Classic SNL Recap - Season 2, Episode 1
As SNL (still officially known as NBC’s Saturday Night at this time) began its second season, most of the now-familiar format of the show was firmly in place. There were some minor differences. For example, musical guest James Taylor performed 3 songs instead of the standard 2. I don’t have the desire to do the research to see who was the most frequent musical guest. It is almost certainly Paul Simon, but it would not surprise me at all if Taylor is the runner up.
The season premiere was hosted by Lily Tomlin, in what was one of the peak moments of her notable career. She was coming off of an Oscar nomination for her role in Nashville, and the cold open played off of her current stardom. It began with Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner standing outside the entrance to 30 Rock, impatiently awaiting the host’s arrival. They claimed that she had not shown up for any rehearsals, and were aghast at her lack of professionalism. Digs at a star for acting a little too big time? Any similarities to Chase himself must have been purely coincidental.
Tomlin’s limo finally pulled up and a huge entourage spilled out. She of course couldn’t remember the names of the cast, calling them Jerry & Goldie. Jane Curtin corrected her, reminding Tomlin that her name is Jane & not Joan. “I’m sorry, everyone, this is Jane. Jane Belushi.”
Tomlin was one of the guest hosts in the early first season episodes that gave the show an air of legitimacy in its infancy. She was also the type of host who added her own voice to the show; much of the material had a specific Tomlinesque vibe and in addition some of her well-known characters such as Ernestine & Mrs. Judith Beasley appeared in the show.
Like much of the material from early seasons, I was not able to find anything from this episode available to share from YouTube. But there is one sketch this week that is well remembered after all these years, or at least one famous line is. This week had the first Ford/Carter debate sketch. Dan Aykroyd had a predictably strong Jimmy Carter impersonation, and Chase had of course well established his take on Gerald Ford. It was not an impersonation; they did not even pretend to make him look or sound like Ford, it was more of an interpretation of a bumbling fool. This one had the famous moment in which Curtin’s debate moderator asked a complex question filled with a multitude of economic statistics which prompted the response “it was my understanding that there would be no math.” Brilliant. Less brilliant was the moment in which the first question from Garrett Morris’s moderator was “which one of you is Ford?” Morris had his share of shaky moments on the show, but to be fair the fact that an all-white writing staff was unable to produce suitable material for Morris did him no favors.
As a sign that their time was nearing its end, the Muppets were still on the show but their sketch literally had them sitting in an otherwise empty storage closet, not unlike Milton from Office Space. Chevy Chase was reaching the end of his time on the show as well; he was still the most prominent player with his opening fall & his Update hosting stint. Update was definitely a time capsule this week with jokes about Renee Richards and Idi Amin. Chase also gave us an update on Francisco Franco; he had spent a restful summer. The only correspondent piece was a phoned-in bit from Emily Litella.
The episode ended on a bit of a charming note, with the introduction of the Antler Dance. It was a song written and performed by Paul Shaffer; most of the cast & crew, as well as what appeared to be some audience members, wound up doing this goofy dance on stage. It’s always worth noting what an absolute delight Gilda Radner was. Her smile alone was lighting up the scene.
Lily Tomlin’s episode in season 1 was better than this one was, but it was a strong episode in its own right. Her comedic sensibilities did not completely match that of the show, but everyone did a great job of meeting in the middle. It’s good to see that there was no sophomore slump; SNL hit season 2 in full stride. Next week I’ll visit season 2’s midseason episode. That one was hosted by Ruth Gordon. No luck of the draw this time, that was decidedly NOT one of the better episodes. In addition, this was one of the first episodes following Chevy Chase’s official departure from the show. Wonder how his replacement turned out?
History Always Repeats
I wouldn’t call this a vow; more like a promise. But years ago I pledged to myself that when I aged I would not become the sort of older person who spends an inordinate amount of time criticizing the music that younger people listen to. Of course, like most people I am most comfortable with the music from my generation. But those type of “our music was better” memes drive me bonkers. More meaningful on a personal basis, yes. Objectively better? Sorry, you can’t measure something like that. That’s exactly the type of “OK boomer” s*** that I can’t stand.
I bring this up now because just in the past couple of weeks there were many catalytic events that fire up this talk. At both the Grammys and the Super Bowl there were sightings and performances from multiple celebrities who largely cater to a younger audience and I see the standard “who the hell is that?” responses from people my age or older. In addition, the recent 60th anniversary of the Beatles arrival in the USA and Ed Sullivan appearances inspired no shortage of “will be still be talking about _____ 60 years later?” think pieces, which are predictable and tiresome.
Here’s why I hate that sort of talk. Switch names and boomer complaints about contemporary figures are the exact same thing that earlier generations would say about The Beatles and their assorted peers. Yes, some of them are fated to be largely forgotten as time marches on, but there are also a s***load of current stars that will still be major cultural icons decades in the future. My free advice to others is that if you hated to hear your parents and the peers of your parents tell you that the music you love is garbage, then please do not do the same to younger generations. That’s just obnoxious.
Clark On The Cusp
In what was the second most significant sporting event that took place last Sunday, Caitlin Clark scored 31 points in an Iowa loss to Nebraska, which leaves her only 8 points shy of breaking Kelsey Plum’s record for most career points in women’s college basketball. It sure looked like she was going to shatter the record on Sunday, but Nebraska was able to hold her scoreless in the 4th quarter, a major reason why the Cornhuskers staged a huge comeback to win the game.
Iowa’s next game is Thursday against Michigan, and it stands to reason that she will drain 3 logo treys to break the record in the game’s opening minutes. There’s a lot of good news/bad news surrounding this game. On the good hand, she will be able to set the mark in front of a home crowd. On the bad hand, as opposed to Sunday’s national broadcast on Fox, the record breaking game is only being streamed on Peacock, which will dramatically reduce the potential audience for this moment in history. That’s yet another reason why it’s unfortunate that Universal shuttered the NBC Sports Network; this game would have drawn a lot of eyeballs to the cable channel.
There is of course one more target in her sights. At the moment she trails Pete Maravich’s total by 178 points. Iowa has 5 remaining regular season games on schedule, plus however many games they play in the Big 10 and NCAA tournaments, so it seems to be an easily attainable target. That would make her the most prolific Division 1 scorer of either gender. (I will pause to acknowledge that there was no 3-point shot when the Pistol played. If there was, his point totals would have been out of sight. Plus, he only played 3 varsity seasons.)
3-D Chess
The polling in the special election to fill George Santos’s seat in the House turned out to be way off. It looked like it was going to be a tight race, but Democrat Tom Suozzi easily defeated Republican Mazi Pilip. Suozzi wasn’t the greatest candidate, but his victory was clearly helped by the GOP shooting itself in the foot.
Analysts will have a lot to say once they look at the data, but there could be a simple explanation for the wide disparity between the polling and the actual results. There was a pretty significant nor’easter in the area on Election Day. The Republican Party has poisoned the concept of early voting. As a result, data showed that turnout during the early voting phase skewed much more heavily towards the Democrats. Did the poor weather on Election Day keep a large number of voters away that were intending to vote Republican? It also didn’t help that the party selected an odd candidate for the race. Pilip was a registered Democrat, who did not seem to have a solid grasp of the issues and struggled to present a cohesive agenda. She was the best they could come up with?
The ramifications of the seat flip are pretty large. What was already a razor thin margin in the House Republican caucus is now reduced even further. And although it’s dangerous to read too much into individual results from special elections, it’s also a fact that the Democrats have overperformed in most of these contests. There’s no reason to feel too cocky, however. I’ve seen this movie enough times to know that the Democratic Party rarely misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Bottom line, it was a good day yesterday but November is a looooooooong way away.
A Milestone In The Booth
It’s sad that in 2024 we’re still seeing first this or first that breakthroughs, but such is life. Yesterday the Oakland A’s announced that Jenny Cavnar will be the lead play-by-play announcer on their television broadcasts. It should not have taken this long to shatter that glass ceiling, but Cavnar will be the first woman to have that role on the major league level.
There have been women that have served as backups, but Cavnar is the first that will be behind the mic for the majority of the season. It’s unfortunate for her that she’s stuck doing Oakland games; they once again look like they will be the worst team in the league, and the clusterf*** over where they will play beginning in 2025 casts a pall over the entire organization. It will not be fun to try to put a positive spin on that squad, but there are only 30 of these jobs available so she can’t afford to be too picky.
On a similar note, umpire Jen Pawol will work a few spring training games this season. She will be the first female umpire to do so since 2007. There still has never been a woman umpiring a regular season Major League Baseball game. There is no justifiable excuse for that. I have no idea if Pawol is a major league caliber umpire, we’ll know more after she’s done those games. But it is impossible to believe that there have not already been several women over the years with the talent to make the leap to the majors, yet were held back by the cavemen that were making those decisions. Pam Postema was 35 years ago. You’re trying to tell me that in that time the league has been unable to find multiple women who are better umps than Angel Hernandez?
Closing Laughs
Happy Valentine’s Day. Please be assured that I don’t play favorites. I love you all equally. Have a great day everyone, & let’s meet up right here again on Friday.