Classic SNL Recap - Season 14 Premiere
No cast changes in season 14, at least in the beginning of the year. Mike Myers and Ben Stiller would both come aboard midseason, although Stiller’s stint was brief and unhappy. Tom Hanks hosted the premiere (with Keith Richards as musical guest.) Hanks is a pantheon level host; his invitation to the Five-Timers Club was still a few years away, but it was clear that he & SNL were a perfect match. At this point in his career Hanks was almost exclusively a comedic actor; in subsequent years it was clear that he relished the opportunity to return to SNL & exercise those comedy muscles. This episode aired in October 1988, it contains two sketches that remain talked about to this day.
Before getting to those, I liked the running series of ads for First Citiwide Bank. It contains customer testimonials, and the bank’s business model is to simply make change. SNL commercial parodies are always well-produced, and this was no exception.
Now, to the classics. This show ran shortly after the Seoul Olympics, in which 100m champion Ben Johnson was disqualified after failing a steroid test. Presenting, the All-Drug Olympics; held in Bogota of course.
And then there was the famous line “I can’t believe I’m losing to this guy.” The Bush/Dukakis debate sketch was a keeper for so many reasons, beginning with the impressions of the moderators - Jan Hooks as Diane Sawyer and Kevin Nealon as Sam Donaldson. Phil Hartman brought the perfect amount of curmudgeon to his take on David Brinkley. As for the candidates, Jon Lovitz made for a solid Dukakis; I’m confident that had he won the election Lovitz would have had more opportunities to further refine the impression. For proof, look no further than Dana Carvey’s Bush. He’s still working on it here, in time he perfected Bush’s odd cadence and verbal tics.
The most Hanks-centric sketch this week was a take on his most recent movie. A pre-filmed piece involved outtakes from Big. The premise was that he returned to junior high while still in his adult body. He used his size to terrorize the kids. In one sequence, he was playing little league baseball and plowed into the opposing catcher as he was rounding the bases. All in all, this was an above average premiere for a show in the midst of one its golden eras. Next week I’ll look at the midseason episode which should be a good one. It was hosted by one of the best examples of a Serious Actor fully committing to the SNL culture. It’ll be Malkovich Time.
Reviewing Olympic Sports
Cycling - Mountain Bike - I wonder if I would enjoy mountain bike more outside of the Olympics. That’s because there are two forces fighting each other. First, as I have mentioned over and over, I have an inherent love for racing. Second, mountain bike races last around 90 minutes, and with the multitude of other events vying for my viewing time, there isn’t enough time for me to watch the complete event. I fast forward to the last lap, which is just shy of 3 miles long. The problem is that by that point in the race the leaders have separated themselves from the rest of the pack so I miss out on seeing the way that the race develops.
Having said that, mountain bike is a solidly entertaining watch. It really tests the riders; lots of steep climbs and the terrain is frequently rugged. The gears on the bikes get quite a workout. Because it’s run on a natural course, there isn’t a singular racing line. The riders are constantly making choices. Is this the best route to take? Is there enough space here for me to attempt a daring pass?
Cycling - Road - See above & add several hours of running time to the race. I just don’t have the time to spend 6 hours watching a bike race (the women’s race is much shorter but even that one lasts around 4 hours) even outside the Olympics. For example, I never watch the Tour de France, although I fully acknowledge that completing that race is a monumental achievement.
Olympic road cycling consists of 2 events. There’s the time trial which is just as it sounds. Each rider takes off in 30 second intervals and whoever completes the route fastest is the winner. In the road race all start at the same time and complete multiple laps of the course for hours. And hours. And hours. My main issue is that no matter how long the race is it ends the same way. The two or three medalists break out from the pack and are followed by a large chase group or two. Dozens of riders complete the race with the exact same time. Let me reiterate that this is no criticism of the athletes. I couldn’t ride a bike for 3 miles, let alone more than a hundred. It’s just that the sport bores me.
Tito
The Jackson 5 were likely my very first favorite band; in fact ABC was the first 45 that I owned. (NOT the first one that I purchased with my own allowance money. That one is a little embarrassing - The Streak by Ray Stevens. My musical taste would improve.) From their music, to their Saturday morning cartoon, to the records that were attached to the back of cereal boxes, the Jackson 5 were such a big part of my childhood. A part of that is gone with the news that Tito Jackson died earlier this week at the age of 70.
I touched on this a few months back when I named The Love You Save as a Greatest Song Evah, but I always found it terribly unfair that of all of the Jackson brothers, Tito was the one who somehow became a punchline at the height of Michael’s Thriller superstardom. So he wasn’t as talented as Michael, how many people were? He wasn’t one of the lead singers, but he did play a vital role as the guitarist on stage. (Session musicians usually played on the records.) And if my memory serves correctly, the Tito character had most of the best lines in the cartoon. (Once again, the cartoon used voice actors, not the actual Jacksons. But, clearly the writers saw something in Tito that they could mine for entertainment.) Godspeed, Tito.
Not The Bees!
I don’t have much to say about the Emmy Awards. There were a small handful of surprises but for the most part the winners were fairly predictable, continuing the recent tradition of the voters latching onto favorite shows and giving them almost every award possible. At least they finally admitted that The Bear is not a comedy and awarded the Best Comedy prize to Hacks. I focus more on the “it’s an honor to be nominated” portion of the festivities. I knew he had no chance to win, but it made me happy to see Matt Berry with a nomination. The writing nominations for Girls5Eva and The Other Two also brought a smile to my face. Otherwise, Eugene & Dan Levy were terrific hosts, and I will refrain from complaining about omissions in the In Memoriam montage. The producers really can’t win; blowback is an inevitable part of that segment.
What I want to discuss most is a promo that ABC ran for one of their own shows. In case you wonder why the nominees and winners come almost exclusively from cable channels and streamers rather than the broadcast networks… The season premiere of 911 involves an overturned truck. Which was transporting millions of killer bees. Which were seen swarming around helpless extras. Killer bees? In this economy? Where did that come from? Did a writer wake up from a coma he was in since 1977 convinced that killer bee hysteria is still a thing? What’s next? Perhaps an episode in which the cast takes a vacation on a cruise ship traveling through the Bermuda Triangle. Or maybe an episode about a sudden epidemic of quicksand. Oh, I’ve saved the best for the last. The promo tag for the episode: Bee-nado. Perfect. No notes. Angela Bassett does NOT get paid enough for this.
50 Years Ago - Saturday Morning Cartoon IP
Saturday morning TV was always a perfect place to repurpose IP. A network has the most captive of captive audiences, we were more than happy to watch the same old same old as long as we had the proper amounts of sugary breakfast cereals in our system. Whether it was an animated version of a beloved TV show or a slightly amended version of an earlier cartoon, we were all there for it. There were a few examples of the form that came out in 1974.
I’ll start with a show that I have zero memories of, which shocks me because if nothing else I have strong long term memory on topics of complete insignificance. When I saw this show on a listing of shows that premiered in ‘74 I was certain it had to have been an elaborate practical joke. How could I have forgotten such a train wreck? But it’s all too real; the show has a Wikipedia page and everything. There was actually a Saturday morning cartoon show called… Partridge Family 2200 AD! The 3 youngest Partridge children (including Danny Bonaduce) came back to voice their characters. Neither Shirley Jones nor David Cassidy were anywhere to be seen; Susan Dey voiced Laurie for 2 episodes before apparently thinking better of it & a different voice actress took over. I’m not going to pretend that I have anything relevant to say about this show. I’ll leave it that I’m thankful it existed and grateful that I was reminded of such existence.
There were several series created over the years based on the Archie Comics franchise, one of which premiered in 1974. America had a keen interest in history in the lead up to the bicentennial - it was at this same time when CBS began to run its daily Bicentennial Minute - and the gang from Riverdale joined in on the fun with The U.S. Of Archie. Archie, Betty, Veronica, and the rest were placed in historical scenarios. It helped serve FCC requirements that networks needed to broadcast a certain amount of educational programming, although the stories told here were not 100% accurate. I’m pretty sure that Jughead did not have an ancestor present at some of the more significant events in our nation’s history. The only episode I remember is one in which Reggie was working as an assistant for George Washington Carver. Man, I hope it wasn’t too cringy.
Last but not least we come to the omnipresent Harlem Globetrotters. They were all over our TVs at this time. They frequently appeared on variety shows, had an annual spotlight on Wide World Of Sports, and they even wound up on Gilligan’s Island. In 1974 their comedy sketch show The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine premiered.
I’ll leave it up to others to decide if it was this era or an earlier one in which the Globetrotters had their highest level of cultural relevance. In the earlier generation with Goose Tatum and Marques Haynes as the stars they would regularly have top billing over an NBA game when arenas would hold doubleheaders. Haynes was still with the team in 1974, but he was in his late fifties so he was near the end of the bench. For my generation the first Globetrotters that would come to mind are Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal, who were two big stars of this show. This time period was almost a last gasp for the Globetrotters; remember the NBA was still barely hanging on. The Magic/Bird era was only a few years away; before too long audiences were more interested in real competitive basketball than a comedy show. But in 1974 the Harlem Globetrotters were everywhere.
Closing Laughs
That should be enough for today. Thanks for tapping in, and let’s do this again on Friday. See ya then!
