--
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)
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)
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)
GRADE: A-
11/08/75: Candice Bergen / Esther Phillips (S1 E04)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
GRADE: B-.
3/13/76: Anthony Perkins / Betty Carter (S1 E16)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
Cumulative Season Episode Rankings:
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!
Great reviews. Very well written. If you haven’t already, you should check out onesnladay.com, which goes through every sketch (not my site). I think it would be fun to contrast your takes with Stooge’s.
ReplyDeleteHa, thank you Carson but I'm actually one of the writers of the revival project that we're both working on! So no worries there :^)
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