Saturday Night Live Season 1 Episode 3

Episode number 3 is here, tonight's host is Rob Reiner, still on All in The Family at the time. Reiner would go on to direct some awesome movies and some pretty bad ones. This is an episode I have quite high hopes for, anyway let's get straight into this...

• Chevy Chase gets pushed in on a wheelchair by a nurse (Jane Curtin), he drops his lighter and stands up easily out of his wheelchair. He looks at the lighter and stands up to get it, realizing what he just did, he falls straight to the floor then does the "Live From New York..." bit
• Rob Reiner is the host with guests Penny Marshall and The Lockers, there's also The Muppets (noooooooooooooo) and a film by Albert Brooks (please be good, please be good)
• The Not Ready For Prime Time Players has Michael O'Donaughue added back to the line up.
• We're also getting Andy Kaufman, as well as Denny Dillon and Mark Hampton.
• Rob Reiner comes out been a bit all lounge singer. Reiner wears a weird wig. Reiner doing a cheesy voice he's going to some funky sounds for us. He introduces a random guy as Irving Berlin in the audience who is not Irving Berlin. He seems to believe Bob Dylan is dead and he's going to perform one of his songs "Blowin' In The Wind", such a cheesy fun version. 
• This segment was funny thanks to Reiner who is giving it 100%.
• Rob Reiner takes off the wig and reveals his real hair which is still weird to me even after all them All In The Family episodes I've seen, I just always think of him as a bald man.
• John Belushi and Gilda Radner are in a message from the National Pancreas Assocation. Dan Aykroyd is playing a doctor for Belushi. There chemistry is already shining through. But the sketch is not particularly funny.
• Rob Reiner is going to a fashion show, he says hi to his wife Penny Marshall who's in L.A. but as secretly been flown out, but he seems to know. Gilda Radner is wearing her underwear on the outside, she is wearing the wrong day (Thursday) which is funny, Laraine Newman still has her cellophane and hanger on. Garrett Morris is wearing furniture, he didn't have faith there would be a place to sit if needed, Jane Curtin is wearing a hamster head(?), don't wear a hamster head, you've got a face let's see. Dan Aykroyd is wearing a leisure suit, he's fashion mistake he's wearing a leisure suit, Belushi is wearing a beach suit and wearing lobster's on his forehead. Michael O'Donaughue is wearing top hat but also wearing toilet paper. Funny stuff, most involved where on top form.
• An advert for voodoo surgery. One of the funnier adverts I've seen so far.
• Reiner, still in the same suit from earlier introduces Andy Kaufman, he's got the record he's going to do Pop Goes The Weasel. He's miming to it, this is not as familiar to me as Mighty Mouse. It's especially funny when he pretends to be the Dad. Kaufman's expressions make this bit work
• Welcome to Dangerous But Inept presented by Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman as Squeaky from The Manson Family. Newman is entertaining as crazy. Short and sweet and funny.
• Cat food advert now, 2 casseroles, one prepared with tuna and the other with 40c of cat food, they do a taste test with a woman, he tells the one she prefers is with cat food. Not particularly funny.
• The Lockers, I'm not familiar with them, they seem to be a dance troupe with a funky edge, they've all got really good moves going on, I'm not usually usually fans of just dance bits, but these are cool in my book. Music stops and they continue dancing. I was impressed with the energy they brought.
• Chevy Chase with Weekend Update, more Gerald Ford jokes, jokes about Reagan (who is a former governor at this point). Another reference to Blaine Hotel with 3 kidnappers, they cut to Laraine who gets the announcer Don Pardo to read out there demands with reads things out like they are game show prizes.
• Advert about a moving company, they joke is they pack the people to move them house. Not too funny.
• Blaine Hotel joke about the guests staying is repeated here.
• Back to Weekend Update - Chase, makes another couple of jokes, Garrett Morris is now going to do the News For The Hard of Hearing, it's very short - this is probably the joke Morris is best known for on his show, and to be honest my opinion of Morris is he was the weakest of the original cast members, maybe going through these episodes might help change my mind.
• Rob Reiner excitedly introduces Joe Cocker, but wait a minute... that's John Belushi, doing an absolutely unbelievable impression. He nails the facial expressions down perfectly and as the voice to the matches too. Excellent
• How do you follow that? With "The Muppets" of course, the new character, the main Muppets son is actually a fairly entertaining addition. His son is on some sort of marijuana expy drug (with a bit of LSD in I'm guessing). This was a touch better then the other Muppet sketches, the jokes hit the mark a bit better.
• A public service message with Chevy Chase with a mustache and glasses, the PSA is about droolers and he's talking about how they are discriminated against, he's doing this while drooling, and there is absolutely loads coming down his chin, Chase nearly cracks up a couple of times. Short, sweet and funny.
• Dan Aykroyd is singing at a hoe down, which features some of the cast and Penny Marshall dancing, the lyrics suggest about hitting each other, ripping dresses and finally shooting each other. Crazy and funny.
• Rob Reiner introduces Mark Hampton and Denny Dillon, dressed as nuns, Hampton is on the organ. Dillon is reading announcements etc, it's not particularly funny and the audience so far seemed to be following my same opinion, there is barely a peep of laughter. I didn't really like it, I basically just wanted it to finish.
• Rob Reiner introduces a new segment "What Gilda Ate?", she randomly lists what she ate for each meal and snacks, she is adorable so I like it however it's kind of hard to watch knowing her problems with eating disorders which troubled her the rest of her life.
• Albert Brooks film - it's the open heart surgery film - my memory of seeing it first time is that it really dragged... Brooks gets somebody to agree to have him perform heart surgery on him for the camera.  Brooks, has doubt about doing the surgery, argues with a doctor etc, he takes an age to get to his points it seems like, but that is probably the idea behind it. THIS SEGMENT STOPPED THE SHOW DEAD IN IT'S TRACKS, it just went on on so damn long.
• Reiner and Penny Marshall are in a restaurant are having an affair and are arguing, he wants them to get married etc... but the bees for some reason have come down the stairs and are now sat behind them - there's now bee fiddle player and guitarist. Rob Reiner stops the sketch saying it's ridiculous saying he said that he didn't want to work with the bees, he goes on a rant saying they where horrendous in earlier episode. Penny tries to calm him down when says their ruining the show. Belushi goes up to him upset and says they have no choice that's all they came up for them, Belushi starts having a go at Reiner.Reiner feels terrible. Funny, funny stuff.
• No proper goodbyes just the credits...

Overall Thoughts - This is closer to what Saturday Night Live is known for, cast members had moments to shine - Belushi and Radner show great moments of their personality. Rob Reiner was an enjoyable host, and one of the first to properly interact with the cast. There was still bad spots but they where totally related to non-cast members i.e Albert Brooks movie, Muppets (who weren't as bad here as the previous two episodes) and Dillon and Hampton.