SNL Season 1 Episode 15 [1976)

Starring Jill Clayburgh!!! Who???

Yeah, kinda like the Jimmy Hoffa Memorial (?) High School.

This is one of those episodes which reminds me that I know a lot more about music than I do about anything else.

Leon Redbone I knew. Had a record of his as a kid. The one with “Sheik of Araby” on it.

But back to Jill Clayburgh.

Twice nominated for the Best Actress Oscar. Ok, see…this brings up my claim to be a film critic.

It’s kinda, “Fake it till you make it.” I know I’m not a realll film critic, but I take pride in what I do. I’m an amateur. It’s a passion. I’m always seeking to learn.

Well, here’s a great opportunity.

The two films for which she got an Oscar nod? An Unmarried Woman (this goes back to the play on words I was discussing in an earlier piece…the French word for woman [femme] being the same as the French word for wife [femme]…hence the wordplay of Godard’s Une Femme est une femme [not to mention Une Femme mariée]) and Starting Over.

Please excuse the momentous interpolation.

That is, An Unmarried Woman and Starting Over. Those career highlights were ahead of Ms. Clayburgh when she hosted Saturday Night Live in 1976.

The auteurs in question were, respectively, Paul Mazursky and Alan J. Pakula (the latter having a surname which is, perhaps, the only conceivable rhyme with Dracula [not counting Blacula]).

Ok, so…apparently this is going to take a lot of parentheses and brackets.

For all of you conspiracy theorists (I usually fall into that category), Clayburgh starred in a 1970 Broadway musical about the Rothschilds (!) called, appropriately, The Rothschilds. The libretto was by Sherman Yellen. No easibly-identified relation to Janet.

The end of 1976 would see her in Silver Streak with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.

One further C.V. note: Clayburgh won (in a tie with Isabelle Huppert) Best Actress at Cannes for An Unmarried Woman.

Ok, so that’s who she is. A charming lady. I had no idea who she was. I’m an idiot 🙂

Sadly, Ms. Clayburgh passed away in 2010 after a 20-year battle with leukemia.

Well, she was pretty great in this episode! And I must say…SNL once again reached a new height in intelligent writing with this installment.

One really senses that the writers were toying with the censors. It was dangerous. It’s impressively counterculture.

One of the funniest skits is Clayburgh as guidance counselor Jill Carson (a fictional personage). She is the overly-optimistic crusader for social justice. It is quite a complex, multi-staged piece. John Belushi plays a delinquent whom Carson (Clayburgh) is attempting to rescue from “squalor”.

The opening sequence of the show, however, really sets the tone for what’s to follow. Chevy Chase shows up in Lorne Michaels’ office insistent that the pratfalls and “newsman” stuff should be retired. Chase’s subsequent weave through the studio audience is really priceless. The comedy is just so damned smart!

Speaking of which, we finally get my hero Andy Kaufman back. [On the hero worship scale he’s nowhere approaching Jean-Luc Godard (for me), but he’s definitely the comedic actor who (along with Peter Sellers) most got into my head.]

Well, Kaufman here does another lip-sync piece with immaculately-memorized dialogue. The song is “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” and the special part is Andy in a cowboy hat directing the traffic of four audience participants. It is a sweet piece, and yet it still shows off Andy’s genius as resplendent and unique.

Leon Redbone is really fantastic in his two songs…particularly the first (“Ain’t Misbehavin'”) where he conjures the “me and the radio” loneliness at the heart of a usually-raucous song.

One of the weirdest sequences is a visit by The Idlers (a singing group of the United States Coast Guard Academy). The show’s producer (Michaels) and writers take the opportunity to remind the viewing audience that dolphins are definitely smarter than The Warren Commission. No doubt!

It’s a strange, bold sequence. Chase’s Weekend Update is similarly racy (particularly the bit about the Mattel anatomically-correct male dolls…in white and black…the former $6 and the latter $26.95 or something). Good god…

Most necessary was the political prodding. Michaels begins the show with a photo of Nixon on his desk. By Weekend Update, it is the People’s Republic of China which is pardoning Nixon for Watergate (and Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead, of course).

But I must admit my ignorance once again. I had no idea Gary Weis’ (sp?) film featured William Wegman (!)… The dog should have given it away. Duh!

Well, anyway…thanks to Wikipedia for a generally informative blurb about this episode (though I have expanded upon that information quite a bit).

The running series Great Moments In Herstory punctuate this episode at various intervals. Particularly risqué is the Sigmund Freud (Dan Aykroyd) and daughter Anna (Laraine Newman) dream interpretation featuring a titillating banana. A later episode highlights Indira Gandhi and father Jawaharlal Nehru. It is a bit of a clunker…

Walter Williams’ famous Mr. Bill debuted on this episode as part of the solicited home movies from viewers. Williams and Mr. Bill would become a significant part of the show in the coming years.

Once again, this episode is not to be missed. It was an essential step for a show on the rise.

-PD

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Taxi “Bobby’s Acting Career” [1978)

The trademark of these early Taxi episodes is tragicomedy.

We get a laugh, but something makes us think.

It should come as no surprise that artists are naturally inclined to tell their own stories.

Put another way, artists are quite comfortable describing the artist life.

And that is essentially what we have here.

Bobby (Jeff Conaway) is approaching a self-imposed impasse.

Hollywood or bust! [Or in this case, Broadway or bust.]

Three years.

Reminds me of David Bowie’s haunting “Five Years” (the lead track from the Ziggy Stardust album).

That’s all we’ve got.

For Bobby, it’s three years.

Well, I have to say that it’s one of those plotlines that really got to me.

I can really relate.

I never set quite a quantified limit for myself, but by a similar mechanism I have found myself in my current situation.

Bobby wants to be an actor. I wanted to be a musician.

I spent about 10 years getting to the professional level.

After four years, my dreams came crashing down around me (to quote Danny DeVito’s line from this episode).

Yeah, so I started anew. Business school. Wow, what a change!

But there’s something else about this episode.

Bobby’s last day.

He’s waiting for a call. He gets turned down.

He auditions for a commercial. He gets turned down.

Till the very end, Bobby is out hustling to beat the deadline.

And in the end he is surrounded by his friends.

The phone has to ring before midnight.

He needs that validation. That outside validation. That unequivocal measure of progress. Being paid to do what he loves.

And so the group sits around the phone. Each imploring it to “Ring! Ring!” (while Latka chimes in with an urgent “Blop! Blop!”).

Andy Kaufman doesn’t get much of a chance to shine here, but that’s alright: this was Jeff Conaway’s episode.

Mr. Conaway is no longer with us. But you know what? He made it! He was on Taxi. Here I am all these years later watching this show with rapt attention.

But back to that artist’s life.

To quote Tom Petty, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

Yeah. It reminds me of one of the greatest books I ever read: Waiting Period by Hubert Selby, Jr.

If you were reading yesterday, you know that I made a decision to seek help for my depression.

But there were no appointments available today.

Fortunately I go tomorrow.

Funny how that is a cause of anxiety.

I’m scared.

Well, anyway…

I hope to be back with you all soon.

Keep your dreams! Dream baby dream!

-PD

SNL Season 1 Episode 11 [1976)

Just as Buck Henry had me stumped in the last episode (Buck Who?), Peter Cook threw me for a loop right off the bat here.

Dudley Moore I knew, but Cook? No idea. In terms of firsts, this appears to be the first SNL hosted by more than one person (simultaneously).

Cook met Moore while at Cambridge University as a student (Cook) of Radley and (later) Pembroke Colleges. Moore, on the other hand, was himself a student at Magdalene College (pronounced “maudlin”) of Oxford University. They started performing together in these school days.

But the act which Cook and Moore were essentially reviving on this night in 1976 was their comedy duo which powered the BBC’s Not Only…But Also (1965-1970). We can be fairly confident of this based on their throwback chestnut Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling.

Sir Streeb-Greebling’s featured skit (Table Talk) is one of the highlights of this episode. In it, we learn of the knighted eccentric’s restaurant Frog & Peach (which serves, unsurprisingly, frog…and peaches [exclusively]). If I remember correctly, the two dishes on the menu are frog à la pêche and, conversely, pêche à la frog. This bit of absurd, excellent humor is indicative of the talents which Cook and Moore possessed as both writers and comedians.

Cook and Moore additionally did film work together such as Bedazzled (1967). For all of you Yo La Tengo fans out there, this gives me an opportunity to wax informative on the song “Tom Courtenay”. It is one of my favorite YLT songs (from the excellent Electr-O-Pura album). Perusing the lyric sheet of the above song, not only is English actor Courtenay mentioned in the title (the narrative is likely from his perspective) but Julie Christie makes an appearance (her name being the first words sung by Ira Kaplan). For our purposes, however, it is simply enough to point out that the real “star” of said lyrics (Eleanor Bron) played Margaret Spencer in Bedazzled.

Moving on…

Now that I have spent an inordinate amount of time on Cook and Moore, I should point out something important. Saturday Night Live in its inaugural season was attracting what might be called B-list entertainers. To illustrate this point, I would direct readers to my piece on the previous episode. To have Bill Withers do but one song and have it be a tune from 1971 (on a 1976 broadcast) illustrates this point which has a parallel in Cook and Moore (who were ostensibly rehashing material from their show which ran 1965-1970).

But credit must be given to the comedic duo in question who persevered and relocated to New York City in 1973. They did, in fact, win a Tony and Grammy for their production Good Evening. This success was parlayed (partially) into a more risqué act where they assumed the personalities Derek and Clive. In total, this new incarnation was featured on three LPs (that would be, for the young’uns, VI-NYL/RE-CORDS).

Ok, so Cook and Moore weren’t totally washed up. That much is obvious when seeing this episode. In fact, I find their humor much more effective than most of the hacks which preceded them as hosts. The “One Legged Tarzan” skit near the top of the show exemplifies their shrewd method of laugh-getting.

It should also be mentioned that stars on one side of the pond aren’t necessarily stars on the other. And so, dear readers, you must forgive my ignorance regarding Cook. I have now done my research.

I should mention a further two bits. Cook himself went on to work with some of my favorite musical acts (Sparks and 10cc). That Ron Mael, Kevin Godley, and Lol Creme saw something in this chap is good enough for me.

Again, the separation between British and American entertainment really can’t be overemphasized. I know there is a Doctor Who craze in the States now, but (back to Peter Cook) this bloke had a bleeding planet named after him in 1999 [20468 Petercook].

Furthermore, I am ashamed to say that I needed Wikipedia to tell me that Mr. Cook gave the world “mayorwidge” as the clergyman in The Princess Bride (1987).

Ok, ok…enough about Cook. [I’ve hardly said a word about Moore, but we must press on.]

This is generally a great episode (with the notable exception of Neil Sedaka). I really don’t want to hate on this guy, but his repertoire…ugh. And his sartorial choices (burgundy velvet jacket). The jacket would have been great if he didn’t have Meathead’s haircut (Rob Reiner…Archie Bunker). [“And now I would like to impersonate the Archie Bunker. (…) Tank you veddy much.”]

To be fair, Sedaka had talent. Singing voice? Check. Piano chops? Check. But the schmaltz gluing it all together is what made it unpalatable. Not to mention, what was an MOR guy like this doing on such a counterculture show as SNL? Look to the corner office, my friend…the corner office.

On the whole, a great episode. Just bite the bullet when Neil starts crooning 🙂

-PD

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SNL Season 1 Episode 7 [1975)

This is more like it! Richard Pryor and Gil Scott-Heron!!

Wow!!! What a combination…

I’ve written about Richard Pryor a bit previously in relation to Brewter’s Millions (in the course of focusing on director Walter Hill).

I knew I liked Pryor, but seeing him do stand-up on SNL convinces me in a whole new way.

What a genius!

Pryor relies heavily on the “drunk man” impression, but the real gem of this episode is his imitation of himself on LSD.

But really, this entire episode is good.

The funniest bit is John Belushi in Samurai Hotel. It’s really a classic bit! Belushi knocks it out of the park with his absurdist swordplay.

But the Albert Brooks film…ugh. Man, this one takes the cake as his worst yet. Not sure what the point was. It’s almost like Brooks is going for the high-art humor of Andy Kaufman, but failing miserably at it. It’s not funny. It’s not entertaining. It’s not even sad. It’s just a compete waste of time and resources. Well done, Brooks.

But hey…don’t let the Albert Brooks clunker scare you away. This is one of the finest episodes of Saturday Night Live I’ve yet seen. We’ll see how it measures up against the rest 🙂

-PD

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Taxi “Blind Date” [1978)

Thanks to Hulu and CBS (and probably some overly-precious writer somewhere) I wasn’t able to see episode two of Taxi, so I had to skip to episode three.

This one really is a curveball from the pilot. The overriding theme here is obesity.

Judd Hirsh is wonderful as always, but this episode really benefits from the acting talents of Suzanne Kent. Kent plays the role of Alex’s (Hirsch) blind date.

Hirsch and Kent really have a magic in this episode which is touching.

On a lighter note, Andy Kaufman really starts to take off in this episode (as in blast off).

We start by hearing Andy sing a song in his mysterious Eurasian language.

Later, Latka (Kaufman) shows off some of the singularly offensive gestures of his mystery culture in an argument with Danny DeVito.

What is great about Taxi is that the scriptwriting is matched by formidable acting talents (particularly Kaufman and Hirsch). It’s no wonder that America fell in love with this show. This is entertainment firing on all cylinders.

-PD

Taxi “Like Father, Like Daughter” [1978)

For those of us who, like me, can’t get enough of Andy Kaufman there is (mercifully) Taxi.

In my readings about Andy it came to my attention that Kaufman didn’t particularly like being on the show.

I can see where he was coming from (I think). The show must have felt awfully restrictive for such a vast personality like him.

But this is where America at large got to know Andy Kaufman. Taxi. And so we shall start (or continue) here.

Andy’s appearances on Saturday Night Live (from its very inception) were inspiring performances which predated his new steady gig as Latka Gravas on Taxi by about three years.

But let’s let everyone get into the act here.

Judd Hirsch: What a presence! This guy… You just immediately like him. He’s unassuming. He has a kind face–kind mannerisms. And so he is, somewhat like Jerry Seinfeld on Seinfeld, the focal point of the show. Kaufman might be the star for weirdos like me, but Hirsch was no doubt the star for the masses. What an impressive acting job in this the pilot episode!

Danny DeVito: Still going strong…the little man in the cage was a classic in his day. What vigor! What vitriol! Yeah, it gave the nation (America) a little taste of New York City life. Five-feet-tall in platform shoes and he doesn’t take attitude from anyone. What a scrapper! What an actor!!

Marilu Henner: She doesn’t get a chance to do very much acting in the pilot, but I must say: what a beauty!!! I had forgotten. It had never crossed my mind. In retrospect, she is a revelation. Kudos to casting for finding such a star!!! [It should be pointed out that her character is named Elaine (a name picked up later for Seinfeld‘s main female role).]

Tony Danza: Hey! Ho!!! But seriously, really a great role for Danza. The stereotype would be lifted by the television show Friends later on for their character Joey (played by Matt LeBlanc). Watch Taxi for the original article.

Jeff Conaway: The late Mr. Conaway was perfect as Bobby Wheeler. His “magical” phone call to Sir Laurence Olivier is priceless!! Conaway helps set the era with his open-chested polyester (?) shirt. He almost looks like Peter Frampton in this opening episode.

Those were the major players in this pilot episode. AND we can’t forget the stunning Talia Balsam (who plays Alex’s daughter).

But the real focus is Latka. For me. That’s the real focus.

Latka doesn’t have a lot of lines, but he has at least one classic bit: his effort to flirt with Marilu Henner.

Latka’s pickup line is simply, “Bed?”

Not bad from a guy learning English out of a Berlitz travel guide.

And so our dear little hero Mr. Gravas struggles with some phrases about chambermaids and such. Fortunately Alex (Judd Hirsch) is helping him with English. Useful phrases like, “Hold on a minute while I use the can.” [Or something like that.]

And so we must thank the creators of Taxi for getting Kaufman on the show. Thank you to James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, David Davis, and Ed. Weinberger. Thank you gentlemen for seeing the talent in Andy Kaufman and giving him a chance to have a lasting body of work.

Or as Andy would say, “Tank you veddy much.”

-PD

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SNL Season 1 Episode 4 [1975)

Ah, the great Nordic beauty Candice Bergen.

The first female host in SNL history (four episodes in).

This is quite a good episode.

But we start off with the first wholehearted attempt at Gerald Ford klutz (clumsy) humor with Chevy Chase.

Yes, before there was the fumbling, bumbling, broken banjo known as George W. Bush, there was Gerald Ford.

The humor had been leaning this way since the start of the season.

And finally Chevy got to do a proper piece (the start to the show, no less).

We also get the Landshark skit in this era of Spielberg-induced panic.

We must remember that Jaws had come out that summer (a few months prior to this show).

But the overwhelming star of this episode was undoubtedly Andy Kaufman (again).

It is the Foreign Man character (which was parlayed into his Taxi success as Latka).

Andy is a revelation here. Yes, you need to be a little sick in the head to do comedy like Andy Kaufman.

The whole point, I think, was in how much he could get away with.

It was the game.

How far could he push it.

And so Foreign Man almost starts crying. It is a miracle moment in television.

All great practical jokers (foremost among them Orson Welles) had this ability to suspend disbelief, but Kaufman was doing it live…out on a limb.

An excursion on a wobbly rail (to quote Cecil Taylor).

And so Candice was right when she introduced Andy as a genius.

Goddamn…

What could follow that?!?

Well, sadly Esther Phillips starts off with a fast number.

Esther was the musical guest.

A fine singing voice, but the most annoying, lingering vibrato I’ve ever heard…like a WWI fighter plane…a machine-gun at the end of every phrase.

She was, no doubt, imitating the Billie Holiday of Lady in Satin (that last, great album of drugged-out soul).

But the problem is that the Billie Holiday vibrato doesn’t work on fast songs.

Yet, Esther uses it anyway.

And so Esther’s first number comes off as a head-tilting performance art oddity equal to Andy Kaufman (only I don’t think she knew it).

But all sins are forgiven later when Esther does a ballad.

Ahh…that’s the right repertoire.

Albert Brooks regresses to the mean with his film in this episode (a mashup of possible bullpen shows for NBC…including the awful-in-all-ways Black Vet).

All in all, this is a fine show. Aykroyd is great. Belushi is great.

In fact, the most touching scene is a talk between Gilda Radner and Candice Bergen about femininity/feminism.

Gilda Radner was such a beautiful person…such soul!

What a show!!!

-PD

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SNL Season 1 Episode 3 [1975)

From the musical smörgåsbord of episode 2 to the absolute lack of musical guests in episode 3…SNL was a work in progress. Even the name, Saturday Night, had yet to add the “Live”.

We do, however, get some music thanks to a few unlikely candidates. The first is host Rob Reiner. It’s almost as if Rob were goofing on Tony Clifton (in retrospect). Yes, a pretty decent lounge act by Reiner gives us a swing version of “Blowin’ in the Wind” with Howard Shore and his band backing up. [Not exactly Arturo Toscanini, Studio 8H’s famous former inhabitant, but pretty competent stuff from Shore.]

John Belushi tops Reiner with an impersonation of Joe Cocker. It’s really pretty outstanding!

Also in the musical, or dance, category are The Lockers (as in poppin’ and lockin’). Formed in part by Toni Basil (who would go on to have a hit with “Mickey” in 1982), The Lockers bring that inimitable breakdancing which one might witness (even to this day) on subway cars in New York City. It really is an astounding art!

And finally, the musical stand-ins are rounded out by one of my heroes Andy Kaufman doing a lip-sync of a very difficult, dialogue-peppered “Pop Goes the Weasel” recording (Roud Folk Song Index number 5249).

Though she appears only a small amount, Penny Marshall adds to the night’s fun festivities (she was Reiner’s wife).

“The Bees,” a running gag through the first three shows, finally score some points as Belushi gives a soliloquy while his slinky antennae list to and fro. Quite a genius juxtaposition!

We must remember that Al Franken was one of the original writers.

“The Land of Gorch” Muppet sketches continue (a bit I quite like).

But the real highlight of this episode is Albert Brooks’ film on heart surgery (as much as I hate to admit it). Brooks’ first two contributions to this series were painfully lackluster, but then he pulls the rabbit out of the hat with quite a jaw-dropping bit of humor.

All in all, these episodes are a joy to watch. What an American treasure!

-PD

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SNL Season 1 Episode 1 [1975)

This is more like it. Man…talk about some good, old days.

George Carlin. What a sharp, intelligent man. With his scruffy beard and baby-blue turtleneck. Except someone has cut off the neck. Or it’s tucked in. And then that charcoal suit…(with a vest?)…like he just popped over to Goodwill a few minutes before the show.

The best bit is about baseball in relation to football. Brilliant standup!

But really we must thank Lorne “Bud” Michaels for pulling this all together. [watch the end credits and you’ll get the “Bud”]

John Belushi is classic in the first ever sketch as an immigrant learning English by way of ludicrous examples (wolverines, etc.).

But the best bit of all is Andy Kaufman reaching the performance art height of Joseph Beuys in the Mighty Mouse sketch. It is timeless. It is watching genius at work. It is the best television ever.

Billy Preston rocks it will a killer band (bellbottoms and groove), but the surprise is how well Janis Ian’s performances have aged. What a presence!

There’s some Jim Henson. Some weird Muppets.

And it’s political. Carlin is pretty scathing. It was a different era.

God bless America! This is when we rocked!!!

-PD

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The Life and Death of Peter Sellers [2004)

The kid stays in the picture. Underestimated. Geoffrey Rush does justice to cinema’s greatest anti-hero: bumbling, fumbling Peter Sellers. This is the capstone to Sellers-study. Listen to his four EMI albums. Search in vain for those early British films. Perhaps you will find them. It’s really no fun to order everything from Amazon. Takes the whole sociological aspect out of it. Go into the marketplace with your agoraphobia and see how the lesser-known films are scant on the shelves. Even the shelves are scant. Soon I will download Peter Sellers’ personality directly to my brain.

As this film makes clear, Sellers had no personality of his own. Perhaps.

Charlize Theron makes as convincing a Britt Ekland as Rush does a Sellers. Very. Emily Watson is superb as Peter’s first wife Anne. John Lithgow gives the best performance I’ve ever seen him do as director Blake Edwards. Miriam Margolyes is striking as Sellers’ mother Peg. Peter Vaughn does a tremendous job as Sellers’ father.

There are so many truly touching scenes in this biopic. Tears of a clown.

Sonia Aquino was perfectly cast as Sophia Loren and she gives off just the right lust factor to make us feel what Peter must have been feeling. He was insane. He was never cut out for fame. He was ill-prepared. Like Andy Kaufman.

Perhaps the most pithy scene is when Sellers settles for shagging Sopia’s stand-in. We pity him. We despise him. We laugh. We cry.

The kid stayed in the picture. Fat, homely Peter of The Goon Show. He bared his teeth and sunk them into the arm of show business. He bit the hand that fed. He paid a heavy price for fame. It is like the Leonard Cohen song “Came So Far for Beauty”…my favorite song ever written. It is the story of all movie stars. Godard was infinitely deft to include this song in Histoire(s) du cinéma.

Stanley Tucci hits just the right notes in portraying Stanley Kubrick. But the real auteur here is Stephen Hopkins. He made one of the best, most touching, genius films I have ever seen. Emotion pours from every splice; every joint of montage. May he be given many more projects as worthy of his talent as this.

One last note. Geoffrey Rush does his best acting ever in this film. Lithgow was right when he said that. We will be forever indebted to the depths which Rush plumbed to show a true Hollywood story worth telling.

-PD

paulydeathwish

musician and film critic

Tag Archives: Andy Kaufman