Live From New Hampshire, It's Matt's SNL Season One Review

SNL Season One Review

When news broke that the first season of Saturday Night Live would be released on DVD, I was really excited. I’ve been a fan of SNL for a long time (even sitting through some of the bad eras), but wasn’t even born when it premiered, much less seen those early episodes. I’d always heard good things about the early seasons of SNL (“when it was funny” to those who remember seeing them when they first aired). Unfortunately repeats on Comedy Central, where they ran until 2003, rarely showed anything before the mid-80s and I doubt E! has even shown anything before 2000 lately. DVD releases were limited to nothing but “Best of” compilations. At last SNL fans that’ve never seen the complete episodes could.

I got the set for Christmas 2006. Unfortunately the first two episodes didn’t blow me away, and I left the set unwatched for almost a year. With the writers’ strike in its third month, prime time offerings have become increasingly scarce, so like many viewers, I’ve turned back to DVDs. While it wasn’t as funny as I was hoping, it still offers an interesting glimpse into a TV institution as it was just getting started.

I won’t bore you with excessive background and history, instead I recommend you check out “Live From New York”, a retrospective featuring every living participant on SNL (with the notable exception being Eddie Murphy) through the early 2000s. They do a better job than I could. However, I will bring up pieces that show just how much SNL has changed since 1975.

On the most superficial level, we can start by the title. Instead of Saturday Night Live or SNL, the show was called NBC’s Saturday Night, so as not to interfere with a similarly named show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell (which starred future SNL cast member Bill Murray). That SNL didn’t last a season, but NBC’s Saturday Night couldn’t use the title until the second season.

Filming the show in New York City was also a risk at the time. While NYC has become tourist friendly, in the 70s the city was known for urban decay and corruption. Surprisingly the state of New York isn’t mentioned often in the first season outside of current events on Weekend Update. Two days before the season wrapped, David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) murdered his first victim. A year later New York was plunged in a devastating blackout. The state of the city played center stage when Dick Cavett hosted. Using the Thorton Wilder play “Our Town” as a template, Cavett spoke about the degenerating conditions of the city. While not particularly funny, the satirical edge still carries potency.

While the quality of SNL can be hit or miss, their structure for episodes has remained untouched for decades. This is what makes the first two episodes interesting to watch. The episodes involved little of the “Not Ready for Prime Time” players, but rather emphasized the guest host. Sketches involving the cast seem like they were thrown in as an afterthought. You could call these episodes “The (Guest Host) Show” and it would’ve been the same. George Carlin did nothing but his stand up routines, not even appearing in one sketch. Paul Simon did slightly more, appearing with the bees at the end, but overall he just performed his music.

It isn’t until the third episode, hosted by Rob Reiner, where the series formula begins to take shape. Since he was best known for playing Meathead on “All in the Family” when this aired, he didn’t have much in the way of special segments for him besides the monologue, so he had to perform in sketches.

The cast was also starting to step up. Musical guest Joe Cocker didn’t show for some reason (or maybe they never booked him in the first place), so John Belushi, who impersonated Cocker in his act, filled in his place. The resulting performance of Cocker’s version of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends” is an almost perfect impersonation, down to Cocker’s singing and bizarre mannerisms.

Video: John Belushi’s performance “With A Little Help From My Friends” http://www.heavy.com/video/4821

No discussion of the first season would be complete without discussing its breakout star, Chevy Chase. Without knowing any background information or context, it wouldn’t be an off to assume that this show was meant as a star vehicle for him. He appeared in most sketches, or played the lead more often. He delivered the opening line “Live from New York” in all but two of these episodes. The cold opens, instead of being sketches, were mainly an excuse for Chevy to get in one of his trademark falls before saying the introduction. To tailor the cold opens exclusively to one performer would never happen today.

The character Chevy is a self-absorbed jerk whose trademark line during Weekend Update was “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not”. Unfortunately it seems like his personality wasn’t far from his character. His bad behavior through the years, including the infamous and insensitive comments he made to Terry Sweeney that got him banned from hosting for over a decade, has had a huge impact on how these episodes are seen now. Back in the 70s, it could be assumed that he was playing a character. Now it seems as if that was really just playing himself.

Like Chase, it’s hard to see these performers without thinking about where they went afterward. As hard as it is to believe, there was a time when Dan Aykroyd was one of the coolest guys around. While his hipster cred expired some time ago, on the show, he’s really good. His forte on the show was playing the spokesperson for questionable products, notably the Super Bass-O-Matic 76, which was really just a blender used to puree fish into a liquid.

Video: Super Bass O Matic 76 http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/index.shtml#mea=2348

Larraine Newman was possibly the most featured of the female cast in this season, as she had a knack for voices. She often played the serious correspondent in Weekend Update and sold it with that serious tone. On the opposite side, she spoke like a valley girl years before everyone else was. In a bizarre piece, Newman, as Shirley Temple, brought piece to a warring African nation with the help of a tap dance routine. While she never became a big star, likely due to behind the scenes troubles she faced early on SNL, she eventually became a prolific voice actress.

Judging by the Live From New York book, Jane Curtin was the most grounded of the original cast, preferring to go home to her husband rather than the after party when the show wrapped. This is where her typical character, a modest woman caught in ridiculous circumstances, is drawn from. Perhaps this is why she doesn’t stand out as much as she will later on during the Weekend Update debates with Dan Aykroyd in season two. Whether this is a result of Chase’s exit I have yet to see.

The first “the black guy on SNL” was Garrett Morris. His sense of humor tended to sway more towards Redd Fox than Richard Pryor, at least in the way he carried himself. This leads to the discussion of race on SNL. Rarely is there more than one black cast member, and they can get lost in the shuffle. Race tends not to be covered as often as sex or drugs on SNL, leaving other sketch comedy shows like In Living Color or Chappelle’s Show to pick up the slack. That seems to have died down, especially in future cycles when Eddie Murphy carried the show on his back and today with Maya Rudolph one of the most featured players several seasons in. Ultimately Morris didn’t have many instances to shine.

His stand out bit, a piece that would be considered too un-PC today, was the "President of the New York School for the Hard of Hearing" (a common practice in sketches was to use the performer’s real name). Appearing at the end of Weekend Update, he provided a “public service” by shouting the top stories over Chevy Chase. This wasn’t mean spirited, but it did get old after a few episodes (“News for the…” variations were featured later).

Seeing things differently in historical perspective applies primarily to the two who have passed away, John Belushi and Gilda Radner. I’m more familiar with the career of serious Belushi-phile Chris Farley, who was one of the break out stars of SNL in the early 90s. Both he and Belushi had similar career trajectories: success as physical comedians on SNL, a few movies and premature death. It’s really sad that both these performers died just at the beginning of what could’ve been fruitful careers, a cautionary tale of the horrors of drug addiction.

Belushi doesn’t get as much screen time as Chase or even Aykroyd in this season, but the hints of his comedy persona are there. His dedication to the physical performance as Joe Cocker, The Godfather in therapy or his samurai character, who did pedestrian occupations like sandwich maker, tailor or general practitioner as a samurai would, is very funny. From what I’ve heard, Chase’s exit gives Belushi the space he needed to grow as a performer, but I’ll save that for the day I do a season two review, whenever that’ll be.

Video: Godfather therapy http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/index.shtml#mea=29150

Video: Samurai Delicatessen http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/index.shtml#mea=2361

Gilda comes off as the sweetest person you could hope to meet. One would expect whenever disagreements erupted backstage, Gilda played peace maker. It seems like just about everyone was having a blast on this show, but she was probably the happiest on stage. It’s hard to write this without sounding like a eulogizer (Gilda Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989), and it, like Belushi’s overdose, has affected my perception of these episodes now as opposed to seeing them when they aired more than the other cast members’ post-SNL career.

She also had two of the first season’s most memorable characters; Baba Wawa and Emily Litella. Wawa is an impersonation of Barbara Walters, spoofing her manner of speech. Emily Litella featured on Weekend Update, delivering passionate rebuttals to arguments she misheard (“Eagle rights amendment”, “Deaf penalty” etc.). Like “News for the Hard of Hearing”, it doesn’t seem likely they would have these characters on today considering the hypersensitivity of the politically correct. Despite that, these characters never mean spiritedly mock people for having speech impediments or difficulty hearing.

Video: Emily Littela Editorial http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/index.shtml#mea=2354

Obviously with a show known to be a launching pad for a lot of talent, the old episodes are a time capsule of great talents just as they were starting. In this first season we have the main cast, most of whom had some success after they left the show. Comedic guest talent included Billy Crystal (who went by Bill Crystal in the episode) & Al Franken, who mainly wrote in the first five years, later appearing on camera after Lorne Michaels resumed producer duties in 1985. In addition, there is the in house band lead by Howard Shore, who would go on to work with Peter Jackson, Cronenberg and Scorsese among others. Paul Shaffer, a few years away from Letterman’s debut, also worked on the show’s first season.

One of the more absurd newcomers of the first season was Andy Kaufman, a few years before he starred in Taxi. Even casual viewers of his work (or if you just saw Man in the Moon) know his trademark absurdist humor. The concept of his sketches was simple: lip synching to old children songs. However, the presentation is hilarious, from having several volunteers from the audience lip synch to “Old McDonald” to him awkwardly awaiting the phrase “Here I come to save the day” in the classic “Mighty Mouse” bit. I’m not sure SNL today would be as daring to allow someone like this on now, but back when they had nothing to lose, you see a lot more experimentation.

Video: Andy Kaufman’s “Mighty Mouse” routine http://youtube.com/watch?v=AHG9jp6s1OI

Much like today, short films are a big part of the show. The early episodes featured shorts directed by then unknown Albert Brooks, who left the series to pursue Hollywood filmmaking (Taxi Driver, which he co-starred in, premiered a month after his last short aired). The rest of the season Gary Weis took over, and the films turned to documentaries of unusual people. While I only found Brooks’ films moderately amusing and Weis’ dull, the concepts were unusual, which I can respect. Today the digital shorts are the big reason why people are saying SNL is funny again. If they replaced “Lazy Sunday”, “D*** In a Box” and “Iran (So Far Away)” with these shorts, I doubt people would take notice or watch it millions of times on YouTube.

Early in the season they announced a “contest”, where viewers could send in their own short films with the possibility of them being aired. Such a concept couldn’t be done today with SNL’s institutional status on TV, but since they were just getting media attention, that was OK. The biggest contribution of these shorts was one, made for around $20, featuring a clay man named Mr. Bill. I never knew he was brought on the show as a part of a “contest”, but that is another joy of seeing these old episodes: you see the origins of the sketches that have become pop culture staples.

Video: Mr. Bill http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/index.shtml#mea=32837

One recurring segment involved a more adult version of Jim Henson’s Muppets. These stand out as possibly the worst recurring segment of the first season. Every time Don Pardo mentioned them I rolled my eyes a little bit. It just doesn’t fit the rest of the show. Who exactly were these sketches made for? While drug humor was a big part of the early episodes, I’d expect someone to be ridiculously high to chuckle during one of these. The Land of Gorch set was destroyed mid-season, as if that wasn’t a strong enough indicator of where they were going. Luckily, the following TV season they got their act together for The Muppet Show, one of my favorites growing up.

Topical humor is ubiquitous today, from The Daily Show & The Colbert Report to The Onion, that it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always this way. The 60s started that as The Smothers Brothers referenced Vietnam and Laugh In featured then candidate Richard Nixon (SNL would have Gerald Ford deliver the “Live from New York” line, ironically on pretape, when Ron Nessen hosted). SNL, whose cast grew up during that turbulent time, features political humor a lot, especially in the long running “Weekend Update” sketch, and the first season is no exception. It’s interesting to watch historically (especially when they talk about future presidents Carter, Reagan and Bush 41, then the head of the CIA), but as someone who wasn’t around for week-by-week coverage of the news then, only the big names resonate, making some of the material dated, or at least hard to understand out of context.

One of Chase’s first big recurring character was of then President Ford, using a lot of physical comedy to mock Ford’s clumsiness. This impersonation is noteworthy for one big reason: it wasn’t an impersonation at all. Chevy Chase didn’t wear any special make up or speak as Ford did. They made no attempt to make the audience believe he was Ford. If anyone tried that today they’d be accused of being lazy. Aykroyd’s impersonation of Nixon in the memorable “Last Days of Nixon” sketch as well as Jimmy Carter showed an increased effort in impersonation.

Video: Chevy’s first Ford sketch http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/index.shtml#mea=29150

In addition to politics, drug culture influenced SNL. Considering everyone back stage was smoking pot, it had to have been the subject for sketches. Two highlights involved Chevy Chase. The first had him trying to inject a joint into his arm like a syringe and the other was him as President Ford trying to roll a joint and failing miserably. The first one is more goofy humor, but both bear a subtext of the older generation’s lack of understanding for how drugs worked.

As mentioned regarding Garrett Morris, race issues weren’t covered as much as other topics. However, when Richard Pryor hosted things were different. Race plays a vital part in one of the first season’s most memorable sketches. In it, an interviewer (Chase) plays word association with Pryor, eventually degenerating in Chase and Pryor exchanging increasingly offensive ethnic slurs at each other. Pryor’s punch line is absolutely hilarious.

Video: Word Association Sketch (NSFW) http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/index.shtml#mea=29157

An unusual recurring segment involved on set plugs for Polaroid cameras. This is something that was common on TV in the fifties, but I’m not sure how often they did this in the mid-70s. It comes in contrast to the iconoclastic attitude of the cast, but somehow they made it work, even when their input was minimal (like when John Belushi and Jane Curtain switched names).

Pop culture played a big part in the early episodes as it does now. Of those sketches, “Land shark” stands out. Spoofing the success of Jaws, which had just come out the previous summer, the sketches have a shark devouring women by knocking on their apartment door, pretending to be delivering a candygram. If it needs to be repeated, they were smoking a lot of pot around that time.

Admittedly, I skipped over about half of the musical guests performances, consisting of forgettable one hit wonders. However, there are some great musical performances. In addition to Paul Simon and Belushi’s Joe Cocker impression, we also had the second episode, which was in a way a mini Simon & Garfunkel reunion, with them playing favorites “The Boxer” and “Scarborough Fair”. Loudon Wainright III appeared early in the season, offering some oddly amusing songs satirizing the country’s bicentennial. In a later episode, reggae legend Jimmy Cliff performed the classic “The Harder They Come”, one of the songs credited for ushering in reggae music to the main stream.

Two of my favorites come from opposite sides of the spectrum. Desi Arnaz, who seems like the unlikeliest of hosts during this first season, performed (with son Desi Jr.) with the passion he had back when I Love Lucy was still on the air. He played two songs, “Cuban Pete” and his trademark “Babalu”. The cast and crew did a conga line through the studio to close the episode. His enthusiasm made that episode really fun to watch, and I can imagine the party must’ve continued well after that curtain call.

My favorite musical guest came when President Ford’s press secretary Ron Nessen hosted. The musical guest: Patti Smith. While she is deservedly a legend and trendsetter, this performance came shortly after her debut “Horses” was released. This was one of the first tastes mainstream America had of punk (a week after this episode, The Ramones debut album would be released). In the episode she performs her interpretation of “Gloria” and her cover of “My Generation”. While not as revelatory as The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, it’s another great historical moment in music.

Music also became the foundation for several sketches. One of Belushi’s memorable first season sketches was a recurring bit involving Beethoven, in a fit of writer’s block, churning out Motown and R&B singles. In addition, song lyrics would be dropped into the dialogue, or it would turn into a musical segment, such as the one where a PI (John Belushi) and his client (Madeline Kahn) begin incorporating “I Will Follow Him” into the conversation. Another sketch, involving Kahn, was a cover of “I Feel Pretty” (from West Side Story), sung by the Bride of Frankenstein (Kahn, in her Young Frankenstein wig). When Kahn passed away in 1999, SNL used this segment as an obituary for her.

The biggest music moment was the one that never happened. One week after Patti Smith, Lorne Michaels appeared on air asking The Beatles to reunite on the show. Due to budgetary constraints, as Michaels explains, NBC can only offer the Fab Four $3000, which I believe is still the standard fee for musical guests thirty-two years later. “If you want to give Ringo less, that’s up to you.” Lennon and McCartney were close enough to the studio on the night it aired to get there and perform before the show ended. Sadly, it’s one of the great musical “What ifs”. There’s something about the impossible task of reuniting the biggest musical act of all time with the rag tag budget of a late night comedy show, with a child like belief that it’s possible, that serves as a microcosm for the era.

While the first season of SNL wasn’t the knock out I expected, it’s still a worth it to see it as a piece of pop culture history. It’s great to see a time when SNL wasn’t the institution it is today, as it offers some perspective as to where the series would go in over three decades and 600 episodes. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing the other episodes from this first era, as many classic moments are to come: The Coneheads & Blues Brothers hadn’t been introduced; Jane Curtin wasn’t an ignorant slut yet; Elvis Costello hasn’t appeared and ignored the producers’ song choice; and Bill Murray and SNL Host MVP Steve Martin have come on board either. I’ve always heard about how the cast developed over the first four years, eventually I want to see where they go from this first season foundation.