would deflect them and tell her to work on her song. So using that as a jumpin-off point... yeah, this episode isn't super bad but it fully has those vibes. Raquel is a game host who wants to go with the punches very clearly, but she looks visibly like she was kept at arm's reach from the creative process, working through ambivalently-written material that capitalizes on her eye-candiness in a way that feels more leering than ego-feeding (an inverse J-Lo, basically). She's not the greatest performer but I liked her energy, which allowed some fun to come out of the cracks of their material; her sign-language Oscar acceptance speech in the Cuckoo's Nest sketch, which I was otherwise not a very big fan of (somehow both edgy and vaguely lame, which about sums up most of Mike's writing for me), was a nice moment that showed how much she could theoretically will into working for the episode if it afforded her more benefit of the doubt than strutting her out in scanty outfits. The best bits were Aykroyd pitching the metric alphabet, because every episode can afford a minute or two of unfiltered Aykroyd insanity, and Lorne's classic pitch to the Beatles. (Penned 6/06/21)

GRADE: B-.

5/08/76: Madeline Kahn / Carly Simon (S1 E19)

Alright, so the Madeline Kahn episode. While I don't think this episode absolutely wowed me as a whole—Buck Henry #1 remains the standard I have for a strong episode of the show at this point—what it lacked in consistency, it made up for in dedication. There's a nice spread of ideas across this episode, and while not all of them work for me, I appreciate the intentionality across the board and Madeline had a far more distinctive voice than I would've imagined going into the show. It's awesome, too, that the show seemed to actively take note of that and give Madeline material that enabled her to shine and flex her talents, culminating in that legendary Frankenstein/"I Feel Pretty" musical number at the heart of this episode which has gotta be one of my favorite moments out of the season. Watching Madeline dance and convulse about, owning the stage was the moment that I realized that she's one of those rare hosts that's on the exact same wavelength as the show; more than the show writing to her, she meets the show half-way. 

The "Slumber Party" sketch was another clear highlight for me, taking an incredibly simple premise but imbuing it with such a startlingly sincere charm that restrained it from the risk of hackiness. It was just an incredibly charming slice-of-life scene, with all the women of the cast bringing their A-game and proving themselves to be the most secretly skilled players in the season. And lastly, although the "I Will Follow Him" sketch was another entry into this season's catalogue of suddenly-musical sketches, I think it was their best variation of that idea, indebted to the finely-calibrated performances of John and Madeline, turning it into a proper show-stopper instead of a head-scratcher. (Penned 6/07/21)

GRADE: A-.

5/15/76: Dyan Cannon / Carly Simon (S1 E20)

This was... an okay episode, I suppose, though that's perhaps damning praise for an S1 episode. It's neither compellingly good nor uniquely frustrating; it entered and exited my body like a ghost with places to be. Dyan was an okay host, but not one that really plugged into the show well for one reason or another; she was dedicated but giggly in a mix of so-so material that never took advantage of any unique skills that she may or may not have. She charmed the most across the episode's uniquely silly runner—with the male cast presenting themselves to her as her dream man despite mishearing her specific vision of "a man on a white horse," only to culminate in Chevy riding into the studio shirtless on said white horse during goodnights (the '70s, fucking hell man)—but even there she amiably laughed her way through it all without giving any more of a pulse on what she could specifically bring the show. She can sing as the "Hell's Angels" sketch revealed, I suppose, though even there she was displaced from the chaos as everyone around her willed the scene (not good so much as... insane) into working.

One thing here worked unequivocally for me. The hearing test sketch, cruelly juxtaposing an ear exam with an armed robbery, was the perfect mix of absurdity and darkness that this season tends to excel at, and if it's nothing too new to see from the season, it was nimbly conceived and performed. Everything else was at least fully-formed, but uninvigorating: the dead delivery boy sketch ends in a fun, smart place, but takes way too long to get there. Chevy's performance in the funeral speech sketch is a touch too annoying, even if by design. Even Dan's crazy spokesperson sketch for the week, hocking celebrity bathwater (forever prescient), is merely okay. Fortunately, Leon Russell's musical performances gave things an awesome jolt of energy to keep the operation afloat.

Notably, Russell's second performance was also the first time John's Joe Cocker fully worked for me, and damn did I love it there. Everyone just stopping their music and watching him struggle in feigned confusion, before coming back in and slamming the song shut... amazing moment. (Penned 6/08/21)

GRADE: C+.

5/22/76: Buck Henry / Gordon Lightfoot (S1 E21)

Alright, so Buck Henry #2 felt like SNL at its most confident up to this point, but simultaneously at its most streamlined point of operation. We've finally hit one of the great staples of SNL: an episode comprised far too heavily of recurring material! None of it is too bad, mind you, but the mix ranges from questionable (Lorne continuing his Beatles check bit, now with a stumblier performance than ever), to dull (Baba Wawa), to passable but obligatory (Samurai Tailor). None of the recurring bits are huge drop-offs from their predecessors, but they also don't push the root concepts any further, shaping the night into an amiable, crowd-pleasing experience, but not one that speaks to a viewer who's keen on seeing the show take chances and try at new things, especially with SNL knowing very well that Buck Henry is the sort of host you can rely on to try different things out.

True to that sentiment, too, the best the episode had to offer were the pieces that Buck could really key into. The monologue was amazing, undoubtedly my favorite from the past season and perhaps one of my favorites of all time now, deprecating on the show's jokeful disdain for its host with an insanely ambitious scope that really epitomizes the joy of SNL being a live show. Buck soared, too, in the "Talk Back" sketch, a delightfully simplistic idea that risks being questionable but which he sells perfectly; it's one of those moments that demonstrates the level of confidence the show has in its host that he can carry something like this, which tries at the audience's patience, entirely on his own. Even the Gary Weiss film, one of the show's diciest spots, was something that he willed into working, playing off of customers in a toilet seat specialty store with fantastic deadpan.

Frustratingly, I do want to call out that specific moment in the otherwise wonderful crowd audition sketch where Garrett almost gets lynched, because Jesus fucking Christ, that's gotta be one of the most disgusting things I've seen from this show, and I hate that something that awful had to come into something that was so winningly silly. It reeks of that S1 desperation to underpin something fun with darkness, but it really came out on the absolute wrong side and just felt embarrassing for the show and degrading for Garrett, too good of a sport for this season to deserve. Fortunately, though, Garrett does get the shining moment of the night as far as cast-led material is concerned, singing a legitimately beautiful rendition of "An Die Musik" while text scrolls by saying that the show was compromised into including it. That's the way to use him, and that's the sort of material he deserves to do. (Penned 6/08/21)

GRADE: B+.

5/29/76: Elliott Gould / Leon Redbone (S1 E22)

Okay, so the Elliott Gould season finale is... a bit of an odd episode. I don't think that it's too bad, and I had my fun with it in the moment, but as it went on, it increasingly left me with little to really say about it. As with the preceding Buck episode, there was a breeziness to it, though if it didn't exploit recurring material, its sketches all played off of the pre-established strengths everyone has in their wheelhouse, causing a lot of the premises to gloss over me. There were big autopilot vibes, whether that meant sketches that rested entirely on the charisma of its performers (Chevy's foreign poker player sketch, the Honeymooners spoof) or rehashing basic concepts without thoughtful development (the "National Uvula Assocation" was just a retake of the pancreas variant from one of the first episodes, and even Dan's spokesperson sketch felt too obvious, fun as it was). Further compounding upon those feelings is the general scarcity of material, causing the back-half of the episode to almost entirely fall apart, slamming two musical performances in between a recycled pretape for the last ten minutes of the show. Also, just wanna say: Leon Redbone does not make finale musical guest material. I was literally falling asleep at a certain point, lol.

The night was generally salvaged by that excellent Star Trek in the middle, which feels like the one sketch everyone devoted the week to. The surprise factor of the conceit was unfortunately lost because I at least vaguely knew what the sketch was about, but the performances made it work in spite of that: John and Chevy were locked in and delivering two of their best performances of the season, and Elliott (a good host the show forgot how to really implement) entered the scene with just the right air of nonchalant formality before commencing destruction of the set. Considering my only other experience with a sketch this long was that meandering and vaguely racist "Guidance Counselor" sketch from the Jill Clayburgh episode, it was cool to see such a long, epic-feeling sketch that actually popped. That's more than can be said about anything else in this episode, though. (Penned 6/09/21)

GRADE: B-.

7/24/76: Louise Lasser / Preservation Hall Jazz Band (S1 E22)

Alright so Louise Lasser is... an episode, huh? I feel like it's a theoretically easy episode to shit on—Louise is nervous and neurotic, often at odds with the show in her own hosting gig and resting atop proceedings like oil over water—but it feels like too delicate a situation to take that sort of perspective on, at least for me. It's not the standard sort of "disaster" episode of SNL with a host barreling in, chomping the show through their ego, and shitting out a 90-minute turd afterwards. Louise feels like... a broken soul kept at odds with an episode that wants to exploit her notoriety without accommodating for her in any friendly way (if what she's said about the environment of the writers room that week means anything). She's set up to fail, and the show allows her to fail, making things feel more grim than anything else.

It doesn't help that everything she appeared in this episode was... hard to really get a bead on. Her performance was like Andy Kaufman if Andy Kaufman was sincere; the fiction cuts too close to the reality for it to feel anything but alienating. That dog bit was weird as hell, but I feel like it could absolutely work, even with a performance like Louise's, if the person leading the piece didn't feel trapped by the show. With that being said, I did find her concluding monologue to the episode utterly fascinating; it sure didn't feel like SNL, but it felt startling to see her speak on her issues and exploitation so earnestly.

As for the sketches themselves... I actually liked how much the episode keyed into a weird vibe, even if Louise makes it feel difficult to swallow. The aforementioned dog bit and even the short film could work, I think, under a different host. (I liked the low-key vibe of the latter, I think. Sort of.) Meanwhile, even if its placement in the show was a choice, the Swedish movie sketch was quite delightful. And then "Girl Talk" has a nice, slice-of-life edge to it, too; like the "Sleepover" sketch from Madeline Kahn's episode, there was a lot of room for hacky jokes, but it feels so grounded in reality, so thoughtfully-written, that it gets over for me. Everything else was pretty amicable. Weird, but a fascinating sort of weird that I can't get angry at.

Basically, I think this could’ve been a thoughtful, uniquely-good episode if Louise didn’t cast a shadow over proceedings, but even so, I can’t be mad at her. This evening just feels like a product of ill circumstance. (Penned 6/10/21)

GRADE: C.

7/31/76: Kris Kristofferson / Rita Coolidge (S1 E23)

Okay, so Kris Kristofferson... that was just, like, the worst kind of episode. Most obviously, Kris is about as out of it as a host can be without it threatening to break the show; he just lousily traipses through all of his material which, by the way, is plentiful in this episode. He's not hidden away strategically like a lot of weaker hosts tend to be this season. Kris headlines a lot of sketches here, suggesting a level of confidence that he'd be able to helm it which proved itself to be horribly unfounded. But here's the thing, too: I have no idea, even if Kris was in the finest form he could've been in, that he could pull off this episode anyway. He doesn't have the tight, straight man sense a host needs to play off Futaba, or the low-key energy to maintain a slice-of-life piece like the gynecologist sketch, or the ability to play something perfectly straight like in "Waiting for Pardo." Kris is a disheveled man by design who is just more disheveled than usual—this night is ill-fitting of him in all hypothetical scenarios. The only time he didn't detonate a scene was in "Police State," and his entire role there is being shot dead and laying on the ground for 30 seconds.

The night only worked whenever Kris was minimally involved, whatever those scarce pockets were. The aforementioned "Police State" sketch was the best of the night, taking a dark premise and playing it out to maximum absurdity without coming at the detriment of its bite. ("Stop or I'll shoot!" was one of the hardest laughs the show's gotten from me at this point. I could've done without the weird ending dialogue about them opting to kill specific minorities though, which was aggressively forced edge—Franken, I'm guessing?) Larraine's character piece as Sherry was also pretty solid, and as with "Police State," fairly salient. Maybe not the most funny thing ever, but given the sorts of material that gets on SNL this season, it felt kind of stirring and cathartic. Outside of that: dreck. (Penned 6/11/21)

GRADE: C-.

Cumulative Season Episode Rankings:

1. Buck Henry #1 (A)

2. Richard Pryor (A)

3. Madeline Kahn (A-)

4. Peter Boyle (A-)

5. Desi Arnaz (A-)

6. Rob Reiner (A-)

7. Candice Bergen #2 (B+)

8. Buck Henry #2 (B+)

9. Elliott Gould #1 (B+)

10. Robert Klein (B)

11. Peter Cook & Dudley Moore (B)

12. Lily Tomlin (B)

13. George Carlin (B)

14. Candice Bergen #1 (B)

15. Paul Simon (B)

16. Jill Clayburgh (B-)

17. Ron Nessen (B-)

18. Elliott Gould #2 (B-)

19. Anthony Perkins (B-)

20. Raquel Welch (B-)

21. Dyan Cannon (C+)

22. Dick Cavett (C+)

23. Louise Lasser (C)

24. Kris Kristofferson (C-)

FAVORITE SKETCHES:

10. "Talk Back" (S1E21 / Buck Henry #2)
9. "Samurai Delicatessen" (S1E10 / Buck Henry #1)
8. "Word Association" (S1E07 / Richard Pryor)
7. "Laundromat" (S1E08 / Candice Bergen #2)
6. "Police State" (S1E24 / Kris Kristofferson)
5. "Slumber Party" (S1E19 / Madeline Kahn)
4. "New Shine" (S1E09 / Elliott Gould #1)
3. "Jaws II" (S1E04 / Candice Bergen #1)
2. "The Decabet" (S1E18 / Raquel Welch)
1. "Buck Henry Monologue" (S1E21 / Buck Henry #2)

Honorable mention: Andy Kaufman. I didn't want to put him in the list because I feel like his presence is largely outside of the show, but "Mighty Mouse" remains a classic, and his Foreign Man routine is wonderful, too. 

Other great sketches: "Wolverines" (S1E01 / George Carlin); "Black & White" and "Exorcist II" (S1E07 / Richard Pryor); "An Oval Office" (S1E09 / Buck Henry #1); "Janitor in a Fridge" (S1E13 / Peter Boyle); "Bass-o-matic" and "Supreme Court" (S1E17 / Ron Nessen); "Beatles Offer" (S1E14 / Raquel Welch); "I Will Follow Him" (S1E19 / Madeline Kahn); "Hearing Test" (S1E20 / Dyan Cannon); "The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise" (S1E22 / Elliott Gould #2); "Girl Talk" (S1E23 / Louise Lasser)

FAVORITE MUSICAL PERFORMANCES / ETC.

9.  Jill Clayburgh and The Idlers (S1E15 / Jill Clayburgh) 
8. "King Bee" (S1E10 / Buck Henry)
7. Lily Tomlin and the cast scatting at the goodnights (S1E06 / Lily Tomlin)
6. Patti Smith Group (S1E17 / Ron Nessen)
5. "The Lockers" (S1E03 / Rob Reiner)
4. Leon & Mary Russell & Joe Cocker (S1E20 / Dyan Cannon)
3. Desi Arnaz & Desi Arnaz Jr. (and the conga line) (S1E14 / Desi Arnaz)
2. "Bride of Frankenstein" (S1E19 / Madeline Kahn)
1. Garrett Morris, Candice Bergen, and the cast sing "Winter Wonderland" (S1E08 / Candice Bergen #2)

SEASON GRADE AVERAGE: B.

Follow me on Twitter @Matt_a_la_mode!

Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3
Season 4 | Season 5
Season 6 | Season 7 | Season 8
Season 9 | Season 10 | Season 11
Season 12